Gunfight on the Alpha Centauri Express (Nick Walker, U.F. Marshal Book 5)

by John Bowers

  “Nick Walker, on the other hand, is the real deal. When Nick faces down the bad guys, nothing is scripted. No one is safe. He is literally laying his life on the line to get the job done, to protect the public. I know that some people consider me a ‘western hero’, but I’m just an actor playing a role. This man is the real hero, and let no one forget it.”

  Nick was barely able to speak. He allowed the great man to hug him and they posed arm in arm for a few minutes so the news cams could get the story.

  “Let me just say one last thing,” Manchester told the reporters as they were about to wrap it up. “No matter how this thing turns out, I want to go on record that I admire Nick Walker, United Federation Marshal. Instead of tormenting him with frivolous courtroom shenanigans, we should be celebrating him. We need more men like him, and I will stand by that until the day I die.”

  Afterward, Manchester insisted on buying dinner. Suzanne had arrived in town that morning; she and Nick enjoyed a pleasant couple of hours with him. Manchester had to catch a starship the next day, so he said good-bye as they left the restaurant.

  Nick had to wipe his eyes as Yancy West walked away.

  Chapter 18

  Tuesday, May 23, 0445 (CC)

  14th Floor, Morgan Olsen Building – Lucaston, Alpha Centauri 2

  Since quitting her job as U.F. Attorney, Victoria Cross had been working pretty much out of her briefcase; when she got the time, she would secure office space, but in the meantime, Geraldine Gabbard had offered workspace in her own firm, even providing an assistant.

  Victoria sat at her desk and reviewed her witness list; she would not call most of those on the list. Brian Godney’s witnesses were largely sympathetic to Nick, and made that clear under cross-examination. Godney was doing most of the work for her.

  Even though she wouldn’t call them, Victoria interviewed most of her witnesses anyway; the interviews gave her a better picture of Nick the lawman and in some cases she picked up tidbits of information that added depth to her defense. One of the last on her list, whom she was ninety percent certain she would not call, was Suzanne Norgaard.

  Victoria was aware that Suzanne was Vegan, but they had never met. She was peripherally aware of the popular slogan that said “There is no such thing as an ugly Vegan”, but like most people, thought it was more advertising than truth (she had also heard that “There are no atheists in foxholes”, and knew for a fact that one was myth).

  Her desk comm rang.

  “Yes?”

  “Suzanne Norgaard is here.”

  “Thank you. Send her in.”

  Victoria shoved a couple of folders aside and opened the one she would use for the interview. The door slid open and she stood up, a smile on her face. The woman who came through the door left her breathless with shock.

  For just a second her mouth hung open and she stared. Suzanne strode forward with her own smile and stuck out her hand.

  “You must be Miss Cross.”

  Victoria caught her breath and accepted the handshake. She momentarily felt like an idiot for staring, but couldn’t help it. She had heard that Vegan women were beautiful, that they had been genetically engineered for beauty, and had seen holos of Vegan women. But nothing had prepared her for coming face to face with this regal doll. Suzanne stood five feet nine, but her heels elevated her to five eleven; she was thirty-five years old, but her body was in pristine condition. The eyes, ears, nose, lips, and cheekbones were sculpted to perfection, and the rest of her—arms, legs, shoulders, hips, breasts…Jesus Christ!

  Everything she had heard about Vegan women was true—in spades.

  “Yes, I am.” She waved a hand in front of her face. “I’m a little out of breath. I apologize.”

  Suzanne’s green eyes crinkled as she smiled. The reaction was not new to her, Victoria realized. She probably got a similar reaction everywhere she went.

  “Won’t you please sit down. Thank you for coming in.”

  Suzanne settled into a chair, crossing one magnificent thigh over the other. Her perfume, though sparingly applied, radiated outward like an erotic drug. Victoria took her own chair but couldn’t pull her eyes off the statuesque blonde.

  To normalize the situation and give herself time to recover, she offered the woman coffee, tea, water, juice, whatever she wanted. Suzanne politely declined, still wearing a slightly bemused look as she waited for the interview to begin. Victoria opened the folder on her desk and tried to be businesslike.

  “Okay, let’s get on with it, shall we?”

  “Before we do—” Suzanne leaned slightly forward. “—how serious is all this? Nick says it’s all bullshit, but he doesn’t want to worry me and I think he’s playing it down.”

  “Well, he’s right, it is all bullshit, but to be blunt with you, sometimes bullshit wins. We have to treat it seriously, because if we don’t, he could end up in prison.”

  “Prison! Nick said that wasn’t likely.”

  “It isn’t, but we don’t deal with likely, we deal with possible. And it is possible. Worst-case, but still possible.”

  Suzanne nodded. “And how do things look right now?”

  “In my opinion, the prosecutor hasn’t made his case, but it all comes down to the judge. We’re dealing with Judge Moore, and he’s a bit eccentric. Nobody has ever been able to outguess him, so my job is to nail down the evidence in such a manner that he has only one choice—to throw it out.”

  “I see.”

  “So…how long have you known Nick Walker?”

  “About three years.”

  “And how long have you been involved with him?”

  “About three years.”

  Victoria glanced up. “You got involved right away when you first met?”

  Suzanne smiled. “It wasn’t love at first sight, if that’s what you’re thinking, but a lot of things happened that first week, and by the time it was over it seemed we had known each other for years.”

  “You’re talking about the gunfight?”

  “Yes, and the events leading up to it.”

  “Can you describe those events for me?”

  Suzanne frowned. “You mean, everything?”

  “Maybe just the highlights, to give me a feel for the situation. Mr. Godney seems sort of anal about that gunfight.”

  Suzanne took fifteen minutes to recount meeting Nick for the first time, her sense of his dedication to his job, his concern for the citizens of Kline Corners, his concern for the missing girls taken by slavers, as much as she knew about his killing of another U.F. Marshal, and subsequent events. Victoria recorded it but also made notes on paper. When Suzanne was done, she looked up.

  “How long was Nick at Kline Corners?”

  “About a year and a half, give or take a few weeks.”

  “Aren’t U.F. Marshals assigned for two years at each posting?”

  “Normally, but the Sirian election precluded that. A man named Lucius Clay was elected and immediately formed the Sirian Confederacy. As soon as he did, the Federation gave him complete autonomy and pulled out. Nick was no longer needed, so he was sent here.”

  “And you followed?”

  “I left just a few days later. I took my daughter to Terra because she was moving there, then I came directly here, to Trimmer Springs.”

  “And moved in with Nick.”

  Suzanne’s eyebrows lifted slightly.

  “Yes.”

  She held Victoria’s gaze directly, almost challenging her to ask more about her living with Nick. Victoria flushed slightly and changed the subject.

  “Tell me what happened last year, with the cults.”

  “Don’t you already know all this?”

  “Yes. At least, I know a lot of it, but I’m looking for your perspective, an insight into Nick as he dealt with it all.”

  Suzanne took another twenty minutes to recount the more recent story, in which she had gotten caught up as well. She told about her own kidnapping, attempted escape, and getting shot in the back
. Victoria detected more emotion in this story, and by the time it was done, had no doubt that Suzanne Norgaard was deeply in love with Nick Walker.

  “What about the Binary Flats incident?”

  Suzanne shrugged. “That happened at a distance. I was in the dark most of the time until it was over. Nick went missing for about a day and I was getting pretty frantic when I found out, but it was over pretty quickly.”

  Victoria offered a cautious smile. “And now you’re engaged.”

  “Yes.”

  “Congratulations.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Can I see your ring?”

  Suzanne held up her left hand, displaying a bare ring finger. Victoria’s eyes widened.

  “He didn’t give you a ring?”

  “He will. Nick does things by his own schedule.”

  Suzanne glanced at Victoria’s folder.

  “Are we done?”

  “Yes, I think so. You’ve been very helpful.”

  “Do I need to testify?”

  “I don’t think so. The way things are going right now, I only plan to call Nick to the stand. I think he can defend himself pretty well.”

  “Good! Then take me off the witness list so I can sit in the courtroom.”

  Victoria dipped her head. “Done. Thank you for coming in.”

  Suzanne uncrossed her leg, then crossed the other one. She didn’t appear ready to leave just yet.

  “I hope you still have a few minutes for me,” she said, “because I’d like to get to know you a little better.”

  Victoria’s eyes widened in surprise. “Oh?”

  Suzanne nodded. “It’s nice to finally meet my competition.”

  “I-I don’t know what you mean.” Victoria Cross was stunned.

  Suzanne studied her a moment, woman to woman. Victoria began to feel as if she were under inspection.

  “Ever since I met Nick, even after we started sleeping together, I knew someone had hurt him. I didn’t know who it was, what they did, or even how long ago, but I knew it happened.”

  “What did he tell you?”

  “He never told me anything. But he was distant, reluctant. Even after I told him I loved him—and I know he was pleased to hear that—he just couldn’t say it back to me. When we talked about something permanent, whether it was marriage or just a long-term commitment, he was skittish. It was like he had touched a hot stove and was afraid to touch another one.”

  Suzanne fell silent and sat staring at her, serenely, non-judgmentally. Waiting.

  Victoria felt the sting of tears behind her eyes. Her breath became short. For a moment she didn’t know what to say, and didn’t trust herself to speak. Finally she cleared her throat.

  “I’m sorry.”

  Suzanne nodded but still didn’t speak. Victoria felt trapped, almost panicky.

  “What do you want from me?” she asked.

  “Just tell me what happened.”

  “How do you know it was me?”

  “He has dreams almost every night. Sometimes it’s nightmares from the war, but other times it’s less violent than that. He calls your name.”

  Victoria’s skin tingled.

  “He does?”

  Suzanne nodded. “‘Keep your feet off the bottom, Cross! Get across that fucking lake!’ I hear that one almost every night.”

  “Just that? He didn’t use my first name?”

  “No. But there are other dreams, too. ‘Follow your dream, Victoria. Make me proud’.”

  Suzanne reached into her purse for a tissue and dabbed at her eye, as if fixing her mascara. She put the tissue away.

  “I told him about the dream and asked him who Victoria was. He got quiet and said it was just a girl he used to know who wanted to be a lawyer. I didn’t think any more about it, but when this whole legal thing came up, something strange happened.”

  “What was that?”

  “The dreams stopped. The last few nights have been peaceful. And then I found out that Victoria Cross had taken over his defense. That’s when I put it all together. I knew it was a little thin, that I might be stretching things a little, and that’s why I wanted to meet you.”

  Victoria laughed uncomfortably.

  “And I just confirmed your worst suspicions.”

  Suzanne didn’t reply. She sat there waiting, her green gaze nailing Victoria to her chair.

  “We were kids,” Victoria told her. “Eighteen. Young and brash and immortal. Star Marines, boot camp, gonna live forever. I was never going into combat, but I had to go through boot camp anyway, and it was tough. I wasn’t as big or as strong as the men, but the training was the same. I was one of five girls in our training platoon and I’m the only one that made it, but I never would have without Nick. He got me through it. Without him I wouldn’t be here today, wouldn’t have my career, none of it. I owe him everything.”

  “Did you love him?”

  “Yes. Oh, yes!”

  “Tell me what went wrong.”

  Victoria pushed her chair back and crossed her own legs. For a few minutes the legal action faded to the background of her consciousness.

  “The Star Marines sent me to law school, but Nick was going to war. We both knew the odds were against us, but we took chances. If we had been caught we would have ended up on the street—or in the stockade—but we got away with it. Then we graduated and everything was up in the air. We…declared our love for each other and went our separate ways. He went to Luna 1 for Advanced Infantry and I went to Pepperdine, a law school in SoCal.

  “We promised to keep in touch, and we did for a few months. But we both got busy and it got harder to find the time to communicate. He was supposed to call me when he got back to Terra and we would get together.

  “I had a roommate, a man name Trevor. That wasn’t at all unusual on campus, for men and women to share apartments. He was a nice guy, but there was nothing between us. But this one night…”

  She reached into a desk drawer and retrieved her own tissue, wiped her eyes, and laid it down. She looked up at Suzanne.

  “Have you ever been in a situation that just got out of control? A cold night, a cozy apartment, some music, a couple glasses of wine…” She heaved a regretful sigh. “I know it’s no excuse, but I was lonely. Trevor was big and good looking, a gentle sort of person, a good catch for any girl but me. We got to talking, sharing experiences, laughing at silly jokes, and…well, things got out of hand. It was nothing serious, and it never happened again. But—”

  Suzanne’s eyes softened as she put it together.

  “That was the night Nick came home.”

  Victoria nodded. “He was supposed to call when he arrived, but he wanted to surprise me. When he rang the doorbell, Trevor answered it, and I’ll never forget the look in Nick’s eyes. He left and never came back.”

  She placed her hands flat on the desk.

  “That’s what happened. We were finished, just like that.”

  Suzanne stared at her for long seconds.

  “But you still loved him?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you never married?”

  “No.”

  “Because…”

  “Yes. God help me, Suzanne, but—yes. And I always will.” She laughed, embarrassed, and wiped her eyes with a wrist. “Stupid, huh?”

  “Do I need to be worried?” Suzanne’s eyes narrowed to green lasers. “Because I will fight for him, Star Marine or not.”

  “No, you don’t need to worry. Nick never forgave me, and…I don’t think he ever will.”

  Chapter 19

  Trimmer Springs – Alpha Centauri 2

  Nathan Green strolled up the main street of Trimmer Springs with his thumbs hooked in his gunbelt, his cowboy hat pushed forward so the brim all but covered his eyes. Ever since this legal action had come up, Nick was spending most of his time in Lucaston, either in court, meeting with his attorney, or assisting the U.F. Marshal’s office with the terrorist threat. Even though he was only twent
y years old and not yet fully sworn in, Nathan was now the only U.F. Marshal in Trimmer Springs.

  His birthday was less than two months away. As soon as he reached twenty-one he would become a full-fledged marshal; until then he was still a trainee and obliged to work under the direction of someone like Nick.

  He enjoyed walking the street and showing the badge. He wasn’t one who needed undue attention or adulation, but it was gratifying to see the respect the badge engendered among the townspeople. Nathan knew the people of Trimmer Springs loved Nick, and their goodwill seemed to flow in his direction as well. Men often nodded and spoke, ladies smiled, and a few girls cast furtive glances in his direction, never guessing he was already married.

  Maybe part of it was the uniform. He had been born on Sirius 1 in a region where western wear was the norm and only business suits raised eyebrows. In Trimmer Springs he and Nick were unique; he knew he stood out because of his clothing, and that a deputy working for Nick had been murdered the year before for dressing the same way. But none of that bothered him; the Academy had instilled him with confidence, and his own prior adventures with Nick had taught him what he was capable of.

  He strolled past Suzanne’s shop and, just for fun, rapped his knuckles on the window as he passed. It was getting on toward five o’clock and Kristina would be closing soon, but he wouldn’t head home for another hour. He had one more stop to make before calling it a day.

  He made his way to the maglev station where the last train of the day was due to arrive in a few minutes. Nick wasn’t due in tonight, so Nathan wasn’t looking for anyone in particular, but after several weeks in town he now had a sense for who was and was not a local resident. With all the terrorist activity around the planet of late, he just wanted to see if anyone arrived who didn’t fit the local profile.

  He made it to the station with ten minutes to spare and stood with his back against the depot building, facing the maglev rail. Half a dozen locals were waiting to depart, or to meet someone coming in, and perhaps twice that number were waiting with them. Some wore the distinct clothing of the local religious cults, but they ignored him. Nathan stood on his right leg and placed his left boot flat against the side of the building, arms crossed, enjoying the late afternoon breeze.