Snake

SNAKE

Creator: Richard Hughes

Author: Michael Vance

Characters:

Greta Hoffmeyer (Tzeitl Katzenberger)

Typhoid Mary (From Typhoon Mary)

The Admiral (James Bridges)

Amy Smith

Jack Flash

Alphonso Longfellow

Hank Catchum (The Hack)

Dr. Joseph Eacobacci

Dr. Max Riegelmann

Hanz Shroeder

Lt. Sam Manning

Ben Alashee

Carlos Valentine

Giovanni “Hammer” DeSalvio

Ben Aloshee

Greta Hoffmeyer is the top agent of the counter-espionage Ballensschlange, known as Cobra. She is a woman whose long, blonde hair cascaded to perfect, gently rounded shoulders. Her large, deep blue eyes penetrated to the depths of your soul. She has high, rosy cheekbones, and flawless almond skin, and full strawberry lips. Her jaw was heart shaped. Greta was the top agent of the counter-espionage unit, Ballensschlange, known as COBRA. Her real name is Tzeitl Katzenberger. Because of her many were tortured and murdered by the Gestapo.

Snake: She stood, legs spread apart like ramparts, wearing a black unbuttoned overcoat that fell to her ankles. It fluttered open with the wind. She spoke like the hissing of a snake. Her balled fist rested on her ample hips, her head tilted back and she laughed like a man. A dark blue material open between her breasts, held closed by leather drawstrings, accented her torso. Leather flames of lighter blue rose up from her waist and spread to her ribs, and what looked like fish or snake scales were embossed in the bustier. Leather armlets covered her forearms up to, but just short of her elbows, and were also laced closed. Her black leather tights ended in boots, which ended just above her calves. In her left hand, she held a five-foot long quarterstaff that ended in something resembling a snakehead. Coiled on her left hip was attached a blacksnake whip, and she has dart gun. Long brown hair, restless in the wind, danced like leaves blown in the wind. Her face was hidden by an expressionless Kabuki mask, almond smooth, with the image of a cobra coiled around her left eye down her cheek to the tip of her chin. She speaks in riddles, quoting famous and infamous people. She refuses to kill. She is perhaps seeking redemption from her evil days as a Nazi spy during WWII. Now in America, in the early 50s, her goal is to stop crime, and protect the innocent.

Typhoid Mary: A drunk had called her “Typhoon” Mary, because she moved like a fierce storm when in action. She was built like a wooden beer keg dressed in a floral shift. Brown hair cut short in a man’s crew cut. Ruby-red lips, and her cheeks heavily rouged. Her uneven teeth were brown from tobacco stains. She is the madam of The Lonely Hearts Club, a brothel. Mary is also an operative of Snake.

Amy Smith is Typhoid Mary’s daughter, but not a prostitute. She works as a police dispatcher in the 9^th Precinct. She wore a starched, off-white, long-sleeved blouse decorated with the appropriate police badge and stripes. The dark-blue, pleated khaki pants spoke of neatness, not the disaster that was her life. She is thirty-one, with bleached blonde hair that has dark roots. Her large, deep-blue eyes, high cheekbones with flawless skin and full lips are completely opposite of her mother’s image. Her jaw is heart-shaped. She is also an operative of Snake.

James Bridges, nicknamed The Admiral, is a blind black man. He was dressed in a second-hand wrinkled suit that had once been black and creased, with cuffed pants. His close-cropped hair was sprinkled with gray, his mustache unevenly trimmed. He lives in the flophouse at 241 Bowery, The Sunshine Hotel, and carries a tin cane, as he walks the streets with a cane. He was once known as The Preacher. He is also an operative of Snake.

Herman Jones, nicknamed Jack Flash is a Korean War veteran. Both legs were blown off in North Korea. The left side of his face was crushed and poorly repaired. His left eye was larger than his right, and his dirty, stringy hair hung from beneath a nautical cap to his shoulders. Now he scoots along the street on a square of plywood on tiny wheels, begging for handouts. He appears mentally damaged, and words he speaks are not true words. But he is also an operative of Snake.

Alphonse Longfellow is a tall individual dressed like a cheap burlesque magician. He is also of the streets, and may have once been a magician. He, too, is an operative of Snake.

Hank Catchum, The Hack, drives a taxi. Also a Korean War veteran, he has a steel plate in his head. He now serves Snake as a chauffeur in his rundown taxi.

Jason Aldridge was a five foot six police officer, intelligent and brave, he graduated with honors, and one of the best shots on the police force. Snake accidentally kills him when a crook dodged a dart meant for him, and struck the cop in the eye.

Sam Manning, a police officer with the 9^th Precinct.

Doctor Joseph Eacobacci’s daughter was kidnapped, but rescued by Snake. Now he wants to treat the woman he thinks is crazy. He is a huge man, standing six foot four, and weighing 300 pounds. He looked more like a stevedore or lumberjack. He could have even been a dockworker or professional wrestler than a successful psychologist. He has brown hair, and a Fu Manchu mustache that hung halfway down his throat. He carries a pearl-handled revolver. Whether he wanted to or not, he becomes an operative of Snake.

Leo Rosenbaum is a reporter for the Tog Morgan Zhurnal (The Morning Journal). He is a slight man, with narrow shoulders, and wire-rimmed glasses. His neatly parted and groomed hair did nothing to enhance his nondescript face. The long face looked like Groucho Marx, sans mustache, though his physical appearance was not unpleasant. Whether he wanted to or not, he becomes an operative of Snake.

Annabel Rosenbaum is Leo’s wife. While under the protection of Snake, she is badly beaten. Snake has her removed to Typhoid Mary’s brothel for better protection.

Dan is a big, tough bartender at Sammy’s Bowery Follies, a bar in the Bowery. He works for Snake as an operative.

Carlos Valentine is a lieutenant of the DeSalvio mob. He has close-set eyes, a cauliflowered left ear, and slicked back black hair.

Giovanni “The Hammer” DeSalvio is the head of the DeSalvio crime family. He looked like a harried middle-aged store clerk. His hair is brown, cut short, and crested with a substantial cowlick. His right hand is a prosthetic, flesh colored, and forever clinched.

Snake’s Nest of Vipers: The apartment is in the flophouse, The Sunshine Hotel. In a small room, a four by six cubical really, they called pigeon coops. They sat on the edge of the mattress and pushed a hidden button on the wall, then the bed began to sink. They descended into a fully furnished apartment. A wall papered with rich floral design was to the right. On a chest-of-drawers an Art Deco picture frame held a photograph of two little girls – all pony tails, ribbons, and smiles. On the wall behind the chest-of-drawers was mounted a group of four Chinese masks made of porcelain – a laughing blue Kabuki mask, a yellow Kabuki mask of fear, blue one of sorrow, and a white one of indifference – a Kabuki mask identical to the one Snake wore when in full regalia. A small phonograph player was next to the chest-of-drawers, its dark cherry-wood lid opened with a record ready to play. Against the wall to the left was an upright piano, where Alfonso Longfellow’s slim fingers glided over the keys. The melancholy chords of Beethoven’s Fur Elise swelled up to fill the apartment.

One novel has been released so far, SNAKE: Nest of Vipers, published by Airship 27 (2015)