He final-checked the Thompson and made a quick calculation of the firing angle which would be immediately available to him. He decided to set his limits at thirty degrees of horizon, then fed this into his observations of the enemy line.
They were s.p.a.ced at ten or twelve feet. He would begin at dead center, and immediately sweep five degrees to either side. This should bring down the four or five closest threats.
His right flank was the most exposed, and the most vulnerable to an effective return-fire from the more distant points. So his second pattern would be sweeping out to fifteen degrees right, to at least minimize the retort from that angle. Then, if everything was on the numbers, he"d try to sweep some away from the left That was the battle plan. The entire fire mission should last no more than a few seconds. It had to be quick and brutal and over with, before the enemy fully realized that it was happening. If properly executed, the play would mean, in actual numbers of those engaged, reducing the odds of the firefight to about 10 to 1 at the very worst. With a good automatic weapon, jungle cover, and the element of initiative in his favor, Bolan would ride those odds any time.
He watched Lavagni reach the far end of the line, saw the revolver lifting into the air, and heard the double report signalling the game to commence.
And then the line was up and running in a ragged advance across the white sands. Bolan"s impression was of about twenty men to each flank, plus two rising up from the blind spot.
He spotted them three strides into the soft stuff, then the heavy chopper began its gutteral doomsday report. The two guys directly ahead were accorded the initial burst, each receiving a closely packed wreath of .45 caliber expanders in the chest. They went over backwards and out of view as the chopper swung on and the horrible sounds of automated death swept across the sands of paradise.
Bolan executed the fire mission to its planned parameters, no more and no less, and it was all over in a matter of seconds. Then he withdrew, back into the bosom of his home-the jungle, and left paradise to the company of the friendly dead.
Fire Mission number three was next on tap.
Lavagni and Dragone met at the center and reformed their line, under the cover of trees-minus eight gunners who had not made it that far.
"What do you figure the guy thinks he"s doing, Tony?" Dragone asked.
Lavagni was perspiring heavily from a combination of over-exertion in the tropical heat and strained emotions. "I don"t know, Charlie," he replied disgustedly. "He"s a hard case, that guy. If I was him, I"d have been halfway out of this place by now."
"Maybe he didn"t get away clean. From the plane, I mean. Maybe he ain"t able able to travel too well." to travel too well."
"It"s something to think about," Lavagni admitted. "Anyway it don"t matter. Look, I know what I"m doing, Charlie. Don"t worry, the guy will run out of bullets before we run out of bodies."
"Don"t let the boys hear you talking like that," Dragone cautioned in a hushed voice. "They"re worried enough as it is."
Lavagni was about to make a heated comment to that when the chatter of the Thompson again erupted, this time from far along the line.
"Contact," Lavagni growled. T,et"s go."
Before the two Mafia leaders could close on the new trouble spot, however, that third fire mission had been completed and the Executioner was moving swiftly through the jungle toward number four.
Bolan"s battle plan was a basic guerilla maneuver. It was meant to draw the enemy line forward along a course of Bolan"s choosing, to widen the s.p.a.ces between the teeth of the grinder, and to slip through them.
This objective was neatly accomplished during the confused aftermath of the next brief firefight. Bolan stood quietly in the branches of a giant tree and watched the shaken enemy re-form their line beneath him and sweep on northward.
He noted that they had carefully collected the weapons of their fallen dead-and he smiled at this, accurately reading Lavagni"s game of numbers. Quick Tony was willing to give the prey a few dead bodies, so long as he continued spending his precious ammo for them.
But that game was ending now.
Bolan was no longer concerned with the acquisition of friendly dead, and he had all the breathing s.p.a.ce he"d wanted.
He gave the meat-grinder time to chew up a bit more jungle on the sweep northward, then he slipped to the ground and set off for the next objective.
It was time for a closer look at Gla.s.s Bay Resort
Chapter Four.
GAME PLAN.
The easiest and most direct route of retreat from Gla.s.s Bay would be through the jungle pocket, across the coastal plain, and into the mountains of the interior. From there, a guy on the run could probably commandeer a vehicle and make it into San Juan, a modern city of maybe half a million people. He could lay low for awhile in San Juan, then slip back to the states via ship or plane when the situation had cooled off.
There were two princ.i.p.al reasons, though, why Mack Bolan did not choose this avenue of escape.
First, the enemy would be expecting just such a move-and he did not wish to give them the added advantage of reading his game plan.
Secondly, Bolan did not choose to "lay low" in San Juan, nor did he have any intention of leaving the Caribbean until he"d completed his operations there.
The strategic route of retreat which he had selected lay directly across Gla.s.s Bay, past the enemy hardsite, and on beyond to one of the seaside villages. From there he would play it by ear and figure some way to strike at the mob"s wheel of fortune.
The big problem of the moment was Gla.s.s Bay itself.
Bolan had moved cautiously to the eastern edge of the forested area and he was taking a quiet reading of the situation there. He was about two hundred yards inland and looking southeasterly onto the grounds of the hardsite.
The fire had apparently been brought under control but smoke continued to rise from several stubbornly smouldering pockets. He counted twelve men moving tiredly about the damaged structure, a few still on fire hoses but most of them now engaged in salvage operations. Furnishings and other objects were strewn about the lawn. Angled to one side and out of the way was the line of Gla.s.s Bay dead, neatly lined up and wrapped in sheets.
Bolan grimaced and consulted his wrist.w.a.tch. It had been a fast and chaotic forty minutes at Gla.s.s Bay.
His point of view was toward the rear, of the house and across several hundred feet of open area. Four smaller structures were semi-circled behind the main building. None of them seemed to have suffered damage. Two were bungalows, one was a storehouse of some kind, the fourth appeared to be an office.
A VW sedan was parked between the bungalows. Behind these and set off at a right angle stood a long and narrow structure which provided carport parking for perhaps a dozen vehicles, with living quarters above. This would be the barracks, Bolan deduced, for lower echelon attendants of visiting big shots-the wheelmen, hardmen, etc. The place appeared deserted now, and there were no vehicles in the bays. So it followed that Lavagni"s party had been airlifted in, not brought in by ground transport.
Continuing the visual inspection, Bolan noted an asphalt road looping in from the east-rear section of the property. An arched gateway marked that eastern boundary. The blacktop road traversed the manicured grounds to the carports and ended there in a graveled circle. A dirt road led from there to Bolan"s side of the compound, skirted the jungle for a hundred yards or so, then angled off toward the rear perimeter.
A jeet was presently occupying that dirt road, parked at the midpoint of the jungle stretch not a hundred feet from Bolan"s position. Two men with poised Thompsons were standing behind it and intently watching the forest line.
Occasional distant gunfire was coming from the interior of the jungle area, in singles and in volleys, as the Lavagni meat-grinder chewed on northward. The survivors were probably thoroughly spooked now and firing at anything that moved or seemed to move. This suited Bolan fine. Another five minutes of that and they would probably be shooting at one another.
Meanwhile the pressure was being lifted from this corner of the battle zone. The two plug men at the jeep had noted the audible evidence that the sweep had progressed far beyond their position, and they were relaxing.
As Bolan watched, one of them lowered his weapon to light a cigarette. The other man said something, to which the first one laughed and moved around the front of the jeep to hand over the cigarette. Then he lit another for himself and the two stood chatting in low tones, their backs to Bolan as their attention remained focused on the distant sounds of "battle."
That jeep was Bolan"s ticket out of Gla.s.s Bay, and he meant to have it. He was calculating the precise range from his position and applying this to the ballistics characteristics of the Beretta. The firing range would be approximately thirty yards. The Beretta had been worked-in for a twenty-five-yard point-blank range, meaning no rise or fall of trajectory across that distance, and the finely balanced weapon had delivered consistent two-inch groupings at such a range. The silencer, however, altered all that-and Bolan needed silence as much as he needed the jeep.
He was mentally calculating the corrections rs-quired when his attention was diverted by a commotion near the house. The Volkswagen had lurched away from the bungalow area only to be halted at the graveled circle opposite the carports.
The driver, to Bolan"s surprise, was a woman. A big guy in a rumpled Palm Beach suit had pulled her out of the car and was dragging her back toward the bungalows.
The two men at the jeep had also swiveled about to watch the little drama. One of them chuckled and called out, "Atta boy, Vince"-though not loud enough to be heard across the intervening area.
Bolan pondered this development for a moment. Anything which was out of the ordinary deserved his attention, and to find a female around a hardsite at such a time was certainly unusual. Who was she? What was she doing there? Why was she being prevented from leaving?
He tried to shrug it off, deciding that the woman"s presence could have little bearing on his own problem. As for her her problem... well, maybe it was no more than a marital one. Maybe she was married to one of the Gla.s.s Bay wheels. Or she could be a girl friend, or the local wh.o.r.e-in-residence. At any rate, Bolan had enough of a problem already. problem... well, maybe it was no more than a marital one. Maybe she was married to one of the Gla.s.s Bay wheels. Or she could be a girl friend, or the local wh.o.r.e-in-residence. At any rate, Bolan had enough of a problem already.
He pushed the woman from his mind and concentrated on his own problem in survival. One of his targets had raised a two-way radio to his head and was speaking into it.
New instructions?
It looked that way. Each of the men dropped his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, then they swung around to opposite sides of the jeep and climbed aboard.
The Beretta was extended and ready to blast, the ballistics corrections being meticulously programmed through mind, eye and hand.
Bolan was waiting for the driver to stow his Thompson and start the jeep. The sound of the engine would be a further masking factor in the attack, and Bolan wanted everything going for him that he could get The finger squeezed home with the first crank of the engine, the Beretta recoiled with a soft cough, and the driver pitched forward across the steering wheel.
The other guy was turned in profile, caught in that micro-second of stunned realization before reaction sets in, when the Beretta Belle re-settled into the second alignment and another hi-impact missile sizzled along the doomsday course. It splattered in just above the mouth and sent the guy sprawling onto the ground, the Thompson still cradled in his arms.
The Executioner waited cautiously for some sign of a reaction from the hardsite. Receiving none, he stepped out of the vegetative cover and strolled unhurriedly to the jeep.
The engine was idling in neutral. Bolan went first to the man on the ground and dragged him around to the blind side. There was no recognizing that face. Most of it was missing. He was wearing a new sports shirt with a sale tag still attached and clean white denim slacks. Bolan removed the clothing and put it on over his skinsuit, and the fit was good enough for the moment.
Next he pulled the driver out and rolled him to the ground beside the other man. The Parabellum bone-crusher from the Beretta had penetrated at the base of the skull and angled up for an exit through a slightly enlarged eye socket There was not much blood up front, and the departing trajectory of the bullet had cleared the jeep"s windshield. Bolan tore the guy"s shirt off and used it to sponge up the blood spatterings, then he retrieved the fallen Thompson from the roadway and added it to the growing a.r.s.enal in the rear seat.
The crew at the house were going on about their tiring ch.o.r.es as he wheeled the jeep into the soft run for the asphalt road. One of them paused to wipe the sweat from his brow as the jeep eased past.
"Trade you jobs, slick," he called over.
"Get laid," the Executioner called back, and went on into the traffic circle at the carports.
He was just about all the way home now, and already the air was smelling sweeter. Then his eye caught the abandoned VW, and a disturbing little tic began working at his deeper consciousness. He shrugged it away and continued around the circle, avoiding the VW, and pulled onto the blacktop.
Then he swore harshly to himself, swung on around the carports, and pulled to a halt between the bungalows.
Dammit, the woman could be in as large a mess as he was. He couldn"t just...
A man"s angered tones were coming from the end bungalow. Bolan refueled the Beretta and returned her to the sideleather, then he left the jeep idling between the buildings and went on foot to the front.
A guy in wet, charcoal-smudged clothing stood on the porch. He gave Bolarr a sour look and said, "Ay man."
The guy was no freelancer. He was a Mafia hard-man and clearly in a nasty mood.
"Ay," Bolan growled back. "Vince in there?"
"He"s busy," the guy said, moving into a tense confrontation at the doorway.
Bolan had no time for games, and he was feeling a bit nasty himself. He replied. "I see," as the Beretta leapt clear and pumped a quiet one up the guy"s nose.
Bolan pushed the falling body into the house and stepped across it. The man in the rumpled Palm Beach was standing over a couch and lighting a cigar. He saw the dead bodyguard and the tall man with the Beretta and death itself, with one sweep of the eyes. The hand with the match froze and the guy took a dancing step backwards.
In a voice of clearest ice, Bolan told him, I want the woman."
Take her," the Gla.s.s Bay boss urged.
She looked Puerto Bican and very pretty maybe twenty-five, simply dressed in a short skirt and cotton blouse. She was sprawled on the couch in a manner suggesting that she had been thrown or knocked there. The blouse was torn down the front, partially exposing an interesting chest, and she"d taken a couple of hard belts across the face.
The girl was crying and breathing hard, and mad as h.e.l.l.
Bolan knew the guy, by mugshots and reputation only. It was Vince Triesta, a nickel and dime hood who"d made it big in drugs and girls in the Detroit area some years back. Before that he"d been involved in every rotten thing from shylocking to con- tract killing. He had, in fact, become endeared to the syndicate bra.s.s by murdering his ex-wife and her brother when they were preparing to testify before a Michigan crime commission. It had been nothing but roses for Triesta ever since... until this very moment.
And certainly he realized that his time had come. Take her!" he repeated shrilly. "I don"t know her and I don"t know you. You"re Tony"s problem, not mine. Take the broad and blow, and let"s call it even." don"t know her and I don"t know you. You"re Tony"s problem, not mine. Take the broad and blow, and let"s call it even."
"Not quite," Bolan told him, and he caressed the Beretta"s nerve center once very lightly, and things were suddenly evened for Vince Triesta.
Bolan pulled the shaken girl to her feet and gently shoved her toward the door. "Let"s go," he said. "Vamos."
He preceded her to the porch and led the way to the jeep, and it was obvious that she was beginning to understand the situation as she scrambled onto the rear deck and curled herself into a little ball on the floorboards.
He told her, "That"s the idea-bueno," and sent the jeep in a tight loop of the bungalow and onto the blacktop.
A guy lolling at the east gate picked up his shotgun and walked to the center of the road as the jeep approached.
Bolan slowed almost to a halt, then he stomped the accelerator and gunned ahead at the last moment. The guy was caught offguard in the path of the charging vehicle. The impact flung him onto the hood and carried him along for a few feet before spinning him off into the bushes at the side of the road.
Then they were free and clear and climbing a gentle rise onto the coastal road. The girl came out of her curl and climbed into the seat beside Bolan.
"Thank you," she said shakily.
"You speak English," Bolan observed. "Great."
She gave him a ragged smile as she replied, "I speak it once too often in the wrong place. It is my downfall. He would have killed me."
Triesta, eh?"
"Yes, Triesta. He overhears me on telephone, in the little office. I think I am dead for sure. Except for you, I am."
Bolan was unwinding taut nerves and giving the woman a closer inspection. The eyes were wide-s.p.a.ced, luminous, intelligent-almost contradicting the blatant sensuality of the rest of her.
"You"ve been staying at Gla.s.s Bay?" he asked.
"Yes, three months I am there."
"You could tell me things?"
She nodded and met his brooding gaze. "I could tell many things. If you are who I think."
Bolan returned his attention to the road and fought the jeep into a screaming tum as they topped the rise. Straightening out, he threw a quick glance along the backtrack. Gla.s.s Bay was laid out for his inspection. And it was a revealing one. A pickup truck and another jeep were tearing along the dirt road back there. Evidently the truth was out and the pursuit was on.
The girl had seen it also. She told him, in soft Spanish accents, "A man called Latigo coordinates their operations by radio. That is he in the pickup. Also they have sent to San Juan for helicopters."
Bolan reached into the rear seat and snared the radio he"d inherited with the jeep. He gave it to the woman and told her, "You be our ears."
She nodded a.s.sent and activated the radio, with no fumbling whatever.