The Fury
Issue #5
by Tom Zjaba
Chapter Six
Stool Pigeons
"He was spending money like it was going out of style." Cross
Eyed Willy says as he talks to the Deacon. The Deacon listens to him as he talks
and then asks "And you say a few weeks ago, he was living on the streets without
a dollar to his name." As he asks this, he is flipping through a wad of bills.
They are mostly twenties and there must be a few grand there. Cross Eyed Willy
keeps his eye on the money and smiles. "Yeah, that's right. He was dirt poor.
Now he has a bunch of money. Bought a house and everything." Deacon keeps
flipping the money as he talks. He knows it is a great motivator and found that
street people will turn on each other for money. "How well did you know this
Jack fella?" Cross Eyed Willy looks up at Deacon and smiles "We is good friends.
That is why he hired me to get him some help." Deacon looks back at him and puts
a twenty in his hand "What kind of help did you get?" Willy quickly puts the
twenty in his pocket and answers "He wanted us to help him clean up the house.
Take out trash, sweep and paint. That sort of thing." Deacon then peels off
another twenty and hands it to Willy. "Did you see anything special at this
house of his?" Willy once again stashes the twenty. "The house was a dump. Bags
of trash everywhere. Dead rats, real dive. But there was one thing that stood
out. A giant safe in the basement." He then stretches out his arms as he shows
the size of the safe. Deacon smiles as he hands another twenty to Willy. "What
would a guy like that need with a safe like that? Keep on eye on him and let me
know if you find out anything else." Willy smiles and waves as he walks out. He
knew this information would yield him some money. He has lived on the street
long enough to know that when someone comes into allot of money, it is almost
always done illegally and there is always someone willing to pay for that
information.
After Willy leaves the room, Deacon pulls out his cell phone
and makes a call. "This is Deacon. I have a tip on a guy who came into allot of
money. Here is the address, check it out and let me know what you find. Make
sure to check the safe in the basement." He then looks around and puts the cell
phone back in his pocket. He smiles as he heads out of the alley.
That night, Jack decides to take it easy. He is quite tired
from the previous night and spent part of the day shopping for furniture. All he
ended up buying was a used lamp, end table and army cot at the local Salvation
Army. Not exactly the furnishes he was looking for, but he figured he better lay
low for awhile. He has been spending too much money and it is bound to draw some
attention to him. The last thing he wants is any attention. If Justin Rage finds
out that he is the Fury, all hell will break loose. So he decides to stay home
tonight and relax. A good night sleep is what the doctor ordered. He folds out
the army cot and lays on it and begins to relax. He lays there with his eyes
closed and thinks about his next move. He also starts to think about what Justin
Rage may be doing to counter him. He may need to go undercover to get some
information. As he is relaxing, he hears voices outside his window. They are
hushed, but he can hear them. He does not know what they are saying, so he uses
his mind to read their minds. As he probes their minds, he realizes it is two
men who are here to search the place. They were sent by one of Justin Rage's men
and they are trying to find out how he came into so much money. Not wanting them
to find him, he grabs his duffel bags of cash and float up to the ceiling. He
floats over to one of the beams and places the duffel bags on the beam. He then
stands on the beam and looks down. Within a few minutes, he hears someone
playing with the door. They are using a lock picking tool and after a few tries,
they are able to open the first lock. Not wanting them to wreck his door, he
uses his powers to undo the deadbolts. He can tell by their thoughts that they
are not sure what is going on, but they have to go in. As they enter, they shine
their flashlights throughout the house. Back and forth their lights dart as they
look over the house. "No one is here, good." one of the men says in a whisper.
"If this man has money, he sure ain't spending it on furniture." the other says
as they shine the light on his army cot and end table. "Let's head to the
basement and check out that safe." Soon they find the basement door and head
down the stairs. Jack smiles as they disappear down there.
In the basement, the two men come across the giant safe. "Any
ideas how we are going to open that?" The two men look at each other with
puzzled faces. The safe is huge and solid. Nothing short of a few sticks of
dynamite is going to open it. Jack floats down to the floor and is standing at
the top of the stairs. He concentrates on the safe and starts to turn the lock.
He feels for the weights and soon he is able to open the safe door. When the
door slowly opens by itself, the men step back in fear. They are not sure if
they want to stay in this house anymore. This giant door just opened by itself.
But the fear of what Justin Rage will do to them if they don't complete their
mission is scarier. This is the unknown, but Justin's rage is a very known
quantity. So they cautiously peek into the safe. One of the men has his eyes
covered, half expecting to find a dead body or something even worse. But as he
opens his eyes, he finds the safe is empty. He wipes his head over his forehead
and lets out a breath of relief. The two of them decide to head back upstairs
and get out of here. Jack uses this opportunity to float back up to the ceiling.
He does not want them to know he is here. As they get to the top, one of them
says to the other "A dead end, thanks to Cross Eyed Willy. I could have told
Deacon he was wasting his money on that bum." The other guy then asks "We still
have not figured out how this guy who was living on the streets can now afford a
house, even one like this." Jack decides to try something. He has never tried it
but he remembers reading about the power of suggestion. So he concentrates and
puts the following suggestion in their minds "He got his money from betting
horses. Look at all the racing forms laying around. After he says that, one of
the men says "He got his money from betting horses. Look at all these racing
forms laying around." They other one then says "Yeah, that's how he got it.
Betting horses." The two of them then agree and leave as fast as possible. Jack
then floats back to the floor and smiles. That is one more power that he has and
it is one that he can put to good use.
Outside the house, one of the men gets on his cell phone and
calls Deacon. "Yeah, we checked out the house. The safe was empty. We did figure
out how he got his money. Betting horses. That's right, we saw racing forms all
over the place. Yeah, we will give Cross Eyed Willy a visit. Out." With that,
the two men head to their car and drive away. They have a visit with a certain
bum that is giving bad information. They need to get a refund from him and if
they know Willy, there won't be much money left.
Jack decides to do some investigating of his own. He figures
he owes Willy a visit to thank him for ratting him out. Unlike the men that were
just here, Jack knows where Willy will be. Give that man a pocket full of money
and he will be out trying to impress the ladies. In his mind, he is quite the
ladies man. Despite his crossed eyes, sloppy dress and addictions to drugs and
alcohol, Willy believes that the women really want him. And when he gets a good
chunk of money, he heads to Date Street. It's actual name is Union Road, but
everyone knows it as Date Street. With the large number of prostitutes that hang
out on Date Street, it is easy to see how the street got its nickname. And this
is where you can find Willy, trying to use his charming personality to get a
better deal from the ladies. Jack heads there and starts his search. He floats
to one of the roofs that overlooks Date Street and looks down. Like any other
night, the street is full of hookers and the johns who come down to pick them
up. Cars in the curb lane are slowly driving down the road as men are either
checking out the ladies or yelling and whistling at them. The inside lanes of
traffic move at a normal pace. It has become well known that if you want to
travel Union Road at any pace at night, to stay out of the curb lane. While the
police are very aware of the problems on the street, frequent payouts from
Justin Rage is enough to let things continue with few problems. There are a few
busts here and there, just to keep the citizens happy, but most charges are
dropped as soon as the payouts happen. But when the mayor of the city is
corrupt, it is hard to get much done. And while most of the citizens complain
about Date Street, it is a big reason, though a hushed reason that the city gets
allot of the convention business. Between the casinos and Date Street, there is
no shortage of things for lonely, bored conventioneers to do. It is commonly
said that while Vegas is where you go to get married, North Shore is where you
come after you get divorced.
As Jack settles on the roof, he tries hard to listen for
Cross Eyed Willy. He knows his distinct voice and the nice thing he has found
about thoughts is they sound just like a person's voice, which makes it easy to
pinpoint the source. It is very hard at first for him to hear anything. The
number of thoughts is enough to make his head explode. "Does he even have any
money or is he just wasting my time?" "Are those real?" "Sorry honey but I
charge extra for ugly guys." "I hope my wife doesn't see the hotel charges on
the credit card bill." All these thoughts are pouring into his head and it
sounds like a giant buzzing sound. He tries real hard to filter out the voices.
He struggles to first try and block out the female voices. Sweat is beading on
his head as he strains. He has practiced this in the bus terminals and other
busy places. But he has never tried with so many people. He keeps working at it
and soon he is able to get it down to just the male voices. He does not know how
he does it, but he has been able to train his mind to filter out voices. Next,
he concentrates on older voices. Willy is in his mid 50's, so he tries to filter
out all the young men's voices. One by one, he filters out all the different
thoughts of young men. Once he is able to phase them out of the noise, the level
becomes much more manageable. Now it is a low roar as he sorts through a few
hundred minds. Slowly he scans around until he picks up a familiar voice. "Where
is Lorraine? With this money, I can finally convince her to get really kinky."
Bingo! That is definitely Willy. Not only is the voice identical, but he has had
a thing for a hooker named Lorraine for quite some time. He would talk about her
quite often. He did not go to her exclusively, like most men on Date Street, he
thought of the women as if they were candy and he wanted to sample them all. But
he always ended up back with Lorraine. She knew him better than any of the other
girls and knew hot to push his buttons. The other girls were a mystery. Some
were good and others let him down. But sweet Lorraine never left him short of
satisfied. But this time he could not find her. He spent the last hour looking
up and down Date Street and there is no sign of her. She could be with another
client, something that always made him angry. He knew it was part of her
profession but he tried to block that part out.
Jack floats over to an alley close to where Willy is. He does
not want anyone to see him abduct Willy. This needs to be done without anyone
knowing about it. So he stands against a wall and as he sees Willy walk past, he
sends out a thought in his mind. "Did I see Lorraine down this alley?" The
thought then goes into his head and while most people would wonder where that
thought came from, the combination of raging hormones and cheap booze clouds his
mind. So he thinks "Maybe I did see her down here." He then walks down the alley
yelling out "Lorraine, are you there honey?" After he takes a few steps down the
alley, he is suddenly lifted in the air. Before he knows what is happening, he
lands on the roof, four stories up. Landing down a few feet away is The Fury.
"Hello Willy." he says. "What do you want with me? I never even met you." he
says as he tries to hide his fear. He has read how The Fury has attacked and
killed men and he does not want to be the next one. He is unsure why he is even
targeting him. "But you did wrong me." he says as he slowly pulls off his mask.
When Willy sees it is Jack, he steps back and says "Jack?" He then takes a few
more steps backwards. Jack then uses his mind to stop him in his tracks. "Why
did you sell me out?" Jack says as he steps closer to Willy. "I never sold you
out, honest." Willy says as he begins to perspire. He knows he sold him out but
has no idea how Jack knows. "Then why did some men come to my house and ransack
it? What were they looking for Willy? What did you tell them?" Willy continues
to step backwards, but finds that he cannot move. This really scares him as he
does not know the reason why he is immobile, only that he is. He has faced death
before but always found a way to get out of it. Usually it was his ability to
convincible lie. Sometimes it was pity because of his eyes. But this time he is
at a loss of words. He knew that Jack had too much money to just get it from
working a job. He knew there was more to the story, but he did not expect this.
If only he could get out of this, he could sell this information for a fortune.
Before Willy can say anything else, Jack lifts them both up in the air. Quickly
they descend into the evening sky and soon are out of sight of anyone on the
ground. They go up and up in the sky. Jack is trying to see how far he can go.
They reach the clouds and within seconds, they pass through the clouds and go
into the upper atmosphere. Both of them are getting very cold as he keeps
ascending. Jack then concentrates on making a barrier around him to block out
the cold. As he concentrates on that, he loses his mental grip on Willy. Without
Jack holding him up, Willy is falling at an alarming rate. Jack quickly realizes
his error and goes flying after him. His speed traveling down does not keep pace
with Willy's and he quickly sees the distance growing. He uses all his mental
powers to grab hold of him and stop his descent. While it was easy to lift him,
he finds it not so easy to stop his momentum as the force makes it much more of
a strain. As he is working to slow his descent, Willy clutches his chest. The
whole ordeal is more than his worn heart can handle. He goes into cardiac arrest
as he gasps for air and clutches at his chest. Within minutes, his heart finally
gives out and his body goes limp as he breathes his last breath. The shock was
too much on him, especially since he was never one to take care of his body. The
greasy food, the alcohol and the drugs have aged him beyond his years and a
shock of this magnitude was more than his ticker could take. As Jack halts his
descent and brings him close, he can see that he is dead. While the end results
were what he wanted, he feels cheated. He wanted to make him suffer. He wanted
to probe his mind and figure out who he was feeding information to and why. To
die like this was disappointing. But at least this way, they will think he died
of natural causes and not investigate his death. If Willy suddenly was found
murdered after they ransacked his house, then they may be coming back to see if
Jack was trying to quiet him up. After several minutes, Jack returns to the
alley where he first grabbed him and gently places him down next to some trash
cans. He takes one last look at Willy's dead body and makes the sign of the
cross over the body. Even if he did sell him out, there was a time when they
were friends. They did have some good times drinking and picking up women on
Date Street. Part of him is sad that it had to end like this. But he cannot stay
here anymore. So he looks around to make sure no one seen him leave the body and
flies away. Someone will find the body in the morning. He then heads back to his
house to plan his next move.
As Jack is flying home, he gets a strange feeling. He is
unsure what it is but it is like a warning of sorts. Instinctively, he creates a
mental shield around himself. He does not know why he does it but he just does.
Luckily he does as seconds later, he is hit by a missile. The missile hits the
shield and explodes with a powerful explosion. The impact knocks him for a loop
and sends him careening into a nearby building. He smashes into it with such
force that he goes through the mostly glass wall and finds himself flying
through a row of cubicles. After smashing through a few flimsy cubicle walls,
his momentum is finally halted. While he is stunned, he is not hurt. "What the
hell was that?" he asks himself as he shakes the cobwebs out of his head. He
stands up and brushes himself off. He then flies out the hole in the wall and
sees something that he never expected. There is a giant robot, armed to the
teeth and aimed at him. Things just got bad, real bad.
The Fury
© Tom Zjaba 2006-2008