The Grim Spectre

by Ralph L. Angelo Jr.

  The first set lasted fifty minutes, with the crowd in the packed jazz club giving Bobby a standing ovation. He waved enthusiastically and exited the stage after the curtains were drawn.

  Phylo Zeus was waiting for him behind the curtain with an ear to ear grin, “That was great, Bobby, just great! You packed this place for the first show and the line outside is around the block! People in this town couldn’t wait to see you play here.”

  “Thanks, Phylo. I’ve got to admit that was fun,” Bobby replied.

  “Go rest, Kid. You got an hour, then be ready to turn this place on its ear. The big show is the next one. Did you talk to the conductor about what you’re going to play in the next set?”

  “Yes, I gave him a list and we worked out all the key and time changes already, we’re all set to go.”

  “Then go rest up, we got a big night ahead of us,” Phylo said.

  “You got it, Phylo. See you in an hour,” Bobby said.

  Bobby turned and headed toward the dressing room. Before he left he hung a small ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door handle and stepped inside, locking the door from within.

  Once inside Bobby removed his jacket and touched his belt buckle. ‘Grim Spectre,’ he thought, and instantly in a flash of light, his clothes were replaced by the uniform he wore as the Avenger of Riverburgh.

  The Grim Spectre wasted no time. He turned invisible and floated down through the floor into the basement below.

  ‘I doubt Zeus is actually doing anything illegal in the regular levels of this place. I figure anything he’s doing that’s dangerous is going to be going on hidden away in his basement levels, and who knows how many levels this place has to begin with?’

  The Grim Spectre began to move from room to room, finding storage areas filled with liquor and cleaning supplies.

  ‘Nothing so far,’ he thought, ‘but that doesn’t mean it’s not here, whatever ‘it’ is. I mean I know there has to be some sort of apparatus to spray or infect these people with whatever chemical concoction that mad ape scientist came up with.’

  He floated silently and invisibly through a hallway beneath the club of Phylo Zeus. People walked past him and unknowingly through him in the basement level. But none of them were gangsters or criminals as far as he could tell. They looked like regular workers for the club. Several were bringing up cases of beer for the clientele, while another locked the door to the storage room behind them.

  The Grim Spectre looked into the room, by walking immaterially through the wall.

  ‘Nothing,’ he thought, ’This level is clean.’

  He floated along, inches above the ground. He reversed his path and headed back toward the point he entered from. Then he saw something along the ceiling that caught his eyes, ‘Vents. He has some sort of ventilation system in here. He’s probably blowing air with electric fans over blocks of ice to keep it cool on the dance floor…’ Then he stopped himself. ‘It’s not underground. He’s going to infect everyone here from up above, probably on the roof. My bet is that those blocks of ice are all on the roof and that the blowers are up there as well, forcing the cold air, which naturally drops, off of the ice blocks into the club below. Somehow he’s blowing the chemicals along with the cold air off of the ice; maybe he froze the chemicals into the ice? I’m not a scientist, but that at least seems plausible. Unless their freezing point was lower, or maybe he’s just having Dr. Simian spreading the chemicals over the ice? Does it matter either way? I have to get up there to see if I’m right and to put a stop to this insane plan of his.’

  The Grim Spectre floated upward through the ceiling above his head and into the Olympus Room itself. Invisible and undetectable, he continued to rise, finally exiting on the roof of the sprawling jazz club.

  But unbeknownst to him, in a hidden sub-basement lab was his girlfriend Tammy Thomas. She was unconscious and tied to an inclined table. Nearby and with his back turned to her, the lab coat wearing Dr. Simian worked on something on a bench.

  He turned toward her and said, “I shall return shortly, my dear. Do not fret. Our time together will begin when I have overseen and administered my new formula to those above. Once carnage and anarchy are raging in the club, I shall return to you and administer the same formula I used on myself. You will be changed in a positive way, to be more like myself but to retain your intelligence and personality. You will become my perfect mate.”

  With one last longing look at Tammy Dr. Simian exited the secret lab. He shut and locked the door behind him.

  Instantly her eyes were open and she began to fight against her bonds, trying to get something out that was hidden within her dress.

  “Got it!” she exclaimed, “Never leave home without a girl’s best friend, especially in this city.”

  Tammy fished out a knife she had hidden against her leg and began cutting at her bonds.

  ***

  Above the roof of the Olympus Room, The Grim Spectre floated invisibly toward a half dozen men in tan maintenance coveralls working near the ventilator system.

  ‘I have to make sure my assumption is right; I can’t just attack what may be regular maintenance men simply doing their job.’

  He hovered unseen above them and then positioned himself to see what they were doing.

  The men were moving huge blocks of ice into position on an open hatch of the ventilator, but before they did that they removed the half melted blocks that were within and shoved them aside. Then he quickly noticed the difference between the blocks, ‘The blocks they’re inserting, they’re all discolored. There’s a blue streak through them all. That’s got to be the chemicals frozen into the ice; I was right!’

  Instantly he appeared above the supposed maintenance men in all his glowing glory. The Men all dropped what they were doing and jumped back in fright.

  “It’s the Grim Spectre!” one shouted.

  “Plug ‘im!” another replied.

  All six produced guns from within their coveralls and began firing.

  The hail of bullets passed harmlessly through him.

  In response he pulled his own guns free and they began barking death!

  Without hesitation he gunned down the men who would have harmed so many innocents.

  “You scum are lucky I chose not to kill any of you; simple incapacitating shots are all I need to deal with the likes of you,” The Grim Spectre said.

  He landed on the roof and turned solid, while the thugs rolled around in pain behind him.

  ‘I’ve got to figure out how to disable this ventilator. I think the simplest way is to just throw the block of ice off the roof away from the vent system, but then it’s going to melt quickly in the summer heat and still infect a bunch of people. How am I going to stop this mad plan?’

  Powerful hands suddenly slammed down on his shoulders and smashed him to the rooftop.

  Pain wracked and unable to focus, The Grim Spectre rolled over and saw the lab coat wearing, monstrous Dr. Simian standing above him, pounding on his chest and roaring at the moon.

  Then, oblivion claimed him as all went dark.

  Chapter 43

  The Grim Spectre awoke strapped to another inclined examination table. He was still dressed in his uniform and he had not been unmasked-yet. Across from him was the seemingly unconscious-and immediately recognized-form of Tammy Thomas.

  But something was wrong, his vision was blurred and he had a problem forming a cohesive thought. His head pounded madly.

  ‘Concussion?’ he thought. Even that simple thought was a hard fought one.

  “Ah you’re finally awake, Grim Spectre,” a strange voice that sounded more like an animal trying to speak the language of a man said.

  “What’d you…do to…me?” The Grim Spectre asked.

  The hairy man-ape turned toward him and shook a vial with unknown contents before him, “A little sedative to keep you…pliable during your conversion.”

  “Conversion?”

  “Yes, you are about to become one of my mindless
slaves. I have a special formula, just for you. One that will leave you the most mindless and open to suggestion of all. You’ll do anything and everything I want. You will even stand in a corner silently when I order you to, even to the point of starving yourself to death at my order. But then you are a ghost returned to the side of the living, are you not? This will be naught but a simple trip back to a place you left behind once before. One you are already familiar with. At last when I give you the order to kill yourself, which I will, eventually, after you have outlived your usefulness to me, you will return to the metaphysical realm you came from, a defeated spirit, and I will have been the one to send you back.”

  “Doesn’t this all seem…a little familiar…to you, Simian? Your…formula…must have affected…your mind,” the Grim Spectre replied.

  “Hhhmm, you are still cognizant enough to make coherent sentences, I am impressed,” Simian said.

  ‘So am I,’ Bobby thought, ‘my head is getting clearer by the minute; my magic belt must be counteracting the effects of the drugs he pumped me up with. In a few minutes I should be back to normal, I hope I can stall him long enough. I have to keep him talking.’

  “What…are you, Simian? How did you…become this way, and…why?” The Grim Spectre croaked.

  “Since you seem interested, I will indulge your curiosity. I was a scientist working on enhancing mankind’s durability, its strength. The government had hired me with the express orders of finding a way to create a super-soldier for the war they fear is on the horizon. My work took me in a different direction than most as I tried to draw from man’s distant relatives, the apes. Our forbearers.”

  “Wait…you believe that…man came from the…ape? It…explains much…about your…insanity,” beneath his mask, Bobby Terrano smiled.

  “You fool! Do not question me. You are at my mercy, or need I even remind you of that?” Simian charged toward The Grim Spectre angrily, until they were face to face.

  A subtle movement behind the enraged man-beast caught Bobby’s eye immediately-Tammy was already free. She waved a knife in the air to show The Grim Spectre how she cut herself free.

  ‘Good girl; now I really have to keep him occupied so Tammy can escape.’

  “I will peel you out of those rags, whoever you are, and you will do my bidding once you are properly…indoctrinated to my cause,” Simian said.

  “You are as foolish as you look. Anyone…who would trade away their humanity…to simply become a beast is a fool.”

  “Again you are condemning me and criticizing me, yet my mind, my great and powerful mind has given me the strength and dexterity of the great apes. I have become the master of men.”

  “Yes, except the one you must serve. The one who pulls your strings,” The Grim Spectre countered.

  Every breath was getting easier now. He felt his belt burning the poisons out of his system with each passing moment.

  ‘I only need a few more minutes to regain my strength. I’m still a little light headed right now. I just have to keep him agitated and hope he doesn’t kill me before I’m done here.’

  “No man controls me, not Phylo Zeus, not you, not anyone!” the enraged half man/half ape slammed his fists down on a table top, shattering the wood like paper.

  Behind him Tammy’s eyes went wide in recognition and sudden fear at what she had just witnessed. She was still leaning against the table with the straps lightly resting atop her, as if she were still tied down.

  ‘I think my mind is finally clear enough to make the belt work. It’s time to get out of here.’

  With a bang the door to the lab was kicked in, shattering the lock. All three of the people within the room looked toward the sound to see Phylo Zeus storming into the room.

  “Simian! What are you doing?” the big man demanded, “Our plan should have gone into effect minutes ago. It’s bad enough I can’t find that damned trumpet player anywhere I- Wait, what is this? You have The Grim Spectre and Miss Thomas? You’re holding Miss Thomas captive against my will? I told you to stay away from her, that I had plans for her. She wasn’t yours to touch.”

  Simian bared his teeth and growled, “This is where our plans, our destinies take different paths, Zeus. The red headed woman is mine! She will be my mate even if it is over your dead body!”

  “My dead body? Who do you think you’re talkin’ to, you hairy ape? Your usefulness is over to me anyway. I’ve had enough o’ you stinkin’ up this place. Time to say good-bye, Ape-man.”

  Zeus threw himself at Simian. Both men tumbled past The Grim Spectre, who was now totally ignored, as they crashed through and smashed tables and equipment.

  “Enough of this, it is time to leave this place,” The Grim Spectre said. He glowed and instantly became immaterial. He walked though his bonds and grasped Tammy’s arm, pulling her away from the table she had been tied to.

  “It’s about damned time,” Tammy grumbled.

  “If you had listened to me in the first place none of this would have happened,” The Grim Spectre said, barely above a whisper. Quickly he gathered up his guns and his whip from a table Simian had placed them on. His knives were still in place hidden within his cape.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and shot skyward, through the ceiling and then into the ballroom. Instantly he glowed brighter than the sun and shouted, “All of you, leave this place now, get out of here while you can. Your lives are in danger!”

  Frightened by his sudden appearance within their midst, the revelers turned and ran for the exits.

  “Go on, get out of here, and do it now,” he roared at Tammy.

  “What? What about you? You can’t stay here; what are you gonna do?”

  “I’m going to finish what I started; I’m going to finish Phylo Zeus once and for all.”

  “Be careful,” she begged.

  The Grim Spectre turned toward her and nodded wordlessly. Then he disappeared back through the floor.

  Tammy watched him go and then ran to and through the closest doorway along with a hundred other people.

  Down below, The Grim Spectre moved in silence back toward the sounds of battle. He floated invisibly now toward the two protagonists.

  Grunts accompanied the sounds of fists hitting flesh and equipment shattering. As he rounded a corner, The Grim Spectre saw Zeus, his tuxedo practically torn from him and in tatters around him, trading blows with the maddened Dr. Simian. Surprisingly, Zeus was holding his own against the enraged man-ape.

  Both men (If Simian could even be called that anymore) bled from a dozen wounds.

  Then, to The Grim Spectre’s surprise, Zeus tore off the tatters of his shirt and charged the surprised man-ape, slamming into him with bone jarring force. The two opponents tumbled into and through a wall and then out the other side.

  ‘I’m surprised, I didn’t expect them to be so intent on killing one another,” The Grim Spectre thought.

  Before he could finish the thought Zeus flew limply back through the hole he and Simian had just created to land in a heap against the wall.

  Simian stepped through more like a savage beast than a man. He howled madly at the downed gangster and began to thunder toward him.

  But then Zeus turned from where he lie and rolled over, until he was facing the charging Simian. Instantly he fired the pistol that appeared in his right hand, nailing Dr. Simian with six consecutive shots in the chest.

  “W-wha?” the man-ape asked in bewilderment. He stared at the bloody holes in his chest a moment and then fell over at Zeus’ feet and lay there unmoving.

  “Enough, Zeus!” The Grim Spectre roared. He appeared between Zeus and the unmoving Dr. Simian, as if from nowhere.

  “I wondered where you’d gotten to,” Zeus said.

  “I had no intention of leaving you free, Zeus. Your madness ends tonight.”

  “Really? You think you’re gonna end me?” Zeus asked incredulously.

  “Yes!” The Grim Spectre shouted.

  He leaped at Phylo Zeus.


  Zeus was prepared though; he flung what was in his open hand at The Grim Spectre. Releasing a fine silvery powder in the Riverburgh Avenger’s face.

  The Grim Spectre immediately dropped to the floor, no longer immaterial or floating.

  “What did you do?” the Spectre growled.

  “What d’ya think, Mook? I had some of Baron Popadoo’s voodoo powder I lifted from him. It took your magic powers away. Now you’re a man just like me, an’ I’m gonna crush you.”

  ***

  Outside the Olympus Room, Tammy stopped and turned to look back at the building when a hand clamped down on her shoulder.

  She spun and threw a punch at where she assumed the face of her unknown assailant might be.

  Her fist was caught in the grip of a Japanese man who was slightly taller than her.

  “I mean you no harm, Miss Thomas. I am searching for a mutual friend, Robert Terrano.”

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  He released her small fist and bowed slightly, “I am Bobby’s teacher, his Sensei. My name is Buraglia.”

  She scoffed, “That’s a strange name for a Japanese man.”

  “Half Japanese; my father was of Italian descent. But none of that matters now. Where is Robert?”

  She tried to appear nonchalant, “Oh, he’s around here somewhere. I think he got out when things got rough in there.”

  “So, Miss Thomas, are you telling me that The Grim Spectre is still within that building?”

  She looked at him and immediately jammed both fists into her hips and said, “Really? Did everyone know about that before I did?”

  “No, Miss Thomas, only I. Robert was very careful of who he told his secret.”

  A furtive movement caught both their eyes. A shadowed figure furtively ran back into the sprawling club.

  “Didja see that?” Tammy asked.

  “Indeed I did, Miss Thomas.”

  “I don’t know about you, Mr. Buraglia, but I’m going back in.”