Free Hellfire Crusade by Don Pendleton Page B

with his foot, then reached forward and grabbed Danny's shoulder.
    She felt that big hairy paw clamp hold with a viselike grip. Danny was lifted bodily through the doorway.
    "You will come with us! Now!"
    "Okay, King Kong, but you can let go of me." She tried to shake him loose. Nothing doing. His fingers dug deeper into her flesh as he propelled her toward the service elevator.
    The other guy helped steer by jabbing her in the ribs with his gun.
    There was a sickening chill in the pit of her stomach. Yes, thought Danny, this would have been a very good moment to have Mack at her side.
    * * *
    The hog drew some curious stares from the young dudes out cruising along the waterfront; even with the unlimited funds at their disposal they hadn't seen anything quite like that on four wheels before.
    There was an insane sense of urgency about the construction of the new city. It was as if they were racing to build a modern metropolis, an unfinished version of Manhattan dotted with minarets right out of Arabian Nights, before the oil patch was bled dry; though what they would do with it after that was anyone's guess.
    The past and the future seemed to be fighting for control of Khurabi. The spiked towers of the minarets were squeezed between the dazzling new office blocks and hotels.
    Bolan slowed down as he entered the city core.
    He noted there were a lot of police patrols on the streets. Keeping a watchful eye on all the traffic signals, Bolan cruised into town, reviewing his battle plans once more. Maybe he should go tonight. The Hog was packed and ready for action.
    He'd just proved it. And those two guys in the wrecked Charger would not be stranded back there for long.
    He was confident that he could trust Danny to do her part; so far she had proved to be efficient, thorough and fast. He could not have mounted this Khurabian mission half as quickly without her invaluable aid.
    Bolan stopped for a red light. He was mentally juggling his own schedule with the carefully timed arrangements that he had already set up with Jack Grimaldi and Steve Hohenadel.
    There were no safe lines he could trust in Khurabi, no way to set up a conference call on this thing. He was out on the end of a string. Anyway, if he started off tonight, it might give him more time to recon the fortress at Hagadan. And that wasn't a bad idea, not with the figures Kurtzman had passed on just before they landed. His mind made up on advancing the timetable, Bolan now decided to park the Hog around the back of the hotel.
    He would discuss this change of plan with Danny, shower, grab a catnap and leave unnoticed.
    He'd be deep in the desert before any more of Hassan Zayoud's spies figured out he was missing.
    Bolan drove past the floodlit display of fountains in front of the International and turned into the narrow lane leading to the rear. He glanced left and spotted a likely looking place around a shadowy corner beyond the garbage dumpsters.
    Damn, another car was already parked back there.
    Then he noticed that the driver was looking anxiously at the building, checking his watch, nervously signaling to the people coming out from... Two Arab hoods were holding Danny captive!
    Bolan raced forward, working the wheel, accelerator and brake pedal down to force a last-minute skid. The Hog slammed sideways into the thugs car. The broken body of the driver was flung back inside across the seat, his head lolling at an unnatural angle.
    Using the roll bar for a handhold, the Executioner vaulted from the Hog. He came hurtling out in a drop kick aimed straight at the face of the small gunman. The pistol slithered across the concrete paving as the guy went down with his nose smeared into bleeding pulp. Danny had shoved her full body weight into the goon who was holding her, catching him off balance. He staggered back against the wall. The gorilla grunted with pain as the blonde brought up her knee like a sledgehammer between his legs.
    Bolan had scooped up the gun and now