Chapter 6
Multiple searchlights scanned the night sky of Paris, constantly scanning the dark firmament for raiding zeppelins about to bomb the city. Anti-aircraft guns stood ready for engagement as did the airfields. The bright moving beams would occasionally light up the Eiffel Tower, the Arch de Triomphe and other high structures.
For Irma Vep this was both bad and good. Bad that it gave Parisians new interest in the night, whereas her vocation required her to be unseen. Good that it kept their eyes on the sky, away from the walls.
Irma was a cat burgular, one of the most notorious. She sat in a darkened corner on top of the wall around her designated job. Her attire was all black; jumpsuit, slacks, boots, gloves and hood. A generous amount of eye shadow darkened her otherwise pale face as did the black lipstick.
She was once a proud member of an cat burglars' order; it was known as The Vampires. Irma's name was an anagram of the word vampire. But this order was no more, it had been destroyed by the Paris Police; now Irma Vep worked alone.
This mansion she was monitoring was occupied by a wealthy oriental. The gothic gargoyles Irma had often noticed in her many nocturnal escapades were replaced by exotic dragons. It was to steal an artifact inside that had an all too tempting attraction for Irma Vep.
The folk inside seemed to have no interest in the outside, thus keeping them from the shuttered windows. Minimal light emanating from those shutters and virtually no noise indicated only minor activity within; hopefully they were mostly asleep. A group of boys were playing soccer under the neighbouring strreet lamps.
After patiently waiting for a perceived state of null activity within the mansion, Irma made her move. She scurried along the garden wall with all the grace of a cat, till she reached her designated louvre shutter on the mansion's side. It moved without creaking, so to did the window as it lifted. Irma focused her acute night sight on the room within and found it empty. She slid in and dropped to the floor with a professional lack of sound.
A huge dragon's head stuck out of the wall, its mouth open. Irma tapped it and found it to be glazed ceramic. With careful ease the cat burglar opened the room's main door and crept through a hallway; the smell of opium, sulfur and incense pervaded the house. Her night sight was good but somehow her face collided with a mobile of dangling bats; only her steel nerves prevented her from screaming. The bats were real stuffed flying foxes with jaws opened and wings spread. She untangled herself from the dangling snag and proceeded down the hall.
A scorpion emblem revealed the door she was after; it was locked. Irma pulled a pin from her hair and worked it on the lock after ten seconds of low noise manipulation she opened the door. It was extremely dark, even her acute night sight could not help her here. Irma struck a match; the room had ornate furniture but what she was interested in was a cupboard with a Chinese box puzzle opening mechanism. A red lantern was available so Irma lit it and, with red illumination, worked on the puzzle.
She had prepared for this ordeal and practiced with Chinese box puzzles, it was fun seeing her manipulations create further complications elsewhere in the puzzle and trying to sort out those created more and even repeated old ones. Her practice runs sometimes took hours, but this opening mechanism was surprisingly simple, she opened it in less than a minute.
It was here, the Jade Scorpion, a hypnotic devise supposedly employed by Chinese Emporers over the past thousand years, and it was here. Irma reached into the cupboard and seized the green arachnid on a chain. She had it, but as she withdrew her hand a snare tightened around her wrist and a panel slid out of each cupboard sidewall closing together around her forearm. A new Chinese box puzzle formed as the two panels came together.
She was trapped, with only one hand to solve this box puzzle, she began in earnest but this one was not easy like the first. Sounds of activity outside the room told her she had no time to free herself; they were onto her. The first Chinaman to enter the room rushed her, she managed knock him aside with her free arm. Others came in, all with their tasseled caps and braided hair in pigtail queues, they seized her defending limb; she managed to kick one into senselessness but soon her legs were also held.
The man at the door bowed to an approaching presence. That which entered the room was a tall celestial figure in a gold silken robe with dragon embroidery and wide sleeves in which he tucked the opposite hands. Beneath a black velvet hat was a wicked face: the eyes were narrow slits closing on green irises; a pointed goatee added a satanic look and the moustache was a standout. Its two tapered tendrils originated at the corners of the mouth, growing downward past clean shaven lips and extending beyond the jawline. His grin was quite devilish.
Irma recognised him as criminal mastermind Dr. Fu Manchu, who had temporarily traded the Limehouse district of London for Paris.
"Greetings Miss Vep." The celestial bowed to the captive woman but kept her under restraint. "You must have too much confidence in yourself, leading you to be so unwise as to steal from me. The easy puzzle was put there to trap you in the hard one."
A hand left the sleeve it snuggled in and clawed menacingly near Irma's face. The fingers were thin and bony, the nails long and pointy, altogether giving the impression of knives. There was that grin again as the devilish doctor indicated that with a quick swipe of his fingers, he could cut her throat. After a few anxious seconds a pointy fingernail hovered an inch from her eye for a drawn out moment of terror. Fu Manchus grin left his face as the hand left Irma's and with a swift set of manipulations undid the Chinese box puzzle that trapped her hand, which was quickly seized by the pig tailed retainers.
The Jade Scorpion was removed from her hand and handed to Fu Manchu.
"You have good taste Miss Vep. But your error is that this belongs to me and that fact alone should be a sufficient deterrent."
"I could work for you." Irma pleaded.
Fu Manchu's face did not change or grin, though he kept those ocular slits focused on her.
"Miss Vep, do you know that I was once offered the leadership of The Vampires?"
"You?" Irma remembers a period shortly before the fall of the order when The Vampires had to replace their leader several times.
"Of course I humbly refused for the very reason you found the idea so surprising. The Vampires' style of crime is very different from mine, theirs was flawed they continued it and it led to their destruction as it has to yours.
"She will feel the dragon's breath." Fu Manchu said to his retainers. "Go."
Though Irma struggled the many Chinamen maintained a strong restraint as they carried her to the room where the ceramic dragon was. She was tied to set of crossbars: both hands, both feet and her waist were secured to the structure; which stood straight in front of the dragon's open mouth.
Barrels of gunpowder were being placed in a chamber behind the dragon whose inner mouth was being fitted with a cylindrical tube. A long fuse came out of the chamber and was rolled out along the floor ending at the back of the room.
Dr Fu Manchu entered the room with a burning Roman candle and pressed the sparkling end on Irma's wrist. She yelped as the sparks burned her skin. The doctor gave that devilish grin before he removed the firework and let it fizzle out.
"The Dragon's breathe is hot is it not?" said the Celestial. "That was but a hiccup. The large exhale of fire is soon to come. The many sparks will burn away your clothes, then your skin, kindly sending you to honourable ancestors."
A signal to his nearest retainer had the pig tailed henchman reach into Irma's sleeve and withdraw her hidden knife; then a swift grasp at her sock scabbard releaved her of a second concealed blade.
"You will not be needing these Miss Vep." Exclaimed Fu Manchu with that devilish grin.
An order was given for every retainer but one to leave the room. As they did Fu Manchu tucked his hands into their opposite sleeves and gave his last bow to Irma Vep then joined his retinue. The last retainer lit the fuse then rushed for the door, leaving Irma to her fate.
Hissing was the sound made by the lit fuse as it traveled closer to the chamber and her death. Irma struggled to free herself but the ties were too tight and secure. She tried to quickly shift her weight and move the crossbars, but they stood firm in front of the dragon's mouth.
A sudden sound of shattered glass hit the back of the room. The disturbance continued as a soccer ball bounced throughout the room before resting by the crossbars. Irma realised that she left the shutter ajar when she entered the mansion; the kids playing night time soccer just kicked the ball through the side window.
The fuse was halfway burnt when a dark haired kid climbed through the window to retrieve the ball. He noticed her when he picked it up; Irma recognised him as The Licorice Kid one of the smartest street kids in Paris. He noted the fuse, the ceramic dragon and the crossbars then seemed to instantly grasp the situation.
The Licorice Kid pulled out a pocket knife and severed the ties of one hand then placed the little hilt in Irma's free hand. He then began to climb back through the window towards the street.
Irma dared not utter a thank you, that could alert Fu Manchu to her rescue. She freed her other hand then worked on the waist tie as the kid exited the room with the soccer ball. The burning fuse was almost home when she finished cutting her leg ties. She slid the pocket knife up her sleeve then swiftly climbed out the broken window.
Roaring thundered in the room as the dragon's breath began. Sparks shot out of the open mouth in their hundreds, saturating the crossbars with minute burning embers, that soon filled the room. It appears that Irma got out just in time, but then she realised not soon enough. A pig tailed chinaman stood between her and the tree that provided a safe way down to the street.
The retainer had clearly noticed the Licorice Kid enter or leave the premises and climbed the wall to intercept him. He was too late to grab the Kid, Irma saw the young waif finish his climb down the tree, collect the retrieved ball then flee the street as the other players clearly had already done.
The Licorice Kid was clever, he knew he had very little time to retrieve the ball before being noticed, that's why he did only the minimum work required to free her before making his escape.
Irma Vep walked along the top of the wall, past a dragon statue towards the tree. The Chinese guard was clearly not going to let her leave; he faced her, put one hand behind his back and had the other ready to strike. Savate was the skill she was going to employ here, he was only going to use one hand, this should be easy.
Her first action was to distract the ready arm while she pushes him off the wall with her other arm. His arm moved with lightning speed and countered both motions while finding time to bloody her nose. She approached again this time she was going to sweep the legs out from under him. Placing herself just outside the primary range of that fast arm, she dropped and began the sweeping motion with her legs. An attacking kick hit the sweeping limb, the heel biting into her calf sent a message of pain that got her up on her good leg to reorient herself, a hit in the side from the fast arm hurled her backwards; only a lucky grasp of the wall's rim prevented her from falling off to an injurious drop onto the street.
The guard spat in front of her, showing his opinion of Savate, he considered it a European corruption of their art. Irma backed off, in a crawl, to the darkness under the dragon statue. It was when the guard stepped into the dark spot that she struck him in the stomach, he didn't see it coming in the dark, this was her element. Ignoring the pain, the guard struck out with his hands and feet but could not connect with what he didn't see. A kick attack in the dark struck him behind the knee sending him into a forward topple then a hard nudge in the side changed his falling course to off the wall into the garden.
Irma Vep stepped out of the advantageous dark spot and made her way along the wall to the street tree with the overhanging branch and climbed down to the footpath. Paris sirens began to wail, it was as if in protest to her escape, but it was because the searchlights had spotted a hydrogen giant in the sky; or maybe a Gotha bomber plane. Bombs began to drop and buildings would go up in flames. Whatever aircraft was up there it was dropping its payload.
Fleeing the mansion lest the orientals come after her, the catburgular lost herself in the city under attack. It was when she settled herself on a hill to view the carnage wrought by the bombardment, that a stray searchlight beam passed by her illuminating her for a split second. She recovered from its blinding effect as a voice called to her from the darkness behind.
"Irma Vep, last of The Vampires." Said the voice. "I have a message for you."
She turned to see a cloaked figure with a slouch hat. She recognised fellow creature of the night, Judex. He was a mysterious avenger and vigilante. His vocation made him her enemy, but the two did not pursue any conflict. He handed her a sealed letter. She took it.
"Thank you Judex. Do you know The Licorice Kid?" She asked.
"I do Mademoiselle." he replied.
She took the little pocket knife from her sleeve and handed it to the cloaked figure.
"Please give him this and tell him Irma Vep thanks him to the maximum."
Judex took the knife, nodded and left.
Irma placed herself under a street light and read the letter. It was from M, the British Intelligence leader; Irma was to report to him in London and participate in a newly formed League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Irma had fancied herself as a member of the French League, La Hommes Mysterious, but they had their burglar. The British had a safe cracker in their current League. But they're forming a new one and she was going to be its burglar. Irma's blackened lips smiled at this news.
"M thinks I'm a good burglar." She said to herself. "But does he know that I'm a sociopath and a murderess?
"Of course he does." She continued. "And is probably counting on it."