Kill Zone: A Sniper Novel (32 page)

ASPEN, COLORADO (UNP)—
The body of missing billionaire industrialist Gordon Gates IV was found late yesterday in the rugged Rocky Mountains, police announced.

Law enforcement sources said that Gates had been killed by a single bullet to the head in an apparent hunting accident.

Gates, a decorated military veteran and avid hunter, was last seen Saturday night when he hosted his annual Christmas season fund-raising gala at his elegant home in this elite mountain resort. Some of the guests said he left about midnight in hopes of reaching a secluded canyon in which a rogue mountain lion recently killed two campers and mauled another.

“Gordon really wanted that big cat,” said his attorney, Wilford Stanton, at Gates Global headquarters in Washington, D.C. “He spent a small fortune on guides and employed military-style detection equipment to track it to this particular location. He felt the lion was a danger to everyone in the area, and wanted to be the one to bring it down.”

Sheriff Matt Randall said other hunters frequently had also been seen in the area stalking the mountain lion. “Mr. Gates was wearing a brush camouflage outfit, but not a brightly colored warning vest. Somebody apparently saw him move and took a hasty shot. The victim took a large-caliber round in the left temple and was dead by the time he hit the dirt.”

A police search for other hunters was unsuccessful. “We are asking anyone with information about this unfortunate accident to come forward.”

Gates Global, the multinational holding company, posted a reward of a million dollars leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.

Gates had recently been under intense government scrutiny for alleged corruption involving government contracts, and his firm sustained substantial public relations damage last year over alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Marine Brigadier General Bradley Middleton and the Syrian situation. The company insisted it had no knowledge of any involvement, and Gates invited the FBI to search its files and databases. Nothing was discovered that would link the giant corporation to the abduction.