High Treason (Noah Wolf Book 18) Read online

  HIGH TREASON

  Copyright © 2020 by David Archer.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

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  PROLOGUE

  ONE

  TWO

  THREE

  FOUR

  FIVE

  SIX

  SEVEN

  EIGHT

  NINE

  TEN

  ELEVEN

  TWELVE

  THIRTEEN

  FOURTEEN

  FIFTEEN

  SIXTEEN

  SEVENTEEN

  EIGHTEEN

  NINETEEN

  TWENTY

  EPILOGUE

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  PROLOGUE

  “Conspiracy theories,” said the news commentator, “seem to abound in Washington, DC. No matter where you turn, someone is more than happy to tell you about how the deep state is actually running things, how Congress is nothing more than a group of marionettes whose strings are pulled by master puppeteers of the banking cartels, and how the highest levels of government are interested in nothing more than enslaving the population. You’ll hear about how seeing your name written in all capital letters means you are not truly a living person at all, but a corporation created by the government, and there are even stories claiming that your birth certificate is nothing but a certificate of ownership that allows the government to use you and everything you will ever own as collateral for loans.”

  He turned to the second camera. “Most people know that these incredibly complex conspiracies do not have any basis in fact, but occasionally we hear about one that actually has a ring of truth to it. Such appears to be the case with one of the latest theories to come out of the capital, and I’m referring, of course, to the recent incredibly startling revelations by Government Watch of an organization allegedly created by an executive order from one of our former presidents. This organization, known as E & E, was reportedly created to handle the business of assassination, something that has been outlawed in our country for many years. It’s even outlawed internationally, which makes this particular story even more egregious.”

  The commentator paused for a second, then nodded gravely. “Yes, I’m afraid you have heard me correctly,” he said. “According to an incredible number of documents obtained by Government Watch, somewhere in the halls of our allegedly democratic government is a group of people, a complete bureaucratic agency, whose sole purpose is to assassinate and eliminate people who are deemed by the one person in charge of that agency to be enemies of our country. This may not seem all that shocking or surprising to those of you who happen to be fans of espionage fiction, but the reality is that any form of government-sanctioned assassination has been banned by law and by treaty for decades. All member countries of the United Nations are forbidden to engage in assassination for any reason, and although many may do so in the course of their covert operations, the fact of this nation, or any nation, creating an agency for the purpose is simply beyond belief.”

  He turned back to the first camera. “Occasionally, clandestine agents are going to find themselves in positions where they are forced to kill. It doesn’t take any great expanse of imagination to know this is a simple reality of the espionage culture, but it is the deliberate planning and execution of an assassination, particularly for political purposes, that is forbidden. By establishing an organization whose sole purpose is to plan, equip and execute such missions, it is quite possible that one former president deliberately violated the terms of at least six different treaties, which could conceivably lead to charges of treason against him. Now, I doubt such charges will ever be brought, simply because doing so would be disastrous for our country; however, that possibility does remain and will undoubtedly be a talking point within the halls of Congress for quite some time to come.

  “Now, I should make it clear that there has as of yet been no official acknowledgment of these documents, and no government official has spoken to either confirm or deny any of the allegations that have been made. Independent investigators have spent uncounted hours carefully examining the documents and have stated that they find them to be apparently genuine; and other information is being carefully investigated, as well, information that may confirm that the documents are in fact real and exactly what they purport to be. At the moment, however, Government Watch claims that its informant within the organization has suddenly vanished, along with every individual they have been able to identify as being part of it. One must carefully consider whether that disappearance is merely coincidental, or whether their source has become yet another victim of the agency that was designed for the purpose of taking human lives.”

  He suddenly made a face that indicated he might have a bit of doubt about what he was saying.

  “Strangely enough, Government Watch claims to only have direct knowledge of one person within the organization, and has been unable to positively identify anyone else. This, they claim, is because making contact with their informant required someone to impersonate a government official, and that government official would have been fully aware of who else was involved. That made it impossible to ask for names or general information which that particular individual should have known, but they were able to get hold of some documentation that relates to how certain missions were carried out. Unfortunately, those documents never use actual names, but only coded numbers for each agent. Even the targeted individuals are identified only by code numbers, so it’s highly doubtful that they will be able to determine exactly who runs or participates in the organization.

  “They also claim that, since their informant was apparently discovered, they have been unable to reach that person. It appears that the entire organization may have been ordered to go into hiding, and FOIA requests have been filed to try to get actual confirmation of these allegations.

  “Until the government responds, however, the existence of E & E will probably remain within the domain of the conspiracy theory. If there is any truth to it, this particular commentator hopes that those who were involved in its creation and operation are brought to justice. America is supposed to be a leader among the free world, and conducting its affairs in such an unlawful manner is only going to further damage our reputation on the global stage.

  “For National News Network, this is Tom Winston.”

  The red light on the camera went out
, and the commentator leaned back in his chair. Several people swarmed around him, including his producer.

  “Great piece, Tom,” the producer said. “I just hope we’re not adding fuel to a nonexistent fire.”

  “Relax, Gary,” Tom Winston said. “The network loves anything that brings ratings up, and breaking a story like this is bound to do just that. We were lucky GW decided to give us an exclusive on it.”

  “I know, I know. You know how the conspiracy nuts are, though. Rumors of this outfit have been flying around for years, but nobody was able to get any kind of proof that they existed. Now that it’s out there and might end up being confirmed, the tinfoil-hat people are going to be expecting more out of us along those lines. What do you do for an encore?”

  Tom shrugged. “This is Washington,” he said. “By the time this one starts to die down, we’ll have something else to keep them excited about. My friends at GW claim to know details on some of this outfit’s operations. We could start running a series on those; that would keep the ratings up. People love nothing more than stories of murder and intrigue.”

  Gary shook his head. “That’s true, I know that, but—don’t you ever worry about crossing a line? I’ll grant you the UN and the Geneva Accord ban assassination, but do you honestly think that every other country isn’t doing it, just like we were? Assassination is nothing but a tool of politics; I bet you every country that’s complaining about it right now probably has people of their own to do the same things.”

  “They’ve got their spies, and I’m sure they do perform an occasional assassination, but the problem here is that we had an entire organization where that’s all they do. That’s what has everyone in an uproar, and the people have a right to be upset.” Tom got up out of his chair and leaned close to his producer. “I’ve been told they’ve actually been running operations here on American soil. Remember a few years back, the drug cartel that got bombed in Missouri? That was one of theirs, and so was that massacre in Arkansas almost two years ago. They’ve run hundreds of missions, and GW has managed to get details on about thirty of them. No names, of course, but it isn’t hard to figure out from the mission reports who the targets were. All we have to do is go back through old news stories—there are enough details to match up that we can be pretty damn sure of what we’re saying.”

  “Hey, if these guys want to bomb a drug cartel that’s operating here in our country, I say let them have it. And Arkansas? You ever heard of the Dixie Mafia? That’s who got blown away that time, and there weren’t too many people who shed tears over it as I recall. All I’m saying is that maybe this outfit was necessary. Maybe some of those treaties ought to be rewritten.”

  Tom got to his feet. “Maybe they should,” he said, “but they haven’t been, so far. That means that this is relevant news, and the people need to know. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a meeting set up to learn more about some of their actual operations. I want to have something new to use as a lead for tomorrow, to keep the momentum going.”

  “Okay,” Gary said. “Just be careful, will you? I like you reporting the news, not becoming part of it.”

  Tom, who had started walking away, stopped and looked back at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Government Watch has been listed as an antigovernment organization,” Gary said. “The FBI is investigating them, to determine what particular laws they might have broken by releasing classified documents. You remember what happened to WikiLeaks, right? I don’t need you getting arrested with them as some kind of accessory, you know what I mean?”

  Tom grinned at him. “I’ll be careful, don’t worry,” he said. “Besides, I’m just meeting a lady for lunch, that’s all.”

  ONE

  “Hi,” Sarah said, looking into Noah’s eyes as he opened them. “Don’t you think it’s about time to get up?”

  “What time is it?” Noah asked, but he picked up his phone and glanced at it before she could answer. “It’s only eight o’clock. I don’t see any reason not to sleep in.”

  “I can think of one,” Sarah said. “And it’s kicking me.”

  Noah rolled onto his side and laid a hand on her belly, then raised one eyebrow when another kick found his hand.

  “Lot of power, there,” he said.

  “Yes, well, kicking is one thing,” Sarah said. “But this kid likes to do chin-ups on my rib cage, and that really hurts.” She raised up on one elbow and leaned over to kiss him. “Seriously, it’s time to get up. Beatrice says breakfast has been ready for the last half hour. You know how she gets if we don’t eat breakfast.”

  Noah kissed her again, then rolled off his side of the bed and headed toward the bathroom. “Tell her I’ll be down in fifteen minutes,” he said. “I just need a quick shower.”

  “Okay, babe,” Sarah said. She struggled for a second to roll back over and get her feet on the floor, then managed to stand while holding on to her back. “God, I’ll be glad when this kid gets out of me. I feel like the Goodyear Blimp.”

  Noah didn’t respond, but she heard the shower start to run. She smiled and headed down toward the dining room, and was delighted to find Jenny, Neil and Molly already at the table. There were two large carafes of coffee, and she poured herself a cup as she sat down to join them.

  “You guys aren’t eating yet?” she asked.

  “It’s Beatrice,” Neil said with a scowl. “She says she’s not serving breakfast until ‘the master,’ meaning Noah, is at the table.”

  “He’s in the shower, be here shortly.” She heard a voice behind her and turned to look as Renée and Marco entered the room. “Hi, there,” she said. “Now all we have to do is wait for Noah to dry off and we can get this day started.”

  Noah arrived ten minutes later, his short-cropped blond hair still damp, and Beatrice appeared like magic as he sat down at the head of the table with his wife at his right. Lynn, her helper, was pushing a trolley with several large trays as Beatrice and the new girl made sure all the place settings were properly arranged.

  “That looks good,” Neil said. “Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes… Now, this is what I call breakfast.”

  “It’s what I call a disaster,” Beatrice said. “I do wish you lot would allow us to make you a proper English breakfast.”

  “Tomorrow,” Noah said. “But thank you for this, it all looks delicious.”

  Beatrice nodded but didn’t say anything, and a moment later she and her helpers were back in the kitchen. Noah and the rest of them dug in, passing the platters around the table so that everyone could fill their plates.

  “Still no word?” Marco asked Noah as he shoved a bite of eggs into his mouth.

  “I heard from Parker last night, an email,” Noah said. “There haven’t been any changes in the situation, other than more of our activities making it into the news media. Triple-N seems to have some kind of exclusive agreement with Government Watch, because they’re the ones who keep talking about us. One of the reporters, Tom Winston, is doing an hour-long special on the Arkansas mission, and I guess he’s managed to put together enough names and situations to have a pretty fair idea of what happened. Parker says they even came up with my cover name from that mission, and they’ve been trying to find Kate Madison, the FBI agent who was supposed to be my sister at the time. Luckily, she’s on assignment in California under another name, and they’ve managed to keep GW from finding out any actual details on her.”

  “Then, I take it we’re supposed to just hang out here?” Neil asked. “I mean, there aren’t going to be any missions at all?”

  “Not at the moment,” Noah said. “Allison and the CIA are working to cover up every request for an elimination that ever came in, and no one is allowed to submit any while this is happening. Parker wants us to keep as low a profile as we can, so as not to draw any attention.”

  Neil glanced at Jenny, then turned back to Noah. “I’m just asking,” he said. “Noah, we’ve been here almost two months already; is it time to start thinking
about retirement? I mean, are we done with the work we’ve been doing?”

  “I can’t answer that. At the moment, all I know is that we are supposed to lie low and avoid anything that might draw attention to us. Parker and Allison are the only ones who are aware of where we are and how to contact us, but everything is being kept quiet. I’m pretty sure they don’t want to take a chance on anything slipping out about where we are.”

  “Hey, that’s fine with me,” Marco said. “We get to kick back and relax, and just be the rich folks for a change. I can’t say I would be all that upset if they told us to just retire, you know what I mean?”

  “That would be wonderful,” Sarah said, looking at Noah. “We could just keep on living here and not have to worry about anything. We could raise our kid in the English countryside and you could keep on tinkering with your car projects.”

  “Which reminds me,” Noah said. “Where’s Wally?”

  “I saw him heading out to the workshop early this morning,” Marco said. “He had Esmeralda with him at the time, I guess she’s acting as his assistant.”

  Noah nodded. “Yes, she has been.” He glanced around to make sure none of the staff was within earshot. “She’s his assistant, as well as his computer system. According to Wally, she has more computing power in her head than he had in R&D back at Neverland.”

  “She freaks me out just a little bit,” Renée said. “I mean, I know what she is, but she seems to act more and more human all the time. Yesterday she asked me if I wanted to go with her into Guildford to get her hair done.” She shivered. “The scary thing is that I almost said yes before I realized who I was talking to.”

  “I don’t see the problem,” Noah said. “Esmeralda may actually be self-aware, or she may simply be the result of all that programming. Either way, I’m sure there were subroutines that would cause her to want to do things like getting her hair done, especially if she was out in the public eye. She was programmed to act human, remember?”