Annotation An epidemic of grisly murders and horrifying mutilations occur when packaged products all over the United States are contaminated with poisons, acids and other lethal substances. As the death count soars and panic runs as freely as blood in people's veins, the men of Phoenix Force follow a trail of voodoo and cyanide slaughter to do battle with zombie killers in a remote mountain hideaway. Phoenix Force is joined by new member Calvin James to crack a network of horror that has the entire nation in its death grip. But the brutally savage fight with the Black Alchemists takes its toll, and the Force mourns a fallen comrade. Gar Wilson 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 The Gar Wilson Forum Gar Wilson The Black Alchemists First edition July 1984 Special thanks and acknowledgment to William Fieldhouse for his contributions to this work. 1 Dead men stink. A cigar is one way to mask the stench. Homicide Inspector Charles Darlington flicked the wheel of his Zippo lighter and held the flame to the tip of the panetela. Puffing, he shook his head with dismay. In his twelve years with the San Francisco Police Department, he had lost count of the number of grisly bodies he had encountered. He had seen victims of multiple gunshot and knife wounds, their flesh shredded and soaked with blood. He had seen the remains of suicides splattered all over the pavement from high- rise falls. He had seen ghastly corpses fished from the bay, bloated and mutilated by weeks in sea water: fish feed. Putrid month-old corpses with eyeballs eaten by blowflies and the razor-slashed remains of whores cut to pieces by pimps were equally familiar to him. But never had he witnessed anything like the grotesque scene in the backyard of a quaint house in a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. Darlington approached the medical examiner, Dr. Fred Bellows, who had been summoned to the scene. "What can you tell me, Fred?" "Not much until after the autopsy. Or should I say autopsies? Christ, what a mess! Twenty-three of them." In the center of the yard a long picnic table was laid out as though a picnic had been in progress. Around it were littered the bodies. They varied from young to old: children, parents, grandparents. There was no blood except for some minor trickles from the nostrils of a few. Yet these people had not died peacefully. Their bodies were contorted as though from great pain. Clawed hands clutched at throats and chests. Faces had been transformed into frozen masks of agony and horror. As ambulance attendants milled about, Darlington and Bellows stepped back from the chaos of tangled bodies. "That's my count, too," Darlington said. "It's obviously a mass poisoning." The portly balding doctor pulled off his wire-rimmed glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Nothing is obvious until after the autopsies," he said matter-of-factly. "Bullshit, Fred. You figure the entire Merrill family all just happened to have heart attacks simultaneously? Even the kids? Come on." "Merrill family, eh? What was this, a family reunion?" "That's what the neighbors say. Apparently the Merrills came from all over the country for this Labor Day reunion. Neighbors heard a baby crying; it never stopped, so they decided to see what was wrong. That's when they saw this goddamn morgue. The neighbors have a kid next door. They don't even know which Merrill couple it belonged to. One thing is for sure, there'll never be another family reunion for the Merrills." "Okay, Charlie," Bellows sighed. "I do have a preliminary opinion. I'd say it's almost certain these people are victims of cyanide poisoning." "Cyanide?" "Did you notice some victims had vomit drool on their lips? That pink froth is from their lungs. Christ, it's sickening. Do you smell bitter almonds? That's the aroma of cyanide. I'm sure of it, but I've sent in some smear samples for fast analysis so I can prove it." "Jesus," Darlington whispered. "The stuff must have been in the food." "Not necessarily. Cyanide can be inhaled or absorbed through the pores of the skin. It's also found in natural form in quite a few common plants and fruits. There's a small amount of it in peach pits, mountain laurel and lilies of the valley, to name a few." "You think it's possible somebody added the wrong ingredient to the potato salad and poisoned the whole family by accident?" "Some recipes include a lot of exotic herbs and such," Bellows said, "so it is possible. After all, it doesn't seem likely that the Merrill family was connected with the Mafia or Communist agents. Who would want to kill a bunch of middle-class American WASPs?" "We don't know enough about the Merrills to rule out anything yet," Darlington declared, watching as the first few bodies were bagged and taken away. "Nothing is definite about a homicide case until the case is closed." "Yeah," Bellows said grimly. "I guess the only real fact we have so far is that the Merrill baby will have to find a new family. His old one isn't around anymore." * The following morning Inspector Darlington read the medical examiner's autopsy reports of the first bodies. They confirmed his original suspicion. Members of the Merrill family had consumed a lethal amount of potassium cyanide. Undigested food in their stomachs proved it had been eaten. Chemical analyses of food from the Merrill picnic table revealed how the cyanide had been introduced to the family. A can of cranberry sauce contained enough of the deadly toxin to kill a herd of elephants. "Jesus," Darlington muttered, putting down the report. "Cyanide mixed with cranberry sauce. Why?" He noted the brand name, although certain it had already been reported to the Food and Drug Administration. What the hell is safe these days, he wondered. Alcohol causes brain and liver damage. Everything from cigarettes to hair dryers is supposed to cause cancer. Half the food we eat is either high in fats or low in minerals. Even the air is full of toxic fumes. But such a large dose of cyanide in the Merrill's cranberry sauce suggested a malicious, not accidental, poisoning. Darlington recalled stories of mercury poisoning in fish several years ago. An American journalist had won a Pulitzer for a story on the subject in Japan. The birth of some disfigured babies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was commonly believed to be the result of the effects of radiation on the genes of parents who survived the atomic bombs that ended World War II. Mercury poison turned out to be the villain instead. Thousands of fish caught in the waters off Japan had been contaminated by mercury fulminate dumped by paper mills along the coast. Victims suffered severe illness, sometimes death. The poison affected fetuses in their mothers' wombs and caused an assortment of gross deformities in the children. More recently, fish were discovered with cancer tumors clustered throughout their bodies. Could cranberries be contaminated in a similar manner? How? From insecticides? Waste products in the soil? Something in the metal cans that held the sauce? The homicide inspector did not dismiss any possibility. He checked into the background of the Merrill family, finding no evidence of any connection with organized crime. None of the adult Merrills had ever been suspected of embezzling or of dealing in cocaine; none had been clients of loan sharks. A couple of ex-spouses seemed to be the closest thing to enemies any of them could have acquired over the years. None of the teenagers had belonged to street gangs or had associated with militant political groups or crackpot religious cults. Except for a few traffic violations, one arrest for drunk and disorderly, and another misdemeanor for possession of a few ounces of marijuana, the Merrill family looked clean. There was no evidence to suggest anyone would have a reason to kill a single member of the family, let alone want to wipe out the whole tribe. Darlington took a cigar from his pocket as he grimly considered what appeared to be the most likely explanation for the Merrill massacre. Someone in the family had purchased a can of cranberry sauce that had been purposefully sabotaged. The Merrills were random victims. They had been senselessly murdered by a sick bastard who had deliberately poisoned the food. Such horrendous sabotage had occurred in the past. Sadists put razor blades in apples to give to kids on Halloween. Other warped lunatics slipped LSD into drinks of unsuspecting victims as a "joke." Of course, the worst example was the so-called "Tylenol Killer." Not only had this fiend avoided capture, he opened the gate to copycat offenders. The public was justly horrified, aware that anyone could be a victim of such deranged sabotage. The tamperproof seals on pill bottles was a constant reminder that human monsters exist: demented beasts with vicious cunning who strike out at strangers. "Oh, Christ," Darlington muttered to himself. "How do you catch somebody like that?" The phone on his desk rang. He grabbed the receiver and put on his official voice, reciting his name and department in place of a hello. "Charlie, this is Fred Bellows. We'll have some more Merrill autopsies completed later this afternoon, but we won't have them all finished for at least a week." "I don't think there's any rush. We know what killed them anyway." "Better make sure," Bellows said. "Besides, an autopsy is mandatory for every homicide." "I know, Fred." Darlington spoke in a weary voice. "By the way, are you going to contact the Houston police?" "Houston? You mean Houston, Texas? What the hell for?" "Haven't you heard the news? It was on the radio just a few minutes ago." "What are you talking about?" "There was another family killed in Houston," said Bellows. "Nineteen people died at a family reunion there. Cause of death: cyanide poisoning." "Oh my God," Darlington rasped. He did not curse. It was an expression of helplessness and a prayer of desperation. "Oh my God..." 2 The President of the United States probably has the most demanding and difficult job in the world. His position requires incredible stamina and fortitude. Stress and fatigue take a heavy toll after four years in the White House. Hal Brognola noticed how the President had aged since he was elected to office. The man seated behind the desk in the Oval Office had bags under both eyes and wrinkles that Brognola did not notice at their last meeting. Brognola did not envy the man. Responsibility and authority are heavy crosses to bear. He knew this from personal experience. "Hello, Hal," the President said, glancing up from an open file folder on his desk. "Please, sit." With an outstretched hand he indicated a nearby chair. "Thank you, sir," Brognola nodded, sinking into the chair. "I'm not going to beat around the bush, Hal," the commander-in-chief declared. "I don't have the time. The fact is, I'm seriously considering dissolving your Stony Man organization." "I was afraid you'd say that, sir," Brognola said with a sigh. Stony Man had been created to utilize the unique abilities of virtually one man — Mack Bolan, better known as the Executioner. Bolan had proven his extraordinary combat skills and superior strategic talent during an incredible one-man war against the Mafia. The Executioner accomplished the impossible. He not only survived, he actually defeated the Mob. His war had reduced the spread of organized crime to the level of crabgrass, needing only occasional trimming to keep under control. The government wanted to tap Bolan's warrior genius to combat the international threat of professional terrorism. Thus, Stony Man was formed. Brognola had secretly assisted the Executioner in his previous war against the Mafia. Thus the federal officer had been chosen to serve as the middleman between the White House and Mack Bolan. The Executioner was given a new identity: Colonel John Phoenix. Two incredible teams of antiterrorists were formed to assist him in his new war. Stony Man had been a one-hundred-percent success against the twentieth- century cannibals. The Executioner, Able Team and Phoenix Force carried out mission after mission, each a stunning victory against the most ruthless and sinister of enemies. Yet terrorists proved more dangerous than even the Mafia. Political and religious fanatics will take incredible risks and plot the most outrageous conspiracies to accomplish their insane goals. Most have been associated with or controlled by the Soviet Union. The Kremlin's response to Stony Man was an elaborate scheme to neutralize Bolan and his people. The scheme had been a partial success. Thanks to a cunning KGB frame- up, the Executioner had been labeled a dangerous, unstable renegade, and found himself hunted by virtually every law-enforcement and intelligence organization in the world. Now that Stony Man had lost its commander and chief agent, the future of this elite organization was at best uncertain. "I wish you'd reconsider your attitude toward Colonel Phoenix," Brognola said. "Bolan is no longer Colonel Phoenix," the President decided. "He made his decision. He proved that he has no respect for any laws or any form of justice except his own vigilante version." "Bolan did what he felt he had to do, Mr. President," Brognola insisted as he chewed on the end of an unlit cigar. Weedy bits stuck to his teeth. "That may be true," the President admitted. "But try to look at this from my position. How can we condone Bolan's actions? Maybe he was framed by the KGB, but no one can prove it and the Executioner's behavior appears to be nothing short of irrational." "Can't you at least call off the dogs?" Brognola asked. "That's out of my hands, Hal. Bolan is an outlaw. He's also a security risk. He knows too much. The man is a threat to our national security as long as he's alive. The Bolan matter is closed. All that remains is to drive the nails into his coffin." "And you're planning to bury the rest of Stony Man as well?" "We can't help wondering how reliable any of your supercommandos are, Hal." "None of them has ever failed to accomplish a mission," Brognola declared proudly. "How can you question such results, Mr. President?" "The three members of Able Team are old friends of the Executioner, correct? They helped him when Bolan was fighting organized crime years ago." "And you think they may still be supporting Mack?" "I think it's possible." "Then you probably feel the same about me as well," said Brognola. The President met his stare. "We haven't excluded that possibility either." "You're wrong on both counts," Brognola told him. "What about Phoenix Force? Don't tell me you're suspicious of it as well." "Bolan selected the members of the team." "Phoenix Force comprises the best antiterrorists in the world," Brognola declared. "None of them is native-born American and none of them was