Free The Scarlet Derby and Midnight Jay - Volume 1: Gallery of Rogues by Mike Cervantes Page A

Bellaco asked in a subtle tone of voice.
    “Oh, he’s back home, probably still just in his workshop, tinkering,” Mary Jane said just as casually.
    “He doesn’t respect you!” Bellaco said pointedly.
    Mary Jane scoffed. “That’s a rather gross assumption to make.”
    “No, really, to be in the presence of a woman as beautiful as you, not desiring to walk to the very ends of the Earth with one so lovely. Any man taking you even the tiniest bit for granted is proof of how most unworthy he is.”
    Mary Jane shook her head. “You’re making too much of an issue of it. My husband merely prefers his crafts to, admittedly droll, social events like the one we’re standing in.”
    “That only further proves my point. A true man of genius should be able to see the potential in all things,” Bellaco leaned in close to Mary Jane and whispered. “I happen to have a bit of my own craft on display upstairs if you’d like to see exactly what I’m talking about.”
    Mary Jane had a troubled look on her face. There was something off about this gentleman, something really, REALLY off. But she admitted, she was rather curious as to what the designs of this self-declared artist were, and she was in need of a new perspective on these little social events. She decided to give him a chance, knowing that if he decided to get fresh, she’d show him the ‘craft’ she’d learned since becoming Midnight Jay. “Very well, Mister Bellaco, you’ve talked me into it. Lead the way.”
    O O O
    Meanwhile, back at the Thames River, Thaddeus, now in costume as The Scarlet Derby, prepared his investigation. Once he was there he could silently admit to himself that he was this particular problem had to do with a large body of water. It gave him an opportunity to try out his latest invention: an underwater breathing apparatus.
    It was an ingenious design, if he could say so himself. It fit neatly on him in the form of a backpack with two wheels attached to a pair of levers tied to his legs. When Thaddeus moved his legs, it pumped the accordion shaped bellows up and down. The bellows filtered air through the case into a pair of rubber hoses which bent in an arc along the sides of the box on both ends and converged into a small mouthpiece. Putting the piece to his lips, he gave a blow, inhaling the air blown back into his lungs by the machine in the back. From the force it took him to kick back the air in his invention, he could tell it was going to take a lot of physical force on his part to work the mechanism, and he hoped he’d be able to do that AND manage to keep himself swimming briskly underwater.
    Putting aside the need to wonder any longer, The Derby held his nose and took a step over the surface of the river, slipping deftly into the water with the same splash an ice cube makes when it falls in a drink.
    Once fully submerged, The Derby swam about the Thames in search of anything suspicious. His breathing apparatus was working swimmingly so far, though he’d somewhat miscalculated the force it would take to keep an object full of air and made of wood from just floating him back up to the surface. The other thing he noticed was what his wife had mentioned before about the condition of the river: it was downright filthy.
    As he swam to the river floor he noticed a very dark, cloudy, mass swirling around in the center of the water, that had to be more of the strange chemical he’d found. The Derby swam further down, trying to meet with the cloud face to face. He pushed a hand into the center of the cloud, feeling something soft and slick just under the surface.
    It was a dome. It was transparent except for the dark inky black of this cloudy chemical substance swirling around inside of it. Was it made of glass? No, just like the chemical itself it was a substance nobody had ever seen before. ‘Curiouser and curiouser,’ The Derby thought as he moved down the structure. The dome part of the device tapered down into the shape of a