Heâd seen plenty of fanatics willing to die for their cause. Call it a gut instinct, but these two women didnât seem to be the type to take their lives for an abstract slogan. In Bolanâs experience, this type of brutal self-sacrifice was committed for a dynamic personality.
This force, this entity, this malevolent being stood at the center of the maelstrom of violence threatening to storm across Germany.
Just who could inspire this kind of bloodshed?
THE MACK BOLAN LEGEND
Nothing less than a war could have fashioned the destiny of the man called Mack Bolan. Bolan earned the Executioner title in the jungle hell of Vietnam.
But this soldier also wore another nameâSergeant Mercy. He was so tagged because of the compassion he showed to wounded comrades-in-arms and Vietnamese civilians.
Mack Bolanâs second tour of duty ended prematurely when he was given emergency leave to return home and bury his family, victims of the Mob. Then he declared a one-man war against the Mafia.
He confronted the Families head-on from coast to coast, and soon a hope of victory began to appear. But Bolan had broken societyâs every rule. That same society started gunning for this elusive warriorâto no avail.
So Bolan was offered amnesty to work within the system against terrorism. This time, as an employee of Uncle Sam, Bolan became Colonel John Phoenix. With a command center at Stony Man Farm in Virginia, he and his new alliesâAble Team and Phoenix Forceâwaged relentless war on a new adversary: the KGB.
But when his one true love, April Rose, died at the hands of the Soviet terror machine, Bolan severed all ties with Establishment authority.
Now, after a lengthy lone-wolf struggle and much soul-searching, the Executioner has agreed to enter an âarmâs-lengthâ alliance with his government once more, reserving the right to pursue personal missions in his Everlasting War.
The wet streets of Berlin reflected the headlights of passing cars and the multicolored glow of countless shop signs. The clouds covering the leaden skies appeared to give no ground to the approaching twilight, but as the rain grew colder, the coming darkness closed over the busy streets like a clenching fist. Heedless of the rain, dressed in a brown trench coat and matching snap-brim hat, a man crossed the street in front of a popular coffee shop. He was one figure among many, but his presence caught the eye of one of the shopâs customers, who had taken a table near one corner. The table offered a good view of the large picture windows in front.
The man in the trench coat paused to remove his hat and run his fingers through his hair. His coat was open, and the watcher sitting in the corner noted the butt of the revolver just barely visible in the newcomerâs waistband.
âYou are not difficult to spot,â said the man in the trench coat, moving to sit at the corner table without invitation.
âYouâre fairly conspicuous yourself,â said Mack Bolan, aka the Executioner. âWhatâs with the third-rate spy novel getup?â
The man in the trench coat knew Mack Bolan as Matt Cooper, and for all his faults was probably well aware that the name was an alias. âI donât see any reason to be insulted, Cooper,â he said.
Bolan gave him a hard look. âYou donât have something more important on your mind, Rieck?â
Adam Rieck, Bolanâs Interpol liaison, grimaced. âA fair point,â he said. He produced a folded sheaf of papers from inside his coat. âThis is it.â
Bolan took the papers, glanced around and began shuffling through them under the edge of the table. There were laser-printed color photographs, a complete itinerary and some computer-generated maps indicating where the itinerary stops correlated physically. Bolan nodded.
âThis will be plenty,â he said.
âThen I guess weâd better get going.â Rieck nodded in turn.
Bolan eyed him again. âTaking you along wasnât part of the deal.â Of course, heâd known that it very well could be, and Hal Brognola, director of the Sensitive Operations Group, whose base of operations was at Stony Man Farm, Virginia, had said as much in describing the operation.
âGermany is in trouble,â the big Fed had said, speaking to Bolan from Washington using a secure, scrambled satellite phone.
âThe whole country?â Bolan had asked.
âOn certain levels,â Brognola said. âYouâre aware of the push for greater security, greater governing controls on strategic industries worldwide.â