Free The Libya Connection by Don Pendleton Page B

moved quickly toward the storage room where Bolan had found Fahima and Bushir — and the secret tunnel. "How much do you know about me?"
    "I know that you are Colonel Phoenix and that you head an operation code named Stony Man," replied Hohlstrom. "You must be here for the same reason as I."
    "Tell me the reason."
    "You're here to stop Jericho. We can work together."
    "I don't think so. You'll have to delay your mission. There's another angle I'm working."
    They entered the tunnel, but not before Bolan set down the Largo-Star. It would be real hard explaining that away. He was counting on his and Hohlstrom's arrival to come so close to the lift off that Kennedy's subordinate, Doyle, would have no time for questions or explanations.
    Hohlstrom evidently knew the way into the tunnel from his own intel probes.
    "My mission is to destroy the shipment in the lead chopper, whatever it is," said Hohlstrom.
    "Then it's a suicide mission."
    They were jogging now, single file through the tunnel, Bolan leading the way.
    "I'm going to blow that copter to hell, one way or another," insisted Hohlstrom. "The cargo is a product of your government's Nuclear Chemical and Biological program. It cannot be allowed to fall into Arab possession. Libya and terrorism sleep together, you know that." The guy's voice grew especially hard. "There must be no more holocausts in this generation. It cannot be allowed to happen."
    Bolan tried a new tack. His last one before having to nullify this harmful ally.
    "Hohlstrom, listen. The angle I'm working... we've got an agent in the middle of this. But Jericho knows. He has the woman."
    "Woman?"
    "A lady named Eve Aguilar. She's a good human being, Hohlstrom." Bolan could see the guy turning it over. He pressed on. "I cannot leave her inside to die. I've got air backup behind me. We may be able to pull that cargo out intact or destroy it and stop any deal between Jericho and Shahkhia, and rescue the woman as well. This doesn't have to be a suicide job for you."
    A moment's hesitation from the merc.
    Time had slipped away altogether. Hohlstrom could not be allowed to stand in Bolan's way.
    They had Eve.
    Hohlstrom hesitated, finally nodded.
    "Okay, Phoenix. If they've got the woman, we'll get her out safely. If the thing breaks wrong... then we do it my way."
    "You
try
to do it your way," corrected Bolan. "Me, I'll play it as it comes."
    They reached the bottom of the stairs leading up to Kennedy's office. Hohlstrom came forward to Bolan's side.
    "All right, guy. For now... you call it."
    "Your people don't have any idea where we're headed?"
    "None. That's why I've waited this long. I want to tear their whole thing down."
    "Then we'll tear it down together," said the Executioner.
    The conversation had taken less than two minutes.
    The men moved up the stairway to the sliding panel into what had been Kennedy's office.
    As the iciness of ascending combat-readiness flowed through him, Mack Bolan reflected on the allies with whom this mission had brought him into contact.
    Fahima and Bushir. Lansdale. And now Hohlstrom.
    And maybe Death.
    Death was an ally when it kissed the other side.
    On this mission, Death had been no ally at all. Thatcher had known of approaching death and sold out to get money for his family. Fahima had lost her father. Death was all around.
    Mack Bolan had to find Eve Aguilar before she too was kissed by the Reaper.
    He would tear down the walls of Jericho's world, whatever the man was hiding, to spare her from a bloody end.
    That was Bolan's Something Big.
    Jericho's Something Big was a nuisance factor he would eliminate en route to his supergoal.
    The Executioner was on a collision course with a whole bunch of shit that stood in his way, and he would blast open a path for himself every inch of that way.
    A path of rescue from distress — a high path, blazed by sacred fires.

13
    April Rose was at the main communications console in the mission-control area of Stony Man Farm.
    She ignored an