(Ach du leiber! Vot haff you
done? You hoff not sendt in
enuff sdoriess, dot's vod.
Now dot chergy etidor hoss
hot room do bud in vone off
hiss gorny garagderss. Oh, vell
you gan alwayss sgib do der
negtst sdory inzdeadt uff dis
von)

by John Merkel

New York is sometimes quiet at night, but even silence doesn't assure peace. A knife, a club or a strangler's cord makes no noise, but can kill as well as a bullet.

Let us look at one scene, the street in front of Cy's restaurant. A man is walking slowly along, his hands in his pockets. He has no quarrel with the six men waiting in the alley just a few steps in front of him. He doesn't even know they are there, yet.

They know he is coming. To them he represents, at best, a few dollars apiece. Not enough to kill a man for, but they don't want him to be able to identify them. This is the way they make their living: over the bodies of dead men.

The man's long overcoat flaps against his knees as he nears the alley. He draws one hand from a pocket to adjust the dark glasses he wears.

The six men pay no attention to this man's hat, coat and sunglasses, even though the sun has been down for hours and the temperature is in the mid-eighties. They have killed odd men before. It is mostly the odd men who are out this late at night, anyway.

The man stops just short of the alley. A muffled cough reaches six pair of ears; neither of the man's hands left his pocket.

Four knives and two pieces of lead pipe move to their positions of usage. In a body the six men leave the alley and go at the lone man, hoping to reach him before he can run away.

The lone man sees the six men, yet he doesn't run. He removes the hat and throws it in the face of the foremost man, then sends his coat to follow. A muffled laugh falls on the ears of the would-be muggers.

"I've been looking for you," came in an almost faraway voice.

"You've found us, pal, to your everlasting regret," says the muggers' leader.

"Which won't be too everlastin'," comments another.

The man, minus his hat, coat and sunglasses, stepped under the streetlight.

"Look at 'im! He's some kinda costumed nut," says a mugger.

"Watch out for 'is guns."

"Pay no attention to my guns, gentlemen, they are in my holsters. It is my hands you should worry about." The man's voice is muffled by a light blue hood that covers his entire head except for two eyeholes through which shine two flaming, almost inhumanly so, red eyes. His warning fell on unheeding ears, for the muggers attack again.

With inhuman speed three of them are sent sprawling on the pavement from steel hard fist blows. A knee to the stomach fell the fourth man, retching, as the remaining two flee in opposite directions.

A knife flashes through the air; its hilt kisses the back of one man's head. The second man is jerked off his feet as a hand ctches his collar, half strangling him. A hand holds him by the throat. "You know what fate you had planned for me," comes the muffled voice. To the muggers' leader, never known as a coward, it brings stark, naked fear.

"Please don't kill me," he begs. He hears a muffled chuckle.

"How many men said that to you after you robbed them of the money that was rightfully theirs? Look at me!"

The leader looks into the man's eyes. They are a bright red. He looks away. "You ain't human! What are you? What are you?" He cannot hope to resist the willpower behind those eyes. Even with his glance averted he can feel them boring into him. Then he is thrown against that wall behind him, like a rat.

Only the lone man stands in the street. He lifts two of the muggers and carries them to the iron bar fence two miles away, then he carries the other four to it.

Chuckling to himself, he dons his hat, coat, and sunglasses and walks away.

Lt. Gary Start of the detective division was more than a bit surprised when he read the report that had just come in from a callbox. Six men, all with two red marks on their forehead, were caught fast in the railing around the lion cages at the Bronx Zoo. He grabbed his hat and sprinted toward the door.

"That's the way we found them, Lieutenant. We're keeping all the spectators outside," said the officer in charge.

"Fine, sergeant." Gary walked over to the six men.

"Hey, cop, cut us out of here, will you?" called one of the men.

"I can't just yet," said Gary. "A torch would make those bars red hot. How'd you manage to get in them? It doesn't seem possible."

"It must've been that nut," said one of the muggers.

"Shut up," snapped the leader.

An officer tapped Gary on the shoulder. "Sorry, sir, no spectators allowed. You will have to step outside."

Gary showed the man his badge, then bent over the leader of the muggers. His shirt had been ripped away somehow. Then he looked at the other men. "These men have been in a fight," he said aloud.

The manager of the zoo was talking to the officer in charge when Gary walked up.

"How strong would a man have to be to bend these bars?" he asked.

The manager stared at him. "No man _could_ bend those bars," he stated.

"Then you have some awfully nimble-taloned lions," said Gary, pointing to places on the bars where a man's hand had slightly squeezed them out of shape. "Is there a fingerprint man here?" he asked the officer in charge.

The man stared at the thick bars. "You can bet there will be as soon as I get to a radio," he stated, dashing off.

Men with hacksaws arrived after a lot of fingerprints and pictures had been taken and set to work on the bars.

It was two hours before the men were freed. All were taken in for questioning about a series of mysterious muggings.

Gary was grinning. "At last my department will see some action," he said. He was the head of the five member "UNUSUAL OCCURENCES" branch of the city's police department. The "Oddball Department", it was nicknamed.

When he came through the door whistling every man in the room rushed over.

"What's up, lieutenant??" asked a rotund bald man.

As Gary did a one-man waltz across the room, a tall, slim man said, "He's drunk, Sunshine."

"Not the Lieutenant, Bones," countered a third man. He wore two automatics.

"I agree with Matt. Gary's not drunk, he's got a girl." The fourth man was built like a circus strongman.

"Good guessing, boys, but you're all wrong. We actually have ourselves a case! Hurray!" announced Gary.

"A _real_ case?" asked Sunshine, sitting on the edge of a desk.

Bones' lasso settled around his shoulders as he stopped spinning it. "Not one of these two-bit things?"

"A real case, boys." Gary proceeded to fill them in on the details.

"So all we gotta do is find one man who can beat six armed men with his bare paws and bend steel bars that even I couldn't bend." Arms summed up Gary's briefing in one sentence.

"That's it," said Gary, "so let's get going."

"One question, Lieutenant," said Matt. "What do we do with him once we find him?"

"First, we have to find him," said the lieutenant.

The fog from the ocean makes the docks a little cooler that the rest of the city, but not cool enough to warrant the longcoat that one man was wearing as he walked along the pier. Even through his sunglasses he could see the figure of the girl in front of him. She had just come out of one of the numerous buildings that sit along the waterfront.

She walked rapidly, casting many glances at the man behind her. She buttoned the neck of her blouse and considered calling for a policeman. Another quick glance revealed that the man was falling back. She slowed down a bit and relaxed. He wasn't after her after all. Her sigh of relief was cut off as a hand covered her mouth and pulled her behind a stack of boxes. She saw a knife raised into the air over her breast and closed her eyes, anticipating the cold steel piercing her heart to be the last thing she ever felt.

Instead she was hurled to the ground as her assailant was lifted off the ground. She saw the man who had been following her lift her assailant and throw him into the ocean.

A second man revealed himself, holding a gun. "All right, mister, hold it where you are and raise your hands."

The girl's rescuer turned, his hands raised.

The first man climbed back up onto the pier, dripping wet. "Nice work, Harry. Let's give this busybody the works."

"I'm with you, Mike," agreed the second man.

"Whatever plans you have for me, I wouldn't advise making any move to carry them out," said the walker. "If you lay down your guns you won't be hurt."

"Yeah? You talk awful big for a man who is about to get shot," said Harry.

"Don't talk, shoot. We're wasting time."

The walker dove behind the pile of boxes seconds before Harry fired.

Mike caught the girl's wrist and pulled her to her feet. "All right, joker, come out of there or the girl gets a knife in her ribs."

A muffled laugh came from behind the two men. "I am already out."

Both men were lifted off their feet and thrown into the air.

The walker no longer wore his hat, coat and sunglasses. A well-built figure clad in blue and red met the two men as they got to their feet.

"For cryin' out loud! Mike, look at his eyes!"

Two gleaming red eyes peered through the eyeslits in the light blue hood.

A fist sent them to dreamland; then the walker picked them up and carried them to a ship.

The girl stood up as he came back to where she stood. "Who are you?" she asked. "I owe you my life and an apology. I thought you..."

"...were after you? I was not. I was merely following you. This is no place for a girl," he said and turned to walk away.

"Wait!" called the girl. "Who are you?"

The man faced her. "I saved you once. Do not ask me that question, nor describe me accurately to the police. I am a lone man." Then he was gone.

The next morning found Lt. Gary Start and his four men at the docks. Two men were imprisoned in the anchor chain of a ship due to sail in two days.

A girl what there, answering the questions that the police put to her.

"Matt, see what you can find. Arms, you try to free those men. Sunshine, you question the lady. Bones, you and I will question the local inhabitants."

They learned nothing.

"The girl was lying, Lieutenant," reported Sunshine. "Her description was completely different from the one we've already got of this guy."

"That means he doesn't want us to know what he looks like," said Gary. "He must have a reason. Arms, did you question our friends?" Gary motioned toward the imprisoned pair.

"Yes, their description is the same as the one that the other six gave us at the zoo," said Arms. "Gary, I couldn't bend any one of those links an inch."

Sunshine was frowning. "Lieutenant, if this guy's as strong as we think he is and doesn't want us to find him, it stands to reason that he must be planning to go against the law."

"I've been thinking the same thing, Sunshine, but I didn't want to mention it. We've got to find him as soon as we can, and there seems to be only one way," said Gary.

That night, the walker walked again. He went through the city's slums this time, minding his own business.

A police car went past him, but he paid no attention to it.

That was a mistake.

Fifteen minutes later he saw five men standing ahead of him on the sidewalk. One of them pointed toward the walker. The five started toward him.

The walker's eyes blazed behind his sunglasses. Why couldn't he be let to walk in peace?

Four of the men stopped a short way from him. The fifth man walked up to him. "I'm empty-handed, but I have a .38 in my shoulder holster. One of the men behind me has a .45 aimed at your chest."

"What do you want?" The voice was muffled as though a piece of cloth covered his mouth.

"I want to talk to you. I'm Lt. Gary Start of the Unusual Occurances branch of the Police Department. The four men behind me are the rest of the staff. Are you the man who beat up two muggers last night and six the night before?" asked Gary, showing his badge.

"We have nothing to talk about." The walker turned to cross the street.

"Just a minute." Gary cauaght the man's shoulder. "We have plenty to talk about. Eight assault and battery charges for a starter. You can't just walk off."

"Can't I, Lieutenant? "Just watch me." The walker kept going.

"All right, mister. I was hoping to save both of us a lot of trouble. I have a warramt to take you in for questioning," said Gary. "Come along peacefully."

The walker turned. "I take orders from no one. You don't even know my name. Your warrant is useless."

"Look, sir, I have the force to drag you in bodily if need be. I have to talk to you."

The walker laid his hat, coat and sunglasses on a fire hydrant. "Very well, Lieutenant, drag me in bodily."

Gary signed and motioned to his four friends; then he saw the walker's eyes. Each looked like a red, burning flame. Nothing else could be seen under the walker's hood. "I'm sorry," he said.

"You will be," the walker assured him. "All I desire is privacy."

"I'll get 'im, Lieutenant," said Arms, stepping past Gary.

"Careful, Arms," cautioned Gary.

"Yes, Arms, be careful. I warned you to be careful." The walker seized one of Arms' wrists and threw him into the air. He came down on one of the walker's fists.

Matt went for his automatics. "Ill get rid of his guns, Gary," he said.

"Will you?" The guns of the walker were almost invisible as they came from their holsters on his hips and spat lead. Each spat once, knocking Matt's holsters off his hips before he could reach his guns.

Bones hit the walker's midriff with a hard tackle. "The others were too gentle with you, friend. It's time you learn that nobody argues with the police."

The walker, laying on his back, put his feet in Bones' stomach and sent him flying. "Who's been too gentle to whom?" he asked.

A flare lit the sky and searchlights illuminated the street scene.

"You can't tackle forty men," Gary called to the walker as reinforcements ran up.

"You're clever, policeman, not that it will do you any good." The walker grasped a fire hydrant, throwing his hat and coat out of the way. His muscles bulged and tightened under the light blue shirt of his costume, then the hydrant snapped. "Goodbye, Lieutenant." The walker caught up his clothes and raced up a fire escape.

The forty policemen were knocked off their feet as the water hit them.

Lt. Gary Start saw his quarry enter a window, then vanish in the darkness.

The next morning Sunshine came into the office with his face almost pure white.

Bones caught him and helped him to a chair. "Sunshine, what happened?"

The plump man just sat there, gasping for breath as the others gathered around.

Gary handed him a tumbler of water. "It was horrible. I followed him, Lieutenant. Just like you said. He went to a warehouse on the other side of town. He moved like a racehorse. Half the time I could hardly see him in the darkness. When he got to the warehouse he seemed to go right through the wall. I peeked through a window. He was taking off his shirt and hood. His face is shattered, Lieutenant. The only part that isn't shattered are his eyes." Sunshine shuddered and quivered.

"What do you mean I can't go in?" the five men heard from nowhere. Their knob was turned, but the door was locked.

It exploded off its hinges. The walker entered. He held a pistol in either hand. "You gentlemen have something that is my property. I came for them," he said.

Gary opened a drawer and brought out a pair of dark glasses. "You left them behind last night."

"How'd you find us?" asked Matt.

"I followed your friend. Now you know my secret, but it will do you no good. I have transferred my quarters to another location. I hope that we never meet again under battle conditions. One bit of information you may be interesested in. My name is Knight; remember it." With those words the walker turned and left.

Behind him, Lt. Gary Start sat down.

THE END
(for now)

Updated May 12, 2001. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.