Chapter Thirteen

Death brief

An old salvage boat cruised a slow circle in the sparkling Caribbean several miles off Bahia de Vidria. In the pilot house, Juan Escadrillo stood a tense watch over the radio equipment while the man with the handlebar mustache stared expectantly into the moonlit skies.

The mate brought coffee from the galley, and drank most of it himself, and twice the engineer came topside to restlessly roam the deck and gaze toward shore, and the quiet watch went on.

At almost exactly 12:30 the radio in the pilot house crackled and a familiar voice came through the international distress frequency to give the awaited announcement.

"Okay Juan, we're off and running. The number here is 25, 12, 12, 14. That is two-five, one-two, one-two, one-four. Thanks to all of you. And give those treasures back there my, uh, deepest regards."

"Ok," Juan replied immediately. "Run with luck, my friend."

"Adios, amigo."

"Return to us one day."

"Ill try, Juan. Leave a light in the window."

"It will be there."

The boy's eyes were brimming with moisture as he shifted the gear to the harbor frequency. The crew had moved outside to search the sky for visible evidence of the small aircraft.

Juan made the call in the Spanish language. This is salvage tug Salvadore calling Puerta Vista Harbormaster.

"Go ahead, Salvadore."

"I am ready with the Matilda report."

Evita Aguilar's voice responded. "Matilda. Go ahead, Salvadore."

"It is done. Ok. The numbers are two-five, one-two, one-two, one-four. He sends love. We return to port."

In the little shack on the Puerta Vista wharf, Evita turned away from the radio and spoke into a waiting telephone connection to San Juan.

"Success," she reported, using the official language. It is clear. Suggest that you move on Glass Bay immediately."

"Right," was the reply. "We are moving."

"Connect me now with Glenn Robertson."

"Right, standby."

A moment later an American voice came on the line and the language shifted to English. "Robertson here."

"Glenn, Matilda."

"Save it, I know. Bolan busted loose."

"Yes. Ramirez is now moving on Glass Bay."

"Yeah, I heard. So there goes your sweet little intelligence drop. Should've played it my way, pretty lady."

"The sweet drop was gone the moment he arrived. Do not fear, we are awaiting the reorganization and we know whom to watch. As for doing it your way, I would have more compassion on a pig in a slaughter pen."

The American sighed heavily. She heard the snap of a cigarette lighter and he said, "You know that none of us like the order, Matilda."

"We may as well drop the 'Matilda' now, also."

"Right, right. How come it's so hard to hate the guy, Evita? What's he got that John Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd never had."

"Integrity, maybe," she replied coldly.

"Well, that's a lot of deadly integrity you turned loose on the world, pretty lady."

"It is simply a matter of time, anyway," she told him. "The way this hombreoperates, he cannot be long for this world."

"How many did he clobber there?"

"We will be counting the dead for days," Evita said. "Some may never be found."

"Well, that's Bolan. He leaves a hell of a wake. One of these days, Evita, the guy is reallygoing to run amuck. He's going to start killing cops and little kids and anything that gets in his way. And then you'll understand why we..."

"That is a stupid idea!" Evita stormed. "This is as gentle and fine a man as I have ever known! Polida estupido! Acerca de..."

"Hold it, hold it, don't start throwing hot Spanish at me." The federal agent chuckled drily and added, "Sounds as though he made more than one kind of kill. Just how well did you get to know this fine gentle man, pretty lady?"

She said, "Get to hell, Glenn Robertson."

He said, "Well… I guess I better alert Washington. Battle stations, repel all boarders, and so forth. Give me a clue, just a sniff. Where should we concentrate the defenses?"

"Never mind," she replied.

"What?"

"Never mind." Her voice broke as she added, "I have sent him to his death."

Grimaldi set the little bird down on the tiny island which gave its name to the Mona Passage, between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and the two-man assault team laid their battle plans and awaited the countdown to the kill.

Bolan studied terrain maps while the pilot pored over radio navigation charts and reviewed in his memory the various details of Haiti's border security setup.

"How long since you flew in there?" Bolan asked him.

"About three months ago," Grimaldi muttered. "Uh… put an X on your chart, uh… down here at Charlie Eight. There's a Haitian Coast Guard station there. They have radar and hot-pursuit capability. Also up at, uh, Bravo Three, a base for jet fighters."

"How good are they?"

"Can't say. Never had to evade them. Always had the right words."

Bolan studied his companion for a thoughtful moment, then he suggested, "Let's figure the withdrawal through the gap, on a 340 magnetic from Port au Prince. That looks like high mountains to the north."

"It is, and rugged as hell," Grimaldi replied. "They still have insurgents operating in those mountains."

"Perfect. If we have to take to the ground then there'll be good cover and maybe even a helping hand along the way."

"Don't count on it," Grimaldi warned. "Most of the rebels have turned commie. They worship Che and Fidel, and I'll have to say that's a better alternative than Papa Doc. But America has become a nasty word in those hills, I hear."

"I thought the old man died," Bolan said.

"Yeah, but Doc Junior stepped right in, same regime, same ruthless repression. Look, Bolan, are you sure you know what you're getting into? That country is crawling with secret police. If they catch you, the nicest thing they can do for you is to show you the firing squad. They've got people chained in rat holes who haven't seen the light of day — or a courtroom, I might add — for more than ten years."

"Nice country," Bolan muttered.

"It's not the country, it's the government. They're blacks, you know. A bit of French mixed in here and there, but it's mostly black. And if the people at home think the panthers are mean, they need to clue in on this Haitian gestapo. They make the Mafia seem like gentleman students pranking around."

"Is Sir Edward black?"

Grimaldi's eyelids fluttered. "I couldn't say," he replied.

"You've never seen him?"

"No."

"How many times have you been into Sir Edward's joint?"

"Just once, my last trip in, three months ago."

"What was the occasion?"

"Meeting of the board. Finance matters."

"Who'd you bring in?"

"Manny Walters and his legal eagles."

"Manny the Muck?"

"The same."

"What's Detroit got going down here?"

"Bit of juice, I hear, among other things."

"You don't mean nickel and dime juice."

"Hell no, big league stuff. Unofficial loans for off-the-record business enterprises And the take is high. I hear as much as thirty percent in some cases."

"The Haitian government condones that?"

Grimaldi shrugged "What the hell is the government? In a country like this one, especially. Look, Bolan. Get the picture. The black people in our country have been screaming about white repression of blacks and all that jazz — and I'm not saying they shouldn't. They're right. Every guy has a right to his own shot at life, his own way. That's not the point. Here's a country that's all black. But it's not very beautiful down here. It's misery and poverty and repression like no American black man has experienced in this century. And he's getting it from his own brothers, see. I mean, when you speak of the Haitian government, you're talking about a gang of thieves and cutthroats with licenses."