Hunter's Games by James P. Sumner

hundred meters of the Academy, which rules out anything smaller than a .300 caliber bullet. Which, in turn, narrows down the list of possible rifles. He’d also have needed to be close enough to get a decent view of what was going on, so I’d put him within twelve hundred meters, which narrows things down even further. I heard the gunshots, and there was enough of a delay between them that they had to have come from a bolt-action rifle, which means he was probably using a Remington XM2010. It fires .300 caliber Winchester Magnum rounds. The weapon basically replaced the old M24, and is currently the weapon of choice for the U.S. Army. It wouldn’t be too hard to get your hands on one, if you knew where to look.”
    Everyone exchanges wide-eyed glances with each other before looking back at me.
    “What?” I shrug. “I know things…”
    “You clearly know quite a bit,” remarks Chambers, still unimpressed. “You’ve admitted you know who’s behind all this, so spill. Help us, Adrian.”
    I sigh.
    What am I meant to say?
    I sit in silence for a few moments, weighing up the best approach. Judging what their reaction would be to every level of detail I choose to divulge.
    I’m going to have to go for full disclosure. I reckon I’ve done too much to help them already that they’ll at least postpone any pursuit of an arrest. If I don’t tell them everything, I can’t see any way of them giving me the freedom or the help I need to go after The Shark. They have to know everything.
    “This whole thing stems from Heaven’s Valley, twelve months ago,” I say, finally.
    “You figured that from when you and Josh worked out the clues from the first two attacks,” replies Chambers.
    I take a deep breath. “Tell me what you know about what happened in Nevada.”
    “It was a military operation,” she says, shrugging. “So all us lowly government employees officially know is what was on the news at the time: an extremist group called Dark Rain were operating out of an old military base in the Nevada desert. The compound was ultimately blown up, taking their operation with it.”
    “Okay. What about unofficially?”
    “Unofficially, your name was all over whatever happened there. No one really knows why you were there, but everyone suspects what your involvement entailed. Hence why you’re on everyone’s watch list.”
    “You have to understand that I’m telling you what I know because I genuinely want this whole thing to end, and I don’t want any more innocent people getting hurt. Think of me what you will, but I’m not a bad guy and I’m not a monster.”
    “You wanna know what I think?” asks Chambers. “I think you have a good heart, but have made some seriously bad career choices.”
    “Like the old saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions,” I say with a tired smile. “But by telling you what I know and why it’s happening, I’ll be giving you details of situations that may cause you to re-think my involvement in all this, and I don’t want that. I have to help and I have to be the one to stop him.”
    Wallis eventually breaks the silence.
    “Look, I might be way out of line here, but if it wasn’t for you, we’d have forty-three dead kids on top of everything else. Regardless of the fact this guy is doing this specifically to get at you, you’re as much in the line of fire as we are. And you’ve suffered casualties like the rest of us. All due respect,” he turns briefly to Chambers before looking back at me, “I don’t care what you may or may not have done in the past. Right now, I only care about what you’ve done here, and as far as I’m concerned, you’ve proven yourself an asset.”
    He turns to Johnson and Chambers in turn.
    “Am I right?”
    They both shrug and nod; I notice Johnson seems more reluctant to agree than Chambers does.
    “I appreciate that, Wallis. Thanks. And I’ll be sure to remind you of this moment when all this is over and you try to arrest