Assault on Soho

London Airport presented itself as a confusing sprawl. Overseas flights used one terminal, intra-European flights another. To complicate matters, the road signs directing traffic into the complex could have meant as much to Bolan if printed in Singhalese, and the fog was much worse in this area. After some twenty minutes of trial and error, he found his way to the freight terminal. Then he devoted another ten minutes to a soft recon of that part of the airpark. When finally he went inside to claim the bag, Bolan knew all the ways in and out and the Lincoln was ready for an unobstructed departure.

His business at the express office was conducted quickly and without difficulty. The customs formalities had been taken care of at the shipping point, and Bolan identified himself with a fake American passport he had purchased in Paris. He returned to the car and deposited the bag on the rear seat, then set off for the overseas passenger area. Here he parked in a zone reserved for buses from the BOAC Air Terminal in London, grabbed the bag, and walked briskly toward the flight facility.

When he was within a few yards of his goal, hurrying footsteps sounded at his side and a strained emotional voice advised him, 'You musn't go in there, Mr. Bolan.'

Ann Franklin, it seemed, was not yet entirely out of his life.

She was compellingly appealing in a London Fog minicoat, a jaunty little hat, and a very worried face. Bolan's hand slipped inside his jacket, and he growled, 'Why not?'

'Charles thought you'd wish to know,' she reported breathlessly. 'The CID is out in force, searching for you. Here too. Charles says there will be an undercover man at each booking stall.'

'At each what?'

'The ticketing windows—the places where you purchase… never mind, you simply cannot get out this way.'

Bolan's decision was typically quick. He took the girl by the arm and returned to the parked car, put her and the bag inside, then slid in behind the wheel and quietly departed.

When they were clear of the airport proper he said, 'Thanks again. But just how clean are you?'

'What?'

'You left the museum with a Mafia tail.'

'Oh, that.' She gave the lovely head a disdainful toss. 'I left them chasing their own tails around Piccadilly.'

Bolan turned her a warm grin. 'You're something else,' he said in a quietly respectful tone.

'In American, I hope that's good,' she replied, smiling.

'Yeah, it is.' He sighed and added, 'How long have you been standing out in the cold waiting for me?'

'Not long,' she assured him. 'We weren't all that certain that you hadn't slipped out before. Charles rung me at just past four. I came straight out. Major Stone took the BOAC Terminal. Harry Parks, that's the large one who chauffeured us into London—Harry went to intercept you at the West London Terminal.' She laughed nervously. 'I think it perfectly fitting that Idrew the lucky spot.'

Drily, Bolan said, 'Yeah. Lucky you.'

She ignored the sarcasm. 'By the by, that was a smashing escape from Soho. Charles described it for me. We're all so very proud of you, you know.'

Bolan was feeling more the heel with every passing moment. Very solemnly, he asked the girl, 'What do you people want from me, Ann?'

'Just now,' she told him, 'all we want is that you remain alive. And we want you to allow us to help you accomplish just that.'

Bolan could not argue a jungle logic into the situation. He smiled faintly, a barely visible twisting of the lips, and said, 'Okay, we'll play it that way. For now. But keep one thing in mind. As long as you are friendly to me, you have inherited all my enemies—and those people play very rough games. On the other hand, if you turn out to be myenemy… well, I have my rough moments also.'

'We understand all that,' she replied in a small voice. 'And we accept all risks.'

Bolan had no ready response, and they drove in silence for several minutes, heading back toward London via Cromwell Road. Then Ann told him, 'Gloucester Road is just ahead. Take a left there. We'll go up Paddington and cross to the north.'

'Where's our destination?' Bolan muttered.

'Queen's House,' she replied. 'You have the key in your pocket, I believe.'

'That's your place,' he said.

'Yes, it's my place. My secretplace, count on that. It's safe there.'

'Okay, I'll count on it,' Bolan told her, staring stonily forward.

She leaned against him, resting her face on his arm. 'Don't seem so grim, Mr. Bolan. It will be just you and me. And we will… get to know one another far better.'

Bolan greeted the prospect with mixed emotions. A vision of the torture cells at Museum de Sadeflashed through his mind. He glanced down upon the lovely head at his shoulder and experienced a trickling little tightness in his guts.

'Let's hope,' he murmured, 'that our familiarity does not breed contempt.'

'I have no worry about that,' she whispered. But Bolan did. Which way, he wondered, was the tide running now?

Chapter Six Crisis

Bolan dropped off to scout the area on foot while Ann Franklin circled about to put the car away in a garage at the rear of the building. Russell Square turned out to be an attractive little park in London's northeast section, close by the University of London and the British Museum. Queen's House headed a row of neat Georgian town houses which angled away to the south of the square, in what appeared to be a neighborhood of family hotels, pleasant rooming houses, and old but probably expensive apartment buildings. Bolan's recon was thorough but swift, and revealed no evidence of enemy presence. He met Ann at the garage, picked up his bag, and they went into the house through the rear entrance.

To Bolan's surprise, the girl's apartment was very plain. Somehow he had expected a continuation of the erotic motif at Museum de Sade. Instead he found minimal furnishings, an almost masculine austerity of decor, and a library atmosphere.

'Welcome to Ann's Retreat,' the girl said quietly, then explained, 'I don't live here, actually. It's my run- away-to place when I feel the need of privacy.'

Bolan carried his bag on through the living room and paused at the windows to peer through a crack in the draperies. It was still dark out, thin fog haloing the street lamps in the park directly opposite.

'Bedroom is to the left, kitchen to the right,' Ann announced. 'Which are you most interested in, bed or board?'

Bolan turned to her with a sigh and said, 'I'm suddenly running out of steam. Guess I'm pretty beat.'

'The loo is off the bedroom,' she told him.

'The what?'

She laughed. 'Sorry, the bath. You look as though you'd love to have one.'

'Thanks, I would.' He went into the bedroom and placed his bag on a chair and opened it. The girl was watching him—rather nervously, he thought—from the doorway. He removed his jacket and asked her, 'Okay if I put these things on some hangers?'

Her eyes were lingering on the gun harness at his chest. 'Yes, of course,' she replied in a near whisper. She pointed out the closet. 'Over there.'

The closet was totally bare except for a half-dozen wire hangers. Bolan put his jacket and his spare suit in there and said, 'Ann's Retreat, eh?'

'Yes,' she replied from the doorway. 'I told you that I don't live here. I live with Major Stone.'

'I see.'

She came on into the room then and stood tensely by as Bolan continued unpacking. 'I suppose I've given