Southern Approach....

Location: Zarogocilla, Columbia


Max pulled his eye away from the spotting scope he was using to observe the small and unobtrusive looking farmhouse 1300 meters away across the nearly flat farmland that was characteristic of this part of Columbia and motioned for Perez to take over observation duties.

Max moved back on his belly to make room for Perz at the scope and then whispered, "I'll send Jonas and Griggs up to take our places." Perez nodded as Max moved back out of the hide made from the surrounding brush of the large grove of trees they had set up in.

Max and his team had been in place since the latter part of October, when it became apparent that negotiations with the Columbian, anti-government thugs were not likely to secure the release of the daughter of the next Minister of Finance and Public Credit in the Columbian Government.

Shortly after her kidnapping from her dorm room at Simon Bolivar University, the second week of October, when the kidnappers had sent their ransom demands, her father had contracted 'Southern Approach Hostage Negotiations, Rescue and Recovery' to negotiate with the kidnappers and get his daughter back.

When it became obvious that negotiations likely would only end up paying the ransom and getting back a corpse, Max and his 13 man team had been sent in to gather preliminary intel for a rescue operation after investigation finally revealed the whereabouts of the kidnappers and the future ministers daughter.

The negotiators were now in 'Stalling Mode' to give Max and his team time to gather the info needed for a rescue and make the needed preparations for extraction.

Max had been working for Southern Approach since shortly after his retirement from the United States Marines and had participated in several hostage rescues South of the border, first as a team member and then as the leader of his own team.

Max had served 20 years in Marine Corps Infantry since the reforming of Special Operations Capable (SOC) Infantry Battalions in the 1980's and had served several tours in various countries in South and Central America in Drug Interdiction Operations. This training and experience had lead to his being contacted by the CEO of Southern Approach after Max retired, to work for this then new corporation.

Since his joining the company, Southern Approach had grown into a International Corporation, that not only dealt with hostage situations, but also worked in training Law Enforcement Agencies and Military personel the world over, in hostage rescue.


Max eased into the encampment that was well camouflaged from both aerial and ground observation and motioned for Jonas and Griggs to take a turn manning the Observation Post. (OP)

He sent the reliefs out to the security points and waited until he had debriefed the men coming off security and found that nothing strange or interesting had presented itself, before he dug into a MRE for some chow.

He then settled down for some much needed rest, as sooner or later they would likely receive the go code for the rescue of the girl.

The sun was setting on this Saturday in November, when Hernandez who was on the Communications watch woke Karnage up by gently kicking his feet.

Karnage opened his eye and looked up at Hernandez and asked, "Whats up Nanny?"

Hernandez handed him a headset with boom mic and said, "Home Plate is on the comms."

Max took the headset and adjusted it, as he asked if the scramblers were up and running and got an 'affirmative' nod from Hernandez that the channel was secure.

"Go for Karnage.", he spoke into the headset. The reply was the gravely voice of his direct superior in the corporation.

"Gunny, we got the green light for extraction of the Primary. Orders are to secure the primary no later than 2000 hours and be at the extraction point no later than 2100. Extraction is at grid 352702. You'll turn the primary over to Heavy 1 Zero for extraction and your team will be extracted by Banger 2 One at 2115. Understood?"

"I read you Lima Charlie." Karnage replied.

"Alright then Gunny, get it done....This operation is earlier in the night than we like, but I've got a bad feeling that the Columbian Policia may have gotten wind of this operation and we need to get that girl clear before some local Area Commander comes along looking for a promotion and fucks this up."

"Got it", Max replied.

"I know you do Gunny, see you at home."

Karnage nodded as though his boss could see him, but didn't reply as the comms were already cut off.

Karnage pulled out his map and looked at the extraction site and nodded. It was the best of the sites that he and his team had reconned over the past few nights. It was only 3 klicks as the crow flies but 7 klicks by the road they would have to take to make the Cascajo River crossing.

The site was a wide open and firm soiled section of farm fields that ran North and South for 1500 meters, next to the road to Quindio, before the Salado River crossing. There were large groves of trees at either end of the clearing for concealment.

Karnage looked at his watch, there was not much time to finish the final preparations.

He made the call to pull all the men in from security and gathered all the team at the observation post and explained the particulars and then they began putting the finishing touches on the extraction plan.

Outside the kidnappers farm house: 1915 Hours
------------------------

Karnage and his team had taken up positions close to the farm house, hidden in the shadows, all except 2 team members who would be along shortly.

The nature of them working for a private corporation and not acting in an official capacity, negated their ability to storm the house by force and simply 'taking out' the six members of the group holding the girl hostage. Lawfully, they could only fire when fired upon as an act of self defense or defense of another. Max and his team did not intend to give the hostage takers the chance to fire first, however.

From up the road, the sound of a 2 ton farm truck approached. This was the 2 spanish speaking team members who were to provide the 'distraction' part of the extraction plan.

As the truck approached, Jonas darted in next to the house and ran a volt meter over the telephone line, determined it was not in use by the reading on the dial and snipped the line, the moved in next to the back door at the same time as Griggs arrived opposite the door from him, having just activated a pair of portable Mobile Phone Jammers at front and back corners of the small house to insure cell phones in the house were useless as well.

Other team members moved to the rear and sides of the house, out of sight but prepared for their parts in the plan.

The truck lumbered nosily up the road and then appeared to begin running roughly a short distance down the road and just as it got directly in front of the house, it stalled and the noisy engine died, only to be restarted an instant later and then died once more. This was followed by some turning over of the engine, but it failed to start.

Hernandez and Perez exited the truck, cursing loudly in Spanish about the 'piece of shit truck' and began to raise the hood.

The front door opened a crack and a smallish wiry man poked his head out followed by his hand with a flashlight. He asked them what the hell they wanted, to which Perez replied that their fucking truck was broke and they needed a flashlight to see what the problem was.

The man at the door turned and said something to the ones inside and then came out the door followed by another man and then a third, who left the front door wide open.

The 3 kidnappers and Karnages 2 men begin fiddling with the truck, which was guaranteed to not crank until a cleverly hidden switch was tripped in the cab.

The men continued to fiddle with the truck while Hernandez and Perez continued to curse and bitch about the piece of shit truck. A fourth man exited the house to see what was going on, that now left only 2 men in the house and the four outside appeared to not be armed unless it was with pistols under their shirts in their waistbands.

Karnage allowed the scene in front of the house to continue for another few minutes, but no one else came out of the house.

Max whispered into his headset from his vantage point in the shadows of the side of the house, "This is about as good as it is likely to get, prepare to execute."

Max thought momentarily to himself, "I hope this works...."

Then he said into the headset, "Go, Go, Go."

When the third "Go" was uttered the team went into action.

The men at the back door cracked it open and tossed in 2 flashbangs at the same time as team members stepped from the front corners of the building and tossed 2 flashbangs in the open front door and then continued silenty across ther small yard towards the group of men at the truck as the flash bangs went off in rapid sucession in the house.

As the first flashbangs began to go off, Hernandez and Perez sprang into action and pulled Stun Guns from their back pockets and applied them to two of the bad guys while all four of them were turning towards the house in suprise. The last bad guys by the truck were met by the men coming across the yard with raised and shouldered MP5 submachine guns. They wisely stopped and put their hands up and didn't hear Perez and Hernandez approach them and apply the stun guns to them.

Meanwhile, the entry team including Karnage had swept into the open front door and secured the house by violently applying buttstocks to the heads of the two remaining and stunned by the flash bangs, kidnappers.

They found the girl tied up spread eagle and wide eyed to the bed in the single bedroom of the house. She was trying to scream through the gag stuffed in her mouth and Karnage could tell by her bloody and bruised body that she had been raped repeatedly over no telling how many days.

Karnage scowled as he tried to calm the girl down as he reached forward to pull the gag from her mouth. When the gag was freed she continued to scream and Karnage could see that all of her teeth had been pulled or knocked out, probably to allow the kidnappers to pleasure themselves by rapeing her mouth with fear of being bitten.

Karnage shouted for the team medic, "Doc, get in here and take care of her."

The former Navy Corpsman came in and assessed the situation and shook his head. "We're going to have to take her unconscious. Untie her now and there is no telling what she'll do. She has been severely traumatized." He fished around in his medical bag and pulled out a syringe and a bottle of fast acting tranquilyzer and gave her a good dose and she was soon calming down and then unconscious.

Then he began untieing her and slipping some clothes on her with the help of another team member.

Karnage walked out in front of the house where all the kidnappers had been gathered and were laying face down with hands and feet zip tied.

He knew it would do no good to ask which ones of them had raped the girl and truth be told, it was probably all of them.

"Load them in the truck, these animals are going with us." Karnage told the men guarding them.

The rest of the team swept the area, gathering equipment and loading on the truck.

Lastly the girl was brought out on a stretcher and loaded on the truck.

The team completed loading and Karnage climbed into the passenger seat of the cab.

"Lets move out to the extraction point." Karnage said as he glanced at his watch and noted that it was 1955. They were on schedule.

Max smiled grimly as the truck started up and growled noisily out onto the road once more...

The truck lumbered along the road until it came to the Southern end of the fields that were to be their extraction point.

Per the plan of the girl being extracted by Heavy 1 Zero which was one of the companys long rang C130 Hercules aircraft fitted for covert operations and extractions as well as executive transport, Max had the men break out a kit containing flares and smoke grenades with which to mark the LZ.

Presently, they received communications that from Heavy 1 Zero that they were inbound and needed some lights on the runway.

Karnage nodded to his men and 3 left in the truck and drove down the center of the LZ tossing flares with a 15 minute burn time out each side of the truck to mark the impromptu runway for the C130. They then tossed a smoke grenade at either end of the makeshit airstrip along with other flares to mark the ends of the strip and to identify wind direction for the heavy bird.

Then the truck raced back to the end where the group was awaiting and pointed it headlights back down the strip, centered between the flares.

The pilots swooped the C130 low overhead in a single pass to orientate themselves with the layout of the strip and make note of the direction the smoke was blowing and then circled around and dropped the bird expertly on the far end of the airstrip and landed in an ever growing cloud of dust kicked up by its powerful propellers.

The C130 slowed and taxied quickly to the end of the strip and turned expertly to be pointed back down the field for takeoff.

The rear cargo ramp began to lower and Karnage, the team medic and 2 men actiing as stretcher bearers approached rapidly and went up the ramp into the bird where they were greeted by the crew chief.

The crew chief looked at the girl and pointed back towards the bulkhead and door that seperated the executive compartment from the cargo compartment of this particular aircraft.

"Put her in there, looks like she has been through hell and back." The stretcher bearers nodded and headed that way.

The teams medic asked the crew chief, "Ya'll got a medic on board?"

"Negative, he was throwing up in the shit can before takeoff, so we left without him."

The medic turned to Karnage, "Gunny, you okay with me riding along with the girl?"

Karnage nodded, "I wouldn't have expected anything less....Take good care of her." He finished with a pat on the shoulder as the medic turned to head up towards the executive compartment.

Max turned to the crew chief who went into a coughing fit and moved to the edge of the ramp to spit a mouthful of phlegm in to the propwash of the port side engines.

The crew chief turned around and wiped some sweat from his forehead..."I reckon I got what the flight medic has, sorry bastard gave it to me."

Karnage nodded and joked, "Well then stay the hell away from me." Then he turned serious again, "Give the girl a smooth ride chief," he pointed at the cluster of 6 kidnappers kneeling on the ground, "They really did a number on her."

The chief nodded, "You turning those guys over to the Columbians?"

"What guys, chief?" Karnage replied.

"Got it, I didn't see anything or anybody....Now you get off my plane before those flares burn out."

Karnage shook the crew chiefs hand and stepped off the ramp and joined his stretcher bearers at its base.

The crew chief waved and and tripped the lever that closed the ramp just as he started another coughing fit....

Then the ramp closed and shortly thereafter the engines sped up and the plane trundled a short distance down the airstrip and accelerated and leapt into the air just as the flares began to wink out one after the other.

The dark painted aircraft soon disappeared in the black night sky and the sound of its engines soon faded away.

Max rejoined the cluster of men and prisoners and looked at his watch.

"Okay, it is 2105, ten minutes and we are out of here."

The men readied a couple more flares and one more smoke to guide the big CH47 that was Banger 2 One, that was coming to extract them and carry them home.

A incendiary charge with a 45 minute fuze was rigged to the truck, but wouldn't be activated until just before the big chopper sat down.

Karnage turned to the men guarding the prisoners.

"Cut their clothes off em and throw the clothes in the truck."

In short order the kidnapper rapists were kneeling naked in the dirt and quaking in fear.

Karnage scowled at them with disgust.

One of the men asked in a wavering voice, "W-w-what are you g-g-going to do with us?"

Karnage glared at the man, "You're coming with us." then as he turned away he muttered darkly under his breath, "Part of the way."

"W-w-what was that you said?" the kidnapper asked.

Max ignored the mans question and instead pulled out his battered metal cigarette case that he had been carrying for better than 25 years, pulled out a Camel Filter and lighted it up with a slightly less battered Zippo lighter.

"Smoke em if you got em, its a long ride back home."

A few of his team members lighted up as well.

The same kidnapper who spoke before, piped up, "C-Can I have one of those?"

His only response was a booted foot to his naked testicles, which left him doubled over and gasping in pain and for air.

Karnage ignored him as he drew a lung full of smoke. Then his ears picked up the distant thump of the rotors of a heavy helicopter.

Their ride was almost here....

The big black CH47 slowly settled to the ground not far from the flares and smoke used to guide it in. The powerful rotor wash sent dust flying everywhere as the crew chief lowered the rear ramp and then exited the big Chinook through its side door as he uncoiled the long wire that tethered his helmet to the internal communications of the chopper.

The crew chief came out beyond the rotor tips and turned to look at the pilots and said something through his helmet mounted boom mic as he made some hand signals.

He then turned towards Karnage and waved him over.

Max approached and held out his hand to the crew chief whom he knew well from previous operations.

"How you doing Dale?" Karnage shouted at him over the sound of the rotors and the whine of the turbines from the Chinook.

Dale shook his head as he shouted back, "Sicker than a god damned dog, Gunny...I feel worse than that time we ate monkey in Colón, Panama."

Max nodded at the memory of that event and shouted back, "Being sick never kept you from doing your job Dale, I reckon this time is no different."

Dale nodded and gave Max a weak grin and a thumbs up, then shouted, "Lets get you all loaded and get the fuck out of here, we flew over an official looking convoy headed this way, about 20 klicks from here when we were in our holding pattern."

Karnage nodded and turned and motioned for the men to load their equipment first and then the kidnappers.

Dale gave Karnage a questioning look about the bound and naked kidnappers.

"You ain't seen nothing Dale."

Dale gave him the "okay" hand sign and a nod.

Hernandez passed by Karnage and shouted, "All team members present or accounted for and loaded along with our equipment. Charge is activated on the truck."

Karnage gave him the thumbs up and nodded towards the chopper and Hernandez took off and boarded.

Karnage turned and followed Dale back to the crew chiefs door as Dale coiled up his commo wire.

They loaded and Max took a seat on one of the folded down cargo net seats and buckled the safety belt.

Once all was in readiness and the choppers engines were spooled up and the bird crept into the air gaining altitude and airspeed.

Presently Dale shouted back at Karnage from the crew chiefs seat by the starboard side door where he sat looking out the open upper portion.

"Feet Wet, Gunny."

Karnage nodded, they were now clear of the coast of Columbia and headed out over the Carribean, where they would land at a private airfield in the Cayman Islands, refuel and proceed around Cuban airspace and across the Gulf of Mexico to Louisiana.

"I need to know when we are a hundred miles off the coast." Max shouted back at Dale, who relayed that request to the pilots.

A short while later, Dale gave the word they were 100 miles of the coast.

Karnage stood and went near to Dale and shouted, "Have them bring us down to 50 feet and hover, then lower the ramp."

When all was as Max requested, he stood and walked back towards the ramp and took a safety harness and snapped himself in.

He then snatched up the apparent leader of the kidnappers and dragged him back towards the top of the ramp.

The man was shaking in fear as Karnage shouted into his ear, "You'll only have a little while to suffer while you think about the hell you put that girl through and the hell she'll live with for the rest of her life."

The man tried to break free from the zip ties that bound his wrists and ankles, but it was a futile attempt.

Karnage stepped around behind the man and kicked him down the ramp, where his screams of terror were swiftly swallowed by the black night and the rotor wash of the big chopper.

The other men began to whimper and beg for there lives as one by one Karnage spoke the same words to each as he kicked each in turn into the darkness of the Carribean night.

When it was all done with, Karnage turned and gave the hand sign to 'move out', the ramp closed and the chopper was again underway before Karnage had regained his seat.

His men who had observed the preceedings in silence and who had been silent since loading the chopper, remained silent for several more minutes. Each reflecting in his own way the significance of the end these animals had met for the torment and torture they had inflicted on the young woman, and the fate she faced from having to live with that torment.

The minutes ticked away in silence until it was finally broken by a spontaneous outbreak of post mission bullshitting and joking around to lighten the mood. For indeed, these men couldn't afford to dwell on the negative and bad things they saw, experienced or did, for it would consume them....eat them alive from the inside and surely kill them as effectively as any bullet fired from a enemies weapon. Each of them understood this and while a casual onlooker might view the scene of such jocularity following such a horrible deed as inhuman or insane....It was this same jocularity that allowed these men to keep their humanity and sanity in an otherwise inhumane and insane world.

The big black helicopter churned its way on through the dark Carribean night.....

Their refueling stop in the Caymans had been uneventful and quick and they were now on their final approach to the corporate airfield and base of operations, which was a few hours North of New Orleans, almost to the Mississippi border near the small town of Angie, Louisiana.

It was sufficiently secluded enough that Southern Approach had acquired couple thousand acres of land, in the middle of which was the corporate headquarters, airfield, and training areas. It was not so secluded that it wasn't within easy reach of New Orleans if needed for corporate functions that may require more in the way of "entertainment" for an executive or visiting dignatary that the small town of Angie couldn't offer.


The big black Ch-47 lumbered in low and slow over the row of barracks which typically housed students from Law Enforcement agencies or forign and domestic military units that came to take part in the variety of training programs offered by Southern Approach.

It appeared that only one barracks was occupied at the moment as lights were on in only one of the structures, even at this late hour.

The big black chopper settled down on the well lighted tarmac in fronts of its hangar and Dale, the crew chief, motioned for them to all remain seated, then went out the side door, trailing his comm cord behind him as he looked over the bird and communicated with the pilot.

The thump of the rotors suddenly ceased as the rotors began to slow down drastically from idle, then the incessant whine of the twin turbine engines began to rapidly loose volume and then stopped altogether as the engines spun to a stop.

Dale stepped back aboard the bird and hung up his coil of comm wire and took off his helmet and hung it on the back of his seat as he turned and flipped the switch to lower the tail ramp.

He looked at Karnage and his men with sweat covering his now very pale face, "We're home gents, the ground crew is coming with carts for your equipmen...." and that was as far as he got before having to turn and jump out the door to keep from hurling the contents of his stomach all over the inside of his beloved aircraft.

Shortly, thereafter, the ground crew arrived and Karnage and his men unloaded their equipment onto the provided carts and pushed them into the hangar and stowed the gear in the deployment cage, still on the carts until they would come back and sort and clean their gear in the morning.

Karnage looked around for the Crew Cheif, Dale, to thank him for his services, but saw him being helped towards the medical building by his concerned pilots.

Karnage scratched his beard and thought aloud, "I sure hope Dale is alright."

Then he put the crew chief out of his mind and began to see to his men, who were already bitching about getting turned loose for serious eating and then shut eye.

"We'll be outta here just as soon as the boss debriefs us, he should be along shortly, it ain't like he didn't hear us arrive." Karnage finished with a jerk of his thumb towards the Chinook.

Still, Karnage thought to himself, it was unlike the rough voiced boss not to already be here....

The men and Max had completed stowing their gear for the night when Karnage looked around and saw his boss Jennings, pull into the hangar driving one of the John Deere Gators that were plentiful around the compound for various transportation duties.

Karnage did a quick double take at the sight of Jennings actually on one of 'those infernal things', as the big Texan called them. Jennings 'always' walked around headquarters area for the exercise.

He pulled to halt alongside Karnage and told him to billet the men overnight or rather what was left of it in building 7 where midnight rations were waiting, and he would debrief in the morning. He then sped away on the Gator without futher explanation.

Karnage had noticed that Jennings was pale and sweaty and shaking slightly and there had been a slight waver in the big mans gravelly voice and figured he must be sick with whatever Dale the Ch-47 Crew Chief has.

Karnage turned and addressed his men, "Alright gents, listen the fuck up! We've got mid rats and bunks awaiting in building 7. Debriefing in the morning. Lets grab some chow and hit the rack, we ain't got much of a night left."

With that said, he turned and headed out of the hangar with his men following, with good natured bitching and moaning and ribbing amongst themselves....

"Fuck man, we gotta spend the night here? I was gonna go give my old lady a bone to chew on."

"I always knew your old lady must be ugly as fuck."

"Why you say that?"

"Cause you gonna give her a bone, she must be a dog."

"Naw, she ain't no dog man."

"BUT she sure does fuck like one!" (chimed in another)

"Man fuck both of ya'll!"

"Yep, thats what she said!" (piped up a fourth)

Loud laughter rang out from all the group as they approached building 7 with its promisr of food and warm bunks.....

Monday- Day after the attack. Southnern Approach HQ, near Angie, LA.

Max rose up from his bunk about 7:30 AM, after only a few hourse sleep, after their long return flight from Columbia.

He rousted his men from their bunks and told them to shower, eat chow and be at the hangar by 0900 to complete the debriefing and he hopefully would get them released no later than Noon for some much needed R&R after this latest long mission.

Max showered himself and dressed in a fresh pair of Levis and an olive cotton shirt and headed for the company mess hall himself where he helped himself to some biscuits, gravy, sausage, bacon and heavy set, colored lady who was locally employed as the company cook, fixed him up 3 scrambled eggs with pork brains mixed in, while Max waited.

She set his heaping full plate up in front of him on the edge of the counter and said, "There ya are, Hon."

Karnage reached up and took the plate and said, "Thanks Lucy! You fix those up almost as good as my momma."

Lucy beamed her toothy smile at him and replied, "Well you sho is lucky to have two womens in yo life who can cook good ol southern style food!"

"You got that right!" Max said as he took his tray of food to a table and then went over to the drink counter and got himself a small glass of Orange juice and a large glass of milk and returned to his food.

Max sat down and proceeded to break one of his biscuits up next to his eggs and then he liberally dosed his eggs and brains with salt, pepper and white vinegar from the shakers and bottle in the center of the table, then he covered his eggs and the biscuit with the white gravy from his bowl and took his fork to mix up the eggs, biscuit and gravy into a big mess on his plate.

That task finished he dug in and took a heaping bite and as he chewed it up, he took a napkin to wipe the ends of his moustache clean and looked over and gave Lucy a big thumbs up. To which she replied, "I'm glad you like it, now make sure you get all that in you, so your skinny little self don't blow away!"

Max nodded and after he got the bite swallowed, he said, "Don't you worry none, Miss Lucy! I ain't never left none of my mommas or your food on a plate and I ain't starting today!"

Lucy cackled in response and then turned to begin giving Karnages men who were beginning to arrive, equal care and attention as any good southern cook/hostess should.

Karnage dug into his food and savored each bite as he always did when he ate his favorite breakfast.

Little did he know that meals of this caliber were going to become few and far between in the days to come....

Hangar - Southern Approach HQ

After breakfast, Karnage and his men had assembled in the Hangar to finish the mundane tasks of cleaning and final securing of their gear and weapons from the operation in Columbia.

Time passed and their gear was taken care of and still the big gravelly voiced Texan had not come for the debriefing.

Karnage looked at his watch and noted it was 1100 and said to his men, "You all stay put and I'll go see what the hold up is."

Then without another word, Max left the hangar and headed across the tarmac towards the operations building.

Max arrived at the operations building which was not the usual bustling mass of activity it usually was. There were very few people moving about.

The guard at the Security Desk was looking a little ill as Max approached and asked him where everyone was.

"Damn Flu, I reckon...Lotsa folks called off today." said the guard.

"Looks like you shoulda stayed home." Karnage replied.

"Need the money...Besides, somebody hadda to come in today." Said the guard.

"Jennings here?" Asked Max.

The guard jerked a thumb towards the corridor behind him, "In his office...Slept here I reckon."

Karnage nodded and headed down the corridor to Jennings office, walked past the vacant receptionist desk and knocked on the open office door.

"Come in Max," said Jennings in a tired voice.

Max stepped through the door and saw Jennings sitting behind his desk in the same clothes he was in last evening. Jennings was drinking a dose of Dayquil straight from the bottle and Max noted a partially empty bottle of Nyquil that had obviously gotten Jennings through the night sitting on the floor by the leather couch along the the right wall.

"How you making it, boss?"

Jennings snorted and coughed, "How does it look like I'm making it?....Wife is on her way to carry me to the god damn doctor....I ain't been to the doctor in years."

"Looks like you need to go, boss." Max said.

"Whats that supposed to mean?" Barked Jennings, "Never mind...I know, I look like hell."

Max said nothing as the big Texan reached into his desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of bourbon and a shot glass and downed a couple shots, before dropping the bottle and glass back in his drawer.

"Maybe that'll fix me...Damned Nyquil and Dayquil ain't helped none." Jennings growled.

"Look Max, half the damn company called off sick today, just tell your men 'Good Job' for me and turn 'em loose. Then you get your ass on back to Kentucky for some R and R as well and I'll see you and your team in 2 weeks...I got you all scheduled for a training cycle with a class of LEO's from Virginia, beginning in 3 weeks, so that'll give you all a week to git your shit together. Now git, before you get what I got!"

"See you in two weeks, boss." Max said as he turned and headed out of the office and back across the tarmac to the hangar......

Max had turned his men loose after briefing them on the upcoming training program set up by Jennings and had relayed the "good job" message.

"See ya'll in two weeks." Karnage said to the rapidly retreating backs of his men who were heading back to Building 7 to get their personal kits from their lockers and cars from the parking lot.

Max followed at a more sedate pace due, but soon had his personal gear and was in his near mint condition 1995 Chevy Suburban and headed North towards west Kentucky.

Very soon after leaving the gate of Southern Approach, Max had crossed into Mississippi, where he steered a course that wouldn't take him towards the nearest interstate, but would instead follow the rural secondary roads, which Max knew well and would get him home faster than making a circuitous route to the interstate and then going North. It would still be a long drive though and Max settled back in the big comfortable drivers seat, lit up a Camel and drove on towards home....