good as they got. So it was time to change tact.
“All right, Chief,” Bolan said, feigning frustration. “You want the truth, the gloves come off. Quite simply, I’m operating with the full cooperation of the Oval Office. You understand? I don’t answer to you or frankly to anyone else. Gary Marciano’s family and witness were killed because MS-13 has become an epidemic in this country. One I’ve been sent to cure. They warned me you were hard-nosed and by-the-book, which I don’t have any problem with. But my mission is to eradicate this threat to the American public once and for all. Now you’re either into that and willing to cooperate or you’re not. Either way, I don’t really care because I have a job to do, and I’m going to do it. I could have you removed from that chair with one phone call. I’m not interested in doing that, so you’d better decide now if you stand a better chance of focusing on protecting the people of Herndon or standing in my way, all for the sake of protecting your ego.”
Smalley’s face reddened, and the veins bulged from his neck and forehead. His apoplexy at Bolan’s words was obvious, but the soldier also knew Smalley realized he was telling the truth. Herndon was its own municipal entity, to be certain, but it fell under the direct influence of Washington, D.C.—just as all the rest of the capital’s neighboring communities. Smalley served at the pleasure of the mayoral appointment, and the mayor wouldn’t dare refuse a presidential “suggestion” if it came down to it. Still, Bolan liked Smalley for the very reasons Brognola had cautioned him about the police chief, and preferred to have the guy’s cooperation.
Smalley finally calmed down and nodded. “All right, Cooper. You’ve been straight with me, and I guess that’s the best I can ask of any man. And I suppose we owe you a debt, since you saved the lives of a number of cops. Hell, we ought to give you the key to the city for that. But this is still my hometown, understand that. I took an oath to uphold the laws here, and I don’t need some Delta Force cowboy or whatever you are running around this city shooting and blowing up everything in sight.”
“You’ll find I’m a cautious man, Smalley,” Bolan replied easily. “I don’t hit until I’m confident the innocents are well out of the line of fire.”
Smalley shrugged and threw up his hands. “And?”
“And that’s where you come in,” Bolan said. “This is your town, just as you say. So I believe you have a pretty good idea where MS-13 conducts its operations, and the best way to find this Mario Guerra.”
Smalley snorted with a scowl. “Guerra. Yes, he’s a real piece of work that guy. I know he’s personally responsible for at least a dozen crimes, including rape, robbery and murder. I just can’t prove it.”
“You won’t have to prove it,” Bolan said. “The best thing you and your men can do for me is to round up as many of his posse as you can find and keep them on ice. Twenty-four hours, that’s all I’m asking for.”
“Okay…fine, sure, I can do that. But I don’t see how that’s going to help you capture Guerra, or build a case against him that will stick.”
“Building a case against him isn’t my mission objective,” Bolan said.
“Then what do you plan to do?”
The Executioner remained silent, but the cock of his head and steely gaze served as an adequate answer to Smalley’s question.
“I see,” Smalley said.
“Sometimes we can’t play by the rules with a group like MS-13. They’ve terrorized this country long enough, Chief. It’s time for real action, permanent action.”
Smalley nodded slowly with a faraway expression, not even meeting Bolan’s gaze. He could tell the policeman was warring with the idea just presented to him. In the most technical sense, Bolan’s tactics were nothing short of military operations conducted in the civilian sector, a clear violation of a dozen or so federal laws, including one constitutional amendment. Unfortunately, the breaking of such laws was sometimes the only way to combat those who chose to operate outside them. Still, for a guy like Chief Michael Vernon Smalley, it was a damned anachronism to the end purposes of law enforcement and contradictory to everything he knew.
“Though I don’t necessarily agree with your approach,” Smalley said, “I promise you’ll have my support during your efforts.”
“That’s all I would ever ask of you or anyone,” Bolan replied.
“Okay, so how do we do this?”
“First, I need some idea of the core operations area for MS-13.”
Smalley nodded, rose and went to a map of the city hanging on the wall to his right. He pointed to a small area on the south side of the city where it bordered a major road. Smalley traced his finger along that road and said, “This is the Dulles Toll Road, which also marks the border between the city and unincorporated areas of Herndon and Reston. Most of the gang activity has been confined to this region. One of the problems we’ve faced in recent times is the influx of illegal immigrants to this area. We don’t really know why that’s the case, but we do know it’s taxed many of our resources. When we first started to have problems with MS-13 and related gang activity, the Justice Department formed the Northern Virginia Gang Task Force—then NVGTF. There are sixteen communities and law-enforcement agencies now directly involved with the organization, and since 2003 we’ve accomplished much in the cleanup.”
“And then recently you were flooded with a resurgence of activity?” Bolan asked.
Smalley nodded and dropped back into his chair. “Right. We think it’s directly related to the fact we’ve been dealing with this illegal immigration problem. There’s no way for us to combat both problems, and the task force has been suffering from monetary cutbacks since we thought we had the problem licked.”
“Okay. It sounds like the south’s the place for me to start. One other question, though.”
“Shoot.”
“Did you know anything about the case Gary Marciano was building against MS-13 or this witness he had stashed away?”
Smalley shook his head. “I knew Gary Marciano pretty well. Naturally, he was a prominent member of this community. You see, the Town of Herndon numbers about twenty-two thousand people, but we’ve always tried to maintain that sense of a small community. I considered Gary a personal friend, but I didn’t know he was working on a major case. If I had, I might have offered him some protection or assistance. Lord knows, he helped out this department on many occasions. He’ll be missed, though, and you can bet your ass that his family will receive all the resources at my disposal for the future. Whatever they need, they’ll get. I put my personal stamp of guarantee all over that one.”
Bolan nodded as he rose and stuck out his hand. “I’m sure you will. I appreciate the help, Chief.”
Smalley shook the Executioner’s hand and said, “You’ll stay in touch?”
“Count on it.”
As Bolan turned to leave the chief’s office, Smalley called after him. “Hey, Cooper?”
“Yeah.”
“You really think you can fix this problem of ours?”
“I can’t make any promises,” the warrior replied. “But in twenty-four hours when the smoke clears and you see who’s left
