by Simon Hawke
By now, the other people in the saloon were aware of what was going on and they had started to gather around.
“What do you say, Brocius?”
Curly Bill was aware of the attention on them. “I’m game.”
He took out one of his gun, and handed it to Clanton while Scott took out one of his and handed it to Finn. Then they each took their remaining gun and passed it across the bar to Frank Leslie, who opened the Warding gates, held them up one at a time, barrels up, rotated the cylinders and let the bullets drop out.
“Five each.” he said, after making sure both guns were empty. He put the bullets down on the bar and handed the guns back to them. They replaced them in their holsters.
“Anytime you’re ready. Frank,” said Scott.
Curly Bill nodded. They stood about three feet away from each other.
“I’ll count to three,” said Leslie. ‘On three, go for your guns. You ready?”
Everyone in the saloon gathered around. There was utter silence.
“I’m ready “ Scott said.
“Ready,” said Curly Bill.
“Okay, here goes.” said Leslie. “One…
Curly Bill flexed his fingers.
“Two…
Scott stood perfectly relaxed.
“Three!”
Curly Bill’s right hand darted toward his holster, but his gun hadn’t even cleared it when he suddenly found himself looking down the barrel of Scott’s Colt. 45. He froze.
Scott squeezed the trigger and the hammer fell with a loud snap.
“Damn!” said someone in the crowd.
Someone else whistled and the whole crowd started talking excitedly. Brocius simply stood there, staring at Scott, his eyes like anthracite. Clanton cleared his throat.
“How about that drink, boys?”
Curly Bill snatched his bullets off the bar, took his other gun from Clanton and stalked away without a word, going out through the double doors into the street.
“Some other time, Ike,” Scott said. “I feel like a walk, Jenny…
She took his arm.
“I’ll walk with you.” Finn said.
They went outside. There was no sign of Curly Bill.
“Was that smart?” asked Jenny. “He knows you’re faster now. He’ll look to shoot you in the back”
“He probably would have done that anyway,” said Scott.
“Scott, what the hell is going on here?” Delaney asked, as they walked down the street. “Drakov’s here’?” He glanced at Jenny. “And where does she fit into this?”
“I’m in love with her, Finn. And she’s in love with me.”
“Oh, Jesus Christ!”
“She’s the one who warned you about Drakov. He knows about me. He knows about you, too. That girl, Becky, is one of his.”
“Shit. Where is he?”
“I’m not sure. Neither is Jenny. Part of the time, he’s basing himself in Hop Town, in a room above an opium den. He’s also got a chronoplate stashed there, which leads to London in some future time period. Jenny’s not sure which. She isn’t told any more than she needs to know. He is protected there. As far as any other bases of operations he might have back here, she doesn’t know. We’re in it up to our necks, Finn. It’s not only Drakov back here. It’s the Network and the S.O.G.”
“Good God! Stone?”
“He’s S.O.G. But he’s the only one that Jenny knows about. The Network and the S.O.G. apparently don’t know about each other. And there’s a hell of a good reason for that. Are Lucas and Andre here with you?”
“Yeah. They’re over in the Grand Hotel. But wait a minute. You saw Lucas!”
“I did?”
Delaney frowned. “He went out on that posse with you. He said he saw you. And he said you acted as if you didn’t know him. He figured you were under surveillance from someone in the posse and knew about it. What kind of game are you playing here. Scott?”
Scott had stopped dead in his drinks. “He saw me?”
Delaney looked at him with a frown. “What is this? Are you telling me you don’t remember?”
Scott gave a low whistle, “Finn. Lucas wasn’t with that posse. At least, not the posse I was on.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Of course, he was there! I saw him ride out! He saw you, for God’s sake!”
“No. He didn’t. He didn’t see me. I’m beginning to understand what’s going on here. And it’s even worse than I thought. Finn, everything that we suspected about this temporal scenario is true. Not just one of the possibilities we considered, all of them together. The S.O.G. is here. At least one of them that I know about, but there’s probably more. There’s got to be. The Network is here. They’re running an operation out of the Clanton ranch.”
“You mean Ike Clanton is a Network agent?”
“Not Clanton. And not Curly Bill, either. The other one, Johnny Ringo. Only he’s not really Johnny Ringo. His real name is Tim O’Fallon.”
“O’Fallon!”
“You know him?”
“Hell, yes. He was one of Jack Carnehan’s field agents. You remember the Mongoose?”
“No. Carnelian was before my time. But I’ve heard about him.”
“So that means he recognized me,” said Delaney. “I thought he was looking at me funny. He’s got himself a new face.”
“Yeah, Johnny Ringo’s.” Scott said. “They must have killed the real Ringo. “
“But I still don’t understand about you and Lucas. How could you be on the same posse together and not see each other?”
“Because we weren’t on the same posse.” Scott said. “We were on different posses. In different timelines. Only I didn’t realize until now that there’s another Scott Neilson in that other timeline. That puts an entirely new twist on things. Finn, this whole damn town is one big confluence point.”
Delaney stared at him, stunned. “The whole town?”
“I was able to piece it together from what Jenny told me.”
Scott replied. “And she doesn’t quite understand it all. As near as I can figure, the location of this town is also the location for a massive area of temporal instability. It’s a confluence, but more than that, it’s that one-in-a-million shot, a confluence where both timelines intersect at the same, exact corresponding space and time. You’re the one who went to R.C.S., so you probably understand the Zen physics a lot better than I do, but as a result, the temporal instability here is incredible. It’s like… like the town sort of flickers, like a strobe light, not so anyone here would actually notice, of course, but at different times, first you’re in one Tombstone, then you’re in the other.”
“Holy shit.” whispered Delaney.
“The thing I’ve been batting my brains out about is what the effect of temporal inertia is here. It doesn’t seem as if the people from this Tombstone can cross over into the other one, and I don’t even know if the Network and the S. 0. G. are in the same timeline together, but apparently, we can cross over. Or at least you can. You have, obviously, if you’ve talked to Lucas, because he and Andre are in the other timeline. Or at least they were. Maybe they’re here now. Hell, I don’t know. It’s a fucking mindblower. But it looks as if I may not be able to cross over, because there’s another Scott Neilson in the other timeline and temporal inertia is keeping us apart. Either that, Or I’ve become too deeply involved in this scenario and I’m part of whatever’s going to happen here.”
“So that’s what Darkness was talking about.” said Finn “That’s what he didn’t tell us. And that’s why he wasn’t able to tach back here, or at least he won’t be able to until a certain point in time.”
“I don’t understand.” said Scott.
“Darkness isn’t sure what effect crossing over would have on his subatomic structure.” Delaney explained. “It’s unstable and gradually disintegrating. He seems to have periods of remission, for lack of a better way of putting it, but he thinks that one of these days, he’s going to pass the point of
no return and he’ll simply discorporate, depart at multiples of light speed in all directions of the universe. Being in the vicinity of temporal confluence could accelerate that.”
“Wow,” said Scott. “And he’s been living with that?” He exhaled heavily. “No wonder he’s so flaky around the edges.”
“There’s something else that you don’t know. Scott.” said Delaney. “Darkness is from the future. Not our time sector, but our future.
“I’ll be damned.” said Neilson, softly. He nodded. “That figures. It would explain a lot about him.”
“There’s more.” said Finn, grimly. ‘We’re not sure what time he came from, but whatever century it was, something devastating happened up ahead. Or is going to happen. Some kind of terrible temporal disaster He wouldn’t tell us what it is, but it’s got to be a massive timestream split, possibly even a chain reaction. And that’s what Darkness is trying to prevent. Actually, he isn’t trying to prevent it. because from his temporal standpoint, it’s already happened. He’s trying to change it. He’s trying to change history. Scott, and somehow we’re a part of it. Whatever it is that is going to bring on that temporal disaster is going to happen right here, in this scenario. Maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe five seconds from now, for all we know. And-we haven’t got any idea what it is Darkness wouldn’t tell us. It could involve the S.O.G., it could involve the Network, it could involve Drakov or all or even none of them. But Darkness told us that we’re going to be in a position to change it. And whatever it is we’re going to have to do, we’re not going to know about it until we have to do it, until the very last minute. Now I know why. Darkness is taking a big gamble. He’s putting his life on the line. He’s got one chance, just one, to tach in and tell us what to do… because whatever it is, it’s got to be something heavy. Something he can’t even give us a chance to think about. And he knows that the instant he arrives here, he might discorporate.”
“But he doesn’t know for sure?” said Scott.
“No. how could he? He’s gambling that he won’t. Or that if he does, he’ll have enough time to tell us what to do before it happens.”
“God damn it. It’s even worse than I imagined.” Scott said.
Delaney suddenly had another thought. He recalled back when Darkness had appeared to them in the First Division Lounge. He had indicated that the three of them would be in a position to do whatever it was that would have to be done, he hadn’t said anything about Neilson.
He racked his brain for what he knew of the metaphysical complexities of temporal physics, popularly known as “Zen physics.” Trying to think back to the problem modules he had studied back in Referee Corps School. He had never graduated. He came close, but he had washed out, ultimately because of his personality, not because of any inability on his part. He was convinced of that, despite the fact that he always told people he’d washed out because he couldn’t cut the mustard academically. There was no shame in that. In all the world, only a handful of the most brilliant graduate students in the field of temporal physics were selected for R.C.S. and it was one hell of an achievement and an honor simply to be chosen. But Delaney had realized early on that he lacked two essential personality traits to be a Temporal Referee. Patience and detachment.
In the old days-they were the old days now, although it didn’t seem like so very long ago-when nations waged their conflicts through the medium of the Time Wars, the Referees had functioned as the temporal arbiters, choosing and defining the conflict scenarios and arbitrating their results. Now, they functioned as a son of temporal high command, the final guardians of temporal continuity, a Supreme Court of time travel. It wouldn’t have been easy, for R.C.S. was brutally demanding, but Delaney could have become a Temporal Referee after graduating from the world’s toughest post-postgraduate school and serving a lengthy tour of internship. He would have enjoyed the highest pay scale in the world, commensurate with the most prestigious job in the world, but he would have been an old man by the time he had finally achieved his goal. And about midway through R.C.S., he had realized that he had misjudged his aspirations.
He didn’t have the patience to finish his schooling and go through all those years of internship. And he lacked the personal detachment to play with human lives as if they were nothing more than chess pieces. What he really wanted, he had realized, was to be directly involved, hands on, with history. So he had dropped out of R.C.S. and enlisted in the Temporal Corps.
He was already a veteran of many temporal campaigns when he had first met Lucas Priest on what was to become the very first temporal adjustment mission ever conducted in Minus Time, when Professor Mensinger’s worst fears came true and it was discovered that history was nor an immutable absolute, that it could be changed, with consequences that could prove disastrous. He and Lucas had been part of the team who were the very first Time Commandos, even before the First Division had been organized under Moses Forrester, who had acted as their training officer on that mission. It seemed so very long ago.
Priest had only been a sergeant major back then and had just clocked in from a hitch served in the Second Punic War. Delaney, himself, had been a Private First Class-again-and if anyone had told him back then he would one day become an officer, he would have laughed in his face. Half the team never made it back from that mission. Johnson and Hooker had both bought it and their names were the first to be listed on the Wall of Honor, the first of many. Too many.
It had been on that mission that they first met Andre, although their real relationship with her did not begin until centuries had passed. When Lucas had first met her, he had not even known she was a woman. She was a native of that time period, in 12th-century England, a woman passing as a young man. She had called herself Andre de la Croix and had carried her deception off so far as to become a mercenary knight in the service of Prince John. She and Lucas had first met in the lists at the tournament of Ashby de la Zouche, an encounter Lucas was never to forget, he had almost failed to survive it
They had met again in 17th-century France, when they went up against the Timekeepers. and were stunned to learn that Andre had been brought there from the past by a deserter from the Temporal Corps named Reese Hunter. Hunter had been assassinated by the Timekeepers and Andre had helped them to avenge his death and successfully complete their mission, after which they had brought her back to Plus Tom with them, to the 27th century. She became a soldier in the Temporal Corps. transferring to the First Division as soon as she completed her training.
They had served on many missions since then, but never one like this, never one where all the laws of Temporal Relativity seemed to be suspended the theories of Temporal Relativity. Delaney corrected himself, for Zen physics was anything but an exact science. Mensinger had never anticipated anything like the Temporal Crisis or confluence points. They had studied Mensinger’s theories exhaustively in R.C.S., pushing themselves to the verge of nervous breakdowns trying to solve the theoretical problem modules posed by the instructors, temporal riddles more mystifying than ten koans. What would happen if..
But the one hypothetical situation that no one had anticipated was the one that faced them now. What would happen if two separate timelines in two parallel universes converged in a confluence point at the exact same space and time? How would the Theory of Temporal Inertia be affected? Where and how would the Fate Factor come into play? What definition would apply to the Principle of Temporal Uncertainty? Or. given such a situation, could it even be defined? And what about the potential for a timestream split? Would it occur here and now or…
No. not here and now. Delaney thought, but in the future Darkness came from. Here and now, where two timelines intersected, the immeasurable surge in temporal inertia would somehow affect the currents of both timestreams, inducing a profound rippling effect, like a timewave that would gradually swell into a tsunami as the centuries rolled by until, somewhere in the future, it broke and… and what? Ultimate entropy? An end to all of time? A disaster that would mak
e all the prophecies of Nostradamus and the biblical Apocalypse seem like nothing more serious than a mild spring shower? He shuddered at the thought
“Finn? You okay?” said Scott.
Delaney snapped out of it. “Yeah yeah. I guess so.”
“For a moment there, you looked. as if the world was coming to an end.”
Delaney took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It is. Scott. Not only the world, but everything. And the Whole shebang hinges on one whacked-out scientist saying the right word at the right time. Then, for probably about one second, it’s going to be up to us.”
Scott moistened his lips and swallowed hard. “Nothing like a little pressure.” he said, with a weak smile.
9
The Alhambra and the Oriental were the last saloons left for Lucas to check. If Delaney wasn’t there, he only hoped that Andre would find him and get him back to the hotel. Unless Finn had picked up some sort of lead and left town to pursue it, he had to be around somewhere. Lucas couldn’t imagine him leaving town without letting them know. But there was no sign of Delaney in the Alhambra. Lucas decided to check the Oriental Lunch Room, which was attached to the saloon. As he entered, he walked right into the middle of an altercation.
“There ain’t a word of truth to it!’ Ike Clanton was shouting at a man sitting at a table. “I ain’t never made no deal with him! And if Wyatt Earp says I did, then he’s a damn liar and I’ll make him pay for it!”
“You’re a son of a bitch. Clanton.” said Doc Holliday, getting up from a nearby table, “and you talk too much!”
“Man goes spreadin’ lies about me. I intend to speak up about it and you ain’t got no say in it. Holliday!’
“You’re the one’s been spreadin’ lies about the Earps, Canton, and I tell you I won’t stand for it,” said Holliday, a dangerous edge to his voice. “And I hear it’s you been telling people I was the one held up that stage and helped King get away.
