The Gun Runners
BY RALPH WILLIAMS
George Dolan had four immediate problems:
the time-translator, a beautiful, out-of-this-world
girl named Moirta, the gun runners and his life.
A situation in which he finally triumphed.... But
what can you do with a victory that lies at the
other end of a bridge 10,000 years long?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Worlds of If Science Fiction, December 1954.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The gun runners were professionals, and except for one minor detail the operation had been very well planned.
The middle twentieth century was chosen as a source of supply after a careful survey of all factors pro and con. The gun runners did not want the mass weapons of their own day, they wanted selective weapons which could be used for private murder. In the mid-twentieth century, the level of technology was such that well-made and reliable weapons were available; and at the same time, social control was still sketchy enough to permit quiet procurement of such merchandise, if one knew how to go about it and was suitably financed.
The gun runners, two men and a woman, knew how to go about it, and they were suitably financed. The profits in their business were commensurate with the risks—which were not small.
In their world unauthorized time travel was highly illegal, because of certain possible undesirable effects on the total space-time continuum, and was severely punished. Moreover, it was personally uncomfortable and dangerous.