"Movement." "Two men." "Approximately" "40 goats." "They're not on anybody's side." "We don't have to shoot them." "Egress?" "Primary over the top, secondary down the road, tertiary to the river." "No one can track you through the water except a fish." "Sarah's headed off to nursing school next month." "She sewed that herself." "It's beautiful." "You sure this is a peacekeeping mission?" "Normally there isn't any peace to start with." "This shit's awful calm." " Not at these coordinates." " Yes, sir." "Go ahead and plot an alternate." "Yes, sir." "Command Post, Command Post, this is TS-129, over." "Sir, I have visual confirmation of TS-129's current position." "Mission accomplished, en route to extract site." "Distance eight klicks." "Over." "Command Post, Command Post, this is Viper." "I have friendly forces moving towards extraction point, over." "Heads up, our boys are coming through." "Viper, this is CP." "Be advised, possible hostile forces approaching TS-129 at their 12:00." "Call them out." "Target." "Sector Bravo, deep." "Vehicle, belt-fed weapon." "Range it." "870 yards and closing." "Wind, three-quarter value, push 2 left." "900 yards." "Wide spot on the road." "On target." "Hold scope." "Fire when ready." "Hit." "Command Post, this is Viper." "Hostile threat down, over." "Viper, this is Command Post." "We copy your traffic, over." "Call it in. lt's time to go." "Command Post, this is Viper." "Mission accomplished." " Packing up." " Shit!" "Viper, be advised larger hostile forces approaching near sector Bravo." "Weren't supposed to be hostiles that close!" "Crooked tree." "675, 30 miles an hour, three-mil lead." "Position to machine gun." "900, three-quarter value." "Fire when ready." "Jefe. 920." "Three-quarter value." " I see it, Donnie. I see it." " Fire when ready." " They don't know where we are." " But they might get lucky!" "Command Post, Command Post, this is Viper." "Enemy forces have been stopped." "Break." "Friendlies are continuing on to extract point." "Break." "We're receiving small arms and indirect fire from hostile troops." "Break." "Command Post, do you read me?" "Shut it down." "They're highly-trained men, eight kilometers inside a country we are not supposed to be in." "I'm sure they'll get out just fine." "Shut it down now." "Radio check." "Do you read me?" " Okay, wrap it up." "Let's go!" " Do you read me?" " Pull out those tracks." " Pull out those tracks and pack it up!" "Intelligence said they didn't have air support!" "Call it in!" "Shit!" "The channel's down!" "That's impossible!" "The comm link's dead!" "They left us here." "Don't worry, we're getting home!" "Donnie?" "Donnie!" "Come on, boy!" "Come on, Sam!" "What're you doing, huh?" "What're you doing?" "Come on." "What?" "I got nothing." "What?" "All right, come on, let's go." "Let's go." "That's a good boy." "Good boy." "well, let's see what lies they're trying to sell us today." "Here, boy." "Good boy." "Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger." "USMC, retired." "He is the best there is." "His last assignment went wrong." "Put in unfriendly territory on a loan-out and left as expendable." "Opposing force sent an attack helicopter and a hundred-man company." "His best friend and spotter was killed." "No official report." "Ghost report says he inflicted 70 percent casualties, the rest fled." "The agency asset that left them there to die?" "Suddenly removed from the face of the earth two weeks after." "They never laid it at Bob Lee's feet." "He retired a week later." "I guess Bob Lee didn't think he was expendable." "Grows and shoots his own food." "Yeah, he rarely ventures out at all." "This is a man with a history of duty and patriotism." " Not as punch lines, but as core beliefs." " Aye." "Some people don't know what to do when their belief system collapses." "Bob Lee is one of those." "You sure, boy?" "Nope. I ain't buying. I don't want any." "You guys turn around and go back to wherever you came from." "Bob Lee Swagger?" "My name is Colonel Isaac Johnson." "You're a hard man to find." "But not hard enough." "Come a long way to see you." "We have some business needs your attention." "You wanna use your low gear going down the road or your brakes'll go." " Come here." "Come here, boy." " Don't do that." "Come near the porch I didn't invite you, you'd have to shoot the dog." "That's a slow draw you got there." "Sure you want to do that?" "Shoot a dog in this county on a man's land, I'd bury you in the hill, and tell the sheriff a month or two later." "He understands." "Take your hand off your weapon." "Slowly." "So the gunnery sergeant doesn't have to bury you in the hill." "I don't carry a gun." "You know what that is?" "It's a Congressional Medal of Honor." "They don't hand those out easy." "Yours?" "Yeah." "Your father had one, didn't he?" "What did you do?" "Something foolhardy." "Kept some other boys alive." "Will you give me five minutes?" "Yeah, your dog stays outside." "Come on, boy." "Get in there." "I need you to plan a presidential assassination." "Whose president?" "Ours." "I didn't say "execute"." "Plan." "So it can be stopped." "There's gonna be an attempt on the life of the President in the next two weeks." "Code was broken on an anonymous transmission." "It was internal." "We can't go to the usual agencies." "The government itself has been penetrated." "The President has three public engagements during that time." "Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D. C." "Standard Secret Service protective cordon is out to 880 yards." "But this intercept claims that the shot will be taken from beyond a mile." "We need you to scout, tell us how you would do it, so we could stop it." "I'm not entirely convinced that a shot like this could be made." "But let's not take the chance." "Your longer shots were never confirmed." "That's because long shots generally go places you wouldn't wanna have to go afterwards to confirm them." "Confirmation's a desk pogue's problem." "You know what it takes to make a shot at that range?" "Everything comes into play that far." "Humidity, elevation, temperature, wind, spindrift." "There's a 6- to10-second flight time so you have to shoot at where the target's going to be." "Even the Coriolis effect, the spin of the Earth, comes into play." "President'll be wearing body amour." "That means a headshot, at over a mile." "You believe there's a shooter involved capable of making this shot?" "Yes." "well, then you got a real problem." "You need to find the shooter." "That's being worked on from another direction." "We need you to do this." "Don't really like the President much." "Didn't like the one before that much, either." "You like the idea of the President?" "Living in a free country?" "Do we allow America to be ruled by thugs?" "Sure, some years we do." "I believe you stood before a flag and solemnly swore that you'd support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." "I think your five minutes is up." "Listen to me, son." "I don't want you to turn on the TV next week and see the President dead, and know you could've done something about it." "Don't do that to yourself." "is that the new one?" "The truck." "You got the big engine in there?" "Wow, look at that, huh?" "Eight-liter V8." "Thing's so big, EPA doesn't even bother to give you the gas mileage for it." "You mind if I take a picture?" "This is beautiful." "Someone will be at this number night or day." "You see what he did?" "He didn't need a photo of the engine." "No, he doesn't give a rat's ass about the engine." "He's trained in counterintel." "Backed up far enough to take a picture of the plates." "This is our guy." "I thought he turned you down." "He said yes." "He just doesn't know it yet." "1 , 760's a mile." "It's a far piece, Sam." "Think the President ought to worry?" "Yeah, I think he better worry." "Yeah, he'll be fine." "Just feed him once a day." "Read him a few ballistics tables if he looks lonely." "Yep. I'm out." "Come here, buddy." "Okay." "Think you'll be able to tough it out without me for a couple days?" "Yeah." "This is Command Post." "What's your status?" "Over." "Yeah, we're finishing up here on 6th." "Roger that." "We copy." "Checkpoint down, over." "Before you stands lndependence Hall, the birthplace of the United States and one of the most important buildings in American history." "Built in 1732..." "Keep a visual eye on 72nd  both the declaration of lndependence and the U. S. Constitution were debated and signed here." "Out of the three cities, there's only one with a reasonably high chance of success." "There was no room in Baltimore." "Street isn't wide enough to correct for the windage, buildings are in the way." "D. C. 's a pure suicide mission." "I mean, unless you're sure your shooter's interested in 70 virgins waiting for him in the afterlife, I'd rule that out." "Shot's got to be taken from Philly." "From beyond 1 , 800 yards, though." "It's one of six possible locations, approximately five stories above the President's location." "Flight time of the bullet that distance is five to six seconds." "They'll have to wait till he takes the podium, several lines into his speech." "That way he'd be completely static, obviously at his most exposed." "Shot requires a large-caliber weapon." "Expect the bullet to be handmade, bronzed alloy turned on a lathe." "Slightly lower ballistics coefficient, touch more slippery." "Least that's what I'd do." "You can kill him from that far away?" "Mile and a half, the bullet's going to strike with more energy than a. 44 Magnum point blank." "Yeah, I think you can kill him." "The challenge is the wind." "Lightest breeze uncorrected at that distance is enough to ruin the shot." "He's gonna need indicators between the podium and the shooting position." "Velocity corrections are easy, but an angle change, that becomes a trig problem." "He's gotta do that in his head on the fly." "Without something to gauge, your shot's just too tough to make cold bore." "Impressive recon and report, son." "Move too soon, we lose him." "We want to take him alive." "If we don't know who hired him, it could just happen again." "We'll have six three-man teams standing by." "Gunnery Sergeant Swagger?" "A moment?" "You've done your country a great service, son." " On the day..." " Look..." "Listen." "You're one of the few people who knows what to look for." "I could use a spotter." "Thank you, Philadelphia." "The President speaks in 20 minutes." "... before you on this stage..." "Notify our teams." "Check their positions." "... patriots met in Independence Hall and created a document, the Declaration of lndependence..." "Sir?" "... and a country, the United States of America, that changed the world." "Philadelphia is our home." "We are..." "Stand by, all teams." "This is Listening Post." "flashlight's current location is approaching Checkpoint Jason." "All sniper teams send update on your sitrep." " Stand by." " Yes, I have a clear line of sight." "Copy that." "Post 18 clear, over." "Post 19, please report." "What's your status?" "All clear." "There's really nothing going on here." "The Archbishop of Ethiopia..." "The President will be awarding the Philadelphia Brotherhood Medal to His Grace Desmond Mutumbo, the Archbishop of Ethiopia." "There's been some controversy surrounding the Archbishop as he's been speaking out regarding the atrocities in his country." "He plans to meet with the President right after the ceremony to discuss these matters." "These are great times." "These are historic times." "And these are troubled times, as well." "This medal that your country..." "Yellow ribbons." "Yeah, people put those up to remember the troops." "No, they tie those low around trees." "These are windage flags." "Roughly the location l'd have put them in for a shot from the steeple." "Yeah." "Maybe." "No, definitely." "He knows what he's doing." "You guys got a team in place to take out the church?" "They'll move right before the shot is taken, when his focus is elsewhere." "... raises its head and confronts freedom, but slyly, subtly, chokes it off at the root." "And it is our responsibility to find these dark weeds." "Flashlight has arrived." "I say again, Flashlight has arrived." " lf you just joined us..." " Hi." "Officer Timmons, our local resource." "Bob Lee Swagger." "It is a real honor to meet you." "You're unsnapped, officer." "Shit." "Oh, fuck." "Don't want to lose that now, do I?" "Again, it's an honor." "... of our stewardship of this great..." " That our guy in the collar?" " The Archbishop of Ethiopia." "He's getting a medal." "Know it?" "HOA." "Horn of Africa." "Yeah." "You know I worked there?" "You know what they say about the first thing that you feel when you shoot a civilian, right?" " Recoil of your rifle?" " Right." "That's very original." "Thank you, Archbishop, for those inspiring words." "The President speaks next." "All teams stand by." "Agent Gibson, we read your fly-by." "Situation all clear, over." "Agent James, all clear." "Now it gives me enormous pleasure..." " Got wind at three, full value." " ... to introduce to you the President of the United States." "Make it four-and-a-half minutes of angle." "Three-mil hold, in case the wind dies." "He's loaded." "Altitude, humidity, temperature accounted for." "In the city that was the capital of..." "We got to take him." "Ten seconds." "Wind matches his setup." "Take him!" "Take him now!" "Send in the ERT team." "Take out the..." "Shots fired!" "Shots fired!" "Flashlight is down, Flashlight is down." " What?" "flashlight down?" " l say again." "Flashlight is down." " The President has been shot." " There's mass confusion..." "Has the President been shot?" "Right at the church steeple." "How could you miss?" "How could you fucking miss?" "Thirty seconds, clear out." "Chase him down." "He's bleeding." "Kill him." "Command Post to Condor Two, load up, over." "Condor Two loading up." "Go, go, go, go, go!" "Hurry up, guys." "Come on." "Condor Two, this is Command Post." "Stand by for update, over." "Standing by, over." "Command Post!" "Command Post!" "Command Post, this is Post 19." "You guys read me?" " Should I hold post?" " Please." "Please help me." "Please." "They shot me." " fbi." "Put your hands up!" " Please." "Hey." "Save me." "What?" "Give me the keys." "I didn't shoot the President." "Timmons was a setup." "Help!" "fbi!" "Took my weapon and my car." "Don't worry, I already shot him twice." "You all right?" "CP, 17, can you repeat possible suspect description?" "Negative, no further at this time." "CP, this is 15." "No activity at my location." "I am available to move if necessary." "Copy that." "This is Officer Timmons requesting backup." "Pursuing suspect in assassination." "Now fleeing in stolen fbi vehicle, moving south on Front from Diamond." "Suspect is armed and dangerous." "I repeat, suspect is armed and dangerous." "All Philly PD units be advised, assassination suspect is fleeing in a stolen fbi vehicle." "He is going south on Front from Diamond." "This is Condor 2." "We are transitioning from roadhouse to Front Street." "Please advise for further description of suspect vehicle." "Dispatch, 419, I'm heading south on Thompson." "Do we have a color, anything on the vehicle?" "Assassination suspect's vehicle is one government-issue black 2006 Ford Crown Vic." "Pennsylvania license number 7-3-1-7 James David Edward, over." "What was suspect's last known location?" "Over." "Last known is south on Front." "This is Agent James." "Do we have multiple suspects or a single suspect?" "Agent James, negative." "No further information..." "This is Agent Pittman." "Car seen going high speed on Castor." "High speed on Castor." "Be advised." "Timmons called it in?" "Right on time, like he was supposed to." " Before he shot him again." " Yeah, well, he's been hit twice, so unless he can stop the bleeding without going to the hospital or a doctor, it doesn't really matter." "They're going to find him lying dead by a dumpster in an alley in 20 minutes." "What is your location?" "Suspect vehicle a black sedan, four-door..." "All units be advised, eyewitness reports suspect vehicle entering High-Tech Car Wash on the northwest corner of Girard and 9th, over." "Command Post be advised, this is Condor Two en route to suspect location, over." "Command Post, Condor Three copies." "all en route." " Yo, man!" " Watch it, man!" "Shit!" "Command Post, Condors Two and Three moving to intercept, over." "Suspect vehicle collided with a truck under the 95." "He's at Market and Columbus." "Looks good." "Vehicle is disabled." "Repeat, vehicle disabled." "Take him down!" "Fire!" "I got a Crown Vic." "Black." "Government plates." "Dead guy in the front seat?" "I want the banks of this river lined for 30 miles, five minutes ago." "All right." "Let's start the search downriver." "I'm here with Officer Timmons, who pursued the suspect on foot." "Officer, can you tell us what happened?" "The would-be assassin, tentatively identified as retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger, is being pursued by thousands of State and federal law enforcement personnel as we speak." "As the net begins to tighten nationwide, there is still no trace of Swagger." "Nothing but an abandoned car has been found at the bottom of the Delaware River." "Seven-year veteran Philadelphia police officer Stanley Timmons, first to respond to the scene, is believed to have shot and injured Swagger." "Early reports indicate that the assailant may have been hit as many as two times." "Meanwhile, the fbi has been unwilling to comment on information that an agent of theirs was assaulted and disarmed by Swagger as he fled the scene, possibly in a stolen fbi vehicle." "At this time, no sign of Swagger has been found." "You have embarrassed this office." "You will be facing a review from the Office of professional Responsibility." "Sir..." "Well, I don't feel embarrassed." "A Force Recon Marine Scout Sniper disarmed me three weeks out of the academy." "If anything, I feel lucky to be alive." "Why'd he say he didn't shoot the President?" "Because he didn't." "Also, he said Timmons was a setup." "He never said that." "City cop managed to spot, shoot this guy twice." "You got your ass kicked." "You're misremembering." "That's normal under extreme stress events." "Have you given your official statement yet?" "Because I would be very cautious about what went in it." "Well, maybe I should wait for the report to come out, read it and then remember." "Can you believe this fucking guy?" "There you go." " Yes?" " The raw feeds are in from the networks." "... development, security camera footage from Washington, D. C." "and several locations in Philadelphia shows the suspect, Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger, scouting shooting locations, traveling and taking wind readings." "As the net begins to tighten nationwide, there is still no trace of Swagger." "Excuse me." "Can't sell you nothing." "Just lost our power." "Please. I got cash, and you can keep the change." "Ain't gonna be able to find nothing." "Please, all I need is a marinade needle, some salt, some sugar, couple bottles of water." "How many?" "Well, sir, I'm sorry." "I'm sorry to hear that." "I'm sure she's a really nice Christian woman but we don't take care of those things here." " Yeah." "Okay, well..." " The fbi released a video letter..." " ... see a counselor." " ... threatening the life of the President..." "Dr. Phil or something." "Okay." "... signed and dated by Bob Lee Swagger just 10 days ago." "federal agents today executed a search warrant in the Wind River range of Wyoming where Swagger had been living for several years." "In the meantime, the FBI has been unwilling to comment, as no sign of Swagger has been found." " Get anything?" " No." "Yeah, wait, wait." "Where was this?" "And?" "Yes?" "She thinks it was him, but it was dark because the power was out in the store." " What'd he buy?" " Gotta be." "salt, sugar, water, and a marinade injector." "Guy going to a barbecue." "Salt, water, an injector could be used for an iv, but what's with the sugar?" "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" "Hold that!" "Hold that!" "Well, sugar's been used to treat battlefield wounds for hundreds of years." "It has something to do with osmotic pressure." "It was popular during the Napoleonic War." "You go into Howard's office with the napoleonic War, he's gonna put you on psych leave." "Go back to your desk." "I'm saving your life." "One thing is  1 790 to 1800." "One thing is... I'm sorry to bother you, ma'am." "I know who you are." "You're Bob Lee." "Swagger." "Donnie's old partner." "Look, I didn't shoot the President." "I know." "You do?" "The President's not dead." "Ethiopian Archbishop is." "Why in the hell would somebody want to shoot him?" "Look, you're a nurse, right?" "No." "No, that was Donnie's dream." "I couldn't stand the blood." "I teach the third grade." " Please." " Look, you should go." "Please." "Please?" "I didn't do whatever they said I did." "I swear." "I'm in some bad trouble and I need some help." "I wouldn't have come all the way here to lie to you." "You still figuring on shooting me?" "Only that shotgun's a little long to bring up fast." "Look, if you're going to do it, just get it over with." "I ain't got nowhere else to go." "Pull the truck in the garage." "The neighbors'll be up in a minute." "You'd best call me Sarah." "All right." "91 1 , what's your emergency?" "Hello?" "This is 911." "We received a hang-up from this location." "Yeah, neighbor's dog knocked over the trash cans and scared the hell out of me." "Everything's fine." "Thanks." "Okay, then." "Seems you call the police and hang up without saying anything, they call you back right away." "I should've come and seen you in person." "Before. I mean, then." "Yeah, I read the letter." "It was okay." "And once a year I got the flowers." "You don't look real good." "I'm supposed to be dead." "Been a long night." "Why aren't you?" "well, the U. S. government spent a lot of time and money teaching me how not to die after they got done teaching me how to kill people." "So how is it I'm supposed to help you?" "You can do a running cross-stitch, finish it with an embroidery knot?" "Yeah." "You got to try to spread it out." "It's gonna look odd you buy it all in one place." "How can it be three years ago when it seems like ten?" "Mileage can be rough." "No one ever beats me in." "You never left." "Everyone keeps telling me I'm crazy." "Like I didn't see what I saw, or heard what I heard." "I'm not crazy, though." "You think I'm crazy?" "Where did all this stuff come from?" "At first I thought it was Washington, Quantico." "I checked and it didn't." "It just magically arrived." "Cooperating agencies, ATF, NRO, places that don't even have initials they cooperate in times of national emergency." "You need to get some sleep." "You know that the first baIlistics diagram got here 22 minutes after the shooting." "We're good at our jobs." "12 minutes after the shooting, they were still scrambling choppers." "The scene was locked down." "How did they get a reverse azimuth 10 minutes after that?" "I mean, we work for the federal government." "We're not that good at ourjobs." " You want to see something?" " Probably not." "I downloaded this." "This is a full-scale printout of a target Swagger shot two years ago at 1,000 yards." "I punched in the holes myself." "It was at a competition." "I read an article. lt said Swagger shot a silver dollar at a grand." "Five shots, at 1,000 yards, an inch-and-a-half spread." "An inch and a half!" "It was the capital of the United States..." "That's the flag behind the President." "It's barely waving." "This is the wind speed and direction according to the national Weather Service at the time of the shot. I did the math." "Now, how does a man who can do that miss by two-and-a-half feet at 2,000 yards?" "I don't get it." "You've had a Iong night." "Let it go and get some sleep." "You know, I saw Timmons interviewed." "He said he was walking foot patrol, saw a rifle barrel sticking out of a window, went upstairs to investigate, and shot Swagger." "No sniper sticks his rifle out of a window." "They shoot from cover, back in the room." "It doesn't make any sense." " I'm gonna talk to Timmons." " No, you're not." "Why?" "'Cause they're gonna fire me if I do?" "Timmons was killed by a mugger in an alley last night." "In a conspiracy, all loose ends are trimmed." "Jack Ruby shoots Oswald?" "Bad things happen to good people." "Yeah, not that quick, they don't." "Well, I stopped the bleeding temporarily." "But it'll cut loose again." "I held off the worst of the infection, but you're gonna have to open it up, cut out and scrub away anything that's dead, working your way out, sewing it together and you got to try to make sure you don't re-infect it." "You ready for this?" "I'm going to do all those Whip-lt!" "'s and pass out." "Good luck, okay?" "I need you to plan a presidential assassination." "That our guy in the collar?" "Whose president?" "I didn't say "execute"." "He's getting a medal." "Know it?" "The Archbishop of Ethiopia." "You need to find the shooter." "No." "Two-and-a-half days, shot twice, no sign?" "Find me something." "Maybe he crawled into a hole and died." "He's not dead." "Tear apart his life." "Again." "Go okay?" "I've been hallucinating." "Something I need to tell you." "Ralphie's dead." "Who's Ralphie?" "Well, they said you shot your dog 'cause you knew you weren't coming back." "They said that, huh?" "Name was Sam." "He was a good dog." "I raised him from a pup." "You okay?" "No." "What are you gonna do?" "I'll get better." "Then I'm going to burn their playhouse down." "Can I help you?" "Hold still." "I been meaning to ask you." "You have a boyfriend?" "Why?" "Am I still supposed to be the grieving widow?" "It's been three years." "No." "Just wonder if I'm gonna have to shoot somebody walks through that door without knocking, wondering where you've been." "Well, no." "Nothing steady." "No boyfriend." "Not bad." "A little stiff, but..." "Hey." "You know, you would've made one hell of a nurse." "That was really brave, what you did." "You saved my life." "I'm better. I better get to it." "They're never gonna stop chasing you." "Never." "They're never gonna stop looking." "In the meantime, they need someone else to find." "I'm going to give them him." "Excuse me?" "May be a way to get two birds with that stone, too." " Swagger?" " Hey." "The gun Donnie learned to hunt with when he was a kid." "It ain't much, but it shoots true." "I cleaned and oiled it before I put it away." "You sure?" "Yeah." "Why'd you go?" "When they came to see you." "They know which buttons to press." "I'm still enough of a sucker, you press that patriot button, I'll sit up in my chair and say, "Which way you want me to go, boss?"" "I mean, I ain't real proud of it, but I ain't ashamed, either." "You know, I got a plan, but I think I'm going to need your help." "Okay. I'll do it." "I haven't even told you what it is yet." "I know." "Look." "It was my fault." "What?" "You know, with Donnie." "I should never have..." "What?" "Don't you dare." "Don't you try and take that away from him." "He knew exactly what he was doing when he enlisted." "He knew exactly what he was doing when he enrolled in scout sniper training." "He loved what he did." "No one made him do it." "That ain't yours to carry." "You're right." "I'm sorry I tried." "It's okay." "I need you to meet with this fbi agent." "Use him to flush Johnson out of his hiding place." "Give him the vehicle id number." "He'll do what he's trained to do." "You get in and get out." "Don't get caught." "You get caught, I get caught." "You know what that is?" "Says he didn't shoot no one, but I don't know." "Well, he's been staying with me." "Who's been staying with you?" "Bob Lee Swagger?" "The plates are probably fake." "Pretty sure the other number's real." " And what is this?" " A VIN number." "Seems no one goes through the trouble to change them anymore." "And you're going to sit real still until I'm long gone." "See the guy in the Eagles jacket?" "Excuse me, sir." "Can I see some id, please?" "Sir, I'm going to need you to take off your hat and show me some id." "I'm not gonna ask you again." "Take your hat off, asshole!" "Get on the ground!" "Get your ass on the ground!" "Hey, how's it going?" "Hey, John." " Hey, Ed?" " Yeah." "You got that Stevens file we wanted back?" "How badly do you want to know?" "Because this will get you fired." "Well, I have to go before the Office of Professional Responsibility in 45 minutes for a review." "I'm gonna get fired anyway." "I'm done worrying about that." "What do you think?" "I think that CNN got the tapes before we did, already edited together to show the angles." "Who delivered them?" "An unnamed agency who will never confirm or deny." "They denied, which is a..." "Which is a confirmation of sorts." "Of what?" "That you are asking questions way outside your pay grade." "Oh, come on, just tell me." "You don't want to be here for that review." "They don't have to stop at firing you." "They can charge you and hold you." "The ASAC's job comes with Delta clearance." " Thank you." " Go." "This is a copy of a chat room transcript." "These guys talk about everything." "I didn't give it much thought at the time." "We just traced it to a donut shop with free WiFi." "But this, this is a Delta-level clearance request out of the fbi field office in Philadelphia seven minutes ago." "Funny thing, Google Maps puts the donut shop only three blocks away from the field office." "There's only one guy who met with Swagger before he disappeared." "He lives in Philly." "And he works for the fbi." "Nicholas Memphis." "... really strange company." "Contracts with a lot of the Fortune 500." "Offices in Virginia, Delaware, registered in Panama." "They own a boat that's flagged out of Libya." "They're definitely not government, but they have high ex-military contacts like you wouldn't believe." "These are contractors." "I can't tell what this company does, but..." "Hey." "Hey, hey, hey!" "Memphis?" "Memphis!" "For a man who didn't know much, you sure took a long, painful time to tell it." "Get him some water." "Good." "Got to pee yet?" "Got to flush them drugs out of your system." "Look awful suspicious if you were to go and shoot yourself pumped full of the same shit the agency uses." "I'm not going to shoot myself." "Sure you will." "Take him out." "Get him ready." "No!" "That's my gun." "Yeah." "You wrote a real touching suicide note, too." "All overwrought with guilt about your mistakes." "Quit your struggling." "This thing works." "It's not the first time we've used it." "Russo." "Russo!" "Davis, get out here!" "What is the goddamn hold-up?" "Don't kill me, please!" "Don't kill me!" "I believe you!" "Kill you?" "Had enough chances." "I wanted you dead, you'd be dead." "What kind of asshole'd think up a thing like this?" "Not bad with a poodle shooter and a makeshift silencer, huh?" "Help me toss these boys in the water?" "You set me up and you used me as bait!" "You think?" "Flushed them out, didn't it?" "I was kind of hoping to keep one alive, but they were kind of determined to kill you." "You can hire a good lawyer, and I'lI call the Bureau." "They can work out some kind of deal." "This is explainable." "You can prove that you didn't shoot the Archbishop." "I don't think you understand." "These boys killed my dog." "Hey, this is the 21st century." "You can't go to war with these people." "In the end, the law is all... ln the end, the law'll never catch and hold them." "In a year or two, they'll be back in business." "New names, new messenger boys, same old story." "And I'll be dead." "It's gonna be some hard, hairy work, Pork." "There's gonna be more shooting, and more people are gonna die." "Now, I didn't start it, but be sure as hell I mean to see it through." "So you get it straight." "You in or you out?" "You know, I missed a meeting today where l was going to get fired for unprofessional conduct because I was kidnapped by people that don't exist." "I'll take his legs." "It's a good call, Pork." "You're trying to tell me a rookie fbi agent overpowered and killed the three of them?" "No." "They were shot from a distance of about 200 yards." "With a. 22." " Swagger's alive." " Yes." "And that young kid," "fbi Agent" "Nick Memphis, who managed to pry out a Delta-level clearance, hasn't come back to the office and is out there with him." "What?" "I just went over Swagger's financials again." "Once a year, he sent flowers to someone with his Visa card." "I cracked the FTD database, got an address." "Donnie Fenn's widow." "Anniversary of his death." "She went back to using her maiden name, which is why we missed it the first time." "She's maybe the only person in the entire world that would believe anything that Swagger had to say." "Look." "Keene City, Kentucky." "It's just within driving range." " What are you waiting for?" "Take the jet." " All right." "We've given Swagger a new war, he's found a new spotter." "This is about to get worse." "I think we're here." "Hey." "Swagger." "I think we're here." "Welcome to Tennessee." "Patron state of shooting stuff." "Hey, who is this guy?" "This guy was the greatest gunsmith east of the Mississippi." "He's a legend." "He knows more about guns and the people who shoot them than Smith And Wesson." "Don't really matter anymore." "He knew we were coming the last three miles." " You mind your manners." " All right." "You boys come a long way." "What you looking for?" "Wisdom." "You come to the wrong place." "Maybe." "Say a man wanted to fire a bullet from one rifle and have it match exactly to another." "Could that be done?" "Take a seat." "Have a chair, son." "If you could get a bullet that had been shot clean through the first rifle, could make the grooves match." "Kind of thing ain't been done in a Iong time, though." "The bullet that was taken out of the Archbishop was completely mangled on impact." "fbi match was metallurgical." "Thank you, Mother." "Yeah, but you couldn't guarantee that going in, so they had to be sure." "And I still can't figure out how they could be." " Good coffee?" " Yep." "Look on your left, there." "Second shelf down." "Red leather spine." "Written by a guy named Schofeld." "Put it there 15 years ago." "Don't figure it's moved since then." "Yeah." "Paper patching." "State of the art. 1870s Africa." "Paper-wrapped bullet." "No metal on metal going down the barrel." "Grooves would match." "Paper unwinds at the muzzle." "Leaves no traces when it hits." "Interesting question, though." "Hope I satisfied you." "I got another one." "I thought you might." "Suppose l was looking for a man to make a 2, 200-yard cold-bore shot." "Who's alive that could do that?" "Seems I heard about a shot like that being made not too long ago." "Said the guy's name was Bob Lee Swagger." "Never met the man, so I wouldn't know him." "Yeah, they said that, all right." "They also said that artificial sweeteners were safe, and WMDs were in Iraq, and Anna Nicole married for love!" "Would've been a bad job to take, though." "How come?" "Whoever took that shot's probably dead now." "That's how a conspiracy works." "Them boys on the grassy knoll, they were dead within three hours." "Buried in the damn desert." "Unmarked graves out past Terlingua." "And you know this for a fact?" "Still got the shovel." "Sake of argument, somebody other than him?" "There was a guy in Russia." "They locked his ass up." "Another one in France." "I know he's dead." "There was one guy, but he don't shoot no more." "A brutal son of a bitch." "Most boys shoot to kill." "He'd shoot to wound, wait till his friends come to help, kill them too." "Turned one target into four." "Men, women, children." "Killed them by the hundreds." "The other side wanted him." "Bad." "Finally narrowed his hide down to an abandoned six-story building." "They quit the subtle tactics." "They called in an artillery strike." "Leveled a square block." "Brought the building down on his ass." "Some say he crawled out of there." "Some say he died." "Never heard from him no more." "Fuck me." "What?" "I met the son of a bitch." "Yeah." "The world ain't what it seems, is it, Gunnie?" "No, sir." "You keep that in mind." "The moment you think you got it figured, you're wrong." "He got a name?" "Hey, it's me, Nick." "Do you have any idea how much trouble you're in?" " Yeah." " Are you okay?" "Nick, where are you?" "It's better I don't tell you." "Look, do you have a pen?" "I need you to find someone." "Mikhaylo Sczerbiak." " Yeah." " You got it?" "I got it." "Man, this is hard to spell." "Swagger is going to go with what he knows." "He'll try to track the shooter." "He won't get far that way." "Yes, he will." " How's that?" " We're going to help him." "Sometimes to catch a wolf, you need to tie the bait to a tree." "And what happens to the bait?" "Hard to say." "But that's the nature of being the bait." " Hey, it's Nick." "Did you find him?" " He's in Virginia." "An end we thought was tied up came untied." "Meaning, Colonel?" "Swagger is still alive." "Oh, my." "I need to land a transport plane without a customs check." "I'm certain I don't want to know, but what's on the plane?" "Crew we used in Ethiopia." "Twenty-four good, hard men." "Weapons and gear." "Only 24?" "Do kill him." "No loose ends this time." "Night, Colonel." "Good night, Senator." "Hello?" "Someone there?" "Now look." "Look what you've done now." "Give me that." "I don't want you to hurt yourself." "Okay?" "Where's your boyfriend?" "What if it's a trap?" "Oh, it's a trap." "Guaranteed." "Every time." "Question is, for whom?" " You got your list, right?" " Yep." "All right, you make sure you stick to it." "Let's go." "Okay, so what are these for again?" "Tear gas is going to be on my remote." "Right." "Napalm on the first floor." "Pipe bombs on the rest of them." "Gotta be very careful with these." "It's got a 15-foot kill radius." "So what exactly are we getting ready for?" "For as much as we can be." "All right, you got four enemy combatants." "Take them one by one." "Keep shooting." "Don't let anything distract you." "Fuck!" "Didn't I say don't let anything distract you?" "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." "Let's see it." "No." "No." "It's just you and me, baby." "No!" "You got three guards." "One at your 2:00, 12:00 and 10:00." "Danger close. 2:00, fifty yards." "You got one right on you." "20 yards and closing." "Go check the perimeter." "And tell the others to stay alert." "I'm on it." "Right away, sir." "Swagger, you got one above you on the roof." "You killed all three?" "There were four." "I want Johnson's real name." "I want to know who he works for." "I want to know why it was worth going through that much effort to kill the Archbishop." "Aren't you the one that shot him?" "And if I don't know any of those things?" "Then you're of no worth to me and I might as well shoot you now and leave." "Johnson's had a lot of names." "Don't know one's any more real than the next." "Knowing would only be dangerous." "He's ex-army." "Pretty sure he was a full-bird colonel." "Go on." "They came for me, like they came for you." "Recruitment for a single job." "They like the wounded." "Easier to use and then throw away when you are done." "Timmons, you, me..." "Once you've been a wolf, it's hard to be staked down like a goat." "This is just one dead man talking to another." "And the Archbishop?" "You want to take all suspicions away when you shoot someone, wait till he's standing next to the President." "What was he going to say?" "The truth." "That nothing, no matter how horrible, ever really happens without the approval of the government." "Over there, and here." "The problem isn't the doing." "It's the people in power having to admit that they knew." "The prisoners are tortured at Abu Ghraib, and only the underlings go to jail." "Their bosses knew." "We know their bosses knew." "But you don't say it." "What exactly happened in Africa?" "Somehow the villagers didn't think that an oil pipeline was a good enough reason to move their village to a place where the spirit gods didn't exist." "Drink?" "So they asked them all nicely to move and when they didn't, they just killed them all?" "No." "They didn't ask." "They just killed them." "All." "So the next village won't need to be asked." "They'll just go." "There is a mass grave with 400 bodies, men, women, children, under the oil pumping station 10 kilometers over the Eritrean border." "You should know." "You covered the retreat of the contractors who did the job." "Of course, you weren't supposed to survive that, either." "Who runs Johnson?" "A senator." "From Montana, I think." "You don't get it." "There is no head to cut off." "It's a conglomerate." "If one of them betrays the principles of the accrual of money and power, the others betray him." "What it is is human weakness." "You can't kill that with a gun." "Swagger." "Swagger." "You got to get out of there." "They're everywhere." "Had to keep you till they got here." "Lying wasn't going to hold you." "You would have known." "By the way, they've got your woman." "Swagger." "They're 20 yards and closing." "You got to get out of there." " Bug out." "Go to hide two." " Roger that." "Swagger, I'm in position two." "You got to get out of there." " They're all over the place." " Hey!" "Calm down." "Blow the pipe bombs outside on my call, okay?" "You got it?" "Yeah, yeah." "Yeah, I got it." "Listen very carefully." "On my one, you blow the pipe bombs, then the gas." "Three, two, one..." "Hit it." "Hit the napalm." "Swagger!" "You got it." "Swagger!" "Swagger!" "Swagger!" "You got to bug out on my go behind that barn." "Okay." " You ready?" " Yeah." "Go!" "Come on!" "You got to gun it to that tree line." "What?" "You got five shots left." "Gotta draw that bird out." "Okay." "Okay." " On my cover, all right?" " Okay." "All right, go!" "Pull up!" "Pull up!" "Time to go!" "Let me take a look." "Not right now." "Morning, beautiful." " See this weird shootout in Virginia?" " Sir..." "Shells everywhere, helicopter remnants, blood." "No bodies, though, right?" "And they get fingerprints off the cartridge cases." "First set positively IDed as Bob Lee Swagger." "Second set belongs to Special Agent Nick Memphis of the fbi." "What?" "That's gotta be wrong." "Now, the only reasonable question to ask after that is, what the fuck is going on?" "Great shot!" " All yours, Dan!" " Good shooting!" "I'm beginning to think that you were the wrong man for the job." "Think what you want." "It appears we misjudged the gunnery sergeant." "There's always a confused soul that thinks that one man can make a difference." "And you have to kill him to convince him otherwise." "That's the hassle with democracy." "Pull!" "... fire under their asses, you understand me?" "We need those results now." "Anna, you guys, you take the team..." "Anna!" "... to the roadhouse." "Okay, I don't care who it is right now." "I don't give..." "Guys!" "We got Memphis on the line." "Start a trace." "Got it. I'm on it." "Nick." "Hey, it's Howard here." "How are you?" "Things have gotten a little complicated." "I got Bob Lee Swagger in custody." "Yeah, turns out he's not dead, Howard." "Yeah, I know." "Word of that possibility had begun to reach us." "Got him." "Were you in a gunfight in Virginia last night?" "Like I said, things have gotten a little complicated." "Well, obviously the best thing for you would be to bring him in, right?" "Oh, no. I can't do that." "Why?" "It's gotten too deep." "It's not clear who can be trusted." " But we're the fbi, son." " Yeah, I know." "Yeah, I'll keep in touch." "Oh, Nick, wait..." "Son of a bitch." " Did we get that?" " Got him." " Let's move." " They're on an interstate" " outside Bozeman, Montana." " Let's move!" "This is Swagger." " Colonel Johnson here." " Figured you'd be listening." " lt appears you have nowhere to go." " Colonel?" "If it is "Colonel"?" "It is." " I have something you want." " Well, it seems so do I." "Over the Eritrean border, there is a mass grave with 400 bodies." "Men, women, children." "Tell you what, I'll give it to you and we'll call it even." "I just want someone there I can trust." "I'm amenable." "Who do you have in mind?" "How about that guy from U2 with the glasses?" "Friend of Nelson Mandela and all." "He seems trustworthy." "Bono?" "You want them to get Bono?" "My colleague's questioning my choice." "Okay, I see how that could be a tough problem." "You know, last minute and all." "How about six-term senator Charles Meachum from Montana?" "Seems like a pretty good second choice, don't you think?" "I don't think so." "I'm gonna provide you with two numbers, then we'll talk." "Point 732." "Point 648." "And what the hell is that?" "Those are the last three digits, down to a few meters of latitude and longitude, of an oil pipeline pumping station in Eritrea with 400 bodies underneath." "Where are we meeting?" "Somewhere I can see you, coming from a goddamn long way off." "Where's your boy?" "Well, I'm here." "He's here." "Look, look, look." "There's your boy." "There's your boy, baby." "Come on, come on." "Look, look." "Look up." "Okay." "I think I broke a rib!" "Don't move!" "is there anybody else?" "No." "He head-shoots me, spasm kills her!" "You got no shot!" "No shot, Swagger!" "You hear that, Swagger?" "You got no shot!" "What are you gonna do?" "Come on!" "It's over for you, buddy!" "No shot!" "Okay, fuck him." "Not bad!" "Pretty good!" "He went for the shot." "Christ." "How can we help you?" "Guest at the motel last night gave me $100 to bring this by here at 3:00 p. m." "Let's move!" "You all right?" "Yeah." "Search him." "I don't carry a weapon, ordinarily." "I'm licensed to carry that in this state." "Pull the pilot." "Put your weapon down!" "Put it down!" "Put your gun down!" "Easy." "Easy." "Sarah." "Give me the gun." "It's okay." "Give me the gun." "You okay?" "Put them up." "Keep them up." "Nice shooting, Gunnie." "Yeah, you got what you came for." "I think it's time you owe us your side of the bargain." "You do, huh?" "Yes, I do, son. I certainly do." "Why don't we think about all this that has gone on just as a preamble?" "You got any plans after this?" "You have a rather unique skill set." "I'd be interested in offering you a job." "Work?" "For you?" "It's not really as bad as it seems." "It's all gonna be done in any case." "You might as well be on the side that gets you well paid for your efforts." "And what side are you on?" "There are no sides." "There's no Sunnis and Shiites." "There's no Democrats and Republicans." "There's only haves and have-nots." "What exactly does working for you entail, Senator?" "Raping and murdering innocent women and children, you sick fuck?" "You sanctioned the mass murder of an entire village so a pipeline could go through." "One village!" "And it brought stability to the region." "Which means that no one chops off their arms because their grandmother's grandfather belonged to a different tribe." "They like us down there, boy." "This is a country where the Secretary of Defense" "can go on TV and tell the American public, oh, that "This is about freedom!" "It's not about oil!"" "And nobody questions him, because they don't want to hear the answer because it's a lie!" "There's only so many places at the table, Gunnie." "Now are you on the inside, or are you on the out?" "It's the fbi!" "It's gonna be okay." "Hold this." "If one of them betrays the principles of the accrual... I don't think so, Senator." " What are you doing?" " Saving our lives." " That proved you were innocent!" " Nobody out here is innocent!" "This stuffs plutonium." "Nobody can handle it without dying." "You hand it over to the authorities, it's just gonna disappear, along with us!" "Unless you want to get buried in the hills outside TerIingua." "I'm out, old man!" "I'm just a peckerwood who lives in the hills with too many guns." "You happy?" "Where do you think you're going?" "Washington!" "You going to shoot a sitting U. S. senator in the back?" "Lord knows I want to." "I didn't think so." "Let him go." "They've got your rifle." "From the beginning, they've always had your rifle." "Recovered at the site." "You can talk as much as you want, but in the end, you're going to die by lethal injection, and I'm going to go back to what I was doing." "I won." "You lost." "Get used to the idea, son." "I'm not your son." " Drop your weapons!" "Put it down now!" " Don't move!" "Special Agent Nick Memphis, fbi!" "Don't shoot!" " Down, now!" " On the ground!" "I said get down!" " Could I free my hands, please?" " It's okay." "Thank you, sir." "Thanks for bringing her." "Hey. I'm sorry about everything." "It's not your fault. lt is what it is." "This is Attorney General Russert." " Director Brandt." " Sir." "Senator Meachum couldn't be with us today." "I'm sure we can manage without him." "Sergeant Swagger, you asked for this meeting." "Against my better judgment, I've agreed to it as a favor to the FBI." "What the hell am I doing here?" "You've got nothing on me. I'm covered." "Call the Joint Chief." "That won't be necessary, Colonel, as I have already received no less than a dozen calls from highly-ranked and powerfully-placed individuals telling me to let you go." "But the joy of checks and balances in our government is that I can, and am, indeed, required by law, to tell them to fuck off." "This is about evidence and finding out the truth, so you sit there and be quiet." "Sergeant, you've got five minutes." "Thank you." "This is my weapon." "No question about it, don't deny it." "You recovered it at the scene moments after the assassination." "We agree?" "It's been in the FBI's possession ever since, hasn't been tampered with in any way?" "No." "Absolutely not." " You fire the weapon?" " There was no point." "The slug was mangled beyond recognition." "It was, however, an exact metallurgical match." "Right." "Definitely my bullets." "Definitely my gun." "special Agent Memphis, you believe I shot that Archbishop?" "Nope." "No, I don't." " Have any proof of this fact?" " No." " Trust me?" " Yep." "Really trust me?" "Yeah." "With your life?" " Yep." " Good." " What the hell are you doing?" " Put that weapon down now!" "If you're zeroed for 600, you ought to aim a little lower." "Ain't gonna make a difference this close." "Only thing that's gonna make a difference is whether I'm crazy or not." "I could keep doing this all day, with every weapon in my house." "I swapped all the firing pins before I left the house." "I always do." "Looks right, need a micrometer to tell." "But the gun don't shoot." "That bullet you got out of that bishop was fired from my weapon, but a week before, at a can of stew." "I did take an oath to defend this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic." "I just didn't figure I'd end up quite this involved." "But at the end of the day, when all the dust settles, you can't hide from the truth, you son of a bitch." "Whatever." "Who gives a shit?" "Nice presentation." "But none of it sticks to me." "Gentlemen, this meeting is over." "Done." "I'll be seeing you." "He's right." "There's nothing to prove he did anything." "Yeah, in this country." "Sir, you should take a look at these." "These images are from a classified file showing a village of people in Africa that were exterminated by the colonel and his associates." "My God." "Look around you." "This isn't the Horn of Africa." "That's all hearsay." "This is the land of the free and the home of the brave." "And I'm free to go." "Colonel, your moral compass is so fucked up, I'll be shocked if you manage to find your way back to the parking lot." "Regardless of how I feel about this, these events occurred in another country, outside of our laws." "So that's it?" "That's the best you can do?" "This isn't the World Court, Sergeant." "And I don't have the jurisdiction to detain the colonel for crimes he may or may not have committed on another continent." " Sir, I urge you to reconsider..." " There's nothing to reconsider, son." "I win." "You lose." "Again." "This is ridiculous." "For the record, I don't like the way this turned out any more than you do." "But this is the world we live in." "And justice does not always prevail." "It's not the Wild West, where you can clean up the streets with a gun." "Even though sometimes that's exactly what's needed." "Bob Lee Swagger, you're free to go." "Unshackle the sergeant." "I'd say that's quite a shot, Senator." "In the face." "You heard that expression," ""You didn't know whether to shit or go blind"?" "You should've seen the look on the Attorney General's face." "Did he give his checks-and-balances speech?" ""This is about evidence and the truth!"" "And then you just said to him," ""Fuck you!"" ""Hold my cigar, Mr. A. G. "" ""Fuck you!" ""The truth is what I say it is!"" "You know, you got to be out of the country in the morning." "You're going to Ecuador." "Well, we're having some problems with the locals." "We have our personnel on the ground ready to neutralize the problem, but..." "Well, they've requested you." "It's solvable." "They requested you..." "Swagger." "Turn off the lights!" "Get my car." "Get my car." "Do something." "Do something!" "Where is he?" "He's under the floor!" "You don't need to kill me." "You don't need to kill me. lt was them." "It was them." "God damn it!" "Just wait a minute!" "Hold it just a minute." "Hold it." "Are you out of your mind?" "Are you out of your damn mind?" "I am a United States senator!" "Exactly."