"Dammit" yelled Bobby as he threw his clipboard against the wall. The metallic noise startling people around him. He was pissed. Furious actually. They had searched all day and come up with nothing. Once they got past the cabin at the top of the hill by the firefight the trail just went cold. They were trying to do a grid search as best they could but had limited manpower and had to cover a huge area.

"Listen people" he shouted "we've been searching since 0800 and haven't found shit. We're going to have to keep doing this the hard way since the bird is busted up. We're going to keep searching all night long if we have to."

The small group of support people and Sheriff's Deputies didn't really know what Bobby wanted them to do. They were stuck in Town Hall. Mostly, they kept their heads down and tried to look busy.

As Bobby stewed, and Smythe was working the phones trying to arrange for another chopper while avoiding Senator Donovan, an aide came running into the room.

"Sir" he announced to get everybody's attention. "Got a call from Lumberton. A man reports seeing three guys with guns and cammo fatigues. Said they kidnapped his daughter at gunpoint. Wasn't sure what direction they were headed but gave me a pretty good idea where he saw them!"

The room came alive with activity as maps were consulted and people sprang to action.

Smythe fired back, "how reliable is this?"

"Guy sounded drunk sir, but generally had his facts straight and didn't sound like he was making it up".

He turned to Bobby. "Ok, Bob, take every man you can from the area. Get with that guy, get the details and then get to work."

Bobby, in turn told the aide, "radio the field units. Tell them to link up in Lumberton. I'll be there in 25".

"Remember Bobby" called out Smythe "take care of this problem".

Bobby didn't even break stride.

****

Jenkins noticed the first truckload of contractors that showed up. They were sitting in the back of the pickup bed like African tribe members in pictures from the never ending wars. "Fucking turds" he thought to himself. Like most of the troops, he had contractors that he held in high regard. Some of them he actually trusted with his life. But these were scum.

When the third pickup pulled in he got on the horn to the Captain.

"Base this is Baker 2 Alpha, over" he called into the radio.

The digitized reply came back immediately. "Go ahead Baker 2 Alpha".

"Tell the Captain there's increased turd activity in town. Two zero men in three trucks, over".

After a minute the reply came back, "Baker 2, Alpha, this is base. Standby". It was obvious they were trying to get the Captain. "Oh great" Jenkins thought. "Poor guys probably in the head".

Before the base responded Jenkins watched as a fourth truck, an SUV showed up with more men. It came screaming down the road, almost side-swiping several cars. It stopped briefly by the lead pickup before taking off again at a high rate of speed. The contractors all quickly jumped into their trucks and were soon following the SUV out of town.

At that same time the radio crackled to life again, "Bravo 2 Alpha, base. Continue to observe. Over".

"Base, I need the Captain, ASAP"

Within seconds the Captains voice came over the radio "Ya, Jenk. What's up". DeMetrie was experienced enough to know Jenkins didn't ask for him so they could discuss cooking recipes.

"Cap, an SUV just came into town like a bat outa hell and three pickup loads of guys all zoomed out after it. Somethings up. Not sure what but something's definitely up" radioed Jenkins.

"Ok Jenk, get your squad together and head out after them. I'll radio back with where to go specifically. Be careful. These turds are trigger happy. Bravo 2 will have to handle the town tonight" instructed the Captain.

"Base, copy that, will move out and standby for further. Bravo 2 Alpha out".

Jenkins barked out a few orders and his men began to mount up to move out. They were good men who could go from busting balls and playing cards to go-status in a second flat.

Back at base Captain DeMetrie called for Sargent Lowry. Hopefully that cute clerk he'd been chatting up could get him the info on where these contractors were headed. Otherwise Jenkins was going to be playing catchup all night.