Chapter 8

Shamus O'Malley was, indeed, at 512 Harmon St., and he was in a towering rage, a condition that was becoming common for Mr. O'Malley. "Why can't you incompetent fools find this 'Ghost' for me? Do I have to do everything myself? He is playing hell with our gambling organization and you idiots can't seem to do anything about it. I want three guards in the office with me at all times and four guards at the door all the time, too. When one of the guards has to piss or shit, I want a replacement in his place before he leaves for the can. Is that clear? Now, get to it!"

The two men in the office that O'Malley had been talking to rushed out the door to do his bidding. At the moment, this left only one guard with O'Malley, so O'Malley took a pistol from his desk drawer and laid it on the desk in front to him. Apparently, he never gave any thought to the fact that his desk chair placed him directly in front of a window, and he was visible from the street below, only about 15 feet away, both vertically and horizontally.

Across the street, The Ghost was dressed as a common laborer as he stood on the roof of that building and pretended to do some sort of repair to the roof. While pretending to work, The Ghost had been able to see into O'Malley's office and watch him giving directions to his henchmen.

The building with O'Malley's temporary office was only two storeys tall, and O'Malley's office was directly over the office of the madam of the brothel occupying the ground floor. The Ghost was able to see the roof of the brothel building, so he could see that there was no security stationed there. Unless that changed, the roof would probably be his entry point once it got dark. The trapdoor through the roof was at the far end of the roof and well away from O'Malley's office, so he should not have much trouble gaining entry. The only problem with that would be if the trapdoor was locked.

It was fully dark when The Ghost threw his grapnel to the coping of the brothel's roof. From what he could tell, O'Malley's demand for added security had been heeded by his underlings. The Ghost's preliminary examination of his target about an hour earlier had shown the three guards in the office with O'Malley. This actually played to The Ghost's advantage, since it made it likely that the guards would get in each other's way in the relatively small room. This was obviously something that O'Malley had never considered.

The Ghost had also seen the two guards on the roof. These two were not the best sort of watchmen—they spent most of their time lounging near the front edge of the roof and smoking cigars. These two guards simply did not take their assignment seriously enough, and they would come to regret it.

The Ghost climbed up the rope hanging from his grapnel and slithered over the low coping at the roof's edge on the side facing the dark back alley. This was a moonless night, so The Ghost in his black working clothes had a cloak of virtual invisibility as he hunkered down waiting for the two guards to do something stupid. And eventually they did—one of them struck a lucifer match to light his third or fourth cigar of the evening, and both of the fools looked directly at the flare of light from the match. This destroyed what little night-vision they had, so they did not see The Ghost racing toward them with his staff in hand.

The Ghost's soft shoes made so little sound that the guards did not hear him over the noise of their talking. The blades were already extended on the staff by the time The Ghost reached the soon-to-be-dead guards. A quick flick of the wrist and two heads rolled on the roof top, never making a sound beyond the plop when they fell to the roof.

With two guards on the roof, the trapdoor was sure to be unlocked, and it was. The Ghost used his mirror to look through the opening before dropping inside the building. The trapdoor opened into a small empty room which was not lighted. Fortunately, the ladder to the roof was in place so that he did not have to chance dropping to the floor and making a clatter.

The Ghost climbed down the ladder and went to the door, which he opened just enough to extend his mirror into the hall. He looked in both directions and found that there was only one door which was guarded. The problem was, there were five men standing there talking. After a moment, one of the men left the group to enter another room off the hall. The man was only gone less than five minutes before he walked back to the group of guards.

The man returned to the group and joined in the conversation. After a few minutes, one of the other men went downstairs, leaving four men to guard the door. The guards were not especially alert, spending most of their time talking and telling jokes to each other.

The doors to all of the rooms swung into the room when opened, so that The Ghost was able to open his room door without attracting any attention. He blocked the door open with a door-stop he found. That way, he had that extra few seconds to get through the door if he had to leave in a hurry. He could even slam and block the door if he had the time.

The guards were stationed just a little too far away for knife-throwing comfort and convenience, so The Ghost needed to get about 15 feet closer to be satisfied with his chances of properly hitting his target. The door to the next room in line happened to be open, so The Ghost could gain the distance he wanted if he could get to that room. He decided that speed would do more good than stealth in reaching the other room, so the waited until all of the guards were laughing at some joke. When they started laughing, he moved as fast as he could out into the hall and, staying close to the wall, slipped into the doorway of the next room.

He was unseen in his dash, and now he was close enough to use his throwing knives. He took three knifes in his left hand and one knife in his right hand, with a spare knife still in his belt. The Ghost waited until the next round of laughing at a punch line before he stepped into the hall. Working as fast as he could, he threw his four knives at the four guards and scored a mortal wound on each, though they were not all immediately fatal. He drew his staff and released the two blades as he ran toward the fallen guards. The Ghost used his staff to decapitate all four of the men so that he could know without reserve that they were all dead.

Working on the principle that you never know for sure what might happen, The Ghost took the time to retrieve and clean his throwing knives before going any farther with his plans. He listened with his ear pressed to the door and could not hear any indication that the people inside were alarmed by what had happened in the hall.

The Ghost recalled from his observations earlier that there were five occupants of the room: O'Malley at his desk near the window, a clerk at a desk at a right angle to O'Malley's desk on his left, a guard on either side of the door, and a guard standing behind the clerk.

The best attack appeared to be to slam the door open and hit the guard who would wind up behind it with the door. At as nearly the same time as possible, the guard standing at the other side of the door would have to be eliminated with a stab from his staff. He could then slam the door closed and kill the stunned guard from behind the door. Finally, he should kill the third guard behind the clerk.

The clerk might not be a threat, but The Ghost could not afford to forget him in the melee. O'Malley would certainly be a threat, but his bulk could be used to pin him behind his desk while The Ghost dealt with the others in the room.

The Ghost knew that no plan survives contact with the enemy, but he would give that sequence a try. He held his staff ready in his right hand as he twisted the doorknob with his left. Ah, yes, another mistake! The door was unlocked, so he slammed his shoulder against the door, sending it flying open. He heard a grunt of surprise and pain from behind the door as he swung his staff around to try to catch the other nearby guard in the throat.

That guard was shorter than he realized, so the blade caught the man across the eyes, instead of in the throat. The man was blinded by the cut, so the results were equivalent. The Ghost put his foot against O'Malley's desk and shoved as hard as he could. The desk slid across the floor and pinned O'Malley in his chair. The force of the desk hitting O'Malley's midsection knocked his breath out, giving The Ghost a little extra time margin to work with.