Chapter 260

"All of you in agreement about this?" the Prime asked, knowing the answer, but asking anyway.

"I'm not much of a shot," Wainwright remarked, "but I'll gladly train to be more able to protect my wives."

There was instant agreement from the other Alphas.

"I'll be more or less limited to the weekends," Matt said, "but then again, I still have vacation time to take before the end of the year – which isn't that far away. Sometimes the rules are ignored because of circumstances, but unless I'm allowed to keep the time past year's end, I need to take those two weeks shortly. I'll check Monday. It might be that I'll have the next two weeks straight I can use for training."

"Van, how about you and Jeremy? Are you going to be able to do this?"

Van glanced over at Jeremy. After receiving a nod, Van said, "Our women can feed the stock for us. They do a lot of it, anyway. There isn't much we can do on the farm in the middle of the winter other than refurbishing equipment and getting things ready for spring. We've refinished the floors in both houses, and Jeremy and I have just finished rebuilding the engine on Lillian's biggest tractor. There's nothing that we can't put off for a few weeks. Jeremy and I will be here whenever you tell us to be."

"Same here," Fred said.

Art quietly added, "You know I'm in. Hell, I'm the reason we're being attacked."

Jeff was shaking his head. "Maybe, but whatever is going on, attacking one of us is attacking all of us."

"Bill?" Jeff questioned.

"I'm more than willing, if Mr. Wainwright..."

Frank Wainwright was nodding his head. "I'm delegating more and more to my supervisors, and with my office here, I can take care of most anything with video conferencing. Bottom line: Bill and I will be available whenever you need us."

Jeff nodded agreement. "I need to talk with the General, but I can absolutely guarantee he'll see your training as a plus. After that, I'll get with the training Sergeant and have him set up a course for all of you."

Dave locked eyes with Jeff. "So, you're not pissed at us?"

Jeff grinned back at Dave. "The General brought up the idea of training you guys right after the aborted attack. I just hadn't gotten around to asking you. And ... after all of you are trained, then we'll teach the women. I know my wives will be all for it, and I suspect the rest will be too."

"You can bet that Adriana and Paulette will jump at the chance to learn to shoot some real weapons," Van agreed. "Hell, Adriana is an excellent shot with her 30.06, and Paulette is too. I know that Lillian and her first husband used to hunt some, so she'll probably go for it. I don't know about Connie and Denise..."

"In a heartbeat," Jeremy broke in with a laugh.

Jeff let out a chuckle. "I'm reasonably certain the General has already brought Ellen and Barbara up to speed on conventional weapons, but I don't know about the pulse rifles. Whatever. I'm sure both of them will want to train with our wives."

The Prime turned back to Matt. "What about Bridget?"

Matt was shaking his head. "Uh, I really don't know. I've only known her a couple of days..."

" ... And she's madly in love with you, and you with her. Time doesn't mean a thing when an Alpha is involved in a romance. You haven't said; what about Courtney?" Jeff added.

"Oh, she likes to shoot, so I suspect she'll be easy to convince, but I'll have to talk to Bridget. She's barely past being a kid..."

Jeff couldn't hold back a snigger. "Jennie was scared of guns when she came here, but when one of the mercenaries shot Helen, Jennie stuck a Glock against his ear and blew his brains all over the wall. Didn't seem to bother her one bit. Diana started at that giant's groin and worked up to his head, leaving bullet holes all the way. Kayla took out one of the mercenaries in the hallway, and Arlene," he said, his voice choking for an instant, "went one-on-one with a mercenary, almost dying from the exchange, but she took him out – permanently. Without my women, I wouldn't be here today."

Matt spoke up. "I'm almost certain Courtney will go for it, but it might be better to have you talk to Bridget after I get a chance to brief her..."

"Or better yet, let Arlene and Jennie talk to her. Jennie is seventeen and Arlene is sixteen. Bridget is..."

"Nineteen," Matt finished for him.

Jeff turned to Eric. "That leaves you."

Eric cleared his throat, and being a new Alpha was a little embarrassed. Downplaying his knowledge, "Uh, I used to shoot a little with a handgun, but I haven't been on the range much lately. Angela used to shoot with me, but it's been several years since either of us has practiced very much. But once she realizes how important this is, she'll be there with us."

"And your girls?"

"I've taught them weapon safety. And they've shot some, but neither of them like the noise or the recoil, especially Alice."

"Everyone in this building needs to be able to protect themselves. I have several revolvers and pistols in .22 caliber, and they're good for target practice. Since they don't have any recoil, you might want to begin training your girls with them. The basement range isn't outfitted for heavy caliber rifles, but a .22 caliber rifle works just fine there, so they can begin to learn to shoot a long gun right here in the basement."

"What about Selina? I mean, she's too young to..." Art started.

"Past time. I have a very small .22 caliber pistol that should fit her hand. She can learn with that. She looks like a child, but remember, she has a brain that's already assimilated several hundred text books, and she is smarter than any of us in this room. Even comparing us to her is an insult to her. There's no way I'm going to let her be a part of combat, but she needs to be able to defend herself if she's cornered. A few of those little .22's rattling around in a man's chest, and he'll cease to care about living."

Jeff thought for a second. "I need to get Quinton on the phone. He should be part of this..."

Dave attracted Jeff's attention. "I talked to Quinton a little earlier. He was tied up and wasn't sure how long he would be, but he'll be here with his family as soon as he can. He told me he was all for the training, and to go ahead with our meeting with you."

"Okay, good. We'll discuss training for the women when he gets here, but I imagine he'll agree with that as well."

Jeff came to his feet. "Okay. I'll brief the General, and get with the training Sergeant to set up a weapons training program for us, followed by one for our women. You guys talk to your wives. We need to get this started ASAP."

Jeff walked out into the hallway. Using his radio, he talked to the General, then the training Sergeant. The range would be open tomorrow after the snow that had slid off the mountain was moved to the other end of the range. Training for the Matthews clan would be expedited.

Since much of the training would be on Security's outdoor firing range, each of the Alphas would be wearing all-weather fatigues, as would their women. The Alphas were scheduled to meet at Security's building at two in the afternoon for measurements. Their personal fatigues would be sent from the base as soon as they were ready. Meanwhile, they would wear what was available. The women were scheduled for an hour later for their fittings.

Matt met Courtney and Bridget in their suite. "Uh, ladies, as you know, all of us guys had a talk with Jeff about training, and he brought up something else. He wants all of you – all you women, I mean – to be trained with some military weapons, as well as the men, of course. I think everyone has heard by now that Jeff and the pilot think the copter was sabotaged." When the women nodded, he went on, "Not long ago, Jeff and his family were attacked by a group of mercenaries, then this other group tried to come in over the mountains yesterday. Today, one of Security's helicopters was sabotaged. We – all of us men – think it's time we were all trained with weapons capable of doing more damage than just handguns. In other words – military weapons. My brother Alphas and I will go first, but when we're up to speed, we want our women to do the same."

Bridget interrupted to ask, "Are you talking about including me in this? You want me to train with military weapons? I've only shot a gun once in my life. It was my Daddy's shotgun, and it almost tore my shoulder off. I would make a fool of myself, not to mention being scared out of my mind. If I didn't hurt myself, I might hurt someone else." Bridget's face was flushed and it was obvious she was very concerned. "Guns are a man thing," she added with emphasis.

Courtney broke in with, "I suspect there are a number of female agents who would be glad to debate that point with you, and I like to target shoot – at least with a handgun. As to the shotgun, lots of women shoot them and all agents train with them, male and female."

Matt interrupted to say, "With proper technique, a woman can handle a shotgun just as well as a man."

Courtney continued with, "I've never shot any type of military weapon, though." After a few seconds of silence, she added with a grin, "Come to think of it, I would love to try."

It was blatantly obvious to Matt that he was going to have a problem convincing Bridget. "Hold those thoughts," he said, coming to his feet. "I'll be back in a little while."

Matt jogged down the long hallway, but didn't see anyone until he got to the kitchen and almost ran into Melissa as she came out carrying a big tray loaded with snacks, two big insulated carafes and a stack of Styrofoam cups.

"Where's everybody?" the new SAC asked.

"Arlene is using the snowplow to move snow off the parking lot to the snow pile. All my other sister-wives are out either shoveling or blowing snow. As soon as I get this hot chocolate out to them, I'll be shoveling again."

Matt had a hard time believing that rich people were out in the intense cold shoveling snow. "I think the weather forecast is for more tonight..."

"Yeah, we know, but at least we'll have all this out of the way instead of letting more add to what we already have. You should walk out and see the pile of snow that has accumulated from Security plowing out our parking lot, and Arlene will probably double its size from all the accumulation from last night."

"Oh, if she's in the pickup, I guess what I need her for can wait..."

Melissa noticed the serious look on Matt's face, and pushing the swinging door open with her back, returned to the kitchen. As she did so, "Come on in. I'll call her on the radio. I'm sure she won't mind taking a break."

"I hate to interrupt, but I really need her to talk to Bridget for me. It's about weapon training."

Melissa, smiling at Matt, put her tray on the counter, picked up a radio and called Arlene. After a short conversation, she put the radio back in its charger. "Arlene is on her way," she said, needlessly, since Matt had heard Arlene, also. "And I need to get this hot chocolate out to a bunch of cold wives."