Silent Threat

Silent Threat
Don Pendleton

When several German CEOs become victims in deadly accidents and their strategic companies are suddenly bought out, red flags are raised in U.S. intelligence circles.All signs indicate that the buyouts are being orchestrated by the head of a powerful cult and he's planning a terrorist attack. But getting to the cult leader and ending the threat proves to be challenging–especially when an army of zealous followers bristling with weapons are prepared to die for the cause.Mack Bolan is determined to infiltrate the group and destroy the organization before they unleash their plan of destruction. The cult leader may believe he can bring death, but there is only one Executioner.

Bolan shook his head

He’d seen plenty of fanatics willing to die for their cause. Call it a gut instinct, but these two women didn’t seem to be the type to take their lives for an abstract slogan. In Bolan’s 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 Executioner

Silent Threat

Don Pendleton’s

www.mirabooks.co.uk (http://www.mirabooks.co.uk)

The less reasonable a cult is, the more men seek to establish it by force.

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau

1712–1778

The true fanatic can be mesmerized by a charismatic leader, forced to harm or to kill in the name of the cause. My cause is Justice, and I’ll mete out my brand of judgment to those killers with extreme prejudice.

—Mack Bolan

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 name—Sergeant Mercy. He was so tagged because of the compassion he showed to wounded comrades-in-arms and Vietnamese civilians.

Mack Bolan’s 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 society’s every rule. That same society started gunning for this elusive warrior—to 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 allies—Able Team and Phoenix Force—waged 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 “arm’s-length” alliance with his government once more, reserving the right to pursue personal missions in his Everlasting War.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

1

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 shop’s 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 newcomer’s waistband.

“You are not difficult to spot,” said the man in the trench coat, moving to sit at the corner table without invitation.

“You’re fairly conspicuous yourself,” said Mack Bolan, aka the Executioner. “What’s with the third-rate spy novel getup?”

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. “I don’t see any reason to be insulted, Cooper,” he said.

Bolan gave him a hard look. “You don’t have something more important on your mind, Rieck?”