The explosion sounded a lot like a shotgun going off, and the base of the tree suddenly seemed to disintegrate into a cloud of dust and dirt. As far away as they were, specks of dirt and tiny splinters of wood managed to hit them, though without any real force. The tree itself stood for a couple of seconds, and then slowly leaned to one side and fell.
“Tim-berrrrr!” Neil yelled, his face covered in a massive grin. “Boss man,” he said, “that stuff is awesome!”
Moose had gone by his house and packed up some clothes for the mission, also picking up the special Glock automatic that was the twin of one that Noah carried. It was another of Wally's team's creations, matched wirelessly with a ring that Moose wore on his right hand, and would not fire at all unless the hand holding it was wearing that ring.
Should anyone try to fire the gun without it, a high-voltage charge would be delivered through the grip, more powerful than a commercial stun gun. That person would be completely incapacitated for several minutes. They had not yet run into a situation where it was helpful, but both Noah and Moose agreed that it was a great tool for people in their line of work.
It was almost lunchtime, so Noah suggested they all go out for a bite to eat. They piled into the Chrysler, and Sarah took the wheel.
“Sagebrush?” she asked, and everyone agreed. She wheeled the sedan gently out of the driveway and then floored it. The car leaped forward, pressing everyone back into their seats.
“Good Lord, girl,” Moose said from the backseat. “Lead foot, much?”
“Hey, I have to get familiar with this machine. You never know, I may have to pick you two up out of a bad situation. You wouldn't want me to be learning how to drive it in the middle of a firefight, now, would you?”
The in-dash GPS showed a scrolling view of the road, with a bright blue triangle representing the car. The curves in the road seemed a lot sharper on the little video display, and the rapidly moving triangle made it seem like they were going even faster than they probably really were. It seemed like only seconds before they came to the end of the country lane, and then they were on Temple Lake Road. It was just a few miles to the Sagebrush Saloon, but they were very curvy miles. Sarah put the car through its paces, and commented that the all-wheel drive and traction-grip tires made it seem like they were running on rails.
“I don't think so,” Neil yelled. “The freaking tires are screaming around these curves, I don't think anything on rails would do that. Would you please slow down? We have enough chances to get killed when we're out on a mission, we don't need to risk it running around here at home!”
“Oh, poor baby,” Sarah said, “am I scaring you?” She dropped her speed back down to the limit and drove sedately the rest of the way. When they got out of the car in the Saloon's parking lot, she actually patted it on the roof. “I could get used to driving something like this all the time.”
Moose and Neil shook their heads and just walked past her into the restaurant. Noah stood at the front of the car and waited for a moment, then the two of them walked in together.
Elaine Jefferson, Moose's girlfriend, was working that afternoon and happily led them to one of her tables. She knew them all quite well and went to fetch their usual drinks while they thought about what to order for lunch. They had just gotten their orders in when Neil's cell phone rang.
He glanced at the caller ID display and broke into a huge smile, then got up and left the table while he answered the call.
“Must be Lacey,” Sarah said. Lacey Jackson, who happened to be the daughter of their physical fitness instructor and was almost as tall and thin as the six-foot-five Neil, had introduced herself to him in the Saloon a few weeks before and they had become quite involved. It wasn't uncommon to see Lacey's car parked over at the trailer in the mornings. “She's been pretty good for him. Notice he's growing up a little bit, lately?”
“Neil? Growing up?” Moose asked, then looked over at Noah. “What kind of dope is she smoking lately? That kid ain't never gonna grow up.”
Noah shrugged. “Actually, I think he's been a lot better lately. He doesn't whine nearly as much as he used to.”
“Yes, he does,” Moose said. “It just seems like it's not as much because he isn't constantly complaining about not having a girlfriend. Now he spends all his time complaining about not getting to spend enough time with his girlfriend.”
“Which proves my point,” Sarah said.
Moose shook his head. “Yeah, yeah, you keep on believing whatever you want to. Trust me, he's still a whiner.”
“Yeah, maybe so, but you love him. You proved that when you took a bullet dragging him out of the line of fire, remember?”
“I never said I didn't,” Moose said with a grin. “He's like the annoying little brother I never had. I always wanted one, just so I could pick on him, but Mom and Dad wouldn't cooperate. Now I got Neil, I'm making up for lost time.”