Genomorph

Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

Once they were on the range, Brandi fired a few test rounds through the HKs to get the feel for how they fired. She had selected the .357 Sig chambering because it offered a good balance of penetration and stopping power. She knew the people looking for her were no fools; jerks perhaps but not stupid. When they came, they would come in force, and likely she would be facing men in body armor. The Sig round was becoming popular amongst law enforcement because of the increasing prevalence of criminals wearing body armor, and it had a one shot stop rating of better than ninety percent.

The guns fired well; consistent and accurate as she had expected. Satisfied, she unloaded them and set them aside for the time being.

“Just getting a feel for how they shoot,” she smiled.

Karen stepped up to the shooting station first. Though the Pythons that had belonged to Melissa’s dad were fine weapons, Brandi had gotten them each more modern Smith & Wesson 386PDs, a medium frame seven shot revolver in .357 magnum. The alloy frame and titanium cylinder made for a strong, lightweight revolver and the two and a half inch barrel made it easily concealable. To help with accuracy Gary had replaced the stock grips with Crimson Trace Lasergrips. Though a snub nose revolver was not ideal for novice shooters, they needed something that could be easily concealed. The integral laser sight would allow for fast target acquisition and accurate shot placement, and the magnum loads would guarantee a one shot stop. Even though body armor existed that could stop a .357 round, the target would still feel like they had been hit with a hammer.

Over the next hour Melissa and Karen worked with the pistols. Brandi had them load up with .38 Special rounds so that they could become comfortable with them, explaining that once they were proficient they could step up to full power magnums. The main thing they were working on was getting comfortable with the pistols, especially the considerable muzzle flash produced by the short barrels. Brandi had told them that the flash was not entirely a minus; if they were facing an opponent wearing night vision gear, the flash would temporarily overload it at close range, buying precious seconds for a follow up shot if they missed.

She was not too concerned about them missing at the ranges they would likely be engaging an opponent. With the laser sight, Karen was a very competent shooter. Melissa, however, was approaching gifted. On her last target, Melissa put seven rapid fire rounds from the snub nosed revolver into a five inch group, dead center in the target at a range of ten yards. Anyone of them would have been lethal in most cases.

“Pretty good sweetie.” Brandi said.

“Pretty good? Hah!” Melissa exclaimed. “Let’s see what you can do blondie!”

Brandi smiled sweetly and clipped a fresh target to the carrier. After running it out to its maximum distance of twenty five yards, she loaded the two HK pistols and began humming ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. Once loaded, she chambered a round in each and set them down on the bench.

“Say when,” she said as she smiled at Melissa.

“When!”

Brandi snatched the two pistols from the bench, firing as she brought them up on target. Another reason she had chosen the HK pistols was their Combat Defense Action, which basically meant that the pistols had no manual safety. The act of pulling the trigger disengaged the safety and allowed the first round to be fired quickly, yet the pistols were still safe against accidental discharge if dropped or struck.

Brandi alternated her firing, first the right and then the left pistol, squeezing rounds off so fast it sounded like one continuous explosion in the range. When the slides locked back on empty chambers the roar continued to reverberate for several seconds.

Brandi resumed humming the tune as she punched the button to bring the target back to the firing line. There were nine neat holes in the center of the target’s chest, eight forming a circle and the ninth dead center. A similar pattern was in the center of the face.

“Holy crap, Batman!” Gary exclaimed.

“Show off,” Melissa mumbled, sorry that she had goaded Brandi into a display in front of Gary. The girl was just incapable of backing down from a challenge.

“Let’s see Mel Gibson do that,” Brandi giggled.

“I have never seen anyone shoot like that,” Gary said, awestruck. “I guess your daddy taught you more than hand to hand.”

Brandi realized her display had probably not been a good idea. Gary had already seen her shoot and knew she was very good, but now she had shown him she was even better.

“Well, like, he did take me to the range a lot,” Brandi said, her nervousness over the slip causing her to slip into character. “He said I was, like, a pro…prosti…um, I mean a protestant?”

“I think you mean prodigy, sweetheart,” Melissa said.

“Yeah, that’s the word!” Brandi giggled. Inside she was still furious; both over the foolish mistake and that it was causing her to act like a ditz.

“There’s a gun show coming up in a few weeks,” Gary said. “I bet I could set up a shooting exhibition if you were game.”

“I don’t think so, Gary,” Brandi said. “I really don’t, like wanna advertise, you know? I’d rather be an enema.”

“Enigma,” Karen corrected.

“Oh, yeah,” Brandi said. She did not laugh this time. It had stopped being funny.

“Ok Brandi I’ll back off,” Gary said. “Hey before you go, I want to show you something. Wait right here.”

Gary left the range, returning minutes later with two gun cases. He set them on the bench of the firing station and opened them up. Inside were two compact submachine guns. They were styled along the lines of the Israeli Uzi but had a much more futuristic look. The matte black receiver was made of a steel reinforced polymer, and the weapons had a telescoping stock and a fold down fore grip.

“Now those are pretty,” Brandi said, regaining her composure. She was certain Gary thought she was schizophrenic; sometimes she wondered herself. “MP-7 from Heckler & Koch right?”

“I had a feeling you would know them,” Gary smiled.

“I’ve never actually seen one, just read about them,” Brandi admitted. “I would guess you have these for demonstration purposes.”

Gary nodded and told her, “LAPD is considering getting a few.”

“Don’t they have enough guns already?” Karen quipped.

“The MP-7 is a personal defense weapon designed to defeat body armor,” Brandi told her.

Brandi picked up one of the 4.6 x 30mm rounds and showed it to Melissa and Karen. The cartridge was a bottle neck design and the bullet was sharply pointed. She explained it had a steel core to increase penetration. The round did not have much stopping power, but it could punch through twenty layers of Kevlar and a titanium trauma plate.

“Yep, ever since the North Hollywood shootout in ninety-seven they have wanted something that could punch through body armor,” Gary said. “There’s stuff out there that can even stop a two two three round from an M-16.”

“I remember that shootout,” Melissa said quietly. “Dad was there. He wasn’t hurt but he said it was the most intense thing he had ever been in.”

Brandi did not speak, but Melissa saw the sad, far away look in her eyes. She knew when she saw that look that Brandi’s mind was in the Iraqi desert on a dark, overcast night. Gary too noticed the sad look on Brandi’s face. It was so out of place that he wanted to do anything to make the sad look go away.

“Care to burn through some magazines?” Gary asked.

The big smile that returned to Brandi’s face was worth the cost of the rounds.

“I would love to,” Brandi said.

She picked up one of the small weapons, it was not much larger than a large frame auto pistol, and slipped a forty round magazine into the well in the grip. The magazine extended about three inches below the grip.

“I’m glad you have the extended magazines,” Brandi commented as she checked that the safety was on before pulling back the charging handle.

“Yeah the twenty-five round magazines go pretty quick,” Gary said.

Brandi extended the stock and sighted at the target down range through the holographic sight. She flipped the selector from safe to semi-automatic and fired three quick rounds, each impacting in the center of the target’s face. She then flipped the selector to full auto. She fired several three round bursts and then some longer six round bursts, each precisely controlled. The center of the target’s chest quickly disintegrated leaving a gaping hole.

“I like it!” Brandi laughed. “The recoil is very light.”

“So do we get to play?” Melissa asked.

As much fun as Brandi had shooting the MP-7s, watching Melissa and Karen as they experienced firing a full auto weapon for the first time was even better. Their targets looked like Swiss cheese afterwards, but they both had huge smiles on their faces.

“There’s just something about capping off some rounds on full auto,” Brandi told them. “It’s a great stress reliever.”

Thirty minutes later they were back in the shop and Brandi was as giddy as a school girl. She settled up with Gary for the custom work and the range time, and then they said their goodbyes.

“Oh wait, I almost forgot,” Gary called as they were almost out the door. He ducked into the back and returned with a package.

“I got that double shoulder rig you asked for,” He told Brandi.

“Oh great, how much do I owe you for that?” Brandi asked, reaching into her purse.

“This is on me sweetheart,” Gary said. “Just promise me your not gonna be carryin’ those pistols concealed without a permit.”

“I promise you Gary,” Brandi said as she accepted the package. “If I have need of those guns, they won’t be concealed.”

“I’ll meet you guys back at the house,” Karen told them outside Gary’s shop. “Oh and dinner is on me tonight.”

“Oooh, what are we havin’?” Brandi asked.

“It’s a surprise,” Karen grinned, “but I thought of it just for you.”

Melissa and Brandi parted with Karen and climbed into Brandi’s car. As they headed back to the house Melissa asked, “Could you always shoot like that?”

“Yes and no,” Brandi replied. “First of all, for Brandon a pistol was a secondary weapon. He could have come close to that, with a single pistol in a two handed stance. The rate of fire would have been slower though. And he would have never considered using a pistol in each hand.”

“Why not?” Melissa asked.

“Well when you empty both of them what do you do?” Brandi asked. “Reloading with a pistol in each hand can be a problem; I know I can do it though. Also, once I know how a weapon shoots I don’t really need the sights. I can feel where the bullet will hit. Brandon would never have fired from the hip unless there was no choice.”

“Do you know what you just did?”

“No, what?” Brandi asked, looking back to see if she had run a stop sign.

“You referred to Brandon like he was another person,” Melissa told her.

“I guess I did,” Brandi said. “I … I have to think really hard to remember what it felt like to be Brandon. And even then, I remember most vividly the Brandon since the war. The way he … I was before that night in the desert … it’s very vague. Most of the time it’s like he was someone I knew … a long time ago.”

Brandi became quiet, and Melissa knew something was bothering her, but did not want to press. Finally she could stand it no longer.

“Brandi what’s wrong?”

“Melissa I want you to promise me something,” Brandi said, keeping her eyes locked on the road ahead. “If something happens, if I … if I don’t come home or something … promise me you won’t try to find me. Just run, you and Karen throw your bags in the Escape and run.”

“Brandi what are you .…”

“Don’t go anyplace they can connect to you,” Brandi continued, her voice taking on an almost frantic tone. “Lose yourself, disappear. I swear to you, I’ll find you.”

“Brandi has something happened that you haven’t told me?”

“No honey, nothing has happened. And if something goes down I hope I will be able to get word to you.” Brandi said. “I just have a really bad feeling its coming soon.”

“I ... I don’t know if I can make that promise Brandi.”

“You have to Melissa!” Brandi pleaded. “If they have you, they have me! I’ll do anything they want to keep you safe.”

“All right Brandi, I promise,” Melissa told her.

She hoped it was a promise she never had to keep.

They arrived back at the house before Karen, wondering what she was planning. Thirty minutes later they heard the garage door open, and a few seconds later Brandi sprang to her feet.

“I smell barbecue!” she exclaimed and rushed to the door. She disappeared into the garage and Melissa heard a squeal. A minute later Brandi and Karen came into the house, each carrying several large bags from Baby Blues Bar-B-Q. Brandi watched in awe as Karen laid out racks of ribs; Baby Back and Memphis style, along with barbecued chicken, pulled pork and beef brisket. There were numerous side dishes and when Karen set out one in particular Brandi squealed again.

“Collard greens!” she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Karen. “I think I wanna have your baby!”

“Honey, if any other girl said that to me I’d tell them it was flattering but impossible,” Karen laughed. “With you, anything is possible, so I’d watch what you wish for.”

The meal was fantastic and accomplished what Karen had hoped it would; Brandi was so excited about the food that she did not pick up on Karen’s uneasiness.

“Brandi, did they ever tell you anything about how you can eat so much?” Melissa asked as she pushed her plate away. Trying to keep up with Brandi at the table was worse than pointless. “By the way, you did great tonight. You still eat a lot but you don’t shovel it in like a guy anymore, and I know you were tempted.”

Brandi grinned sheepishly as she pushed her plate away, “Thank you, love. Right after I was transformed, they thought my appetite was because my body was just starved for calories. After all, I went from over one eighty to one hundred twenty-five pounds in under two hours, and then slept for three days.”

“But it didn’t stop,” Melissa said.

“No, so they did lots of tests. I’ve only really found out a lot of the results since I ran away, from the emails Susan sends me. They still aren’t even close to understanding how my body works, and I’m no scientist, but I can try and explain.

“When I was transformed, it was more than just my genes and gender. I was altered at the molecular level. The way my body processes food is totally different from the way a human body does.”

“You make it sound like you’re not human,” Karen said.

Brandi was silent for a moment before she continued.

“I’m not really. I look and act and feel human, but at the most basic level, my body is nothing like yours. When you eat, your body takes the food and converts it into sugars which it then uses for energy. If you eat too much, the excess sugars become fat, which can then later be converted back into energy but it requires a lot of exercise to burn it off. My body skips all that and converts what I eat, even the parts a human body can’t digest, into pure energy, and then stores that energy. Since energy has basically no mass, I can store huge amounts without gaining any weight.”

“So that’s how you can take on the form of someone who is physically larger than you,” Melissa said. “You can convert that energy back into matter.”

Brandi nodded, “But it’s very hard … and it hurts. It’s much easier to alter my form within the basic shape and mass I normally have. Then it’s just a matter of rearranging what’s there.”

“Well I think your parts are arranged perfectly,” Melissa said. Brandi giggled and blushed at the compliment. Melissa smiled, thinking that one thing the alien machine had certainly gotten right in Brandi was a woman’s love for being told she was pretty.

“Well we better get this food in the fridge before you two get overcome by passion,” Karen said. “This was supposed to feed twelve people so it should last through tomorrow the way Brandi eats.”

Brandi stuck her tongue out at Karen and began gathering up the leftovers.

“It almost worked,” Brandi said to Karen as she loaded the dishwasher in the kitchen.

“What’s that, sweetie?” Karen asked.

“Your attempt to distract me with food,” Brandi smiled. “I can tell you’re tense about something Karen. I can also tell you’re not ready to talk about. Just remember we love you and are here for you.”

“I know that, and I love you guys too,” Karen said, realizing she should have known better. “When I can, I promise I’ll tell you what’s going on.”