Chapter 59 – Basic Training

  Nona squirmed in the passenger seat as they headed off post. She had a duffel bag on her lap that she hugged to her chest.

  “Hey dad, can we stop for McDonalds?” asked Howie from the back.

  Roxy smacked him. “We just ate.” Then she reached up and tugged on Cole’s sleeve. “Hey, for real though, I could go for a McFlurry.”

  Cole rolled his eyes. “I need to pick some extra ear-pro up for Nona. There’s a Micky D’s in the Wally World.”

  Howie had expressed interest in coming to shoot some steel. Roxy, Cole was pretty sure, just didn’t want to leave him alone with Nona at his house. Which was fine. A little jealousy just meant she was serious. After a quick pit stop, Cole got on the highway and headed south to his new place. While Kickers had unlimited use of the on-post range, it didn’t have a refrigerator full of beer. Now it had turned into a range day and cookout. After a quick stop off for ear-pro and ice cream, Cole drove them to his new house.

  Nona seemed nervous. No, scratch that, she seemed terrified. Whether it was too many people, Cole’s driving, or the impending training, he couldn’t say. Just add it to the list of weird Nona things at this point.

  He listened to Roxy and Howie bicker and joke like an old married couple until he pulled off the road and onto his long dirt drive.

  “Woah, sweet,” said Howie when the house came into view. “When you said farmhouse, I pictured something different.”

  “Was it a barn?” asked Cole.

  “What?”

  “Was it actually a barn you pictured when I said ‘farmhouse’?”

  Howie pursed his lips and didn’t answer.

  Roxy grinned and pushed him. “Ha! It totally was.”

  “It’s not that weird,” insisted Howie. “It’s like a house for cows.”

  Cole pulled up and cut the engine. The others filed out and followed him inside, where he gave a short tour that ended in punching in the keypad code for the armory.

  “Door out back has the same code,” said Cole. “Technically the whole armory is a gun safe.

  While Roxy and Howie oggled his collection, he pulled Nona aside. “I’m going to assume you’re a complete beginner at this and treat you as such. If you feel I’m treating you like an idiot at any point, shut up about it and let me do my thing anyway. Got it?”

  She nodded, looking at the wall of weapons. “None of these are otherworld armaments?” she asked. “I can shoot them without being keyed?”

  Cole raised an eyebrow. “No, I can’t take otherworld armaments off base. All of these are Earth-made.”

  “But there’s so many different kinds,” she said.

  Cole followed her gaze. While his collection was getting pretty varied, there wasn’t anything here that even came close to looking like the eclectic weapons the gods had pulled out of their heads on Vael and Curahee.

  He reached up and pulled down one of his home-built pistol-caliber carbines and checked it clear. He grabbed a few magazines and a box of 9mm ammo and headed out the back door with Nona in tow. He adjusted his pass-thru ear pro, then did the same for Nona’s and handed them over. “Check, check. Can you hear me?”

  “Yeah,” she said, fidgeting with the bulky earmuffs.

  Cole walked over to the bench and set everything down before turning back to Nona. “Four universal rules of firearm safety. First, treat every gun as if it was loaded. Even if you know it’s empty, set it down, walk away, and come back, assume a bullet found its way into the gun."

  “Like Roxy’s ability?”

  “What?” Cole thought for a second. “No, her ability actually puts more rounds in. This is just a general safety. Second, never point a gun at anything you don’t intend to kill. Third, Keep your finger,” Cole made a trigger pull motion. “OFF the trigger until you’re ready to fire, and if the weapon has a safety switch, keep it on safe until you’re ready to fire. Last, know your target and what lies beyond it.”

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  Cole pulled back the charging handle on his AR-9 carbine to expose the chamber. “See? No round. We know this weapon is safe.”

  He showed Nona how to load the magazines and then slotted one into the carbine and charged it. “Now, the weapon is loaded and ready to fire.” He raised it, looked behind and called “Ears?”

  “Good,” said Roxy

  “Good,” said Howie, giving him the thumbs up.

  Cole flipped the weapon off safe and fired, rewarded a moment later with the echoing ping of the round hitting steel. Nona jumped beside him. He kept the muzzle pointed downrange as he handed the gun off to Nona. “Now you try.”

  Nona took the rifle, lifting it with surprise. “It’s so light!” she said.

  “It’s made to be light for competition,” said Cole. He glanced back toward the front of the house. “That thing’s probably worth more in parts than my truck.”

  He took a few moments to adjust her stance, leaning her slightly forward, squaring her feet, bringing her elbows in, and raising the rifle stock in her shoulder so that her cheek could rest of the butt stock.

  “When you’re ready, put the red dot over one of those close targets. Then flip that switch forward with your thumb. This trigger doesn’t have any take-up before the break, so just squeeze until it fires.”

  Nona flipped the safety off, closed her eyes, and fired directly into the dirt.

  Roxy burst out laughing behind them, which made Nona glare and almost turn around with the rifle until Cole grabbed the handguard and twisted it down range. Cole sighed. This was going to be a long road.

  He walked her back through the process, telling her to keep her eyes open and the red dot over her target. By this time, her hands were shaking, even though she’d only fired a single shot and the rifle was extremely light. It was just nerves, which was still weird. It was like she was some remote tribesman that had never seen a gun before.

  “Don’t flinch or expect the gun to buck. Focus on your point of aim, let it recoil, and then bring your dot back over your target again, ok?”

  “Ok,” she said. She brought the rifle level again, tucking it into the pocket. She did pick up nuances fast and internalized instruction immediately, for all the woman was gun-shy. But she was wound up tight.

  Cole pushed her shoulders down and wiggled her elbows. “Relax. You’re on the safe end of it. The only thing that should be tight is your grip—but not so much that you start shaking. The gun is a tool. You are in control.”

  That seemed to help, and Nona took another deep breath before firing. This time, she was rewarded by the ping of a hit on one of the targets.

  “Good. Now the one to the left of it.”

  Nona pivoted slightly and fired again. Dirt splattered from the berm between the two targets. She hissed.

  “Don’t worry, just take your time, line it up, and fire again.”

  Nona growled and tucked the gun in again. Once more, Cole loosened up the parts of her he could see getting stiff and tense. She fired and Cole heard the metallic ping once again.

  “Now, we’re going to fire the rest of the mag. Each time, pick a different target, line up your shot, and shoot. If you miss, don’t lower your rifle, just keep going.”

  Cole watched her shoot, reflecting that it was going to cost a fortune in ammo to get her trained up—but it was a fortune he could afford, now. While she shot, missing about as many shots as she made, Cole loaded up the second magazine. He already had it ready when the gun ran dry. Nona looked at the rifle, then to Cole. “Is it broken?”

  He laughed. “Just empty. Put it on safe, first. Then,” he pointed to the mag release on the right side, “Push this to release the empty magazine.”

  She dropped the mag, which clattered to the table and then to the ground. She made to pick it up, but Cole stopped her. “Don’t worry about it. You always want to be more concerned with getting the next magazine into the weapon than worrying about what happened to the last one. It slots in this direction. Take it, wrap your hand around it, and push it up into the bottom, hard. Then slap it from below to make sure it’s in.

  “Heyo,” said Roxy, Cole looked back at her grin and suggestive eyebrows and chuckled himself. Maybe later, he thought. With the extra guest rooms, having his team stay the night would be no issue. Even Besson was joining them once the cooking got started.

  Cole showed Nona how to release the bolt and then had her move to the next closest set of targets. “Take your time,” he said. “This is all we’re doing today, getting comfortable loading, using the safety, and putting rounds through the carbine in different stances.

  Nona looked back at Howie, who was going through the practical shooting course with a pistol, dashing between the three stations.

  “We’ll get there,” he said. “But that’s advanced move-and-shoot. First, we’ll get you up on stationary targets. Then transition to rifle caliber carbines and pistols. After that we’ll start practical shooting, and last we’ll do long-range and close-quarters combat in a shoot house. How are you doing?”

  “It’s… quite satisfying, once you’re accustomed to it,” admitted Nona. “I’d like to continue.”

  Cole kept loading and swapping.

  “Bricker told me he’d authorize you to disclose your circumstances to me,” mentioned Cole. Instantly, all the tension returned to Nona’s body. “But it’s your choice. I won’t force you to.”

  She relaxed somewhat and looked at him from the corner of her eye for a moment. She seemed as though she might say something but instead went back to firing.

  After that magazine ran dry, she stopped before taking the next. “I know what other Kickers call me. Creep. Freak. Coward. Sneak.”

  “Don’t forget slob,” said Cole. “I’ve seen your billet.”

  She switched the gun to safe and lowered the muzzle. She frowned, far-off look in her eyes. “I’m not ready, just yet. I’m grateful, know that. Working with people other than myself… it’s not something I’ve practiced much. And it’s hard to look past how others see me.”

  Cole sat back on the bench. “We’ll get you there,” he said. “Soon enough, people will see you as Blink, just another bad bitch on a team of kick-ass warfighters.” He held up the magazine. “But that’s a long road. Now, back to work.”