Patriot Play. Don Pendleton

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      Bolan nodded. “We’re working undercover and came here to talk with Jerome Gantz, but it looks like we were a little late.”

      “Where is Gantz?”

      “Inside the house and in a bad way. We interrupted his visitors, who were beating him. Soon as they saw us all hell broke loose.”

      “That’s what I heard?”

      “There were more on a boat anchored off the beach,” Lyons said. “They hit the house with a .50-caliber machine gun.”

      “Thought I recognized the sound. It’s something you don’t forget.”

      “Chief, we should check to see if Gantz is still alive,” Bolan said.

      Harper hesitated for a few seconds, then lowered the shotgun. “Go ahead. I need to call for assistance.” He held out the wallet for Bolan to take. “I think we need to talk, Special Agent Cooper.”

      Bolan retrieved the guns he and Lyons had dropped on the beach. He nodded to Harper as he walked by and headed for the bullet-riddled house, Lyons alongside.

      “Hell of a start,” Lyons muttered.

      As soon as they were inside, stepping across the littered floor, they saw Gantz. The man and the chair he was bound to had toppled over. Bolan crouched beside Gantz and checked him out. He had caught a couple of the .50-caliber shells. The large projectiles had ripped his left side open, leaving large and bloody wounds. Blood had already formed a large pool across the wood floor.

      “Is he dead?” Lyons asked.

      Bolan, checking for vital signs, shook his head. “Still breathing.”

      “I’ll get Harper to call for medical help.”

      Bolan nodded. He stayed beside the unconscious Gantz for a while, aware that there was little he could do for the man. The bullet wounds had caused severe damage. Even if he was admitted to hospital it was going to take a miracle to keep him alive.

      He wandered around the rooms, not even certain what he was looking for. His search failed to turn up a cell phone. Also Gantz wasn’t going to leave quantities of his bomb-making ingredients lying around the house. Or even manufacture them on the premises. Vehicles arriving and departing from the area would have been noticed in a quiet town like Tyler Bay, which would explain the hit team coming in from the water.

      Gantz would have built his bombs somewhere else, at a spot where regular traffic would be expected. Maybe some kind of industrial site. A place where there would have to be the kind of equipment the panel trucks could be adapted for their intended use. It wouldn’t be an easy place to find, considering the number of such sites there were across the country.

      Bolan took out his cell phone and contacted the Farm, asking for Kurtzman.

      “What’s the miracle I’m expected to perform tonight?”

      “We’re at Gantz’s house outside Tyler Bay. He already had visitors, but not the kind who bring a bottle of wine to accompany a meal.”

      “Understood. Gantz?”

      “He’d been tortured when we arrived. We mixed it with the visitors. The upshot is they hit the house with a .50-caliber mounted on that boat you spotted in the bay. They used it to get to Gantz’s house. Must have been waiting for dark and the fog to cover their approach. Gantz took a couple of shells. He’s still alive but critical.”

      “Where do I come in?”

      “Gantz couldn’t have made his bombs here. There has to be a manufacturing site somewhere.”

      Bolan heard the big man’s deep sigh.

      “Haystacks and needles just registered,” Kurtzman said. “That’s a hell of a request.”

      “I realize that. I’ll go through the place here to see if I can turn anything up that might help.”

      “How about a confession written down and personally signed by Gantz?”

      “If I find it, you’ll be the first to know. Aaron, patch me through to Hal. And thanks.”

      “For what? I haven’t done anything yet.”

      “I have faith in you, buddy.”

      Brognola came on the line. “Is Massachusetts in flames yet?”

      “A small part of it is smoking.”

      “I knew it. Tell me the worst.”

      Bolan gave a detailed report of the Tyler Bay episode. He made it clear to Brognola that they were attempting to gain further information so he and Lyons could make their next move against the Brethren.

      “Gantz name them?”

      “He named them. I got the feeling the affair between them is over.”

      “A .50-caliber round or two is a hell of a way to end a romance.”

      “Hal, these people weren’t about to do it easy.”

      “So why were they working the guy over if he was with them?” Brognola’s tone became irritable.

      “A fallout? Maybe he had a change of heart after the bombings. The number of dead and injured might have hit home. He could have been attempting a shakedown. Asking for more money. Threatening the Brethren with exposure if they didn’t pay up. We need to ID these people. Hal, we’re all making guesses right now.”

      “Yeah, I know. I wish we could make the right one.”

      “Early in the game. I understand why you’re touchy. We all know the Brethren could stage more bombings before we get to them.”

      “Yeah, sorry, Striker.”

      “No apologies needed. I’ll touch base later. Right now we have the local law to keep on our team.”

      “You need any backup just yell.”

      “Will do.”

      LYONS CAME FROM OUTSIDE, with a pair of hand cutters Harper had supplied from his vehicle’s tool kit. He handed them to Bolan, who severed the wire around Gantz’s limbs, freeing him from the chair. He covered the unconscious man with a blanket. Lyons went back outside as a precaution, prowling the area with the restless energy that never seemed to leave him.

      Chief Harper joined Bolan inside the house. “I have my people on the way. They’ll seal off the area. And I radioed for an ambulance. It has to come some distance. I called the Coast Guard to check the area. The trouble is, by the time they reach the bay that boat will be long gone. Coast Guard is busy tonight with all this fog.”

      “Best guess is they’ll find that boat empty and drifting.”

      “My thoughts, too.”

      “Best we can do is try, Chief.”

      “How’s СКАЧАТЬ