Hellfire Crusade

8

The sun was dipping low toward the jagged line of foothills that marked the Jebel Kharg; at least the air temperature was more comfortable now. Bolan had some time to concentrate on his plan for action and a host of contingencies.

He was facing more than one enemy on this mission, and he doubted that Hassan Zayoud and his handpicked troopers were likely to be the worst. There was also Ruark with forty or more veteran mercs, as tough and dangerous a bunch of bastards as he would ever have to face. And then there was the desert, those mountains and the blistering sun. But, above all, there was the clock.

Man and machine would have to race against time over some of the roughest real estate this side of hell to bring back Kevin Baker alive and so deny Hassan Zayoud the expertise he needed for the blueprints to Armageddon. If he pulled this off, there would be a lot of explaining to do — to the college at Westfield, to the oil company and, if he was not successful, to the ruler of Khurabi.

Maybe Hal Brognola could be persuaded to pitch in with the PR work. There were bound to be a few ruffled feathers left behind on this one. On the other hand, if he failed, well, no one but Danny and his closest associates would be any the wiser until the rebel, Hassan, launched his Crescent Revolution on the world.

But Bolan had no intention of failing.

Too much was at stake.

He checked his watch. It looked as if he was going to be late back to the hotel. He was thinking about Danny — about how quickly he'd gotten used to her smile, her vitality, her undeniable good looks — when he spotted the car coming up from the rear.

The Dodge must have been lurking behind that fisherman's shack he passed a couple of miles back. It was the only cover along this stretch of highway.

Bolan accelerated, but still not pushing the Hog to its limit. His pursuers kept coming on hard. There were two guys in the Charger, and they didn't look like rich kids out for a joyride. The Executioner snaked through a double bend, straightening out as the wheels drummed on the concrete bridge over a sluggish inlet. He figured there was about another ten miles of desert before they reached the outskirts of the town. The guys behind didn't want him to get that far.

They were now close enough to nudge his tail — and that was the next move they made. Once, twice... they bumped hard into the rear end of the Hog. Bolan juggled the wheel, retaining control, waiting to make his play. A truck trundled past in the opposite direction. The way ahead was clear on both sides. Bolan snapped home the shoulder strap. He switched lanes fast and braked.

They were still right behind him.

This guy was a better wheelman than Hanzal's driver in Florida. Bolan was itching to grab the Uzi and empty a full magazine through their windshield. But that could blow the whole mission.

Anyway, he was not sure they were trying to kill him.

Maybe they just wanted to shake him up a little with their crazy stunts; scare him enough to catch the next plane out. Bad move. They were making Bolan angry.

Okay, Red, time to test this Hog of yours!

Bolan suddenly shot across the shoulder, mounted the bank and plunged into the scrubland without lifting his foot from the accelerator. And the Dodge still kept right on coming!

Bolan shook his head. They had tried it in Florida and now they were pushing him again. But Zayoud's men didn't faze Bolan one bit.

They were in for trouble if they tried to keep up with him.

He threaded the needle between two barbed clumps of thorn bushes and bounded through an arid wash. The tires clawed hold of the loose shale on the far side as the Hog rocketed over the eroded wasteland. The Dodge lost a couple of hubcaps and had its panels scratched chasing after the American driver. Although by now his vision was slightly blurred from the savage ride, Bolan spotted another fissure off to the left ahead.

He aimed at the drop.

There was only air under his wheels as he went over the edge. He hit that ancient silt bed below with a force that would have registered twelve to fifteen on any meter. But he was off and running true. The rear suspension boogies and constant velocity joints fitted by Chandler could take this slamming in stride.

The chase car struck the ground with a teeth-rattling jolt that threatened to disintegrate it. The last two hubcaps went clattering across the dirt.

Bolan's vehicle was throwing out a choking cloud of grit that left the others blind. They hit a huge pothole and tore out a couple of struts.

The Charger slewed around in a crazy circle and was swallowed in the billowing dust.

The flog hummed across the undulating sand, then slithered down the slope and onto the road again.

Bolan stopped the vehicle, then looked around.

Satisfied that there was no further threat from his pursuers, he started off again. He'd have good news for Red Chandler.

Danica Jones paced angrily across the hotel room. Her small suite at the International, courtesy of Allied Oil, could have been a businessman's stopover anywhere in the world.

The recorded monotone of the muezzin calling the faithful to prayer echoed over the darkening city. She checked the digital clock once more. She was mad at Mack Bolan. Not for being late Danny wasn't that petty. But for palming her off on Salim Zakir so readily. If he wanted her to act as a decoy to keep the Khurabian authorities distracted, he might at least have let her in on his plan.

And she knew Bolan wanted to leave her behind to make a show of working on the Haufari dig for a couple of days. She had agreed to do that in advance, but now that she was out here Danny wanted to stick with him. Crazy! She knew the danger they faced if anything went wrong. But she felt this pull, this need, to confront the challenge that lay ahead.

It was her own confused feelings that caused this sudden frustration, Danny admitted to herself. She wasn't really mad at him. If something did go wrong on this rescue mission, then she wanted to be at Bolan's side. The plain truth was that this man had kindled emotions in her she had long thought so utterly repressed that she would never feel them again.

This was ridiculous. She was acting like a schoolgirl. But that didn't stop her from rehearsing in front of the bathroom mirror. Danny tried on her sternest frown.

Three sharp raps on the door.

Danny ran over, opened it and said, "Hi, I was worried about..." She did not finish.

It wasn't Bolan.

Two men stood in the corridor; the shorter one held a pistol. It was pointed at her stomach.

She tried to slam the door in their faces. The bigger of these two local thugs jammed it with his foot, then reached forward and grabbed Danny's shoulder.

She felt that big hairy paw clamp hold with a viselike grip. Danny was lifted bodily through the doorway.

"You will come with us! Now!"

"Okay, King Kong, but you can let go of me." She tried to shake him loose. Nothing doing. His fingers dug deeper into her flesh as he propelled her toward the service elevator.

The other guy helped steer by jabbing her in the ribs with his gun.

There was a sickening chill in the pit of her stomach. Yes, thought Danny, this would have been a very good moment to have Mack at her side.

The hog drew some curious stares from the young dudes out cruising along the waterfront; even with the unlimited funds at their disposal they hadn't seen anything quite like that on four wheels before.

There was an insane sense of urgency about the construction of the new city. It was as if they were racing to build a modern metropolis, an unfinished version of Manhattan dotted with minarets right out of Arabian Nights, before the oil patch was bled dry; though what they would do with it after that was anyone's guess.

The past and the future seemed to be fighting for control of Khurabi. The spiked towers of the minarets were squeezed between the dazzling new office blocks and hotels.

Bolan slowed down as he entered the city core.

He noted there were a lot of police patrols on the streets. Keeping a watchful eye on all the traffic signals, Bolan cruised into town, reviewing his battle plans once more. Maybe he should go tonight. The Hog was packed and ready for action.

He'd just proved it. And those two guys in the wrecked Charger would not be stranded back there for long.

He was confident that he could trust Danny to do her part; so far she had proved to be efficient, thorough and fast. He could not have mounted this Khurabian mission half as quickly without her invaluable aid.

Bolan stopped for a red light. He was mentally juggling his own schedule with the carefully timed arrangements that he had already set up with Jack Grimaldi and Steve Hohenadel.

There were no safe lines he could trust in Khurabi, no way to set up a conference call on this thing. He was out on the end of a string. Anyway, if he started off tonight, it might give him more time to recon the fortress at Hagadan. And that wasn't a bad idea, not with the figures Kurtzman had passed on just before they landed. His mind made up on advancing the timetable, Bolan now decided to park the Hog around the back of the hotel.

He would discuss this change of plan with Danny, shower, grab a catnap and leave unnoticed.

He'd be deep in the desert before any more of Hassan Zayoud's spies figured out he was missing.

Bolan drove past the floodlit display of fountains in front of the International and turned into the narrow lane leading to the rear. He glanced left and spotted a likely looking place around a shadowy corner beyond the garbage dumpsters.

Damn, another car was already parked back there.

Then he noticed that the driver was looking anxiously at the building, checking his watch, nervously signaling to the people coming out from... Two Arab hoods were holding Danny captive!

Bolan raced forward, working the wheel, accelerator and brake pedal down to force a last-minute skid. The Hog slammed sideways into the thugs car. The broken body of the driver was flung back inside across the seat, his head lolling at an unnatural angle.

Using the roll bar for a handhold, the Executioner vaulted from the Hog. He came hurtling out in a drop kick aimed straight at the face of the small gunman. The pistol slithered across the concrete paving as the guy went down with his nose smeared into bleeding pulp. Danny had shoved her full body weight into the goon who was holding her, catching him off balance. He staggered back against the wall. The gorilla grunted with pain as the blonde brought up her knee like a sledgehammer between his legs.

Bolan had scooped up the gun and now chopped the big guy viciously behind the ear. Steel split flesh to the bone. His knees buckled and the strong-arm specialist subsided in an untidy heap.

"Watch out!" Danny shouted.

The other hood spit out a bloody curse through broken teeth. Bolan clipped him hard with the gun butt. He fell back on top of his partner.

Danny leaped into the Hog and scrambled into the passenger seat. Bolan was right behind her. The door fell off the getaway car as the Hog pulled away, exposing the dangling feet of the crushed driver. The other two were still huddled in an unconscious tangle as Bolan exited at the far end of the alley and slipped into the evening traffic.

"Are you all right?" Bolan's first concern was for her well-being.

"Yes, I think so... just a little shaken up, I guess," gasped Danny. "Thank you. Thank goodness you arrived in time."

"Almost didn't. Two guys followed me, too."

"What happened?"

"We had a game of off-road tag." Bolan grinned and patted the dash above the complex instrument panel. "The Hog won." Then his face became serious. "What happened back there?"

"I was in my room waiting for you to show. Knock on the door... and those two baboons were there with an invitation I couldn't refuse. They shoved me into the elevator and, well, everything was so fast when you got there..."

"You handled yourself pretty well."

"Yes, but suppose you hadn't shown up in time? I hate to think what they would have done to me."

Bolan was forced to slow down as another police car drove past. They were still in the westernized downtown area — two foreign visitors who could have been going anywhere.

Actually Bolan was taking a deliberately convoluted route out to the main road that ringed the city limits. He was constantly alert for the sign of anyone who might be following them, revising his strategy yet again and still holding a conversation with Danny.

"I don't believe they were going to kill you, if that's what you're thinking," Bolan reassured her. "We've both had teams set on us with orders to shake us up, scare us into leaving."

"There would be no reason for Hassan to suspect we were anything other than what we claimed to bean archaeological team."

"That's why I say these guys were just trying to frighten us off. Only now, when they report in — and it's probably all radioed back to Hassan — they're going to guess we might be here for a different purpose than to root around Haufari."

"Does this mean... are you going to call it off?"

"Nope. But I am changing the plan. We're going in tonight. Right now."

Danny glanced across at him. "Did you say "we"?"

"Yeah," Bolan replied. "There's no choice. I can't leave you on your own down the coast. Even with Abdel and his brother around, it's still too much of a risk. I have no option but to take you with me."