“All in good time, young man,” Avi said.
“What kind of resources are you going to need?” Jenny asked.
“Space in here for a workshop, for starters. I want to move all my things from my shop at the house. We both know the security problems I had there a few months ago. We don’t need that happening again. Then a range. Weapon training will be paramount. Then some outdoor training area would be nice, hidden in the trees if at all possible.”
“What kind of outdoor training?”
“Basic boot camp obstacle course, and a good tactical training area, something a bit more difficult than a basic range. Most of that can be built rather cheap.”
“I’ll have Earl get with a couple contractors he knows, people who can be relied on for their discretion. When would you like to start with him?”
“Tomorrow morning, at my place?”
“Why at your place?” Casey asked.
“You like to fish?”
The next morning Casey arrived at Avi’s house in Indiana, unsure of what to expect.
“Come on in, it’s unlocked,” Avi said from inside the house.
He walked through the entryway and into the main part of the house, admiring the open floor plan. He looked across the dining area to see a large deck outside, where he joined Avi and Nadia.
“Casey, meet my wife, Nadia.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am.”
“Just call me Nadia. First names around here.”
“Now I know where Jenny got it.”
“Sit down, son. Your breakfast isn’t going to get any hotter,” Avi said.
After a breakfast of eggs, bagels, and juice, Nadia got up and said, “You boys go ahead with what you need to do. I’ll clean up.”
“Let’s go down to my lab for a couple things before we set out. What are you laughing about?”
“Laughing at myself. I almost made a gaffe. I was wondering if there was any bacon with those eggs. I caught myself before I said anything.”
“You should have said it. Then we all could have had a laugh.”
Avi went into the great room and slid the entertainment center aside and opened the elevator door behind.
“Whoa, just like at the office.”
“Where do you think Jenny got the idea? Follow me.”
When they walked into the workshop, Casey commented on some curious belts he saw hanging on the far wall. They had what looked like a small motor and a touch screen.
“What are those?” he asked
“Something I never should have invented. A most dangerous technology. In the wrong hands, they can change the world as we know it.”
“What do they do?”
“I’ll tell you that story later. There’s not enough time now.”
“What are we down here for?”
“My fishing gear. We’ll come back in the afternoon and clear everything out of here.”
“Why move everything?”
“I had a break in a few months ago.”
“What was stolen?”
“We’ll talk about that later.”
Thirty minutes later they were at Brookville Lake, tying up to the dock and walking up to a newly renovated Jarhead Bait & Tackle.
“What can I help you with?” asked a young man in a motorized wheelchair.
“Just looking for some bait and some drinks for our cooler. Better stick with soft drinks today,” Avi said.
Avi picked out what he wanted and the young man rang up the purchase.
“First time in the shop?” he asked.
“Been in here plenty of times. Thad’s an old fishing buddy.”
“Oh, you must be the professor.”
“Just call me Avi. I’m retired.”
“Okay, Avi. You can call me Jeremy. Here you go. That’ll be $11.”
They got in the boat and Avi steered to one of his favorite spots and handed Casey a pole and a Coke from the cooler.
“You ever fish much, Casey?”
“Just once or twice.”
“It’s a good way to relax, clear your head and sort things out.”
“That the only reason we came out here?”
“We need to talk, and we can talk as well here as we can in the office. Not as many distractions here.”
Casey dropped his line in the water and took a sip of Coke.
“If my mom knew I was drinking pop in the morning…”
“I won’t tell your mom if you don’t tell Nadia.”
“Deal.”
“You want to do field work, you have a lot to learn.”
“And you’re the one to teach me? I thought you were just a retired physics professor.”
“That I am, but I didn’t go into teaching right away. I spent four years in some places you wouldn’t believe, doing some things you wouldn’t believe. I learned a thing or two, mostly the hard way. I’ll teach you everything I can, but you’ll have to learn a few things on your own.”
“Like what?”
“What your limits are. You won’t learn that until you’re tested. We can only train so much. Some things you will learn from experience. You will need to be able to blend in. It’s not as hard as you think, if you know what you’re doing. You’ll need a new haircut. Simple afro, not that…what do you call that?”
“Twist.”
“Yeah, that will have to change. There’s a barber on the way back to the office and he should still be open when we pass by. Nothing distinctive. You need to be the man that when other people are asked to describe you, they will only be able to recall a black guy. You don’t want them describing a haircut or facial hair or tattoos, nothing like that. That’s where being black can be an advantage. Go with a simple short afro and you have one less thing people can describe. White people have all sorts of hair styles that people can notice. You can be just another black man. You will be able to move in and out of places with hardly a notice.”
“Except maybe Switzerland.”
“Ha ha. There are exceptions to every rule. Hopefully you don’t have to operate there. How are you with guns?”
“Never fired one. Mom doesn’t like them.”
“We will start on that tonight, then. You will need to be good, very good, but you hope you never have to use it. Things can get messy fast when that happens. Best to go where you need to go, do what you need to do, and not get noticed. How’s your knee?”
“Feeling okay right now, but I feel like I still got a long ways to go. It’s only been a little over four months.”
“You need to be wearing that brace more often. I have something I’ve been working on, something effective but not so bulky. You can try it on when we get back.”
“What else do I need to work on?”
“You’ll need to learn how to defend yourself, with or without weapons. I can teach you some basics, but most will have to wait for your knee to heal. You have many attributes that aren’t teachable, and those will be your biggest assets.”
“What would those be?”
“I watched your whole football career. You are calm under pressure. You have the ability to assess the situation and make the right decision. Sure, you are gifted athletically, but it wasn’t your arm or your legs that won you the Heisman. It was your brain. The ability to look at a situation, remain calm, and make the right decision quickly isn’t something I can train. I can teach you what kind of decisions apply in what situations, but you need to be able to process a lot of information in a short period of time and act accordingly. You have that ability.”
“What else can you teach me?”
“For now, how to fish. We can start on the rest this evening.”
11
Avi and Casey did not expect to see anyone at the office when they got there, but they found Jenny with Ahmed and Miriam. Miriam had headphones on and was writing in a notepad while Ahmed was translating and compiling Arabic emails.
“What’s up? Didn’t expect to see anyone here at this hour.” Casey asked.
“Computer flagged something. Ahmed and Miriam have been translating as fast as they can for the last three hours. Must be something big. How did your day go?”
“It was good. Avi is an amazing old dude.”
“Did you actually fish?”
“For about three hours. Avi caught our supper. I caught some small ones that will live to see another day. You never told me Avi was a spy.”
“He never told us that. But we had our suspicions. Did you bring his things?”
“All of them. It’s all in the back of his pickup. We need to get it in here.”
“Don’t you move an inch. I saw you limping all the way in here. Earl and Clyde are on the way over. We can put them to work.”
“There were these funny looking belts in his shop. He wouldn’t tell me what they are, said they’re dangerous.”
“Those are extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.”
“What do they do?”
“You’d never believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
For the next half hour Jenny told Casey everything and when she was done, he wasn’t entirely sure if he could believe it, but it did explain a couple things.
“So, the guy in your wedding photos?”
“Yes, not an actor. He’s really an amazing man.”
“You mean was?”
“Well, yeah…guess so.”
“You’ve visited him since then, haven’t you?”
“He gave us a splendid honeymoon.”
“Man, you’re telling me Earl proposed to you after a day? Dude moves fast.”
“Those were extraordinary times, but sometimes you just know. What’s the point of dating? When you know you’ve found the right person, there’s no point in beating around the bush any longer.”
“I guess you’re right. Hasn’t happened for me yet.”
“Fine young man like you, give it time.”
“There were plenty of girls in college, but I never knew which ones were interested in me for me. When everyone knows you around campus, it’s hard to figure out who your real friends are.”
“Did you have many real friends then?”
“Some of the guys on the team, but outside of the team? Not too many. Dude that hit me, we keep in touch. He’s a good guy.”
“You haven’t told him what you’re doing here have you?”
“Only what’s supposed to be going on upstairs. What you gonna do about that anyway? You do have clients?”
“Yes, there are clients. Why do you think I’m always tired?”
“You think you need to hire people who just work up there?”
“I’ve thought about it, but they’ll see everyone else going up and down, and we can’t forbid you and Ahmed from using those areas.”
“You’ll have to hire people who can work in both areas. They stay up there most of the time and only help us out when things are really crazy. We’re gonna want to have round the clock coverage sometimes anyway. Some folks could rotate up and down depending on where the most demand is. You always have a couple people up here at all times for public image. I got another idea, too.”
“What’s that?”
“Avi wants to put a training area in the woods. There should be a tunnel from the lower level to that area. People can come and go that way and they never show up upstairs, just in case there are public people here and you don’t want Nathan popping up in the break room.”
“I’m one step ahead of you, Casey. Avi’s about to find out. We built a workshop for him when we built this place. The gun range is already there, as is your tunnel. We just have the access boarded up on the other end.”
Avi walked over with a look of absolute delight on his face and an obvious spring in his step.
“Why didn’t you tell me you already had my shop here? It is absolutely wonderful, way more than I had at home. And the range? It’s been here all along?”
“Right from the start.”
“That’s wonderful. I don’t have to take the boy down to Sharonville. Is there plenty of ammo?”
“Cases of 9mm, all you could want. Not much else at the moment.”
“That will do. I have quite the toy chest for Casey, and luckily, they all take 9mm. Well, my friend. Shall we be off to my shop? There’s not a moment to lose.”
“I heard that line in a movie.”
“It’s from a book, young man, a most wonderful series of books. You never read O’Brian?”
“No.”
“Well, that is a most unfortunate oversight we shall have to correct. Consider it part of your training.”
“The movie was about sailors. How does that apply to my training?”
“The books are about so much more than sailing. His writing sharpens your mind, and you will need a sharp mind in this line of work. Now, those fellows haven’t gotten the truck unloaded yet, and I have something for you there. I’ll be right back.”
In a moment Avi was back carrying a small case, followed by Earl and Clyde carrying boxes.
“Casey, let’s go to the range. I have a present for you.”
When they got to the range, Avi opened a case containing a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm pistol with a suppressor.
“Go ahead, pick it up. It won’t bite. Well, it does bite. That’s what we’re here for.”
Casey picked the gun up and held it in his right hand.
“What are those lights on the grip?”
“This pistol is coded to your fingerprints. Nobody else will be able to fire it.”
“When did you start working on this?”
“The day you started here. I just had a feeling.”
“So that’s why Jenny took all those fingerprints?”
“Not exactly. Those were for job reasons, but I took the liberty of using them.”
“How did you know?”
“I thought it through a bit more than she did.”
Avi showed him how to load the mags, how to attach and remove the suppressor, and how to strip and clean the weapon.
“You’ll want to get to where you can strip it down with your eyes closed. Now let’s get to the fun part, okay?”
For the next hour Avi taught Casey the three basic stances and variations, stressing the importance of having a stable base for accurate shooting and how to grip the weapon properly.
“Remember, squeeze the trigger, don’t jerk it. okay, let’s try a longer range now.”
When they were done, he had Casey strip the weapon, clean it, and put it back together before putting it in its case. When they got to the shop, everything was stacked against the wall.
“Sit down, young man. How is your knee doing?”
“Sore as hell.”
“I figured as such. You’ve had a long day. Why don’t you hit the hot tub for a few minutes and give me some time to sort through these things?”
Casey came back an hour later and Avi had unpacked most of his things. The strange belts were there along with other odd devices he had never seen. He pointed to the belts.
“Jenny told me what those are, and where she’s from.”
“She did?”
“Quite a story. She told me things about you that you probably don’t know.”
“I don’t need to know those things. One life is enough to try to keep track of.”
“Still, it’s an amazing story. What’s this, one of those glider suits I see guys using online?”
“That is my improved version. Those boots on the floor are miniature jet engines. Someone wearing that suit and using those boots can get about 20 minutes of flight time before the boots run out of fuel. Then you can still use the suit to glide to a safe landing.”
“How fast does it go?”
“Haven’t tested it. I’m too old for that kind of thing. On the computer models, it looks like it could go 180 mph. Depends on the person using it.”
“Sounds amazing. Why’d you build it?”
“Don’t know. I’m always tinkering.�
��
“Bet it wouldn’t show up easy on radar.”
“Now you’re thinking. Spec ops people like to do HALO jumps to slip in places…”
“HALO?”
“High altitude low opening. Sky dive and open the chute at the last second. This could be the same concept, but deploy at low altitude and the operator flies in at the same altitude and then glides the last bit with the boots off. Only problem is getting back out. You can’t take off from the ground with this.”
“Looks like it could be fun.”
“I suppose it could be for young adventurous people like you. Anyway, try this on.”
Casey tried the knee brace on, a much smaller brace than the one his doctor gave him, but just as strong and unobtrusive enough to be worn under a pants leg.
“Wow, I like it. I can wear it all day underneath my pants and nobody will even notice it. I can move better in it, too. How did you build this?”
“I had some help with that. A friend who’s an orthopedic surgeon. The design is his. He’ll probably have a patent in a few months and then you can buy it for three times what it should cost.”
“Hopefully by then I won’t need it. So, how’d I do at the range?”
“Not bad for a beginner. The key is practice. Earl’s friend is going to start building what I want outside, so hopefully when your knee is well enough you can start there and we can work on your combat training, but for now, the range is your friend. I’ll introduce you to some more weapons this week. We’ll make a marksman out of you yet. Also, I’d advise getting that haircut in the morning before you come in. Nice short afro, clean shaven. Hopefully I don’t recognize you when you show up.”
Casey ran his hand over his hair like he was considering what Avi was saying.
“There’s a barber not far from the house. Doesn’t open ‘til 9:00.”
“Guys, hate to interrupt, but you might want to come over,” Jenny said, “Ahmed and Miriam might be onto something.”
“It’s sketchy, and it might take me a while to piece it together, but there might be something big in the works. We’ve been looking for this Al Thi’b character and trying to piece together something about these bombings, but what if they were nothing but a distraction?”
“That’s one hell of a distraction,” Jenny said.
Wolf Trap (Casey Reddick Book 1) Page 8
