Mack Bolan was tired.
It had been one hell of a night.
He and Sniper Team Able had penetrated deep into Vietcong-held territory. The mission had been a success. Two VC chieftains and two string pullers from up north had gone down. The kills had been quick, four head shots as the targets stood around a fire. Then Bolan and the team had begun their withdrawal.
There was a skirmish with another band of VC coming in from patrol. But Sniper Team Able came through all right.
Long months in Vietnam had honed their survival instincts. They had even begun to think like the Vietcong.
Now five men trudged wearily into the Special Forces base camp at Cam Lo.
Zitka and Bloodbrother, the scouts; Gadgets Schwarz and Rosario Blancanales, the flank men, and Bolan.
Sergeant Mack Bolan.
The leader of Sniper Team Able.
Zitka and Bloodbrother gave Bolan the thumbs-up sign and joined Gadgets and Pol on their way to some much-needed sack time.
Bolan was covered in sweat even though it was a relatively clear, cool night. This was rice country and the paddies were almost dry. They were like mud flats. The combination of the boot-sucking terrain and the dikes sapped their strength, making each forward movement laborious. All this, compounded by the tension inherent in a mission behind enemy lines, had made for an exhausting trek.
The CO's orderly spotted Bolan from across the compound and hurried over, his face anxious.
"Sarge, Lieutenant Colonel Crawford wants to see you. Right away."
Bolan nodded. "I was headed that way, Corporal."
So the old man was waiting for him. That was no surprise. The colonel always waited up, like a father worried about a son who stayed out late.
The young "penetration specialist" smiled at the thought. The colonel could never take the place of Sam Bolan, back in the States. But Crawford had been observing Bolan's progress and had taken Bolan as a green recruit and taught him what he needed to know to survive in this damn war. Not only to survive, but to give his best.
Bolan walked by a private with an M-16 pulling guard duty at the door of the HQ Quonset, and went inside.
A thin-faced E-3 sat at a desk in the outer office pushing papers.
Bolan nodded to him and raised an eyebrow, jerking a thumb at the closed door of the colonel's office.
The sergeant shook his head and started to say something.
Before he could get a word out, the door burst open.
The prettiest whirlwind Bolan had ever seen exploded out of the colonel's office and ran smack into him.
The woman looked about twenty-three with a shock of chestnut hair and a face that was startlingly attractive. She wore fatigues and from her shoulder hung a camera and a compact tape recorder. Piercingly blue eyes stared in anger at Bolan, then dropped to the black lettering on an O.D. green name tag on his tiger-striped camou fatigues.
"Sergeant Mack Bolan?"
"That's right."
"The one they've started to call the Executioner?"
Scorn dripped from her words.
Bolan shrugged, suddenly wary.
"I've been called that."
Colonel Crawford appeared in the doorway of his office at that moment. He ignored the woman and returned Bolan's salute.
"Come in, Sergeant. Welcome back. Come in and report."
With hands on hips that shapeless fatigues could not disguise, the woman persisted in questioning Bolan.
"A successful mission, Sergeant?"
A live wire, thought Bolan.
Feline fury flashed in her eyes.
"That's classified, lady. Excuse me."
"How many babies did you kill? How many women and old men?"
The words slashed at him like an invisible bayonet, but he kept his face emotionless and his mouth shut.
"I, uh, see you've met Miss Desmond," Colonel Crawford said dryly.
"We haven't been formally introduced," grunted Bolan.
The woman stuck her hand out. "I'm not afraid of a little blood, Sergeant. Jill Desmond. I'm a..."
"Journalist," Bolan finished for her.
His fingers closed over her hand. The gesture was brief, cool.
"Miss Desmond's here for a close-up of the war," the colonel said. "I've told her what they told her in Saigon. Our operations in this area are highly sensitive."
"I'll bet they are," snapped Jill Desmond. "That's why I'm here. I've had enough brass to get this far, Colonel. What makes you think I'll stop now? This is where the real dirty work goes on, out here in the boonies. And I'm not going back until I've seen it for myself, so I can tell the people back home what it's really like. They deserve to know."
"I'm not denying that, Miss Desmond..." the Colonel began.
"You're not trying to cover up the crimes of men like Sergeant Bolan here, are you?" She glanced at Bolan. "There's a reason they call you the Executioner, isn't there, Sergeant?"
Bolan studied the woman's face. She seemed intelligent, but you sure couldn't tell it by the accusations, the lack of understanding, the naivete.
"I'm going to find out the truth about this war." Jill Desmond bristled. "Not the whitewashed official version you people are peddling." She swung around to face the colonel again. "Then I'm going to tell everyone who'll listen just what a barbaric, immoral thing this war really is."
She flicked one more morally outraged glance at Bolan, then stalked out of the Quonset.
"If we were barbaric murderers," Crawford grunted as he and Bolan stepped into his inner office, "I wonder what makes her think she'd be safe?"
"She doesn't know the jungle yet," agreed Bolan. "But she cares. She's all right."
"Yeah, but she makes it harder for us to do our job," the colonel reminded him. "Speaking of which, have a seat and report."
Bone weary, Bolan settled into a chair across the desk from the colonel, who nodded as Bolan related the kills in the village and the firefight in the jungle afterward.
"Good work, son," he said when Bolan finished. The corners of the CO's mouth drew back in a grimace. "You must be damn tired."
"I could use some sleep," said Bolan, shrugging.
"Wish I didn't have to tell you this after a mission like that, but there's no ducking a bad job, I always say."
Bolan waited, trying to ignore a foreboding in his gut.
"Sir?"
"I can't send Jill Desmond back to Saigon, much as I'd like to," Crawford growled. "I've got orders from the top to cooperate with her."
"She must have a lot of pull back home."
"Enough. Anyway, she's here for as long as she wants to stay. And while she's here, I've got to have somebody I can trust keep an eye on her."
Bolan's mouth tightened.
A baby-sitter.
The colonel wanted him to baby-sit the live-wire journalist who had a mad-on for anything military.
"I, uh, could think of better choices for the job than me, sir."
The CO chuckled.
"I'll bet you can, but I can't. The lady doesn't seem to like you, Sergeant, and I don't blame you for not liking her, but if anybody can keep her alive while she's out here, it's you."
"Is that an order, sir?"
"It's an order."
Bolan stood.
"Then I guess I'd better catch up with her and get her locked up somewhere for the night."
"Just don't let her know that she's locked up." Lieutenant Colonel Crawford chuckled. "She was mad enough when I told her I was going to assign someone to keep an eye on her while she's here."
Bolan's mouth quirked.
It might have been a smile. He saluted and started to turn when Crawford stopped him.
"Sergeant, you might tell her what the Viet civilians call you. Sergeant Mercy fits you just as well as the Executioner."
"She wouldn't understand," Bolan said simply.
He reached for the doorknob. It was jerked open before he could grasp it.
"Well, what is it, Corporal?" the colonel barked at the orderly who barreled into the room. "You'd better have a damned good reason for not knocking!"
"It's Miss Desmond, sir," the corporal said, shakily. "The reporter."