RIPPED (OFF)

THE BATTLE OF THE OLD FOES

It followed that when we were evacuating the oil workers from the facility that there was a big bag of cash said to have proceeded from a business transaction some days back - the very reason the rebels hedged them off from the rest of the world following a tip-off from an insider; Max insisted to have the bag and the rescued CEO in a separate vehicle driven by himself.

"All my life, I have lived to take orders and it should end today. Now that I have made a decision that would put me in the driving seat of my life, you must be aligned with the agenda rather than be at variance...for your own good," he added corollary, confirming the ominous feeling that fell off my heart and sedimented at the abyss of my belly when he mentions having the man and the bag driven.

"Could you stop speaking in parables already, Max?" I demanded in sheer pretext to his evil agenda.

"Fine! The bag in there has become my retirement plan...

"Oh wow, since when," I yanked off the turn while he was yet to land.

"...the next phase of my life has been laced around it and you should know better than stand in the way," he said tartly.

"Max, it's not your money, so that's theft.

"Oh, yeah...not like they will feel it. Would they?" He followed after waving my response off with a flip of the hand.

"They are f*****g rich oil company, Scott and you know that," he harped in rilesome insistence.

I could not tell if his current action was more shocking to me than what he did some moment before it.

Meanwhile, there was a fistful of granules of precious stones displayed in a box locked away in an armored glass vault built into the wall of the CEO's office.

Max's avarice hiked over and above with each completed spin the little box made a light beam strike them again and again from all angles as it swiveled.

I had taken some time to step into the office to have a last glance around before we would hurry away, having been informed that the rebels were reinforcing to launch a fresh attack and I didn't want anything to bring me back to hell.

Moreover, I couldn't find Max in the lobby with the rest of the soldiers so I decided to look.

There he was! But in total disregard for my presence, he turned his rifle, handling it by its handguard and fore-end, aimed the metal-plated butt at the glassware and unleashed a few hard but fruitless hits.

Against the anticipated shatter, the safe only let out a clatter which appeared to have fueled his fury.

The vandal turned the gun, grabbed it by the butt, and pulled the trigger in a rapid shooting hoping to riddle the safe. There was a din of clatter, except that the safe fended the bullets off, unscratched.

The package had been secured and that was my business, I ordered an immediate withdrawal from the premises.

The heavy enemy fire that bombarded the besieged facility and its security made me conclude Max had not made it out but you have seen how wrong my assumptions could be.

Scott said, casting an expressionless glance from face to face before he continued.

Hello, Scott! He bellowed when a four-hour uninterrupted pursuit through the woods got us close enough to hear each other when we shouted at the top of our voices.

"Since the day you hurt me the worst I have had in my entire life and left me for death, I have been itching for a sour reunion.

Now that you walked your two feet into a minefield, I will make sure that your last words are not in the ears of your loved ones."

"Max, it's nice to meet you too, but we could still choose to die another day...you know...!"

Handle over the girl and go home to your loots," I proposed still inclining against a tree temporarily adapted for a shield.

"By the time this conversation started, you had been knocked unconscious for easy conveyance. It was not much of a job for one of his soldiers who saddled your lifeless body on his shoulders and trudged through the woods.

While the verbal transaction raged, my radio creaked, and team Hawk said to have sighted three-speed boats in the water by the edge of the forest with men suspected to belong to the kidnapper gang.

The UH 72A Lakota helicopter made to draw closer but was met with ferocious shooting, too heavy for the lone shooter manning the M249 machine gun mounted on the bird to handle.

The Hawk sustained its heavy fire on the boats which forced them to split to douse the danger from the sky after a while.

However, that was not before the man who carried you got you lowered into one of the boats at the sea while the rest who were holding us in a fierce gun battle joined him in those other two as they fled.

Team Hawk maintained its tabs on the one you were ferried in while we waited for some speed boats from your father's harbor to pick us up.

We would later catch up and neutralize a boat, and the two others escaped.

The interesting episode that capped the drama happened when we vanquished the boat and were speeding back to assist Hawk who had contained the boat carrying you to the open sea.

Seeing that they had little or no chance of escape if the Alpha team joined the Hawk against them, they threw you into the ocean to divert the Hawk's attention and fled.

My men dived after your body descending steadily into the belly of the water, while the helicopter held its fire tenaciously on until it terminated the second boat," Scott heaved a sigh, swallowed hard, and continued.

"We sped your lifeless body in an ambulance to the hospital where it was found that you had some blood clot in your brain, which kept you in a coma for over a year," he submitted.

As though it knew I needed to digest the horror movie I just saw in the airy yard, my dog trotted by and poked me with its muzzle and I knew it was time for our usual walk.

I grabbed a tennis ball off the chart by a corner and bounced it on the tile floor, and the dog leaped in sympathy.

I hurtled the small lemon ball through the large window into the open field and the dog fled the room, running joyously after it.

I could tell how terrified Jimmy was after hearing my ordeal, going by how dissolved in emotions he was even long after the narration had ended.

A knock on the door took after the brand I have known my father for and every eye swooped in the direction of the exit that was still open since the dog left.

"Oh! Am I interrupting something?"

"No, Dad. Come here," I let out in an emotion-laden tone, collapsing in his embrace in a childlike demeanor.

While Scott rose to acknowledge him, Jimmy was still spreading like a piece of wet cloth on his seat, visibly terrified by the narration.

He quickly read the handwriting on the wall and asked to be brought up to date on what the matter was.

"Dad, I asked for the full details of my abduction, and Scott here just satisfied my curiosity with all you put on the line to save me."

He ran his hands over my hair to smoothen them.

"Hmm...Thank you, Scott.

That was a path I have been most unwilling to toe.

It kills me to relive that experience," he said waving him back to his seat before casting a glance at the younger man who still, had yet to pull himself together.

"It's fine, Jimmy, I am alright now," I said, caressing his hair.

"Now that the lid is being lifted on the past, Dad, would you tell me about my mother?" I probed after and Jimmy shook hands and he settled on the bed beside me.