False Front. Don Pendleton

saw the cameraman frantically wipe at the lens with a rag as he stooped forward to retrieve the bloody mass of flesh and bone from the ground. Grasping it by the tufts of hair at the front hairline, he held it up to the camera. Vanished now were his hopes of showing no emotion and he screamed, “America must release our brethren! American must remove all soldiers from our islands and all Muslim nations!” With a dramatic sweep of his free hand he indicated the shocked hostages behind him. “Or I will kill each and every one of them! Allah be praised!”

      As Subing had ordered him to do, the cameraman panned the faces of the missionaries, pausing long enough to register each one’s dismay and horror before moving on to the next. Then he pressed the stop button and ended the recording.

      Subing realized he had been holding his breath since speaking and finally let it out with a sigh. But when he looked down at the head dangling from his fingers, the sight caused him to suck in another sudden breath and hold it.

      Reverend James A. Worden might be dead, but the smile was still on his lips. And it looked wider and more peaceful than it ever had in life.

      CHAPTER ONE

      The plane in the distance grew smaller, gradually becoming a mere speck in the sky before vanishing from sight altogether. Mack Bolan was alone, but such was almost always the case with the man also known as the Executioner.

      Bolan looked down as he free-fell through the sky. Below he could see the deep blue waters of the Sulu Sea. Farther east lay the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines. In a moment he would open his parachute, but it would still be some time before he reached land. The Executioner had chosen a HAHO—High Altitude High Opening—dive both to avoid detection and to give himself room to maneuver the treacherous winds just north of the Sulu Archipelago. If all went as planned, it would take him approximately twenty minutes to reach the arranged landing zone where two already-on-the-ground contacts would be waiting for him. One was a CIA agent who had been trying to infiltrate the Liberty Tigers for several weeks. The other was a retired Delta Force special operations soldier who was also an old friend of another counterterrorist operative who worked out of Stony Man Farm.

      Wind whipped at his face as the Executioner free-fell toward the white-capped waves below. Finally he grabbed the ripcord with his right hand, jerked, and the chute shot out over his head. Bolan watched as the canopy hit the end of the lines and saw that there was a problem.

      It hadn’t opened.

      As he continued to plummet, Bolan stared at the flat chute that some jumpers called a “Roman Candle.” Other parachutists referred to them as “streamers.” But no matter what you called it, the bottom line was that the canopy had failed. It looked like a long, limp dishrag or the tail on a child’s homemade kite as it followed him down through the sky toward certain death.

      The Executioner’s jaw set tightly as he reviewed the pre-jump equipment check in his memory. Everything had been in place. Everything in order. Everything had checked out. So why hadn’t the canopy opened properly? He didn’t know. And probably never would.

      Bolan continued to fall, forcing himself to stay calm, not a particularly difficult task for a man who had lived a life such as his. Remaining composed in the face of impending destruction had become second nature to him. He had stared into the dark face of the Grim Reaper many times and each time the man with the sickle had been the one to break eye contact and back down. Bolan had too much experience under his gun belt to be upset now.

      To most men, the unopened chute would have been cause for panic. But to the Executioner, a primary canopy malfunction seemed hardly more dangerous than a bee sting.

      The irony of dying from something so minor, however, was not lost on Bolan. A small grin broke at the corners of his lips as he was reminded that warriors were still human and that in addition to the extra dangers they faced they were still subject to all the hazards waiting to ensnare the normal man. General George S. Patton, Jr., had been killed in a car wreck. Colonel Rex Applegate had died of complications following an easily treated stroke. Bolan had known warriors who had succumbed to cancer and other terminal diseases. The truth was that warriors sometimes died like warriors. Other times they passed on in ways that seemed more befitting schoolteachers, accountants and stockbrokers.

      Bolan spread both arms and legs to slow his fall. What had started out as a HAHO jump would now be turned into a mid-opener at best. He reached up to the harness at his left shoulder as, below, the whitecaps became more distinct. He could even make out several black spots that he assumed to be fishing boats. The island of Mindanao was still at least a mile in the distance.

      Tugging the D-ring of the reserve chute, the Executioner glanced upward once more to see the streamer break free and fly off into space. That was the first step in the emergency procedure—to get the failed chute out of the way so it didn’t entangle the emergency canopy. Bolan counted—one…two…three—then saw the second canopy shoot up and out, blossoming into a life-saving orb that suddenly slowed his descent.

      The Executioner had remained tranquil throughout the minor emergency. Still, he breathed a sigh of relief as he began to steer his way toward the landing site. He had work to do and it was that work to which his mind now turned.

      As he floated through the sky, Bolan’s mind floated, as well—back to the telephone conversation he’d had only hours before with Hal Brognola, director of the Sensitive Operations Group at Stony Man Farm. The CIA had intercepted intelligence that a mammoth terrorist strike against the U.S. was imminent. Details as to exactly what, where, how and when were sketchy, but the chatter was that it would make September 11, 2001 seem like little more than a firecracker. What was clear was the “who.” Candido “Candy” Subing and his terrorist group, the Liberty Tigers of the Philippines, were planning the attack. A Filipino Moro-Muslim terrorist organization, the Tigers, as they were commonly called, had achieved notoriety during the past year by kidnapping six American missionaries. Just the day before, the major news networks had all received a videotape of Subing brutally murdering one of the hostages. An edited version had been aired throughout most of the world. Al-Jazeera, of course, had shown the entire gruesome ordeal.

      The waves and fishing boats below him, and even the land in the distance, became more distinct as the Executioner sailed to the ground. At the same time, other distinctions filled his mind. First and foremost was the fact that much of the intelligence the CIA had about Candy Subing and his Tigers didn’t quite add up. Even before intercepting the intelligence from the CIA, Stony Man Farm had been monitoring the progress of a Filipino military force tasked with locating the hostages. But their attempt appeared halfhearted at best and so far their search had been unsuccessful.

      Yes, Bolan thought, Candy Subing was a nasty little terrorist. But was he capable of any kind of major strike at the U.S.? Doubtful. The Liberty Tigers were simply too small and too limited financially to pull off such a thing. In the Executioner’s estimation the group simply didn’t have what it would take to carry out a large-scale strike on other side of the world. At least not without help. And there had been no mention of any of the other terrorist groups teaming up with them.

      Finally over land, Bolan worked the toggles, steering the canopy. The failed primary chute had thrown him slightly off course, but not enough to worry him. He was still several miles north of Zamboanga, the southwestmost city on the island of Mindanao. He might not come down exactly where his ride was supposed to be waiting, but as long as he landed reasonably close, the men would easily spot him. If not, all Bolan needed to do was to make his way to the nearby main—and only—road that followed the coastline. His pickup would have no choice but to drive on it even if he gave up on finding him.

      Bolan’s mind turned back to the captive missionaries. While their location was still a mystery, the CIA had finally learned that Subing himself slipped in and out of a small village near Zamboanga to visit his uncle. They had notified the President that they were about to send in a team of covert operatives who would do their best to take the Tigers’s leader alive, then pump him for information concerning both the hostages and the strike planned for America. If live capture proved impossible, Subing would be assassinated