Bang!
She shot Brocco’s hat. Brocco ducked, grabbing at his head as the hat fell to the ground. Annie kicked her horse into a trot, riding toward the Hudsons, her rifle still in her arms. The horse jumped the fence.
“Whoa!” Annie pulled the reins. The horse reared onto its hind legs and stopped just a few feet before the Hudsons. The crowd was going wild. Annie turned her horse around, took off her hat and bowed. Then she turned back to the Hudsons, peering down at them with dark, serious eyes.
“Annie,” breathed Mrs. Hudson.
“Captain,” she said, nodding in a very soldierlike manner. “Let’s get you someplace safe.”
Matt looked back at Brocco and Wiley. Brocco was inspecting his gun, which had clearly been destroyed. Wiley picked up Brocco’s hat, then looked up and met eyes with Matt. Brocco grabbed his destroyed hat and shoved it on his head and glared in their direction, but they didn’t dare come toward them, not with Annie Oakley in front of them with her gun.
Annie led the Hudsons and Tui and Chuck to her tent located behind the stadium. It was far grander than your average camp tent, more like a furnished room with a floral-patterned rug, a small bed and tables and chairs. The tables were covered in prize medals, boxes of ammunition, and pictures, mostly of Annie with her rifle, and some of Will Cody on his big white horse. A bicycle sat in one corner, as well as several more rifles, each of them polished and gleaming.
Annie silently lit a few lanterns inside the tent and then shut the flaps.
“Well, well, well,” she said, a smile playing behind her dark eyes. “Look what the cat done drug in.”
“Annie,” said Mrs. Hudson, still clearly shocked to see her old crew member.
Annie broke into a broad smile, set down her gun, and held out her arms. Mrs. Hudson walked to her and the two women embraced for a long moment.
“Annie, look how you’ve grown! Quite a lady.”
“Haven’t grown too much,” said Annie with a small laugh. “I’ll never be as tall as you, I’m afraid.” She stood on her toes a little. She was quite petite, no more than five feet, Matt thought, but that didn’t seem to hold her back any.
Annie turned to Tui. “Hello, Tui,” she said.
“Annie,” said Tui, giving a curt nod. Tui did not smile. Matt wondered if there was bad blood between them for some reason, but he didn’t have time to consider it much before Chuck jumped in.
“Hi, I’m Chuck!” he said, shaking Annie’s hand. “I’m a big fan of yours, even if I’m not much of a fan of guns in general.”
“Pleased to meet you, Chuck.” Annie shook his hand graciously. “Well, Captain, it looks like you’ve been quite busy assembling a new crew.” She gazed around at the children and Mr. Hudson.
“Annie,” said Mrs. Hudson, taking her hand. “Allow me to introduce my husband, Matthew Hudson, and my children. This is Ruby and Corey and Mateo.” She touched each of them on the head as she said their names.
Annie looked at each of them, nodded and smiled, and then her eyes rested on Mateo. Annie cocked her head sideways with a confused expression. “You look just about the same as I remember, but that was years ago.”
“It was only a few days ago for me,” said Matt, feeling like that was a wildly inaccurate statement even as he said it. So much had happened—seeing his mother in the past, traveling to the Ice Age, finding Tui, their failed mission to retrieve the compass from Captain Vincent, and now finding Annie Oakley at the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893. It seemed impossible that it could have all happened in three days. It felt like years ago even for him.
Annie shook her head like she was trying to wake up. “Oh, I never could get used to those kinds of twisty time things in my head. I like clear straight lines. Easier to hit your mark that way.”
“Tell me about it,” said Chuck. “Time travel is a real mind-bender, am I right?”
“Sure is,” said Annie.
“I’m glad to see you’re okay,” Matt said, “that you got away from Vincent at least.”
“I have you to thank for that,” said Annie. “Don’t know that I would have had the guts had you not said what you did. ‘Trust your gun,’ he said.” Annie said this to Mrs. Hudson. “Well, that’s exactly what I did, and I think it’s worked out okay.”
“I’m not surprised in the least,” said Mrs. Hudson. “I only feel silly that I didn’t realize before. . . . Annie Oakley.” She shook her head, smiling. “I should have known that was my Annie, when I heard the stories.”
“They tell tales about me in the future?” said Annie.
Mrs. Hudson laughed. “They write books about you, and movies and plays! Of course none of them truly do you justice. How could they? But you are a legend!”
Annie’s eyes widened, and she blushed ever so slightly, which made her look more like the girl Matt had seen a few days earlier. “You were there for me when I needed it most, Captain,” she said. “I don’t think I ever thanked you. I didn’t have any manners to speak of back then, and I never thought I’d see you or any of the crew again. It all faded with time, like a dream. I thought I was dreamin’ when I saw you there in the stadium, but you’re really here, and I’m guessing you’re not here on vacation. Who were those men shootin’ at you?”
“They’re Vincent’s crew,” said Mrs. Hudson.
Annie nodded like she wasn’t surprised. “So he did get the compass after all?”
Mrs. Hudson nodded.
“It was my fault,” Matt admitted. “I tried to stop him from getting it, and that’s the reason he got it.” He glanced down at his arm, still wrapped in Chuck’s T-shirt, but the burns on his hand were red and shiny.
Annie didn’t hide any surprise at this. “I had nightmares of such for a long time after I returned home. It gave me quite a bit of motivation to keep practicing with my gun. I kept my family alive, won all kinds of prizes, and then I joined with Frank and Will and the show and traveled the world. It almost felt like I was back on the Vermillion with a crew and all, except the travel was not quite as convenient.” She laughed a little at this. “And then we came here to Chicago, to this fair, and it all came rushing back to me. This was the last place I’d come with you, remember? This was where we were when I asked to go home. I’ve been keeping an eye out for the Vermillion. I knew I couldn’t go and see you, not with my younger self on board your ship, but I wondered if something else might happen here. I wasn’t sure what, but this place seemed important for some reason.”
Mrs. Hudson nodded. “It is important. We believe Vincent is here now, with the Vermillion and the Obsidian Compass, and he’s trying to obtain something else, something even more powerful that would make him very dangerous indeed. We’re on a mission to stop him.”
Annie nodded. “I’ll help all I can,” she said simply.
“Thank you, Annie,” said Mrs. Hudson. “I always felt a little safer with you on my side.”
“Captain,” said Tui, stiffly. “May I speak to you alone?”
Annie’s eyes narrowed on Tui. She smiled a little, like she knew exactly what Tui was thinking. “You don’t trust me, do you?”
Tui raised her chin a little. “Why should I trust a girl who abandons her captain and crew at the first smell of trouble? You were not loyal to Captain Bonnaire. You have not earned trust.”
“Tui,” said Mrs. Hudson. “She was only a child. You yourself said Matt did her a great kindness in telling her to leave. She might have suffered just as you did, had she not left.”
“Perhaps,” said Tui, looking in a calculating way at Annie. “Or, if she had stayed, perhaps she could have kept Captain Vincent from ever getting the compass in the first place. Things would have been different then.”
Annie looked at Tui with a stoic expression. “You think I don’t think about that? You think I don’t have regrets? Some days I think I should have shot Captain Vincent right between the eyes when I had the chance. I’m willing to make up for it now.”
Tui strode across t
he small space until she was six inches away from Annie. “You will not lay a finger on Vincent. I will kill him!” She towered over Annie and glared down at her, but Annie didn’t even flinch. She held her ground and her gun and simply stared back at Tui, cool and indifferent as a cat settling down for a nap.
“As you wish, Fatoumata,” said Annie. “I’ll just come along and keep a lookout if you don’t mind. Seems like you could use a little protection from some of Captain Vincent’s crew. No telling what would have happened if I hadn’t shot that man’s gun out of his hand.”
“Yes, thank you, Annie,” said Mrs. Hudson, coming between the two women before Tui could say another word. “We will all appreciate your help very much.”
Tui glared at Annie, her jaw pulsing, but she said no more.
Annie walked to a small chest at one end of her bed. She opened it, rifled through, and pulled out what looked like a pair of binoculars. “Best place to spot a strange visitor is the Ferris wheel,” said Annie, stashing the binoculars in a little purse at her waist.
“Ooh, a Ferris wheel!” said Chuck, clapping his hands together. “I haven’t ridden on one of those since I was a kid. This will be fun.”
Annie went to the table where the ammunition was, dumped a bunch of bullets in the purse, grabbed her gun, and marched to the entrance of her tent. “We still got some daylight left. Let’s go.”
Matt had been on the Ferris wheel at Coney Island, once, but that was toy-sized compared to this one. This was like a circular skyscraper. The carriages of the Ferris wheel were enormous. Instead of hopping into a little seat two at a time as they came around, the entire crew walked right into the carriage like a small house, with dozens of other passengers.
As they ascended into the air, Matt could see the whole span of the city, the gleaming white buildings, the swarms of people milling about like ants in a colony, the lake and all the ships and boats floating in the lagoons and ponds, and the train yard full of trains, but Matt could not see that any of them were the Vermillion. He did not see the insignia of the compass star with the red V at the center. Mrs. Hudson was searching all around with Annie’s binoculars. Her deepening frown told Matt she wasn’t having any more luck than he was. Matt was starting to wonder if again they’d made a mistake with the map, if it was malfunctioning because of his compass, giving them faulty information.
After they had made a full rotation on the Ferris wheel, they exited. They were walking away when Matt felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. He turned around, searching the sea of people, and his eyes landed on a plump blond boy, about Matt’s own age, with round spectacles. He looked right at Matt, scowled, and then disappeared into the crowd.
Albert.
Matt scanned the crowd. If Albert was here, then the rest of the crew must be close by. His heart started to beat a little faster.
“Come on,” said his mom, tugging on his hand. “Let’s keep searching.” But Matt didn’t move.
“Wait,” he said. “I just saw . . .” Matt’s voice trailed away.
“What?” his mom asked, pulling him closer to her. She searched all around. “What did you see?”
“Jia,” he said in barely a whisper.
A girl with long black hair was looking up at the Ferris wheel. Her back was to them, but Matt was sure it was Jia. She was wearing her many-pocketed vest. And then she turned, and Matt’s heart skipped a few beats. It was definitely Jia.
“It’s Jia! Jia!” Matt shouted and waved his arms wildly above his head, jumping up and down. Several people in the crowd turned and stared at him, but not Jia. She didn’t hear him. She didn’t see him either. She turned in the direction Albert had gone and, in another second, was swallowed by the crowd.
“Jia, wait!” Matt broke away from his mom.
“Mateo!” his mom shouted. “Come back!”
Matt ignored his mom. He forgot about every promise he’d made to her before they came here. All he could think about was Jia. He pushed through the crowds like a bulldozer, not hearing the angry shouts and reprimands. His heart thumped in his ears. Matt reached a bit of a clearing. He searched all around, and then he saw her. Jia was running toward the entrance of a building, the only one Matt had seen at the fair that wasn’t white. It was painted quite colorfully, as if to signal it was somehow more special than the rest. At the center of the building, a magnificent layered golden archway stood over the large set of doors that Jia was now entering. “Jia!” Matt shouted, but still she did not hear him, and she disappeared once again inside the building.
“Mateo!” he heard someone shout behind him. He thought it was Tui.
Matt ran after Jia, and once he entered, he understood why Jia had not heard him. The building was a cacophony of hisses and clanks and rumblings. The building was full of old-fashioned cars and boats and even a train.
Jia was walking toward the train now.
“Jia! Jia!” he shouted as loud as he could, and finally she heard him. She turned and saw Matt. She froze in place, and Matt saw her mouth his name.
Matt’s heart tripped over itself, and so did his feet as he ran toward Jia, and she ran toward him, and then they stopped abruptly, just a few inches apart.
“Ni hao, Matt,” said Jia, beaming at him.
“Ni hao, Jia.”
They stood there just smiling at each other, and Matt felt wonderful and ridiculous all at the same time. Jia was here! Standing right in front of him! She was alive, and she wasn’t twenty years older than him!
“I can’t believe it’s you,” said Jia. “Captain Vincent said you were here, but I didn’t believe it. But how did you get here?”
Matt pulled out his compass from underneath his shirt. Jia’s jaw dropped. “Matt . . . you . . . you made this?” She reached out as though to touch it but stopped short. “Oh, Matt, your arm. What happened?”
In the mad dash to catch Jia, the T-shirt had fallen away from Matt’s arm, revealing the red, root-patterned burns beneath. “It’s a long story,” said Matt. “There’s so much I need to tell you, but it can wait. We need to get out of here.”
“I know,” said Jia. “Captain Vincent is looking for you. He sent Brocco and Wiley to bring you back to him. You alone.”
Matt froze. “Wait. What do you mean me alone?”
Jia hesitated for a moment but then said, “He told Brocco and Wiley that they could kill the rest of your family as long as they brought you to him.”
Matt winced. Kill his family? Would Vincent really do that? And why him? Quine wanted him, and now Vincent. What for? Cold fear flooded his veins. “We have to leave. Now,” said Matt. He pulled Jia toward the entrance but stopped short when he saw yet two more familiar faces that he’d already seen that day.
Wiley and Brocco.
Wiley saw him first. His eyes rested on Matt and Jia together, and his expression turned somber and grim, like he wished he hadn’t seen them at all. Wiley had always been kind to the Hudsons, and while he might not go up against Captain Vincent outright, Matt suspected Wiley had enough of a conscience to feel that what he was doing to the Hudsons wasn’t right. Matt thought he saw Wiley flick his head, like he was warning them to get out of there.
Matt swung around the corner of the train exhibit, pulling Jia with him, but on the other side he spotted Albert and Pike, both of them searching. Jia tugged on Matt’s hand and motioned toward the train. They both climbed up onto the caboose and crawled inside the car to hide. Matt lifted his head just enough to peek out the window. Brocco still hadn’t spotted them, and Matt didn’t see any sign of Captain Vincent. Where was he?
Then Matt saw his family come running into the exhibit—his mom and dad, followed closely by Tui, then Annie with her gun, and Chuck and Corey and Ruby.
“Mateo!” his mom and dad shouted at the same time, searching wildly around for him, which only alerted Brocco and Wiley to their presence. Brocco spun around and pulled out his gun.
“No!” Matt scrambled to the outside of the caboose. “
Mom! Look out!”
Bang!
Matt squeezed his eyes shut. People started screaming. Matt peeked through the slits of his eyes, fearing what he might see. There stood Annie, her rifle smoking. Brocco was crouched down on the floor with his hands over his head. His gun lay a few feet to his left, right at the tip of Wiley’s shoes. Wiley glanced down at the gun, then back up at Annie, weighing his options. He took a step back, pulled his pipe out of his mouth, and raised his hands in the air. “I ain’t got any guns, lady,” he said. “Don’t want no trouble.”
Bang!
Annie shot Wiley’s pipe clean out of his hand. It splintered into a hundred tiny pieces. There were more screams, people running everywhere, looking for an exit. “Hey!” said Wiley. “Now that was unprovoked violence!”
“I didn’t hurt you none, did I?” said Annie. “But if you don’t leave my friends alone, I won’t hesitate.”
“Mateo!” Mrs. Hudson called. She ran toward Matt.
Matt took Jia’s hand. “Let’s go,” he said, but Brocco had spotted him by then, and he pulled out another gun hidden beneath his jacket. He aimed right at Jia.
“Matt, get down!” screamed Ruby.
Matt shoved Jia to the ground and crouched over her as a bullet whistled past his ear.
“I see Li’l Professor, Captain!” shouted Brocco. “He’s on the train!”
More gunshots rang out. There were shouts and screams and crashes. Matt didn’t know what to do. He held tight to Jia’s hand. And then there was a long, loud whistle and a hiss of steam. The train suddenly lurched. Matt’s stomach lurched with it.
“Jia, we have to get out of here!” said Matt. “Come on. Jump!” He hopped over the railing and jumped down from the train, which was now slowly chugging away. He reached up to take Jia’s hand, but just as he did another gunshot rang out. Jia screamed and ducked down.
“Jia!” Matt shouted. She stood up. She did not appear to be hurt, but the train was picking up speed, and when she moved to jump, another bullet whistled toward her.
Matt ran after her. The train was rolling toward the exhibit entrance.
Time Castaways #2 Page 21