Melissa clambered into the van and then closed her eyes for a snooze. Or at least tried to.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:15, Wed 02 Mar 2016.

Give me a 20 min power nap and if you need one I can take us the rest of the way.

Climbing in and making himself as comfortable as possible.

Several hours later everyone's finally piled into their hotel beds, utterly exhausted. At least Jack had the presence of mind to give you another 23 hours until the contact could expect you. Twenty three more hours for the trail to grow cold, but at least you'll be well rested...
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:58, Thu 03 Mar 2016.

Too tired the night before Endo is up at the crack of dawn and putting on running gear. Excuse is a morning run but he wants to get a feel for a 2 mile radius around the hotel they may just use for the day, but may be longer. Places to eat, stores that might have things they need, anything out of place.

Jack is up early too in the hotel gym. Far from old he had nevertheless reached an age where physical fitness required daily work.

Toiling away on the eliptical machine he had his tablet clipped in front of him and linked to his nearby laptop.

While others were engaging in their morning workout routine, Antonio was doing the same...in the restaurant.  He was tearing through a stack of pancakes smothered in maple syrup and a side of crispy bacon as he scanned the local newspaper.

Melissa decided to head for the indoor pool and have a swim before breakfast to clear the cobwebs with chlorine. As she swam, she thought about the mission ahead of them and what difficulties they were likely to face. Also, what gear she'd buy when they needed to.

Once that was done, she made her way to the restaurant to see Antonio reading the paper. She took some pancakes and maple syrup, sitting down next to him. She was dressed in a light blue dress, her hair still frizzy from the swim and shower after.

"Anything interesting in the paper?" she asked.

Michael decided to pass on PT and grab an extra hour of sleep. Besides, it might attract attention if a bunch of strangers started running every morning.

He showered, dressed and joined the others for breakfast. Some fried eggs, ham and a cup of coffee would start the day of right.

"Morning.  How are things?", Michael asked as he sat down.  He tried to suppress his Canadian accent a bit when he spoke.

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 72):

Patrick walked down to what passed for a gym and was a bit surprised to see Jack already hard at it.
He managed a mild " good mornen" and started a stretch routine.
He had never been one for a lot of conversation when he worked out and hoped Jack was the same, he also hoped no one else would be coming in and make this team work out.
Getting the legs and back lose he got on a bike and started the miles he need to get in. After a few he had the same old thought >>I have got to retire<<
Next thought>> I do not have enough money<< Third thought >> I have got to work out more<<
Fourth >> now way in hell<<

Antonio shrugged in response to Mellisa's question and took a sip of coffee, "nothing but the usual."

He nodded to Michael when he joined them.  "Just trying to fight off the jetlag with some artery clogging goodness."

Karl slept in late. It was past 0500 local when he finally got up, still feeling like refried shit.
"Don't usually cross too many timezones," he stated at breakfast, having already run several miles and put in a hour in the gym.
"Europe and Africa. That's were I usually work."
"Jack finished polering sin knotten in shower yet?"

Jack either tracked everyone down just after 0900 or sent them a text to draw them together.

"On the way to meet Bill at his business. We may as well take everyone. This crew won't cause any raised eyebrows at a military surplus shop."

"Unless someone just doesn't want to go?"

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 79):

Patrick had finished his workout and showered and got his feed bag done when the word from Jack came over.
"would this be a place we can get what we need with out a waiting period." the look on Jacks face answered that a lot faster then any words could.
"I'm thiken we are gonna be briefed and plan and start loading up all at the same time and mostly at the same place. Hell let's go."

"Hey, Jack. Does your friend's place have that secret room? Like that Commando movie?", Palmer asked, half joking?

Surplus City is all that you expect and more. The Macon store also serves as the headquarters of the 15 store chain which stretches across the southern states from Texas to North Carolina.
Isles of shelving, well stocked with camping, hunting and various outdoor sports supplies hide the more interesting ex-military gear towards the back. Almost any type of boots, uniforms, web gear, etc is crammed in, while along one wall are racks and racks of hunting rifles and shotguns. A small but respectable selection of pistols and "home defence" type longarms are on display in locked glass cabinets, and a reinforced door at the back of the shop obviously leads off to the offices and store rooms. Confederate flags and civil war memorabilia are on prominent display everywhere there's a gap in the stock.
Three staff man the shop, one younger man in camouflage pants behind the front counter, and two older, much more grizzled men roaming the shop dealing with customers.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:30, Tue 08 Mar 2016.

In reply to Michael Palmer (msg # 81):

"You don't have to keep that kind of room secret in Georgia Mike."

Jack approaches the young man at the counter.

"Good mornin'. Is Bill in?"

"If he is let him know Jack Random is here to see him."

"Yeah, sure. He's out the back. Wasn't expect you lot until tonight though."
He picked up the phone and dialled an extension.
"Sir, Random's here with friends.....Ok, I'll send them through."

"Just head down the back and he'll let you in."

"Thanks."

Jack took a moment to get everyone's attention, certain that some if not all of them had been distracted by the weapons and gear on display, and then headed in the direction indicated.

Melissa followed Jack to the back. She had a secret room in her Sussex house, but that wasn't for weapons, but instead for her model railway, which she didn't want her nephews to discover and wreck. She'd spent a lot of time recreating Brighton station in the 1970s after all...

An older man looking like he's walked straight out of a civil war southern command tent greets the group at the door and brings you through to the "inner sanctum".
"Bit earlier than expected. Good, good. Times of the essence."
"I'm Bill," he introduces himself, shaking each of your hands in turn.
"Jack may have told you a bit about me, and it's all true," he smiles, leading you past heavily reinforced doors and into his office.
Civil war memorabilia lines the walls and shelves, a computer sits to one side of his desk and a number of filing cabinets take up space along one side of the room. A world map with coloured pins stuck in it is behind his desk, and several chairs and a three seat lounge take up floor space.

"So, shall we get right to it?"

"My connections have provided me with a little information regarding the kidnapping of a prominent musician a few days ago - you may have heard about it?"

"Fiora Cutler, lead singer and composer for the German band Nachtuhu was snatched on Saturday night following a sell-out concert up in Boston. Five roughs with uzis broke into their hotel hotel as the band returned from the show. Four security men, six hotel employees, an off-duty police officer and two friends of the group were killed. Cutler's husband, guitarist Richard Kalmer, and five others were injured."

"The Boston police have exhausted all leads, and even the FBI is baffled, since no ransom has called for. So far, the only clues in the case are the eyewitness reports of black-clad roughs bursting into the hotel hallway, the use of 9mm ammunition, a blown·in service door, and the bodies of hotel employees in the main service stairwell. The police officer was killed when the kidnappers made their getaway in a stolen van, which later turned up abandoned in Lawrence, Massachusetts, with no prints and no further leads. The attack has been estimated to have taken just three minutes, with the main hallway assault taking just over 55 seconds. The FBI is looking into left-wing hate groups as possible culprits due to Cutler's right wing leanings, but no luck so far."

"Along with several very famous rock musicians from all over the place, the bands manager, Roosevelt Scott, is offering a substantial reward to rescue Cutler. You in?"
This message was last updated by the player at 12:49, Wed 09 Mar 2016.

Leaning back, watching the others.

"So it's a semi-pro to pro crew that's extremely trigger happy with definitely pro level demo skills."

To Jack's professional mind that was a lot of unnecessary shooting.

"I'll take the job on spec, no way you would call chump change "substantial", but my coworkers will probably want to hear at least an estimate of the payoff before they commit."

"Once that's decided we will likely need to gear up from your cache. We just got in country and we're a bit under armed for taking on guys this ready to shoot it out in public."

"So I'm guessing north of $160k? How far north?"

In reply to Jack Random (msg # 89):

"I'm a bit worried about the why." Patrick shook his head and looked around then back at the vet. "
" snatch equals  money. The shooting equals anger or zealot." he paused " or crazy"
Patrick paused briefly again.
" I'm just thinking out loud but who uses uzis now? and why does homeland not know anything? and why kill unarmed folks ?"
He looked at Eric and smiled .
" ok thinking done where is the gear?"

"Indeed, the shooting definitely speaks of someone who doesn't believe that they're going to get caught or they really don't care", Melissa added, "They took out 13 people in a kidnapping of a rock star. That's life without parole or possibly the needle if they take it federal... So we're looking at serious mercs or terrorists".

"I'm not sure that any of them were any kind of serious soldier. Not with a bloodbath like that."Michael disagreed.

"Patrick is on point here. More like a bunch of undisciplined animals let off their chain with only one objective.  They were most likely told where to go, how to get in, the room where the girl was staying and not to come home empty-handed."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:45, Fri 11 Mar 2016.