"A man has an idea. The idea attracts others, like-minded." He began to pace around the table, drawing every eye like a magnet, his voice intense and compelling. Everyone was confused, yet they couldn't help but listen. "The idea expands. The idea becomes ... an institution!" He spun around to face them again. "What was the idea?" he challenged them, holding them spellbound like a TV evangelist.

"See, that's what's been bothering me, boys." Now his mood shifted from irritation to profound self-satisfaction. He leaned on the table, looking at them with his strange, reddish eyes. "But, I'll tell you, when I used to think about the idea itself, I'd put a big old smile on my face. You see, gentlemen: greed ... is for amateurs!

"Disorder, chaos, anarchy ... now that's fun!" His voice rose to a near-shout as Eric listened with a cold fury--for years this man had turned the city into a living hell ... and he called it fun!

But his soldiers weren't impressed--they could care less about anarchy when there was money to be made. "What about Devil's Night?" one of them demanded sulkily. "What about it?" Top Dollar dismissed the question. "I started the first fires in this god-damned city ... before I knew it, every charlatan and shit-heel was imitating me!" Not that he'd ever allowed his "imitators" to get away with much, but still, it rankled.

Outside on the fire escape, Eric lifted his eyes and stared into the pulsing night. Soon. It would be soon now, and then the gnawing sense of incompletion that consumed him like a flame would be extinguished ... along with all his enemies.

"Shit, you know what they got now?" Top Dollar snorted in disgust, sing-songing his answer: "'Devil's Night greeting cards'! Isn't that precious?" Obviously the idea nauseated him. He went on, quieter, even a little resigned: "The idea has become the institution, boys. Time to move along."

"You don't want us to do "light my fire" time for the whole city?" one of the soldiers asked nervously, and a subtle wave of rebellion rippled across the assembled men.

"No!" Top Dollar took their doubt and discontent and shaped it to his own ends, manipulating them all like a puppet master. "No, I want you to set a fire so goddamn big the gods'll notice us again, that's what I'm saying!" His voice rose, pounding at them like a heavy sea. "I want all of you boys to be able to look me straight in the eye one more time and say 'Are we havin' fun or what?'!"