No one spoke much on the drive to St. Lads. Karen asked Justin if she’d remembered to mention that Frank had called the week before. With the way the presidential campaign had been going the past few months, Frank wanted to make sure that Obama didn’t have ‘Bob’ in his back pocket helping him. So he’d asked her to go check that nothing had been disturbed at Reg’s old place, she explained.

Karen was never sure when Frank was joking or not. Personally, she kind of liked what Obama had to say. But she did as he asked and checked on the place on her way home from work one afternoon. And as far as she could tell, ‘Bob’ was still where they’d left him, and the property was no more disturbed than it already was.

But as she finished telling Justin this, the foreboding silence in the car seemed to swallow up her voice, and she quit trying to make small talk.

When they got to the church, they all followed Fr. Jerzy into the rectory first, and waited while he gathered a few things. He tossed his bag into the car, then led them over to the church and unlocked it. He explained again where Fr. Berowski’s body had been found, where he, himself, had been when he saw Fr. Berowski’s ghost, and the path the ghost seemed to take before disappearing.

Justin, Fr. Jerzy and Master Naka didn’t see anyone in the church. But Karen was a little surprised at how crowded the place was. There were 30 to 40 ghosts there, all ages, some more ‘solid’ than others. But none of them appeared to be a priest, or to be taking any special interest in any of the four living visitors. And neither Karen nor the others felt any sort of ‘blackness’ grabbing at their souls. Karen didn’t bother saying anything about the ghosts. She didn’t want to make Uncle Jerzy’s life any more complicated than it already was.

The four returned to the clubhouse, and Fr. Jerzy retired to the first-floor guest room a short time later, at about 9pm. He hadn’t had a restful night’s sleep since the dreams started, so he rarely stayed up past 9pm lately, he explained to them when he excused himself.

Master Naka waited outside the room until Fr. Jerzy was in bed, then took his zafu and zabuton and got comfortable just inside the closed door, ready to sit vigil with the priest. Justin had already explained to both men that, because of a previous episode (he didn’t go into details), he and Karen would be keeping the intercom in the room on, so they would be able to hear if help was needed.

The clubhouse got quiet. Karen worked on putting the finishing touches on her final exams, and Justin played a video game, wearing headphones so he didn’t disturb his uncle.

Tony and Leigh bumped into each other at the ticket counter at LaGuardia at about 4:30 that afternoon, and found out they were taking the same flight back to Detroit. So they had dinner together, and compared notes about seeing the Pope on Sunday. They landed at Metro about 9:30pm, and decided to share the cab ride back to the clubhouse, where they’d both left their cars while they were gone.

David finally finished his paperwork about 9:30pm. That was the part of legal work that he liked the least. But since he was low man on the totem pole, so to speak, there was no one else he could pass it off to. He was gathering his things to leave when he realized he’d forgotten to turn his cell ringer back on when he’d left the court room. There was a message from about 4:30 that afternoon from Justin.

“David, it’s Justin. Uncle Jerzy needs our help. We’re meeting him at the clubhouse at 7pm, if you can make it.”

“Wonder who ‘Uncle Jerzy’ is?” David asked himself as he fastened his seatbelt and headed for the clubhouse.

David had just put his car in Park in front of the bay doors as a cab rolled up at the end of the driveway. Tony and Leigh got out, and Tony paid the driver, then took their bags out of the trunk.

“Yo, David! Wanna beer?” Tony asked, as Leigh opened the front door.

“Sure. Why not. By the way...who’s Uncle Jerzy?”

“Hunh? He’s Justin’s uncle...an’ a priest. Why?” Tony asked, dropping the bags inside the door.

“I was just wondering who this guy is who needs our help,” David told him.

“Shhh,” Karen said, coming to the little clump of people by the front closet. “Uncle Jerzy’s sleeping in the guest room. Master Naka’s with him. I’m glad you guys were able to get here.”

“What did David mean about Uncle Jerzy needing our help?” Leigh asked her.

“Didn’t you get Justin’s message? He said he’d called everyone,” Karen told her.

“I guess I hadn’t turned my phone back on,” Leigh said.

“You must be one of the few people on the planet who doesn’t check the moment the plane lands,” Karen chuckled, leading them into the front room. “So how’s Angie?”

“Well, her dad is still in the coma, and she’s worried about him. But she’s more worried about her mom. She’s having a hard time coping. She doesn’t know how to pay the bills, or even where all the bank accounts are, basic things like that. And her dad obviously can’t give them much information. Since all five of her brothers have families and live out of town, she’s having a hard time getting help from them. So she’s basically taking care of her mom right now, trying to straighten things out for her.

“The heavy bag in her mom’s garage was looking pretty beat up, so I dragged her away to a gym a couple times while I was there, to work out and help her blow off some steam. She’s sort of looking for a barrister she can hire to help her mom with her affairs....”

“Does she have Mark’s number?” Karen asked. “He should be able to help her find someone suitable. I’m sure he knows other lawyers out there.”

“I’ll ask, next time I talk to her,” Leigh answered. “She didn’t really seem overly anxious to come home, to me at least. I didn’t say much about Aiden to her, other than when I was telling her how everyone here was doing. She didn’t seem too surprised, though, when I mentioned that Aiden was working too much. She just rolled her eyes. She seemed happy to see me, anyway. And, amazingly, I was able to get a ticket to the Mass the Pope did at Yankee Stadium on Sunday.”

“Hey, I got ta see da Pope, too!” Tony told them, coming in from the kitchen with beers for himself and David. “When he did dat special Blessing at Groun’ Zero. Dey had cops an’ firemen dat responded on 9/11, an’ people who survived, and families a’ people who didn’...and dey had some ‘a us who helped wit’ da excavation, too. I even got a vial a’ Holy Water blessed by da Pope himself!” Tony pulled a small box from his bag and carefully unwrapped a tiny plastic bottle and held it up for everyone to see. They were all suitably impressed...or at least acted so, even though there couldn’t have been enough water there to fill one cupped hand.

Justin had joined the others, and just shook his head when Tony offered him a beer. His uncle hadn’t been in bed long, and already they could hear him tossing and turning restlessly over the intercom. Justin wasn’t in any mood to relax when his uncle was that disturbed.

Karen filled the three in on Jerzy’s problem, and explained what they’d done so far to investigate it. “Master Naka’s in there with him now, and we’ve got the intercom on to avoid another ‘Running Elk’ situation,” she told them. “And we didn’t find anything unusual at the church...you know, besides the ghosts...which aren’t really that unusual....”

“You didn’t say...” Justin started.

Karen just looked at him then nodded toward the guest room, and Justin understood that she hadn’t wanted to say anything about it in front of Uncle Jerzy. David just rolled his eyes, thinking she was trying to ‘scare’ him.

“So, is dere any history of dat in your family?” Tony asked Justin.

“Which?” Justin asked.

“Bot’...suicide or child molestation.”

“Neither,” Justin answered. “I would think him capable of murder before child molestation.”

“Maybe...with the Pope coming to the States and talking about the scandal and all...maybe that might have stirred this up,” Leigh suggested.

“Hard to say,” Karen told her.

“So’d you go ‘check him out’ yet?” Tony asked. “You know....”

“Not yet,” Karen replied.

“Well, how come? Dat’s da first t’ing I’d ‘a done!”

Karen sighed and rolled her eyes. “We only found out what was going on around 7 this evening, Tony...that he was the one having the problem, and not some other family member or parishioner. It’s a little past 10 now. It took him a while to tell the whole story, and then we went over to the church so he could get some things to stay the night here. And I couldn’t very well do ‘it’ right in front of him...and I’m not doing it alone when we have absolutely no idea what we’re dealing with yet. So this is the first chance I’ve had, since you just got here.”

“So, David...are you any good with computers...you know, doing searches?” Justin asked.

“Relatively. Why?”

“‘Cause ‘me mechanic.’" Justin thumped his chest jokingly. "Good with cars. Not so much with computers. I was wondering if you could start an archive search of articles from around the time Fr. Berowski died. Maybe see if something similar happened at other churches in the past? Other situations where priests or other religious people sinned big, then compounded it by committing suicide or some other sin to avoid the consequences?”

“You can use my computer, if you want,” Leigh offered. “It’s got a pretty sophisticated search engine loaded on it.”

“I can check wit’ my contac’s at da Vatican, too,” Tony offered. “Ya know, abrupt changes in behavior can be a sign ‘a demonic possession...among udder t’ings. But it’s...” Tony thought for a second. “It’s about 5 in da morning, in Rome, d’ough, so I’m gonna wait ta call ‘til the morning...here, I mean. If I wait ‘til 7, it’ll be noon in Rome. Dat’s usually a good time ta call.”

They could all hear, over the intercom, the faint sound of Master Naka softly chanting a mantra.

David followed Leigh into the office, where she set up her laptop. Then he got to work on the searches, while Leigh went to start some tea steeping. A couple minutes later, she came back, mug in hand, ostensibly to help David with Reg’s search algorithm. But she was really concerned about his safety, considering what happened to Stephan when he dug too deep in the wrong places.

Tony and Karen got comfortable in a couple of the recliners, and slipped out of their bodies. Like usual, Tony’s astral self had the whole ‘shirtless, Roman god’ thing going on. Only this time, he was ‘wearing’ a “Yes, you may” button. Karen had no idea what it meant, or how it was staying on his chest. Though she wasn’t aware of it, since there weren’t any mirrors in the astral plane, Karen looked just like herself, like usual, wearing jeans, boots and a flannel shirt like she did on digs.

With just a thought, they were inside the guest room. “Now dere’s sumpin’ ya don’ see here ev’ry day,” Tony commented. He was staring at Master Naka, whose astral self looked exactly like he actually did, sitting in full lotus position, except that he was wearing Zen monk robes.

Karen wasn’t sure if Tony was commenting on having a Zen monk sitting there, or the fact that Master Naka looked like himself, with no particular idealization of his form or appearance. She shrugged, then turned to look at Uncle Jerzy. His astral self looked about 90 years old and in great pain. There was some kind of shadow wrapped around his head, like one might wrap a plastic bag around someone’s head to smother them.

The two examined the shadow more closely. It had the consistency of smoke, blurring Jerzy’s features rather than obscuring them. It seemed more to be gathered around his head, rather than emanating from it, and there was a thread leading off from it, much like a disembodied soul had attaching it to its body. Only it was the color of the shadow, rather than silver like a soul’s.

“I’m gonna find out where dis goes,” Tony whispered to Karen. He started toward the wall.

“Not alone, you aren’t!” Karen hissed back. She followed him, certain that whatever was on the other end of the thread would not be happy to see them. Tony didn’t seem to realize that whatever it led to was probably Unknown. Karen was positive of that, though she wasn’t sure exactly what type of creature it was. It appeared that Uncle Jerzy was under some persistent Unknown influence, like a hound...or maybe something worse.

Tony just knew that it didn’t seem to be demonic, at least as he understood it. He followed the thread stealthily for a couple minutes, Karen staying just in sight far behind him. The thread went on and on, with no end in sight, twisting and turning on a convoluted path. Finally, Tony gave up, and the two returned directly to their bodies to let the others know what they found.

David’s first search was for suicides of religious people. He got the parameters set up; then, while he was waiting for the results, he sent off an email to Angie. A couple of people he knew from law school had relocated to New York; and since they might be able to help with her mom, he sent her their names. He also asked if she was still seeing Aiden. There was some consternation among her friends here in Detroit about their relationship, he explained, because of Aiden’s recent behavior. If she was still seeing him, then he suggested that she might want to say something to the others. And if she wasn’t still serious about Aiden, then he’d like to have dinner with her the next time he was in NY.

In just a short time (this was an amazing search engine, and David wondered where they’d gotten it), his search got 127 hits from a five-year period with Fr. Berowski’s death in the middle. And these were just from the people well-known enough, and whose transgressions were radical enough, to have their death by suicide make the paper. David scanned through the dates and locations of the incidents. The incidents happened primarily in Europe and North America. They were spread out enough in time and place that, individually, they didn’t appear to be suspicious. But as a whole....

David sent all the results to the printer. OK, it wasn’t just a printer. The thing was a full document station–printer, both black and white, and color; copier; collator; scanner; fax.... This place continued to amaze him. It was a cross between a high-tech frat house and the HQ for a high-tech, well-funded grassroots organization. They even had a gigabit ‘backbone!’ While he waited for everything to finish printing, he went out to the kitchen to get something to drink.

Unfortunately, he’d just completely missed his first chance to see team members use an Art for real. Karen hadn’t thought about it until she saw David come through the room as she and Tony were stretching and getting up, and she was sorry she hadn’t thought to have him there.

Not that he hadn’t been spending time with the ‘shaman.’ Karen really wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be teaching David, though; and she didn’t want to insult him by trying to teach him the way she was taught by the tribal elders. She was pretty sure he’d heard all those stories, and that was why Weeping Sparrow sent him to her. But she also wasn’t willing to do seances just to prove her point. They could be stressful for her, and she imagined for the spirit she was summoning, too. And she wasn’t sure that drawing the attention of one Unknown creature wouldn’t also attract the attention of others, particularly ones they didn’t want around. It wasn’t a risk she was going to take just ‘for the fun of it.’

So on weekends, she would pick one of the cases the team had worked on in the past, and she and David would go over it in depth, from beginning to end, just like the team had investigated it the first time, with her pointing out what, looking back now, had been the mistakes they'd made. She figured this would give him a feel for all the different skills the team drew on in an investigation, the sorts of processes they went through, and the kinds of problems that could trip them up. She even explained how the seances were done, when a case had required one, and all the precautions they’d taken and risks they’d faced.

They didn’t work just on paper, either. Karen would get Justin to set up the combats in the training warehouse, just like they’d happened, and then she and David, and whichever of the other Envoys could make it, would run through them, with Justin or Leigh playing the part of the ‘bad guys.’ Afterward, Justin would critique David’s combat tactics, and Karen would review the particular vulnerabilities of their Unknown opponents, and they ran through it again, with the adjustments made and the benefits of hindsight. It was good training for Karen and the others, too.

She knew that none of this was going to convince David that the creatures they were ‘fighting’ were real. But there were very few of the Arts that had visible effects that she could use as ‘proof.’ And the ones that did, David would find ways to just rationalize away as ‘magic tricks.’ Karen was pretty sure that, if he ever got tired of being a lawyer, he could have a very profitable career as a paranormal ‘debunker.’ But she hoped that their training sessions would give David the confidence, skill, and tactics to protect himself when he finally did encounter the Unknown. Assuming he didn’t just completely lose his mind.

Tony and Karen explained what they’d seen. “This means it’s probably not a good idea to do a Shield right now, even if it might give Uncle Jerzy’s spirit a slight boost and his body a very brief respite,” Karen told them. “It might tip off whatever’s attached to him before we’re really ready to deal with it.” Tony, Leigh and Justin nodded their agreement, though Justin wasn’t happy that they couldn’t even do that little bit for his uncle right away.

David got the search results from the printer to show them. Justin immediately got a couple white-boards and started taping up the printouts, organizing them to look for patterns, and Tony gave him a hand. Karen asked if David happened to have the results in an electronic format. She and Leigh both had pattern-search algorithms on their computers to do the same thing Justin was doing with the hard copies.

While they all worked setting up that project, the subject of ‘Aiden and Angie’ came up.

“I think we oughta drag Aiden’s sorry ass out to get drunk...after we finish fixing Uncle Jerzy’s problem, I mean,” Justin suggested.

“We’ll have to kidnap him, ya know,” Karen said.

“Hopefully not,” Leigh told them. “I’ve been setting up ‘alliances’ with the other staff at the ER. That’s why I’ve been taking fresh, home-cooked food over there at least once a week, since he started this foolishness, for Aiden and everyone else there. And they love seeing me come in now.”

“So they’ll turn a blind eye when we go in there in Ninja outfits and throw a bag over Aiden’s head and drag him out?” Karen laughed.

“I’m not so sure I wanna see you in Ninja jammies,” David told Justin.

“No, they aren’t really my style. But they’d probably fit Leigh alright, with her martial arts training,” Justin said.

Both Tony and David looked Leigh up and down, and agreed with Justin...but for different reasons.

“I hope we don’t have to go that far!” Leigh chuckled. “I was actually planning to get someone there to schedule Aiden a day off that he doesn’t know he has until we come to get him. Oh! Did I tell you that I went to see Reg before I went to New York, too?”

Leigh had been visiting Reg as often as she could, sometimes with Frank or one of the other Envoys there, sometimes alone.

“How is he?” Justin asked.

“Well, Frank’s gotten very good at telling Tommy from Reg. But I still have to get Frank to hook Reg up to the EEG sometimes, to tell. Frank explained that it’s because, unfortunately, Tommy is the more integrated personality. And he’s getting better at modifying his behavior based on who he’s talking to, to better conceal his ‘presence.’”

Karen was concentrating on her computer and trying to avoid listening to Leigh. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about Reg and want to know how he was doing. She cared very much. But because of her own past, she had a hard time dealing with him being in the ‘hospital,’ even though she fully agreed, rationally speaking, that he belonged there and it was the best thing for him. She still hadn’t been able to bring herself to go there and visit him in person. And it upset her that she couldn’t do such a small thing for a good friend. She would send cards and notes and small gifts with Leigh, little things that might brighten Reg’s day. But she just couldn’t go there herself; and hearing about his situation only reminded her of that.

“Frank said that sometimes he has other therapists go in to speak with Reg, so that he can watch through a two-way mirror,” Leigh continued. “That way he circumvents Tommy’s ‘abilities.’ I’ve let both Reg and Tommy know, though, that if Tommy ever does manage to talk someone into letting him out, I will hunt him down and stop him by whatever means are necessary.”

Justin and Tony nodded agreement. Then they started poring over each article, taking them down and putting them back up in different arrangements. Leigh and Karen got their computers set up to do the sifting, explaining to David how to use the programs as they worked. Then all three joined Justin and Tony, doing the process manually, too. The computer programs could look at concrete data points in the articles to find connections; but they couldn’t make intuitive leaps to connect the intangible things, like the human brain could. They were just one more tool to give the Envoys clues to connect together.

One by one, David and the Envoys fell asleep where they were at, articles and pencils in their hands. David, Tony and Karen were the first to go, having gotten comfortable on couches or easy chairs that made relaxation come too quickly. Justin held out until about 2am, when his head drooped onto the table one last time.

At about 2:30, Leigh gave up waiting for the computers to come up with results. She went to the kitchen and made some tea, and quietly took Master Naka a cup. When she opened the door, she was surprised to see the bedside lamp on and Fr. Jerzy reading. Master Naka bowed, in his place on the floor, and took the cup.

“Would you like a cup of tea?” Leigh asked Fr. Jerzy.

“No, thank you. I was getting tired of the tossing and turning, so I hoped that maybe a little reading might settle my mind enough to sleep,” Jerzy told her.

Leigh nodded and left, shutting the door quietly behind her. Then she went to bed, too.

The next morning, May 24, Justin woke at his usual time. It took him a minute, though, to figure out why his neck was so stiff. He’d spent his entire night sitting in the hard chair, his head lying on the table, and his arms hanging limply at his sides. Then his bladder reminded him that he hadn’t been away from the table since about 10:30 the night before.

By the time Justin came out of the bathroom, Tony was up and on his cell phone in the office, making his calls to Rome.

Master Naka came out of the guest room and went to the kitchen to make tea for breakfast. Justin was already out there pouring milk on his bowl of cereal. “He had a very restless night,” Master Naka told Justin, referring to Jerzy. “The longest he slept at any one time was about 90 minutes. And each time he woke, he was drenched in sweat.”

Justin nodded wearily. He was sure he didn’t feel as tired as Uncle Jerzy, but news like this didn’t make him feel any more chipper. Soon, Karen, David and Leigh joined the two men in the kitchen, looking for food.

A little while later, Fr. Jerzy came out, dressed but looking haggard. “I’m still having the dreams,” was all he told the others. They didn’t push him on it, because they really didn’t need to know the details...or want to.