Contents (83)
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- Acknowledgements
- OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK
Levy returned her attention to her weapon. One last inspection. Just to be sure.
Satisfied, she reached out and slid open the Comanche’s side door. Unfastening her safety belt, she replaced it with the side harness. A different kind of body restraint and one which allowed her to safely lean outside of the moving helicopter.
‘One kilometre, ma’am.’
The pilot’s voice came through Levy’s headpiece.
‘I know,’ Levy replied. ‘I can see the cemetery.’
Levy lifted the scope to her right eye. A few inches back, to account for recoil. Then she closed her left, to get the full effect of the night sight.
Levy had used night-vision equipment before, back in Israel. It had been state of the art for the time – the best Shin Bet could obtain – but the technology had moved on. The MilSight S135 was like nothing Levy had ever seen. Its effectiveness was almost distracting, as night had suddenly become day.
Adjusting to it quickly, Levy spotted two lone figures in the middle of the cemetery up ahead. Perhaps a kilometre and a half away from the chopper, they were not in the Comanche’s direction of travel.
‘Your two o’clock.’
The pilot understood and immediately altered his course, careful to ensure their new flight path would keep them in Levy’s line of sight.
Levy’s eye returned to the scope. Closer. A better view. But still a kilometre away. Maybe more.
And maybe too late, Levy thought.
The turn of the chopper had changed Levy’s angle of vision. In doing so it had revealed the pistol in Karl Hirst’s hand. A pistol pointed directly at Michael Devlin.
Shit.
Hirst was ruthless. A killer. He would not hesitate to put a bullet into Michael. Levy knew that. And she knew it could happen any second.
The L129A1 has a kill range of around eight hundred metres. Maybe more with a perfectly placed hit. So Levy had two problems: she was still about a kilometre out, so barely in range. And the likelihood of a hit of any kind – a kill or otherwise – from a distant moving chopper was slim to none.
Problems they might have been, but Levy was out of options. Either she took the shot or she watched Michael Devlin die.
She took the shot.
SEVENTY-FIVE
Michael heard two shots ring out, an instant before he felt a bullet tear into his own bicep. As he fell, he saw Hirst spun sideways. A second bullet from somewhere had also found its target. And it was the only reason Hirst’s had not hit Michael in the chest.
Michael did not need to see the wound to know he had been shot. It was a feeling unique to that experience, and it was not Michael’s first time.
The simultaneous impacts threw both men to the floor. Neither stayed down.
Hirst was up first. Michael – slowed just slightly by his now useless right arm – a moment behind him.
The first thing Michael noticed as he got to his feet was the absence of Hirst’s pistol. The second was that Hirst knew exactly where it had fallen.