HotZone South of the Border

A companion and concurrent campaign to HotZone (East Timor), HotZone Deux(Corsica), HotZone 3 (Albania), HotZone 4 (Romania).

Characters

• Iggy (Stanley Ignatious Kwiakowski), Blair's techno-monk
• John Murdock, Darren's....
• Aluf Mishne, aka Rasputin, aka The Mad Jew, Josh's combat-hardened "Mad Jew" from Gaza
• Gim Rhee, the martial artist played by Ernest
• Esti Avatau, Sharla's Israeli operative
• ????, Kam's ???

Background

Global Context

(The following was written in 2007.) It's ten years in the future on Gurth, and the world has changed significantly in the last 20 years. America invaded Iraq in 2003, and tensions began escalating worldwide immediately. In 2008, the sectarian violence in Iraq spread like wildfire, and War in Iraq became the War in the Middle East which became the Central Asian Crisis. Long before pundits stopped changing the label, it was a world class clusterfuck. Had Russia, China, and India not united to quell the violence through diplomatic means in 2011-2012, the crisis was on track to evolve into World War 3.

This gradual unraveling of peaceful cohabitation was apparent to military leaders in numerous countries, and in fact the United States Special Operations Command presciently predicted a change in strategy would be required way back in 2006 when they issued the following public statement:

“Creating conditions where people want to live peacefully is a powerful weapon against terrorism. Direct action will become increasingly restricted as the Global War on Terrorism matures. Indirect actions of Foreign Internal Defense and Civil Affairs programs are the key to winning the war on terror.” 1

Powerful governments with awesome military arsenals became increasingly aware that wielding their power was becoming politically untenable in all but the most extreme situations. United States Special Operations Command, as just one example of a trend worldwide, quadrupled in funding and personnel from 2008-2015, but forced a significant portion of their Direct Action specialists into early retirement, and instead filled their ranks with civil engineers, psy ops specialists, administrators, and diplomats.

However, focused Direct Action operations will always be required when organized groups are willing to commit violence to contravene national interests, and so outside of government military operations, a second and third tier of operatives evolved. The second tier consisted of large private security companies, with tens of thousands of employees, some tiny portion of which could be used for “wet work” of Direct Action operations.

The third tier has evolved over the past 7-8 years. Increasing public scrutiny over and demand for transparency in military expenditures in industrialized nations worldwide has made certain operations difficult to fund through the large and somewhat infamous security corporations. However, worldwide, government agencies always have funds available for classified “black” operations, and it is here that the third tier of operatives has found its niche.

This third tier, or “SubNet” is a loose affiliation of a few thousand specialists and commanders worldwide, mostly ex-military. By adopting terrorist organizations' practice of maintaining “cells” which know little about global operations, the SubNet maintains a thick veil and appears to be nothing more than disconnected gangs of shadowy figures.

Your Team

Isabella Lopez

Chuy Gomez

Paula Jones

Your team is one such cell.

You're all freelance mercenaries who have been working as a team for the last five years, based out of a small island compound off the coast of San Carlos, Mexico, on the Gulf of California.

Your compound was built by an ostentatious drug lord in the 1980s, fell derelict through the early 2000s, and most recently restored by your predecessor, a software billionaire with a lot of paranoia who has since moved on to Antarctica. You have made significant alterations as well, and now the compound includes:

• 12,000 sq ft 9-bedroom modern mansion with bulletproof glass throughout
• Infrared and other sensors throughout the island connected to an elaborate security system
• Helipad and lightweight helicopter
• A dock in a protected cove with two racing boats and a fishing boat
• An underground shooting range and armory
• An elaborate outdoor gym
• A diving board at the top of a 50' cliff above warm aquamarine waters
• A completely self-sufficient reverse osmosis and wastewater treatment system
• Several outbuildings - staff quarters, electronics lab
• Infinity pool and tiki bar with sound system and dance floor

You have two full time staff on the island, and an on-call pilot.

• Isabella Lopez is your financial manager, short-range helicopter pilot, cocktail waitress, and Brazilian dance instructor.
• Chuy Gomez is your groundskeeper, maintenance man, executive chef, and ballroom dance instructor.
• Paula Jones lives in San Carlos near a private airstrip and warehouse where she maintains a customized Gulfstream 650 and several boats and other vehicles for you. She is available 92% of the time to take you anywhere in the hemisphere. The rest of the time she is transporting other wealthy clients, or drunk at the bar.

It's typical for your team to go months between missions, and during downtime, you might do some rock climbing, sport fishing, illegal gambling, motorcycle racing, pearl diving, or tequila guzzling. Or you may take trips into Mexico City for concerts and to tour the museums and opera, if you're into that sort of thing.

Some recent missions include:

• The local pearl tycoon paid you US$500,000 to track down a stolen shipment. The Venezuelan gang that took them didn't go easily, and some of you vowed to carry more ammunition in the future.
• Mr. Black paid you to conduct surveillance on an offshore drilling rig in the Pacific. Your drone was disappeared mysteriously, and you had to go in quietly on a raft at night to take pictures -- of a Chinese submarine paying the rig a visit.
• Captain Ramon Ramirez of the Mexican military hired you as a support team during a raid on a cartel compound outside Mexico City. The operation was a bloody mess, and Ramirez, previously a reliable client, could not produce the US$750,000 cash he'd promised, but you accepted crates of synthetic smart drugs valued at $2M.
• A German journalist paid you €150,000 to drive her to a mountain compound and ensure her safety during a meeting with a cartel boss. The trip was uneventful.

Character Creation

Background stories and proposed character details are due to the GM by end of day.....FEB 26, 2017

These are 250 point action hero characters.

If you are not building your character:

Please provide:

• Name, gender, age (28-55), height, weight
• Appearance description + (Hideous/Ugly/Unattractive/Average/Attractive/Gorgeous)
• Background story (many examples at HotZone#Characters, HotZone_Deux#Characters, HotZone_3#Characters)
• If trained by a national military, which? What focus? How long? How far did you get?
• If not, who taught you your action hero skills?
• Native language, additional languages (broken, accented, or fluent?)
• Social strengths and weaknesses - super schmoozy, perfect liar, terrible liar, playboy, barking colonel, or an awkward loner or something else?
• Personality and/or proposed Advantages & Disadvantages
• Minimum One Contact -- an acquaintance or colleague or partner, somewhere, who might be able to provide information, sometimes. More knowledgeable and available contacts cost more, of course. Without Contacts, you have no social history, nobody worth calling for advice, assistance, or info.
• Skills -- your focus/expertise. You can only be super-awesome at one or two things, but sometimes it can be more valauble to be versatile and pretty good at lots of things.
• Desired Attributes (ST, IQ, DX, HT, 8-16)
• Desired "go bag" gear. Two enormous revolvers and a bulletproof vest? 12 lbs of C4? $50k in cash? Laptop and bug detector? Etc. Additional gear will be available, this is just a starter list.
• Anything special you want to propose. Deep kung-fu training. Insane pistol skills. Ability to pilot any aircraft. Rapid Healing. Tons of hit points. Personal cell phone number of the King of Indonesia?
• Quirks, dislikes, habits, sayings, prejudices, fears, appetites, scars, tattoos, enemies, etc.

Constraints:

• Though your skills may be focused anywhere you like, you are a capable tactical operator. You can run and shoot.
• Nothing supernatural.
• You can speak English competently -- additional languages are encouraged (and cost a couple points each).
• Your background almost certainly includes years of state military training. But you no longer have any Duty to any government.
• Sense of Duty to the team.

If you are building your character:

• Max 150 points total in Attributes (ST, DX, HT, IQ) -- and Max Level 16 in any attribute.
• Max -100 points in Disadvantages
• -5 points in Quirks required
• 5 points in Perks optional

What Happened

Just a Stolen Boat

Isabella Lopez has a problem.

Aluf Mishne and the team is here to help.

It's noon on a Tuesday, and half the team is enjoying themselves elsewhere, but Aluf Mishne, Iggy, and John Murdock are hanging around the compound, engaged in their respective hobbies.

Bella, while bring a third beer to Murdock in the underground gun range, gets a phone call, and immediately seems distressed. Murdock arranges for Iggy to listen in, and when she hangs up she reports that her cousin Carlos has a problem.

It seems that the Hijar brothers, Pepe and Tony, threatened violence and made off with the boat, a charter fishing vessel which constitutes the entirety of Carlos' livelihood. "Can't you please help", pleads young Bella.

Naturally, the team takes action. The Mad Jew is brought up to speed, Isabella is given a budget to rent Carlos a temporary replacement boat, go-bags are packed, dossiers are downloaded on the small-time crook brothers, and the team is aloft in Bella's light helicopter.

First stop, the oceanside bar that Carlos is sitting in. They land on the roof and join him by the beach. Murdock begins drinking, naturally, and the team learns that the Hijars have a beachside compound 50 miles up the coast.

The team loads back into the chopper after convincing Murdock to leave the bar (quart of tequila in hand) and flies low along the rocky coastline as the afternoon sun turns the whole world orange. En route, Iggy programs tiny personal and network surveillance drones and sends them aloft once the team directs Bella to land them on the beach a mile south of the compound.

Debate ensues when a family of eight, cooking out on the beach, is spotted. The team is fully outfitted with tactical goggles, body armor and long guns, but opts to run straight at the family. The Mad Jew effectively terrorizes the innocent civilians and throws all their cell phones in the ocean. And then the team runs along.

After ascending a ridge of sand dunes, they survey the scene. Beyond, there is a placid lagoon, into which a long wooden pier juts. Two boats are moored, the stolen fishing boat, and a much larger powerboat sporting a pirate flag and anarchist graffiti.

On the beach, a dozen burly white guys in denim and leather are cavorting with guns and whiskey. The Hijar brothers are nowhere to be seen, but a modest villa rests on the hillside overlooking the beach.

While Iggy maneuvers his drone army into a 3D surveillance dome above the entire property, and Murdock practices switching targets in his rifle scope, the Mad Jew crawls through the sand and scrub brush to sneak up on a urinating biker, surprises him, breaks his jaw, and drags him back for interrogation.

The terrified biker explains that the fishing vessel is to be used to transport a shipment and everyone's gonna make money, including the Hijar brothers, who are inside the villa, semi-captive, while everyone waits for the Columbians to arrive.

Not much more is learned before the Mad Jew slits his throat.

A plan begins brewing: kill em' all.

Or maybe: Just steal the boat back.

Until next episode....

Just a Stolen Boat Part 2

Night falls on the beach, and the team sneaks through sandy brush to the side of the house while the bikers party on the beach.

One biker stands outside near the beach-facing deck, and spied through a window, sits in an easy chair with a shotgun across his legs, apparently guarding the Hijar brothers.

Noting the natural gas line meter, Iggy improvises an explosive device, and Murdock keeps an eye on the guard outside.

After affixing his silencer, Murdock quietly extinguishes the guard, and then moves towards the parked truck in the driveway.

Meanwhile, Iggy and the Mad Jew circle round the back of the house, and Iggy approaches the window, aiming at the shotgun-wielding biker in the easy chair. Iggy's three unsuppressed but carefully placed shots through the glass ends the biker, and the Hijar brothers hit the floor, terrified.

The team takes up a position in the dunes on the side of the house as the bikers run up the beach. It's like fish in a barrel for the Mad Jew, who sprays the oncoming horde with his Uzi. Murdock helps out with his enormous sniper rifle, and in seconds the entire gang is dead or on the run.

Sirens wail in the distance as the team descends to the pier and the Mad Jew briefly searches the gang's powerboat before blasting holes in its hull with his Desert Eagle. Murdock boards the smaller fishing vessel and discovers -- through a bullethole he was responsible for -- that the console is stuffed with bricks of US$100 bills.

Iggy triggers his explosive device, creating an earth-shaking boom, flattening most of the house, and sending a roiling orange fireball up into the night sky.

Bella checks in and is shortly aloft in the chopper, racing up the beach to pick up the team. From 1000' above with no lights on, Bella, Iggy, and the Mad Jew accompany Murdock as he pilots the fishing boat back home, avoiding an enormous trawler infested with gun-toting Columbians along the way.

Overnight, the team extracts the cash and repairs the damage to the fishing boat before returning it to its rightful owner. Bella expresses her gratitude with celebratory cocktails.

The morning news reports that the hapless Hijar brothers somehow repelled the violent attack of dozens of American gang members.

The team laughs it off and goes back to indulging in their respective hobbies.

Mission Accomplished.

Afterword: The team establishes surveillance on the Hijar Brothers.

Adventure Seeds

• The biker pirate anarchists come back for revenge.
• The terrorized beach family retrieves a phone with great pictures of the team, turns it into authorities, troubles begin.
• The Columbians made a trip for nothing and want to know who's responsible.

Making Change

Isabella's sweet ride

At Iggy's urging, the team decides to buy a new LIDAR sensor system for the compound. After all, if bad guys could have high-res sensors on the compound from 10 miles away, the team may as well have something similar.

Iggy has even identified a seller, a former Mexican bureaucrat who provided inventory and procurement functions for the federal police. He's eager to sell, the gear is military grade, relatively modern, and the price is unbeatable, just $150k US. The only snag is that he wants the money in small bills -- pesos.

Through his Dark Web contacts, Iggy identifies a semi-sketchy company nearby willing to provide the Mexican cash in exchange for $200k US, a check-cashing store in Cabo.

John Murdock is on a 3-day bender and declines the invitation, but Aluf Mishne jumps at the chance to get out of town.

Isabella Lopez indicates her readiness as well, mixes up a thermos of margaritas for the guys, and then everyone loads into the light chopper she pilots so expertly.

After dark, she tells Iggy to refuel the craft 1000' feet above the Gulf of California. He does so with aplomb.

Along the way, the team concocts a plan. It just so happens that the Baja 500 is the next day, and Iggy and the Mad Jew decide to use it as cover.

Iggy writes a program that parses the details of the race teams and decides that a Swedish couple is their best mark. They're middle-aged, never win, and are financially distressed. They're tired, and can be bought, the algorithm concludes.

At the race camp outside of La Paz the next morning, the team approaches the Swedish maintenance team, but is briefly delayed while the Mad Jew beats up a German mechanic. He emerges unscathed just in time -- the couple arrives, their customized Land Rover limping along. The maintenance crew, all tall blonde women, jump into action, and Iggy speaks with the couple.

Despite his lack of salesmanship, Iggy prevails, wire money and ill-fitting costumes are transferred, and the team blasts south across the rugged desert, eventually rolling the race camp, handing the rig off to the blondes, and catching a taxi into Cabo San Lucas proper.

The city is hot and crowded, as is the check cashing store. Iggy gets in line, and the Mad Jew keeps watch from a corner near an air-conditioning vent.

Shortly, the Mad Jew spots a crew of knuckleheads approaching purposefully on the sidewalk outside and leaps into action. He steps outside and begins shooting them.

Iggy follows him out, and a dramatic gun battle plays out, civilians screaming and running, ditching their cars, taking cover. It's mayhem, but after a few seconds, the bad guys are down.

Iggy conducts the transaction with the store owner, collects an injured Mad Jew from the blood-slick sidewalk, and hails a new cab.

Isabella is summoned, and a suburban soccer field identified as a pickup spot. Thirty minutes of first aid later, the Mad Jew is mobile and the chopper arrives.

The next day, after handling the LIDAR transaction, Iggy sends a few 'thank you notes' of cash -- to the beaten-down Germans, the Swedish mechanics, and the helpful cab driver.

Mission Accomplished.

Adventure Seeds

• The German mechanic holds a grudge.
• The Swedish mechanics hold a grudge.
• The LIDAR is bugged.
• One of the gangbangers (Juan Carlos Giovanni) crawled away from the scene, his long time partner slain:

Gunned Down in Guaymas

Tanya Colbert

Iggy receives a secure SMS from Mr. Black informing him that Iggy will shortly receive a call from Special Agent Tanya Colbert, an Interpol official based out of Mexico City, and that Iggy and the team should help her with her conundrum.

Sure enough, an absolutely adorable French accent emerges from his headset moments later. Ms. Colbert explains that she is tracking a thief who has absconded with a rare and ancient piece of erotic art from a museum in Mexico City, and she has reason to believe he is headed to Guaymas. Furthermore, believes this because the American FBI contacted to let her know that a porn tycoon who collects erotic art crossed the border early this morning with a large amount of cash en route to Guaymas.

She intends to arrest or both of them and recover the erotic artifact. The problem is that the local cops cannot spare any officers for backup of recon. She's desperately worked her network while on the road for the past 18 hours, and she's hopeful the team is available. Immediately.

Iggy collects Murdock from the poolside bar and Isabella flies them to their storage garage on the mainland to pick a car, which turns out to be a 10-yr-old Suburban with rust spots and bullet-resistant body panels and glass.

Soon the team has made Agent Colbert's acquaintance and has fanned out in the crowd at an art festival a block from the Grand Hotel, where they have determined the sex tycoon is staying. After their recon turns up only a seemingly related knucklehead, Iggy sends a surveillance drone up to the window of the honeymoon suite to assess its condition.

What he witnesses is gut-wrenching. The tycoon is sitting in a chair watching 5 local gangsters have their way with two shockingly young ladies who appear drugged.

Iggy mirrors his screen to Murdock and hands a spare pair of HUD glasses to Tanya, who gasps. INTERPOL, she asserts, is even more interested in human trafficking and slavery than international art thieves. So it is agreed, the trio will move in to make arrests immediately, without warrants or other backup.

Iggy arranges for mini-flashbang drones to go off in the room just before a hinge-busting drone knocks out the door.

The result: screams and shouts and smoke in the room, but the door is still attached. Murdock's kicks and Iggy's well-placed bullets knock it down though, and the team streams in.

But precious seconds have passed, and the bad guys are moving through the thick smoke, headed for weapons, it is assumed.

A gun battle ensues. Murdock is horrified when he gambles on a moving figure and shoots one of the girls. He runs to her and tries to stop the bleeding, pausing only to save Tanya's life with 3 perfect headshots on her assailant.

Iggy deals with two gangsters who have taken refuge in a side bedroom, sustaining two gunshot wounds in the process. Eventually, he retreats and sends in frag grenade drones to disable them.

This sets off the hotel sprinklers, and sirens wail in the distance.

Iggy calls Isabella for a rooftop pickup. A quick conversation about the injured girl ensues, resulting in the team taking her back to their island for treatment.

Meanwhile, Tanya stays behind with the local cops with a cuffed Mr. Pingle, one terrified Nicaraguan girl, and 5 dead or near-dead hired guns.

Adventure Seeds

• The injured girl is going to wake up in unfamiliar surroundings.
• The thief and the stolen art were not encountered. Where is he?
• Mr. Pingle is very rich and has very good lawyers. He will not appreciate being humiliated.
• Was the thug at the art fair relevant?

Extracting a Monster

Raquel Bolivar

Pedro Menudo

Texas Slim

Two weeks have passed:

• Murdock nurses his remorse over the accidental shooting with vast amounts of alcohol and repeatedly kicks in and then rebuilds the door to the shooting range.
• Raquel Bolivar, the injured girl, recovers from the gunshot wound and is taken under the wing of Isabella Lopez, who has begun teaching her English and water-yoga. A mental health pro has been flown in several times to check on her as well.
• The Mad Jew continues to limp around, thanks to injuries received on the team's recent adventure in Cabo.
• Tanya Colbert has unraveled the mystery of how Raquel and the other Nicaraguan girl came to be in Donald Pingle's hotel suite. She has traced the reprehensible escort service to a bank account of one Pedro Menudo, a heavy hitting regional drug lord.

While the ladies engage in a late afternoon water-yoga session, Murdock sips on his 3rd after-lunch beer, and Iggy tinkers with his drone software, Tanya calls. She has been unable to generate INTERPOL support for a raid on Menudo's fortified mountain compound, but she has received intel that the drug lord has an appointment with one of his bankers in Hermasillo at 5PM - today. Won't the team please help?

Iggy shouts to Isabella to bring Murdock some coffee and fire up the chopper, and the team is in the air minutes later. En route, Iggy begins the digital intelligence gathering process, and by the time the chopper lands on the roof of the parking garage across from the 16-story bank building, he hacks various parts of the bank's electronic infrastructure. Notably, he has complete control of the elevator system, security cameras, and staff calendars.

Murdock takes up a sniper position above as the bad guys maneuver rush hour traffic to the bank in an enormous Suburban and glistening silver BMW. The larger vehicle drives up on the sidewalk and a small army of thugs waving pistols scatters hapless passers-by. Half of them accompany Menudo within, while the rest stand around on the sidewalk looking menacing.

Meanwhile, Iggy has descended to the coffee shop on the ground floor of the garage to rendezvous with Tanya and her new 'assistant', Texas Slim. Iggy presses her for a coherent plan. She says she under-anticipated the number of goons and that the team should withdraw and follow them to their next destination rather than risk a gun battle on a busy city street.

From above, over comms, Murdock shares an idea -- use Iggy's elevator mastery to deliver the drug lord to the roof of the bank and snatch him there. Brilliant!

Iggy, Tanya, and Slim join Murdock on the roof of the garage, and Isabella deftly delivers them across the street to the roof of the bank, where Iggy quickly disables the security cameras.

The elevator shaft is in the center of the building, aside an access stairwell which is apparently locked with a chain on the inside. The team puzzles over how to quietly infiltrate the stairwell until Slim blasts it with his 44 magnum, causing sprinklers to start spraying until Iggy disables them.

Isabella keeps the rotors turning while the team slips in and the bad guys file into the elevator nine floors below, two enormous duffel bags in hand. Murdock positions himself in the office across the hall with his sniper rifle braced against a mahogany banker's desk. Slim and Iggy stand to either side of the elevator doors, and Tanya right in front of them, hands on her hips, ready to demand Menudo's surrender.

Iggy brings the elevator up and leaves the doors closed. Security cameras (projected by Iggy on the team's HUD glasses) reveal that Menudo's four goons have weapons out, pointing at the doors.

Despite Tanya's compelling reasoning and white silk blouse, the bad guys seem disinclined to surrender, and so Murdock, after careful calculations, blasts the elevator door just to the right of Tanya's elbow. The building shudders, the doors open, and three of the four henchmen are down, guts everywhere.

Utterly shocked, Menudo and the remaining goon are quickly taken into custody by Slim and Iggy.

Tanya requests that the team provide their island compound in San Carlos for interrogation, and the team is aloft a minute later...

Interrogation, Action

Tanya Colbert

The team installs Menudo in their dedicated interrogation facility. Tanya Colbert conducts the questioning, Iggy watches from outside, while Murdock sips a cocktail poolside with Isabella and listens in over his earpiece.

Tanya makes headway, but also makes Menudo angry, and the gangster lunges forward, pinning Tanya's slim neck against the wall with his dirty hand. Iggy draws a weapon and prepares to move in, but pauses after Murdock pipes his voice into the interrogation room, drawling calmly, "Iggy, want me to just pull the trigger from here?"

Menudo glances around, trying to find the hidden death ray. Anxiety prevails, and he unhands the French detective.

Soon thereafter, Tanya extracts the info needed. The cash Menudo was withdrawing was destined for a human trafficker at a rail yard in Hermasillo -- tonight. There's time to get there, so the team is aloft a few minutes later, organizing a private bus transport for imagined victims along the way.

After a surreptitious landing a few blocks away, Murdock approaches and ascends an 80' light pole for overwatch while Iggy takes over the railyard's security system. A Humvee and a jeep full of dudes are keeping watch on a railcar.

Iggy digitally maneuvers the car into a sleepy backwater of the railyard, which spooks the jeep dudes, and they depart.

Soon, the Humvee guys emerge, and Murdock starts lining them up and dropping them. Iggy assists, and takes out the goon who peeks out of the rail car itself.

After the brief flurry of lead, the team moves in to collect twenty South American women. A conversation with Isabella and Tanya results in sending the busload of victims to the San Carlos YWCA, and the team scurries back to the compound.

Afterword

Tanya Colbert and Texas Slim arrange a press conference at the YWCA in which Menudo is in shackles and victims are in the background. It is a public perception win, and Tanya reports later that she has additional funding for operations.

Menudo is headed for the International Criminal Court, and will be facing life imprisonment when his trial gets through the system some time in the next few years...

Sinking a Sub

Nash Awan, HotZone operative

On a sunny Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Black contacts Iggy and advises that the team's help is needed: operative Nash Awan will provide a briefing, and is en route and will need a pickup at the Guaymas airport shortly.

Iggy deploys Isabella and squad of surveillance drones to ensure the pickup is successful.

A typical Steel Heel member

Shortly, Nash briefs the team poolside once the Mad Jew returns from his beachside workout. Serendipitously, Nash looks exactly like a Nazi-sympathizing nuclear engineer who has been hired by the Steel Heel, a Russian crime syndicate, to make their nuclear warhead operational. The Russians plan to pick up this engineer in a sleepy beach town on the west coast of Baja and take him out to their 1970s-era Russian nuclear submarine.

Other assets have taken care of the actual engineer, so Nash and his support team just need to show up for the pickup, assess the warhead, upload the data, and get out alive. The team proceeds to drink rum and talk about a plan and their fake identities of a nuclear engineer, a mechanic, a technician, and a bodyguard.

Early the next morning, Isabella (in a white minidress and combat boots) delivers the team to the beach, and they hike the brief remaining distance to the tiki bar where the meet is to take place.

The Mad Jew gets a Mexican Long Island Deluxe and wanders into the village to buy a 3' sombrero. The rest of the team evaluates ingress and egress while Iggy's drones watch for the Russians.

Soon, they arrive, three jump-suited goons, one of which is nearly 7' tall. They all proceed to get wickedly drunk before escorting the team back to the boat for the two hour, boozy, sun-drenched ride out to the sub, which emerges in an avalanche of bubbles.

There, the team is introduced to the sub's captain and relieved of all their weapons, aside from the commando knife the Mad Jew manages to conceal.

Soon they have their eyes on the target -- an 1970s era Chinese nuclear warhead. Nash, having studied these things for months, identifies two problems with the warhead, reports that he needs to go back into town for improvised supplies.

Back on deck, the captain gets a phone call that appears to concern him. He asks Nash, "Dr. Blitzer, when did we first communicate?"

On cue, the team jumps to action. Murdock bashes the captain with his toolbox, breaking ribs and sending the man into the water. The Mad Jew mows down sailors with a seized submachine gun. Nash and Iggy pop off rounds with pilfered sidearms. Thanks to the team's tactical vests, only the Mad Jew is injured in the arm.

Iggy sends a swarm of flashbang drones into the hull of the vessel, signals Isabella for a pickup, and the team loads into the boat and heads for shore.

Halfway back, a deep thud marks the demolition of the sub by who knows what, and Isabella swirls in for the escape.

Mission Accomplished.

Laser!

Months pass without a mission, which leads the team to attend WarriorCon in Nevada. On the way back in Isabella's chopper, Mr. Black requests an authenticated location/altitude/velocity update, which Iggy provides.

The mission: a USMIL payload on the way to orbit from Spaceport America exploded, and one component was hurled into the mountains of northern Sonora. It's an important bit, an optical tracking system, Mr. Black says, and needs to be secured. The problem is that Chinese intelligence agents are closer than the American team, the Mexican feds are on the way, and some local narcos are closer still. So the team's mission is to ensure the sensitive technology does not fall into the wrong hands.

Isabella's flight path is updated, and near sunset, the team is on the ground not a mile from the crash site, which turns out to be an irrigation pond on a mountain ranch. Narcos with various battered guns are excited to extract the payload from the pond, and there are a lot of them, so the team takes up recon positions and waits.

It doesn't take long for Iggy's drone to identify a suspicious vehicle several miles downhill, which seems to be preparing a large jet-powered drone for launch. And, a convoy of federales a few miles back.

Aluf hikes down to a bridge to sabotage its stability, and then moves on to check out the Chinese. Meanwhile, Iggy monitors the narcos' efforts to extract the space thing.

The Mexican cops approach sooner than hoped, and Aluf hunkers down to observe. The Chinese agent, his jet-powered drone exposed and colleagues scattered in the woods, pretends to be a tourist. Before the conversation proceeds much further, Aluf takes his shot(s).

The Mexican captain and his first lieutenant are fatally injured, and the Chinese agent/tourist dives for cover. The rest of the federales begin firing indiscriminately into the forest, and Aluf begins jogging back up the mountain, bullets knocking off chunks of bark and rock around him.

Iggy identifies a second drone above the ranch pond, and after some mild espionage, determines it is American. It hovers, virtually soundless, a beacon for the wet-work black-ops team that is incoming.

The approaching federales' shots blend with the narcos' celebratory gunfire, and as the collision between the two armed groups approaches, the Americans arrive in a silent chopper to retrieve their property.

After a few (deadly) pot shots at the narcos/farmers, they scatter, and the team absconds with a 1977 Ford F150. Mission Accomplished.

Vulnerable Cargo

Jason Webster, driving a truckload of what he believes to be cocaine, is pulled over by federales in the Sonoran Desert. It's strange, because he was assured by his bosses that the entire travel pipeline was bought and paid for. But, because the truck has a bank-vault-level lock on it, he's confident this annoyance will pass.

The federales, after asking Jason just a few questions, proceed to the back of the trailer, and are able to open it with some sort of privileged access/code/password/device.

To Jason's great suprise, rather than 10k kilos of cocaine, the trailer contains 19 dehydrated South American teenage girls.

Unsuprised, the federales discuss which one is "best", and pull her out.

Jason kills the four federales in a bloodbath that punctures and drains his gas tank.

With contacts in the Dark Web, he sends out a deeply obfuscated plea for help, and Iggy's AI bots pick it up. Soon, he and Aluf Mishne and Isabella Lopez are aloft.

After a quick coordinating communication session, the chopper lands nearby and the most severe cases of dehydration are loaded up and sent back to the hospital in Guaymas.

After Iggy's surveillance drones alert him to an approaching government vehicle, the team collaborates to move the remaining girls into the Humvee and block the road with the semi. And, a cache of 200 kilos of coke is discovered in a hidden compartment, to Jason's great satisfaction.

The incoming federales stop and observe, giving the team and 9 girls time to split, loaded into a partially disassembled Humvee, while the feds approach and load up the coke, evidently losing interest in anything else.

Soon, the team approaches a town of 3000 souls, and the girls express an strong interest in food and water. The team stops, and Jason accompanies the young ladies into a tacqueria. One runs off, and Jason sends the eldest of the ladies after her while Iggy gets drone surveillance set up.

Outside, the team spots a customized green school bus parked in front of a bar. It's a perfect vehicle for human transport, andthe team soon meats its owner, Brucey, a blonde surfer dude from Oregon, along with his Peruvian wide and gaggle of kids.

Aluf prevails (with $5k cash and a brandished Desert Eagle) upon Brucey to sell the bus, but just after the transaction, 3 new feds walk into the bar. One takes a particular interest in the Hebrew Hammer, and joins him at his corner table.

After a round of drinks and a arm wrestling wager, Aluf manages not to kill the feds, defusing their suspicion with $100 bills.

Meanwhile, Isabella has returned with the chopper and the team offloads the rest of the ladies.

Next step, after Jason's vigorous advocacy, is to go back and get the cocaine. In Brucey's bus, the group heads back south while Iggy's drones scout ahead. A few well-placed grenade drones disable the vehicle, and Aluf jogs into the desert to finish them off.

The feds wave the bus forward, unaware of their fate, and Jason obliges, politely approaching. And then, violently accelerating, smashing into the leader and hurling him into a cactus-infested ditch.

Aluf snipes another, and Iggy's drones finish the last one.

After some light repairs to the bus, the team loads the coke and heads back north, parting ways shortly thereafter -- Iggy and Aluf head back to base, and Jason proceeds with his adventure.

Epilogue

Jason decides to repair the truck and continue his drive north to meet the Broker.

He successfully passes through (bribed) border patrol and meets with the Broker.

He successfully extracts information about the Buyer.

He successfully gets into the Buyer's sprawling hunting ranch in southwest Texas.

He is killed in a vicious firefight.

Iggy's AI info-bots alert him to the El Paso Times headline: "Disgraced Veteran Opens Fire on Texas Ranch: 14 Dead"

Rescuing KK

Gim Rhee, security consultant

KK, heiress

It's Wednesday afternoon. The Hebrew Hammer is away, scuba-diving with a Venezuelan supermodel. Murdock is passed out drunk. And Iggy is snacking on Isabella's shrimp cocktail, poolside, when Mr. Black makes contact.

A trustworthy ally, Gim Rhee, is needs a team to help with a problem. Gim provides personal protective services for KK, a social media phenom, and she's been abducted. Her GPS transponder puts her at an airfield near Guaymas, in the team's back yard, and he is on his way.

While Isabella picks up Gim, Iggy has does some data-mining and hypothesizes that Raul Gomez, CEO of "Predator Security, LLC" may be involved. The LLC owns a luxury house in the hills overlooking San Carlos, and Iggy deploys his drones to get eyes on the target. Before they arrive, Gim reports he has received another "ping", and that KK is apparently at the very house.

After equipping Gim from the arsenal, the two load Murdock and his gear into the chopper, and Isabella flies the team over to the house, where, Iggy reports, an adult video is being filmed.

While Murdock snoozes, Gim and Iggy infiltrate the house, dispatching two goons in the process, and scaring off the camera crew and actors. KK is not there.

While contemplating options, a new ping comes in -- she's a private airfield outside Juarez.

The team loads back into the chopper as the sun drops below the sea, and zooms across the desert to the airfield, only to get another ping that KK is in a garbage dump nearby. Murdock finally coming to his senses and sets up overwatch at the edge of the dump while Iggy and Gim investigate, a task that is hastened by Iggy's hacking of Gim's GPS tracker software to ping every 10 seconds. They soon find the transponder, a belly-button (?) ring, inside a beer can. KK is not there.

Iggy and Gim contemplate their options, while Murdock tracks the movements of the lone rent-a-cop on the far side of the dump. As an exercise, he shoots the walky-talky out of the fellow's hand before the team makes its next move -- to a modest suburban house in the hills of Juarez owned by the abductor.

Landing in the middle of the neighborhood street a few blocks away, the team hears sounds of sports on TV, a festive quinceanera, and squabbling spouses on their way to Raul's house. Murdock kicks in the back door, which sets off a security alarm, which Iggy blasts into silence with his assault rifle.

Iggy breaks into the desktop computer in the office, downloads Raul's mail, and finds that he works for Rico Gordo a very wealthy mover-and-shaker of the region. In the email, Mr. Gordo approves of Raul's recent request to borrow the villa while Mr. Gordo recuperates from surgery in Mexico City.

Back into the chopper, and the team heads higher into the mountains, eventually setting down less than a mile from the Gordo villa. They cross the impossibly green horse pasture en route to the will-lit luxury villa, startling a half dozen beautiful white Arabian horses along the way.

Gim sneaks up and gets into fisticuffs with one sentry while Murdock sets up for a one-shot-two-kills attempt. He succeeds, and then turns his weapon on Gim's opponent, who has just fired a spray of bullets point blank at Gim, whose arm hangs, bloody and useless. Just as Gim is about to kick the sentry again, his target's head explodes.

Meanwhile, Iggy shoots his way through the giant windows into the darkened house, switches his goggles to night vision, and makes his way down a long hallway to a bedroom door. He opens it, sends a flashbang in, and then, deafened, zip-ties KK and Raul.

He leads the grateful celebrity out, where she nuzzles Gim affectionately, and then calls for pickup.

Mission accomplished.

South of South of the Border

Esti Avatau, new ally

More than a month goes by, during which Murdock drinks tequila and fires at targets, the Hebrew Hammer runs on the beach and eats latkehs, and Iggy attends a quantum computing conference in Switzerland and provides electronic surveillance training to Gim remotely.

Meanwhile, Gim and KK are back to their old travel schedule, with KK sparing no expense to transport her entourage through the luxury resorts of South and Central America, wherever there is a wet t-shirt or bikini contest. It is during this grueling schedule that KK makes a new friend, fellow contestant Angelica Lopez, at the 'Secrets' resort in the far south of Mexico.

Angelica is terrified because her family just across the border in Guatemala has gotten tangled up in the politics that has led to an ongoing and violent coup. Compassionate KK insists that Gim "do something", and so he calls the team.

In a few hours, after stopping to buy ALL the flowers and other gifts for KK and her friends, the team gathers at Secrets just as the wet t-shirt contest is about to start. On the way in, they notice a big police chopper in the parking lot.

Aluf Mishne serendipitously meets Esti Avatau at the bar, an acquaintance who also received tactical training in Israel. They have a moment to catch up before Aluf spots the Mexican military police drinking at the bar, evidently having flown in for the contest. He sends them shots, challenges one to a arm-wrestling and tequila chugging contest, and has the authentication card for the chopper in no time.

Meanwhile, Murdock has infiltrated the chopper and done research on Angelica's family, who turn out to be well-to-do coffee plantation owners. Twice, he calls their customer service line to demand to be connected to the owners.

Shortly, the team (including Esti) is aloft in the stolen chopper, its transponder disabled, while KK and the throng of beauties keep the pilots busy.

Presciently, Murdock requests that Isabella fly south, just in case.

Skimming just above the treeline after dark, they take small arms fire shortly after crossing into Guatemala. Murdock begins evasive maneuvers, but then the rocket hits. The chopper goes into a barely-controllable spin, and Murdock has to ditch in a swampy valley. Miraculously, nobody is injured.

Aluf sprints off into the night, and soon returns with a decrepit but functional Jeep, and the team travels 5 more miles of bumpy dirt road to the perimeter of the plantation.

Security seems light, with the bad guys mostly gathered around a soccer game on TV, and so the team fans out to infiltrate from multiple directions. Murdock takes up a position with his sniper rifle as Gim, Aluf, and Esti approach.

Esti makes contact with the family in a back bedroom, Murdock registers a triple kill with one bullet, Aluf tosses a grenade into the TV room, as Gim slips into the laundry room from behind.

Esti is perturbed when a soldier sneaks up on her and jams a pistol into her kidney, but she expertly fast-draws her pistol and shoots him in the gut. At the same time, the bad guy reacts to Gim's approach by shooting him in the groin. Disabled, Gim falls to the floor as Esti pumps more bullets into the bad guy, felling him.

The team bandages up Gim, loads the family into the armored personnel carrier outside, and drives north to the border to rendezvous with Isabella and deliver the family to Secrets.

Mission Accomplished.

An Old Enemy

Tanya Colbert, unwitting pawn

Elwood McAllister, Murdock's new nemesis

Just a week later, Gim is in the middle of his final recover PT exercises and Iggy is updating drone software when Tanya Colbert calls. Quickly, she says she was abducted by federales and provides her GPS coordinates before being cut off. She sounds scared, and the team loads up, including Esti, who has been following the Mad Jew around, who decides to skip this mission.

Isabella Lopez has the team aloft a few minutes later, zipping across first desert and then rising hills into forested mountains. Meanwhile, Ziggy reports that the coordinates describe a deep valley with steep sides and no discernible structures.

On Ziggy's dare, the team parachutes in near the ridgeline, which works out well for everyone except Iggy, who tangles with a tree branch and ends up a fat lip.

From there, Iggy deploys his surveillance dome, who sail over the ridge and spread out above the valley -- only to send a single 'Satellite Interference' error before going dark.

The team creeps over the ridge, and begins descending the steep slope, noticing a house and black SUV far below. John Murdock considers taking a potshot at 5" wide enemy drone 1000 yards way, but thinks better of it.

Esti stumbles and rolls for 20 yards before landing with a thump on the uphill side of a huge tree. She's uninjured, but the commotion alerts someone below. The squeak of a rusty wheel and crackle of twigs precede a deafening scream, a cacophonous slurry of high and low, the shriek of ripping metal and grinding stones.

Two men are pointing some sort of sonic weapons on wheels at the party, all of whom drop to the ground, retching until they pass out.

---

Slowly, one by one, the team awakens. Their wrists are plastic-handcuffed. They are nearly nude. It's dark and cold. They are in a dirt-floored hut.

Everyone comes to their senses except Esti who continues retching into the dirt. Murdock searches around and finds an old rusty nail, and begins working on his cuffs. Ziggy meditates his way out of his cuffs.

Gim peers out a crack in the boarded up window and whispers that there are four older locals in ponchos around a fire, hunting rifles nearby. A radio crackles, and one of the men replies in Spanish, "Yes, jefe, they are waking up."

Two burly white mercenaries with body armor and sleek submachine guns come to the door and escort Murdock into the large house while the four guards keep the party at bay.

Inside, Murdock is confronted with his past in the form of Elwood McAllister, and an interrogation/debate ensues.

Meanwhile, Ziggy begins taunting the guards with family scorn and sexual innuendo. He is successful in arousing their ire and one of them whips the door open to punish the gringo.

As his rifle muzzle enters the doorway, Iggy and Gim attack barehanded, Iggy wrapping up the man's neck in a headlock and Gim going after the weapon. In a few moments, one Mexican farmer is shot, another suffocated, and the final two run off into the night.

This scuffle of course attracts the attention of the mercenaries, one of whom comes out and starts shooting at an insane rate-of-fire, tearing up the surroundings and obliterating Ziggy's left foot as he dives back into the hut.

It is Esti, bile still dripping from her dessicated lips, that picks up the other rifle just in time to silence the mercenary as he approaches.

Sensing the tables turning, Mr. McAllister cuts short his visit with Murdock and slips out the back door. Murdock proceeds to negotiate an arrangement with the other mercenary, who also disappears into the night.

Upstair, Tanya is zip-tied to the bedframe with a bucket to relieve herself in. Despite Murdock's grubby nakedness, she is elated to see him, and gives him a big hug.

The team hikes out to a flat meadow for Isabella's pickup.

Mission... accomplished.