Gun for Hire

In Short

Mack Reynolds’s science fiction short story Gun for Hire follows Joseph "Joe" Prantera, a mid-century mob hitman ripped from the moment of an execution into the year 2133. A pair of well-meaning idealists have built a time machine to eliminate Howard Temple-Tracy, a charismatic demagogue threatening their peaceful, borderless world. Because their warless society lacks the capacity for violence, they rely on a killer from the past to perform the job. Instead of dying or surrendering, the adaptable gangster turns the assignment into a leverage point to build a new criminal enterprise.

The Story

The narrative opens in 1960 Los Angeles as mob assassin Joe Prantera prepares to ambush a rival named Al Rossi with a shotgun on behalf of his boss, Big Louis. Just as Joe presses the trigger, his body undergoes a harrowing, nauseating physical distortion through time and space. He awakens in an unfamiliar, high-tech medical facility wearing a strange nightgown. Expecting the police or a rival syndicate, Joe demands a lawyer, but his host, Lawrence Reston-Farrell, explains that he is not under arrest. Dressed in futuristic garments and shown a high-rise view of a carless, sprawling metropolis called Nuevo Los Angeles, Joe is introduced to Reston-Farrell’s colleague, Warren Brett-James.

The two men explain that they have used experimental time-travel technology to bring Joe forward 173 years into the year 2133. They detail how human society solved its historical crises: wars, national borders, economic scarcity, poverty, and money itself have been eradicated through automation and universal abundance. Furthermore, crime, police, prisons, and weapons no longer exist, and humanity has lost its psychological capacity for physical violence.

However, a new threat has emerged. A demagogue named Howard Temple-Tracy has begun preaching nationalism and militarism, gathering a passionate following among restless, immature youth who long for conflict. Incapable of taking a human life themselves, Reston-Farrell and Brett-James plucked Joe from 1960 specifically because he was a professional killer about to be arrested and executed under California law. They offer to integrate Joe into their comfortable future society after the assassination, admitting that time travel only flows forward and he can never return to his own era.

Joe realizes he has no way back to his familiar world, where all his acquaintances are long dead, and that no one in the 22nd century speaks his language. He agrees to the assignment, allowing the scientists to supply him with an antique .45-caliber pistol and track down Temple-Tracy's location. Reston-Farrell and Brett-James accompany him to the target's apartment building, intending to turn themselves in for psychiatric rehabilitation alongside Joe once the killing is finished.

Joe enters Temple-Tracy’s penthouse alone. Rather than raising his weapon to carry out the assassination, Joe evaluates the situation through his mob-honed instincts. He recognizes that Temple-Tracy is a budding dictator who lacks personal protection in a completely unarmed world. Instead of shooting him, Joe pitches his services as a professional bodyguard and muscle, offering to eliminate Reston-Farrell and Brett-James to protect Temple-Tracy's rising empire. Recognizing the utility of an enforcement specialist, Temple-Tracy agrees to hear him out, allowing the gangster to secure a powerful position in the world of the future.

How It Unfolds

Interrupted execution Joe Prantera corners his mob target, Al Rossi, in a dark Los Angeles street in 1960. As he pulls the shotgun trigger, a violent spatial distortion overwhelms his senses and yanks him from the scene.

A unfamiliar era Joe wakes up in an advanced facility in the year 2133, greeted by two men who explain that he has been transported forward in time. They reveal that money, wars, police, and crime have been eliminated from human society.

The target revealed Reston-Farrell and Brett-James explain that a demagogue named Howard Temple-Tracy is threatening their peaceful order by recruiting restless youth. Because citizens of the future are psychologically incapable of violence, they recruited a hitman from the past to eliminate him.

The setup After learning that he cannot return to 1960 and that traditional society no longer exists, Joe agrees to the job. The idealists procure an antique .45 pistol and drive him to Temple-Tracy’s apartment.

A change of terms Joe enters Temple-Tracy's penthouse under the guise of an interview. Realizing the wannabe dictator has no protection and great ambitions, Joe pulls out the gun not to shoot him, but to offer his services as a hired enforcer.

The People

• Joseph "Joe" Salviati-Prantera wants survival, familiar comforts, and a clear tactical advantage. Pulled from a mob hit in 1960, he is a pragmatic, cold-blooded enforcer who views every situation through the lens of leverage and self-preservation. When confronted with a world that lacks violence, he adapts by offering his specialized skills to the highest bidder.
• Lawrence Reston-Farrell wants to safeguard his peaceful utopian society from political collapse. A anxious, delicate physician, his strong moral aversion to physical harm prevents him from committing murder himself, driving him to pull a killer from history to do his dirty work.
• Warren Brett-James wants to resolve society's philosophical dilemmas rationally. A heavier, more composed scholar, he acts as the primary communicator who explains the workings of the 22nd century to Joe, maintaining an idealistic faith in institutional rehabilitation.
• Howard Temple-Tracy wants power, dominance, and a loyal political following. A authoritarian figure who studies history, he exploits the boredom of the era's youth to build a movement, quickly recognizing the political value of a personal hitman in a defenseless society.

In Its Own Voice

When Joe first looks out over the futuristic city, he realizes his familiar life and mob ties are gone forever:

"Everybody I know, Jessie, Tony, the Kid, Big Louis, everybody, they're dead. Even Big Louis."

Explaining their inability to kill the rising dictator, Reston-Farrell reveals the moral conditioning of the new era:

"It is simply not within us to take the life of a fellow creature--not to speak of a fellow man."

Cornering his intended victim, Joe shifts from an assassin into an opportunistic businessman:

"Chief, in the line you're in these days you needa heavy around with wunna these."

What It's Really About

The story examines the permanence of human ambition and the naive blind spots of utopian planning. Reynolds constructs a world that has systematically eradicated the root causes of conflict—poverty, borders, and greed—only to discover that the drive for power is an innate human trait rather than an environmental byproduct. By attempting to solve a political threat using an imported agent of violence, the peaceful citizens demonstrate their own hypocrisy and vulnerability. The story argues that a society that completely disarms itself and forgets the mechanics of force becomes entirely defenseless against anyone willing to wield it.

Why Read It Today

Gun for Hire is a punchy, mid-century sci-fi story that subverts the classic time-travel assassination trope with dark humor. Mack Reynolds presents a sharp narrative that moves quickly, leaning heavily on snappy dialogue and the ideological contrast between a cynical mobster and high-minded futurists.

The story remains enjoyable for its clever inversion of expectations: rather than being reformed by a peaceful utopia, the criminal recognizes that an unarmed society is the ultimate untapped market. The text uses period criminal slang ("mouthpiece," "heat," "getaway car") contrasted with formal, academic prose, creating a tone that is both retro and satirical. Readers who enjoy classic pulp magazine science fiction, quick twist endings, and cynical takes on utopian futures will find it a brief, entertaining read.

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