Jack saw the flare of anger on Drake’s face. “Look, almost nobody is. That’s why the perfect weapon for home defense is the pump-action twelve-gauge shotgun loaded with double-aught buck. It has a decent spread, which increases your chances of hitting something. For our nightly guard duty we’ll be using those and our handguns. But the handguns are mostly for last resort, because if they’ve gotten close enough for you to stand a chance with one, they probably have a better chance with theirs.”
Dusk was approaching when they called it a day and headed back to the lodge. The air was cold, with a mild breeze that rolled in waves across the tall grass, and the darkening sky was streaked with veins of peach and rose as the sun dropped into the horizon. Drake’s shoulder ached from the hundreds of rifle rounds he’d fired, and he was dizzy from the ocean of information Jack had thrown at him. But in spite of that, he felt a confidence that had increased through the practice, and he resolved to spend the following day honing his gun skills, so that if he ever did have to use one, he’d be more than potentially dangerous.
The one takeaway he’d gotten from Jack’s demeanor was that he was expecting the worst, and Drake had spent enough time around him already to understand why his father had placed so much stock in his abilities. Whatever Jack’s faults might be, he was lethal, and his business was that of the warrior. If a battle-hardened fighter was worried, then Drake had every right to be, and wouldn’t let down his guard, no matter what.
Chapter Fourteen
For the next two days, Drake drilled intensively with Jack, with Allie joining them to refresh her skills. By the second evening, Drake was able to hit any target Jack could. That night, after a relaxed dinner, they settled in for sleep, and Drake dozed dreamlessly until Allie woke him with a cautionary finger held to her lips and her SIG Sauer pistol clutched in her hand. Drake quickly shook off his drowsiness when he saw the fear in her eyes.
“What?” he whispered.
“I already woke my dad. One of the cans rattled. Get your stuff and be ready to move.”
Drake sat up, fully dressed, as Jack had insisted they all sleep, and groped around in the dark for his shoes and backpack. He pulled them on and shouldered his bag, and then grabbed the Ruger shotgun he’d been assigned and flipped the safety off. With his free hand he lifted the SIG Sauer from the nightstand and quietly chambered a round, then decocked the hammer and slipped it into his waistband as he followed Allie down to the ground floor, feet feeling for each step, his eyes adjusting quickly to the near-total darkness.
Jack was near one of the windows at the front of the house, staring into the night, his weapon the modified AR-15, with an aftermarket burst mode, steadied against the back of a heavily stuffed chair. When he heard them approach, he leaned to the side and murmured.
“Something’s out there. Allie, you take the rear of the house with your shotgun. Drake, you take the window on the right side by the vehicles.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense to take one of the windows up on the second floor? Better visibility of the area,” Drake murmured, and Jack shook his head.
“No. If all hell breaks loose, then you’re trapped up there. This way, you can make a break for it. Just do as I say. If you see anything move, shoot it. Don’t think, don’t hesitate. Just blow it in two. But don’t go off half-cocked. Make sure it’s a human. No point in starting a war with a raccoon.”
“Do you think it’s a raccoon?” Allie whispered.
“No. Get to the back. If I was doing this, fifty-fifty chance I’d try to come in the back once the can went off.”
“What are you going to do?” Drake asked.
“Once you’re in position, I’m going to hit the exterior lights before they have a chance to cut the power. Assuming they haven’t already. Maybe we’ll get a look and be able to take them out.” Jack swallowed hard. “Barring that, on my word, run for the truck and jump in the bed. Assuming I’m alive, that is. If I am, I’ll drive us out of here. If I’m not, Drake, you do the driving, and Allie, you take the bed. Anyone tries to follow you, empty the shotgun at ’em. Understand?”
Drake and Allie nodded. Jack swallowed again. “All right. Go. Both of you. Now.”
Allie trotted to the rear of the house and Drake moved to the right side, where there were two windows. He could make out the vehicles in the moonlight, but nothing else.
They listened for any hint of movement, but didn’t hear anything. After a full two minutes of this, Jack lifted his rifle and stepped softly to the light switches. He took a deep breath and whispered again. “Here we go.”
The lights illuminated the exterior area of the house for roughly forty feet, and when Jack ducked back to the window, he saw a fleeting human shape running away into the gloom. His rifle sounded like a howitzer in the confined space of the house, the window pane shattered from the first shot, and he fired half his magazine into the night using controlled, steady bursts.
“See anything?” he called out after he’d finished shooting.
“Negative,” Allie said.
“No,” Drake replied.
“I spotted one. Looked like he was carrying a pistol.”
“Did you hit him?”
“Probably not, judging by how fast he was moving.”
“So what now?”
“Two choices. We stay put, call the cops, and hope they arrive before these guys take another run at us; or we make a break for the truck and get out of here.”
“What should we do?” Allie asked.
“I’d say go for the truck. Staying put, we’re sitting ducks. If they cut the power, we’re hosed, because then we’re stuck in the house without options. By the time the police could be out here, anything that could have happened already would have. And there would be a lot of questions I don’t feel much like answering — like what I’m doing with an automatic assault rifle.”
Drake nodded. “Fine. How do we do this?”
“I go first. If I make it to the cab, I’ll signal you, and then you come running and jump into the bed. Bring the guns. Anyone tries to follow, blow them to pieces.”
“Won’t they be waiting for us on the road?” Allie asked.
“If they are, they’re screwed. There’s a second gate about four miles through the property. It lets out on a completely different road. By the time they figure it out, we’re history.”
“And my car?”
“We can send someone for it once we’re safe.”
Allie nodded. “What if they shoot you?”
“Then you barricade the door, call the cops, and blast anything that moves. Besides, I’m betting they’re high-tailing their way out of here right now. If I was sneaking up on a house and encountered not just a tripwire but automatic weapons, I’d be out of there. I thought I caught the flash of a pistol in the light. If that’s all they’ve got, they’d be insane to try to take us on. Remember — they were thinking this would be easy, and now they’re in a war and completely outgunned. Same situation, I’d rather live to fight another day instead of doing a kamikaze run.”
Drake caught Allie’s eye. “I hope you’re right,” he said.
“That’s why I get the big bucks. Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll go to the kitchen door, and when I give the word, shut off the exterior lights. Then, when you hear the engine start, come running and jump into the truck bed. You hear any shooting, you stay put. Understand?”
“Yes,” Drake said from his position at the back of the house.
Allie nodded again. “Be careful.”
“All right. Here we go. Allie, you take the lights. On my signal.”
Jack backed away from the window and, once clear of it, moved quickly to the kitchen door. With a last look at the rear of the house, Allie hurried to the lights, and Drake crossed to where Jack was standing, peering out the glass in the door through a gap in the curtain. Jack reached down and twisted the deadbolt open, and then turned to Allie.