by Vance Huxley
Liz wouldn’t make sense for a while, so Sharyn, Tessa, Matthew and Casper went to get the food from the canteen. It took until the end of the meal for the smith to calm down enough to discuss how many Rambos and maces the defenders needed. Even then,Liz’s excitement kept the group amused until everyone had helped to clear the table. The talk revolved around the springs and what they would make, of course, but also about trying to get materials for more maces. Searching the burned-out ruins of small garages and sheds went up the list of priorities, as the metal hammer heads would still be intact. They all had a good laugh about how Bernie would reactto another scavenger hunt over the same ground. Stephen suggested adding banisters to the list, the better ones were made of straight-grained hardwoods so he could split and shape them into shafts.
“No brandy and cigars, just tea or small beer.” Harold raised his small beer. “But now you find out why you are really here. We are building our own very crude muskets, which is why I invited you, Stephan. I’ll need more stocks and forestocks, because the three spares you made are already in test weapons.”
“I’ll go through our woodpile for any suitable bits of timber.” Stephan frowned gently, thinking about it. “Forestocks would be another use for banisters. I would have been curious if you’d suddenly wanted… How many are you making?”
Harold confessed he didn’t know, too many to pretend he needed the stocks for repairs. “But keep quiet about it, because this is the sort of secret every gang in the city will kill us for.” Sharyn wasn’t known for being alarmist and Harold saw her words hit home. Even Liz sobered up.
“So why risk it?” From their expressions several others thought Stephan had a point.
“We are growing and need more protection, especially becausea large part of our population is women.” Harold looked pointedly around the current group.
“And most of those are young women.” Stephan, in his late twenties and single, smiled. “Not that I’m objecting, just making the point.”
Sharyn didn’t smile back at him. “Exactly, we are creating a pool of women under thirty as well as having so many tradespeople. Sooner or later someone will look at this place, and at how many troops Soldier Boy has, and decide the losses are worth what they’d get.”
“The more attackerswe can shoot before it gets to hand to hand, the better.A volley of muskets at close range will also demoralise any attackers, shock them. The more the merrier.” The faces around the table understood what Harold meant. The Hot Rods were frightened of the Murphies’ muskets, even if they were slow and inaccurate.
Tessa put in her sixpennorth. “I’ve lived in the zoo and they won’t rate the armed women when they count fighters.” She curled a lip, remembering. “They don’t rate women at all, or not for fighting, unless they are Barbies.”
“Caddi.” For a moment Harold thought Casper would spit. “He’d love to get the women.”
“So would the Geeks.” Emmy’s hand twitched towards her belt knife. She still thought Einstein had set up the assassination attempt that had cost Pippa her hand. “Either would want the tradespeople as well. Both are always bitching that ours are better.”
Harold sobered his voice and face. “How many secrets do you want to have to keep, Stephan?”
“What? Oh.” Stephan thought about it. “I’ll be curious, but if I don’t know I can’t say the wrong thing. How much do I need to know?”
“That’s all for now, thanks.We’llwant more hilts of course, for the Rambos and any repairs.” Harold glanced across at Liz. “Some of the hilts will be a bit different. We’re trying to make the machetes and Rambos easier to handle for the smaller men and women.”
“That’s not a problem. In that case I’ll go now, and thank you. For the option.” Stephan left, sober-faced and deep in thought.
“Do I need to leave?”
“No Ru. What do you keep pestering me about?”
“Something better than a crossbow. We get them? The new muskets?” Ru’s happy smile was infectious, especially when Harold didn’t say no.
“You’ll get one if you can handle it. I’ll show you now.” Harold went into his bedroom for a few moments and came out with a test version. All the speculation stopped as he put a half-dozen musket balls and the musket on the table.
“It’ll be good for one shot, but then they’re slow.” Patty had beenout at night withHarold, testing repairs. “Muskets take forever to reload.”
“No good for Bess then. Or maybe a good idea, it will conserve ammo.” Matthew ducked away as Bess took a half-hearted swipe at him. Despite her protest, everyone knew Bess usually emptied her pistol as fast as possible.
“That’s a big bullet, but the barrel is shorter than the usual muskets. Is it lighter?” Ru’s eyes were alight because this would definitely nail thebanchod beyond knife range.
“How hard does it kick?” Casper wouldn’t be bothered by the recoil, but he had to be wondering how many others could use the weapons.
“Give me a second! First of all, you are right, Ru. The barrel is a bit shorter and also lighter because it’s steel tube. The bore isn’t as big either. It’s still thirteen millimetres but hopefully the kick will be less, which answers you, Casper.” Harold smiled at Patty, waiting for her reaction because Tessa already had a big grin. “Watch this.”He flicked the simple catch and the weapon broke open like a shotgun. “Poke the load in there.” He clicked it shut and pulled back the big hammer. “Stick a cap in there and boom. It will slow Bess, but not too much.”
“Oh man, I want one.” Alfiestared at the weapon. “The assholes will think they’ve survived the volley and rush in before we can reload. That’s what the Hot Rods reckon they do against the Murphies.But a few seconds later, ours will go boom again.”
“Not yet. This needs testing and then taking apart and inspecting, and maybe altering and testing some more.” Harold handed the musket to Tessa. “They’ll be stored in pieces as spares so nobody realises they are complete weapons. My apprentice will now demonstrate.” Tessa rapidly reduced the musket to four pieces and three bolts. “Those will be in different boxes until we need them.”
“It’ll still take time to put in a wad, the ball, a wad, and powder. We’ll have to be careful with the powder.” Patty had only loaded a musket twice but already hated the lengthy procedure. “We won’t be able to ram it all in tight. Will that matter?”
“I don’t know about the ramming, and hoped someone could help with that. Perhaps with a cartridge?” Harold looked hopefully at Liz. “They’d be faster if everything went in at once, like a shotgun?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got brass from Yale locks, door handles and ornaments.” Liz shook her head in frustration. “I’ll never get enough made. It’s the time,because I have to make the stupid things individually. How would you make thathammer set off a cartridge anyway?”
“Would it burn through cloth? The cap thing on the side I mean.” Ru looked towards Patty. “I was just thinking the powder could go in a bag so it wouldn’t spill or need ramming. We could make a little hole in the bag before loading. If the spark will burn through a bag it’ll speed the job up,and this way wedon’t need brass.”
“I saw film of the Americans doing that on a Civil War re-enactment thing. They shoved one long sausage down the barrel and rammed it home.” Doll’s brow furrowed in concentration. “It was in a cannon, so the lot went in from the front including the cannon ball, but surely it would work the other way?”
“I reckon, and that solves one problem.” A big one that Harold hadn’t found a solution for. “I worried about the ball sometimes just shoving the first wad out of the way and rolling off down the barrel, followed by the powder. If it’s all inside a baggie there’s no problem.”
“Is there a way of testing some different types of cloth, to find out what works? Until we sort that out we can cut a hole in the bag as we load. Can you spare one of those for me”—Patty glanced at Ru and Doll—”us, to experiment?”
“What’s the range?” Casper eyed the bits and the length of the barrel. “The Hot Rods reckon the Murphies wait until it’s point-blank, but it’s about fifty yards down to the neutral road. Could we hit anything at that distance?”
“If you do it’ll tear a big nasty hole in a man at that sort of range, according to Mack. Muskets aren’t what you’d call accurate, but with practice the musketeers should be able to hit a crowd at fifty yards.” Harold could see the disappointment on some faces. “It isn’t exactly a superweapon. A crossbow has more range and is probably more accurate.”
“But it’s brutal, noisy and scary, and close-up will blow a hole clean through who it hits. With luckit’ll kill the one behind as well. The Hot Rods worry about those few Murphy muskets a lot more than they do about all the crossbows.If we can reload faster than crossbows that’s good enough for me, since we’ll be using them on crowds.” Matthew looked from the weapon to Harold. “How much practice can we get?”
“Not enough,even if I increase the number of tests at night. Whoever has a musket can have at least one shot to experience thefire and the fury, and the kick. After that,they can practice loading and aiming until their fingers are raw.” Harold laughed at the long faces. “Hey, if we have enough of them the scroats will die of sheer fright.”
Bessdidn’t seem keen, then her face brightened as she picked up one of the musket balls. “If we aim below the waist and it kicksharder than expected, then at worst it blows their heads off. If it doesn’t kick that badly, I can’t see anyone getting up with one of these somewhere between his nuts and his neck.”
Tessa rolledone across her fingers and smirked. “I’ll let you know how hard it kicks.”
“Hell, yes. Apprentice? So all that time you pair are spending in Harold’s hidey hole, supposedly getting some privacy away from his sister?” Doll broke up laughingwhile Harold felt ablush starting.
“Ask no questions, sister. I never said why we were in there.” Tessa still wore a big smirk.
So did Doll, now. “No, but everyone has come up with an answer. A few were wondering if there would be room for all those guns, you two and Mercedes.”
Everyone had started laughing now, except Harold.”We were fixing guns.”
Tessa looked him up and down. “Stripping, lubricating, testing the action. I swear I never realised it could be so much fun until Mercedes mentioned it.”
“Don’t you start as well!”
“Well you’d better let me have some real action then.”Tessa lost her smile and teasing tone. “When do I get to shoot something?”
“When we finish here?” Harold sighed in relief as the idea of getting to actually shoot a gun took Tessa’s mind off winding him up. “If anyone has any bright ideas about the kick, about a way to let more people try it, please let me know.”
“I would like to try a musket, to see how bad it is.” Ru looked a bit worried. “It looks very heavy to hold steady. If the kick is a lot harder than a crossbow, that could be a problem.”
“Me too. How heavy is it?”Bess gestured at Matthew. “Neither of us is a weight-lifter, especially since Matthew’s arm never quite healed right.”
“Since you aren’t having to ram a new load in, the barrel could be rested on something. Veronica found some books that showed a long stick to support the barrel, but that has to be awkward to set up. We’ll probably be shooting from the walls but the barrel will slither about if it’s resting on bare brick. A sandbag would be better, if we had any sacks.” Even as Harold finished speaking, Patty and Sharyn looked at each other and grinned. Sharyn quickly explainedthat most of the damaged curtains, beddingand clothes from demolished ruins were washed and saved for cleaning rags. Making sand or earth-bags to provide extra protection on the walls wouldn’t even make the sewing circle curious.
Eventually, the discussion moved back to the caravan springs.Liz couldonly make a limited number of saleable weapons, becausethedefenders needed the rest. Themaces looked brutal and would have psychological impact, while the Rambos could be used by smaller fighters instead of a machete. They all agreed thata man with a baseball bat wouldn’t want to face a mace,even a woman with one. Casper brought the mood down, pointing out that the GOFS would produce maces and Rambos as well. Then everyone would have them and Orchard Close would lose the deterrent factor.Helooked downright despondent because the GOFS might even be upset at losing some heavy metal business.
“Cripes, I was only trying to help!” Liz looked alarmed and a bit guilty.
“But they will help, Liz. Initially,the new blades will put anyone off attacking, and by timethey’ve made their own?” Harold tapped the pieces of musket on the table.
“You bloodthirsty lot will have more muskets than any of them can dream of.” Liz had her smile back.
Harold admitted to another ace; it was time he came clean with this group. “Not just muskets. Over time I’ve also made some Mad Maxes,to give us extra weapons shooting modern ammo.”
“The different sizes of tube! I knew it! What will they look like?” Liz startedbouncing up and down in her seat again. “Have you made one?”
“That tube won’t handle modern ammo.” Harold put abig, clumsy single shot pistol on the table, opened it andunloaded a long, fatrifle bullet. The breech consisted of a hingedblock of iron with a shaped groove in it. “The barrel came from less than half a rifle barrel. This is a single shot 50 calibre, slow to reload and clumsy,but brutally effective if it hits. That odd stock is so you can brace it to help with the recoil, and even then only someone with really strong wrists should risk it.I’ve made two of these andeight other patched-together weapons. Remember, this is a very big secret.”
“That’s a pity. Knowing about this lot might help back them off.” Casper picked upthe Mad Max pistol, tested the weight, and tried aiming it. “A bullet like that will go through a car.”
“The ones with hardened centres will, but keep quiet about that as well. These are only spare parts cobbled together, but if anyone knew I made them they’d come after me. That or they’d try to capture people to force me to work for them.” Everyone realised there were at least two people like that in the room. Sharyn and Tessa knew Harold well enough to realise there were more he’d buckle under to save.
Ru kept her smileuntil she tried to aim the pistol. “Oh well, I suppose someone like Logan will get this. On the bright side, ten unexpected modern bullets and however many big nasty muskets should stop the first scroat to try and kidnap anyone. Before that, with a bit of luck, Harold and Shooters Two to Fourwill use those big rifles to kill whoever is in charge. Five if Roy is at home. Do you need a Shooter Six?” Everyone looked at her but nobody answered, because some people here didn’t know the identity of Shooter Three. “What? I’m just saying. With four big rifles and all those little ones?”
“It’s no bigger a secret than the others we’ve spoken of tonight.” Harold watched Patty as he spoke and she nodded very slightly. He waved a hand towards Patty. “Ru, Liz, Doll, meet Shooter Three.”
“I knew it, and you kept saying no!” Doll leant back from the table, her eyes wide inshock.
“We guessed because we saw her head out to the annex with a long something, bigger than a two-two, and we were there when Harold spoke to the Annex.” Matthew looked apologetic as several shot him accusing looks. “We heard all the guessing but Harold never said who it was, so we kept quiet.” Bess nodded in agreement.
Ru wasn’t that surprised, but her eyes narrowed in accusation. “You told methe kick on a big rifle would be too much for a small woman?”
“I thought so, but it wasn’t once I knew what to do. Harold inflicted some serious nagging, and I bruised my shoulder at first even with the little one.” Patty preened, buffing her nails on her lapel. “Then he fixed me up with a big rifle, a secret one.” Her face sobered as she continued. “The actual rifle has to staya secret because it’s a real poser job, one thatwill upset Caddi.” She explained the Winchester.
“I could lear
n to shoot a little one.” A whole new worldhad suddenly opened out for Ru. “Just in case you find another bigger rifle, or Patty is in the bath or something?”
“After me, sister. I’ve been working on him longer.” Tessa preened a little.
“Ooh, do I have to do the stripping and lubricating thing first?” That was the first truly risqué thing Harold ever had heard Ru say, and it stopped everyone for a moment. Her hand went to her mouth. “Sorry.” Ru recovered and smiled. “You’ve all corrupted me. That and, well, a real rifle?”
“Don’t worry, Patty hasn’t done any of that.” Harold carried on quickly as he saw Patty’s mouth open, “And it isn’t necessary. I’ve got all the apprentices I can deal with right now.” Harold looked slowly round the group, trying to calm them down. “We will be testing, very carefully, to see who has a good eye, and the muskets and crossbows will help with that.”
“What about you, Casper?” Bess lookedfrom Casper to the musket.He seemed a good fit for one.
“Only close-up at a crowd, and if we’ve got plenty of them, because I’m useless at shooting. That’s why I have a shotgun if there’s real trouble.” Casper pointed at his face. “It’s my eyes.”
Ru had been thinking and now she looked at Patty, buthesitated before finally speaking. “If your rifle is a secret, then there’s fivealtogether. Do you need anothershooter?”
“How many shooters for rifles do you need, Harold?” Bess and Ru leaned forward a bit, hopefully.Bess licked her lips, quickly. “If there’s at least one spare big one.”
“Four Mad Maxesare rifles, then we havefive big ones including mine, and four of the little ones, the two-twos. Those need an accurate shooter at any sort of range. Patty keeps one because her rifle has limited ammo.” Harold smiled ruefully. “Luckily she usually hits what she aims at. We also need people accurate with pistols, preferably different people.”
Patty realised she might have an answer to her limited ammo. “Are the Mad Max rifles single shots? I could use one until I need the five quicker shots.”