Anthony Senatora brought the girl into the backroom of his restaurant that he kept for such purposes. He often picked up the prostitutes who plied their trade in the neighbourhood. He could afford it and figured a little action on the side was fine as long as he continued to provide for his family at home. What his wife did not know would not hurt her.
“Oh, this is so hot!” cooed the girl. “I love Italians!”
“Well you’re gonna get one tonight, doll,” leered Senatora. “Take your clothes off.”
The girl was an insanely voluptuous brunette with luminous blue-green eyes. She quickly doffed the bikini top and miniskirt she wore. She had no underwear on, and all that remained were the spike heels that made her look much taller than she actually was.
“Now,” said Anthony Senatora as he removed his trousers. “Let’s do this!”
The deed was over quickly, and then Senatora and the girl remained for a few moments lying together on the small bed.
“That was pretty good,” he said. “What did you say your name was again?”
“Anastasia,” replied the girl, “but you can call me Stacy… Stacy Wingus!”
With this, the girl suddenly reached over to where she had dropped her skirt and, with one deft motion, retrieved a long stiletto knife and plunged it directly into the throat of Anthony Senatora. Blood spurting from the wound, the man gasped and gurgled a few moments before expiring.
“You’re right,” giggled the girl. “That was pretty good! Now I just have to get that thing that father wanted and go. He‘s going to be so pleased!” …
My name is Doctor Daniel Rumanos. I carry within my blood the heritage of the mysterious Watchers of Algol, the most intellectually advanced race in all of the known galaxies, whose technology is so sophisticated it appears as magic to lesser beings.
Whilst most Algolites live in elitist seclusion from the rest of the Universe, I am an operative for an organisation known as the KOSMIKOS. I protect Earth from all manner of menace. I am -- The Daemon-Star! …
“Daniel, do you really mean that?” wondered Millie Drake. “You’re saying the old sword that was stolen from the Italian restaurant the same night that the owner was murdered… was really Excalibur, the legendary magical sword of King Arthur?!”
“Quite so, my dear Mills,” I affirmed. “Quite so. The sword taken from Senatora’s Italian Bistro does indeed appear to be Excalibur itself!”
I was driving my specially-modified canary yellow Edwardian roadster (affectionately known as “Lizzie”), whilst clad in my usual finery; including a frilled poet shirt, purple velvet suit, jungle boots, sunspecs, panama hat, and one of my favourite opera capes.
My companion, Miss Millie Drake, is an exquisitely beautiful young lady; petite and perfect, with luxurious chestnut hair, enchanting violet eyes, and sun-kissed skin. The flowered dress she wore served to highlight the wondrous shape of her slender figure.
“But how did Excalibur ever wind up on display in an Italian restaurant in the Bronx?” enquired Millie.
“That is a rather interesting tale in itself, hmmm?“ I replied. “You see, in the year 1191, a sword believed to be Excalibur was unearthed at the traditional gravesite of King Arthur. Later that same year, King Richard the Lionheart presented it to King Tancred of Sicily as a sign of the alliance between them. It soon afterwards vanished from history.”
“So it could have stayed in Italy and was later brought to America by some immigrant?”
“Quite possibly, love. Quite possibly. Perhaps the late Mr. Senatora was himself a descendant of Tancred, hmmm?”
“So the restaurant’s owner, Anthony Senatora, was stabbed to death?”
“Indeed so. He was lying naked in a bed he kept in a backroom of the establishment. The police report says that it is obvious he had recently ejaculated, so it is believed that the murderer was a prostitute he had picked up earlier. He was stabbed directly through the throat, completely severing his carotid artery. Death would have come within seconds.”
“Then this prostitute stole the sword and left?” asked Millie.
“That seems to be the case,” I replied, “so obviously this was not simply some everyday streetwalker. She was there specifically to purloin Excalibur, and had to have used some sort of mentalist beckoning in order to assure that Anthony Senatora would choose her for his adulterous tryst.”
“Oh my gosh. Daniel, do you think it could be… ?”
“Now now, my dear. Let us not speculate before we have all the facts. Our instruments back at headquarters showed that some evidence that energies matching what would be stored in Excalibur have been coming from an old house on 34th Street. Hence our going there today.”
“I wish Kit-10 could have come along.”
“I too miss the presence of our robotic feline friend, but it is much too probable that the powers of the magic sword would have some detrimental effect on her systems, hmmm?”
Suddenly, I heard Millie Drake cry out in fright.
“Daniel!” she screamed “Look! Behind us!”
I quickly turned my gaze to what my friend had indicated and beheld an horror indeed; for rushing directly to-wards us from behind, there on that city street on that bright summer day -- was an huge mass of pulsating white and red energies.
“By the Stellar Triad!” I swore. “Excalibur energy -- and it is coming straight at us!”
Then, as soon as it appeared, the eldritch energy vanished.
“What happened to it, Daniel?” questioned Millie Drake.
“It dispersed quickly because it was only an echo,” I explained; “a small part of what we shall have to face. The actual Excalibur energy is of immense and awesome power. It will not be so easily exorcised.”
“Daniel,” said Millie. “doesn’t Excalibur also have something to do with the wizard Merlin?”
“Quite so,” I confirmed. “Merlin, of course, was himself an Algolite and a Kosmikos agent. The sword was endued with a sort of experimental power, an enhanced variation on Daemonian psychic energy that would aid Arthur in his fight against heathenry in the British Isles”
“But that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Why is it attacking us now?”
“The power has become corrupted over time, and this corruption has allowed it to become misused by the person or persons currently in possession of it. Ah, here we are.”
Millie and I had by now indeed arrived at our destination, being a townhouse on the 800 block of 34th Street. We parked Lizzie on the corner and got out, cautiously approaching the house along the pavement.
“So this is were our instruments said the sword is being held?” whispered my companion.
“Indeed so,” I affirmed. “We must be careful, but none the less there is no time to lose in confronting the culprits of this horrid incident.”
We entered the house, the front door lock yielding easily to my skills as an escape artist, soon moving past the front hall and entering the dwelling’s main room. What greeted us there was a sight indeed. It was two individuals standing behind an antique table on which was the mighty sword Excalibur itself.
One of these individuals was an attractive young brunette clad only in a bikini top, miniskirt, and heels. The other was a man seemingly of middle years wearing a black business suit with a long blood-red necktie. His visage still showed signs of handsome distinction despite being marred with the results of lifetimes of obscene unmitigated wickedness. His hair was long and dark, and his face decorated with a thin moustache and goatee. Most of all, his pale eyes shone with an absolute hypnotic glare.
Of course, I recognised the man immediately. I recognised him as the most dangerous and wanted criminal in all of Time and Space; the evil Algolite felon who has become my oldest and most dangerous enemy.
“You!” I exclaimed. “Don Wingus. I should have known. So you did escape from the Amulet of Sybil Leek. It was your daughter Anastasia here who seduced and murdered Mr. Anthony Senatora -- hence clearing the way for the theft of the sword Excalibur!”
“Yes, and you will not stop me, Rumanos,” replied Don Wingus. “The days of you sticking your enormous nose into my plans are at an end. The power of Excalibur is mine, and I shall use it to establish myself as supreme ruler of this planet!”
“Wingus, you are utterly mad. You cannot properly utilise the power of Excalibur. Notwithstanding its immensity, all of these centuries of disuse have made it fitful and chaotic. Once fully activated, it will be uncontrollable.”
“Oh, but you are wrong, Rumanos. You are wrong. The power of the sword Excalibur is mine to command, and I shall demonstrate that now. I shall demonstrate it by using the power to rid myself of your pestering ways. I shall use the power of Excalibur to utterly destroy you and your companion!”
With this, an awesome burst of the Excalibur power suddenly came forth from the sword, pulsing white and red and accompanied with a sound like unto the clashing of armies -- and heading directly to-wards Millie Drake and me!!
Do you even begin to recognise the obscene horror, forsooth the unhallowed terror of this unprecedented situation, my dear friends and most loyal readers? There we were, the wonderful Millie Drake and me -- Doctor Daniel Rumanos. There we were, facing the evil Algolite criminal Don Wingus and his godlessly immoral daughter Anastasia. There we were, as the very power of the sword Excalibur began to pummel us with its incredible force -- a force quite capable of causing extreme injury or death; in truth, a force that the very villain intended to utilise in his mad scheme to rule the planet Earth!
“You will now die, Rumanos!” reiterated Don Wingus amidst peals of his insane laughter. “You will now die, destroyed by the very power of Excalibur; the very power which is now under my command -- the very power that I shall use to rule this world!”
The powers had by now reached Millie and me. They hit us hard, causing immense pain; pain that would, if not quickly abated, soon cause us to collapse into unconsciousness -- forsooth, pain indeed fully capable of bringing about death.
“Die, Rumanos!” bellowed the evil Wingus. “Die as the power of Excalibur rends your very soul!!”
“Father, please don’t do this,“ suddenly interrupted Anastasia Wingus. “Please don’t kill Doctor Rumanos! I like him! Please don’t hurt him, father! Even though he’s an Algolite and a Jew, there’s just something so Italian about him! Oh I want him so much, father! Please let me have him! Please?!”
“Stacy, you dim demirep!” shouted Wingus indignantly whilst slapping his daughter hard across the face. “I have told you countless times how sick and tired I am of your stupid romantic obsession with that ludicrous old Daniel Rumanos!”
Then a wondrous thing happened. The flashing white and red energy that had been attacking Millie Drake and me abruptly changed course -- heading back to-wards the evil Don Wingus!
“What!” suddenly shouted Wingus in fear and outrage. “What is happening?! Rumanos, you meddling bastard! What have you done?!”
Millie and I stood back and watched as the Excalibur energies completely surrounded Don Wingus and his daughter. We heard Stacy scream in terror whilst her father continued his tirade.
“You cannot do this to me!” he shouted. “I am Magister Don Wingus of Daemonia! I am the rightful ruler of worlds! I am… ! No! No! NOOOOOOOOO!!”
Within a split second of this all was quiet. The powers had vanished, taking the evil Don Wingus and his dangerously seductive daughter with them.
“Are you all right, my dear Millie?” I enquired concernedly.
“Yes, I’m okay,” she replied. “What happened?”
“When Wingus was distracted, he lost control of the Excalibur energy. This caused it to revert to its original function -- to destroy evil! It therefore immediately targeted Don Wingus and his wretched daughter, surrounding them and banishing them to a certain inter-dimensional ‘hell’ where they shall receive just punishment for their crimes.”
“So is the energy gone now?”
“Quite so,” I confirmed. “It had grown old and that was its final act of knightly virtue. The sword can now be safely returned to Mr. Senatora’s family. I am certain his wife and children will be pleased to have something from him other than infidelity, hmmm? I shall also make certain they get a generous insurance payment and the funds to continue the restaurant.”
I carefully took the old sword -- in sooth the very Excalibur of King Arthur and the Knights of the Table Round -- from the table and secreted it safely under my cloak.
“By the way, Daniel,” said Millie as we exited the old house. “That name, ‘Senatora’; I know it means ‘elder’ and is the origin of ‘senator’ and probably means his ancestors were some kind of community leaders, but it’s more than that. There’s something familiar about it.”
“My dear Millie,” I opined, “it is a variation on the Sicilian name ‘Sinatra’! Certainly a fittingly regal surname for a family descended from kings, hmmm?”
***** DANIEL RUMANOS AND MILLIE DRAKE SHALL RETURN
