“Oh, that’s not a battle bot,” Ian laughed sinisterly, and the others didn’t like the evil cackle. “That’s the first dragon.”
“You’re making another flamethrower?!” Sandy cried out because she damn sure didn’t like Phoenix.
“No,” Lance laughed and that didn’t sit well with his mom. “If you read the stories, dragons do more than breathe fire.”
Before anyone could ask more, Percy lifted a numb hand up to point at the protrusion coming out of the turret. “That’s a railgun,” he gasped in awe.
Very pleased someone appreciated their work, “Yes, it is,” Ian beamed with pride.
“We can move over for a better look but if you’ll notice, it’s in the test area, so we aren’t going to get up close,” Ian told them, and the only one who moved to follow him was Percy. The other five saw Lance, Lilly, and Jennifer going as well and immediately took off so they could keep close. Because they’d all worked on building bots, they could tell it was just a frame packed with mechanical workings and the armor would be bolted on last.
Stopping just beside Ian at the boundary marker, Percy saw the eight-foot-long railgun jutting out of the turret framework. “There’s no way you can even generate enough power to fire this,” he mumbled.
Spotting two rows of what looked like sealed five-gallon buckets inside the hull, “What are all those for?” Mary asked.
“Capacitors,” Ian answered, but was turned looking at the side of Percy’s face. “If you look across the valley at the opposite slope, you can see where we test fired it.”
Turning back to the tank-like body, Percy just guessed it was over nineteen feet long and nearly ten feet wide. “You can’t put enough in something that small to generate enough power to fire one this big.”
“Oh? I don’t know about that,” Ian laughed.
Spinning around, Percy scanned the area and then listened really hard. “You don’t have generators here,” he gasped, then turned to the main building. It was loaded with monitors, lights, and dozens upon dozens of fans and equipment. The fans were spread over the entire main area, inside and outside of the building, and ranged in size with the smallest at three feet wide, and he realized they were being used to draw in fresh air because those outside were just aimed up. Just the fact he could see over a dozen large TVs, computers, fans, and monitors on, “Where are you getting power?” Percy asked.
“That is what we brought all of you here to talk about,” Ian said reaching over and patting Percy on the shoulder.
Studying the railgun, “The one I saw on YouTube the Navy was testing was bigger, and it used something like one megawatt to fire but every time it fired, it eroded the rail,” Dwain told them.
“Yeah, we’ve run into the eroding problem and we’ll just replace the rail after a hundred rounds,” Lance said. “This one takes three-hundred-thousand watts to fire.”
Very interested now, “What size projectile?” Dwain asked.
“Eight-pound dart,” Lance answered and then pointed across the valley at a small clearing eight hundred yards away. “It blew through four inches of solid steel and still blew a two-foot-wide crater in the hillside.”
“Speed?” Dwain gasped.
“Mach 7,” Lance replied with a grin. “We want something that can stop armor.”
“We have some Javelins,” Heath mumbled.
“Key word you used, some,” Ian said. “Eight isn’t that many.”
“Okay, why do I smell stinker mixed with lavender?” Sandy asked.
Lance, Ian, Jennifer, and Lilly busted out laughing as Lilly explained the air freshener system and the boys led the group around the building. They all stopped at seeing a large metal cage holding stinkers. “You have stinkers here?!” Sandy cried out.
“Yeah. How can we study ’em if we don’t keep some handy?” Lance asked.
Rolling her eyes, “You are so your father’s child,” Sandy mumbled. “How many?” she asked in a normal voice.
Not answering, Lance turned to Lilly. “Twenty-six in the cage. Jennifer and I used one yesterday testing the redesign of the fence,” Lilly told him.
Hearing ‘in the cage’, Sandy spun to Lilly, “You have some not in the cage?” she gasped.
Nodding, “Sixteen currently in experiments,” Lilly answered. “Don’t worry, they can’t get out of the experiments.”
Scoffing, “Shhiiiit. If they managed, they damn sure wouldn’t stay here,” Jennifer said. “They would haul ass to get away from here.”
“We’ve proven they don’t have that concept,” Ian spouted out.
Not looking at Ian, “I know I damn sure would,” Jennifer mumbled.
“What’s with the shipping container?” Rhonda asked, and the others turned around and saw a forty-foot shipping container on the hillside below them, well inside the test area. The container was laying length-wise up and down the slope, “It would’ve been easier to put it running with the slope.”
“Not for what we’re using it for,” Lilly sighed. “That’s the only part of the testing area Jennifer and I go in regularly.”
“Not willingly,” Jennifer chimed in.
Taking a deep breath, “So, did your father’s notes help?” Sandy asked.
Both Lance and Ian nodded, “Boy, did they?!” Ian said.
“I wish I would’ve found that broadcast with the scientist talking just to record it because I… we were way too busy then to just listen,” Lance said. “Because of Dad, we know this parasite was designed to wipe out intelligent life.”
“That is pure speculation,” Percy scoffed.
Seeing Lance and Ian about to explain, Lilly stopped them. “Just do the tour and then we can take them to the office. There you can give them a brief overview of what we’ve learned about stinkers,” she stressed hard, “then you can talk about the parasite.”
They both nodded and led the group to the fifth wheels and took them inside the first one. The inside they could see had been ripped out and the interior looked like a lab. “Where in the hell did you get the microscope?” Rhonda asked. The others looked at the counter on the opposite wall that ran the length of the trailer. The microscope was really big and had two fifteen-inch monitors on it.
“You don’t want to know,” Jennifer sighed. “But we did need it.”
“Is it an electron microscope?” Dwain asked.
“No, light,” Lilly answered. “Magnification 1500 so you can see down to 200 nanometers, and the parasite is in the three hundred nanometer range.”
“Why didn’t you get an electron microscope?” Percy asked.
Throwing up his hands, “We couldn’t fucking find one!” Lance shouted, glaring at Lilly and Jennifer.
Holding up her hand with her palm facing Lance, “Talk to the hand, buddy,” Jennifer snapped not even looking at Lance. “The closest one we know of for a fact is in Knoxville and if either of you try for it, I’m breaking legs.”
“And when I splint them, I’m not giving either of you pain medication,” Lilly told them coldly.
“There’s shit going on we need to see and I think we could figure out a way to see it like we did with this one!” Ian cried out.
Giving a long sigh and turning to Mary, “Your son is pissing me off,” Jennifer informed her.
Tilting her head to the side as she nodded, “After you break his legs, I’ll help carry him to Lilly so she can fix them,” Mary offered.
Reaching over and grabbing Ian’s arm to stop him from unleashing on both, “Brah, drop it. I’m not in the mood and just like I said, the moms would agree with them,” Lance told him.
Glaring at Ian, “You thought I would’ve agreed for you to go to Knoxville?!” Mary cried out.
For the first time, Dwain and Heath got to see the typical teenager look on Ian’s face where he thought his mom was being stupid. Rhonda had already seen it and Percy wasn’t paying attention to them as he looked around. “Mom,” Ian groaned. “We could do it.”
Turning to Jenn
ifer, “I’ll break his legs and you can help me carry him,” Mary told her.
“How about you break one and me the other?” Jennifer offered and Mary nodded, liking that idea.
Lilly moved around the lab and gave a brief description of what they could do, and one part of Sandy was very impressed. The other wasn’t because she was reminded of the age difference and Lilly really had graduated college with a PhD.
Leaving the lab, they headed to the other camper and found it still looked like a camper. And like everything associated with the boys, it was spotless. Moving to the back Sandy saw the camper had been altered, the bed was gone and another table had been put in with a very big TV on one wall. Moving back out she noticed a closet, but it had two hasps with heavy locks and if that wasn’t enough, there was a metal bar across the door with a lock on each end. “What’s in here?” Sandy asked.
“Mine and Ian’s shit and no, you can’t look,” Lance popped off. Suddenly, Sandy realized where the porn study material was. Still having trouble processing what the boys thought, Sandy could see how and why they did. For some reason, Sandy wanted to get more porn to let the boys ‘find’, since she had the porn to thank for Lance not moving ahead and along that road. It was then Sandy realized she was probably the only mother in history who’d had that thought. Porn had kept her son a virgin.
Closing the trailer, Ian led them around to the back and stopped when the others saw another building inside the testing area. “That’s a maze and not a building,” Ian told everyone and was moving off when Sandy asked.
“Why did you build a maze?”
“To test the reasoning power and memory of stinkers,” Ian answered still not stopping.
They followed on and saw more traps and other deadly items being tested. Two hours later and very numb, Ian led everyone inside the main building. He showed them the shop area, complete with CNC, lathe, welders, and tools beside a huge, heavy steel table. Moving around the room, he stopped at what everyone saw were six tall coolers that stores used to store beverages in. Everyone jumped back to see a stinker inside each cooler.
“Yeah, we do run experiments in here,” Ian told them. “This is the cold environmental study. The hot one is in test area five. In heat, stinkers can put off a funk.”
Moving up to the glass door on one, Rhonda saw ice on the stinker’s face. “How cold are they?”
Stepping up beside Rhonda, Lilly tapped a display above the door. “Each one is at a different temp. This one’s at minus ten Celsius,” Lilly told her, and Rhonda saw the stinker’s eyes open. Looking the stinker up and down, she saw the straps across its body bolted to the back of the cooler.
Not even jumping when the stinker had opened its eyes, “How cold is that in Fahrenheit?” she asked.
“Fourteen degrees,” Jennifer sighed. “I don’t like metric either but after what we’ve learned, I memorized it.”
“It’s much more accurate,” Ian said as the others looked at the displays and saw the last one was at minus forty. Moving through the group, Rhonda stopped at the last one and this stinker looked different.
“Is it dead?”
Moving along with Rhonda and stopping beside her, “Nope,” Lilly answered. “At minus forty they shut down and freeze solid. And before you ask, minus forty in Celsius is also minus forty in Fahrenheit.”
Stepping back from the cooler but keeping her eyes on the stinker, “You mean they don’t stop until it gets to minus forty?!” Rhonda cried out.
“No, they shut down. But they can thaw out and keep right on going,” Lilly told her. “Granted, it takes three days for them to thaw out but they’re none the worse for wear. We’re testing if the longer they’re frozen, does it have any effects. An ice cube in here would be thawed out again in a month.”
“So cold does slow them down?” Rhonda asked.
“Rhonda, that temperature is inside the stinker, not the cooler,” Lilly told her, and Rhonda’s eyes got wide as she grasped the idea.
“Hey, we’ll tell them about that later,” Lance said and moved along to continue the tour. When they were finished, everyone was led to a real room built on the metal grating. “This is the office,” Lance told them, holding the door open. Windows were on every wall and they could see the office had been built at the very end of the raised floor with the outer wall overlooking the maze in the testing area. The other windows just looked out into the main building.
There were four desks, one on each wall, with several huge monitors on each desk. In the middle of the floor were six chairs, and Sandy was reminded of a classroom.
“Lance, just a few questions,” Sandy said. “Why did you build around the trees for the main building, and why didn’t you just close in the sides with walls instead of tarps?”
“We don’t want this spot to be easily seen from the air. That’s why the trees are still there,” Lance said and Sandy gave a startle. “As for real walls, working with stinkers, well, stinks. So we like to raise the tarps up just for ventilation. To be honest, the only reason the tarps are there is so we can pull them down at night or when it’s dark enough to stop the area from being seen with the lights in here.”
When he was sure his mom was satisfied, Lance turned to Lilly and Jennifer. “Why don’t you two give the rundown on what we know about stinkers?”
Chapter Eight
The research area
“Why do we have to?” Lilly groaned. “Lance, when Jennifer or I give out information we sound boring. You and Ian don’t.”
“You don’t bore me,” Lance told her and Lilly grinned.
“That’s so sweet,” Lilly smiled. “How about you or Ian start off and we can jump in?” Lilly offered.
Shrugging and giving Lilly a wink, Lance turned to his desk and pulled six thickly-packed manila folders from a drawer. He tossed five down and opened one up to pull out a stack of papers stapled together and hand one out to each person in the group. Not surprised in the least, Lilly and Jennifer watched Ian go to his desk and pull out the identical items, even holding up a stack of stapled papers.
Stretching her neck to look over Ian’s shoulder, Jennifer saw the first typed page and knew it was an outline. “Did you make an outline?” Jennifer whispered to Lilly.
Shaking her head Lilly held up a notebook, and Jennifer could see handwritten notes. “I just jotted down stuff,” Lilly told her.
“More than me,” Jennifer said, holding up five-by-nine notecards with notes.
“I saw Lance’s outline before we left this morning to get everyone. That’s why I wanted him or Ian to start off,” Lilly whispered. Jennifer just grinned as Lance moved in front of the six sitting in chairs, and Percy held up his hand.
“Yes, Percy?” Lance chuckled.
“Can I have something to take notes with?” he asked.
Ian reached in his desk and pulled out a spiral-bound notebook. “As long as it never leaves this area,” Ian told him.
Getting up and taking the notebook, Percy looked from Ian to Lance. “I use my own form of shorthand,” Percy said, shocking the two. “Mom was a court stenographer and I learned it and made changes so I could take notes in school. Not even my sister can decipher my shorthand.”
Turning to Ian, “Damn, that’s smart as fuck!” Lance cried out, and Sandy gave a groan. She was still getting used to the casual cursing but could tolerate it when anger was involved. But since her own mouth had taken a turn for the worse, she wasn’t going to say anything.
“Brah, we aren’t learning shorthand,” Ian proclaimed. “Our computers are locked and we dictate everything as we work, so forget it.”
As Lance tried to convince Ian, Jennifer held up a headset to the others. “We all wear these when we’re working and can dictate to our computer anywhere in the research area,” she told them as Ian threatened Lance with bodily harm if he didn’t drop it.
“Fine,” Lance sighed and turned to the six. “First, the outline may seem scattered but in the end, you’ll understand w
hy,” Lance said as Percy made squiggly lines on the page but was looking at Lance. “Now, has anyone noticed the stinkers have gotten faster since this started?”
Leaning toward Heath, “Told ya they were faster,” Dwain said.
“Yes. Now, we didn’t start real work in the research area until just before Lilly joined us and we don’t have recorded data on their speed at the outbreak of this parasite. But we do have reports that say their speed was three miles an hour. Now when we tested it ourselves Lilly was already with us, and we confirmed the average speed of the stinkers then was three point six miles per hour. Some were a little faster and others slower but that was the average we came up with.” It was on the tip of Sandy’s tongue to ask just how many stinkers they’d used for the test group but stopped; she didn’t want to know for certain. Whatever number Lance gave, she knew she wouldn’t like it.
Moving to stand beside Lance, and unlike Lance, Ian was glancing at his outline. “Our last speed test just wrapped up this week and the average fastest speed was seven point four miles an hour,” Ian said, then looked at the three. “Now, that’s a huge increase in just six months but we think,” he stressed very hard, “that we’re nearing the limit to how fast stinkers can move. Because as they speed up, their balance goes to shit. Their speed is increasing, but their balance isn’t. It’s still the same as when we first tested it.”
Throwing one hand in the air, “How in the flying fuck can you test balance on stinkers?!” Rhonda blurted out.
When Lance lowered his papers to answer, “Lance,” Lilly called out, making him turn. “I’ll tell her later, just continue,” Lilly smiled and turned to Rhonda. “Trust me, you want me to tell you.” Liking the sound of that, Rhonda nodded as Lance lifted his papers back up but didn’t even look at them.
“Now as everyone has seen, heard, and some experienced, when a stinker grabs, they don’t let go unless they want to,” Lance said, and Ian leaned back to tap his keyboard. One of the larger monitors on the wall blinked. Filling the screen was a stinker holding something attached to a wall.
Forsaken World | Book 6 | Redemption Page 13