Chapter 40

December Twenty-fourth 5:00 p.m. EST

With a forced smile, Adam pushed his way to the front of the Fourth District's large and crowded classroom. Taking position behind the podium, he cleared his throat to get the attention of the seventy officers in the room; nearly every one who remained from the day shifts of the surrounding districts, and most of those on evening shift who had been deemed to be too useless or old to recruit. The room went quiet except for the scrape of chair legs on the tiled floor as all eyes turned attentively forward.

"Merry Christmas, all," Adam said with a sickly grin. "For those who don't know me, my name is Adam and I'm assigned to the City of Brotherly Love's SWAT team. Now, I know that those of you on day shift want to get home to your families, and that those on the evening shift want to head out to make sure that Santa makes it safely to the homes of all the good boys and girls of Philadelphia, so I'll make this as short as possible. The powers that be asked me to give you all a short familiarization lecture on the M-4 carbine. Pay attention now, 'cause a little note from the CIA said that we can probably expect some of these bad boys to be popping up in our fair city."

Opening the case that he had carried in with him, he pulled out one of the weapons in question.

Holding it up, he said, "You'll note that it looks a lot like a shorter, lighter M16, and, in a lot of ways, it is. Like the M16, it fires 5.56x45mm ammunition. As those of you who are sitting close by can see, there are three selective fire options, also much like the M16."

Taking hold of the switch, he moved it through the options as he said them aloud, "Safe, semi-automatic, which means it will fire once each time you pull the trigger, and three round burst, which is self explanatory. Other variations of the weapon have full automatic instead of the three round burst."

His expression becoming grim, he turned the business end of the carbine toward his audience.

"However, I think you'll find that the three round burst option is plenty deadly."

Dropping to a tactical stance next to the podium, he opened fire, switching from target to target with unparalleled speed and accuracy. The men and women in the front rows went down before the surprise had faded from their faces.

He slid a fresh clip home, and, only a few seconds later, had emptied and replaced it as well. Only a few of those in the middle rows survived long enough to reach for their sidearms, and none managed to clear their holsters.

Another clip clicked into place. A few in the back managed to draw and return fire. Most of the shots went wide, but several bullets bit into his arms and thighs, and others slammed into the body armor that covered his chest and groin.