Simon Hawke - The Six Gun Solution

Scott stared hard at Clanton. “If you really mean that, Ike, then I’m agreeable. But you keep your rustlin’ lowlifes away from Jenny or I’ll have something to say about it, understand? And I’ll be sayin’ it to you.”

“Hey.” said Ike, raising his hands up to his chest. “I got no problem with that. Looks like we understand each other. I’m happy we could work it out. Will you have a drink on it? I’ll buy. That goes for you too, mister.” he added, looking at Delaney. “Frank, whiskey for my friends here.”

Delaney was paying less attention to Ike Clanton than to the two men with him. Brocius and Ringo. Both hard-looking men, with eyes that met his gaze dead on. Gunfighters. Men who looked as if they knew their business.

Brocius shifted his gaze to Neilson. “You’re pretty quick with those fancy guns of yours.” he said.

“I hear tell you’re pretty quick, yourself,” Scott replied.

“I wonder which one of us is quicker.” Curly Bill said, with a smile.

“You want to find out’?” asked Neilson.

“Scott!” said Jenny.

“Hey. now, wait…” started Clanton.

Delaney took Scott by the arm. “Don’t push it.” he said. firmly.

“Anytime. Kid.” Brocius said.

“Now hold on just a minute.” said Delaney.

“Relax. Finn.” said Scott. “We can find out right here and now, without anybody getting hurt. You game, Curly Bill?”

Brocius narrowed his eyes. “What you got in mind?”

“I see you’re wearing a two-gun rig, too,” said Scott. “You take one gun and give it to Ike. I’ll take one of mine and give it to Finn. Then we each take the gun we got left and give them both to Frank, here, to unload. We put the empty guns back in our holsters and Frank will say the word. Then we draw and dry fire.”

By now, the other people in the saloon were aware of what was going on and they had started to gather around.

“What do you say, Brocius?”

Curly Bill was aware of the attention on them. “I’m game.”

He took out one of his gun, and handed it to Clanton while Scott took out one of his and handed it to Finn. Then they each took their remaining gun and passed it across the bar to Frank Leslie, who opened the Warding gates, held them up one at a time, barrels up, rotated the cylinders and let the bullets drop out.

“Five each.” he said, after making sure both guns were empty. He put the bullets down on the bar and handed the guns back to them. They replaced them in their holsters.

“Anytime you’re ready. Frank,” said Scott.

Curly Bill nodded. They stood about three feet away from each other.

“I’ll count to three,” said Leslie. ‘On three, go for your guns. You ready?”

Everyone in the saloon gathered around. There was utter silence.

“I’m ready “ Scott said.

“Ready,” said Curly Bill.

“Okay, here goes.” said Leslie. “One…

Curly Bill flexed his fingers.

“Two…

Scott stood perfectly relaxed.

“Three!”

Curly Bill’s right hand darted toward his holster, but his gun hadn’t even cleared it when he suddenly found himself looking down the barrel of Scott’s Colt. 45. He froze.

Scott squeezed the trigger and the hammer fell with a loud snap.

“Damn!” said someone in the crowd.

Someone else whistled and the whole crowd started talking excitedly. Brocius simply stood there, staring at Scott, his eyes like anthracite. Clanton cleared his throat.

“How about that drink, boys?”

Curly Bill snatched his bullets off the bar, took his other gun from Clanton and stalked away without a word, going out through the double doors into the street.

“Some other time, Ike,” Scott said. “I feel like a walk, Jenny…

She took his arm.

“I’ll walk with you.” Finn said.

They went outside. There was no sign of Curly Bill.

“Was that smart?” asked Jenny. “He knows you’re faster now. He’ll look to shoot you in the back”

“He probably would have done that anyway,” said Scott.

“Scott, what the hell is going on here?” Delaney asked, as they walked down the street. “Drakov’s here’?” He glanced at Jenny. “And where does she fit into this?”

“I’m in love with her, Finn. And she’s in love with me.”

“Oh, Jesus Christ!”

“She’s the one who warned you about Drakov. He knows about me. He knows about you, too. That girl, Becky, is one of his.”

“Shit. Where is he?”

“I’m not sure. Neither is Jenny. Part of the time, he’s basing himself in Hop Town, in a room above an opium den. He’s also got a chronoplate stashed there, which leads to London in some future time period. Jenny’s not sure which. She isn’t told any more than she needs to know. He is protected there. As far as any other bases of operations he might have back here, she doesn’t know. We’re in it up to our necks, Finn. It’s not only Drakov back here. It’s the Network and the S.O.G.”

“Good God! Stone?”

“He’s S.O.G. But he’s the only one that Jenny knows about. The Network and the S.O.G. apparently don’t know about each other. And there’s a hell of a good reason for that. Are Lucas and Andre here with you?”

“Yeah. They’re over in the Grand Hotel. But wait a minute. You saw Lucas!”

“I did?”

Delaney frowned. “He went out on that posse with you. He said he saw you. And he said you acted as if you didn’t know him. He figured you were under surveillance from someone in the posse and knew about it. What kind of game are you playing here. Scott?”

Scott had stopped dead in his drinks. “He saw me?”

Delaney looked at him with a frown. “What is this? Are you telling me you don’t remember?”

Scott gave a low whistle, “Finn. Lucas wasn’t with that posse. At least, not the posse I was on.”

“What the hell are you talking about? Of course, he was there! I saw him ride out! He saw you, for God’s sake!”

“No. He didn’t. He didn’t see me. I’m beginning to understand what’s going on here. And it’s even worse than I thought. Finn, everything that we suspected about this temporal scenario is true. Not just one of the possibilities we considered, all of them together. The S.O.G. is here. At least one of them that I know about, but there’s probably more. There’s got to be. The Network is here. They’re running an operation out of the Clanton ranch.”

“You mean Ike Clanton is a Network agent?”

“Not Clanton. And not Curly Bill, either. The other one, Johnny Ringo. Only he’s not really Johnny Ringo. His real name is Tim O’Fallon.”

“O’Fallon!”

“You know him?”

“Hell, yes. He was one of Jack Carnehan’s field agents. You remember the Mongoose?”

“No. Carnelian was before my time. But I’ve heard about him.”

“So that means he recognized me,” said Delaney. “I thought he was looking at me funny. He’s got himself a new face.”

“Yeah, Johnny Ringo’s.” Scott said. “They must have killed the real Ringo. “

“But I still don’t understand about you and Lucas. How could you be on the same posse together and not see each other?”

“Because we weren’t on the same posse.” Scott said. “We were on different posses. In different timelines. Only I didn’t realize until now that there’s another Scott Neilson in that other timeline. That puts an entirely new twist on things. Finn, this whole damn town is one big confluence point.”

Delaney stared at him, stunned. “The whole town?”

“I was able to piece it together from what Jenny told me.”

Scott replied. “And she doesn’t quite understand it all. As near as I can figure, the location of this town is also the location for a massive area of temporal instability. It’s a confluence, but more than that, it’s that one-in-a-million shot, a confluence where both timelines intersect at the same, exact corresponding space and time. You’re the one who went to R.C.S., so you probably understand the Zen physics a lot better than I do, but as a result, the temporal instability here is incredible. It’s like… like the town sort of flickers, like a strobe light, not so anyone here would actually notice, of course, but at different times, first you’re in one Tombstone, then you’re in the other.”