Free The Knowland Retribution by Richard Greener Page A

didn’t matter. Time had no meaning. He had infinite patience. He established a vigorous program of physical exercise—rehabilitation for his abused and obese body. He limited his diet to a thousand calories a day, mainly eating vegetables, fruit, and soups. He drank enormous amounts of water. He stopped eating meat altogether. Once a week he allowed himself the small joy of a can of tuna fish. Although just an hour from Taos, after buying his furniture and initial supplies he never went back to town. For new supplies he drove all the way to Albuquerque, three hours each way, and he bought in bulk.
    During the first year Leonard dropped eighty pounds, scaling back to 210. He cut his hair stubble-short, grew a full beard, then cut it short and guessed that the cold winter turned it gray. He pretty much ignored the natural beauty around him. He spent his early days in relentless exertion. He awoke at first light each morning through the spring and summer. When the colder months brought shorter days, Leonard was always awake and starting his day before the sun. He chopped wood and ran up and down the hills comprising his land. He bought gym equipment in Albuquerque, trucked it back in his SUV, and assembled it in the living room of his cabin. Each morning while his coffee brewed, Leonard did thirty minutes on the treadmill and thirty more on the complicated calisthenics apparatus. He believed, and it seemed to be true, that the constant effort helped him control his dreams. They had elements in common and were always extremely unpleasant; some tore him from sleep, some tortured him within it. Those that did not involve his family had Dahlonaga in them, Barbara, and others he left behind.
    After the first four months, Leonard began collecting and learning to use an assortment of guns. In time, this occupied most of his time. Many days he rose with the early light, worked out, ate a simple breakfast, and fired his rifles until dark. At night, with a small fire going and the sounds of classical music coming from his radio, he disassembled, cleaned, and polished his weapons. He took enormous pride in this. Each piece of each weapon was cleaned and shined and laid out on the table in front of him. When the rifle had been completely stripped, he patiently put it back together again. He bought all of his rifles on the Internet. He spent hours researching sniper rifles and shotguns, scopes and ammunition. He liked it. He began to see these weapons as his tools, and he studied them with something akin to parental sensitivity. He had his favorites. He became a fan of firearms designers like Dr. Nehemiah Sirkis, with his Israeli conversions of the US M-14. Sirkis’s models became known as the M89s, with the M89SR one of the world’s outstanding long-range rifles, complete with a sound suppressor. Leonard envisioned the day when he could hold one to his shoulder and hit a target no bigger than a baseball at a thousand yards. He knew that day would be his. For the shorter-range targets he leaned toward the Yugoslavian Zastava M76, a challenging weapon because of its reduced ammunition loadout. It demanded a first-shot strike.
    Every weapon he found could be bought somewhere on the Internet. Many were very expensive. A Holland and Holland double rifle can be had, but only for twenty-five thousand dollars or more. Some of the extremely rare guns brought prices well above that—when they were available at all. Leonard spent months seeking a Walther WA2000, a semiautomatic rifle made in Germany. For accuracy, power, handling, and recoil, Leonard considered the Walther to be the finest gun ever built. Like the Sirkis M89SR, the Walther had only a six-shot load, but with its exceptional accuracy, Leonard did not see that as a drawback. Only a few of them had been built. He badly wanted to own one. When one of them became available, Leonard rushed to buy it. The Internet was his schoolroom; just the place for a single-minded