Free Search and Destroy by James Hilton

get… and I guess Texans are the worst of all.”
    “Yes.”
    “Tansen, old buddy, we need your help.”
    The smile crept into Tansen’s deep-brown eyes. “Come on in. I’ve got fresh coffee if you want to sit awhile.” Andrea hung back as Clay and his friend went into the house, Clay’s arm slung around the shorter man’s shoulders. The older Gunn brother towered over the other man, yet Tansen’s presence easily matched that of the muscular Texan. She whispered to Danny, “Is it going to be okay?”
    “Looks like it. They just needed a minute.”
    “Who is he?”
    “Tansen, an old Gurkha friend of ours.”
    “Like in the army?” Andrea had a vague mental picture of dark-skinned men in green fatigues. “Are they the ones from Nepal?”
    “That’s right.”
    They followed the others into the house. Andrea noted that Tansen was dressed like an extra from an old Western, in dark jeans, a red check shirt with a faded leather waistcoat. Intricately embroidered cowboy boots with ornate steel caps at the end of the toes completed his ensemble. Inside, the house was a shrine to the Wild West. Dozens of vintage revolvers sat in display cases both free-standing and wall-mounted. Andrea knew very little about guns but stared with interest at the nearest weapon. The small brass plaque at the base of the weapon told her it was a Colt 1851 Navy Revolver. The barrel was the longest she’d ever seen on a handgun.
    “Tansen has got the biggest collection of Old West memorabilia that I’ve ever seen. The museum in Dallas could learn a thing or two from this man.”
    Tansen grinned appreciatively at Clay’s comment. “Best in the West…”
    Andrea smiled a hint of a smile, not knowing quite how to respond.
    “We’re sorry to land on you Tansen, but we’re in a real hole,” offered Danny.
    Tansen waved his hand to dispel the apology. “Now, who is your lovely lady friend?”
    She stepped forward. “Andrea Chambers.” She smiled, caught unawares as their host kissed her hand as she extended it to shake.
    Tansen waved for them to sit and then busied himself in the kitchen area. Minutes later he placed four steaming mugs of coffee on the table, which was made from an old wagon wheel capped with a sheet of smoked glass. The cavities between each spoke of the wheel were filled with spent bullet casings. Andrea tried not to smile, thinking of
When Harry Met Sally
. She thought it best not to ask if he’d gotten it from Roy Rogers’ garage sale.
    “Now then, what brings you to my neck of the woods?”
    Andrea sank back into the sofa as Danny told their story, letting it wash over her. Tansen did not speak until Danny was finished, only nodding occasionally, his face stoical.
    “So what can I do to help?” he asked. Andrea noticed that his Nepalese accent was hardly perceptible.
    “We need to lie low while we figure out who these guys were and just what they were after,” Danny said. “They were well trained and well equipped. I’m sure if they had just wanted to kill us and not take Andrea alive, we’d all be taking the longest dirt nap in the desert. One of the shooters said Andrea had something that didn’t belong to her but she’s got nothing.”
    “Could you have had this ‘something’ and lost it?” asked Tansen, turning his dark eyes to Andrea.
    Andrea sat up. “I really don’t know. They came out of nowhere and started shooting. They could have just pointed their guns at us and we would have given them anything they’d asked for.” The memory of Greg’s dead face made her fall silent again, her stomach churning.
    “Well, let’s look at what we know.” Tansen counted off the points on his fingers. “One: They were well trained. That probably means military or ex-military. Two: they had the latest professional equipment. That means they are well financed. Three—” he turned to Andrea again “—they killed at least three people that you had contact with, one of them a cop. And they tried