High Treason (Noah Wolf Book 18) Read online

  “No,” Sarah said. “We decided we wanted to wait and be surprised.”

  “Oh, really,” said the doctor with a smile. “Well, in that case, we will keep the monitor turned away from you. At this stage, it would probably be difficult to miss.”

  The technician obediently turned the monitor away and then began moving the transducer across Sarah’s belly. Both she and the doctor were watching the monitor closely, and both of them were smiling.

  “Oh, the baby is looking very good,” Doctor Mahindra said. “Everything looks wonderful, I don’t think we’re going to have any trouble with the birth.” She suddenly leaned closer and looked at the monitor intently. “Tell me, Sarah, have you been feeling anything strange the last couple of days?”

  “Other than feeling like a hippopotamus out of water?” Sarah quipped. “Not really strange, but I have felt a lot of lower back pain. Why? Is something wrong?”

  The doctor looked up and smiled at her. “Nothing is wrong,” she said. “However, as I watch the monitor, I see that you are having contractions. Did you not yet realize it?”

  Sarah blinked. “Well, no, I guess not. I thought it was just muscle cramping. Are you telling me I’m in labor?”

  “No, no, these are preliminary contractions. Your uterus is simply flexing, but all is well. The baby is moving into the proper position for birth, but I suspect that you will be celebrating her arrival a bit sooner than you expected.” She turned to the technician and there was a quickly whispered conference, then she looked back at Sarah. “I would expect the baby to be born within the next few days. Are you ready for that?” She smiled.

  “Doctor, I’ve been ready for the last three months,” Sarah said.

  Noah looked at the doctor. “We live almost an hour and a half away. Do I need to be concerned about getting her here in time?”

  “Oh, no,” the doctor said, still smiling. “This is her first baby, yes? You should have plenty of time. Just remember to come to the hospital when you feel certain that contractions are steady, and less than ten minutes apart. By the time you get here, she should actively be in labor and the actual birth process can begin.”

  The doctor spoke with them for a few minutes longer, and then the appointment was over. Sarah got dressed again, and they left the doctor’s office. Noah made a point of driving to the hospital, just to be certain he would know exactly where to go when the time came.

  “I guess that’s the emergency entrance,” he said, pointing at the doors. “We’ll go in there, and I’m sure they’ll tell us what to do after that.”

  “How are you feeling?” Sarah asked. She was holding his hand as he drove, and he turned to look at her.

  “Feeling? I feel fine, why?”

  She chuckled. “Because you’re about to become a daddy,” she said. “I know you were planning on going out on the mission, but I’m hoping you’re going to stay with me, especially now that Ralph is going to be here. He can handle it, don’t you think?”

  “He’s going to have to,” Noah said. “I’m not going anywhere. Mission or no mission, I’m not going to miss being there for the birth of my child.”

  Sarah broke into a large smile. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that,” she said. “I’ll be honest, I’ve been terrified the whole time that the baby was going to come while you were out on a mission. I thought I could stop worrying about it when we were sent here, but then that message came, and… Noah, I don’t think I could handle going through this without you.”

  “You could,” Noah said, “but you won’t have to. I’m staying right here, and when the time comes to take you to the hospital, I’ll be driving.”

  “Can’t say I mind that,” Sarah said. “At least I know you won’t panic on the way.”

  Noah picked up her hand and kissed it. “I’ll take care of you,” he said. “Now, let’s go have lunch.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” Sarah said. “The kid and I are both starving.”

  Noah drove them to a restaurant they had discovered during an earlier trip to London, and helped Sarah inside. The restaurant claimed to specialize in American-style food, but their take on some familiar American dishes was rather different. Noah had found that their London broil was considerably better than what he was able to get back home, and Sarah had declared the salmon to be the best she had ever eaten anywhere. Both of them ordered their favorites and sat back to wait for the food to be delivered.

  They were chatting about the typical things expectant parents often discussed, such as baby names and nursery décor. Noah told her the nursery was her department, and she could do whatever she wanted with it. There was a room off their suite that was originally meant to be a walk-in closet, but was large enough to become the nursery. Sarah planned to decorate it in a Disney theme, but she had yet to decide which one.

  The biggest discussion was about names. “If it’s a girl,” Sarah said, “I’d like to give her a name that won’t make people expect too much of her.”

  Noah’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

  “Oh, you know,” she said. “If you name a girl Heather or Veronica or anything fancy like that, people naturally expect her to be beautiful and graceful, and not every kid is. A girl with a name like that who turns out to be chubby and not exactly gorgeous gets picked on. Give her a name like Jane or Susan, and she can be as plain as day and no one thinks anything of it. I don’t want to handicap her by giving her a name that will cause people to have expectations.”

  “What if you give her a simple name, but then she turns out to be beautiful? Won’t that have a negative impact?”

  Sarah shook her head. “No, not really. Then people just say how lovely she is, and they don’t think anything of it.”

  Noah looked at her for a moment, then shrugged. “I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand such things,” he said. “I think perhaps I had best let you decide on the names.”

  Sarah grinned. “Okay,” she said. “Then I was thinking of Noah, Junior if it’s a boy, or Noette if it’s a girl.”

  Noah nodded. “If those are the ones you choose, that’s fine with me.”

  Sarah feigned an aghast expression. “What? You’re not even going to argue?”

  Noah’s eyebrows went up. “Argue about what? I told you I’d leave it up to you.”

  Sarah chuckled, unable to keep up the pretense. “I’m only kidding, Noah. I was actually thinking of naming him Donald if it’s a boy, after Donald Jefferson. If it’s a girl, I was thinking of calling her Julia, after your mother.”

  Once again, Noah shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “I like those, too.”

  “Oh, you’re too easy! You’re supposed to argue with me, give me some ideas of your own.”

  Noah looked at her for a moment, then leaned his head to one side. “William if it’s a boy, and Sarah if it’s a girl.”

  “Sweet, but no on the girl,” Sarah said. “I had to live with that name, remember? Where did you get William?”

  “Off the top of my head,” Noah said. “You wanted me to make suggestions, so I did.”

  She threw a napkin at him. “Sometimes you’re no fun.”

  Their food arrived and they settled in to eat, taking their time since they were not in a hurry. Heathrow Airport was only a half hour’s drive away, so Noah wasn’t concerned about being late. When they finished, he lingered over an extra cup of coffee and then they made their exit.

  Because of Sarah’s condition, Noah insisted she wait in the van while he went into the airport to find the arriving team. They had arrived at the same time the flight was supposed to be touching down, and he stationed himself as close to the arrival gate for the flight as he could.

  Almost ten minutes later, Ralph Morgan appeared, followed by the rest of his team. Noah stepped out where he could be seen and waved a hand, and Ralph broke into a smile.

  “Noah!” Ralph said. “I didn’t know you were planning to meet us yourself.”

  “I had to co
me into the city anyway,” Noah said. “It just made sense. Go gather your bags, and then I’ll bring the van up so you can load everything without having to carry it half a mile.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ralph said. They headed toward the baggage claim area while Noah went to fetch the van. By the time he got back, they were waiting in the loading area. Tommy Kelly threw open the back doors and they loaded all their baggage, then climbed in through the side door and found seats.

  “Good to see you again, Boss,” Ralph said. “Hey, Mrs. Wolf.”

  “Hi, Ralph,” Sarah said, turning in her seat so she could look at them. “I never met the rest of your team, you want to make the introductions?”

  “Sure. This is Diana, Tommy, JC and Benny. Guys, you all know Noah, but this is his wife, Mrs. Wolf.”

  “It’s just Sarah,” Sarah said with a friendly grin. “Mrs. Wolf makes me sound old.”

  “Good to meet you, Sarah,” Diana said. “So, we’re really going back to work? I was starting to worry that we’d been forgotten.”

  “We are,” Noah said as he put the van in gear and pulled away. “We’re just doing it as independents, now, but we’re getting geared up for whatever we have to do.”

  “Independent? You mean, like, we really are going rogue?” Benny asked. “I’ll admit to wanting a paycheck, but I don’t know if I want it that bad.”

  “Don’t worry, we’re not actually going out on our own. With what’s going on back home, we just have to keep our existence even more secret now than ever before. We still take our orders from DC, but they get relayed through the British intelligence services. In fact, we have a mission in the works right now, and you will probably be heading right back to the US within a couple of days.”

  “Oh, man,” Ralph said. “I hate flying, and especially over water. Isn’t there somebody else you can send?”

  “No, you’re it. Until the need arises, I’m only bringing two teams on right now, yourselves and Aladdin. He won’t get here until tomorrow, so you’re going to get the briefing.”

  Ralph let out a sigh. “Okay, whatever,” he said. “Who’s the target?”

  “A US Senator,” Noah said. “She’s been part of the problem that ended up exposing our organization, but things are in such an uproar that the White House is worried about a constitutional crisis if she and her compatriots are exposed as traitors and manage to reveal even more secret information. You’re going to set up an accident, a fatal one.”

  “Wow, a woman? I haven’t had a woman target before.”

  “You can do it, Ralph,” Diana said. “Just pretend she’s me—you want to kill me every now and then.”

  Ralph turned to stare at her. “No, I don’t,” he said. “What could make you think that?”

  “The look you give me every time I turn you down,” she said. Tommy and Benny both snickered, but Ralph scowled.

  “Okay, all of you just shut up,” he said. He turned to look at Sarah. “Ignore them, Sarah—they love picking on me because they’re all older than me. I think they hate the fact they have to take orders from a kid.”

  “That’s not it,” Diana said. “We just think you’re a goofball, that’s all.”

  She caught Sarah’s eye and winked, and Sarah couldn’t hold back a chuckle. Having served with Noah on his team, she knew how important that level of friendship and mutual teasing could be. It was a way to avoid the tensions that could develop between people who perform such stressful duties.

  “Hey,” she said a moment later. “Noah has a surprise for you all. Wait till you see what he’s been up to the last couple days.”

  “What?” Ralph asked. “Come on, I hate surprises.”

  “I brought Wally with me when I came over here,” Noah said. “Because we are being reactivated, we went out and bought a building to use as our new R&D. It’ll be disguised as a high-tech manufacturing facility, but it’s real purpose is to keep the special tools and weapons coming. We went out yesterday and got housing set up for you guys, bringing in some mobile homes for you to live in.”

  “Trailers?” Tommy asked. “You don’t mean those little dinky ones, do you?”

  “No,” Noah said. “I sent Neil into London to buy some very nice ones, the kind with two or three bedrooms. They were installed yesterday and they look quite decent.”

  Sarah nodded. “They do, they’re very nice,” she said. “I think you’re going to like them.”

  “Okay, that won’t be so bad. I lived in one of those little silvery ones once, it was a pain in the butt. The whole bathroom became the shower, it was that small.”

  “I arranged for basic necessities, like cleaning supplies, bedding, basic dishes and cooking utensils, things like that,” Noah said. “You’ll still need to stock up on groceries and anything particular that interests you. We’ll be stopping at a couple of stores today, so you can get whatever you want. If you think of something later, we have some vehicles that you can use.”

  Ralph chuckled. “Sounds like you thought of everything,” he said. “You said this place is going to be a factory of some kind?”

  “Yes. Wally has come up with designs for some improved household appliances, and will be marketing them worldwide. That’ll keep everything looking normal, but the research and development department will actually be staffed by some of his own people from back at Neverland. Arrangements are already being made, so they’ll be here before long, probably just a matter of a few days. Team Aladdin will also be coming in tomorrow, and they’ll be staying there on site along with you guys. As far as anyone knows, you guys are executives with the company, which is why you get premium housing on site. Molly will set it all up over the next couple of days, but Wally’s people will be living in town.”

  While they had been talking, Noah had driven toward one of the bigger shopping centers and made the turn into the parking lot.

  “This is ASDA,” he said as he parked the van. “It’s about as close as you’ll get to a Walmart, and it’s actually owned by Walmart International Corporation.”

  “Yeah,” Sarah said, “but it isn’t quite the same. I’m not sure why, but it just doesn’t feel like Walmart.”

  “That’s not necessarily a bad thing,” Diana said. “Open the door, Ralph, let’s go shopping.”

  SEVEN

  ASDA might not have been the same as Walmart, but all four of them managed to find groceries and snacks and sundries that they wanted, and the back of the van was pretty well loaded by the time they left an hour and a half later. It was nearly 4:30 by the time they got back to Guildford, and Noah installed them in the first four mobile homes. Once they had put their things inside, they all gathered in Ralph’s trailer.

  “This is a pretty nice setup,” JC said. JC was Jean-Charles Monet, a former French Special Forces soldier who had run afoul of a superior officer and ended up sentenced to life in prison for insubordination. He had known of E & E and managed to get word to Allison that he was available if she could get him out of Meaux-Chauconin prison, reputed to be the worst in all of France. After looking at his file, Allison decided to take him up on the offer, and arrangements were made for him to escape and get his new identity. He was the thug on Ralph’s team, and was very good at his job. “The wooded setting makes it rather serene.”

  “That was the goal,” Noah said. “We wanted to give each of you a place to relax with some privacy, as well as security. We’ll be hiring security guards for the facility this week, as well, probably British ex-soldiers.”

  “I like it here so far,” Ralph said. “You said we’re supposed to be some kind of executives with the factory? Does that mean we show up to a job over there every day?”

  “We have an office suite set up over there,” Noah said, “along with a briefing room and such. You will probably be listed as salespeople, to account for why you’re often away on business. Of course, it also gives us a way to pay you, and Molly will get you set up with bank accounts and such things tomorrow morning. You can relax for the night
, because we’ll be briefing you on your mission first thing tomorrow morning.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Ralph said. “See you tomorrow, boss man.”

  Noah and Sarah got back into the van and headed for the estate. They arrived in plenty of time to get cleaned up for dinner, then joined everyone else in relaxing for the evening.

  The following morning saw a lot of activity at the factory, as Noah learned what everyone else had been up to the day before. Molly had worked with Wally in arranging for Wally’s equipment and personnel to be brought over from Neverland. Neil had gotten the briefing room set up, then worked with Esmeralda to finished setting up the furniture and equipment, most of which had been delivered the previous afternoon. Marco, Cody, Renée and Jenny had taken care of a number of logistical details, such as setting up the employee break rooms, seeing that all required notices were in place, replacing the old telephone system with one that was digital and secure, and also installing new security cameras throughout the building. They were all gathered in the briefing room, where a large conference table and chairs had been set up, to fill Noah in on the details.

  “I ended up having to call Catherine,” Molly said, “to make arrangements for a C-130 loaded with equipment to arrive. It should be in late tomorrow, landing at RAF Northolt in West London. In order to avoid excessive scrutiny, we made arrangements for a London trucking company, one that MI6 uses, to pick everything up and deliver it here the following day. Wally’s choice of personnel will arrive at Heathrow sometime tomorrow afternoon, and we already arranged for a bus to bring them out.”

  “A bus?” Noah asked. “How many people did you bring over?”

  “Only nineteen,” Wally said. “And I don’t mind telling you, it was hard to cut the list down that far. These are my top engineers and scientists, the people who come up with the best ideas.”

  Noah nodded. “Okay, very good. Now, what about manufacturing equipment and such? We have to look like a working factory.”

  “We ordered some general assembly line equipment,” Molly said, “as well as stamping and molding presses and the necessary dies. The dies would normally take a couple of weeks, but Wally was able to talk somebody into making them right away, so we will have them by the day after tomorrow. We found commercially available computers that can run the appliances, and Esmeralda has already written the first draft of the software. All of the components, including servos to control the actions of the appliances, are available off-the-shelf, so we ordered in a healthy supply. That means we’ll be ready to go into production as soon as the dies get here. They’ll be used to create the housing and framework for the appliances, and then it’s just a matter of putting all the various components into place. Everything on the production floor can be done by unskilled labor, and I’ve already spoken with the Guildford Business Forum, and they are absolutely overjoyed at the prospect of a couple of hundred new jobs being available.” She grinned. “They offered us a major tax break in return for taking new employees off their welfare rolls.”