Phoenix Rising

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  “But we don’t have a pool,” Lola pointed out. “Water aerobics are great. Just ask Cazzo. He knows.”

  “They do help, although, I felt like a geriatric doing those fucking exercises.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re getting up there in age now,” Sinner jibed. “A few more years and you’ll have to be on desk duty.”

  “Watch it, asshole. You’re not exactly a spring chicken anymore.”

  “Hey, what about having the ladies open some kind of mini-mall on the property?” Jules suggested. “I mean, they all lost their jobs and they’re feeling a little down. They could open up something that would be useful to all of us. We could get our hair cut, grab a coffee and a book….Is there anything else that would be useful?”

  I growled in irritation. “Do you realize what an asshole you sound like? You make them all sound fucking useless. Besides, how is opening a mini-mall going to be beneficial when we can’t let anyone on the property without going through security checks, which is what this meeting is supposed to be about.”

  “Let’s talk security gates,” Knight said. “I want something at least thirty feet high and there can’t be any way for grappling hooks to be thrown over. We need barbed wire, electric fencing, remote controlled machine guns-”

  “Uh, we don’t really do that kind of stuff,” Logan cut in.

  “But that’s just the perimeter we’re talking about. Now, in the building, we need to get creative. I’m talking White House security. You’ve all heard of the room they take the President to in case of an attack. I want that, twenty floors underground with an escape route that will lead us so far out into the fucking wilderness that no one will ever find us.”

  “You know, there are a lot of rivers and lakes. We should have one that has that NASA bullshit where there are different pressure chambers. The tunnel would let out into a lake and then we could have a few submersible vehicles, maybe some RHIBS-”

  “What the hell are RHIBS?” Ryan asked. “I’m assuming we’re not talking about meat.”

  “Rigid Hull Inflatable Boats,” I clarified.

  “Boats. Good. Let’s just say boats,” Ryan nodded.

  “That’s…that’s not even close to being a building. It’s a boat. You know, for water,” Logan said slowly. “You need a boat salesman or a fucking military contract.”

  “Could we get one?” Chris asked. “I mean, after all we just did to stop sex trafficking in the United States, you would think the least we would get is a few RHIBS.”

  “You guys are all missing the bigger picture,” Rocco interjected. “You need to think of self-sustaining power.”

  “Oh, fuck. Please don’t tell me you want to put up windmills,” I said.

  “No, we need our own power plant.”

  “Fuck yeah,” Craig grinned. “I like that idea. If we do that, we can add in some of my security ideas. First, we need high intensity remote controlled spotlights, at least 10,000 Watts, controlled by our phones. Anyone comes through our gates without permission, we blind the fuckers and give ‘em seizures.”

  “How do you give seizures from bright lights?” Logan asked.

  “Two flashes per second causes epileptic seizures in people that may be predisposed to seizures. Not only that, but there are green high-intensity lasers that do the same thing. You project the beam around the property and intruders don’t even see it coming.”

  “If we’re going to do that, why don’t we just build underground?” Lola asked.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Chance said. “Makes it difficult for someone to burn the fucking place down.”

  “It also makes it easier to be burned to death,” Florrie said. “If there’s a fire underground, how exactly are we supposed to all make it out without being suffocated, even with an escape tunnel. I don’t like it. No windows to jump out of and when the sprinklers go off, we all fucking drown.”

  “You’re talking pumps that operate twenty-four hours a day, along with a very large backup generator. The easiest way to flood the place is to kill the power,” Logan said. “Not to mention all the extra ventilation measures you would need. If you were to have a fire, you would need to suck all the air out of the building in seconds, which would mean you would all die. So, then we’re talking about needing emergency air supplies in every fucking room. Not to mention that you would need several exits because that emergency air supply will only last so long, and if you’re stuck, you’re fucked. Not to mention, that if anyone attacks you, they’re going to cut off your primary exit immediately.”

  “So, maybe not build the whole fucking thing underground,” Chance said. “I already experienced suffocation. It’s not fun.”

  Logan glanced at me warily and I just shook my head slowly. “Uh, I think we have a good idea of what you might be looking for. How about Ryan and I head back to the office and see if we can come up with…something that might suit your needs?”

  I walked Ryan and Logan to the doors, cringing when Logan turned back to me. “You guys are all fucking crazy, you know that, right?”

  “Try marrying into this,” Ryan chuckled. “Trust me, this isn’t the weirdest thing I’ve seen.”

  Maggie walked up with Lindsey and Vanessa, grinning when they saw Logan and Ryan.

  “Hey, guys. What are you doing here?” Maggie asked.

  “Going over the plans for the new building and security measures.”

  “Shit, we missed that?” Vanessa said, looking slightly distraught. She pushed past me and grabbed the tablet out of Becky’s hands.

  “Looks like you have your hands full,” Ryan grinned, holding out his hand for me to shake. “Are we still on for poker tonight?”

  “Are the ladies making marguerites again?”

  “I know Cece is,” Logan grinned. “Ever since the kids got old enough that she didn’t have to watch them like a hawk, these nights are her nights to let loose.”

  “Damn,” I said, remembering what it was like to go to one of these. “I’ve missed this a lot over the last year. This place is taking over my life. You can count me in. I need a night off to remember what it’s like just to hang out with friends.”

  “Seven o’clock,” Ryan reminded me. “Don’t be late and don’t forget the fucking beer.”

  I nodded and headed back in.

  “No, you guys aren’t seeing the big picture,” Vanessa argued. “You’re thinking like little boys. Now, look at this.” A picture popped up on the screen and I groaned. What the hell was going on? ”This is a Phalanx CIWS, that’s Close in Weapon System. We need to mount one or two of these on the property so we can take out anyone that tries to fly in.”

  “Vanessa, maybe you’re taking this just a little far. That’s basically a mounted machine gun,” Cazzo said gently.

  “It has radar capabilities,” Vanessa argued. “I’d say we need at least two, possibly four of these. And as for possible breaches around the property, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few autonomous drones flying around. We should have four working, four on standby, and four charging. And some of them should have night vision capabilities, while others are for daytime.”

  “Maggie, what the hell have you been teaching my wife?” Cazzo bit out.

  “Hey,” Lindsey said defensively, “we’re just doing our part to help out. Now, my two cents, not that any of you care what I think, is that we need pebbles all over the property.”

  “We’re not really onto the decorating sequence yet,” I said carefully. “Maybe you could help out when we finish the building plans.”

  Her look was terrifying and I actually took a small step back. “You need to think like Troy.”

  “That would only work if we were attacking someone else,” Ice said.

  “I was talking in general. You lay down pebbles and then hide weapons under them. Everyone that works here would have access to blades, hatches, anything that can be used as a weapon.”

  “Then,” Maggie added, “we could have hides set up around the property and use rein
forced plastic for harnesses on zip lines. We could be virtually undetectable moving around the property in the case of an attack.”

  “Where the hell did you get all this information from?” I asked Maggie.

  “I’m a reporter. I researched and used my brain.”

  “Well, we’ve already got a good idea-”

  Maggie shoved me out of the way and drew up her own ideas on the tablet. “We need remote camera systems everywhere, sensors on the property lines and even dispersed throughout the property. We’ve already seen that people can get through undetected. We also need to hire more men just to guard the property. We can’t solely rely on technology.”

  Knight shrugged. “I happen to agree. There’s always someone out there that’s smarter than the previous guy. We should also have computers that aren’t linked into the system. I know we’ve done it that way in the past, but that’s not working for us anymore.”

  “And we also need survival camp every season,” Vanessa interjected. “We all need to be prepared for anything.”

  “And high intensity training every month,” Lindsey added.

  “Should we just hand this meeting over to you?” I asked Maggie.

  “If you think we would run it better,” she smirked.

  And so it went, the women shoving their ideas down our throats for the next half hour. Honestly, most of it was pretty good. There were some really out there ideas, like Lindsey wanted knife hairpins and wanted us to demand that all the women wear their hair up all day so they were always prepared. When Ice suggested they just carry guns, she gave him a death glare that iced over Ice. It was the longest fucking half hour of my life.