‘It’s a great sight, can be used without magnification and it’s the latest generation of night vision tech. Ideally it would be zeroed before operational use.’

That was generally the case with many firearms. They needed to be test-fired and adjusted to suit the individual user, owing to natural variances in eyesight.

Bill pulled out a long, black, flat metallic box from one of the cut-outs and screwed it on the front of the MP7.

‘Gemtech 4.6mm brick suppressor. It’s really effective but, if you’re firing the normal high-velocity rounds, it won’t be that effective against the noise. You have four magazines, plus three forty-round boxes with standard copper-jacketed, armour-piercing rounds that will make short work of anyone in body armour. You also have one twenty-round magazine containing some made-to-measure subsonic rounds that will be all but inaudible if shot from any kind of distance. A hundred metre headshot would take out an enemy and no one would hear anything. Okay so far?’

Tom was impressed; the MP7 was a fearsome weapon, up to 950 rounds-per-minute rate of fire. It had an effective range of up to two-hundred metres, with devastating stopping power in something not much bigger than a large handgun. It was light, at just over four pounds fully-loaded, and only twenty-five inches long with the stock extended.

‘No problem,’ said Tom.

Bill pulled out a standard-looking Glock pistol. ‘I take it you’re familiar with Glocks?’

Tom nodded. ‘Police and British military use them.’

‘Bomb-proof, reliable weapons. This is a fourth generation Glock 17, as good as it gets, and you have four magazines and a further box of fifty in the case. Should be enough unless you’re planning a war?’

‘I certainly hope not.’

‘You have a chest harness rig for the MP7 and magazines and a thigh or pancake hip holster for the Glock and a spare magazine,’ said Bill, positively buzzing. ‘We also have some communications kit here,’ he continued, pulling out a six-inch-long rectangular box with a short aerial and covert microphone attachment and earpiece.

‘This uses GSM technology, so you’ll be able to speak directly to Pet or Mike on an open mic or using the transmitter button here. It’s real simple and the transmissions are fully scrambled, with an algorithm at each end so you won’t be overheard.’ He handed the rig over to Tom. It seemed simple and was comprised of the main unit and a wireless microphone and earpiece, with an on/off switch and volume control. Tom was well aware that the encryption would be entered using a ‘fill gun’ that loaded the encryption and frequency data on the screen.

‘You’ve a covert chest harness for this which will fit in with the MP7 sling,’ Bill said as he reached for another piece of kit from the Pelican case.