White Jade (The PROJECT) (20 page)

Chapter T
wenty-
Nine

Selena and
Nick
were in the basement range at
the Project
.

"What the hell was that about upstairs?" she said.

"You heard what I said. You haven't ever done anything like this, jumps or not.
You sure as hell haven't jumped at high altitude.
"

"You don't think I can handle it."

He looked at her. "You want the truth?
No, I don't.
I don't want you to get killed. I think you could probably handle anything you're trained to do.
Y
ou're not trained for this.
"

"I guess you'd better start training, then."

Carter saw it was a battle he couldn't win. First Harker, now her. Mules had nothing on women when it came to stubborn. Megan had been the same way, when she'd made up her mind about something.

"All right.
" He ran two man-sized silhouette targets down range.

"
Let
'
s start with our sidearm
.
What kinds of pistols are you familiar with?
"

He
r
voice was neutral. Truce.
"
A .22 revolver when I was learning. Then I went to a .357 Colt Python. After I got used to the recoil, my instructor gave me a Glock. Either automatic or a revolver, I
'
ve shot both.
"

He
laid two pistols on the table
. He
took one
,
ejected the empty
magazine
and pulled back the slide.
"
What
'
s your first rule?
"

"
Mmm. Make sure it
'
s not loaded. Or is.
"

"
Right, and make sure it
'
s not pointed somewhere it shouldn
'
t be.
"
He
let the slide go forward.

"
This pistol is a little heavy but it helps with the recoil. It was developed for US Special Operations Command, SOCOM. It
'
s a Heckler-Koch
like mine
, chambered in .45 ACP. A lot of stopping power and made for close quarters, although it has
good
accuracy up to thirty yards or so with the laser pointer. That
'
s this unit, under the barrel.
"

As he slipped into the routine of instructor he began to relax.
He
showed her how to turn
the laser on. He
pointed down range, centering the red dot on
one of the targets.

"
Where the dot is, that
'
s where the bullet goes.
Always aim for a center body shot, none of that stuff you see in the movies.
We
'
ll tweak the sights as we go along, so you
'
ll be sure to hit whatever you
'
re shooting at. This is the de-cocker lever. The safety is ambidextrous. You can carry this pistol cocked and locked.
"

"
Maybe we won
'
t have to shoot anything.
"

"
Maybe. Show me your stance.
"

Selena took up her stance, a good hold, both hands, body
crouched and
turned to present a minimal target. Someone had taught her well.
He
made a minor adjustment to her elbow.

"
Good stance. Let
'
s load the
magazines
.
"

They
filled four 15 round
magazines
and put on ear protection and goggles, niceties non-existent in the field.

"
Lock and load.
"
He
inserted a
magazine
and Selena did the same, then
they
racked the slides.

"
Aim for the center of the body, and fire when you
'
re ready.
"

She fired, then again. She squeezed off the rest of the
magazine
.
Carter
followed suit.
They
laid
the guns down on the bench and he
pulled back the targets.
Her target had a neat group of holes in the
center
.

They
spent another hour with the H-K and
he
was satisfied. It was a relief. She
'
d said she could shoot, but
he'd
heard
that from people who couldn
'
t hit an elephant standing next to them.

"
Now we have another toy. You don
'
t have any experience with these.
"

He
took out another H-K, the MP-5N submachine gun.

"
This is our
primary weapon. They only weigh around eight pounds and they
'
ve got a lot of firepower. This is an H-K
too
,
developed for the Navy Seals. It has a safety just like the .45
,
so you can carry it ready to go. Ours will be chambered for .40 Smith, which gives us more bang for the buck than the regular nine millimeter. Thirty round
magazine
, snaps in here,
charge
like this.
"
  He
showed her how.

"
It has a
folding
retractable stock
. Y
ou can carry it short or use it as an assault
rifle
.
"
He
pulled the stock out
until it locked in place
.
"
Let
'
s try that first, it
'
s easier to get used to.
"

They
loaded up.
He
showed her how the selector switch worked and had her shoot in semi-auto, then moved her to full auto fire. She got the knack
of getting off
a
three
round burst
with ease. Then
they
tried it without the stock extended. That was harder, but Selena picked up the trick of control.

He
was impressed. She hit what she
shot at
.
He
hoped she wouldn't have to
do it when someone was shooting back
. That
was
n't anything like this
.
When the adrenaline kicked in, all the fancy target shooting went out the window
and you missed eight times out of ten
. It wasn't the same.

He
showed her how to clear a jam, but she didn
'
t need to know how to field strip her piece.
They
were only going to be
in Tibet for
a short time. Ronnie and
he
would maintain the weapons.

"
We
'
ll also have these,
"
he
said,
"
but you won
'
t be carrying them. Still, I thought you should know how they work.
"
He
opened a box of M-67 grenades.

"
This is a fragmentation grenade. We
'
re not going to practice with them here.
"

He
smiled, but she didn
'
t get the joke. The seriousness of what
they
were
doing
was sinking in. Pistols
were
one thing, machine guns and grenades
,
another.

"
This is a safety
clip
. You have to remove that first. It keeps the lever down if the pin is accidentally pulled.
"

He
mimicked removing the
clip
.

"
Now the grenade is ready for use, but it
'
s not armed until you pull the pin. It has a kill radius of 50 feet and does a lot of damage beyond that. To throw it, set your feet apart, hold this lever tight with your right hand and put your index finger of the other hand through the loop on the pin.
"

He
showed her the arming position.

"
Then you pull the pin. As long as the lever is held down it won
'
t go off. You can reinsert the pin if you have to. Hold it next to your gut when you arm.
"

He
demonstrated.
"
The way you pull the pin is to pull the grenade away from it, not the other way around. It requires a firm pull. Then you let fly and duck. You
'
ve got about 4 seconds before it blows. If you ever have to do this, just make sure it goes a long way away from you.
"

"
You really expect me to throw grenades?
"

"
No.
I just think you should know how it
'
s done
. Just in case
.
"

"
You have a knife for me, too?
"
There was
something in
her voice.

"
Y
es, you
'
ll have a knife.
"

"
Are you going to show me how to cut someone
'
s throat? Or stab them in the kidney or something?
"

"
Selena…
"

"
Maybe I should have a flame thrower. Do you have a flame thrower for me, Nick?
"

"
Selena, what
'
s the matter?
"

"
Nothing. I don
'
t want to talk about it.
"

"
How can you not want to talk about nothing?
"

"
Are we done, Nick?
"

"
Yes, but…
"

Selena turned and walked out. The door to the range slammed behind her.

He tried to figure out why she was angry.
She
'
d done fine with the pistol and the MP-5. She
'
d put fifteen rounds of .45 armor piercing right in the center of a man sized silhouette and never flinched. She
'
d picked up the tricks of the MP-5 in record time and had cheerfully chopped those silhouettes into confetti, so what was so different about grenades?

He thought about it.
A grenade compromises our humanity. It
's
a symbol of
all the
forces that
make
us
turn
our
backs on what Abe Lincoln called the better angels of our nature
. All
packed up in a nice, olive green
package
.
Selena hadn't been trained to kill, as he'd been. She hadn't learned to set
civilization and
conscience aside because self-preservation and accomplishing the mission demanded it.

You thr
ew
a grenade, everything within a fifty foot radius
was
DOA. A grenade
was
indiscriminate
. It
wasn't
like a pistol. With a pistol,
there was
an illusion of control, targeting a specific threat.

Carter
thought about
that
kid
in Afghanistan
,
who couldn't possibly understand what he was doing
.
What could be more evil then grenades in the hands of children? How could anyone think God wanted that?