Steam City Pirates (2 page)

At last, when Monturiol thought he would go mad from the spinning, they came to an abrupt stop upon bumpers made of thick, black rubber.  Their little capsule opened upon a huge grotto of magnificent proportions.  There were gas lamps infused within small inlets in the earthen soil, and there were ribs of brass that ran in crisscrossing arcs overhead to support this gigantic room.

The cavern was about five hundred yards in circumference, and the Spaniard could see there were also offshoots of smaller tunnels which led out of this main room in earthen estuaries.  Like the New York City Hall, this room seemed to be a greeting area of some kind.  Unlike the government above-ground, which basically ignored him, the people who led this underground régime were all there to welcome him to their dominion.

Bat Carry climbed out of the capsule cocoon with his rigid motions until he stood on the floor of the cave.  He then turned around and took the smaller inventor by his armpits and lifted him bodily from the chair and set him gently down until he, too, was standing upon terra firma, such as it was.  Monturiol could feel a swaying beneath his feet, and it gave him the distinct impression he was not on firm footing.  He imagined this cavern could even be constructed upon a steam bed of some manner or form, as the hissing white clouds came up from the floor of the cave in constant waves of wet and salty mist.

The man who walked toward them was speaking from some kind of magnetic coil that encircled his throat.  He was about eight feet tall, and he wore the silken white Nemes of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh.  The pleats or folds were made of copper, however, and they seemed to be undulating like moving stairs.  The band of the Nemes was bound tightly above his arching and thick eyebrows, tied at the back, and was reinforced with a strip of gold that hung down between the Nemes and the leader’s forehead.

This creature’s red eyes penetrated the Spaniard’s liquid brown pools of humanity, and his voice was certainly a mechanically infused sound that vibrated the air around them like a magnetic force field.  “We welcome you, Monturiol, to our dominion!  All of your dreams can be realized, and we will make them come true.  Watch what powers we possess.”

The inventor’s eyes were trying to take in all the different sensory stimuli and characters surrounding him, but they were so odd and so different that his mind had a difficult time comprehending them at all.  It was as if their leader could magnetize Monturiol’s brain just by speaking and riveting his attention away from all else.

If he concentrated, with all his power, he could gradually move his head away from the leader until he saw the person standing to the right of him.  She was a woman dressed in conventional attire, and yet her pearl silk kimono had a black-and-white panda sewn upon it that looked enraged, biting into a bamboo stalk like a rabid mammal.  She also had a man’s black-silk top hat on her head, goggles on her eyes, and there was a copper clock built into the center of her bosom!

“She is Madame Jane the Grabber.  She can travel into the future and provide us with inventors like yourself.  We collect inventors like some people must collect weapons or sorcery.  You are the most valuable commodity in the universe!  Welcome to the World Scientific Advancement Society for Progress.  My name is Inquisitor Abraham Toky Manette.  I represent the fusion of the future with the wisdom of the past.”

Monturiol’s head turned to the left of Manette.  There was an even larger man standing there.  He wore a mask of bright green, and in it were spring coils of brass that fell down from his face.  They moved all around his body like restless snakes, and his red suit was sparkling with some kind of rhinestones or glittering metal substance.  Upon his trousers was a large codpiece that covered his privates.  He also wore a top hat, but in the center of this hat was the symbol of the
taijitu
or
yinyang
.  The Spaniard knew that to be the ancient Taoist emblem of divine opposites.

“He is John Allen.  We have adapted him with new technology. Father Allen is my enforcer and mystic high priest of physical ecstasy.  Enough about us!  Why have you come?  Do you need to finance an invention?  If you do, then you have certainly arrived at an opportune time.”

Even though he felt wary, the technical wizardry surrounding him gave Monturiol a sense of security.  What better way was there for him to get out of debt?  The world above had no use for his genius.  Therefore, he decided to turn to this underworld society to see if he could obtain the funds he needed to see his visions come alive at last.

“I want to create undersea cities where humanity can forage and build a secure life.  Farming this new world would provide the planet with a limitless bounty of food and medicinal sources.  I can build a steam-powered submersible and, with the right assistance, I can develop an entire world beneath the ocean.”  Montuirol felt relived at having said it all.  These were his visions for the future, and they were what kept him young and optimistic.  He would, in fact, make a deal with the devil if he could make his dreams come true.  If the devil’s domain were here on Earth, then perhaps these creatures were his emissaries.  What the hell!  Perhaps all of science had been working for the underworld all these years.  Now he was joining them.

The giant inquisitor laughed!  It was a vibrating, mechanical laugh that would haunt Monturiol’s dreams.  “Bring out the balloon!”

From the far-end of the cavern a gigantic, floating craft came toward them.  It was high in the air above them, and walking beneath it was a short man with long white mustaches, and he wore a formal suit of no fashion the Spaniard had ever seen. His captain’s cap was snow-white, his coat and trousers were black, and his collar was turned up. He was pulling the aircraft along as a boy would lead his dog, by a long metal leash that led in an arcing loop up to the balloon.

“This is Count Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Graf von Zeppelin.  He is also an inventor, and together, you will create the underwater paradise of your dreams!”

The Count clicked his heels.  “I first flew in one of the American Union Army’s balloons operated by John Steiner.  I later renewed my interest, and this is the result.  I was living in Germany, in 1888, and Miss Haskins here came to visit me from the past.  I agreed to come back in time with her to create my craft for the Society!  And now you, my friend, will work with us to form a new force for good on this planet.  Life is so good, yah?”

“Force?  What are we discussing here?  I thought you were scientists.  This looks like a craft for war,” said Monturiol.

The Grand Inquisitor Abraham Manette marched over to where the short inventor stood.  He placed his long arm around the inventor’s thin shoulders and tilted his head down.  Monturiol looked up and could see the brass coils around the big leader’s neck.  When the voice came out of them, the Spaniard almost fell backward from their vibrating blast.

“Money is the root of all evil, and it is also the root of all invention.  Our plan, you see, is to earn our fortunes in order to create your undersea world.  Mister Monturiol, the forces above do not appreciate your genius.  All they understand is power and, yes, force.  We plan to create a torpedo for your steam-powered submersible, and it will be infused with steam so that it will penetrate the hull of any ship those above have in their navies.  Once one of these merchant ships has been sunk, the Count’s airship will move in.  We shall tell them via telegraph that unless they allow us to plunder the other ships with our balloon armada, they will all be sunk!  See how ingenious we are?”

The mechanical voice was now booming in the little man’s ear, and he pulled away in fear.  “You want to kill people and steal their cargo?  I can’t have that.  I am a man of peace.  I belonged to a communist society in Spain, and we only want what’s best for the common people!”

“How can you believe the common man can save us from all the greed and corruption going on above the earth?  Did you not advise me that our hope lies beneath the sea?  The only way you can get us beneath the sea in your paradise is to join us in procuring the funds we need to make your inventions real!  Won’t you join us?  We can begin tomorrow with your designs.  Let your mind go free!  Become an inquisitor!”

The woman called Jane the Grabber spoke to him, and he turned toward her.  Her eyes flashed, and the clock in her corset began to spin around and around as she told him, “I have been into your future, Señor Monturiol.  If you do not change your life now, you will end up dying in poverty, penniless and alone.  Don’t you understand how the powers above can corrupt the future?  Please, won’t you join us?”

Monturiol made a decision.  Without money, he could not go on.  He was possibly entering Dante’s Inferno, but at least he would have the money to see his dreams realized.  What more can any mortal ask for?  “Yes, I will do it!  We will steal from the rich and give to the poor, correct?  Like the British Robin Hood?”

“Of course!  Your dreams will be realized and our Society will prosper!  Let’s go eat.  A banquet is in order, and we shall feast upon the creatures from the sea!”

Music filled with brass instruments, drums and steam whistles began to vibrate the cavern.  They all walked toward one of the other small caves, the one on the eastern side of the grand cavern, and as they passed into its confines, Monturiol could see the band.  Seven men and four women played the music, and they all wore pirate attire.

“These are the Steam City Pirates!  They will serenade us whilst we feast!” said Manette.

Bat Carry escorted Monturiol to his place at the long banquet table, pulling out the chair.  The Spaniard sat down and saw that the table was filled with steaming bowls of clams, oysters, crabs, and lobsters.  There were also heaping platters of bread, fresh from the oven, and a vast array of condiments.  As he reached for one of the lobsters, the inventor envisioned himself sitting at a similar table beneath his undersea city.  He would be named the first mayor of this city, and he would be praised for his generosity and special genius.  The Steam City Pirates played on, and Monturiol dug into the flesh of the buttery lobster with a new-found passion.  When Jane the Grabber looked over at him from across the table, he smiled at her, and she smiled back!

The new world beneath the City of New York was opening up to him, and Monturiol was ready to accept it.  He hummed to himself as the steam-powered music infused his body with hope.

Chapter 1: Wherein Our Heroes Experience a New Crime, a New Detective, and a New Office

We were now facing a new enemy. As a result, I knew it would be best to move into a more protected location for my office. Jane the Grabber Haskins, the evil brothel Madame, had disappeared into thin air. We also had a person who could disappear, and he was walking downtown with me. Seth Mergenthaler, the little
mazikeen
, was our secret weapon. Not only could he become invisible, the eight-year-old could also foretell the future, change into the shapes of other humans and animals, and fly, as he was half-angel and half-human.

My departed mother back in Kilkenny was a believer in angels. She always told me I had a guardian angel who was assigned by God to watch over me. I never really believed her until I was in combat during the Civil War. I never told this to General Billy Sherman, the man who nominated me for the Congressional Medal of Honor, but when I jumped between the General and that speeding Rebel bullet, I had not made a conscious decision to be brave. Truth be told, I was pushed by this invisible angel. I felt his big hands on my back, and then I became airborne. Everything that happened to me after that moment can be called “divine providence,” I suppose, although it goes against every fiber of my Irish stubbornness to believe such superstition, I am an angel believer also.

My new job as a detective in New York City must now include this boy as my assistant. I looked down at Seth’s small form. He was wearing a little gray suit coat and white shirt with tie, and his knee pants were moving like tiny pistons as he kept up with my brisk pace. The paradoxical reality of Seth was that one moment he could be this little boy, as he was now, his eyes sparkling and taking in everything around him. The next moment, he could be the voice of an educated adult who could converse with me about any subject known to modern science.

“The pirates are coming,” Seth said.

I looked down at the boy, and he looked up at me. We exchanged frowns.

“Pirates? You mean, you want to play pirates?” I wanted to know if I were addressing the child Seth or the adult Seth.

We stopped, and I watched the boy’s face take on a mesmerizing, squinted affectation.

“No, the real pirates. I can see them boarding ships and stealing things.”

“Where are they? What do they look like?”

“I can’t say where they are. However, it is out in the water. My future vision is like looking through a spyglass. I can see only one small circle picture at a time. These pirates are not normal. I can see they are dropping out of the sky! The men on the ship are frightened, and they let the pirates take the money and the crates of supplies. The pirates go back up into the sky inside moving boxes attached to a pulley. The boxes carry the pirates and the stolen cargo up into a big balloon that hovers directly above the ship!” Seth’s eyes were transfixed as he stared off into space.

I had previously worked with Seth and his magical abilities in the Jane the Grabber case. Just when I was at my wit’s end by what was happening at the Sisters’ Row Hotel, Seth showed me how he could take on the physical personification of another child—a ten-year-old girl named Cassie--and my entire sleuthing career had taken a dramatic shift from that moment until this. However, this was the first time I had experienced my small partner’s ability to look into the future, just as I was still waiting to see him use the invisible wings he supposedly had affixed to his narrow shoulders. If I had not seen this lad change from a young girl into his present shape and back again, with my own eyes, I would not have solved the Jane the Grabber case, and the love of my life, Miss Rebecca Charming Jones, would possibly be out of her business as a brothel madame in the Theater District of New York City.