American Assassin

Chapter 13
LAKE ANNA, VIRGINIA

THEY each ran the obstacle course three more times and then double-timed it back to the barn for breakfast. They stuffed their faces with eggs and pancakes, then were given thirty minutes to digest their food and make sure their bunks were squared away. Rapp was somewhat relieved that Victor used this time to pester someone else. Then it was off to the pistol range, which was a two-mile hike back into the woods. It was not a leisurely hike, however. They were given twelve minutes to get to the range and were told that anyone who was late could pack his bags. Rapp was starting to get the idea that they would be doing a lot of running, which was fine by him. He kept a pace or two off the lead and made it look as if he was struggling to keep up, but he wasn't.

The range was adjacent to the obstacle course. It was twelve feet wide and one hundred feet long, and was as bare-bones as you could get. Basically a tractor had scooped out a ten-foot-deep trench that ran between a row of pines. It was lined with old car tires and covered with camouflage netting, which in addition to the tree branches made the light pretty weak. There were three shooting stations made out of pressure-treated plywood and lumber. Silhouette targets were already hung at twenty feet and silenced 9mm Beretta 92Fs were loaded and ready to be fired. The first three guys stepped up, and when Sergeant Smith ordered them to commence firing all three methodically emptied their rounds into the paper targets.

Rapp swallowed hard when they were done. The first two guys punched soup-can-sized holes through the chests of the black silhouettes. The third target had a nice neat hole about the size of a silver dollar in the center of the face. There was not a stray shot among the three. Rapp was impressed, but the thing that really surprised him was the reaction of Sergeant Smith. The instructor had a smile on his face.

Sergeant Smith stood beside the last shooter and said, "Normally I don't like you SEALs, but goddamn! They sure do teach you boys how to shoot." He gave the recruit a rough slap on the back and ordered the next three up. The results were similar - at least as far as the first two were concerned. They had both punched nice neat holes in the chests of their targets. Rapp's target, however, looked a little rough.

Rapp lowered the pistol and took in his handiwork. He'd only started shooting a few months earlier, and without any actual training from an instructor, the results were lacking. The target looked like a piece of Swiss cheese, with holes from the chest all the way down to the groin. He set the heavy Beretta down on the flat plywood surface and grimaced as the instructors fell in, one on each shoulder.

"Definitely not a SEAL," Sergeant Smith said.

"Nope," Sergeant Jones replied. "Not a D Boy either. Might be a gangbanger, though. That's how those little f*ckers shoot. Just spray it all over the place and hope they hit a vital organ."

"Definitely not the way we do things around here," Sergeant Smith said.

"Son," the taller of the two said, "where the f*ck did you learn how to shoot?"

Rapp cleared his throat and admitted, "I don't know how to shoot, Sergeant."

"You mean you've tried and suck, or you've never been taught?"

"Never been taught, Sergeant."

There was an uncomfortable pause while the two instructors tried to figure out what to do. Unfortunately, Victor took the opportunity to throw in one of his asinine comments. "He shoots like a girl."

Underneath Rapp's bronzed skin his cheeks flushed. He had known that, due to his lack of training, shooting would be one of his weaknesses. Still, it embarrassed him that the others were so much better. Rapp looked to Sergeant Smith and asked, "Any pointers?"

The shorter man looked up at Rapp and regarded him for a moment before nodding and saying, "Let's see you do it again." Sergeant Smith handed him a fresh magazine.

Sergeant Jones yelled, "All right, Victor, you jackass. Get up here and show us what you can do."

The other five stood back and watched in silence while two fresh targets were put up. Sergeant Smith stood at Rapp's side and quietly issued instructions. He watched Rapp squeeze off one shot and then reached in to adjust his grip, elbow position, and feet. With each shot the instructor issued corrections and the grouping of shots grew tighter. This time the holes were still loose, but at least all of them were in the chest area, as opposed to all over the entire target.

Rapp heard someone giggle and he looked over at Victor's target. The clown had shot eyes and a nose in the target and five more shots made a downturned mouth. The remainder of the shots were concentrated in the groin area.

"Victor," Sergeant Jones said, "what in hell are you doing?"

"Long-term strategic planning, Sarge."

"I doubt your pea-sized brain could attempt any such thing."

"Population control," Victor said, spitting a gob of chew on the ground. "Shoot the nuts off all the hajis and no more baby terrorists. Twenty years from now we declare victory. Brilliant, if I say so myself."

Sergeant Jones put his hands on his hips. "Put the weapon down, Victor, and step back." The big man did so, and then Sergeant Jones continued in a disappointed voice, "Since all of you appear to be decent shots and Victor here thinks this is a joke, we're going to head back over to the O course where I'm going to run all of you until at least one of you pukes. Our earnest, yet respectful virgin will stay here with Sergeant Smith and attempt to learn the basics of pistol shooting." The big sergeant eyed the group and when no one moved he said, "Well, I guess you ladies would like to do some push-ups first." In a gruff voice he shouted, "Assume the position."

All six men dropped to the ground and got into the plank position. They were told to start and no one said a word except Victor, who continued to complain as they counted out their punishment.

While they worked through their push-ups Sergeant Smith began instructing Rapp on the finer points of marksmanship. Rapp listened intently, digesting every word. Sergeant Smith told Rapp to aim for the head this time. He slammed a fresh magazine into the hilt and hit the slide release.

"When you have a fresh magazine in and hit the slide release, a round is automatically chambered." The sergeant offered Rapp the weapon and said, "The hammer's back. So she's hot. Not every gun is like that, but that's how the Berettas work. Also that red dot right there ... red means dead. So don't point it at anything you're not going to shoot at and always keep that finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire. Got it?"

Rapp nodded.

"All right, show me that stance. Keep those feet just so. You're a lefty, so put your right foot a few inches in front of your left. Create the power triangle with your arms and place that dot right in the center of the head. Some guys get all hung up on breathing in versus exhaling, but I don't want you to think about that crap. You're going to need to learn to shoot on the run, so breathing in or out ain't going to work. The main thing right now is how you squeeze that trigger. Notice how I didn't say pull. Don't pull it. Squeeze it straight back and put a round right through the middle of the head this time.

Rapp did everything he was told and the bullet spat from the end of the suppressor. The muzzle jumped and when it came back down Rapp was staring at a perfectly placed shot.

"Do it again," Sergeant Smith ordered.

Rapp squeezed the trigger and the bullet struck the target half an inch to the right of the first one.

"Again."

The third shot bridged the first and second. Rapp fell into a rhythm. He didn't rush it, but he didn't take too much time either. It took him less than twenty seconds to empty the rest of the magazine, and when he was done all of the rounds were within a six-inch circle - a jagged hole punched through the face of the paper target. Rapp breathed a sigh of relief.

Sergeant Smith clapped him on the shoulder and said, "You're coachable, kid. Nice work. Let's try this a few more times."

Rapp was in the midst of reloading the weapon when by chance he turned his head and looked over his left shoulder. About sixty feet away, in the shadows of a big pine, a man was watching them. With the poor light Rapp couldn't be certain who it was, but he thought it might be the guy he'd seen on the porch earlier in the morning. Rapp turned back to Sergeant Smith and was about to ask him who he was when he thought better of it. It would be a mistake to confuse a little one-on-one instruction with friendship.