Each mission held surprises
Few, if any, ran exactly as the plans were drawnâin quiet moments, prior to contact with the enemy. Whether you called it chaos theory or the human element, it all came down to the same thing: variables that could never be anticipated.
Mack Bolan had stayed alive this long because he planned ahead and still retained the flexibility required to change his plans, adapt to any given situation that arose. Some day, he knew, the switch would be too fast for him, his enemy too deadly accurate, and that would be the end.
But hopefully, it wouldnât be this night.
He understood that there was too much riding on his mission to Colombia, too many lives at risk if he should fail. His own fate was of less concern to Bolan than the job at hand, but he could hardly carry out that job if he was dead.
That wasnât part of the plan.
Park Avenue, New York City
The man had proved untouchable; his wife was not. The manâthe real targetâemployed security devices and armed guards, remained inside his consulate whenever possible, and generally lived as if his life was constantly at risk.
In that belief, he was correct.
The trackers had considered sniper rifles, car bombs, even rocket launchers, but they ultimately realized that an assault against the consulate itself would likely guarantee their own deaths, while their target had a good chance of emerging from the blitz unscathed. They found that prospect unacceptable, and so adjusted their approach.
The targetâs wife was reasonably pretty, undeniably vivacious, and would not allow herself to be penned up inside drab walls simply because her husband was afraid. She had been hoping, even praying, for the diplomatic posting to New York, and she was not about to waste a moment of her golden opportunity. There were too many stores, boutiques, salons, spas, theaters, cafésâthe list was endless, and she meant to try them all before they were recalled to Tel Aviv.
That afternoon she needed jewelry, and she refused to have samples delivered to the consulate. Why suffer a parade of fawning salesmen when she could go out and visit them, have lunch, enjoy herself in the heart of Manhattan?
The trackers watched and waited, mingling with the sidewalk crowd. They were dressed down to fit the setting, pass for tourists, and the womanâs driver didnât seem to notice them.
Her single bodyguard was first to leave the jewelerâs shop, scanning the street before he beckoned to his charge. The woman followed, carrying a small black satin bag and chatting, distracting her protector when he should have been alert.
The trackers moved together, one drawing a pistol, firing at the bodyguard from point-blank range, then spinning toward the black Mercedes at the curb and bouncing three rounds off its windshield. If the driver chose to save himself, he had to stay inside the car.
The second tracker pulled a clear glass bottle from his pocket, twisted off the cap and hurled its contents at the womanâs startled, screaming face. The tone of her screams changed immediately, from a note of panic to soul-searing agony.
The trackers fled and within heartbeats had been swallowed by the crowd.
Sonora, Mexico
THE BUS HAD BROKEN DOWN again, which meant the tour would be late arriving at the stop in Hermosillo. The hotel was not a problem, and the Mexican tradition of late dining meant they wouldnât starve, but food was not Eli Dayanâs primary focus.
He was tired of traveling and wondered why heâd let his wife persuade him that a Mexican vacation was a good idea.
The kibbutz where they lived was in a desert, and heâd flown halfway around the world to see more desert through the tinted windows of a bus that suffered some mechanical disruption every day, like clockwork. He was tired of cactus, tired of rural villages that seemed to be constructed out of mud and cast-off refuse, tired of drinking beer because he couldnât trust the water.
His bowels were grumbling, and he reckoned that he was about to suffer the revenge of Montezuma. It would make the last five days of their grand tour a misery, and something told him that his wife would never forgive him.