by Tabor Evans
"Do it, Jessie!" Longarm mumbled to himself. The sky was turning gray with dawn's light. Every moment she waited increased their chances of being shot.
A stick of dynamite flew tumbling out of the shack, to land squarely amidst the half-circle of Danzig's men. It exploded with an orange flash and a roar, and men were sent sprawling in all directions.
Longarm cranked off what remained of the rounds in his "coffee grinder" as Jessie scrambled to the shelter of the rocks he was hiding behind.
"Told you I had a better plan!" Jessie teased.
"You wouldn't have thought of it if you hadn't been learning stuff off of me," Longarm countered. "Give me back my cigar!" He stole the smoke out of her mouth, and went back to raking Danzig's forces until the Brader gun clicked emptily. "Shit!" he fumed.
"Brought you a present," Jessie said sweetly, offering him two more magazines for the weapon. "You don't have to thank me."
"The guns!" Longarm heard Brader shout. He watched the short, fat man waddle as swiftly as he could toward the shack.
"He's out of ammunition!" Danzig crowed. "Attack them now!" His men began to break cover.
Longarm ignored Jessie's proffered ammo magazines, and instead put his hand on the top of her hat, pushing her flat to the ground. He threw himself on top of her, angling both of their bodies as close to the sheltering boulders as possible.
He'd been prepared for a huge explosion, but what occurred literally took Longarm's breath away. The noise was the least of it. The ground beneath them seemed to heave up and then back into place. The shock wave tore his own hat off of his head, and then the air itself seemed to disappear.
Seconds later, after the worst of the debris raised by the blast had fallen — most of it far beyond Longarm and Jessie — he raised his head to gaze dazedly around.
His ears were still ringing from the thunderous noise, but still he could hear the cries and moans of men lucky enough to have been merely wounded by the blast. They had followed Danzig's command to attack, just moments before the explosion took place. Danzig's band of professional gunslicks, caught in the open, had been chopped to pieces and now lay scattered among the wreckage.
On the shack itself there was nothing left but bits of flaming or charred wood. Brader had unquestionably perished in the blast, Longarm knew.
He rose to his feet, brushing himself off, and then helped Jessie up. Both he and Jessie drew their pistols, but held them uncertainly. There seemed to be nobody left to point their guns at. Those men not killed were lying crumpled and broken, crying for help.
Off to their right they saw Ki pop up from behind another rock. He grinned and waved at them, and then hurried to their side.
"It is finished," he said.
"Reckon so." Longarm nodded. "Any men still up in these surrounding hills will be taking off for greener pastures. This fight is over. Jessie, we…" He broke off abruptly. "Where is she?"
"Find the foreigner, and we shall find her," Ki sighed.
* * *
Jessie didn't bother to search through the rubble for Danzig's body. If he was there, all well and good. If he wasn't — and her instincts told her he wasn't — she thought she knew where she could intercept him.
She made a beeline for the corrals, a fully loaded double-action .44 in her hand. She got there in time to see Danzig leading a saddled horse out of the stable. His black suit was tattered and torn, and his face was smudged from the blast, but otherwise he seemed untouched by it. Obviously he had not followed his own orders, but had been careful to keep himself behind protective cover during the explosion.
An early-morning breeze fluttered Danzig's coat, revealing his holstered brace of Mauser pistols. In his left hand he held one of the Brader guns.
Jessie understood it all perfectly. The murdering Prussian intended to escape with his prize. Other gunsmiths could calibrate the parts of the weapon and duplicate Brader's invention. Danzig could rebuild his arsenal and start this nightmare all over again.
"You're not going anywhere," Jessie called out, leveling her revolver at him. "Except to hell!"
Danzig moved with serpentine quickness. He let the "coffee grinder" fall as he crabbed sideways to put his startled horse between himself and Jessie. The animal bolted away, but by then he had his own pistols drawn and cocked.
Jessie crouched down, and held her gun with both hands. I could have shot him twice by now, Jessie thought. Why haven't I? Was it Longarm's restraining influence? Longarm understood honor and justice, but that was precisely why the lawman would want her to do her best to take this man alive…
"You cannot do it, can you, madchen?" Danzig sneered. His blue eyes were bright with hate, his thin, bloodless lips were pulled back in a canine snarl. "I shall win!"
"I'm telling you to drop those guns," Jessie warned, doing her best to keep her voice calm and steady, doing her best not to show her own feelings of anger and disgust, flaring within her. How she itched to pull the trigger and blast Danzig into oblivion! But Longarm expected better of her, and she would not let him down. She would not lower herself to the level of this animal she had in her gunsights.
"I'm not going to kill you, Danzig," she said. "I'm going to turn you over to Longarm. Now drop your guns!"
"Do as she says, Danzig," Longarm ordered, coming up behind Jessie. His own gun was out and pointed at the Prussian. "There's no way you can get us both."
"Certainly not all three of us," Ki added, standing on Jessie's other side. A shuriken star lay balanced on his fingertips, ready to be thrown.
Danzig shrugged and smiled. "I am indeed outnumbered," he said. Slowly he lowered his own pistols and let them drop to the ground.
"I'll take it from here," Longarm told Jessie as Danzig walked toward them.
Jessie nodded, lowering her own gun. She kept her eyes on Danzig, knowing him and instinctively distrusting him. It was this instinct that allowed her to cry out her warning in time.
"Longarm! Look out!"
Danzig had dropped to his knees. A third pistol had almost magically appeared in his hand, snatched from his waistband. "Whore!" he screamed, aiming at Jessie.
Both Longarm and Jessie fired at the same time as Danzig. The reports of their three guns sounded as one. The two slugs hit Danzig in the chest, knocking him backward so that his own shot went astray. Nevertheless, Jessie was certain she'd heard Danzig's round sizzle past her ear.
She, Longarm, and Ki approached the still body. Danzig's dead eyes glared up at them. Jessie bent to pick up the weapon Danzig had fired at her. It was her own, .38-caliber, double-action Colt, the one her father had given her.
"I should have known," Jessie murmured. "Of course he would take my gun with him to add to his collection. It was to be his trophy."
Unbidden, Ki had gone to fetch Danzig's brace of Mauser pistols. He showed them to Jessie, then pocketed them.
"And I'll add those to the gun collection in my father's study." She turned to Longarm. "We've got to destroy that last Brader gun. "Men already do an efficient enough job of murdering one another."
Longarm just nodded. He stood beside Jessie, and together the two of them emptied their pistols at the infernal gun until the last of Brader's weapons had been turned into a useless mass of broken steel and splintered wood.
"Now it really is all over," Longarm told her. "Your war is finished. You've won."
Jessie did not answer. She walked silently to the ruined gun, removing a lace handkerchief from her pocket as she did so. Longarm, close behind her, could see that the Circle-Star brand had been embroidered in one corner of the fabric. She dropped the hankie above the weapon. It landed on the wooden stock of the "coffee grinder," and before a breeze could flutter it to the ground, Ki pinned it in place with a swiftly hurled shuriken throwing star.
"Danzig's confederates will come here to investigate what has happened," she said by way of explanation. "This will tell them that the war will continue." When she turned to look at Longarm, there were tears in h
er green eyes. "I'm sorry for what it is going to mean to us. But I'm going to carry on my father's fight, wherever and whenever I can."
Chapter 20
Longarm sat sprawled across the threadbare green plush of the railroad car seat. It was late morning, several days after that night of carnage at the quarry. He was on the first leg of his journey back to Denver.
Without Jessie.
As the car rocked and swayed across the New Mexico border, Longarm adjusted his cross-draw rig. He'd found his own guns — his Colt, his double-barreled, .44 derringer, and his Winchester — along with his holster, in the quarry office.
Jessie had begged Longarm not to mention the governor's role in the plot against her father and the state of Texas. It would damage the state's spirit and the cattlemen's morale to know that one of their own had turned against them. In any case, nothing could be proved against them. In any case, nothing can be proved against him with Danzig dead and Longarm had already wired a brief message to Vail, informing him that everything was well in hand, the case was closed, and he'd report in person as soon as he arrived in Denver.
"I still don't understand you, Jessie," Longarm had sighed. They were back at the Starbuck ranch, in Jessie's bed, where they intended to remain until it was time for Longarm to catch his train out of Sarah the next day.
"It's not like you to decide to let a man like the governor get off scot-free," he continued as the blushing Myobu served them a delectable meal she'd carried up to the bedroom on a laquered tray.
"He's not going to get off scot-free," Jessie said. She sent Myobu away and sat up, letting the sheets fall from her. She poured them both cups of hot tea laced with Maryland rye, and picking up a fork, she began to feed Longarm.
"I can feed myself," he laughed.
"I know, but is the duty of a geisha to do everything for her man," she insisted. She reached down between Longarm's legs to give him a loving squeeze. "And I mean everything. Open your mouth."
"Yes, ma'am!" Longarm said obediently. He knew a good thing when he had it.
"Anyway, the governor will be punished. I sent Ki…"
"Oh, no!" Longarm moaned. "I'm warning you, if you sent him to kill the governor…"
"Of course not!" Jessie said. "You've taught me a lot," she continued docilely. "Killing is a last-resort measure. I understand that now "
Then what's Ki going to do?"
"Well, he'll go to the capital, and visit the Governor late one night. He won't hurt him, but merely give him a good scare, inform him that we've got enough evidence to get him sent to prison in disgrace, and suggest that he resign his office and retire from political life." She smiled. "Once Ki lets him know that he'll be keeping tabs on the governor from time to time, I think the man will get the message and do as he's told."
"I'm sure he will." Longarm shivered. "I hope Ki doesn't get caught…"
His remark was interrupted by Jessie's silvery laugh. He had to smile along with her. Ki ever getting caught at anything was sort of a silly thing to worry about.
"And you still insist on continuing this vendetta?" Longarm demanded. "On following those leads in that notebook left to you by your father?"
Jessie's face went suddenly grave. "It's something I have to do." She reached out to caress his cheek. "Because of you, I no longer hate, and ! thank you — and love you — for that. And for other things. But I've got to fight my father's — and this country's — enemies."
"Just you and Ki, against all the forces those bastards can marshal?" Longarm shook his head. "It's too much."
"I won't be alone," Jessie reassured him softly. "Don't forget, all across the nation there are Starbuck offices I can call upon for assistance. Ki is already hard at work designing a special wagon to carry everything I need, and his arsenal of special weapons. He's been referring to it as our 'vengeance wagon.' We'll be able to ship it along with us on trains, and then rent horses whenever we need them. I don't know if we'll use the wagon all the time, but we'll have it when we need it."
"And you'll have me when you need me," Longarm promised, embracing her. "I hope you know that."
"I do," she swore, kissing him. "I love you, Custis. I wasn't a virgin before you met me, but I love you, and when you're ready, and I'm ready, I expect you to come and make me your wife for good and ever!"
"Here now," Longarm pretended to scold her. "I'll do the proposing." He grinned. "When I'm ready, and you're ready, I expect you to let me marry you for good and ever." He looked into her eyes, wanting to say more, but before he could speak, she pressed her finger to his lips.
"But you're not ready yet, Longarm."
"No," he had to admit. "No I'm not."
"And neither am I," she replied.
The lacquered tray clattered to the floor, but neither of them really heard it. They were too wrapped up in each other to let anything disturb them.
* * *
Longarm was startled from his reverie by a breeze blowing through the railroad car's opened windows. A marvelous scent had suddenly reminded him of Jessie, but what he had smelled was only a meadow of wildflowers growing alongside the tracks.
Smiling to himself, he pulled a cheroot from his pocket and lit up. Soon enough he'd be back in Denver, reporting to Billy Vail, and most likely getting saddled with another case.
Jessie had been right. He wasn't anywhere near ready to settle down. But when he was, he'd plant his roots alongside hers. Until then, Longarm knew that his tracks would cross Jessica Starbuck's whenever possible.
She was good, both in bed and in battle. But there were still a few things Custis Long could teach her… both places.
