news. Unless you know exactly what you're doing, it will backfire on you.'
'We aren't afraid,' Tanya said.
'Then you're not too smart,' Bolan shot back. 'Maybe you don't know enough to be scared. Just ask some of the people in Laos and Afghanistan, where your Soviet mentors tried it out. Ask them about the choking, the blood vessels that burst inside you so that the whole body becomes a huge hemorrhage. It's one of the most agonizing deaths ever devised. And that's the stuff you want to fool around with?'
'We know all that, Sergeant,' Tanya said. 'And we are not so foolish as to not take precautions. We know how to handle the substance and we know how to administer it when the time comes. A simple aerosol device should spread enough to kill several hundred people at a playground, say.'
'Children?' Bolan asked, quietly.
'Of course. There is nothing more terrifyirig than the loss of children. One need only look at the panic in your own Atlanta with the slaughter of the black children. The public outcry almost brought down the city government. Imagine how much power we will have once we've killed off a few hundred. After that, they will beg to meet our demands.'
Bolan stared at the two of them, controlling his mounting urge to kill them right now. He could do it, too, before any of their followers even knew what had happened. His elbow crushing a windpipe, his palm shoving nose cartilage back into the brain. But that was not the way. Not yet.
Yeah, he knew all about 'yellow rain.' The Soviets had created it from wheat grains to form a weapon that kills whether you breathe it, eat it, or just touch it. One so deadly that there is no cure, no real prevention. That's why the army was taking it to the NATO compound for research. April had briefed him on the whole thing months ago when the first reports came in of the captured killer that some Afghan rebels had snagged away from the Soviets. The army hoped through research and analysis to find some way to combat it, some way to help those brave Afghan warriors fighting against all odds to free their homeland. They had no hope against such sophisticated murder. Besides, who knew how soon the Soviets might want to try using it elsewhere. But somehow, as it always does, word got out about the transport activity, and now these vultures were preparing to swoop down and steal it. Once they had it, there was no way to stop them from killing whoever they wanted, whenever they wanted. And right now they wanted to kill children.
'Move!' Rudi hollered, thumping his wooden club against the ground as he led the ragged athletes across the camp. 'I said move!' he screamed again, cuffing Udo Ganz on the back of the head.
'Not so hard, Rudi,' Tanya cautioned. 'We need his head clear for the skiing.'
In the bright sunlight they looked much worse than they had before. Bolan noticed the drawn pale look to the face, the dark circles under the eyes, the pasty skin, dirty oily hair, and general hopelessness in their dull eyes.
Babette Pavlovski squinted with one hand shading her eyes as she looked toward Bolan standing with the twins. Her mouth twisted into a sneer and she looked quickly away. Udo Ganz merely looked frightened and confused, anxious to please his tormentors.
Bolan didn't blame him his fear, he'd earned it. He had already proved his courage on the Olympic battlegrounds, and now he was completely out of his element. The slim Oriental, Mako Samata, looked wan but otherwise peaceful within himself. Despite the circumstances, he walked with a slight swagger as if he were in complete control of the situation, waiting only to exercise his power.
Bolan had to admire his style.
The last of the group was Clifford Barnes-Fenwick, the Welsh archer whose grief over his dead son might be the one thing to destroy everyone's chance of escape. The bruises around his swollen nose looked much less awesome when compared to the damage on Rudi's face.
As the hostages were lead out into the center of the camp, several of the troops hefted their Uzis and fanned out to form an armed perimeter. There would be no attempted escapes during today's rehearsal.
'All right, you've done it before, let's see it again. But this time it must be perfect.' Thomas towered over the wiry Oriental, but Mako projected the impression that he was the much taller man. Bolan noticed that Thomas kept a respectable distance between himself and Mako, even as he lectured the man.
'Okay, now, Samata, you will be the first member of your team to operate. Do you understand?'
'I have understood from the beginning,' he said with a contemptuous sigh.
'Then there will be no problem.'
'Of course not. I am trained in the art of ninjutsu. Military bases are easier to penetrate than many private homes.'
'Excellent,' Thomas smiled. 'But remember, we will have a hidden gun trained on you at all times. If you do manage to escape, we will immediately execute the rest of your friends.'
'You have made yourself clear,' Mako said.
'Fine. Now I want to see you demonstrate once again how quickly you can disable a man.' He called over his shoulder at Rudi. 'Clock him... now!'
Rudi clicked the stopwatch as Mako began his first move. It was obvious to Bolan this was the same course they'd had him working on for weeks. The goal was for him to knock out two guards that Thomas had planted in the far cabin.
Both guards were armed and expecting an attack from Mako, only they did not know how or when it would come. By Bolan's estimate, it had taken Mako less than thirty seconds to vault the small wooden wall and disappear entirely from sight.
Everyone looked around for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Thomas and Tanya exchanged nervous glances as if afraid he might have made a break for it.
Finally, Thomas looked at his watch, pulled out his Luger and walked briskly toward the cabin where the guards were waiting. He had taken no more than half a dozen steps when the front door of the cabin swung open and Mako stepped out with a bored expression on his face. 'They should regain consciousness in about two hours,' he said to Thomas, walking past him without looking at him. He rejoined the other athletes who stood in the middle of the campground.
'Time?' Thomas asked Rudi.
'Three minutes, thirty-eight seconds.'
Thomas beamed a genuine smile.
'Excellent!' He turned to Clifford Barnes-Fenwick. 'Now, Mr. Fenwick.'
'Barnes-Fenwick,' the Welshman corrected.
'Yes, of course. We have given you ample opportunity to prove your worth to us. Your particular skills are necessary, but not indispensable. We know that there are hidden metal detectors and X-ray machines at our military target, screening all personnel who enter for concealed weapons. Now, your little Oriental buddy here will knock out the two guards at the gatehouse and turn off the detectors. You will be able to pass through the metal detector with your wooden bow and cover Mako until he's deactivated the detectors. Because of the silent nature of your weapon, no one will hear anything. But you may be required to shoot several people with very little time in between.' He snapped his fingers at one of his troops. 'Now the only question that remains is whether you still are capable of making such precision shots.'
The hardguy held snapped at brought a thick wooden bow with a plastic arrow rack attached to the bow's handle and handed them to Clifford. The Welshman hesitated a moment, his hand halfway outstretched but afraid to touch them, as if he feared they were charged with a fatal dose of electricity.
He looked over his shoulder at Bolan, looking deep into the big man's eyes. Bolan gave the slightest of nods with his eyes and Barnes-Fenwick suddenly snatched the bow and quiver out of the terrorists hands.
'I can make your bloody shots,' he said with disgust. He studied the bow for a moment and shook his head unhappily. 'This has only a fifty-pound pull. I should have preferred eighty to give me a little more distance.'
'You won't need distance,' Tanya said. 'You have only a thirty-yard circumference to defend, and then only for a few minutes. After that the metal-detector alarm system will be off and our men will be there with their machine guns to take over.' She placed her hands on her hips and addressed everyone around her. 'I want to remind you all that this is our only opportunity to steal yellow rain. It is the only time the stuff will be outside the safety of high-security buildings. If you fail, the results will be tragic for all of us. Therefore, anyone who is not doing their best job today will'be shot immediately.' She swung back to face the athletes, letting the threat hang in the air.
