“Wait! These are straws! Can they be curved?” Stim asked suddenly.
Ben grinned. “Yes, they can.”
Stim turned to his commander. “This opens up all kinds of possibilities for armor configuration!” Stim suggested. “Four layers for the torso, Configuration Three armor for arms and legs. Lightweight and highly bullet resistant.”
Fisher was nodding to himself as he was thinking along the same lines. He looked to Ben. “I hope the Captain’s team doesn’t take too long to get this to deployment. I’d feel a lot better sending my team out knowing they were protected this well.”
Ben nodded. “Kendricks is a good man. He understands the necessity of expediency, but no product is released until it’s proven not to have serious flaws.” Ben frowned as he examined the rough outer surface of the impact sites on a plate. “Maybe a rubber coating to absorb or contain the displaced energy?”
“Walking around looking like a jumping cholla cactus is better than not being able to walk,” Dunno suggested. That got nods from his teammates.
Ben turned his head to look toward Larry, Curly, and Moe. “How did those skeletons do? Any visible signs of damage from the kinetic energy transfer?” he asked Evelyn.
“They’re all showing broken bones, but they just took five armor-piercing rounds to the chest. To walk away from that with a few broken bones would be an achievement,” she suggested.
“One got through,” Ben reminded her.
The three commandos stared at Ben in surprise.
“You don’t give someone time to put five rounds into you!” Stim exclaimed.
Ben raised his hands in surrender. “Okay. Let’s clean up. Unless you wanted to do another test?”
Fisher looked at him with a grin. “I have some spent uranium rounds. They punch through almost anything. Seeing how your plates shred the bullets, it’s probably best not to use them here. Clean-up is a bitch.”
Ben nodded, and they got to work tearing down their test site.
It had been a good night.
-=-
Murray ensured the door to his office was locked again and looked through the peephole to ensure the Ruskie wasn’t outside listening in.
He couldn’t believe his luck. A week after he received the activation orders as a supplier, the prime target waltzes into his establishment!
When he found the email in his inbox, his heart had leaped into his throat, but after reading the damning message, he was trembling with righteous anger. To know this man, living on American soil, was conspiring with the commies to send advanced weaponry to the Kremlin was more than he could stomach. How could the government be so blind? He openly had Russian double agents acting as his bodyguards! One of them just returned to Mother Russia with secret plans stolen from the Pentagon!
The blonde traitor to her uniform may have turned off the interior cameras, but he still had a peephole from his office, which let him see into the gun range. He’d witnessed everything! Another secret would be going to the Commie bastards if he didn’t get the word out.
He was in a privileged position as his shop was an armory for the local militia. This gave him a number he could call to reach a contact who had the means to get to everyone who’d been activated for this mission. Not one of the leaders, but a field commander with the ability to pass the word.
On the third ring, the line connected. “Loyal to the flag,” a voice said tersely.
“Honored to serve our country,” Murray said in response.
“Report,” the voice commanded.
“The fella, the prime target identified in the activation message, he’s here at my place of business. Tonight, of all nights! He has the Ruskie bitch with him and some people who aren’t wearing US military uniforms. Hard-eyed sonsabitches too! He’s testing some new personal armor. It looks like it might be a game-changer. We can’t let this shit get to the Ruskies too!”
“Shit! I’ll notify the others. Thanks!” The line went dead.
Murray sat back and pondered what actions he’d just put under way. Hopefully, it wouldn’t get back to him. He’d lose the burner, just in case.
Once these traitorous customers left, he had to open up the cellar where he kept the special ammo stockpile to supply special patriotic missions.
Tonight, he was expecting more visitors. A lot more.
-=-
As Ben and the special forces men loaded the test weapons and targets into their trucks, Ben got a closer look at Moe and its battered internal skeleton.
“Shit! It looks like it was run over by my truck!” he lamented.
Fisher snorted. “That many hits of armor-piercing rounds wouldn’t look like a love tap.”
Ben nodded begrudgingly.
The man moved closer. “We heard the Marines were able to do some special night training from your tower.”
Ben caught the scowl Evelyn immediately flashed at Fisher and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Her eyes moved to his, and her expression became defensive. “The General’s standing order is to leave your home out of the assets we have access to.”
“I already said it was okay. We tested it for noise, and there was no discernable noise within the interior bedrooms. I’m fine with it as long as it happens between midnight and six in the morning and you’re willing to give me a signed agreement that any damages to my property from this usage would be repaired to my satisfaction and a waiver from you accepting responsibility for all risks from the activities performed from my property.”
“We’re agreeable to those terms,” Fisher said, ignoring the barbs from the sergeant’s eyes.
Ben looked around at the significant snow covering… everything. December this year wasn’t as cold as it typically was, but they’d still received abundant snow.
“Are you sure you want to be doing this in these conditions?” Ben asked.
All three commandos grinned at him. “This is perfect!” Stim said.
Ben shrugged. “When we get back, I’ll show you where to make your connections on the tower. I’m sure the sergeant will assist you in identifying the best termination point within the forest,” Ben said, fixing his own stern look on her. She huffed but finally nodded.
The drive home was quick, and Liliya picked up Rose from Ben’s place to walk her home. Stim and Dunno rushed into the Spa to tell the others they had special permission to run zip-line drills from Ben’s tower. That got everyone hustling to get on their winter combat gear. Evelyn went with them but wasn’t smiling about it.
Ben grabbed a couple of shovels, got his tools and a towel for the glass panels, then took Fisher up to the deck. They shoveled the roof clear then Ben undid the panels. They stored them safely off to the side.
“There is a mounting point under the table at the center of the deck. It connects to the frame of the tower. If you have any vibration dampening mechanism-”
Fisher smiled. “We got the set-up from the Marines, so we have the same equipment, and it’ll work the same way.”
“Oh! Okay then. The waivers?” Ben said, and Fisher was prepared for that as well. He pulled them from an inner pocket and handed them over.
Ben smiled. “The Marines prepared you well.”
“Thanks for running interference with the Sergeant,” Fisher said.
Ben nodded. “Evelyn, and the General, for that matter, are just looking out for my best interests though they can both get a little overzealous about it.” Ben thought about that. “Which is definitely preferable to the opposite.”
Fisher nodded.
“I’ll set up your access to the back door of the tower between midnight and six in the morning. The code will be 38473.
“Got it, thanks! Have a good night!”
Ben waved as he headed for the stairs. “You as well. Be careful up here. It’s slippery.” That got a nod.
Once Ben programmed the lock on the back door, he went into the house and gave kisses to his family.
“How did it go tonight?” Tina asked with a sweet smile.
“Really well! I think this armor will make a big difference!” he said with a smile and got hugs from Tina and Lucy.
This was the best reward of all.
-=-
Agent Montrose was cursing her luck. And the bastards upstairs who decided to reassign her from Organized Crime to the Anti-Terrorist division.
The assignment of tracking the movements of the domestic terrorist group America’s Answer was frustrating, but discovering their first active campaign was actually targeting Ben Shepherd was too much of a coincidence for her. She’d made discreet inquiries and received confirmation that her previous interaction with the man was why she was chosen to head this team.
She hadn’t shirked her duties, though. Her keen intellect, laser focus, and excellent management of her team’s resources meant she’d made tremendous headway in identifying and tracking its members and was preparing to tighten the noose on the organization.
That’s when she intercepted the activation message for their next campaign, once again directed at Mr. Shepherd. The thing was, the order hadn’t come from the terrorist cell’s leader, retired US Army Colonel Lindsay Brackett. His vocal disapproval of how the last few presidents managed their military assets had led to him being asked to quietly step down.
Since then, he had been silent, but now they were learning he hadn’t been idle. Carefully and silently recruiting like-minded military personnel who’d been scrubbed from active duty and civilians with a similar mindset, he built a network of his patriots. Going back through the communications they’d collected, it looked like he hadn’t ordered the first campaign against Ben Shepherd either. His network had been compromised.