"A mother and child... What does he do for Jericho?"

"Whatever dirty work needs doing," said Hal, "and there's plenty of that in Jericho's world."

"And Santos has Eve," grunted Bolan. "What about the Thatcher character?"

Kurtzman punched up another head shot, this time front and profile.

It was a craggy face dominated by steely eyes that were impossible to read. The jawline was that of a determined military man in middle age.

"General Arnold L. Thatcher," said Kurtzman. "I put through a tracer when the computer kicked his name out, and the Pentagon's Internal Affairs Division was very interested in what we wanted to know and why. They're in it with us now. The general is chief of security at a classified base in the Rockies, north of Denver. The installation is a storage depot — part of the army's NCB program."

Bolan knew those initials. Nuclear, Chemical and Biological.

He scrutinized the frontal portrait on the screen. He saw a brokenness and a cynicism in the face that stared blankly back.

"Thatcher is two days into a five-day leave and no one's been able to run him down yet," reported Brognola. "But considering his sensitive position in the NCB program, the Pentagon and the CIA are of course giving this top priority and we should have our hands on this bad general soon enough.

Internal Affairs launched a backtrack investigation and they came up with a bombshell this afternoon that confirms he's the Thatcher we're looking for.

The general took a medical leave late last year. His hospital records showed treatment for stomach problems that were supposedly cleared up. But the Pentagon investigators found more — they asked the right questions of the right people in the right way.

General Thatcher has seven months to live. He's dying of cancer. He's ripe for a sellout. Maybe he's trying to establish financial security for his family after he's gone."