Herbie jotted all this down. “I take it there’s a piece of property upstate somewhere.”

Josh popped the end out of the cardboard tube and shook out a thick sheaf of papers. “There is,” he said, “and this is what we’re going to put on it.” He unrolled the papers and tucked one side under Herbie’s T’ang dynasty terra-cotta horse, and Herbie set his marble pencil box on the other end.

“As you can see,” Josh said, “we’ve got a dozen buildings, six of which have just been completed, four outdoor firing ranges, each with a high earthen berm to stop the lead, and two indoor ranges, as well. We’ve already got a five-thousand-foot runway in place, with two large hangars and a fuel farm. Mike bought a private field intact, along with another six hundred acres.”

“You’re expecting a lot of executive aircraft, then?”

“It’s more secure to fly your students in. We don’t want to arouse attention at a commercial airport—Stewart International is the nearest—and a lot of them will be bringing in personal weapons.”

“I see.”

“You ever fired a weapon, Herb?”

“Yes,” Herbie replied, “but in a coffeehouse, not a firing range.”

“Did that get you arrested?”

“It did, but I was released after a short time. I had a good lawyer who made a good case to the DA for self-defense.”

“Did you hit anybody?”

“Only the man I was aiming at.”

“That’s the idea, isn’t it?”

“I suppose it is,” Herbie said.

“I’d like you to come up to our place and do a course with us.”

“That would be interesting,” Herbie said.

“It will be more than that,” Josh said. “It will be educational, in the best sense of the word.”

“Then I’ll do it,” Herbie replied, smiling. “I could use some more education, especially since it’s something of a practical nature.”

“It’s a dangerous world,” Josh said. “It’s practical to stay alive and unharmed.”

“I’m in favor of both of those,” Herbie said. “Did you come directly to Mike from the Agency?”

“No, in between I started my own consultancy. That’s how Mike found me—we were competitors. It was smart of him to buy me out.”

“When do you start getting your first students?”

“Next week, as soon as construction is complete on the barracks and the indoor ranges.”

“Can I be in your first class?”

“What sort of shape are you in?” Josh asked.

“Pretty good. I work out five days a week at the gym in my building.”

“How far can you run without passing out?”

“I have no idea,” Herbie said. “I’m a city boy—we don’t do a lot of running, except in Central Park.”

“We’ll see how you do.”

Herbie was beginning to regret volunteering for Josh’s first class. “Running until I pass out would be an unnatural act for me.”

“We’ll see,” Josh said.

“Josh, forgive my asking, but what is the point of your boot camp approach? Are your students, in their professional lives, going to be required to run two miles without fainting?”