Savannah Swingsaw by Don Pendleton Read Free Book Online Page A

face, and they weren't going to make the mistake of coming at him one at a time.
    The door behind him burst open and Lyle Carrew sat there in his wheelchair, shaking his head at what he saw. "A party and no one invited me?" He rolled through the door, his wheels running over the hands of the unconscious guard.
    "Stay out of this, Carrew," Rodeo said. "Ain't none of your business."
    "I don't know about that, man. This fella stole my shank, then lets your bozo guard take it away from him. Guy like that needs a lesson."
    Rodeo smiled, fingered his braided hair. "Just what he's about to get. You welcome to join in, get a piece."
    Carrew tapped his shank against his palm, thinking.
    "Nah, I guess not. Guess I'll just take him back to the cell and handle it my way."
    "No way," the toothless henchman growled.
    "Boone's right, Carrew. You best get your ass the hell out of here. Otherwise you're buying his trouble. That what you want?"
    "Nope. It surely isn't." He backed up into the doorway, his wheelchair holding the door open, but blocking any exit. He dropped his shank into his lap, then began tugging at the armrest of his chair. It popped free. "I told this big dumb guy that he was on his own. That you'd be eating his liver for dinner."
    "What're you doing?" Rodeo asked, stepping closer.
    "I warned him. Didn't I warn you, Blue?"
    "You warned me," Bolan said.
    Carrew nodded. "See? I warned him." He pulled a piece of the aluminum tubing free from the chair. It was about a foot long. Then he began dismantling some of the spokes from the large wheel of his chair. They popped right out. "Me, I'm only in for a few days, maybe a few weeks, depending on how pissed that judge is that I yelled at. Contempt of court, no big deal. Am I right?"
    "He's right," Bolan said to Rodeo.
    Carrew twisted the spokes into six-inch lengths.
    They looked to Bolan as if they'd been specially made that way, to break into those sections. Carrew leaned over the side of his chair and pried the unconscious guard's mouth open, probing inside with his fingers, then smiled when he found what he was looking for. The wad of chewing gum.
    "What the hell you doing?" Rodeo snarled.
    "Minding my own business, man. The only difference is...." He tore a hunk of gum from the wad, rolled it into a ball between his thumb and fingers, then stuck it on the end of one of the wire spokes. He inserted the spoke into the cylinder, put the tube to his mouth and pointed it at toothless Boone.
    Carrew sucked in his breath, and puffed his cheeks out as he blew into the tubing. The makeshift dart whooshed down the corridor and pierced Boone's throat just below the Adam's apple.
    Boone's eyes widened with surprise as his hands flew to the spike and plucked it out. He started to speak, but the words came out in a croak.
    Blood was seeping from the little hole in his neck, leaking air, puffing pink foam around the hole.
    "As I said," Carrew continued, "the only difference is that I'm shaving the odds a bit. Little trick I learned from an Indian tribe in South America."
    Boone dropped his shank, clutching his hand around the hole in his throat, gasping for air. He started for the door, his interest in this fight over.
    "Where you going, Boone?" Rodeo demanded.
    "Doc... tor," Boone croaked.
    "No one leaves I..." But Boone stumbled ahead. Suddenly Rodeo leaped at him, grabbed the back of Boone's shirt and smacked him in the back of the head. The tiny brass studs punched through the skin and hair, drilling through the bone. The momentum of the blow caved in the whole base of the weakened skull. Boone's knees buckled and he fell face first onto the floor.
    Blood bubbled out the back of his head and sieved through his oily hair. "You wanted fair," Rodeo rasped, "you got fair. Two against two. Me and Sanders against you and Blue."
    "Not exactly what I had in mind," Carrew said, loading another spoke into his tube and puffing it into the face of Rodeo's lone remaining henchman, Sanders.
    The dart