In Sheep's Clothing (3 page)

“About an hour,” Wally said. “We've got about ten thousand logos already made up, it's just a matter of printing it out and sticking it on. No addresses, no phone numbers; people don't pay much attention to those, anyway. I’ll get that started right now.” He took a walkie-talkie out of one of his pockets and spoke into it for a minute. “Okay, I was wrong,” he said as he looked at Noah again. “Our camouflage division has a flower shop sign ready to go. They'll be out to put it on in just a few minutes.”

“Sounds good,” Noah said. “What about license plates, registration, insurance cards?”

“We can put any state tag on it you want, and create registration and insurance cards to match. The van’s registration, for instance, will come back to a flower company with its headquarters here. Incidentally, any of these vehicles are disposable. If you need to ditch one, just go ahead. The registrations trace back to a dummy outfit, a dead end. If you crash one or have to leave it behind for some reason, don't worry about it.”

Sarah walked around the lot for a few moments, then pointed at a silver Chrysler 300 sedan. “My father always said that was one of the best-handling machines he'd ever driven,” she said. “If I'm going to have that much horsepower, I want something that can cope with it.”

“You’re going to love that one,” Wally said. “Incidentally, it’s all-wheel drive, with some very special tires that grip the road like nothing you’ve ever seen. That sucker will take a corner at seventy miles an hour if you really want to, but that’s just the beginning. Let me show you some of the special features of this car.” He went to the guardhouse and got the keys to both of the vehicles they had chosen, tossed the van keys to Noah and then walked directly to the Chrysler. Sarah followed him and slid behind the wheel at his invitation.

“Okay, you’re gonna love this. This car is one of several that we designed specifically to help you teams escape when things go bad, or duck the local police as necessary. In order to accomplish that, we’ve added some things you’re sure to like.” He pointed at a spot on the dashboard and told her to press it. A panel opened up and she saw a dozen buttons arranged in rows of four. “The top row of buttons changes the license plate. There are four different sets installed, and each one is registered to a car identical to this one. Pretty cool, right?”

Sarah was grinning at him. “That’s slick,” she said.

Wally held up a finger. “But you haven’t seen the best part. The next two rows of buttons do something even more special. Push the second button, and you’ll see.”

Sarah looked at him suspiciously. “It’s not gonna, like, throw me out of the car, is it?”

“No, no,” Wally laughed. “Trust me, just push it.”

Sarah eyed him for another couple of seconds, then reached over and pushed the button. She was watching the dashboard as if expecting something to happen there, when Wally said, “See what I mean?”

She looked up, and that’s when she realized that the silver hood of the car had suddenly become a dark green. Her eyes went wide. “Did this car just change color?”

Noah was standing stock still, his head cocked to one side as he kept his eyes on the car. “It did,” he said. “One second it was silver and the next it was green.”

Wally laughed and did a little dance. “Isn’t that awesome? It’s called electroluminescence; it uses varying amperage of electrical current to cause prismatic crystals within the paint to slightly alter their shape and size, which results in reflecting a different color for the eye to see. Try another button, I never get tired of watching this stuff work.”

Sarah pushed another button and the car suddenly became bright yellow. Another button turned it to a deep blue, and yet another made it red. “Okay, this is just absolutely incredible. How do I get a paint job like this on my car?”

“Oh, you can get it, but it won’t be quite as good as this. We just happened to have the resources to take the technology to a whole new level. The stuff that’s available commercially isn’t quite as good as this, but it does work.”

Two men came out a moment later and applied a genuine-looking florist’s logo to the van. Noah and Sarah drove both of the vehicles around to the front of the building, where a man met them with a handcart carrying the printer and several other boxes. He loaded everything into the back of the van, and Noah followed Sarah back to his house. The Corvette would be safe in Wally's care until they returned.

The next stop was the Armory. Sarah followed Noah inside and waited while he selected a couple of assault rifles and a pair of Interdynamic MP9 machine pistols, then loaded several cases of ammunition with them into the van.

Moose's car was parked by Neil's trailer, which sat on Noah's land. Moose and Neil were sitting at a table on his deck, with an umbrella over them to block the sun's bright rays. They waved as Sarah and Noah pulled in, then got up and began walking over toward the bigger house.

“Hey, Boss,” Moose called out as he pointed at the van. “We going into the flower business?”

“Yep,” Noah said. “Neil, you know how to use CAD software?”

Neil sneered at him. “I knew how to use that when I was in kindergarten,” he said. “Why?”

“Wait just a minute,” Sarah said, “you guys have got to see this!” She spent the next five minutes showing off the Chrysler’s special abilities, and both Moose and Neil were fascinated.

Finally, Noah called a halt to the show. He opened the back of the van and told Moose to grab the big suitcase, bring it inside and set it on the table, and a few moments later Neil's eyes grew wide as the 3-D printer rose from within the concealing suitcase. He did a double take when the computer slid out of the base.

“Holy crap,” he said. “Is that what it looks like?”

“Yes and no,” Noah said. “It's a 3-D printer, and very fast, but you don't want to be making toys with it.” He pointed at the big tank. “It turns that liquid into solid objects which just happen to be extremely explosive. The stuff is very stable, and can't go off without a special detonator. See that little arm off to the side? That thing puts the detonator inside whatever you're making, and there's a way to program it so that we can make it go off when we want it to.”

Noah and Sarah spent the next half hour explaining it all to Neil, while he played with the CAD and 3-Sweep programs on the computer and made himself familiar with them. To the surprise of no one, both he and Moose wanted to see the explosive in action, so Noah gave the okay. There were thousands of 3-D images already available in the software, so Neil chose a mouse figurine that was about three inches tall. It would print out the figurine, leaving it hollow.

Noah picked up one of the detonators and plugged it into the remote, then programmed it to channel 1. He set the detonator in the arm's grip, and then nodded at Neil.

The printer began working and the mouse was finished in about three minutes. Noah reached in and picked it up, flipping it casually in the air as he walked out his front door. Sarah followed right behind him, but Moose and Neil were watching closely as he tossed it from hand to hand.

“Hey, Boss, don't you want to be a little more careful with that?” Moose asked.

“Relax, Moose,” Sarah said. “Like he told you, it's very stable. It won't go off until he tells it to.”

Noah led the way out into the yard and walked directly to a dead tree. The tree was hollow, and he put the little mouse inside a hole near its roots. “I've been meaning to take this tree out, anyway,” he said. “Let's see how well this stuff really works.”

They backed off about a hundred feet and then Noah turned on the remote. He pressed 1, then immediately put his thumb on the red button and pushed.

The explosion sounded a lot like a shotgun going off, and the base of the tree suddenly seemed to disintegrate into a cloud of dust and dirt. As far away as they were, specks of dirt and tiny splinters of wood managed to hit them, though without any real force. The tree itself stood for a couple of seconds, and then slowly leaned to one side and fell.

“Tim-berrrrr!” Neil yelled, his face covered in a massive grin. “Boss man,” he said, “that stuff is awesome!”

Moose had gone by his house and packed up some clothes for the mission, also picking up the special Glock automatic that was the twin of one that Noah carried. It was another of Wally's team's creations, matched wirelessly with a ring that Moose wore on his right hand, and would not fire at all unless the hand holding it was wearing that ring.

Should anyone try to fire the gun without it, a high-voltage charge would be delivered through the grip, more powerful than a commercial stun gun. That person would be completely incapacitated for several minutes. They had not yet run into a situation where it was helpful, but both Noah and Moose agreed that it was a great tool for people in their line of work.

It was almost lunchtime, so Noah suggested they all go out for a bite to eat. They piled into the Chrysler, and Sarah took the wheel.

“Sagebrush?” she asked, and everyone agreed. She wheeled the sedan gently out of the driveway and then floored it. The car leaped forward, pressing everyone back into their seats.

“Good Lord, girl,” Moose said from the backseat. “Lead foot, much?”

“Hey, I have to get familiar with this machine. You never know, I may have to pick you two up out of a bad situation. You wouldn't want me to be learning how to drive it in the middle of a firefight, now, would you?”

The in-dash GPS showed a scrolling view of the road, with a bright blue triangle representing the car. The curves in the road seemed a lot sharper on the little video display, and the rapidly moving triangle made it seem like they were going even faster than they probably really were. It seemed like only seconds before they came to the end of the country lane, and then they were on Temple Lake Road. It was just a few miles to the Sagebrush Saloon, but they were very curvy miles. Sarah put the car through its paces, and commented that the all-wheel drive and traction-grip tires made it seem like they were running on rails.

“I don't think so,” Neil yelled. “The freaking tires are screaming around these curves, I don't think anything on rails would do that. Would you please slow down? We have enough chances to get killed when we're out on a mission, we don't need to risk it running around here at home!”

“Oh, poor baby,” Sarah said, “am I scaring you?” She dropped her speed back down to the limit and drove sedately the rest of the way. When they got out of the car in the Saloon's parking lot, she actually patted it on the roof. “I could get used to driving something like this all the time.”

Moose and Neil shook their heads and just walked past her into the restaurant. Noah stood at the front of the car and waited for a moment, then the two of them walked in together.

Elaine Jefferson, Moose's girlfriend, was working that afternoon and happily led them to one of her tables. She knew them all quite well and went to fetch their usual drinks while they thought about what to order for lunch. They had just gotten their orders in when Neil's cell phone rang.

He glanced at the caller ID display and broke into a huge smile, then got up and left the table while he answered the call.

“Must be Lacey,” Sarah said. Lacey Jackson, who happened to be the daughter of their physical fitness instructor and was almost as tall and thin as the six-foot-five Neil, had introduced herself to him in the Saloon a few weeks before and they had become quite involved. It wasn't uncommon to see Lacey's car parked over at the trailer in the mornings. “She's been pretty good for him. Notice he's growing up a little bit, lately?”

“Neil? Growing up?” Moose asked, then looked over at Noah. “What kind of dope is she smoking lately? That kid ain't never gonna grow up.”

Noah shrugged. “Actually, I think he's been a lot better lately. He doesn't whine nearly as much as he used to.”

“Yes, he does,” Moose said. “It just seems like it's not as much because he isn't constantly complaining about not having a girlfriend. Now he spends all his time complaining about not getting to spend enough time with his girlfriend.”

“Which proves my point,” Sarah said.

Moose shook his head. “Yeah, yeah, you keep on believing whatever you want to. Trust me, he's still a whiner.”

“Yeah, maybe so, but you love him. You proved that when you took a bullet dragging him out of the line of fire, remember?”

“I never said I didn't,” Moose said with a grin. “He's like the annoying little brother I never had. I always wanted one, just so I could pick on him, but Mom and Dad wouldn't cooperate. Now I got Neil, I'm making up for lost time.”

Neil came back to the table just then, still smiling. “You guys don't mind if Lacey comes out to join us, do you? She went by the trailer and I wasn't home, so she called to see where I was.”

“Oh-oh,” Moose said. “When a girl gets to the point she's checking up to see where you are when you're not home, things must be getting pretty serious. Next thing you know, you’ll have to ask for her permission to go on a mission with us.” He put on an effeminate grin and tried to imitate Lacey’s voice. “Okay, honey, you can go. Here’s your balls, just make sure you get them back to me when you get home.”

Neil gave him a sneer and stuck out his tongue. “Lacey isn't like that,” he said. “She really cares about me, that’s all.”

Sarah watched the exchange with her eyes wide, then looked at Moose. “You're right, I take it back.”

“Take what back?” Neil demanded.

“She just got through trying to tell me you had grown up since you started dating Lacey,” Moose said. “I said you hadn't, and sticking your tongue out at me just proved my point.”

Moose caught Elaine's attention and waved her over. “Honey, Lacey’s gonna be joining us. Can we get another chair over here?”

Lacey arrived a little more than ten minutes later and took her seat beside Neil. She leaned over to give him a kiss and Neil blushed. “Hey, sweetie,” she said, and then she looked at the rest of them. “Hope I'm not intruding.”

“You're not,” Sarah said, “and now that you're here, I don't feel quite as surrounded by testosterone as I did a minute ago. Thanks for coming.”