Gene’s Long Trek

GENE’S LONG TREK is Jim Scott book #42. In it, recently retired Army Special Forces Sergeant Major Gene Foreman bought a house needing substantial rehabilitation. His idea was to flip the house after he did all the rehab work needed on the house, mostly by himself. When he had in his mind that the house about 80% finished, he is worn out, and decides to stop for a while. He had been thinking about looking up an old friend from the Army, one who had, in Gene’s words, taught him how to be solider, and a better human being.A mutual friend told him that the friend, Ike Hill, might be living in Billings, Montana. After making the decision to head to Billings looking for Ike, Gene came up with what he would later admit was perhaps not the best idea he ever came up with...he would walk to Billings from Troy, Missouri, where the house he had been working on was located. He figured by wearing his ACUs (formally known as fatigues), he would more than likely get a number if rides, so he might not have to actually walk more than a couple hundred miles on his trek.On that assumption about getting rides, he was correct, but not how far he would actually have to walk. By the time he had reached Montana, and was only about ten miles shy of the town of Hardin, which was just under 50 miles from Billings, he had actually walked less that ten miles. Before he had walked very far at the end of his last ride, along came the Hardin Chief of Police. After talking with the Chief for a while, he was offered a ride and free lunch by the Chief.He was never to reach Billings, as he in almost no time decided Hardin might be a place to spend the rest of his life. While getting ready to eat the hamburger that was part of the free lunch, Gene was soon involved in a shootout while assisting the Chief in stopping a bank robbery. When two men robbing the bank were killed, two shot by Gene, and one by the Chief, Gene was told he would have to stay in Hardin until an inquest could be held.Soon thereafter, while waiting on the inquest, Gene got a plane ride home to get his SUV, and his belongings, since he had more or less decided to permantley plant himself in Hardin...a lady he met early on there was part of that decision. While he was driving back to Montana, there was a major prison break that included a terrorist Gene had had previous dealings with while deployed...one Gene would love to have a second chance at capturing. In the fullness of time the authorities, with input from Gene, determined that the terrorist might well be in the area of Hardin. As it turned out, Gene’s friend, Ike Hill was by that time the Chief of Police in Billings. Ike, Gene, Jim Scott, and others from the U.S. Marshals Service, were all involved in planning on tracking down, and re-arresting the terrorist who had escaped in the prison break. Meanwhile, the lady Gene had in mind and Gene were fast becoming an item. She owned, with her sister, the café where he had started eating, before the shootout at the bank. The sisters also owned an old farmhouse that they were rehabbing to turn into a bed and breakfast operation. So, in addition to assisting the authorities in the terrorist hunt, Gene wound up doing the type of rehab work that had caused him to take off on his trek. He also accepts an offer to become a cop in Hardin.