“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.
‘I don’t know nothin’ about that,” Clanton protested. “And I don’t know nothing about no reward for Leonard, Head and Crane, neither. It’s your friend Wyatt Earp’s been tellin’ folks I made a deal with him in secret to double-cross those three for the reward and I ain’t never done no such thing!”
“You’re a liar, Clanton.” Holliday replied. “You’d sell out your own mother for a dollar. I’ve had about enough of you and your damn mouth Jerk your pistol!”
“I’m not heeled.” said Clanton, nervously. “Hell, you know the law.”
“Yeah, and it seems like you obey it only when it’s convenient for you.” Holliday replied.
The door behind Lucas opened and Virgil Earp came in. Apparently. someone had run to fetch him.
“Trouble, Doc?” said Virgil.
“Clanton here’s been spreadin’ lies about us all over town,” said Holliday. “I’ve had about enough of it. You talk big, Clanton. Let’s see how big you are. You want a fight, you son of a bitch, you can damn well have one!”
“I told him I’m not heeled,” Clanton said to Virgil. “I ain’t breakin’ any laws.”
“You’re a liar.” Holliday said. “If you haven’t got a gun, then go and get one! I’ll wait right here!”
“I’m not going to have any shooting around here. Doc.” said Virgil. “Come on, let’s step outside and talk about this.”
“I’m through talkin’! And I’m through listenin’ to this lyin’ rustler, too!”
‘Doc, I’m askin’ you as a friend,” Virgil said. “Let’s go. Let Clanton have his mouth. He’s just a blowhard, everybody knows it.”
Clanton glared at Virgil, but said nothing.
Doc pointed his finger at Clanton. “I’m not through with you, you bastard. This ain’t finished!”
He walked out with Virgil
You heard him!” Clanton said, to the people in the room. “You heard him threaten me! That’s what this town has come to! Outlaws like Doc Holliday can threaten law-abiding citizens just because he’s got the Earps there to protect him! Now they’re goin’ around thrown?’ dirt on my good name! Well, if they want a fight, then Ike Clanton will oblige them!”
Lucas beat a hasty retreat before he got caught in the middle of something. He knew what this was all about and he knew what it was leading up to. Wells Fargo had offered a reward for the capture of the outlaws who had killed Bud Philpot and tried to rob the stage Leonard. Head and Crane had managed to elude the posse and Wyatt Earp was still smarting from it. He wanted the glory of capturing the outlaws and he hoped to do it before the next election, when he planned to run for sheriff against Johnny Behan.
According to history, he’d secretly offered a deal to Ike Clanton. Frank McLaury and another rustler named Joe Hill, to trap the outlaws. And rather than manifest the outrage that he claimed to have over being asked to betray his friends, all Ike Clanton had wanted to know was if the reward was good dead or alive. Obviously, if the outlaws were killed, they’d never be around to tell the other rustlers who betrayed them. And the size of the reward was more than a suitable inducement.
Ike was going to set them up for an ambush and then collect the reward, only nothing ever came of it because Leonard and head were killed in an attempted store robbery in Hatchita. New Mexico and Crane was killed shortly thereafter, rustling cattle with Old Man Clanton, Ike’s father. However, word of the deal leaked out and soon spread all over town, primarily because of Canton’s vocal protestations to anyone who’d listen. It only added to the bad blood between the Clantons, the McLaurys and the Earps and it would lead to the most famous gunfight in western history-the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral.
The situation in Tombstone was tense enough without agents from the future contributing to temporal instability in the time sector. Lucas only hoped that whatever was supposed to happen would happen soon. Yet, at the same time, he wasn’t ready for it. He hurried down the street to the Oriental Saloon.
Delaney wasn’t there, either. Cursing to himself. Lucas hurried back to the hotel. He had the terrible feeling that he was running out of time, he hoped Andre had found Delaney. They had to tell him about Scott. Somehow, Lucas was certain. Scott Neilson was the key to the whole thing. Only what, exactly, were they supposed to do? And when? There was still no sign of Darkness. Why was he cutting it so close?
He ran into the hotel and hurried up the stairs to their room. Andre was already there. There was no sign of Finn Delaney.
You didn’t find him?” she asked, anxiously.
Lucas shook his head. “I looked everywhere. I can’t imagine where he could have gone.”
“He hasn’t been in at the boarding house all day.” she said. “And he hasn’t been seen in any of the other places that I checked. Hell, they didn’t even know who the hell he was. You’d think they’d remember a guy built like a gorilla with red hair and a beard.”
“Something may have happened to him,” Lucas said. “Maybe he pushed Stone too close. Christ. Where haven’t we checked?”
Neither Lucas nor Andre were registered at the Grand Hotel. Delaney stared at the desk clerk with astonishment. “Are you sure?” he asked.
“We don’t have anyone by the name of Priest registered here, mister,” said the desk clerk. “You must have made a mistake.”
“Finn,” said Neilson, from behind him.
“Excuse me.” Delaney said to the desk clerk and went over to join Scott and Jenny.
“They’re not at this hotel.” said Scott. “They’re at the other Grand Hotel, in the other timeline. It’s me. Somehow, you’ve been crossing over from one timeline to the other, but you can’t do it now because of me. There’s another Scott Neilson over there and if I crossed over, it would be a temporal anomaly.”
Delaney frowned. “That doesn’t make sense.” he said. “Lucas had a double in the other universe and he was able to cross over. Why should I be prevented from crossing over because of you? And why should you be prevented from crossing over?”
“Come on, Finn. you must have figured it out by now,” said Scott. “There’s only one explanation that makes any sort of sense. It’s not the Network, it’s not the S.O.G., it isn’t Drakov, it’s me, the focal point of the disruption. Whatever’s going to happen here. I’m at the center of the instability and when it reaches the breaking point. I’m the one who’s going to trigger it somehow. Jenny, excuse us for a moment.”