The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gun for Hire, by Dallas McCord Reynolds

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Title: Gun for Hire

Author: Dallas McCord Reynolds

Illustrator: H. R. Van Dongen

Release Date: January 11, 2008 [EBook #24247]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_A gun is an interesting weapon; it can be hired, of
course, and naturally doesn't care who hires it. Something
much the same can be said of the gunman, too...._

GUN FOR HIRE

By

MACK
REYNOLDS

Illustrated by van Dongen

Joe Prantera called softly, "Al." The pleasurable, comfortable, warm
feeling began spreading over him, the way it always did.

The older man stopped and squinted, but not suspiciously, even now.

The evening was dark, it was unlikely that the other even saw the circle
of steel that was the mouth of the shotgun barrel, now resting on the
car's window ledge.

"Who's it?" he growled.

Joe Prantera said softly, "Big Louis sent me, Al."

And he pressed the trigger.

And at that moment, the universe caved inward upon Joseph Marie
Prantera.

There was nausea and nausea upon nausea.

There was a falling through all space and through all time. There was
doubling and twisting and twitching of every muscle and nerve.

There was pain, horror and tumultuous fear.

And he came out of it as quickly and completely as he'd gone in.

He was in, he thought, a hospital and his first reaction was to think,
_This here California. Everything different._ Then his second thought
was _Something went wrong. Big Louis, he ain't going to like this._

[Illustration]

He brought his thinking to the present. So far as he could remember, he
hadn't completely pulled the trigger. That at least meant that whatever
the rap was it wouldn't be too tough. With luck, the syndicate would get
him off with a couple of years at Quentin.

A door slid open in the wall in a way that Joe had never seen a door
operate before. _This here California._

The clothes on the newcomer were wrong, too. For the first ti