that flung the shredded remains of two commandos high into the air like the remnants of rag dolls chewed up and discarded by a playful pup.
One commando emerged from behind a rise in the terrain and opened fire with his Uzi. Two of the Stony Man soldiers grunted and were flung back, the tops of their heads blown away.
McCarter, Katz and the lieutenant opened fire simultaneously.
The commando burst apart under the sheet of automatic M-16 fire as if drawn and quartered.
Bolan set down Grimaldi's unconscious form at the base of a towering oak. Jack was still out of it, but he was wearing a .45 bolstered cross-draw at his left hip. He would be okay once he came to. Until then, this appeared to be a safe spot for the stricken pilot.
As Grimaldi had been setting down the Hughes, the rattle of gunfire in the night seemed to Bolan to have closed in toward the main house of the installation.
Guided by his infrared eye shield, Bolan started off through the night in the direction of the farmhouse, across another rolling and dipping ten acres.
He had to find Miller.
Alive.
Who had ordered this attack?
Bolan intended to find out from the commando merc boss.
One way or another.
The Executioner traveled soundlessly for about twenty meters when his peripheral infrared vision caught sight of an Uzi-toting commando who thought he had enough cover behind a tree.
Bolan fired. The .44 headbuster tore through skull-bone and brains and snuffed another existence. The dead commando was kicked back from behind his tree by the impact of the slug. He slammed into another tree behind him. Then he pitched forward to the earth and did not move. The Executioner moved on.
Al Miller could tell his men were being blasted apart by the way the gunfire in the distance, punctuated by a grenade blast now and then, died off to nothing. The farmhouse and the crew around the outbuilding where the satellite repairs were taking place had not yet been attacked. That meant trouble.
The commando leader and Kagor crouched on a knoll northwest of the farmhouse and the cluster of people.
Miller observed the repair crew — a big bear of a man, a Latin American and some soldiers standing guard — and debated the best way for him and Kagor to hit them. Then they could pull out to the west and would have a good shot at getting away even if the hit teams were in tatters.
After the helicopter had been downed — at least Miller now had a good idea where John Phoenix was! — Miller and Kagor had circled around to the north, cutting over short of the Stony Man airstrip and carefully moving west until they reached the knoll.
Miller cursed his bad luck. But he had been in hot-spots such as this one and walked away.
Well, maybe not
Had Phoenix been killed when the chopper crashed?
Miller had a hunch the big man was damn near indestructible!
Kagor, crouched next to Miller, motioned with the snout of his Uzi at the men around the outbuilding.
'What the hell are we waiting for?' he demanded in a whisper. 'Looks like we're alone on this one, Top.'
'We could still have some backup. Some of the boys could've slipped through. Okay, let's hit this bunch. Be careful, K. Careful for that goddamn Phoenix.'
'Phoenix?' snickered Kagor. 'He was kil — '
Kagor was interrupted by a stutter of Uzi fire across the clearing from where Miller and he lay watching.
Miller swung his infrared binoculars to see one of his own commandos rattling off the steady stream of hot lead at the circle of people around the sabotaged satellite unit. Miller saw one Stony Man trooper fly back until he fell, as if tripped. The others scattered, except for one Hispanic down there with an M-16.
Miller placed the man from the intel his contact inside the Farm had furnished: Rafael Encizo, member of Bolan's Phoenix Force.
The commando started to dodge back for cover when Encizo swung around his M-16.
The commando made it halfway to the shelter of some trees when Encizo loosed a burst that pulped out the commando's back and turned his run into a stagger that became a fall into hell.
The bearlike man — Kurtzman, thought Miller — emerged from cover and returned to his work.
'Take them
The attention of Encizo and the others was drawn to the direction from which the commando had just opened fire. The group's unprotected flank was toward the knoll that hid Miller and Kagor.
The mission can still be saved, thought Miller. This bunch are sitting ducks. They're already dead, only they don't know it. Two or three grenades into the farmhouse, and we pull out.
Without leaving their cover the two remaining merc commandos sighted their Uzis on Encizo, Kurtzman and the other Stony Man people.
Miller and Kagor opened fire.
And more death blistered the night.
20
When the twin volley of Uzi rapidfire sprayed its death hail at Kurtzman and the others, Mack Bolan was halfway from the tree line of the clearing around the house to where the repairs were being done near the outbuilding. The ambushers were hidden from Bolan's infrared line of vision.
The pair were not aware of Bolan's approach.
This would be Al Miller and his second-in-command! Bolan was sure of it.
Bolan the nightscorcher jogged around to their flank.
He saw several things at once.
He saw a Stony Man security soldier and Aaron Kurtzman crumple to the ground as Uzi gunfire ripped them apart.
The soldier fell and did not move.
Kurtzman looked badly hit. He was thrashing around. Some of his crew rushed to help him.
Rafael Encizo had lightning reflexes. The Phoenix Forcer swung around his M-16 and fired at the knoll where the ambush had come from. The slugs from the M-16's automatic fire ricocheted off dirt and trees, but the firing from the Uzis had already stopped.
Bolan saw two commandos dart from their cover and dash west an instant before Encizo opened fire at where they had been.
Bolan started to head off Miller and his companion. He would blow off an arm or a leg if he had to, but he would stop those two and take them alive, and they would talk. Bolan hoped like hell that Kurtzman hadn't checked out for good.
Before he could close in on the retreating commandos, Bolan also sighted Captain Wade. The Stony Man security officer caught sight of Miller and the other commando in the distant lights from the farmhouse.
Wade stood in their way and brought up the M-16.
'Captain Wade, hold your fire!' snapped Bolan.
Too late.
The commando leading the way — it would have to be Miller, thought Bolan — heard the shout, saw Wade and died.
Wade gave Al Miller a figure eight of gut-shredding lead that lifted him off the ground, spun him around
