CHAPTER 12
By
the looks of those around the table, Tibbs has been playing a multilevel game
of dice and cards all night. As usual he was losing. A Terantus gambler across
the table from him picked up the dice, shook them in one of his four hands and
blew on them for luck.
“You going to make love to the damn
things or throw them,” Tibbs growled. “Get
on with it, will you.”
“Hold your water, mister,” the
Terantus said. “I’ll toss them when I’m
ready.”
“You’ll toss them now, or fold your
hand. Or should I say hands?” Tibbs commanded.
“You’re new around here. Maybe you better take your business someplace
else.”
The other gamblers at the table
watched Tibbs warily just as Jake entered the saloon and stepped up to the bar.
“The sun hasn’t raised on the day I
need to take advice from a thick thumbed, card fumbling Norlander,” Tibbs said.
“What are you trying to say and
who’re you calling a ‘Norlander?’” the Terantus growled.
I’m not trying to say anything. It’s
there for anyone who cares to see. You’re
not even good at it. Too many thumbs, I
guess. You must be so used to playing with ignorants who don’t know better,
you’ve gotten real careless about how you try to cheat a man.”
The Terantus jumped to his feet,
knocking the table over. He pulled a
long knife from under his coat and leaped at Tibbs. Tibbs was ready and threw the Terantus over
his hip and pulled out his own knife.
The other gamblers closed in around
the two as their knives clashed. Tibbs
cut the Terantus on the shoulder. One of
the other men started to pull a club.
Jake stepped up, spun the man and slammed a big fist into his jaw,
sending him sprawling, knocking over several tables.
Three other men jumped on Jake’s
back and he shook them off. They charged
back swinging wildly. He kicked one in the chest and swept another off his feet
as he back handed the third over a table. While Jake’s fight with the three miners
was more of a good-natured brawl inspired out of boredom, Tibbs and the
Terantus were intent on killing one another.
Men and women along the sidelines
cheered as Jake stood toe-to-toe with the three men giving as good as he got. One by one, Jake knocked his opponents into
submission, but he took a beating himself in the process.
Tibbs and the Terantus fought with
knives, broken furniture, fists, teeth, whatever came to hand. Tibbs was more
accomplished with the knife, but the Terantus’s four arms gave him the
advantage at times. It was a vicious, brutal fight that eventually ended up out
on the street in front of the saloon.
Tibbs and the Terantus were nearly
equal in strength and brutality. But Tibbs finally got the upper hand as he
beat the Terantus into submission. The
Terantus lay on his back in the middle of the street while Tibbs stood over
him.
Tibbs grabbed a big rock that lay
nearby in both hands and raised it above his head. He was just about to bring
it down in a crushing blow to the Terantus’s head when the rock exploded,
reduced to dust that rained down on him.
Tibbs staggered back and turned slowly to see who had interfered.
Jake stood a few feet away with a
hand weapon still aimed at Tibbs. “He’s finished, Tibbs,” he said.
“Not from where I stand, he ain’t,”
Tibbs said slowly, while glaring at Jake.
Jake motioned with the weapon for
Tibbs to move away from the Terantus. “Let’s go,” he ordered.
Tibbs straightened up and his body
language changed from cold predatory killer back to something more akin to
normal—for Tibbs. He looked down at the
bloody, mangled body and shrugged.
“Whatever,” he said calmly.
Jake holstered the weapon and they
walked slowly down the street as a couple of people went over to help the Terantus
to his feet. The Terantus pulled free
and turned toward Tibbs and growled a curse, “You’ll pay for this, Visochlurk. You should have killed me when you had the
chance.”
Tibbs turned back to face the Terantus.
“What did you call me?”
The Terantus bared three rows of
serrated teeth, clutched all four hands into fists and snarled the epithet, “I
said you’re a Visochlurk.”
Tibbs shrugged. “That’s what I
thought you said.”
Before Jake could stop him, Tibbs
grabbed Jake’s weapon and blasted the Terantus in the chest. The Terantus was
thrown across the street, his chest a smoking, bloody, gaping hole.
Jake grabbed the weapon from Tibbs.
“What the hell did you do that for?”
“You heard what he called me,”
Tibbs said defensively.
Jake was incredulous. “Do you even
know what visochlurk means?”
Tibbs shrugged. “It couldn’t have
been good. Besides—”
“Besides what?”
“No sense leaving unfinished
business behind or it’ll sneak up and bite you in the ass,” Tibbs whispered
coldly, adding, “You ever point a weapon at me again you better use it.”
Jake looked at the dead
Terantus. He spun and punched Tibbs in
the face, sending him flying across the street. “I’ll keep it in mind,” he
said.
Tibbs jumped up and started to come
at Jake, but stopped as Jake rested the palm of his right hand on the holstered
weapon. Tibbs nodded, motioning down the
street.
“I got some other business matters,”
he said. “I’ll meet up with you and the
old man later.”
“More unfinished business?”
Tibbs gave a little smile, rubbed
his jaw and walked away.
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