Our story picks up a day or so after Mark returned to New York City, rotting the time away in jail as his captors recapped the events of the last two issues. Present are one Agent Dirkson, who wished to recruit Hazzard for some dirty domestic merc work, and Irham, a police office assistant who was up to less than squeaky clean activities. Of course, Mark had no idea he was the subject of such heated debate.

Meanwhile, at an expansive law firm across town, a celebration was taking place, as one of the firm's clerks had finally passed his bar exam, becoming a true associate in the company. Of course, this newly promoted clerk, Lewis, had no idea what was in store for him - as the new kid on the block, his fellow lawyers gave him the Hazzard file. Little did he know that this wasn't a good thing...

Back in jail, Hazzard himself was having bad dreams, flashbacks concerning the 'Nam combined with visions of his gutted personal life come back to haunt him yet again. Waking up with a start, after reliving in his mind the incident where he almost lost his eye to a Vietnamese killer with a machete, Mark found that he wasn't alone; he had a visitor in the form of that secret agent, Dirkson.

Knowing that Hazzard wasn't going anywhere, Dirkson made Hazzard an offer he thought the man couldn't refuse: namely, he'd clear Mark's record, in addition to his lady cop friend's, if he'd do some dirty jobs for the 'company'. Naturally, Mark told the man where to go, and when his new lawyer, Lewis, showed up, Hazzard walked off after his pal Treetop helped him make his $500,000 bail.

Thinking he had some time to deal with things, Hazzard had no idea that forces were aligning against him, forces tied to those terrorists he'd mangled over in Philadelphia, and led by that Irham guy from the precinct. As Mark made his peace with his son, should he get carted off to jail, several people in his life were abducted by Irham and his goons, in order to use them against Hazzard.

When he finally got home, Mark was accosted again by Dirkson, who emphatically stated that Mark was going to work for the 'company', or else he'd rot in jail forever. Of course, his minions holding Mark at gunpoint helped only to punctuate his statement. When the government spooks left, Hazzard made a few phone calls, and prepared to deal with Dirkson - the hard way.

As he left his apartment, loaded for bear, he saw a bus bearing down on his position. Opening fire, he caused the bus to come to a screeching halt, at which point he saw some goon with face paint holding his lawyer hostage inside the vehicle. When the man threatened to shoot, Mark gave up, and got inside per the armed madman's demands - that's when he saw all his recent friends.

The terrorists had abducted Hazzard's lawyer, his cop lady-friend, her husband, and even Agent Dirkson as he left Mark's apartment. Sure, Mark didn't care about Dirkson, but the others were there because of his actions, and as such, he felt he should do something to get them out of that fix. Once Mark had been 'secured', the two goons then drove off, and Irham shot one of the hostages for kicks.

It was Claire's husband. Just then, the bus came across a road block, one manned by a lot of Mark's old merc buddies, pals who were expecting Dirkson to be behind Hazzard's abduction - not extremist Lebanese terrorists. When the driver tried to swerve out of their way, Mal and company took the bus apart, causing it to crash into a nearby grocery store!!

Once the bus was stopped, Mark, Dirkson, Mal, and oddly, Lewis dealt with the goons who were pestering them, and then Dirkson tried to cart Hazzard off to a waiting plane. However, Mark wouldn't do what he felt wasn't right, and as such, he left Dirkson and decided that he'd deal with the police as would any other mayhemous lawbreaker - with the best laywers money could by.

He still didn't know if he could get off the hook, of course, so Mark went to explain the situation to his son, and once that was dealt with, he said his good-byes again - just in case. As things ultimately turned out, however, Mark didn't wind up going to prison after all; it would seem that Treetop's money helped Mark to avoid that ugly fate, and continue on as a world-class mercenary...

About a month or so after last issue, once Mark had dealt with his extensive legal issues, we begin our tale with Mal Rossi, Mark's mercenary compatriot and best friend, who is looking for Hazzard. Mal tracks him down to the Priestess' martial arts dojo, where Hazzard is brushing up on his own hand to hand skills by busting up several of the more obnoxious students, who think they can take him easily.

When Mark sees Mal and asks what he wants, Mal tells Mark a tale about his kid sister, an amateur rocker known as Phoenix, who was kidnapped by some biker thugs. When Mal asked Mark for some help in retrieving his sibling, Mark remembered all the times Mal pulled his fat out of the fire back in the 'Nam, and simply couldn't refuse - even Mark's buddy, the Priestess, offered her assistance.

That night, Mark and Mal planned on breaking into the joint where those bikers were holding Mal's sister, though they used the Priestess as a distraction. See, she walked right in the front door of the bar / seedy hotel, dressed in a particularly clingy leather outfit, teasing everybody in the place until she had their total attention. As everybody watched her, the mercs made their move.

Climbing up to the second floor from the rear of the building, Mark and Mal easily made their way in unnoticed, and going through each room, eventually found Mal's sister. Knocking the biker with her out cold, Mal then K.O.'d his sister, because 'she's a bloody screamer', and carried her out. Once they gave the Priestess the high sign, she fought her way free from the groping thugs, and quit the building too.

As the Priestess took off, Mark and Mal blew the bikers' rides to pieces, ensuring that the Priestess got away free and clear. When their antagonists acquired new rides and followed, Mark and Mal set up an ambush to deal with them. However, in order to stop a bloodbath (namely, to try and avoid killing all the bikers), Mark proposed that their leader, Ramon, fight in the morning - winner take the girl.

Happy with that, the guy then led his goons off, at which point Mal went to get the fighting grounds ready. Of course, Mark smelled a rat, here, and decided to check out Mal's sister's story - namely, by talking to her stage hands and band. He found out that Mal's sister wasn't kidnapped at all, but was dating that Ramon guy - that was why he'd been trying so hard to get her back!

Confronting his friend about this later, Mal told Mark that he was trying to help his sister do better, since he didn't want her dating any 'biker trash'. This caused more than a little bit of in-fighting between the two friends, as Mark was kind of unhappy over being used so, but before they could do any permanent damage to each other, the bikers, led by Ramon, had showed up - and they were mad!

Not aware that Mark was trying to stop Mal from killing the lot of his pals, Ramon then jumped Hazzard, and by the time Mark told him to lay off - and why - Mal had his gun leveled on the bikers. Mark had talked him down, but then they opened fire, and Mal decided to blow them to pieces with pre-arranged charges set in the ground throughout the area; he was under fire, after all.

After Mal dealt with all of the thugs save Ramon, another biker showed up with Phoenix in tow, and she begged Mal not to kill the guy. Mark finally helped Mal to drop his grudge (and his gun), leaving his sister to date Ramon in peace. As Mark and the Priestess (Hazzard's ride) left the scene, Mal decided to make up for this whole mess somehow, and he did so by taking them to a Beethoven piano concert.

An apology only Mal could make...

Hovering over a condominium complex in Los Angeles, Mark Hazzard is preparing to leap out of his cohort's helicopter in order to deliver an unpleasant surprise to the team's target. Naturally, Treetop isn't too thrilled about the whole idea, thinking Mark is nuts in general, and specifically out of his mind for the stunt he's about to pull with his high-tensile clmibing rope and a reckless leap.

After reassuring Treetop, Mark jumps out of the helicopter and smashes his way into the condominium on the 20th floor of this building, where he finds out that the place is a bit more fortified than he was previously told. As Mark calls him on this over the team's headsets, Mal simply shrugs and states that he's not all that good with numbers - not that it matters, this being a 'non-lethal' operation.

When Mark states that's not much of an option, with as many guards have him pinned down behind a handy couch, Mal simply responds by firing a rocket propelled grenade at the building from his safe vantage point in the building across the street, which serves as an excellent distraction to the thugs trying to plug Mark - those that aren't flattened by the explosive readily give up at this point.

As the smoke cleared, Mark kicked his way into the bedroom of one Luis Montoya, a general hailing from one of those South American nations that has a problem with with America's 'war on drugs'. Not that the man was actually in the country on official business, mind you; he was, in fact, in the country illegally, visiting his mistress. Seeing Mark break into his room, the man went on the offensive.

Attempting to take Mark down hand to hand, the General got in a lucky first shot but ultimately failed. Before he could fetch his hand gun, Mark had it out with the General, telling the man he wasn't about to kill him - although he had something much worse in mind. You see, Mark had been hired by the General's wife to deliver something to him. Namely, a bundle of divorce papers, which he'd been avoiding.

With the job done, Mark collected his gear and headed to the roof, where he then hopped onto Treetop's ride. After a little bit of reflection, Mark had Treetop pick up Mal and then fly off to their predetermined rendezvous point, presumably so they could pick up their paycheck. Getting paid and having avoided killing anyone - if narrowly - the trio headed off into the night, yet another job well done.