"Good morning Major. My name is Walther and this is my co-worker Daniela," Walther said, offering his hand. Major Salles switched his briefcase from his right hand to his left, grasped Walther's hand and gave him a vigorous handshake. He was told to expect professionals who could really help him and the pair in front of him was impeccably dressed in smart business wear, looking more like boardroom executives than military personnel. There probably was a mistake.

"Good morning. Section 2 was supposed to send me an expert to help me out. May I know when he may be coming?"

Walther raised his eyebrows. "We are the ones sent to help you. I was with the German Border Guard and have a fair bit of experience with the military."

"Well, follow me," Major Salles said, striding off. Under his breath he muttered, "To think Section 2 sent me a mere policeman." He thought he wasn't heard, but he was wrong. It was audible to Walther and from the expression on Daniela's face; the slight wasn't lost on her. To avoid an unpleasant situation, Walther quickly pulled her over and whispered: "Don't worry, we'll show him what mere policemen can do."

They were taken to a meeting-room with a big round table in the centre. Major Salles sat himself down and Walther and Daniela took their places on opposite sides of the table. From his briefcase he produced a laptop and some folders and manila envelopes. Then he began his briefing

"I'm sure you've heard of the recent killings that have been on the news. On the laptop you'll see a forum post stating a list of demands and a threat to kill a person at a given location in Italy if the demands are not met. Now there are hundreds of sites putting up things like this and most are written by the insane or ones that won't ever carry out the threat. You would probably guess by now that this blogger is different. If you open the folder in front of you you'll find a full report of a sniper attack carried out in Santa Croce exactly as described in the post. The victim was struck in the head by a single 7.62mm NATO round and died instantly.

"That's not all. Within the hour of the first murder another post went up. This time the writer identified himself as a Lega Nord supporter, repeated his demands and threatened to kill another person near the Borsa Italiana. Naturally we couldn't get authorization to shut down the area and search for the shooter so we took another option. A surveillance net involving a few sniper teams was quietly set up while the police searched the surrounding area. The death that day was one of our best snipers.

"So here's where we stand. All we know about the shooter is that he is linked with a radical faction of Lega Nord and his modus operandi is to kill with a single shot to the head. Two people have been killed and a third coming in about five days time in Rome. Most of Italy is nearly paralyzed by fear and I've been given full power to do everything humanly possible to catch the shooter, dead or alive."

Walther and Daniela studied the documents in front of them then looked up. "We have a lot of questions to ask you, Major Salles," said Walther, pointing at a circle drawn on the map. "Why did you limit the search area to a three hundred yard radius around the area?"

"We underestimated the shooter. The first kill was done at less than a hundred yards so we thought that three hundred yards was enough."

Walther shook his head. "7.62mm NATO rounds are used by snipers and machine guns. Both can reach out to beyond five hundred yards accurately. Next question, is anyone tracing the IP address of the writer?"

"Yes, the rest of my team is working on that angle. However, they're very shorthanded and may not make it in time." Major Salles gestured to the folder on the sniper. "I kept my team small because his position may have been leaked."

"It's possible, but not likely. Counter-snipers are snipers that kill other snipers that are careless or unlucky. Here's my view. Our adversary is using fear as a weapon to stop a country and use its inhabitants as hostages. A bold plan, but effective nonetheless. The links with Padania are quite clear, because looking at his demands they ask for the release of captured Padania terrorists. Incidentally we've met this man over here called Luciano, but I digress. Money doesn't seem to be the biggest issue here because the amount he asks for is actually quite easy to get, though a quarter of a million Euros is more than our monthly salaries combined. Otherwise nothing much can be gleaned from what we have now. The biggest challenge at the moment is to find this man quickly. Major, was the sniper wearing a radio headset?"

"Of course he was."

"Then could you let us listen to the radio communications for that day?"

Major Salles reached into a manila envelope and produced a disc. Pulling the laptop over, he slotted the disc in and played it. Over the speakers came the normal radio chatter of the men getting into position and communicating that all was going well. Suddenly, there was the sound of bullet making contact with human flesh and then the report of the gun came through the speaker.

Walther shook his head. "I'm sure it got captured by the radio. Major, could you raise the volume and play it again?"

Both intrigued and disgusted by this man's apparent obsession, Major Salles turned the volume up and played it again. This time, however, Walther heard what he was searching for. He looked up at Major Salles and judging by the enlightened look on his face, he had heard it too and understood exactly what it meant.

There was the unmistakable whip-crack of the bullet breaking the sound barrier, followed by the important one second time lapse before the report was picked up by the radio. A simple calculation said that the shooter was about 500yards away.