The seventh enemy

Boston lawyer Brady Coyne is always glad to put up old friends, and boyhood pal Walt Kinnick is no exception. Now a celebrity outdoorsman with his own popular television show, Kinnick has come to town at the behest of the all-powerful gun lobby. What they expect him to do is straightforward enough: simply show up at the State House the next morning and testify, as arranged, against a gun-control bill pending in the legislature.

Naturally, such a high-visibility ally as the star of "Walt Kinnick's Outdoors" will make a perfect spokesperson for their cause.

However, on the eve of Kinnick's scheduled appearance, the two men find themselves in Brady's apartment, hotly debating the standard Second Amendment controversies with a bottle of Coyne's favorite Jack Daniel's for inspiration. By the next day, Kinnick has somehow changed his mind about his testimony - a surprise turnabout that catches his sponsors off guard and earns him not just their contempt but their sworn hostility.

Quickly retaliating in the name of public relations damage control, the gun lobby issues an official enemies list. In the top spot, as enemy number one, is the traitorous Walt Kinnick. Not that far below him, in the prize number seven position, is Brady Coyne, apparently guilty by association and still not entirely sure where he stands on the issues.

When someone with an assault weapon takes aim at Walt Kinnick, seriously injuring him, and then attacks enemy number two, the one thing Coyne knows for sure is that he had better find the methodically minded assassin before the assassin finds him.