"Denny Colt." "You are the only man who has ever escaped my cold embrace." "But I am never far away." "Yes." "I'm always with you." "Yeah." "Something big is breaking down" "Spirit." "By the wreck of an old cargo ship." "Word on the street is The Octopus might be in on it." "I'd call it in but who knows how far his tentacles spread?" "Who we can trust?" "I'm on my way." "My city." "She's always there for me." "she's there for me." "She's not some tarted-up fraud all dressed up like a piece of jailbait." "No." "She's an old city oldandproudofherevery pock and crack and wrinkle." "my plaything." "what she's made of:" "muscle and blood of generations." "She sleeps." "only shadows move in the silence." "There she is!" "I've got no time for this." "My city screams." "She needs me." "She is my love." "She is my life." "And I am her Spirit." "you're safe now." "Try to catch your breath." "let's get you to your feet." "Police!" "MacReady." "you can trust him." "Tell him everything." "I will." "Call your shrink if you got one." "What are you?" "That's The Spirit." "God bless him." "my city does." "She gives me everything I need." "Liebowitz." "I'm driving." "Sussman called." "Something's going down here." "Could be big." "How big?" "Octopus big." "Jesus!" "We better call for backup." "Not just yet." "Sussman wants this one kept under the radar for now." "Yes." "Come closer." "Come home to me." "boss?" "Every goddamn night." "Lorelei." "The angel of death." "She's never far away." "Not from me." "They say only sailors and cops can hear her." "I'm not a sailor." "And I'm not a cop." "I copy." "Get an ambulance." "Call Dolan." "Commissioner Not Commissioner Dolan." "Dr. Dolan." "Still breathing." "Spirit says he's still breathing." "Keep me advised." "Hurts like a son of a bitch." "Take it easy." "We'll get you home." "That broad." "You should have seen her." "Broad?" "A beautiful broad." "She was beautiful." "Keep him talking." "Keep him awake." "Liebowitz." "Yeah." "She was beautiful." "I'll kill you myself." "Just get us out of here." "It's The Octopus." "You know what he can do." "Shut up and bleed." "Liebowitz." "She was beautiful." "either." "now." "Just breathe through your nose if you can." "Getting dizzy." "Steady." "Steady." "Heads up!" "boys." "we like to party all night." "There is nothing I like better than kicking your ass all night long." "Except maybe eggs." "Where's the truck?" "Silken Floss is the most beautiful woman." "How do we find our way home without her?" "Silken Floss is the most beautiful woman ever." "She was supposed to be here." "How do we find our way home without her?" "Where's the truck?" "I found the truck!" "Silken Floss is the most beautiful woman ever." "specimens." "You've done your petri dishes proud." "No need to wait for the boss if that's The Spirit back there." "The Octopus always finds his nemesis so distracting." "It is The Spirit." "He had his hat on." "We was watching." "they'll be at it all night." "boss said so." "Boss said so." "We was watching." "God." "Yeah." "I heard." "Silken Floss is the most beautiful" "Octopus." "pretty boy." "You're right about that." "Come on!" "Toilets are always funny." "I was watching." "That's enough." "Let's get out of here." "Pretty boy." "Tough boy." "I'll be seeing you again real soon." "Octopus." "Death?" "he says." "I'm gonna kill you all kinds of dead." "I had you beat like eggs." "Heck you did." "Anybody watching could've seen I had you right where I wanted you." "In your dreams." "You're an accident." "You never should've happened." "Octopus." "You're talking crazy." "You're talking crazy talk." "pretty boy." "I'm nothing like you." "Nothing like me?" "sweetheart." "Just like me." "You ever wonder why?" "Never even crossed my mind." "I'll be learning you!" "I'll be learning you real soon." "I'll be learning you." "look who's here." "we better get out of here." "Such pain." "Such suffering." "Sleep." "come on." "Wake up." "Wake up." "Wake up." "baby." "Ellen." "You're a mess." "Three bullets across the deltoid." "They went straight through me." "Hardly took any meat." "Major contusions on any visible skin." "Ellen." "They never last long." "Evidence of a profusely bleeding cranial wound." "that's nothing." "That's just a bump." "all right." "this is serious." "you can't keep taking these chances." "I'll be fine." "You're bleeding out of your head." "It's gone all sticky." "It'll stop." "You need to be admitted." "No." "You know how much I hate that." "It takes forever." "Don't fight me this time." "I'll be all right." "It's just" "I'm missing something." "It's really important." "Do you know where you are?" "Sure." "U.S.A." "What year is it?" "This year." "Do you know who you are?" "The Spirit." "I beat up bad guys." "And sometimes they beat you up." "but I always get better." "I don't know why." "You don't know why." "But The Octopus knows something." "Why do you say that?" "Because he told me he knows something." "You're delirious." "Come on." "No." "will you look at that." "buddy." "I was looking all over for you." "There." "That's better." "Yup." "That's better." "That tears it." "You're delusional." "over here!" "Ellen!" "right now!" "I can hear fluid in his chest." "but I swear it's there." "I got it." "He's got blood in both his lungs." "get him on Pegasus." "Go back to the helicopter." "I'll flip him over." "leave him flat." "Get me new gloves." "Gauze." "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." "sir." "I guess." "we're all damn impressed." "Thanks." "You're doing this town no good with your hot-dogging." "I don't follow you." "We're flat on our asses happy to clean up after your dog-and-pony show." "Not this again." "You know the score." "I thought I did." "Go ahead and enlighten me." "Bring me up to speed." "Sussman wanted things kept quiet." "Leave it at that." "He thinks I don't run a tight ship?" "Suspected a leak in your department." "Didn't want The Octopus getting away." "huh?" "I must have missed that memo." "it was a judgment call." "I gave it my best shot." "his head yanked off because you went off half-cocked after The Octopus." "You're damn right I'm going after The Octopus!" "And you're going through my men like toilet paper." "You been to Dropsie Avenue and C?" "Have you seen those girls?" "Yeah." "selling their souls slaves to The Octopus and his poison." "Dolan." "Maybe you and your force could work a little harder." "talking about cops like that." "Maybe if you and your force could find The Octopus huh?" "Solo?" "hotshot." "commissioner." "you" "son." "And all you got is a tired old man trying to hold you back." "we're both tired." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Just give me 10 minutes." "I don't know why I even bother to try and talk to you anymore." "Just give me 10 minutes." "Just to clear my head." "Right." "Sure." "What's 10 minutes in a man's life anyway?" "Spirit?" "Sir." "That cliff I was talking about?" "There's no bottom." "Don't jump." ""What are you?" That's what the woman asked me." "It's a good question." "I wish I had an answer for her." "Am I a crazy man?" "Or am I a man at all?" "like this one bone deep" "I wonder:" "Am I some sort of ghost?" "Some sort of Flying Dutchman?" "If the wind picked up hard enough wouldI justblowaway?" "I'm not a cop." "Not anymore." "Not even a dead man." "Not even a spirit." "boss." "Just like you said we would." "You still here?" "Of course I'm still here." "I'm your trigger." "I blowed holes right through The Spirit." "Pathos." "Just look at you." "Quick Draw McGraw himself." "I'll be great." "I don't have any bones sticking out." "I'll be good to go." "get fixed up all nice and new." "I'll have to explain why a criminal mastermind like myself doesn't provide his employees with medical insurance." "Pathos." "You know I don't like egg on my face." "Hadn't thought of that." "No." "you weren't built for." "Just tell me where the emergency room is." "I'll tell them I'm one of the homelesses." "They don't make them pay." "Homelesses always get hurt." "Because it's free." "That'll work!" "So will this." "No egg on my face!" "Not a glob!" "Not a glob." "little buddy." "Any other job." "If it were anyone but her." "Sand." "Sand Saref." "Where's your bike?" "or are you scared for a race?" "I got sick of that stupid bike." "You got sick of losing races to me is more like it." "Where'd you put it?" "I pawned it over at Fellman's." "I got a few bucks for it." "Pawned it?" "Look there." "I bet those are real diamonds." "Denny?" "Only real ones do that." "What's with you?" "Nothing much." "he's not drinking." "then?" "Just something that I saw over at the window at Kurtzman's." "like my dad's?" "no." "It wasn't a badge." "you ain't hardly earned a badge." "you know you might like seeing as how you like shiny things and all." "It opens up too." "You can take it and look at the picture." "old man Kurtzman said he'd take it back." "Do you like it?" "So you want me to be your girl?" "if if it's all the same to you." "I suppose I can wear it now and then." "But that doesn't make me your girl." "Yeah." "Doesn't make" "all right." "The way only city kids could." "I love it!" "It says here Heracles himself fought with the Argonauts." "Imagine Jason and Heracles back-to-back." "Yeah." "Jason gleaming in his Golden Fleece." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Then everything went right straight to hell." "My Uncle Pete was a has-been fighter." "a beat cop who was always looking out for dumb old Pete." "Pete!" "What's all this?" "What's all?" "My Uncle Pete did the only thing his punch-battered brain couldtellhimtodo." "Sand got there a few minutes before me." "Come on." "I tried to be strong for both of us." "Come on." "I said some stuff." "I can't remember what." "And then that jerk reporter latched onto us." "I can't miss this." "just how does this make you feel?" "Are you scared?" "so leave us alone." "You gotta give me something." "I'll give you something." "I'll give you three words." "I hate cops." "will you?" "Sand." "but you didn't mean what you said." "stay away." "Give it a while." "Give it a while?" "that's what I mean." "we grow up and we have kids in this sinkhole?" "You're just not talking straight." "And you become a cop just like you always wanted to." "maybe I do." "and then some punched-out drunk of an old boxer shoots you dead?" "Do you think I want that?" "It wasn't Pete!" "and you know that." "Who cares?" "You know what?" "I don't want your world." "and I want sports cars and I want long dresses and I want money." "And I want lots of it." "Sand?" "I'm not gonna find it here." "Not in this toilet of a town." "So you're too good for me?" "You're too good for all of us?" "Is that it?" "and I am too good for this dump." "I'm going far away." "All right." "become rich and no one is ever gonna know that I came from this hole!" "No one." "And I am never coming back." "Sand!" "I don't care about you neither." "I never even wanna see you again!" "Sand." "I never saw her again." "Word is she took off for Europe." "I never knew if she was alive or dead." "Until now." "There's only one way this locket ended up in poor Sussman's hand." "She was there." "She was wearing it." "She is implicated." "If she's doing business with The Octopus then my feelings don't mean a damn." "I must find Sand Saref and bring her in." "My beautiful Sand Saref." "my love?" "Nothing important." "Just something I lost a long time ago." "all of you." "A new age begins." "An age of great deeds." "An age of great power." "Yes." "All mine." "The blood of Heracles is mine." "I am sorely disappointed." "Which one of you brought me this?" "I guess that'd be me." "then." "Sure thing." "What happened?" "What went wrong?" "thanks for asking." "Where's my vase?" "I'm supposed to have a vase full of blood." "It's supposed to be in that box." "Must've been in the other box." "What other box?" "Must've been in the other box." "you fart?" "The one the pretty lady run off with." "We was watching." "Sand Saref." "I thought I scared her off with time to spare." "anyway?" "It didn't occur to you doorstops to mention that there was a second box?" "but it looked just like this one." "We was watching." "left to right." "That tickles." "toe cheese." "So Sand Saref has the blood." "you could've offed her and brought back both boxes." "That would've simplified things considerably." "I'm supposed to do everything around here?" "that'll wake you up." "You have to do something about Sand Saref." "Don't worry about Sand Saref." "That lady's got a thing for the bling." "She was after that other box and whatever it is that's inside of it." "It's kind of creepy the way it glows like that." "So the situation's hardly a debacle." "yes." "But we have what she wants." "boss." "find her now." "Tell her I have no problem with her." "blingy thingy." "Get me that blood." "And keep it safe!" "Spill one drop and I'll turn you all into hamburger." "Don't forget about The Spirit." "He's someone to contend with." "He's like a piece of gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe that won't let go." "You know what I mean?" "The kind you step on in the summer that just won't let go." "Am I doing this right?" "looks good." "because it really smarts." "even in winter." "Makes you step funny." "and we're gonna kill him now." "Or sometime soon." "He doesn't publish his address." "We're not going to look for him." "He's gonna come to us." "Real soon." "You have a plan." "I left the man a clue that will lead him right to us." "I promise." "anyway?" "If The Spirit drinks the blood if he so much as realizes what it could do to him then we're finished." "And because I said so." "Ms. Saref." "Are you?" "Take the promises you made to your lovely new wife." "and all that." "shall we?" "we shall." "Mr. Donenfeld." "It was to mark the climax of my career." "Its crown jewel." "The lost treasure of the Argonauts." "And it was even worth me coming back to this horrid city just to touch it." "To hold it." "To have it be mine." "The shiny thing to end all shiny things." "And I paid you a fortune for it." "but you screwed me." "So now we're gonna take every last one of those nickels and transfer them into another bunch of accounts." "What on earth are you talking about?" "You're gonna be quite the philanthropist." "darling." "He seems a tad dyspeptic." "sweetheart." "All right." "All right." "It's robin." "R-O-B-l-N." "Like the bird." "Or like the kid sidekick." "the one with the cute little tights and the tight little derrière." "It's going through." "Transfer complete." "Why the devil are you doing this to me?" "You sold me out." "I didn't have any choice." "Imagine my surprise when I show up at the drop point and ran smack into The Octopus." "what are the odds of that?" "Unless you sold the Argo's treasure twice making a perfect ass of yourself." "A perfect ass." "he didn't give me any choice." "he threatened my Your family." "Take a good look at those pictures." "They'll reach your family and every news service on the planet unless you render them irrelevant." "At least die bravely rodent." "Hold all calls." "got any change?" "What can I say?" "and now look at you." "Just look at you." "but why waste my breath?" "Look who's talking." "You take the night off." "I'm sure Mrs. Mahoney's heart transplant can wait." "And we might as well just hold off and see if old Spankowitz's liver explodes." "relax." "Maybe go see a show." "big man?" "I don't know." "I'd be up for anything." "anything." "movie." "Anything." "So long as things stay quiet?" "Yeah." "So long as things stay quiet." "Sure." "Like every crook in Central City goes on sabbatical?" "Or maybe if I break the rules." "I feel like breaking all kinds of rules." "Lower the blinds." "They're all down." "fast hands." "And quiet." "all right." "very quiet." "Keep the mask on." "Something tells me it might be better that way." "I lo" "Mr. Spirit." "You say lovely things to all of us and you mean every word you say." "Every time." "it's only you." "But we don't even know your real name." "I'll tell you my name." "Someday I'd love to do your autopsy." "thanks for the thought." "I'd make a fortune." "Spirit!" "Front and center!" "He's all yours." "Fresh as a daisy." "You should get some sleep." "Daddy." "Mr. Spirit." "I'm Morgenstern." "fresh from Baltimore." "Morgenstern." "we haven't got the whole day." "sir." "Bastard." "sir." "And what a job it is." "Central City's own masked manhunter." "You're worshipped by the kids." "Anything you'd care to share with them?" "youngsters." "Don't be too tough on your parents." "They work hard." "And remember brushyourteeth." "Every word a pearl of wisdom." "Don't forget to remind them to take their vitamins." "And for the ladies?" "we hang on your every word." "I don't think I could say anything other than thanks lovely creatures." "No two alike." "Jesus!" "Ever meet a skirt you didn't chase?" "Just trying to be nice." "You've been nice to my daughter." "lounge lizard?" "Lounge lizard?" "Where do you get off?" "I'll call you anything I want." "I don't know why I bother talking with you." "and right now we got our hands full." "you'd forgotten." "It's The Octopus." "Again with The Octopus." "He's up to something big and it's got to do with me." "He said some weird stuff about him and me." "I gotta find out what he's talking about." "It's important." "Hold it." "Can we forget about The Octopus for one minute?" "Just one minute?" "we got us a hot case and a murder suspect who's hauling her butt to the airport." "Her?" "Name is Sand Saref." "Sand Saref?" "Sand Saref." "Local girl." "Only picture of her." "It's over 15 years old." "Father was a cop." "Took one in the face." "Disappeared following her father's murder" "Told some snoop reporter that she hated cops." "she said she hated cops." "She hated cops." "That's what I said." "Moved to Europe." "runs every jewelry heist this side of Bulgari." "Except for in Central City." "She never came back." "You never heard of her." "right?" "She never came home." "You on drugs or something?" "Come on." "folks." "Behind the lines." "Commissioner." "Sand Saref." "She's overseen hundreds of jewelry robberies and in not one case was a police officer so much as wounded." "huh?" "Sounds like an Electra complex." "What's that?" "Electra complex." "Plain as your face." "I'm just an alter cocker." "Give me something to work with." "Old fart." "Jews today." "Can't take time to learn their own language." "Electra complex." "It's like an Oedipal complex except it's for girls." "She doesn't hate cops." "She's just angry she lost her daddy." "plain and simple." "Damn." "This girl's gonna make detective in no time." "sir." "You like her new jacket?" "Excuse me?" "You can't take your eyes off the ladies." "There's no chance in hell you haven't noticed Morgenstern's new flak jacket." "Even if you are on drugs." "I'm not on drugs." "these jackets." "We had us a shipment of these babies but we couldn't pay for them until today when we got a very generous private donation to the force." "One hundred million dollars generous." "A lot of money." "You're damn straight it is." "It was like a bolt out of the blue." "An online donation." "Anonymous." "anonymous." "Took our brain boys all of an hour to track it right back here." "To the offices of an expert in ancient artifacts." "who turned said artifacts into a fortune." "You might say he was a purveyor of stolen property a fence." "A world-class fence by the name of Donenfeld." "Yeah." "he ain't looking so good." "And my good buddy Seth here he says the old man had a visitor just about the same time he got the hard goodbye." "What did you say her name was again there?" "Sand." "Sand Saref." "She didn't have an appointment." "huh?" "it's a strange name." "It's one of a kind." "Yeah." "And my good buddy Seth here he couldn't be bothered to even call it in." "officer." "Mr. Donenfeld had a standing order." "I was never to come into his office unless he called me in." "Never." "ever." "kid." "get his number." "not her." "It's not possible." "So you do know her." "No." "If you're holding back on me I'm not." "it doesn't make any sense." "it fits together like goddamn macramé once you factor in her" "What'd you call it again there?" "that." "It's psychobabble." "Trying to hang a murder rap on that woman over some piece of psychobabble?" "Her name is Sand Saref and you know her and you're covering for her." "I never heard of any Sand Saref." "You're lying!" "Dolan." "You're lying to me." "Let go of my arm before I break yours." "sir?" "Tail him." "He's lying." "Sand." "You shouldn't have signed it." "find me a lead to The Octopus." "I will see it." "There." "I'm in." "And the aces have it." "This I keep as a souvenir." "The rest goes to the man who can get a message to The Octopus." "putting it all together." "here in my second life" "Ihadaprettygood idea  of what I had to do." "It all got down to me and The Octopus." "We were headed for a showdown." "I was finally gonna scrub the city clean of him onceandforall ." "It wasn't pretty but it was simple enough." "Then you come along like a sack of rocks to my face." "Sand?" "What the heck is going on?" "I've been rolling it around in my skull." "You and The Octopus?" "You and murder?" "Dolan's gotta be wrong." "some explanation." "not you." "Can't believe that about you." "on the outside you were warm." "And soft." "All woman." "One thing I'd bet my bottom dollar on:" "You wouldn't be caught dead hiding out in a fleabag likeanyordinary criminal would." "No." "your taste was always first-class." "All the way." "Weird." "That's just plain damn weird." "you promised the new hyper-addictive synapse accelerant would be ready by last week." "Don't you think that's plain damn weird?" "sir." "Just plain damn weird." "our profits are down 20 percent." "Good." "I was beginning to think it was just me." "That's plain damn weird." "sir." "I was trying to make us a smart one and this thing just sort of popped out." "Twenty percent across the board." "we'll make it up in units." "Word has hit the streets about the side effects." "No one likes having their teeth turned into graham crackers." "How can I get anything done with all this time on my hands?" "when my buddies here find Sand Saref" "I'll have the blood." "I'll just take it." "That's what gods do." "He is really damn little." "I mean it's really little." "we can't find her." "We looked everywhere." "Except where she was." "We should've looked there." "We did look." "please." "Just kill them all." "We can't spare them." "We're running low." "Yeah." "You're running low on us." "Floss said so." "We was listening." "I'm depressed." "I wish The Spirit would come so I could get me some real killing done." "that's going to be complex." "Spirit thinks he can't stay hurt." "That stuff I put in him and me is unstable." "Might not last." "The blood will take care of that." "I'm getting El Espirito dead while I still can." "To that end" "I got us another opinion." "Brought in a specialist." "Someone to seal the deal." "monsieur." "The black-eyed Venus is in Suite 1510." "Sand." "You gonna arrest me?" "Or do you have something else in mind?" "I'm bringing you in." "Hands behind your head." "You sure about that?" "Don't make me repeat myself." "Hands behind your head." "Your wish is my command." "Okay." "Put a robe on or something but no tricks." "sir." "you'll trip." "Why this?" "It's not like I killed him." "He did it to himself about an hour ago." "It's all the fault of this goddamned vase." "see for yourself." "yeah." "You are a common criminal." "There's nothing common about me." "Donenfeld." "If you're gonna lock me up stupid." "you're guilty of a lot." "I could burn a priest's ears confessing the half of it." "crime fighter." "wait for the forensics report." "I haven't shot anybody in days." "There probably isn't a law on the books that you wouldn't break." "Do I look like a good girl?" "You don't care who you've hurt?" "What's that got to do with anything?" "that fence and you?" "after all of these" "Nothing fits together." "There's that crazy talk from The Octopus about him and mister" "I don't care." "I don't even care about people that I like and I don't know you." "those you care about." "I don't see what use I could possibly be to you." "I have nothing to offer this rotten little town of yours." "I despise it." "There's one thing between that river and that ocean that I came here for." "What?" "That stupid vase?" "It wasn't supposed to be a vase." "It was supposed to be worth something more than jewels." "Something a little girl's dreams are made of." "I knew a little girl like that once." "You don't know anything." "Get out." "She was a very sweet girl but the world broke her heart." "She wasn't after any vase." "little girl?" "You were looking for a hero and his armor." "The only man who would know that is dead." "The Fleece." "The Golden Fleece." "Jason's Golden Fleece." "He's dead." "You're dead." "You're dead." "Will you look at that?" "Don't that beat all?" "it's The Spirit." "He's street pizza." "He looks stupid." "Wanker." "You'll believe a man can't fly." "Jump already." "jump jump" "Get me the hell out of here." "Not right now." "I'm kind of busy." "It's Morgenstern." "I might have a lead for you." "Nobody noticed all of that salt." "It was right under our noses." "Could you pick up the pace?" "Salt." "Industrial salt." "we found him dead near the flats." "Remember where Sussman got shot?" "it was caked all over his shoes." "Dolan was right." "you'll make detective in no time." "sir." "I gotta go." "I'll buy you a drink." "show's over." "Time to move on." "didn't it?" "Reunions between old sweethearts will have to wait." "Octopus you're gonna answer me some questions." "Morgenstern said there was salt on his shoes." "There's plenty of it here." "Plenty of bad guys too." "All the enemy has is guns and knives." "I have an entire city as my weapon." "My arsenal:" "Iron-jawed fire escapes." "Man-made lightning." "Unforgiving pavement." "She provides for me." "She protects me." "my city is." "She's a good mother." "She always shows me the way." "What a fine detective." "You followed the breadcrumbs right to us." "You're not doing anybody good by falling asleep on the job." "get yourself some proper rest?" "You look like something that the cat dragged in." "Daddy." "I was just checking in on Sussman." "They wouldn't let me see him." "Twits." "they're trying to save his spine." "Yeah?" "What's the odds of him walking again?" "Hard to tell." "Miracles do happen." "Damn Spirit." "Daddy." "He's a goddamn menace." "He's something the world needs." "He's a hero." "He's a goddamn menace and my own daughter's in love with him." "waiting up." "Yes." "He's why I'm still here tonight." "Yeah." "Just in case they wheel him in here one more goddamn time." "Just in case." "So you can lose your youth stapling his parts back?" "I'm not a child." "And I rarely use staples on anybody." "Can't you see what you're doing?" "I know exactly what I'm doing." "I'm giving him exactly what he needs." "He's using you." "He needs me." "I'm the only one who knows his body." "How to treat him." "from what I hear." "That's not what I meant." "Plenty of broads he's stretched across a gurney or what have you knowing just what to say." "So this is why you came here tonight." "Melting them like butter with his fingers" "That's enough." "Don't make me ask you to leave." "I don't know how to talk about this stuff." "You surely don't." "Why do you think I spend my nights knocking around that house all alone?" "Guess she had her reasons." "You're married to your job." "So am I." "So is he." "You were so much happier in the old days with Denny." "Denny's dead." "Yeah." "Denny Colt is dead." "he was." "And I'll never forget him but we keep going." "I lost my Boy Scout." "Yeah." "Yeah huh?" "Daddy." "I just hope that son of a bitch knows how lucky he is." "He doesn't." "I can feel you." "You're so weary." "Let me hold you." "What smells dental?" "Dental and Nazi." "Great." "no." "brother." "some darn strange women." "But this one she's got the final word on strange." "I am Plaster." "Plaster of Paris." "I will stick to my man." "Till death do us part." "Death." "death." "isn't it?" "We eat so we won't die." "We mate so that our seed will live on." "Create art and build skyscrapers so that our names will be remembered for centuries." "how are you?" "What can I do for you?" "A message?" "And from whom would that be?" "I know her." "you should've known better than to play cards with her." "And what would her message be?" "The projects?" "oh." "I know it." "then." "Let's say after dinner." "my honored friend." "Where was I?" "Death." "yes." "We live our short twisting this way and that." "Music and ambition." "all to keep our eyes off diamond-hard retaining wall realizing it will splatter our brains like eggs." "but is there a point to all this?" "Because I'm getting old just listening to you." "you are really thick." "You just don't get it." "you and me." "Ain't neither one of us getting old." "I sure as heck can get bored." "You keep teasing about how we're two of a kind." "So how's that?" "Octopus?" "I'm getting to that." "move it along." "pretty boy?" "Not the sort of thing a guy forgets." "I remember." "you were stone-cold dead." "Not a breath of life in you." "You were perfect." "Dead as Star Trek." "And I was your coroner." "much more than that." "I'd built up a righteous drug trade." "It's amazing how much a hospital doesn't miss." "spruce it up and achtung." "Swiss bank accounts." "But mere money was never what The Octopus was after." "so I give up." "What were you after?" "lmmortality." "All five sweet syllables of it." "There had to be a better way to keep someone alive other than cutting them open like some free-range chicken." "ugly-ass eggs." "They piss me off." "they piss me off." "Or pills." "They're just another way to stall death." "Cling on for a heartbeat." "Hardly the answer." "I got down to basics." "The essence of life." "I cracked code." "Genetics." "you're a real smart fella." "Thank you." "But it wasn't that easy." "And I've got a freezer full of stray beagles to prove it." "what that serum did to those poor dogs was just plain wrong." "I had to try it out." "I wasn't about to try it on myself." "I might've come out looking funny." "I needed a human." "And there I was." "And there you was." "I gave you a modest injection and I waited." "Your second life began that very night." "Do you remember?" "I remember." "Somewhere in the midst of all that praying andwhimperingandsniveling youmusthavefound something sharp." "I always wanted to ask:" "Where did you go when you got out?" "I took a walk." "I had myself a think." "I visited an old friend." "I still breathe." "but I'm still alive." "all I wanted to be was a good cop." "That's all changed." "Everything's changed." "sir." "The bad guys are winning." "I think I've got something more to fight back with now." "I'm something else now." "I can do things they won't let cops do." "But I can't have any weaknesses." "No name." "No friends." "I have to stay dead in everybody's eyes." "Even Ellen's." "But I could be your spy." "I could work with your men." "in the shadows." "its Its" "Its spirit." "enter The Spirit." "Pain in the ass." "Tough as nails." "Eureka!" "and we became brothers under the skin." "Octopus?" "You're works in progress." "And once he has the vase and its contents lost over millennia he'll drink of it and he'll become immortal." "Don't tease." "clue me in." "What's in the vase?" "Thor's hammer?" "No." "Better." "The DNA of a god." "Not a god." "Not exactly." "they don't mix very well." "The only route to take is to find the connection between man and god the child of an immortal and a human." "so he made bags and bags of heroes." "the greatest of them all was Heracles." "And we found his ass." "his blood anyway." "He left some blood around." "And we know where it is." "So that's the missing link between science and magic." "once Heracles' blood mixes with Octopus' formula" "I become a god." "Or the next best thing." "I become a god." "And you'll be just one more sad little byproduct." "many failures." "now." "Rome wasn't built in a day." "look at all the lovely buddies I've made along the way." "We was easy to make." "the boss says we was easy to make." "But your failures were several." "And unpleasant." "you get so much as one little drop and everything just" "Let me show you." "It's kind of sad but it's really kind of cool too." "This is Muffin." "She's my favorite." "We have to have people over more often." "I like this." "The cat." "She is all the reason I need." "I will kill you." "man." "Your system's been prepared." "You're the only one the blood won't kill." "One sip and you could be rendered as immortal as he." "The Octopus can be the only one." "There can be no competition once he's world ruler." "then everyone will have to do what I say." "They will all have to do what I say because I will be the ruler of the world." "Then everything will start to make sense." "everything will make sense." "Everything will start to make sense." "Let's get back to business." "back to business." "Back to killing your ass." "here's where things become a little tricky." "It's all about integration." "you heal very quickly." "Your wounds mend in moments." "is to affect your systemic disintegration." "In short to render you into so many different parts spread so far that reintegration would be impossible." "And being the man that I am" "I like to start from the bottom and work my way up." "bring me those bags." "I'm going to mail your ass all over the country." "Plaster bring me his toes." "Plaster." "Enough of this frog talk." "I don't understand it." "Paris give me his toes." "That's an order." "I hate you." "This is for Sand." "This is for me." "And this one's for Muffin." "That all you got?" "Who is this Sand?" "Not now." "Let's go." "The Spirit." "Plaster." "And this is for Sand." "I am Plaster of Paris." "The toast of Montmartre." "I will stick to my man." "Till death do us part." "You're close now." "very close." "You can't fight me." "You." "You are mine." "Mine." "Mine." "I know the feeling." "You should meet my wife." "Just put one foot in front of the other." "Here we go again." "I'm dead again." "The fight's gone out of me." "Lorelei." "Come." "Come." "Come." "Come." "Come." "It is time." "Come." "Come." "No more pain." "No more suffering." "Denny." "Give up the ghost." "Give up the spirit." "my darling." "Yes." "No." "It is done." "It is done." "It is done." "What's it they say about when you die aboutyourwholelife flashing before your eyes?" "Forget all that." "All I see are women." "always there to put my ragged pieces back together." "And Sand." "That poor lost soul." "beautiful Sand." "It's so funny my last thought would be of Sand." "No." "you're not for me just yet." "not again." "They need me." "I gotta go back." "Denny Colt." "You won't escape me forever." "They need me." "Sand at the projects." "Octopus." "Pieces." "Pieces of Sand." "Pieces." "Pieces of Octopus." "Octopus." "You're mine." "Always with The Octopus." "like?" "Not right now." "But three hours with no vitals." "Shouldn't he ought to be dead?" "It's a long story." "Somebody get me a tie." "And it sure as hell better be red." "you better know your place." "Hold on." "not some vigilante." "I am gonna blast you in half myself." "You got that?" "I got an idea." "it's good." "I promise." "you keep that thing pointed at The Octopus." "you blow his head off." "baby?" "baby." "Our wedding night." "Who the hell are you?" "it's not like that." "this is fun for me." "Fun?" "we look fabulous doing it then we leave." "You're looking to get yourself killed." "Would you lighten up?" "Should we start shooting?" "Don't know." "you polyp." "No sign of The Octopus." "Hell of a waste of time if he didn't show up." "we are locked and loaded." "rookie." "I'm an excellent shot." "Is every goddamn woman in this goddamn hellhole we're just equipped." "he's just using you." "Sure he is." "I run a very lucrative operation and I'm great eye candy." "I have my Ph.D. all paid for." "Fine." "Tell lug nuts over there to give me the box." "you start that walking." "As far away from that animal as you possibly can." "He will kill you." "He kills everything." "that's all." "Give them the vase." "Boss said I start shooting now." "Get in the truck." "Nobody goes anywhere." "Floss please." "Get in the truck." "now." "Walk." "Heracles?" "I always thought it was "Hercules." "You." "you found your armor." "Use it." "What is it with you and women?" "Octopus you were right." "We're mistakes." "We never should have happened." "this is crazy." "Hold your horses." "He doesn't want any cops getting killed." "You're not making this easy." "kid." "It ends tonight." "You got that right." "I'm The Octopus." "I got eight of everything." "There's shot to hell." "And shot to hell." "And there's just plain ridiculous." "Now." "Octopus." "All we needed was to flush you and your gunsels out." "move." "boys." "your daughter's here." "We need more men over there." "Daddy?" "Have you forgotten what I do for a living?" "He might need me." "he doesn't want you here." "You don't know that." "You don't know him." "You don't know a damn thing." "Stop her." "Pull her back." "sir." "Runny eggs." "Finally." "Yes." "Yes." "Yeah!" "Wha?" "Sand." "Passes its first field test." "Let's die." "no." "God." "Mother." "Sand." "You lost something." "Old man Kurtzman said he'd take it back." "Well maybe I'll wear it now and then." "But it doesn't mean I'm your girl." "are you all right?" "Sand." "Denny." "Spirit." "Dolan." "Just let her go." "She saved me." "She saved the world." "you had something to do with it." "All right." "All right." "Just stay out of my face." "So who the hell was that back there?" "Who is she?" "Just an old flame." "she looks old." "baby." "With all my heart." "Yeah." "Me and every other woman you meet." "You are amazing." "rookie." "Bastard." "We start from scratch." "Who knows what I'll do?" "She wakes." "Grouchy as always." "Endlessly noisy." "Endlessly alive." "She's all I really have." "My only hope." "My only constant." "The secrets of The Octopus died with him." "I don't know what I am or how long I got." "maybe I'll live forever." "I hope not." "That's nothing any man ought to have." "That's nothing any man ought to want." "Denny Colt is dead." "I'm something else now andI cannevergivemyheart  to anyone but her." "She will always be mine and I will always be hers." "body and soul." "She is the love of my life." "She is my city." "And I amherSpirit." "Subtitles ßy MühàmmáÐ Ü§mâñ"