Stub 8.3, Setting up Homebase

Zev worked his way well north of San Jose before caching most of his cargo.

He still had all ten of the food bars Scooters wife had made. He had recently filled his water jugs, two 2 liter pop containers, and left them in place in case he needed to lie low for a while so things could cool down.

The only other heavy item in his pack was his weapon. He cached that as well. It would only increase the risk during the scouting portion of his mission.

While the rifle was not ideal for his mission it was more than sufficient.

Affluent people in Cali, the ones wealthy enough to own yachts, often hosted politicians as guests. Those politicians were very responsive when their hosts explained the need for anti-piracy firearms, firearms that violated almost every Cali ordinance against weapons.

While nearly every type of weapon had been tried over the years, the standard had quickly converged to the DPMS Sweet Sixteen AR-15 pattern rifle. It was an easy weapon for the novice to shoot well and the expert to shoot at the limits of their abilities. The fact that it was heavy was not a factor since it lived in a weapons locker. That extra weight was seen as a bonus should the crew ever run out of ammo and needed to butt-stroke boarders.

Zev had enhanced the basic Sweet Sixteens carried on his yacht with the latest vintage of the Aimpoint COMPML3 Red Dot scopes and single-stage, competition-grade, non-adjustable triggers set to 3.5 pounds at the factory. Furthermore, the moving components of the triggers were made of 440C stainless steel for corrosion resistance, always a factor when at sea. Other than that he left them as designed. His motto was "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it can't be adjusted, it can't be broke."

Whenever he had guests off-shore Zev insisted that the weapons be taken out of storage and that the guests be "familiarized" with them. That usually involved shooting at trash floating on the surface of the ocean anywhere between 20 and 200 yards from the yacht. Zev never shirked his responsibility in demonstrating how to safely use the AR-15. Should his ship ever be attacked by pirates, a real possibility during those unsettled times, Zev did not want to be killed by an accidental discharge by one of his guests.

After shooting Zev had his guests clean their weapons. That did not endear him to his guests but to Zev it was an integral part of responsibly shooting a weapon.

Zev cached the Sweet Sixteen. All he carried were the clothes on his back, a pad of super-fine steel wool taped over his RFID chip, a roll of US nickels and a sharpened, 8" long screwdriver

Ruby was about to take some love to town

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