Hell Night

“Hello, big guy,” came the voice of Hal Brognola from the other end of the line. “Anything happening on your end?”

Bolan suppressed a chuckle. “No, Hal,” he said. “Things are actually pretty quiet where I am now.”

“Yeah, now it is,” Brognola said. “But ten minutes ago we were watching the whole bank thing go down on FOX news.”

Bolan stiffened slightly. “Was I on it?” he asked. The last thing he needed was his face splattered all over the newspapers.

“I saw you,” Brognola said. “But there was never a clear shot of your face. The newshounds and ambulance chasers must have been using long-range equipment because the Kansas City PD wouldn’t let them within a country mile of the action. I don’t think you have anything to worry about in regard to being IDed.” The high-ranking Justice official and director of Stony Man Farm’s Sensitive Operations Group paused long enough to take a breath, and Bolan could almost see the unlit cigar sticking out between his teeth.

“Hold on,” Brognola said. “Because we’re about to get hooked into a three-way conference call to the White House.”

Bolan frowned but didn’t speak. While he often took advantage of the equipment, computers, communication networking and other benefits of Stony Man Farm, in truth he answered to no one, though he did operate with the sanction of the President of the United States. He rarely talked to the Man. The fact was, when he and the President actually did speak, it was always something big. Very big. Usually of global importance.

“Hang on a few seconds,” Brognola said. “Aaron’s connecting the three-way call right now.” Aaron was Aaron Kurtzman, Stony Man Farm’s computer wizard.

Outside, sirens sounded in the distance. Bolan waited silently as they grew louder, and then watched as ambulances and hearses arrived to cart off the bodies of the Rough Riders. He wondered exactly what was going on in Washington. The big story currently was that Israel and the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah—based in Lebanon—was firing short-range missiles and rockets at each other with far more innocent civilians being killed than soldiers or militia. It had all started over the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, and quickly escalated into a full-scale war.

Phoenix Force—one of the counterterrorist groups that worked out of Stony Man Farm—was in Beirut right now, trying to cull the terrorists from the innocent Lebanese among whom Hezbollah hid. So the Executioner suspected this call from the President meant he was about to join the other Stony Man Farm crew in the Middle East.

Bolan was rarely wrong. But this was one of those rare times.

“Hello, Hal?” the President’s voice finally said over the line.

“Hello, Mr. President,” Brognola replied. “I’m here. And Striker’s tapped in with us, as well.”

“Hello, Striker,” the Man said.

“Mr. President,” Bolan said. The noise level outside had risen again to the point where it was hard to hear the voices over the cell phone, so he moved into the private office just off the lobby and closed the door behind him. Through the glass wall he could see white-clad EMTs entering the bank to begin removing the dead men up and down the halls. And through the window to the street, he watched the Kansas City SWAT teams and other cops break into small groups to discuss what had just happened.

“We’ve got a problem,” the President declared. “Actually, we’ve got a lot of them.” He paused to draw in a breath. “But we’ve got one big problem, and you’re the only man I trust to handle it. What’s probably the worst, most organized threat to this country that’s ever come across the board is sneaking in under the radar.” He paused again. “If it’s successful, it’ll make 9/11 look like a Sunday School weenie roast.”

Bolan waited silently. He knew the Man would go on as soon as he’d picked the right words.

“You’ll probably find this as hard to believe as I did at first,” the Man finally said, “but an alliance has been struck between the Rough Riders and Hamas.”

Bolan thought about the two groups for a moment. The Rough Riders were fascists who believed in an America that was only for short-haired, white-skinned men and women—preferably of Aryan or Anglo-Saxon heritage.

Hamas, on the other hand, operated throughout the Middle East, with clandestine cells spread all over the world, just waiting to be called upon to create their own versions of September 11, 2001.

Two more disparate terrorist groups could not be found on the face of the Earth.

“You’ll excuse me, sir,” Bolan said, “if it takes me a few seconds to digest that thought.”

“I thought you’d find it as hard to believe as I did,” the President said. “But I’m afraid it’s true.”

“May I ask how you came upon this information?” the Executioner said.

The President sighed. “The CIA got it first. They’ve had a mole inside Hamas for some time now.”

“Can this intel be confirmed?” Bolan asked.

“It’s confirmed,” the President said. “The FBI has a plant inside the Rough Riders. I just got off the phone with their director. The same story came from their informant.”

Bolan felt his forehead furrowing. “These two groups have nothing in common upon which to base an alliance,” he said. “Except the downfall of freedom, democracy and the United States. Their ideologies couldn’t be more different.”

“That seems to be enough for them,” the Man said. “At least for now.”

“Let me play devil’s advocate for a moment if I might, sir,” Bolan said, still frowning. “Assuming they were successful in overthrowing the U.S. government. What do they plan to do then?”

“I don’t know,” the President answered. “And according to the two snitches, neither do the Rough Riders or Hamas. But that doesn’t seem to bother them at this juncture. It appears that they’re willing to put their differences aside for the time being.”

“They’d have to go to war with each other eventually,” the Executioner said.

“Yes,” the Man said. “But like I said, they appear to have agreed to put that on the back burner in order to achieve their initial, common goal.”

“Destroying us,” Bolan said.

“Exactly,” the President affirmed.

“What else do we know?” Bolan asked.

“Not a lot,” the President said. “But both sources report that there’s a list of planned terrorist strikes.”

Bolan stopped speaking as a white-clad man opened the door to the office and looked inside. Seeing no bodies on the floor, and the Executioner’s head shake, he closed the door again and disappeared. “How do we get hold of this list?”

“That’s one of the things I’m hoping you can find out,” the Man said. “Neither the Hamas or Rough Rider informant is high enough up the food chain to have access to it, or know how to get to it. The Rough Rider infiltrator seems to know a little more. According to him, some of the strikes are to be carried out by Hamas, and others by the Rough Riders. But they also have some joint operations planned just to confuse police, militaries and governments around the world.”

“Have you got a place for me to start?” Bolan asked the President.

“The CIA’s informant heard that something’s about to go down at the American Embassy in Paris,” the President said. “But that’s all he knows. He’s got the where and who—Haas—but not the when or how.”

“Tell me,” the Executioner said. “Am I going to have access to either or both informants?”

“You’ll have access to both,” the Man said.

“And what kind of turf-jealousy problems am I going to have to deal with out of the CIA and FBI?”

“No more than the usual.” The President laughed softly. “I’ve ordered both directors to inform their men that you’ve got free rein. I took the liberty of giving them your Matt Cooper name. I hope that’s all right.’

“That’s fine.”

“Anyway,” the Man said. “If you need any help from the FBI or CIA, they’ve been ordered to give it to you. On the other hand, if you want them out of your way, they’re to make themselves scarce.”

“With all due respect to both agencies,” the Executioner said, “I’d prefer the latter. At least for now.”

“Then I’ll make two more phone calls as soon as we hang up,” the Man said. “One man from each agency can hook you up with the informants. Then they’ll disappear.” The President paused for a moment, then added, “But are you sure you don’t at least want one or two men to watch your back?”

The bodies had been cleared out of the building by now, and the Executioner walked back out of the office into the lobby again. With the phone still pressed to his ear, he looked through the broken window once more.