Death Squad

muttered. The entire squad was sitting there with him; they had all brought him here, each one, through gallantry above and beyond the call. And he was taking them with him, in effect anyway, in this final, desperate, gallant fling through this hell called life.

Chapter Sixteen The Reverse Walk

Carl Lyons had left his car at the blacktop and walked down to the water's edge. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, rocking gently on the balls of his feet. If he'd been in that hurtling vehicle, Lyons reasoned, and if he'd been still alive when the thing settled into the water, and if he'd managed to get out of it, and if he'd had the strength and the guts and the determination to try swimming to freedom—then this would be the spot he would be trying for. Not that there was much chance of Bolan's swimming away from that plunge. Just the same … The coast-guard boat had responded promptly, and they were even now preparing to send divers down. If and when they came up with a body, then and only then would Carl Lyons believe that Bolan was dead.

A soft sound behind him spun him around, and the sergeant found himself gazing into the bore of a .38 police special. The gun was in the hand of Lieutenant Charlie Rickert, and the eyes behind the gun looked anything but sane, even in the muted nightlight.

'What're you doing here, Rickert?' Lyons asked calmly.

'You and Bolan didn't really think you could pull it off, did you?' Rickert sneered. 'On the twenty-four-hour cop? You didn't actually think you'd make it stick, did you?'

'What are you talking about?'

'Get your hands behind your head! What the hell you think? You know damn well what I'm talking about. You and Bolan cooked this thing up.

Did you think I'd hold still for that kind of crap, Lyons?' Rickert laughed, a dry, rattling sound. 'You thought Charlie Rickert couldn't find out. Look, wet-behind-the-ears, I was a cop while you was still sucking tit.'

'What are you hoping to accomplish, Rickert?' Lyons was slowly shifting to one side, trying to maneuver his new adversary into a better light.

'Just stand still!' Rickert snarled.

'How long have you been a bad cop, Rickert?'

'I'm going to kill you, youngster. You know that, don't you?'

'Why, Rickert?' Lyons had detected a flicker of motion in the shadows behind Rickert. He kept the conversation going and again began a slow movement toward the water. 'What do you have to gain? Braddock has all the evidence he needs. He's already signed your suspension. A full-scale investigation will start tomorrow.'

'No, no, no. All they have is contrived evidence, put together by a mass murderer and his cop accomplice.'

'What ever gave you the idea that I've been working with Bolan, Rickert?'

'Charlie Rickert has his ways, and Charlie Rickert knows all. Don't you worry how I found out. You're a lousy cop, Lyons. You can't even spot a tail. I been on you all night.'

'Just waiting for a chance like this, eh?'

That's right. Just waiting for a chance ... just ... like ... this!' Rickert had thrust the .38 forward and was squeezing down on the trigger, when the shadow behind him came alive. A hand chopped down on his gun arm, and an elbow burrowed into his gut as the gun was falling. The shadow whirled, a fist arched out and splattered into Rickert's face, and he went down without a sound.

A hand quickly scooped up the fallen .38, and a familiar voice said, 'We're always meeting.'

Lyons stared at the tall, dripping figure in the black suit. 'How long you been standing behind that rock, Bolan?' he asked.

'Long enough to get my breath,' Bolan replied, still panting slightly.

'Then you heard the gist of that conversation?'

'I heard it.'

'You knew he was about to gun me down. Why didn't you wait another second? Then you could have chopped him and had a clear field.'

Bolan shrugged. 'I couldn't bug off and leave Tommy to solve that problem alone.'

'What?'

'You know. The moles.'

Lyons chuckled. 'I've been doing some reading on lawn pests, Bolan. They're destructive, yeah, but they serve a useful purpose too. This book tells me I shouldn't be too quick to cut down on the moles. Guess I'll try a bit of peaceful coexistence.'

'You trying to delay me, Lyons? The way you did Rickert?' Bolan was beginning to move slowly away.

'Not at all. Uh, Bolan. Some dumb cop left his car unprotected up there on the road. Keys in it and everything.'

'Yeah?'

'Yeah.' Lyons knelt beside Rickert and snapped a pair of cuffs on him. 'He'll keep for a while. And now that same dumb cop is going to take a walk among the rocks, hoping to find a survivor from that car plunge off the cliff over there. Uh, happy coexistence, Bolan. This time I'm walking.' Lyons turned abruptly and strode off into the darkness.

Bolan smiled tightly and moved quickly toward the road. Life wasn't all hell, he decided. Another battle had ended. Perhaps somewhere, someday, he would find a place to end the war. Flower had been wrong. Hell was not for the living, it was for the dead, even the hallowed dead. Let the dead rest in peace. Someday Mack Bolan, too, would rest. For now, he had to find his way among the living. And he would find Julian DiGeorge somewhere about that landscape, and undoubtedly many more just like him.

He would never, however, find another Death Squad. Not like the helluva bunch he'd just lost. He climbed behind the wheel of Lyons's vehicle, started the engine, and moved slowly out. His glance fell on the microphone.

'Roll Call,' he said, half-aloud.

And he could have sworn he heard them checking in. Bloodbrother, Zitter, Gunsmoke, Deadeye, Boom- Boom, Flower Child, Chopper, Gadgets, and Politician. They were all in—and they were all on Mack Bolan.

—end-

* * *