Then h.e.l.l was swirling out there, with the booming chops of heavy Thompsons mingling with the lighter rattling of small automatics, and Bolan knew that the enemy had engaged itself.

Leo was right; it was almost funny.

Bolan swung his leg over to sprawl across the top of the wall, and found another almost-funny event awaiting him. Immediately below him a semi-circle of armed gunners were standing around the open door of a shiny limousine and a fat man with curly white hair was stepping into their midst.

Bolan had no trouble whatever recognizing Arnie Farmer Catiglione; he was lying almost on top of him. The Beretta sprung into Bolan's fist and he called down, "Arnie!"

The white head snapped around and Arnie Farmer saw death contemplating him. He froze there in slack-jawed dismay as his human shield dissolved about him to the Parabellum rhythms of a softly coughing Beretta, and then it was just he and Bolan.

Arnie was grunting, "Kill 'im, kill 'im!" and reaching for a revolver that had dropped from a dead man's hand when he heard Bolan's cold tones clearly enunciating, "I p.r.o.nounce you dead, Arnie," and the miserable b.a.s.t.a.r.d was sitting there on the roof of Arnie's own car and a small flame was whistling out of the muzzle of the Beretta and something fearsome was plunging in between Arnie's eyes and doing horrible things to his head, and that was the final thing that Arnie Farmer knew.

It had been but a brief and relatively quiet delay for Bolan. He ran down the street, away from the sounds of warfare, and as he approached the first intersection he spotted the little rental sedan that meant Ann Franklin was still on station.

Bolan debated with his emotions momentarily, then he set his jaw and ran on to meet her. She had the door open for him and he slid in with the car still moving. He snapped her a quick look and saw that same scared look she'd worn that first time he'd jumped into a moving vehicle with her at the wheel.

She said not a word, nor did he, and he was fighting the high-G takeoff and trying to feed a fresh clip into the Beretta when he became aware of the unmistakable presence of a gun at his neck.

Bolan swore and d.a.m.ned and raged at himself for losing that emotional debate, but his voice was calm as he said, "Well, Major, I guess we finally get that talk."

A dry chuckle sounded behind him and the voice of Major Stone confirmed his guess and posed the question at the same time. "How were you so sure it was me me behind you, Mr. Bolan?" behind you, Mr. Bolan?"

"It just began to fall into place a short while ago," Bolan told him. His eyes flicked to the girl and he added, "It all all fell in." fell in."

She cried, "Mack..." in a smothery little voice, and Major Stone commanded, "Remain quiet please, Ann!"

Bolan quietly said, "All the crying concern for the security of your members. You've been gouging them all along, for one h.e.l.l of a long time before Nick Trigger came on the scene. So why did you import me me, Major? Was Nick muscling in on your gravy train?"

"Shut up, Bolan," the Major said. "Pa.s.s your pistol back here, carefully now."

Bolan did both, and sat in silent contemplation of his errors as Ann expertly wheeled through the streets of midday London. Twice they were delayed at intersections, once by a screaming procession of police vehicles descending on Tower Hill, and both times Bolan briefly considered making a break but capitulated to logic and to the ancient hope that has forever dwelt in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of nearly-dead men-he would not rush death, he would wait it out and see what developed.

Nothing whatever developed throughout that silent ride, and when Ann parked the car at the curb outside Museum de Sade Museum de Sade Bolan began to get the idea that the most likely thing to develop for him now was mortal agony. His skin was crawling with the memory of those torture cells as he quit the car and went up the steps ahead of Major Stone. He paused at the door and stared back down at the car; Ann was remaining there, obviously. Bolan began to get the idea that the most likely thing to develop for him now was mortal agony. His skin was crawling with the memory of those torture cells as he quit the car and went up the steps ahead of Major Stone. He paused at the door and stared back down at the car; Ann was remaining there, obviously.

He called back, "Okay, the pact is dissolved. You may as well come in and watch the grand finale."

There was no movement from the vehicle. The stiff little man jabbed Bolan's ribs with hard steel and pushed him on inside. Nick Trigger was at the bar in the clubroom, drinking gin straight out of a bottle. He came slightly unglued at the sight of Bolan, and then crowed with delight upon noticing the pistol in the Major's hand. He ran over and slugged Bolan with the back of his hand and yelled, "You rotten s.h.i.t!"

Bolan shook off the blow and muttered, "It takes one to know one."

The Major shoved Nick away. "None of that just now!" he snapped. "Keep your distance! You're aware of the danger of this man!"

"Sure, just be patient, Nick," Bolan said. "You'll get your chance to watch me squirm."

"Scream is the word, Bolan," the Major corrected him. He shoved Bolan on across the clubroom and marched him through the travesty of erotic delights and up to the maze. Bolan had not until that moment caught the significance of the l.a.b.i.al doorway. is the word, Bolan," the Major corrected him. He shoved Bolan on across the clubroom and marched him through the travesty of erotic delights and up to the maze. Bolan had not until that moment caught the significance of the l.a.b.i.al doorway. Back into the womb Back into the womb, it meant. Not merely death, but an unborning.

Bolan halted in the gray light of the little ante-room and snarled, "You're not going to lock me into one of those things while I'm living, Major."

Stone replied, "You are quite wrong about that, Bolan."

Bolan saw the barrel of the pistol chopping toward him. He managed to get inside and take it on the shoulder and he abruptly lost all strength in that arm, but he was plowing forward in a body-block that would have made his old football coach proud, and the three men hit the floor in a sprawling tangle.

Nick Trigger was trying to smother him with his big belly and Bolan was fighting to get clear and become the first man up. He threw Nick away from him and went into a roll, then the barrel of the Major's revolver again loomed into view and smashed into his skull with a jarring crunch.

Bolan grunted and pitched onto his back, not all the way out but sick and groggy and utterly without strength. He was aware of being pushed and dragged in a background of foul mouthings by Nick Trigger and the hoa.r.s.e panting of Major Stone. Then his clothes were being dragged away from him and the disembodied voice of Nick Trigger was saying, "Aw s.h.i.t, why go through all this?"

But apparently the Major felt some compulsion to mix pleasure with business, and even in his giddy state Bolan recognized and was appalled by the depths of the man's sickness.

Stone was telling Nick, "Do not presume to deny me my simple pleasures, my friend. After all, it is you who demanded immediate action. I would have given the poor fellow another day or two, if only for Ann's sake."

Through Bolan's swirling nausea, Nick was arguing, "Christ, this is no time for pleasures, yours or hers or anybody else's. I mean, we got the two finks outta the picture and I'm in a h.e.l.l of a bind over on my side now. I gotta have this guy's head; to h.e.l.l with your kicks."

The Major was breathing heavily and clamping something cold and hard about Bolan's forehead. He tried to struggle away, but a knee in his throat held him pinned and he was simply too weak to do anything about it. Stone's stiffly precise voice was saying, "There wouldn't have been the problem of the two finks finks, as you put it, but for your monumental greed, Nick. In all the years I've been at this, I've incurred not one serious threat, not one. And now six months after your intrusion into my little world, I find myself the object of scrutiny from every direction. No. No, Nick. Don't attempt to hurry me along now."

Clamps were going about Bolan's ankles. The hands down there were fumbling about, as though trembling almost out of control. Bolan fought the nausea and willed his strength to return. It would not.

"s.h.i.t, you're just plain crazy!" Nick yelled.

"Get out of here!" Stone cried. "Will you get out of here?"

"You kiss my a.s.s!" Nick retorted. "You f.u.c.kin' queer, you're gonna f.u.c.k up everything."

"Look who is speaking!" The Major's voice came with cutting sarcasm. "You are the one who said bring Bolan over! are the one who said bring Bolan over! You You are the one who said let are the one who said let Bolan Bolan take the blame! take the blame! You You are the one who said-" are the one who said-"

"Awright, now I'm saying let's kill 'im and get it over with. This kind of s.h.i.t gives me the creeps and you know it. Anyway, I'm the one under the pressure, not you. I'm the one crossed up the family, not you. If you'd just listened when I wanted to drop those finks in the river with cement suits on, there wouldn't be-"

"Oh to be sure, that would have been jolly. Brigadier Edwin Charles turns up in the Thames from his latest a.s.signment and where does that leave the ambitious Mr. Nicholas Woods? Not, of course, to mention the Sade Society and our beautiful little goldmine. Honestly, Nick, sometimes you behave as a very dull fellow. Now here, give me a hand with this beauty, will you?"

Bolan was being hauled and lifted, the clamps at head and ankles beginning to take the weight and compress the flesh over protesting bones. Then he was up and momentarily floating free only to be abruptly jerked to a spine-crunching arrest. Full consciousness returned on floodwaves of shriekingly alarmed nerve-centers, and Bolan knew with a tortured clarity where he was and what sort of a pickle he was in.

His hands were manacled behind his back and he was suspended from the ceiling by three chains. One of these was attached to a steel band that was fitted about his forehead, the other two held his ankles, and he was dangling in a belly-down suspension several feet above the floor.

Nick stood in a corner, glowering at the Major. Stone was shoving a boxlike affair across the cell, obviously intent on positioning it beneath Bolan's belly. It slid under easily, clearing by several inches, then the Major appeared at Bolan's head. He looked into his eyes and said, "Ah good, our astronaut is conscious. Listen and let me explain our little game. I've put a clever machine beneath you, Bolan. It's a simple little box with a spring-loaded mechanism inside and a rather wicked steel blade mounted on the outside, across the top. When I release the brake, the blade will move quickly back and forth across the top of the box, you see. Now it might sc.r.a.pe you a bit here and there if you get too relaxed. Keep your spine nice and straight, though, and you'll have nothing to fear. And be on the lookout for, uh, dangling objects. You might lose something you prize highly. Be ready, now, keep a stiff back there, that's a good fellow."

Something went sp.r.o.nnng sp.r.o.nnng beneath him, and he felt the air of the whisking blade as it moved back and forth just below. beneath him, and he felt the air of the whisking blade as it moved back and forth just below.

Bolan had known for quite some time that he was not going to live forever. He had known that intimate a.s.sociation with death on many occasions, and he had long been prepared to die. But not like this. Not a slow and gradual sc.r.a.ping away. First it would be genitals, probably in one or two whacks, as soon as the muscles around the spine atrophied and collapsed and sent him plunging into range of. that shuttling blade. Then the weakness and further collapse would sag the abdomen down there, and layer by layer of him would be laid open until he was totally disembowelled and hacked in two.

Well, he would not take it that way. He himself had always tried to kill quick and painlessly, and he was going to go out the same way. He steeled himself and began preparing the command to his muscular structure that would send him all the way down in one disemboweling plunge.

And then he became aware of a movement at the doorway dead ahead of him. Ann Franklin stepped in, and she had the big Weatherby cradled tightly to her body, and he thought thank G.o.d she's going to give it to me right.

The big piece roared and Bolan saw Major Stone flopping along the desk with his pants down about his ankles; another thunderous report and Nick Trigger was lending parts of himself to the walls of the corner.

Then the Weatherby was clattering to the floor and Ann was beneath him, supporting his weight with her own back and kicking frantically at the box.

Yeah, so it had happened, and he was entirely in her hands after all.

He mumbled, "Thanks, Ann, and all that," and then he pa.s.sed out.

EPILOGUE.

It has been a curious and a furious 40 hours in England. Bolan had launched an a.s.sault upon Soho, and Soho had a.s.saulted him back. A symbol of the times, Edwin Charles had told him; and certainly that symbol covered a great deal more than "this crackling museum of ours." The domain of violence lurked deeply in every place where men flung themselves off into a shallow forgetfulness of the greater meanings of life, and it surfaced wherever greed and the l.u.s.t for power were present.

Some good men had died during those brief hours, but so had a pile of rotten ones. Bolan had to figure that as a plus on the world's balance sheet.

An entire vault of d.a.m.ning p.o.r.nographic films had been uncovered in the home of the late Mervyn Stone, and burned, and enshrined in a little urn in the entrance hall of the Museum de Sade. Bolan saw that as a conditional plus for the future of a great nation, and as a very graphic hint to the men whose images had been on that film.

Open warfare had erupted between dissident elements of the most corruptive criminal empire in history, and Leo Turrin read that as a very strong plus.

The mystery had unravelled to Bolan's satisfaction, and while this had no place as a plus or a minus, it did give him relative peace of mind. Major Stone had obviously been bleeding his "members" for a number of years, but not in a manner to cause undue excitement. When the Mafia began muscling in, however, the repercussions were felt in the higher echelons of government, and a quietly delicate investigation was launched. Complicating this circ.u.mstance was the item of Nick Trigger's greed; he lost his power over Mervyn Stone by entering into a clandestine financial arrangement with him, in direct violation of the powers that ruled his life. Both of these men panicked when a harmless old tinkerer was revealed to them as an agent of Her Majesty's Government, and this was where Bolan came in. Nick Trigger had walked a tightrope between his obligations to family and obligations to self, and that rope had begun to fray long before the final break.

All in all, Bolan had to score the battle as a definite plus for the upward movements of mankind, and as a shattering loss to the other side of the coin.

As regarding Ann Franklin, he did not know just exactly how to mark the scorecard. He tried to impart the idea of saving grace to his hostess in the Franklin bathroom at Queen's House as he groomed himself and repaired minor damages to his person. He sprinkled an antiseptic solution on his lacerated scalp while he told her, "You can't blame yourself for anything that happened. That is, unless you want to feel responsible for the fact that I'm still alive. You're to blame for that, all right."

She was giving him that winsome look from the doorway. "You're too kind," she replied.

"Look, you just got conned. It happens to the best of us."

"Well, I wouldn't have called him, you know, except that I was so stupidly positive that you were wrong about him. And I was frightened silly. I've been going to the Major with my problems for as long as I can remember." She raised her shoulders and dropped them in a dainty slump. "I thought he could help us," she added in a tiny voice.

Bolan was grinning. He told her, "Sometimes it's hard to separate friends from enemies. Like Danno Giliamo. My contact tells me that old Danno is really on the carpet over this deal. He thought he was conning Nick, and all the time he was getting it right in the back. Those screwb.a.l.l.s had formed a third front. They were going to deliver my head to the Commissione Commissione in a paper bag. Imagine that?" in a paper bag. Imagine that?"

Ann shuddered. "No worse than me, I'm sure. And that's doubly true if they were actually running money through my club accounts, as you've intimated."

Her face was screwed into an agonizing fit of indecision. Bolan chuckled and said, "Okay, what is it?"

She said, "Whether you want to hear it or not, Mack, I simply must get this out of my system. Honestly, I still wasn't certain as to just exactly what the Major had in mind until I walked in there and saw it. It's that military mastery of his, I suppose. He always did have me thoroughly cowed. And when he joined me outside the Tower, he told me that I mustn't worry about you, that he would save you if he had to put a gun to your head. Silly me, I believed him. It was that last thing you shouted at me from the stoop that turned my mind to thinking, I mean to really really thinking." thinking."

"I told you all bets were off."

"No, you said that our pact was dissolved. And now. Let's get this out of my system also. Is Is it dissolved, Mack?" it dissolved, Mack?"

He gave her a solemn inspection and said, "Don't you think that's best?"

She shook her head. "No. I remain in your hands, if you'll have it that way."

Almost painfully he said, "Plus."

"What?"

He showed her a long, tender smile and told her, "You're a plus. Keep it that way for the right time, the right place, the right guy."

"You are the right guy," she murmured.

"Wrong time and place, m'lady," he said regretfully, and walked past her and into the bedroom. He snugged into his gunleather and put on his jacket, then went over and cracked the blinds for a window recon.

"You're leaving now, aren't you?" Ann whispered.

He nodded his head, rather sadly she thought. "Yeah. That time has come again."

"Where will you go?"

"Home... wherever that is."

"And how will you get there?"

He smiled and said, "Through the jungle, m'lady. That's the only way." He picked up his gear and strode to the front door. When he look back she was standing just inside the bedroom and following him with a wistful smile.

He waved to her and she waved back. "Thanks, and all that," she called softly.

He grinned and went out. Somewhere out there in those wet wild woods was a trail home. He might find it, and he might not. But he had to try.

One thing he knew he would find: Through the Jungle very softly flits a shadow and a sigh. He is Fear Fear, O Little Hunter, he is Fear Fear!

The little hunter struck out across the shadows and was enveloped in them, and became a part of them, and knew that he would live there... and that one day he would die there.

The Executioner was blitzing on.