Wolfe Bite Chapter 5
By Captain Gaul
“I can already tell you, this model never existed. Our records date from AD 1 to AD 2300—a millennium ago to over a millennium ahead. Handguns of this caliber were never built outside my immediate family until about AD 1800. Every model developed was, by law, registered in detail up until AD 2073. And considering that by AD 1950 the technology involved was far better and cheaper than anything that could have produced this thing--I find it highly unlikely that anyone ever manufactured this gun.” Taban was obviously proud of his speedy research.
“Then it was a custom job.” Also, Gaul thought, never mind if nobody ever manufactured it, because obviously the gun WAS.
“This thing? A custom? No. No way. Given the level of technology required to build it, there’s absolutely nothing remarkable about this gun. And THIS--” he said, turning the gun over to expose a series of letters, numbers, and other characters “—proves it wasn’t no custom job.”
Gaul read the characters, but they meant nothing to him. “Serial number.” That didn’t mean anything to Gaul, either. Handguns weren’t terribly common in his own era, and since every handgun that did ever come up could usually be traced directly back to either Lucca or Taban, registration wasn’t a factor.
“It means that this gun was part of a series, marked with a unique code for tracking and identification purposes.”
“So you’re saying that this gun was a specific, manufactured, model, except that the model never existed.”
“Yes.”
Gaul just stared at Taban. Taban, too, felt the logic failure and shifted uncomfortably. After a minute, Taban added helpfully, “Besides, this isn’t even the gun that shot Crono. It’s got a full chamber and a full clip. It was ready to fire, but it never fired.”
“I know that. But the man who did shoot Crono probably used the same weapon, or a very similar one. And that’s why I need to know where this one came from.”
“Well, I don’t know what to tell you. It hasn’t been built to date, and never will be built. That, combined with those characters in the serial number that are untranslatable, suggest it couldn’t even been built on Earth. But where else could it have been? What other worlds are there?” Taban chuckled towards the end of his statement.
“Where else indeed….” Gaul trailed off. After a moment, he frowned, and cursed in Manatetan. Taban raised his eyebrows and began to ask Gaul a question, but the captain was already out the door, taking the gun with him.
.