“So the Kid was unarmed?” asked Lucas.
“It sure looked that way,” the barman said. By now, they had an audience. “Jenny tried to talk Frank into makin’ Ross back off, hut Frank wasn’t havin’ any of it. The Kid just sat there, quiet as you please, tellin’ the boys he didn’t want any trouble. When Frank found out he didn’t have a gun, he offered to let the Kid use one of his. And right then Doc Holliday came in and got the drop on ’em. Made ’em both leave and as soon as they got outside. Virgil and, Morgan took their guns and led ’em off to jail.”
“So the Kid got lucky,” Lucas said.
“Well, that’s what Doc told him,” the barman replied. “Asked him what he’d have done if it hadn’t been for him showin’ up when he did. And what happened next. I saw with my own eyes. The Kid makes a move like this…” the barman demonstrated, crossing his wrists,”… and pulls out two little knives and throws ’em, so fast you couldn’t hardly see him move. And they went right into the wall there, where Frank and Ross were standin’. If you go on over there, you can see where they went in. Let me tell you. I’ve seen some fast men in my time, but never anything like that, not in all my born days! You want to get yourself a story, mister, the Kid’s the man you want to see. Hardly old enough to take a drink, yet there’s not a grown man in this town won’t step aside to make way for him.”
“Sounds like a fascinating individual.” said Lucas. “Where can I find him?”
“Well, sir, he’s got a room right here in this hotel. You stick around, you’re bound to see him and I’ll be pleased to point him out to you. Or you can head on over to the Oriental. Kid’s been spendin’ time down there, since he got sweet on Jenny. And there ain’t been much trouble down there since the Kid has been around, no, sir! Even Wyatt harp had to admit that.”
“How do the Earps feel about the Kid?” asked Lucas.
“Virgil he don’t care one way or the other, long as the Kid stays out of trouble. Wyatt, he didn’t care for him one bit and told him to leave town, but Doc Holliday seems to like the Kid and I guess he had a word with Wyatt. Anyways, since Wyatt has an interest in the Oriental, and the Kid bein’ there keeps trouble down, seems Wyatt doesn’t mind too much. But I don’t think he trusts the Kid, entirely.”
Lucas thanked the barman for all the information and left him a generous tip, then he decided to head over to the Oriental saloon.
“You might as well check out some of the local stores,” he said to Andre. “Meet some of the local women, see what you can learn. Respectable women of this time didn’t hang out in saloons
Andre grimaced. “Right,” she said. “I’ll meet you back here later.”
As they stood on the walk in front of the hotel, Finn Delaney came riding by He nodded and touched the brim of his Stetson. Lucas nodded back.
“He’s right on time.” he said. “Which leaves only Darkness.” He sighed. “Damn it. I hate not knowing what he’s up to.”
“From the way he talked, it’s pretty serious.” said Andre.
“Yeah. Here we are trying to pull off a temporal adjustment mission and meanwhile. we’re part of something in his past that he’s trying to change. Only he can’t tell us what it is, any more than we can tell the people here. The only difference is that they don’t know what they’re caught up in and we do. Or at least we know that we’re caught up in something_ God knows what.”
“There’s not much point in worrying about it now, since there’s nothing we can do about it anyway.” she said. “At least not until Darkness tells us what it is.”
“That’s just what worries me.” said Lucas. “What if he’s wrong? What if whatever it is he expects us to do back here isn’t the right thing to do? How the hell do we know?”
“We don’t. We’re simply going to have to trust him.”
“Yeah. He wants our trust, only he won’t give us his.”
“Maybe he can’t afford to.” she said. “It’s like he said, if we know more than we should, it could affect the outcome.”
“Only what is the outcome?” Lucas asked, with exasperation. He paused as several people passed by, then turned to Andre. “What happened in the future, where he came from? Was it a timestream split? A chain reaction? An invasion from the parallel timeline? What?”
“There’s no way we can know” she said. “We don’t know what time period he came from. Even if we were crazy enough to take the risk and clock ahead, we wouldn’t know which sector to check out. Or if we’d be able to make it back.”
“He made it back.”
“He’s faster than light. We’re not. Don’t even think about it. Lucas. It would be crazy. It’s against all the rules.”
“How do we know he’s playing by the rules?”
“We don’t.” she said. “Rut where he came from, the rules might have ceased to matter. We’ve got to trust him. Lucas. We have no other choice. Remember what he said. When the time comes for whatever it is we have to do, there’ll be no time for doubt or hesitation.”
“I know. I’ve been thinking about that. It tells me that whatever it is that’s going to happen, or that has already happened from his temporal point of view, is going to happen so fast that a split second could make all the difference. And that scares the hell out of me.”
“It scares me, too,” she said “But I have to believe that Darkness knows what he’s doing. After all. if it hadn’t been for him, I would have lost you.”
Lucas looked at her and took her hands in his. “I’m very much aware of that myself.” he said. He smiled. “I wouldn’t have come back from the dead for just anyone, you know.”
“Just don’t die on me again,” she said, “or so help me. I’ll kill you. Remember, you promised to marry me.”
He grinned. “That promise was extorted under false pretenses.”
“I might hold you to it just the same.”
“We’ll talk about it later. In about eight hundred years. Meanwhile, let’s split up and see what we can learn. I’ll meet you back here later.”
Jenny was sitting beside a dapper man who was dealing in a card game when Scott came into the Oriental Saloon. The moment she saw him, she whispered something to the man, got up and rushed over to him.
“Hi. stranger.” she said, with a dazzling smile. “I missed you.”
“Who was that man you were sitting with?” asked Scott, as he stepped up to the bar. Frank Leslie set a glass of whiskey before him with a wink.
You jealous?” Jenny asked, coyly.
Scott was surprised to discover that he was. That wasn’t a good sign. It wasn’t a good sign at all. He couldn’t afford to get involved. Or was he already involved?
“Maybe,” he said. “What if I am?”
“I think I like that,” Jenny said, pressing up against him and rubbing his chest.
“Who is he?”
“That’s Ben Stone. He’s the gambler I told you about. Came to town just a little while before you did.”
“About the same time my friends were killed?” asked Scott, softly.
She looked at him wide-eyed “You think he might have had something to do with it?”
“I don’t know.” said Scott. “What do you think?”
She bit her lower lip. “I don’t think I’d be surprised,” she said. “Not that I know he did,” she added quickly, seeing Scotts sharp glance. “Only there’s something about him… something strange. And dangerous. He gives me chills.”
You ever been with him?” asked Scott, uneasily.
She looked up at him. “Scott. I’ve been with lots of men. You know that. But that’s all in the past now. Oh, I still sit with cowboys and get them to buy drinks because that’s my job here. Sometimes I might let them put their arms around me. but no more than that, honest. No more trips to the back room. All that’s over now. It’s been over ever since I met you. Things are different now. Does it really matter what happened in the past?”