LITMIR.BIZ

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say that it was life affirming, but it was close enough for him.

      “I’m surprised you didn’t want to talk to your own people,” Bolan said without turning around.

      James started, as if deep in thought. “What?”

      “About me,” Bolan said, turning away from the window.

      James laughed. “Yeah, that would have accomplished a lot, wouldn’t it?” he said snarkily.

      “I could have been anybody,” Bolan said.

      “You’ve got an honest face, my friend.” The agent grinned at him, and then shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe I’m just too trusting, right?”

      “Maybe,” Bolan said, eyeing the man. He had pegged James right, he knew. Like Bolan, the younger man played fast and loose with proper procedure in favor of getting things done, even if it meant possibly endangering himself. It was for that very reason that Bolan had decided to deal himself in. If things went wrong, at least he would be there to play damage control and maybe keep the feisty young man alive. And if that wasn’t enough...well, bravado aside, there wasn’t much that the Executioner couldn’t handle, one way or another. “Still, your superiors won’t be happy...”

      “Ah, Greaves is a good guy, but he’s out of his depth,” James said. “Jim Greaves, I mean, my handler. Dude’s so tight he craps diamonds, you know?” He hesitated. “Not literally, mind.”

      “I know,” Bolan said, ignoring the joke. He’d met his fair share of government desk jockeys in his time who had little understanding of how things worked in the field. He’d also met his fair share of men forced into a command position that they were supremely unqualified for. “What about the Interpol contingent?”

      James made a rude noise. Bolan laughed. “That bad?” he said.

      “Rittermark—or Control, as they call him—is as tight-assed as Greaves, but less pleasant. Stiff-faced German guy, all business. I suppose he’s good at his job...otherwise, he wouldn’t be in charge of this thing, would he?”

      “I suppose,” Bolan said. Privately, however, he wondered about that very thing. Too often, men with good connections failed upward, and this sort of assignment would be a plum for any man. “What about the other one...the French guy you mentioned.”

      “Right, Tanzir’s guy—Chantecoq,” James said. “Too cool for school, that guy. Top flight detective, with eyes like marbles.”

      “Sounds like he made a good impression on you,” Bolan said, curious.

      “Yeah...better than his boss, at any rate,” James said, as if embarrassed.

      “Django Sweets... What can you tell me about him?” Bolan said, changing the subject.

      James cleared his throat and frowned slightly. “Like I said before, he’s a big-time king coyote. Story is he was a gunman for one of the cartels for a while on the red, white and blue side of the border, then he turned smuggler. He’s a cool customer, though. We brought in one of those pop-psych teams the Feebs enjoy so much and they said he was a ‘high-functioning sociopath,’ whatever that means.”

      Bolan smiled slightly at the reference to the FBI. While he knew more than a few agents—or former agents in Hal Brognola’s case—he would trust with his life, the organization had its share of annoying bureaucracy the same as any other federal agency. James had obviously run afoul of it at one time or another, the same as any federal agent. “It means he’s dangerous,” Bolan said.

      James snorted. “Oh, he is that. I didn’t need some armchair psychologist to tell me that. I’ve known Sweets maybe a month, and it’s been the longest one of my life. Not to mention most tense, too.” He slapped the steering wheel with a palm as he parked the van. “He’s got a mouth. He likes to talk, and he likes to poke and prod. So just play it loose, let it roll off, and don’t flash him any sass. That’s my advice.”

      “Not something I’m good at, I’m afraid,” Bolan said.

      “Try hard. He’s rattlesnake mean, and fast on the draw. He ain’t playing gunslinger, get me? Guy is the real deal.”

      Bolan grinned mirthlessly. “I’ll do my best, Scout’s honor.”

      “You don’t strike me as the scouting type, Cooper,” James said. He grimaced. “And anyway, it isn’t just Django you’ve got to worry about. There’s also Digger...”

      Bolan blinked at the raw distaste evident in James’s voice. “Digger? Unusual name.”

      “Yeah, Django’s baby brother,” the man said, shaking his head. “And I use the term ‘baby’ loosely. He’s seven feet if he’s an inch and he’s all muscle. He looks like an elephant.” James looked straight ahead, his eyes narrowed. “Django is ice, but Digger is something else entirely...he’s crazy, and not in a fun, party-animal sort of way. You hear stories about him...” He shook his head again. “Anyway, he’s Django’s attack dog. If you make a run at Django, Digger will have his teeth in your ass before you take three steps.”

      “I’ll bear that in mind,” Bolan said. Up ahead, he caught sight of a skeletal shape slouched in the desert, like the remains of a dead dragon.

      “This is it...the town with no name,” James said.

      “The town with no name?” Bolan said.

      “That’s what Sweets calls it, anyway,” James said. “It used to be one of them border towns, not really Mexican or American, but catering to folks on both sides of the line. The usual stuff...guns and whores and drugs and booze. That sort of thing,” James went on. He grunted. “By the Second World War, when they started tightening up on things out here, a bunch of these little towns like this got caught up in things and they were all abandoned.”

      “All? How many are there, exactly?” Bolan asked. He had heard about these phantom towns, but he’d never seen one before. It was like driving into a snapshot of his country’s history.

      “Dozens,” James said. “And Sweets knows them all, believe you me. He uses them like hideouts, you know?” He shook his head slightly. “Him and Digger, they don’t do well in high-population-density spots, if you get me.”

      Bolan did. There was a certain type of man for whom civilization, with all its benefits and burdens, was simply intolerable. Modern wolfheads, they clung to the fringes, making their way as best they could. For a while, Bolan himself might have been counted among their number, but he had never truly given up society. He simply took issue with certain aspects of it.

      The van moved up slowly through the dusty streets, trailing a cloud of the same behind it, the shadows cast by the sagging, arthritic buildings crawling across its roof and windshield. But where another man might have just seen empty buildings falling into ruin, Bolan saw a hundred potential snipers’ nests. He’d been in numerous towns just like this one over the years, in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia. They were corpse-towns—ghoulish reminders of worse times, forgotten and lonely.

      “Funny,” Bolan said as he calculated angles of fire and entry and exit points. “This Sweets is a fan of Westerns, I take it.” He plucked at the loose shirt he had changed into. His body armor and fatigues were stowed beneath the seat, and he presently wore more appropriate garb for his cover—a loose floral-pattern shirt and denims.

      “Out here, it’s practically a profession,” James said, reaching across Bolan to flip open his glove compartment. Battered paperbacks featuring faded cowboys and outlaws on the covers slid out as James dug around for something. He plucked a rag-wrapped bundle out and tossed it into Bolan’s lap. “Here, take this.”

      “What is it?” Bolan said as he took the bundle. It proved to be a stubby .38 with peeling electrical tape wrapped around the grip. He looked at James. “I think I prefer mine, thanks,” he said.

      “Oh, I’d prefer yours, too, but nobody in our line runs looking like they’re ready for war, man,”

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