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DUTY CALLS, L.J. Stevens Vol. One Copyright  © 2012 USA, Earth by R. A. Dumas.

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NOTE: CO-AUTHOR - KATE HART

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Chapter 00 continued

Slowly the optical enhancer/ interpreter within my brain woke up enough that it began to let me know it recognized most of the shapes populating the room once it compared my last knowledge of the room prior to turning out the lights with what my eyes were attempting to report to me just now. Nothing seemed out of place as, with some relief, I finally noted many of the threatening shapes were actually chairs and my vanity. The misshapen lumps on both them and the floor were the clothes we had abandoned and which were now draped hit and miss over those same chairs. The window drapes, an open closet door, was that open or closed when we went to bed?, and the other heaps of clothing on the floor between the bed and the open door to the landing were also beginning to come into a focus of sorts so long as I didn’t look directly at any of them.

I still didn't know what it was that caused me to awaken but I began to realize, as I continued to strain to hear and see, that I was sitting upright half in and half out of bed facing the open doorway which led out onto the upstairs landing. My hand was still searching fruitlessly under my pillow for my 9mm which I finally recalled should still be on the night stand since I failed to move it to its usual place under my pillow or at my side. When we rushed our preparations for bed last night I placed it on the night stand. Feeling around gently proved that was still, thankfully, the case. After we finished our devotions I was obviously too smitten to remember to move it.

Looking back at my significant other allowed me to note he was still asleep with his back toward me, I saw the covers and slight impression, now slowly filling, in the mattress which indicated I had been laying with my back against his. My movements apparently hadn’t fazed him. I've told him repeatedly that he could sleep through a tornado. I don’t know if that meant he had a clear conscience or if he was deaf and insensitive while he slept.

I realized I was beginning to notice even more detail in the shapes surrounding me. My chest felt like a trip-hammer was working away in there while my hearing had continued to ratchet up until now I was uncertain if the sounds I was hearing were real or some sort of product of my over active imagination keeping pace with the tom-tom beat of my heart. All that was missing were the war chants.

Seeking out the possible sound of our daughter in the remote chance she had once again cried out momentarily due to a nightmare, I couldn’t totally rule out that possibility. Her panicked dreams had been occurring less and less frequently of late since she now had a mother again. My presence in her life was something which began a little over a year ago but which only became a daily, and many times nightly, thing during these past several months. With a child of about six I suppose anything could be possible. I continued listening and watching but still didn’t have a reason for my sudden awakening. The house remained quiet... perhaps unnaturally so.

Sliding out of bed, 9mm now thankfully in hand, I glided toward the door; my long nylon nightgown flowing behind me making my passage appear as that of a wraith floating across the room. To my left I saw some movement then determined it was my reflection in the full length mirror attached to that aforementioned open closet door. At the landing doorway I continued to listen for some logical reason for my awakening. The night seemed tranquil, there was little light filtering its way into the house since there was no moon tonight. This is the time in its orbital cycle which had the moon following closely behind the sun in the daytime sky thereby leaving us without benefit of its reflective light for a few nights. The stars would have been our only source of light if it weren’t for the fog. The Fog sneaks in on little cat feet. Concentrate — I don’t need that kind of distraction just now.

The outside sounds were well muted by that same thick ground fog which also acted as an insulator to both sound and to the loss of warmth from the earth's crust. Warmth soaked up from the sun beaming down yesterday through a near cloudless sky. Glancing at the digital clock on the night stand revealed the time to be 2:48. Everything still seemed normal, just... quiet. Perhaps the house creaked as older homes are wont to do.

I began to mentally berate myself, in equal portions - first for not grabbing my night vision monoscope from the night stand drawer, and second for probably overreacting to my moderately new daughter’s continuing occasional nightmares. As I don’t hear her screaming for “Mommy” I knew she was likely okay.

Just as I began to chastise myself and decided I was imagining things and should return to bed to go back to sleep, I saw something move at the edge of my vision. Perhaps our daughter had gone to the bathroom and was now quietly returning to her room. If so, she forgot to flush the toilet. I continued to search for that elusive movement at the edge of my vision but didn't notice it again. I was about to chalk it all up to nerves when I noticed that movement again. A few moments later I heard a creak from the fourth stair up from the first floor. That had the effect of bringing me much further awake and completely aware of far more than I ever wanted to consider.
Our daughter could not be in two places at once, and everyone else in the family was accounted for. Releasing the safety on the Biretta with a click that I never noticed before but which now seemed to thunder about in the room echoing off the walls as though a bolt of lightning had gone through the house, I almost jumped out of my skin at the loudness of it. A shadow still at the edge of my vision seemed to turn beginning to make its way in my direction. Sliding back into the bedroom with my back close to the inside wall, I aimed the Biretta at the empty doorway. My Significant Other took this moment to turn over in his sleep and I nearly screamed at the sound.

Somehow I managed to calm my wildly beating heart once more, certain that the neighbors nearly a half mile distant must have been awakened by it, before I continued to listen intently for any sounds precipitating from the passage of that silent shadow that was moving along the landing. I also strained to hear anything from whoever might be on the stairs. I continued to wait impatiently to see if the shadow manifested itself in our bedroom doorway. My SO had finally realized I wasn’t on the bed and he was beginning to stir. I hoped he had sense enough to remain quiet once he fully awakened. Barely breathing, I strained to see anything at the door. I didn't have long to wait.

A grey shadow about my chest height began to enter the room followed closely by the larger mass of a stocky figure which was much too large to be our daughter. A blue dot of light reached out, sliding across the floor toward the bed before beginning to rise, climbing the side of the bed upon reaching it. It finally came to rest on the location I had vacated not long ago. I was afraid to breathe and it seemed like I'd been holding my breath for hours.

Again I berated myself. This time for not having the presence of mind to stuff two pillows under the covers when I got out of bed. Then again who would have thought that to be necessary? The beam of blue tracked back across my side of the bed before beginning to traverse the room apparently looking for the missing occupant of the bed. That missing occupant would, of course, be me. I carefully lined up my 9mm with the intruder's head. Just then I heard the toilet in the upstairs lavatory flush. My baby was up and she was about to walk into hell. The light spun toward the doorway as I pulled the trigger of the 9mm. No one was going to hurt my baby. An explosion of sound filled the room accompanied by a small flash of lightning from the muzzle and in that brief mad moment of fire, accompanied by an explosion of sound, my one open eye allowed me to notice several things:

First, the head was not a head but was a helmet of some sort. A helmet which had permitted my shot to snap the head of the individual and possibly stun him, but not necessarily kill him.
Second, I noticed rapid movement begin at the location of my Significant Other as he threw off his covers and turned to reach for his night stand where his .45 was located.

Third, moments after my shot, I somehow heard or sensed our daughter snapping a bolt on the bathroom door having taken only a brief time between the sound of my shot and the first snap of a bolt. No one could reach her now. The bathroom was as secure as one of the bedrooms on this floor could be if the door were closed and bolted.

These upstairs rooms had each been constructed in a manner that with the snap of the bolts, which were present on each of the doors, it would take an explosion like that needed to kill a tank in order to penetrate the door, walls, ceiling or floor. The lower floors were constructed in such a way that they could dissipate an explosion almost harmlessly, allowing damage only to the loose items contained within that lower floor of the house. The support for the second floor and attic would remain relatively undamaged even if the explosion or explosions were directed at them specifically. It would take a lot to kill my house.

I barely heard the sound of the lower bolt being worried into place at the bathroom door. After a pause and some scraping movement which I decided was the step stool located within the bathroom, I finally thought I heard the third bolt moving home. I was proud of her, only six and she remembered every bit of her training. I hoped she would remember to fill the tub and sink with cold water, there were compressed food packets in one of the drawers under the sink and with water she could stay there for several days if it was necessary. Now if my hearing would only cooperate and come back to some semblance of its original sensitivity I might be able to hear what the other intruder was doing.

My SO was moving more rapidly now as I brought my 9mm to bear on the fallen intruder's neck, snapping off two more explosions of sound and light while I had a finger plugging my left ear so at least it would still be able to be of use. The blue light winked off and the figure slumped. I could see during the flashes that the armor extended down over most of his - or her torso. Down to well below the waist. I don't understand how they could move so silently when they were covered with all that metal. It reminded me somewhat of the mediaeval knights. That would bear some investigation once we managed to get out of this situation. Two more blue lights winked on probing the doorway both from downstairs and from out on either the landing or the top of the stairs.

I heard my SO pulling his night vision goggles from the drawer and decided that might be a good idea for me as well. I nearly tripped over the bulk of the intruder as I crossed to my night stand, pulling my monoscope out of the drawer then placing it on over my head. Clicking it on, I turned and began to return to the area near the doorway when I noted that the armor must have protected the intruder after all since I could no longer see him on the floor. A quick scan of the room showed he wasn’t there anywhere. Rushing toward the door, I nearly crashed to the floor myself when I tripped over something large.

My night vision was telling me nothing was there. My one unaided eye was reporting there was some sort of large lump on the floor which my sense of feel quickly confirmed. Hubby, meanwhile, had nearly reached me and was about to trip as well when I motioned for him to stop. He did so mere inches from the bulk on the floor.

“Do you see anything here on the floor?” I whispered to him.

I saw his head tilt down a little further allowing him to scan this area of the room before coming back to rest on me after shaking his head 'no'. I hoped he had closed his eyes when he did that or he was going to be dizzy.

“Take off your goggles and feel here in front of me.”

He paused for a second or two as though trying to decide if I was crazy or if perhaps this was all some sort of dream before he gave me a confused look pulling the goggles off his head. He wouldn't be able to see much for a couple of minutes. Bending down he felt around until his hand struck the mass crumpled on the floor. This all seemed to take hours which I was certain we didn’t have. I was worried we would both be playing pat-a-cake with the body while another one came through the door to nail us both.

Hubby’s face betrayed surprise as he felt the mass on the floor next to me. I immediately on noting his reaction began watching the door again. The goggles flashed to his face while his gun hand began poking the body using the .45 as a probe. He finally lowered the goggles shutting them down before discarding them next to the body. I moved quickly across the open doorway to the alarm panel next to it so I could key in the code to turn on the downstairs lights. As I press the enter button I prayed the code I entered was for the downstairs and not up here. The bottom floor lit up granting me, for the moment, a sigh of relief. Scrambling movement could be heard from downstairs.

“Mommy?” a frightened little voice called out.

She had been continually telling me what a big girl she was now but each time something scary happened she would always run to find her new Mommy who would magically protect her. This time she knew Mommy was once again protecting her even though we didn’t happen to be together.
“Stay in there, baby. Daddy or I will let you know when you can come out.” I gave a quick thought entertaining the possibility something might happen to both of us.
“If Mr. Bear tells you it’s okay, you may come out then also.” At least she had followed her instructions.

My SO came close before he whispered, “Did you trigger the alarm?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn't they call?”

Why didn't they? My guys were good about following procedure. We should have had some confirmation of the alarm received or of my shots fired. Initial help should have been only thirty seconds to a minute away with backup less than twenty minutes behind that. I checked the clock again, 2:54. Time flies when you are having fun. Those few minutes seemed like hours.

“First response should have been here four minutes ago. Backup's not due for fourteen or so.”

“So we're on our own here?”

“Looks like it.” I answered, “I know there are at least two more, probably more than that. Watch the door.”

I hurried back to the night stand where I picked up my two spare magazines. Rolling across the bed and reaching into his night stand I grabbed the two for his .45 before quickly returning to him at the door nearly tripping over a pile of clothes while trying to avoid the body. He took two magazines then handed back the one which was mine and selected his second one by feel as he continued to watch toward the stairs.

The upstairs was no longer totally dark due to the small amount of spill light coming up from downstairs however two of those rooms were dark once more. Less than a minute later the entire house was dark once again.

“They must have found the breaker box.” my SO stated the obvious.

“Apparently so. I think there is one more of them up here, maybe two, and probably just as many downstairs.” as I peeked out the doorway toward the bathroom. If I listened hard I could just making out the water running into the tub and our daughter whimpering. This was a heavy trip to lay on a five to six year old,

“You're safe baby. Just stay in there.”

“Okay, Mommy.”

Brave little soul.

I eased out through the doorway, moving slowly toward both the bathroom, the top of the stairs, and my baby's bedroom. I was followed closely by my husband and his .45. We were as silent as the angel of death who, at this moment, was traveling with us in our joint search for lives to end and souls to take. Looking through the wooden railing down into the open area near the front door I could see the alarm panel glowing in its protective glory. Backup power was still functioning for that system at least. Bet the intruders forgot about the little detail of forty-eight hours of secondary power locked away in the sub-basement. The panel was green which meant no intrusions had occurred. That had me wondering. How did they get in? Something crossed between me and the panel as though enticing me to attempt a shot but reason prevailed. I had only eight more shots before this magazine was empty and it might be a long fourteen minutes. I needed to remember to wait for a certain target before I used another round. The first time I was lucky and then possibly wasted two shots trying to be certain. Next time I needed a sure thing before I spent another of my pitifully few rounds.

I was still moving slowly toward the stairs, closer to the bathroom where my new daughter was hiding as well as toward her bedroom. At that unprotected moment the landing at the top of the stairs creaked from weight bearing down on the topmost step. I could see a faint shadow forming in the gloom as a blue light winked on. Suddenly two shots reached out across the expanse. A .45 and a 9mm. The blue light winked out abruptly as something dropped to the floor next to the top of the stairs. Another light winked on from within my baby's bedroom resulting in a quick response from the .45 to its incursion. No sound came from the bedroom but the light went out. A second shot thundered from the .45 leaving me nearly deaf in my ear nearest it while something in the bedroom hit the floor. I more felt the hit than heard it but whatever it was didn’t seem to move afterward.

That was three.

By now another blue light was tracing the wall just ahead of us which meant it was coming from somewhere behind. It tracked over to me even as I just realized it's presence. I was diving aside for the floor and away from the small pool of light just as a rip of sound, something like coarse Velcro being slowly pulled apart, caused me to panic.

The sound drifted across the landing from the direction of the empty nursery we had in preparation for more additions to our brood. That room was located down the hall behind us. Even as the .45 began searching out the source of this new light and sound I felt multiple ‘somethings’ tug on my nightgown a portion of which had still been occupying the space I had departed only a moment previously.

The ‘somethings’ continued on, shredding that small portion of my gown before eventually thudding into the wall near the door to my baby's bedroom producing a sound like the rat-a-tat-tat of a drum being hastily beaten in a roll. The .45 barked twice before there was another thud felt through the floor somehow as another something dropped at a location back by the nursery. The blue light didn’t immediately wink off but slowly diminished in brilliance over perhaps five seconds time.

“Mommy, I'm scared,” many tears could be heard in that little voice.

“Stay there, baby, You’re Mommy's brave little girl. You're safe there,” I said to her even as I checked myself to confirm I was really intact and not numb from the shock of being hit.

That was four.

Three of those abominable blue lights were now searching the landing from downstairs but were unable to see us as we were staying low back by the wall, the landing was wide enough to hide us from any who might be trying to see us from below. The third stair from the top creaked resulting in both of us throwing an involuntary shot. We heard mine bounce off the armor but the .45 brought the intruder down. I wondered if that could be a clue — the 9mm travels much faster than the .45. I needed to remember to mention that at the debriefing once we managed to get to it. That blue light winked on and off several times before another reply from the .45 silenced it.

That was five.

The Velcro sound ripped from several locations downstairs followed quickly at the walls behind and above us which provided that rat-a-tat-tat again at the spots where we would have been had we been standing. When we get the lights working again I will be very interested in seeing what sort of projectiles they might be using. They obviously traveled slower than a bullet, are very silent, and hit like they have a lot of mass, that is to say... hard. Sort of like having a baseball batted at us except much smaller... and probably a whole lot more lethal.

I was just beginning to wonder how many hours we would need to continue this farce before help arrived when the sound of tires could be faintly heard filtering up to the house from somewhere down near the gate. I wondered why they didn't drive up closer to the house when I remembered the tire spikes and the unknown safety of the house area in general. I was beginning to think of going to the alarm panel to lower the spikes when I remembered the power had been cut off so I couldn't retract them anyway. As I thought about the sound of the tires on the lower driveway I was somewhat surprised that I had heard the vehicle since usually we don't hear them unless they were very close to the house. I suddenly decided it must be one of the armored limos or station wagons; heavy, with tires more like those used on trucks, makes more road noise. God, I couldn’t believe how much Armorglas ® weighed.

It was also fairly apparently we weren’t the only ones who heard the vehicle. Four of the blue lights flashed toward the front door for a moment and then went out. At that moment I realized one of those lights likely had its source from about halfway up the stairs. I placed three rapid shots down the stairwell only to hear one ping off armor before I’ve ducked back even as I dropped to the floor. The blue light flickered on searching in my direction as a rip of Velcro occurred with its resultant hitting the wall sound behind my location. The objects had passed just above my head while a double tap from the .45 erupted toward the source of the Velcro sound causing it to wink out. Something fell to the stairs. I heard my SO change his magazines. Either my count was off or he still had one or two in the magazine he just removed from the weapon. Smart move, don’t wait for it to go empty before you reload, you just might need the extra shots in a hurry.

And that was six down.

I was peeking out from the top of the stairs as the green light on the alarm panel suddenly turned blinking red while doors crashed open obviously unlocked quietly by my personnel before they rushed in. The panel showed a breach of both the back and the armored patio doors followed a moment later by the front door.

“Don't use the night vision, it can't see them!” I yelled as my guys began to pour into the house. My hubby and I stayed low so we wouldn't get tagged by mistake.

He yelled down, “We're all upstairs. Anyone downstairs is an intruder.”

I yelled again, “There are at least three down there and possibly one or more in the basement.”

I glanced down toward the front door just in time to see one of my guys targeted by a blue light.
I began to yell, “Watch o...” but before I could warn him I heard the rip of Velcro and he went down, his chest stitched with something which I hoped wasn’t blood. Hopefully he had his body armor on and it protected him. I heard my agents firing as well, as they continued the sweep of the downstairs. We began our own sweep upstairs. My baby's room was clear which caused me some discomfort since it showed no sign of the downed assailant who should have been there. The top of the stairs were likewise empty. Our bedroom was clear with the exception of the body which was still there on the floor near the door. The landing checked clear but the nursery was empty where we had expected a body.

“Clear,” began to sound throughout the house with us adding our two cents worth after we checked upstairs.

“Okay, Baby. You can unlock the door now and come out.”

We heard the middle bolt slide open.

“Baby, lock the middle again and unlock the other two first. It will be easier to slide them that way.”

We heard some scratching sounds as the bolt slowly slid home again then she began to fight the bottom one open before once again moving the step stool so she could start on the top. That one took her a little while but with some encouragement from me and a little whimpering from her she eventually got it open. Now the middle one was unbolted before the door opened and she came out running. She crashed into my arms, crying like — my brave, wonderful, baby.

A couple of minutes later the power was back on, lights were coming up and we could inspect the carnage. Of the six we hit only one remained. Of the three my agents hit, only one remained. Poor odds. Their armor was interesting, very thin and flexible except when hit by a high speed object such as a bullet. I think it may have held little stopping power for those Velcro projectiles whatever they were since they traveled far more slowly. My agent who was stitched was in definite need. He would be going to the hospital. The vests didn't seem to provide much protection against those weapons, but it did prevent him from becoming shish-kabob. The curious thing though, he was unconscious and the darts didn’t seem to have gone deep enough to cause that since they had become mostly stuck in his vest with only the points actually hitting him.

The walls that were hit by other darts seemed to indicate the darts were partially hollow, filled with some sort of liquid as was witnessed by the stain marks around each of them there on the walls. Soon samples of both the darts and the stains were being taken for analysis. I didn’t believe it’s water since the paint where the darts hit was beginning to ooze away from the wall as well as turning brownish-black. The darts themselves appeared to be heavy even though they were hollow. They were about an inch and a half long and maybe a quarter inch in irregular diameter. Kind of like small versions of the rocket ships you could see in the sci-fi movies.
They were, however, nasty little buggers.

And pretty darn quiet, too.