Chapter 21 - Judgement Day

SPOV

Drip Drip Drip

I slowly opened my eyes to find I was in a slightly damp concrete basement. There was pipe slowly dripping water in the corner. Shit how did this happen. The last thing I remember was going to sleep in between the egyptian cotton sheets and snuggled in the arms of my lover. I searched my brain for what happened but couldn't come up with anything. All I knew was that if it was Monday I was supposed to be completing my final Rangeman Exams not getting kidnapped.

"Focus Stephanie" I muttered to myself. I closed my eyes and then started looking around. No door, a small window in the corner with a little light so it must be daytime, and a small lantern in the corner of the room. My legs were tied up with rope and my right ankle was shackled. My arms were cuffed through the chair behind me. Hmm that seems weird why would my kidnappers take such an aggressive approach to restraining me.

I started to catalog everything I was wearing. I wasn't wearing the pajamas I went to bed in so someone had definitely changed me. "Let's see Jeans, Shirt, Boots, Belt. Perfect!" Hector had told me that I should always be prepared so a few months ago I had Ella create a secret pocket at the back of all my belts with a lock picking kit. I maneuvered my hands so I could turn the belt to the left so I could get to the kit. I reached the pocket opening and used two of my fingers to slide the pick from its holding place. Carefully I was able to unlatch my hands from the cuffs. Then I reached down and quickly made my way through the knots. They were some of the toughest ones I'd encountered and were quite tight so it too some strength to undo them especially in the poor lighting. Once free from the ropes I unlatched the ankle shackle quickly with the tools.

I started to stand up to assess the surroundings behind me. "Hold on" My brain finally started to register what might be happening. I whipped my head around the room and located the small cameras at the top of the doorway and one at the top of the lantern that I thought was a decorative ball at first. Rangeman. This must be my final. I'm not sure how I got here unconscious so I would be talking to them about that later but now I'm not as scared.

I ran over to the door and made my way through the 12 different locks on the door. Once I got through them I realized there was a chain on the other side of the door when I tried to unlock it like a hotel. I did what Cal had taught me and took off my boot to help unlatch the chain and push the final latch out of place.

Once I fully opened the door I found myself in another small room but there were no locks on the second door. There was a table in the room with my fully loaded utility belt, ankle holster, and shoulder harness. I picked up the note that was lying with it.

Stephanie,

Congratulations on making it out of the room. If you are reading this message then you have passed your B&E exam. Your next task is to get fully dressed and proceed through the new door. On the other side you will find an obstacle course where you must take down the targets and avoid the innocent as you make your escape. Good Luck.

Cal

I got myself fully dressed with three guns and two knives that were provided to me. I paused to take a deep breath before heading through the door. I then had to climb some stairs and before I stepped into a dark room and couldn't see anything. Then I heard it. What sounded like a man's voice and an innocent child. It was worrisome but I had practiced with this technology with Ram. I knew that it wasn't real people but cardboard cutouts with small speakers where the mouth was located. I knew with the lights turned off they were testing my ability to locate the perp by sound.

I made two clear shots in the direction of the man. From the projection of the voice I figure the man's head was about two feet higher than the child. Suddenly a light above a new door spotlighted the door. I approached it and stepped through the next door. This scene was completely opposite of the last. It was well lit and set up like a burg home. A cardboard grandma with groceries and a dog were in the room when a blast caused the window to break. I quickly pushed the cardboard figures out of the way and cautiously made my way to the window. I knew they were testing my long distance shooting since they had given me a longer range gun then I normally use. I quickly pulled the correct weapon from my shoulder holster while securing the hand gun to my belt. I fired three shots at the cardboard man in a fake tree that could be seen. Once I hit the target the room turned dark and another spotlighted door on the opposite side showed up.

I stepped through the room to find a large wall. Then about a foot above my head three bullets pierced through. I quickly hit the deck and slowly crawled to the side to access what was behind the wall. I saw several wall-like structures so this must be a shoot out scenario. Which means I would have to take down the targets who could pop out of nowhere. I noticed the door about 1000 feet away. I must be in a warehouse and the objective is to get to that door. I centered myself and slowly stood up. The figures started shooting again, nowhere near me but enough for me to get a sense of where they were. I was able to take out the first target from my position behind the wall and make my way forward. As I made my way through four targets the lights slowly turned on. About halfway there all of the lights were on and I had to be more cautious. The figure were no longer shooting at me and occasionally some of them were grandmas, children, or pets. I had to keep myself from being overly focused so I didn't take out any of the wrong pop ups. I finally made it to the door and found myself standing outside a warehouse. In front of me was another table, a set of keys, and a SUV. I picked up the note to read.

Stephanie,

Congratulations you passed your shooting exam! This next part as you've probably guessed is driving. Your goal is to make it back to Rangeman in one piece and undetected.

Ram

I quickly grabbed the keys and jumped into the SUV. I didn't know where I was but if I was able to make it to a main road I would be able to get myself home. Hal had taught me to memorize different road systems for the area as well as the rest of the world so I would always be able to read the signage and clues to get where I was going. As I pulled out of the driveway I scanned the area for potential tails. Seeing none I pulled out of the lot and turned left as the right led into a forest area. I got to a main road and drove until I found a sign that was a noise warning for the Trenton Mercer airport. Perfect, I continued following the back road until I arrived at the main entrance of the airport. Now that I knew where I was I would be able to navigate back to Rangeman. So the real challenge now was finding the tails and I'm sure defensive driving obstacles they have ready.

As I made my way through the light I saw a light blue car with tinted windows begin to follow me. It must have been lunchtime because the roads were quite busy but I was able to make the maneuvers I needed to. I quickly made a few right turns and then a left to throw off the pattern and lose the tail. A few streets over a black car pulled up behind me. They forced my hand and I had to start driving faster as it began to chase me. I almost lost it but was hindered when Mooner and Dougie appeared in the street and I had to swerve and maintain control to keep from hitting them and the other cars. A few intersections later I was able to finally dodge the second tail.

I finally made it to downtown Trenton a red car and a silver car picked me up. I had to speed up and saw that ahead there was a cop car. I would need to slow down or I face getting picked up by them. Then I noticed a back road on the other side of the street. I quickly checked if I could make a legal u turn and turned the car around. I was able to get around the block without picking up the attention of the cops and in the process lose both of my tails. I cautiously drove through the back alley and turned back on to the main road a few streets before the alley ended so the tails couldn't block my exit. Once back on the main road I was a few blocks from haywood. The last part was uneventful as I pulled into the garage.

I parked the SUV in the open spot and stepped down into the garage. I started to make my way over when the elevator ding opened. Hal and Vince were sitting in wheelchairs waiting for me. I stepped in and reached down to immediately give them both hugs. "You're Home! How are you guys feeling?"

"We're doing good. Expected to make a full recovery." Hal told me.

The elevator dinged on the fifth floor and we all made our way out. I was immediately engulfed in a hug from Carlos. Then he turned me around to face the other members of the core team and Vince. Tank took a step forward.

"Stephanie Plum." He said in a tone that would've scared the shit out of most people. He paused giving me his best angry blank stare before continuing "Congratulations you have passed your driving exam" His face broke out into a huge smile as the rest of the men cheered.

Carlos stepped away from me to get the rest of the room's attention. "Gentleman! Calm down. We still have 8 recruits yet to make it back, let's get back to the monitors." He placed his hand on the small of my back and led me back into the conference room where Binkie and Manny were monitoring the progress of the other recruits on a series of monitors they had set up for the events.

"Wait 8? You mean" I started to ask.

"That's right, beautiful you finished before all the other men." Lester pulled me from Carlos's arms into a big brotherly bear hug. Carlos growled a little before pulling me back to him. We all sat in the conference room and watched the remaining recruits complete their training. Jace finished second, followed by one of the men from Atlanta, Fish got fourth, Then one from Miami and one from Boston basically tied. The remaining Miami recruit hit a fire hydrant when he tried to swerve from the road obstacle. One of the remaining Atlanta men timed out during the B&E portion and the other hit three of the innocent cardboard cutouts. According to the core team, the ones who failed driving and B&E would complete the rest of the exams to see if they could be useful in a non-field position and then be given the option to retest those portions in 3 months. However since shooting is as much psychological as it is actual skill any mistakes on that exam would be an automatic fail so the third recruit from Atlanta would be let go immediately.

As we were waiting I asked questions about the event and learned that we were all placed in different warehouses around Trenton. The other merry men from trenton, some from the other offices, and some contract workers were hired to be the decoys and tails in the driving exams. Carlos got Mooner and Dougie to be part of my exam because they wanted to thank me for getting rid of Balde. The most important questions I had though was how I got to the warehouse and who changed my clothes. Apparently Carlos had slipped the drowsy type benadryl into my ice cream the night before. Once I was asleep he slipped off my pajamas and changed me before him and Tank got me into the warehouse.

Once everyone was back and had received our results they took us into another conference room to go over the remainder of exams. The recruit from Atlanta had to be removed from the building by two of the Atlanta Merry Men. They were taking him straight to the airport to clean out his belongings there. Carlos, Tank, and Lester were the only two core team members to join us. Tomorrow will be the written exams and behavioral exam. I wasn't aware of the behavioral exam but Carlos assured me after that they just need to make sure I was psychologically prepared to be in this line of work full time. Since many military men struggled to come to terms with their wartime trauma it was necessary to include the exam in order to fully approve the men to be in the field.

Then on wednesday we would do our competency exams for our specialties. Thursday and Friday would be our sparring tests and we would face 4 core team members each day. Hal had chosen Zero to fill in for him due to his injuries. Friday would also include the final results and initiation into Rangeman if we passed everything. Lester called it Judgement Day.

RPOV

I was so proud of my Babe for completing the first day before everyone else. For not being trained prior to six months ago it was a remarkable feat. Although her natural instincts definitely gave her an upper hand. The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. All the recruits passed their written and behavioral exams. The specialty exams went well too. Stephanie was able to navigate a difficult client meeting and get them signed to a specialized package, Jace showed competency in his skip apprehension, and Fish resolved two coding errors for our security systems that Hector was having issues with. Overall the Trenton recruits were outshining the other offices. I would need to make sure that the managers of the satellite offices were up to par on training exercises during the annual reviews.

Today was Thursday the fist of the sparring sessions. Today they would face Zero, Ram, Bobby, and Tank and then tomorrow they would face Hector, Cal, Lester, and Myself. They would do two fifteen minute sessions in the morning and then two in the afternoon. The goal was to test their physicality at different points in the day but also give them time to rest inbetween. If they got a pin at any time during the match it was counted as a pass. They would have to get at least 4 wins to pass the exam completely.

When we were first starting Rangeman we saw this exercise more as a fun way to practice our skills in a safe environment but as we have built more branches and grown over the years it has grown into a respect exercise as well. Even though many of the guys coming in are much younger than us, only a handful of recruits have gotten a pass from Tank or Myself.

I made it down the gym just as everyone was getting prepped. Steph and 3 others would face Zero and Ram now and then Bobby and Tank later. The others would do the opposite. I watched as Zero was taken down by all four recruits but it wasn't for lack of effort. Only Steph and the kid from Atlanta were able to get passes on Ram. As for the other four Jace and Fish got pins on Bobby and Jace was able to get a pin on Tank.

With this morning's sessions complete I took steph to my office to have a light lunch and go over her business plan for the satellite offices and traveling security salesman. She had been working on it with Tank for the past few months and it was coming along swimmingly. They had plans to set up satellite offices in Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco. The offices would only hold monitor services but it allowed accounts added within a certain radius of the office to be remotely monitored. With this we would also be offering a different pricing structure since patrol services would not be included.

The rest of the core team voted to add Steph to the team after she completed her exams and we also voted to get the job listings out to our military contacts and already had lots of applicants for the positions Steph's projects create. I couldn't wait to share all this information with her and expand Rangeman with the love of my life.

The afternoon sparring sessions resulted in Zero, and Ram getting taken down on all their sessions. Bobby took down two of them. Tank managed to take down 3 of his opponents but Stephanie caught him off guard while he was trying to maintain his balance. This resulted in a pin at 14:48. I was so proud of my Babe. With all her wins today she didn't technically need to complete tomorrow's sessions but it was still required. I was looking forward to facing her. Over the last few weeks we had been practicing together on the mat I had installed in the basement of our home. Turns out it was extremely necessary because each sparring session was met with a rigorous round of sex from being so close and tangled up with each other. She hasn't been able to pin me yet but I had a feeling this last week she had been holding back.

The rest of the passed quickly with client meetings and paperwork and at 7 I was heading up to the apartment. We were staying at Rangeman this week due to the extra hours we were working. Julie was staying at Valerie's this week and attending day camp at the youth center Lula now worked at as an activities director. She had two bodyguards at all times but they were currently on what she referred to as stealth mode because they kept their distance and didn't interfere with her life since there wasn't any active threat to her.

I put my keys in the bowl and set my utility belt down in the front entrance. I said hello to the dogs and walked into the living room. Steph was passed out on the couch exhausted from the busy week we've had so far. I gave her a light kiss on the forehead before going to the kitchen to get dinner ready. 30 minutes later I had dinner on the table and Steph had risen from her nap at the smell of the lasagna dish Ella had prepared. She had made us individual casseroles because mine was a veggie lasagna and Steph's was meat but I figured Ella still used healthy ingredients in both.

We ate dinner and discussed our days with each other. Despite working for the same company it was nice that we got to do different things so we would still have things to talk about. After dinner we cleaned up and then retired to the couch to watch some TV before heading to bed. It was amazing how much our lives have changed the last few months but I knew that I wouldn't want it any other way. In fact I often kicked myself for holding off from telling Steph how I felt about her for so long.

LPOV

"5…4…3…2…1…!"

"That's time, sorry Fish you couldn't bring Lester down." Bobby said as he handed both of us towels and water. "That brings us to our final match up of the day. Stephanie and Ranger!"

I looked around the room and it seemed that many of the other Trenton men had come down to the gym to watch this. We all were extremely excited for this match up. We set up a betting pool for the event but Steph told us we either had to donate the money to the choice of the winner and it couldn't be anything inappropriate or we had to shut it down.

Ranger stepped up into the ring and we shook hands. I looked for Steph but she was still in the locker room. A minute late Steph emerged wearing a pink silk Rangeman robe followed by Ella who was wearing a pink rhinestone had that said Go Steph and Lula who was wearing a pink shirt with Go White Girl on it. I reached down to help Steph up to the mat. She took her corner and quietly slipped off her robe. She was wearing a different outfit than she has ever had for a sparring session. Normally she wore a tank top with a built in bra and leggings. Today she was wearing black booty shirts and a sports bra top that looked like Wonder Woman's outfit. The band of the shorts said Bombshell Bounty Hunter around her waist. Several weights hit the ground at the sight of her. Ranger was sitting in his corner with his eyes close and I could tell he was desperately trying to control himself.

Bobby called both of them to the center of the ring. The match got off quickly. Ranger pinned Stephanie within the first two minutes but she recovered quickly. Neither one pinned the other until with 30 seconds left Stephanie leaned over a whispered something in his ear and then she used a move I'd never seen before but could only assume Hector taught her as she sweeped at his feet catching him off balance she flipped him over using just her legs and then twisted around to straddle him. Bobby signaled the pin but things started to get heated between the two lovebirds. Suddenly Ranger stood up still holding Steph around his waist and practically ran out of the gym. We all laughed as we went our separate ways. An hour later everyone had showered and returned to the conference room for the final judgment and the other trenton men not on monitors were helping Luis and Ella set up for the Rangeman 4th of July BBQ.

Once the core team and all the recruits were seated, the Ranger took the floor. "Recruits first myself and the core team would like to thank you for your interest in working at Rangeman. We appreciate your hard work and diligence in getting through this training process." He motioned at Hector to start passing out the folders. "Congratulations you have all passed your exams and have been offered full time positions. Casper you will need to retest your driving exam and Willie you will need to retest B&E in three months but you will do so at your home branches. Inside the folders you will find the contracts with your new contracts. We have Albert Kloughn the Rangeman lawyer here who will take you next door and go over the contracts and answer any questions you may have." Everyone got up and started to follow zero to the other room. "Stephanie, can you please stay?" She turned around and nodded before sitting back down.

"Steph, we are all extremely proud of the progress you have made in your short time as a full time employee here at Rangeman. Would you open your folder?" She opened it and pulled it out in front of her. "Please read the first page"

She cleared her throat before proceeding "The Rangeman Incorporated Core Team of Ricardo Carlos "Ranger"Manoso, Pierre "Tank" Sherman, Lester Santos, Bobby Brown, Hector Mendez, Ramsey Bolton, Pascal Pascleone, and Hal Stockwell would like to officially invite Stephanie Michelle Plum to the core team as Director of Expansion and Remote Services. As a core team member you will receive 10% of the company shares and an annual salary of 250 thousand dollars."

"What do you say Babe?"

"I can't take 10% that's too much"

"It's not and you will take it. I myself hold 35, Tank, Lester, and Bobby, hold 15 and the others hold 5. I am giving you 10% because it is what you deserve afterall you are spearheading most of our HR, paperwork, and expansion efforts right now. If we were honest you deserve most of the shares but I know you won't accept that so you will take the ten."

"Okay I will take the ten but then you have to lower the salary." She tried to argue again.

"No. Now please sign the papers Babe so we can celebrate the food is getting cold and Ella made cake." Ranger countered. It was a cheap shot but threatening her food and saying please were rock solid ways of getting Steph to cooperate. She pursed her lips pondering potential counter moves before giving in and signing her name to the papers. We all got up and cheered as she initiated and signed the final page. We congratulated all the way to the roof where we shared the news with the rest of the men and the cheering started all over again. The celebration was electric with good food, lively conversations, and everyone enjoying eachothers company. Now we just had to get the two world's most stubborn lovebirds to walk down the aisle, this is gonna be fun.