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Another old stairwell led them down underneath the garage to a heavy door locked with heavy duty electronic locking mechanism. Sadie paused before a door locked and waited. The lights on the control panel that were initially red, faded to green and she pushed open the door. As she entered, a motion sensor triggered lighting. The room was made of the same masonry that was spread throughout the whole complex, but in this room a wall had been removed and a long hallway, padded with sound proofing foam, had been added.
"Well, here we are." Sadie seemed unusually happy.
Along the old stone walls hung racks of many weapons, in an almost religious fashion. The racks themselves had been carved from mahogany and were adorned with Celtic carvings of crosses and Christian saints. Between each of the racks was a sacred candle, in the far corner was a statue of a warrior angel and a door in the back that lead to a workroom designed for weapons.
"Damn." Callen was a little overwhelmed. "This is like a shrine to all things weapons and angels..."
Sadie nodded. "Isn't it badass?"
Callen nodded and looked at the racks of melee weapons, bows, crossbows, and a variety of firearms. The room didn't look much like an armory. The room looked more like a private collection or a museum. "So, where's all the modern hunting gear?" He asked when he didn't see any of the gear his Grandfather carried on the racks.
“Oh, that stuff is issued...or ordered conventionally then modified later," Sadie said. "This is just our collection that knights stationed here carried...well, the stuff that wasn't passed on or got completely replaced."
He nodded and looked at the variety of weaponry. He could tell that each of these pieces was far more than standard production model. Each was heavily modified compared to the ones he had seen pictures of and seemed much more capable than the conventional tech of the time. He looked at the old colonial rifle and saw an interesting loading mechanism that would allow the weapon to fire much more like a repeater than a musket. "So, I take it that the gear we're testing isn't on the racks then...and significantly more advanced than what you can get at the store?"
"It depends," Sadie said. "We have standard platforms made from deals with conventional manufacturers, but most get modified by the knights using them."
"So, no ray guns..." He stopped at the 1800's weaponry and smiled when he saw the colt single-action army. "Now there's a classic." He scratched his head. "So, what are we shooting?"
"We can use whatever we want. But, the weapons we're testing are right there." She pointed at the pair of plastic cases she had rested on a loading table near the booths. She walked over and picked up the two cases. "Here." She gave him one of the boxes.
He placed the box on one of the counters of the firing booths and opened it. Inside, resting in the gray molded foam, was a pistol made from dark metal and modern synthetic materials. All though it was modular and built with all the modern conveniences of tactical mounts, the weapon's conventional parent was a powerful revolver.
"The X2019 Hellbreaker," Sadie said with pride. "Standard issue and sidearm of choice for demon-slayers everywhere...well in our order that is..."
"A revolver?" Callen asked as he picked up a weapon.
"It's all about reliability, from what your grandfather says." Sadie crouched and opened a drawer. She pulled out four boxes of ammo. ".38s and .357 magnum." She said. "Both will fire from this thing."
He took the bullets and opened the cylinder. "Alright...six?"
"Once you’re issued your own hellbreaker, you can mod it however you want," Sadie said. "You can even get it in automatic." She glanced down range. "Alright, load it with the barrel pointing down range...and don't forget the ear plugs." She tossed him a pair from the box on the ammo bench.
Callen placed the gun and the bullets on the shelf in the firing booth before sticking the plugs in his ears. As he did, he looked down the corridor at the sound insulation and electronic monitoring systems for collecting ballistics data. He reopened the cylinder and loaded the weapon. He looked back at Sadie, faking that he didn't know what he was doing. "So, what do I get if I hit the bull's eye with my fist shots?"
"You won't, so..." She sounded confident. "I don't know...respect..." She tapped a touch screen built into the boot and a paper target descended from the ceiling at around thirty yards.
"Creative." He rolled his eyes. "Come on, you can do better than that..."
"Like what?" A bashful look crossed her face. "What could little ol' me give you?"
Callen couldn't help but smirk when he heard Derrick's words about girls bounce around between his ears. He felt butterflies. Derrick wouldn't let him live it down if he didn't. He swallowed hard and rubbed the back of his head with his left hand. "Umm....ah...a kiss?" He heard the words slip past his lips before he even realized they came from his mouth. Embarrassed, he looked down the range. He didn't know what to say, and felt uncomfortable. He swallowed what he wanted to ask and shook the feeling away by rolling his head.
"What was that?" Sadie said with a large grin on her face.
Callen ignored her and pretended he didn't say anything.
"Alright," She giggled. "I won't make you repeat it...but you gotta get all six in...and I'm not helping you..."
He swallowed hard and cursed himself. He should have told her and now he wouldn't be in this awkward situation. His heart was pounding. He took a breath and wondered if he should just miss so he wouldn't have to deal with the consequences. "All six?" He managed to get out, and he struggled with the idea of coming clean now.
"Yep, in the inner circle." Sadie taunted. "The odds of you succeeding are, extremely..."
With those words, he made his decision. His life had always been about beating the odds. If he gave up every time someone told him the odds weren't in his favor, he wouldn't have lived past age six. He raised the gun and focused. He lined up the iron sights and squeezed the trigger. The gun kicked a little, but it wasn't too much for him. The weapon felt perfect in his hands. All six rounds hit the center circle in a tight grouping.
"What the...?" Sadie sounded shocked. Her face also went beat red. "How did...? Wait...you already know how to shoot, don't you?"
"Yeah...our mom's been taking us since we could fire a .22."
She shook her head. "You played me..."
He shrugged. "Never tell me the odds."
She nodded. "I guess it serves me right...I underestimated you." She didn't seem upset. Instead, she seemed excited in her own roguish way. "But, since you lied, I'll tell you if you get your reward or not..."
"Actually, I didn't really lie." Callen pointed out. "You never asked me if I knew how..."
"Well, you cheated." Sadie flirtatiously scoffed. "So, let's get the other weapon done."
Callen rolled his eyes and nodded.
"Don't roll your eyes at me." She warned. "Now, according to Felix's directions he wants 114 more data points for that weapon and 120 for this one." She refocused quickly.
"Alright." He sighed. He felt upset and relieved at the same time as the two friends began firing.
As the guns popped, they didn't talk much and there were a few awkward glances. Occasionally, their eyes met, which did little to help the knots in his stomach. However, he was glad that after they had finished, the awkward situation had faded.
Sadie put the weapons back in the boxes and clicked them shut. "You know, I still can't believe you know how to shoot..." She said. "And well..."
"Why is that weird?"
"I'm usually good at reading people..." She seemed a little disappointed, but she let it roll off. "I figured your ma raised you all normal, because of, well, you know...and here you are a marksman..."
"What, my cancer?" Callen scoffed. "Na...that was like one of the big things that we did whenever I wasn't in th
e hospital."
"I guess that's why you don't like hearing the odds..."
"I should've been dead so many times over if I went by the odds..." He nodded and smiled briefly at the memories. "Good, or bad...I got a lot of luck." He drifted into memories of his mother taking him and Ania to the range, like normal parents would take their kids to the park. Here he thought all of that was just because they lived in bad neighborhoods. The memories soured quickly at the thought that he might never again talk to his mother.
"Hey, you alright?" The usual edge in her voice was replaced by something Callen hadn't heard yet. She sounded empathetic, rather than practical and sarcastic.
"I just feel like I'm still struggling to catch up." He covered, not wanting to admit the truth. "Between the science and the monster stuff..."
Sadie nodded her head slowly and raised her eyebrow at him. "Yeah...ain't that the truth." She swallowed and rested her hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I know that's not what's eating you...and it's okay."
He felt a tingle when she touched him and felt a few tears well up in his eyes. But before the tears came, he forced down the growing lump and stepped away from her. "I'm sorry for lying to you..." He looked towards the weapons to break the mixture of emotions.
As he moved, she took her hand back and shrugged. "No, I'm sorry." Her voice was cautious, but a depth understanding that overpowered mere empathy surfaced in her voice. "I know it's not easy to say you miss your mom..."
He reached under his glasses and wiped the tears. He nodded before looking back at her.
"And, well...I miss my mom too...every day." Her voice trembled, ever so slightly, as if the emotional wound of whatever took her away had never quite healed. "So, I know how you feel...better than anyone here."
Callen wasn't sure if it was an invitation to ask, comfort her, or change the subject. Instead, he just stood there, emotionally paralyzed. However, he managed to get a few words out when he saw the deep upset on her face. "I had no idea..." He hoped he didn't sound like an idiot. "I'm sorry..."
"What's to be sorry for?" The sound of anger polluted her expression and her voice. A curious green shimmer in her eyes caught Callen’s attention. It was as if at that angle, her irises lit up like a cat's in dim light. "To most she was just a drug addict...no one cares when people like that die."
"She was your mom." Callen offered. "No matter what she did." He couldn't help but remember the conversations he had with Derrick about family. Sadie, like Derrick and himself, came from broken homes. It was something he and Derrick bonded over to begin with, and he knew that nothing he said really could help calm those feelings of loss or abandonment.
"I don't matter now." Sadie stiffened and shackled her emotions.
"Yes it does," Callen said.
"Look," She said. "I don't want to talk about it..." She paused and took a deep breath. "Just do me a favor..."
"Yeah?"
"Save your Mom...like I couldn't for mine...and to hell with the odds."
Callen nodded. "So, does that mean..." He shot her a half grin.
"Verdicts still out..." She winked. "Anyway, back to work...I know we both have stuff to do..."