Sniper's Honor(2)

He made his typical decision on Jimmy’s invite: I’ll think about it.

Oh, hello, another e-mail, a nice long one from his daughter Miko at riding camp in the Berkshires, where she’d gone because everyone said she was so smart it was wrong not to send her to an eastern school and open a new life for her, and it followed from that that if she had eastern-style riding in her background, it would make entrance easier and give her a culture to belong to.

He took pleasure in the long answer he sent her, but when it was gone, he was still on his porch, his hip still ached (it always did), the wind still blew across the prairie, and it was time for another cup of coffee.

He fetched it, returned, tried to imagine where he’d ride this afternoon, contemplated maybe getting up earlier tomorrow for breakfast at Rick’s in Cascade, a ritual he always enjoyed, listening to the boys talk about Boise State football or the Mariners. Otherwise, not much seemed to be going on. And then there was.

That’s how it happens sometimes, just that fast. A new message from Kathy Reilly, off in Moscow, where she was the correspondent for The Washington Post. They’d had a Moscow adventure some years back, and found themselves simpatico, and stayed in touch. She had that dry humor, a needler and subtle provocateur like he was, and smart, and they liked to prod each other.

Swagger, what would a Mosin-Nagant 91 be? I know it’s some gun thing but I just get confused every time I Google it.

What the hell? Never in hundreds of e-mails had the subject of firearms come up, and maybe that’s why he liked her so much. The possibilities more or less tantalized him, and for a time he thought it was a kind of joke. But no, she wasn’t joking about the Mosin.

He played it straight, or as straight as he could with Reilly.

It’s the rifle used by Russian troops from 1891 until, roughly, 19AK-47. Long, ungainly thing, looked like something the guards would carry in “Wizard of Oz,” but solid and accurate. Bolt action. Does Reilly get bolt action? “Handle” which has to be lifted, pulled back, pushed forward, then down again to fire. I could tell you why but you’d forget in three minutes. Trust me. It’s 7.62mm in diameter, shooting a cartridge that’s confusingly called “Mosin-Nagant 7.62,” though sometimes they add a “54,” which is the cartridge length in mm. Roughly a .30-caliber military round, the equivalent of our .30–06, not that Reilly knows what a .30–06 is. It was OUR WWI and II cartridge. What on earth does Reilly need with this information? Is she going on a reindeer hunt? Good eating I hear, especially the ones with the red noses.

He waited, but the clarification was not forthcoming. Soon it was time to ride, and he got his lanky frame up, went to the barn, saddled up a new roan called Horse—he called all his horses Horse—and rode south, then west, then north again, three hours’ worth. It felt good to have Horse under him and the rolling meadows around him and the purple mountains on three sides blurring the horizon. You couldn’t feel sorry for yourself on a horse or you’d fall off. It was hot and sunny and that always improved his mood, and it helped that his imagination locked itself on the Mosin-Nagant and reviewed what he knew about it, what he thought he knew about it, what he assumed he knew about it. He knew, for example, that he had been shot at with it. First tour, platoon sergeant, Vietnam, 1964–’65, the later flood of Chinese AKs hadn’t begun so the VC were using anything they could get their hands on, and the Mosin from the Chinese was prominent. But they learned their lesson fast, realizing that the old warhorse, with its five-round mag and its slow bolt, was no match for the M1 carbines the southerners used, nor his own M14. Slowly the AKs and the SVDs began coming in, and you could feel the guerrillas learning the new tactical possibilities of the modern weapons. Good news for them, bad for us.

He got back, put up Horse, took a shower, and repaired to his shop. Current project: a round called 6.5 Creedmoor, from the Hornady shop, super-accurate. Possible future sniper round? That filled his mind, as it always did, saved him from the self, gave him something to plan and anticipate. He reloaded 150 cartridges, using five different weights of powder (varying by .1 grain); he’d shoot groups to find the best through a custom 6.5 a gunsmith in Redfield, Washington, had built for him. Then he showered, greeted Jen, who had arrived, and they had a light dinner. He didn’t get back to e-mail until the sun had fallen.

Reilly again.

Okay, that’s the rifle, but what about in conjunction with something called a PU 3.5? What would that be? What place is this, where are we now?

He got the ref to “Grass,” part of his World War I project from years back. Carl Sandburg: “I am the grass; I cover all. Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. . . . Two years, ten years and people ask the conductor, ‘What place is this? Where are we now?’ ” She didn’t know how appropriate it was and how not a joke.