Paige was happy as a ….well, she didn’t know what to compare it to. After the frustration and friction of the preceding weeks, here she was, prowling through piles of gun parts and accessories, helping evaluate new weapons and having a grand old time. The two guys working with her would take what she worked, go do a bunch of user level stuff, and come back with feedback. She would go through them, see what was wearing, what broke, what function as advertised, and they did it all over again. In between these, she went through the boxes and boxes of firearms, parts of firearms and all the loose accessories
During this, she found quite a few inconsistencies. She was barely a quarter of the way through and she had some weird finds. Some of them were just neat to her geeky brain. Others worried her because they spoke of some lax documentation and maybe even some missing weapons. She took very detailed notes. She needed to research the older transfer forms and records to see where some stuff slid off the books. She didn’t want someone coming back and hemming her up for missing stuff she had nothing to do with.
She had such an eclectic mix it made her head hurt. She was going to see what she could do to streamline the stacks, once she had a better inventory.
She sat down at the end of the week with the two guys and laid out her results of the rifle test.
“OK, guys, the two main ones we tested with the most promise,” she pointed to them on the bench. “Company one’s examples are the most effective and durable, but harder to maintain in the field long term without more effort. Company two’s model is a little noisier, but more field maintainable. Keep in mind, this is sliding scale. Both passed the benchmarks by a wide margin, it’s just splitting hairs at this point.”
“That’s what we were thinking, too. It’s just as well. We couldn’t get the ones from company one anyway.”
Paige was confused. All the entries were marked ‘1’ or ‘2’, so no manufacturer bias would be apparent.
“Why couldn’t you guys get company one’s products?”
“The company building and most of its key people are missing after the quake. Hell, with the possible cuts, we probably won’t see these for ten years anyway.” He shuffled his feet some and then continued. “We really appreciate all your help in this. If there is anything else we can do for you, let us know. We will be doing some training with the Company two set next week, and then probably packing to leave. They are looking for airlift for us. They want us back home.” We will swing in Monday morning to get the ‘twos’ for the training.”
Everyone stood, shook hands, then, Paige couldn’t leave it at that. These two pulled Frickel off of her in this very room. She pulled them both into a tight hug.
“You guys better not slip out of here without saying goodbye. I owe you my life.”
Everyone was choked up for a few.
“Paige, anytime, anywhere. We have your back.”