The Face of Freedom. Benjamin Vance

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СКАЧАТЬ estimate for the contraption to forty years. He lost track of time during his estimate of the situation, for soon he was greeted by Julie; weighted down by all sorts of electrical paraphernalia; some seemed to have no purpose. However, he found everything he did need, except tools. This time he and Julie walked together to retrieve what he needed. They talked, or at least Julie talked. He and the hound mostly followed and listened.

      She was a bit confused, he thought. At eighteen and ready for college, she really didn’t want to leave the confines of her home town. She had no steady boyfriend. She admired her brother for his intelligence and for his business acumen. She didn’t know how much of Duncan’s personality type she’d inherited from her parents. She said Duncan had always been overtly business oriented. He was always finding money where other people didn’t look. To his embarrassment, when he was younger their dad found him under the bleachers at the high school looking for coins. He had found lots. He inspected the bleachers after every game and always found over ten dollars. She also said she thought he saved every cent he ever made. She estimated his savings alone at well over half a million dollars. She asked that the walker please not say anything to anyone about her brother. Of course he agreed; one of the few times he got a chance to say anything.

      Apparently Duncan and she enjoyed many of the same genes. Both were alpha oriented, intelligent and logical in their thinking. Both were ardent patriots as well. The walker found himself wanting to meet Representative Parker’s only son. Julie confirmed Duncan would be “home” for the weekend on Saturday evening; one day later than planned.

      Meanwhile they’d located the appropriate tools, lubricants, rags and electrical components to make light and make targets move. He enjoyed the company Julie provided and enjoyed the fact that he could overlook her idiosyncrasies and age to see a promising scientist. She could almost predict his moves by the time they got a light installed and tested the funky old motor with its starter coil and plugged up vents. When they tested the motor without its load of pulleys, it squeaked at first them hummed as the new oil reached its tired bearings.

      Soon the pulleys were tightened, wiped clean and lubricated with the admonition to watch for errant cable strands which could pierce fingers and hands. Julie did an admirable job with lubrication while he worked on the repositioning of the pulleys to properly align with the entire cable lengths. They hadn’t been aligned properly, so that periodically they would jump off the pulleys if the target holders jumped or slipped on their tracks. Each of the four bearings on the four target holders were like little rail car wheels and had to be lubricated before they could be trusted not to jump or stick at an inopportune time.

      After all was lubed, tightened and cleaned, Julie had the honor of turning the switch on. Everything worked fine until it was time to reverse direction. The reverse switch didn’t work. The toggle worked fine but the switch turned out to be worn beyond repair. Julie thought she could find one at the local hardware store so she took off on a mission with a grin on her face. The walker had time to think. He rearranged some wiring to look more organized and cleaned up some wiring insulation litter and other trash of forty years. Then he and the hound dog took a walk.

      He estimated the distance of the entire perimeter and jotted down the meager landmarks in the area. The prevailing slope was to the Northeast. The terrain would be hard to defend with the over growth of timber. It made for a nice retreat, but not a nice paramilitary installation. He jotted down information of ranges and overlapping fields of fire. He figured that someone could make a fortune on just the timber that needed cutting. He hated to cut trees, but not when lives were at stake.

      7.

      About the time he was deciding to move back to the compound the old dog raised his big ears as much as he could and uttered a quiet “quoof.” Then he heard Julie’s voice calling him. He walked toward the sound. It didn’t take long to see her face. She smiled when she saw him and the old dog. She said, “You rename him yet?”

      “No, not yet. I’ve just been making notes about your perimeter. I think I’ll talk to your dad and brother about the need to open up the grounds a bit.”

      She grimaced and gave him another “John Wayne” look, “Why do we have to chop down all these beautiful trees?”

      “You don’t have to chop them down. It would just be better for establishing a good defensive perimeter.”

      “We don’t even know where our perimeter is, really.”

      “That’s my point. I’ve been looking at the lay of the land a bit. This place almost looks like it was once a paramilitary camp.”

      “It was, kind of! It’s an old Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC camp my dad calls it. It was made over, and then kind of abandoned for years. I guess that’s why so many trees have grown up. Anyway, my dad bought it about six or seven years ago and we started this camp.”

      “I thought the MSA had been organized for many years.”

      “Yeah, it has, but not here. It was just a bunch of guys that met in this general area and used the range once in a blue moon. When my dad bought this land there were a lot of guys piss … excuse me, mad as heck about not having a place to go to drink beer and shoot and BS about hunting. He and Ralph Lazenby got together and decided to turn this into a real compound. Duncan is a First Lieutenant in the Montana National Guard and he and they kind of set this place up … I guess ... kind of organized it.” She looked at him for credence.

      He didn’t give it. Instead, he planted a seed for future growth. “They should have let Duncan set it up Julie. What branch is he, do you know?”

      “Army; he’s in the Army National Guard.”

      “I mean what kind of specialty does he have, within the Army Guard … while he’s on active duty?”

      “Oh yeah, I think he’s … he’s like a leader of some Bradleys; some kind of tanks.”

      “Would it be Bradley Fighting Vehicles with the 30 millimeter cannons?”

      “Yeah, that’s it. He commands a couple of those things I think.”

      While they were walking and talking, he noticed she carried a plastic bag with a hardware logo on it. He asked, “Did you get our switch?”

      “Yep; well I got what the lady said was as close as she had. It’s a four pole switch and you only need three I think.”

      “Yes, that should be all we need to switch that mechanism back and forth. Now, if it works, we need someone to repair that one target holder with the bent section. It’s bent because it’s partially broken. It needs to be welded before you can slide in a target or a piece of plywood for the target to stick to.”

      “Oh, I don’t know anybody that can weld, but I’m sure somebody in this bunch of people can weld.”

      “I can weld, if you can find the equipment.”

      “Is there anything you can’t do?”

      “Yes, Miss Julie; lots of things I can’t do. Most of my life I was a JOAT, but I did finally reach the zenith of my capability in the material world.”

      “What the heck is a JOAT and what makes you think you’ve reached your zenith?”

      “I’m СКАЧАТЬ