Mystery Men (& women) Volume 1

by B C Bell

  “Boss! We found her, just like you said.”

  Dusk’s eyes softened a bit. “I pity you. I can only imagine what made you like this, so desperate to prove your worth. It only makes me want to help you somehow.”

  “I’m going to shove this fist down your throat,” Marquard said, grinning. When he showed his teeth, Dusk could see blood seeping from the gaps in his teeth. He was dying and she wasn’t entirely sure it was from the gunshot wound she’d given him. The madness that filled his eyes had been present before she’d ruined his knee. Was it possible that he was really and truly sick in some way that went beyond the mental?

  Dusk decided it didn’t matter in the end. Marquard was a threat to everyone around him and like a rabid dog; he had to be put down. She raised both of her hands quickly, using her pistols to force up the barrels of the two rifles that had been pointed at her face. One of the men discharged his weapon, which was not the smartest of actions while onboard a zeppelin. The bullet ripped through the ceiling and vanished in the upper confines of the vessel.

  Dusk moved far quicker than the men in Marquard’s employ. Before the gunmen could point their weapons at her again, she had fired both of her pistols straight into their faces. Their bodies hadn’t even hit the ground before she’d backhanded the man holding Marquard up. He slammed against the wall and dropped like a sack of potatoes. Without anyone to support him, Marquard did likewise. He landed on his side, The Thunderfist beneath him. It flooded his body with electricity and he began to flop like a fish. If Dusk hadn’t kicked him onto his back with the rubber sole of her shoe, he probably would have died.

  “Not yet,” Dusk whispered coldly. “Not yet.”

  ***

  Marquard woke up with the feeling of warmth on his skin. Pain in his shoulders and wrists quickly roused him and he discovered that he was tied with his back to a tree. Several hundred feet away, his zeppelin was in flames on the ground. Smoke traveled high into the night sky. “The Fourth Nail,” he muttered under his breath.

  “I left it onboard. I don’t know if the flames will destroy it… but I think it’s too tempting for men like you.” Dusk stepped around the tree, looking towards the inferno. She’d killed almost every member of the zeppelin’s crew, leaving alive only two men: both fellows who seemed genuinely unaware of their employer’s full plan. Dusk was a cold-blooded killer when necessary but she was human enough to understand that sometimes people made mistakes.

  “Why didn’t you kill me?” Marquard asked, his voice sounding painfully hoarse. “You gonna turn me into the cops? Didn’t think that was your style.”

  “It’s not. But there’s something I’d like to do first.” Dusk turned to face him and her eyes gleamed like emeralds. “I’m going to show you my face.”

  Marquard blinked in surprise, wondering what the woman was up to. He didn’t particularly want to see her face, not under these circumstances. He knew that she valued her identity and if he knew who she was, then he was doomed. There was no way she’d let him live. Childishly, he closed his eyes tightly, as if that would stop what was coming.

  “Look at me,” Dusk commanded but Marquard just shook his head. The woman reached out and gripped him by the chin, squeezing until the pain became almost too much to bear. “Look at me,” she repeated.

  Marquard finally relented, opening his eyes. His gaze fell upon the hidden mysteries beneath Dusk’s mask and for the briefest of seconds, he recognized the face he saw there. And then he was lost in the multitude of sins he’d committed, every one of them crashing down upon him. A man who had gone so far to try and avoid facing his crimes now found his soul burdened by them. Every scream he’d caused echoed back at him now and all the pains he’d inflicted, both great and small, now wracked his flesh. He screamed and it was a pitiful thing that echoed long into the night.

  Chapter VI.

  Family Matters

  Sue Timlin was soaking in the tub when her phone rang. It was nearly three in the morning and she ached from head to toe but it never occurred to her to ignore the call. She stepped from the bath, wrapping a towel around her lithe form. She tiptoed across the floor, leaving little puddles in her wake, and raised the receiver to her ear. “Yes?”

  Roland sounded quite excited on the other end of the line. In the background, she could hear many voices and a few sirens. “She did it, doll. Dusk got him. Apparently he was planning to use some zeppelin to get out of town or something. The boys from the lab say they’ve never seen anything like some of this stuff.”

  Sue smiled wistfully and sat down on the couch. “That’s great. Should I tell her thank you?”

  “Yeah, do that. No sign around here of The Fourth Nail, though.”

  “That’s probably for the best, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah,” he answered, though there was something in his tone that suggested he didn’t really mean it. Sue thought that once someone touched the relic, they probably coveted it a bit too much for their own good. Feeling purified was an addictive thing. “Listen, I’m sorry to have woken you up but I had to tell you. When you get into the office, I’m buying you a big cup of coffee and a Danish.”

  “Please don’t. I’m trying to watch my figure.”

  “You got nothing to worry about in that regard,” Roland said. Sue smiled, knowing that he’d spoken before he’d thought that one through. He wasn’t normally so flirtatious.

  “How about we celebrate over dinner instead?” she asked. “There’s that new restaurant that opened down on Peachtree.”

  “I’d like that, Sue. We could figure out where we’re gonna go with this Dusk thing, huh? Are we going to keep working with her, that sort of thing? I hate the idea of a vigilante but damn, it feels good having Marquard get what was coming to him.”

  Sue frowned slightly, glad that he couldn’t see her face. “That sounds great, Roland. Listen, I better get back to bed. See you in a few hours.”

  She set the phone back onto its cradle and leaned forward, clasping her hands in front of her knees. She was glad that Roland wasn’t gung-ho about catching Dusk anymore but she wasn’t sure she wanted him thinking of her as his new best friend, either.

  “Penny for your thoughts?”

  Sue laughed and shook her head. She didn’t bother turning to face the person who’d spoken. “You wouldn’t like them.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Roland and I are having dinner tomorrow night. He wants to talk about how we can work with Dusk.”

  “That sounds promising.”

  Sue’s eyes drifted over the pictures on her wall. They lingered on the ones where she was happily smiling and then they moved on to the ones where the mood was much more somber. She remembered the deaths of her mother and father, their bodies burned almost beyond recognition. She remembered their funeral, when she’d stood alone over their casket, tears streaming down her face. She’d sworn to do whatever she could to avenge them. That had led her to working with Roland and the police… and to Dusk.

  “He won’t like that I’ve been keeping this from him,” she said at last. “Roland is going to feel like I’ve been playing him for a fool.”

  “All relationships have secrets. Just look at us.”

  Sue finally gave in and glanced over at the figure that stood near the couch. It was Dusk, her clothing splattered with blood. “Did you have to kill him?”

  “Marquard? Yes. You knew that I would.”

  “I still don’t like it. You show him his sins, let him live out the rest of his life trying to make amends.”

  “Like I did with Benny the other night? They’re vegetables after they see my face. It’s actually kinder to put a bullet in their brains.”

  Sue smiled remorsefully. “You need to get out of those clothes. You smell like smoke.”

  “Mind if I crash here tonight?�
��

  “You know I don’t.” Sue stood up. “Let me go draw you a fresh bath and get you some towels.”

  Dusk touched her arm as she started to go past. “Sue. Thanks for all you do for me. I need you.”

  Sue gave her a quick hug. “It’s okay. What else are sisters for?”

  THE END

  It’s all Ron Fortier’s fault

  by Barry Reese

  I know what you’re thinking: you hear that all the time. But this time, it’s true. You see, Ron gets a lot of great pulp ideas and there aren’t enough hours in the day for him to write them all himself. This leads him to frequently throw down the gauntlet for the Airship 27 gang, challenging us to take a kernel of an idea and run with it.

  In this case, Ron wanted to know if any of us could create a female hero in the mold of The Shadow or The Spider - in other words, someone who might be sexy and sensual but not someone for whom those qualities were her stock-in-trade. He wanted someone deadly and maybe a little bit frightening.

  I was immediately taken with the notion. You see, I’ve written a few strong-willed female characters before and I enjoy taking some preconceived notions and turning them on their ear. The character of Dusk appeared almost fully formed in my mind and I whipped off the details, sending them to Ron before the day was through. Thankfully, he was taken with the concept.

  Coming up with the character was easier than actually writing the story, however. For some reason, I kept going back and revising this story, until I’d completely scrapped the entire thing and started new no less than three times. There just seemed to be something missing – I liked the main characters and the central mystery surrounding The Fourth Nail was so riveting that I decided to use it again in a future Rook story. So what was wrong?

  It felt all too straightforward. I wanted a twist, something that would take what we thought was obvious and twist it around. When I came upon the notion that maybe Sue wasn’t actually Dusk, I thought I was on to something. All the hints about what led to her sister becoming Dusk aren’t just throwaways, either. I’d like to return to these characters and delve into the full story at some point.

  About The Fourth Nail: it’s an actual part of Christian myth, though an obscure one. I came across a few details about it while searching for occult conspiracies on the net and was taken with it. One can easily see how it could have become a bigger part of our cultural mythology, joining The Ark of the Covenant or The Shroud of Turin, but for some reason it hasn’t caught on. Indiana Jones was confronted with the legend in The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones # 11 & 12, published by Marvel Comics in 1983.

  If you’re interested in learning more about the often-confusing history of The Fourth Nail legend, I recommend you try 4thnail.com, which was a tremendous help to me. If you’d like to see more Dusk, begin the letter writing campaign to Ron Fortier now. I’ll be lurking in the shadows with my MacBook Pro, ready to crank out a few more tales when the call comes.

  BARRY REESE- has been writing professionally for nearly a decade, with stops at Marvel Comics, Wild Cat Books, West End Games, Moonstone Books and Airship 27. Though primarily known for THE ROOK CHRONICLES, he has also had the opportunity to work on characters as diverse as The Avenger, The Green Hornet, The Black Bat and Doctor Satan. In addition to his pulp adventure fiction, he is the author of the horror novel RABBIT HEART.

  Barry can frequently be found on Facebook and at his official website, http://www.barryreese.net. He is married to artist Cari Reese and together they have one son, Julian Alexander.

  AFTERWORD

  Meet the Mystery Men

  Doesn’t that have a really nice, pulp ring to it? The term Mystery Men started floating around the pulp world along about the time masked avengers started popping up both on the radio and in the ten cent magazines. First there was the Shadow, then came the Whisperer and Green Hornet. Soon one couldn’t tune in without crossing paths with one vigilante or another. And by the time they invaded the actual pulps, hero pulps exploded across the newsstands of America. The Spider, the Moon Man, the Avenger, Domino Lady, the Black Bat, etc. ad infinitum. It seemed everywhere one turned there was some new character donning a mask, or argus globe or purple scar or…whatever and vowing to fight injustice as a champion of all that was good and decent in the world.

  So here we are at Airship 27 Productions having a grand time pump-ing out terrific new adventures of all these classic pulp personalities and actually overlooking one of the true hallmarks of the genre; that of inventing brand new Mystery Men. Of course that light bulb didn’t pop on instantly. Several of our regular writers had been toying with the idea of inventing their own, original pulp heroes and we’d had several discussions on this lively topic. But it wasn’t until B.C. Bell sent me his Bagman stories that I began to see true potential here for expanding our line and at the same time staying true to our pulp directive. Hell, I’d even gone down this same road with my own character, Brother Bones. (And before you ask, yes, there will be more Brother Bones coming your way soon. I promise.)

  Thus I put out a call to our group of stalwart pulp scribes asking them to give us new pulp heroes; keep them in the 1930s setting, but invent their own characters and while they were at it maybe spin the conventional themes on their rear ends. You see, there were very few female masked avengers in those glory days of the pulps. Honestly, I can only think of one. So this would be a challenge as well. Happily the response was overwhelming and within a few weeks we had enough ideas, suggestions and actual submissions to fill not one, but two volumes of our new MYSTERY MEN (& women).

  (Note, there was no way we were going to mouth-mumble a tongue-twister title, thus the little caboose add-on still made it clear the female avenger variety would be present as well.)

  I’m damn excited about this first volume. You are about to meet some very cool, fun and, yes, dangerous figures. Aaron Smith’s Red Veil is a very deadly widow from the old school while David Boop’s grim battler comes off the football fields into a head-on collision with the mob. Then there’s Barry Reese’s mysterious Dusk on the hunt for a powerful religious artifact that has to be kept out of the wrong hands at all cost. Of course the one familiar mask in this book (familiar to loyal Airship 27 readers that is) is B.C. Bell’s terrific Bagman. After his sensational debut in his own TALES OF THE BAGMAN, (still available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble online etc.) it was only fitting that he kick off this new series.

  Coming next time you are going meet people like Dock Doyle, Red Badge, Mistress Palladium and the Brown Recluse. Believe me, pulp fans, the fun is just getting started.

  As always, thanks for your support and remember, you can find all our titles at our on-line shop where they are always discounted 25% (http://www.gopulp.info/). ‘Til next time, stay well and enjoy – AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTIONS – Pulp Fiction for a New Generation.

  Ron Fortier

  9/22/2010

  Fort Collins, Co.

  (airship27@comcast.net)

  (www.airship27.com)