There was a smear of crimson just above the sec man’s belt, dead center. Ryan touched his own neck, fingers coming away stained red.
The crowd of watchers were all cheering, but it took a few seconds for Ryan to realize that they all thought that the ville had won. They hadn’t properly seen his own lunge and believed that the cut to the neck had been decisive.
“I beat you, outlander.” The young man scowled.
“You know you didn’t. And I know you didn’t. Talk won’t change that, son.”
“Fuck you.”
“It was a draw!” Guiteau shouted, but nobody heard him above the hubbub of yelling.
Mandeville was up, punching one hand into the other, laughing triumphantly.
Ryan saw that even J.B., Krysty and the others were doubtful. In the close whirl of the combat, the two blows had come too close together for the onlookers to be sure. But he knew, and the other man knew.
He remembered Guiteau’s warning and smiled ruefully. “Yeah. Guess I could probably be wrong about it. You might just have shaded me.”
“Fuck you.” The cloth was ripped away, and the late-afternoon sun glowed scarlet on the cold steel.
Ryan didn’t hesitate. He dropped his knife to the trodden turf and drew the SIG-Sauer P-226 from its holster, leveling it at the young man’s chest.
“Don’t,” he said, having to raise his voice over the roar of anger from the crowd.
From the corner of his good eye Ryan could see that J.B. and Krysty had also drawn their blasters, the Armorer swiveling to cover Mandeville and Guiteau with the Uzi.
For a single heartbeat, he thought that the youth was going to call his bluff and come at him with the dagger.
Because, of course, it wasn’t a bluff.
He was totally prepared to pull the trigger and blow a hole clean through the sec man’s chest.
The voice that rang out belonged to Marie Mandeville.
“Put that knife down and stand back, or you’re a dead man. Now!”
The crack of command was unmistakable, and the youth responded to it. He opened his fingers and allowed the paint-blotched steel to fall to the dirt, spitting on it and turning his back, walking away from Ryan to cheers of sympathy and support from the crowd.
The blaster slid into its holster, and Ryan took his seat again, acknowledging the squeeze of Krysty’s hand.
Mandeville was on his feet. “A draw!” he called. “I say it was a fair draw. Before the special fight that will end the afternoon, we have the handblaster competition. Your own, your very own, Harry Guiteau against” He gestured toward Mildred. “Against her.”
“Careful, love,” J.B. whispered.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Guiteau vanished while servants were bustling around, setting up targets for the handblaster shooting.
Human silhouettes had been pasted onto hard-board, life-size, painted like charging muties, suckered hands stretching out. They were fixed along the butts at thirty paces, seventy-five paces and one hundred paces.
“What kind of blaster is he going to turn up with?” Mildred was waiting for J.B. to give a final once-over to her ZKR 551, the Czech revolver.
“Don’t forget the baron reckons to have a good gun collection,” the Armorer replied. “Could be anything from a flintlock onward. Might be shit. Might not.”
Krysty joined them. “Don’t look around now,” she said quietly. “No, don’t. But in a minute, sort of casual, glance at Michael and that basking shark next to him.”
“Why?” Ryan asked.
“They’re both kind of huddled up, and she’s got a servant to bring a cloak. But it slipped away and I’m sure she’s pulled his dick out and is ” The loud voice of Baron Mandeville interrupted her. Ryan looked quickly around, but the embroidered cloak was sedately in place over the laps of Marie and Michael and it was impossible to guess what might be going on under it. Though the face of the teenager was certainly flushed. He caught Ryan’s gaze and stared pointedly away.
“Last contest of the day,” the Baron shouted. “Sergeant Guiteau versus the woman doctor here. Six rounds at each distance. So quiet down, people.”
Like a ghost appearing at midnight in a haunted chamber, Harry Guiteau was suddenly among them, holding a walnut gun case, inlaid with ebony filigree.