Death Squad

'Where's the hit?'

'I'll have to talk to Chopper before I'm sure. But from what you've told me, along with what I got from Gadget's tape, it looks like Beverly Hills.'

'The big joint?'

Bolan nodded. 'The big joint. Varone's been trying to set up a family council. Beverly Hills sounds like the place. I'll take Zitter and Bloodbrother out there for a recon while we still have some daylight.'

Bolan left them and headed for the horse to speak with Chopper. Harrington looked at Washington and said, 'He doesn't believe in sitting around, does he?'

'I was tellin' you what that soul did this afternoon,' Washington said, lowering his voice conspiratorially. 'So, see—he just walked up to that policeman's house and rung the doorbell. I see him in there talking to the little boy. Then the cop gets there, and Mack is standin' there in the window, talkin' to him like a soul brother—cool, see, like egg custard on a summer day, and then he ...'

Deadeye Washington had found something to believe in. He believed in Mack Bolan's guts.

* * *

Sergeant Carl Lyons picked up his detail assignment at the operations center, then stepped hesitantly into Captain Braddock's office. The captain was having a desk-top dinner of coffee and sandwiches. He looked up with a scowl. 'Something on your mind, Carl?' he asked.

Lyons stood just inside the doorway. 'I didn't see Rickert's name on the board,' he replied. 'Wondering if he's on tonight.'

'He's on a special,' Braddock growled. He distastefully eyed a sandwich, lifting a coffee cup to his lips instead.

A surge of emotion had briefly illuminated Lyons's face. 'Undercover?' he asked tautly.

Braddock's eyes smiled across the rim of the cup, as though he were visualizing the unlikely suggestion. 'Rickert's a bit old for intrigue,' he replied. 'What is it, Carl?'

'Oh, it's a ... personal matter. What's coming off, Captain? The assignments are all shuffled.'

Braddock stared at his young sergeant for a moment; then he smiled and said, 'Close the door and come on in, Carl. You have a moment, don't you?'

Lyons nodded and advanced into the office, taking a chair at the front of the desk.

'Don't even mention this to the men of your detail,' Braddock told him. 'We are setting the wheels in motion for a Mafia dragnet, scheduled for first thing tomorrow. It's a harassment move, pure and simple, and the only object is to prevent the buildup of a Mafia army in response to the Bolan threat. We will be altering the Hardcase strategy also, and you'll be kept abreast of developments in that area. Is Bolan getting to you, Carl?'

Lyons was thrown temporarily off-guard by the sudden question. 'I don't... how do you mean?'

'What did you want to see Rickert about?'

'Is he working the details of the dragnet?'

'How come you answer every one of my questions with one of your own?'

Lyons colored and cleared his throat. 'That son of a bitch was at my house today.'

'What son of a bitch?'

'Bolan.'

A heavy silence descended. Presently, Braddock said, 'It took you long enough to tell me about it.'

'I wanted to see Rickert first.'

'Why?'

'Look, Captain, he just walked right into my house. My son entertained him in the living room while Janie was trying to rustle him up something to drink!'

'No, dammit—Bolan!'

Another silence; then: 'I can understand how you feel, Carl. Look, we'll put a man on your house. Next time he...'

'He won't be back. He sat there and waited for me. I talked to him. He did what he came to do, and he left.'

'I see. No—I don't see. Just like that? He left?'

Lyons curtly nodded his head. 'Damn right. I wasn't about to risk a gunfight. Not with Janie and Tommy fifteen feet away.'

'All right. There are various questions that immediately come to my mind, but for openers, what did he come to do?'

Lyons glared steadily into his superior's eyes for a tense moment; then he wordlessly got to his feet, walked out of the office, and returned an instant later carrying a small plastic case. 'Something here I want you to listen to,' he announced in a choked voice. 'Make your own conclusions. I've already made mine.'

* * *

Zeno Varone's voice rasped through the telephone line in a threatening snarl. 'Well by God, Charlie, you just better put a spike in it, that's all I can say. Just what the hell you think your job is, anyway?'

'Don't talk like a total ass,' Rickert came back in an angry near whisper. 'This isn't anything I can control. It's value enough that I'm even able to tip you to it.'

'We won't stand still for no rousting, Charlie.'

'And just what in hell do you think you can do about it?' responded the lieutenant's infuriated whisper.

'I'll tell you what we can do about it! Well slap 'em with so many false-arrest suits, they'll...'

'Then you'll have to do your slapping from a cell! I'm telling you, they are beginning the roundup at eight tomorrow morning. Now you take it from there!' An abrupt click and a hum announced the disconnection.

Varone shouted into the hum, 'You're not too goddamn important to get your name on a contract, Rickert! Rickert? If you hung up on me you sonnabitch, I swear, I'll ...' A short pause, then: The sonnabitch hung up on me.'

Bolan smiled at Loudelk and turned off the recorder. 'Glad we stopped by to pick this up,' he said. 'Stop at the next phone. I want to make a call.'

Loudelk nodded and angled into the outside lane of traffic. At the next intersection, he swung into a service station and halted the car alongside a telephone booth.

Bolan dropped his dime through the slot and dialed the number of the police switchboard. 'It's urgent that I speak with Lieutenant Charlie Rickert,' he told the switchboard operator.

'Just a moment, please.'

'He's on the Tim Braddock detail, Hardcase.'

The word seemed to be a magic key. 'Oh, yes, just a ... ringing.'

Bolan thanked the operator, smiling grimly at Loudelk through the glass of the booth. A deep male voice answered the first ring. 'Hardcase.'

'Urgent for Charlie Rickert,' Bolan responded. 'He said I should call him here.'

'Just a sec. He's on special. I'll get that number.'

'Thanks.' Bolan winked at Loudelk.

The voice returned to the line almost immediately. 'Hang on, I'm going to flash the operator.'

'Okay.'

The operator responded on the third click. 'Transfer this call to thirty-seven-eleven,' the officer instructed.

Bolan again waited while the new connection was being made. A female voice answered. 'Urgent for Charlie Rickert,' Bolan said.

'Just a moment, please.'

Bolan hummed a tune under his breath. 'Who is calling please?' the woman asked a moment later.

'It's a hardcase,' Bolan said.

'Rickert here,' announced a surly voice, after another brief wait.

'Rickert, this is Mack Bolan.'

'Yeah, well this is Little Annie Fannie. I don't have time for...'

'Shut up and listen to me. This is Bolan. I'm hitting your buddies tonight.'