Day of Reckoning Quotes

“He’d heard everything he needed to know. Yuri’s finger curled around the Barrett’s match trigger, applying pressure… In cold air, sound travels at an average rate of 1,085 feet per second. The 300-grain slug spat from the Barrett’s muzzle at almost three times that speed. It’s a truism: you never hear the shot that kills you.”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“Slow, shallow breaths. The firing reticle centered on the black man’s temple, holding steady. A couple hundred meters — just across the street, really. No crosswind. An easy shot. The sniper rifle was set up well back of the window, resting on a pair of packing crates and stabilized by sandbags. As rock-solid as it got. He saw the target’s hand move downward, beside his computer, to a phone on the desk. “Ready?”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“e’ll be landing within an hour and a half, Mr. President.” The Secret Service agent was a heavy-set man of medium height, his suits expertly tailored to conceal the Sig-Sauer P229 he carried underneath his jacket.”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“He stood there for a moment, surveying the scene before him. Movement from down the mountainside caught his attention and he removed his Raybans, revealing a narrow face, sharply-chiseled Asian features. He couldn’t have been much more than forty-one, forty-three at most, but his face — his eyes were older. The eyes of a man who’d seen too much of life. Too much of death. The .308 FNH SCAR battle rifle in his hands came up, aiming down the vale toward the movement.”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“As the agents moved forward, moving in a tactical formation, AR-15s at the ready — a gray-haired man emerged from the garage door of the split-level, still dressed in his housecoat. Guns came up. “On the ground! Put your hands where I can see them! FBI!”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“The DCS paused to take a sip of his drink. “With twenty minutes to go, Nichols made contact. Free fall. That particular emergency code had been designated as the signal for mission abort. Turns out we’d been walking straight into a trap. At first we thought our informant had sold us down the river, but five days later, the man’s body was dropped off in front of the embassy gates in Tel Aviv, his genitals cut off and stuffed in his mouth.”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“Omar’s choice of the .357 Magnum was more prosaic, based on a simple bit of advice from a fellow inmate. The man had been an unrepentant infidel, serving a life sentence for rape and murder, but his advice had been sound. Revolvers don’t eject their shell casings. Keep your shots few and effective and you can walk off the crime scene with half the evidence the cops usually depend on.”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“Korsakov turned away, sighing heavily as he made his way toward his SUV. It had been the early winter of 1997, a dark night in Dagestan when he and Pavel had met, both of them part of a Spetsnaz team assigned to a tank base at Buinask. Led by foreign mujahideen, the Chechens had struck without warning, small-arms fire and RPGs coming through the wire. He’d lost friends that night — would have died himself, if not for Pavel coming to his aid when his AK-74 jammed”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“The Colt was loaded, as it always was. He racked the slide and chambered a round, carefully putting the safety on before slipping the big pistol into the paddle holster on his hip. Cocked and locked. Moving across the room, he laid the second weapon, a Taser X3, on the table. The stun gun, which looked for all the world like an artist’s conception of a laser pistol gone bad, had been developed in 2009 as a response to the law enforcement community’s main critique of the original X26: its limited, single-shot capability”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“Snipers from the Special Activities Division were posted across the roof, their slate-gray ghillie suits melding into the concrete. For most of them, it was the first time they’d ever unslung their weapons on American soil. The H-76 Sikorsky pulled into a hover and settled down toward the helipad, the twin Apache gunships remaining above, providing cover. He cast a critical glance in their direction, taking in the pintle-mounted 30mm chain gun under the chin of each helicopter. God help the man who got caught in their crossfire”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning

“It took a moment for the question to filter through his darkening mind, then the translation came to him. “Is he dead?” Above him, the Pakistani shook his head, drawing back the hammer of his pistol. “No.”
― Stephen England, Day of Reckoning