Chapter 9: Resuming Search

“It’s probable someone or some group lacking the correct advanced technology is copycatting the Archer. Either that or the Archer is economizing by not using high tech maneuverable arrows for the dramatically increased number and frequency of recent assassinations. The simple arrows currently being used on targets are much lower tech. These low tech arrows appear improvised. Innovative yet crudely homemade which suggests it’s likely a copy cat killer. Example. The points recovered from the skulls of victims are varied sizes of interchangeable hexagonal Phillip’s screwdriver tips. Readily and cheaply available in screwdriver sets from many kinds of retailers.”

“All the hits were head shots?”

“Yes. Is that an important clue?”

“It’s a factor, possibly important. What is the arrow shaft constructed of? Are they all identical?”

“The shafts are each 40 inches long, all equal in length and we’ve identified it as 9mm steel brake-line tubing, commonly sold in auto-parts stores and available online from Internet sources. The fletching is crudely made from three trimmed strips of industrial grade tape stuck adhesive to adhesive for forming three vanes encircling about the rear of the shaft. There is no nock for a bow string. We expect the cost per arrow is about five dollars in materials.”

“Have you had tests of the interior of the tubes for gunpowder residue?”

“We had everything tested and found no chemical residues anywhere other than the OEM powder coat paint.”

“Then these arrows were not propelled by blank cartridges obviously or evidently not directly. Pneumatic propelled by some pressurized gas. That is something shared in common with the high tech remotely guided arrows.”

“You say not directly propelled by a cartridge?”

“In physics laboratories devoted to studying meteor impacts, light gas guns use a conventional blank cartridge to propel a piston. The piston is driven down a tube of already pressurized gas for further compressing the hydrogen or helium to ultra high pressures. A burst disk seal designed to rupture at a specific pressure. This releases the gas as an intense pulse behind a small projectile capable of achieving extremely high velocities. I suspect this is the method used for launching the advanced tech steerable arrows. Probably the gas gun is mounted on and fired from a supersonic jet plane or from a rocket. Too complicated a device and unnecessary for these cruder arrows. They require a hand carried human eye aimed portable gun. The tape fletching would not survive ultra high velocity in air. Check with law enforcement and firearms control authorities for confiscated homebuilt weapons with pneumatic features. Beefed up air rifles or air-bows. We might already have one of the launchers in custody and unrecognized.”

The Olé clone designated as JD left to pursue inquiries into captured odd guns. Doc liked working with Olé’s clones because they were like her best friend but did not have Olé’s most frustrating trait. Olé tried to hide his genius intelligence with a country bumpkin facade. The clones perfectly copied Olé except they were programmed to respond honestly. A facade is impossible for them. JD reported back in less than an hour. A quantity of homemade candidate guns are in evidence rooms scattered from here to yonder. They can be flown into headquarters within days. Doc decided it was sufficiently urgent to request Alice to immediately teleport the suspect guns to HQ’s workshop. Doc and JD were there for the arrival with their collected crude arrows for the Cinderella’s shoe test. Thousands of pipe guns soon littered the room.

“Quite an assortment, JD. Let’s call for some assistants to stack all the slamfires in a corner and we’ll look at them later. Slam pipes digest normal firearms ammunition which isn’t what we are looking for. Normal air rifles go in a different corner as unlikely too. Okay. What’s left? Hold on. Put this on a work bench and this one with it too. Look for any others like these with bubbler bottles attached.”

“Why do you call these guns with jars taped on them bubblers?”

“Because they are Brown’s gas guns. Hydrogen fueled guns.”

“Why is hydrogen called Brown’s gas?”

“Brown’s gas is a highly explosive mixture of oxygen and hydrogen derived by electrolysis of water. Empty right now, but containing water when in use, the bubbler bottle is an atmosphere seal, spark arrestor, and flash back preventer. Now lets see if any of these have a skinny tube as a straw barrel the arrows can slide on. Look inside larger diameter tubes which maybe used as a barrel shroud.”

“Several have skinny tube BB barrels the arrow can slide over but it’s a sloppy fit.”

“Set those aside. We may come back to them.”

“Here is a bullpup specimen using a brakeline for a barrel and the brakeline arrow shaft slips smoothly and snugly outside it. The tubes are painted the same color. Probably it’s the same brand of brakelines. It’s hidden inside an old twelve gauge shotgun barrel with a bayonet lug on the muzzle. It has parts of an air rifle bolted on to it too!”

“Let’s see it. Ingenious. Too bad he butchered the trench gun. The bayonet lug indicates it was probably a veteran of WW1 and a valuable collectors piece before cannibalized to build this. Fully adjustable ghost ring sights from the air rifle. Look. It has a 6mm airsoft magazine to shoot white plastic BBs through the same straw barrel tube. It uses a multi-pump air rifle mechanism but it also has a combustion chamber with a trigger operated piezoelectric igniter for the Brown’s gas. I’d wager this is one of the assassin’s arrow guns.”

“Why would it fire airsoft BBs with a pump up system? Where is the Brown’s gas supplied from?”

“Probably the shooter wears a battery powered gas generator and only creates enough gas to charge the gun shortly before shooting. The gas is sensitive and very explosive. The assassin has only one shot and has to shoot and skedaddle. The airsoft is possibly a silent way of checking windage before the critical arrow shot. The report of the Brown’s gas exploding is very audible. Loud! We are dealing with an expert marksman accurately placing head shots. They also wise to be using a real gun barrel instead of hardware store pipe to contain the Brown’s gas detonation. Temperatures greater than five thousand degrees Fahrenheit or 2800° Celsius can be reached. These temperatures can cause the 78% nitrogen of normal air to rapidly expand to high pressures and easily capable of firing bullets from guns but inconvenient to reload or store. Single shot works for this.”