Die for Me (Killing Eve #3) - Luke Jennings Page 0,47

churns and boils, dashing itself against the platform’s concrete legs.

“Right now, let’s get comfy. You’re on the gun, Charlie-girl. Eve, you’re behind and to the right, and I’ll just tuck in on the left. Proper cozy, isn’t it?”

I see Charlie tense up at being called a girl, and then deliberately relax. We settle into our places on the mattress. It’s weird to be quite so close to Ginge and Charlie, but a relief to be out of the wind. It’s still very cold, though, and my back aches badly. Will I survive long enough to have the stitches taken out?

Ginge grins at Charlie. “Gather you’ve done a bit of sniper work before, then?”

“Some,” Charlie answers warily.

“In that case you’ll probably know a lot of what I’ve got to tell you, but listen up anyway. This job is going to be a very tricky one. I’m not aware of the location of the firing point, or the identity of the target. But I do know that the window of opportunity is going to be very small, probably just seconds, the target will be moving, and the range will be in excess of seven hundred meters. So Charlie, you are going to have to act very fast and very decisively, while remaining very calm. Eve, your job is to make sure that she can do that.

“So first, your weapon. It’s a British-made AX sniper rifle with a Nightforce scope. The rifle’s light, it’s smooth-firing and it’s very accurate. Altogether a tidy piece of kit.” He opens the ammunition box to reveal rows of shining, brass-cased cartridges. “Caliber is .338 Lapua Magnum. High power. Send one of these your target’s way and he’s a mess. So, Charlie, what would you normally take into account when lining up a five-hundred-meter-plus shot?”

Charlie frowns. “Range, wind force and direction, drag, spin-drift, Coriolis…”

Ginge gives me an evil smile. “This making any sense to you, Eve?”

“Not a lot.”

“Don’t worry, it will do. Let’s start with range. The further a projectile has to travel, the more it drops in the air due to gravity, OK?”

“Got it.”

“Wind is also a factor. A strong crosswind will take a bullet off-course laterally, and a headwind will add drag. Cold air is denser than hot air, so that increases drag as well.”

“Right.”

“A bullet leaves the barrel of a rifle spinning at very high speed. This causes a very slight drift toward the direction of twist, which needs to be compensated for at long ranges.”

“Er, OK. I think I basically get that. And the other thing?”

“Want to talk us through the Coriolis effect, Charlie?”

“Sure. Say I shoot at Eve, right?”

“Again?”

They smile.

“Say I shoot at you at a range of a kilometer, the bullet’s going to be in the air for three or four seconds before it hits you, OK?”

“I guess.”

“So while the bullet’s in the air the earth continues to spin. And you’re on the earth. So even if you don’t move, you move. Get it?”

“Um… sort of. Yeah.”

“Righto then.” Ginge twinkles at me. I’m guessing that as a Special Forces sniper, working with Anton, he took out human targets with exactly the same merry smile on his face. “In the old days, when I was in the game, we had to calculate all of these variables and adjust our sights accordingly. Fine if time was on your side, but awkward if it wasn’t. Today we’ve got a laser system that makes all these calculations automatically. You just look through the scope, and there’s your corrected aiming point.”

“So what am I here for?” I ask him.

“We’ll get to that. First, let’s set the rifle up. Charlie-girl, would you like to do the honors?”

“It’s Charlie. Not Charlie-girl.”

“Is that right?” The smile never falters. “Charlie it is, then.”

I’ve never thought of them as a particularly dextrous person, but watching Charlie calmly set the rifle on its bipod, fit their face to the cheekpiece, check the scope and work the bolt, I know immediately that I’m watching someone who’s very, very good at what they do. As I watch, the weapon becomes an extension of their body.

“Eve, you get a lovely piece of kit too.” Ginge opens the waterproof rucksack and takes out an object like a truncated telescope. “This is a Leupold spotting scope, for keeping eyes on the target. It’s got much more powerful magnification than the telescopic sights on the rifle, so you can actually see, close up, where the sniper’s shot goes.”

“Cool.”

“So I’ll tell you what we’re going to do next. If you