Chapter 6

Jason took some time to find out what he could about Shamus O'Malley of the Rabbits gang before he set out after him. It seems that there was little known about Mr. O'Malley, except that he had recently arrived from Australia. He had joined the Rabbits shortly after arriving in San Francisco. He had been quiet for a couple of weeks, but had suddenly challenged for leadership of the Rabbits. The resulting knife fight had left the former gang leader cut up so badly that he was hardly recognizable, while O'Malley hardly had a mark on him. This resulted in O'Malley being held in considerable awe and no little fear. He ran the Rabbits with an iron hand and brooked no back-talk.

The Rabbits had been a nondescript gang not worthy of note by the other gangs until O'Malley took over. In just a few months, the Rabbits had started to become very important in all of the major rackets to be found on The Barbary Coast. Most of this expansion had come about from the exercise of a minimum of persuasion and a maximum of muscle. There wasn't a petty crook on the Coast who was not living in fear of being noticed by the Rabbits, and several of the major gangs were beginning to feel the same way.

O'Malley appeared to be much smarter and a better organizer than the run-of-the-mill gang boss throughout the rest of the Sydney Ducks. For one thing, he had scattered his operation out among several locations so that a single strike at him could not paralyze the whole gang and its source of income.

The Rabbit gang also ran on a need-to-know basis. The lower echelons only knew of their immediate operations and how to do their specific job. For example, if your responsibility lay among the gambling facets of the organization, then you knew nothing of the brothels or the smuggling, etc. This made it difficult for Jason to locate O'Malley or the child-sex slaves.

O'Malley had instituted the veil of secrecy along with a series of punishments for divulging information. The first minor slip up would get the outer inch of your tongue cut off. The penalty for a major slip up or the second offense was castration and being forced to eat your own balls, RAW. The final penalty was being locked in a cage and starved to death. Only once had the final penalty been exacted, but that appeared to have been enough of an example!

By posing as a potential customer, and a rich one, at that, Jason was able to locate the Rabbits' gambling and prostitution sites, but that was as far as he could get by simply asking questions. Now, The Ghost was going to have to do some real detective work.

Jason had spent a week looking for answers to his questions with minimal results. Now, The Ghost was going to make a determined effort to force someone to talk. Obviously, he had to find somebody who had the information he needed, but that meant working his way up the ladder of the organization. He had to grab someone low on the totem pole and learn who was his boss. Once he found this lowest level boss, he had to get the name and location of the next boss up the line. Eventually, this should lead him to the information he needed. Well, tonight was a good night to start.

The Ghost picked the gambling wing to start his search. There was nothing magical about this choice, it was just the easiest place to find a pawn to capture. He already had picked his target based on a visit by Jason to one of the Rabbits gambling houses. This individual was a pit boss of a group of faro tables and was the lowest of the low when it came to the hierarchy of bosses. But The Ghost had to start somewhere, and this was an easy one.

The Ghost watched until the pit boss went to the privy. This put him alone and easy to grab. To make things a little bit easier, the capture was made as the target left the john. The Ghost smacked the pit boss behind the ear with a sock filled with wet sand. The man was immediately rendered unconscious, and The Ghost caught him as he started to collapse.

The victim was carried through a couple of alleys to an empty shed which The Ghost had previously prepared that afternoon. There were hooks on the wall, two were high and two were low, and the victim was strung up with his hands as high as possible over his head and his feet spread and not quite touching the floor. He was gagged and left hanging to regain consciousness.

The man was slow to wake up, or else he was faking. Whatever it was, The Ghost ran out of patience and threw a bucket of water in his face. Now that the man was awake and aware of his surroundings, The Ghost proceeded to cut his clothes off and to remove his shoes. This was a painful position to be hung in and the cutting away of the man's clothes heightened his fear so much that he pissed and shit on himself, despite just having made a trip to the john.

The Ghost pulled off the gag and said, "I know that you are a low figure in the Rabbit organization, but you do know something I want to hear. Tell me the name of your boss and where to find him and I will let you go."

"I can't do that. They'll cut off the tip of my tongue if I tell you anything."

"Think about what I will cut off if you don't tell me what I want to know. I could start with your ears or your nose. Or maybe, your fingers and toes. Did you know that you can't walk without a cane if I cut off your great toe?

But look at it this way, I won't tell anybody you talked, so, if you don't tell, nobody will know. Now, answer the question!"

The man started to cry at this point. The Ghost let him stew for a few minutes before he said, "OK, that's enough stalling! Answer the question!"

There was an old and absolutely worthless knife heating on a small charcoal fire right where the man could see it. The Ghost walked over and wrapped his hand in a cloth before picking up the knife, which, by now, had its blade glowing red hot. The damned knife was so hot that it was uncomfortable for The Ghost to hold it, even with the cloth wrapped around his hand.

The knife was purely a psychological weapon; by now the edge was ruined to the point that it would not cut anything tougher than hot butter. Of course, the man was so frightened, he was beyond noticing that detail. The Ghost held the knife up close to the man's face and said, "I'll let you choose where I cut first. You don't have to worry much about bleeding. This knife blade is so hot that it will cauterize the wound and stop the flow of blood. I'll tell you what, you tell me the piece to cut off, or I will start with your balls. What do you say to that?"

"Jeff Goldfarb. My boss is Jeff Goldfarb. He is in his office on the second floor of the gambling hall. Please don't cut me."

"OK, I'll leave you here while I check out your answer. If you have told me the truth, I'll let you go when I get back. But, if you have lied to me, your balls are not the only thing that I will cut off when I get back."

The Ghost put the knife back on the coals and the man fainted with relief. The Ghost loosened the ropes holding the man so that he could stand on the floor when he came to. That way, he would not be in so much pain while The Ghost was gone. The gag was replaced, though, so that the man could not call for help.

The Ghost slipped through the back door from the dark alley to the gambling house. He entered a storeroom that was as dark as the proverbial pit. He cursed to himself as he picked his way through miscellaneous junk until the found a door leading to the rest of the building. The door opened onto a hallway which led to a flight of stairs going up.

The hall and stairs were both dimly lit, so The Ghost did not expect anybody to see him as he climbed the stairs. This building only had two floors, so The Ghost felt confident that he would not be surprised in his climb.

When he got high enough to see down the hall at the top of the stairs, he could see several closed doors leading off the hall. At the middle of the hall was another hall leading at right angle toward the front of the building. There was no one visible in this area, so The Ghost hurried to the junction with the other hall. He stayed concealed by the corner and used his pocket mirror to look down the second hall.

There was a man standing in front of a door at the end of the hall. He must be a guard, since he was holding a cudgel and wearing a long knife at his belt. This had to be Goldfarb's office. The problem was how to get through that door.