The girl who had fainted seemed in danger of doing so again. Her hands clutched at Bolan for support and she told him, "I was in and out of there many times. I didn't know he was…" Her eyes rolled. "Until it started to smellso terrible . •." She looked as though she wanted to be sick. .

"Who puts these people into these nutty devices?" Bolan asked.

The other girl murmured, "Normally they attach themselves, and they can get out any time they wish, without aid. It's all in fun, you know. I mean, who would've thought… ?" Her naked breasts shuddered with the unspoken horror of the idea and she swayed toward Bolan.

He steadied her and muttered, "Yeah, this is some kind of fun place," and then he left them to console one another and he went back through the harem room. Little had changed down there, except that the frantic foursome had discovered a way for sex en masseto overcome the physical limitations of human anatomy.

The cell of Charles' final agony was in prominent display just above this living exhibition. As he walked past, Bolan drew his Beretta and sent a quiet round into the monitor. There would be no more ghoulish jollies from an old man's final torment.

He passed on through, spurned the stairway to the basement, and strode purposefully toward the main exit. As he approached the door, he loaded the Vziand made it ready. Mack Bolan was in killer mode, and his mood was now definitely inclined toward thunder and lightning.

Chapter Eleven

The prisoner

Danno Giliamo sat in quiet thought on the rear seat of a large black sedan which was parked just off the square near Museum de Sade. He was alone except for one other man who sat quietly huddled over the steering wheel. The sound of an approaching vehicle intruded into the silence. Moving slowly, it swung close then halted at the curb just opposite Giliamo's car. A man stepped out and the car moved on. A moment later the sedan door across from Giliamo opened and Nick Trigger slid in, hastily closing the door to deactivate the domelight mechanism.

By way of greeting, Giliamo emitted a bored sigh and said, "I guess you was right, Nick. He ain't showed up here. Nothing on your end either, huh?"

"Nothing, hell," Trigger replied quietly. "We had plenty on my end. But you were right about that lucky bastard, he's as slippery as melted jello."

"You mean he got away again?" Giliamo replied in a dulled voice.

"Yeah, he got away."

"Well he ain't turned up here." Giliamo nervously tamped a cigarette against his fist then shoved it between his lips and lit it, his eyes weary and disturbed in the glow of the lighter. "So what happened?" he asked.

Trigger sniffed and settled deeper into the seat. "We had him bottled in a rock joint over by Soho Square." The massive shoulders raised and settled again in a tired shrug. "He busted out, that's all, got away clean.

And cops all over the God damned place, I mean crawling out of every hole."

Giliamo took a nervous pull at the cigarette and asked, "Okay, so what happened to my boys?"

"Six of your freelancers are dead," Trigger reported with a sigh. "Also Looney and Rocky got arrested. Don't worry, I'll have 'em sprung first thing in the morning."

Giliamo mouthed a string of half-audible obscenities, then said, "You see what I been up against, Nick?"

"Yeah." The London enforcer punched his elbows into the backrest with a loud sigh. "I don't see any sense in hanging around this neighborhood, Danno. Leave a couple of boys to keep an eye out, just to make sure, but I guess we might as well tuck it in for the night. Bolan isn't going to run from one setup right to another. Arnie Farmer and his army is due in first thing in the morning. We'll huddle with them and see what we can come up with."

"I was hoping to get it all over with before they showed up," Giliamo muttered. "Do you know this Arnie Farmer?"

"We met a couple of times," Nick Trigger replied heavily. "Do I get it right that you feel about this Capothe way I feel about him?"

"If you mean is he an uncomfortable so and so to be around, then we feel the same way, Nick, yeah you got it right."

"Then you might as well come out and say it. Arnie Farmer is a bastard, and I don't like him coming over here. I wish he'd stayed home."

"That's exactly right," the Jerseyite muttered. "And I wish to God we could've got Bolan before the other bastard showed up." His eyes flicked to the man in the driver's seat. "Nobody better not go repeating that, though. Right, Gio?"

Gio Scaldicci, the wheelman, swivelled about with a grin. "Right, Mr. Giliamo. I got ears that don't hear nothin' that's not spoken to 'em."

The two men in back settled into an uncomfortable silence, then Nick Trigger said, "Well, I'll ride back with you, Danno. Let's get out of here."

"We gotta wait, I got Sal out on the street makin' his rounds. Hell be back in a minute."

The three Mafiosisat through a protracted silence, then a front door opened and a fourth man hastily entered the car. This was Sal Masseri, one of Danno's crew leaders. In a choked voice, he announced, "We got three dead soldiers out there, Danno."

"What do you mean?" the New Jersey caporegimegrowled.

"I mean Willie Ears and Jack the Builder and Big Angelo are dead as hell, that's what I mean. No blood or nothing, they're just laying there dead. I think their necks are broke or something."

Giliamo was speechless. He gaped at his companion in the rear, then made a lunge for the door. Nick Trigger quietly restrained him and asked Masseri, "How long have those boys been dead, Sal?"

"I'd say no more'n ten or fifteen minutes. I went on around and warned the other boys. Nobody's seen nothing, though, Nick, not a damn thing."

"Ten or fifteen minutes," Trigger repeated musingly. "That means he could have hotted it straight over here and…"

Giliamo slid forward to the edge of the seat and craned his head for a tense inspection of the hulking outline of the museum, just around the square from their position. In an angered tone, he declared, "That cuts it! That bastard has found some way to get in and out of there without being seen. I'll bet he's in there right now." He tapped his driver on the shoulder and commanded, "Pull around there slow and quiet, Gio. Park in front of that bus stop."

The car moved quietly around the corner and eased to the designated spot, directly across the street from the museum.

"Are we going back in there?" Massed asked nervously.

"Bet your ass we are," Giliamo barked. "You get out there and pass the word along."

Before Massed could react, two men ran quietly up to the vehicle. Giliamo lowered his window and thrust his head outside. One of the new arrivals breathlessly reported, "We just wanted to tell Sal that we found something. Over there." He pointed to the opposite side of the square. "A book store. The back door has been jimmied open. It could mean something."

"Awright, take some boys and check it out," Giliamo commanded.

The men jogged away. Masseri said, "Maybe I oughta go see what they got, Danno."

Nick Trigger chuckled coldly. "I think Sal is awful anxious to stay out of my little playhouse," he observed.

"As a matter of fact he is," Giliamo answered for his man. "And that goes for me double, but that don't cut any ice. You stick right here, Sal. We'll give Stevie a chance to check out that store, and then we're gonna be moving."

"Well, I don't like it either," Trigger growled, "but I guess not for the same reasons. There'll be too many people in there now. That means too many witnesses.

Besides that, we're messing up the sweetest little operation I ever walked into."

Gio Scaldicci turned toward the rear seat and asked, "How'd you ever get onto a creepy joint like that, Mr. Trigger?"