Part 12 (1/2)
”I guess, really, I was trying to punish Max by balling his underworld pals. I guess I was getting back at him.”
”Humiliating him,” Bolan suggested.
”That's what my a.n.a.lyst says. He calls it soiling myself in my husband's own dirt pile. Oh ... it's humiliated him, all right. But as soon as I realized it, I broke it off. You know, I cut out.” The deadened eyes traveled to the dog. ”That's when I got Thunder. Those hoods wouldn't take no as an answer, not from me. They'd just walk in and grab me by the a.s.s, throw me a quick one, and walk out laughing. Boy. Talk about humiliation. Well, that was six months ago. Lisa was taking lessons at this kennels out on Cabrillo Highway, learning to handle the dogs. I decided to take the training with her, and I ended up with old Thunder here.”
She surprised Bolan with a girlish giggle. ”Today was the first time I ever ordered him to attack and wow, did you see him getting with it!”
He growled, ”Yeah, I saw it.”
”I'm really glad he didn't hurt you. You're a nice man, so far I guess. But I had to have Thunder, see. I found out those hoods were pa.s.sing me around between them, giggling and snickering about me, and I'm sure it all got back to Max. His nympho wife.”
The girl s.h.i.+vered and suddenly stood up. She was still clad only in the micro-bikini, bottom only, nothing else. She crossed her arms over the bare chest and walked out onto the sun deck. Thunder trotted along after her.
Bolan drifted out there, also. He stood behind her and gazed over her head at the impossibly blue Pacific with its foaming leading edges rolling onto the beach just below them.
It all seemed, suddenly, totally unreal.
These human moments stole up on a guy, surprising him in the midst of combat, reminding him of his mortality, his humanness.
At this moment, Mack Bolan felt entirely human.
He'd come to this town to blitz it, to wade through blood if necessary, to shake the rats out of their nests. He had not come here for a human experience.
But here he was in the presence of a lovely young woman, sharing her nakedness of body and soul.
He told her, very gently, ”Look, Marsha ... all the perfect people are in heaven.”
She tilted the s.h.i.+ny red head over her shoulder and smiled at him. Life was forming somewhere back there behind those glazed eyes.
Perhaps, he thought, she was having a human experience also. She asked him, the smile turning sober, ”Do you have to kill my husband?”
He replied honestly. ”At this point, I don't know. What can you tell me to help my decision?”
She shrugged, delicately. ”I just wish you wouldn't. Maybe it's not too late. What can I tell you about Max? I can tell you how he likes his eggs, that he hates pretension and that he loves me very very much ... even at my worst. Is that enough to get him off?”
Bolan did not reply.
She s.h.i.+vered again and tightened the hold on her chest. ”He's not like them, Mr. Bolan. Oh ... in his own way, he may be worse than them. More crooked, I mean. He'll admit that he's a crook, it's how he made his fortune. He's a real wheeler-dealer and he's kind of proud of it. But he's not like them.” them.” She shuddered. Her voice became tiny as she added, ”He just can't get She shuddered. Her voice became tiny as she added, ”He just can't get loose loose from them.” from them.”
”What's their hold?” he asked her.
”Me, for one thing. But they already had him hog-tied before I came along.”
”You how?”
”Oh, this rotten business. Do you know a man called Tony Danger?”
Bolan nodded.
”I went to a party on his yacht. A cruise to Ensenada. Two other girls. Two of Tony's hoods. We ... partied. While Tony took motion pictures of it. I was so stoned on gra.s.s, I....”
Bolan said, ”Never mind, I know the routine.”
”Yes, well, he showed Max some stills from that film. In my my presence. Can you beat that? Max didn't say a word, didn't bat an eyelash. Tony told him the negatives were in New York. That they'd stay there in a special file. Just in case Max felt like busting out his britches, as Tony put it. Well, as rotten as I am, I guess Max would do anything to keep them from circulating something like that. I guess...” presence. Can you beat that? Max didn't say a word, didn't bat an eyelash. Tony told him the negatives were in New York. That they'd stay there in a special file. Just in case Max felt like busting out his britches, as Tony put it. Well, as rotten as I am, I guess Max would do anything to keep them from circulating something like that. I guess...”
Bolan muttered, ”Maybe Max is making pilgrimages to the soiling grounds, himself.”
She stared at him for a moment then said, ”I hadn't thought of that. You mean maybe he's punis.h.i.+ng himself for his inadequacy?”
Bolan shrugged. ”I'm no psychologist. But it's a thought.”
”Yes, isn't it,” she agreed.
There was a definite l.u.s.ter in the girl's eyes now.
Bolan didn't want to spoil it, but he had to ask her. ”Was Lisa Winters in that party-the boat trip to Ensenada?”
She wet her lips and told him, ”Well, you'd have to ask her about that.”
He replied, ”Okay. I will.”
She swiveled about and wrapped her arms about Bolan's neck in one swift motion, kissed him lightly on the mouth, then released him.
”Five minutes ago,” she said breathlessly, ”I was starved half to death. And hating myself for it. I'm not hungry now. You'd better go while you can.”
”I'll want a rain check on about an hour of your time, at my demand,” he told her. ”And it has nothing to do with hunger.”
”You've got it,” she a.s.sured him. ”Now split, before my monster awakens.”
Bolan believed her.
And he split.
But his monster had already awakened, and he was hungry as h.e.l.l.
”Howlie had been crumbling for months,” Blanca.n.a.les reported. ”They got into him on little stuff, nickle and dime jazz, during his GHQ stint at Saigon. I guess he was a little bitter over the deal he got, you know, and he was ripe for the approach. You know how a guy like Howlin' Harlan must have felt at a logistics logistics desk, G.o.d's sake.” desk, G.o.d's sake.”
”Yeah,” Bolan agreed.
”Anyway, he was in a position to set them up for dumping contraband into the PX and service club circuits. Thornton was dragged into it from this end, via his transportation outfits. He even hijacked some of his own trucks and collected insurance on the loss. Anyway, he was able to provide bonafide s.h.i.+pping orders and such for the loot and he even had a couple of freighters in the play. They were running everything from shaving lotion to hootch. According to Thornton, Southeast Asia, for awhile there, was the prime dumping grounds for the hijack rings.”
”Cute,” Bolan commented.
”Yeh. When these guys do something, they do it big, don't they. Well, according to Thornton, he wasn't getting that much out of it. He figured the risk exceeded the profits, most of which was going to the mob anyway. But they had it into him, and he had to go along.”
”What were you saying about Howlie?” Bolan reminded him.