"Agent Neumann is here, Mr. President."

"Send him in." The President remained seated as Alex Neumann entered the room.

"Good afternoon, Mr. President." The Chief Executive nodded curtly.

"Alex, what's the story on the evidence from the Wyoming killings? My meeting's in three days. Do you have anything I can use as a lever over Jones?" He sounds like he's pleading Neumann thought. Not too surprising, with between five and ten feds getting killed every day, if you add in all the branches besides ATE Word of the 'Laramie Massacre', as it had come to be known, had spread throughout the country. It was the largest known single killing of federal agents in a gun battle, and it had attracted more comment among serious shooters than even the Miami shootout of 1986. The President had been hoping that with evidence from the site, the FBI would be able to get a lead on where to find at least one of Mr. Jones' clients. Alex Neumann was about to deliver some very bad news.

"Mr. President, the agents scoured the entire area, every foot within a half mile from where the men were killed. They found forty-seven fired cartridge cases. Three were from a .45 automatic, which is a handgun caliber, Winchester-Western factory loads, all fired from the same gun. Two were .30-30 Winchester brass, which is a relatively short-range round normally fired out of lever-action rifles, also factory ammunition fired from the same gun. Ten were twenty-two rimfire cases, made by CCI, also from one gun. Six were .22-250 Remington, which is a very high velocity varmint cartridge, usually chambered in heavy-barreled bolt action rifles capable of hitting prairie dogs at ranges of up to three hundred yards. The six shells were from Remington factory ammunition fired from two different guns, four from one and two from the other." He doesn't need all this detail Neumann thought, but I can't just hit him with the bottom line.

"The remaining twenty-six cases were U.S. Government 5.56mm, the M16 round. In sporting arms, this same cartridge is called the .223 Remington, and is very popular as a varmint cartridge, although its velocity and range is less than the .22-250. Prairie dog shooters who fire a lot of rounds like the cartridge because surplus brass for reloading is cheap, and the smaller powder charge does not wear out barrels as quickly as the larger and more powerful varmint cartridges.

"The 5.56mm brass we found was all the same headstamp, from the Lake City Arsenal, made in 1972. Each of the twenty-six cases had the crimp removed from the primer pocket, and the spent primer was not a military item but a commercial primer made by the Federal Cartridge Company. In addition, the case necks had been trimmed, which is also standard reloading practice. All cases were within .001" of the same length.

"All twenty-six cases exhibited signs of having been fired and reloaded many times; our resident authority on interior ballistics says at least ten reloadings and perhaps as many as fifty. All were fired, the final time at least, in the same gun. All cases exhibited thinning of the interior case wall in front of the case head, which will ultimately result in the case breaking in half and leaving the front section in the gun." Neumann licked his lips. He saw that the President was looking impatient.

"The logical conclusion is that these cases were fired by a serious prairie dog hunter, and intentionally discarded as they were near the end of their useful life. We were able to lift partial prints from many of these cases, as well as the others. None of them match any of Orville Cracker's fingerprints. Or Wilson Blair's, or any of the other ATF agents missing since June."

"Your conclusion, Alex?"

"These cases we found had nothing to do with the killings. They had been lying out there long before our men were killed. It appeared that the .223 brass had been fired the most recently, but it still was slightly tarnished, and we can assume a serious prairie dog shooter would have pristine ammunition to fire. Our metals expert thinks those cases have been out there at least a month. The killers took t heir brass with them, sir." Alex Neumann hurried on before the President could comment.

"Our next analysis was of the bullet fragments recovered from the bodies of the dead agents. No bullets were even partially intact; all had disintegrated. This is typical of thin-jacketed varmint bullets fired at high velocity. We-"

"I thought the men were shot at extreme ranges," the President interrupted. "Wouldn't that mean the bullets were traveling much more slowly than at the muzzle, and would remain intact?" Guy's been doing his homework Neumann thought.

"Yes, sir, that's partially correct. And the answer surprised me. A projectile fired from a rifle loses its forward velocity much more rapidly than its rotational velocity. A bullet fired straight up will hit the ground base-first, still spinning. Long-range cartridges require rifling twists which impart higher rates of spin than short-range cartridges, so the effect is even more pronounced. The only thing holding the soft lead core together at these high spin rates is the thin copper-alloy jacket. When the jacket ruptures on impact, the lead flies apart. It doesn't matter that the bullet is only going half as fast as it was at the muzzle; it's still spinning at over two hundred thousand RPM." Neumann took a breath.

"And that brings us to the caliber itself. From a base fragment of one of the bullet jackets we recovered, the projectile appears to be a boattail design in .243" diameter, or 6mm. The size and shape of the boattail base is different from any 6mm bullet produced by a major factory such as Winchester, Remington, Sierra, Hornady, or Nosier. Also, from the fragments recovered, we know that the bullets were heavier than one hundred grains. We cannot get an exact weight because scavengers had...eaten some of the flesh at each wound site, but the bullet weight was definitely more than one hundred grains. This is heavier than any factory-loaded boattail design."

"So all five men were shot with custom-made bullets?"

"Yes, sir. And using neutron activation analysis, which gives the precise composition of the metal itself, we have determined that all six of the bullets were made using jackets manufactured by the J4 corporation in California. J4 jackets are acknowledged as the most uniform in the industry, and are used almost exclusively by all of the top custom bulletmakers who produce match-grade bullets. One of our people at Quantico shoots competitively, and has a good relationship with the company. With his help, we isolated the lot number. The jackets were manufactured some time during a three-month period in late 1993."

"Excellent, Alex," the President said, pleased. "That narrows it down quite a bit, I would think."

"Yes, sir. However, part of the company's reputation for uniformity comes from the fact that it alloys very large batches of material. The lot we are looking at is a run of approximately nine million jackets." Neumann saw the President's reaction, and hurried to continue. "That's for all calibers," the FBI agent amended quickly. "Less than one million were .243" jackets in the length suitable for making bullets of over one hundred grains in weight. Almost all those were sold to four custom bulletmakers: Berger Bullets, Hammett's, Jef Fowler, and Jimmy Knox."

"So you got their list of customers?" Neumann looked pained at the President's question. "We tried to do that, sir, but after our research with the J4 company, the word was out." "What do you mean? These people wouldn't help?"

"No, sir. Their basic response was 'You want out customer records? Get a warrant.' ATF is not admired by any segment of the shooting fraternity." Neumann did not relate to the President the specifics of the conversations he'd had with the various custom bullet-makers.

"We also contacted the top manufacturers of match-grade 6mm barrel blanks that offer twist rates fast enough to stabilize the long boattail bullets: Hart, Shilen, Lilja, K&P, Wiseman, Obermeyer, and McMillan. Three of the seven makers sell barrels to the government, and we got the list of gunsmiths who have bought barrels of this type in the last two years. The other four said 'get a warrant'.

"We are lucky that the weapon used was such a specialized piece, Mr. President, but there are still major problems with this type of investigation. First, even with complete cooperation, we would only be able to trace the million 6mm match bullets from the manufacturer to the first purchaser. In some cases this is an individual, but in many instances it is a target shooting club or gun store that serves such a club."

"And the trail vanishes there?"

"Pretty much. Looking for the end users of the match barrels might have a better chance of success, but again, the custom rifle in question could easily have changed hands several times since the gunsmith first built it. And even if we could be sure that it hadn't, we're still stuck. There is no way to prove a given rifle was the murder weapon."

"Your ballistic tests can't determine that?"

"No, sir. I'm afraid television has misled everyone. On low-velocity handgun bullets, the rifling marks are distinguishing characteristics, but they are not fingerprints. Fingerprints have a pattern; the striations on a fired bullet are random. And running a stainless steel brush down the bore of a pistol will result in a new set of random striations on the next bullet fired. Visual analysis is really only useful to eliminate handguns as suspected murder weapons. A recovered bullet with six rifling marks on it could not have been fired from a Smith & Wesson revolver, for example, because barrels on those guns have five lands and grooves."

"I see."

"The higher the velocity, the more the bullet is deformed, and the less useful this sort of comparison becomes. When you are dealing with high-velocity target and varmint rifles, it's pointless. Those bullets literally vaporize when they hit. With the occasional exception of the base of the jacket, you are unlikely to find a single fragment larger than the head of a pin.

"We can continue to try to trace the match barrels, but unless someone feels guilty and confesses, I don't hold out much hope." Neumann paused, letting the President digest what he had said. Time to drop the bomb he thought.

"And there's one other thing, Mr. President."

"Go on."

"Through more...anonymous methods, we have discovered the major purchaser of both 6mm low-drag match bullets and 6mm fast-twist match-grade barrel blanks. It's the U.S. Marksmanship Unit at Quantico. The Secret Service trains with them. We cannot dismiss the possibility that the killer or killers might be members of that group. And that puts us in a difficult position for further investigation." The words hung in the air, like the smell of a person who needs a bath but whose friends are unwilling to tell him. Finally the President spoke.

"I need some time alone, Alex. You've done an excellent job."

As Neumann turned to leave, the President lowered his head and began to rub his temples. Ever since news of the Laramie Massacre had reached the White House, the President had been thinking about the personal implications of the existence of expert riflemen capable of hitting a human target two-thirds of a mile away.

Neumann's report had just amplified that concern exponentially.

"And so, after much discussion, I believe that White House may soon be able to negotiate some sort of truce with the instigators of this current anti-government rebellion. That information is not to leave this room, but within several days, I should be talking with a person who represents...our main opponents." Most of the task force sat there, stunned by the news. It was Helen Schule from Vermont who first found her voice.

"Mr. President, is it really Wilson Blair who has been behind all this?"

"I can't say anything further on that, Helen. And since we have not negotiated an agreement as yet, the FBI is still working three shifts to track down the principals. Alex, why don't you tell us where you are on that?"

"Right, Mr. President. After recovering the third helicopter from the bottom of the flooded quarry in Missouri," he said, addressing the group, "our forensic team has determined what brought the three aircraft down." That got their attention Alex Neumann thought as he surveyed the looks on the faces of the assembled members. "They were shot down by explosive U.S. 20mm antiaircraft rounds. One shot for each helicopter, as nearly as we can determine."

"The Vulcan?" Congressman Andy Ward of Indiana asked. He knew a little bit about military ordnance. "That's a multibarrel Gatling-type weapon. Would have shredded those helicopters." Shit! thought Neumann. I didn't expect this.

"Ah, that's correct, Congressman, as far as it goes," the FBI man said smoothly. "There are several other guns which fire the same round, however. The T160 revolver cannon is a single-barrel weapon with a revolving, multi-chambered cylinder that uses the same cartridge, and there are others.

"Five of these automatic 20mm cannons are known to be in civilian hands, three of which are at a movie rental concern in North Hollywood. All five guns have been accounted for during the time period that the helicopters were shot down. We have inquired about any such weapons being reported stolen or missing from government arsenals, and have found no leads there, either. However, reporting such thefts is problematic. There could easily be a hundred such guns missing.

"In addition, Congressman Ward is exactly right. The Vulcan is a multibarrel weapon that fires sixty-five to a hundred rounds a second. The single-barrel T160 made by Oldsmobile is slower, but it still delivers about fifteen rounds per second. Other designs which fire this round have cyclic rates between these two extremes. This fact is incompatible with the helicopters being struck by only a single round apiece. In addition, the noise generated by these automatic machine cannons is impossible to overlook. No one anywhere near the area recalls hearing anything that could have been a burst from one of these guns. All our reports are of a few single explosions, and the belt of .30-caliber ammunition fired by Calron Jones in the third helicopter. Nothing else. Initially, the single explosions were assumed to be the sound of the helicopters crashing. Now we believe that they were single 20mm rounds being fired.

"At this point, we are exploring the possibility that one of these type weapons was rigged to fire single shots. Mounted on a helicopter, it could have been used to down the three unsuspecting National Guard aircraft.

"On the massacre in Wyoming, we have a number of leads, but nothing solid to report at this moment." Neumann was about to continue when he saw Irwin Mann begin to rise from his chair.

"Excuse me, please," Mann said softly as he stood up and left the room. From the expression on his face and the way he carried himself, it was obvious he was headed towards the men's room. Getting old must be a bitch Alex Neumann thought before resuming his briefing.

Neumann had finished talking about the Laramie Massacre and was going over the slight progress being made in other killings when Irwin Mann returned. Out of respect, Neumann stopped talking and waited until the elderly man had reclaimed his chair. As he sat down, Irwin Mann spoke.

"Agent Neumann, I know little of such matters, but many years ago, I saw a young boy with a rifle shoot targets thrown in the air. While I was out of the room just now, I remembered watching this feat." I do some of my best thinking on the toilet, too Neumann concurred silently.

"Would it be possible that the weapon used to shoot the helicopters was something much less complicated than one of these automatic aircraft cannon you describe? A simple gun made to fire only one round of this same ammunition? If so, perhaps it could have been used by someone on the ground, and not in another helicopter."

"Yeah," Jonathan Bane of Ohio said suddenly. "Agent Neumann, didn't you tell us in one of your early reports that Wilson Blair was supposed to meet the three helicopters there on the ground? Maybe he was waiting for them while they tried to land, and shot them then. Or someone who was with him did," Bane amended.

"Why would someone go to the trouble of building a single shot 20mm?" Congressman Ward of Indiana asked. "If the guy was a good shot, and on the ground, a normal rifle would be more accurate and easier to use than a 20mm. That thing would kick him to death."

"I know little of guns," Irwin Mann said quickly. "I do not even know if constructing such a single-shot weapon would be feasible."

"Congressman Ward," Jon Bane said condescendingly, "a regular rifle would be worthless against a helicopter."

"Are you kidding?" Ward almost yelled. "Have you ever been in one? Pilot's got to control a helicopter every second, or it'll crash. Unless you're talking about armored choppers like the Apache, you can bring most helicopters down with a .22 if you can hit the pilot anywhere. Don't have to kill him, or even hurt him very bad. That's why we hated being in helicopters in 'Nam. I should know, I was in one that was shot down by a fifteen-year-old girl with an old Russian bolt action. Bullet came through the windshield and clipped the tip of the pilot's left index finger off. We were flying at about thirty feet, between the dikes, and she was on a rope bridge. Bullet clipped his fingertip, he lost control for a few seconds, and we went in. If we'd been a little higher I'd be dead now.

"Shooting choppers down is easy. Those guys who pulled off that bit of business in Wyoming? With a couple boxes of ammo and a good elk rifle, they could knock down every Guard helicopter you threw at 'em." Ward stopped talking, and the other members of the task force sat awkwardly in the ensuing silence.

"We'll find out about the gun," Neumann said, breaking the tension.

Irwin Mann looked pale and weak. The others in the room took no notice of this, for the Presidential liaison to the Holocaust Center was an old man. There was nothing wrong with Irwin Mann's health, however. His illness was emotional. Irwin Mann had given his word, and kept it, but he was now very afraid that he had just done a terrible thing.

"You want to keep doing this, Fred?" Alex Neumann asked. He and another agent had checked with all licensed Destructive Device manufacturers in the country, but none had ever made a weapon like the one Irwin Mann had suggested. Now they were working through the list of custom gunsmiths published in the Gun Digest, looking for someone who could make an extra-large single shot rifle. After being stonewalled by the 6mm bullet- and barrelmakers, Neumann had decided to take a different approach with this part of the investigation.

"Yeah, I can pull it off," the other agent said. "I think the trick is to admit your eccentricities. Then you don't sound like you're an idiot."

"Okay, well, go for it." The FBI agent named Fred picked up the phone and made sure the microphone pickup was attached and the tape recorder was running. Alex Neumann put the earplug in his ear and nodded that he was ready.

The two FBI men had had no luck with any of the gunsmiths they had called so far, but the last shop they'd tried had suggested a man in Vermont, so the two men skipped ahead to that name. Neumann watched as the agent punched in the number.

"Bischoff here," answered the man on the other end.

"Ah, yes, sir, my name is Evans," the agent said, "and a fellow up in Alaska said I should call you. I forget his name, but I met him at a gun show, and he told me you make big single shots."

"Probably Kirby you talked to. He's been thinking about having me make up a .600 for him, to go with his double. That what you interested in, or is a .600 too small?" The two agents looked at each other. This sounds promising Neumann thought.

"Ah, well, actually, I wanted to talk to you about making something even larger. I was-"

"I'm two years behind on my 4-bores," the gunsmith interrupted, "but that's not as bad as that guy in Colorado. He even makes 2-bores, but I hear he quit that. Don't blame him. I don't want to make any more of those damn things, either. But then again, I said that after the first one," he added. What the hell is he talking about? Neumann wondered. He made a rolling gesture with his forearm, imploring the younger man to keep the gunsmith talking about the subject.

"Ah, what size is that, exactly?"

"The 4-bores, we use a barrel with a groove diameter of exactly one inch. Now, on the 2-bores, you got a hell of a time getting barrel blanks. That one goes 1.325" on the groove diameter."

"What I was, uh, thinking about, was could you make a rifle for the U.S. Air Force 20mm round?" "You know, I wouldn't've believed it twenty years ago, but in the last few years I must've had three or four people ask me about that."

"Really?" Fred prompted. Pay dirt! Neumann thought.

"Yeah, I think it's because of all these folks with .50 caliber shoulder rifles. Some fellas, now they want to try a twenty. But there's three problems. First, the 20mm is a military cartridge over a half inch diameter. So what you're building is what them idiots up in Washington call a 'destructive device', and that means you got to go get fingerprinted and get your picture took and whatnot, and you got to pay a $200 tax.

"Now, maybe that don't bother you, 'cause you're the buyer and it's going to be expensive anyway, but if I build one and sell it, I got to have a license to make destructive devices, and that costs $3000. And I got to deal with them sons a bitches from the machine gun part of ATF, sniffing around here and all, and I won't have that at my shop. I don't care if you pay for the license and I'm not out a nickel, I won't do it. I've played all their stupid games and filled out paperwork for .22 ammo for twenty years and paid all the damn excise taxes and made folks wait for five days when they got a trunkful of pistols already, and now on my last renewal they made me give them my fingerprints and a floor plan of where my safes were. By God I hope every damned one of them bastards gets killed, and it looks like we're a good ways there. But that's off the subject of the twenty you want built, isn't it?"

"You said there were three problems."

"Right. The second problem is all those U.S. cases are electric primed, except the earliest ones, so you got the nuisance of taking the ammo apart and bushing the case for a .50 Browning primer, or building an electric ignition system, and I don't have a clue how to do that, although it probably wouldn't be too hard.

"Anyway, on your 20mm, the thing that shoots the whole deal in the head, even if you could talk me into getting a license to build it, is the recoil. That shell throws a 2000-something grain bullet out at about 2600 feet per second. That's the same bullet weight as the 4-bore, but at twice the velocity. The 4-bore's low pressure. Not too many folks want to shoot a 4-bore, and I only know of two men in the whole country that've fired a 2-bore. The third 2-bore rifle I built just hangs on the wall. One of the two men is the guy did my load development on both the four and the two, and so when that last fella called me about building a 20mm, I called up John and asked him what the gun would have to weigh before he'd be willing to shoot it. 20mm, I called up John and asked him what the gun would have to weigh before he'd be willing to shoot it. bore if it weighed 75 pounds.

"Now, a few fellas can handle a 25-pound rifle with heavy recoil, maybe 30 pounds even, but I don't think there's a man on the planet could shoot a 75-pound gun offhand and hold onto it when it belted him with two hundred foot-pounds of free recoil. So now , what you're talking about is some hundred-pound rifle you'd shoot off a rest, and your ! best bet there would be a big bolt action. I don't build bolt guns; no challenge in it and they aren't as pretty as a Farquharson. That last guy called me about a twenty mil, he might've gone ahead and had a bolt action built. I don't know. Seems I heard someone talk about wanting to build up a big rifle for that 14.5mm Russian round. Now there would be a caliber maybe you could shoot from the shoulder, I don't know, but at least it uses percussion primers. Still would be a destructive device, though; it's military and a .60 caliber if I recall. That what you're looking for, a big monster bolt action to shoot off sandbags, blow up rocks at a thousand yards?"

"Uh, yeah, that's about it, something new to fool with," the agent said quickly. "Could you tell me who this man was, the one you think might've had the 20mm bolt action built? I'd like to talk to him about it, see how it worked out."