The Word | Sic Transit | Credits
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While waiting for the others to get ready to leave, Rez grabs a bunch of brochures for local tourist attractions from the motel lobby. He rapidly reads through them while sitting on the hood of the car.
Appoggee/squirrel tries to get someone to take the shower cap, as it seems like it'll work as a hat for its street act. Unfortunately for Appoggee, it manages to get Zenaniel's attention. Zenaniel sees it gesturing at the cap, and completely misses the point. He picks up the squirrel, turns on the shower, and holds it under the water for a few seconds. Zenaniel then asks what he should do with the now annoyed and damp rodent, and Janet tells him to shut it in her briefcase so they can smuggle it into the prison. He does so, over Appoggee/squirrel's protests.
Rez drives them to the prison, which is a few miles out of town. After almost running one horse-and-buggy off the road, he slows down to just about the speed limit.
As they get near the prison, Appoggee/squirrel scratches furiously on the briefcase, and they let it out. They pull up to the gates of the prison, which are shut. Over the intercom, a bored voice asks them their business, and whether they are carrying any concealed weapons or other contraband. Janet, who called ahead, says they are not, then gives her name, and the gates are opened for them. They drive past the fence and guard towers and pull into the parking lot.
In the lobby of the prison, a woman is having a heart attack. Gaudior goes off with her and her daughter and grandaughter to the hospital. Everyone else goes into the visitors' room for the interviews with the prisoners. They eventually all meet up again in the prison parking lot, and drive back to New York.
The angels arrive in Spanish Harlem
around 4 pm. The afternoon is cold and grey, but there are still a lot of
people out and about. They drive by La Marqueta, an indoor-outdoor ethnic
shopping area, where one can buy fruits and vegetables, medicinal herbs,
and home-made candles, to name just a few.
They arrive at the address given to them, and find that it is a
rowhouse. When they knock on the door, a Hispanic man in his mid 40's
answers it. Shilom asks if Carrasco is in, and the man says he'll be back
tonight. Gaudior confirms that this is true. When Shilom asks if they
can wait here for him, he says no, and starts to close the door.
Unfortunately for him, Zenaniel has been checking him with his resonance,
and finds, among other things, that he is a practitioner of black magic.
Shilom sees Zenaniel's eyes widen, and shouts "Zenaniel!" but is too late
to stop him from grabbing the man by the throat and pushing him into the
house. Shilom and Gaudior follow and shut the door, and Rez and
Appoggee/squirrel wait outside, where Rez spends some time doing chalk
drawings on the sidewalk.
Zenaniel deposits the man on the couch in the living room, and tells Shilom that he is a sorceror. Shilom upbraids Zenaniel for his rash actions outside, and has just started to question the sorceror when they hear footsteps upstairs. Zenaniel tells the man to tell his friends to give themselves up if they don't want to die. The sorceror evidently finds this funny, and starts to laugh. Zenaniel slaps him to shut him up and as he heads upstairs, he suddenly knows that there will be a fight.
There are three bedrooms upstairs. The first is empty, but Zenaniel hears noises from the second, which is locked. He breaks the lock, and is face to face with seven zombis in the first stages of decomposition. They are pale and have long claws on their hands and bare feet, and they stare at him with dead eyes as they shuffle to attack.
Zenaniel stands outside the door, and is able to pick off three before the others wise up and back into the room, waiting. The noise of the fighting has alarmed Shilom, who goes upstairs to see what's happening. She leaves her gun with Gaudior. Though Gaudior is not the strongest of angels, he is perfectly capable of keeping a gun trained on the captive sorceror.
Zenaniel wades into the room to continue the fight, and Shilom goes in with him. Her fighting style is purely defensive, as befits a Mercurian. She wards off most of the blows from herself, and keeps a few from Zenaniel's back as he methodically dispatches the rest of the undead. He bears the slashing attacks calmly until one claw gets through to Shilom's face. At that point, concerned for Shilom, he redoubles his efforts. His vessel is sadly wounded, but he emerges victorious. Shilom has a small scratch on her cheek.
When Zenaniel and Shilom come back downstairs, their captive's eyes widen in disbelief. The angels try to get him to tell them where his Carrasco is, and who he is working for. He asks whether they will kill him anyway, and Zenaniel says he will. The man says that he serves his Master, and is confident that he will be rewarded for that service. Zenaniel shrugs and chops off his head, a little too quickly for Shilom and Gaudior, who think that they could have learned more given time. The small amount of blood and the general condition of the body show that this man was an undead as well, most probably a mummy.
Reziphel and Appoggee/squirrel heard the Symphonic disturbance the battle caused, so they are somewhat anxious by the time they are finally let into the rowhouse.
[End 4/2/99]
[Begin 5/7/99]
Killing eight undead has caused an enormous amount of Symphonic noise. A rough calculation reveals that most celestials within a 17 mile radius know that Something Happened. The angels do a quick search of the house, and in a rare display of unanimity, leave as quickly as possible in Janet's car.
Once underway, Zenaniel spends his last essence and goes celestial in preparation for ascending to Heaven. He judges that he will subject his companions to less danger that way, as he will be difficult to track there. Before he can make the ascent, he sees an Impudite beckoning to him.
The Impudite Meremoth, who resembles a Hispanic man in his middle sixties, asks Zenaniel what he means by all this. Zenaniel, a bit taken aback because the Impudite is not afraid of him, says that he caused the disturbance. The demon scolds Zenaniel for destroying all his lovely undead, and his favorite servant, too. He wishes he had time to teach Zenaniel a lesson, but he is expecting unwanted guests, and has much work to do. He and Zenaniel agree to meet later to settle their differences.
Still uncomfortable about the encounter, Zenaniel ascends to his heart. He speaks briefly to one of the guardians stationed near the hearts, who is surprised and slightly embarrassed to find that Zenaniel has come to Heaven without being killed in battle.
As Michael is not currently in the Groves, Zenaniel reports to Doxas, Angel of Glory. After hearing his story, she admonishes him to return to Earth and carry out his duties there; he should not be running back to Heaven when things start to get tough. She applauds his slaughter of the undead, but enjoins him to consider his actions more carefully in the future. Forethought could have netted the Impudite as well as the undead.
Zenaniel, still with no essence and a badly-wounded vessel, watches his heart for a while, and then heads for the Library, where he descends to the stacks of the New York Public Library.
After making sure they are not being followed, and successfully fleeing a police car, Reziphel is convinced to drive at a somewhat less hair-raising pace. The remaining angels drive around the city for a while, looking at the Christmas lights and the shoppers milling about in the cold. Janet calls Portia on her cellphone and lets her know about the situation. Portia asks her to keep her up-to-date on events.
They return to Shilom's apartment about two hours later. It's now close to 7:30. Reziphel amuses himself by going through Shilom's CD's. Appoggee/squirrel decides it wants to try some peanuts, but Janet doesn't have any in her apartment. She asks Rez to go over to the park and find some, thinking he'll be able to get some from the peanut vendors there.
Unfortunately, the peanut vendors have gone for the night. Rez thinks for a bit, and remembers that there is a Chinese dish called kung pao chicken that has peanuts in it. He runs to a nearby Chinese restaurant, where he orders take-out. While waiting at the bar, he sees a bowl of peanuts. The bartender tells him he's welcome to take some, and he takes her at her word. He scoops all but one out of the bowl before rushing back to the apartment. He hands off the peanuts to Appoggee/squirrel, and goes back for the take-out. The restaurant staff is a bit confused, but this is New York after all.
Meanwhile, Zenaniel, still in his torn and bloody clothes and vessel, is greeted at the library by Bob the reliever. Bob asks him if he is alright, and Zenaniel tells Bob about his recent battle. They decide that his blood-stained clothing will make mortals uneasy, and Bob volunteers to get him some new things. Zenaniel doesn't know his clothing sizes, but Bob says he'll see what he can do. He takes his credit card, tells him not to get any blood on the books, and is gone. When he returns, he has a huge white T-shirt, an enormous pair of blue jeans, and a belt. Zenaniel puts these on over his other clothes, puts his coat on top of that, thanks Bob, and leaves to find a cab.
He quickly flags one down, but now he has a problem. He can't remember where Janet lives, or her phone number, or even her last name. The cabby, a young black man with dreadlocks and the name Jimbo Jones, is remarkably patient with him, and Zenaniel is finally able to remember that it is Janet Stone. He tries to go back into the library for a phone book, but the library is closed and he's not sure how to attract Bob's attention. He then asks to be driven to the FBI Building.
The guards at the FBI Building will not give him any information about Janet, including confirming whether she works there, so he gives them a message to pass on to her: Gil Patton was here looking for Janet. Next he asks the cabby to drive him to a phone book. The cabby takes him to a local bar. The bartender sells him a Pepsi for $4.50, charges his credit card $10, and gives him the change in quarters and dimes so he can call all ten J. Stones in the Manhattan phone book.
It's now about 8:30. The other angels are wondering where Zenaniel is when he finally dials the 9th number and gets Janet. Janet manages to find out where Zenaniel is in spite of his helpful comments, and sends Rez to pick him up. After Zenaniel pays the cab driver with his credit card, Jimbo tells him "I'll be seeing you" before he drives away.
Zenaniel practices acting like everybody else at Joe's Bar and Grill until Rez shows up. The bartender asks Rez to take care of him, as he is a bit concerned about both his physical and mental state. Zenaniel is rather quiet during the ride back.
After Shilom instructs Zenaniel how to properly wear his new clothes so as
to match the current kids' fashions, the angels drive back to the rowhouse
to search the place and pick up Dr. Lord's car. When they arrive,
Appoggee looks around for a human vessel. It rejects the first couple
walking by, and instead latches on to a woman who is just coming out of a
rowhouse across the street. This woman is white, about 30, and has blonde
frizzy hair. She's wearing a mauve dress with a wide belt, covered up by
a long coat.
As she crosses the street towards them, Zenaniel resonates on her and
figures out she's Appoggee. He then resonates Shilom for good measure,
and finds out that she has failed to report an outcast angel to Dominic.
When he asks her about that, she tells him it's none of his business.
The angels enter the rowhouse around 10 pm; Appoggee/squirrel waits outside with Janet's car. They turn on the lights and send Reziphel upstairs to take a quick look around. The zombis have been removed from the bedroom, though the floor is still stained. Someone pokes his head out of the third bedroom, says "Oops, company! Gotta go!" and ducks back into the room. Reziphel follows and grabs at the man just before he runs out of the window. Surprisingly, he does not fall, but runs out onto thin air and disappears above the roof of the house. Appoggee/squirrel sees him come down in the street nearby and get into an old beat-up '77 Buick. The car has had its back window broken out and replaced with plastic and duct tape, the body is a combination of green paint and rust, and the motor sounds terrible. The man, slender, white, narrow-faced, and sporting a sparse beard and moustache, roars away as the squirrel tries to jump onto the hood. It fails, and comes down in a cloud of exhaust (the car also needs a ring job, and the muffler sounds like it's about to fall off), but is able to get the license plate which it dictates to Shilom via its human host.
The other angels, hearing the noise, rush upstairs to see what's going on. They find a disappointed Rez, who tells them what happened. The clothes are missing from the third bedroom, though not the first. The beheaded mummy has also been removed from the living room.
The basement door is unlocked, and the angels turn on the one bare lightbulb and go down. The basement floor is hard-packed dirt, with scratches similar to those in the zombis' bedroom. A wooden altar painted to look like stone sits at one end of the room; it looks like the altar in the portrait of Iglesias that was found in his apartment. It's stained with blood, which has also seeped into the dirt around it. There are about a dozen folding chairs in rows facing the altar, and a bunch of feathered cloaks hanging on hooks along the side wall. One of these is a genuine antique, but the rest are costumes. Appoggee/woman gets some garbage bags from the kitchen and puts the genuine cloak in one bag and five of the costume cloaks in another.
On the altar is a 3x5 card, with the words "I'm finished with him" and an address written in careful script. Shilom takes the card and calls in the rowhouse address and the Buick's license plate, and Zenaniel hacks the altar to little bits.
They drive both cars to the address, which is an old run-down 8-story apartment building. Appoggee/squirrel stays with the cars. There is no elevator, and the stairwells smell like urine and garbage. At apartment 503, Shilom knocks on the door. After a minute or so a voice asks who's there, and Shilom says she's a friend of Montessa's, and has to talk to him. The voice tells her to go away. While Shilom is arguing with him, Zenaniel uses his resonance and finds, among other things, that the man has "figured out how to use the cup", and has "gotten even with them all". When the suspect says he has a gun, and then shoots the wall next to the door, Zenaniel breaks the door down. The man is knocked to the floor, involuntarily firing into the ceiling, and Zenaniel kneels on top of him, backhanding him once when he protests his innocence. The gun is taken away.
Iglesias, for it must be he, looks perhaps 20 years younger than his pictures would indicate. Rez recognizes him as a fugitive from justice right away, and brings out his knife. The room is dingy and dirty, with only one ripped chair and a small scarred end table. Around the walls are dozens of Moche artifacts, kept in as pristine condition as is possible under the circumstances. Rez picks up one of the Moche pots, and starts to carve it. Iglesias begs him to stop, and Rez asks him where the scepter is. Iglesias involuntarily glances towards one corner of the room, and Rez picks the scepter out of a small heap of objects.
The scepter is three feet long, showing a creature half-feline and half-reptile copulating with a woman on a throne. The beast's teeth are bared as if it would devour her. The throne is surrounded by double rows of mace heads, and above those are a row of tiny double-faced human heads, each crowned with a horned helmet.
Rez asks Iglesias what the scepter does, and Iglesias says it does nothing, which Gaudior verifies. Rez says he will cut this up as well, and Iglesias starts to cry. Appoggee/woman is also upset by his threats, and Rez, realizing that he is thinking like a Calabite, hands the scepter to Appoggee so that he won't be tempted to destroy it.
Iglesias is picked up and put into the chair. Zenaniel watches through the peephole as the others question him. Iglesias is emotionally unstable, crying one minute and making impassioned angry speeches the next. He claims that he keeps the ways of his people, and when he is accused of stealing from his country, he indignantly says that he pays for his treasures, and that the archeologists are the real thieves. When questioned about the murders, he looks away and will not answer. They show him the 3x5 card from the rowhouse, and tell him that Carrasco has hung him out to dry. When asked about the cup, he says that Carrasco took it away earlier tonight, but he will not say what he used it for. He does not believe in Hell, and scoffs at their talk about dark powers. At one point he begins shouting in Spanish, and will not stop until Rez puts a hand over his mouth and threatens him with the knife. He appeals to Janet as an FBI officer, but she replies that if he doesn't tell them what they want to know, she will leave the room and let Rez have his way.
The noise has awakened the neighbors, and Zenaniel hears voices outside the door. He goes out and sees a group of people huddled at the end of the hall, talking together in Spanish. He tells them to get back into their apartments, and after one look at him, they do. He checks the upstairs hall, which is clear, but hears loud voices from the apartment above 503. The inhabitants are somewhat upset about being shot at.
Police sirens are heard, and Janet puts in a call to the NYPD, letting them know she has the situation in hand. Just before two officers arrive to take Iglesias into custody, Rez tells Iglesias "I'll see you later tonight." Shortly afterwards he, Gaudior, and Appoggee/squirrel leave for Dr. Lord's office. Rez wants Gaudior to take him into Iglesias's dreams tonight so that he can punish him. Gaudior says he will ask permission from Blandine, but that he cannot promise anything.
Janet calls Harry Stone, a night court judge, to get a warrant to search the apartment. He jokingly calls her his cousin, and says that she can come pick it up in about an hour.
Janet gets a call about the Buick: it's registered to Harold Masters with an address in North Dakota. The rowhouse was rented to Dr. James Selkirk, employed by one of the local hospital morgues.
In the meantime, Appoggee/woman has been making a list of the visible artifacts. A forensics expert shows up to inventory the apartment, and begins hitting on Appoggee/woman. He is in his 50's, wears a wedding ring, and is paunchy and bald; Appoggee calls herself Julia and give him Janet's apartment number, which annoys Janet quite a bit. Janet leaves to pick up the warrant, and the other angels are asked to wait in the hall. At that point Appoggee finally checks the woman's clutch purse and finds that it is inhabiting Delphine Gliozzo.
Janet shows up at the courthouse around midnight. She spends a few minutes innocently flirting with Judge Stone, and then heads back to the apartment with the warrant.
The ensuing search turns up a few more artifacts, business cards from several antique dealers in NYC, and a hand-written card with Marshall Hanley's mobile phone number on it.
Before leaving the apartment for the last time at about 1 am, Janet calls in an APB on the Buick, and notifies the Port Authority about Selkirk, Carrasco, and Masters. She also asks that Iglesias be put into a holding cell, in the hope that nothing human or demonic will be able to get to him there.
[End 5/7/99]
[Begin 5/14/99]
Gaudior talks to Blandine about the situation. Reziphel waits impatiently with Appoggee/squirrel. The rest of the angels go to Riker Island to interview Iglesias once again. Rez and Appoggee manage to keep Gaudior from falling asleep until they leave. Janet calls the cell phone number of Hanley, and arranges to meet him under the bridge.
Gaudior falls asleep, and appears in Iglesias' dream. Iglesias is standing at the base of a huge stepped pyramid, on a cold desolate plain that stretches as far as the eye can see. The stones of the pyramid are dull and grey, in sharp contrast to Iglesias: he is dressed as a Moche priest, wearing a colorful feather cloak, huge pendant earrings, an elaborate headdress with the distinctive moon-shaped knife on top, and a gold backflap.
With a small effort of will, Gaudior appears before him in a mirror, as an image of Iglesias that continues to look exactly like him, but that no longer moves with him. Iglesias is a little surprised, but takes it all in stride. He and Gaudior talk about what he is doing here, and Gaudior tells him that he will accompany him. Iglesias accepts Gaudior as an extension of himself, and they start walking around the base of the pyramid.
Rounding a corner, they see the giant stone staircase that leads to the top. Iglesias is hesitant, but explains that he must do this because that is the way his people do things. How does he know this? He has read the stories, and Carrasco has showed him that the old ways are true.
They begin to climb the stairs. The sky grows dark and stormy, and black clouds gather at the top. It is a nightmarish climb; the stairs seem to stretch endlessly in front of and behind them. They climb with great effort, as if through mud. Iglesias has broken into a sweat; his face is pale but determined.
Without warning, they are at the top. Lightning flashes over the empty stone altar set in the middle of the pyramid. Iglesias confides to Gaudior that he never likes this part. When they look at the altar again, there is a young Hispanic woman atop it. She is naked and her hands and feet are bound behind her. Frightened and unable to speak through her gagged mouth, she struggles as she stares beseechingly at Iglesias, who now holds a cup and a knife. Iglesias says that he never meant to kill her, but he was unable to stop himself. He had only wanted to talk to her, but when she refused to see him -- she had treated him as if he were nothing, as if he were a common criminal. An uncontrollable rage had swept over him, and when he could think again, she was dead. But Carrasco and Hanley had helped him. Carrasco knew the old ways, the ways of his people. He only had to do what he said, and the Moche, his true ancestors, would live again through him.
He asks Gaudior to "do it" this time. Gaudior gently refuses. Iglesias still hesitates for a few seconds, and then walks to the bound woman. He cuts her throat with a knife, and catches her blood in the cup as, dying, she thrashes weakly on the altar. Turning away from her, he drinks from the cup, and offers it to Gaudior, who also drinks. Iglesias now looks somewhat younger than before.
There is a loud thunderclap, and another figure appears on the pyramid. This is a Moche warrior, carrying a wicked-looking curved knife and wearing a similarly-elaborate headdress and backflap. He looks from Iglesias to Gaudior, and roars that Gaudior is an imposter, sent to turn Iglesias away from the power and glory that he deserves. Gaudior steps in front of Iglesias, and calmly replies that he will defend Iglesias from this so-called warrior. Gaudior creates a knife for himself, and they face off. The warrior attacks, but before he reaches Gaudior he is met by Gaudior's Song of Ethereal Entropy, which causes him to flee Iglesias' dreamscape.
Iglesias, confused, turns to Gaudior for an explanation. He has seen that warrior before. How can it be that Gaudior defeated him? Was he really his enemy? The pyramid wavers and is replaced by Iglesias' basement; the altar is empty again. As they leave the basement, and then the rowhouse, Gaudior says that the warrior was a threat, and he did only what was necessary in defending him. While walking along the street outside the rowhouse, Iglesias' priestly garments change into a regular suit, and his surroundings start to waver a bit. Gaudior slips out of the dreamscape and sits up on his office cot.
They all hook up once again, and head for the bridge to wait. Hanley doesn't show up. When they call him again, he hangs up at once. Gaudior recognizes his voice as that of the Moche warrior in Iglesias' dream.