“Messer Gerry?” Giovanna interrupted, “those English words you used? ‘Up-time’? ‘Down-time’?”
“Oh, sorry,” Gerry said. “Up-time is anyone from the twenty-first century. Americans, like us. Down-time means everyone else.”
Giovanna nodded. Frank found the effect distracting. Somehow a girl could be a lot sexier buttoned up to the collar than in shorts and a T-shirt. It was all very mysterious. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Ron was not paying a whit of attention to their brother Gerry. It was a mercy his tongue wasn’t hanging out.
“Anyway,” Gerry was continuing, “we got some explosives and detonators, slowmatch, some corned power for reloads, rope, some tools for bullet-making—oh, and that reminds me, Captain Lennox let me put the ammo crate on the Marines’ packhorse, I gotta collect that later.”
“Eh?” Frank said. “How much ammo did you bring?” He was surprised that Gerry had brought more than three guns. Still another surprise was that he’d brought enough ammo to show he was expecting to use them seriously, because Gerry wasn’t anyone’s notion of a good shot. Some plinking and a few sessions with borrowed pistols was all the practice he’d had. Gerry’s talents ran more toward pyrotechnic pranks, booby traps and practical jokes. It seemed that Gerry was forgetting that he’d been raised on a hippie commune, not in the hillbilly-hard-ass school that had turned out the likes of Harry Lefferts and Darryl McCarthy. It was kind of sad to watch.
“Just a couple of boxes for the pistols, mostly the special bullets. We can buy powder here, but obviously we won’t find any minie balls. I got some sulfa drugs, too. Dad’s shop is turning that stuff out at a pretty good clip nowadays, and I figure it’ll be a while before we can get set up to do the same down here. Wish it was as easy to make chloramphenicol.” He seemed wholly matter-of-fact about it.
Ron beat Frank to it. “Gerry? Are you expecting to fight a war or something?”
That made two mental sighs of relief for Frank. First, that if Ron was spotting it as well, Gerry was clearly off the deep end. And, second, that Ron was finally paying attention to his surroundings and not just drooling down his shirtfront.
“Yeah,” said Frank, “hadn’t you noticed we have Marines along to do that sort of thing? Like, professional soldiers? Remember? Big, gloomy Scots guys on horses?”
Gerry waved a hand. “Sure, sure. Though Billy’s as American as you and me and I’d hardly call Conrad a ‘Scot,’ much less ‘gloomy.’ But like I say, better to have and not need, than—”
“Whatever,” said Frank, exasperated. “What else’d you bring, Rambo? Nerve gas? Nukes? Punjee sticks?”
“Mock all you want, flower-child.” Gerry said it flatly.
Frank could feel the mood turning ugly. All three of them had had to listen to talk like that back up-time, and had gotten a rep for the elaborate revenges they humiliated the offending jocks with. Hearing it from his own brother was . . .
He forced it down. “Cool it, okay, man? Just because I think you’re overdoing it, no need to get heavy, all right? Just my opinion, is all.”
Gerry took the hint. “Ah,” he said. “Mayhem is still on the menu, which is, like a bummer. But the whole destruction trip is just outsville. Because, like, I brought this, in case it turned out this was the bag we were all, like, into, maaan.”
He reached into the bag with both hands, grunted a little, and lifted out an oblong steel box with snap-catches holding it shut and wire handles at either end. It was army surplus, and at one time it had been painted olive drab which, along with the rust, still showed through in a few places. Most of it was covered in flowers and peace signs and a really drunken-looking mandala painted on in lurid enamel paint. The lid had Make love, Not war scrawled on it in bright orange balloon script.
“Cool,” said Ron.
“Heaveeeee,” added Frank, giving the voice everything he had before realizing that Giovanna was now looking at all of them funny.
“Yup.” Gerry patted the lid of the box gently, grinning from ear to ear. “I brung the Hippie Flower Child Peace and Love Revenge Kit.”