Captain Hayes nodded his understanding. “Yes, Sir, we get it. I can assure you that you’ve got the right people for the job.”
“Very good, then, Captain,” Noah said. “I’ll turn this over to you, then.”
Hayes turned to face his men and barked out fourteen names, instantly splitting the group into the teams they would be operating in. Two of them grabbed a folding table that was leaning against the wall and set it up, while Hayes produced a large map of the area. The men he had named gathered around the table as Hayes pointed out coordinates on the map, giving each team leader his position. As each man understood where he was to wait with his team for the word on Andropov’s location, he walked away and began talking with the four who would accompany him. It seemed that everyone had a cell phone in his hand, and they were all pressing buttons frantically with their thumbs, synchronizing the communication devices to one another.
Noah was still standing by the podium when Sarah appeared at his side. “Shouldn’t you be over there with the captain?”
Noah shook his head. “No, he knows what he’s doing. This is his end of the operation, ours is just to let them know where to go.”
Moose, who had been sitting beside the doughnuts, joined them a moment later. “These guys seem like they know their shit,” he said, “but I’d feel a little better if they were SEAL Team Six.”
Noah glanced at him. “Delta Force is their sister organization. Both of them get the best commando training in the world.”
“Ignore him, Boss,” Neil said. “He’s just prejudiced against these Army guys cause he flunked out of SEAL school.”
Moose playfully smacked Neil in the back of the head. “I did not flunk out,” he said. “I got fed up with the crap and got myself kicked out! There’s a difference!”
“Enough,” Noah said. “I need these men to respect my orders, so act professional.” He walked over to where Captain Hayes was speaking with four men of his own. “Captain, is there any way I can be of assistance to you?”
Hayes looked up at him with a smile. “You already have,” he said. “We’ve been sitting on our thumbs for the last three months, just wishing for a mission. We train every day, but sometimes the training gets old. Guys like us, we live for the real thing. As far as right now, Sir, I think we’ve got a grasp on the situation. Colonel Abrams will assign us some nice civilian-looking vehicles that we can stage in, so I think we got it covered.” He took out his phone and began punching buttons. “I’m texting you the broadcast number now. When you get a location, send it as a text message on that number and we’ll all get it at once.”
“I will,” Noah said, as his phone buzzed in his pocket. “I’m going to take my team back to our base of operations. You’ve got my number if you need me for anything.”
“Yes, Sir,” Hayes said. “If anything comes up, I’ll be in touch. If not, we’ll just wait to hear from you tomorrow.”
Noah shook his hand once more, then turned and gathered his team by eye. They walked out the door together and found Colonel Abrams standing just outside the building entrance.
“Everything taken care of?” she asked.
“It is,” Noah said. “Captain Hayes has everything under control, I think. I’m taking my team back to our base of operations so that we can relax for a bit and get ready for the action that will take place tomorrow, but I wanted to thank you for your assistance.”
The Colonel cocked her head to one side and gave him a half smile. “I suspect that I could make an educated guess about you, but I’m going to fight off that temptation. The only thing I’m sure of at this moment is that whatever you’re doing has to do with protecting our country. I’ll be glad to give you any kind of assistance I can, at any time.”
She suddenly snapped a perfect salute at him, and Noah returned it automatically. When he dropped his hand, he extended it and shook her, and then walked toward the car without another word.
“Back to the hotel?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah,” Noah said. “Neil can go over the setup for tomorrow and then we can try to relax for a while tonight. Take a roundabout way getting back there; we don’t want to pick up any more shadows today if we can avoid it.”
Sarah nodded and put the car in gear. She followed the blue stars back to the gate and the guards waved as they passed through it. When she got to the interstate, however, she didn’t bother to get on but continued straight until she came to a large intersection.