Aftershock. Don Pendleton

slowed and held his hands out carefully and gently, speaking low and soft, in English, but hoping that his tone would translate until he figured out what language the girl spoke. “No, it’s okay. I’m here to help.”

      The girl took a tentative step back, then pointed inside. She said something, only two syllables, but it was enough. “Mama.”

      Bolan nodded and followed the girl as she led him through a hallway. It was choked with rubble, and there seemed to be no way past. Through the barrier, however, he could hear the plaintive screams of a woman calling for help, deadened by the weight of collapsed stone. The girl spoke up, rattling off in rapid Turkish.

      The woman didn’t stop screaming, and Bolan wondered if she could hear clearly. He gestured to the girl to cover her ears. She did and then in his best parade march bellow, he called out. “Can you hear me?”

      The woman stopped. Garbled Turkish erupted. Bolan knew a few words in the language, but the gist was lost on him. She repeated one word several times— ”Lata.”

      Bolan knew the Turkish word for “help”; it was one of the phrases he memorized before cutting across the border. “Lata” sounded like a name.

      He looked down at the girl. “Lata?”

      The girl nodded.

      Bolan searched his memory for a moment and then pulled up the Turkish phrase he needed. He barked it out loudly, Lata covering her ears again. “Lata’s safe!”

      The woman on the other side broke down in a mixture of tears and laughter, the sounds of relief cutting through the heavy rubble. Bolan tested the barrier and pulled his flashlight. Its bright beam cut into the darkness above, and he knew that several levels had collapsed onto this hallway. The heavy floors made it impossible to move, as they had wedged down tightly. He’d need another way to get to the trapped woman.

      Bolan turned, his mind racing. Picking an apartment door, he kicked it open violently. Wood splintered and the door swung open. No one was inside. The ceiling had buckled in a few places, and in the direction of the woman, he noticed that the wall had crumbled at the top. He pulled the all-steel Jericho pistol and hammered it against the cracked drywall. The girl gasped in surprise that he was armed, but saw what he was doing and calmed down. After three hard taps, there was a fist-sized hole in the drywall, and he could see through to the next apartment.

      Bolan took a firm grasp of the drywall and cracked a chunk free easily. He holstered the Jericho and tapped the wall, checking for the width of the support studs, then hurled himself against it with all his might. Drywall crumbled under his weight, and he dented the far side.

      “Thanks for cheap apartment construction,” he muttered. The girl took a tentative step forward and Bolan rammed the half-broken wall again and burst through. Covered in plaster and powdered drywall, he looked around the next apartment. His shoulder ached from where he’d used it as an improvised wrecking ball. He looked back at Lata, who watched him in awe.

      The apartment’s ceiling was buckled in several places, and a sofa from an upstairs apartment poked through into the room. It wouldn’t be safe for the little girl. Bolan knelt and motioned for her to stay put in the doorway they’d come through. If the floor was going to collapse, that would be a safer place for her. Lata nodded in understanding and ran to where he pointed.

      “Thank you,” she said in Turkish. Bolan understood and smiled, then tried the apartment door.

      It opened a couple of inches but was stopped by a massive weight on the other side. Bolan braced the door with one hand, then drew his Jericho again, and its solid steel frame cracked the wood with one hammer blow. Bolan holstered the weapon, then used his forearm to drive the broken section of door away. He could see into the hallway, and the woman lying on the floor. She was wedged under a support pillar. He could see that her scalp was split, and that blood soaked down into one of her ears. No wonder she hadn’t heard the little girl’s voice. It had taken Bolan’s volume to cut through her partial deafness.

      Her eyes were glazed, and she was starting to slip into shock. Bolan grabbed the door frame and pulled hard. After his third tug, the molding around the door ripped free and clattered to the floor at his feet. Plaster rained from the ceiling above, and the Executioner knew that he wouldn’t have much time. He considered using a gun to shoot out the hinges, but the percussion would weaken the ceiling more. Instead, he took out his knife and pried the top hinge. Cheap brass folded under its leverage. Held in place by only one hinge, and unrestrained by the door frame’s molding, he’d be able to wrench the bottom hinge loose. With a powerful tug, his shoulders and back protesting against the effort, he tore the half-broken door free, using the space he’d smashed out of its corner as a handle.

      Bolan scanned the area, then grabbed a chair and wedged the door into it and up against the ceiling. It wouldn’t last for long, but he hoped it would buy him a few minutes. He knelt by the woman’s side. He took her dark, bloodied hand in his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

      “I’m here to help,” he said as he looked at the weight holding her in place.

      “Lata?” the woman inquired. Her voice cracked, barely above a whisper. She’d worn out her vocal cords crying for her child. Bolan dug his fingers in under the support pillar and tried to lift it, but he couldn’t move it. If he could get a quarter inch of slack, the woman would have been able to crawl out to safety. But there just was too much rubble wedging it down.

      The mother looked through the door, her eyes widening fearfully. “Lata!”

      Bolan looked back and saw the little girl.

      The woman clutched at his leg. She shook her head.

      Bolan took a deep breath, grimacing at the woman’s implications. She wanted him to take Lata and escape before the whole building came down. Plaster rained on the little girl and she screamed. Bolan rose to his feet and scooped Lata out of the way as the sofa crashed to the floor from the apartment above.

      In his rush to rescue the little girl, he didn’t feel the tremors of the aftershock immediately. The woman winced as the weight pressed against her. Bolan pushed Lata into the gap he’d made to the next apartment.

      “Stay,” he told her firmly in simple Turkish. He looked around. He couldn’t give up on this girl’s mother. Then he saw the kitchenette by the door. He strode over and opened the cabinets and found several bottles. He couldn’t tell what they were exactly, their labels unintelligible, but one he saw had bubbles, and another was a form of greasy oil. He pocketed five bottles of various soaps and oils, then looked around. He could make it more slippery for the mother to slide out, but he needed leverage. The pillar that wedged her in had shifted, which meant it could now be moved, but its weight could crush her if he slipped. He saw a coatrack and tested it. It was a chunk of solid wood, and Bolan kicked off the flimsy hooks on one end before slipping through the doorway.

      The injured woman looked at him, frightened. Bolan gave her a nod, then drove the shaft of the coatrack under the pillar. Bracing the wood across his hip, he plucked out the bottles and pulled off their tops. Greasy, slippery fluids poured onto the floor, soaking beneath the trapped woman. She squirmed, but when her shoulders slipped loosely, without any traction, understanding crossed her features.

      Bolan pushed all his weight into lifting the wedged pillar. The coatrack’s shaft started to crackle under the strain. The woman gasped as the weight stopped pressing on her.

      “Now!” Bolan ordered, keeping his muscle pressed into his improvised lever. She fumbled and slipped, then pushed against the thing that had trapped her, and found the leverage to slide free. Lata rushed to the doorway and took her mother’s hand, and the Turkish mother and daughter stumbled back into the apartment as the wood snapped against Bolan’s shoulder.

      The Executioner staggered back, and the pillar hammered into the floor. A wash of rubble assaulted his legs, but he managed to kick free.

      Lata was leading her mother to the next apartment when Bolan caught up with them and steered them toward the window. With a powerful kick, he shattered the glass and, using