Jenny ran down Fourth Street, past Hafford’s Corner and Spangenberg’s Gun Shop, heading toward Fremont. The Aztec Rooming House, where Finn Delaney lived, was on the corner of Fremont and Third. She held her skirts up as she ran, past the Post Office and around, The corner of the Capitol Saloon. Turning left on Fremont. She ran past the Papago Cash Store and Bauer’s Meat Market, with the alley between it that led to the back entrance of the O.K. Corral, which fronted on Allen Street. She passed the Assay Office and Fly’s Boarding House, past the vacant lot between Fly’s Boarding House and Photo Studio and the Harwood house, and she was almost to the corner of Third and Fremont when she heard the shots.
She stopped short, breathing hard. Her heart was hammering in her chest like a wild thing trying to claw its way out. She heard gunfire, but she also saw strange flashes of light, incredibly bright, thin beams lancing out across the street, from one rooftop to the other. Lasers, she thought. Like the weapons that the Master used. She was too late. It had already started. She turned and started running back the other way. All she could think of now was Scott, and Wyatt Earp was on his way to arrest him. Running as fast as she possibly could, she raced back down Fourth Street, heading toward the hotel. Somehow, she had to keep Wyatt from arresting Scott. Scott’s friends were in trouble and they needed him.
She stopped as she passed Spangenberg’s Gun Store. She ran up onto the sidewalk and snatched up one of the wooden chairs George Spangenberg kept outside the shop, so that he and his customers could sit around and chew tobacco and pass the time of day as they watched the street. She grunted and swung the chair with all her might, smashing through the front display window of the store. She had to pull the chair out and smash it through again to make the hole big enough, then she climbed through, tearing her skirt on the jagged shards of glass and cutting herself in several places. She ignored the pain. She climbed into the store and ran around behind the glass display counters. George had locked them. With a small cry of frustration, she quickly looked around, picked up one of Spangenberg’s hardbound account books and used it to break through the glass.
She reached inside the case and took out a Peacemaker with a seven-and-a-half-inch barrel and wood grips. She quickly glanced at the barrel. Engraved on the left side were the words, “Colt Single Action. 45.” She’d need. 45 caliber cartridges. She opened up one of the wood cabinets and took out a box of ammunition, opened it and quickly loaded all six chambers. Then she climbed back out through the window, catching her skirt on the broken glass. With a desperate yank, she pulled free, ripping the dress and. carrying the gun in her right hand, ran toward Allen Street, past several astonished cowboys who were coming out of Hafford’s Saloon.
They gaped at her open-mouthed as she ran past them, her hair wild, blood on her arms and cheeks, her dress torn in several places, and a gun in her right hand. Just as she turned the corner, she saw Wyatt and Scott coming out of the hotel. Wyatt with a gun in one hand and Scott’s pistols, in their shoulder holster rig, carried in the other. As they stepped down onto the street, Jenny came to a stop and raised the Colt, holding it in both hands.
“Hold it right there. Wyatt!” she shouted.
Scott looked at her, eyes wide. “Jenny!”
Wyatt was equally surprised. “Good Lord,” he said. “Jenny, have you lost your head?”
“You let him go!” she shouted. “You give him back his pistols and let him go right now!”
“Jenny, don’t-” Scott started, but Wyatt silenced him.
“You keep your mouth shut. Kid,” he said, “and don’t you move.”
“Let him go, Wyatt!” Jenny said, aiming the gun at him.
“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Jenny,” Earp replied. “Now put down that pistol before somebody gets hurt.”
She pulled back the hammer on the Colt. “No, you drop yours. Wyatt! Drop it or I’ll shoot, so help me!”
People were peering out through the doors of the saloon and from the hotel windows, ready to duck back quickly if bullets started flying.
“Now be sensible, Jenny. If you don’t put down that pistol right now. I’ll be forced to shoot the Kid,” said Wyatt, aiming his revolver at Scott’s back.
“You do that and I’ll kill you, Wyatt. I swear to God!”
“You’re no shootist, Jenny. You’re liable to miss.”
“Then I’ll just keep shooting till I hit you, Wyatt, and you’ll have to kill me. too! I don’t care! If Scott dies, I don’t want to live!”
“You’re talkin’ crazy, Jenny. Don’t-”
“ Now, Wyatt! Drop it and let him go right now or I’ll shoot, so help me!”
“By God, I think she means it,” Wyatt said. “Kid, talk some sense to her. Tell her this is foolish.”
“Scott. Finn’s in trouble!” she shouted. “He needs you, right now!”
“Better do as she says. Marshal.” Scott said, tensing.
Wyatt sighed and shook his head. “You’ll both regret this. Kid,” he said. He dropped his gun to the street.
“I’ll take my guns. Marshal,” Scott said, holding out his hand.
Wyatt Earp handed them over. Scott shrugged out of his coat and quickly slipped the rig on. He took out one of the fancy Colts.
“I’m sorry about this. Marshal.” he said, “but I haven’t got time to explain and I can’t have you in the way.”
He raised the gun and brought the barrel down on Wyatt’s head. Earp collapsed to the street. Scott ran over to Jenny.
“You’re amazing, you know that? Where’s Finn?”
“At the rooming house,” she said. “I heard shots and there were lasers-”
“Shit,” said Scott. “Stay here!”
He took off down Fourth Street at a dead run. Jenny hesitated for a moment, then started running after him.
“What the hell is Scott doing with them?” Andre said. “Maybe that isn’t Scott.” said Lucas. “At least, not our Scott.”
“It has to be,” she said. “We just crossed over. Scott! Wait!” The Kid glanced over his shoulder at them briefly, then turned back and kept on walking.
“It’s not him,” said Lucas.
Andre shook her head. “But how…
“I don’t know!” said Lucas. “Maybe we’ve crossed over again without knowing it. Maybe we’re caught in some kind of ripple effect, a timewave. The instability’s increasing. Jesus. This is it!”
“How do you know?”
“It’s got to be! In this timeline, the Montana Kid was part of the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. In our timeline, he wasn’t even there. Until now. We were right. Scott has to be the key! Come on!”
“What are we going to do?”
“Hell if I know.” Lucas said, as they started running after the Earps. “We’ll have to wait for Darkness.”
‘What if he doesn’t show?”
“Then we’re Fucked. “
Delaney reached the bottom of the stairs just as Stone and Capiletti came through the front door. Stone leaped to one side as Capiletti went for his sidearm. Finn fired, the loud report of the. 45 filling the lobby. The clerk cried out in alarm and dropped down behind his desk as Capiletti fell, a bullet through his chest. Finn ducked back as Stone fired his laser and the beam passed inches from his face. He filed again and missed.
He swore through clenched teeth. A Colt. 45 against a laser. Terrific odds. And he only had four bullets left. Two men dressed in black commando gear came diving through the front door. Delaney fired, wounding one of them, then felt a wash of searing heat go past him as the plasma charge narrowly missed him and struck the wall, igniting it. He fired again and missed the third man diving through the door, then darted up the stairs as a second plasma charge was fired, barely missing him and starting another fire as it struck the wall. His clothes were smoldering.