Stephen Hunter - Point Of Impact

“You don’t cross this line, they may kill you on the wrong side of it.”

“Doesn’t help much,” said Nick. “Not the way I was raised.”

The line was the felony line. It had haunted him since Bob had laid the plan before him; but it was the only way.

“This is it?”

“Yeah, ’fraid so. No other way to get what we want and get it fast. Look at it this way. These bad boys from this RamDyne outfit probably going to blow you out of your socks in a day or two anyway, what difference does it make then?”

Bob smiled at him again.

“Okay,” said Nick. He knew that so far in his adventures he’d done nothing illegal, though he’d stretched the elasticity of the law considerably. This was different. He was about to represent himself as a Federal agent, when he no longer was one. It violated Federal Code 28-02.4, and it carried three to five, though if he ever went over on it, he knew he’d be out in six months maximum, unless somebody was really mad at him. But he also knew he’d never work his side of the street again.

“Okay,” said Nick again. “Let’s do it. And to hell with Howdy Duty.”

“This is your duty,” said Bob.

They knocked on the door and a little girl answered. Nick took out his identification.

“Hi,” he said. “My name is Nicholas Memphis and I’m a special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. May I see your daddy, please, honey?”

She ducked in and in a few seconds a grave, thin man in a cardigan appeared.

“Yes?” he asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Mr. Porter, I’m Nicholas Memphis, special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. My associate, Special Agent Fencl.”

“Sir,” nodded Bob.

“Have I – ”

“No, no, sir,” said Nick fast. “But if our information is correct, it’s from this address that you edit and collate and send out Accuracy Shooting , the newsletter of benchrest shooting?”

Porter swallowed.

“Uh, yes, that’s correct. I’m an insurance executive but I’ve been benchresting fifteen years. I inherited the editorship ten years ago. A labor of love, really. I lose time and money on it. But I’ve gotten some good friends out of it and had lots of fun.”

“Yes, sir. We understand.”

“Mr. Porter,” said Bob, “we’re looking for a man who may be involved in several shootings.”

“Oh, God – ” said Porter.

“And our information suggests that he was at one time one of the leading benchresters in the country.”

“Oh, no,” said Porter. “Benchresters aren’t like that. We’re not talking about, you know, survivalists, AK-47’s, that sort of thing. These are just tinkerers who love to play with their completely useless rifles and loads and shoot tiny groups. Gosh, they just sit there and shoot and cuss, that’s all. It’s the most boring thing you ever saw. It’s enormously challenging to do, but to watch it it’s – ”

“Our information is pretty good, Mr. Porter. You know, there’s always one or two in any group who can give it a bad name.”

“God, it’s so harmless ,” Porter said. “I’d hate to have the damn newspapers to get ahold of something like this and say, you know, that benchresting was training for sniping or some such – ”

“Mr. Porter, the last thing we’d ever do is talk to the press, you can be sure of that. What we’d like to do is examine your subscription list. This is an older man, he was active in benchrest shooting back in the late fifties, and we believe that if he’s a subscriber, he’d almost certainly have been one for a long time. As we understand it, the publication began as a shooting club newsletter right back in the early sixties?”

“That’s right. You’re looking for a name?”

“No, sir, almost certainly he’s living under a pseudonym. But we have several other characteristics, and if we get a set of names from you, we can compare them to other lists and look for correspondences. We can assure you your information will be held in strictest confidence.”

“And I suppose if I said no, you’d get a subpoena.”

“Mr. Porter,” said Nick, “this is a friendly visit, not a hostile one. If you’d like to call a family lawyer and have him come over and advise you, that would be fine. We can wait.”

“No, no,” said Porter. “No, come on in. Would you guys like some coffee?”

“Thank you, no, sir,” said Nick.

Porter led them through pleasant rooms until at last they reached his study, where an IBM PC and an Epson printer stood on the desk. The room was heavily lined with shelves, and Nick recognized many standard texts of ballistics, many reloading manuals, but also Crime and Punishment, Portnoy’s Complaint and The Great War and Modern Memory , all books he’d planned on reading sometime. On one wall hung a series of the typescript covers of Accuracy Shooting .

“I went to the computer two years ago,” Porter said. “It was getting to be too damn much with the paste-up. I can do each issue in one operation now. And I’ve got loads of volunteer help. And my wife helps with the typing. It’s great fun, we’ve loved every second of it.”

“Yes, sir,” said Nick. Bob hung back, letting Nick do the talking. Great, Nick thought, I’m in so deep now there’s no way of ever getting out.

“Now, I have twenty-seven-thousand-five-hundred-odd subscribers, Mr. Memphis. Do you want me to print out a whole list or something?”

“Sir, is there any way you can break it down by chronology? That is, early subscribers, that sort of thing. First subscribers. We’re quite convinced that our man would have found out about you early and been one of the first subscribers.”

“Hmmm,” said Porter. “You know, I don’t think I could run a program to shake it out that way; I’ve set the whole thing up to run alphabetically. Whenever I get a new subscriber, I add him to the list and the thing just inserts it where it should be.”

“I see.”

“How did you get your subscribers, Mr. Porter?” asked Bob.

“Well, I’ve taken out classified ads in SGN and in the slick gun mags. And of course there’s a subscription form in every copy of the magazine.”

“No, I mean originally . When it was first started. That first year, what was that, 1964? How’d they start it off?”

“Well, as I understand it, it was started informally as a newsletter of match results. And now and then a small technical article. The men were all driven to communicate what they were working on. And people who were just interested in the sport or the experiments or what have you began to ask to get on the mailing list. And I think they first started selling subscriptions, yes, it was 1964, after the newsletter became an actual magazine.”

“Those first subscription requests. Say, the first thousand. Any idea what became of them?”

“Oh, Lord. Did I throw them away? I got all that stuff from old Milt Omahundro who used to put it out. God, I – No, I think I’ve got some old cartons out in the garage.”

“Could we see them?”

“Sure. This way.”

And he led them out into the garage, where against one wall a pile of cardboard boxes stood.

“Oh, Lord, I just don’t – ”

“Mr. Porter,” said Bob. “Tell you what. If you get me some coffee like you offered before this young man said no, I’d be happy to go through those boxes for you. And I’ll make damn sure it’s as neat when we leave as it is now. Fair enough?”

“Well, that’s the best offer I’ve had in weeks,” said Porter.

Bob and Nick got busy, and it was Bob who worked the hardest. Taking off his coat and folding it neatly, he threw himself against the task with that same thorough intensity that always numbed Nick. He’d pause to take a sip of the coffee now and then, but mainly he just plunged ahead.