Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (25 page)

“
Simple enough. What are the other things I can help with?”

“
Keep gathering the data we talked about last time I was here. Also, I really need to get the gold converted.”

“
Sorry, I should have said something. Dad said he would have an account for you by Tuesday.”

“
Good. That will let me start ordering some of the long delay items. One of the main items I need to acquire is a large number of identical rifles.”

“
Rifles shouldn’t be a problem.”

“
I am concerned about attracting attention by buying so many of the same rifle. I wonder if there are enough readily available. Besides, I can’t afford to have someone check back on my ID. They’re likely to find out I’m supposed to be dead and that’d raise a real issue.”

“
All you need is a valid driver’s license and then fill out the forms. If something came up later, then the feds would get involved and probably check back on the forms, but no one’s going to be looking at the records otherwise. If they look then, they’d have a devil of a time finding you, wouldn’t they? Handguns would be different. What are you after anyway?”

“
I decided to go with the rifle the military has used for years. It is accurate, reliable, and doesn’t kick so bad that I’ll have trouble with my team on Gaea. I’ll want fifteen to twenty Remington Heavy Barrel Varminters in .308. They are very good out of the box, but I’d actually like to find someone who could relieve the barrels and bed and smooth up the actions to improve their performance as much as possible. I also need very high quality scopes for all of them.”

“
That is a lot. We’ll probably have to pick them up in small batches from every store in the area to get that many. I have a friend I can call about the scopes and see what he recommends. He might also know someone who can do the work for you. He’s into precision shooting, so he should have some contacts.”

“
I also want a lot of ammunition. I’ve been thinking twenty to thirty thousand rounds for now. I might want more later.”

“
Ammo probably won’t be a problem. The gun shows usually have a lot, and we can each buy some and from different dealers. We need to be sure to get all the same ammo however, since different manufacturers’ products and different bullet weights or loads will shoot differently. How about we use a story that we are setting up a precision shooting team and need to get equipped. It’s essentially what you are doing and we don’t need to tell them the ultimate purpose.”

I’ll also want a couple more handguns. One more full sized .45, but it doesn’t need to be as nice as the one I got from you. I’m also thinking of one a bit smaller. I’d like to have one with me, but don’t want to carry the full sized version around.”

“
I can ask Ted. He’ll have some suggestions. I can buy those if we can’t find a way to get them without records.”

“
I’d also like to scare up a silencer for the rifles,” Randy said.

“
Whew! Now that’s going to be a lot harder. They can be bought, but it takes a lot of paperwork, and I suspect time. Even if I could get approved, I doubt it would happen in the time frame you have been talking.”

“
I realize it’s a problem. I may have to forget the idea, or find a way to steal one. If I could get my hands on one of them, I’m sure we could make more on Gaea. I did buy a book on them, but it would be better to have one that had been fully engineered.”

“
I’ll ask Ted what he knows, but that’s one where I wouldn’t get my hopes up.”

“
Ask him who he recommends for a course on handgun training. I want something that is heavy on shooting technique with a bit of combat skill training. I don’t want one of the courses that assumes a person is already fully skilled with basic pistol shooting.”

“
Any other little tasks on your list?”

“
Lots, but there’s one I don’t know how to approach.” Randy reached down and retrieved the small backpack he had with him and pulled out a small bag filled with Karonabark. He handed it to Gene.

“
This stuff does something to wizards and mages. You get it in your system and suddenly you can’t perform any magic. I’ve had it used on me and it works fast, and is very effective. I’d like to know what the active ingredient is, and whether it can be manufactured. From what I can tell, it has no effect whatsoever on normal people. Do you have any hot shot chemist friend who might be able to see what they can learn? I was hoping to be able to come up with an aerosol, or something that could be loaded into a hypodermic syringe. The current means of forcing your adversary to swallow the stuff isn’t the most useful delivery system.”

Gene looked at the bag. “You have some interesting problems, don’t you? Yeah, I know someone who might be able to figure it out.”

“
Good.”

Randy stood up. “I need to get going. I’ve got an appointment for a flight certification check in an hour.”

“
Flying. Why are you concerned with that now?”

“
Tishe expressed an interest when she saw the planes yesterday. No one on Gaea has ever flown. Sometimes I get these feelings, which have often proved correct. I sense that being able to fly my own plane might come in handy before I’m done here. I have all the necessary papers, and managed to get a quick flight physical from my old doctor yesterday afternoon. If I can get certified today, we’ll fly down to Denver tomorrow when we go to the gun show.”

* * * *

Randy, Tishe, and Gene sat at the end of the runway in the Cessna 182 waiting their turn to take off. It was Sunday so there were other private pilots out on the small Boulder runway, and they were third in line. The planes ahead of them were all smaller than the Cessna. The four-seater airplane was the largest plane Randy had ever flown, but he had logged a reasonable number of hours in it a few years ago, in fact, many in this very plane. Tail number N7336N and he had shared many pleasant hours.

The TR 182 was the most capable of the popular four place Cessna Skylane line. With its turbocharged engine and retractable landing gear it could carry 1100lbs including up to 500lbs of fuel at cruise speeds of 200mph and altitudes up to 20,000 ft. This was the ideal small plane for flying in the Denver area where the airports were all a mile above sea level or higher.

Yesterday, the flight instructor had been able to give him his biennial flight review which amounted to running him through the current flight regulations and giving him a ninety minute test flight. Randy had told him he’d been out of the country for a couple of years, and had fallen behind. Since the man vaguely remembered Randy from the past, he had no reason to doubt the story, and after Randy demonstrated he hadn’t lost his touch, he’d been certified and was now fully legal to fly. Being legally dead didn’t enter into the equation, and unless something came up, there was little chance of anyone stumbling onto that fact.

Tishe was in the back, eagerly awaiting her first chance to fly. She had her new video camera and was diligently taking movies of the day’s events. She had been shown several of the family home movies the previous day, and had asked Janie what it took to make such movies. While they were shopping, Janie had picked up a camera for her. With the computers on Gaea, she would be able to show movies of what she saw here in addition to the still photos. She’d been particularly impressed when she’d seen a full size train on the way to the airport. It had five engines and at least a hundred cars. She now understood what the train system Randy had been pushing really meant.

Gene sat in the copilot seat, and while he wasn’t a pilot, he’d taken the stick a few times in the past and could probably land the plane if needed. Finally their turn came.

At the run-up area Randy quickly completed the pre-take off checklist and ran the engine up to 2000 rpm to check the magnetos, carburetor heat and cycle the prop pitch while monitoring the engine instruments. Tishe looked over his shoulder from the back seat. Rather than fly directly into Denver, which would have been a very short trip, he’d planned a bit of a circular route, which would allow Tishe to see the area from the air, and then down into Denver.

The Boulder airport, being and uncontrolled field, had no operational control tower. In order to verify that there was no traffic on approach to runway 8 or 26 Randy taxied the aircraft though an arc so that he could see any aircraft approaching from either the East or the West. He then broadcast his intentions on the Boulder frequency.

“
Cessna 7336 November is departing to the East, runway 8, Boulder,” he said into the mike of the headset after thumbing the switch on the control yoke.

He then taxied onto the departure end of the runway and stopped with the nose aligned with the runway heading of 080 degrees magnetic. Randy slowly advanced the throttle until he reached maximum takeoff power of 31 inches of manifold pressure. He released the brakes and began accelerating on his takeoff roll. At 65 knots indicated airspeed he eased back on the yoke and rotated. He could sense Tishe’s excitement as the plane lifted free of the ground, and then climbed steadily into the air.

As they lifted off Randy tapped the brakes with his toes to stop the main gear wheels from spinning as they entered the wheel wells in the belly of plane. He then selected gear up and began the landing gear retraction cycle. Passing through 90 knots, Randy retracted take-off flaps and felt the slight increase in acceleration as the flaps came up. As the altimeter wound pass 6300 feet (1000 feet above the ground) they were climbing at 100 knots and Randy throttled back from take-off power to climb power and began a turn to the South.

After trimming the plane for a 100 knot climb, Randy turned to Tishe and said, “what do you think?”

“
You said there’s no magic here,” she said from behind him.

“
It’s not magic,” he countered. “It’s technology.”

“”
What’s the difference?” she asked, obviously delighted with being in the air. He’d been a little worried she’d react negatively once they actually took to the air, but the small bumps and bounces seemed to have no affect on her.

“
Maybe not so much,” he admitted, and then concentrated on the task at hand, letting Gene point out the points of interest as they flew.

After completing their scenic tour, Randy made his landing on the left runway of the Denver airport as directed by the tower and taxied the plane to the parking area for private planes. He had been here several times before a couple of years ago and not much had changed. He’d made arrangements with the rental car company, and after getting the plane locked up, he was directed to a parked Ford off to one side with the keys in the ignition. They climbed into the car after Tishe had finished taking the pictures she wanted and headed off to the convention center a few miles away where the gun show was being held this year.

The gun show turned out to be a good idea. They took their time wandering through the hundreds of tables searching for the specific items they wanted. When they were ready to leave, they had managed to acquire six of the Remington rifles, all but one of which were new in the box. The one used rifle was in excellent shape, but had the older wooden style stock rather than the newer composite offering, and Randy thought he would use that rifle for his course. Even though it had a very nice scope already attached, he planned to change it out for one of the Nightforce scopes with which they would be equipping the other rifles. This would ensure all of his experiences, which would be passed onto the shooting team back on Gaea by
pairing-crystals
later, would reflect the same scope his teams would be using. So far they’d found ten of the scopes, and one of the dealers indicated he’d be more than willing to ship them an additional ten if they wanted. Randy had the man’s card in his wallet in case they didn’t find what they wanted locally. They’d also picked up most of the mounts, rings and bipods they would need to equip all of the rifles.

When they brought the purchases back to the car, Randy decided to make a trip back to the airport to offload what they had found thus far. Gene and Tishe continued to shop while he was gone. The long guns took up a great deal of the available room, and it looked like they might have to use both the plane and the car to haul the entire load back to Boulder.

Ammunition had been another area where they made some inroads on their needs. Buying from several different dealers, by the end of the day they managed to accumulate twelve thousand rounds of Black Hills 168 grain match ammunition. It had a hollow point, which concerned Randy at first since he wanted fully jacketed bullets. When he saw one of the rounds had a very small hole, with the copper flashing usually filling the hole, he was sure they would work just as well as the fully jacketed bullets he’d been considering.

The final surprise of the day was the Kimber Tactical Elite .45 ACP pistol they’d acquired. On one of the trips to the parking lot with ammunition, they’d encountered two men discussing the pistol. When the prospective buyer declined the purchase, Randy had asked the man what he wanted for the handgun. Shortly thereafter, encouraged by Gene who was familiar with the brand, he walked away with an unregistered, excellent condition Kimber for seven hundred dollars.

Late in the afternoon they loaded the remainder of the items they had purchased into the car, then Gene dropped Randy and Tishe off at the plane. He drove home to Boulder in the rental car since there was clearly not enough room to load everything in the plane, and the weight of all the ammunition would have probably exceeded the load weight of the small aircraft. The car could be returned later in Boulder. Randy flew back in the Cessna with Tishe happily filming from the front seat next to him.