Code Name: Camelot (Noah Wolf #1)(33)

“About three months,” Noah said. “They didn’t waste any time getting me to trial, but our boss lady came and made her pitch before they got around to carrying out my sentence. Since I was just hanging around there, waiting for my chance to be next in line for execution, her offer struck me as a good one.”

Marco nodded. “Yeah, it usually does.” He took a long pull on his bottle. “Although, I have heard that a few people have turned it down. Seems pretty stupid, to me, but then you never know.”

Noah shrugged. “I think it would depend on what the person thought of himself,” he said. “I can see where someone might decide they didn’t deserve a second chance. Of course, that wouldn’t be me, and obviously it wasn’t you, either.”

“Not my problem,” Marco said. “I was just glad I made it through the first few days after I got here.”

Another man walked in and sat down at the bar, only a couple of stools away, so Noah and Marco began to guard what they were saying. They talked about casual things, like Marco’s car, and Marco told Noah about some of the more interesting parts of the town of Kirtland. The conversation sounded like one between a couple of old friends, one of whom was local and entertaining the other on a visit.

They ordered a second beer, this time on Noah. The old bartender took his card and swiped it for him, then passed it back without a word. They continued to sit at the bar while they finished them off, and by then, Noah was ready to go back to his room.

“I guess I got a big day ahead of me, tomorrow,” he said as they got back into the car. “Something about going through intake?”

Marco nodded. “Intake isn’t too bad,” he said. “By the time you get the offer made to you, they already know more about you than you know about yourself, so it’s not like you’ve got to fill out a lot of paperwork, or anything like that. It’s more about them telling you the rules, the basic rules you got to remember and stick to. Then they’ll give you your permanent ID, driver’s license and all that stuff, and put you officially on the payroll.”

“Yeah? And is the pay any good?”

Marco glanced over at Noah, and then burst out laughing. “It’s not bad,” he said. “I’m not sure what your pay grade gets, but I’m making more money each year than I thought I’d ever see in my life. Not trying to brag, but I pull down a little over a hundred thousand a year. That’s not bad for being a leg breaker.”

Noah whistled. “Not bad at all,” he said. “The only question left, then, is what in the world can you do with it?”

“Pretty much anything you want to,” Marco said. “Not all of us live here. I don’t, but when I’m helping out with a newbie, like you, I get to stay at the motel for free, instead of having to pay for a hotel room downtown.”

“Really? So where do you live?”

Marco grinned. “Middle of nowhere, in Louisiana. I got a little place on the Bayou, where nobody bothers me. I like it that way. Once you’ve been with the organization for a while, you can apply to live anywhere you want to. They give you a cover job to explain your income, so you can live right out in the open. Me, they got me listed as a truck driver. Every now and then, I really do drive a truck, but it just makes a convenient excuse for why I’m out and gone a lot, so the few neighbors I’ve got don’t get suspicious of anything.”

They got back to the motel, and Noah carried his bags into his room. He put the soft drinks into the refrigerator, then opened the bag of chips and lay back on the bed to watch some TV.





ELEVEN

Noah had gotten into the habit of waking at five thirty in the morning, the usual time when the lights came on at the prison. His eyes opened, and he rolled over on the big bed, instantly remembering how his circumstances had changed. He sat up, and a moment later he climbed out of the bed and staggered toward the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, he came out and grabbed some clean clothes, then went back in to get a shower and shave.

Allison’s message had said that someone would pick him up at around eight, so he had plenty of time for breakfast. He slipped out the door, glancing over at Marco’s room to see that there were no lights on yet, and then walked to the restaurant alone. He had just gotten his coffee when he heard his name, and turned around.

Allison was walking toward him, and sat down in the chair opposite his. She smiled at him, and he returned it out of habit.

“I thought I’d just come and collect you myself this morning,” she said, “and I figured you’d be over here early for breakfast, so I decided to join you. I haven’t eaten here in a while, but I know how good it is so I thought it was well past time to pay a visit.”

Noah picked up his cup and saluted her with it. “Glad to have the company,” he said. “Anything I need to know about today, before we get started?”

A waitress hurried over and took Allison’s order, and Noah waited until she was gone before he looked expectantly at his boss.

“Nothing specific,” she said. “We’ll be going over some rules and regulations that are in place, and getting your new identity all set up. A lot of it’s already been done, but there are some simple things we need to go over.”

Noah nodded. “It occurs to me that I haven’t actually thanked you,” he said. “Your intervention has saved my life, and I do appreciate it.”