Blackout - By Tom Barber Page 0,4

trigger was pulled, a bullet would leave the rifle at over 2500 feet per second, just about twice the speed of sound, and rotated at about 200,000 revolutions per minute. With longer shots a sniper had to worry about spindrift, where the constant turning of the bullet would carry it off course, but the target wasn't far enough from Archer on this occasion for that to be a concern. Each bullet was a hollow-point, boat-tail cartridge, designed to mushroom upon impact and create irreparable damage. Through a human head, the bullet would enter the cranium and expand, destroying brain tissue and rupturing the spinal cord, resulting in instant death. With terminal ballistics, a rifleman always knew what both the crush and tear factor of each round he put into his rifle would leave. Basically, what the round would destroy in the body and the damage it would leave behind. And in both regards, the NATO round was the pick of the bunch. If there was a better common rifle ammunition out there, no one had discovered it yet or at least, had advertised it.

The PSG1A1 really only had one disadvantage. Once a shot was fired, the spent cartridge that had housed the fired bullet jumped out of the ejection port to the right, sometimes as far as ten metres away. In certain situations, retrieving the cartridge could be both a potential nightmare but a necessity for a sniper, especially if on a covert operation. However, for the police, that wasn’t a concern, and aside from that very minor issue the PSG1A1 had a solid reputation as the most accurate semi-automatic rifle in the world. It was an outstanding weapon and the sniper rifle of choice for many police and law enforcement groups around the world, including the Spanish police, the Mexican army and the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. And the latest inclusion to that group was Archer’s London-based counter-terrorist team, the Armed Response Unit.

The young blond police officer held the sight on the target’s eye, his breathing barely noticeable. He was on the second of three final deep breaths. He inhaled slowly and exhaled for a third and final time, emptying all the air from his lungs. His heart-rate was slow and he felt calm, not a thought in his mind. He had already taken the slack out of the trigger, halfway towards the two and half pounds of pressure it would need before the rifle fired.

And he gently squeezed all the way.

The weapon kicked back into his shoulder as it fired. The bullet took less than a second to reach the target and it hit him straight through the nose, a half-inch to the left of where Archer had aimed, right through the centre of the T of the fatal T.

An instant kill.

Down the shooting range, a hole appeared in the paper target, the sheet billowing back just a tad from the impact of the bullet, and Archer smiled, racking the bolt on the rifle. He glanced back over his shoulder at his best friend Chalky and two other officers, Porter and Fox, who were standing watching him, each with a set of binoculars in their hands. Chalky had his face covered by his palm whilst the other two laughed.

Archer removed the magazine by pushing the release catch with his thumb, then did a dry click to make sure the weapon was unloaded. He re-racked the bolt and applied the safety catch, then rose, taking off his ear defenders and walking over to the trio of officers behind him. As he approached, Porter and Fox were still chuckling as Chalky shook his head, swearing under his breath. He had taken a shot with the rifle just prior to Archer, but he had only managed to clip the paper target’s left ear. A painful injury for sure, but not a kill. And that meant this morning Archer was now eleven to nil up in their contest.

‘I’ll take cash or cheque,’ Archer told Chalky, grinning at him and joining the trio. With his head still down, Chalky pulled a twenty pound note from his pocket and held it up. Archer took it with a wink and a smile.

The four men were an integral part of the ten-man task force of the Armed Response Unit, one of the two premier counter-terrorist squads in the city along with CO19. For the sake of operational ease the task-force was split into two sections, First and Second Team, and these four men comprised First Team,