Chapter 6

David thought of all the ways the military could destroy a target or area. Through bombs, mostly, dropped from a very high altitude. His home, the walls, the flooring, even the roof would slow down any serious assault team, but knew they could still get in, eventually. But a bomb? He'd never hear it coming. He doubted if even his deep bunker was safe, now, after he had destroyed Area 51. His mansion was vulnerable and David decided on a course of action.

His stupid civilian security system was completely inadequate. So David decided to build a stasis field for his home and property and another, smaller field, he could carry with him at all times, without turning on the device. It shouldn't take him more than a week to build the one for the mansion. He'd made them a number of times already. But this one would have to be much bigger.

Realizing he was still paranoid, but knowing it was a real thing he faced, a bomb from twenty-thousand feet, so he rushed into it two days after returning from Nevada, the same hour and day it had occurred to him.

David had been going to recover that wrecked '57 Oldsmobile body, out there in the woods, where it had been sitting for who knew how many years, but that would have to come after these little projects were completed.

David went to the forge and recalling the ratio of metals and other elements, he began mixing them in a huge smelting pot while the gas forge heated up. They were mostly powders and fine granular stock, and he physically stirred his new batch of elements with a big screwdriver, before putting the pot into the forge with the overhead winch and chain.

At his long work bench, David played with a calculator. He'd only need thirty pounds of the stuff to make a stasis field a mile and a half in radius. It would protect his home, the bunker and even the trees surrounding his home, almost all the way to the access road, next to the highway, two miles away. There would be a buffer zone of about fourteen hundred feet, next to the highway, but that would be good enough in case the State ever imagined turning the two lane road into four. It wouldn't happen, he knew. There was nothing out here but national forests and privately held sections with cabins on them. Like himself, people wanted their privacy.

David had the smelting completed in a matter of hours and pored it into a form he'd quickly welded together out of steel sheet-stock. He'd formed a cube with it, open at the top, about the size of a basketball.

When it was ready, he pored the melted materials, in its pure form, into the cube and then a bit more into another pre-made very small piece of pipe, to form a rod, about a foot high and two inches in diameter. He was going to build a stasis for himself, with it, to wear at all times, when outside the protection of his mansion. Snipers could take anyone out, anywhere they wanted. It would be in the form of a ring and the extra molten stock would give him the flexibility to experiment. David knew of his vulnerability and would use his good sense to protect himself now that he and the United States government were officially at war. At least in his mind, they were, if not in theirs, also.

If they were smart, though, they'd let it drop. David had meant what he said to the three star general in Area 51; that he would destroy all military and government complexes, if they didn't leave him, and others like him, alone. After Betty's death, he knew they were still observing him. Possibly wanting to kill him, now.

When the solidified material had cooled, sufficiently, David used 'the device' to stop time. Matter was almost weightless in stopped time and he lifted the metallic cube, that weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of three hundred and seventy-odd pounds, to the fifty tone press wearing heavy forging gloves. The metal was cool, yes, for metal, but still very warm, even in stopped time, though heat transfer was a mute issue, still, he felt better for using heat gloves and the protection/adhesion of their leather surfaces. But it was like picking up a heated cast iron frying pan, somewhere in the four-hundred to five-hundred degree Fahrenheit range and mentally, it didn't want to burn himself, though that really couldn't happen.

He pressed the material to a specific density under the power of the enormous pressures the press could induce, on all four sides. The sheet metal warped and separated from the much denser material, bowing out and fracturing at some of the weld points, but still stuck to the cube shape. After removing it from the press, David smashed the sheet metal apart with an eighteen pound sledge hammer and put the very solid material on the water jet table and clamped it in place. He used the cooling time to program the computer of the water jet that would cut the metal to his specifications. Adding the electronics would be the final step.

It took six days of machining and building the micro-electronics, but David had finished the stasis field. The mansion was protected -- finally. He could pass through the large invisible bubble, that extended above and below ground, as if it wasn't there, using a stasis field, himself. As in activating time travel or using the stasis on the Rocketeer's suit. Stasis fields didn't collide. They merged and separated, as long as they were active. Anything he was touching, too, like when driving a car, motorcycle, or wearing clothes, or using a backpack, would react the same way.

They could now drop an atomic weapon on the mansion and the stasis bubble wouldn't even flicker, nor would the radiation, heat, or even the sound penetrate the field and could not harm it estate or him. It was almost perfect.

The plain looking silver ring on his right hand, too, finished three weeks after the house had been protected, was finally finished. He wore it on the baby finger. It created a much more advanced version of the basic stasis field for his personal safety. He would be as tough as the field created for the house but had invented some sophisticated tweaks in its design. They were mere programming changes that were adjustable, and he would do the same to his homes version, later that day. The changes were just enough so that low level sounds, light wind, and water could pass through. Being able to hear voices was the big improvement. It would only work to a particular level of sound, nothing that was too loud. But he wouldn't have to feign deafness, this way, as the other, cruder, versions had demanded, if he didn't want to. And David wouldn't have to go to the trouble of learning and practicing sign language, even though he still thought he might like to learn the skill as a mental exercize. He could breathe the fresh air, this way, with the ring turned to an exact position of activation. It would also let him feel the wind, up to a certain velocity, too. These were huge improvements in comfort and usage.

The ring had three sliding nubs on the surface of it that went completely around the circumference that he could adjust with his fingernail. They all had their purposes, at different settings, and worked together to accomplish various tasks. Only David knew their full functions. Even at the lowest setting, his body would feel somewhat natural to others, if they bumped into him, in say, a crowd. Even though their inertia and weight wouldn't affect him, he would feel normal, to a certain casual degree. This stasis could compress immediately around his form, about a sixteenth of an inch, if set for it, if he was touched, but that was the extent of depression. He was covered, though, from catastrophic injury, and hoped they, the government, wouldn't try to use gas or burn him when he was out shopping or walking, hiking, or lounging on a beach somewhere. The stasis could attack the attacker, under certain conditions. Yet all that was needed to deactivate the ring, was to remove it. If it didn't have his particular body chemistry inside the ring, where there were detectors, it wouldn't work. And would not work on any one else. An idea he got for his original device. That seemed so long ago. It was just a plain looking, incidental ring to anyone else, but to David, it was life to him, as was 'the device'.

Even though he had used the device's initial technology for so many of his inventions, David knew the stasis field would not make him younger, as the device did when in stopped time, after several hours of continuous use. And that was good. His youthful body was continually being pressed upon to look older, at least, that's what David was always trying to achieve. He didn't like looking like a kid.

However, he now looked like he did when he was eighteen after retro grading to the age of about fourteen, four years before. He had actually shaved the other day and figured it would become more of a routine, as he let himself age. Though he could always grow younger, using the device when he wanted to, though, that hadn't occurred yet. His occasional usage of the device assured him of eternal youth, in theory, at least.

Now that he was finished with his two exhausting projects, David wanted to celebrate by going out to eat, that night. On the highway, leaving home, he heard a harsh ticking sound on the windshield, as if a little rock had just hit his window. There were no cars in front of him on the country road. Still his driveway was heavily graveled and figured one of the front tires had flipped a piece of stuck gravel from between the tread pattern forward, then bounced off the front end of his Charger, hitting the stasis protected windshield and the entire car. That in itself would protect his vehicles from broken glass and paint chips. Stasis was pretty cool. "Maybe I should sell the Tec' to an insurance company?" he quipped.

Seafood was David's favorite. To eat, however, he had to adjust his ring. He was still safe from anything like physical apprehension from others, or even assassination, but he needed this mini-vacation away from the mansion. He'd been stuck in there for over a month and this was just the place. His favorite menu item was lobster. He ordered two sixteen ouncers and was preparing to eat them with real butter when a tick was heard and the remnants of a collapsed bullet dropped onto his plate of food.

He looked up at one of the small windows across the room and saw a small, high velocity bullet hole in it. David immediately adjusted his ring to an even greater degree of security. Seems he had finished the ring just in time. The sniper or snipers must be on the far side of the road, in the pine trees, on the outskirts of the city. They had just tried to kill him with a head shot. The government hadn't learned, had they? Another shot hit the stasis field, through almost the same hole. This solidified his suspicions as to the governments policy concerning him. They weren't going to comply with his request he'd made in Area 51. They wanted him dead.

David pulled out his smart phone for the benefit of his 'friends' across the street, then rushed to the bathroom where he stopped time with the device and went outside.

There was an auto parts business across the street and he headed straight for it. It was closed but in stopped time, matter was much more vulnerable and easy to damage, he'd learned. He kicked in the edge of the aluminum door, which broke the locking mechanism, and went in. He got a powerful flashlight and found a large pair of needle nosed pliers, the kind with wire cutting edges to them. Continuing to look around, David found the other items he was seeking in some stainless steel wire, those red mechanics rags, and leather gloves. David grabbed them all and left the store.

With second thoughts, though, he went back in and left five hundred dollars on the counter, in one hundred dollar bills. He always carried lots of cash. Usually at least two thousand dollars. These guys, here, had always treated him well when he needed parts for his growing collection of hot-rods, motorcycles, and street cars. Then considering fingerprints, he took the money back. He'd make it up to them in some other way.

Leaving the store, he went into the woods, turning on the powerful flash light. He began searching the foliage for the shooter or shooters. They usually came in pairs, if they were using military personnel. A spotter and a shooter.

He found them about a hundred feet in from the road, in their camouflage gunny suits, he thought they were called, across from the restaurant. Hidden beneath the pines and brush, they had been hard to spot. He removed their fingers from their weapons, checked all their pockets and stripped them of their military boots. These guys were Marine snipers. The best the military had, more than likely. Somewhere out there was an event-team, waiting for results and probably monitoring things. They weren't important to David. These two would make a fine example. "Yeah," he thought. "I know exactly what to do with these two."

David took them to his Dodge Charger, bending their bodies to fit into his back and passenger seats. It was too easy in stopped time. "Thank goodness for 'the device'."

He retrieved all their weapons and stuff and tossed it all in the trunk and drove to a dirt road he knew about. David walked a couple of hundred yards into the woods after completely stripping them of their clothing. He guessed there might be some kind of hi-tec homing devices hidden in the cloth. It was a lonely, deserted place and no one would ever find them unless some bumbling hunter or hiker happened on to them. Lucky for them it was summer and warm tonight.

David stood them on their knees against two closely growing pine trees. He tied their bodies at their hands and feet, wrapping both pairs of limbs, each, behind them and around the tree. He also tightly bound them with wire by their knees, hips, shoulders, neck, and foreheads to the trees. Each tree about a foot in diameter. The two were only a couple of feet apart, where he had placed them but at least they'd have company in their misery. The unbreakable wire would hold them until tomorrow. The last thing he did was stuff their mouths with the red mechanics rags.

As David drove away, he realized these two guys thought they were still across the street from the restaurant. When he started time, they'd be in for a rude awakening.

David drove to a river, near there, and tossed everything, boots, weapons, communication devices, clothing, everything, into the slow moving, deep water. Only then did he go back to the restaurant, parking in the same spot.

Back in the restroom, David let time resume and went back to his table. The lobsters were still hot and he lavished himself with the taste of his favorite food in all the world, dripping in yellow butter and parmesan cheese.

The next time the waitress came by, he pointed out the hole in the window that hadn't been heard. "I think a bird just flew into that pane of glass," he said, pointing to the bullet hole.

About eleven the next morning, David dawned the Rocketeer's suit and using the device, stopped time. In stopped time, he was invisible. He took off from his house in daylight and flew to where he'd left the two soldiers on their knees. Several hundred feet above them, he let the device resume time and landed, the rocket pack and after burner lights blaring away then quickly ceasing their commotion. Once again, as in any of his landings, the pine needles and other debris of the forest floor swirled up around him in a vortex, as if a strong dust devil had just fizzled out. The silence after the noise of the rocket engine was welcoming, he knew from experience, for their unprotected ears. His entrance was dramatic and that's what he wanted the two to see.

David did nothing at first, for almost two minutes, he just stood there looking at them. They didn't look softened up, enough, yet. Marines were tough and he knew he couldn't break their resolve with one night naked, out in the woods. Without food or water for two days, maybe they'd be willing to talk. Perhaps a little psychology would work.

He walked to them, strolling around the pines. The wire had cut harshly into their wrists and ankles, and their knees were bleeding where they had struggled against the course dirt and sticks. Where he had tied them elsewhere, he saw either blood or bruising, thinking, "Poor clowns."

Getting down on his haunches, in front of them, he said, through a speaker system that made his voice sound like Darth Vader's, "Rough night?"

They both glared, barely able to move their heads.

"Fella's, I don't want to leave you out here another night. Not with wolves, coyotes, bears and badgers around, not to mention the birds that'll most likely start working on your eyes and faces, later today. I just want to know if you're ready to talk? You both have to be in agreement on this or I'll leave you to the animals. Grunt when I come back, if you both feel like telling me a few simple things. I'm not asking for state secrets I know neither of you know anything about. I just want to know what your mission was. Take a few minutes to think about it between yourselves. I've got time. But think about this while you're deciding. Your blood scent is already in the air. I'm sure some of those carnivores are already coming this way. If you cooperate, you'll live. You've got this one chance."

David stood up and walked off into the woods, enjoying the morning scent of the forest and watched the bows moving in the breeze. He was very calm within himself. He didn't know why. He even hummed a tune beneath his helmet.

He kept his back turned to them from a hundred feet away, listening to his singing voice. "It's terrible," he admitted, but enjoyed it for what it was. He returned and squatted down again, taking a stick in hand and swirled it over the ground, flipping things up and away a yard or two, for the heck of it. After several more minutes, David came back to them, standing real close.

"Well? Have you decided?"

They both grunted, trying to shake their bloody foreheads. They wanted to talk. That was good. He reached down to the wire around their foreheads and cut it loose with that pair of wire cutters on the needle nose pliers.

David pulled the rags from their mouths. They were breathing heavy and they tried licking their lips but their mouths were parched. He kneeled in front of them, unbuttoning his leather Rocketeer's jacket, pulling a twenty ounce bottle of water from it. He cracked open the water and gave each of them half. He kept the empty bottle he crushed and put it back in his jacket.

"What was your mission, guys?"

One of them coughed, trying to speak. "We were suppose to take you out, clean and simple, remove your body and that was it. Those were our orders."