Don Pendleton - Killing Kings

KILLER TAKEDOWN

The Executioner believes in final justice—so when rumors swirl that someone is trying to revive the empire of Pablo Escobar, the King of Cocaine, Mack Bolan makes it his mission to bring down Pablo’s ghost...for good. But to get to the phantom emperor, Bolan must first eradicate an army of skilled hit men, savage rival cartel bosses and a vicious torturer. The Executioner will need every weapon in his arsenal, but he vows to bring this deadly new drug reign to a fiery, explosive end!

#375 Salvador Strike

#376 Frontier Fury

#377 Desperate Cargo

#378 Death Run

#379 Deep Recon

#380 Silent Threat

#381 Killing Ground

#382 Threat Factor

#383 Raw Fury

#384 Cartel Clash

#385 Recovery Force

#386 Crucial Intercept

#387 Powder Burn

#388 Final Coup

#389 Deadly Command

#390 Toxic Terrain

#391 Enemy Agents

#392 Shadow Hunt

#393 Stand Down

#394 Trial by Fire

#395 Hazard Zone

#396 Fatal Combat

#397 Damage Radius

#398 Battle Cry

#399 Nuclear Storm

#400 Blind Justice

#401 Jungle Hunt

#402 Rebel Trade

#403 Line of Honor

#404 Final Judgment

#405 Lethal Diversion

#406 Survival Mission

#407 Throw Down

#408 Border Offensive

#409 Blood Vendetta

#410 Hostile Force

#411 Cold Fusion

#412 Night’s Reckoning

#413 Double Cross

#414 Prison Code

#415 Ivory Wave

#416 Extraction

#417 Rogue Assault

#418 Viral Siege

#419 Sleeping Dragons

#420 Rebel Blast

#421 Hard Targets

#422 Nigeria Meltdown

#423 Breakout

#424 Amazon Impunity

#425 Patriot Strike

#426 Pirate Offensive

#427 Pacific Creed

#428 Desert Impact

#429 Arctic Kill

#430 Deadly Salvage

#431 Maximum Chaos

#432 Slayground

#433 Point Blank

#434 Savage Deadlock

#435 Dragon Key

#436 Perilous Cargo

#437 Assassin’s Tripwire

#438 The Cartel Hit

#439 Blood Rites

#440 Killpath

#441 Murder Island

#442 Syrian Rescue

#443 Uncut Terror

#444 Dark Savior

#445 Final Assault

#446 Kill Squad

#447 Missile Intercept

#448 Terrorist Dispatch

#449 Combat Machines

#450 Omega Cult

#451 Fatal Prescription

#452 Death List

#453 Rogue Elements

#454 Enemies Within

#455 Chicago Vendetta

#456 Thunder Down Under

#457 Dying Art

#458 Killing Kings

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Killing Kings

Don Pendleton

ISBN: 978-1-474-09653-9

Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Michael Newton for his contribution to this work.

KILLING KINGS

© 2019 Harlequin Enterprises Limited

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Worldwide Gold Eagle, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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Bolan’s grenade exploded with a smoky thunderclap.

The shrapnel sprayed the area with steel fragments designed to kill over a radius of sixteen feet. Grimaldi followed up with a second bomb.

The opposition appeared seconds later—two men armed with military rifles tumbled into the hallway just as Bolan and Grimaldi reached it. Neither of the two defenders had a chance to use their weapons. Bolan and Grimaldi cut them down in their tracks before they could react.

“That’s half of them,” the ace pilot said, and Bolan hoped it wasn’t simply wishful thinking.

“Careful with Cuéllar, if possible,” he said. “I need to pick his brain while it’s intact.”

Cuéllar knew the name of the person who headed up The Office, and the Executioner was counting on him to cooperate.

Whether the man wanted to or not.

For Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena,

Drug Enforcement Administration

(1947–1985)

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.

—Albert Einstein

Someone said that Evil never dies. That’s true. But good and evil men are mortal. It’s the first group’s task to put the second in their place: the grave.

—Mack Bolan

Nothing less than a war could have fashioned the destiny of the man called Mack Bolan. Bolan earned the Executioner title in the jungle hell of Vietnam.

But this soldier also wore another name—Sergeant Mercy. He was so tagged because of the compassion he showed to wounded comrades-in-arms and Vietnamese civilians.

Mack Bolan’s second tour of duty ended prematurely when he was given emergency leave to return home and bury his family, victims of the Mob. Then he declared a one-man war against the Mafia.

He confronted the Families head-on from coast to coast, and soon a hope of victory began to appear. But Bolan had broken society’s every rule. That same society started gunning for this elusive warrior—to no avail.

So Bolan was offered amnesty to work within the system against terrorism. This time, as an employee of Uncle Sam, Bolan became Colonel John Phoenix. With a command center at Stony Man Farm in Virginia, he and his new allies—Able Team and Phoenix Force—waged relentless war on a new adversary: the KGB.

But when his one true love, April Rose, died at the hands of the Soviet terror machine, Bolan severed all ties with Establishment authority.

Now, after a lengthy lone-wolf struggle and much soul-searching, the Executioner has agreed to enter an “arm’s-length” alliance with his government once more, reserving the right to pursue personal missions in his Everlasting War.