Steam City Pirates (29 page)

“Next, we have Ooor Cefallusca. Ooor is one of the five-armed octopi assassins from the planet Wastom in the Hastermo Galaxy of the Reestly Universe. Right now, Ooor is out in the ocean off of Coney Island. Knives are wielded by this one the way the circus performers wield them. His job is to squeeze through any crevice that is larger than his eye, which is ten inches in diameter. Doctor Adler, the rabbi, is Ooor’s contract. As soon as my prisoner gets his replenishment from the salt water in the ocean, he will come ashore to complete his mission.”

This was not what I was expecting. I had believed there would be no survivors from the time travel, but this was probably because I was so eager to believe what the Network officers told me. I was also very fearful of time travel, and this may have contributed to my expectations. But this was not the end of his list of alien assassins.

“Becky Charming deserves a special kind of assassin. I was able to genetically modify this one on my own. I had some time, so I was able to give this human parasitic cyborg from Jupiter’s moon an ability to pierce skulls and inhale the brain matter within. Miss Charming is quite proud of her gray matter, so I believe this would be quite a proper end for her. My Zoftnist uses a diamond beak that works with her distended stomach and diaphragm that I engineered from a giant anteater which can suck in 200 pounds per square inch. The Zoftnist is one of my favorite prisoners because I helped to create her.”

People in the audience were attempting to leave, but Biggs-Pemberton turned his spiny reptilian back to them and they scurried back to their seats and sat still like good little Catholic school children. There was one more assassin, if I was not mistaken, and that left Biggs-Pemberton for me.

“My last prisoner comes from the planet Billtsfer, in the Lerston Galaxy and the Estorial Universe. On his planet, he was one of the hunter races of humanoid beings that resemble your human species so closely that most people cannot tell the difference. They hunt the humans on the planet for sport. The Tosswik are silicone based life forms as opposed to your carbon. Tosswik has told me he relishes the idea of plunging his tongue knife into the stomach of such a great behemoth as Walter McKenzie. Did I mention that I have adjusted the Tosswik’s species so that they can also gorge themselves on carbon based human intestines?”

I could not take this any longer. I ran up to the cage and shook it.

“And you are the one for me, correct? But where is your dedication to the cause? I thought you were going after the Society because of the way they treated you? Don’t you need to put a stop to their monotechnology?”

Biggs-Pemberton’s face twisted into a leering grin. “O’Malley? Of course I shall get you! But first, I want you to prove that you can earn your chance to fight me. I am telepathic, as you know. My assassins will not go into action until I give them the word. Today, it shall be Doctor Adler here who will be knifed by my Ooor. Tomorrow, the little
mazikeen
will fall, followed by your charming whore the day after, and then the fat gang leader. You shall be last, O’Malley, and just before I have placed you under the sod, I will unleash my final surprise upon the dear Society of social misfits. Manette, your day is coming! I dare say, this should be an exciting few days for New York and for all of you!”

“You can’t mean this, Franklin! You are outnumbered, and we will stop you,” I shouted, shaking the cage until it rattled. “Stay away from my friends!”

I watched as Biggs-Pemberton slithered back to Michael the steam man angel, and climbed up into its interior. He crawled back down the ladder holding a small bottle with a red liquid inside. He drank it, the drips trickling down his chin and onto his green scales. And then, in about fifteen seconds, Doctor Franklin Biggs-Pemberton began to shrink before my very eyes.

I knew what he had done. He had reduced his form to that of a bacterium. He was now too small for the human eye to see, and he was sneaking away like a virus on a populous island.

I also understood that I had to play his game, so I turned around and ran toward the exit. I had to stop the octopus assassin before he came out of the ocean to throw a knife into Doctor Adler’s victorious and fine heart!

The First Day

As I ran outside into the sunshine, I could see that the crowds in the amusement park were milling about and conferring. They all realized that something untoward had happened inside the tent arena, and I could hear them shout at me as I ran by to get down to the beach. What could Biggs-Pemberton have in mind with this display of grandiosity? Did he really believe he could win over the hearts and minds of New Yorkers by sending out assassins to execute our group?

Granted, we were not members of the city’s elite, as I noticed that he had not singled out Missus Bessie Mergenthaler for his death squad, but he had certainly placed Seth in his sights as an assassination victim. The fact that this mad man from the future was carrying out his plan in four days meant he had confidence that each of his remaining prisoners could do the job. As for the Society, Grand Inquisitor Manette and his Steam City Pirates, Biggs-Pemberton had saved their demise for the final day of the assassination festivities. As it was, I had to take it all one day at a time and hope for the best.

The beach was a beehive of commotion as people ran to and from the shore. Some persons were panicking at what they saw out in the surf, and they reacted by running away. Others, perhaps more courageous or foolhardy, were standing at the surf line staring out at what was happening. As I came up to them, I began to gaze out to sea. At first, I could see nothing. Then, at about 100 yards distant, I saw the Ooor Cefallusca.

Biggs-Pemberton’s description was very accurate. This monster alien was an ochre color, and I could see its five arms revolving in the air above its bulbous head. This was no small assassin, as it must have been over fifteen feet tall. The distance out into the surf meant the octopi must have been standing in at least ten feet of water.

In addition, I could see that the Ooor already had its knives in hands. The sun glinted off each of the five blades as they were being wielded through the air. I withdrew my pistol from my coat, and I aimed it at the creature. I thought perhaps I should wait until the octopus came into shore to pursue Doctor Adler, but I wanted to stop it right then and there.

I held my right arm steady with my left hand at the right wrist, and I drew a bead down upon the creature’s head. I should not miss such a big target at this distance. I took a deep breath, placed my index finger over the trigger, and squeezed, the way one beckons one’s lover to come hither.

“Wham! Ba-zinggg!” I saw my direct hit as it ricocheted off the monster. The skin of this alien being must have been tremendously thick! I saw it coming into shore at a rapid pace, and I squeezed off another round: the same result. The bullet bounced off the bulbous head as if the ammunition were made of rubber.

I saw one of the knives flashing in the sun, and then it came hurtling through the air. It struck me in the upper part of my right shoulder. I had the queer thought that this was the same place I was shot by that Rebel sniper who tried to kill my general, Billy Sherman. I won the Congressional Medal of Honor for taking that bullet, but this knife was in my shoulder like an insidious dagger from Hell. Initially, as I fell to my knees into the surf, I thought that the knife must contain poison, but I did not hit the water face-first. Instead, I looked out at the oncoming assassin, and I saw another creature behind it! This creature looked like it was coming through the water at a tremendous rate of speed. Was it a shark? No, nothing in the sea could move that swiftly.

“Ka-boom!” The dark, cylindrical object struck the Ooor Cefallusca and exploded. For about fifty yards on either side of me, it began to rain down pieces of ochre flesh with bluish, gory edges. I looked out in the water directly in front of me, and I saw an eye. It was about ten inches around and was looking directly at me as it bobbed in the waves.

I reached up to the knife stuck in my shoulder, grabbed the crimson handle, and yanked hard. The shooting pain made me scream out, and I could see sympathetic grimaces on the faces of several citizens standing near me. I threw the knife out to sea as far as I could cast it with my good arm. It plopped into the surf and sank immediately to the bottom.

A woman ran up to me. “I’m a nurse. You must get some pressure on that wound immediately,” she said, and she tore off part of her petticoat and pressed it against my bleeding shoulder.

I put my hand to my injury to hold it in place. “Thank you, Miss,” I told her.

What was it that had burst open the octopus assassin? It only took me a few moments to remember. The
Mocha Dick
! I stood up on my tiptoes and looked out at sea beyond the surf. There it was! The seventy-foot cigar-shape of the white submarine of inventor Señor Narcis Monturiol i Estarriol. It looked like Moby Dick of Mister Melville’s book, and it had destroyed an unnatural creature from another universe. Manette and his pirates must have called off the attack on the merchant ships. However, there were still four more such assassins to confront in the coming days, and there would be no white whale to come to the rescue.

I turned around and headed back up the beach toward the tent arena. I wanted to tell Doctor Adler that he was now out of danger. Tomorrow, I would need to protect little Seth, our
mazikeen
, from the hideous Svebo Murr’n, whose shriek could explode rocks and burst vital organs. We needed to discuss a way to counter its method of assassination before it could terminate our Seth. I kept thinking about Seth’s father, Arthur, and how the Eugenics Collective wanted to exterminate him and all the Jews. And tomorrow, another anti-Semite—this time from another universe—wanted to eradicate the little Jewish boy.

The Second Day

The Society was an ally. This was the news we shared when we had finally returned to our sanctuary, the Temple Emanu-El. The other news was spreading like a wildfire into the New York City newspapers. “Assassins Loose in the City!” headlines screamed in the Examiner. “Death Cult Mechanical Monster Seen Inside Amusement Park Tent!” the title to
The Sun
article exclaimed. It seemed that not even
The Daily Sun
, which published fantastic stories all the time for its eager readers, could believe in the wild story about aliens from other planets. Everything had to be reduced to our mechanical age to be believed at all by the “discerning” public.

I thought the motives probably had more to do with Tammany Hall’s connection to the Society and its new carnival and other steam-powered investments. Boss Tweed and his gang did not want the public to know they were affiliated in any way with such assassination attempts, even if it did not threaten any of Tammany Hall’s Ring members. Any hint to the public that they were in danger was enough to keep the story limited to “mechanical men” chasing down “specific individuals who are now known.” The news stories all mentioned each person in our group by name and when each monster was going to attempt its attack. There were quotes from Mayor Hoffman that “Our Metropolitan Police will be protecting these citizens and keeping all of New York safe.”

Our job at the moment was to keep our little
mazikeen
, Seth, safe. This was a noble purpose, I suppose, but the
mazikeen
in our ointment was the fact that Seth was nowhere to be found. Missus Mergenthaler, Bessie, was frantic and yelling orders to anyone who would listen.

“You must find him before it’s too late! Patrick! Doctor! McKenzie! We can’t trust the police. I know Seth. He’s trying to do this alone. He’s just like his father, and he’ll get himself killed!” She was a dark mistress—a hysterical Queen Victoria—running around the laboratory, grabbing each of us in turn to implore.

When she came up to me, I took both of her wrists into my hands and held her at arms’ length. “Bessie, my dear, you can’t be like this. We have very little time. We must decide what we can do to find Seth and keep him from meeting this Svebo Murr’n. Every second we waste could mean he is closer to being harmed.”

“I know!” she cried. “My baby is so small. You know he can be killed. You all think he’s so intelligent and indestructible because he can fly, disappear and change shape. He is half human! He can be killed just as his father was killed!”

Doctor Adler came over to us and placed his arm around Bessie. “
Eema
,” he said. “I will go with Detective O’Malley, and we shall find him before it’s too late. I have a method I came up with based on the reflective power of rubber to prevent sound waves from penetrating his small body.”

The doctor walked over to the blackboard and wrote on it. “Sound travels at 330 m/s in air, and roughly 1480 m/s in water. The reflection coefficient R = (1 - Z_rel) / (1 + Z_rel). Z_rel is the ratio of relative impedances of the media, which is proportional to the density and propagation velocity of the media, i.e. Z_rel ~ p1c1/p2c2.”

“Please, Doctor, could ya be speakin’ in English?” said Walter McKenzie.

“Let me do better. I’ll show you,” the rabbi said, walking over to a chest, opening it, and taking out what looked like a rubber cloak of some kind. He brought it back over to us and held it up. “This cloak can reflect sound waves. It will reduce the incoming sound waves to render them harmless. If we can get this over Seth’s body in time, then we can reflect the sound waves coming from this shriek monster.”

“Where will you look for him?” asked Becky, her green eyes flashing with emotional turmoil.

“I think he’ll be at the Steam City Amusement Park. Where else would a boy want to be?” I said. “Come, Doctor, let’s get over there now. I would imagine Doctor Franklin Biggs-Pemberton could be having the same idea. Remember. These outlaws can communicate with their thoughts. They may be way ahead of us.” I ran over to the stairs and waited there.

“All right. We shall return with your son, Bessie. I promise,” said Doctor Adler, and he carried his rubber cloak over his frock coat as he ran over to me.