The Third Bullet: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel
Page 49
Through Roger, I met Bill Vanderpool, retired FBI Special Agent and firearms instructor. He patiently met with me and had many good ideas and contacts.
Dan Shea, the entrepreneur behind Small Arms Review and Long Mountain Outfitters of Henderson, Nevada, gave me counsel on suppressors circa 1963 and light machine guns circa 2012. I’m indebted to his wisdom and experience.
Also, Jeff Clemmer, of LWRC, the superb AR builder in Cambridge, Maryland, took me through the plant and coached me on the intricacies of the M-6s Blues 1–4 used in their unfortunate matchup with Swagger. I told him his guys were going to lose, but after all, they were up against Bob the Nailer! He was okay with that.
In Dallas, Scott W. Ehley, of International Capital, LLC, current owners of Dal-Tex, guided me through the building and answered my questions about its past. He was a very good guy to my enterprise, about which he knew nothing and which he took entirely on trust.
Dr. David Fowler, the chief medical examiner of Maryland and a good friend, gave me time and patience as he vetted my velocity-explosive theory of November 22, 1963. In the sci-fi tale that Richard tells Bob via Hugh’s instructions, the time travel/location in space is a last gift from my late and wonderful friend Bob Lopez. Vaya con Dios, amigo.
And, of course, my wife, Jean Marbella. I have no doubt she would go out to Idaho and sit in a diner for a month to persuade Bob Lee Swagger to investigate my death, exactly as her doppelgänger does in this book. More to the point, she put up with my nutty enthusiasm, my purchase of four Mannlicher-Carcanos (it took that many to get one that would shoot!), my distraction, and my babbling on the subject of each new idea, and she made the coffee that got me going every single day, which may be why there’s so much coffee in this book. She did all this while pursuing her own extraordinary career at the Sun.
Of course, no blame for errors should attach to any of these fine people; I and I alone am responsible.
© KELLY CAMPBELL
STEPHEN HUNTER is the author of eighteen novels, including I, Sniper and Point of Impact. In 2003 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism for his work at The Washington Post, where he retired as chief film critic. He has also published two collections of film criticism and a nonfiction work about the attempted assassination of Harry Truman, American Gunfight.
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COPYRIGHT © 2013 SIMON & SCHUSTER
ALSO BY STEPHEN HUNTER
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I, Sniper
Night of Thunder
The 47th Samurai
American Gunfight (with John Bainbridge, Jr.)
Now Playing at the Valencia
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Pale Horse Coming
Hot Springs
Time to Hunt
Black Light
Violent Screen: A Critic’s 13 Years on the Front Lines of Movie Criticism
Dirty White Boys
Point of Impact
The Day Before Midnight
Target
The Spanish Gambit (Tapestry of Spies)
The Second Saladin
The Master Sniper
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Stephen Hunter
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First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition January 2013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hunter, Stephen.
The third bullet : a Bob Lee Swagger novel / Stephen Hunter.
—1st Simon & Schuster hardcover ed.
p. cm.
1. Swagger, Bob Lee (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Marines—Fiction. 3. Snipers—Fiction.
4. Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917–1963—Assassination—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3558.U494T47 2013
813'.54—dc22
2012014575
ISBN 978-1-4516-4020-5
ISBN 978-1-4516-4025-0 (ebook)