TW12 The Six-Gun Solution NEW (18 page)

"Pleased to meet you," Finn said.

"That was a nice thing that you did for Jenny," Becky said. "Those boys had it comin'."

"I thought so," Finn replied.

"Too bad that Jenny's already spoken for," said Becky. "But I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I was to thank you for her."

She stood up on tiptoe and kissed him. She took her time about it and she seemed sincere.

"You're welcome," Finn said somewhat breathlessly, when she broke off the kiss.

"Well now, I haven't thanked you, yet," said Becky, with a smile and a smoldering look. "That was just to introduce myself. Jenny, you'll send up a bottle, won't you, dear?" She took Finn by the arm. "Would you be so kind as to escort me to my room, sir?"

"Now let me get this straight," hissed Andre, furiously. "I was up all night, worried about where you were, and you were off getting your ashes hauled with some bimbo?"

“It wasn't exactly the sort of situation I could have backed out of,” Delaney protested, whispering so as not to wake Lucas, who was stretched out on the bed.

"Oh, really? What did she do, force you?"

"Come on, Andre, give me a break, for Christ's sake! It would have looked a little strange for a cowboy fresh off the trail to turn down a proposition from a woman like that! Besides, I thought I might learn a thing or two."

"Well. I hope she was a good teacher,” Andre said.

"That isn't what I meant, dammit!"

“What's going on?" Lucas mumbled from the bed. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, "Finn! What happened?"

"He was out getting laid, that's what happened," Andre said.

"What?" said Lucas.

“It wasn't like that," Delaney protested. He quickly brought Lucas up to date on what had occurred the previous night. "I knew you'd gone out with the posse." he said, when he'd finished, "and I figured Andre would try to get some sleep. The Oriental Saloon is one of the big social centers in this town and I figured if anything unusual was going on, there was a chance that Becky knew about it. I'm sorry if I worried you, but I figured that if I didn't make contact, Andre would realize I was following up a lead."

"Oh, is that what you call it?" she asked, wryly.

"All right, never mind," said Lucas. "The important thing is, did you find out anything?"

Delaney nodded, "Yeah. She knows a lot about what's going on in this town. Mostly stuff that we already know, but a few things that we didn't. Like about Ben Stone. I think he's a ringer. And I'm pretty sure that he suspects me, too. He saw me pull a martial arts move on one of those guys during the fight and if he's a pro, it must have tipped him off."

"What did you learn from the girl?" asked Lucas.

"He's apparently loaded. He's always got a roll on him. He rents a room in Fly's Boarding House, but he doesn't seem to spend much time there. When he's not gambling in the Occidental, or the Alhambra or the Oriental, nobody seems to know where the hell he goes. He simply disappears. Apparently, there's been some talk in town that he might be in on some of the stage robberies, but he was always around somewhere in front of witnesses when they went down. That still doesn't mean he's not involved, though. And after those three Observers were killed, he seemed real interested in the investigation."

"She told you about that?" said Andre. "About the Observers being killed?"

"Yeah," said Delaney, faintly puzzled. "Why?"

"Because it seems no one else in town will talk about it," Lucas said. "It's as if it never happened. When I spoke to Wyatt Earp, he claimed he didn't know anything about it, had never even heard of anyone named Summers. Billings or McEnery."

"You're kidding," said Delaney, startled.

"It's as if somebody went around to everyone in town and told them not to talk about it," Andre said. "They all act as if it simply never happened. As if those men had never even been here."

"That doesn't make any sense," Delaney said, mystified. "The whole town?"

"Well, apparently not the whole town," Andre said, "since Becky spoke to you about it. But when we first got in, we spoke to the bartender here in the hotel, Andrew Mehan, and he talked about it. Later, when I asked him again, he denied he'd ever said anything and looked at me like I was drunk or something.”

"That's weird,” said Delaney. "What the hell is going on?"

"That's what I'd like to know,” said Lucas.

"You get a chance to make contact with Neilson on the posse?" Finn asked.

Lucas shook his head. "He acted as if he didn't know me. I figure whoever's behind all this, one or more of them were on the posse and Scott knew that he was being watched."

"You figure it's the Network?" asked Delaney.

"I don't know," Lucas replied. "If it is, there's a good chance we might have been blown as soon as we got into town. We're known to some of those people. But it could also be the S.O.G. One way or another, we'll probably find out before too long, because someone's bound to make a move against us."

"What bothers me is why suddenly no one will talk about those murders,"Andre said. "Could it be possible that the Network is actually in control of this whole town?"

"I wouldn't have thought so," said Delaney. "But I can't think of any other explanation." He compressed his lips into a tight grimace. "I'll bet that bastard, Darkness, knows. Only he's not going to tell us anything until he's good and ready. And then we won't have any time to think about it. Son of a bitch. Just once, I'd like to get my hands on him. ."

“I keep thinking that there's something we're not seeing," Lucas said. "Something we're not taking into account. So far, we're just floundering around back here, waiting for something to happen. I don't like it. I've got a real bad feeling about this whole thing."

"We're going to have to make contact with Neilson as soon as he gets back," Delaney said. "He's got to know something. Something must have happened between the time he clocked in with his report and the time we got here.”

"Obviously," said Lucas. "Only what?"

"He's apparently become involved with Jenny Reilly, who works at the saloon," Delaney said. "From the way she spoke, it sounded pretty serious."

“You apparently got yourself involved, as well," said Andre.

"I went to bed with Becky," said Delaney. "I'm not 'involved' with her. This sounds different. The Montana Kid and Jenny Reilly seem to have become an item in this town. Did you have a chance to check out that other guy Neilson mentioned in his report? The gunsmith, Zeke Bailey?"

“He's dead." said Lucas. "He was murdered at his home just outside of town by person or persons unknown. Shot with a .45."

"That's interesting," Delaney said. "You think he might have been killed to keep us from talking to him?"

“I don't know what to think," said Lucas. "I'm not even sure where to start."

"I am," said Delaney. "Ben Stone."

There were things that went on in Hop Town that no one else in Tombstone knew about. The Chinese had a very closed community. There were a lot of them living in a relatively small space and the other residents of Tombstone tended to avoid the area. Not out of fear, but out of bigotry. They didn't like being around them. They liked having them do their laundry, they liked having them perform menial jobs and hard labor in the mines and on the railroad, mainly because they worked cheaply, and they liked having them as cooks, so long as they didn't cook that slop they ate themselves, but when it came to treating them as equals, that idea simply didn't occur to anyone. They were, after all, the "heathen Chinese," an inferior race altogether, with their own incomprehensible language, customs and beliefs. They were different and it was better if they just kept off to themselves.

The law in Tombstone did not overly concern itself with what went on down there in Hop Town. If they wanted to cook their funny-smelling food, and smoke their opium and gamble in their own establishments and chant and light their prayer sticks and have their own little internecine conflicts, so long as the trouble didn't spill outside of Hop Town, nobody really gave a damn. After all, they had to live somewhere, didn't they, and as long as they kept to themselves and didn't cause any trouble and stayed out of the way, let them live any damn way they pleased. So Tombstone had its own little Chinese ghetto and, for Nikolai Drakov, that had certain advantages.

With their superstitious beliefs in magic and mysticism, instilling fear in them had been pathetically easy. Intimidating the leaders of the community had posed no problem whatsoever. In effect, he now controlled an entire section of Tombstone and because of the close-knit, segregated nature of the Chinese community, no one in town even suspected it. It had, however, involved a certain element of risk.

For a time, it had been necessary for him to be visible in Tombstone as Nathan Drake. He had tried to keep that to a minimum, but it had been necessary in order to make his preparations. He had eliminated the threat of the Observers, but he had been concerned about the Network and the Special Operations Group. The unique nature of this time sector was such that none of those groups was as yet aware of the others, except that the Network had discovered Bailey's secret, that he was a deserter from the Temporal Corps, a member of the Underground. Bailey had become careless and he had paid the price for it. Now he was dead. The situation was starting to develop rapidly. The temporal instability was increasing and Drakov wondered how long it would take for the Network, the S.O.G. and the T.I.A. agents to realize what was going on. With luck, by the time they put it all together, it would be too late.

He turned as the women came into the room. It was an elegant study, furnished comfortably in the best Victorian style, a room above the opium parlor.

All the residents of Hop Town knew about it; no one else did. They knew that this was where the powerful sorcerer lived and they treated him with utmost, groveling respect whenever they came in contact with him. Otherwise, they gave him a wide berth.

"They're here," said Becky. "I spent the night with one of them. His name is Finn Delaney. He asked a lot of questions."

Drakov smiled as he drew on his long pipe. "Excellent."

“And two more strangers have just arrived in town." said Becky. "They've been asking a lot of questions, too. A man and his wife. The man's name is Priest and he's a writer from back East. His wife's name is Andrea and she is his assistant. Priest went out with the posse looking for the stage robbers. His wife stayed in town, going into all the stores and asking questions."

"Lucas Priest and Andre Cross." said Drakov. "My old enemies. They're not even bothering to use false names. That means they're uncertain of the situation. They have devised a cover for themselves, but they've kept their real names, in an effort to draw out whoever might recognize those names. Which means that they suspect the Network. They undoubtedly have reinforcements waiting to clock in whenever they give the signal. Perfect. Only we're not quite ready for that yet. We need to keep them off-balance for just a little while longer. Mr. Stone should serve that purpose admirably. Have you been able to direct their suspicions toward him?"

"I've spoken to Scott about him," said Jenny. "I've told him that I had been with Stone and that he was very rough with me, that there is something very strange about him, something that frightens me. And that no one really knows anything about him, who he is or where he really came from."

"Finn Delaney asked about him, as well.” said Becky. "He already seems to suspect him. I told him that Stone spends most of his time gambling in various saloons, but that when he isn't gambling, no one seems to know where he goes. Stone acts mysterious and secretive."

"Good," said Drakov." "Very good, indeed."

"What about Scott Neilson?" Jenny asked, hesitantly.

"You've established a relationship with him," Drakov replied. "I want you to maintain it. Keep him off-balance, emotionally. He will draw the attention of the Network while the others will be preoccupied with Stone. They will suspect that Stone is a Network man, himself. Meanwhile, Stone will bring in his fellow S.O.G. agents to move against the T.I.A." He chuckled. "That will accelerate the instability. Things are about to become quite interesting."

"Will it be necessary for Scott to die?" asked Jenny, softly. Becky glanced at her, puzzled.

Drakov gave her a long, appraising look. "Are you becoming emotionally involved, Jennifer?"

Jenny looked down at the floor. "I . . . I think I’m in love with him."

Drakov raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

“It's what I feel when I'm with him," Jenny replied, unable to look her master in the eyes. "He is so kind and gentle, when he touches me, he ... He makes me feel something that I've never felt with any other man."

“Oh, I see," said Drakov. “That is merely lust. A purely physiological response. Men of this time period, of most time periods for that matter, are not very sensitive to women's emotional needs, which are much more bound up with the physical than male needs are. Neilson is apparently more perceptive. I suppose he has brought you to orgasm. It was probably your first. But that is only a physical sensation. Jennifer, A biological response."

“But . . . but it feels so overwhelming," Jenny said.

“Indeed, it does," said Drakov. "But it is most emphatically not love. I know something of how you must feel. I made the same mistake myself once, many years ago, much to my regret. You were created from human genetic material, Jennifer, and so you are subject to the same procreative urges humans are. Those feelings can be very powerful and there is no reason why you should not enjoy them at every opportunity. In fact, the more frequently you indulge them, the quicker the novelty will wear off and you will find those feelings diminishing in intensity. Because it is merely sex. Love is something else, entirely."

"How is it different?" Jenny asked.

"It arises from shared values and mutual respect," said Drakov. "And your values and Neilson's could never be the same, Jennifer. You are not human. If Neilson knew that, he could never respect you. He would, in fact, be furious at having been deceived. I have told you that if he suspected your true nature, he would kill you. The only reason he treats you as he does is because he does not know what you really are. And even believing you to be human, like himself, he wishes to manipulate you, to use you to help him on his mission. If he truly loved you, he would be honest with you."