"Norm"

[austintorn@aol.com]

Life imitates art:

4/15/09 BOGOTA—The top drug lord of Columbia, "Dom Mario", was found cowering like a dog under a tree after a jungle raid…

[austintorn@aol.com]

The DIA teams gradually got into position, noting the comings and goings of the enemy patrols, leaving them alone, for now, relatively few in number, so they could continue to report to the lord of drug lords, Don Mario, that all was well. Mario had left more than 3,000 deaths in the wake of his push to control the cocaine trade that found its way across the Caribbean Sea.

DIA settled in close. It was as if hundreds of monks had walked barefoot, not even breaking a twig or stirring a bird.

A practically invisible missile came out of the sky and dug through the earth and into the underground cocaine factory and distribution center, and then exploded. It would seem that the explosion had originated underground and that it had been planted there.

The drug lords first sent out their underlings, and, then, after nothing else happened for 10 minutes, came out themselves, eying one another suspiciously. It was snowing coke, they inhaling it and becoming somewhat disoriented, but still plodding on to look at the crater where billions of dollars had gone up in smoke. Their curiosity would herald their doom. Mario was on the radio. All was well in the jungle and on the hills. They had some workers bring out some wheelbarrows to try to save the few remaining bricks.

The women and children, still having some sense, ran down the road, fearing that the house would be the next to explode. DIA did need to take some of the top lords alive to gain any further leads or information. They would only be shot in the lower leg.

Even the patrols came forth. They and the underlings and many of the minor drug lords were fair game—it was a ‘no mercy’ mission. Half of the DIA sections were just off the road and on the far side of the hill, facing away, for the sounds of the explosion might bring in enemy reinforcements, those probably staying back so as not to draw attention to the big meeting. It could turn into quite a battle. Since the sound of silence still reigned, but for the drug lords cursing even while getting high, DIA could listen for any approaching threat.

Top Secret looked to Questor just as he looked to her. A bug walked by. Time seemed to stand still, though only 20 minutes had passed, the smoke and the snow drifting down in a surreal scene of serene beauty on a tropical day turning, as both the dusk and the dust fell. It was neither day nor night, neither warm nor cool. All was in equipoise. Twilight was the balance. The Captain on the scene would call the tip that would send the sun plummeting into the sea.

[austintorn@aol.com]

The winds subside; all is calm…



(Rounded Life)

[Tarina]

Top secret and Questor took out the remaining thugs, with no pitywhatsoever. Top secret knew many people who had gone down the wrong road, and took revenge with a ferocity that made the drug underlings run with terror, too late.
The dom was at gunpoint in front of Questor, being pushed with the point of his weapon at a speed that kept him on his feet, just.
They all headed to the "Vessel" that awaited them in camoflage. This vessel had a state of the art skin over it that not only changed to blend with it's surroundings, it also was indestructable. When hit, thousands of nano-bots set out to repair the hole with a combination of polymer/spider silk that was almost inpenetrable.
The headed to one of their many bases.

[Tarina]

They were now underground. Out of reach of all weapons, missiles, even nuclear.
Questor was talking off to the side of the room with the General.

[austintorn@aol.com]

The DIA, along with the Columbian government, rearranged the news as follows, on 4/21/09:

Colombian police catch drug lord Daniel 'Don Mario' Rendón

Daniel Rendón, Colombia's most powerful cocaine trafficker whose war of expansion may have led to 3,000 deaths, was caught `like a dog.'

BY SIBYLLA BRODZINSKY
SPECIAL TO THE MIAMI HERALD

BOGOTA -- Colombian police on Wednesday captured the country's most powerful drug lord known as ''Don Mario,'' who authorities say left more than 3,000 deaths in the wake of his push to control the cocaine trade on the country's Caribbean coast.

Daniel Rendón was captured by 300 police commandos on a farm in the northwestern region of Urabá near the Panamanian border, a major launch pad for shipments of tons of cocaine bound for U.S. markets.

''They found him virtually like a dog, cowering, hugging a palm tree,'' Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said on recounting details of the capture. Rendón, wearing a blue and brown T-shirt and gray sweat pants, arrived in Bogotá on a Colombian police plane hours after the morning operation.

Rendón is wanted on charges of drug trafficking, murder and conspiracy. The Colombian authorities had offered a $2.5 million reward for his capture, which Santos said would be paid at least in part to informants.

Rendón is also wanted on drug trafficking charges in the United States. Police commander Gen. Oscar Naranjo said Rendón had told him on the plane he was willing to collaborate with Colombian and U.S. authorities.
''I hope his lieutenants turn themselves in,'' Naranjo said.

Rendón was believed to control an army of 1,000 fighters that fought rival gangs for control of drug routes along Colombia's Caribbean coast. Last year Rendón declared a war against the Medellín-based organization of demobilized paramilitary chief Diego ''Don Berna'' Murillo, who was extradited to the United States on drug charges.

Santos estimated that more than 3,000 people died in that war of expansion over the past year and a half.

As Rendón's power grew, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe made public calls to the police to track down and capture Rendón. As police turned up the heat, Rendón offered a bounty of $1,000 for every police officer his hit men killed, recalling a similar offer made by legendary drug lord Pablo Escobar before his death in 1993.

Daniel Rendón and his brother Freddy Rendón, known as ''el Aleman'' or ''the German,'' were among dozens of leaders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) who demobilized as part of a pact with the government in 2005 that included reduced sentences for the top chiefs. But when officials ordered the arrest of demobilized leaders in 2006, Don Mario fled and started to build up his drug trafficking army.

''He had accumulated a lot of power uniting criminal gangs from [the provinces of] Chocó to Guajira,'' Santos said.

Santos said police had been tracking Don Mario for nine months and that twice the drug lord had managed to escape similar attempts to capture him.

The minister said that because he dropped out of the demobilization deal, Rendón would not be eligible for any benefits under the so-called Justice and Peace law that offered the reduced sentences.

In the expansion of his criminal network, Don Mario is believed to have infiltrated different echelons of government. The former head of the attorney general's office in Medellín, Guillermo Valencia Cossio, brother of the current Interior minister, is on trial for allegedly colluding with members of Don Mario's organization.

Other top drug lords still unaccounted for include Daniel Barrera, ''Loco Barrera''; Pedro ''Cuchillo'' Guerrero; and Luis Enrique Calle, alias ``Comba.''

Colombia, which exports about 600 tons of cocaine per year to U.S. and European markets, has received some $6 billion in mostly military aid from the United States to fight drug trafficking.

[austintorn@aol.com]

The General began, “I was able to catch most of the action from above, then I followed some of the lights in the dark.”

“Well, the Captain gave the signal by shooting Don Mario in the knee, just as the sun sank into the sea, the drug lord actually really hobbling away and taking refuge under a tree.”

“Then all Hell broke loose.”

“Yes, almost all were shot in some way and then what else we’d hoped for began to happen to the rear as enemy troops came forth out of the jungle, not really their best move. Our forces on the other side of the hill and the helicopter door-gunners took care of hem. We took some prisoners as samples from various locations. Then we evacuated and you sent out the fake news release.”

“It went well,” the General commented. “After you-all and I were long gone, two missiles lifted off from an unmanned barge out in the ocean. One missile leveled the entire estate and the other one circled back and destroyed the barge that never was.”

[Tarina]

As everybody was in a state of wind down, the General watched his elite force. They had come a long way over the years. Questor was by far the top gun. The General was searching through his force. He really needed to make sure of this decision. They had some trouble brewing in Germany, and only a select few would be going in on this one.
As everyone started in on their mountainous paperwork, there was a rumble, quickly they were on their feet and headed out the door. Confusion was on most minds, and then there was a booming sound of laughter, everyone glanced at each other with their pace immediately slowed.
Top secret poked her head around the corner to peer into the room. She turned the colour of the sky during a hawaiian sunset. Then said "False alarm everyone, (Tarina was clearing her throat nervously, trying to figure out how to put this to her colleauges) I was sitting down adjusting my ear/microphone piece and coughed. Tarina was now sweating profusely. I had some borsche at meal time and what you heard was some flatulence in the near proximity of my microphone. Every one had reacted differently to this announcement. Questor, not easily ruffled, piped up and said "Tarina, I assume it was your laughter we heard after your... your flatulence?" A slight smirk was on his face. Tarina just laughed and said well, it happens to the best of us, does it not Questor?

The General had a twinkle of mirth in his eyes, and he finally was sure of his choice. He decided to let his team have a night of R and R. Tomorrow would be soon enough to let them know about their new mission. "Okay, people, listen up!" The General had everyone's attention. "Tomorrow I will be briefing you about your next mission."

[G_burnett]

Father Michael from the butterfly monastery in central France was up late. Six hundred years earlier the catacombs that held all the faithful to the earlier tenant's had long given up there flesh to now just be dusty bones he passed by going to the lower reaches of his hovel of fourteen years ownership.

There in a dead end of smiling skulls stacked along the walls he push a button and a secret door opened creakily in the bricks to great cavern of space he quickly entered to set off the sensors for the lights that came on as his door closed.

As he walked toward the work benches he uncovered his balding head and let the long monks robe slip from his body hurriedly un-slinging a small pouch bag any that had seen it may have thought just contained some beads or prayer book.

Opening it up at a cleared spot on the table it was not so sinister full but contained nine small vials hermetically sealed.

each one had a name on it. each one contained that persons DNA code mixed with there personal pheromones.

One by one he loaded the small one inch vials to the final of seventy small four inch long butterfly models that rested on the table.

With wing spans of 6 inches, solar powered and capable of travel during the day of over 300 miles his master plan was coming to a head. for all these years he had waited to change the world. Grown up as a hippie that turned to be a yippee, then criminal and then getting rich off drug sales in the begin of the Coke era he turned revolutionary and was finally going to get back at the establishment once and for all.

"What better way," he laughed out loud, "Then the beautiful flower loving butterfly to so the job!"

Each beautiful body besides the simple wing motors and vials and sensors and gps command matrix had the additional feature of of twenty CC's of nitroglycerin.

Ten a day were going to be released so all would reach there destinations within a few hours of each other all over Europe and the mid east.

Carefully taking the first ten with him he climbed the stairs of his dome to another door that exited on the side of the cliff his monastery was located on.

One by one to be repeated for nine days he turned a little switch and cast the machine out like a glider and watched as they took in the solar rays to begin flapping there wings and each on there preprogrammed course waifed off into the distance ...

[greenbug]

A greenbug walks across the floor. Unknowing to humans this bug is fully capable of thinking and what this bug thought was. “omg are these people crazy”. Just then a stampede of Chuck Woolery fans passed stepping on and killing the green bug. What was left of this strange creature is now on two pairs of size five shoes, a size seven shoe, an old worn concrete side walk and the bar, aptly name “Stuff Happens” where all of these occupants are conversing.