Gunsmith 360 : The Mad Scientist of the West (9781101545997) (3 page)

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Authors: J. R. Roberts

BOOK: Gunsmith 360 : The Mad Scientist of the West (9781101545997)

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“Nice room,” Tesla said as Clint collected his belongings, “but I like mine better. More character.”

“You're probably right.”

They went back down to the lobby, where Clint checked out.

“Leaving already?” the clerk said. “Come back soon, sir.”

“Thanks.”

They went back out to their cab and took it to the Bijou.

Clint got a room right across from Tesla's.

“Leave your door open,” Clint said, fitting the key into his lock.

“What are you afraid I'll do?” Tesla asked.

“Get killed.”

Tesla left his door open.

Tesla appeared at Clint's open door sometime later, holding a bottle of whiskey and two glasses.

“Drink?”

Clint looked up from the book he was reading.

“I prefer beer.”

Tesla wagged the bottle back and forth.

“If you let me drink alone, I'm liable to do something stupid.”

Clint put the Mark Twain book down and swung his feet off the bed to the floor.

“In that case, I'll join you.”

“Excellent!”

Tesla entered, closing the door behind him. He poured two glasses full and handed one to Clint. The filled glasses represented half a dozen shots.

“Thanks.”

Tesla saw the Twain on the bed and gave Clint an interested look.

“A gunman who reads?”

“I'm not a gunman.”

“But your reputationâ”

“An intelligent man like you should know better than to believe everything he reads or hears.”

Tesla stared at Clint again, then sipped his drink and said, “I'm sorry.”

“What if I believed everything I heard about you?” Clint asked. “I'd think you were some kind of mad scientist.”

“Well, in my case that wouldn't be far from the truth,” Tesla admitted.

Clint studied the young man, who looked as if he was not yet thirty.

“All right, then,” Clint said. “I'll admit I'm good with a gun, and I've used it to kill men, but only when there was no other way to resolve an issueâor if they deserved it.”

“Where are you from?” Tesla asked.

“I was born in the East, but have spent my life in the West,” was all Clint would say. “And you?”

“Serbia,” Tesla said, “but I quickly outgrew my village, Smiljan. I left, traveled, and found my way to the United States, where I could pursue my work.”

“Could there be somebody from home who means you harm?” Clint asked.

“I doubt it,” Tesla said. “I truly don't know of anyone who'd mean me harm. I believe your President is overreacting to some rumors he may have heard.”

“Well, they have a man trying to track down the source and find out if the threat is real,” Clint said.

“Meanwhile, you will keep me safe.”

“Yes.”

“A toast, then,” Tesla said, raising his glass, “to being safe.”

Clint raised his glass and echoed the sentiment.

“To being safe.”

The two men drank, and then Tesla headed for the door.

“I'll go back to my room and let you continue with your reading,” he said. “I have some thinking to do. I'll see you in the morning. Early.”

“How are we traveling?”

“We are taking some supplies with us, so by wagon,” Tesla said. “It will be waiting outside for us.”

“Very good.”

“A quick breakfast,” Tesla said, “and then we shall be off.”

He said good night to Clint, and then went across the hall to his own room, closing the door behind him. Clint's door remained open.

He noticed that Tesla had taken the whiskey bottle with him.

SIX

In the morning Clint found Nikola Tesla waiting in the seat of a buckboard, with a team of two. The bed behind him seemed loaded for bear and was covered with a tarp.

“Good morning!”

Tesla seemed wide-eyed and awake, and Clint assumed he had not finished off that entire bottle of whiskey by himself.

“Morning,” Clint said.

“Toss your belongings in the back, if you can find room,” Tesla said.

Clint lifted the tarp and stuffed his bag underneath, then joined Tesla in the seat.

“What about breakfast?” he asked. “You promised me breakfast.”

“Just down the block,” Tesla said, “Same place we had the steak last night.”

“That suits me,” Clint said.

Nikola Tesla drove the buckboard half a block, long enough for Clint to see that the man knew how to handle a team.

Sitting across a table from Tesla, having breakfast with him, Clint could see that his eyes were very clear, further indication that he had not drunk all the whiskey last night.

Or he was an extraordinary drinker.

“Don't you usually need some kind of assistant for your experiments?” Clint asked over his plate of steak and eggs.

“No,” Tesla said, “but if I do need an assistant over the next week or so, you'll be there.”

“As long as you don't try to attach wires to my nipples,” Clint said, “I'll try to help you as much as I can.”

“I think you're safe,” Tesla said.

“Good.”

“Maybe I'll even make a scientist out of you,” Tesla said.

“I'll be satisfied just to be a good assistant,” Clint said.

“Actually,” Tesla said, “I suppose I would be happy if you were just a good bodyguard.”

“I guess we'll find out.”

After breakfast they climbed aboard the wagon and headed out.

“Just to be on the safe side,” Clint said, “you did bring enough supplies for us to camp along the way, didn't you?”

“I did,” Tesla said. “I'm not a fool, Clint. I realize this is a long trip, and we will need to set up camp as we travel.”

“Like I said,” Clint pointed out, “I was just checking. It's going to take us the better part of two weeks to get up there, and I want to make sure we'll be able to eat.”

“Won't we come across other towns?” Tesla asked.

“Some settlements, maybe,” Clint said. “But we should make sure we're outfitted to make it all the way, just in case.”

Tesla swallowed and said, “Uh, well, maybe we should make one more stop before we leave, then. Just to be on the safe side.”

“Sure thing,” Clint said, “just to be on the safe side.”

SEVEN

They stopped at a mercantile store and Clint stocked up on canned goods and coffee, as well as some beef jerky. By the time he got the supplies stowed in the back of the buckboard, he couldn't have gotten a cigar in there.

“What is all that stuff back there?” he asked, climbing back in the seat next to Tesla.

“Those are my supplies,” Tesla said. “What I'll need for my experiments.”

“And why are we going all the way to where we're going to do those experiments?”

“Because I need altitude,” Tesla said, “and that's about as high as I can figure.”

“Can't argue with that,” Clint said. “We're certainly going to get some altitude going up past Gunnison.”

“That's exactly why I chose this house,” Tesla told him.

A full day's ride outside of Denver, already at a higher altitude, they reined the team in and stopped for the night. Clint suggested an earlier stop than Tesla had planned, so they could get their fire built before nightfall.

“Don't want to break an ankle while we're out looking for firewood,” he said. His main concern was that Tesla was a city boy, not used to being on the trail. If anyone was gong to break an ankle, it would be him, if he didn't wander too far away from camp and get lost first.

As it turned out, Tesla was very adept at making camp, finding firewood, building a fire, and was even good with the horses.

“My village in Serbia was in the middle of nowhere,” he told Clint as they sat around the fire. “The terrain was much like this. So I am not theâwhat is the word: tenderfoot?âI am not the tenderfoot that you feared I would be.”

“My apologies for underestimating you,” Clint said. “I won't do it again.”

It was Clint who made the coffee and the beans, handed a plate across to Tesla, and then a cup of coffee.

“Thank you.”

“When we get up to the house you rented, I can go out and hunt up some meat for us.”

“That would be good,” Tesla said. “By the time we arrive, I will probably be tired of beans.”

“I bought some bacon,” Clint said. “I can mix that in next time.”

They pulled their coats tightly around them as the temperature continued to drop. Thank God it wasn't winter, so they wouldn't have to deal with snow.

When they'd finished eating, Clint double-checked the horses to make sure they were secure, then returned to the fire to make another pot of coffee.

“No more for me,” Tesla said.

“I'll be drinking it while I'm on watch,” Clint said.

“You are not going to sleep?”

“I didn't notice anyone following us,” Clint said, “but it is my job to keep you safe, so I'll be on watch all night.”

“But . . . when will you sleep?”

“I can doze while you drive the buckboard,” Clint said.

Normally Clint would have depended on his Darley Arabian, Eclipse, to alert him to trouble, so he could have dozed while on watch.

“I will take a second watch,” Tesla said. “It would not be fair to you for you to stay awake all night.”

“Can you shoot?”

“With a rifle, yes. Perhaps not well, but yes.”

“Well,” Clint said, “you'll just have to sit with it across your knees. If you see anything, or hear anything, you can just wake me.”

“Fine,” Tesla said. “I can do that. I'll also be looking at the sky.”

“Part of your experiment?” Clint asked.

“Research,” Tesla said.

“Well, I may not have to tell you this, but make sure you don't look into the fire.”

“Night vision,” Tesla said. “Yes, I know.”

“Well,” Clint said, “apparently you know a lot more about what goes on in my life than I know about you and yours.”

“Electricity?” Tesla said. “I can teach you.”

“I doubt it.”

“We'll see,” Tesla said. “When we get to the house. For now, I'll get some sleep.”

“I'll wake you in four hours.”

“See you then,” Tesla said.

He rolled himself up in his blanket and was almost immediately asleep.

EIGHT

When his watch was over, Clint fell asleep and was out until morning, waking up to the smell of bacon frying. Apparently, cooking on the trail was also one of Tesla's talents.

The coffee wasn't strong enough, but Clint decided not to mention it. The bacon was good.

“Didn't hear or see a thing all night,” Tesla announced over breakfast. “Maybe there's no one trying to kill me, after all.”

“Or maybe they know where we're going, so they don't have to follow us,” Clint suggested. “Who else knows about this house?”

“No one,” Tesla said. “Until you arrived, I was a one-man operation.”

“Well, you rented it from someone, so somebody knows where we're going.”

“That is not very encouraging,” Tesla said.

“Sorry. I just have to be ready for any eventuality,” Clint explained.

“I am the same way with my experiments,” Tesla said, “so I understand.”

After breakfast they broke camp and Tesla hitched the horses up to the buckboard. Clint resisted the urge to check that they were firmly hitched. Tesla seemed to know what he was doing when it came to horses and buckboards and making and breaking camp.

Clint hoped he was as good at his own things, as well, and that the government was going to get what they hoped for.

“So, what did the President tell you about me?” Tesla asked.

“Have you met him?”

“Me?” Tesla looked surprised. “Meet President Cleveland? No.”

“Really?”

“Does that surprise you?”

“He spoke as if he knew you.”

“Well, perhaps he knows me,” Tesla offered, “but I do not know him. However, I'm sure we will meet sometime in the future.”

“I'd think so,” Clint said. “He seems to think your experiments could mean a lot to the country.”

“Harnessing electricity and bending it to our will could benefit the entire world,” Tesla said. “So, what did he tell you about me?”

“He said you might be a mad scientist, but you were important.”

“Mad, perhaps,” Tesla said. “Certainly a scientist. Important? You have no idea.”

NINE

The second night on the trail passed without incident. They split the watch again, and covered good ground on day three. Toward night they saw some smoke ahead.

“Stop,” Clint said.

Tesla reined the two-horse team in.

“Someone making camp?”

“I don't think so,” Clint said. “Not unless they made more than one fire. I'm thinking it's some kind of settlement ahead.”

“Does that pose a danger to us?” Tesla asked.

“One never knows,” Clint said.

Tesla turned his head and regarded Clint.

“I suppose when you enter any town, you have to wonder what is waiting for you there.”