Survival Reflex. Don Pendleton

TWO

      San Diego, California

      Mack Bolan took his time on Harbor Drive, westbound, checking his rearview mirror frequently. He hadn’t been in San Diego for a while, no reason anybody should be looking for him here, but vigilance was the price of survival. The first time Bolan let his guard drop, taking personal security for granted, it was safe to bet that negligence would turn and bite him where it hurt.

      No tails so far.

      His progress in the rented Chevrolet was leisurely enough that other motorists were glad to pass him, but he wasn’t driving slow enough to risk a ticket for obstructing traffic. Just the right speed, Bolan thought, for someone seeking a specific address in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

      The address in question belonged to a block of professional offices, one of those buildings designed to resemble a twenty-first-century bunker. It was bronze and brown, metal and stone, with windows that reflected sunlight in a painful glare across the nearby lanes of traffic. In short, it was an eyesore, but the ritzy kind that advertised the affluence of those who had their offices within.

      He wheeled into the parking lot and checked the rearview mirror once more, just to play it safe. Nobody followed him, none of the other drivers slowed to track his progress as they passed.

      Now all he had to think about was what might be inside the ugly building, waiting for him.

      Theoretically, it was a friend he hadn’t seen in better than a year. The contact had been clean, secure on Bolan’s end, no glitches to excite suspicion. Still, he was alive this day because he always took that extra step, preparing for the worst while hoping for the best.

      The parking lot was only half full at this hour, approaching lunchtime, and he found a space within a short sprint of the revolving glass door. No one was loitering outside, but tinted windows wouldn’t let him scan the lobby from his vehicle.

      Twelve minutes left.

      He didn’t have the hinky feeling that an ambush often prompted, small hairs bristling on his nape, but Bolan didn’t live by premonitions. Instinct, training and experience all went together in the mix, occasionally seasoned by audacity.

      Do it or split, he thought.

      He didn’t need to check the pistol slung beneath his left armpit in fast-draw leather—fifteen cartridges in the Beretta’s magazine and one more in the chamber—so he simply had to squeeze the double-action trigger. Two spare magazines in pouches underneath his right arm gave him forty-six chances to kill any assailants who might try to jump him at the meet.

      Relaxed? No way.

      Frightened? Not even close.

      He locked the car and left it, crossed the sidewalk, stepped into the maw of the revolving door. This was the first chance for an enemy to take him. Shooters waiting in the lobby could unload on him while he was sandwiched between panes of glass, most likely take him down before he could retaliate. It didn’t happen, though, and in another moment he was standing in the lobby, bathed in frosty air-conditioning.

      There was an information desk to Bolan’s left, manned by a senior citizen. Off to his right, a wall directory served those who didn’t want the human touch. Bolan ignored them both, sweeping the empty lobby as he moved directly to the dual elevators.

      Bolan didn’t need to check the floor or office numbers. They had been supplied, and he’d memorized them, end of story. Now he simply had to hope there would be no nasty surprises waiting for him on the seventh floor.

      The smooth and solitary ride lasted no more than ninety seconds, but it gave him ample time to think about the call that had surprised him, coming out of nowhere with a plea for help. The caller was a man whose martial prowess nearly rivaled Bolan’s, one who rarely bluffed and never folded if he had a prayer of staying in the game.

      They hadn’t talked details, an indication that the caller was concerned about security, despite precautions taken when he made the link-up. The arrangement of their meeting was another warning sign, behind closed doors, using the office of a lawyer Bolan didn’t know from Adam.

      Hinky? Not so far.

      Cautious? Believe it.

      Bolan’s circle of devoted friends was small and dwindling over time. It was the nature of his life and his profession that attachments came with price tags. Sudden death or worse lay waiting for the careless. He had more friends in the ground than standing on it, and the trend would always run that way.

      It was a law of nature in the hellgrounds where he lived.

      Bolan had no suspicion that the caller might betray his trust. It was unthinkable. That didn’t mean, however, that some rude third party couldn’t find a way to horn in on the meet. Technology was only one short step behind imagination, these days, and he couldn’t discount pure bad luck.

      There was a chance, however minuscule, that Bolan’s contact might be followed to the meet, or that a leak inside the lawyer’s office might produce a most unwelcome welcoming committee. Bolan doubted it, but it was possible, and that meant he would have to be on full alert throughout the interaction.

      SOP, in other words.

      Another normal day in Bolan’s life.

      He felt the elevator slowing into its approach and stepped back from the door, to the left side. A straight-on spray of bullets when the door slid open wouldn’t take him, though he’d have to watch for ricochets.

      Jacket unbuttoned for swift access to his pistol, Bolan stood and waited with his hand almost inside the jacket, feeling like a caricature of Napoleon. The elevator settled and its door hissed open to reveal an empty corridor.

      A small sign on the facing wall directed Bolan to his right. He moved along the hall with long strides, radiating confidence and capability. He had no audience, but they were qualities the tall man couldn’t hide. He might not stand out in a crowd on any given street corner, but when push came to shove he was the leader of the pack.

      Make that lone wolf, most of the time.

      But not today.

      His destination was a door like every other on the floor, with a bronze plate that gave a number and the lawyer’s name. The knob turned in his hand and Bolan stepped into a small but suitably luxurious reception room.

      Four empty chairs faced an unattended desk. No sign of a receptionist or anybody else.

      He didn’t need to check his watch. A stylish wall clock told him he was right on time.

      Bolan was running down a short list of his options when a door behind the vacant desk swung open to reveal a smiling face.

      “I’m glad you found the place okay,” Rosario “The Politician” Blancanales said.

      BLANCANALES HAD EARNED the “Politician” nickname in another life, a tribute to his skill at soothing fear and agitation among Asian villagers whose lives and homes were threatened daily by the ever-shifting tides of war. He had been part of Bolan’s Special Forces A-team, one of several thrown together in the hellfire moment who had forged lifelong alliances.

      One of the few who somehow managed to survive.

      “I guess the staff is out to lunch,” Bolan remarked as they shook hands.

      “We have an hour to ourselves. Friend of a friend, you know?”

      He didn’t bother running down the details of a family in peril, spared against all odds, with gratitude that reached beyond the limits of a long lunch on a busy afternoon. Pol knew that Bolan didn’t need the details, didn’t really care how they had come to find themselves alone in an attorney’s office on the seventh floor of a building he’d never visited before this day and wouldn’t see again.

      “He sweeps the place, I guess?” Bolan asked, thinking of security.

      “I swept it, coming in. It’s clean.”

      “Okay.”