Levin woke up the next morning with his head a little fuzzy. He and Sadie had talked long into the night. When she finally got tired enough, she checked her watch, told him that she had some things to do the following day and left.

He went to his wash bowl and cleaned up, before setting out his clothing on the bed. He was pleased that Sadie had opted to go for a room this time around. She had already explained that she preferred to stay out in the wilderness because she was able to see people coming a long way off. In her line of work, it was no surprise that people would come looking for her over a variety of grudges, but the more she told her story, the more he realised that there were a whole lot of other people that had grudges too. It was a fascinating tale, one he was sure would bag him another best-seller once he was done. It was understandable that she didn't like to be around lots of people often, but she had explained that out here, the number of cougars meant camping out was not an appealing option, even for her.

He finished getting dressed and headed next door, knocking to see if Sadie was in. He didn't get an answer.

"Mrs Adler?" He asked. He still got no answer. He tried the door handle, finding that the door was unlocked, an unusual move for someone with so many enemies. He was trying to decide if he should risk going in, though the imagination of what an inauspicious ending it would be to his writing career ending up with a bullet through his skull for startling a woman in her bedroom made him reconsider. He checked his watch and noticed to his astonishment it was already afternoon. They had talked late, but Sadie did seem to have energy no matter what time of day it was.

One of the staff was setting up for the day ahead and noticed him.

"If you're looking for Mrs Adler, she's checked out." He informed Levin. Levin looked like he'd been slapped across the face.

"She's not here?" He asked in a bit of a panic. He'd already followed her across many territories for her story, and while he was sure he could already make a best-seller out of what she had told him already, he was desperate to hear everything she had to tell him. He wracked his brain, trying to think over the previous night. Had he said or done something that offended her? He figured he was more likely to end up with a threat or a fist to the face if he had than just being abandoned. The man pulled out an envelope and handed it to her.

"She met up with some guy, looked like an old friend the way they were talking. After a while, she came to the bar, settled her tab and said she was going on a job and would be back in a couple of days." The bartender informed him. "He said to give that to you and tell you to wait here for her."

"For how long?" Levin asked. He just shrugged.

"No idea, but they were heading South." The bartender told him. "Oh, she told me breakfast is on her. Breakfast all day? Can you imagine that? Still, she's a regular so...who am I to judge? You want breakfast?"

"Please." Levin replied.

"Coffee?" He asked.

"Always." Levin answered as he headed down to the main bar.

He found himself a nice table by the window. He always did like somewhere he could watch the world go by. His writing process wasn't always consistent, and he did sometimes like to take a little inspiration by watching people just going about their business and imagining what they were doing. That guy doffing his cap to the woman walking with her husband who smiled at him...he could make a bodice stripper out of that easily. The police officer who seemed to patrol only the same twenty feet of pavement? He could imagine him really being a gang member in disguise casing the local bank which was still being built. Perhaps even Dutch Van Der Linde himself! He needed no such inspiration with Sadie's tale, but it was now a habit that he liked somewhere he could get a good view of everyone that was coming and going. He opened out the letter.

"Mr Levin.

Sorry to take off without a word, but I heard you snorin' and figured I couldn't wake you if I set off a shotgun outside your door, and I were meetin' with an old friend that really likes his privacy, so meetin' a best-selling author probably ain't high on his to-do list."

He decided it was best not to press the matter on that. Sadie was already so forthcoming with her story; he really didn't mind her keeping a secret or two to herself. He'd already figured out that the Mr Peterson he met in Rhodes had in fact been Mr Pearson, the camp chef for the Van Der Linde Gang. Between the fact he never really did commit any crimes, and as a favour to Sadie, he had already figured that the fact he was alive and well and owned a General Store was a fact he could leave out of his book. It wasn't like it was the most important detail to his readers. He carried on reading.

"I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to help him out with a little honest work down south.

I should be back in a couple of days, so just hang around, enjoy the city, and I'll be right back as soon as I'm done with this job.

But don't worry; I won't leave you with nothin' to do. Now, where was I? Right, Langton."

Two years, that was how long Sadie rode with Langton. Two years. She had known Arthur to do a little bounty hunting on the side back in the day, something that was more than a little ironic since he had one of the largest bounties in the country if anyone had bothered to check, but back then communications between settlements was virtually non-existent. Telegrams were the fastest way, and even they took about a day to get to their location and cost a hell of a lot of money since the offices charged by the letter.

The business was also, and to this day remained, pretty much completely unregulated. Bounty Hunters were private citizens who delivered fugitives for a cash payment. It wasn't even really a requirement that anyone prove they were a citizen at all since more often than not the local sheriff didn't even ask for a name. As long as the Bounty Hunter put the fugitive in a cell or dumped his corpse in the wagon out back, the sheriff handed over the cash and no more was said on the matter. To say this meant that there was a huge variation in methods, talent and competence was an understatement.

In the two years she rode with Langton, she met many sheriffs, marshals, bounty hunters and fugitives. The thing she found most amazing was how forthcoming law enforcement was with information for bounty hunters given how little they really knew about them. All they cared about was getting their fugitive; they didn't stop to wonder who they were talking to.

The first thing she learned about Bounty Hunting was that it required a lot more than just a quick trigger finger and a lot of ammo. That was a good way to end up killing someone that was wanted alive and ending up with a corpse that was no good to anyone. Violence was, of course, a part of the game, but just like robbery, it wasn't just about hitting hard, it was about knowing how and where to hit.

Langton and his crew were pretty unique in the business. Most bounty hunters worked alone or had small crews of two or three men, since the more people they had on their crew the further they had to split bounties. Langton rode with his own personal army!

He had a unique way of doing business, realising that sometimes small bounties were as lucrative, if not more so than large bounties if he brought in enough of them. Everyone could see the posters of those that had huge prices on their heads, but those men rode with others and many of them had prices on them as well. Down in New Austin, the Del Lobo Gang was causing so many problems that the sheriff was willing to pay for proof of any of them meeting their maker since as far as they were concerned the more dead Del Lobos the better. Langton's men made a pretty good business out of taking ears in to the office and getting a steady income and taking the occasional large bounty as a bonus.

Langton, on the surface, was on good terms with law enforcement. They were only too happy to talk to him and give him any information they had on likely locations of lawbreakers, but when she found the sheriff was just as willing to talk to her, she did wonder. It turned out another reason he liked travelling with such a large entourage was actually because most settlements DIDN'T like them. So many people, many of whom had expensive tastes, would quickly drink the saloons dry, pick the stores clean and generally just make a nuisance of themselves to the point that people were happy to tell them what they wanted to know just to get rid of them! It made Sadie laugh to think about it now. Langton and his men might have dressed like the fine, dandy gentlemen of Saint Denis, but there was a certain method to their behaviour.

She found that a lot of the skills she learned under the Van Der Lindes were transferrable, and worked to her advantage. Langton didn't care to ask, but riding so long with a gang, Sadie understood a lot of their ways and how they worked. They would hide in the wilderness, but despite their loathing of civilisation, like everyone else they needed things that they could only get in town. Ammunition, medicine, tobacco, alcohol and suchlike were things every outlaw wanted but was in short supply in the wilderness.

Sadie never did get into the whole dressing like a popinjay thing that Langton did, but she quickly proved herself, bringing in enough bounties to impress those who had been riding with Langton for years and even Langton himself. One day, she arrived in Tumbleweed, dragging a fugitive with her. He was alive, but not by much. She always preferred to bring in bounties alive, not because she really cared much about whether they lived or died, Sheriff Freeman was the kind of sheriff that believed more in summary execution than trials and hangings, but because it was pretty difficult to get information out of a corpse.

Freeman was in the middle of 'questioning' a witness when she arrived. His method of interrogation was as forgiving as his approach to sentencing. She could hear the screams and the impacts of Freeman's fists before she even got into town, never mind his office.

"Anthony." She greeted him, just heading straight past without even a side-ways glance. Such a thing was a common sight in his office. She had been here enough times to be comfortable just putting the fugitive in the cell herself. The bloodied, battered man slumped in the chair; she'd brought in a couple of days earlier.

"Mrs Adler." He responded, winding up and slamming another hard punch into his bound victim, who just groaned and mumbled something unintelligible. "Working hard I see."

"I could say the same." Sadie responded as she locked the cell door.

"Langton?" He asked.

"Where'd you think?" Sadie asked him, flicking a thumb in the direction of the saloon. She put down a blood-stained bag on the desk. "I'll pick up the money later."

"Yeah, still waiting on the banking stage." Foreman told her in a sigh.

"You get something from that guy?" She asked him.

"Not much so far, just something vague about Rio Bravo." Foreman told her. "I've warmed him up if you want to take a turn."

"I would." Sadie replied, gesturing to him. "But I reckon his talkin' days are over."

Foreman turned back to the Del Lobo, seeing him slumped over on the chair, only his bonds holding him up. He walked up to him, holding a hand near his mouth and nose.

"Son of a bitch." He muttered, before pulling out a knife, cutting him loose and letting him fall to the floor. "Want to give me a hand with this?"

Sadie just shrugged and grabbed the man's feet, while Foreman took his arms, picking him up and lifting him outside, dumping him in the street. Foreman didn't quite put heads on pikes, but he did find that having a few Del Lobo corpses on display for a day or two before disposing of them did discourage them from coming into his town. They both went back inside.

"You going to join your friends?" Foreman asked as he lit up a cigar, offering one to Sadie. Sadie politely declined.

"I was hoping to find out what this son of a bitch knows." She told him. One of the main reasons she still rode with Langton was that rumours had been circulating for a couple of years that Micah had taken up with them to hide out. She hadn't yet found him, but every now and then a story of someone that looked like him would surface. "We found him and a bunch of others waitin' on a delivery."

"Robbing stages? Wish I could say that was unusual." Foreman chuckled.

"In the middle of Rio Bravo?" She asked. "There ain't nowhere out there to deliver to. What could be gettin' delivered that was so important?"

"Want to find out?" Foreman asked.

"Seems rude to keep our friend waitin'." Sadie replied with a shrug. Foreman went to the cell, but as he approached the door, the man started thrashing around in terror.

"No, keep away from me!" He yelled in a panic. "You can't do this!"

"You and your boys have been doin' a lot worse for a lot longer." Foreman reminded him as he unlocked the door.

"No, wait, wait, wait, don't!" He yelled. "I...I know things!"

"Yeah, we figured that much, that's why we're gonna find out what you know." Sadie replied sarcastically.

"Wait, you...you said something about Micah Bell?" He asked. She just sighed.

"OK, this ought to be good." She responded. "OK, where is he this time? Built a mansion on the cliffs? Hiding in a cabin by the San Luis River?..."

"I saw him two days ago!" The man rushed out as Foreman finished tying him to the chair.

"Yeah, I'm sure." Sadie sighed. "Let me guess, he were lookin' to catch a train up to..."

"No, I saw him, the deliveries are for him." The man continued. This made Sadie take notice; she stopped Foreman with a gesture as she started to come closer.

"What did you say?" She asked.

"The deliveries, they're for him." He told her. "He's been hiding out with us for years, buys protection in return for guns. He has cash, more cash than any of us ever seen, keeps buying us all these guns, more than we ever need!"

This did ring true. Before now, the Del Lobos had mostly been poorly-equipped bandits, armed with whatever they could scavenge or steal, but in the last couple of years they'd started to show up with guns and ammunition that looked like it was straight off the shelf. She knew that Micah and Dutch had retrieved the money from the Blackwater job before the Pinkertons hit Beaver Hollow. If he had even a share of that, it was likely he'd have more than enough to outfit an army, and it sounded like that was exactly what he was doing.

"You're tellin' me that one of the most wanted men in the country is buying deliveries of guns directly from the manufacturer?" She asked him. "That has to be one of the dumbest..."

"No, no, its true! They made lots of guns for the war, but then it ended! All them guns that were made and never bought. People still need paid for their work, need to feed their families." He told her. "They bring a wagon to the road and we hand over the cash."

"Cash?" Foreman asked, looking to Sadie. The unregulated status of the business meant that most sheriffs turned a blind eye to the fact people would often take what they wanted from bounties before turning them in. More often than not the contents of their pockets didn't belong to them anyway, and it was unlikely they were ever going to find the rightful owners so it was just taken as a perk of the job as long as they were reasonable about it. Obviously if someone robbed a bank or something the bank expected their money to be returned, but small amounts of cash, jewellery and suchlike? No one really cared when that went missing. Sadie had a pocket full of crisp dollar bills she wasn't too proud to lift from the pocket of a bandit she had shot, and right now Langton and his men were living it up on a bunch of cash they'd taken from a saddlebag.

"There was a lot of money, maybe a few hundred." Sadie admitted, before turning back to the man in the chair. "Where was the wagon?"

"It didn't come; they must have got delayed on the road." The Del Lobo told her. She thought about this for a moment.

"And Micah was the one that sent you?" She asked.

"Yes, from Fort Mercer." He said in a panic, sensing an opportunity to save his own hide. "He was the one that gave us the money! We were to pick up the delivery for him!"

"Fort Mercer?" Sadie asked Foreman. He just sighed.

"It was a fort built for the war." He told her. "The army abandoned it years ago. You know the story, there's always money for war but when the war ends, the money stops and people go home. No point putting soldiers in a fort for an invasion that ain't coming."

"Well, it sounds like someone might have repurposed it." She answered. "It's worth checking out. If we're quick we can see if we can make that delivery."

"If you're quick, you might just catch Langton and the others before they're too drunk to hold a gun." Foreman stated. Sadie had to think he had a point about that. As she got outside, she heard a gunshot from the office. It looked like Foreman believed he'd heard everything he was going to hear from the Del Lobo.

Sadie managed to round up Langton and the others and ride back out to where they had found the Del Lobos. She got off her horse, inspecting the ground, especially the road.

"You find anything?" Langton asked her. One of the talents Sadie had that Langton's men didn't was a flair for tracking. She'd spent a long time with Charles learning how to look for subtle signs of activity in the area. It turned out bounty hunting was a lot like hunting any other animal, the only difference was the creatures they found at the end of the journey had guns.

"Nothing fresh." She told him. "It looks like we beat them here. You go and get yourselves out of sight. We can ambush them when they come through."

"Ambush?" One of them chuckled. "There's like two dozen of us here!"

"Yeah, and they're bringin' a wagon full of guns." She reminded him. "I don't know about you but I like to know the odds are in my favour."

They all hunkered down and waited. It was almost a full day before they saw anyone. No one with any sense travelled in this region if they didn't have to. There were no settlements for miles and between the animals, the desert and the Del Lobos, it was not a place many people wanted to be. They heard the rumble of wagons, and immediately secreted themselves out of sight. Sadie tucked herself behind a rock overhanging the road with Langton.

"What the hell?" He asked. "I thought he said we were looking for a wagon. This is a whole damn caravan!"

"Bet you're glad we didn't just wait for them in the open now ain't you?" Sadie asked.

"Maybe they're not the ones we're looking for?" Langton asked. Just then, the caravan pulled up and someone got out, looking around and checking a map. They could hear voices, and they didn't sound too happy.

"No, this is the one alright." Sadie responded, getting up. Everyone took her signal and immediately came out of hiding, training guns on the caravan. It was only a precaution, but they wanted to get the drop on them before anyone could do anything dumb like go into the wagons for guns. "Alright, everyone just calm down and no one's gonna get hurt."

"Is this a stick-up?" One of them asked. "You really don't want to rob this delivery; do you know who this is for?"

"Yeah, we do, which is why we want to talk, now sit down and shut up!" Sadie replied, shoving him down. It didn't take Langton's men long to round up the others.

"Where's Carlos?" The man asked.

"About yet tall, little skinny, hair like a rat?" Sadie asked. "The sheriff of Tumbleweed put an extra hole in his head. My guess is he's either crow shit or coyote shit by now."

"Hey, this worked out great! Not a single shot fired!" Langton said with a smile. Sadie just nodded, but decided it was best not to tell him exactly how experienced she was at holding up stage coaches. They rounded up all the men at the side of the road, where they could keep an eye on them while Sadie turned her attention to the wagons. She pried open a crate and looked inside.

"Well, would you look at that! Nice, shiny new rifles, ain't never fired a shot." Sadie commented.

"Look, lady, those guns are our legal property." He told her. "We're entitled to sell them to whoever we want."

"And you think sellin' 'em to Del Lobos is a good idea?" Sadie asked, inspecting a fine looking revolver, checking down the barrel.

"They were the only ones paying." He protested. "One minute Uncle Sam is paying us regular, next minute we don't sell a single bullet! We gotta eat lady!"

"You ever think there's other ways to make money?" She asked him.

"Langton, I think you're gonna want to have a look at this." Someone called out. Sadie went to another of the wagons that one of the men was looking inside. What she saw surprised even her.

"You've got to be shittin' me!" She called out. "Really?"

"I told you, we have stock that we need to sell..."

"That's a God damned CANNON!" She yelled. "You're selling a cannon to Micah Bell?"

"Hunters don't have much use for them." He replied with a shrug. "Besides, what are they gonna do with it? Rob a train? You need two men to load the damn thing, never mind move it."

"You are unbelievable!" She muttered, shaking her head.

"He's got a point." One of Langton's men pointed out. "It's not the most practical thing for a stick-up."

"No, but it is ideal for defending a fort." She mused. It was a scary thought. The Del Lobos were tough enough to deal with when they were roaming the desert, but with a fort? Buying up artillery? It might not help them pull jobs but it would give them somewhere no one could get them out of. She had to wonder if maybe things would have turned out a little differently if Dutch had thought of having somewhere like that to call home.

"Guess it's just as well they aren't getting this thing then." Langton replied. Sadie thought about it for a moment.

"They're still expecting this delivery." She mused. "I've got an idea. Someone help me get all the ammo out of these wagons."

"Wait, what?" Langton asked. Sadie just smiled.

"Forts open their doors when they see a delivery they're expecting." She reminded them. "Who else feels like takin' down one of the biggest scalps in the state?"