Doctor and the Kid, The (A Weird West Tale) (Weird West Tales) by Mike Resnick Page B

inward.
    “Hello, Doc,” said Edison's voice. “I'm in the lab.”
    Holliday made his way through the foyer and the book-lined corridor to the laboratory, which was almost devoid of chemicals and test tubes but abounded in electrical and brass devices. “Making any progress?” he asked.
    “I wish I knew,” said Edison.
    “You're Thomas Alva Edison,” replied Holliday. “How can you not know?”
    “It's not that simple, Doc,” said Edison, looking up from his notepad, where he had been furiously scribbling. “I may be close to the solution, I may be on the wrong track. It's impossible to know for sure until I test it out. For example, we know the Brass Mole can bore through three thousand feet of rock…but I don't know if it can move an eighth of an inch into the station.” He held up a strange-looking device that was shaped like a cylinder with a button at one end and a tiny hole at the other. “I can melt anything short of Ned's super-hardened brass with this, and I suppose if I kept it trained on the brass I might even make a dent in it before the battery wore down. But I don't know if it can make that same dent in the station, or the track, or even the people who are waiting for the train, if you and Geronimo are right that they're all protected.”
    “Maybe there's a way to kill two birds with one stone, to borrow an expression I heard up in Denver,” said Holliday.
    “I'm open to suggestions.”
    “I'm sure I can get the Kid to come over here to meet the great Edison. Once he's here, let's see if you've got anything that can kill him.”
    “And if the first attempt fails, you think he'll just sit still for the next?”
    “Absolutely,” said Holliday.
    Edison stared at him. “That doesn't make any sense, Doc.”
    “He knows he can't be hurt. Once you prove that even you can't hurt him, what has he got to fear from staying?”
    “First, he'll probably kill us,” said Edison. “Well, me , anyway. I forgot: he can't kill you. And more importantly, even if I can hurt him, even kill him, that won't prove a thing.”
    “The hell it won't,” said Holliday. “If you can kill him, you can destroy the station.”
    “Why?”
    “They're both protected by Hook Nose. If you can break through his magic on the Kid, you can break through it on the train station.”
    “But are they both protected by Hook Nose?” asked Edison. “You told me Geronimo didn't know who was protecting the train station. It might be Hook Nose, it might not. If it's a different medicine man, it's probably a different magical spell.”
    Holliday frowned as he considered what the inventor had said. “I hadn't thought it through,” he admitted. “But if we can kill the Kid, then I don't have to destroy the station. I can take the reward and go back to Colorado.”
    “Geronimo didn't have any trouble finding you there before,” noted Edison. “I don't think he'd have any trouble this time—and if we can kill the Kid and we leave the station alone, I think he'll make certain that you don't die fast, or peacefully, or in a sanitarium.”
    “Shit!” spat Holliday. “I thought I had something there.”
    “A man who can hold the United States at bay on the other side of the Mississippi River doesn't ask for easy favors,” replied Edison.
    “When you put it that way, I realize the full magnitude of what he's asking,” said Holliday. “Can it be done?”
    “All problems are capable of solution,” said Edison. “Some just take longer.”
    “All problems?” repeated Holliday dubiously.
    “ All problems,” said Edison emphatically. “I know it's hard to believe, but someday we're going to reach the Moon, and the planets, and even the stars. We're going to replace old, diseased, used-up organs like the heart and the lungs with new ones.” He peered wistfully into the future. “We'll eradicate every disease. We'll even create machines that think.” He blinked his eyes rapidly and brought himself back to the present.