Part 12 (2/2)
”Well, he was nickle-and-diming it during his last few months at Saigon. After his retirement, Thornton helped him set up here. Thornton swears it and I don't know why he'd want to He about it now ... Howlie didn't know what he was getting into, not at first. Oh sure, he knew he was selling his influence at the Pentagon. I guess they all do it, most of these retired officers. Why not? It's legal, right? And it's about the only way they can make a military career pay off when things have gone sour for them. Who needs a guy who has spent his whole life deploying troops around a battlefield, right?”
”Go on,” Bolan prodded.
Schwarz took it from there. ”You know what a feeder horn is, Sarge? It's part of a radio transmission system, sort of like microwave but still operating at radio frequencies. It puts out a controlled emission that's beamed like a spotlight, only it's tighter than any spotlight. It's line-of-sight stuff. The other end of the system uses a dish-antenna for receiving, and you have to shoot directly into the dish or there's no reception.”
”Radio point-blank,” Bolan commented. ”We had them in 'Nam.”
”Right. Data links for radar, electronic counter-measures.”
”Ultra-sophisticated,” Blanca.n.a.les put in.
”Absolutely,” Schwarz agreed. ”I have no idea what a rig like that costs, but you can bet it's mighty heavy. You can set them up for mobile use, and that gets even costlier. Besides that, if you're going to own a system like that then you've got to have people who know how to operate and maintain it. Now why. ...” He paused, grinned, and swiped at his nose with a a balled fist. ”Why would you think an outfit like the Mafia would want a million-dollar toy like that?” balled fist. ”Why would you think an outfit like the Mafia would want a million-dollar toy like that?”
Bolan showed the electronics expert a sober smile and said, ”Data link, right?”
”Right.”
”With Agua Caliente just a few miles across the border.”
Schwarz looked disappointed. Bolan had spoiled his punch line. ”That's it,” he said. ”The track down there has a complete foreign book betting service for tracks all over the world. These dummies are trying to set up a foolproof link between Mexico and Vegas. At mountain peak to mountain peak line-of-sight, do you know how many feeder-horn relays they'd have to have?”
Bolan commented, ”They think big, Gadgets.” He shrugged his shoulders. ”And if it's costing them nothing....”
”Well yeah, but G.o.d what they have to go through to get get the stuff. That's what finally stuck in Howlie's craw. He helped them get two systems already, without even realizing what he was doing. Then he stumbled onto it and tried to freeze them out. It was a neat racket and I'd like to meet the guy who thought it up. Thornton's electronics subsidiary is subbing on a military contract for a whole bunch of these rigs, complete systems. Thornton supplies various components used in the final a.s.sembly. One of Howlie's companies had the final inspection and quality a.s.surance contract the stuff. That's what finally stuck in Howlie's craw. He helped them get two systems already, without even realizing what he was doing. Then he stumbled onto it and tried to freeze them out. It was a neat racket and I'd like to meet the guy who thought it up. Thornton's electronics subsidiary is subbing on a military contract for a whole bunch of these rigs, complete systems. Thornton supplies various components used in the final a.s.sembly. One of Howlie's companies had the final inspection and quality a.s.surance contract for the military. for the military. Through quality rejects and a lot of juggling, they managed to piecemeal-out enough rejected components to a.s.semble two complete systems. They've got them holed up somewhere right now, Thornton swears he doesn't know where, until they get enough to complete the link to Vegas. But G.o.d, it was a sweet idea. I guess they marked the QC rejects as salvage, cancelled out the serial numbers, and buried all the records of the final transactions.'' Through quality rejects and a lot of juggling, they managed to piecemeal-out enough rejected components to a.s.semble two complete systems. They've got them holed up somewhere right now, Thornton swears he doesn't know where, until they get enough to complete the link to Vegas. But G.o.d, it was a sweet idea. I guess they marked the QC rejects as salvage, cancelled out the serial numbers, and buried all the records of the final transactions.''
”Or burned them,” Bolan said. He was remembering a thick stack of ashes in the Winters fireplace. ”Could those be the papers Lisa Winters was yelling about?”
”It's beginning to make sense,” Blanca.n.a.les said thoughtfully. ”Howlie was a poor sap, a dupe. He dug up the records and took them home ... maybe to study them and confirm his suspicions. Once he knew, he told them to go to h.e.l.l.”
”He would do that,” Schwarz said musingly.
”He'd have to have an edge on them somewhere,” Bolan pointed out. ”And his edge was the records. He could expose the whole scheme by publicly producing those records.”
”Mexican stand-off,” Blanca.n.a.les said. ”He'd also be incriminating himself. So he couldn't just haul off and let fire. But ... as long as he had those papers....”
”Right,” Bolan agreed. ”So why would he burn them? He had the boys over a barrel.”
”Maybe he just couldn't keep them there,” Schwarz said quietly.
”It's why he sent for Able Team,” Blanca.n.a.les decided.
”Too late,” Schwarz murmured.
”Too late for the living,” Bolan told them, ice creeping into his voice. ”But not too late for the dead. Come on. We're moving out.”
”Where to?” the Politician inquired.
”You, to see a young lady. Concerning a stack of papers and why why they were burned.” they were burned.”
”Wait'll I comb my hair,” Blanca.n.a.les said, grinning.
Bolan stabbed Gadgets Schwarz with his eyes. ”You've got the cold job,” he warned him. ”Find that stolen gear.”
Schwarz's eyelids fluttered rapidly, but all he had to say about the a.s.signment was, ”Okay. So I'll bundle up good.”
Bolan did not share the secret with his buddies, but he had saved the really cold job for himself.
It was time to spread the tar around.
He had to roust Tony Danger.
Even if it meant rousting him from a jail cell.
He did not know it at that moment, but a jail cell was precisely where he'd have to go to nail the guy.
15:
COLD PLAY.
It was getting dark out when Carl Lyons and John Tatum decamped from the Captain's office, headed toward a quick meal and a few casual moments of relaxation before facing the long night ahead.
It had been a rough day of dreary police work- interrogations, questioning of witnesses, seemingly endless conferences with city and county officials, and finally the big Mafia roundup of outraged and bitterly complaining local honchos.
That last had been the worst, in Tatum's book. The mob had plenty of clout in the area, at every court level, and it had been d.a.m.n tough just getting an overnight hold on the swaggering b.a.s.t.a.r.ds without specific charges to book them on.
A legal eagle in the D.A.'s office had finally come up with one of those old ”public good” statutes which was at least firm enough to base an argument upon until morning.
Maybe that would save the night, anyway.
Tatum paused at the duty desk to sign himself out, and he told the young cop from L.A., ”I don't know, maybe Braddock is right and this is the best way to cope with the problem. Maybe we can just stalemate the guy out of town. It may be an ounce of prevention, but it sure isn't good police work, not in my book.”
'The important thing is to hold down the fireworks,” Lyons remarked. ”Bolan isn't all that big and bad. And I guess he figures there's always a next time. He'll play the odds, that's for sure. For him, the numbers say don't push it don't push it-another time is coming.”
”It'd better not,” Tatum replied grimly. ”One more killing and this town will blow sky high. G.o.d, the pressure. pressure. Did you feel it in there?” Did you feel it in there?”
”I felt it,” Lyons admitted.
”And the press hasn't even got ahold of it yet.” The Captain glanced at the clock above the duty desk. ”That is, for another five minutes. I don't know how the word gets around, but they tell me the city-hall phones have been burning all afternoon.”
”Concerned citizens,” Lyons suggested wryly.
”Yeah, very important important concerned citizens.” concerned citizens.”
”That should tell you something.”
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