ETS: Djinn And Tony, Part 13
Mike narrowed his eyes. “Another author? No big deal. Tell me something IMPRESSIVE.”
The Shadow closed his eyes for the burn he was about to receive. “He specializes in graphic novels where dead characters get resurrected or haunt the living, and he currently has a bestseller out where writers are all Mafia and get ‘whacked’ for not following instructions. His business card is in my left shoe.” He felt his left shoe being yanked off and opened his eyes. Mike stared in terror at the business card. He staggered back to a recliner. The Shadow nodded. “By my count you’ve killed about eighty heroes and eighty villains, give or take. You’ve GOTTEN another two hundred people killed, if you count the mundanes, and that’s just in the two years I’ve known you. I’ll be happy to come back to haunt you. Go ahead and kill me.” He shut his eyes again.
“There IS no upper hand. Lean back in your chair. I think I’ll kill you with ultraviolet light.”
The Shadow leaned back, “I would rather watch Tony work, but—”
“Tony is his name? Tell me the rest. What’s his last name?”
“I’ve no idea. I don’t want power over him. He’s saving me.”
Mike paused, his hands on a desk lamp. “You didn’t try to find out?”
“Of course not. If you had freed me or given me some reason to believe you really would someday, I wouldn’t have tried for yours. I’ve betrayed you several times now. Just nothing WORKED before. If I knew his name, it wouldn’t matter. I could tell it to you, and you still couldn’t win.”
Mike rolled his eyes, then frowned. “How did you find this person I stand no chance against, if you don’t know his name?”
The Shadow smiled, relaxed, desk lamp inches from his face. “I found your old publishing company. Tony’s was the office the receptionist sent me to.”
Mike stared at him for a moment. “But?”
“Your troubles won’t end there. You might not believe I’m a djinn or a demon, but you’ve read my file. I DO. And you gave me access to your true name!”
“That’s absurd.”
“It doesn’t matter that it’s absurd. I believe it. Therefore, your true name enabled me to get power over you.”
“You mean, you looked up some information about me? I’ve never even been suspected of a crime. There is no evidence of me committing crime able to be removed from this building. There is no power to be HAD over me.”
The Shadow smiled even wider, picturing blissfully telling a customer he hadn’t enough change from a fifty. “It took me a while to figure out why you can always deal with whatever happens. Defeat ANYBODY. At first, comic book author doesn’t seem that—impressive.
But when people stopped reading so many comic books, since so many things that used to be amazing now just—aren’t . . . you still have the advantage of knowing from the insignia a person has on their chest what they’ll do next. How they’ll try to attack. Where they tend to stand in a room or an alleyway. It’s your level of experience with the field. That was the key to knowing how to get the upper hand.”
ETS: Djinn And Tony, Part 12
Several hours later, the phone rang on Mike Ledraheim’s desk. Mike looked at it quizzically. He didn’t recognize the number. He let it go to voicemail. After a beat, he picked up the receiver to check the voicemail. The message went: “Mikey? Word is, you’ve been stirrin’ the pot a bit too much. Takin’ advantage. You’re gonna lay low for a little while. You’re ALSO gonna let the Shadow go. Free and clear. Cut ties, no vengeance allowed on either side. He’s got a business license form waiting for him downtown. You see him, you can buy from him if there’s no hard feelin’s, but other than that—no nothin’. He walks out that door in an hour, or you’ll regret it. Capiche?” The message ended.
Mike sat back in his chair. He picked up a pencil and flicked it at the small gong by the door. At the sound, the Shadow appeared in the doorway. “Have a seat,” said Mike.
The Shadow flitted to the chair opposite Mike.
“I know you were listening in. So let’s get to it. You have been in my thrall for two years, Mr. Shadow. Ever since I had your file stolen, I’ve been straight with you. I know you’re not supernatural, just a special human being. I told you that I’d let you earn your way to freedom. Now you set up someone to threaten me? Why shouldn’t I end you right now? Why shouldn’t I end whoever’s making the threat? Why shouldn’t I make you start ALL OVER AGAIN, EARNING YOUR WAY UP? Huh?”
The Shadow smiled a gray-lipped smile that looked way too large for a human face, and not very friendly-looking. “You should end me. Right away.”
“Zoom, Foldout, Rammit, Mix, Match, Rage, and Stretch. I checked the footage myself. Octopus was very upset. He recognized two of them.”
“I used to know Octopus in his prime. That’s sad. So you’ve figured out this ‘Leader’s’ secret?” Tony leaned on the arm of his chair.
“Yes. His name is Mike Ledraheim. He writes comic books.”
Silence fell in the darkened office. The Shadow tried not to fidget. Time seemed to stretch out forever. At last Tony let out a long, disgusted breath. “HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Get out. I’ll make a few calls. See what happens.” He spun a business card at the Shadow.
The Shadow got out.
“I had no idea the simple life could sound so appealing. You don’t even want to be in villain work OR hero work anymore?”
“No. I want to be free of all of it. To go straight. I might even join a church someday.”
Tony sat back. “So you trick someone into doing it.”
“There’s a problem with that. The only one who knows where it is IS the Leader. A fearsome man with the capacity to end every villain and every hero in the city. Maybe more.”
Tony snorted. “There will always be heroes and villains here. How fearsome could he be?”
“It took me a while to understand how he got this way. He knows how to kill everyone and everything I’ve seen him interact with. It’s terrifying to watch him wade through the gore. Do you know he has OCTOPUS on his cleaning crew? He took out seven heroes just last night, and no one even knew because Octopus and the others are so fast.”
“Which seven?” Tony was leaning forward, the Shadow thought, just like someone studying a menu full of interesting choices.
ETS: Djinn And Tony, Part 11
“A man has a glass relic. I want it broken. I will be free.”
“Why not do it yourself?”
“If I do it, it will end me. If someone else does, it frees me.”
Tony nodded. “Free to do what?”
The Shadow froze. “I—I . . .”
“What?” Tony sounded irritated.
The Shadow raised pleading hands of jet black. “I’ve always wanted to be a hotdog vendor.”
Tony cocked his head. “THAT’S your dream? HOT DOG VENDOR?!”
“To work for myself. A simple trade. To be no one’s lackey.”
ETS: Djinn And Tony, Part 10
He was hiding that same smile the next day, when he slipped into the non-descript office in the swanky building on Main Street. There wasn’t even a name on the door.
The backlit figure at the desk looked up at him. “Stop right there.”
The Shadow stopped, respectfully. “I want to make a deal, Tony.”
‘Tony’ shook his head. “Demon? Sorry. No deals with demons.”
The Shadow lengthened. “I am no demon. I think—I am an outcast djinn. In any case, I don’t want YOUR soul. I want mine.”
“. . . Keep talking.”
ETS: Djinn And Tony, Part 9
The Shadow appeared in the doorway. Slowly the eyebrows turned light gray and raised in surprise. “How!?” He recovered. “What happened HERE?! How could you make such a MESS? I was in here five minutes ago! You don’t have that many lackeys LEFT to kill!” He pulled up one of the dismembered hands and examined the fingers. The right size, but not pink enough to look right on a bun. The big body stretched out twelve feet and half-melted had lumps sticking out of his dead mid-section. The Shadow poked at it. “Gyro,” he thought.
Mike, the Leader, nodded as he warily watched the Shadow poke idly at the dead bodies. Mike noticed the Shadow displayed no sign of attachment. “You’re right. Those were heroes. Check Security. If they’ve been arrested or the police are on their way, we may have to move quickly. Then come here and let me know. I’ll call the cleaning crew.”
The Shadow nodded slowly, incredulous, trying to imagine a bus full of vegans shaking their pointer fingers at him. He startled then. “I should check and see if there is a warrant for this address or your legal name, if they’ve figured that out. I’ll be gone longer for that.”
Mike nodded wordlessly, cupping a hand over the phone. He pulled his driver’s license out of his pocket and expertly flipped it right into the Shadow’s hand.
The Shadow melted into the darkness. Several minutes later, six blocks away at the police station, an officer left his terminal for the bathroom. The Shadow stepped up to it, fingers flying. The screen showed no active warrants for the area of the Leader’s penthouse. Not so much as a noise complaint—which did seem odd. The Shadow shook his inky-black head. He typed in searches for the owners of the three buildings surrounding the Leader’s building on the three sides away from the ocean. One at a time, he discovered them. After two minutes of straight typing, he leaned back. One warehouse, one factory with permits to operate during daylight hours only, and one housing project for the deaf. All of them partly owned by one Michael Ledraheim. No warrants out for the Leader. The Shadow shook his head in wonderment again. He looked at the ordinary driver’s license in his hand for a moment. Then, he googled the name in desperation. After a few mouse clicks, the Shadow smiled an ugly smile. He glanced at the policeman’s half-eaten meal in the garbage, nodding. “One with and mustard.” He smiled that ugly smile all the way back.
Stretch faced Mike alone. His arms bent at the elbow and started undulating forward. “You can’t just do things like that! I’ll—” Stretch fell over choking. His face turned scarlet.
Mike smiled and turned off the x-ray machine behind Stretch. “Yes, I can.” Mike walked away from the kill zone he’d created and sounded a small gong.
