Battle Mask

by Don Pendleton

  Pena rubbed his nose, glared at the city map, then sighed and said, “Let’s get moving. I want Johnny Spiffy to stay with Julio’s car, though. But tell ’im to not fall for no cops’ tricks. Make sure he has a picture of this Bolan. Make sure everybody has one. And Willie…”

  “Yeah, Lou?”

  “Make sure everybody understands one thing. We’re here to hit this guy Bolan. I don’t want no sloppy fingers. Any soldier tells me he saw Bolan, and then can’t tell me he saw him dead… well, he just better not come back at all, Willie. You know?”

  “I know, Lou. Don’t worry. We got the best crew in the country. We’ll get this Blacksuit Bolan.”

  “We better, Willie. Mr. DiGeorge says we better.”

  “What if the cops get to him first, Lou?”

  “Then there’ll be some dead cops, too. We ain’t backing down to no cops on this hit, Willie. You know?”

  The rented store suddenly seemed much cooler to Willie Walker. The veteran Mafia triggerman solemnly nodded his head and replied, “I know, Lou.”

  Chapter Eight

  THE HIT

  Mack Bolan was seated comfortably on a leather recliner in Jim Brantzen’s living quarters. His hair, which he had bleached on his departure from the East some weeks earlier, was now darkened again to a jet black and the temples lightened with glints of silver. Small plastic discs were affixed to the forehead above each eye and over each cheekbone. A narrow linear shell of the same substance and about one inch long covered each side of his lower jaw, meeting at the chin. An ordinary oversized Band-Aid covered the bridge of his nose.

  “How goes it?” asked Brantzen, entering through the doorway from the clinic.

  “Great, I guess,” Bolan replied, speaking through barely parted lips. “Just don’t ask me to get chatty.”

  “You want some more freeze?” the doctor asked solicitously.

  Bolan carefully shook his head and raised a hand-mirror to inspect once again his rearranged features. “Can’t believe it’s me,” he mumbled. “How long before I can get along without these doo-dads?”

  “Those ‘doo-dads’ are a hell of an improvement over being wrapped up like a gift, Mack,” the surgeon replied. “Just remember, they’re the only thing holding you together.”

  “Yeah, but for how long?”

  Brantzen shrugged his shoulders. “Depends on your recuperative powers. Maybe a week. Maybe two. It’s a pressure principle for suturing, Mack. Beats hell out of stitching. You fool with them, though, and you’ll have some damn messy scar tissue. Leave them alone to work their magic and you’ll come out of it as pretty and pink as a baby’s butt.”

  “Hard to believe it could be so simple,” Bolan commented stiffly, his lips still numbed from the anaesthetic.

  “Not so simple,” Brantzen said, grinning. “You’re going to start feeling like you’d been worked over with brass knucks when that freeze begins to wear off. I removed a bit of bone here and there, mostly from the nose, and added plastic in other areas. It’s soft stuff, Mack, sort of like cartilage, and it just could start travelling on you. If it does, you beat it back here and let me take care of it. All in all, though, the techniques of today are far superior to anything we had just a few years ago. We could, you know, almost put you back just the way you were … if you ever feel the need of it.”

  “Or could you change me again?”

  The surgeon nodded his head. “Sure. Of course, this sort of tampering with nature shouldn’t be overdone.” He smiled. “You should see what we can do with a skinny girl’s bustline, or hipline, or whatever needs adjusting for that matter.”

  Bolan tried to smile back but found that his facial muscles would not cooperate. “Next you’ll be telling me you’ve got help for certain male-type problems,” he mumbled.

  “There’s hardly any limit, Mack,” Brantzen solemnly replied. “The sort of thing I’ve done on you is child’s play compared to some of the restorative type work I get in here. I didn’t have to rebuild tissues on you, you know … just altered an angle here and there. Still, you have to watch yourself. A bit of carelessness on your part and the whole thing could fall apart. You follow those instructions I gave you, and I mean to the letter.”

  “There won’t be any telltale scars?”

  “Not if you follow the instructions. At least, nothing that could be detected by anybody but another plastic surgeon.”

  Bolan was again staring into the mirror. “It’s phenomenal,” he said. “Even with the doo-dads, I look just like the sketch. It’s just a mask, though, isn’t it? A different kind, but still a mask. That isn’t me in that mirror.”

  Brantzen nodded and said, “If you want to get technical, then it’s a mask. But a mask you can live behind forever.”

  “Or fight behind,” Bolan said softly.

  The surgeon’s eyes dropped and he twisted his hands together in some silent emotion. “I sort of thought you’d get that idea,” he murmured.

  “It’s not just an idea, Jim.” Bolan dropped the mirror onto his lap. “It’s a commitment. I have no choice. I fight until I win or until I die.”

  “It’s ’Nam all over again,” Brantzen said sorrowfully.

  “That’s about what it is,” Bolan agreed.

  “The meek shall inherit the earth,” The surgeon reminded his patient, smiling solemnly.

  “Yeah,” the Executioner said. “But not until the violent have tamed it.” He winced and raised his hands to tenderly probe his cheeks with fingertips.

  “You’re starting to get the kick?” Brantzen asked him.

  “Is that what it is?” Bolan grimaced. “I thought someone just hit me with a baseball bat.”

  “When it starts feeling like a jackhammer, let me know. I can help you over the rough period.”

  “Not with junk,” Bolan protested.

  “Nothing else will help, Mack.”

  “Then I’ll go it alone.” Bolan staggered to his feet, grabbing the chair to steady himself. “I’ve got to keep my mind clear.”

  “So it doesn’t get too meek, eh.” Brantzen didn’t mean for the comment to sound sarcastic; it did, nevertheless.

  “That’s right.” Bolan checked his machine pistol, ground his teeth against a sudden surge of pain, then slipped in a live clip of ammo. “I’ve been here too long already,” he announced.

  “You can’t leave here in that shape, man!”

  “Hell I can’t. I’ve learned to smell them, Jim. They’re around, take book on it.”

  “They who?” the surgeon asked, though he knew the answer.

  “The hounds, the Mafia hounds. They’re around, I can feel it.”

  Brantzen sighed and said, “Yeah, you’re right, I guess. They’ve already been here. I wasn’t going to tell you, but … well … if you’re determined to go out there, Mack, don’t stop to talk to any book salesmen.”

  “That’s their trick, eh?” Bolan was getting his gear together.

  “That’s the trick. The two who were here were very clumsy about it. Offered to donate a set of their books for my waiting room if I’d let them come in and pitch to my in-patients. I told them I was empty at the moment. I am, in fact. Then they …”

  “They tumble to what kind of place this is?” Bolan asked quickly.

  Brantzen shook his head. “I doubt that very much. They seemed to think I was running a nursing home or something. Started asking if I’d heard the shooting last night … if any of my ‘old folks’ were disturbed … that sort of stuff. Trying to trip me up, I think, because I’d already told them I was empty. I guess I satisfied them. I saw them going into the house across the way.”

  “Did you see them come out?” Bolan asked, his tone ominous.

  Brantzen shook his head in a silent reply.

  “Show me the house. Then show me how to get out of here without being seen from that house, and then …”

  Bolan was interrupted by a light rapping at the door. He swung against the wall as Brantzen answered the summons. B
olan caught a quick glimpse of a pretty woman in a white uniform as she announced: “The Chief of Police would like to talk to you, Doctor. Shall I put him in your office, or…”

  Brantzen nodded and said, “I’ll be right along,” and pushed the door shut. “Goddammit,” he whispered. “Genghis Conn has come a’calling.”

  A flurry of sounds denoting a light scuffle came from beyond the door; then it opened again and a tall man in a khaki uniform stepped into the room, holding a gray desert felt hat in both hands. “I told the little lady it was an unofficial visit, Doc,” he said in a soft voice. He smiled genially at Brantzen, then his eyes shifted to Bolan, who was frozen at the wall. The policeman’s gaze bounced off the bulge of the weapon, concealed beneath a folded jacket draping Bolan’s arm, and returned to the surgeon’s flustered countenance.

  “Everybody relax,” Conn said, still smiling. “I didn’t come here to be a hero.” The gaze flicked again to Bolan. “Nor to bury one,” he added.

  “I … I’m with a patient, Genghis,” Brantzen declared testily.

  “I can see that.” Conn tossed his hat onto a table and dropped his lank frame into a char. He pulled a cigar from his pocket, took a bite out of it, and continued eyeing Bolan.

  Bolan returned to the recliner and eased onto it, half relaxing into the cushions, the jacket still in place across one arm. “It’s okay, Jim,” Bolan murmured.

  The policeman said, “Sure, it’s okay. I just stopped by to gab. The doc and I have spent many pleasant moments swapping ideas about war and peace. That right, Doc?”

  Brantzen woodenly nodded his head, moved jerkily to a chair, and perched tensely on its edge, his hands clasped across one knee.

  “We both abhor violence.” Conn laughed softly and took another plug out of the cigar, rolled it into his cheek, and leaned toward Bolan. “Might sound funny, a lawman who wants only peace and tranquility, but … see … law enforcement’s the only business I know. So … I came to the desert, looking for the same thing most people seek here. Peace.” He laughed again. “I’m not a law officer … I’m a peace officer.” The eyes twinkled toward Brantzen. “We were talking about that just the other night, Doc … remember?”

  Brantzen again nodded his head. “You run a quiet town, Genghis,” he said stiffly.

  “Damn right. Mean for it to stay that way, too.” The gaze swung to Bolan. “Have you committed any crimes in my town, Mister?”

  Bolan said, “None that I can think of.”

  Conn solemnly moved his head in an agreeable jerk. “That’s what I was thinking.” He sighed, fiddled with the cigar, and added, “Of course, violence has a way of expanding, squirting into the peaceful zones, running rampant. I wouldn’t want that to happen here. You planning on staying in my town long, Mister?”

  Bolan said, “I was just leaving.”

  Conn heaved to his feet. “Give you a lift?”

  Bolan exchanged glances with Brantzen. The surgeon gave a tight nod. “Just follow my instructions to the letter and you’ll be all right. A dry icepack will control swelling and reduce pain. Keep it dry, though. And leave the covers until they fall off. If you notice any inflammation around the edges, get to a doctor immediately.” He jumped to his feet and pulled Bolan’s suitcase from a corner. “I’ll help you outside.”

  “I’m parked out back,” Conn advised. He went out the door first, leading the way. Bolan followed close behind, gingerly feeling of his face.

  Brantzen overtook his patient, moving alongside as they strolled across the lobby. He thrust a pair of oversize sunglasses at Bolan and said, “You might want to use them. They’ll conceal most of the patchwork.”

  Bolan grunted his thanks and added, in a low voice, “Is this guy for real?”

  “I don’t know,” Brantzen replied in a hoarse whisper. “He’s an odd one. Never could figure him. I believe he knows who you are, though.”

  “Sure he does,” Bolan quietly muttered. “Well … guess I’ll just play it by ear. Thanks again, Jim. And take care of that envelope for me, eh?”

  The surgeon jerked his head and said, “I was talking to the hospital less than an hour ago. The old man’s going to make it.”

  “Great. He’ll need the money.” They paused in the doorway. Conn had gone ahead and was opening the car door on the passenger’s side. Bolan gripped his friend’s hand and said, “Jim … I don’t know how to thank you.”

  “You thanked me years ago. Just keep an eye on Genghis Conn. There’s no telling what he has in mind.”

  “I’m getting a good feeling about Conn,” Bolan said, then he seized the suitcase and walked quickly to the car. Conn took the suitcase off his hands and placed it on the rear seat. Bolan tossed a farewell wave to his benefactor, then slid into the front seat of the police car.

  Conn went around and climbed in behind the wheel. “Where to, Mister?” he asked quietly.

  “That’s your decision,” Bolan replied tautly. “Your town, Chief, is crawling with undesirables.”

  “Don’t I know it.” Conn sighed and started the engine.

  The jackhammers were beginning to work over Bolan’s face. He stared through the window with a sinking feeling as the big car went into motion and New Horizons slid to the rear. Horizons, Bolan was thinking, never stood still for a moving man. He wondered what lay beyond his next one.

  “I’ll drop you outside of town, Mister,” Conn was saying. “I don’t give a damn where you go from there. You can go to hell if you want to, just so it’s out of my town, and just so you take your hell along with you.”

  “No worry there,” Bolan quipped. “Hell has a way of following me around.”

  “I guess you invited it, Mister.”

  “I guess I did.”

  The Executioner’s hell also had a way of lying in wait for him. The police car had swung around the rear corner of the New Horizons and was straightening into the tree-shaded lane running along the south of the property when a white Chrysler lurched from a secluded driveway and bounced to a halt directly in their path. Another big car pulled across the lane some fifty feet, behind them as Conn burned rubber in an arcing halt. Two men leapt from the porch of a house directly opposite Brantzen’s clinic and ran a zig-zag pattern across the lawn, pistols poised.

  “That Goddamn Braddock!” Conn snarled.

  Bolan’s jacket had already dropped away, revealing the small chattergun. “They’re not cops!” he snapped, slumping in the seat and getting a good grip on the door latch. The sudden movement sent shivers of agony into his fast-awakening face.

  Conn’s gun hand was fighting the flap of his holster when a submachine gun appeared over the hood of the Chrysler and a high-pitched voice sang out, “We want your passenger out on the street where we can get a good look at him. Slowly, slowly. Come out with both hands in sight.”

  Bolan glanced at Conn and pushed the door open.

  “You don’t want to go out there, Mister!” Conn hissed.

  “Amen,” said Bolan.

  Conn released his door and cracked it open. “Get ready to hit the deck.” Then he was throwing himself sideways toward Bolan and his foot was grinding the accelerator into the floorboard. The big car spurted forward in a wild semi-circle, windshield and window glass shattering under a steady drumfire of heavy-calibre bullets as the chopper cut loose on them.

  “You’re on your own, Mister!” Conn cried, just as the police car plowed into the Chrysler.

  The staccato of the machine gun silenced abruptly. Bolan found himself lying half out of the car. Conn, his door jammed against the Chrysler, was firing his revolver through the shattered windshield. A new volley of fire, this time from the rear, tore through the police car. Conn grunted and said, “Shit, I’m hit.”

  Bolan drew his legs clear and rolled under the car, passing beneath both vehicles and scooting into the open on the far side of the Chrysler. A large man with a gashed forehead was staggering out of the driver’s seat and almost placed a foot on Bolan’s chest. Bolan shot
him in the mouth as the man gaped down at him, and he had to dodge the falling body. The Mafioso with the machine gun was kneeling against the curb, blood trickling from a compound break at the left elbow. He tried to bring the big gun up with one hand. Bolan zippered him from groin to throat with a quick upward sweep of his chattering weapon. He slung his own gun, then, and crawled carefully toward the fallen submachine gun.

  Conn was lying in the front seat of the police car, firing sporadically to the rear, from around the doorpost. The two men who had approached from the house were holding cautious cover behind a line of trees some thirty feet to Bolan’s left flank; one of them was shouting instructions to the rear vehicle. Bolan scooped up the submachine gun and lay a heavy fire pattern into the distant car, spraying for and finding a hot strike. Flames began licking around the hood, then there was a whooosh as fire enveloped the entire vehicle. A blazing figure staggered clear just as the whole thing blew in a roaring explosion.

  Conn yelled “Bingo!” and began plunking shots toward the trees. Bolan abandoned the machine gun and moved out in a flanking maneuver with his lighter chattergun. The two men broke their cover, fleeing toward the house. Bolan was vaguely aware that Genghis Conn had moved with him, leaving his wrecked vehicle and moving rapidly across the street to the line of trees.

  The resuming chatter of Bolan’s light weapon was eclipsed by the sudden balooom of a shotgun. One of the fleeing men crumpled in midstride and crashed to the ground in a lifeless heap. The shotgun roared again and the second man was flung about in a flopping tumble. Conn stepped back into the street, smoke still curling from both barrels of the shotgun, and stared silently at Mack Bolan.

  Bolan slipped a fresh clip of ammo into his gun and walked slowly toward the lawman. “Good shooting,” he said quietly, “… for a peace officer.”

  Conn grinned and his eyes turned to a quick appraisal of the battle zone. “Damn, that was quick,” he said in an awed voice. The right side of his khaki shirt was wetly red.

  “How bad are you hit?” Bolan asked him.

  “Not as bad as it feels, I guess,” the lawman replied. “I’ll just step back over to Doc Brantzen’s and let him take a look.” He was moving toward the police cruiser. “Think that Chrysler will run?” he asked Bolan.