Buried Treasure: A Jericho Sims Tale (The Adventures of Jericho Sims Book 2)

by T. Mike McCurley

  This was the part he had always hated. The part that for some reason seemed to follow him wherever he went. His opponent would try to stare him down or wait for him to make a move, and then time would seem to become fluid. Twitches of nerves in the face and hands became visible to him and Jericho moved faster than he thought possible at those moments. At least it wasn’t some idiot kid this time, sprawled on his back and begging for his mother as his lungs filled with blood because he wanted to prove himself against Jericho. It wasn’t a noontime standoff in the middle of a town where terrified residents watched from behind windows to see who would be left standing as two men squared off in a life-ending duel. This time, though, the opponent had a definite edge. The muzzle of the cannon Snider was holding looked large enough to crawl into, and Jericho could see the ugly flat grey color of the bullets in the cylinder.

  Making matters worse were the other thieves that had spread apart so that Akocha could not hit them all with the shotgun. Jericho cursed at the fact that he had led them into a situation with less hope than a politician’s promise.

  “All we want -” he began, but one of Snider’s men cut him off with a shout from Jericho’s left.

  “You ain’t gettin’ a damn thing, Mister. Nothing but a bullet!” The words came from the youngest man present, the one who looked to barely be keeping his temper in check.

  “Well that’s a mite disrespectful,” Jericho said. “I was talking with your boss here. Ain’t nobody said you needed to butt in.”

  “I’m gonna enjoy killin’ you, Mister.”

  Jericho looked at Snider. “So are we talking, or is your little puppy gonna bark all day?”

  “Puppy? I’ll show you who’s a —”

  “Chase,” Snider cautioned, raising his voice for the first time since they had arrived. “I am handling this.”

  The gunman fell silent and Jericho turned to smirk at him.

  “Just like I handled your sister,” he said, watching the blood rush to Chase’s face.

  “You son of a bitch!” Chase roared, charging Jericho.

  “Chase!” Snider shouted, but it was too late. The man had closed with Jericho, and he brought his gun hand down in a clubbing motion.

  Jericho leaped forward, throwing a wild punch that still managed to clip Chase on the tip of the chin. That was not his objective however, as his arm rolled over that of the enraged thief. Jericho checked Chase’s momentum with a shoulder and reached over the outstretched arm, gripping the revolver in Chase’s own hand and cracking off a round toward Snider.

  Akocha brought the shotgun down and it thundered with both barrels, slashing a hail of pellets across the thief in the checked red shirt. His hands opened, allowing the smoking scattergun to fall as he leaped to the left before anyone could shoot at him. His hand clawed for the Smith and Wesson on his hip.

  Snider started as the shot fired, but swung his pistol to target Jericho. Chase’s revolver spoke again, the slug plucking at Snider’s sleeve just as his own revolver roared. That round passed by Jericho to scream off into the distance.

  Jericho continued his spinning move, releasing Chase after a moment. The gunman staggered backward for half a step, trying to get his bearings. Snider’s second round took him just above the left kidney, devastating the man as it blasted out from his abdomen in a brilliant spray. The third blew his left lung into scrap.

  Akocha rolled through the sand, snapping off two fast shots toward the man in brown. He brought the weapon on line with his target once more as flame blossomed from the man’s pistol. The Chickasaw could feel the hot wind from the passage of the bullet beside his cheek. With a cry of anger for how close the man had come to ending him, Akocha fired again and again, two of the three bullets he shot slamming into the man. Langford managed another random shot, but the slug grounded itself a foot in front of him as his body began to give out.

  Jericho’s Colt streaked from the holster and he fanned the hammer with his left hand, riding the recoil through five fast shots. One took Chase’s leg out from under him, sending the man toppling to the ground, and one passed ineffectually through a fold of Snider’s frock coat. The other three tracked a line up Snider’s torso, the soft lead expanding as they entered and tearing ragged paths out through the killer’s back.

  Snider looked down in disbelief. His eyes were beginning to glaze as he realized what had happened. His arm trembled as he raised the heavy revolver. As it neared the aim he sought, his vision cleared just enough to see Jericho, arm extended out and the Colt pointing unerringly at him. He thought he could see the hammer falling for that sixth round, and then the world went black as a .45 slug hit him in the forehead.

  “Akocha!” Jericho called, dropping the Colt into its holster and dragging free the .36 from his back. He looked around through the heavy smoke clouds until his gaze fell on the Chickasaw. Akocha was grinning and actually laughing as he, too, scanned their surroundings.

  “They said you had the luck of Rabbit, Jericho Sims, but I did not believe it until this day.”

  “Day ain’t over,” Jericho said, waving away smoke and holstering the smaller pistol now that he knew the threats had ended. He drew the Colt again and upended it, ejecting one spent case after another before sliding fresh cartridges from his belt into the still-warm revolver. “The Lofa’s still out there somewhere, and my money says we just used up all our luck for a while.”

  A visible chill passed down Akocha’s spine and he began reloading his own weapon. Jericho snatched up the shotgun and slipped two fresh shells into the chambers.

  “Gideon!” he bellowed. A minute later, the Appaloosa trotted from the trees. Jericho shoved the ten-gauge into its boot and pulled the canteen from the saddle horn. He drank deep and tossed the canteen to Akocha. As the Indian drank, Jericho walked to Snider’s side and ripped the frock coat from his shoulders. He laid the bloody garment out on the sand and began going through the pockets. Akocha was soon following his lead with the other men. It was a matter of a few minutes to find the treasures the men had unearthed and gather them together, although the necklace was not among them. Jericho threw the revolvers and ammunition of each man onto the frock coat, tying it into a bundle for ease of transport.

  “Fair certain some of your folk can use these,” he told Akocha.

  Another five minutes search brought them to where the men had secured their horses, and they began the task of going through the saddlebags there. Akocha cried out in triumph as he raised the clawed necklace overhead. “I found the necklace,” he called.

  Jericho grinned in response and lifted a hand of his own, holding a thick stack of cash. “I found the payroll.”

  “Perhaps luck is still with us after all!”

  “Let’s not tempt fate,” Jericho said, lifting the leather bags from the horse and dropping them over his shoulder. “We give this back to the bank. There’s a reward. There always is. We take what we can get, and the folks that worked to get paid, get paid.”

  Sighing at the thought of giving away easy money, Akocha nodded. “A fine plan.”

  Their search concluded, the two men made their way back to where Akocha’s horse waited and started back for home. Jericho held the necklace in his hands, wondering how such a simple thing could be as important as it obviously was. It seemed to be little more than oddly-shaped beads interspersed with bear claws. On closer examination of the beads he felt his stomach roll.

  “These are teeth,” he said. Akocha nodded.

  “Legend says that when the Lofa was taken, that its teeth were removed to make the necklace.”

  Jericho’s eyes widened. “So they’re Lofa teeth? No wonder it’s so mad. Y’all got something against good old turquoise? Silver, maybe?”

  “It is the teeth that gave the shaman the connection to the Lofa, gave him the power he needed to hold the Lofa beneath the earth.”

  “And the claws?”

  “Bear is a healer, but Bear also protects. The claws allow Bear to shield His people from t
he Lofa, for it is Bear that will destroy the Lofa should it rise.”

  “So... Is that gonna happen sometime soon? Because, I mean, I’d really, really, like to see that sometime soon, if you see what I’m saying.”

  Akocha chuckled. “Bear has His own time to come.”

  “So do we, my friend, and I’d just as soon not have another night of monsters jumping out of the woods trying to eat my ass.”

  “We can hope then, that the presence of the necklace is enough to keep it at bay.”

  “Seems a mite more likely that it would want to get this necklace back. Wouldn’t that keep the shaman from burying him again?”

  Akocha guided his horse around a fallen pine, taking him a few paces from Jericho. “It should not wish to so much as touch the necklace.”

  “Well, I can see where playing with your own teeth could seem a mite creepy, but if it was the thing keeping me controlled I reckon I’d kill anybody that was holding on to it.”

  With that thought ringing loud in his mind, he extended the necklace to Akocha and grinned.

  “Here. You can carry it.”

  END

  Thank you for reading this Jericho Sims adventure. If you like it, I hope you'll swing back by the retailer where you got it and leave me a review. Good reviews help people decide what books to take a chance on, and they make the day of an author who knows their work is appreciated. They also let authors know to get back to work on the next one! Thanks again!

  T. Mike McCurley

  About the author:

  T. Mike McCurley lives in a small city in Oklahoma, where indeed, “the wind comes sweeping” and all that. He began writing superhero prose on a whim one day, and found it enjoyable enough to continue. His short stories soon formed the backbone of what became known as the world of The Emergence, describing events and players in a world of metahumanity that began in 1963 and has continued to grow since. From there came the stories of the metahuman cop known as Firedrake, which has now filled three books, with a fourth in the works. He is a founding member of the Pen and Cape Society, an online cabal of authors of superhero prose, and his Emergence setting will soon be featured in Lester Smith’s D6xD6 roleplaying game.

  His first release in the Jericho Sims series, Golem, reached #1 on the Amazon charts for Science Fiction Westerns. The stories of this cursed gunfighter and his encounters with the supernatural will continue, and a novel is in the works.

  In another (non-writing) life the author has been a radiological monitor, an emergency medical technician, a private investigator, a videographer, a certified GLOCK armorer, and a dozen other things too varied and goofy to list in one space together.

  His works can be found linked at www.tmikemccurley.com and at the Pen and Cape Society, www.penandcapesociety.com .

  Also available from the author:

  Firedrake Volume One: Meet Francis Drake – your average seven foot dragon cop with an attitude, sent to hunt down the worst of the metahumans known as geneboosters. Drake is the one the government calls to do the jobs no one else wants, and he’ll keep on doing them because every mission completed means more time spent with his brother, a booster in his own right — but in government custody. Follow along as he battles criminals, meets legends, and pisses off his boss in spectacular style.

  Firedrake Volume Two: Drake returns to service in this second volume, standing beside the legendary Patriot to crush a riot at the annual Lady Justice Day parade, fight the racist members of Humanity First, and become a television star. Since nothing good can happen to Drake without the universe kicking him, a metahuman brawler places a worldwide bounty of Drake’s head, and the worst of the worst are out to collect! A trip to a shopping mall proves problematic when you’re a dragon, as our hero finds out.

  Firedrake Volume Three: Anger management classes for Drake? That's part of the punishment when Drake finds himself in legal trouble after taking Soundstage on a trip to recover wanted fugitives. What will happen when the new "kinder, gentler" Drake returns to his job just in time for an attack on the safehouse where his brother lives?

  Tales of the Emergence: An anthology of short stories set in the world of Emergence. An indestructible man who fears only his own hidden nature. An angst-ridden teen handed the power of a god. A street cop learns what it means to be part of the team that responds to booster crimes. A night in the life of a boosted kid who wants to be a comic-book hero and encounters more than he expects. Many others that set the stage for the Firedrake series.

  The Good Fight: A free anthology of superhero fiction by the fine men and women of the Pen and Cape Society – of which I am a proud member. Contains an all-new Firedrake short story!

  The Good Fight 2: Villains: A new anthology from the men and women of the Pen and Cape Society. This one is for charity: James Hudnall, long-time comic author, is battling some issues, and the PCS has banded together to show that even Villains can help a good cause! Contains the origin of Professor Pain!

  Deep Space Mine: The horrors of global genocide witnessed by the occupants of a space station. Short and sweet, suited for a quick reading fix.

  Golem - A Jericho Sims tale: After witnessing the ritualistic murder of fellow soldiers in the last days of the Civil War, gunslinger Jericho Sims travels the world in search of their killer. Along the way, he stumbles into situations he never dreamed could exist. Following an encounter with a hostile native, Jericho is left with an arrow in his back and not much time to live. Will the scientist he encounters be his saving grace, or will the man's invention be the death of a town?