"You got hit about half an hour ago, then."

"Give or take a minute or two, yeah."

"Bullshit." The soldier's eyes flared.

"Huh?"

"Bolan was hitting our ranch about half an hour ago, give or take a minute."

"That's impossible," Hinshaw replied softly.

"Tell papa it's impossible. The guy leveled the place."

"Then Bolan didn't do It. He w-"

"I said bullshit," Bonelli cut in coolly. "They saw the guy. It was him. He was 200 miles from here at the time you say you got hit."

Hinshaw's face darkened. "What d'you mean I say I got hit!" His hand made a dramatic pass of the room. "What the hell do you call this?"

"I can see what it looks like," Bonelli said curtly. "Now I'm asking you what really happened."

The scowling Hinshaw quickly replied, "Are you calling me a liar, Mr. Bonelli?"

The Tucson underboss did not miss the sudden formality. "Simmer down," he said. "Nobody's calling names. I'm just saying you got it wrong. You read it wrong. Now, I'm saying, you need to read it again."

The military chief lit a cigarette and turned toward a shattered window. Presently he turned a musing gaze toward Bonelli and said, "Okay. I'm reading it again. I told you the M2 was rigged for autofire. Even had a sweeper on it. I think we been had by some fancy footwork. I think the guy was in both places at the same time."

Bonelli shook his head. "Try again, Jimmy."

"It could be done. I don't know how those LAWS could have been programmed for ... but — well hell, come to think of it, how do we know he even used LAWS. He could have ..."

"You're trying too hard," Bonelli said coldly.

"The guy got inside somehow. He came in here and set it up."

"Save it!" Bonelli snarled.

"I don't like your insinuation!" the soldier yelled.

"Fuck what you don't like," Bonelli growled. "Your problem now is to give me something that I might like!"

"Dammit, it's a Bolan hit," Hinshaw fumed. "It has his signature all over it. The guy came in here and set us up. Then he zipped down to Tucson and timed it for a simultaneous one-two. He's trying to drive a wedge between us, trying to fragment us. We used that tactic all the time in-"

"I said save it!" Bonelli cried angrily. "Don't serve me that kind of shit!"

A seemingly genuine expression of new revelation crossed the soldier's eyes. "The phone man," he said, sighing.

"What phone man? Make it better than last time, Jimmy." That was a threat, directly stated.

Hinshaw either did not hear or he let it pass. "The son of a bitch," he said, the voice awed. "He waltzed right in here, drank our beer and ..."

"What, what?"

"You wouldn't like this, Mr. Bonelli," the guy said, very quietly. "It would scare the shit out of you. Let me handle it — just forget it and let me handle it."

"You're getting paid to handle it," Bonelli said coldly. "Try cute games with us, though ..." It was another threat, this time received and understood.

The soldier's eyes flashed angrily, but there was no further reaction. Bonelli took a final look around, squared his shoulders, and walked quickly out of there.

That soldier could lose more than his face this time. He could, Yeah, lose his whole damn head.

Hinshaw watched Paul Bonelli go with mixed feelings of anger and apprehension. Tension coiled within him like a cold fist clutched around his heart. For the first time, he feared that he was really losing control In the Phoenix game, and he didn't like that feeling. Not even a little bit.

Hinshaw had not been happy with the news that Bonelli junior was leading the reinforcements to Phoenix. Except for two things, he would have opposed the move. Number one, by the time he had learned about it, the troops were already on the road with Paul in command. And number two, it was distinctly unhealthy to buck Nick Bonelli when his mind was made up, even on small matters. On a matter as all-important as this one, such opposition would undoubtedly be fatal.

Well, Paul Bonelli was there now, and Hinshaw did not for one moment buy that business about the guy just being there to "keep an eye on the boys."

Bonelli was there to keep an eye — and a tight rein — on Hinshaw. From the minute he stepped out of that shiny Detroit tank, Paul Bonelli was in command of the Phoenix game, and everybody concerned knew it. Whatever sugar coating Paul or his father tried to put on it, Hinshaw was being relieved of his command in all but name, and the idea rankled him. And yet, if that had been all there was to it, Hinshaw might have been content to roll with the punch, biding his time.

But there was more, much more going on in Phoenix than a Mafia warlord expressing dissatisfaction with a field commander. Hinshaw didn't know for sure yet just what it was, or even who was pulling the strings, but he could feel his hackles rising as they had in "Nam, when some sixth sense had warned him of impending ambush by the Cong.

Jim Hinshaw was being set up. But for what? And by whom?

If Mack Bolan was pulling the strings, there was nothing Hinshaw could do except try to anticipate the next blow and brace himself for it when it fell.

Things might be different, though, if the setup was a Bonelli operation. There just might be something that Hinshaw could do to prepare for that eventuality. Something decisive, maybe.

Hinshaw picked up the phone, which had done so much to derail his schemes of late, and quickly dialed a local number. He recognized the answering voice and got down to business without wasting time on preliminaries.

"Get the men together on the double. I'll expect them to be ready to move within twenty minutes. Can do?" He acknowledged the affirmative reply with a terse grunt and broke the connection. Hinshaw was calling up his reserves. He had not been green or foolish enough to enter the Phoenix campaign with only thirty men at his disposal, nor had he been inclined to place himself at the mercy of replacements from the south. Like any field commander worthy of the name, he had trained and positioned a secondary force in anticipation of unforeseen setbacks ... from any faction. The "hole card," as Angel called it.

Jim Hinshaw did not intend to lose face — or anything else — from this operation. It had been recognized from the start as his golden opportunity to establish himself as a man for the world to reckon with.

He would not, dammit, return to the obscurity that had held his manhood captive through all those drab years.

He was going to bag himself a bonus baby, all the damn Bonellis to hell. And he'd walk over anybody to get Mack Bolan's head in a sack. He'd have it, dammit. The cute bastard. New face, eh? All faces looked the same inside a paper sack.

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you!" Moe Kaufman's voice was angry, betraying signs of the inner strain which had dogged him throughout that day. "I need protection. Now!"

He sat in a richly panelled conference room upstairs in the Phoenix City Hall. Facing him across the broad table were two command-rank officers from the city police department and a captain from the county sheriff's office. The lawmen looked unhappy, their faces wearing almost identical expressions of grim displeasure and embarrassment. Their eyes alternated between the tabletop and Kaufman's face as the mobster continued his harangue.

"I put you guys where you are today, don't forget. And I expect some return for my investment. I made you and I can unmake you just as easy."

Frank Anderson of the Phoenix PD spread his big hands in a placating gesture. "C'mon, Mr. Kaufman. There's no reason for these threats. We're doing everything we can-"

"Bullshit!" Kaufman snapped, watching the officer redden. "You haven't done a goddamned thing except haul a few stiffs to the cooler and stake out the places the guy's already been!"