Foss pulled the car off the road and down the short path to where they parked when they went target shooting. As he and Declan got out of the car he turned to Declan, "Get your gun out of its case and load it here, I want you to spend more time walking around with it loaded in your pocket."
"Ok," Declan got the Glock out of the case and put in a cartridge. He put the gun in his right pocket and some extra clips in the left as he had been doing for practice. Foss observed without comment.
They began the process of picking a new path to their clearing.
Foss said, "The school year is making it hard to schedule sessions together. You are continuing your physical workouts at school, as we talked about?"
"Yes," Declan said. "The coach lets me use the weight room to work out. Some of the guys think I'm a little strange since I'm not on the team but they shut up if I can lift more than they do. It's an incentive."
"Good," Foss said. "You can certainly build your upper body and you can do a lot with your legs if you're careful about your ankle."
They quickly reached the depressed area they used for target practice. Declan put down the duffel he was carrying that contained their ear muffs and the cache of ammunition. He looked expectantly at Foss.
Foss began, "Today, we are going to practice drawing and firing in a one on one situation. The El Presidente drill is for multiple targets. Here we are going to be practicing shooting at someone who is going to be shooting back at you." Declan nodded. Foss continued, "I am going to put up a target. The drill will be for you to pull your Glock out of your pocket chamber a round, fire and then fire three more shots at the target.
"That seems simple," Declan frowned. "What's the catch?"
"I don't want you to stand still after the first shot," Foss explained. "I want you to practice moving. You could step to one side, or you could move downward into a crouching position. The idea is to get a quick shot off, which could end the fight. But if it doesn't move to avoid the return fire." Foss went about ten yards away and put numbered targets on three trees. He came back to stand by Declan. Declan had already put his ear muffs on and was holding a pair for Foss.
Declan asked, "Three targets?"
"I'll pick which one you are supposed to shoot," Foss said. "I want you to still have some last moment decision process. If you move to the side, you might want to move away from your bad ankle so that the good one takes up the stress. Here's what I mean." Foss went through the motions of firing and moving as well as firing and crouching without discharging his weapon.
"Are you ready?" Foss asked. Declan nodded and he commanded, "Number two."
Declan pulled his Glock out, chambered a round and fired at the number two target, then he stepped to the right and fired three more shots. They walked over to the target and saw one hole.
Foss said, "The trick to moving is the same as switching from target to target, you need to stabilize the gun at the moment you fire."
They went back to the starting spot and Foss instructed, "Clear the round out of the chamber and put the gun back into your pocket and we'll go again." When Declan had done so, he said, "Let's try a crouch. Three!"
Declan fired the first shot and awkwardly crouched and fired three more rounds.
Foss nodded, "Not bad, you have to practice until you can do it smoothly."
Declan frowned thoughtfully, "I think the crouching works better for me. I got a twinge from my ankle as I pushed off of it."
They repeated the drill a couple of dozen times, mostly practicing crouching but with some moving until Foss called a halt to the process, "That's probably enough for today. Let's sit down." They went over to their traditional log.
As they sat drinking water, Foss said, "I'm going to be moving my monitoring equipment to Jessi's new office this week, so we can do our drills there. The warehouse area will provide plenty of room."
"Are you through with the old warehouse, then?" Declan asked.
"I'm going to keep it as a backup," Foss said. "It has more space. If we need a lot of room for something we can use it."
"So, Jessi and Kyle are building some kind of super computer there?" Declan asked.
"They need commercial grade power, apparently. I don't really understand what they are doing, but I'm used to that from my years with Adam."
"You've dedicated a lot of your life to protecting Adam and now Kyle and Jessi," Declan observed. "It's an unusual career choice."
"They're all unusual people," Foss said. "They have a chance to change the world in a way that I would never be able to do – if I can keep them alive to do it. I failed Adam. I do not intend to fail them."
"You're willing to dedicate your life, possibly die, to help them?" Declan asked.
"You don't have to be the star of the team to help hold up the trophy," Foss told him. He smiled, "And we are talking about what could be a really big trophy. A lot of people die for a lot less."
Declan nodded, "I can see that."
"Are you having doubts about being involved?" Foss asked with a frown.
"No," Declan shook his head. "Without being part of this circus I'm not sure what I would be doing now that basketball is out of the picture. I'm just beginning to look beyond the day to day and wonder what the future holds. I guess it's because my girlfriend was asking me about college."
"We don't know where Kyle and Jessi are going to go," Foss said. "They don't really need to go to college but I suspect they'll continue to want to have as normal of a life as possible. It would be useful for you to go as well to stay close to them."
"I really don't know what I'd study," Declan shrugged.
"A lot of people start like that," Foss said. "You might look into a law enforcement degree. There's some overlap with what we do and knowing police procedure is always good, especially if you are trying to get around it." Foss grinned at him.
"I never thought of that," Declan laughed. "I'll have to look into what it includes. It might even interest my father."