Life after the Lottery Ch. 49

"What did they do with him?"

"Not sure, not sure I want to know. But for now, Linda can't travel without Rachel, even to here."

"That is scary."

"While we are all here, I want to discuss something with you. Since Linda will be coming here, if that nut gets back to the states, he could possibly follow her here. If something like that happens, the safest place for all of you and Linda is in the safe-room. I think we should decide on a code word for everyone that means go to the safe-room," I told them.

"You think we need that?" Dawn ask.

"I don't think it will hurt. Pick a word. The rule is if anyone yells it out, everyone goes to the safe-room, no questions asked. Don't stop to ask what is going on or anything. Understood."

"Okay."

After some talk and giggling, they picked a word. Sam wanted it to be "pussy", but I told her that got yelled too much around here for that to work. They decided on "Red Cat".

"If there are other people here, you yell at them to follow you. The elevator will only hold four people, so one of you will have to be in charge of taking the elevator back up to get anyone else. Until you two learn to shoot, that will be Dawn if she is here."

"What about you?" Sam asked.

"I will be taking care of the problem."

"James, that is not safe for you," Sam replied.

"Don't worry about me. I have to protect all of you."

"But you don't keep guns up here," Sam said.

"I always have my carry weapon nearby, and...there are things about the house that you two don't know about," I told them.

"Secrets?" Sam asked.

"Yes. I might as well show you one of them. Come with me."

I got up and Sam and Amy followed me toward the front door.

"I am going to show you something that is for our protection. Right now, you two can't access it, but Dawn and I can. Anything I show you are just like the safe-room, you can't tell anyone about it, understood."

"Of course," Amy said.

"You see this little black square right her on the wall?" I asked showing them a little black slick spot about 2 inches square near the door.

"Yes. I have wondered what that was," Sam said.

I placed my index finger on the little pad for a second. There was click and a small door in the wall opened and a rack started sliding out.

"Damn!" Sam said when she looked.

The fingerprint pad opened a gun safe that was hidden in the wall. It had more than a handful of pistols and rifles plus other accessories in it.

"What the fuck?" Amy said.

"These are for an emergency, I big one. So, we always have access to weapons. Once you two learn to shoot, your fingerprint will be programmed into the lock."

"Some of those guns look like the ones in the safe-room," Sam said.

"They are."

"You haven't seen half of them," Dawn said walking up behind them.

"Why do you have so many?" Amy asked.

"I collect some of them."

"There are more?" Sam asked.

"Yes. There are other places in the house that have hidden compartments, but this is the big one. Let me show you something."

I reached in and pulled out a pair of night vision goggles.

"What is that?"

"Night vision goggles. If I ever needed to, I could put on a pair of these and turn off all the lights in the house and still see."

"Why?"

"In case I was looking for someone in the house."

"James, are all of those guns loaded?" Amy asked.

"They all have full magazines in them, but there is not a bullet in the chamber. The first thing you need to learn about guns is that they are always loaded. Never assume one is not loaded."

"Are you going to teach me how to shoot all of them?" Sam asked.

"If you want to learn, but you and Amy have to learn to shoot a pistol first."

I put the night vision goggles back and pushed a button on the rack. It slid back into the wall and I closed the door.

"Where are the rest?" Sam asked.

"Later. I will be showing Rachel were they all are, I will show you two then."

"Dawn said you have a lot more, where are they at?" Sam wanted to know.

"I will show you later. I have a lot that is stored for the police if they need them."

"Why do you have them?"

"Because some of them are not authorized for the police to have yet. If something bad were to happen in town, there will be someone that will come here and get what they need."

"Why you?"

"Since I am an agent for the Attorney General, I have some guns that are pretty special."

"That is enough about guns, for now, let's go to bed," Dawn said. "You two come with us."

We both grabbed a hand and led the girls to our bedroom. It was about 8:30, but Dawn probably wanted to play. Once we were all naked, Dawn crawled in the bed. I watched as Sam got next to her. Amy and I got in the bed together.

"We missed you two," Amy said.

"We missed you too," Dawn told her.