The Point of A Gun by Steven W. Kohlhagen

We all know that the morass of all those 3-letter intelligence agencies in the government just do not trust each other. Each holds their cards so close to the vest that any possible cooperation falls by the wayside of interagency squabbling and jealousy.

What if someone way up the food chain decides to take their agency’s own data and supplements it with more data obtained by way of good old hard work by a talented hacker with plenty of deep web contacts. This group also has a couple shooters who will act on the intel and do so with impunity . . . under orders of course.

This vigilante group is good. Their research finds out what domestic terror acts are about to occur and stops the dirtbags in their tracks during the at, with extreme prejudice. To let the cops/feds left to clean up the mess, a calling card . . . SAMMS . . . is left on the bodies.

Of course, the government really isn’t all that pleased about a group of vigilantes on the job even if SAMMS really is protecting American lives. The President and a couple confidants reason that the head of SAMMS is the counter terrorism head from one of six federal agencies. Instead of a mole hunt, each of the heads are brought in to form a committee to hunt down SAMMS. Two are ruled out as possibles right away leaving four.

SAMMS continues to lay waste to dirtbags while the President attempts to ferret out a professional spook from a group of four professional spooks. The President is a bit out of his element.

The media and public have been kept in the dark with plausible explanation about the various killings throughout the US. But even as the number of dead dirtbags mounts up, the President starts to develop a bit of an admiration for the vigilantes, now referred to as The Paladins after the 1950s TV show. Even to the point of trying to bring them in to answer only to him with a twist. Provide the feds with the actionable intel and let the FBI make the takedown.

On one level, this is sort of a more modern twist on LeCarre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy where George Smiley must manipulate spy chieftains to determine the identity of the Russian mole. The President’s investigator tries to do the same thing. Leak some different intel to each of the four and see which leads to action by the Paladins. Think that worked?

All in all, a reasonable tale. I did break away from this about halfway through to read A Promise To Kill reviewed last week (BTW, that was a WHOLE lot more interesting). For me, this was a bit far-fetched, but well told. As a variation on the mole hunt, LeCarre did it a whole lot better.

East Coast Don