Chapter 9

Chapter 9
“What Makes A Monster?”

       Renny Field could not believe what was going on. He was in the middle of the most fiendish scheme he might, in the most opiate soaked nightmare possible, have ever conceived of, now or ever.
       The Boss had taken over this quiet little town, bullied everyone out and now made it a factory of horror. They were creating monsters!
       They were creatures that felt no pain, no remorse, and were capable of dying in the service of any evil that paid their creators. After 48 hours the things would have lived out their orders and would just dissolve into the ground.
       He had even ordered one, on the sly, to go and try to bring back help. He did that in total desperation, only after learning that the only evil more hideous than his employer was on his way here to enlist the services of their evil enterprise to push forward his own unholy crusade.
       If Doc Faustus and his men didn’t get here soon, all would be lost.
       So Renny waited in the basement of City Hall.
       It was here that the founder of the town, a civil war general had put in a maze of tunnels to battle what he had seen as the invading forces of the reconstruction and the carpetbaggers.
       Renny had planted a map in the structure of his messenger and hoped that the great man and his team would be able to use it to enter the city undetected.
       “What ya’ doin’?” came an annoying nasal voice from the shadows behind him.
       Renny jerked around to see Hinky Magoo standing behind him.
       “What’s up?” the little man in the trenchcoat poked.
       “I was meeting someone here, Hinky.” Renny spat at the little man.
       “Don’t call me Hinky,” the short man snarled. “No body takes somebody named Hinky serious. Call me Dan. Dangerous Dan.”
       “Dangerous Dan Magoo?” Renny laughed, “Like that’s better?”
       The little man’s face flushed, he turned and disappeared into the darkness.
       Renny continued to laugh until the hand touched him on his shoulder.
       He nearly jumped out of his skin.
       Turning rapidly he saw the seven faces emerge from the catacombs.
       Any one of these people had a presence you would never forget. Together they seemed very nearly an army.
       “Field?” came the voice from the man who could only be the leader of such a band.
       “Doctor Faustus?” Renny said as he held out his hand.
       It hovered in mid air for a long time before the hoodlum understood he was not going to be greeted as a treasured friend, but as an ally only out of necessity.
       “I know a place where we can talk,” He said as he motioned for them to follow him.
       Without another word the band of nine stalked cautiously out of the underground and up into the offices of the city hall.
       No one, it seemed, saw, in the darkness behind them, a figure still lurking.
       The darkness was split by a match being lit. The burning head of the fire stick touched the end of a cigarette. The light showed the face of Dangerous Dan Magoo.
       He took a deep drag as he decided just how he would use what he had seen to move up the ladder.
       Then he spasmed in coughing and threw the cigarette to the ground.
       As he stamped it out he pictured Renny Field’s face under his shoe.
       “He’ll learn to laugh at me,” The trollish gangster muttered.
       “I think he already knows how,” said the owner of the two huge hands that extended from the black to pick the tiny gangster from the ground.
       Mr. Mike McAvoy pulled the snarling little fellow to him, “Don’t you know, smoking will stunt your growth?”
       “I think it’s too late to think about that,” said Renny Field as he stepped beside the struggling Magoo.
       “I’ll get you for this, I’ll get all of you.” The little man cursed, sounding more like a schoolyard bully than a public enemy.
       “I don’t think so,” said the calming tone of Doc Faustus.
       “Oh, man, you’re. . .him!” The little man gasped.
       Doc moved over and took the man from Mr. Mike.
       A slight smile came over the faces of the Six.
       Faustus put one hand on either side of the diminutive mobster and pulled his face to him until the two were linked eye to eye. A low humming sound came from somewhere indeterminate.
       Renny looked around, but J.J. put up a hand to make sure the stranger stayed silent. The six had seen Doc do this hundreds of times.
       With the power of his mind and techniques of hypnotism not even understood by more than a half dozen men and a couple of Eastern holymen, Doc was totally overcoming the little man’s mind.
       Within two minutes Doc let the little man slide, unconscious to the flooring.
       “He’ll remember nothing.” Doc said and motioned for Field to lead them to the rooms of which he had spoken.
       As they walked, Doc whispered to Mat, “And now, he’ll want to be called by a new name, to reflect how ‘cool’ he is.”
       “What name?” asked Dr. Thursday.
       “Igloo.” Came the humorless tone.
       “So he’ll be . . .?” Mary Jane started.
       “Igloo Magoo.” Doc said, without a trace of a smile.
       Baxter leaned to Renny and said, “Never make this man mad at you. He can be cruel.”
       Ice cold “Igloo” Magoo slept peacefully on the ground as they left.
©2005 C. Wayne Owens