Everyone slept in the next morning. Harry was the first one up and he made breakfast for everyone who sat around the table looking hung over. The long hours and amount of magic they used really took a lot out of them. Smith stopped by towards the end of breakfast to drop off the updated double action Steel Model 1 he made along with a few crates of .38XL. He saw they were eating and sat with them. After breakfast Harry looked over the gun Smith handed him and checked the action. The trigger pull was almost too light in single action at 3 pounds, but the double action trigger pull was just a hair over 5 pounds and extremely clean.
"Nice work. I'll fix the rest of our guns today. It looks like you made partner in the company with this." Harry said smiling.
"So what is my share of the company?" Smith asked jokingly.
"1% of the profits or $10,000 a year, whichever is higher. But for that you have to oversee production. As the company grows so does your profit share. As for the guns I made. I'm going to put it to a vote but I think the colt python is out. I had two light primer strikes and the gun is big and clunky for just 6 rounds." Harry said.
"I agree. I didn't like my set. The 627's on the other hand are a godsend. Smooth as silk trigger. No malfunctions, the weighted barrels took away any felt recoil, and it gave you 8 very accurate rounds. It's the best gun we had." Neville said.
"I like the colt's well enough but I don't trust the lock up. It's weaker than the 627's lock. Twice on a quick reload I flicked the action closed and it bounced back open." Abby said.
"I like the 627's." Hermione said.
"Okay, the python's are out. We'll patent the design and sell it to colt. Let them deal with it. The 627's on the other hand will be the B&S Model 2. How about the colt detective?" Harry asked.
"I didn't use it enough to come down on the gun one way or the other." Abby said.
"I did and I love the little things. In fact I stopped using the pythons and switched to the detectives as my secondaries because they take the same speed loaders as the pythons." Hermione said.
"Compact, easy to conceal and six rounds of powerful stuff for such a small package. They make good backup guns. With two model ones on your hips, two 627's in the shoulder rigs, and a pair of detectives in your coat you never have to worry about anything. That's 46 loaded rounds of .38XL and 2 buck and ball 20 gauge shotshells on hand ready to go. That's the load out I'm taking with me from now on." Neville said.
"I agree, so we're all in favor of making the detective the model three?" Harry asked seeing the nods. "Okay, we'll look at the Raging judge at some point. For now we'll box up the pythons and in a few years we'll sell the patent to Colt. We'll make a stockpile of models 1,2, and 3 and we'll file the patent on the designs. Smith, how hard would it be to convert a winchester 44-40 rifle to shoot .38XL?" Harry asked.
"Easy, the .38XL is about the same size. The bullet's are almost the same length but the .38XL's are just a little bit skinnier. The action should work fine as long as the barrel and mag tube come down a bit in size. You thinking about outfitting the town with your guns?" Smith asked.
"I am, a B&S Model 2 and a rifle to replace the colt and rifle they have in 44-40. The .38XL hits harder and I like the idea of speedloaders. Plus free advertising. The same with the marshals here, and Ely, and Salt Lake but we'll do Model 1s for them. With full gold filled engravings, with a silver marshal's star in the dragon claw grips. The same with the model 2s for the local sheriffs. For the price of 60 model 1s and 45 model 2s we get free advertising. Plus we'll be the only producer of the .38XL ammo with brass jacketed bullets and magical smokeless powder. We can charge $2.50 a box of 50. All most all profit. You could use .38lc but blackpowder rounds? How cheap and low class. Let the regular people use that. You spend $150 for a custom gun you're going to buy the good stuff." Harry said.
"Yes, I can see that working. How much would it cost us to make that order?" Neville asked.
"Free, or close to it. The price of the few grams of gold and silver that would go into each gun. Everything else is shit we have laying around. We have thousands of blocks of steel, and a trunk full of dragon claws and teeth. Figure 5-7 grams of gold and 10 grams of silver per gun. That's what $10 worth of the shiny stuff?"
"There about. Also the price of 6 speed loaders with a loading tray, new leather, and 3 boxes of ammo for each gun. Your looking at about $15 a gun as well as the price of the rifles. We have a few but you would need to custom fit new barrels and mag tubes. We should do new stocks with brass name plates as well to avoid confusion. Your looking at about $20 for a rifle and revolver pair." Hermione said.
"We can trade out their rifles for the upgraded parts." Harry said thinking out loud.
"None of this happens without filing for a patent first." Hermione said.
"True, I think today I'm going to make a few dozed trigger kits for the models 1's we have. Tomorrow we should go out on patrol and check our county, it's been a few days. The day after that is Sunday we'll do a hunting trip. On Monday I'm going to fly to Denver from Salt Lake City in the morning. It's only about 500 miles from city to city. That's about a two and a half hour flight. When I land in Denver I'll set up a portkey landing zone and you guys can come over. We'll file the patent, check out the town, and talk to the local marshals. Walter should be back by then. Smith, do you want to join us on the trip?" Harry asked.
"I think I will, I've never been to Denver. Maybe I can get more supplies at a discount. Half of my smokeless compound comes from black powder but the potion I add to it takes away almost all the smoke and flash and gives the black powder ten times the explosive power. I get my potion supplies from Salt Lake but I wonder if I can find a discount." He said.
"Smith I think I might be able to help you with your potion if you share the recipe. We might be able to make it cheaper and better." Hermione said.
"Yeah, we're a team now. Anything to cut costs." Smith said nodding.
"Good, Smith see if you can sell off the trunk of beat up cheap guns we have at a good price while we're there." Harry said.
"We should compare prices on things as well. Enchanting supplies go fast in this house." Abby said.
"We'll add it to the list. For now I need Smith to show me how this double action trigger works." Harry said.
For the rest of the day they relaxed around the house in comfortable clothes. They had dragon burgers and fries for late lunch with a lot of beer. That night Harry made dragon steaks and garlic mashed potatoes. He made fresh rolls with butter on the side and they washed it all down with three bottles of red wine. That night the two couples turned in early and the next morning saw all four of them out patrolling the territory. They all had two model 1's on their gun belts, and two 627's or model 2's in their shoulder rigs. They killed a few dozen undead that day. They also found a nest of huge spiders in the hills close to the town and a pack of six huge coyotes by the road to Hamilton.
They were about to call it quits when Harry spotted something coming out of the mountains. He flew over to check it out with Abby following him. As they approached they saw what it was. A 12 foot long 2.5 foot wide young king snake that looked sluggish and weak until it spotted them and then it coiled up and spit venom at them. Harry blasted the snake with his .300 win mag rifle ten times in the head before it stopped moving. Harry turned it into a garden hose and summoned it. They dropped off the snake and the coyotes at kate's farm and called it a day. They ended up with 1,500 pounds of snake meat, 4 liters of venom, and three 3x8 sheets of snake skin from the king snake. They got a big trunk full of coyote meat that they handed over to Hamilton.
Sunday they got an early start. Hermione spent the morning working on the healing potion she found in the old book with Alice and the gunpowder formula with Smith as Harry, Abby, and Neville went hunting. They flew south west to the valley between three mountains west of Duckwater. They started off by scanning the area for any threats. They found a few undead, 8 massive coyotes, and 5 huge dire wolves. After they bagged them they moved on to deer and elk. Between the three of them they brought down 8 elk and 12 deer by eleven. They summoned a hundred rabbits and Harry and Abby snapped their necks and tossed them in the bag Neville was holding open for them. Harry gathered a few dozen fallen trees and a few big bags of pine needles. They dropped off the trunks of dead animals at the farm by noon and Harry turned the trees and pine needles into three trunks full of fire pucks. After that they helped clean and skin the kills while Kate and her workers butchered the meat and packaged it up. By the time the sun set they were done handing out packages of meat and fire pucks to the townspeople of Ely, Hamilton, and Eureka. When they came home they found Hermione and Alice working over the big cauldron making the potion.
Harry cooked dinner as they finished up and while the roast was cooking in the oven they bottled up the potion in single serving test tubes. They ended up wit 1,500 potions. It was enough to supply all three towns and they were going to get more ingredients for ten more batches. Hermione figured out the healing tonic would keep for years in the test tubes. That night they hosted Alice and Smith for dinner. Both of them would be coming on the trip to Denver in the morning. That night Harry and Abby went to bed early.
The next morning Harry's phone rang at five. Harry got up and took a shower. When he came out Abby went in. They both dressed in their leather pants, heavy winter cotton shirts, vests, boots, and long fur lined dragon hide coats. They had a quick but hearty breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon. They filled their thermos with hot coffee and took the portkey to Salt Lake at half past 6. They flew off from there. The trip for the most part was uneventful and very cold. They were sustaining high speeds of 250 miles an hour, in a straight line, flying against the freezing cold wind. Harry stopped about an hour into the flight when his teeth wouldn't stop chattering. He looked over at Abby and saw her shivering so bad she was shaking the broom. They landed by the side of the road after doing a scan of the area. Harry made a small fire and they cast more warming spells on themselves.
"This was a bad idea. I should have taken my plane. This would have gone much smoother and warmer." Harry said drinking the hot coffee.
"YOu have a plane?" Abby asked through chattering teeth.
"Yes, but for such a short trip it was not worth it. The plane is a modified P-51 mustang made for magical endurance racing. It has a cruising speed of 650 miles an hour. By the time we got up in the air it would have been time to land." Harry said.
"Also it's a Mustang in 1885." She said going back to her hot drink.
"That wouldn't matter. The planes are equipped with cloaking and silencing charms. Just because they were used for racing doesn't mean they weren't used for missions." Harry said.
"But I imagine you need a lot of takeoff and landing space?" Abby asked.
"Not really. The planes have very powerful tuned up engines and the entire airframe is lightened to almost nothing. They take off in about 175 feet if you gunned the engines and hold the brakes to build up power." Harry said.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Why the fuck are we flying to Denver on brooms when you have a magical fucking plane?" She asked loosing her temper.
"I don't know? To save fuel?" Harry said with a shrug.
"YOu have 380,000 liters of fuel!" She said.
"Good point. Then there really was no point in freezing this morning." Harry said scratching the stubble on his chin.
"Harry pull out the plane, we're flying the rest of the way." Abby said.
"But we're only 250 odd miles from Denver." Harry said.
"Harry, pull out the plane." She said in a voice that brokered no arguments.
"Fine, but you know you didn't have to come this morning. You wanted to make the trip with me." Harry said pulling out his P-51 Mustang and setting it on the dirt road. He got a thermos cup to the back of the head for his lip. "Right, I'll just shut up and prep for takeoff." Harry said.
He expanded it and walked around the plane checking it over. Abby stood close by admiring the shiny silver plane. It had yellow and black checkered tail, and there was a pin up of a black haired woman in a black dress with a smoking gun in her hand. Written in the smoke cloud was "femme Fatale". The top of the nose was painted flat black and the propeller cone had a black and yellow spiral. Under each wing and the belly of the plane were bomb shaped fuel tanks. Harry hopped up on the wing and opened a door in the top of the wing. He checked on the two browning 50 caliber machine guns and the 20mm cannon mounted inside the wing.
"That's a lot of firepower." Abby said looking at the guns.
"Four 50 cal machine guns and two 20mm cannons. All of them belt fed with a thousand round belts. That's 6,000 rounds of ammo." Harry said checking the other wing guns.
"That's a lot of ammo." She said.
"You'd be surprised how fast it goes. I used this plane to provide close air support for a few clandestine missions in the Middle East. The guns run dry fast. The three hard points can hold four hellfire missiles each. That's when this baby really shines. Drones are good but a low slow pass in my girl really defines the phrase death from above." Harry said as he pulled out and expanded the water bottle fuel tank he had in his bag to the size of two 55 gallon drums stacked on top of eachother. He pulled the filler gun and hose out of the side. He opened a cap on the side of the plane and started filling up the tanks.
"I can only imagine." She said.
"This could take a while. The tank inside the plane is 800 gallons, the two under the wings are 300 gallon each and the under belly tank is 400 gallons. But once I top off all the tanks I'll be good for just shy of 24,000 miles." Harry said watching the gas go in.
"Wow, that's almost all the way around the world." She said forgetting most of her anger.
"I've taken this plane around the world. It's what it was made for. Neville's plane does the same thing. We rebuilt them from the frame up. We set the magical world record for circumnavigating the planet in WWII fighter planes. We did it in under 38 hours. We beat the shit out of the engines though so we overhauled them. That was ten years ago. Back then I didn't have the wing tanks, just the big internal tank, and we didn't have the refueling tankers like this. We had to make stops for gas. Hey Abby, do me a favor, get into the cockpit and tell me what the digital read out says." Harry said nodding to the open cockpit.
"Right." She said popping up to the wing and stepping into the plush interior. It was like a single seater sports car inside. Every bit of the cockpit was covered in brushed aluminum and soft brown leather. The seat was a soft brown padded leather bucket seat and the instrument panel was replaced with a magical LCD screen.
"What's it say under fuel?" Harry asked.
"Ummm, it says tanks 2, 3, and 4 are full and tank 1 is climbing up to almost full." She said.
"When it hits 790 tell me." Harry said.
"Okay! You're there." She called out.
"Good. That took 878 gallons. That means the drop tanks were mostly full." Harry said. Shrinking the gas tank. He hopped up onto the wing and climbed up to the cockpit. "So what do you think about my Femme Fatale?" Harry asked.
"I like her. She's pretty. We should have started the day like this." Abby said standing up and stepping out onto the wing next to Harry who reached into the box under his chair and pulled out a leather duffle bag. Inside was a soft brown leather bomber jacket with soft lamb's wool lining. On the back was the nose art and over his heart was a pair of gold wings. He ditched his long coat and pulled on the jacket.
"I've got to ask, what's with the flight jacket?" She said.
"It has a heating charm and it has a feather fall enchantment on it. It's essentially a parachute, also it makes me look dashing." He said posing on the wing.
"Well I can't argue with facts. It does look warm." She said laughing.
"For that you don't get to wear my backup jacket." He said pulling out a second jacket from the bag.
"I was joking." She said.
"Fine, but only because you're cute." Harry said. He helped her out of her long coat and held up the jacket for her to put on.
"Oh, this is soft and warm. I will keep this." She said rubbing her cheek on the soft lamb's wool collar. "Second question, where am I going to sit?" She asked looking in the one seat in the cockpit.
"It's a magical plane, you get the jump seat." Harry said hitting a button on the instrument panel. The cockpit expanded three feet longer revealing a fold down seat that was tucked behind his seat. He flipped down the leather seat and helped her into the cockpit. He adjusted the straps for her five point harness and then got in. He rolled up their coats and put them in the bag. He started the plane and took off with barely a bump or scrape. When they were up in the air he hit a few buttons and the plane vanished outside the cockpit and the sound of the engine died out.
"That's disconcerting." Abby said looking out the window at the cloaked plane.
"You get used to it. I can fly by the instrument panel. How's the heat? Should I turn it up?" Harry asked.
"No it's good. Much better then the brooms." She said.
"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking." Harry said leveling off and heading to Denver using his magical GPS map.
"You weren't thinking. You were living in 1885. You more than anyone else have adapted to this timeline fully. You're not a visitor, it's your home. You hardly ever draw your real guns even in a really bad situation. In fact aside from a few random calls on your phone, and modern appliances in the cube you pretty much only use the tech from 1885. Even the stuff you use is magical and not really from the future. You stopped watching movies. You work on projects in your study or you read the newspaper. You haven't mentioned your cars in weeks. In your head you knew you had a broom and it was the best way to get around." She said.
"I guess so. I don't know what it is about this timeline, but I like it here. I have a purpose. I'm the town marshal and everyone knows who I am for miles around. I guess I let it go to my head?" Harry said with a shrug.
"I don't think it's a bad thing Harry. You're happy. You have a job you were made for. It caters to all of your strengths. Your need to protect people, your code of right and wrong, your love of action, and your skill set. You get to save your small part of the world every week and people thank you for it." Abby said.
"I really do love it when people tip their hat to me in the streets and call me Marshal. We should be coming up on the city soon. It should be right on the other side of these mountains." Harry said pointing to the snow covered rockies. It was snowing lightly on this side of the rockies.
Sure enough on the other side of the mountains was a walled city. Unlike Salt Lake this city looked square and not round. It also had farm land inside the walls. It was almost like they knew they would need more space in the future so they built the wall bigger. Harry dropped in low and landed in a snow covered field outside of the wall. He did a quick scan to make sure they were safe before they got out of the plane. Harry shrank the still invisible plane and set it in his pill box of mission cars. Looking at the small cars made him wonder if Abby was right. Had he forgotten about his future? Not really. He knew the reason he was so deep into the world was because he had to be. It was his job. They switched out their jackets for their long coats and took their broom to the heart of the city. Using a point me spell Harry located the marshal's office.
After checking in with the local marshals he set up a portkey anchor and called his sister who was not expecting his call for another hour.
"Yeah, I forgot about my plane. We flew for an hour in the freezing cold and then I remembered the plane. Abby made me fly the rest of the way here." Harry said.
"We should have flown the whole way." Abby said from her place next to him.
"Well we're not ready to go yet. We just made breakfast and Smith isn't here yet. We'll pop over in a half hour like we planned. We'll see you in a bit." She said.
"Make sure you wear your heavy winter gear. It's cold as hell and snowing. Get Smith and Alice a fur lined snake skin coat and vest. They should also be armed. This whole city looks like south lowtown. Not bad but there looks like to potential for danger." Harry said.
"You know I'm not totally useless. I can handle myself in a fight." Alice said in the background.
"I never said you couldn't but you should wear a vest anytime you leave town. Plus as town Mayor your safety is on us as your protection detail. We're your town marshals Ma'am." Harry said with a smile.
"Good boy. I'll wear the coat and vest. It's going to clash with my nice dress and robes but I'll wear it." She said.
"We'll handle it Harry, see you in a bit." Hermione said hanging up.
"So what do we do for a half hour?" Abby asked.
"We can explore the city or wait in the nice warm marshal's office." Harry said.
"Maybe we can do both. There's Marshal White. Maybe he can give us some directions." She said as the marshal rode up to the front of the fort style building cluster that made up the marshal's office.
"The Marshals Steel! What can I do for you on this cold and terrible morning?" Walter asked hopping off his horse and handing it off to the stable hand that ran the small barn next to the marshal's main office that housed their horses.
"We had a few errands to run and so we thought we might try out your fair city." Harry said.
"Fair my ass. This city is rough as hell. We got the same problem as Salt Lake. Too many people and not enough straight coppers." Walter said leading them into the office and into the back where his office was.
"What's the numbers looking like?" Harry asked.
"Last count we did we were somewhere over three quarters of a million people. But we have somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 tourists coming through here at any given time. Folks staying over night to catch a different airship to the west or the south. People coming to visit relatives in town. Just folks passing through. Plus we get seasonal workers who come through every year to act as extra miners, mercenaries, farmhands, or deck hands for airships. We have a good sized sheriff's department. Close to a thousand deputies. The problem is half of them are as crooked as they come. And we can't do much about it. We have our hands full with the harsh lands around here. We got hordes of undead, huge fucking spiders, dragons, and king snakes. In fact we got a really bad king snake infestation to the west in the mountains. We took a week off and everything outside this city went to shit. Sorry for the language ma'am." Walter said remembering he was in mixed company.
"No need to apologise marshal, the situation sounds fucked up." Abby said.
"It is. On top of that all my men have the next two days off to recover from the long hours we pulled in Salt Lake. We've got three times the work and just the small staff we left here to keep our city from fucking itself. Also these guys are pissed because they had to pull double shifts to just keep the lights on here in town." Walter said looking dead.
"Well if you need someone to take care of your king snake problem we would be happy to take that off your plate along with anything else you need to get done. As you saw we work fast and efficient. Like I said we had a few things to do today but once we set up a portkey anchor in your office the trip to and from this city will take a matter of seconds. We can even set you up with a portkey to Salt Lake and Eureka if you like?" Harry asked.
"You can just do that?" Walter asked.
"We can. In fact Abby can you take Walter to Eureka and see if the rest of our group is ready to port over? I'll set up a few sets of portkeys and we'll set up the network for him in the next few days." Harry asked.
"Sure, come on Walt. let's go for a ride." Abby said taking the thick steel credit card that said Eureka on it out of her pocket and held it out to Walter.
They were gone fifteen minutes. When they got back they landed in the main bullpen area and saw Harry talking to a few other marshals, having a cup of coffee, and joking.
"That was crazy. How does it work?" Walter asked Harry.
"Magic. Like I said we have a few errands to run but if you want us to handle a few of the more dangerous jobs you can't or don't want to do we'd be happy to help. You came to Salt Lake in their time of need and I want to return the favor." Harry said.
"I'll look at what we have and I'll make you a list. We don't have much in the way of funds on us at the moment for the Marshal work…" Walter said.
"It's on us, like I said, a thank you for the time you guys put in to help Salt Lake. If Marshal Chuck Copeland could spare the manpower he would do the same. Oh and this is the portkey to Eureka, and this one is for Salt Lake. We'll drop off the anchors later. Figure two days until you can use them. Activation words are 'i want to go to' and say the name on the card." Harry said handing over two steel cards.
"Thank you Harry." He said tucking the cards into his jacket.
"Also don't mess with this brick of steel with Denver on it. It's the anchor for this city." Harry said pointing out the brick on a desk off to the side of the room.
"I'll make sure everyone knows." Walter said looking at the brick.
"Good, we'll see you in a bit." Harry said leading his group out the front door. They expanded their horses. In Alice and Smith's cases their borrowed hoses.
"Now where are we headed?" Hermione asked pulling on her heavy leather gloves.
"You and I are headed to the patent office which is just down the street from here to file the patents. Alice the magical district is east of here six blocks and north three blocks you and Abby get the shopping out of the way please and thank you. And Smith there are three good gun shops in town but they are in opposite directions. Two are west and south of here and the other one is in the magical district. I figured you and Neville could head out with Alice and Abby to the magical district first and then head off from there. We'll all meet up at a small dinner two blocks north of here called Apple Jack's. The guys said they have a good lunch menu. From there we'll see where we're at. I want to handle a few jobs for the marshal's here. They said they had a king snake infestation in the mountains. For us that's just more king snake meat and skin. My goal is to make a vest for every marshal we know and hand them out with the guns. For the most part the vests like the guns are almost free." Harry said.
"Well let's get a move on. Call us if something goes wrong or if anyone needs help." Hermione said.
Everyone scattered to different parts of the city and had different levels of success in their endeavors. Harry and Hermione spent the better part of the morning going through the boring process of filing for a patent for the three models of guns they were going to mass produce one day. It took a bit of coin and a lot of paperwork but three hours after they walked into the patent office they walked out with copies of the three patents they filed. From that point on they would have to refer to the guns by their new names. The Lemat revolver was now officially the B&S Model 1. The S&W 686 was now the B&S Model 2. And the colt detective was now the B&S Model 3. With the stamped documents they could now start handing out guns without fear of someone patenting their design. And after going through the steps three times that day, with almost no help from Harry, Hermione knew how to file for a patent. So the next time they wanted to do something she just had to show up at the patent office with a working prototype and fill out the paperwork.
Abby and Alice had a mixed bag of luck with the shopping they had to do. They found a few shops in the magical district that had some of the supplies they needed at a good price but for the most part the Denver magical shopping district was the New Jersey to Salt Lake city's New York. But it took them a few hours to come to that conclusion. They did however find a good magical junk shop that had a huge six foot wide five foot tall caldron for making commercial sized batches of potions for $100. It was a bargain considering it was a cauldron you would have to custom order. They also found a magical blacksmith that sold red brass by the 10 pound ingot for a dollar. The brass was not up to the level Harry could make with the spell but it was more than passable for the enchantments and magical ammo they would use it for. They took all 147 ingots he had on hand.
Neville and Smith were not having a good time. They stopped off at the three gun stores and they were only able to sell off a few dozen guns at a good price. The problem was the same one they ran into in Salt Lake. You could only have so many plane jane colt single actions in the store before you're at full stock. You see out in the wild west guns were as prevalent as dangerous shit that wanted to eat you. Everyone had a gun and they only needed the one. For most people they bought a revolver and a gun belt and wore it everyday incase they needed it but they never did. If you lived in the city and you kept yourself out of trouble then you never needed to use the gun.
That being said every store owner wanted a closer look at Neville and Smith's B&S guns. Those were something new. Something exciting they could sell to customers. At the end of their shopping trip they ended up selling off 76 revolvers for $1,368. Not bad for junk they found in the wild. Still they did have 5 big trunks full of guns and the inventory just kept getting bigger everyday. They averaged 5 revolvers and a rifle or shotgun every week. 90% of the time it was junk and it made it into the junk guns trunks. By last count they had 719 revolvers, 181 rifles, and 213 shotguns in the junk guns trunks. It was all shit that had to go. They knew if they wanted to get rid of it all then they needed to head east where guns were less prevalent.
They met up at the small cafe and had a good meat and potato stew for lunch. After they ate they split up again with half the group, Hermione, Alice, and Smith, heading to Salt lake to finish the shopping trip and Harry, Neville, and Abby heading to the marshal's office to see what he had for them. Harry was expecting a short list of jobs they could do for them. He was presented with a long list of shit that needed to be done.
"Do what you can. Each job has a cash value to the mayor or a bounty put on their heads from the courts and banks. A few of those bounties were people we just let take over their little corner of the city because we didn't have the manpower or skills to take them on. As you can see there is a lot of coin on this list." Walter said and he wasn't kidding. There were 8 jobs on the list. four of the jobs were just a general area outside the city with the type of pest problem they had with small cash values:
Hoard of undead to the southeast of the city. Estimated number: more than 50. $200.
Nest of huge spiders north of the city. Estimated number: 6-8. $600
Nest of young dragons south west of the city in the mountains. Estimated number: 2-3. $400
Nest of Diamondback Kingsnakes. North west of the city in the mines. Estimated number:5-7. $800
The other four jobs were very high value bounties:
The Baker Brothers: John Baker $5,000, Billy Baker $6,000, Tommy Baker $7,000 dead or alive. $100 each for their gang dead or alive. Estimated gang size: 30
Luke Rawlings $5,000 and his gang $200 a head dead or alive. Estimated gang size: 10
Crazy Jack Digger $4,000 and his gang $250 a head for his gang dead or alive. Estimated gang size: 6
One Eyed Jack Harper, captain of the Night Wolf. $10,000 and his crew $250 a head dead or alive. Estimated crew size: 40
Harry did a quick count in his head this was $53,500 in bounties. There was another $2,000 in creature removal.
"I figured you could take care of a few of the pest infestations and one of the bounties to make up for the danger." Walter said looking at the list.
"This is a big list. We'll do most of this today." Harry said looking it over.
"If you can handle most of that you would save this city from some really bad guys. Guys we can't touch without fear of losing half my men. The court and the bank would be happy to pay out these bounties. These are some of the worst men in the west and they came here because they know the sheriff is too corrupt to come after them and we marshals are too few in number to come after them. Those facts and the consistent flow of cash and goods that come through the city make this place a gold mine for trash like these men." Walter said looking pissed off. Years of frustration over letting these scumbags run roughshod over the city had taken a toll on him.
"We'll take care of it. Start off by telling me where these men stay in the city and what we're walking into." Harry said sitting back in his chair as Neville and Abby looked over the list.
"The Bakers have a house on the edge of town by the north wall. The place is a fortress. The house is brick, and it's surrounded by big stone walls with barbed wire on top. A heavy gate out front with a big deadbolt lock. A heavy reinforced front door. Boarded up windows and guards patrolling the grounds and on the roof. The Baker boys rob people on the road. Stagecoaches and what have you. They must have a tunnel out of the city because we never see them leave the house. We just get reports of shot up stagecoaches and supply wagons from Boulder, Loveland, and Wyoming. People know not to travel the road north of here without armed escort and even then you might end up dead and robbed of your goods. We think there are about 30 of them. They would need that many men to get the loot back to the house. That's also why we never tried to take the house. We don't know what kind of number's were looking at. Could be 30, could be 60. We're not sure and I'm not willing to risk my 50 men to go charging at that house to find out." Walter said.
"Good to know. We'll take a look at it. What's with this Captain Jack Harper?" Neville asked.
"He's a pirate. He captains an old dreadnought cargo airship that he modified. It's fast, it's well armored and very well armed. He and his crew take out airships. They get close to an airship, they take out the ship's guns, and they board the ship. If it's carrying a shipment they take most of it. If it's a passenger ship they rob the passengers. They must have a hiding place in the mountains somewhere. The ship is full of magic and almost impossible to bring down." Walter said.
"Why hasn't the Navy taken them out yet?" Harry asked.
"They managed to stay off the government's shit list. They don't fuck with the mail, they don't mess with Navy ships, and they only kill people that shoot at them. In fact if you see them coming and you let them board without a fight they act mostly cordial. The real reason they have such a big bounty on them is the shipping companies are tired of losing shipments to them. Also if you fight they fight back, and you all die. I have no idea where they hide the ship. They must have a cave or something. It's an older dreadnought class armed cargo ship. It's got to be about 150 foot long, 75 foot wide in the middle and 30 foot tall. It's shaped like an arrow and it's magical as hell. It has belt fed gatling guns and hotchkiss 2 pound guns. We've seen ships full of holes after they encountered the nightwolf." Walter said.
"What about this Luke Rawlings?" Harry asked looking at the paper.
"He's a local thug, he shakes down business and casinos in the city for protection money. He's a wizard and so are his boys. They live in the top floor of the mountain view hotel. The top floor is covered by wards and they all have body armor like you guys wear." Walter said pointing to the vest Harry was wearing.
"And I'm guessing Crazy Jack is crazy?" Neville said.
"You bet your ass he is, so are his boys. They ride into town every few weeks and rob or try to rob the banks here in town. They're hold up in Dove Valley. It's a small town south of here. It used to be a mining town, now it's a safe haven for rif raf. Just about everyone in that small town is running from someone. That's why they stay there. They know the law ain't coming to that small town. You shoot your way in and you ain't shootin your way out." Walter said.
"Best guess on the town size?" Harry asked writing this all down.
"About 150-175 people." Walter said.
"Okay. We'll handle some of this today and we'll come back tomorrow to finish it." Harry said looking at the list.
"I knew I could count on you guys for this." Walter said shaking Harry's hand.
"Don't go congratulating us just yet. We have to clean house first. Come on you two we got work to do." Harry said leading them out of the office.
"So what's first?" Abby asked.
"You two go north and track down these spiders. I'm headed south to find the hoard of undead. Then we'll meet up and head into the mountains to find the nest of king snakes and dragons." Harry said mounting his broom.
"We'll call you when we're done. Good hunting." Neville said mounting his broom with Abby following his lead.
The pest control was, for the most part easy. Harry found and took out the 57 undead from the air in fifteen minutes. He summoned anything good off the bodies and burned them before heading towards the mountains. Neville and Abby used tracking spells to find the nest of 6 really big spiders. They flushed them out of the cave with a fireball and took them out from their brooms with their winchester rifles.
The 2 young dragons found them as they searched for their nest. They were mexican orange dragons about 15 foot long with a 20 foot wingspan. Harry and Neville, having had their 500 nitro rifles out as they looked for the nest spotted the two young dragons as they came at them. They took two shots and they were collecting and transfiguring the dragons for transport and harvesting.
The kingsnakes gave them a bit of a hassle. They were hiding in caves in the base of the mountains. Harry scanned the cave and found seven kingsnakes. Harry transfigured a few trees into wandering cows walking around the entrance of the cave and sure enough it was enough to draw out the seven big snakes. Three of the seven were 18 foot long and 4 foot wide three were smaller, coming in at about 12 foot long and 2 foot wide but the last king snake that came out was fucking huge. 30 foot long 4.5 foot wide and it took a shot from the 500 nitro rifle to take him down. They turned the snakes into hoses, boxed them up, and sent them to Hermione who was helping Alice, Kate, and her workers gut and skin the dragons. Harry checked the time and saw it was just after two in the afternoon. They had two hours of sunlight left.
They headed to the north wall and using tracking charms they found the house where the Baker gang called home. The property was surrounded by a 10 foot tall stone wall topped with barbed wire. The only gate was a thick wrought iron door that was bolted into the stone wall and had a big dead bolt and lock holding it closed. The brick and stone house had boarded up windows and the front door was thick oak with heavy metal binding and hinges. Harry clocked 4 men walking around the small grounds that surrounded the house and 2 men on the roof.
Harry put on his cloak and tested the house to see if there were wards up. There weren't any. He popped up to the roof of the two story house and took out both men on the roof with head shots from his Sig226. He then took out the four men walking around with head shots before they could figure out what was going on. He turned all six men into coins before summoning them to him. He cast the one way spell to see what the inside looked like. The attic was empty.
Harry vanished a hole in the roof and dropped inside. He cast the one way spell on different parts of the attic floor and saw six bedrooms and two bathrooms. They were mostly empty. The exception being six men sleeping in two dark rooms with the shutters drawn and heavy drapes covering the windows. These six must be the night watch guys. Harry called in his findings and soon Abby and Neville were in the attic with him. Harry vanished a hole in the ceiling of one of the dark rooms and slipped down into the bedroom he shot all three men with his Sig226. Turned them into coins and waved the other two down. Harry slipped out of the room with them following him. He vanished the door to the next room and shot all three men before they could wake up. Neville turned them into coins and added them to a sack with the coins Harry had.
Harry walked down the stairs making sure to step lightly to not make the stairs creek. The staircase lead into the front hallway with the living room to the left and a dining room to the right. Both rooms were empty. Harry found three doors at the other end of the hallway. One was the empty bathroom, the other was a study that looked like it doubled as a loot room. And the last room was the kitchen. Harry found four men eating at a small table. They slipped into the room and each of them took a shot. Harry got the last guy before looting the bodies, and turning them into coins. In the kitchen they found a door to the cellar.
Harry lead and they followed him into the well lit wine cellar and dry goods storage. On the back wall was a hole and a well lit mine shaft like tunnel. They followed the tunnel for a few hundred feet before it sloped up and widened out into a cave. That's where they found twelve more men sitting at tables playing cards and talking. All the men had gun belts and most of the had a shotgun or rifle near by. There was a door to the cave and a man was standing by the door. The three hidden marshals took out the twelve men in seconds. Harry looted the bodies and turned them into coins as Neville checked the door. He flung the door open and shot five more men. They looted them, turned them into coins, and popped back to the house. They spent the next ten minutes looting the house of all the stolen money, guns, ammo, food, and booze before they headed back to the office. They handed over the 33 dead bodies just after three and got a standing ovation from the Marshals.
"We ain't done yet." Harry said leading them back out of the office with a smirk.
They headed to the mountain view hotel. It was a five floor brick hotel in the middle of the city. Harry clocked a man on the roof and two men in the lobby. All three men had dragonhide vests, gun belts, and shotguns. The hotel it self had wards and the top floor was practically glowing with anti apparition wards and protection wards but not anti portkey wards.
"One up two down?" Harry asked Neville.
"Two up one down." Neville said looking at the building.
"Teams?" Harry asked.
"Me and you up and Abby down. Abby can handle it." Neville said.
"Fair enough. Stealth or loud?" Harry asked.
"You two going to finish a sentence anytime soon?" Abby asked with a smirk.
"Very loud. Flash bangs and Model 1s. We're also going right through the fucking windows." Neville said ignoring the quip as he pulled a black bag with rope out of his bag.
"Okay, let's do it. Abby, we're going to attack from the top. We need you to take out the two guards in the lobby. Walk in under your cloak and drop them both. Then hold the lobby. We'll come down with the rest." Harry said pulling three flash bangs out of his bag.
He hung two of them off his gun belt and handed one to Neville. He turned two small rocks into a set of portkeys and handed one to his brother. Both men popped to the roof of the casino next door.
"Let's do it." Harry said holding the other stone in his left hand and his knife in his right.
Neville threw the stone onto the roof of the hotel and grabbed the other stone in Harry's hand as Harry activated the portkey. They landed on the roof of the hotel and Harry slipped up behind the guard. He grabbed him around his head with his hand over his mouth and slit his throat. He waited a few seconds for him to stop moving before he set him down. He saw Neville anchoring two ropes to a corner of the roof. Harry jogged over, took off his cloak, put it away and grabbed the rope Neville handed him. He looked over the edge and pulled ten foot of rope out of the bag. He set up on the edge of the roof as he tide the rope around his ass with a half hitch. He pulled his model 1 and looked at his brother who was set up just like he was on the adjacent side of the hotel.
Harry winked at him slipped over the edge. He dropped down right next to a window. He looked in and saw an office with three men. One behind the desk and two sitting in chairs. Harry smashed the window with his gun shattering the glass. He tossed the flashbang into the broken window as three men rushed into the room with guns out. Harry pushed off with all his might and swung out ten feet as the flashbang went off. He busted through the broken window and pulled loose the half hitch as he swung into the room dropping him to he feet in a standing crouch a second before Neville busted through his window. They both took advantage of the six deaf and blind men. Harry dropped three of them with head shots as Neville took out the other three.
Harry rushed to the open door and checked the hall with Neville right behind him. In the hall they split up and started kicking in doors. It took them just two minutes to clear the other ten rooms on the floor. They found four other men. Once the floor was clear Harry headed down the stairs to check the rest of the hotel as Neville cleaned up the bodies and the loot which included a big magical safe. It took just ten minutes from popping to the roof next door to the last all clear and just twenty minutes from the last stack of bodies they dropped off at the marshal's office until they walked back in. The marshal's were so shocked they didn't clap so much as stare at them with slack jaws.
"Luke Rawlings and his gang. Also your count was off by one. He had eleven men. We're going to take a quick break and then look for the pirates. Can you have the judge fill out the the paperwork for these two groups?" Harry asked.
"We're already processing the Baker gang and this is the $2,000 we owe you for the pest control you guys did earlier. You asked for $50 gold coins. Here you go." Walter said handing him a small canvas sack with the bank logo. Inside the bag was 40 $50 gold coins. Harry liked the gold coins. They were easy to carry and pay for things.
"Thanks Walter." Harry said taking the sack. "We'll be back later." Harry said leading his team out. They stopped off at a nice steak house and had a good meal as they plotted out their next course of action.
"You think he has a base in the mountains?" Neville asked.
"No, the ship is too big. But he could have magical cloaking on the ship like our planes. They float around all day over the mountains under the cloaking charm and then when they see a ship they drop the cloaking and go after it. We just have to find the cloaked ship." Harry said.
"How are we going to do that?" Abby asked.
"Well if the ship is cloaked then that means it has wards to stop people from just finding it with a tracking spell." Neville said.
"But if they saw a ship full of cargo?" Harry asked with a shrug.
"Where are we going to get a cargo ship?" Abby asked.
"I'm going to make one. A fake one and we're going to float it from Boulder or Loveland to the air dock. As soon as they drop cloaking we attack them. Abby, I'm going to need you to float the ship as we sneak attack. We're going in under our cloaks with MP5s. We're not fucking around. I want that ship. If it big enough for 40 men and all the loot they took then it can house us with ease. I want to keep the ship operational with the guns ready. If we ever run into something really bad then having our own battleship will come in handy. But for now we'll use it as a way to get around. We can move out of the cube and use the ship as a floating home or we can shrink it and only take it out when we need to travel somewhere. Either way we just saved a bunch of money because we don't have to buy an airship now." Harry said with a smirk as they finished dinner.