smash them sideways.
Bolan coaxed the last reserve of power from the little engine. Danny shut her eyes. They were twenty feet from the sheer drop at the end of the bluff.
Zayoud leaned out the window, firing a pistol wildly at the spindly aircraft. A couple of slugs flew through the skeleton framework. Bolan cased back on the stick. The ultralight ran off the edge, lurched downward for a sickening second and then, borne on an updraft, it leveled out.
The sheikh was shouting for his chauffeur to turn away, but his warning came too late. The crumbling cliff edge collapsed and the heavy car plunged down.
Mack Bolan and the others were clear of the coastal road when Hassan's car struck the concrete and exploded. The trio in the small aircraft were already out over the sea. Fishermen looked up from the deck of their dhow, and Bolan could see the amazed expressions on their faces as the strange flying machine skimmed over their mast..
'We're losing height, Mack,' said Danny, then wished she hadn't — the comment was superfluous.
'We're not going to get too far in this contraption,' added Kevin. He did not care who knew it: he was scared. They were about a mile from shore and barely thirty feet above the waves.
'You can swim, can't you, Chip?'
'No, I never learned how.'
It had not occurred to Bolan that a boy living in Florida might not have learned to take care of himself in the ocean.
'Well, you can just tread water. Hang on to me, it won't be long...'
Danny glanced in the direction Bolan had indicated. A big, beautiful seaplane — with Steve Hohenadel and his partner at the controls — was coming to pick them up. She was still watching it when Bolan pancaked the ultralight into the warm water of the gulf.
Epilogue
Danny was in her office at Westfield, staring at the photograph of the crusader fortress on the rock at Hagadan, when the phone rang. It was Salim Zakir.
'You left without saying farewell, Danica,' he chided her.
She didn't know what to say.
'I, er-well, I...'
Zakir interrupted with a hearty chuckle. 'The videotape you gave me to hand over to the sheikh was all the evidence Harun needed to confirm our suspicions about his brother. We knew he was plotting something and — thanks to you and, er, your colleague — we were ready to deal with the emergency.'
Danny had already seen the story in the newspaper. It did not even rate the front page. The report was buried in the back of the international news section.
'Allied Oil are being given full credit for their assistance in this affair,' Zakir told her. 'Mr. Patterson is flying over to receive a decoration to show our gratitude.'
Danny could imagine that the oil executive would be happily bragging about this at parties for years to come.
'We've also retrieved your Jeep — it's quite an amazing vehicle — and this will, of course, be returned to you in America. Sheikh Harun Zayoud does wonder if he might acquire such a Jeep for himself.'
'I'll see what I can do... I shall have to speak to Professor Bolan.'
'And when will you be coming to visit us again, Danica?'
'Oh, I'm not sure... one day.'
As soon as Zakir hung up, Danny dialed the number Bolan had given her. It rang and rang. No answer. And although she was disappointed, somehow, she was not surprised.
