Code Of Honor

The last op had been particularly gratifying. The fact that she was the only survivor of a three-person team actually gave her a particular thrill. It made her feel that she was better than anyone else—certainly better than Mr. Green and Mr. Mauve, who’d both been killed by the target—and that was a compelling rush.

She decided that she deserved a reward.

Gazing around the pool, she tried to figure out which of the men drooling over her curvy figure, barely contained by the tiny fabric of her bikini, she would take back to her room.

She rejected three as too old, two as too tanned, and one as too young.

That left her with two choices: the dark-haired man in the purple Speedo with the lean, muscular body, or the blond-haired man in blue bathing trunks with the wide shoulders.

When a woman came over to the dark-haired man and kissed him, Ms. White realized that she had only one choice. Not that she didn’t sometimes enjoy the challenge of seducing a man who was already attached, but she didn’t feel like going to that level of effort this day.

After finishing off the remnants of her margarita, Ms. White got to her feet and walked slowly to the blond-haired man. He had been openly staring at her for quite some time, until he realized she was heading for him, at which point he made a show of staring at the pool, the bar, the hotel, the palm trees—anything except her.

She pushed her sunglasses down her nose so she could peer at him from over the frame. “You’ve been staring at me for over an hour now.”

He looked around nervously, not making eye contact. “Um—”

“Are you denying it?” She spoke in a mildly harsh tone.

“I, uh—” Then he broke down, looked at her and smiled. “I guess I really can’t, huh?” His voice was deep and pleasant, like waves crashing over rocks.

She smiled back. “Do you like what you see?”

“Wouldn’t have been staring if I didn’t. Nothin’ in the world better than a curvy redhead, I always say.”

“Do you want to see more?”

The smile widened, showing perfect white teeth. “Not much left to see.”

“Oh, but it’s worth it. You have a room here?”

Within minutes, they were in the hallway outside his room, and he was fumbling in the fanny pack he’d brought with him to the pool containing money, ID, and his room key. Eventually, he liberated the plastic card and inserted it into the slot. The green light came on, and he pushed the door open.

The moment the door closed behind her, she grabbed the blond-haired man by the back of his head, turned him around and started kissing him.

He returned the kiss hungrily, his tongue sliding into her mouth.

Conveniently, they were both wearing very little, so it was the work of only a second or two for him to remove her bikini and her to remove his swimming trunks. Her straw hat, however, remained on her head, still secured by the bobby pins, as did the wig.

They remained kissing while standing upright, now both naked, and peering between his legs, she could see how pleased he was by this turn of events. Eventually, she maneuvered him to one of the room’s two double beds, throwing him playfully but forcefully onto his back.

She pleasured him for a minute or two, as she often did to make sure that the man she was with was fully aroused. That was often not much of a concern, but she knew that her partners enjoyed it. He also reached down and tried to fondle her breasts; she admired his enthusiasm.

Finally, she climbed onto the bed, her legs straddling his hips, and lowered herself onto him. They both moaned with the pleasure of the moment as she rocked her hips.

Within only a few seconds, though, she could feel his body tense as he started to climax.

Reaching up, she slid her hand under the brim of the straw hat and pulled out one of the Hibben throwing knives that she’d taken off the corpse of the late, unlamented Mr. Mauve.

Just as the blond man climaxed, moaning in pleasure, Ms. White plunged the point of the Hibben knife into his carotid artery.

Ms. White felt his death throes combined with his pleasure, and only then did she also climax, as blood gushed all over the hotel bed from the wound she’d created.

For several seconds, Ms. White sat there, feeling the pleasure crest over her.

Then she climbed off the corpse and yanked the knife from its neck. More blood poured out of the wound, though it no longer gushed, with the heart having stopped pumping.

Turning around and not giving the young man another thought, Ms. White went into the bathroom to wash off her right hand, which was the only place she’d gotten blood on herself. Over the years, she’d perfected this particular sequence of events to the point where she got no blood on her whatsoever—except on the hand that wielded the killing knife. She’d yet to figure out a way to entirely avoid that.

Leaving her hand wet rather than risk leaving any trace evidence on the hotel towel, Ms. White went back into the room, climbed into her bikini bottoms and tied the bikini top.

After she exited the hotel room, she headed to the crossover bridge to the other tower where her own room was, retrieving her key from the band in her hat. Once inside, she removed both hat and wig and tossed them into the bathtub. Pausing to remove the battery from the room’s smoke detector, Ms. White then grabbed a book of matches from the hotel restaurant that she’d tossed on the desk the night before. She struck one match, lighting it, and set the hat and the wig on fire.

As both items burned, Ms. White removed the bikini bottoms, then the female condom, wrapping it in a bit of toilet paper. She’d dispose of it later, somewhere off the hotel grounds. She put a T-shirt over the bikini top, then donned a pair of panties and khaki shorts. Reaching into the shorts pocket, she opened her cell phone and discovered a text message that simply read: Call.

She dialed the current number for the Black Cross headquarters, which was in a cabin in the Redwood forests of Humboldt County, California—this month. A voice on the other side said, “Ms. White, return to base ASAP.”

“I’ll be on the next plane,” she said. “I’m finished here anyhow.”

AFTER CHECKING OUT of the resort, using the credit card of one of her many false identities, Ms. White booked a flight to the Eureka/Arcata Airport in Northern California using a different ID. There was a delay in the connecting flight at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, but eventually she arrived safely.

As expected, the Black Hawk piloted by Mr. Silver was waiting to take her from Eureka/Arcata to Black Cross HQ. When the Black Hawk landed, she was met by the tall, dark-skinned, bald-headed Mr. Indigo. He stared at her with his wide, intense brown eyes, and said, “Welcome home.”

Unlike most other heterosexual men, Mr. Indigo didn’t stare at her chest, even though the flower-print sundress she had changed into showed considerable cleavage. For his part, Mr. Indigo was, as always, wearing an immaculate charcoal three-piece suit. Were it not so immaculate, Ms. White would have been convinced that he slept in it, since he never wore anything else in her presence.

As he accompanied her to the cabin that was a quarter mile from the airfield, Mr. Indigo said, “Our man Galloway found a potential new recruit. Given the way we’ve been hemorrhaging operatives lately…”

Ms. White nodded. Besides Misters Mauve and Green, another operative had been killed in the Redmond assassination, and three more had retired. They were down to only six, and she knew that Mr. Indigo preferred their fighting strength to be an even dozen.

“Who is this new man?”

They entered the cabin, and Mr. Indigo led her to a laptop, which had a generic screen saver running on the monitor. Mr. Indigo touched the button under the track pad, causing the screen to change to that of a U.S. Marine Corps dossier on a gunnery sergeant. His name was blacked out—a standard Black Cross security protocol.

“He’s a former jarhead,” Mr. Indigo explained, “and he’s been a merc since then. Sharpshooter. He’s had trouble finding work lately because he’s too brutal.”

“I wasn’t aware that you could be too brutal for the Marines.”

Giving her the tiniest of smiles—which was as emotional as he ever got—Mr. Indigo said, “There’s a first time for everything. He has a tendency to kill people regardless of whether they’re supposed to be killed, which irked his superiors in the Corps. After that, he became a merc, and that same tendency irked a few of his employers, too.”

“I can imagine,” Ms. White said. “We have no such compunctions, though.”

“Indeed not. Galloway has him set up for his interview tomorrow. I want you to pick the talent for it and supervise the process.”

Ms. White blinked. That was something usually left to operatives with more experience than her. “Why me?”

“I’d say you’ve earned the promotion.” Mr. Indigo stared at her with those intense eyes. “You’ve been my best operative since you were hired six years ago. With Mr. Red, Mr. Brown and Ms. Violet retiring, and losing Mr. Green, Mr. Mauve and Ms. Yellow, you’re the one I trust the most right now.”

Unsure if she was being complimented, or if she was simply the best of a series of bad choices, Ms. White instead just asked, “Where is the interview to be held?”

“Valley Forge. Find a half dozen or so from the usual sources and get them set up at eleven tomorrow. The interview’s at noon.”

Ms. White winced. That was all the way across the country, which meant she’d need to leave immediately to have time to set things up.

However, Mr. Indigo wasn’t one to give compliments lightly. If he was going to trust her with such an operation, it meant good things for her. Specifically, it meant more pay—which was, after all, her primary motivation—given his use of the word promotion. The idealistic college student who’d thought she’d be doing some good in the world had long since died. The realities of life beat that idealism right out of her.

Mr. Indigo opened another window on the laptop. “There’s an e-ticket in the name of Alma White at Eureka/Arcata for a flight to Denver, and then a connecting flight to Philadelphia. You’ve got one hour.”

Just enough time to shower and change her clothes. She wanted to get the smell of the blond man off her anyhow.

4

Bolan drove the Ford Escort down North Gulph Road to the location on the greasy slip of paper given to him the previous day by Galloway. North Gulph was one of many roads that led through Valley Forge National Historical Park.

The Executioner thought it repugnant that someone like the Black Cross—if it was indeed behind all this—would sully the heroic sacrifice of the soldiers who fought against tyranny on this ground in the eighteenth century with their “job interview” of a potential assassin. That they happily accepted commissions to murder retired government operatives like Redmond, Bethke, Grosso and Lang just made it worse.

Bolan brought the Escort to a halt and turned off the ignition. He was about five minutes early for his appointment with Galloway, which was just enough time to check over his armament.

Unburdened by the security of a gun show, the Executioner was fully armed with a Mark XIX .357 Magnum Desert Eagle pistol, a 9 mm SIG-Sauer P-226 handgun and an RRA Tactical Entry 5.56 mm rifle. He checked the clips of all three in succession, making sure they were fully loaded and that he had spare ammo for all three.

Of course, if his recon of the park earlier that morning was any indication, he wouldn’t be given much opportunity to reload.

The Executioner wasn’t surprised that the Black Cross’s notion of a job interview was to send several people to try to kill him. If they succeeded, he wouldn’t get the job, and as an added bonus, what little he knew about them would die with him.

If they didn’t succeed, he was worthy of being an elite assassin. From the perspective of the Black Cross, it was win-win.

Bolan assumed that the six people hiding in the nearby trees, whom he’d noticed during his earlier recon, were there to perform that task. They likely weren’t actual Black Cross assassins—Bolan couldn’t imagine that they’d stay in business long if their top assassins’ lives were being so easily thrown away on something like this—but mercenaries hired to see if Michael Burns was Black Cross material. Three were up in the trees, the others on the ground.

While Bolan didn’t kill innocents, he didn’t think anyone who killed a stranger for pay qualified as such.

Though it was sunny and warm, it was still a bit chillier than it had been the day before, a cold wind coming in off the Delaware River, which worked in the Executioner’s favor. He was able to holster the rifle on a strap sewn inside the right-hand side of his fleece jacket, which he left unzipped. A similar strap on the left secured the Desert Eagle, with the SIG-Sauer in a Safariland 1060 shoulder holster that fit snugly next to the Kevlar bulletproof vest.

Opening the door of the Escort, Bolan climbed out and closed the door behind him, but didn’t lock it. One of the modifications Stony Man had arranged to have made to the vehicle was a bulletproof body and windows. He wanted the option of being able to open the door and use it as a shield once the firing started, as it inevitably would.

Bolan took up position against the car’s hood, waiting for Galloway to make his appearance.

For a brief moment, he simply enjoyed the quiet, the smell of the freshly cut grass, the feel of the light breeze, the warmth of the sun on his stubble-covered face. For years Bolan’s life had been dedicated solely to the pursuit of those who broke the law while sitting from a lofty place above it, avoiding judgment for their acts. His life as Justice’s proxy left him with little time for indulgences such as enjoying a warm spring day.

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