Get Cartwright
by Tom Graham
Table of Contents
Chapter One: Shadow of the Past
Chapter Three: One Spent Cartridge
Chapter Seven: This is Diplomacy
Chapter Eleven: Lost and Found in Lost & Found
Chapter Twelve: Gene, God and the Meaning of the Western
Chapter Thirteen: A Quiet Drink
Chapter Fifteen: Dreams of Life
Chapter Seventeen: Duke of Earles
Chapter Eighteen: It’s Complicated
Chapter Nineteen: Death of a Cortina
Chapter Twenty-One: Clive Gould
Chapter Twenty-Three: Siege at Trencher’s Farm
Chapter Twenty-Five: Yellow Brick Road
Chapter Twenty-Six: Into The Emerald City
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Life on Mars?
CHAPTER ONE: SHADOW OF THE PAST
It was Sunday morning. Manchester was drowsy and still. And DI Sam Tyler was staring death in the face.
My God …! It’s him …
His blood had frozen in his veins.
Don’t run. Stand your ground.
Sam’s heart was hammering in his chest.
This is it. This is the showdown. Don’t run – be a man – it’s time to finish this thing here and now!
The silent confrontation between him and death had been as sudden as it was unexpected. Sam had been walking through the city on a typically dead Sunday morning. Manchester was lying in, its curtains still drawn, its head under the covers, refusing to budge. Here in 1973, Sunday trading was still just a promise – or a threat – that lay in the future. Apart from a few corner shops and wayside cafes, all the shutters were down. Hardly a car moved in the streets. An elderly man walked his elderly dog. A solitary council worker gathered up discarded cans of Tennent’s and stinking chip papers. And through this, Sam had made his way, lost in his own thoughts.
Hurrying past the Roxy cinema, a sudden movement had caught his eye. He glanced up – and at once he gasped and stumbled to a halt. Stepping out noiselessly from the dark façade of the cinema came a shadowy figure, blank-faced and featureless. It positioned itself in Sam’s path, standing motionless in front of a gaudy poster for Westworld,
Sam knew at once what – or rather who – that phantom was. He knew the aura of horror that hung about it, had experienced before the primal terror that surrounded this dreadful apparition.
Running a dry tongue over dry lips, Sam said as calmly as he could: ‘So. Looks like you’ve found me, Mr Gould.’
There was no sign of response. Yul Brynner glared back at him through the blank mask of the Devil in the Dark.
Sam tried to pluck up the courage to take a challenging step towards this thing of darkness. But his feet would not obey him. He remained rooted to the spot. Acting tougher than he felt, he said: ‘How are we going to do this? Do we fight? Or do you just zap me with a death ray? Whatever it is, let’s do it. Right now. Let’s finish this.’
Brave words. But he felt anything but brave. A bead of sweat rolled down Sam's face.
The shadow shifted its position, and now, through its hazy form, Sam could see the Westworld poster’s tag-line, perfectly readable through Gould’s chest:
‘Don’t just stand there,’ Sam said, lifting his head and refusing to be cowed. ‘You