But this storyline wraps up this issue, how is...oh, it's literal.

Also this issue: some nuclear safety tips that sound reasonable; maybe double-check that. From 1984, Jon Sable, Freelance #9, "Cliffhanger!" Story and art by Mike Grell.

Sable had been hired by a woman, Trina Cole, believed to have stolen $100,000 from her employer's safe; but after some research and running around, he and another young woman are confronted by said employer, and his squad of paramilitary--and foreign--goons. The employer, Sherman, had been ex-US military brass and made himself "General" of his little army: while he was thrilled Sable had recovered his documents, of course he now knew too much. (Sable deadpans, "If you thought my fee was too high, why didn't you just say so?") Fortunately, before he can be murdered, Sable pulls a hidden knife to kill two guards, then escapes with the woman through a window. It's a relatively short sequence and Sable makes it seem easy, getting away after tying his shirt to a rock and throwing it down a hill, to give the dogs a false trail! (Would that actually work? Maybe, since they had gotten to the water.)

Finding a secret base underneath the resort, Sable confronts the woman, who reveals herself as Angela Ryder, Air Force Office of Special Investigations. She had been keeping tabs on Sherman, who probably read as disgruntled long before. Sherman's safe had been robbed by an Air Force major, who had also tried to kill Sable because he thought he was working for him. But, Sherman now had a nuke! Worse, four of them! Still, Angela matter-of-factly explains they could be dealt with, either by blowing them up or burning them. "You can't 'cook off' a nuclear explosion," although I do wonder what your cancer risk is being around a bonfire of fissionable material...

Sable rigs a simple 'detonator' with a cigarette, a matchbook, and a box of ammo; before he and Angela are cornered by Sherman. Which is mostly so he can explain his game: he'd cheated his terrorist partners, with a live nuke, headed for New York City! (The terrorists had intended to park the first nuke, unarmed, at the UN; to show what they could do and as a 'gotcha' to the US military.) With an inside man at NORAD, it would look like a first strike; and the US would retaliate: he was convinced by actually making the first strike, the US could win a nuclear war before lunch. Sable isn't terribly impressed, since a large stack of wooden ammo boxes was already catching fire; he then throws a knife into a guard, who knocks Sherman off a rock bridge, leaving him paralyzed, presumably to be killed in the usual massive explosion. Sable and Angela escape, although Sable ditches her to go after the nuke: he didn't feel like he could trust her. One truck explosion later, and Sable is able to go home, and find out why Trina had been able to get past his security system, and had been desperate to prove her innocence: prior to taking a job with Sherman, she had been a burglar! 

 This feels like the tailend of a Bond movie, and the base is even lampshaded as such by Angela. Still, a fun read that just flies. I know I have a fair amount of Jon Sable, Freelance from the cheap bins, and you could probably find some yourself; I think it was a pretty good seller at the time. (EDIT: Hey, I didn't plan this, but I guess it's Mike Grell's birthday! He's done a ton of books I've liked.)