Code Name: Camelot (Noah Wolf #1)(37)

Johnson let his eyebrows go up a bit as he looked Noah over. “Mr. Wolf,” he said. “I have heard so much about you, sir. Some of it, I’ve got to say, is downright unbelievable.”

Noah looked him in the eye. “Then don’t believe it,” he said. “After all, that’s your choice.”

Johnson smiled, and looked at Allison. “Okay, so he’s every bit as brassy as you said he was. What are we up to, today?”

Allison had seated herself in one of the chairs around the table, and she leaned back and locked her fingers across her stomach. “Russell, I’m going to speed up Noah’s training. He doesn’t need all this crap—he’s ready to go just about anytime. Let’s go ahead and set up his team, now. Bring them in so he can meet them.”

For a moment, Noah thought Johnson was going to argue, but he seemed to think better of it before any of the words that were forming behind his forehead could make it out of his mouth. “Certainly,” he said, and then he got up and walked out of the room.

Noah looked at Allison, and his left eyebrow managed to go up half an inch above the right. “He doesn’t seem too happy about your plan,” he said.

“Of course not,” Allison said. “He’s a bean counter. His job is to make sure that everything we do here pays off. That doesn’t just mean monetarily, since we don’t actually make any kind of profits, but every expenditure we make has to be justified, and that’s his job. If I overrule him and say you’re ready to go when his bookkeeping doesn’t show that he’s gotten his money’s worth on your training, then it leaves open the possibility that something could jump up and bite him in the butt. That scares a bean counter, trust me on that.”

Noah shrugged. “I’m just here to do what you tell me,” he said. “If I have to listen to him, or anyone else, then you’re going to have to point that out to me. One of the first things I learned when I began taking jobs was to find out who the boss is, and then do what the boss told me to do. As far as I can tell, you’re the boss, so if there are any other bosses around here I need to know about, please make sure I do.”

Allison laughed. “No, I’m your boss,” she said. “That’s not anything you gotta worry about. Johnson just likes to make sure his own ass is covered, that’s all. He does his job, though, which is why he’s still here.”

Johnson returned a few moments later, and announced that Team Camelot would be assembled in the conference room within a few minutes. “Do you need me to stick around for this introduction?” he asked Allison.

“Not particularly,” she said. “This is out of the ordinary, I know, but it’s the way I want to do things in this case. They all know me, so I can handle this.”

Johnson nodded, then turned around and left the room. A moment later, a tall, thin young man stuck his head into the room.

“Ma’am? I was told to report here?”

Allison smiled at him. “Yes, Neil, come on in. We’re having a little get together, and you’re part of it.”

The young man came in and took a seat, and Noah looked him over. He barely looked old enough to be out of high school, and was probably a star on his high school basketball team, to judge from his height. Noah guessed him at around six foot five, but he was thin enough that a best guess of his weight put him around one fifty.

Neil was looking him over, as well. Noah wondered if the kid knew that he was looking at his new team leader.

Another man suddenly opened the door and poked his head inside. This one was not as tall, but he was definitely bulkier. He saw Allison, grinned and walked in. “Well, it looks like I’m in the right place,” he said. “Johnson called and said I was supposed to be here, like ten minutes ago.” His eyes flicked to Noah, but then he looked back at Allison.

“Yes, Mr. Conway,” Allison said. “Please come in and have a seat; we’re waiting for one more person.”

The man she’d called Mr. Conway sat down, and nodded at the skinny kid named Neil. Noah took note that they obviously knew each other, and suspected from this that they were both guessing he was to be the new member of their team. Neither of them said a word to Noah, or to each other, for that matter. They seemed content to just wait quietly for whatever Allison had in store.

“Is this where I’m—oh, I guess it is,” said a young woman at the door, just before she stepped inside. She nodded at Allison, then at the other two men, and took a seat.

Allison sat forward and smiled. “I’m doing something that breaks our usual protocols,” she said, “because we’re dealing with an extremely unusual situation.” She indicated Noah with a flick of her head. “I want you all to meet Noah Wolf, who is going to be your team leader. Noah, let me introduce you to Sarah Child, who is your transportation specialist. Sarah came to us about eight months ago, right after she and her father were arrested for running one of the biggest chop shops in the Dallas area. Don’t let her small size and pretty face fool you—she can drive anything that has wheels and can probably tear it apart and rebuild it even while it’s moving down the road. When you’re out on a mission, it will be her job to make sure you get where you’re going, and hopefully back again.”

Noah leaned over and extended a hand, and Sarah shook it. “Nice to meet you,” he said, and the girl rolled her eyes.