The young deputy went to the doorway where already they could hear people shouting in the outer room. Pulling his gun, he motioned at her with his other hand. “Stay here.”
Throwing open the door, he aimed his weapon at the big burly man striding past the front desk. “Stop right there!” Juda watched as Goen elbowed another deputy out of the way, sending the man flying over the front counter.
The Nomad spotted her across the room and began advancing toward her. “Bring me Cayn!”
She was barely aware of the sheriff rushing past her and toward him. “Use your clubs!” Conroy yelled, repeating it. “Use your clubs! Do not fire! Do not fire!”
The sheriff leaped toward Goen, who already had a deputy clinging to each arm. The Nomad was about to toss them as well when Conroy struck him with a long brown stick. It struck Goen on the side of the face, and he hollered in rage and pain.
Two men, one of whom she fleetingly recognized, ran into the building and also managed to grab Goen. It was now five against one, but Goen was not about to go down. She saw two more of those long sticks being deployed, beating him about the head, shoulders, and back as everyone tried to wrestle him to the floor.
A hand closed about her arm, and she almost wrested it away when she realized who it was.
“Come. Now is our chance to get away!” Cayn urged.
“No!” She looked back at the melee taking place. “We must help them!”
“Juda! We may not get this chance again!”
She faced him, tears brimming in her eyes. “I have come to care for these people. They saved me from starving. They gave me food and shelter, and a sense of belonging. If we leave, Goen may be able to overpower them. If he does, you know he will not hesitate to kill them,” she added in tight voice.
Cayn stared at her then nodded. Letting her go, he went over to the nearest desk and picked up an object she’d learned was called a telephone. Jerking the cord from the wall, he strode over to the crowd on the floor. When he saw an opening, he lifted the telephone and brought it down on the side of Goen’s face.
The Nomad immediately stilled, but Cayn wasn’t going to take any chances. Lifting the makeshift weapon a second time, he pounded it once more into Goen’s skull. Juda heard the wet sound of bones crunching, and blood trickled onto the floor.
Sheriff Conroy took the telephone from Cayn’s hands and stepped back. A deputy looked up at his boss. “Want us to take him over to the hospital?”
Conroy shook his head. “No. You and Daily put him in the last cell in the back. Use the restraints, just to be on the safe side. Anderson, you go over to the hospital and let them know we have an injured prisoner.”
One of the townspeople who’d intervened to help hurried off. The sheriff pointed to his other deputy. “Redden, search him. Make sure he doesn’t have anything on him he can use as a weapon. No. Strike that. Take everything off him. I have a feeling this guy could kill with a piece of paper. Then help them lock him up. Cayn.”
Cayn turned around to face him.
“I’m not going to ask you to send this guy back through time again. Not just yet. I want to see if he’ll answer a few questions once he awakens. You did say he’d need some room to jump, right? If he tries to escape?”
“He will not jump,” Cayn countered. “That will take him forward in time and away from where we are in the present.”
“So he wouldn’t be able to come back to this time period, correct?”
“Yes. That is correct. Not unless he meets another like myself who can send him back.”
“What about his henchman?” Juda called out. Leaving the relative safety of the office, she slowly approached them, stopping behind the front counter. “What about the man who travels with him?”
“He was apart from Goen when I sent them back,” Cayn reminded her. “It may take him a while longer to find us again.” He looked at Conroy. “But he will inevitably find us. And when he does, he will also discover Goen.”
They were interrupted by the three deputies who proceeded to half-drag, half-carry the unconscious Nomad to the rear of the office where the holding cells were located. Juda and Cayn followed to watch the man being laid inside before the iron-barred door was closed and locked.
“You may have a problem when the physician arrives,” Cayn remarked.
Conroy perched his hands on his hips. “How so?”
Cayn gestured to the figure. “He is an expert at deception. He could regain consciousness just as the doctor is checking him out and use the man as a hostage to get released.”
The sheriff smiled. “I’ve already prepared for that.” He pointed to the figure.
Peering closer, Juda and Cayn noticed the ropes the deputies were drawing out of the cell. Juda blinked in surprise. “You have him tied?”
“Both arms and legs separately,” Conroy explained. “See those rings embedded in the wall? This cell is used exclusively for our most violent offenders. When the doc shows up, even if Goen is awake, he won’t be able to attack or hold anyone hostage.”
