Chapter 6

I conceded all of the plunder that could be collected from the two dead thugs to the clerk. He was the original victim, and he had eliminated one of the thugs. After stripping the bodies and dumping them out into the street for collection by Duke Marno’s men, we had a long conversation.

The young man’s name was Aaron BenJamin, and he was 19 years old. He was working in his uncle’s store to try to make enough money to marry his girlfriend. He was being paid damned little, and he despaired of ever having enough money to satisfy his future inlaws. He didn’t get along well with his uncle who was continually finding ways to cut his wages, and he would quit on the spot if he could just find a better job. However, that was not likely because of the demands his uncle was continually placing on him to work extra hours at no additional pay.

Aaron’s plight struck me in a tender spot; furthermore, I liked the way he had handled himself against the thugs. On the spot, I offered him a job at twice what he should be making at his current job. He was so excited by the offer that I was afraid that he might kiss me! I figured that he would be my first recruit in my new army of rebels.

I had recently learned to talk to Mentor subvocally, so I was able to contact him without Aaron’s knowledge. I asked him for a report on Aaron’s background because I wanted to recruit him. Only seconds later, Mentor was back with a glowing appraisal of Aaron, and he approved of the idea right away. He also agreed for me to tell Aaron about my work for Mentor’s future organization. Essentially, I was going to make Aaron’s status equal to that of Martino.

I figured that this would make Martino happy because it would take some of the extra work away from him. I explained to Aaron all about my contact with Mentor and how I happen to be in Silano. I proved this to him by having Mentor deliver a baton, a protective suit, and enough gold to finance his wedding to Mary, his girlfriend.

It turned out that Jamin BenHurra, Aaron’s father, had been training some of the young Jewish boys in self-defense, and that was where Aaron had learned to use the cudgel so effectively. Hey, there was another possible recruit. I asked Mentor to check out Jamin before I talked to him. In seconds I had clearance from Mentor to try to bring Jamin into the fold. I asked Aaron if he thought his father would be interested in joining me in forcing a social change, and he said that his father would probably join as quickly as he did.

In a fit of rebellion, Aaron closed his uncle’s store after leaving him a note and led me to find Jamin. Jamin worked as a butcher, and he butchered chickens mostly for the Jewish trade. Jews did not eat pork, which was the common meat for the average Catholic household, so he had a steady job just working on chickens. He had butchered so many chickens that he probably could have done it with his eyes closed.

Anyway, we found him at work. Aaron interrupted him long enough to tell his father that he now worked for me, and that I had loaned him enough money to get married. That was enough to make Jamin my friend for life, so I had an easy job convincing him to join my rebel army. I arranged a meeting with Aaron and Jamin after supper tonight in the empty building I had just found. I planned to have Martino find the owner and rent, lease, or buy the building, depending on what was the best deal for all concerned.

Mentor decked out a room on the second floor for me to use as an office, and that was where we planned to meet tonight. Unless somebody had a better idea, we would use the first floor for training, since it had a large room where the previous shop had been.

My office was large enough for a desk and chair for me and a pair of chairs for guests. There was also a conference table with six chairs that could be used for planning meetings, etc. I debated with myself on what kind of lighting to provide when meetings were held after dark. I finally decided to bite the bullet and use an LED lantern suspended from the ceiling over the conference table. I would come up with some sort of excuse about the lantern if somebody asked.

The meeting was attended by Mara, Martino, Aaron, Jamin, and me. Mara was taking the time off from work with Madam Orsa’s permission. Introductions were made and we got down to business. The main point of this meeting was to get everybody used to the idea that women were as important as men when it came time to make decisions. We were lucky that Mara was able and confidant enough to hold up her side of any arguments. Was that because of her profession?

Mara was competent enough now with her baton that she was able to work with me to demonstrate just how effective the baton was as a weapon and the protective suit was in protecting the wearer from injury. This demonstration was mainly for Jamin’s benefit, but it did show the versitility of both items. The protective armor now came with a hood that protected the head and face, and none of the others had seen that yet.

Jamin was particularly impressed and wanted those things for his little band of boys. He had 23 boys in his band, counting Aaron, and he agreed immediately to integrate them into the “Rebel Army.” The ages ranged from 13 to 22, and we figured that they could become a “special force” as well as a training cadre. He agreed to move his training area to this building starting tomorrow.

I figured that was enough for our first night. We all went home with a feeling of real accomplishment. Yes, I turned off the light when we left.

That night in my conference with Mentor, we discussed the meeting, and he was happy with the result. We also discussed the need for a missile weapon. I laughingly mentioned my desire for an assault rifle, but we quickly began a discussion of what would be practical for the 14^th Century mentality.

Mentor said, “We could supply you with a shoulder-fired crossbow. What do you think of a magazine fed semiautomatic weapon?”

“I think that would be just what we need, especially if it has a suitable sight. Remember, though, it has to be light enough in weight for women and young teens to use it, and the recoil has to be low. I think that the magazine should hold as many as 10 to 20 shots. Could that be done?”

“I don’t know. I’ll pass the request along to our engineers and have an answer for you tomorrow night.”

The next morning beside my bed was an example of the crossbow. Now that was faster service than I had expected! I put the weapon to my shoulder and found that it was a perfect fit. I suppose that I should have expected that because my body dimensions were readily available. Uh-oh, the stock was too long for Mara from the shoulder to the trigger.

That was something else that I should have expected. There was enough difference in our size to make it uncomfortable for her. Immediately, I contacted Mentor and explained the problem. The current prototype was replaced with a new version with a stock of adjustable length. While they were about it, they changed to a folding stock. This time, we were able to adjust the stock for individual preference.

After breakfast we took the prototype to the building which Martino was negotiating for and where Jamin had his troops. We had each man, as I was now calling even the boys, try out the prototype and found that every one of them could find a comfortable position for the stock. Okay, we froze the design at that point until we could get more experience with it, especially shooting experience.

We took the prototype with us to the training session at Madam Orsa’s bordello. I told Madam Orsa about the rebel Army that I was building and asked if she were interested in joining. I told her that I would welcome any of her whores who wanted to participate. I said that if they joined they would not lose any money by doing so. That last argument was the clincher. She said that she would close down at the end of the week and show up for training as part of the new army on Monday.

Okay, that was what I wanted to hear. She and I went to the training room and explained what she was going to do. All five of the women were invited to go along with the change. Any who were not interested were told to start hunting a job at another bordello. All five were ready to join the new army when they found out that they would be treated as equals to the men. Actually, that may have been the deciding factor.

I had the women all try out the prototype for comfortable fit, and every one was able to find a stock position that she was comfortable with. I put the women through a review of what they had learned so far with the baton and the stabbing spear. They all passed with flying colors, so I canceled the training for the rest of the week and told the women to show up at the new place on Monday at 8:00 AM.

Okay, things were going well so far. I asked Mentor to enlarge the cellar so that we could use it as a training range for the new crossbow. “Instead of that, suppose we add a second cellar with even more space. We can set it up as a combination armory and shooting range. Martino has completed the purchase of the building, so the range will be ready on Monday. You can start then. We can add extra cellars as you need more training space.”

That was great! It was my plan to have everybody trained as an infantry soldier before they went on to other specialities. For example, I had visions of Orsa being my administrative assistant as soon as she learned how to fight with the crossbow. I also wanted to station soldiers at each of the bordellos that had signed on for my protective service.

Everybody had gathered at Fort Mentor, my new name for our new headquarters building by 8:00 AM on Monday, and the People’s Army was about to get organized. It took nearly an hour to get everybody introduced. Following that, I made a little speech welcoming the first members of the People’s Army and explaining that there was no gender bias in this army. I insisted that any discrimination because of gender would cause a real punitive action the moment it was discovered. The punishment would fit the crime, but punishment there would be.

I turned the troops over to Lt. Jamin for him to organize into training squads. I had told him earlier that I wanted at least one woman in each squad as much as possible. Of course, at the moment we did not have very many women, but I hoped that would change before very long.

He moved everybody to the armory and issued crossbows to the troops. He showed them how to adjust the shoulder stock for maximum convenience and comfort.

While he was doing that, I picked up my crossbow, serial #1, a bottle of compressed air, and four magazines of bolts. The compressed air provided the power necessary to make the crossbow’s mechanism cycle through cocking and loading. One bottle of compressed air was supposedly good for approximately 250 shots.