Gordon Dickson - Time Storm

“So he won’t get loose and claw somebody else! For Christ’s sake—” I yelled at her, “stand back, will you? Keep Wendy back-”

I was running out of breath. Sunday had forgiven me and was once more trying to throw frantic, affectionate shoulder blocks into me.

“Down, Sunday!” I managed, finally, to wrestle the leopard to the ground and lie on him while he licked cheerfully and lovingly at any part of my person that was within tongue-reach. I looked up and glared at the girl.

“What are you doing on this side of the river?” I snarled.

“He pulled himself loose!” she said.

I went on glaring at her. She was an absolute, bare-faced liar. Sunday would have choked himself to death on those chains I had used to restrain him before he would have been able to pull himself free. Of course, the girl had turned him loose herself, deliberately, so that they could both follow me. I knew it, and she knew I knew it; and I could see she didn’t care a hoot that I knew it.

Girl, leopard and woman—I could not do a thing with any of them. I looked around for something in my own class to tie into; and my gaze lighted on Tek. The man was two axe-handles across the shoulders and besides being six years or more younger than I, had that easy, muscular balance of movement that signals the natural athlete. He could, almost undoubtedly, have held me off with one hand while beating me to death with the other; but just at that moment, if I had not been occupied with the absolute necessity of keeping Sunday flattened out, I would have picked a fight with Tek for the simple joy of having something legitimate to hit.

I had dropped both the machine pistol and the rifle, necessarily, needing both hands to handle Sunday and Marie. But the pistol was only a short arms-length from me. I scooped it up, now, pointing it at Tek, and noticed that Bill Gault had maintained enough presence of mind to lift his army automatic rifle into firing position under his arm. In terms of sheer firepower, we two more than matched up to the hunting rifles carried by Tek and his men, and the dogs could mop up any other difference that existed. But then, Tek took me completely by surprise.

“Hold it!” he shouted, before I could say anything more. “Hold it—I’m with you!”

To my astonishment, he threw his rifle toward Marie and walked unarmed up to us and turned around to face his former crew. He grinned at Marie and nodded pleasantly to me.

“Just give the orders,” he said to me. “I won’t pick up my gun unless you say so.”

There had been a moment of frozen disbelief on the part of his men when he had switched sides. But now there was a general outcry from them.

“Tek!”

“Tek, you bastard—what are you doing to us?”

“Tek, damn it!”

“Tek…”

“Sorry,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and smiling at them. “I can tell when I’ve run into a better team, that’s all. If you’re bright, you’ll come over on their side, too. If you’re not, don’t blame me.”

Three of the five of them began to argue with him all at once. He said nothing, though, and gradually their voices died down. One of the two men who had not tried to argue him out of it finally spoke. He was a narrow-bodied, balding man in his late thirties or early forties, with a sharp, hard face.

“That was all pretty quick and easy,” he said. “Almost like it was planned, the quick way he went over to them. Come on, the rest of you. Let’s clear out and leave Tek with them, if that’s what he wants.”

The men shifted uneasily. I looked at Tek, but he was staring off at the horizon, ignoring the whole matter with an indifference as sublime as Sunday’s could be on occasion. But the other man who had not argued with Tek now spoke up.

“Sure, Garney,” he said. “Let’s all go off and let you run things instead of Tek—is that it? I’m sticking with him. Come on, everybody.”

He walked across to us and laid his rifle down beside Tek’s. But I noticed he laid it down carefully. It was a bolt action, and he had the bolt uppermost; and when he stepped back from it, he was only a couple of feet away from a quick grab to regain it.

Slowly, one by one, the others came over. All except the man called Garney, who had suggested they leave Tek behind. When at last they were all standing with us, leaving Garney alone, Tek took his eyes off the horizon slowly and gazed at him.

“Well,” he said, gently. “So long then, Garney. Maybe you better head off in a different direction from where we’re going.”

“All right, Tek,” said Garney, “that’s all right. I wouldn’t want to have anything more to do with any of you.”

He backed up a few steps, watching us. Then, evidently deciding that it was simply not practical to back the long distance it would take to get him out of our rifles’ range, he turned his back and walked swiftly away. He went off, up over the lip of the hollow and disappeared.

Tek’s men who had joined us moved to pick up their rifles.

“Leave them lay!” said Tek.

They stopped, staring at him; and he nodded in my direction. “Leave them, until the chief here tells us what to do.”

I became suddenly conscious of the fact that they were all staring at me; and that I was still lying sprawled out on Sunday, trying to control him with one hand, while I clung to the Uzi and attempted to keep it pointed, with the other. Sunday had quieted down somewhat by this time; so I scrambled to my feet, cuffed him lightly when he tried to recommence his greetings to me and faced Tek with his men.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s talk about this. I don’t remember hanging out any sign asking for volunteers.”

Tek shrugged.

“All I can do is try,” he said.

“Marc!” said Marie, sharply. She looked at me for a second as if she was going to say something then and there, then closed her mouth and crossed the little distance between us. This time, I was glad to see, she made it a point to approach me on the opposite side from Sunday. She came up to me and took hold of my arm, whispering in my ear.

“Marc, are you crazy?” she demanded. “Isn’t it better to have these men as friends, instead of enemies?”

I was about to answer sharply, when I thought better of it. I nodded to Tek.

“Ask him how he’d answer that,” I said out loud. “Go ahead.”

Something like a dark shadow seemed to pass across Marie’s face; and she looked at me oddly. But she stepped back from me without a word and turned to face Tek.

“I asked Marc if it wasn’t better to have you as friends instead of enemies,” she said, loudly and clearly. “He said to ask you how you’d answer that.”

“Sure,” said Tek, “if I was him, I’d want to know how you’d know you could trust us.”

She stared at him. He smiled back.

“You see, now,” he said, “I’m not trying to put anything over on anybody. I volunteered to join you all on my own. It’s up to chief there—what did you say his name was? Marc? It’s up to Marc.”

“And up to me, too!” said Marie, sharply.

“And you, too, of course, ma’am,” said Tek. “But—no offense to you and your dogs—but I’d worry a bit more about Marc, here, if it came right down to picking one of you over the other to have trouble with. Him, his pet leopard, and his friend there.”

He nodded to Bill Gault. I had almost forgotten Bill. Now, I called him over and introduced him to Marie, Wendy, and the girl, while still keeping a cautious eye on Tek and the others. All the time, the back of my mind was working. The truth of the matter was, if Bill and I were to dig into this business of the time storm seriously, we would need troops to take the ordinary work and fighting off our hands. Plus the fact that we might well be adventuring through a mistwall into a situation where a number of people with guns were needed.