Attack and Response - 2. Meeting and Greeting

Day Three (continued)

The Boeing 737 continued flying west, the actual fight time was four hours twenty two minutes, during that time they crossed through four time zones. When they finally crossed into Washington State, they picked up the transponder for the Bateman International Airport and set in the radio frequency the Jepp Sectionals (basically, aeronautical road maps) specified for landing instructions.

The flight crew never having heard of Bateman International Airport were on edge, never having landed the large aircraft at this strip, they had the latest Jepp Sectional Map for the area out and reviewed by everyone in the cockpit.

"Ahh Bateman International, this is Charlie Hotel Six One Zero One, Trenton International Corporations Boeing 737 requesting landing instructions, over"

Within seconds the flight crew heard;"Ahh roger Zero One, you are cleared for runway One Niner West, the wind is at 14 from 23, the barometric pressure is 29.10 and the local time is 05:43. Please remain in the aircraft, you will be met and transportation will be provided, welcome to Washington State. Over."

"Ahh Bateman International, roger your last use runway one niner, wind is 14 at 23, TIC Zero One inbound, descending from Angels twenty. Over."

Twenty three minutes later, the big jets' wheels chirped as they came in contact with the BIA runway. After the jet came to a complete stop some 7,000 feet down the runway, everyone onboard the plane saw the flashing yellow light on the top of a large Ford pickup as it headed to the nose of the Boeing 737. The truck stopped in front of the aircraft, but soon started moving and the jet engines on the port wing started spooling up again as the flight crew fed power to them. The pilot followed the truck until a man on the ground with two flashlights took over control of the big jet, shortly there after the aircraft came to a stop and the jets were shut down.

Doug turned to Bucky and asked;"What's going on Bucky why don't we get out, and wait for them on the ground?"

Bucky smiled at his second son;"First off, they asked us to remain in the aircraft, secondly, here they come now, so relax."

Doug looked out the cabin window and saw what looked like a short, wide jeep towing a set of stairs towards aircrafts forward cabin door. Looking at the terrain that surrounded the airport, he was surprised to see it was dry land covered in short brown grass, tumbleweeds, what he guessed was sagebrush and large open patches of sand and rocks. Turning back to Bucky, he asked;"What's the story here Bucky, I thought we'd be surrounded by pine trees and that there'd be rain. After all, we're in Washington State; it's supposed to be wet and dreary isn't it?" Bucky smiled at Doug and said;"I did some quick research before we left, the 'wet and dreary' part is over on the coast, the Cascade Mountain range keeps most of the moisture to the west of the mountains. This area only gets about eleven or so inches of rain a year and is classed as a desert."

Doug looked out the window again and shrugged his shoulders;"Wow, I guess it's true that you learn something new every day."

Before the stairs were in place, a large bus similar to the ones used by Greyhound and Trailways pulled up near the wingtip of the Boeing 737. The first one off the bus was Joe, when the aircraft door opened a large man dressed in a blue blazer with some kind of a crest on its breast pocket stepped forward and looked at Joe. Joe looked at the man, smiled and said;"Oaks forever."

The man smiled at Joe, nodded and started down the stairs, shortly he was followed by all of the remaining passengers. When every one was standing at the bottom of the stairs, Joe spoke;"Before we get on the bus, I want you all to know that this place is totally secure, it's got better security than we have back in Jersey. When we get to the house, you'll see a lot of men and boys in camouflage uniforms, they'll either be Marines, Navy or Unit One members, so don't get excited. The accommodations here tend to be a little Spartan, but it's clean and comfortable. You boys are going to be down in what they call the Cavern Berthing Compartment, you can go anywhere you want, all Matt and James ask is that you don't touch any firearms with out permission.

Joe gave everyone a follow me gesture as he turned towards the bus, reaching the bus, they filed past three men in a peculiar design camouflage uniform. When everyone was aboard the bus, one of the three men stood up and introduced himself;"Good morning, I'm Matt Bateman and on behalf of my brother James and Unit One, I want to welcome you to our home. When we get to the house, we'll enter through the garage and use the elevator to get everyone down stairs, we've got the kitchen open and if you're hungry, food is available. We think the best place to hold this conference is in the dining facility, if there were any more of you, we'd have to use the Cavern."

As he finished his short speech, the bus pulled up to what looked like a three car garage. As the bus stopped, they all heard a bell start ringing and what they thought was a triple wide garage door started sliding to the right and the apron to the garage was flooded with bright light as the door opened farther. It was a garage, but a huge one, inside were close to twenty vehicles, two of which looked like tanks to the boys. After everyone was on the elevator and Matt had punched the 'C' on the control panel, they could here the garage doors closing as they descended into what appeared to be the bowels of the earth.

When the elevator doors opened and everyone trooped off, they found themselves in a huge room, painted a soft white. The wall directly in front of them had a shield painted on it with crossed cannons, a large 'U1' centered over it. The word 'Illigitimi Non Carborundum' was written on the top and bottom. Patrick started laughing; Bucky turned to him and asked what was so funny. Patrick pointed to the shield;"Their motto Bucky, it's Latin and roughly translated means, 'Don't let the bastards grind you down."

Everyone, including the boys laughed at that as they moved to the dinning facility. When they entered the UDF, they were surprised to see that it was set up like the food court of an upscale mall. While the adults settled for coffee or some other beverage, the teenaged eating machines made their way through the serving line and piled their trays high with a little of everything that was offered. When everyone was seated, Bucky moved to the front of the room and briefed everyone on the attack, the casualties and the damage done to the island infrastructure. While the briefing was going on, several Squadies entered and sat down at an empty table and listened to Bucky's briefing. Before Bucky had finished, the rest of the tables had filled up with more Squadies and still more came, standing along the wall or sitting on the floor. All of them listening to his story of death and destruction. The meeting had been going on for an hour or so when Matt noticed that some of the boys, both his and the New Jersey contingent, were starting to yawn. Joe was talking when Matt interrupted;"Joe, I need to get my guys to hit their racks for a few more hours, and I think yours' could use some sleep also." Turning to the Squadies he said;"David, Phil, Jap and Jacky stand fast, the rest hit your racks."

With a lot mumbling and grumbling about 'Old Farts' never letting them have any fun, the squadies moved towards the berthing compartment. Matt turned to the four he had told to stand fast and said;"Guys how about getting these guys set up with a room and linens?"

The four Squadies came to attention and said;"Aye, Aye sir."

As the New Jersey boys rose to their feet, the two bald headed men stood and acted like they were going to follow them. One of the boys, turned to them and said;"Hans, Herman, you better stay here in case they need your expertise, we'll be okay by ourselves."

The one started to say;"But master, we . . . . . . "

The boy spoke again;"No Hans, we'll be okay, you two stay here."

The one named Hans looked at the boy and then nodded his head "Zu Befehl! Master." he said as he and his partner sat down.

The boys picked up their bags and followed the four Squadies as they went down one of the hallways. The Squadies gave the boys clean linen from a storage room and then led them to rooms at the end of the berthing compartment. They indicated several rooms and said they were all the same, each had two sets of bunk beds and they could choose how they wanted to split up. The tall redhead with the swimmers body tapped Jap on the shoulder and said;"Hey kid you guys wouldn't happen to have a pool around here anywhere would ja?"

Jap looked up at the taller boy and before Jacky could stop him said: "How'd ya like to write home to your mama and tell her that a kid put you in the hospital?"

Doug, not used to having people he didn't know flip him shit started to bristle at the small redheads' remark. Before he was able to get in the kids face, Buck got in his;"Calm down Doug, you know how you hate it when someone calls you 'kid,' do you think he's any happier about you dising him?"

While Buck was reining in Doug, Jacky was doing the same to Jap;"God damn it, cool the fuck off, these guys have some serious fucking problems and they've come to us for help. Cut them some slack, they've probably had a very long day and they're tired pissed off and sad. Please Jap, we been through the same thing they're going through, so please, calm down."

Jap took a deep breath and nodded, he turned to the taller redhead and stuck out his hand before saying;"My names' Jap, sorry for jumping in your shit."

By this time Doug had calmed down also, he smiled and shook Jap's hand;"I'm sorry for calling you kid, my bo . . . . my friend reminded me how much I hate it when some one calls me kid."

Jap had caught Doug's mistake and said;"Yeah, my boyfriend told me just about the same thing. No hard feelings?"

Evan broke in to the conversation;"Listen guys, I'm still on German time, Billy and I really need to get some sleep." Turning to David and Phil he asked;"Can you guys show us where we can crash? Doug needs to work off some stress and he does it by swimming, but Billy and I need to get some sleep."

Phil nodded his head and said;"Jap, why don't you and Jacky show them the pool room and me and David will take the smart ones to their rooms. We'll see you latter on this morning."

Both Jap and Doug flipped Phil off as he led three quarters of the Jersey boys to their rooms in the berthing compartment.

Jacky said;"Come on guys we'll show you the pool room." As they moved away from the passageway leading to the berthing area, Doug thought to himself;"Fuck, it's probably a sixteen by thirty two foot pool, oh well, at least I can do a bunch of short laps."

Walking down another passageway cut out of the native rock they came to a set of double doors, Jap pushed his way through them and the rest followed. Entering the room, Doug stood speechless. The room looked to be bigger than the one they called the Cavern, and the pool it self was a beauty, it was bigger than the one they had back at Buck's place. To top it all off, there was even three, three meter diving boards.

Everyone heard the sound of a camera power winder working fast and furious, Jacky turned to see the good looking blonde kid taking pictures of everything. The short blonde headed guy with the gravely voice said;"Jesus fuck Mark, don't you ever stop?"

You could see the boy smiling as he continued to snap pictures, he'd heard it all before and Buck didn't intimidate him in the least. When he started to take pictures of the group, the four Jersey boys started posing and looking at the camera. The kid, Mark, stopped shooting and lowered his camera;"Aww you guys suck."

Doug turned to Jap and Jacky and pointed to Mark before saying;"Anytime you want him to stop, just look at the camera and smile. He doesn't like it when people pose for him; he's always trying to get 'candid' shots."

Mark frowned at Doug;"You really, really suck, why'd ya have to go and tell them that?"

All the Jersey boys flipped him the bird. Doug turned to Jap and Jacky and asked;"Is it okay if we swim, we promise we won't mess with anything?"

Jacky shrugged;"Sure go ahead, you mind if me and Jap join you?"

Doug smiled back at Jap;"Naw, I figure the more the merrier, besides, any new people around will keep Mark off my back and let me swim in piece. Remember what I told you about posing if you want him to leave you alone. If that don't work, just threaten to kill him."

Jap stopped laughing and turned away from Doug, not wanting him to see the expression on his face. Doug knew he said something wrong, but couldn't quite figure out what was going on. Buck took him by the arm and led him to the diving board end of the pool before saying anything. Looking his redheaded lover in the eyes he said in his soft gravelly voice, as close to a whisper as he could get;"Leave him be Douggie, I think there's more to him than we thought. I've seen that look before; I saw it every morning in the mirror for weeks after I shot Buddy when we got you away from those kidnappers. Just leave him be and try not to say shit like that to him until we get to know him better, if we get to know him better."

Doug glanced back at the little guy and his friend, turned back to Buck and said;"Fuck, you're right, I need to learn when to keep my big mouth shut."

Doug turned back to the Unit One Squadies;"How come you haven't any starting blocks or lane floats, a pool this size is perfect for racing?"

Jacky smiled back at Doug;"We don't do much racing here, the deep end is ten meters deep, it started out at only four meters deep, but Matt had it made deeper. Matt uses it for training his SEAL wannabe's and the rest of the unit in water safety, you know, how to get in the water without hurting yourself."

Doug had a quizzical expression on his face;"What's wrong with diving right in, it's a Hell of lot quicker than jumping in?"

Jap looked at Doug and shook his head;"He's training us for safe water entry, diving is fine for the pool, but if you go jumping into waters that you don't know, you could end up paralyzed or dead from any flotsam or jetsam that may be in the water."

Doug nodded his head in agreement;"Yeah I see what you mean, the anchorage at Dagger Cay had a whole bunch of shit floating in it after the attack. The Sea Song took out at least two of the attacking boats and damaged one of them before one of the fuckers was able to knock out the Starboard Gatling gun."

"Okay, I can see that, but why's it so deep if you aren’t doing much diving, I mean shit, you're only using three meter boards and it's deeper than the dive tank back home and we got ten meter boards?" Doug asked.

"Matt's also teaching the guys in his sub unit underwater defense and offense using SCUBA tanks and re-breathers. So you see how the extra depth is needed, in fact, we even use a twenty foot Zodiac to practice high speed pick-ups. After working here, he takes his people down to the Columbia and uses the SOCR instead of the Zodiac." Jacky answered.

Mark had perked up when he heard them talking about SCUBA and asked;"You mean you got tanks here? Can I borrow a set, I'm certified to 125 feet and I'd love to get some underwater shots of you guys swimming together?"

Jap looked at the taller boy and said;"Jacky let them swim if they want, I'll be right back."

"Knowing what his fiery little boyfriend was going to do, he just nodded as Jap turned and ran from the cavern. When he entered the CDF, he waited until Matt noticed him and went over and knelt at his side. "What cha need Jap?" Matt asked.

Jap smiled and said; 'One of the Jersey boys wants to use a set of tanks, he says he's certified to 125 feet, but I wanted to check and see if it was okay with you."

Matt turned to Joe who was sitting along side and whispered a question to him. After getting his answer he turned back to Jap and said;"All the Jersey boys have been certified for using SCUBA, so go ahead and let him have a set, just keep an eye on him."

Jap nodded and returned to the pool noticing the piles of clothes on the floor near the wall and that every one including Jacky was in the pool. Jap moved over to one of the storage rooms and dragged out a set of double tanks, a diving mask, flippers and a weight belt. When he had all the gear assembled, he went to the edge of the pool and yelled;"Hey Mark, how bout coming over here."

Mark swam to the side of the pool and vaulted up onto the deck, seeing the SCUBA gear his face lit up like a Christmas tree;"Wow, this shit is great, it's as good as the stuff we have at home or at Dagger Cay. All the time he was talking, he was putting the gear on, when he had the gear secured the way he wanted, he moved over to the duffle bag he had brought with him. After zipping it open, he reached in and rummaged around in it for a few seconds before pulling out a waterproof housing that contained a digital camera. After checking it out to ensure it was intact, he moved to the edge of the pool and sat down with his feet in the water. After wetting down his swim fins, he put them on and then took his diving mask and spit on the inner surface of the glass, using his fingers, he smeared the spit around over the glass. When he was happy with his preparations, he pulled the mask in place, stuck the mouth piece in his mouth, grabbed his camera and leaned forward holding on to the mask as he plunged into the water. As Jap watched, Mark moved swiftly to the deep end of the pool and seemed to settle to the bottom on his back. Jap removed his clothing, folding his MarCams and setting them on one of the benches along the wall, turning he made a running dive into the pool, cutting the water cleanly. Swimming towards the place he last saw Jacky he came up behind what he thought was his lover and honked his dick, then moved away quickly and surfaced. To his surprise, the boy called Peter almost flew out of the water. Jap saw the startled expression on his face and knew he had honked the wrong person. Peter spluttered and spat and looked around until his eyes settled on Jap. Jap was a little worried now, and the last thing he expected to hear out of the good looking boy's mouth was;"Dick tag, the little redhead's it."

Saying that, Peter turned and swam quickly away towards the edge of the pool. Not to be outdone, Jap quickly dove back under the water and swam to the closest person, after honking him he surfaced and pointed to the Jersey boy he had just honked and said;"He's it."

Moving as fast as he could, he swam to the other side of the pool and eeled out onto the pool deck. Moving to the first diving board, he climbed to the top, moved to edge of the board and performed a perfect swan dive, once again cutting the water cleanly upon entry causing a very small splash. Seeing Mark taking pictures of him, he turned and swam towards him like a large redheaded barracuda chasing its' supper. He could see the startled expression on the boys face just before he honked him and headed for the surface. After gulping down some much needed air, Jap dove again and saw the whole group going for each others dick. Just then, he became the 'honkee,' instead of the 'honker' when the little guy called Buck pulled on his dick and sped away. All the time the 'dick tag' game was going on, Mark was snapping away with his digital camera. After everyone had been in the water for an hour or so, the elderly man they all called Patrick entered the pool cavern. He looked older and more tired than when the Jersey group had arrived, he stood there for a few minutes just watching the boys enjoying themselves. After several minutes, he cupped his hands at his mouth and shouted;"Kindly be moving your arse' out of the pool, it be time for you to be getting some rest now."

Naturally the boys didn't like this idea and moaned and groaned about the need to climb out of the pool. All the while they were bitching and complaining, they were making their way to the side of the pool and climbing out. Patrick looked at the group and asked;"Where's Mark, yee have not gone and strangled the poor lad now have yee?"

Jap turned to the group and looked for the photonut and couldn't locate him either, out of the corner of his eye he saw Doug re-enter the water. Watching him dive, it seemed like he was doing it in slow motion, when the water swallowed him up, there was almost no splash. If the water wasn't still roiling from all the activity of the boys, there probably would have been little or no ripples from his entry. While Doug was going after Mark, Jap and Jacky stood side by side scoping out the boys. None of them had any tan lines, all of them were well built and most of them were well hung. Jap was astonished when he saw how big the littlest of the bunch was, he looked like he was four or five inches soft, nicely circumcised and had a large set of balls. When Doug climbed out of the water once more, he moved over to the little guy and put his arm around his shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek. The only people this seemed to surprise was Jap and Jacky, from behind them they heard Patrick say;"Ahh, good one lad, if you be giving me just a moment, I'll get the stamp that I had made up and we can put it across your foreheads so that everyone will know for sure that you two be lovers."

Both of the boys turned bright red, Doug was a slightly brighter shade of red than Buck, but not by much. Buck turned to Jap and Jacky and said with a defiant tone to his voice;"If you haven't figured it out, Doug's my boyfriend and we're gay. If you can't live with that, than fuck the both of you."

Jap smiled at the little guy and his redheaded boyfriend and said;"No!! You guys ain't getting near me and my boyfriend with them dicks."

As the words sunk in, all of the Jersey boys started laughing, after a second or two, Patrick joined in. As the laughter died down Patrick spoke;"Tis a lesson they be teaching you, not everything is as it seems."

After Jap attached a cardboard tag with a big red 'MT' printed on it to the regulator, they stowed the SCUBA gear Mark had used and gathered their clothing as they headed to their assigned rooms. The Jersey boys didn't seem to have any problem sleeping four to a room, mater of fact they seemed to look forward to it. Jap and Jacky entered their room and climbed into Jap's lower rack; the day had been a long one for them so they spooned together and were asleep almost before their heads hit the pillow.

Noon, Day Three

Reveille in the form of loud knocks on their doors came before anyone was ready for it, Jap and Jacky woke at the first knock; the two teens sporting their morning wood lovingly caressed each other. Before they could get down to some serious love making there was a loud knock on the door and;"Drop your cocks and grab your socks" Said Justin Tannonligua.

When they hadn't answered after thirty seconds he pounded on the door louder and said;"Come on guys, I know you're awake and I need to talk to ya."

Jacky, still tired and a little pissed at not being able to make love to Jap climbed out of his bunk and yanked the door open, ready to rip Justin's head off and shit down his throat. When he opened the door, Justin was standing against the door across the hall in the uniform of the day for the fire and security watches grinning;"Thought I was going to give you a chance to rip my head off didn't cha?"

Awake now, Jacky stood in the open door naked, with his hard on pointing right at Justin;"Naw, I was just going to drag your young ass in here and me and Jap were gonna put you on a spit."

Justin laughed and acted like he was going to undo his trousers;"Now that sounds like fun, but we're gonna have to wait, Matt and James wants you and Jap up in the first deck kitchen ASAP."

Jacky chuckled and said;"Damn, we were so looking forward to putting you on the 'spit', now we ain't even got time for that. You know what they want?"

Justin shook his head;"Naw, just that they need to talk to you as soon as possible.

Jacky smiled and then nodded;"Okay we'll be up in a few minutes. Oh yeah, watch your cute little Latin ass, we just might make time to try you on for size."

Justin laughed, turned and walked down the passageway to continue his rounds, casually shooting Jacky the bird.

Jacky pulled Jap out of bed and kissed him lightly on the lips before saying;"Come on, let's go find out what Matt and James need."

Hurriedly, they dressed and made their way out of their room, only taking time enough to take a piss and wash their hands and face. Passing through the mess decks they noted that only three or four guys had started eating breakfast. Both of the boys grabbed a Coke from the machine and hurried up the ladder to the first deck. Entering the kitchen, they found James, Matt and the Gunny sitting at the table drinking coffee. James looked at the two teens and laughed;"I said 'as soon as possible' not immediately, you guys coulda taken a shower before coming up. But thanks for coming so quickly, I got a job for you two, but I need to ask a question first. How'd you two get along with the boys from Jersey?"

Jap shrugged, and Jacky answered;"Jap was about to go to fist city with the tall redhead after he called Jap 'Kid' but me and the guys boyfriend got em both calmed down. After that, everything went smoothly until Jap honked the kid when they were in the pool, then it turned into a free for all until that English guy came in and told them to get out of the pool and go to bed."

James sat there for a minute or so, staring at the two boys, not really at them but through them. When he finally focused on them, he smiled at them;"Okay, here's what I want you to do; I'm making you two their escorts. I want you to show them everything we do and let them do or use any of the equipment. You guys are in charge, if they need instruction on a piece of gear or how to do something, give it to them. Any questions?"

Jap was the first to speak;"What if they want to do some parachuting, we gonna let them do it?"

James thought about that for a few seconds before saying;"If some of them want to do some jumping, get Connor and Jordan to check them out on the gear and the procedures. I don't think they'd have any problems with a static line jump."

Both the boys nodded and Jacky, after glancing at Jap, said;"Okay Boss, no problem. If that's all, is it okay if we get something to eat?"

James nodded and they went down to the Mess Decks to get some breakfast, actually lunch. After piling their trays with an assortment of the food the serving line offered, they found an empty table in the corner and sat down and started shoveling it down. About half way through their meal, the tall (at least to Jap anyhow) redheaded boy and his short boyfriend carried their trays to the table and asked if they could join them. Both Jap and Jacky nodded their heads in acquiescence. Within a few minutes more of the Jersey boys joined them, shortly the table was filled with chattering boys, all well built, all if not beautiful, then all were handsome.

The boy who the previous evening had said he was still on German time looked at Jap and asked;"Your name's Jap, right?"

Jap having a mouthful of bacon eggs and hash browns just nodded his head yes in answer.

Evan continued;"My name is Evan, Evan Falconberg, I was talking to Bucky this morning and he told us that you two would be showing us around. I hope it won't cause you a problem, but our bodyguards always go armed. I'm telling you so that you won't be surprised or freak out if they accidentally expose one of their weapons to you."

Jap smiled and Jacky slapped him in the back of the head before saying;"No problem, we'll take you up to the arms room and show you what we got, if they don't mind, maybe we'll go and pop off a few rounds." Jap asked;"What kind of hardware they carrying, maybe we can supply them with ammunition?"

One of the baldheaded ones gave out a derisive laugh;"I do not tink you have de type ammunition Hienrich uses."

Jap laughed at the man;"Oh yeah, you got a twenty millimeter under your arm big guy?"

Hans frowned at the little redhead, his frowns usually made people cringe; Jap just looked him in the eyes. Hans thought to himself (fuck you, you dwarf) and pulled his Desert Eagle 50AE from it's' shoulder holster, dumped the magazine and locked the slide open ejecting the chambered round. Herman, who was sitting next to Hans, caught the round before it could hit the table. Hans then handed the large pistol to Jap and started to chuckle, expecting the small boy to have trouble handling it. To his surprise, the boy held the big pistol vertical and inspected it carefully. Before Hans could say anything, Jap had the big pistol partially disassembled, carefully inspecting each part. Then he had it back together with the slide locked back and was handing it back to Hans. Jap looked at the man and said;"Nice piece, but it looks like you may have some fouling in the barrels' gas ejection ports, but we got the ‘All Purpose Tool’ up n the arms room to clean it with. If you want to shoot it on our range, James has about 2,000 rounds of the 'Samson' brand ammunition for it."

Hans reloaded his pistol, chambered a round re-holstered the pistol and stuck out his hand to Jap;"My name is Hans, I think I heard someone say yours is Jap. Funny, you do not look Oriental."

Jap laughed before saying;"I'm not, Jap is short for Joshua Allen Peterson, and it's nice to meet you sir."

The big Israeli smiled back and said;"If you would like, I'll let you try Hienrich out when we go to your range."

Jap laughed;"No thank you, you just want to see me get knocked on my ass. But I'll tell you what, I'll let you shoot my rifle, it's really accurate and I think you might enjoy it."

Jap and Hans continued to talk 'guns' while everyone finished eating. As the people at the two tables finished, Jap and Jacky policed their mess, grabbed their trays and headed for the scullery. Hans and the rest of the adults followed suit, while the boys looked confused, finally Buck did the same and everyone else followed his lead. When they all had dumped their trash and put the trays, plates, glasses and cutlery on the moving conveyer belt; Jacky spoke;"Okay guys, follow us and we'll give you a tour of the 'House,' feel free to ask any questions you may have."

Even though some of the boys had seen the pool cavern, they started there. All through the tour, Mark was taking pictures with his 35mm camera; everyone ignored him, although from time to time, some of the other boys threatened to rip his head off. When the tour moved to the third deck, Jap went over to the arms room door and asked;"Sergeant Webb, okay to bring the tour group through?"

A voice with a southern twang to it answered;"Sure nough, just make sure they don't touch nothing without permission."

Entering the arms room, both the men and boys gasped at the size of the room and the quantity of the firearms stowed in the racks on three out of the four walls. Once again the same question everyone entering the room for the first time was asked;"Jesus Christ, what the hell you need all these weapons for."

This time it was Keener who answered;"This is actually a secret CIA installation, and we're getting ready to invade Canada."

Mark said;"Wow, cool, can I help?"

After everyone stopped laughing, Keener answered the question;"Most of the firearms are owned by the Bateman brothers and are used by the Unit members for exercises against the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. We've run training evolutions against units of the Marine Corps with as many as 140 of their men being involved. The three branches of the military have 'lent' us certain equipment that is normally not available to civilians. I've been assigned here as one of the Marine Corps liaisons and act as the Unit armorer."

Just then, the Gunny walked into the arms room, took a look at the group of men (bodyguards) and boys from New Jersey and smiled;"What's going on Staff Sergeant, we get us a bunch of new recruits for the Unit?"

Keener smiled back at the retired Master Gunnery Sergeant before replying;"Naw, Jap and Jacky are giving these guys the nickel tour is all."

Jap asked the Gunny;"If it's alright with you, I figure we'd take them to the range and let them pop off a few rounds, Hans and Herman here carry 50AE’s and I thought I'd let him shoot Bert. Looking at one of the guys in the group of bodyguards that didn't look over thirteen Jap added;"I'll let these guys shoot him too, see if they can hit anything with him."

The Gunny shook his head;"You know Jap, you can really be a very mean little S.O.B. when you want to be?"

Jap got an injured look on his face before saying;"Moi?"

When the Unit One people started laughing, the New Jersey group joined in, not really understanding what was so funny, but laughing anyway. The Gunny nodded his head and stated;"Vois. I got no problem with that, why don't you finish up your tour and Staff Sergeant Webb and I'll meet you at the range in about an hour. While we're setting up the firing line, you can give them the safety briefing in the ready room."

During the conversation, Mark was taking pictures, the constant whirr click in the background finally got to the Gunny. He turned and stared at Mark until the lens Mark was using was pointing right at the Gunny's face. There was one more click whirr and then Mark slowly lowered the camera and let it hang by its neck strap. Mark thought to himself;"Geez, the old guy has the same expression on his face that Bucky does when he's thinking about using his 'meat grinder' on someone."

The tour continued through the house, after forty five minutes the group left the house and strode up to the rifle range and entered the Ready Room. Jap stood in front of the seated men and boys and began his safety briefing, a couple minutes into the brief he saw Mark taking pictures of him and the others. He stopped talking and looked at Mark through the lens of the camera; slowly Mark let the camera drop down and once again let it hang by its neck strap. Jap looked him in the eyes and said;"Mark, I really need your attention here, please refrain from taking any more pictures while I'm talking."

Mark puffed up and sneered at Jap;"We all know about guns here, we don't need to hear any of your canned speeches; just let us go and shoot."

Jap turned red, no he glowed a bright crimson. Looking the bigger kid in the eyes, he took several deep breaths and calmed down before saying;"Yes you do need to hear this briefing, I'll lay money that I've fired ten times more than any of you. I get this safety brief at least once a week when I come to this range, and I'll continue to get this same briefing at least once a week when I use the range, and I'll come here long after you and your friends have gone. Yes you do need to hear this briefing, because if you don't have it, you won't be able to pick up a firearm, let alone fire it. Every person in the Unit from James and Matt on down go through this briefing at least once a week, we, and I mean all of us have zero tolerance for bullshit when it comes to handling and using firearms. If you can't live with that, please go back to the house cause you won't be shooting anything here."

Mark was just about to tell Jap to go fuck himself when Noah moved to his side and placed his hand on his shoulder and said;"Apologize now, apologize now or go for a nice long nap."

Mark glanced at him and saw that he wasn't kidding, gulped and turned back to Jap;"Umm, listen Jap, I sometime shoot off my mouth before I thank about it. Noah just reminded me of that and I want to say I'm sorry and that I will listen and take to heart what you're saying."

Jap nodded and then turned to the young guy Mark had called Noah and nodded his thanks. The lecture took about another ten minutes. As the group headed out to the range, they all picked up hearing and eye protection. Jap gestured to Hans to follow him to the end of the firing line where Jap's 'Bert' and Jacky's 'Gargon' were sitting on their bi-pods.

Hans was the first person to get to the big .50 caliber Barrett, while he had read about them, this was the first time he would be firing one. Looking at Jap he asked;"May I try him out?"

"Sure, I always use the prone position cause he's so heavy. You can see how he fires on the hundred meter range; I have him sighted in for fifteen hundred meters so he'll be about four feet high on the hundred." Jap told the man.

Hans nodded; he got down on his belly and then moved quickly to the prone position then shouldered the rifle. Hans squirmed around until he was comfortable behind the rifle and got a good image in the scope with no parallax. Jap noticed that Hans indexed his trigger finger above the trigger group; he nodded to himself, knowing that Hans was an experienced and safe shooter. The bodyguard that looked like he was twelve or thirteen years old was standing by Gargon, not touching, just looking. Jap could see he wanted to try it but also had a look on his face that made him look timid.

Jap walked up to him and stuck out his hand;"Hi, my names Jap, and you are?"

When the boy/man looked at Jap and smiled his whole face lit up and as he replied, Jap could tell he was a lot older then he first thought. "Hi yourself Jap, my names Erick Slate, I work for the Del la Vargas' as a body guard for the twins and their entourage. Actually, I guess I play bodyguard for the whole bunch of the kids that go to the Oaks Academy."

"Good, then you know about firearm safety, you wanna try Gargon here, it's a mighty fine shooting rifle?"

Erick looked at Jap in horror;"Fuck no, the sumbitch would knock me on my ass, I have a hard enough time hitting anything with my Ruger Mk II."

Jap smiled at him;"You probably got started with a larger caliber handgun than your .22 and it scared you. I guarantee that this rifle will kick some, but it won't be anything you can't handle."

Erick snorted;"Yeah right, you just want to see me get knocked on my ass."

Jap shook his head no;"Listen guy, I'm talking from experience here, the recoil is not that bad. I'll bet ya twenty bucks that if you listen to me and do what I tell ya, you'll be hitting out at fifteen hundred meters in no time.

Erick was dubious, he was afraid of the big gun; he remembered when he fired a 9 mm for the first time. The noise, even with the hearing protection he was using was deafening, the recoil scared him and the fumes from the burnt powder made him cough. But here, standing alongside of him was a thirteen year old boy, three inches shorter and six years younger telling him he could do it. It was like the little redhead was the adult and Erick was the child, yet the boy wasn't being patronizing. He looked in Jap's eyes and saw the conviction in them; he felt the faith the young boy had in him. Eric nodded his head and said two words;"Show me."

When the Gunny went through his firing orders and told the people on the line to 'commence firing,' Hans touch off the first round. The report from the big 50 was tremendous and it caused Eric to jump, Erick also noticed that Jap flinched at the noise also. This showed Erick that even experienced shooters could be unnerved, it also allowed him to relax a little and to pay attention to what Jap was showing him. Jap fired a magazine worth of .50 caliber ammunition at the hundred meter target just to show Erick the recoil didn't bother him.

Then it was Erick's turn. Jap got him into the prone position and told him to look through the optics of the Barrett, told him how to breath so that the image wouldn't jump up and down. He told him how to pull the rifle into his shoulder and to start applying pressure with just the tip of his finger on the trigger. When the rifle fired, he felt the rifle push his shoulder back, it was a little uncomfortable, but it didn't really hurt him. Then he looked through his scope at the target he had been shooting at;"EEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAW, God damn I'm good." He shouted, there was a hole right in the center of the target and he knew what Mark felt like every time he fired his automatic rifle.

He quickly looked at Jap and smiled; Jap patted him on the shoulder and told him to shoot the rest of the magazine. Eric took a few deep breaths and then settled back into the rifle and went through the same procedures that he had done for firing the first round each time for the remaining nine rounds left in the magazine. When he was finished, he looked at the target, not all of the rounds, in fact only one other round hit near the center. But, all of his shots hit in the black and that was the best shooting he had ever done with any of the weapons he'd been training on.

At the firing station Hans was using to fire the big Bert, Herman had come over to see how his partner was doing. After firing two magazines, Hans got Jap's attention: "Jap, may my partner fire this wonderful rifle?"

Jap smiled at the man and nodded his head in answer. Turning back to Erick, he asked;"Okay buddy, you ready to try for some long distance shooting?"

Erick looked up at Jap and said;"Yeah, I guess, I mean if you think I can, let's try it."

For the next thirty five minutes, Jap tutored Erick on the intricacies of long distance shooting. Erick was shooting at the 800 meter target because Hans and Herman had torn the 1,500 meter targets to shreds. While Erick only put four rounds in the bull, he did put twenty two rounds on target, only throwing four.

After the thirtieth round was fired, Jap had him remove the empty magazine and put safe fire switch on safe before moving over to the bleachers and sitting down. Erick looked at Jap with huge smile on his face;"Damn Jap, that's the best shooting I've ever done, everyone laughs at me because I always miss during practice."

Jap smiled at the boy/man and said;"I know it's not easy when you first start shooting, my dad started me when I was five years old, so I got a few years more experience."

Erick continued to smile at Jap as he said;"Wow, I guess you do, man if I started when I was five, I'd have fourteen years of shooting experience now and I'd probably be the best shot here."

Jap caught the 'fourteen years' part of Erick's last statement. "Wow!" Jap exclaimed;"You're telling me you're nineteen years old. Bullshit, there ain't no fucking way! You can't be more than two, three year's tops, older than me, and I'm only thirteen."

Eric smiled, however his smile wasn't as bright as before;"Jap, when your dad was teaching you how to shoot, my pimp was teaching me how to suck dick and take it up the ass. Last year Vince and Jeff, two of the other twins' bodyguards saved my ass; I was turning tricks in Miami and hooked on drugs. My pimp told all the Johns that I was twelve and I acted the part so well that I was his biggest money maker. Now, I'm a bodyguard because I can mix so well with all the boys going to the Oaks Academy. After Doug got kidnapped last year, Bucky and the other fathers of these guys decided to upgrade the boys' security; I'm part of that upgrade."

Jap looked at the boy/man;"I'm sorry, I mean I'm sorry . . . . . . I . . . Aww fuck, I don't know what I mean."

Jap hung his head, he didn't know this guy, but just the little Erick told him caused him to feel sorrow for the beautiful boy/man. Knowing how much his dad loved him, he couldn't understand how any parent could let their kid be put in a situation like Erick had been. Tears fell to the ground from Japs eyes as those thoughts ran through his head, he started to sob softly, thinking about how many people went to Herculean efforts to save him from the depression he had descended into last Fall.

Erick saw the tears splash the dust at Jap's feet; he reached over and gently put his hand on Japs chin and made him look at him. "Hey guy, I didn't mean to make you cry, listen everything is going good for me. I got a really fine boyfriend who loves me, I got a good job with people who like and respect me, and I'm even a millionaire because of the cash my lover and my boss took off my pimps before they blew them all to Hell." "Snaaark," Erick giggled;"I was about a block away just as five pounds of plastique went off, God it almost caused me to shit myself. After I picked my skinny ass up off the ground I went up to this black Jimmy carryall and the next thing I knew I was in the back seat and was being driven away.

Jap had to laugh at the way Erick described what happened, especially the way Vince was always acting like he was going to strangle him. As his story unfolded, Jap laughed more and more, especially the part where Hans wanted him to carry a 50AE.

"Yeah right, he tried to get me to shoot that big ass gun this morning and I politely said no. I know what it woulda done to me in recoil, and I know it woulda done the same thing to you."

Erick chuckled again;"You ain't said shit, luckily Vince talked them into letting me use my MK II."

Jap and Erick sat on the bleachers and talked, they talked about their boyfriends and how much they loved them, and they talked about the group of boys that he and the other men safeguarded. Jap told him about the Unit, how it was started and how everyone looked out for each other

They continued talking until Jacky came up to them around 15:30 and said;"Everyone's finished shooting, let's head on back to the mess decks and get some earlier supper."

Jap nodded and stood up, turning to Erick he held out his hand and said;"It's been neat talking to you Erick, any time you want some more lessons, all ya gotta do is ask."

Erick shook hands with both Jap and Jacky and headed back to the group of boys. Jap noticed that as he got close to the twins he had told him about, he went in to his bodyguard mode. He continually looked everywhere, watching the surroundings and always insuring he knew where the boys were at and always looking for strangers, even here.

End of Chapter 2
Next; Soar Like The Turkeys
By; Jamie Haze and GhostRyder15