by Michael Todd
“Ew, bro, gross!” Katie wrinkled her nose. “Please don’t puke on me.”
He walked onto the mat with his hands in the air. “Hey, I’m just being real. Why is it women want truth…until telling the truth is disgusting?”
The two of them squared off, taking easy shots at each other. Eric was struggling through it, while Katie was pretty much just trying to get him to move his body a little.
She wanted him to get past the steak-induced sloth and get back on track. You never knew when a call would come in, and if one did at that moment, Eric would be taken out in a heartbeat.
Katie blocked a punch and swung around, pulling his arm behind his back. He groaned, feeling the stretch in his shoulder as she leaned toward his ear.
“Don’t be sloppy because you don’t feel well,” she whispered. “That’s just an excuse.”
“I disagree.” He chuckled. “I think it’s valid, although it was self-induced.”
“Exactly,” Katie agreed, releasing his arm and bouncing back into stance.
“Somehow,” he turned fast and caught Katie in the arm, “I feel like the slow movements help me think more.”
“And thinking leads to giant claw marks in the face,” Katie told him, flipping through the air. “You have to move without thinking. You have to know what to do next before it even becomes a question.”
“Oh yeah?” Eric chuckled. “And what is next?”
“This.” Katie smirked, dropping down and kicking Eric’s legs out from under him.
He fell backward onto the floor, and laid there rubbing his stomach. Katie stood up and walked over to him, putting her foot on his chest. He looked up at her and shook his head.
She smiled. “You will get the hang of it.”
She reached down and helped him up, slapping him on the back. The two walked off the mat and watched as Derek and Jeremy started to spar. They heckled the two on the floor from the sidelines as they rested from their own session. Calvin came up next to Katie and smiled as he watched Jeremy and Derek.
“What are you going to do now?” Calvin asked Katie.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t really gotten that far yet.”
“Why don’t you come to the shooting range and practice,” he suggested. “Buff up those pistol skills.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Katie smiled and reached out to grab Calvin’s hand, and received an assist to her feet.
She followed Calvin to the shooting range and grabbed a couple of pistols and some ammo. Between clips they talked about the fight at the house. Katie had completely forgotten to ask Calvin how he had done on his first time back out in the field.
“So how was it for you?” Katie asked.
“It was interesting,” Calvin replied. “And not because of anything I did.”
Katie chuckled. “What do you mean?”
“I was a little nervous at first, sure,” he explained, “but Korbin was the one who was all over the place. First he decided to give me some sniper practice by having me duck behind a bush with the sniper rifle, then he became the bait by running along the house and pulling the demons out for me to kill. It was reckless, really—two demons almost took him out. Had I hesitated at all, I would have either missed and the demon would have killed him, or I would have missed and shot Korbin.”
“I think he was worried you weren’t completely well yet,” Katie said. “I mean, I won’t lie—I had the same thought. I was worried that you were rushing things with your body. I know I was tight and sore, so I can only imagine how you felt.”
“Yeah, when I got out there I was definitely thankful that I didn’t have to do more than what I did,” he admitted. “I guess I was afraid to be weak. Thought that if I was weak, then I would never be strong again. It sounds stupid.”
“No,” Katie shot back, shaking her head. “It sounds human…something that none of us seem to remember. We are human.”
“You are right, my dear.” He handed Katie another rifle. “Try this one, and then I want you to give the sniper rifle a couple of goes.”
“All right,” Katie agreed, taking the gun.
“This is the Avtomat Kalashnikova,” Calvin explained. “More commonly known as the AK-47. This uses a heavier 7.62-millimeter bullet, and fires a little slower than the comparable American M16 automatic, but is one of the most reliable rifles in the world. It is iconic for the Taliban, but the United States also uses these, or used them heavily in the Iraq war. It’s powerful, but reliable.”
“Okay,” Katie replied, slightly nervous.
She shot at the target and could feel the sheer power behind it, almost losing her balance. The paper was demolished, pieces flying all over the place as if it had exploded. When she was done, she slowly lowered it and handed it to Calvin.
“Wow, that was intense!” She chuckled. “I’m not sure I would ever be comfortable with that thing.”
“We use it in situations where we need to do maximum damage very quickly.” He took the gun and put it on the cleaning rack. “Now, here is the sniper rifle, but you’ll need to move down to the carpeted booth.”
Katie moved down to the indicated booth and Calvin brought over the gun. She laid down on the ground to give her stability. She wanted to learn how to shoot it before she went all commando, like Calvin the day before.
“So, the scope… You barely have to put your face up to it,” he told her. “You find your target, decide trajectory based on distance, speed, and wind, let out a deep breath, and fire. In here, you should be able to shoot directly at the target.”
Calvin pushed the target all the way down the range until Katie couldn’t even make out the head on the picture. She cracked her neck and pulled the rifle up to her shoulder. When she leaned forward and looked into the scope, she could see the target straight ahead.
She imagined herself perched somewhere waiting to take out T’Chezz, ready to end it all. Slowly she let out a deep breath and pulled the trigger, letting a single bullet fly. She stood up and took off her goggles as she watched Calvin pull the paper target back.
“Not bad.” He laughed as he stared at the hole in the forehead of the target’s human figure. “Not bad at all. Now all you need is some of those special bullets, and you will be a demon-killing machine.”
“Oh, yeah, I completely forgot!” She turned to Calvin. “I need to visit that bullet-maker here in Las Vegas. He is the one who can help push this to reality.”
“Do you think he will be safe enough to work on this project?” Calvin asked.
“I’m not going to have him work on the project,” Katie said, bending down and grabbing the rifle. “I am going to get as much information from him on how to do it as I can. That way Joshua will know, and can start formulating his plan. These bullets are imperative to our cause. Can you imagine if I could just sit on the top of a building with a sniper rifle and pick off demons? I would be out of harm’s way, they would die almost instantly, and when we faced the larger beasts we could inflict way more pain. Pain takes away from their concentration, which gives us time to swoop in and be that much more aggressive in taking them out. The pain that metal inflicts could be the difference between life or death for us, or for the innocent.”
“Oh, you don’t have to sell it to me.” He laughed. “You should definitely go take care of that, but I would check out with Korbin first.”
“All right,” she said, handing him the rifle. “Thanks, Calvin.”
“Don’t thank me. I still owe you for saving my life.”
“No, that’s just what we do,” Katie replied. “I’m sure in the future there will be more than enough instances where you save mine. Besides, what kind of team would we be without the famed Calvin?”
“That, my dear, is the question,” he replied jokingly. “What would the world be like without the famed Calvin in it? It would continue to go on, sure, but would it be a place worth living in? I don’t know about that. It would be a lot darker and a whole lot sadder, that is for damn sure.”
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“You are irreplaceable! Okay, I’ll catch up with you later and let you know what I find out.”
“Sounds good,” he answered. “Be careful.”
Katie smiled. “Always.”
Chapter Seventeen
As Katie walked over to Joshua’s workshop, she wondered what research he had done on the rounds for their weapons. She had spoken with Calvin a little on their way back from California after the demon battle in the Inglewood cemetery, and if her memories weren’t completely fucked up due to her having been tired, her original idea of just painting the shells with the special metal wasn’t the fix they were looking for.
She went past the outer gate and let herself in. There was a lot of movement in the place, and the various machines were making a ton of noise.
Can’t we go somewhere else to do this? Pandora asked. I can’t hear you think in here.
Perhaps I prefer it that way?
It’s the internet age, honey. None of your personal thoughts are secret anymore. Whatever you put up on the web five years ago when you were young and drunk is going to bite you on the ass.
Why would anyone be looking for that? I’m dead, remember? Katie motioned to Joshua to get his attention, and pointed to the steps to go down to the basement. Pandora was right, it would be a little less annoying to speak down there.
Who says they are going to look for it? Pandora retorted. When I put it out there for them to trip over and bust their nose, they will find it quite easily.
Katie started walking down the stairs. Ha ha… You can’t operate the internet without my arms, and I’m pretty sure I would realize I was typing a command to upload or find something about myself. Plus, I was boring, so there are no horrible pictures of me out there.
Hell, who needs them to be real? I’ve heard about Photoshop. Your head, some slut’s gorgeous body with a few more curves than you… Ok, a lot more curves than you, and BAM! Instant celeb-slut. Guys will be downloading you like crazy.
Katie walked into the middle of the large room and grabbed a chair near a small table, waiting for Joshua to join her.
She heard Joshua coming down the steps. Once again, I think I would know it if you were doing something like that.
“Hi, Katie.” Joshua nodded. “How are y-y-you doing?” He grabbed a chair, turned it towards her, and sat down.
Pandora snuck one last comment in. Not if you were asleep, you wouldn’t.
Bitch! Can you do that? Katie growled. Dammit! Answer… Fine, don’t answer me. NO DONUTS!
Pandora stayed annoyingly silent.
Katie ignored her mental roommate. “I’m good. I’d like to hear what you found out about using the metal for bullets?
Joshua scratched his neck for a moment, collecting his thoughts. “Well, I went to one of the best gun shops in the area. It’s in Henderson.” He put up a hand. “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell John anything important.”
“’John?’” she questioned. “You had to tell him something, right?”
“Well, yes,” he agreed. “However, I told him it was for a research project. Somehow he got the impression I was an author.” Joshua shrugged. “I should have told him I was a blacksmith. I think he might have been more impressed up front.”
I thought you humans adored authors? You used to, Pandora interjected.
That’s only if you are Stephen King or George R. R. Martin, Katie replied. Not so much with other authors. Well, J.K. Rowling.
I saw something where someone wanted to murder that Martin guy. They were talking about how he was taking too long with his latest book. She sniffed. I’ve heard of John Grisham. That Rowling bitch can suck my titties! She didn’t have any good PR for demons in her books. What a waste of a great opportunity.
Does J.K. Rowling even know about you guys? And can you hush for a moment? If you can’t hush, then answer my question about doing stuff with my body when I’m sleeping.
Well, that shut Pandora up. At least that concern was semi-useful to her.
“John Kern,” Joshua answered, missing Katie’s moment of lost focus. “He’s the proprietor of Spurlock’s in Henderson. They’ve been open about forty years, and they are on this small stretch of a street that reminds me of an old Main Street.”
“And he told you…what? Did he get nosy?”
“Well, I had to wait first. He had a young girl and her mother in there talking about her first rifle. Very customer-focused.”
Katie leaned back in her chair, trying to take any stress off him. “If you need to, you can buy some guns and ammo so we aren’t just wasting his time.”
Joshua just nodded his understanding.
“So, are we going to be able to spray our metal on a bullet?”
Joshua shook his head. “No, that idea won’t work. What John talked about was using hollow-points.”
“Thought those were banned by the Geneva Convention,” Katie interrupted.
Joshua looked at her like she had grown a second head. Katie caught up. “Sorry, my bad.
The demons didn’t sign anything like that.”
“Technically the US didn’t either, at least regarding hollow-points, but they did agree to the spirit of something like that in the past. They’ve expressed that they might start using them again this year.”
Katie waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter. Pretty sure we aren’t in a legitimate war where the Geneva convention is in place.”
Joshua continued, “And cops use them, too. One of the main reasons is so the bullets have a much smaller chance of hurting others by over-penetrating, even if they hit the intended target.”
Katie could tell Joshua had been studying the hell out of this. Some of it she knew from her conversation with Calvin, so she wasn’t completely clueless.
“Further, if the bullet stops inside the body, there is an argument about hydro-shock causing additional damage. Some scientists argue against it, but the concept has been around since E. Harvey Newton at Princeton wrote a research paper, and the effect was also noted by Colonel Frank Chamberlin during World War II.”
Katie could already feel a slight headache coming on and put up a hand. “I’m sorry, give me links to the background information. What did your talk with John… ‘Kurns’ or ‘Kerns?’”
“’E’, so ‘Kerns,’” Joshua replied. “I think we have a shot if we use a variable hollow-point like a Winchester Black Talon, which today is called a ‘Supreme Elite Bonded PDX1.’”
“Why?”
Joshua stuck his right leg out and started searching his pocket for something, pulling out a small piece of metal and handing it to Katie. “That is an example of a reverse tapered jacket. These are specially cut at the hollow to weaken it. When they hit, the six petals open like a flower and the metal inside—which can be our metal—will push into the body.”
Katie knew what regular hollow points were like when they hit, but this was almost pretty in its lethality. She looked up at him. “What caliber? .357?”
“Well, it’s metric, so 9mm,” he told her. “I don’t see us being able to make a lot of different varieties, so I’m thinking we go with 9mm so we can ship to all countries if we want. Since the cause of most deaths is bleed-out, we want to put a lot of shots into the victim. You guys’ stress level when you shoot is one of the main predictors for getting shots on target, but I’m thinking that a limited recoil could help with faster, more accurate follow-up shots. I also want to give you a higher magazine capacity—”
She finished up the obvious benefit. “Minimizing chances of needing to perform an emergency reload.”
He nodded. “The other would be BBs.”
Katie blinked a couple of times. “BBs? Like a Daisy BB gun?”
“Sort of,” Joshua answered. “I’m calling them BBs, but I’m thinking we would use them in shotgun shells.”
“Ohhh,” Katie considered the option. Being able to plant fifteen or twenty small balls into the skin of a demon would be damned helpful. “How do you make round balls? Do
we have to create molds?”
Joshua shook his head. “Can’t do that, too time consuming and problematic. I did as much research as I could, but imagine you have a chunk of clay in your hands. You would roll your hands together until you made the clay a sphere. I understand that is similar, but they have these huge spools of wire. For us to do this, we would have to make spools of wire, then cut the wire to the size we want and manufacture these special disks of steel that will roll the little pieces of wire into balls.”
“What a pain in the ass!” She blew out a breath. “So, new machines?”
He shook his head. “No idea,” he continued when her expression grew curious. “They don’t have pictures of their machine due to proprietary knowledge or something, so I have to design my ideas first and then we get them machined and do tests.”
Katie chewed the inside of her lips for a moment. “Let me get Derek and Korbin involved. I bet we can find something on the internet that you haven’t, or perhaps get someone involved on the government side. They have to be good for something.”
Joshua just kept quiet.
She smiled, slapping her hands on her legs, “So… We have the ideas, we have the path, we need machines, money, skills…” She thought for a moment. “More people, more money… Well, damn.”
She tapped a finger on her lips. “If it was easy, everyone would do it.” She stood up. “Thanks, Josh. I know we’ve been hitting you hard for the knives and swords, but I need you to think about how to do this wire, too.”
“Ahhh.” His eyes lost their focus. “I’ll, uh… I’ll do that.”
She patted him on the shoulder as she passed him, hoping he remembered to go back upstairs when he came back to himself.
Katie tried one more time to get Pandora to answer the question about being able to use her body while she was asleep, but even the threat of withholding donuts didn’t budge her. She wasn’t sure if Pandora was just being demon-y or truly giving up a secret, so she needed to figure out a way to make sure she wouldn’t go on a killing spree when sleeping.
Oh, for fuck’s sake! Pandora growled. You give me donuts, I won’t take your sleeping body out for a serial-killing fest.