* * *
Outside the late afternoon sun became gentle as it approached the horizon. Tom was at the firing range with his M4. He fired at a target in the distance with shots closely spaced together. A group of five US Army soldiers watched along with the sergeant who oversaw the firing range. Tom imagined they wondered who was this man in jeans and a button-down who shot so well. What was he doing here? They seemed afraid to ask him.
Tom pulled out his pistol and began firing it as well. While in the SEAL teams, he had achieved both the Navy Expert Rifleman medal and the Navy Expert Pistol Shot medal. The standards for the pistol required one to shoot several shots with the strong hand, then reload, switch to the weak hand and shoot several more shots within a certain timeframe. All shots had to be within the body frame painted on the target. It looked a bit like acrobatics as Tom was performing it, but he was pleased to see that he still met the standards.
“That was impressive,” the sergeant said as he was walking over.
“You should see me do it in a tuxedo,” Tom quipped.
“It’s been a while since I saw someone as good.”
“I don’t believe you.”
The sergeant stood next to Tom and looked downrange.
“You said you were a SEAL?”
“Yeah”
“Sniper?”
“No. I was an officer. Hey sergeant, I need to test out this new weapon they gave me. It’s not lethal. Just makes you feel like you’re on fire. Leaves no temporary or permanent damage. Can I practice with it on one or two volunteers?”
“Is it – actually safe?”
“They told me the department of defense tested it on thousands of people. All were fine. There are videos of them testing it on a general on YouTube.”
The sergeant called over the five men who were watching. When they came over, he started talking to them in a more measured tone than he had been using with Tom.
“Listen up guys. My friend Tom here needs to test out a new weapon.” The men’s faces slowly turned from smiles and relaxed eyes to that look college fraternity pledges make as they are being told the next task.
The sergeant continued, “This weapon is not lethal and leaves no temporary or permanent damage. It just makes you feel hot for a second. Tom needs to test it on someone to see the effect. So we need a volunteer. Which one of you guys is man enough to do it?”
The five soldiers looked at each other and started pointing fingers, laughing, and slapping each other in the back. It was the military version of the playground dare. Finally one of them came forward.
“You can move out of the way as soon as you feel it,” Tom said to the brave kid, “I just want to make sure I have the sights positioned well.”
“OK, sir,” The soldier said. He walked downrange about 50 meters and turned around facing Tom and the group.
Tom took out the ADS. He unfolded it and powered it up the way Eric showed him back at Langley. He aimed it towards the soldier, who stood like a statue in the distance. It must have looked silly because Tom appeared to be aiming a small dish or bowl at the end of a stick. Tom took aim and pulled the trigger. Immediately, the soldier jumped to his left to get out of the way. The ADS made no noise – not even to confirm it was turned on. The group ran towards the soldier.
“What did it feel like?” his friends were peppering him with questions even though they did not want to try it out themselves.
The volunteer looked at them with his eyebrows raised in the middle.
“It felt like…all of a sudden…I don’t know. Like I was dipped into a volcano’s lava. It felt like the hottest possible feeling all over my body.”
They all looked at Tom, who asked, “if you were moving towards an enemy position and you felt that, is there any way you could continue moving forward?”
“No, sir. Uh uh. No way. It was almost instinctual to run away. I felt like I stopped thinking.” Tom looked down at the ADS – maybe it was a good idea to bring this along, he thought. He didn’t realize the stopping power it had. Maybe human beings are conditioned to run away from heat, he thought.
The sergeant said “OK guys, take him to the mess hall and get some water. Also, Corporal—“ The sergeant said to the brave test subject “you can skip PT tomorrow.” The group of soldiers walked away.
The sergeant looked at Tom. He waited for a minute and then asked, “you’re going in there aren’t you?”
Tom did not look back but could tell the sergeant was staring at him. Tom did not answer. His silence implied his answer.
The sergeant continued, “we’ve been watching the news. You think there really could be a war this time?”
Tom looked up, “if it comes we’ll have to deal with it.”
“Well, remember man, over here at the edge of the world, ends justify means. You guys do whatever you can to prevent World War III.”
“That’s the idea.” Tom replied.
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