He took a shot. He saw that it had landed wide of the body target, and felt sick. He could almost feel Hector’s hot glare on him, and sense his smugness. Somehow it just made him more determined. He steadied his breath again. Took a second shot.

Better. Nothing as close to the chest as Lukas or Sami had managed, but only a few centimetres to the left. ‘Sweet,’ he heard Angel say. There was of course no word of encouragement from Hector.

He lined himself up for the third shot. Calmed himself. Fired.

It was a perfect shot. As accurate as Sami’s, straight through the centre of the target’s chest. Knowing that Hector would be watching his every move, he moved his finger to the outside of his trigger guard. Then he handed the weapon back to Woody. He was aware of Hector glowering at him, and he was tired of it. He knew better than to challenge him, however. Instead, he turned to Woody. ‘Thanks for the lesson,’ he said mildly, and walked back up the range to the others.

The handgun lesson had taken over an hour. The submachine gun lesson took longer. There was more to learn, and the safety procedures were more involved. Again they approached the targets individually, this time standing fifty metres away. It became gradually apparent that the recruits’ aptitude, or lack of it, with the pistol had been no fluke. When it came to firing the MP5, Abby and Ash were passable. Maddy, Els and Jack struggled. Lukas looked like he’d been handling one of these weapons all his life. Sami’s skill was offset by the tears that threatened to roll down his cheeks at the sound of gunfire. Max himself showed little initial brilliance, but learned quickly. Hector seemed to find this galling, but kept his comments to himself.

After lunch, they tackled the assault rifle. Even Lukas found this beast of a weapon difficult to handle. The kickback bruised Max’s shoulder and the retort of the single shots numbed his ears. He only landed one shot on target. Sami, however, was as accurate as ever. His three shots landed right on top of each other. The Watchers were clearly astonished at how good he was. Sami was just as clearly in no mood to accept their admiration. Now his tears flowed freely, and he avoided the others as he walked back up the range. Max didn’t know why he was upset, but he couldn’t help wondering how he would react if he was ever in a real combat situation.

It was mid-afternoon by the time the weapons-handling exercise was over. The Watchers locked the firearms in the store and led the recruits back up to the parade ground. The sun was trying to shine. There was even a bit of warmth on Max’s back as they lined up at Hector’s instruction.