MacK Bolan No. 62: Day of Mourning Read Online Free PDF Page B

the defense with you and Wade after it's been revised."
    "Defense?" echoed Kurtzman. "Sounds as if you expect an attack."
    "That sabotage was a soft probe to test our reflexes," said Bolan. "And I'd say everyone here reflexed right on the money."
    "That means," added April, "that if someone is planning to attack the Farm, they'll hit us with a sizable force." She stood, tall, lush-bodied.
    "When they hit, we damn well better be ready for them," she said. "I'd better get on it."
    There had to be time for that one brief brush of lips against his cheek. Her nearness always tantalized Bolan.
    Then she was gone.
    Dear April. So damn efficient.
    "What's the status on Able Team?" Bolan asked Kurtzman. "Yakov told me they were homed in on the European end of that terrorist deal I just squashed."
    "Lyons, Blancanales and Schwarz are poised to strike at the headquarters of a man they've identified only as 'The Dragon.' The Dragon runs his show from a mountain fortress in the Hindu Kush, almost inaccessible except by helicopter."
    "The Himalayas," Bolan commented. "Fourteen-thousand-foot mountains between Pakistan and Afghanistan. A smugglers' route for thousands of years."
    "The Dragon is the biggest broker we've been able to identify," said Kurtzman. "If we stop him, we could practically dry up the flow of arms to all the terrorist groups. And maybe give us the next link in the chain to who pulls the big strings.''
    Sure. Bolan knew well. Anyone who thought that the various terrorist groups functioned solely on empty rhetoric simply did not know the truth. Activities such as kidnapping, extortion and robbery netted millions of dollars per year for those unknowns who bathed in the blood of innocent victims.
    And now the men of Mack Bolan's Able Team were halfway around the world, ready to make one of the biggest hits of all in this new war against terrorism. Dry up their arms supply.
    Able Team was a three-man unit: Carl Lyons, a former LAPD cop who'd been a Bolan ally since the early days of the Executioner's former Mafia war, Rosario "Pol" Blancanales and Hermann "Gadgets" Schwarz, two more combat specialists who had shared the hellground experience with Mack Bolan as part of the Executioner's Able Penetration Team in that long-ago war.
    Three exceptional fighting men.
    Yeah.
    Three men.
    Against who the hell knew what?
    The Dragon was a new one to Bolan.
    He voiced a thought that had been with him since his arrival at the Farm.
    "Where's Hal?"
    A phone at Kurtzman's elbow buzzed.
    Kurtzman picked up the receiver, listened, then extended the phone to Bolan. "You want him, you got him. Mr. Liaison himself."
    Bolan took the receiver.
    "Hal?"
    "Welcome home, Striker."
    "Where are you, Hal? You should be here."
    "Would you believe the White House?" said Brognola.
    "And what's cooking at the Man's place?"
    "We're waiting on Colonel John Phoenix."
    "We?"
    "The president, Striker. And a guy named Lee Farnsworth."
    "And what are we waiting on Colonel Phoenix for?" asked Bolan.
    There was a pause, as if Brognola did not want to reply.
    "Farnsworth wants the president to disband the Stony Man operation."
    "What?"
    "You know who Farnsworth is?"
    "CFB."
    "Right. The Central Foreign Bureau. He says we've stepped on CFB's toes with one of our operations. Got two of their men killed. He claims it's happened before."
    "Hal, is my presence there absolutely necessary? The blackout tonight could've been a probe for something else."
    "You cannot stand up the Man, Striker."
    "The president's a man of good judgment," said Bolan.
    "But Farnsworth has his ear, and he's making a strong case against us," insisted Hal. "I hate to remind you, old buddy, but you are a team player, remember? Your one-man-war days are over."
    "I wonder, Hal. I'm starting to get an itch."
    "Dammit, we are talking about the goddamn president, Striker."
    "You're right, Hal. He is the boss. I don't like it, but I'll be there in fifteen minutes."
    * * *
    April met him near the