Contagion Option
IRON FISTMack Bolan finds himself in a brutal war with a deadly international cartel that has been operating in secret for years. A terrorist group armed with nerve gas from one of America's largest bioweapons caches has set the stage for an endgame that could consign an entire city of innocents to an agonizing death. Bolan is surprised to learn that the containers were made in the U.S., but according to Stony Man records, they were destroyed in Utah more than four decades earlier. The trail leads the Executioner to Asia and back to Salt Lake City, where one false move, one stray shot could unleash a lethal cloud on a city of millions.
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Mack Bolan wasnât walking the razorâs edge now
He was cutting his feet on the blade, and only his and Grimaldiâs skill could keep his blood from spraying the U.S. government in the fallout.
It was risky, and when Bolan called Stony Man Farm for an intelligence update and to inform Brognola that he planned to go to North Korea, it wasnât to ask permission. Such a request would have been construed as nothing less than an act of war, even if the foray was in utmost secrecy.
The Executioner wasnât a government employee, and there was a conspiracy summoning him into the depths of an enemy stronghold.
There wasnât an option of survival.
He either succeeded, or the world would be drawn into a war that could explode into a three-way conflict with China.
Other titles available in this series:
Stalk Line
Omega Game
Shock Tactic
Showdown
Precision Kill
Jungle Law
Dead Center
Tooth and Claw
Thermal Strike
Day of the Vulture
Flames of Wrath
High Aggression
Code of Bushido
Terror Spin
Judgment in Stone
Rage for Justice
Rebels and Hostiles
Ultimate Game
Blood Feud
Renegade Force
Retribution
Initiation
Cloud of Death
Termination Point
Hellfire Strike
Code of Conflict
Vengeance
Executive Action
Killsport
Conflagration
Storm Front
War Season
Evil Alliance
Scorched Earth
Deception
Destinyâs Hour
Power of the Lance
A Dying Evil
Deep Treachery
War Load
Sworn Enemies
Dark Truth
Breakaway
Blood and Sand
Caged
Sleepers
Strike and Retrieve
Age of War
Line of Control
Breached
Retaliation
Pressure Point
Silent Running
Stolen Arrows
Zero Option
Predator Paradise
Circle of Deception
Devilâs Bargain
False Front
Lethal Tribute
Season of Slaughter
Point of Betrayal
Ballistic Force
Renegade
Survival Reflex
Path to War
Blood Dynasty
Ultimate Stakes
State of Evil
Force Lines
Contagion Option
Mack Bolan®
Don Pendleton
To Bobbi, as always.
This book never could have been done without you.
We must dare to think âunthinkableâ thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about âunthinkable thingsâ because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.
âJ. William Fulbright,
March 27, 1964
In my War Everlasting, I have been forced to see the unthinkable put into action by the unconscionable. To contain a catastrophe, sometimes the options are to lose an entire city than to lose a nation, but as long as there is still a breath in me, my option is to lose myself to save a city.
âMack Bolan
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
The body plummeted through the sky and crashed with a dull, sickening thump into the dry grass. More bodies followed as the transport plane made a slow, lazy circle over the field.
The team had done this a hundred times before, and the men, dressed in black, took to the field.
The bodies were hollowed-out cattle, their bellies distended with packages. Some clinked with the heavy ring of metal, while others were stiff pillows of compressed powder. Two of the cows were filled with rolls of rifles, wrapped in plastic and cushioning foam.
âLooks like Christmastime for the gang,â a man dressed in black mentioned as he pulled the weapons from the body cavity of the slaughtered animal. âMust be twenty rifles here.â
âChatter,â another replied quietly.
The first fell quiet, admonished with a single word. Sound carried, and even though their helicopter had scanned the area for miles with infrared and radar, they still worked in hushed, professional silence to ensure their private, midnight endeavor went undetected.
In the darkness, none of the men in black used regular white lights. Occasionally they would flash on a low-powered, low-signature red light, but only for a moment. In the empty field, there was too much risk of strangers noticing.
They had been doing this for years and hadnât been caught.
One man spoke among the group. âLeave a souvenir for the conspiracy theorists.â
The others nodded and as they dragged a dozen carcasses off the field, they left one lying in the dried grass.
One man pulled a small butane-lighter-like device and burned a brand into the carcass. He worked from memory, knowing which ranch they were on.
The rest of the team took out folding rakes and went over the entirety of the field before returning to the helicopter. The branding artist backed his way to the helicopter, obscuring his tracks, leaving no trace that anyone was ever there. The long, padded skids of the transport chopper rose from a patch of hard, rocky soil and sparse grass leaving little clue of the vehicleâs presence.
The presence of the gutted cow would obfuscate the situation handily. No one would suspect their smuggling ring, in business across several decades, was in operation. Not when investigators were hampered by crackpot theorists who blamed slaughtered cattle on aliens or top-secret Army surgical teams testing surgical lasers. The truth was at once mundane and would shock the world should it ever get out.
