New players on the scene in Boston are poking the Tiger….

Everybody who knows Dirk Allen fron Dick Nasty knows that Boston is under the thumb of one of the most powerful Cliomancers in the world. After he rolled John Harvard after World War II, he’s owned this town.

Then the school year started and there’s a new sheriff in town.

It looks like The Old Man woke up with the name “Fat Sam” on his lips. The way I hear it, he didn’t kill Harvard. He’s got his spirit locked up in one of those closed-off rooms near Bunker Hill. Harvard cost him his arm and his face. He figured he could twist the knife while dusting up on his charge for the day everyday. I know how vindictive that bastard can be; I still owe money to his school.

That’s why I’m mopping the joint at six in the morning. I overheard him ask Harvard’s ghost who Fat Sam was. See, when Harvard got killed, The Old Man gets to ask him all sort of stuff that Harvard has to answer. Harvard just laughed.

“At the end of the game,” the ghost said, “the king and pawn go in the same box.”

And I haven’t seen that ghost since. From what I hear, Fat Sam is getting his hands on every duke that comes to school in Boston. The Old Man’s time is coming. I heard he’s looking to swear fealty to the King of Southie to get at the historical sites in the North End. The Old Man would give his good arm for that kind of power. Plus, this boozehound I know told me over a cup of kerosene that the Swap Meet is thinking of coming to Beantown. They can smell a bull market 10 years away.

Me? I’m getting out before the Tiger wakes up.