Night Moves by Tom Clancy, Steve Pieczenik

shifted many of its resources to focus on Northern Ireland and against organized crime and benefit fraud. The consensus at HQ is that this computer threat is probably foreign, which gives us some small leeway to look into it. We're all on the same team, after all."
Alex smiled.
"That doesn't sound a lot like the FBI and CIA." Cooper smiled back at him, flashing her perfect teeth. "Yes, of course, we have our interdepartmental rivalries as well. And MI-5--we call it Security Service, SS-does get a bit sticky if we tread too hard on their territory. But our ministers are rather put out by all this business, and so SIS--that's us at MI-6, the Secret Intelligence Service--are helping out a bit. The truth is, our computer system is better than SS's, so we're rather on point. Although I suspect we are somewhat behind you in the States in that regard. We've heard very good things about your organization over here. You're an offshoot of CITAC, aren't you? Infra Gard She was referring to the old Computer Investigations and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center the FBI had created in the mid-nineties to deal with computer crime. "Not exactly," Alex said, "but there's a connection, yes. You've obviously done your homework." Cooper smiled again, another high-wattage, even-toothed, white flash. Toni definitely did not like her, no question, and if Alex didn't stop grinning like a fool at everything Ms. Cooper said, he was going to be in trouble. Obviously done her homework. Yeah. Right.

Sunday, April 3rdStonewall Flat, Nevada Ruzhyo's preference for a handgun was a small caliber, like
those he had grown accustomed to in Spetsnaz. In fact, such weapons were as efficient as the bigger bores the Americans preferred, if one could place the shot properly. A .22 in the eye was easily worth a .357 round in the chest, and it was much easier to shoot than small bore pistol well: there was almost no recoil, little noise and muzzle flash, and a longer barrel made the weapon more accurate. Americans were generally taught to shoot for the center of mass, and a bigger bullet was an advantage, given the relative weakness of all handguns, but they could have taken a page from the Israelis or Spetsnaz in that regard. With enough practice, head shots came naturally. When he had come to stay here in the desert, Ruzhyo had bought two guns, both used. The first was a target pistol, a Browning IMSA Silhouette model, based on the company's Buck Mark design. It was a straight blow-back semiauto, held ten rounds in its magazine, and had a nine-inch barrel topped with a Tasco Pro Point sight.
The sight was electronic. It created in the field of vision a tiny, red, parallax-free dot. Operation was simple: You chambered a round, turned the sight on, and put the dot on a target, and if you squeezed the trigger with care, that dot was where the bullet went. At ten meters, he could center-punch a dime with the Browning. At a hundred meters, with the gun propped on a secure rest, Ruzhyo could hit a hand-sized target all day long. He had, in practice, hit a human-sized target at almost three hundred meters, once he zeroed in and knew how much the bullet would fall and drift. Even such a small pellet as the Browning spat would be disconcerting if it hit you solidly at that distance. Not the best choice for long-range gunnery, but in theory, the ammunition he used, CCI Minimags, could fly a mile and a half. A rifle was a better weapon, of course, but the pistol could be hidden under a coat if need be, and still be used to strike a man in the head at distances well beyond that at which most shooters could operate most service handguns.
The other weapon in his small arsenal was a Savage Model 69 Series E twelve-gauge pump shotgun. Also bought on the gray market, in a different town than the pistol, the shotgun was not as good a piece as the more expensive makes that used double-rail slide actions. Having only a single connector from the pump, which was less efficient in