I, Sniper

16

I don’t know how he did it,” Nick said, “but somehow he talked the head boy at iSniper into turning over their entire distribution and disposition record on a disk.”

The director said, “Tell me you ran this by Justice.”

“I did. Their ruling is that since Swagger didn’t ask for or put pressure on the iSniper rep for the disk, and the iSniper rep specifically enjoined Swagger to use at his own discretion, without consequence, any info on the disk is legally ours to use.”

“But he did turn it over under subterfuge. He thought Bob repped the Energy security people.”

“True. But Swagger did rep the Energy security people, we have the paperwork to prove it, and I had Swagger dictate a report which was duly forwarded to them. What their security people do with it-probably nothing-isn’t the point; the point is that it was all done by the book. Moreover, Bob was given total freedom to dispose of it as he saw fit.”

“Okay,” said the director, leaning back in his chair. “Maybe it’ll come up, maybe it won’t. It’s always best to dot the t’s and cross the i’s before you move on.”

“I agree, sir.”

Outside, in late-fall Washington, a pewter sky encased a pewter Capitol dome; a view like that was what the Seventh Floor got you, plus terrible anxieties that you could be taken down at any time. But today the director seemed in a good mood, well pleased that the Swagger ploy had brought some new energy to Task Force Sniper and that he’d have something to tell the people who were on him.

“So what’s the haul, where does it lead us, what’s the time frame, what are we doing now? Oh, and what’s Swagger’s final read on the iSniper device?”

Nick checked his notes.

“It turns out 346 people had gone through the iSniper tutorial, and another 78 had purchased units without attending the tutorial, some private citizens with big bucks, hunters, wealthy gun people, that sort of thing. It’s not a Class III weapon, after all, just a scope with a computer chip. But mostly it’s government or military people, snipers or members of the professional sniper community. Of that total, 424, we had already vetted 209 by other means, encountering them in the initial canvass of, you know, shooting schools, high-power rifle competitors, firearms manufacturers or reps, custom rifle shops that specialize in tactical work, that sort of thing. I have two people rechecking them, of course, to see if anything was missed the first time.”

“So that gives you-”

“One hundred fifteen new guys. Many are military, and we were quickly able to eliminate twenty-three of them as having been out of the country and in deployment during the event. So that leaves-”

“Are you going to quiz me on my arithmetic?”

“No, sir, I took the liberty of using a calculator. That leaves us with ninety-two new players. That is, ninety-two men with access to and training on iSniper, unexamined in our first canvass of the field. I’ve got teams working them hard now, and we’re going at it twenty-four/seven to see if we can come up with anything. Oh, and put in the four iSniper cadre guys, Anthony ‘Anto’ Grogan, and three guys named Jimmy South, Roger ‘Ginger’ Speed, and Raymond Richardson-Brown, British nationals, who may have been in-country at the time. And then I’ve also got a team probing iSniper and its ownership, Graywolf Global Security, but I will tell you, those guys are barricaded behind some powerful legal talent.”

“What’s Swagger say?”

“He says Hitchcock’s rifle with Hitchcock’s ammo and an iSniper was indeed capable of making those four shots, and that’s all. Other than that, he’s not saying a thing.”

“Where is he?”

“In a motel room in Arlington. I wanted to get your idea on what to do.”

“Send our two best assassins,”-he waited for the shock to register on Nick’s face-“no, no, Nick, a joke! No, I think it’s best to pay him his money and thank him for his brilliance and make him happy and send him home. He has rogue tendencies, and you don’t want him mucking things up, especially since we’re under so much time pressure.”

“He wants to stay with it, I’d bet.”

“He did a hell of a job, I have to say. Pointing our lab to the baked paint debris from the iSniper on the Hitchcock rifle. That’s genius-level stuff. You said he was smart and you were right. But he’s too hard to control. He did his sniper versus sniper undercover op and it worked brilliantly. We’ll get him a bonus and a commendation. But that’s it. He’s got to be farmed out now.”

“Yes sir.”

“Meanwhile, back in the real world, do you need more investigators? Is that where this is going?”

“I’m afraid so. We lost our loaner investigators from Chicago and the other towns, and getting dumped with ninety-two-ninety-six with the Irishmen-new persons of interest is taxing. The more experienced bodies I have, the faster we’ll get through this, the faster we’ll come to a conclusion, and the sooner we can all start keeping regular hours again.”

“Okay, you’ve got ’em. Don’t know where I’m getting them from, but I’m going to give ’em to you somehow. Nick, get me something I can go to the papers on, will you? We are getting chewed to pieces on the old ‘inaction’ meme. Sluggish bureaucracy, gutless lifers, daily naptimes when we’re not screwing our secretaries. They think we’re up here twiddling our thumbs. I’ve got Chicago and Cleveland PDs beefing that we haven’t called it yet, and they’re being leaned on by their politicos because everybody wants the highest crime solution rate possible by end of year.”

“Yes sir. Constable, is he still on you?”

“His fine, dead hand may be involved in this, yes, wouldn’t surprise me a bit. Run into your new buddy Bill Fedders recently?”

“No sir, but if he shows up in the men’s room, I won’t be surprised.”

“Okay, Nick, good job, tough case, now bust it for me or put it to sleep, okay?”

“My best, sir.”

“Oh, and Nick, I’m told you owe Phil Price in PIO a callback.”

“Just been busy, sir.”

“Well, make an old fool like me happy and call him, will you?”