'Twenty more minutes, Sergeant,' Tanya answered.
Once again Bolan found himself in the lead van with Tanya driving and Rudi riding shotgun, cradling the same 12-gauge Stevens shotgun he had used the night before on the Black Sunday raid. Bolan had the same H and K G-II balanced across his knees, and Tanva still had the remaining clips. The big difference was that instead of being filled with terrorists like it had been last night, the van was filled with four ex-Olympic champions; on their way to the hellgrounds of horrific death, the doomland of chemical fire.
The grotesque Rudi kept his shotgun leveled on them from the front of the bus, and another faceless hardguy kept his Uzi pointed at them from the back of the van.
Through the rear window, Bolan could see Thomas behind the wheel of the trailing van and Hermann sitting next to him. And crowded behind them in the back of their van were ten hardened killers stroking Uzis, sweating and dreaming and praying it would be their buddy and not them that gets killed.
Whatever was going to go wrong had to go wrong soon.
They were less than twenty minutes from the hardsite and Bolan could not wait until they arrived there.
First, he wanted these animals nowhere near striking range of that 'yellow rain.' Second, with all the excitement, he wanted to avoid soldiers firing innocently on the hostages. And third, he wanted to prevent Clifford from having to fire arrows into any unsuspecting guards... although he had an idea that the Welshman had no intention at all of killing anyone, at least anyone outside the Zwilling Horde. Bolan tried to catch Mako's eye, but the slim Oriental stared straight ahead as if in a self induced trance.
'That was quite a stunt you pulled back there at the camp,' Bolan told him.
Mako glanced at the big American and nodded.
'Child's play.'
'Perhaps you just need a more challenging situation.' Bolan let his stare penetrate Mako's eyes.
Mako shifted on his seat, seemed to understand the message beneath the words. 'Perhaps.'
'Shut up!' spat Rudi, waving his shotgun between Bolan and Mako. Bolan could not be sure that Mako had understood him, had caught the movement of the eyes that assigned the guy with the Uzi to him. But there was no more time to decide. If they were ever going to make their move it would be now.
And so it was.
Bolan lunged forward, using his left forearm to drive the barrel of the shotgun toward the floor, using the butt of the H and K to club Rudi's skull. Even as he was still grabbing at the shotgun he saw Mako leap across the van at the terrorist with the Uzi. The van wobbled from the shifting of weight, but it wobbled even more when the butt of Bolan's gun cracked Rudi's skull, causing the giant to emit a curdled cry as he impulsively pulled the trigger of his shotgun. The blast tore a hole in the floor. Tanya swerved the van, struggling to maintain control with one hand, reaching for her 9mm Firebird with the other.
Bolan was still grappling with Rudi when he saw Mako and Babette rush forward. Mako grabbed Tanya's wrist between his thumb and forefinger and applied enough pressure to snap the wrist. There was no mistaking that cracking sound coupled with her scream of pain. He yanked her out of the driver's seat while Babette deftly slid in behind the wheel, flooring the gas pedal. Rudi still clung to the shotgun, trying to wrench it out of Bolan's grip. His huge yellow horse teeth flashed in a grimace of pain and concentration, but he was already too weak from the blows to the head. With a sudden twisting movement, Bolan pulled the shotgun free and swung it around to face Rudi.
'I am unarmed,' Rudi pleaded. 'You would not shoot an unarmed man.'
'You've been watching the wrong movies, guy,' Bolan said, and fired into the giant's face a 12-gauge boxcar with death as the freight. Ragged chunks of flesh bloodied the inside of the windshield. Fringe pellets shattered the window of the passenger's door.
'God!' Babette shouted and the van swerved before she got it under control.
Bolan swung around to face the back of the van.
Mako hovered over Tanya, the 9mm Firebird pointed at her chest.
The terrorist toughguy lay sprawled on the floor, his eyes wide open, his neck floppily distorted from being broken by an expert.
Clifford Barnes-Fenwick gripped the dead man's Uzi with a stranglehold as if uncertain who to turn it on.
Udo Ganz remained seated where he'd been, staring blankly through the hole in the floor as the road rushed like rapids beneath the speeding van.
'All right, listen to me,' Bolan said. 'I'm going to tell you what to do and you're going to do it without question or argument. In about thirty seconds, Babette will stop the van. That will force the van behind us to stop too. I'll stall them long enough for you to tear the hell out of here. They will not be able to follow you.'
'You against twelve of them?' Babette protested.
'I'll have her,' he replied, nodding at Tanya.
'You fool,' Tanya snarled. 'We could have made you wealthy. A wealthy idiot.'
'The only thing you were going to make me is deceased.'
'Why can't we just shoot it out,', the Welshm an boomed. 'We could shoot out their tires and keep going. We have guns too.'
'Because they have more guns,' Bolan said simply. He did not want to tell them that their safe escape was only a mirror corollary to his main mission, which was the total destruction of the Zwilling Horde. No, the Executioner didn't want to escape. 'Now stop the van.'
Babette hesitated, began pumping the brakes until the van slowed down. When the speedometer showed less than twenty kilometers an hour, she eased it off the road onto the icy shoulder.
Thomas's van followed suit, slowing and pulling off the road and parking twenty yards behind them.
Bolan could see their exhaust pumping into the chilly air.
'Cut the motor,' he told Babette.
She turned the motor off but left the key in the ignition. 'Udo, you'll have to drive. I'm too nervous. Udo!'
'Of course,' he said and climbed forward to the driver's seat. 'Okay, they've cut their engine,' said Bolan. 'Now, I'm going outside to talk. When you think you're ready to go, go! Start her up and drive like hell.'
'I'm as handy with a gun as I am with my hands,' Mako said quietly.
Bolan was touched by the slender man's subtle offer. He had proven himself a lion of a man already, but his skills would be better used helping the others escape. 'I'll bet there's not a whole lot you aren't good at, guy. But this one's a solo.'
Mako nodded understanding and gave a look of such sincerity that it expressed more friendship than a dozen speeches.
'Let's go, Sweet Pea,' Bolan said, grabbed Tanya under the arm and hoisted her to her feet. 'Toss me those clips.'
Udo threw Bolan two clips for the H and K. Bolan slipped one into place over the nuzzle and looked back to the man. 'You keep the Uzi, you may need it if I don't stop them.' He slid open the VW side door and stepped out, pulling Tanya behind him. He looked back into the van at the brave band of athletes and smiled. 'Good luck,' he said, then slid the door closed with an echoing thud.
He dug the barrel of the H and K into the back of Tanya's skull while guiding her forward with his left hand. 'Just stay cool, Commander,' he whispered. 'You wouldn't like what a couple rounds from this baby would do to your pretty little head.'
'The only thing I don't like is your head,' she hissed. 'Maybe, but right now your head is mine. I have it.' He took a careful step, used the corner of the van for cover. 'Come on out, Morganslicht,' Bolan called. 'New deal.'
'That's an American phrase, FDR'S New Deal?' Thomas was crazed with uncertainty.
'Yeah, this is going to be just like that.'
The side door of the other van slid open and four armed hardguys jumped out, leveled their guns at Bolan. Then the front doors opened, Thomas and Hermann stepped out either side, and remained standing behind the metal doors.
'What happened, Tanya?' Thomas asked.
