Chapter 1

Characters returning from the previous story:

Bill

Retired assassin, Blacksmith, 5'-11" tall, 190 pounds, 67 years old, gray blond hair, hazel eyes

Ashley

Bill's wife, former victim, 5'-2" tall, 125 pounds, 43 years old, 36C+-25-37, auburn hair, green eyes, some freckles and very cute

Ed

Retired Green Beret medic, now also a retired Cabinet Maker, Bill's father-in-law, 5'-10" tall, 165 pounds, 80 years old, gray fringe of hair, blue eyes

Esther

Ashley's mother, Ed's wife, 5'-3" tall, 135pounds, 36C-26- 37, 68 years old, auburn hair going gray, green eyes, only a few freckles, still cute

Carry and Chris

Bill and Ashley's twin daughters, 5'-6" tall, 130 pounds, 36C-24-36, 19 years old, auburn hair, green eyes and freckles. Cute as can be.

Bill Junior

Bill and Ashley's son, apprentice Blacksmith, 5'-10" tall, 145 pounds, 17 years old, dark blond hair, hazel eyes

Growing up, we children, Bill Jr, Carry, and me, Chris, learned all about the bubble from our parents, Bill and Ashley, and also from our grandparents, Esther and Ed. We also knew about how our dad had met our mom, and how he had closed down the Diversified drug operation and took out its leaders. That happened before we were conceived, so we had no personal knowledge of it. (see the original Ashley story for the details)

We also knew about Mark Haskins and his 'Sons of Man' organization, and that they tried to kill our family. We all thought it extremely funny that the gang members had accidentally killed themselves, and daddy only had to shoot Haskins with his chief lieutenant's gun. We girls didn't remember the attack that started that series of events, but then we were less than a year old at the time. (see the Ashley II story for the details)

We also knew about 'Uncle Lester's' visit but didn't remember it either, since we were still less than a year old at the time and just weren't aware of what was happening. We heard about all of it enough growing up though.

We also learned about all of the guns in the house and where they were kept, but were always warned not to touch them. When we were about five, our parents took us girls out past the wood shop and demonstrated just what those guns could do. It was after we turned seven however, before our parents allowed us to practice with .22 caliber pistols. We fired them so much that we wore the original ones out, but we became very good shots.

We also experienced our bubbles, but not because we were in danger. It seems that being the children of two parents with active bubbles gave us a bit of additional abilities with the bubble. We don't need to wait to be in mortal danger to cause the bubble to activate. We discovered, quite by accident, that we could activate our bubbles by concentrating on the need for them. The more that we worked with them, the easier it became to turn them on when we wanted them. This really freaked out our parents and grandparents.

Once he knew about this ability, Dad made us practice with them; learning to change the size, shape, and volume of them, and how to open the top and bottom where necessary. Once we were used to them, we thought they were pretty neat. Dad told us about how mom's father had died because he couldn't open his bubble and ran out of air when trapped in a cave-in, He also told us about nearly running out of air while taking out the Diversified executives. It really made us think.

There was something else that we discovered once Dad started teaching us when we were a little older about moving in the forest and the underbrush, and about camouflage and concealment. We can virtually disappear. People could look directly at us and not see us since we had blended into the background. This worked best in dim light situations, but even in bright sun light, we could be very difficult to see if we concentrated. Dad had always been pretty good at this, but we were even better.

By the time we were ten years old, Dad started us using the shotgun – a .410 gauge. We also graduated to the 9 mm pistol shortly after that. Carry and I really ate all of this up, but by the time he was ten years old, Bill Jr. was more interested in learning Blacksmithing and went to study more in the forge with dad. He would still shoot and practice field craft with us, but not as much as we girls did.

You may be wondering how we managed to spend so much time on all of these things. The answer is fairly simple, we were all home schooled. Don't think for a minute that our parents and grandparents were easy on us either -- they were all exacting task masters. This was mainly because they are all paranoid about security and didn't trust us being in the public school system. 'The Family' could kidnap us they feared, and we later learned that they had good reason to think that way, but that is for later.

Suffice it to say that by the time we graduated from high school, that we were deadly accurate shots, could disappear from sight with just a thought, and could create a bubble of any size or shape at will. Oh yes, we had also learned to cook, even Bill Jr. could cook a pretty decent meal.

That of course was when the trouble started, because, you see, we girls wanted to join the Agency and be field operatives like our dad. Need I tell you that this created a lot of controversy?

"Why in the world would you want to do that?" mother demanded in a rage after we announced what we intended to do.

"We want to see what it is like, and we want to use our talents," Carry told mom.

"You would do better to keep those talents hidden under a bushel basket and not allow anyone outside of our family to know about them," Dad told us, but he didn't actually forbid us from joining the Agency – then. Our grandparents were as shocked as our parents had been, and grandmother Esther also ranted at us for a time. Grandfather Ed said very little, but did begin teaching us advanced first aid and lifesaving procedures – on the quiet of course.

The discussion, if I can call it that, went on for nearly a year before we wore our parents down, and they agreed to allow us to join the Agency and take their training. Somehow dad got us on the acceptance list, but under our mother's maiden name of Kincade. By the end of July 2028, we were ready to head for Virginia. We had a car and loaded it with all of the things that we thought we would need to make an impression on the staff at the Agency's Training Facility.

Arriving in the town near the Training Center, we rented a motel room and then drove around the area to check it out. We drove by the Agency's front gate, but didn't stop or go in. We had downloaded satellite images of the area. It hadn't been easy, as those in the Agency weren't anxious for people or foreign governments to be able to watch their areas of operations. It seems that other governments were watching as well as other agencies of our government. We continued driving around the area and soon came to the location that we were interested in. We had seen it on close-up satellite views that we had hijacked from other governments, and thought that it had possibilities.

After parking the vehicle some distance from the area that interested us, we walked to the area. We only had our pistols with us, and were dressed in some rather revealing clothes to make us appear to be just a couple of local girls out for an afternoon stroll. On reaching the area, we moved into the trees between our target and the road and quickly faded to invisibility.

The area around the training facility was surrounded by a pair of tall chain link fences with razor wire on top of them. They were separated by an eight foot clear zone with nothing growing in it. This left the possibility of there being Antipersonnel mines planted in the clear zone. The area on either side of the fences had been cleared for sixty feet giving a one hundred and twenty-eight foot wide area that was kept well trimmed and presented little to no means of concealment. There were lights on poles along the fences as well as cameras that swept the area. We were pretty sure that there were also microphones listening for any sounds from intruders. These people definitely didn't want any uninvited visitors.