The Adventures of Dr. Shadows, Book 1: The Eye of Darkness

by Teel James Glenn

Chapter Five: Stiff Opposition

  “Vas es—”

  “Hold it right there, Gunter,” Dr. Shadows said. “Your career as a thief and murderer is over!”

  The startled German was literally caught red handed with Yamashita’s medallion grasped tightly in his fist. He had opened one of the exhibit crates and a smaller case packed in one corner of it where two other medallions were visible.

  “How did you know?” Nyoka asked the granite man with a whispered tone of awe.

  “I checked at the Purser’s office—Lila had put Gunter’s medallion in the safe but not Yamashita’s—I guess she thought it could be chalked up to a clerical error and couldn’t miss the chance to get one more. Pretty foolish.”

  “You are the fool, Amerikaner dog. Der Furher will wipe inferior swine like you off the face of the earth.”

  “Please,” Dr. Shadows said as he approached the kneeling man, “I heard the same nonsense from the Sons of the Rising Sun in Manchuria. You’re all just a bunch of thugs justifying your greed with so-called high ideals.”

  This brought Gunter to his feet. He sprang up and darted toward the American, but Dr. Shadows held a gun out and the Teuton halted.

  “It was very clever of you to take advantage of Carson’s impulsive attack, Gunter.”

  “Carson?” the German said. “I thought—”

  “Yes, that is exactly what Carson wanted everyone to believe when he realized that Yamashita was not in the ballroom. He made his way down to the old man’s cabin and left the medallion and pirate shirt to ‘seal the deal’ and give him some revenge on the Expedition. I knew Yamashita didn’t take it, as good a shape as the Baron is he didn’t have the same shape or musculature as the guy I tussled with at the hotel, but you did. And Carson clearly wasn’t the guy who killed Chan because he didn’t want to steal the medallions. He left it as a red herring. He just wanted revenge for the slight of being fired. I’m willing to bet you are the one who swiped the medallion at the Angkor Wat dig in the first place.”

  “I will make Carson pay for laying hands on Lila after I finish with you, Shadows.” The German held his position just out of arms reach of the American crime fighter.

  “Oh yes,” Dr. Shadows said, “about her—” Suddenly a heavy wrench came flying out of the darkness and slammed into the gun hand of the American, knocking the revolver from his grasp.

  The captive German sprang forward and slammed into the American. He couldn’t resist the chance and backhanded the American knocking him back against the bulkhead.

  Dr. Shadows rode the blow and bounced off the steel wall to spin into a kick that slammed into the German’s chest. Gunter grunted, staggering back to the side of the exhibit crate.

  “Don’t resist anymore, Gunter,” Dr. Shadows said. “It will give me too much of an excuse to beat you to a pulp.”

  This made the blond laugh and he snatched up a hooked knife that he’d used to pry into the crate. “I vill cut your heart out.” He raced at the American swinging the blade like a scythe.

  Dr. Shadows drew the wooden sword at his hip and what followed was a bizarre version of a duel. The hacking knife of the German cut huge chunks out of the wooden sword, but he could not score a hit on the granite man himself.

  “I’ll get help!” Nyoka turned to run from the hold, but before she could get out the door a hand grabbed her out of the darkness and she found herself slammed against the steel wall as well. She felt a pinprick in her neck and suddenly she lost control of her muscles. Strong hands took hold of her, forcing her uncooperative body into the hold slamming and dogging the hatch behind them.

  Dr. Shadows parried a cut at his head, snapping a front kick to drive the German back and knock weapon out of his hand. He felt a stinging feeling in the back of his neck, and he tried to move to see where it came from but his muscles locked.

  “Are you alright, Lila?” Gunter said as he pulled himself from the deck. He raced across the hold to embrace the blonde woman and the two kissed passionately.

  “It takes more than the hands of a mongrel to hurt the wife of Gunter Von Shultz!” she said in a breathy voice.

  “Yawh, Meine Valkyrie!” he said.

  “But I must work on them quickly,” she said, pulling away from him. “We must be back up in our rooms when these two are discovered.”

  The blonde vixen stepped before the paralyzed crime fighter and laughed. “You soft Americans are always going to be easy prey to a sharp and focused Aryan mind.” She held up a polished concave hand mirror and flashed it to glare into the grey eyes of the trapped granite man.

  “The drug that is holding you prisoner, Dr. Shadows, and will dissipate from your system very quickly, but while it courses through your bloodstream it makes you my puppet and susceptible to my will. I trained as a hypnotist with the very best of Vienna’s mesmerists.” Her eyes indeed were whirling pools of emeralds and held the granite man’s gaze as a mongoose held a cobra’s stare.

  He stood unmoving with the wooden sword dropped from his slack hand staring blankly ahead.

  “While you chased what you thought was one criminal my Gunter and I were able to operate in two different theatres. Always one step ahead of your slow witted, ‘democratic’ mind!”

  The granite man’s limbs seemed to harden at the blonde killer’s command. While he watched with captive horror the woman turned her attention to Nyoka.

  “And now you, you vapid bitch!” Lila hissed. “I saw you looking at my Gunter like the hungry wench you are. I think you are going to need to take a little swim.” She laughed. “It will be much nicer if you go and try to beat us to San Francisco, don’t you think?” Her voice despite the words had the musical tone of a muted clarinet, hypnotically flowing into the brain of the captive girl.

  “They say you cannot hypnotize someone to do in a trance what they would not do in their waking life, but that is a lie if you convince them they are doing something else. With the curare derivative flowing through your veins your will is gone. You know you are dirty and must wash, do you not? And the only way to do that is to leap into the sea and swim away from the ship. You need this, want this, do you not?”

  “Yes,” Nyoka said. “I am dirty.”

  The costumed English girl turned without a word and ran over to a side hatch that Lila’s husband opened for her.

  “You will find a hatch up those steps, Fraulein.” He smiled as if he were giving directions to a church social. “Just open it and you will have a lovely swim.” He waited until she had exited then closed and dogged the hatch behind her. When he turned from it his eyes were shining as if from lust.

  “Come, Lila,” Gunter chided, “We have to get to the upper decks.”

  She pouted and nodded. “We must dispose of our solider boy,” she said. “I think I want him to set himself aflame,” she hissed, “for thinking an Aryan woman would be attracted to a low animal form like him.”

  “Oh, that’s a shame,” the Dr. Shadows abruptly said with a grin. “I was extra charming and all!” He snapped a lightening quick punch past the woman’s ear to nail Gunter directly on the chin and drop him unconscious.

  “Nice shot, Boss!” A little bantamweight figure emerged from the shadows of hold with a gun in his hand. It was Slugger Harris a long time associate of Dr. Shadows who had come on board with forged papers and moved among the steerage deck to help locate Carson. “Youse been listening to my boxin’ lessons.” Slugger said. He also held up a wire recorder and smiled. “Got every word they said.”

  Lila registered shock with a gasped exclamation that was almost had a convulsion when the granite man spoke. She actually jumped back as if bitten. Before she could do much more Dr. Shadows grabbed her and held her fast in a vice-grip.

  “You schweinehund,” she screamed. “You hurt Gunter!”

  “More’s the pity I didn’t do worse,” Dr. Shadows said, “but I do think I broke his jaw.”

  The hatch that Nyoka had exited through was opened, and she was brought in by se
veral officers and the ship’s doctor.

  “I have her, Mr. Chadeaux,” The doctor said. “I gave her the antidote. She’ll be out from under it in a minute.”

  “Antidote?” Lila managed.

  “I am a chemist, dear heart,” Dr. Shadows said as he secured her with cuffs that Slugger handed him. “There was no trace, per se, in Chan, but some of the tissues were still dilated as is typical of drugs like Curare—and so I guessed that you might use some sort of derivative of it to make a subject susceptible. I whipped up a little stimulant that I took before we came down here to counteract it. Oh, I know you were a hypnotist. I had you investigated as soon as I sniffed you out in all this.”

  “What do you mean?” Lila glared at him, still stunned that she was in custody.

  He ignored her for a moment to check on Nyoka who was once more herself.

  “You really shouldn’t wear custom perfume to a crime scene, Lila,” he said, “I had no idea what it meant at Chan’s until I met you in the hotel dining room. That put me on to you so I had Chelsea Forest, my associate at the Shadows Foundation—who is a whiz at getting info over the phone—check on Gunter and you. He’s an only child according to records from Berlin, you know?”

  He offered a hand to the English girl who grasped it with a shaky grip. “If you officers will take these two creeps to the brig I think there’s still time for me and Charlie here to catch a last dance up at the ball.”

  Epilogue: Mysteries and Murderers…

  The Empress of Japan docked in Yokohama and turned the criminals Carson, Gunter (his jaw dislocated, not broken) and his wife Lila over to the British consulate to be placed on the next ship headed for Hong Kong.

  There they would be remanded to an Admiralty court for the thefts and murders that had occurred on British soil. The four stolen medallions were recovered and Gordon, Yamashita, and Nyoka were delighted to discover one of the reasons that the Von Schultz’s wanted them. The medallions were actually cleverly disguised lockets and hidden inside they found an interlocking map.

  “It’s a layout of the entire complex of the Eye of Darkness Temple,” Professor Gordon said.

  “It is the find of the decade,” Yamashita said, “possible the century. With this map we’ll be able to raise considerable funds to lead a second expedition to the ruins of the Eye of Darkness.” He looked up at the granite man who stood quietly to the side of the suite where they were all meeting.

  Dr. Shadows had explained why he had allowed the Japanese to be arrested even though he did not think he was guilty.

  “I accept your reasoning,” the Professor said, “and appreciate your efforts to find the murderer of my friend, Professor Lee.”

  “It’s hard to believe that those two were able to steal such a large number of powerful mystical artifacts for their Reich,” Nyoka said.

  “I have a feeling that a lot more will be done in the service of that demagogue,” the granite man said, “before there will be an end to it.”

  He looked at the group all around him and smiled.

  “But in the mean time,” He said, “we now have a lovely week ahead before we reach the states where no criminals will bother any of us. I for one plan to catch up on my rest—” he looked over at Nyoka and winked, “and maybe catch up on my new dance steps as well. Foxtrot anyone?”

  The End

  You have just finished reading

  THE EYE OF DARKNESS

  by Teel James Glenn

  This story is part of the Single Shots Signature Series.

  Edited by Gordon Dymowski

  Editor in Chief, Pro Se Productions-Tommy Hancock

  Director of Corporate Operations-Morgan McKay

  Publisher & Pro Se Productions, LLC-Chief Executive Officer-Fuller Bumpers

  Cover Art by Jeff Hayes

  E-book Design by Russ Anderson

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