| From: | Paul J. Adam Shadowtk@********.demon.co.uk |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Back in the Saddle |
| Date: | Mon, 11 Oct 1999 22:19:53 +0100 |
>>>>>[Hope you two reprobates are enjoying your vacation. Here's what
the Man has to say about you.
+++++begin transcript
K: RAdm Jane Kowalski, SOCOM
T: Senator Douglas Trenton, Chairman, Intelligence Oversight Committee
K: So, Senator, how's life after the Agency?
T: Still busy. SIGA wasn't the only black-ops outfit, after all. No, we're still
justifying our existence. You?
K: Things are lively. On the training front, anyway. Operationally, no real
news to report that you didn't get already. We're still assisting discreetly
in the Yucatan, we're still probing the Renraku situation, all the usual
ops are underway and we don't seem to have anything exceptional in
sight.
T: How about your two new instructors? How are they getting on?
K: Like a house on fire.
T: Screams, explosions, everyone fleeing in terror?
K: You know them as well as I do, then.
T: How did their assessment and retraining go?
K: Retraining, no problem. Assessment... well. Lilith reduced the
psychiatrist who evaluated her to a gibbering wreck.
T: Don't let a cat play games with your head.
K: The guy apparently didn't believe how differently shapeshifters think.
Now, I guess he does. The same guy then tried to have Lynch Section
Eighted for marrying her.
T: And what did Jason's evaluation say?
K: Hero complex, fanatic, occasionally suicidal. The psychiatrist said he
would make a fine recruit for a Sioux Division of Hitler's Waffen-SS.
T: Ouch. That was _rude_. And Lynch's reaction?
K: Laughed himself sick. Then said, sure, as long as he was fighting to
keep the Red Army out of the Black Hills, otherwise no... and we got to
talking history and it gets complicated, but we did agree the shrink was
full of shit.
T: And their trade skills?
K: Well, their flight qualifications are up to date again, which is handy for
some of the work they might be needed for. Lilith went to the Feds to
cover law enforcement work, and I put Lynch in with SEAL Team Twelve
on their training cycle.
T: Interesting choices.
K: Lilith's a predator in more ways than one, so I thought she needed the
extra emphasis on non-fatal conflict resolution. You have to remember
she's not human and has very, uh, different instincts about life-or-
death situations.
T: Oh, I agree, and for the same reasons, I was just curious. The results?
K: Lilith had very little trouble with the course other than her unorthodox
choice of sidearms. They were a touch alarmed when she turned up
with a pair of .44 Magnum semi-autos.
T: John Woo gun-fu on the ranges?
K: Actually, no, that's Lynch. She's got an interesting technique. Draws
both, then uses one at a time. Doesn't often go for the spray-and-pray
stuff, not with just eight rounds in each weapon. Where it is useful is
room clearing, though; cover two directions at once, and she's got the
perception and the reflexes to make it work. No, the practical aspects
were fine.
T: But the theoretical?
K: She replied to most detailed legal questions with a wide-eyed, innocent
"I ask my partners who have the appropriate law-enforcement training."
Her view - and mine, I admit - is that you commit SOCOM types to law
enforcement for firepower, under overall civilian control even if you've
got a Lynch in charge on the scene. The things we do to sidestep posse
comitatus...
T: Presidential Decision Directive 25. You, at least, don't have to worry
about that.
K: Until that gets declassified, if it ever does, it's not advisable to be too
overtly militant. Anyway, it worked out pretty well. The FBI students
appreciated the emphasis on teamwork, anyway.
T: Could I see this shooting style of hers?
K: Yeah. I thought you'd want a look. I even got tapes of _both_ of them
in action on the same type of Dozier drill. <laughs> Interesting
comparison. Wait up...
+++++insert video segment
[Lilith stands at the firing point, wearing ear defenders, a sleeveless white
T-shirt and black leather jeans. Her dark-red hair hangs to her waist in a
simple single braid, and the black nylon shoulder harness for two _very_
heavy pistols criss-crosses her back.
>From behind, she's an interesting sight: the perfect bones of her face
hidden, and the powerful muscles of her shoulders and arms much more
evident than usual. She's slightly crouched, alert and ready. In front of
her, ranged before a backstop of packed sand and railway sleepers, are
eight metal targets, about a foot wide and twice that high. They are
perhaps twenty yards distant.
A buzzer sounds and the clock in one corner starts to run, in one-quarter
normal time.
Lilith - still seeming to move at apparently normal speed - draws her right
pistol first and fires, the muzzle blast of the .44 Magnum enormous and
overloading the camera for a moment. (The huge empty case whirls away
far too slowly, the first real clue as to the reduced playback speed).
She's drawing the left handgun even as the range computer plots her
bullet's strike (low and right, the target rocking but not falling).
Rather than bring the left pistol up and fire, though, she crosses it over
her right wrist, helping to fight the hefty recoil of the Desert Eagle as she
fires that weapon again. Her second shot hits the target squarely, not just
knocking it down but flinging it into the backstop.
She works her way along, each shot quickly and efficiently placed. Only
two of the targets take two rounds, the others all falling with a single hit,
before the slide of the big old pistol locks back: though she's already
reversing her hands, letting the empty automatic in her right hand brace
and damp the fully-loaded weapon in her left as she despatches the last
two targets with a single shot each.
Elapsed time, four point one seconds. Rounds expended, ten.
The view clicks to a different shooter, on a different range, facing a
similar setup. Lynch, comfortable in camouflaged battledress, faces the
same Dozier drill: like her, he's armed with a pair of pistols. His, though,
are Predator automatics, both on his pistol belt (though he's taken the
precaution of using good duty holsters, rather than the secure-but-slow
issue unit) and as the buzzer sounds he, too, draws both and opens fire.
Unlike Lilith's measured, almost deliberate fire, though, Lynch is firing
both sidearms furiously. Only the slow-motion, and the computer's
reconstruction of the impacts (helpfully marking the different weapons'
strikes with different colours) shows the detail of his technique, and
differentiates it from mere spray-and-pray.
His left hand - evidently his favoured - seems to have most of his
attention, and accounts for five of the targets with nine rounds fired (the
Predators have less recoil but also less battering impact than his wife's .44
Magnums). His right hand is firing faster and more wildly, starting on the
right-hand end of the row of targets and knocking down three before the
weapon is empty, its fifteen rounds expended.
Elapsed time, three point nine five seconds. Rounds expended, twenty-
four.]
+++++end video
T: Lively, and an interesting difference of styles. I can see why both
outfits found their guests... unconventional. Those aren't usual shooting
methods, are they?
K: Qualification time for that exercise is eight seconds. The average is
about four-point-five for the SEALs and about five for the FBI. As to
convention... as long as it works, don't whine, I say.
T: How did Lynch cope with the SEALs, given some of his other...
prejudices?
K: <laughs> Well, he bitched like hell about using a HK227 as anything
except a backup or suppressed weapon. Okay, I know SEALs who feel
the same way, hell I know SEALs who think everything since the M-14
was going backwards. Other than that... he wore the black without a
complaint. When he volunteered for Hell Week.
T: At his age? My God.
K: Would you believe he passed?
T: Yes, I would. But not by much, I'll wager. He must be... thirty-nine?
K: Thirty-eight. And, yeah, Don, it was _damn_ close in places. He's
motivated and in hellishly good shape, but so are the hopefuls, who are
half his age, and the instructors at BUDS have had their mercy surgically
removed.
But... I think it was a personal issue, for the man. He'd been Mitchell,
he'd masqueraded as a SEAL, I think he felt he had to make amends and
prove something.
T: Though I imagine the SEALs looked on him more kindly for it.
K: Actually, I don't think they cared too much. He'd done what he had to
do to fulfil a mission, the ones who knew didn't hold it against him at
all. No, it was just a matter of honour to Lynch.
T: _Just_ a matter of honour? To Lynch?
K: How else do you think he passed Hell Week?
T: Well, yes. Other than that matter?
K: About as you'd expect. A little out of practice in some areas, a few
corners to knock off, some recent lessons to assimilate, but word from
the Teams is that "he can work with them anytime". That's what I
wanted, that's what we got.
T: So, what do we do with our two tame maniacs?
K: Training, training, training. Neither of them seem in a hurry to go
back to the field. Their only request is that assignments in Seattle get
some priority - their daughter's there and so are many of their friends -
but other than that, any time the Inspector-General says someone
gundecked a readiness report, I suggest we send the Lynches to go in
and check the matter out in their own inimitable style.
They like the work, they're damn hard to bribe, let's get the most out
of that.
T: Not a traditional Intelligence function. Still, they have friends in high
places, albeit unconventional ones. Between you for the Navy, Motors
for the Marines and Cunningham for the Air Force, they're rather well
covered.
K: Gotcha. Plus, they're not career animals, they're not easily bribed, and
they've got effective and not-too-expensive OPFOR on call. Remember
how they kicked butt on the Metro Guard zoomies from McChord?
T: Yes, I heard. Turned a four-on-two fight into a clean win, didn't they?
K: Well, as well as indulging a measure of interservice rivalry, they also
suggested some measures to the CO and backed them to _her_
commander and, apparently, readiness is noticeably up. Nothing like a
good sharp kick in the butt to motivate people, some days. Some units
could really do with that. The world's getting dangerous, Don.
T: What do you mean?
K: I was a seaman when we got pussy-whipped at Hawai'I, Senator
Trenton. I spent half my career in drawdown and retreat, losing bases
and pulling back and manning ships older than I was, and when I made
Chief we were thinking all our once-great Navy would do was chase
pirates and 'show the flag' and maybe fight Aztlan in the Gulf of Mexico
if they made another move on the Rebs and we decided to help this
time.
I made officer under SecNav Hutchisson, and that's when the tide
seemed to turn. Everyone _said_ he was mad, but since then we've had
crisis after crisis. The Universal Brotherhood, then Chicago, now the
Renraku Arcology, and all of them showing us that _someone_ has to
carry the ball. But too many units still think that they're obsolete and
irrelevant.
We're going to need every fighting man we've got in the next decade.
Call it instinct. Call it gut feeling. Call it an old sea dog talking frankly
to... a friend. But we can't afford _anyone_ who thinks they can
embellish their readiness reports or cut back on training for combat.
There's no slack.
T: My, my, Jane, you get more eloquent than I'd imagine possible! <laugh>
But I agree completely. Very well, I approve your proposal, as long as
you co-operate with the relevant chains of command rather than
steamrollering them.
K: Would I ever do that?
T: Whenever you felt it necessary. Come on, let's get some lunch. Do you
have any more footage of those two in action?
K: Funny you asked...
+++++end video
Sounds like the deal you asked for. Have fun.
I already got you lined up to lead a guerilla force against the 10th
Mountain when you get back from Scotland.]<<<<<
-- RAdm Jane Kowalski <22:18:45/10-11-60>
