Yakov Katzenelenbogen and his team hustled out into the night to make last-minute checks and adjustments of the defense perimeter of the Farm.
Mack's initial assessment of the computer sabotage had been correct, as usual.
Stony Man Farm was about to be attacked.
That was something else that made a difference. So many times April sat and waited at this very console, giving Bolan intel support and coordinating the various Stony Man units. Most of the time April was out of action. But not tonight.
Not tonight.
She holstered the .44 and swiveled in her chair to face the array of hi-tech electronics just as Katz and David McCarter returned.
Both Phoenix Force members had procured M-16s to supplement their holstered side arms.
"Manning and Ohara are beefing up security around the airfield," Yakov told April. "Encizo is covering Kurtzman and his men."
"Any news from Bear?"
"A matter of minutes," McCarter reported.
Yakov set down his rifle and leaned against a nearby wall. He shook a cigarette out of a pack and lit it.
"That might be too long if Striker is correct about the hit coming down anytime. The hours right before dawn; the best time for a hit."
McCarter straddled a chair backward.
"Too bad the patrols we sent out didn't find anything."
"We couldn't afford to send them too far," Yakov reminded the Briton.
McCarter's face was taut with the anticipation of violence. "I hate like bloody hell having to sit here waiting for them to hit us. It should bleedin' well be the other way around."
"That's the way Mack has always felt," April agreed.
A strong attack is the best defense. Seek out the enemy and hit him first. Hit him when he isn't ready for you. Hit him hard. Hit him again and again. And be as merciless to him as he is to his victims.
Bolan and Jack Grimaldi, who should have landed at the Stony Man airstrip by now, were late.
They were late.
Where is Mack Bolan?
April Rose had no idea.
She had a funny thought. I'd rather be right here than anywhere else in the world tonight, except for by his side.
April had never felt the restless searching that supposedly guides everyone through their twenties, probably due to the same pragmatic nature that guided her to graduate summa cum laude from U of C at Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering and a master's in solid-state physics by the time she was twenty-two.
Her search had been for a satisfying role through which to channel her knowledge and skills that she hoped, in however small a way, would contribute toward resolving some of the ills of humanity on this mixed-up planet.
She had not been interested in pursuing the high-fashion modeling career that had paid her way through college, though some of the offers seemed like the moon and the stars.
She had found her niche when she accepted an appointment with the U.S. Justice Department's Sensitive Operations Group that led directly to her association with Mack Bolan and her present position code-named Stony Man Two.
At twenty-nine years of age, April Rose was exactly where she wanted to be in her life.
Even tonight.
Especially tonight.
She found her first gray hair two days ago, and it hardly came as a surprise. But the more she put into the Stony Man operation, the more rewarding her life became.
Especially with a good man named Bolan who somehow seemed to give April everything she needed in every department of their relationship without ever crowding or wanting more than she could give.
April respected that more than anything else about her man, and she treated him the same way even though it hurt her more than she cared to admit each time her warrior left on another mission.
April had come a long way since childhood days as a sunshine kid in Modesto. Mom was gone two years now. April always managed to make it home to share Christmas and a week every summer with her father, a retired biology teacher. But beyond that her life revolved around the good souls and everything that mattered so much here at the nerve center of Mack's terrorist wars.
April Rose would go the distance for Mack Bolan.
Where is he? she wondered.
Perhaps he's wrong about the attack scheduled for tonight.
But she didn't think so.
The door to the communications room opened and Captain Wade strolled in. The security officer ignored Katz and McCarter. He stopped to face April at the console.
"Yes, Captain?"
"I've learned that my file has been subjected to a security scan at your request, Miss Rose."
She reacted coolly to the officer towering above her.
"That was routine."
"Routine, shit," growled Wade. "It was done under orders from Colonel Phoenix, wasn't it? That man didn't trust me worth a damn when he eyeballed me awhile ago. I resent that."
"Maybe you oughta take that up with the colonel, mate," McCarter suggested from across the room. "Give the lady a break, as you lads like to say."
"You might also try acting like a soldier," Katz put in. "Your place is with your men, Captain. This will go on your record."
The security officer glared at April.
"I want an answer."
April lifted a cautionary hand to the Phoenix Force men.
"I can handle this, gentlemen." She continued to address Wade. "Colonel Phoenix exercised his prerogative as your commanding officer to rescan your security clearance because of the vital nature of the position you hold. And this man is right, Captain. Your place is out there maintaining the security of this operation. Why are you behaving in this manner?"
Wade looked contrite.
"You're right, of course. Excuse me."
Before Wade could leave the room, a quadrant on an electronic security screen in front of April began to flash frantically, sequenced with an urgent buzzing alarm.
The perimeter of Stony Man Farm was wired for sound with amplifiers containing filters that screened out every sound except movement and voices. These were magnified more than two hundred times within the sixty-meter range of the devices.
"It's a hit," grunted Yakov Katzenelenbogen, starting for the door with his M-16.
"Come on," McCarter growled at Captain Wade as the Briton hustled along with Yakov. "It's time to scrap."
April Rose unleathered her .44 Magnum.
This time she was not to check anything; this time she would use it.
She could not take her eyes off the flashing quadrant on the screen. They're hitting the airfield. Stony Man Farm was under attack!
18
"Stony Man Farm is under attack," Hal Brognola informed the president of the United States. "That's what we got before all communication was cut off."
Brognola, the president and Lee Farnsworth had been joined by Brigadier General James Crawford, retired, for another top-secret Oval Office meeting to discuss the Phoenix situation, which now could only be regarded as critical.
The president scrutinized Farnsworth.
"What can you tell us about this, Lee?"
The CFB boss bristled but held himself in check, considering the source of the question.
"I assure you, sir, neither the Central Foreign Bureau nor I have anything to do with what is happening at Stony Man Farm tonight."
"Tell that to the men of Able Team in the goddamn Hindu Kush," Brognola grumbled.
"Stony Man has been unable to establish communications with those people?" asked the president.
"Afraid so, sir," Brognola reported. "Their contact point is a connection in New Delhi who monitors our signals. We've been unable to contact our man via satellite, of course, and we can't contact him any other way due to the, uh, highly sensitive nature of his cover. Able Team is still set to hit that fortress of The Dragon. Unless they already have, in which case they're all probably dead."