War Against The Mafia Part 9

"They should have a big punch somewhere," Bolan murmured. "Surely, surely." He fired off another flare and began searching through the range finder; then he heard a familiar sound, one he had not heard at such close range since Vietnam--a chopper, a helicopter, and it was close, d.a.m.n close. Cops? he wondered. Or The Family's big punch?

Bolan hastily selected a flare with a short-time fuse, reset the azimuth on the flare gun, and let it fly. It flashed into brilliance almost immediately, lighting the sky at high alt.i.tude above the canyon floor and catching the chopper in bright illumination. It was so close that Bolan could see the pilot throw a protecting arm across his eyes, and the startled face of a white-haired man showed clearly in the window. The settling flare also illuminated Bolan's position; the chopper heeled rapidly over into darkness as Bolan reached for the Marlin. He could hear it swooping close in a tight circle, then it edged back into the flare's circle of light and began spitting fire at him from the rear deck as an automatic weapon began unloading on him. The range finder skittered away, propelled by a steel-jacketed slug, and Bolan rolled away, fighting the Marlin to his shoulder, fighting also an impulse to fire from the hip, and then the chopper was gone again. Bolan rolled over to a tree stump and sat placidly, waiting, sighting along the side of the scope toward the sound of the windmill.

Suddenly it was back, heeling in from the other direction, and Bolan's eye slid over onto the eyepiece and his trained finger waited for a target.

A white-maned head appeared in the vision-field, clear enough for Bolan to read the bubbling excitement in the heavy-browed eyes, and then his finger did its part, the big gun bucked, and the excitement went out of white-head's eyes as the chatter of the machine gun once again took up the challenge.

"I can see him!" Pappas said excitedly.

"They see him too. Hey!

They've got a machine gun in that chopper!" "Gimme those d.a.m.n gla.s.ses!" Weatherbee commanded.

"Here--h.e.l.l--don't even need gla.s.ses!

h.e.l.l--this is like the TV reports on the Vietnam fighting." This ain't Vietnam, kiddo," Weatherbee murmured.

"h.e.l.l, who'd know it?" "That son of a b.i.t.c.h. How about that son of a b.i.t.c.h?" The heavy cra-ack of the Marlin came loud and clear above the other sounds, then the heavier staccato of the machine gun, punctuated thrice more by the Marlin's reply. The thump-whump of the whirling blades seemed to take on a different sound and the helicopter lurched and wheeled crazily, plainly visible in the light from the still-high flare.

"Well, G.o.dd.a.m.n, I believe he hit "em," Weatherbee breathed.

"d.a.m.n right, that chopper is falling!" "The Executioner," Weatherbee said flatly, "has come through Armageddon." The Executioner would not have been so quick to agree with Lieutenant Weatherbee's a.s.sessment of the battle. His shoulder wound had reopened and the blood was soaking his left side. He watched the chopper disappear into the trees, waited for the explosion and grunted when it came, then limped back over to his drop and fumbled about for the first-aid box.

He'd done something to his ankle during that final skirmish, and now he could hear sounds above him, somewhere in the woods. He hastily folded in a gauze compress over the shoulder wound and limped into the shadow of a tree, leaving the Marlin behind and wishing the d.a.m.n fire would hurry and burn itself out.

Someone was coming down the hillside, obviously trying to be both quiet and quick, and the twain would never meet, not in these woods. A rock the size of a baseball was dislodged and came bounding down the slope to crash into a tree several feet from where Bolan stood. Moments later Leo Turrin hove into view, panting with exertion and tension, the cords of his neck standing out plainly above the V-necked polo shirt.

"Bolan?" he called softly. "Bolan, are you there?" Bolan shook his head sorrowfully. "Will you never learn, Leo?" he asked, stepping out from behind the tree, the.45 out and ready.

"G.o.dd.a.m.n I'm glad you're all right," Turrin declared fervently. "I came over to tell you about the helicopter, but d.a.m.nit I couldn't find you." "Who the h.e.l.l you trying to kid?" Bolan asked, his tone clearly one of disgusted amazement.

Turrin held his hands straight out in front of his body and carefully sat on the ground. "s.h.i.t, I gotta give up cigarettes," he said. "I can hardly breathe." "You gotta give up more than cigarettes, leo," Bolan told him.

"Can I take off one shoe?" Bolan's shoulder was beginning to burn maddeningly.

"Is that your last request?" he asked impatiently.

"Yeah, yeah, call it my last request. Can I take it off?" The flare was growing dim and was beginning to disappear over the horizon of trees.

Bolan moved closer and dropped to one knee, the .45 held grimly forward. "If you've been trying to delay me into darkness, you can forget it already," he said.

Turrin had the shoe off and was peeling out the insole. He withdrew a small plasticized rectangle and proffered it to Bolan.

"Look at this first, would you?" he asked quietly.

Bolan studied the small card in the dying light of the flare, trying to keep one eye on his captive while doing so. Then he chuckled and returned the card. "You know how close you've been to being a dead undercover man?" he said.

"s.h.i.t, I've said so many prayers I'm about to get religion again," Turrin replied, smiling broadly.

"You not interested in arresting me?" Bolan asked whimsically. His fingers moved to the wound and pressed hard against the compress. The.45 remained steady in the weakening arm.

"I have no jurisdiction on this side of the canyon," Turrin said, still smiling. "G.o.d, did you unload on those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. Is there anything left for the law?" "I doubt it," Bolan said. Another thought was forming in his mind. "About my sister, Leo?" "I'm guilty," Turrin said matter-of-factly. "It's part of my cover, of course. G.o.d, I feel like h.e.l.l about those kids, kids like your sister. I tried to make it easy on them--you know--steer them into good dates their first few times out, but--well--I've been a lot of years into this case, Sarge. There are more important things than individual haywire kids. I just hope you can understand that." "I can understand it," Bolan said tightly.

"Okay. Get on back up the hill, and give my regards to the missus. Oh--by the way, Leo.

These hot flashes I've been getting by way of Weatherbee. They come from you?" Turrin nodded his head soberly. "And all the time you've been trying to toast my a.s.s off." "h.e.l.l, you should have gotten word to me," Bolan said grudgingly.

"there's just one thing I hold against you, Sarge," Turrin declared, his face going into a deep scowl.

"I guess i'll never forgive you for tipping my wife. Now I'm going to have a worried female on my neck all the time, all the d.a.m.n time." "That's the only kind to have," Bolan said softly.

He was thinking of another worrier, and he did not like the feel of his own blood trickling down his side.

"Get on up the hill now. I have to blow this place." Turrin slipped the shoe back onto his foot, stood up and tossed Bolan a military salute, and disappeared into the enfolding woods.

Bolan grunted and moved painfully down the slope, back to his drop, and retrieved a few personally prized items, made another attempt to staunch the flow of blood from the old wound, then descended slowly to the canyon floor below.

Automobiles were racing around up topside on both sides of the canyon, and Bolan knew that the police were closing in to seal off the area and to pick up the pieces. A horse whinneyed off to Bolan's right, andwitha bravado born of bleeding desperation he called: "Over here. Hey! Over here!" He stepped into a flowering bush and waited, and a moment later was rewarded by the appearance of a walking man with a horse in tow. Bolan smacked the.45 against the deputy's head and seized the reins, hoisted himself aboard, and headed out across the canyon. Day would be breaking in less than an hour. There wasn't much time to get back home to his worried woman. He knew he wouldn't make it all the way on the horse. All he wanted now was distance, and a little time, and a lot of luck. Maybe he would not be ingested this time, after all. Victory was not sweet for The Executioner. Victory was a burning shoulder and a nauseous gut and an ache in the heart for the tender woman who waited. But, at least, he had not been ingested yet.

The Victory Bolan awoke with a start and gazed up into the deep brown pools of Valentina's eyes.

"Gosh, you always wake up and catch me staring at you," she said lightly.

Bolan blinked. "Have I been dreaming?" he asked weakly. "Or has this all happened before?" His shoulder was freshly bandaged and he was aware of the sheets against bare skin; he was naked. "Yeah, it's happened before," he said, answering his own question.

Valentina leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips. "You pa.s.sed out in the doorway," she told him. "Don't you remember that?" "I just feel weak, weak, weak," he mumbled.

"Well, you should, and it serves you right," she said.

She held up a newspaper which had been draped across her lap. "It says here that you killed twenty-three men last night, and seriously injured another fifty-one." "it says that?" "M-huh. Can't you see the headline?" He focused his eyes on the bold black print atop the newspaper. "Executioner rubs out Mafia," he read aloud, then closed his eyes and stretched an arm to grasp her hand. It felt warm, safe, and tiny--and Bolan's heart lurched. "G.o.d, Val, I thought I wouldn't make it," he murmured.

She lay down beside him, carefully arranging herself away from the wound, and placed her face against his.

"I would have never forgiven you if you hadn't," she whispered.

"It's going to be okay now," he a.s.sured her.

"I know. The war is over, and you've won." "Not the war, honey, just a battle. You have to understand that. The war is still on. All I've won is a battle." She stiffened momentarily, then flowed back against him. "While you were sleeping, you kept groaning that there was no victory. What did you mean?" "I don't know," he replied honestly.

"Well, don't you feel a sense of victory?" Bolan cautiously positioned his weak arm about her and followed up with a tight clasp of the good one.

Of course he felt a sense of victory--but not until this moment, not until right now. "A man fights for things--not against things," he said.

She drew back to gaze at him. He opened his eyes and returned the frank stare. "You're deep, you know," she told him. "You are very deep. Now just what did you mean by that?" He smiled, ignoring the pain of his shoulder.

"Freely translated," he replied, "it means, tender Val, that I love you nutty." "That's a victory?" she asked, the lights flaring deep in her eyes.

"It's the only victory a man can ever know," he a.s.sured her.

She moved away from him, got to her feet, slipped off the simple housecoat, her only garment, drew back the sheets and slid in alongside him, pressing herself in close conjunction.

"As soon as you get your strength back," she told him, "I'll challenge you to demonstrate that victory." "h.e.l.l, there's nothing wrong with my strength," he said, grinning. "My strength isn't in my shoulder, silly." "I know where your strength is," she murmured.

"The honeymoon wasn't that short. Anyway, it isn't even over. Is it?" "Some things, like war and love, are never over," he said, folding her in closer.

"Which is this?" she asked tremulously.

"This," he replied, "is victory in both." She sighed and lay her face in the hollow of his throat. "Victory is so sweet," she whispered.

EPILOGUE.

The battle of Pittsfield had ended.

Victory, for Mack Bolan, had been not an era but a miniscule point in time which had already receded into the fuzzy past, one that was absorbed and neutralized by the perilous present and which stood under the constant threat of being reversed by the uncertain future. Bolan had not killed an idea, nor a system; he had barely rippled the surface of the most powerful underworld organization in existence. Already, he knew, the full resources of that organization would be gearing up to flick away the gnat which was gnawing on its shinbone. There were no self-deceptions for Bolan; he knew that he was perhaps the most marked man in underworld history. He had, overnight, become an American legend; a plum to be picked by every ambitious law enforcer in the nation; sudden riches to be cashed in by every two-bit punk with a gun in the country; a debt to be settled by each member of the far-flung family of Mafia around the world.

Mack Bolan was marked for death; he realized that he was as condemned as any man who had ever sat on death row. His chief determination was to stretch that last mile to its highest yield, to fight the war to its last gasp, to "eat their bowels even as they are trying to digest me." Bolan had taken steps to minimize his personal danger. He had changed the color of his hair, grown a moustache, and adopted horn-rimmed, clear-lens gla.s.ses. This cover, he hoped, would at least see him safely to the West Coast. A better cover awaited him there, in the talents of a former Army surgeon who owed his life to Mack Bolan--a surgeon whose battlefield experiences had given rise to his present specialty: cosmetic surgery. Bolan would find a new face on the West Coast. He left behind, in Pittsfield, an orphaned brother, a chunk of money, and a pretty girl to administer both. He left behind, also, an ident.i.ty; one which perhaps he would never again be able to claim.

Bolan swung his newly acquired vehicle onto the west expressway of Pittsfield on the evening of September 12th, blending in with the rush-hour traffic, Val's tearful goodbye still influencing his emotions. Behind lay everything he had ever held dear. Ahead lay everything he had ever learned to fear. He cleared his mind of self-pity, letting go even of the image of tender Val, and scowled into the bright glow of the setting sun.

There was nothing ahead but h.e.l.l. He was prepared for h.e.l.l. Somebody else, he avowed, had better get prepared for it, too. Mack Bolan's last mile would be a b.l.o.o.d.y one. The Executioner was going to live life to the very end.

The End