Guns of Mars 94
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 28.3
Bhar Bhartee tensed, his shadow betrayed the motion. The thark sensed the bounty man behind him without turning. He cast an eye to one side to see the man coming up on his right hand, fifty paces distant and coming to a stop. The three formed a perfect triangle where they stood on the blowing sands.
“You know this… man?” the bounty man said, his gaze locked on the stranger as he let the filled waterbags slide from his shoulder to fall with a slosh at his feet.
“I killed the orluk that chased you from the canal,” the hooded man said. “The one who would have killed your partner.”
“That the way it happened?” the bounty man said to Kal without turning.
Kal grunted.
“As I’ve said, you’ve a choice to make, Warhoon.” The hooded man said.
The bounty man looked from one to the other, from the thark’s slitted eyes to the pale man’s hands.
The explosion of six guns went off in a chain cadence. So close together they made for one continuous clap of thunder. Its boom echoed off the face of the lonely mountain.
The thark stood, his smoking pistol steady in his fist.
The bounty man crouched, a gun ticking in each fist as he thumbed back the hammers.
The hooded man staggered, three dark blotches blossoming to stain his robe where his dark heart had been torn to shreds. One by each, the pistols held in his three hands dropped to the sand. He followed a second later, collapsing face first to join his shadow on the sand.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
