Bowser's office, he, Emerald and Firebird are here talking to Markus Norwood of the EDF on the wall monitor.

"Ah yes, Black Gun." says Mark "The one time alias of Huran Dula."

"I read the file on him and his brother one time." says Firebird "According to the Maddogs, General Parvo scrambled they're robotic brains, leaving them empty shells."

"Correct. And Huran's chief lieutenant Dimitri Vladimir tried to hijack your ship, but he's serving life in a maximum security jail right now. And now the so-called Black Gun Organization is making a come back. And we know who's leading them."

"Can you tell us?" says Bowser

"Sure. His name is Omar."

A picture of a tawny red wolf comes up on the screen.

"An Ethiopian wolf and an ex-KH Military Major."

"Ethiopian wolf?" says Emerald "Aren't they rare?"

Markus comes back on.

"Correct" says Mark "And the reserve where they live is guarded like a fortress. I'm sending you all the information on his organization that we have. Anything else captain?"

"No, thank you Mr. Norwood."

"Always glad to help out the Rovers."

The screen goes blank and a printout appears from the slot underneath.

"Well, Mr. Firebird, let's hear it." says Bowser

"Yes sir. Omar rose through the ranks of the KH Military after escaping from the reserve and was promoted to Major after pulling off a sucessful hiest on weapons. After a chance meeting with Dimitri Vladimir in Russia he defected from the KH Military and began running the Black Gun organization after Dimitri's capture. Their current base of operation is in the Tanawei Island chain."

"Tanawei?" says Emerald "I'm not familiar with it."

"A small group of islands that includes Tanawei, Sentinel, Zephyr, and Banumar islands. Sentinel was used during World War II as an american airbase to strike at Wake, the Carolines and Mariana islands. A Japanese company tried to turn Zephyr into a resort and golf club in the 1980's, but that went belly up. A cell of the now defunct Al-Qaida terrorists used Banumar as a training camp, fortunatly that was taken out along with the rest of the network by the mid double o's. Now Black Gun runs it. They have a small airforce of helicopters, Lear Jets, and single engine Cessna's, all illegally modified with weapons; they even managed to cobble together an old Corsair fighter left behind during World War II. They also have several pleasure yacht's, also illegally modified. But this is the scary part: they have a surplus Russian diesel submarine, complete with torpedoes."

"What about the people in this organization?" says Bowser

"Mostly an international compliment of human criminals and a squad of ex-KH Military commando's that went with Omar."

"Do we go after them?" says Emerald.

"Probably." says Bowser "The attack on the cruise liner was obviously an attention getter."

"We're going to need help." says Emerald

"I hear two destroyers are to be launched next week, and they are supposed to have an all sapien crew as well." Firebird

"Excellent."

"Oh, and one last bit if information." says Firebird "Omar's chief lieutenant is a Japanese-British man named Nigel Ozawa. He looks Japanese but talks with a British accent."

*****

Sentinel Island, Tanawei Island chain. Inside a modified hangar at a desk sits Omar. Nigel walks in.

"All indication say that the Retriever is on its way Mr. Omar."

"Good."

"Why so much interest in this ship sir? Do want to try and capture it too?"

"Capture it Mr. Ozawa? No. I want that ship bent, burnt, holed and scrapped! In other words, I want it sunk!"

"I see. Well, we have the firepower to do it."

"Good." Omar nearly purrs, then bursts out laughing.

to be continued.....