'I'm going out there,' Bolan told him. 'Konzaki is in a coma, hanging on to life by a thread. Three good men are on the other side of the world and need to be alerted and told that they're walking into a trap.'
'You think The Dragon has the place wired?'
Bolan nodded, his face a grim mask.
'With enough firepower to kill Lyons, Schwarz and Blancanales before they know what hit them. And it's about to happen at any minute now, but we can't get word to them because someone sabotaged Stony Man communications. I am going to find who did this to us, Hal. They are not going to get another chance.'
'But where will you start? You don't have any leads.'
Grimaldi, waiting in the chopper, saw Bolan coming and revved up the engine in preparation for take off.
Bolan raised his voice for Hal to hear.
'I've already started. I'm going to shake this damn town to its roots. I'll get the answers. And it's happening tonight.'
Bolan jogged beneath the whirling blades and climbed into the Hughes.
Brognola watched as Grimaldi smoothly lifted them off. The blinking red lights of the chopper grew smaller and smaller as the Hughes receded into the night sky.
Then Brognola gave in to his urge and reached into a pocket for a cigar.
He paused before lighting it, still looking into the dark sky long after the chopper disappeared.
'You are the damndest guy,' he said again to no one.
Brognola pocketed the unlit cigar and walked back into the White House.
7
'Where to?' asked Grimaldi.
The evening lights of Washington and the gridiron arrangement of streets cut by diagonal avenues raced by beneath the chopper's Plexiglas.
'We need an airfield,' said Bolan above the steady rumble of the chopper. 'I want you on standby alert for the rest of the night.'
'Boiling?'
'Not tonight. Make it National. I'll need a car with no government tie-in.'
'A rental,' said the pilot, glancing at the big warrior beside him. 'I've seen you like this before, soldier. You're on the kill. And it's a lone-wolf play, just like it used to be.'
Bolan's eyes were chips of ice.
'Patch me through to Stony Man.'
Local communications were relayed through a government scrambler frequency.
Kurtzman wasted no time on amenities when the connection was made.
'I have two names and an address for you,' the computer expert reported.
'Hold on that,' said Bolan. 'How's Konzaki?'
'No change,' reported Kurtzman. 'April has a guard on the door. Two doctors and a nurse are with him right now. It's all we can do.'
'Any contact with Able Team yet?'
'Negative. We still can't get through. My guess is they're the same. I've got my crew working without break.'
'Tell them to work harder. The Central Foreign Bureau has a mole inside The Dragon's operation. The CFB boss put it together and The Dragon has been tipped off about what's going down.'
'Farnsworth, the bastard.'
'That mountain fortress is a trap for Able Team. If we don't contact them to abort their mission in time, they'll be massacred by the force The Dragon left behind.'
'It seems,' said Kurtzman thoughtfully, 'as if an awful lot is going wrong for Stony Man all at once.'
'What's the status of Phoenix Force?' asked Bolan, ignoring Kurtzman's comment.
'On their way home. Their ETA is midnight.'
'Wade. Did you run a clearance check?'
'April did. Our security officer has a clean bill of health, Striker, clear back to Nam. You want the details?'
'Later. Now tell me those names and address.'
'Ismet Kemal and Mustafa Izmir,' said Kurtzman. 'Armenians. Chief enforcers for a terrorist cell operating out of Turkey that calls itself the Justice Commandos of Armenian Genocide. The CIA spotted them disembarking from an Istanbul flight late last night. We got our intel from the usual source, but the Company has it classified top secret.
'They have Kemal and Izmir under surveillance right now. That's how we know the address. I figured it might be more than coincidence, these boys in town when everything starts going to hell for us, especially since Kemal and Izmir's specialty is commando night raids. They've been linked to several such actions in Europe.'
The Bear rattled off a street address that Bolan committed to memory.
'It's a start,' said Bolan. He saw the runway lights of National Airport coming toward them.
'Thanks, Bear. Get through to Able Team the instant the communications foul-up is corrected. Gotta go.'
'Roger,' Kurtzman replied, and the connection was broken.
Grimaldi set the Hughes chopper down after control-tower directions to the airport's private landing area. The pilot cut the chopper's engine as soon as they touched ground.
Bolan climbed from the bubble front and shed the suit jacket and tie he had worn to meet the president.
He shrugged into a more comfortable jacket that once again concealed the Beretta 93-R.
'A lone-wolf play, just like it used to be,' repeated Grimaldi as he watched Bolan tog for night work. The pilot wore an enthused grin. 'Here we go again, is that it?'
'That's it,' acknowledged the Stony warrior.
Bolan grabbed the briefcase containing his .44 AutoMag and more death.
April rose entered the room just as Aaron Kurtzman broke his connection with Bolan. She sat beside him at the communications console and handed him a cup of freshly made coffee.
'That was Striker,' Kurtzman told her. He sipped the coffee and growled his contentment. 'I gave him Izmir and Kemal.'
April ignored her cup.
'I hope they're not a false lead.'
'They're the only lead we've got,' Kurtzman grunted. 'Unless you consider Lee Farnsworth.'
He briefed her on Bolan's report that Farnsworth had fingered the men of Able Team for a waiting Dragon in the Hindu Kush on the other side of the world.
April still didn't touch her coffee.
'Interagency rivalry? I've heard stories of it in the past.'
'I barely survived two interagency wars,' said Kurtzman. 'Damn spy business.'
'The damn spy business,' said April. 'Maybe that's what's been bothering him.'
'You noticed it too, eh?'
'Of course I did, Aaron.'
'If we're right, this thing could blow up in our faces, just like the plastique that blew out our communications setup.'
'Mack won't risk Stony Man,' said April. 'He's committed to the new war.'
'He won't risk us,' agreed Kurtzman, 'but he could reconsider if this is really where he belongs.'
'That is his decision to make.'
