Chapter 4
The ceiling fan only served to move the warm stuffy air around the office, and half-drawn blinds barely let any light into this mausoleum. Behind the enormous desk, the Don of the Morphean Mafia sat watching the door, while adding cigar smoke to the general gloom. Finally, a pounding on the wood announced the arrival of an expected visitor. Without waiting for an answer, the door was propelled open by the face of Vinny the Snitch, assisted by four meat-like fists.
‘Vinny!’ The Don said, coming out from behind the desk, arms outstretched. ‘So good of you to come and visit with us.’
On his knees, Vinny tried to make himself even smaller than his rat-like frame. He fixed his eyes on the shiny red shoes in front of him. ‘You… you wanted to see me?’ He stuttered.
‘You make it sound like a chore, Vinny. Haven’t we always been good to you?’ The Don looked at the henchmen behind the shivering Vinny. ‘Salvatore, Alfredo, we hope you have been looking after our guest?’ A pair of sharp eyes darted around the room before settling once more on the unfortunate Vinny. ‘Anyone would think you were reluctant to accept our hospitality?’
The two thugs looked at each other and smiled in the way of bullies who know they’re on the right side. Alfredo, the younger, a hulk of a man in an ill-fitting suit and with a temper to match, always relied on his brother Salvatore to deal with being the smarter one in every sense of the word. This role was one that Salli had relished since they were children when he’d realised that, despite his own lack of muscle, as a pair, they could be very ‘persuasive’. A hand was placed under Vinny’s down-turned chin, forcing him to stand and face the dumpy woman standing in front of him. ‘Nnnot at all.’ Vinny spluttered, ‘I am always happy to see you, Godmother.’
She leant back against the desk and took another puff on the cigar, flapping the smoke away with her wings. ‘That’s much better,’ she said with a smile so sweet it would make your teeth itch. She proffered a hand, which Vinny stared at as though it may bite. A none too gently nudge from Alfredo reminded him of his manners, so he bent forward nervously and kissed the pale skin. Satisfied, the Godmother renegotiated the desk and returned to her enormous chair. ‘A seat for our guest,’ she said as Vinny was manhandled into position. ‘Now then,’ she began, ‘a little bird tells us that something is causing the good citizens of Morpheus to get their tails in a twist. The same little bird, or possibly it might have been a different one; the trouble is they all look identical. You know how it is with our feathered friends?’ Vinny nodded so hard he nearly dislocated his neck. ‘The point being, something is happening, and that something is big. Now we are led to understand that you were there when the event took place?’ Vinny’s eyes had grown to the size of dinner plates, much as he tried, he couldn’t drag them away from the silhouette in front of him. ‘We think that as fine upstanding citizens, we are obliged to be up to date with all the latest news, to see how we can help. You understand?’ said the Godmother. Vinny nodded harder. ‘So, we would be very much obliged if you would tell us everything you know.’ She finished, inclining her head that he should begin.
Once Vinny started talking, it was difficult to get him to stop. Silence would mean his usefulness was over, and his existence possibly along with it. Therefore, his only hope was to keep going and pray that his information was useful enough to buy him a reprieve. ‘…and then the morph went over the wall like a rocket, and there was nothing any of them could do. They were like puppets, just moving wherever this guy put them, it was crazy.’
‘And you say that this human was talking about something, some gateway that was allowing him to control things?’ the Godmother said.
‘Yes, yes. A machine, a Vio he called it, he was getting excited and leaping around. He kept making people do things. He had one man on his knees barking like a dog, another one he made to walk into the duck pond. It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. He was yelling things like ‘this is going to make a million, we can write our own pay cheque’, and ‘those boys have done it. They have really done it!’
The Don ground her cigar into the ashtray. ‘It’s safe to say that the man you saw is not the one in control of this machine, that there is someone else behind it, perhaps more than one someone, and they are the key to how it works?’ she said slowly.
‘It seems that way, Godmother.’ Vinny said, hopefully.
‘And how, pray, were you not affected by its power, we wonder?’
‘I don’t know.’ Vinny frowned; it had been going so well. ‘I was watching from the edge.’
‘Just lurking and sneaking around?’ the Godmother said unpleasantly. ‘You really are a little snitch, aren’t you?’
Vinny laughed nervously, ‘That’s what they call me.’ The Fairy Godmother laughed. Salvatore and Alfredo laughed. Vinny laughed. Suddenly they stopped, leaving Vinny chuckling on his own.
‘Something funny, Vincent?’ The Godmother growled. Vince gulped.
‘But… err… no?’
‘Good, because we would hate to think that you found us… amusing?’ Vinny went back to the safety of shaking his head.
‘Thank you,’ she said eventually, ‘you have been most… helpful. The boys will see you out. We are very pleased. You should come and see us again when you have recovered from your accident.’ Terror gripped the little man along with the two thugs as he was dragged out of the room.
The Godmother lit another fat cigar. ‘Did you hear all of that?’ she said to the empty office. A partition opened in the panelling; a tall figure stepped out into the room. From the sunglasses on his snout to the curly tail peeping out of his overcoat, he exuded malevolence.
‘I heard it.’ he snorted.
‘Someone in Realitas is behind this device. A device that could be very useful to us.’ The hit pig said nothing. ‘We want you to go and find that person or persons Porkio. We would hate to think of power like that in the wrong hands. If this device can be used across the dimensions, who is to say that it cannot also work in reverse? Now that would hold some exciting possibilities for us, very interesting indeed. We want you to find them, and we want you to bring them to us.’ Porkio turned to leave. ‘Oh, and Bacon Slicer…?’ The pig turned back to face his Don. ‘We would prefer them in whole pieces.’
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