The Assessment by Kerry J Donovan

Author:Kerry J Donovan [Donovan, Kerry J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fuse Books

Chapter 6

In the Nest

Kaine narrowed his eyes as a fiery orange sun sank low enough to kiss the gently curving western hills, backlighting the trees, darkening the shadows and stretching them ever-closer towards the small, slug-shaped lake. It wouldn’t be long before the gloom covered the water, turning it from shining silvered glass to an inky black hole. Pretty soon, the dusk would turn to full night, but for the moment, the dappled light made the place beautiful enough for a Constable landscape. If he allowed his imagination to take over, Kaine could have conjured up a rickety hay wain and a couple of old-fashioned haystacks to complete the image. He smiled gently at the thought and raised the binoculars to his eyes, scanning the scene for his targets.

Won’t be long now.

From his north-facing treetop nest, Kaine had the perfect view of the small lake hiding the mythical ammunition dump and the tree-lined river valley it bisected. Although officially a lake, it had shrunk closer to a pond after the mini-drought the county had suffered during the long summer. Running diagonally from northeast to southwest and bordered on either side by dense woods that were carpeted by brambles and hawthorn bushes, the valley acted as a funnel to the lake. If they wanted to reach their target without being hacked to pieces by the undergrowth, Teams Alpha and Bravo had no option but to take the easier valley routes.

Kaine had set the exercise so that Team Alpha would have to approach from the north east, which encouraged Team Bravo to arrive from the opposite direction. Kaine had fitted nothing more than a high-performance scope to his sniper rifle of choice—an Accuracy AXMC, chambered for 7.62x51 mm, 155-grain, modified NATO cartridges.

Neither team had a hope in hell of reaching the target unspotted, but getting past Kaine wasn’t the real point. Kaine and his men had trained in the county for years and knew the area intimately. The whole reason for the exercise was to determine how the candidates reacted to real world conditions, including live fire. Kaine and Rollo had devised the exercise to test the men’s decision-making under fire, and to identify the weaklings and the braggarts. DefTech needed intelligent, highly skilled men who could react quickly when things went wrong, and without freezing, unlike the unfortunate Sergeant Fleetwood.

The sun dipped lower, now more than half-eaten by the hills. The men would arrive soon, trying their best to sneak through the fence and gain entry into the fake compound. No doubt, they’d be preparing to wade into the centre of the lake and plant their dummy explosives.

Kaine smiled. Were he a betting man, his money would be on Team Alpha to reach the hot zone and break cover first. Jenkinson and Allenby had performed well in the tests so far, as indeed, had Blake and Kaplan. In fact, all four had exceeded the minimum requirements for most private defence contractors, but this particular exercise was different. For DefTech, Kaine needed the best.

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