LITMIR.BIZ

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the evidence. She either took it with her, or hid it before she left. Maybe in our house.”

       “I can start there,” Bolan said. “Eliminate that, then we can look at other options.”

       Logan managed a brief nod. “Okay, Cooper, I’ll give you the address.”

       Bolan saw him sink back against the pillow, eyes closing. The Executioner stood and quietly left the room to speak to the doctor before he left.

       The medic was an old ally of Stony Man Farm. A man who understood Bolan’s enduring struggle. He had experienced his own epiphany during a personal trauma and Bolan had come to his aid. The life-affirming philosophy that Bolan expressed, in actions rather than words, formed a bond between them that never needed expressing. Eric Madsen responded any time Bolan showed up. It wasn’t the first time the Executioner had sought Madsen’s help, and when he’d shown up with the badly wounded Ray Logan in the rear of his SUV, there had been no questions. Madsen took the wounded cop into his home office, ushered Bolan out of the treatment room and went to work. Logan was currently recovering, slowly, housed in one of the doctor’s bedrooms and being tended by Madsen and his wife. When Bolan had explained the background and the possible threat to Logan, Madsen’s wife, Laura, had smiled at him.

       “You’re trying to tell us this could put us in danger? Don’t worry. You know how we feel about you, Coop, and how we can never repay you for what you did. So you just go out there and do what you do best. Leave that boy to get well. Find his wife and son, because that will help him get better faster than all the medicine Eric can offer.”

      THE LOGAN HOUSE stood back from the street. Timber and stone, well-maintained. A single garage attached to one side. Paved area for two cars. Bolan drove on by, passing three more homes before he took a right and parked out of sight. There was a wide alley running at the rear of the row. Bolan took it and made his way to the back fence of Logan’s property. He checked the high gate, found it unlocked and slipped through. This kind of probe was better suited to the dark, but time didn’t allow Bolan that luxury. He crossed the neat patio and reached the house. He saw immediately that the patio doors were breached—an inch gap told him someone had gotten inside.

       Bolan unholstered the Beretta, easing off the safety. He slid the glass door open. The room inside had a wood-block floor. He noticed books disturbed on the shelves to his right. Furniture pushed out of place. A lampshade tilted. Moving quickly, avoiding any extraneous sound, Bolan reached the door, paused, listened. To his right, the open entrance hall and the front door. Directly across from the front door was the staircase leading to the upper floor.

       He picked up a muffled voice. It came from upstairs. Bolan went up fast, the carpeted stairs deadening any sound. Movement on his left. A partly open door. A shadow disturbed the soft light. The same voice. Low, measured, not speaking English.

       Bolan knew enough to recognize the language.

      Russian.

       Was the speaker talking to himself?

       Or did he have a partner with him?

       A thud as something was dropped to the floor.

       This time a second voice. Remonstrating with the first man. This speaker was to the left of the door.

       Whoever the men were they didn’t belong in the Logan house.

       Bolan took a step closer, ready to go through the door.

       His intention was preceded as the door was wrenched open and a dark-clad figure appeared, a stubby SMG slung from his left shoulder. The guy had his head turned away from Bolan as he said something to his partner.

       So much for the stealth approach, Bolan thought.

       Then used the clear moment to his own advantage. As the visible man stepped through the door, head swiveling to the front, seeing Bolan and reaching for the SMG, Bolan swept the Beretta round in a brutal, clubbing action. It slammed against the man’s skull with a sodden thud. The gunman uttered a shocked gasp, sagging against the door frame, and Bolan struck again—same place, even harder. Blood spouted, rushing down the man’s face and soaking into the sweater he was wearing. As he began to slump, Bolan shouldered him back into the room, already picking up the thump of footsteps as the second guy ran forward. He sensed the movement seconds before he saw the man. Big, his broad shoulders and barrel chest topped by a shaved, short-necked head, he moved with a solid gait. Bolan had no chance to raise his weapon. The large figure loomed close, muscular arms and wide hands reaching for him. Bolan lowered his own shoulders, turning slightly and hit the guy in his midsection, not to halt him, but to use the other’s forward momentum to propel him across Bolan’s back. Bolan thrust upward and the big Russian was hurled over his back, feet leaving the floor. The big man uttered a startled cry as he was launched through the air. Bolan turned about in time to see the Russian slammed against the wall, plaster shattering under the impact. Framed pictures were shaken from the wall as the man crashed to the floor in an ungainly tangle. Bolan stepped in close, ready as the Russian started to rise. He timed it so that as the man swayed on his legs, Bolan drove his right knee in hard. It caught the guy under the thick jaw. The Russian grunted, blood spurting from between his lips as his teeth snapped together and sliced into his tongue. He toppled back, eyes glazing, as he bounced off the wall and into Bolan’s knee a second time. The brutal impact put him down with a subdued crack as his neck and upper spine snapped. The big man dropped with the looseness of death.

       Behind Bolan the first guy was struggling to recover himself, groping for the SMG hanging from his shoulder. The big American turned fully. He saw the SMG tracking in, the guy’s finger already on the trigger. No hesitation as Bolan brought the 93-R on line and punched a triple burst that took away the left side of the man’s skull in a glistening spray. The Russian toppled back, eyes wide from shock as he hit the carpeted floor on his back.

       “Damn,” Bolan muttered at the way it had gone.

       He was less concerned with the Russians’ deaths than he was with the probable outcome once their principals found out what had happened. The would-be shooter had placed himself in the firing line once he went for his weapon. He had gambled and lost. Rules of the game. But there was someone behind the pair who had invaded Logan’s house, plainly looking for something, and that someone was not going to be pleased to learn his men had been discovered and taken out.

       As he frisked the two men Bolan was questioning the presence of Russian heavies in the equation. How did they fit into what Ray Logan had unearthed?

       A U.S. senator involved with Russians? Bolan let the question lie as he discovered two wallets, a pair of Russian passports and a vehicle key with a rental fob attached. The fob had the license-plate number on it. Bolan pocketed the items.

       Neither of the Russians had a cell. Unusual, but not unheard of. Perhaps they had a phone installed in their vehicle.

       Bolan called Stony Man Farm on his cell, connected with Aaron “the Bear” Kurtzman.

       “Hey, we figured you were on your way home. Didn’t you finish your mission?”

       “Yeah. But something new came up and I need your help.”

       “Can’t get along without me, can you, Striker?” Kurtzman grumbled amiably.

       “It would be a struggle,” Bolan said.

       “Give me the details.”

       Bolan gave Kurtzman the number from the key fob and the passports. “See what you can come up with.”

       “Be in touch,” Kurtzman said.

       Bolan took a tour of the house. Checked it thoroughly, including all the places Logan had suggested. He found nothing, figuring that as the Russians had still been looking they hadn’t unearthed anything themselves. The more he searched, the less he believed Rachel Logan had used her own home to hide her husband’s evidence, and the more convinced he became that she had taken it with her when she left for her secret location.

       He exited the house after a half hour, closing the patio doors behind him and returned to his

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