HA2 17.2 – Troublesome People
In his previous life, Hide knew that an excellent gunsmith was making improvement kit and simmunition for tactical unit under Nikko Central Intelligence. However, he had no personal information about this gunsmith. He only heard a rumor that Paolo got an excellent hunting rifle from him.
Therefore, Hide placed an order through Paolo, and when the goods was ready, he would followed Paolo to his stash and ambushed him over there. He never expected that Paolo would take the goods from the gunsmith just before the appointment time. Not to mention, Hide actually knew the gunsmith.
When armorer team for 1st SFG needed advice for specific set up, they would invite Bill Vinod to share his knowledge. Before Hide took advance gunsmith course in JFK Special Warfare Center and School, it was also Bill who prepared him for the course. However, Hide never learned that Bill was the one who made improvement kits and simmunition for Nikko Central Intelligence. Bill tightly guarded his connection with Nikko Intelligence Service.
‘Damn, if I know the gunsmith is Bill, I will contact him directly,’ Hide muttered before checking Bill and Paolo vitals in turn.
Then, he made sure Bill lay comfortably on the sofa while hugging his granddaughter. Not forgetting, Hide also moved Paolo to the sofa. After that he went to the garage to check his grocery.
The first item he checked was the barrels, and he couldn’t help but smile after finding that Bill included new firing pin in the package. Normally, when people bought a new barrel they would also get new firing pin for free. However, illegal arm dealer didn’t follow this practice and sold the firing pin separately to scoop more profit.
‘Well, he has good business conduct as usual,’ Hide muttered before checking the quality of the barrel.
With ease he could tell it was heavy barrel that was produced using cold hammer forging process, featured a chrome-lined bore, and had durability of canon grade. The crown was smooth and was well protected by a four-prong open type flash hider. In short, it was pretty similar to the barrel used in the latest generation of Haka 416C.
Next, Hide went to check the gas piston conversion kit. It was consisted of two parts, gas block assembly and bolt carrier assembly. Bill already installed the gas block assembly to the barrel. The extraordinary short barrel made him to place the gas block near the muzzle end, and reduced the length of gas piston operating rod.
The set up was free floating barrel with sightless gas block. Meaning, the barrel didn’t touch the hand guard, and the original triangle front sight couldn’t be re-use on it. However, Bill had included rail-mounted detachable flip-up front and rear sight in his conversion kit. Hide only had to use flat top hand guard and he would have lot of space to place the optic and the flip-up iron sight as a back-up sight.
As for the bolt carrier assembly, it was pretty standard assembly for piston driven rifle and Hide could directly install it to M4’s upper receiver.
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One thing that made Hide grinned widely was that both gas block assembly and bolt carrier assembly were made under the consideration for heavy use and hard abuse. In summary, it would work fine even after firing a few thousands of consecutive rounds in full auto. The only drawback was that the polymer hand guard on M4 from Villa Tigera would melt in such a heavy use, and that’s why Hide planned to replace it with titanium hand guard.
As he put back the barrel and conversion kit to its box Hide muttered, ‘Once I turn the titanium block from King’s Hardware into a solid hand guard, I can put everything together and acquire a weapon system with weight and dimension of SMG, but possessing firepower of assault rifle.
This sub-carbine is the most suitable stick for Knosses job. We have to be ready for high volume gun fight against opposing QRF in case shit hit the fan.’
Without delay Hide then checked the remaining items. Once he found everything he ordered was there and in a good shape, he immediately opened the garage halfway and asked Takeo to park their cars right in front of it.
---
Bill developed a habit of neatly pack his merchandise in grocery cardboard, so it was very easy to move and transport it. In less than an hour, Hide, Takeo, and Shizuka had already moved everything to Black Zubaru and Black Tritton. The three then gathered together.
After taking a big gulp of mineral water Hide said, “Go back directly to our workshop, and avoid the highway.”
“Understood,” Takeo firmly replied and then asked, “Some passerby saw us when we moved the goods to the car. Will it become a problem?”
“We wear wig, glasses, and stuffed our belly with small pillow, they won’t recognize our true appearance,” Hide calmly said.
“But they will recognize our car,” Takeo said as deep concern flashed in his eyes.
“Can’t help it,” Hide turned his gaze to Black Zubaru and Black Tritton as he continued, “Sooner or later people will recognize our cars, but at this point it’s still not a problem. We can also dress our car with sticker or other ornament later.”
“Can we put additional cars to our inventory?” Shizuka eagerly asked. “The more cars we have, the more variation we have. It will decrease the possibility people recognizing our covert activities.”
“Additional car variation is good thing,” Hide said, “but it will increase Takeo’s burden as the person in charge for transportation. Car maintenance needs huge effort and attention.”
“I don’t mind,” Takeo firmly said.
“Twig and I also already found good prey,” Shizuka added. “We only need your permission to snatch it.”
Hearing the two had planned it beforehand Hide chose to allow it. “Fine, but make sure it doesn’t bring us unnecessary trouble.”
““Got it,”” Takeo and Shizuka replied at unison.
“Have a safe drive then.”
Wasting no time Takeo and Shizuka hopped up to Black Zubaru, and Hide waited until they entered the main road before entering the garage and closed it. After ensuring no trail was left behind, he went to living room. He checked Paolo and Bill vital one more time before putting the money for the goods on the table. Then, he silently left using the side door.
---
As sun arose in the west, with a calm gaze Bill checked the payment that Paolo’s customer had left behind. The money was slightly higher than the agreed amount, so Bill had no complaint. The customer also left a message on the envelope, ‘Please consider tonight transaction never happened. Have a nice day’, and Bill also had no problem with this message.
Even so, Bill still had one big problem he couldn’t swallow. After heaving a deep sigh, Bill shifted his gaze from the envelope to Paolo.
“You led those troublesome people to my place.”
“Sorry,” Paolo regretfully said without any intention to defend his blunder.
“Fortunately,” Chill ran through on Bill’s spine as he continued, “They left peacefully.”
“Yeah,” After pausing for a moment Paolo asked, “Will you report tonight transaction to your contact in Central Intelligence?”
“Nope,” Bill firmly replied. “I only agreed to make improvement kit and simmunition for them. I have no obligation to help them track the pharmacist on their laundry list. Not to mention, it can expose my family to retaliatory action from his crew.”
“Wise move,” Paolo firmly expressed his agreement. “We are too old for young game. Let’s just enjoy our remaining days peacefully.”
“Yeah.”
As he handed over Paolo’s commission Bill said, “Thanks for the hard work, and just a friendly reminder, you should take an extra precaution when dealing with troublesome people.”
“I know.”
“Well,” Bill took a deep breath before continuing, “Let’s have a breakfast in my place before you go home.”
“Yeah, nice idea.”
After gently waking up her granddaughter, Bill took Paolo to his house. Both Bill and Paolo knew that they could have lost their life last night. Even so, they managed to put a calm expression in their face, and ensured no one would sniff their close encounter with grim reaper.
*****