Pariah Lafferty, Texas Ranger Ch 8: A Shot in the Dark

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JamieWolfe7

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HeroUp2112

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I know there's no story along with this, but I'm still not getting notifications bro :)

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JamieWolfe7

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#3  Edited By JamieWolfe7

1900

Jesse's Motel Room

The duet had no luck at either of the local power providers. The concensus was a mysterious and sudden unaccountable shutdown followed by a similar resumption of normal activity and they had yet to form an adequate explanation for either. Nothing had shorted, fried, or fused as a result of anything and their records read as if only a minute had passed, showing that their chronometers needed to be totally recalibrated from whatever had transpired. The reality was that the power outtage was closer to an hour, really a little more than that but they had yet to pin down an exact number. The two companies, whatever the case, had come back online within two minutes of each other.

The radar information proved to be a painful read. The technician had been honest, it was at least to the minute with speed, heading, altitude, and all the rest but the torture was that it also updated any time an object adjusted in any manner. If it had been a boring thirty minutes, there would have been maybe 120 lines of data but instead there was over a thousand to decipher.

Jesse had put on a cup of coffee to keep her up with this. She ordinarily enjoyed reading, preferring it in most cases to TV. Jamie spent this time organizing the notes she had taken, she had proven surprisingly meticulous and observant given her outward demeanor.

Pariah eventually figured out what the contact must have been. There was one contact that read like it shot across the screen like a bat out of hell before vanishing, it's altitude adjusting into a sharp descent. Reading back along that particular intercept's identifier, she found where it had evidently adjusted course once before. Jamie would be shocked, satellites don't adjust course when falling to earth and the adjustment had been a sharp sixty degree turn without slowing or even banking from the look of it. A quick check on Google with the numbers verified that it had to have been travelling at Mach 2, twice the speed of sound. She would need to find people in the area to talk to, according to the rancher he'd recalled a rumble like thunder pass over his home before the explosion. Surely other people had heard something, the speed of this object suggested that he may have heard a sonic boom.

She highlighted the relevant lines of data and transferred them into a separate document for sanity's sake. Plucking the flashdrive from its slot, she took a moment for private exhultation. Proof of an extraordinary crash, everything else would be gravy from here on. She steps out to her SUV and retrieves her pistol from its transport case, deciding to clean it tonight since she was considering taking some time for a visit to the local range tomorrow. A fresh coat of lubricant couldn't hurt since she didn't remember the last time she'd given it one.

Thirty minutes later she hit the sack, tucking the big pistol under pillow for comfort. Her sleep that night was pleasant, what little she had. She wouldn't be awoken by terrors that night, instead it was something very different and much more physical.

A fluttering of eyes accompanies the clicking of her door as it is gently opened. She had no idea how, but someone had defeated the keycard lock. Slowly, very slowly, a hand slips under her pillow to find the big Walker Colt. It was a huge relief to find the curved handle right where she'd put it.

A lanky shadow fills her doorway momentarily. Evidently whoever it is spots her laptop and goes straight for it with admirable stealth. She doesnt even hear his footsteps in the dark before the audible click-click of her pulling the hammer back of her comparably enormous revolver shatters the silence. The man freezes like a deer in headlights as she slips it from under the pillow to level the long barrel on him. A moment later he whips out something shiney and lunges...BOOM!!!

The room illuminates for a split second as the shadow flies back from her and the pistol's roar, smashing her laptop as he wrecks the table. Blood spatters against the window as a hole explodes from his back, but thankfully the large bullet doesn't seem to have penetrated. She hit him center mass.

Jesse rises to her feet, wide awake from the excitement as she keeps the big pistol trained on the intruder. Stepping over, she realizes he's wearing a mask of some sort and takes it off to reveal hispanic features. The light flashes on, and now in the doorway is Jamie with her own semi auto pistol in hand.

"What the hell happened?!" Breathes the excited irishwoman.

Jesse glances to her smashed laptop beneath the shoulder of the late intruder, she sees now with the light on she got him right through the heart and she reckons she could probably see the floor below him if it weren't for the blood,"He came in to get my laptop."

A moment more glancing over the intruder and she realizes he was wearing a light tac-vest. She might have had problems if she'd tried to take him with her .40. Cursing softly, she glances up to Jamie who is already out the the door double quick.

Jamie is on her phone calling in the incident now that she sees things are well in hand, she's off to check on their vehicles as she acts on the hunch that Jesse's instinct is right. Sure enough, the SUV is vandalized as she runs a couple thugs away from it in true cop fashion. The sight of a pistol and badge and they are gone the second they hear the shout of 'FREEZE!'

Jesse strolls down with her pistol still in hand as she rubs her cheek, keenly aware now that the adrenaline rush is past that she got hit with blowback from having shot in so awkward a posture with her pistol so close to her face. What's more, her wrist is throbbing from the same.

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JamieWolfe7

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HeroUp2112

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Cool, lol now if we can get them to show up on my notifications I'll be a happy camper :) I just don't wanna accidentally miss one is all

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JamieWolfe7

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@heroup2112: I'm gonna update the library after I get to ten, which may be tonight. Appreciate the enthusiasm :)

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HeroUp2112

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