The beginning of a new year and I had just turned nineteen and began my new job. I started as a rookie policemen in the 7th district of the Northeast Philadelphia Police Force. I was assigned training officer and partner Patrick Michael Berger on a beat in the city. Paddy as we called him was a good cop, seventeen years on the job. He had seen a lot and learned more. I came to really admire him which is what made what came in the year to follow even harder. Paddy was all business with me the only thing I really knew about him was that he loved two things, being a cop and his wife.
Although it seemed my problems with witches were behind me, other problems began to surface. Problems that required my unique talents. At first with regular perps I was able to work undercover without Paddy seeing me. In the beginning of our partnership Paddy was impressed at how I managed to avoid drawing my gun. Then he began to watch me closer making it harder for me to get away with my tricks. The days were long but rewarding getting to help people, even ones who didn’t know they need help.
It was a Saturday afternoon one of the few I had off since becoming a cop when my Great-Aunt Barbara Roberts arrived at my parent’s home unannounced. My parents and Christine were away for the weekend and I was just laying on the couch relaxing in the empty house. I had only met my great-aunt on my father’s side a few times as a child. She always told such interesting stories, this visit was no exception. I had always thought my father’s family to be completely normal but Aunt Barbara cleared that up for me. My father had never told me that his family had something of a legacy to uphold. The Roberts family had descended from a powerful Duke named Cartridge Payne. The Duke built a grand estate in England that still stands Cassandra Estate Manor. Barbara’s brother Basil Roberts currently lived in the Manor as the keeper of the family’s secret legacy.
Aunt Barbara also explained her unique profession. She was the curator of a rather special museum. The Mystic Museum was a place where rare and dangerous artifacts are stored away from the world to keep the world safe from them. She wouldn’t tell me the exact location of the Museum but I believed her. Aunt Barbara told me of a necklace that was one of these artifacts that was too dangerous to be left out in the world. She was so charismatic that I trusted her completely.
She wanted me to retrieve the ruby necklace from a local crime boss named Giorgio DeScalo. It was then that I told her, “I’m a rookie police officer, I could be risking my job and my future career if I break into someone’s house like Giorgio DeScalo.”
“All you have to do is sneak in and sneak out with your abilities it should be an easy task to not get caught,” she assured me. I wasn’t completely convinced that what she was saying was true but she was family.
“What abilities are you talking about?” I asked her playing it dumb.
“The abilities you have because your mother is an Amazon,” Aunt Barbara retorted without reservation.
“How is it you know that?” I asked thinking Mom’s heritage was a secret from Dad’s family.
“It is my job to know such things,” Aunt Barbara answered. “Now are you going to get dressed and help me or do I have to do things the hard way?”
I have to admit I was curious about what the ‘hard way’ was going to be. “Okay, I’ll try but I’m not making any promises, if it looks too risky I’m bailing,” I told her firmly.
I waited until well after midnight to go to DeScalo’s estate. It was a creepy place at this time of night with its tall stone ivy covered walls. A leap over the barbed wire topped wall was an easy task for me. I landed on the ground behind some bushes. This place was guarded to the hilt. Men stood at every door and another patrolled the grounds. Thank god there are no dogs because the nervous sweat was pouring out of me. I must admit that my night vision was not what I wished it was that night. I scanned every well lit area of the estate that I could see from where I crouched in the bushes. All of them guarded making my entry impossible. It was a dimmer, less well lit place I would need to enter. It took a few minutes but I found it. It was a third floor attic window that would become my target of entry. I survived the path across to the house below the window. The patrol was infrequent enough for me to sprint across the lawn to the house. It would more of an effort to jump to window.
I watched for the well armed man to make his round of the compound then I made my move, running at top speed across the lawn. I made the two hundred yard dash far under record time. I squatted down by the side of the house to reevaluate my situation. The coast was clear and I made the jump to the second story porch roof just below the attic window. By dumb luck it would seem that locking an attic window was not on the security check list. I easily pried the window open with my fingers and slopped inside. DeScalo sure didn’t seem to throw anything away. The attic was packed with junk. It reminded me of a dream I once had years ago. There were some pretty weird things in the storage room. A seven foot tall stuffed grizzly bear that I nearly took a swing at, along with several other taxidermy animals. I wondered if the necklace I was sent to get could somehow be in this mess somewhere, but I hoped it wasn’t. I would start looking elsewhere first before digging through the junk in this attic. Slipping on latex gloves, I found the stairs down, but the door at the bottom was locked. A squeeze and hard twist of the knob to break the lock and out I went into the second floor of the mansion.
To say the decor of the mansion was pricey would be a big understatement. I couldn’t imagine living in such decadence. I was afraid to touch anything for fear of breaking it. I tried to remain stealth not to reveal my presence in the house but that was short lived when I heard men talking as they came up the stairs from below. I went for the first door I could find to hide but found that it was locked. What is another broken door knob at this point I figured and I was inside the bedroom. I leaned against the door holding it shut as I listened for the talking men to pass down the hallway. I breathed a sigh of relief until I realized I wasn’t alone.
I turned to see a middle-aged woman lying on a grand canopy bed. “Who are you, what do you want?” she demanded.
I was speechless, I didn’t know what to say, I was caught! I looked at her she must have been about thirty-five years old with dark brown hair and deep green eyes. She was dressed all in green and she didn’t appear at all frightened by my sudden intrusion into her bedroom. “Please don’t scream,” I said stepping away from the door toward her. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
She looked me in the eye for a few minutes as if to assess my honesty before she spoke, “Can you help me then?” she asked raising her left leg that was shackled to the bed frame. I looked back to her face to notice that it was bruised and swollen for the first time. It was odd that I hadn’t seen it before I was usually very perceptive about those kind of things.
“Are you alright?” I asked compassionately.
“I will be if you can get me out of here!” She replied yanking on the chain that held her to the bed.
I walked to the bed to examine the chains. “Why are you being held prisoner here?” I asked looking back to her face. Her black eye had a cut under it that was freshly scabbed. Whoever had beaten her had done it quite recently.
“My name is Morgana and DeScalo wants me as his slave!” she told me almost sobbing. This sad abused woman was now my mission in this house. The necklace that Aunt Barbara wanted would have to wait.
“I’m a police officer and I’m going to get you out of here,” I told her taking a look at the chains that held her leg to the bed frame. I turned my back to her, blocking her view of what I was about to do. The chain was unusually thick and it didn’t break as easily as I thought I should have, but I broke it nevertheless.
“That was amazing,” Morgana marveled. “How did you do it?”
“Just a little trick in finding the weak link and leverage,” I told her lying. I knew I couldn’t take her out the same way I came so we would have to find another escape route. “Do you know a way we can get out of here without getting caught?” I asked her.
“I’m not sure DeScalo doesn’t let me out of this room much,” she replied. I stood there for a minute trying to detect any possible danger beyond the bedroom door. Strangely I could feel danger all around me but the least amount was outside this room.
“Keep quiet and stay close,” I told her as I took her hand. We slipped out of the bedroom and down the hall. The house seemed quiet and empty as we started down the corridor toward the stairs. It would have been much easier to take her out the window than through the house but I still couldn’t risk revealing myself. We made it to the end of the hall before being spotted by a sentry at the top of the stairs.
“Hold it right there,” the large man said pulling a gun from under his coat. This man had clearly fired this gun before with lethal intent.
“Just calm down,” I said holding out my hand at the man hoping to charm him. It was clear that I had no chance of doing that. He reached for an earpiece in his left ear.
“Intruder in the Harpy’s room,” he spoke into a microphone. I had little choice but to take him down. Releasing Morgana’s hand I moved forward quickly. Grabbing the gun by the barrel I applied a little too much pressure crushing it slightly as I yanked it from his hand. By the time the gun hit the carpeted floor I had given the thug a right cross to the jaw, knocking him unconscious to the floor.
“Let’s go!” I said reaching out my hand to Morgana again. We got down the curved stairway to the front hall to find DeScalo and eight of his men waiting for us.
“Where is it you think you are going my dear?” DeScalo ask in a lull tone. He held in his hand an electronic device about the size of a television remote. He pressed a button on it and metal plates slid down over the windows with a clunk. The mansion was sealed off.
“I’m getting out of here,” Morgana replied. “This police officer is helping me get away from you.” I wish she hadn’t told DeScalo I was a cop but it was out of the bag now. I looked to her frightened face and noticed the pendant that hung around her neck for the first time. It was the one that Aunt Barbara had sent me here to steal. Getting her out of here would kill two birds with one stone. The armed men began to move in on us.
I guided Morgana behind me trying to reason with DeScalo I said, “I really don’t want any trouble.” “Let us go and you will never hear from me again.” I hoped he would buy my request. If not, my goal was to get my hands on that remote to open the security doors he had put us in lockdown.
“If you didn’t want any trouble then you should not have broken into my house!” DeScalo stated bluntly. “I would guess that it is the foolishness of youth that is your downfall.” “No seasoned cop would ever dare break into my home.” “Kill him!” DeScalo commanded as he turned to leave the hall. “Don’t make a mess!”
I scrutinized each of the eight men in seconds to determine their weak points. The first two men to put away their guns and came at me, eager and overconfident. The smiles on their faces told me how much they enjoyed their work. Mike as I’ll called him threw the first punch that I dodge and returned a hit to his left shoulder causing him to continue his momentum to spin and hit his partner Ike. Ike took the hit hard and was out before he hit the floor. Shoving Mike aside into another of the thugs knocking their heads together, I moved onto the five men behind him. One of them held a metal baton that he came at me with. He would be the easiest to take down. Grabbing his weapon I overpowered him smacking it back into his head. A chop to the throat, a kick to the chest, and a punch to the gut took down the next two men. The remaining two were not as confident as they pulled out guns. The first guy even managed to get off a few shots before I gave him a drop kick to the arm and chest. “You’re up,” I told the final man standing as I moved at him. He turned tail and ran. “Come on let’s go,” I said grabbing Morgana’s hand again and heading for the front door.
I flung open the large wooden doors to find the heavy metal ones on the other side. I looked around the hall for something to pry the steel doors. The metal baton laying on the marble floor filled that need. I rammed the rod between the seam of the doors nearly breaching them. With some effort I pride the thick, heavy doors apart. Morgana and I fled the house into the night down the half mile driveway. We made it about a quarter of the way down the driveway when DeScalo and his thug arrive on a golf cart.
The chase was over, “That is far enough,” DeScalo said boldly stepping from the cart.
“I’ve taken out most of your men, surely you don’t think you have a chance of stopping me?” I stated.
“Not me, her,” DeScalo said holding up his hand bearing a ring with a ruby stone similar to the one in the necklace Morgana wore around her neck. “Kill this troublesome cop,” he ordered Morgana. She pulled her hand from mine and backed away from me.
“I told you he wouldn’t let me leave,” she told me again. Then before my eyes the battered woman transformed into a huge hulking demonic beast. I stood there in shock for a moment and that was all it took for the beast backhanded me across the driveway into a large old oak tree. I fell to the ground at its roots. My head was ringing and my nose was bleeding.
“Well done my dear, now finish him,” I heard DeScalo ordered. “Don’t leave any piece to be identified!”
I waited as the hulk that was Morgana lumbered closer. Once she was right over me I charged up with both fists under its jaw. I sent the beast airborne through the trees severing several of them. I stood up clearing my head. Suddenly I was being hit again flying back into a statute that lined the driveway. I recouped much faster this time grabbing the largest part of the broken statue. I swung the stone torso landing it in the beast’s huge hand that crushes it. The beast that was once a battered woman was strong but the thing that was beating me was its speed. It moved faster than I could hope to anticipate. It was all I could do to defend myself, even so I was taking quite a beating. I felt like a rag doll being thrown around the tree lined driveway. I had so many scrapes and cuts I lost count. I was in a daze my head spinning by the time the beast pinned me to the ground its claw raised to tear open my throat. I could have easily blocked the claws and pushed the beast off to continue a fight that neither of use seemed to able to win. I couldn’t help to remember that this creature was only a woman a few minutes ago. DeScalo was controlling her somehow I thought as the beast leaned over me, I spotted the necklace I sought dangling from its neck. That ring DeScalo wore was the key. I reached out and tore the gold chain from the thing’s thick neck.
Instantly the beast drew back, retreating back off of me. I could see for the first time that DeScalo had been joined by more of his men in the grass at the edge of the woods. The fight had become a spectator’s sport. It was clear to me that they had seen that I was no normal cop. I looked over to the creature and its demeanor had changed. Its attention was no longer on me but them. The beast attacked bounding across the grass toward DeScalo and his men. DeScalo had decided to supervise this kill. I was hurting, I realized for the first time how important weapons were in my training. I could have used some in this fight. I laid there in the grass for longer than I should.
By the time I pulled myself to my feet, the screaming had stopped. I was shocked by how fast Morgana worked. Blood was splattered all over the grass, body parts were thrown about the driveway like leaves after a whirlwind. There was no sign of the beast.
Then Morgana the once battered woman, no more, stepped from the trees. She was covered in blood, laughing at him. “You, I’ll let live.” “You are too innocent, too pure to please me.” She held up a severed hand, DeScalo’s hand. She slid the ruby ring from the middle finger and tossed it to me. “Keep the set,” she said. Before I could react her, she was gone, leaving me with the necklace and ring. Thanks to the murderous woman my secret was safe but I knew I couldn’t take such risks again.
I headed home with the jewelry not sure if I had done a good thing by letting Morgana loose or a bad thing. When I got home I cleaned up my wounds. For the most part my injuries were superficial and would be healed by the time I had to go back to work Monday. I felt very lucky that my parents wouldn’t be home until after I left for work on Monday. Even though I wasn’t hurt badly, I was sure my Mother would have a lot of questions if she knew what I had done. For the first time I thought about how I couldn’t live here with my parents if I was going to continue down this road.
After that weekend I kept my mouth shut about what happened at the DeScalo estate. I kept my ear to the police band at the district to make sure no one found out I was there that night. To my surprise, no report was ever made about the massacre that happened.
It was about a month later when Paddy and I were eating lunch in our patrol car that he read an article from the Philadelphia Inquirer to me. “Says that Giorgio DeScalo was found dead of a heart attack at that big estate of his on the Main line.” “I always thought he’d die in a bloody shootout,” Paddy commented.
“Ya, me too,” I chimed. “Can I see that?” Paddy handed me that section of the paper moving on to the sports section. The article told how Giorgio’s son Nicholas had returned from Italy to take care of his father’s business interests in the city. It was clear to me that the son was also here to cover up the true event of his father’s death that only led me to suspicion. I could only wonder what he was up to, but I feared I had not heard the last of the DeScalo family.
The Fourth of July was approaching and I got a not so unexpected request. When I reported for morning roll call at the district Captain Anderson told me I was to report to the Police Commissioner Stanley’s office at City hall. I have to admit I was more than a little nervous about the meeting. I couldn’t imagine why the Commissioner would want to meet with a rookie cop like me. My fears were justified when I was shown into his office.
I learned that the Commissioner was friends with Nicholas DeScalo. It was the younger DeScalo who wanted to meet with me. Things became much more uncomfortable when the Commissioner excused himself, leaving me alone in his office with the son of a man I saw torn to pieces by a beast.
I sat quietly in a chair as DeScalo began to talk. “My father was a powerful man in this city.” “He took many risks to gain that power,” Nicholas told me as he stood up from his chair. “He became rather obsessed with the occult at the end.” Nicholas strolled around the office looking at the books on the shelf. “I warned him he was crossing a line that he couldn’t come back across.”
“I’m confused sir, why am I here?” I said looking to the man, in his late twenties, as he walked back toward where I sat.
“We both know my father didn’t die of a heart attack,” DeScalo said bluntly to me.
“I don’t know what you mean sir,” I tried to act ignorant of what he was saying to me.
DeScalo stepped behind me placing his hands on my shoulders. “You are an interesting man Officer Roberts,” he said squeezing my shoulders. “My father was trying to control someone that was out of his league with a thing he didn’t fully understand.” “That is something I couldn’t be a part of, so I went to Italy to wait it out.”
“I still don’t know why you had Commissioner Stanley call me here,” I said standing up pulling away from his massaging hands. “I am not a therapist, so if you don’t mind I have a job to do.”
“You are meant for much bigger things than your low level profession,” he told me. “From what I’ve seen you could be a real asset to me.”
“Are you offering me a job?” I asked turning back to him in shock. “Why would you think I would ever work for you?”
“Because I know your secret,” Nicholas said coolly. “My father’s occult interests did not lend him to remove the cameras from his estate.” “Everything that happened that night was recorded.”
Shit, I was an idiot. I never gave it a thought that there might be cameras. How was I going to talk my way out of this? I sat back down in the chair speechless. For a minute I hoped he was lying, then he picked up a file from the desk and handed to me. I opened the folder to see photos taken from video of the fight that I had with the beast on the estate driveway. The last image was clear as day of me in the hall outside Morgana’s room. There was no denying it was me.
“It took me a while to find you, as you may have guessed,” DeScalo told me. “You are an amazing man to have survived the beating you took from that beast.” “I came home to clean up my father’s mess having no idea how much of a mess it would be.” “But finding you was the true prize.” He sat down across from me again. “I especially liked the part where you swung that four hundred pound marble statue around like a baseball bat.” “It took five men to lift that thing into a dumpster.” “That was when I knew I had to find you.
I had a thought, “Do you really believe anyone will see that video as anything other than a hoax?” “I’m the only participant still alive and I will never tell anyone it is anything other than a trick of photography.”
“I really don’t care if anyone else believes the video, I do,” Nicholas said. “I don’t take the same kinds of risks as my father.” “From what I saw you deserve to be on the winning team in life.”
“And Philly PD is not the winning team?” I asked.
“Put it this way, with the things you can do I could make you a rich man,” he told me grinning. “As a lowly beat cop what could you hope to make 50 K a year?”
“I have no interest in using what I can do, as you claim, to become rich,” I rebutted him. “I want to help people in need.”
“How noble of you.” “Think of me as a man in need then, in need of your unique skills,” DeScalo said. He was quiet for a moment before getting up from the chair. “Don’t make a decision now, think it over, give me a call,” he said handing me a business card. “I am sure you will make the right choice.”
I went back to the district and Paddy was already out on patrol. I was really confused over what just happened. I had no idea what to do about Nicholas DeScalo. Up until now my biggest fear was being implicated in Giorgio’s murder. I really didn’t think I could trust Nicholas because of his family’s reputation. I had no idea how I was going to handle this, one thing was for sure I couldn’t talk it over with my parents. I would have to handle it like the adult I wanted to be.
When Paddy got back to the station to pick me up, he of course was full of questions. I tried to be as honest as I could with him without telling him what was really going on. The rest of the day was uneventful. I spent some time considering what DeScalo was offering, but that night I had a dream that changed all of that. I dreamt of what my life would be like working for Nicholas DeScalo and to what his world would expose me. It was not good and it would end even worse for everyone involved.
It was July fourth and as a rookie I had to work a security detail at the fireworks show at Penn’s Landing. I hadn’t responded to Nicholas DeScalo’s job offer and I had hoped that I had heard the last of him. It had been a long day on my feet and I had the feeling that it was only going to get longer. Throughout the day I had noticed several men that had given me a bad vibe. All of them were dressed like the standard suburban tourist in the city for the show, like I would have been if I wasn’t on the job. The only thing that seemed out of place about them was that they all appeared to be alone. By the time it was getting dark and the show was about to begin I noticed that some of these men had paired up into groups. All of them appeared to be serious gym enthusiasts. My main concern was if they were up to no good I had to somehow ditch Paddy. That task wasn’t too hard when I told him I could use a cup of coffee and a donut. Paddy was off to Dunkin Donuts and I was alone with my suspects.
I took this time alone to look at each one of them a little closer. I spotted a watch, diamond earrings, and several other pieces of jewelry that seemed out of place on suburban tourists. I caught one guy actually sizing me up. But the thing that convinced me that I had not heard the last of Nicholas DeScalo was that I recognized three of them as men who worked for DeScalo in my dream. I wasn’t sure if DeScalo was just spying on me hoping to catch me doing something superhuman or if this was going to be some kind of test. I figured my best bet was to outwit them and strike before they had a chance.
One of the guys I knew from my dream who was still standing alone was clearly doing the pee-pee dance so I thought he would be the easiest. I made sure I had his attention when I walked over to the area where several Port-o-johns were set up. Just as I hoped he followed along behind me. By chance two johns were open next to each other. I stalled a little to make sure he went into one of them as I went into the other. I listen closely for his release before sneaking out of my Port-o-john. Behind the stalls there was a chain link guide line. I pinched open one of the links on it to quickly wrap the chain around his Port-o-john and twisted the links back together trapping him inside. I didn’t wait for his reaction I returned to the crowd to find my next target.
There was a group of three and a group of two, might as well count up. The group of two I didn’t recognize so I couldn’t be completely sure they worked for DeScalo but I wasn’t going to do anything to hurt them, just detain them. I knew Paddy would be back soon so I figured it would be best if I moved this away from where my partner expected me to be. As I walked through the crowd I didn’t look back but I could feel that the danger I sensed from these men was following me. I kept my eyes open for other cops at the event making sure to avoid them as well. As I played follow the leader I began to think about my dream again. I was the only one with powers in the dream all of the rest of DeScalo men were completely normal. So wondered why were these men feeling like such a threat to me. As the sun set and I began to think about the fireworks display that would begin soon I realize that they were not a threat to me but to everyone at his show. I had no idea to what lengths Nicholas DeScalo would go to prove his point.
I looked out over the river to the barge where the fireworks display is fired off. I found the idea of Nicholas intentionally harming innocent people hard to believe. But using the cover of an accident to test me would be clever. There was no way I could get out to the barge now. No one was going to listen to a rookie cop about possible danger either. I stood at the edge of the water looking over the rail to the barge with no idea what to do. Then my decision was made for me.
“Rookie what are you doing down here, you know we are to stay at our post,” Paddy said walking up behind me with two cups of coffee. I could see on Paddy’s face that he was not happy with me.
“Yes, I know, sorry,” I replied.
“Then let’s get back to where we belong,” Paddy ordered throwing the coffee into a trashcan.
“Officers, Officers, over here hurry!” A man called to us from behind as we turned to away walk.
Before I could stop him Paddy called out, “What is the problem sir?” My partner began to walk toward one of the men I had been suspicious of all day.
“Paddy, wait,” I called after him.
“Let’s go rookie,” was his order as he gestured for me to follow. This was just what I didn’t want, Paddy involved with whatever these men had planned. I knew there was nothing a could say to deter Paddy from investigating this situation. I took out my nightstick from my belt and followed him, my senses on full alert. I could only hope that I had been wrong about these me, but I knew that was very unlikely.
The man lead us to an area where dumpsters were located behind a small refreshment stand. Behind one of the dumpsters a man lying on the ground bleeding and another stood over him holding a knife. My well seasoned partner drew his gun and ordered, “Drop the weapon!” Paddy’s response was completely correct but he didn’t know what we were dealing with as I did. Before I could warn him the man who led us into the alleyway had grabbed him from behind and put a knife to his throat.
“Drop the gun officer,” the man told Paddy. The man holding my partner turned them to face me. “Don’t get any ideas, big boy,” he said to me. “I can slice his throat in the blink of an eye.” Paddy reluctantly dropped his gun to the round. Thing is I was only holding my baton, not a gun. DeScalo’s man was confident, a little too confident. He had no real idea of how fast I was or how good my aim. Hopefully I could do this without giving myself away to my partner. I threw my baton, launching it at full force at the man’s shoulder. The impact was enough to dislocate it, cause his arm holding the knife to drop. The man cried out in pain, I had succeeded.
Paddy got loose of him but that was not before the other missing two of DeScalo’s men came up behind me, each taking one of my arms. I felt one of them pull my gun from my holster and put it to my head. “What the hell is this all about?” Paddy shouted not moving another inch.
“Do you want to tell him?” the man holding the gun to my head asked. “Or should I?”
“My guess is your boss wants to test me,” I said risking Paddy getting suspicious.
“What, who’s their boss?” Paddy instantly asked. The other man who had been playing possum on the ground had gotten up by now. He and the other knife wielding man had now taken hold of Paddy’s arms.
“Just beat the hell out of the old guy and let’s get going,” the guy with the dislocated shoulder demands holding his useless arm. “I need a doctor!”
“I say we kill them both!” the one still holding a knife said. Even at those words the look in Paddy’s eyes was more of a concern for me than himself.
“Do you really think I’m just going to let you do that?” I said to our assailants. I looked around at the faces of the men and the one I recognized from my dream as Ambrose Russo gave a disapproving stare.
“We saw you bleed, we know you aren’t bulletproof,” the man holding the gun to my head said pushing into my temple more.
“The boss would not be happy with that, we will stick to his instructions,” Ambrose directed.
Paddy looked at me with a strange grin that relieved my fears. “Everyman is responsible for his own destiny,” Paddy said. It was a strange thing for him to say, but in the past weeks that he and I had been sharing a squad car I felt that I had come to know him well. “One, Two,” he counted and my danger sense vanished from the back of my skull. “THREE!”
That was my signal and I freed my right arm to grab the gun at my head and force it down to fire into the blacktop. I glanced over to Paddy to see him use the man with the knife’s hand back on himself. The knife in his leg the man cried out and stumbled backward. I was worried that this seasoned cop needed protecting and I was wrong.
Squeezing the man’s wrist that held the gun, maybe a little too hard, my gun fell to the ground. My other assailant tried to put me in a nelson that I easily turned against him, sending him to the blacktop. These men were well trained and insatiable. I was concentrating on holding back to not really hurt these men. I only had one set of cuffs that I put on the man on the ground. As I had my knee in the center of the guy’s back the other guy who was so eager to shot me in the head grabbed me around the neck. A move I easily got out of by throwing him over my head at the guy with the bad shoulder.
Then suddenly it was over. Paddy had cuffed the guy with the bleeding leg. “I guess we showed them!” Paddy said to me standing up to wipe the blood from his mouth. “They won’t mess with the A-team again in a hurry!” I have to admit I was impressed by Paddy, I never expected those fighting moves from him.
“The A-team?” I repeated. “Really?”
“Just call this in rookie,” Paddy instructed.
I reached for my radio to realize Russo was gone. Russo wasn’t the only thing missing. “Paddy where are our guns?” I asked.
“What?” Paddy asked as he looked up from the men piled up on the ground. “What do you mean?” he said looking around the area seeing that I was right. “SHIT!”
“Ambrose Russo is his name and he’s got our guns!” I told my partner. “He works for Nicholas DeScalo.” I told Paddy most of what had happened with Nicholas DeScalo and his job offer. I left out the part about the night at the DeScalo estate.
After that Paddy took me under his wing a little more and we began training together in the off hours to be on our toes in the event of another DeScalo attack. We had little other recourse having lost our service weapons. We could not tell anyone that it was DeScalo who had ordered the attack. I soon learned that Paddy was in good shape for a guy almost fifteen years older than me. He had some good moves too. I let him believe he was teaching me, never letting on that I had spent most of my childhood being trained by my Mom. I even let him get in a few shots, pretending to let him best me.
Things on a professional level were not as good. Having lost our guns to unknown assailants we were taken off the street for a while. We both knew the only way to prove ourselves again was to find our missing weapons.
It was a month later that we finally found the lead that we needed to find Ambrose Russo. Following that lead we learned that Russo ran a Loan Sharking business for DeScalo out of a dry cleaners. We knew we couldn’t just walk in there and arrest Russo. Nor could we search the place to take back our guns. We needed a plan that would make us look good and Ambrose Russo look bad. Lucky thing was that the moment I saw the building the cleaners was in I remembered it from my dream. Now that we had a lead based in reality I could use some of the information from my dream to work to our benefit. In my dream I was secretly working to take Nicholas DeScalo down so I learned everything I could about his operations. The dry cleaners was not only a front for money laundering but also stolen gun running. There was no question in my mind that our guns were in that building, them and many more.
Making that plan was less easy, not telling Paddy how much I knew, but together we figured out plausible plan. We figured the Commissioner’s friendship with DeScalo would be a problem for us getting a warrant to investigate any of Nicholas’ holdings, so we would have to be more creative. I would go to Russo and tell him that I wanted to take DeScalo up on his job offer after all, asking him to set up a meeting with his boss.
I met with Nicholas DeScalo a few days later at his mansion that he inherited from his father. As I drove onto the grounds in my old beat up car with the oddball door I looked around finding no signs of the massacre that had happened here only a few months ago. Broken statues and trees had been removed and replaced with new ones. When I reached the front door I was met at my car by two of the men from the July fourth incident. I figured this was DeScalo’s chance to rub my nose in it as if I didn’t already know they had been working for him. My entry into the front hall brought back the memories of that night with Morgana. I still didn’t fully understand all that happened that night and didn’t wonder how much Nicholas really knew about his father’s death. The guy I had trapped in the port-a-john was the one who got the job of leading me into the parlor where I was to meet with DeScalo.
Left alone I looked around the room, checking the windows for the steel shielding I knew were there. Or plan depended on the fact that Nicholas had not removed any of his father’s security measures. It was a few more minutes before Nicholas arrived in the Parlor with two of his men. “Officer Roberts how nice to see you again,” he said walking into the center of the room. His men remained on either side of the door, arms folded over their chests, hard looks on their faces. They are not too different from Giorgio’s men that Morgan had slaughtered. “I hear you have reconsidered my offer,” Nicholas said looking as arrogant as his father.
“I would prefer if we discussed our business in private,” I said taking a seat in one of the large leather high back chairs.
“My men are completely trustworthy,” Nicholas assured me.
“You may believe that, but do they believe you are?” I replied. “I don’t think you want them to hear my counter offer.”
Nicholas paced the room for a moment then he turned to me with a grin, “Very shroud, Officer,” he said. “Kevin, Rocco, wait outside,” he told his men and they exited the room without a word, leaving me alone with Nicholas.
The moment the door closed I sprang up from the chair across the room. I was on Nicholas before he knew what was happening. I grabbed him by the throat, squeezing just tight enough so he could not call out. Pinning him down in the other of the chairs his hands grabbing for my forearm I said, “Don’t be foolish, I could snap your neck if you move wrong.” With my free hand I searched through his pockets for the security remote that he carried hidden in the pocket inside his $1500 suit jacket just as his father did. The remote wasn’t hard to figure out as I had hoped. I pressed the button labeled “LOCKDOWN” and the steel covers came down over the windows. Another of the buttons was labeled “PANIC”. “Let’s see what this does, shall we,” I said depressing the “PANIC” button. Another set of steel doors closed over the entrance to the room sealing it off from the rest of the house. “That should be helpful,” I said. Before letting him go of him, I pulled his gun from his shoulder holster. Once I released Nicholas’s throat I crushed the remote into several pieces that tumbled to the floor. Walking back to my chair I sat down as Nicholas gasped for breath.
“So what, are you going to do, shot me with my own gun?” he asked rubbing his neck. My mother had taught me a lot about pressure points on the human body and how not to leave bruises. I had done a perfect job with Nicholas, although his throat may have felt sore now, I left no marks on him.
“Don’t be silly,” I smiled. “I could have popped your head right off if I had wanted to,” I said glaring at him. He had no idea that was something I would never do, but I figured a little fear would be good for our relationship. “I thought I might try something else.” I told him. Holding the revolver in my left hand, I took a firm hold on the barrel and bent it up into a “U” shape pointing back at the handle. “I have always wanted to do that, but never had the opportunity,” I smiled at him as I tossed his gun back to him. “We are about to start a new era in our relationship after today,” I began. “You will leave me alone and I will leave you alone.”
“That is why you have done all of this theater today?” Nicholas asked examining his bent gun. “Why would I agree to that?” “You saw how my father controlled that Beast Morgana, what makes you think I can’t just do the same to you?”
“And you saw how that worked out for him,” I retorted. “I did say after today, didn’t I?” “As we are trapped here in your father’s overly secured home and your men are probably going crazy trying to get you out, something else is happening.” “That Dry Cleaners that you have Ambrose Russo running cash and guns out of is getting busted wide open.”
“Even if what you are saying is true that place can not be connected to me,” Nicholas sneered.
“But the loss of 487 million dollars in that back room of the basement will hurt you quite a bit.” I commented. “If I were you I would spend my time replacing that money, not chasing after me.”
“How do you know about that room?” Nicholas asked in shock. “Only my most trusted inner circle know about that room.”
I just smiled at him, “Perhaps you aren’t trusting the right people.” There was no need to let him know that if I had chosen differently it was me he couldn’t trust. Nicholas was again perplexed by my words. There wasn’t much more conversation for the next three hours that we waited for his men to break through the barriers. I have to admit I thought they would get in faster. The plan was for me to stall DeScalo for an hour while the raid went down. As DeScalo’s men finally got into the room I prided open a window and exited before they could come after me.
Unfortunately by the time I got back to my car I found that Nicholas’ men had done a number on it. My old broken down car sat riddled with bullet holes and burning just where I left it in the driveway. A run home it was. I told my Mom the car was stolen and in a way it was taken from me. Funny thing is it turned up a few months later over in Camden. Nevertheless it would be awhile before I got another car. I really didn’t need one.
After that I didn’t personally hear from Nicholas DeScalo again. I heard rumblings that he was looking for more Zeni-humans like me to join his organization. Ambrose Russo never squealed on his boss and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. I knew he would never serve his full term and I was right in the end. Once we had retrieved our service weapons Paddy and I did eventually get back out on patrol by the new year.
Paddy still remained very private about his personal life. We had been working together for nine months and I had never even met his wife. I think that is what surprised me the most when he told me she was sick. Paddy’s wife Michelle was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was a horrible tragedy, a month later Michelle Berger was dead.
Paddy refused to take an appropriate amount of time off of work to mourn his wife. I could tell that he was slipping into a state of depression, even if he wouldn’t admit it to anyone. I wanted to do something to help him. It seemed the only way to pull Paddy free of his depression was to give him a way to look at his life through new eyes. A fresh start, so to say. I had been considering moving out of home for sometime and this seemed as good as any. I suggested to Paddy that we should become roommates.
It took about a week for Paddy to finally give into my idea and we found a two bedroom, two bath apartment together in Fishtown. The biggest obstacle to me moving out of home was the dilemma of storage of my gauntlets. Mom didn’t want me to take them with me but I insisted. We needed away that I could store them that would be easy for me but kept them tamper free. Our idea was to make a lockbox to store them in that weighed about 400 pounds. Mom and I could lift the lockbox with ease but no one else could. Luckily our apartment had a basement storage area so there was no worry of the box falling through the floor.
It took awhile for us to adjust to our new living arrangement but in a way I really think it did help Paddy to come back from his depression. Funny thing is that was my Mom’s impropriety with privacy that broke the ice between us. It was a week or so after we had moved in together that my mother decide to stop by the apartment. She hadn’t help us move in so she hadn’t met Paddy until that day. It was a Sunday afternoon that both Paddy and I had off. Paddy had gotten up early to go for a long run to clear his head leaving me home alone. I decided to clean up a little before my Mom came over. My clean up left me with two large bags of trash. I let a note on the door telling my Mom I was taking out the garbage and the door unlocked. At the dumpster I got sidetracked talking to one of our new neighbors for about fifteen minutes. In that amount of time Paddy had come home and tore down the note I left for my mother.
When my mother arrived she thought nothing of just walking into our unlocked apartment. Her first time at our new place she made herself at home nosing around. With all of the unpacked boxes still sitting around she had no idea which room was mine and which room belonged to Paddy. When she heard the shower she assumed it was me and freely walked into the bathroom. Paddy hadn’t had time to get a curtain for his tub, so when she walked in she got the full Paddy experience if you know what I mean. That was about the time I came back to the apartment. Mom was backing out of Paddy’s room apologizing but not at all embarrassed. Paddy was yelling, “Who the hell are you lady?” as he walked out into the living room wrapping his soaking wet body with a towel.
“Paddy, I’m so sorry this is my Mom, I thought I’d be back before she got here?” I said grabbing my Mom’s arm and giving her a look.
“Paddy’s attitude quickly changed at the knowledge that she was my mother. “This is you Mom?” he asked. “She is much too young to be your mother,” saying something I had been hearing a lot lately.
“Step-mother,” my Mom said reaching out her hand to shake his causing him to drop his towel slightly again. “I’m terribly sorry I thought it was Steve in the shower.”
“Step-mother?” I repeated. Mom shushed me with her eyes.
“Why don’t you get dressed, I have a housewarming gift for the both of you,” Mom said sending Paddy back into his bedroom where he closed the door. Then she turned to me. “Didn’t you think at some point with my lack of ageing I would have to stop being your mother?” she asked.
“Well, I hadn’t really thought about it,” I replied.
“This is as good a time as any, step-mother will do for now,” Mom said. “You are out on your own, you have no need to have friends meeting your parents anymore.” It was an odd thing for her to say, but I knew she was right. Actually Paddy would be the last person I would introduce her to as my mother or step-mother.
“You didn’t tell me Paddy was so well built,” Mom said not at all out of character for her. Statements like that made me wonder about her monogamy. But if it was one thing that Christine and I knew it was that our parents had a good sex life.
“It not the kind of thing a guy tells his Mom about his roommate,” I replied, hoping she would let it go.
“You know your Dad had a body like his back in the fourteen hundreds,” she said referring to one of my Dad’s previous incarnations. I was grateful that Paddy returned to the room ending this uncomfortable conversation. It had taken me years to come to terms with the idea that my Mom was a thirty-two hundred amazon, the whole endless soul mates thing still made me feel lonely.
“Mrs. Roberts you didn’t have to get us a gift,” Paddy said walking from the kitchen with a glass of orange juice.
“You don’t know how right you are roomy,” I said in fear of what my mother would give us as a housewarming gift.
Mom gave me that look of hers as she said to Paddy, “Please call me Dona.” Taking his hand she said, “I just want to convey my condolences to you on the loss of your wife.” I could see the sadness in Paddy’s eyes. “I have lost my husband many times and it never gets any easier.” “In time I always find him again.”
I could also see the confusion on Paddy’s face. “Mo…Dona is big into reincarnation,” I told him hoping to not have to explain the truth.
Then Mom retrieved the shopping bag she had left at the door. “I found this on a trip to Roman years ago.” From the bag she pulled a two foot tall statue of a naked woman. “This is the goddess Venus,” she instructed us. “Legend tells that the presence of this idol in your home will bring many beautiful and loving women to your door.”
I could tell we were both thinking it so I said it, “So it will get us laid.”
“No, not such a crude thing, it will bring you love,” Mom corrected. “If you believe in such things.”
It was around Thanksgiving when we were both in our usual seats in the living room in front of the TV. During commercials I was staring at the Venus statue, that Paddy had insisted we keep in the living room. I wanted to put the rather explicit statue in my room out of sight. Paddy thought that would be rude to my mother so there it sat smiling back at me sexually. We were drinking beer and watching a football game together that he finally opened up to me.
He and Michelle had been High School sweethearts. They had been married for almost twelve years, Thanksgiving day was their anniversary this year. It was really a heartbreaking story. It made me wonder if I would ever love someone that much. After that night it felt like Paddy and I were becoming friends and not just partners.
By now I was beginning to feel being a policeman was not the right choice for me. I also began to feel guilty that my behind the scenes activities were having a negative effect on my partner’s career. It seemed like the chief was always finding a new way to reprimand us. I think we both saw what was happening to us. I knew the Commissioner Stanley was friends DeScalo and I hoped that was all there was to it. I hoped that the Commissioner was not dirty.
My impending 20th birthday was something that made Paddy’s spirits lift for the first time since his wife’s death. He suggested we go to Time Square in New York City for New Year’s Eve to celebrate my birthday and I didn’t have the heart to say no. Three other cops we knew came along with us. The five of us made our way into the center of Time Square. Joe Lambert, one of the other guys brought a bottle of whiskey along and the others took hits off of it to defend against the cold. I was still only twenty so I didn’t participate, not that it would have mattered to me. Our twenty-two block walk felt like it took an hour. By that time the other guys were getting pretty drunk. Even Paddy was feeling good. It was nice to see him relax for a change.
I had never been in a crowd of people this large before and my danger sense was acting strange. It didn’t feel like I was in danger but I was not comfortable. I tried to concentrate on others to keep them safe from themselves. Just when the first bottle was empty Paul pulled another from inside his jacket. These four guys were intent on becoming plastered and I was sure I could handle the situation. The crowd was fairly riled up and I was starting to get into the mood of the partying. Paddy and I were singing along with the band that was performing. All around us people were dancing and cheering, it was exhilarating. Lou was the third of the other guys and I had gotten a strange vibe on him all night. He was behind me and stumbled against my back causing me to feel a sharp pain in the back of my neck. I reached around to grab the spot to find out what happened. That was the last thing I remember doing before my knees buckled.
It was officially my twentieth birthday and I didn’t even remember the ball falling. My head was pounding and I was not longer in Time Square. I was seated in a hard metal chair and my hands were cuffed behind my back. I opened my eyes to find several loops of chains around my chest. Whoever was behind this abduction was serious about keeping me contained.
“OOww,” a moan came from my left. I glanced over to see Paddy similarly bound to a chair next to me. Paddy was tied with ropes rather than the chains like me. He was groggy too from the booze no doubt. I looked around to see nothing that told me where we were or how we got here. The place was covered in plastic, not a good sign. My first thought was to break us loose but I thought better of it. I needed to know what was going on here. Whatever drug I had been slipped was wearing off fast, I would guess faster than our captors expected.
“Paddy!” “PADDY!” I shouted trying to get my partner’s attention. He was still very drunk, whatever the other guys were giving him must have been stronger than usual. “Focus Paddy!” I told him. I wasn’t helping him and he was going to be no help to me. So I would just have to wait for our captures to return alone.
I wasn’t at all surprised about forty-five minutes later when Lou walked into the plastic draped room. “What is this all about?” I demanded. Lou didn’t answer he stood there at the edge of the plastic wall. “Who are you working for?” Still only silence. I couldn’t help but to feel like this was all my fault. My danger sense was so out of whack by the crowd that I couldn’t clearly tell how ill Lou’s intentions were towards us. I’m sure I would have dreamt this if this trip had not been so hastily planned. I had to put those thoughts aside because now I had to be clever to think my way out of this situation.
“Is this DeScalo’s revenge, is that it?” I suggested.
“Nicholas has no idea that this is happening!” a new, yet familiar voice said from behind me. I waited as two sets of footsteps drew closer. I don’t know why I was surprised to see Police Commissioner Stanley walk around in front of me. Gone was his power suit and tie, replaced with a leather jacket, sweatshirt and jeans. He had a crazed look in his eyes that triggered my danger sense. I looked to Paul who followed in behind the Commissioner. I could see the fear in his eyes. Whatever was going on it seemed as though he was no longer cool with it.
“Commissioner Stanley, what is going on here?” I asked hoping that he would be more forthcoming with answers than Lou.
“I’ll tell you what is going on, you two have ruined my career!” he shouted in my face pointing at Paddy and me.
“I don’t understand, how could we have done that?” I asked calmly, hoping he would take my cue. But he didn’t.
“When Nicholas asked if he could hire a Rookie, I said who cares about one newbie.” “Most don’t last beyond the first year!” “Besides if not for Nicholas I wouldn’t even be Commissioner.” “But no not you, you were too good for Nicholas DeScalo!” the irate man grumbles. “Then Nicholas wanted me to make you miserable on the job, I did that too!” “Somehow you still prospered.” Pointing at Paddy he shouts, “And this one after a decade on the force finally got some ambition and busted Nicholas’ Dry Cleaners!” “I should have known this would blow back on me!” he ranted.
“You need to calm down, sir,” I said breaking the handcuffs behind my back as quietly as I could. He was truly on edge, I couldn’t guess what he was planning but I knew it wasn’t good. He paced away and then turned standing behind Lou and Paul.
“Nicholas refused to tell me what is so special about you!” the Commissioner ranted on. “The only one I could get anything out of was that fool Russo!” “He told me you were stronger than you look.” “That explains the chains if you were wondering.” “That really doesn’t matter now does it.” Both of the other cops began to look less comfortable as the Commissioner ranted. As silly as Stanley may have thought the chains were they were actually a good idea. Paddy was still groggy but seemed to be understanding what was happening better. “As I see it I have only one option, get rid of the two of you and make it look like you were dirty,”
“Think about what you are saying,” I tried to persuade him. “Think of your family, your wife, your children.”
“I have that is why I have to do this!” Stanley said swiftly pulling a gun from inside his leather jacket and firing twice. It all happened so fast, I couldn’t get free from the chains in time. By the time I had broken the chains it was too late. Commissioner Stanley had shot both Lou and Paul in the back of the head. The men fell to the floor dead as I leapt from the chair at the crazed Commissioner. Before I could get the gun from him he fired a third shot.
Unknown to me the first two shots had drawn Joe in from outside the room. The once distinguished Commissioner Stanley was babbling on the floor under my knee as I turned to see that Joe had been hit in the shoulder by the bullet. I turned to look at Paddy who glared at me slack jawed and bug eyed. The booze seems to have worn off leaving him in something of a hung over state of confusion. It must have been too much for him because he passed out.
I had to end this quickly now if I was to get Joe help. “You need to pay for these murders,” I told Stanley pulling him up from the floor. I sat him down in the metal chair to bind him with what was left of the chains. I used his phone to call 911.
Commissioner Stanley was charged with the shooting deaths of Lou Gerhardt and Paul Barnes. He never said a word about what I had done or Nicholas DeScalo’s involvement. Joe Lambert testified against the disgraced Police Commissioner. Unfortunately he was found innocent by insanity. Anthony Stanley was sentenced to a mental institution.
Life in our apartment in Fishtown change again after that New Year’s Eve in New York City. It was a few days after, while watching a football game that Paddy finally spoke up, “What I saw ready did happen, didn’t it?”
Paddy had told the D.A. that he couldn’t remember anything because of the drugs the others slipped him in the whiskey. I had hoped that was true. My first instinct was to lie again. But I had been getting tired of always lying to the people I was closest. “What do you remember about what happened?” I asked hoping he was too out of it to have seen what I had done.
“I remember Commissioner Stanley say you were special somehow and then you snapped 20 gauge chain with your bare hands,” Paddy answered.
I looked him in the eye and I couldn’t lie anymore. “Yes, that did happen,” I told him nonchalantly. “I don’t want to lie to you, I did do that.” “Commissioner Stanley was going to kill all of us, I had to stop him.”
Paddy had that surprised look in his eyes again just like he did when he was tied to that chair. He switched off the TV. “How…, how did you do that?” he asked point blank.
“I’m really strong,” I said trying to play my powers down.
“How are you really strong?” Paddy asked.
“I’m what is called a Zeni-human,” I said, not sure how to explain the term. “I was born with some extra skills.”
“What kind of skills?” Paddy asked the strange look still in his eyes.
“Strength, speed, eyesight, and hearing,” I told him leaving out my more hard to explain powers.
“How strong exactly?” he questioned. I knew this was going to take time for Paddy to get used to the “new” me. In time Paddy knowing my secret made it much easier for me to do what I had to do to help people.