Code Name: Camelot (Noah Wolf #1)(35)
Allison smiled at him, and reached across to pat his hand. “And that’s what I’m talking about,” she said. “You just explained the very reason why we need you. Noah, we’ve lost several teams over the past few years, simply because the team leader hesitated. That’s one thing I will never have to worry about, with you, because hesitation is not your weakness. When the time comes to take the shot, I know that you’ll take it.”
Noah didn’t reply, but simply began eating his breakfast. On that morning, he had opted for a waffle with bacon on the side, and it was every bit as good as he’d expected it to be.
Allison dug into her own breakfast, and the two of them ate in silence. Noah finished first, and waited, sipping on a second cup of coffee until she was done.
“Oh, that was good,” Allison said. “I think I could almost sit here and order another plate, but duty calls. Shall we go?”
Noah followed her out the door, stopping at the register to pay his tab, and then walked with her to her car. He got into the passenger side as she slid behind the wheel, and a moment later they were on the way to Kirtland.
The administrative office turned out to be on the top floor of one of the big office buildings in town, putting them more than ten stories above the street level. The elevator was smooth and fast, and required a special key. It opened directly into the administrative office complex, and Allison led the way to her office.
A secretary looked up and smiled as they walked past, and Allison told her to hold any calls or messages until further notice. She went directly to her desk, pointing at the chair in front of it for Noah, then picked up a large envelope and handed it to him before she went around to take her own chair.
“Go ahead and open it up,” she said, and he did so. Several items slid out of it into his hand. “You’ll find a cell phone, a Colorado driver’s license, a birth certificate, a Social Security card, a passport and a few different credit cards, all of them in the name of Noah Wolf. I got the idea for your new last name from that comment you made the other day, about feeling like a wolf in man’s clothing, hope you don’t mind. Oh, and you’re a year older, now, with a different birthday. Instead of being born in Illinois, you were originally born in California, but your parents moved to Iowa when you were only a year old. You grew up there, living in a small town, and you were taught at home. Your mother didn’t trust public schools, and your father left decisions about your education to her. Your parents died when you were twenty, in an auto accident. You have no siblings, no other living relatives.”
Noah studied the documents in his hand, and then looked up at Allison. “Doesn’t sound all that different,” he said.
“It actually doesn’t take a lot of difference,” she replied. “We’re not out to make you an entirely different person, just slightly different, so that no one would mistake you for someone that they used to know. Oh, and incidentally, you have an appointment with our cosmetic surgeon next Monday, eight AM. Nothing too serious, a little work on your nose and cheekbones, and as you can see, the photos on those documents already reflect those changes. Amazing what computers can do these days, isn’t it? Oh, and incidentally, that cell phone is very special and very expensive, so don’t lose it! It doesn’t have to use a cell tower; it’s capable of going direct to satellite. You could be on a ship in the middle of the ocean, and you could still make a call on that phone.”
“Cool,” Noah said, and then he grinned. “I saw the difference in the photos, and I was going to ask about it,” he said, then held up a key ring. “Okay, scanning through these things, my address is on a rural route out of Kirtland?”
“Yes,” she said. “We usually put our assassins into something relatively private, while others get apartments or houses in town. Yours is a refurbished farmhouse on sixty acres, just off Temple Lake Road.” She stood and walked over to a map that hung on the wall, motioning him to approach. She pointed at a spot on the map, and said, “This is where we are now. If you follow this street out to where it meets Temple Lake Road, then turn right, you’ll be headed in the right direction. Your house is actually on County Road 640, right here. Turn right onto the gravel, and it’s about half a mile down the road on the left. I’m a little bit on the jealous side, because you actually have about eight hundred feet of lakeshore, with your own dock and a boat and everything.” She went back to her desk and sat, and Noah reclaimed his chair as well. “The house has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a nice kitchen and living room, and a two-car attached garage. You’ve also got some other buildings, including a barn, a couple of workshops and a mobile home that’s actually pretty nice. Doctor Parker chose this place for you, based on some of your history. I gather you like living out in the country?”
Noah put on a light smile, and nodded. “My last foster home,” he said, “I lived with this older couple who raised goats and had this massive garden. I was with them for four years, right up until the old man died, and then their kids decided to put their mother in a nursing home. Since I was already almost 17, they just stuck me in a group home for the rest of my time, but I actually missed living on the farm.”
Allison grinned. “Well, you can raise goats if you want to, but I’d suggest you hire yourself a farmhand. You can probably get someone cheap, if you throw in that mobile home as part of the pay package. As you can see from some of the other documents there, you are a security consultant who works with many different companies around the world to establish physical and digital security for their business operations. As such, you’re occasionally called out on a moment’s notice and may be gone for weeks at a time. Of course, it also explains how you can afford such a nice place.”