right next to it, but since this is the first test fire we’ll stay back out of an abundance of caution. Ready?”
Seeing the two nod, Matt pushed the igniter button. The cannon instantly roared, shaking the ground under their feet. A huge jet of orange-red flame gouted from the barrel. Blue smoke filled the air downrange, blocking their view of the plywood. The cannon rocked back against its restraints, but remained anchored. Matt did a little jig while smiling from ear to ear. “Wasn’t that beautiful? Huh? Wasn’t that just gorgeous?”
Adrian, a bit surprised by the violence of the cannon blast, was smiling along with Matt. Linda had a stunned look on her face. The reality of what lay ahead had just become much clearer to her.
Matt didn’t wait for the smoke to clear. He took off downrange to look at the plywood panels he’d set up. Linda followed him, suddenly curious and excited. Adrian quickly followed. The damage to the plywood was unbelievable. The chain sections had ripped right through the panels. The holes were the length of the chain sections. Some were horizontal, some were vertical, and most were on an angle. The spread of the chains was forty feet. There were a few gaps between the chain strikes, but overall, if men had been standing shoulder to shoulder across that forty-foot spread, only three or four might have survived.
“Hot damn!” Matt yelled. “Hot damn! That’s serious damage!” Matt almost never cursed; he was pumping with adrenaline and excitement. Linda was astonished at what she saw. Adrian was smiling now from ear to ear. “This is good stuff, Matt!”
Matt said, “I’m off to the shop to make as many of these as I can. See you kids later!” Matt turned and literally jogged back toward his shop.
Lind turned from the plywood and looked at Adrian. She was imagining the damage this would do to humans. “Damn. I don’t know what to say. This is…this is just...I don’t have words for it. I’ll bring the women out here and show this to them right away. It will be one hell of a morale boost for them. I’ll catch up with you later.” Linda took off at a fast walk back toward the village.
Adrian stood there for a long time, looking at the shredded plywood. He was beyond pleased with the cannon’s effectiveness. For the first time, he began to think that the women had more than just a good chance at defending the village. They had an excellent chance if they could get enough cannons set up in the right places and used them at the right time.
MARCH 23, MIDAFTERNOON
Linda and Clif watched the two scouts that were half a mile in front of the raiders as they came directly toward them. The scouts were walking along bored and half alert, not aware that they were moving directly toward two of their enemies. Clif whispered, “If you still want to take them prisoner, they’ll be here in about three minutes. We’ll have to take them silently, tie their hands, gag and blindfold them, and get the hell out of here. It’s that or kill them. I think we’ll have about two to three hours before they’re missed. Hopefully they’ll be thought to have deserted, but we can’t count on that. That means we’ll have to move fast and not stop for anything until we’re all the way back to the fort.” This was a huge speech for Clif, but he liked Linda and she needed to be instructed.
Linda whispered back, “We’ll take them prisoner; they may have information we can use. I’ll follow your lead on how to make the capture since you’ve done it before and I haven’t.”
Clif replied, “It’s simple enough. When they are right on top of us, we stand up with our weapons cocked and ready. They’ll have three choices: fight, surrender, or run. They’ll know that if they fight, we have them cold and they’ll die, and if they run, they’ll get shot in the back before they can move two steps. The danger is that they’ll react without thinking. So we stand up casually and talk casually, kind of throwing their reaction time off kilter while they try to figure out just what’s happening. Worst case is they go for it, we cut them down, and we don’t get two prisoners. Don’t look at their eyes; watch their hands. Their eyes can’t shoot you—their hands are the thing to watch. But they’ll surrender,