“These are Teflon bullets?”
He shrugged. “That name’s misleading. The Teflon coating is just to protect your gun. It doesn’t make them any more deadly. The real improvement comes from using a brass slug instead of a lead one. Brass is a lot harder than lead, so when it hits the target—say, your trauma plate—it doesn’t squish or melt. It keeps going in one piece, with all of its energy intact. Theoretically that bullet can punch through any police vest.”
“Does it work?”
The armorer shrugged again. “Depends on who you ask. Again, I’ve seen ballistics reports from both sides. No one has ever been shot with one of these—they were made illegal about ten minutes after they were invented—so we just don’t know. Even I’ve never seen any, other than what’s in that box. Theoretically law enforcement can buy them, but you should see the paperwork the ATF requires. Personally I’ve only fired a couple of rounds of that stuff. I can tell you those will penetrate a steel car door without any trouble. One thing I do know, which is that once that box is gone, I won’t be able to get any more for a long time. So use them carefully.”
Caxton nodded. She scooped the box up and put it in her pocket. “Thanks,” she said. He nodded, still not looking at her. “I’ve got something else for you, too. You carry a Beretta 92, right?
There’s an upgrade for that model.”
“Yeah?” She drew her sidearm and laid it on the bench in front of her. “This one’s been pretty good to me.”
“Here, try this,” he said, and opened another of his boxes. Inside was a gun almost identical to hers—except it might have come out of the future. The grips were more ergonomic, the entire pistol was slightly lighter, and it had a small flashlight slung under the barrel. “This is the Beretta 90-Two.” He spelled it out for her, and showed her the name embossed on the receiver. “It’s improved in a whole bunch of ways, but let me show you my favorite parts. Here,” he said, indicating three pale green dots,
“are your glow-?in-?the-?dark sights. So you can shoot at night. There’s a red tab here that pops up when there’s a round in the chamber, so you never have to retract the slide to find out. Then there’s this attachment, which might come in handy, considering the places you end up.” He flicked two switches on the flashlight. The beam was bright enough to see even in winter daylight. That would be useful when she was hunting vampires on moonless nights. Even better, just below the flashlight lens was a tiny red lens that projected a sighting laser. “With the flashlight and laser on at the same time, you’ve got about an hour of battery time. Keep that in mind. Also, you’ll need to sight the laser in manually. With the flashlight it won’t fit in your current holster, but I have a new one you can have that’ll work.” He watched her point the gun downrange, then lower it and whip it up again. “Best part: the magazine holds seventeen rounds. Two more than you’re used to. Do you like it?”
It felt just about perfect in her hand. “I’ll take it,” Caxton said. “Wrap it up.”
Vampire Zero
Chapter 35.
Caxton had two more stops to make before she could leave for Syracuse. The first was going to be the hardest: she had to go home.
It wasn’t a long commute to the house she shared with Clara. When she arrived she pulled into the drive and switched off the Mazda and just sat there for a while, staring at her own kitchen window. When she’d decided she’d put it off long enough, she got out of the car and walked up to the door. It was unlocked, which meant Clara was there. Caxton was not surprised to find her lover sitting at the kitchen table reading a book.
“Hey,” Clara said, barely looking up. “Long time no see.”
Caxton stiffened. Then she forced herself to relax and pull up a chair opposite Clara so they could talk. Eventually Clara looked up again. She put her finger in her book to hold her place and closed the cover.
“So,” she said. “Did you ever find out what a Twaron fiber was good for?”
“Yes,” Caxton said. She placed both hands on the table and started picking at the laminate on the edge.
“It’s used in ballistic vests. Arkeley was wearing one.”
Clara’s eyes went wide. “That would protect his heart and—”
“Make it next to impossible for me to kill him. That’s…that’s something it would really have helped me to know, before he came after Raleigh last night.” Clara started to react, but Caxton held up one hand.
“Raleigh’s fine. Another girl didn’t make it, though. If I’d known what I was facing maybe it could have been—different.”