Assault on Soho by Don Pendleton Page B

on full display in the party room below, the reality of the gruesome scene concealed by the bogus suffering going on all about him. Quietly, Bolan told the girls, "He's been dying through half of this nutty party."
    The girl who had fainted seemed in danger of doing so again. Her hands clutched at Bolan for support and she told him, "I was in and out of there many times. I didn't know he was…" Her eyes rolled. "Until it started to
smell
so terrible . •." She looked as though she wanted to be sick. .
    "Who puts these people into these nutty devices?" Bolan asked.
    The other girl murmured, "Normally they attach themselves, and they can get out any time they wish, without aid. It's all in fun, you know. I mean, who would've thought… ?" Her naked breasts shuddered with the unspoken horror of the idea and she swayed toward Bolan.
    He steadied her and muttered, "Yeah, this is some kind of fun place," and then he left them to console one another and he went back through the harem room. Little had changed down there, except that the frantic foursome had discovered a way for
sex en masse
to overcome the physical limitations of human anatomy.
    The cell of Charles' final agony was in prominent display just above this living exhibition. As he walked past, Bolan drew his Beretta and sent a quiet round into the monitor. There would be no more ghoulish jollies from an old man's final torment.
    He passed on through, spurned the stairway to the basement, and strode purposefully toward the main exit. As he approached the door, he loaded the
Vzi
and made it ready. Mack Bolan was in killer mode, and his mood was now definitely inclined toward thunder and lightning.

Chapter Eleven
The prisoner
    Danno Giliamo sat in quiet thought on the rear seat of a large black sedan which was parked just off the square near
Museum de Sade
. He was alone except for one other man who sat quietly huddled over the steering wheel. The sound of an approaching vehicle intruded into the silence. Moving slowly, it swung close then halted at the curb just opposite Giliamo's car. A man stepped out and the car moved on. A moment later the sedan door across from Giliamo opened and Nick Trigger slid in, hastily closing the door to deactivate the domelight mechanism.
    By way of greeting, Giliamo emitted a bored sigh and said, "I guess you was right, Nick. He ain't showed up here. Nothing on your end either, huh?"
    "Nothing, hell," Trigger replied quietly. "We had plenty on my end. But you were right about that lucky bastard, he's as slippery as melted jello."
    "You mean he got away again?" Giliamo replied in a dulled voice.
    "Yeah, he got away."
    "Well he ain't turned up here." Giliamo nervously tamped a cigarette against his fist then shoved it between his lips and lit it, his eyes weary and disturbed in the glow of the lighter. "So what happened?" he asked.
    Trigger sniffed and settled deeper into the seat. "We had him bottled in a rock joint over by Soho Square." The massive shoulders raised and settled again in a tired shrug. "He busted out, that's all, got away clean.
    And cops all over the God damned place, I mean crawling out of every hole."
    Giliamo took a nervous pull at the cigarette and asked, "Okay, so what happened to my boys?"
    "Six of your freelancers are dead," Trigger reported with a sigh. "Also Looney and Rocky got arrested. Don't worry, I'll have 'em sprung first thing in the morning."
    Giliamo mouthed a string of half-audible obscenities, then said, "You see what I been up against, Nick?"
    "Yeah." The London enforcer punched his elbows into the backrest with a loud sigh. "I don't see any sense in hanging around this neighborhood, Danno. Leave a couple of boys to keep an eye out, just to make sure, but I guess we might as well tuck it in for the night. Bolan isn't going to run from one setup right to another. Arnie Farmer and his army is due in first thing in the morning. We'll huddle with them and see what we can come up with."
    "I was hoping to get