MacK Bolan No. 62: Day of Mourning (11 page)

Miller swung his infrared binoculars to see one of his own commandos rattling off the steady stream of hot lead at the circle of people around the sabotaged satellite unit. Miller saw one Stony Man trooper fly back until he fell, as if tripped. The others scattered, except for one Hispanic down there with an M-16.

Miller placed the man from the intel his contact inside the Farm had furnished: Rafael Encizo, member of Bolan's Phoenix Force.

The commando started to dodge back for cover when Encizo swung around his M-16.

The commando made it halfway to the shelter of some trees when Encizo loosed a burst that pulped out the commando's back and turned his run into a stagger that became a fall into hell.

The bearlike man — Kurtzman, thought Miller — emerged from cover and returned to his work.

"Take them
now,"
Miller hissed.

The attention of Encizo and the others was drawn to the direction from which the commando had just opened fire. The group's unprotected flank was toward the knoll that hid Miller and Kagor.

The mission can still be saved, thought Miller. This bunch are sitting ducks. They're already dead, only they don't know it. Two or three grenades into the farmhouse, and we pull out.

Without leaving their cover the two remaining merc commandos sighted their Uzis on Encizo, Kurtzman and the other Stony Man people.

Miller and Kagor opened fire.

And more death blistered the night.

When the twin volley of Uzi rapidfire sprayed its death hail at Kurtzman and the others, Mack Bolan was halfway from the tree line of the clearing around the house to where the repairs were being done near the outbuilding. The ambushers were hidden from Bolan's infrared line of vision.

The pair were not aware of Bolan's approach.

This would be Al Miller and his second-in-command! Bolan was sure of it.

Bolan the nightscorcher jogged around to their flank.

He saw several things at once.

He saw a Stony Man security soldier and Aaron Kurtzman crumple to the ground as Uzi gunfire ripped them apart.

The soldier fell and did not move.

Kurtzman looked badly hit. He was thrashing around. Some of his crew rushed to help him.

Rafael Encizo had lightning reflexes. The Phoenix Forcer swung around his M-16 and fired at the knoll where the ambush had come from. The slugs from the M-16's automatic fire ricocheted off dirt and trees, but the firing from the Uzis had already stopped.

Bolan saw two commandos dart from their cover and dash west an instant before Encizo opened fire at where they had been.

Bolan started to head off Miller and his companion. He would blow off an arm or a leg if he had to, but he would stop those two and take them alive, and they would talk. Bolan hoped like hell that Kurtzman hadn't checked out for good.

Before he could close in on the retreating commandos, Bolan also sighted Captain Wade. The Stony Man security officer caught sight of Miller and the other commando in the distant lights from the farmhouse.

Wade stood in their way and brought up the M-16.

"Captain Wade, hold your fire!" snapped Bolan.

Too late.

The commando leading the way — it would have to be Miller, thought Bolan — heard the shout, saw Wade and died.

Wade gave Al Miller a figure eight of gut-shredding lead that lifted him off the ground, spun him around while he was airborne and slammed him facedown into his own blood.

The other commando loosed a short burst from his Uzi.

The spray of tumblers made dull little pops as they stitched a ragged line of holes across Captain Wade's chest. Half a dozen rounds kicked the security officer backward. He maintained a grip on his chattering M-16 for two or three seconds before he toppled back into some shrubbery and out of sight.

That last burst of slugs stitched the last commando from crotch to neck, killing him on his feet. The man's knees buckled, and he crumpled to the ground.

Another boom rumbled across the Blue Ridge landscape to accompany the first grayish rays of dawn on the eastern horizon.

This time it really was thunder.

A fine mist began.

Bolan did not holster the stainless-steel AutoMag. He did pause long enough to pump a fresh magazine into the butt.

Rafael Encizo approached him from where Kurtzman and the others had been ambushed.

Guess I was wrong about Wade.

Then someone emerged from the farmhouse and also approached Bolan. His heart skipped one beat as it always did whenever he saw April Rose.

She and Rafael reached Bolan at the same time.

Bolan gave Encizo a relieved brother-grip handshake.

He gave April one healthy hug and a kiss on those lovely full lips.

"Welcome home, soldier," she whispered shyly, and her eyes, close to his, said it came from the bottom of her soul.

Bolan kept an arm around April's waist. He didn't feel like ever letting go, but his eyes were iced when he glanced at Encizo.

"How's Bear?"

"Not good," grunted Encizo. "Looks like he caught two. One in the gut, one along the temple but we can't tell how deep. Doctor from the house is with him now... but it doesn't look good."

The rains came. The sky rumbled again and a breeze came up when the mist turned to showers. The slanting rain drifted across the new day's first light to the east and pattered across these combatants and felt real good.

Bolan looked at the beauty hugged against him.

"Able Team? "he asked.

"Bear got our satellite linkage restored just when the attack started," April told him. "They were putting finishing touches on the repairs when... the ambush got them. Bear had already sent me back inside to contact our man in New Delhi. Able Team hit The Dragon's fortress before we could reach them."

Rafael Encizo chuckled when he saw the grim look come into Phoenix's face.

"It's not what you think, Colonel. I guess we forgot who we were dealing with. The Dragon got away and left some firepower behind to eliminate Able Team. Trouble is, he didn't leave enough. Able took what The Dragon left for them and spit out the pieces."

April Rose saw something over Bolan's shoulder. Her eyes widened frantically, and she held out a hand.

"Don't — "

The woman moved suddenly in Mack Bolan's arm, swinging around to his left side at the same instant a sharp, single gun report punctuated the sounds of the rain.

April emitted a piercing scream and became a deadweight back in Bolan's left arm. He wrapped his left arm tighter around her to keep her from falling, knowing already what had happened.

Oh, God, no,
he thought.
No!

Balancing the weight of the woman with his left arm, the Executioner whirled in a bent-knee crouch.

The security officer, Wade, was flattened out on the ground where he fell after being shot, except that Wade wore a bullet-proof vest. He had killed Miller and the other commando to prevent them from talking and exposing him. He wasted them then got sloppy thinking he could put a bullet in Colonel John Phoenix.

April had seen Wade "rise from the dead" and aim the .45 at Mack. She had stepped in the way of the bullet.

Although Wade was not hurt, the impact must have rattled him. Now he leaned against an oak, shifting the Army issue .45 for another fast shot at Bolan.

The Executioner triggered the faithful .44 five times. His marksmanship was so accurate, the last four shots encountered nothing except bark.

The first slug had blown away Wade's head.

The lifeless body slid to the base of the tree, the ancient oak too stately to be his gravestone, the hieroglyphics, made by the bullet holes a fitting epitaph.

Then Bolan looked back at the woman he held.

April's head was resting on his shoulder, the way she always did when they relaxed during those infrequent moments of intimacy between his missions.

Never again...

He could not see the wound. He was glad for that. Her eyes were closed as though she were asleep. The rain washed her hair of blood.

The rain washed away his tears as Mack Bolan looked skyward at those stormy heavens. He was not aware of the activity around him.

Part of his world had ended.

"They'll pay," he vowed to a dead woman and to a universe that rumbled its foreboding thunder in response. "Whoever is responsible for this... I'll track them to the ends of the earth. They will pay."

Document ID: 782efa5d-f409-4cee-bad5-3612350cdf57

Document version: 1

Document creation date: 2005-06-03

Created using: FB Tools software

OCR Source: OCR Binwiped

• Денис
  

This book was generated by Lord KiRon's FB2EPUB converter version 1.0.35.0.

Эта книга создана при помощи конвертера FB2EPUB версии 1.0.35.0 написанного Lord KiRon