Chewing Rocks

by Alan Black

  Ben fell on top of the heap just as Sno, continuing her tumble, rolled out of the way. She expected Ben to follow behind her, but instead he slid his gun across the floor to her.

  Ben croaked out, “Brown coat. Grey hat.”

  Sno snatched up Ben’s gun and jumped to her feet. Almost everyone in the room was on the floor. Guns were drawn and held at the ready, but no one knew where to point much less where to shoot.

  All of the doors to the meeting room slammed shut. Carl Wyckoff had hit the panic button throwing the electric locks to seal the room. The automatic locking doors had been put into place as a protection against failure of the city’s dome and in this situation they worked perfectly locking everyone inside the room.

  Cleasemount started to stand up, shouting, “No one panic. I am sure it was just an accident-”

  Sno shouted her down, “Shut up, Terri. We got a shooter in the room. Ben Abramsohn has been shot and it wasn’t an accident. I don’t know whether they meant to hit him or me or someone else, but no one is leaving city hall until I find this s.o.b. So nobody move and I mean nobody. Everyone stay put unless I say otherwise.”

  Cleasemount said, “Miss Whyte, I know you are used to getting your own way, but this is my hearing and you can’t-”

  Sno interrupted. “I told you to shut up and I mean it. You can have this meeting back when I find the shooter.”

  She looked down at Ben. Hunter was lying under the man, but still trying to put pressure on the other man’s wound.

  “Thank you for the warning, Mister Hunter,” Sno said. “Mister Abramsohn, please go to your son and help Mister Hunter with him. Mister Hunter, who did you see?”

  Hunter all but shouted in fear, “It was him. It’s that Wallace guy. He is in the room right now.”

  Sno nodded and pointed at Sheriff Bob’s side arm that he had taken from Deputy Kramer. “You’ve seen this man before. Where is he?”

  Sheriff Bob shrugged from his position on the floor next to Evelyn Queene. “I am not really sure. I might or might not be able to pick him out of a lineup, but I guess I wasn’t paying much attention to him. I mean, I never saw him without Evelyn around and I guess I wasn’t looking at him at those times. Sorry. Let me up and we can start to clear the room one person at a time.”

  Sno shook her head. “Maybe we could and maybe we couldn’t. He has vanished on us too many times. I don’t want to unseal this room until we have to.” She looked at Hunter on the floor. “Will you point him out to me, Hunter?”

  “No. I don’t know. I mean, yeah I know what he looks like, but I don’t want him to shoot me when I get up to look for him.”

  Sno nodded. “Miss Queene, I suggest you ask your employee to put down his weapon and raise his hands.”

  Queene laughed, “He probably has you in his crosshairs right now. Why should he listen to me? Wallace does what he does.”

  Sno nodded, “Well, I am still standing. He hasn’t shot me yet. I expect he has a plan to get you and him out of this room alive. Killing me was probably a distraction to get you out. However, he may have underestimated the number of guns that came unholstered at his shot. You don’t allow guns in your court rooms, do you?”

  Queene sneered, “Of course not. We are not savages.”

  Someone shouted back, “I hear in the news all the time about people getting shot in court rooms on Earth. At least this way I can shoot back and he isn’t going to get more than one or two of us before someone takes him down.”

  There was a chorus of agreement, but no one so much as moved more than their eyeballs and teeth.

  Sno said, “I am sure if Mister Wallace were to so much as change the aim on his gun, he would be dead before he could squeeze the trigger. There are enough guns out to spot him quick. But, this is for everyone in this room; any shooting at all would be unfortunate. Any shots in this room might hurt more than him. Tell me, Miss Queene, don’t you think some innocent person might get hurt if Wallace starts shooting?”

  Queene laughed almost hysterically, “Why should I care about any of you backwards yokels, goobers and gomers?

  Sno said, “I expected as much from you. But, many of these people are my friends and neighbors. I don’t want to see any of them hurt.”

  Queene snapped, “Then let Wallace and me go. We get on a ship, you let us leave and no one else needs to get hurt.”

  Sheriff Bob said, “That is not going to happen. That is not up to her. It is up to me and to every other law abiding citizen of this town. I don’t take well to being threatened and I don’t much care for extortion.”

  Abramsohn shouted down the crowd. “Listen to me, Wallace. You are not getting Queene or yourself out of here, even if Wyckoff unseals these doors. I’ve notified my people already and we have deputies at all exits. They will stop everyone they don’t know. And they will not be gentle, so I suggest that everyone stay on the floor until you are given the all clear.”

  Sno finally spotted a brown coat and a grey hat. She shifted her aim slightly, but the small man was buried face down in a group of teenage girls. Without taking her eyes or gun sights off the man she reached down and pulled a stylus from her father’s pocket. She tossed it under handed. With her peripheral vision she watched it slowly arc across the room in the low, standard Ceres gravity.

  The stylus tinked softly on the back of the man’s neck, but he did not move.

  Sno said “Dad, would you watch my back please?”

  Her father untangled himself from where he lay on top of Vittie. “How do you want to play this, Princess?”

  Sno gestured with her chin towards the man in the brown coat and grey hat. She was sure her father would be able to pick who she meant out of the tangle of bodies and chairs all over the floor. She let her voice carry clearly across the room. “The only thing I can do is to just start shooting everyone I don’t know.”

  A sputter of laughter came from a few spots in the room. She saw Brandy Johnson huddled on the floor with Ernie from United Mech. Johnson was biting her tongue to keep from laughing too loud in the quiet room.

  Sno smiled, “Hey! Maybe I can mistake a few people I don’t like; sort of clean house.”

  A few more people laughed.

  Sno quietly stepped over two people who had been sitting next to Ben. She did not recognize them, but she had seen Ben conferring frequently with them. As she stepped over them the man rolled quietly to the left and pointed his gun in the same direction Sno was pointing with Ben’s pistol. The woman rose soundlessly to her knees and pointed a very small shotgun in the same direction. Sno could not remember having seen the woman with a shotgun and wondered where she had been keeping it. She would have to try to remember to ask her.

  Sno did not approach any closer to the man she suspected was Wallace. She said loudly, “I think I am going to shoot the gentleman in the brown coat and the grey hat first. Does anyone have any objection?”

  One of the teenage girls next to the man slowly raised her hand.

  Sno asked, “What is your objection to my shooting the man next to you?”

  The girl looked up at Sno, obviously terrified. “Um, how good are you with that thing?”

  Sno laughed along with a lot of other people in the room. She answered the girl, “Well, I have never shot anyone before, but I am not so far away that I would miss a stationary target.”

  The girl shook her head. “That isn’t what I mean. I don’t think anyone in this room could miss from this far, but see…well…I…um…I borrowed this suede jacket from my mom without asking. You hit this guy wrong and I get blood splatter on it, she is going to kill me.”

  Sno smiled at the girl and said, “I am sure your mother will be happy you got out of this room without being shot. After all, I don’t know you, do I? Maybe I should shoot you after the man in the brown coat and grey hat?”

  The girl sputtered, “If you get this guy’s blood on this jacket you might as well shoot me. Did you ever try to get blood out of suede?”

 
; Johnson called out, “Shoot her if you want to, Whyte. But you should know her. She is Spanky’s baby sister Donna.”

  Sno looked at the girl, “You’re Donna the Duchess? Damn, I guess I do know you. Okay, I have met your mother and I sure don’t want to get blood on her jacket. She would kill us both. So, Duchess, I want you to crawl backwards away from that man. Crawl real slow, you hear? And don’t worry about crawling over people. You just do it. They won’t mind one little bit.”

  Donna said, “Thanks. Can I take Chrystal and Sugar with me?”

  Sno said, “You mean those other two young ladies there with you who have exactly the same hair color you do?”

  Donna nodded. “Chrystal is the one with the blonde hair and brown streaks and Sugar has the brown hair with blonde streaks.

  Sno laughed, “And your hair is?”

  Donna managed a huffy snort, “My hair is all blonde and brown streaks. Um…look, I can vouch for both of them, but if you don’t believe me then you can shoot them right after me, okay?”

  Sno laughed, “You got a deal, just remember to crawl away slowly.”

  Donna and one of the girls began to back away. The other girl did not move.

  Donna squealed, “Come on, Chrystal.”

  The man in the brown coat and the grey hat spoke without moving, “I don’t think so.”

  Chrystal said, in a tone that managed to convey both boredom and disgust, “He has his gun pointed right at my eye.”

  Sno said, “Mister Wallace, I presume?”

  Chrystal said, “Shoot this bald old fart; I ain’t wearing my momma’s fancy suede jacket.”

  Wallace said, “Shut up. One more word out of you and I will shoot and then take my chances with Miss Whyte.”

  Chrystal said, “Yeah yeah, one word? Whatever! I got two words for you and they ain’t ‘firetruck youth’.”

  Wallace began to rise slowly, pulling the girl up with him. His pistol barrel never waivered more than an inch from Chrystal’s eye. He said softly, “I am standing up real slow. Chrystal will stand up real slow with me. I assure you I am fast enough with this pistol to kill this young lady and a few others in this crowd before you can kill me. And since I am wearing a series of pipe bombs strapped under this coat rigged to a dead-man’s switch, I can further assure you, if I don’t get you with my pistol, these homemade shrapnel packets will.”

  Chapter 27.0

  Chrystal shrieked and stared at the man. “Pipe bombs! You’re wearing pipe bombs? When you were laying there practically on top of me, I thought you were a pervert or something.”

  Wallace ignored her. “Miss Whyte, you do seem to be more problem than you are worth.”

  Sno nodded, “Yeah, so I have been told by the last couple of guys that tried to date me. The ball is in your court, Mister Wallace. What do you propose?”

  Queene shouted, “Wallace, get me out of here. That is an order.”

  Wallace ignored Queene’s outburst and said to Sno, “I don’t imagine you will let me walk out of here with Miss Queene and let us leave Ceres?”

  Sno shook her head, “I don’t think so. We are not real big on being threatened here. We don’t really take kindly to blackmail.”

  It was Wallace’s turn to shake his head, “Extortion, Miss Whyte. This is not blackmail. It is extortion; still, I do get your meaning. I do believe I underestimated the raw spirit your citizens seem to exhibit. However, I do need a way to get Miss Queene off this planet and back to Earth.”

  Sno said, “At this point that is not up to me. Miss Cleasemount hasn’t issued her findings.”

  Wallace laughed dryly, “Everyone in this room…no, I imagine everyone in Arizona City knows Miss Queene isn’t going to be allowed to walk out of this room a free woman. I can’t allow anything to happen to her.”

  Queene shouted, “Wallace, I had this trial beat. You know I did.”

  Wallace smiled sadly, “Well, almost everyone believes she wasn’t getting out of this hearing. Still, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get her safely back to Earth. That includes blowing Chrystal’s left eye out the back of her skull.” His pistol barrel had not waivered a fraction of an inch from the teenager’s face.

  Queene shouted again, “Wallace, Daddy will reward you beyond your wildest dreams when we get home.”

  Sno nodded, “Yeah, I get it, loyalty and all.”

  Wallace said with a sad smile, “Loyalty of a sort. Suppose I offer to trade myself for her? You just let her walk out of here, board a ship and leave. I will disarm myself when she is gone. I will then submit to whatever punishment you require.”

  Queene shouted, “Yes, that’s it. I go and he stays. This whole thing is his doing anyway.”

  Sno ignored Queene and replied. “Why would you give yourself for her? You love her, don’t you?”

  Wallace looked appalled, “Love her? Good heavens no. She is one of the most reprehensible human beings I have ever encountered. Let’s say for the sake of argument I admit the whole affair to kill you and all of this attendant foo-forah was my doing. I will so swear Miss Queene had nothing to do with it. Will she be allowed to leave?”

  Sno shrugged without her pistol barrel wavering away from its target, Wallace’s face. “That is still not my call.”

  Cleasemount spoke. “That would be my call. And all I will say at this point is that I will take it under advisement when I issue my findings. I won’t be bullied into ruling one way or the other.”

  Wallace smiled, “I gathered as much from what I have seen of these hearings. Maybe I need to explain how serious I am and why I bothered to come here for Miss Queene at all. Frankly, I could have left Ceres hours ago and no one would have seen me go. It is what I do, after all. But, where would I go? Unless Miss Queene gets safely home to Earth I would never be allowed to go home. As good as I am at blending in and not being seen, there are men who work for Miss Queene’s father who are much, much better. I wouldn’t live beyond twenty-four hours after landing on Earth if I allowed her to be hurt. So you see, she goes home or I can’t. And if I am dead there and I am dead here, then I might as well take you all with me. Do you understand our situation?”

  Sno nodded. “How about this? I challenge you here and now to a one-on-one duel. No arbitration between you and me, just winner take all. Because, Wallace, I am tired of this nicey-nice talking and I want this done. Right now. In the street. Out front. Winner walks away free, the loser doesn’t. Are you up for that?”

  Wallace smiled, “What about all of these other good citizens? Will they abide by the outcome and let Miss Queene and I go?”

  There was a chorus of “No.” and “Not a chance.” Chief among the voices was Sno’s father.

  Sno shouted the crowd down. “Shut up, everyone. Listen to me, as I see it we have two options right now. Wallace pulls the ripcord on his pipe bombs and kills a lot of us in this room, myself included. Or we can all agree I face him in a duel. If he wins and I die, then it is just me. We are trading me, Wallace and Queene for all of the wives, sons, daughters and husbands in this room. And for all we know, if his pipe bombs are a bit more powerful than he planned, they might crack the dome and then all of Arizona City is in danger.”

  Wallace suddenly looked up and blanched, “I am terribly sorry about that. I forgot we were in a domed city.”

  Sno grinned without humor, “Yeah that happens a lot to earthers. So, what do you say, Wallace? It will be just you and me in the street?”

  Wallace gave an almost imperceptible nod and began backing toward the door leading to the street. He continued to pull Chrystal with him; his gun barrel was never more than an inch from the teenager’s eye. He paused at the locked doors.

  Sno nodded at Wallace. She held up Ben’s gun for all to see and snapped the safety closed. She slipped the gun into her waist band. Turning her back to Wallace she said, “Mister Abramsohn, please contact your deputies and let them know we are coming out. I would appreciate it if they didn’t shoot Wallace or me. Tell them it is
okay to shoot Brandy Johnson, if they really have to shoot someone.”

  In the midst of guffaws and hoots, she continued, “Guns down and away, people. Please?”

  She looked down and saw that the man who had been next to Ben had re-holstered his gun. The woman’s shotgun had completely disappeared. Sno decided she really needed to ask her where she hid it.

  She looked up at her father. He was shaking his head; “No.” was all he could manage to say.

  Sno nodded, “Come on, Dad. You know this is the best chance for everyone.”

  Willem said, “No. It is the best chance for everyone except you. I’ve seen you shoot. You’re fast and good, but he is a professional and you can’t take him. So no, I won’t allow it. I’ll do it.”

  “Dad, please. You are worse on the shooting range than I am. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  Sno had never seen her father cry, but tears were streaming down his face.

  “You?! How do you think I am supposed to get by without you? How can I survive without my little princess? No.”

  “Yes,” she said gently and put out a hand, pushing his gun to the side. She looked down at her feet. “Vittie, please take care of Dad.”

  Sno looked at Hunter. He and Mister Abramsohn were holding Ben between them. Ben was pale and breathing very shallow, but it appeared they had stopped most of the bleeding from his chest wound.

  Abramsohn said, “Please get the doors open quickly so we can get Doctor Brown in here. None of my people will get between Wallace and the street.”

  Sno turned to Wallace, “If you please, sir. Just step slightly to the side so that the doctor can get through first? Thank you.”

  She looked at the head table and nodded, “Okay, Mister Wyckoff, please unlock the set of doors leading to the street and only that set.”

  Sno had to raise her voice as the door lock hissed and one side slid open. “Everybody, please stay where you are for just a minute. Please, please, please let Doc Brown get through to Ben. Then let Wallace get to the street and allow him to find his spot. And above all,” she was shouting to be heard, “keep your guns put away! This is between Wallace and me. I gave him my word. Please?”