Dallas:Sessions:20030607

GM: Bobby J.

Steve and Blake evaluate Deathwish’s real property for investment and tax purposes. Several of the properties are refurbished and donated to charity. Blake advised Kef to study occultism, history, religion. Kef and Steve make sure that Cinnamon’s sister, Ann Masters, gets the benefit of her record sales, etc.

With Steve’s help, Kef has made over $800,000 from buying and reselling Psitron’s mansion and the valuable antiques inside it. Kef owns a beach house in Malibu and is having it fixed up.

Steve builds up his network of contacts and moles. Blake buys Solution Security and its 30 agents. Blake hires Tom Cartley, who recovered from his coma after four months in the hospital, but has memory loss. Blake sets him up in Cleveland.

Abraham Donaldson, the dotcom millionaire, continues to hire Blake as his bodyguard. Donaldson becomes engaged to Sohandra McPearson (the woman he had taken to Cinnamon’s concert) and he hires Blake for wedding security.

The cat wanders in and out of Kef’s house.

Friday, October 11, 2002: Kef wakes up in a cold sweat – but doesn’t know why. Her friends are all okay. No big event in the world.

Between the end of October 2002 through early February 2003 there is an increase in the murder rate and the number of unsolved missing persons cases in Boston. Someone with immense strength put a rattan sword through a re-enactor’s body. Most of the murders involve savage slashings and some, broken necks.

March 2003: Blake invites his friend the police lieutenant to dinner at a steakhouse and quizzes him about the Boston occurrences. Four days later, the lieutenant tells Blake they have no prints. There are some eyewitnesses – winos talk about a “steel robot.” Some say the killer was tall, others say average-sized. Someone on a motorcycle had his chest punched in with a fist. Some of the victims were armed and had fired.

April 29: Blake invites Kef and Steve to dinner; they discuss the Boston events.

April 30: Jeremy flies Steve, Blake, and Kef to Boston. There is no pattern to the killings, and no common factor.

May 4 (Sunday): Kef wakes up at 6am after a vision. She was high on a bluff overlooking the city of Birmingham. She sensed a Great Hate (with a metallic “taste”), a Lesser Hate, and a Lesser Great Hate. Kef and Blake fly to Birmingham.

May 5: Kef leads Blake to the bluff overlooking Birmingham and the statue of Vulcan. Kef slips into a meditative trance and sees a replay of her vision. The Lesser Hate carries a sense of whirlwind. Blake makes some contacts in B’ham; he hires a private investigator to track missing persons and/or weird deaths caused by great strength and report them to Blake.

May 6: Jeremy flies Kef and Blake back to Dallas. Steve is making arrangement with “geeks” at MIT for an EMP device.

May 9: Steve concludes his business and returns to Dallas.

June 11/12: Kef has a vision. Two Army CWOs [Chief Warrant Officers] in a helicopter at night, wearing IR goggles, facing a cemetery, panicking, trying to take off with a bad engine. Big glowing orange “gate” behind them, pursuing, can’t dodge it. In the background are pine trees, and Kef can read on one of the headstones: Avery Johnson 1932-1978. Kef calls Blake who calls Steve, who narrows it down to Fort Rucker AL or Fort Campbell KY. [They are able to determine that an Avery Johnson with matching birth/death years is buried in Damascus Cemetery.]

By noon they have arrived in Dothan AL. Near the cemetery a breeze is stirring. Nearby is a house for sale (realtor Mark Caldwell), and an abandoned church. They are approached by a tall (6’3”) black man who introduces himself as Deputy Stan Tyson. He says that some say the house is haunted. The house had belonged to the Johnsons, who had died in March. They were found in their car beside a highway, suffocated. Blake phones Caldwell; the asking price for the house and land is an incredible $200,000.

Blake gets a call from Abraham Donaldson. His fiancée’s fourteen-year-old niece, Vivian Gray, is missing from “a little podunk town called New Brockton, Alabama.” She went missing Tuesday night. She is the daughter of Don and Carla Gray.

Deputy Tyson mentions another fourteen-year-old, Tom Kirkland, that recently went missing. There have been eight or nine such over the past year.

Blake phones Jeremy to have him pick up some oxygen tanks.

We drive to New Brockton to Don and Carla Gray’s house. Carla is in her late 30s with brown hair and blue eyes, wearing nurse’s garb. Carla had taken Vivian to a party. She and her friends went to a movie, but Vivian left halfway through.

Steve asks to see Vivian’s diary. For February 11 she had written, “I can’t believe she’s gone – this only happens in bad movies – what could have happened to Frances?” Frances is Vivian’s older sister, 18 years old, studying engineering at MIT.

Carla is convinced that Frances is “gone” and that Vivian is alive but her time is short. Kef believes that Vivian must be psychic (telepathy, empath, danger sense/precog, sleep-teleporter(?)). Carla: “You must be one of the second-sight paladins of the past… who fate the weird.”

We reach the movie theatre at 5:30. The concession guy saw a man and woman in the parking lot. The woman wore sunglasses. The man was 6’3”, wearing a light jacket, khaki pants, and a Boston Red Sox baseball cap.

We go to Ryan’s restaurant in Damascus for dinner. Jeremy arrives with 7 oxygen tanks.

[June 21, 2003]

It is Thursday, June 12. We finish dinner and fill in Jeremy.

7:30pm: Arrive at cemetery. Kef and Steve go to the Johnson house and enter through the back door. It looks like someone has been here in the last few days. Kef feels that “Death has walked here.” Down in the basement they find a room containing some shelves and an antique-style barber’s chair. Two people are there: Su Li, a petite oriental/black woman with an annoyed expression, and Father Michael O’Hare, a balding man with weathered skin, wearing a cassock. He has a dual aura: good/evil, good fighting evil.

Father O’Hare sensed two spirits in the house. He channels Eugene Johnson, who says he died at home on Saturday, March 15. He had arisen that night to investigate a ruckus outside. He saw five people (a couple of women, an older man, and two other men) with a mist spinning around them.

Su Li has slipped outside. She deflates a car’s tires and follows a man into the trees. She hears him say into a radio, “Carter. Two unknowns. Don’t know what they’re doing. One looks like a priest, maybe. Spirit hunters? We told it to behave itself.”

At 10:45pm Su Li drags a man out of the woods toward the house. Steve looks him over then ties him up. The man’s name is Rudolph Carter. He is tall, fit, tanned, dark-haired, and has calloused hands. He carries a 9mm Beretta and a very sophisticated coded radio.

Paul Sanders and Darren Bradley – helo pilots. Vortex is the “lesser evil”, also known as vacuum vortex or breath robber; thins border between time and space

Father O’Hare’s holy symbol is that of a spirit hunter. He does something and the mist vanishes. Steve in the basement has a room full of mist (not swirling). He phones Kef – the thing ran to its master(?). Bradley shows mage potential.

Su Li has Carter’s cell phone. It buzzes with a call from Donald McMasters. Kef listens to the voice mail – McMasters blasts Carter for not reporting in. The voice sounds mechanical.

We trap some of the vortex in the refrigerator. The fridge vibrates, then vanishes.

Steve injects Rudolph Carter with crediline and interrogates him. He gets the names Frances Gray, Dr Nix (professor at MIT), Donald McMasters (ex-Army).

McMasters’ Corvette comes zooming past Jeremy. He finds it parked at a convenience store, and uses his panel van to push it into the gas pumps.

Su Li enters the church and sees McMasters with a phone in one hand and a .45 in the other, aimed at Paula who is unconscious on the ground.

McMasters snaps the phone shut and puts it away. Su Li fires her needle gun three times – no effect.

Blake reaches the back door of the church. Su Li tries a leg sweep; McMasters goes down, rolls, loses his gun, then gets to his feet facing Su Li. Jeremy pulls away from the ‘Vette.

Su Li fires, hits once in the leg; he looks surprised. Blake reaches the sanctuary, sees McMasters wearing a web belt containing grenades. McMasters fast-draws another gun and aims at Su Li’s head. The gas pump explodes.

Blake fires; all three shots glance off McMasters. McMasters fires reflexively and misses Su Li’s head. This puts him briefly in front of a window, so Steve shoots and hits with three bursts in the lower torso and leg. McMasters is knocked toward Su Li, who rakes her claws across his throat – but his skin is very hard.

Steve re-aims, soaking the recoil. Blake drops his .30 cal on its sling, draws his 9mm an fires at McMasters’ head; one shot does minor damage. Su Li steps away and fires, which hits and bounces off. Kef reaches Paula, who is unconscious and bleeding. McMasters pulls a knife and flings it at Blake, who dives behind a pew; the knife thunks loudly into the pew. McMasters fires wildly and misses Kef.

Kef drags Paula to the door. Blake stays behind cover and holsters his gun. Su Li steps and aims. Ghosts flock to Father O’Hare. McMasters rips up Blake’s pew and hurls it, striking Su Li. Steve fires; the three bullets that don’t bounce off pierce the hand, head, and leg. Father O’Hare tells the spirits to distract the bad man.

Blake fires at point-blank range, hitting McMasters once in the head. Blake dodges out from underneath as McMasters falls unconscious. Blake hears a weird whirling sound.

Blake warns Su Li to get out of the church; he picks up Paula from Kef. Su Li and Steve dive into a ditch as Jeremy returns with the van. Boom! The church blows up.

Father O’Hare unties Carter and leads him out of the house. Carter is given his stuff back and turned loose for the sheriff to find.

We drive through Enterprise to Dothan and get a hotel room.

[August 2, 2003]

4:00am Friday, June 13th. At a hotel in Dothan, Alabama. Paula is feeling better; she has a bruise on her face.

10:00am: Steve wakes up and checks the MIT course catalog. Nix teaches physics and physical sciences, but school’s out (as of June 9th). He is not teaching summer session.

10:30am: Blake showers, shaves, dresses, goes out and gets a paper. Doesn’t see anyone staking out the hotel, or anything noteworthy in the newspaper. Steve determines that Nix’s itinerary was written by two different people.

11:00am: Kef wakes up and turns on the TV. Report of double explosions in Damascus AL. Media circus, army helos, fire trucks. General store burned to the ground. Police arrived on the scene around 4:10am. There’s a report that an Army helo had landed there before. The Coffee County Sheriff, Warren Walker, has someone in custody, and will hold a press conference at noon. Kef calls Steve and Jeremy. Blake phones Kef, then orders room service for Kef’s room. Paula wakes up and checks on Father O’Hare and Su Li. Jeremy suggests checking McMasters’ room. Donald McMasters is listed in the phone book. He is former Army special intelligence out of Fort Rucker.

Noon: New Brockton county jail press conference. One person in custody, being questioned; name not released. Deputy Tyson was the first on the scene. There may have been fatalities in the church. Reporters ask: Does this tie in with the missing persons in the area? Did a meth lab blow up the church? The church had been used for “recreational activities” by local youth.

1:00pm: Blake’s phone rings. Carla Gray asks if there is any news of her daughter Vivian. Ann, a friend of Frances, had phone earlier; she thinks she saw Frances around town a few days ago. Blake gets Ann’s cell phone number, calls her and asks about Frances. Ann thinks she saw Frances a few days ago at a shopping mall in Dothan. She didn’t notice anyone near her. She thinks Frances was following her. Frances was driving a car the size of a Chevy Lumina. There may have been a man in the car with her. Ann and Frances and Harold Cassidy were all very close friends; “Frances and I knew each other’s thoughts.” Ann is presently down near the cemetery “out of curiosity.”

Blake calls Carla back. Ann Bradley is a year younger than Frances; her parents are Dan and Beverly. Harold Cassidy is a student at the University of Alabama; his parents are John and Evelyn.

Jeremy ascertains that Paula can see “psychic powers” in a person’s aura.

Steve and Jeremy go the plane and also drop off the panel van. Blake, Kef, and Paula head for the cemetery. When they arrive at 2:00pm, it’s still a media circus with plenty of locals gawking. Blake rings Ann’s cell phone and Kef spots her. Blake looks for Frances but she’s not there. Kef sees a guy who might be watching Ann; he’s wearing a baseball cap. Kef senses that Ann is curious but very nervous, afraid of being found out. A young man comes up to Ann and they start talking. Paula detects that baseball cap guy is “a man of violence”; human; not a mage or a psychic. The baseball cap bears a BoSox logo.

Blake makes a beeline for Ann, stops three feet away from her and dials her number. She checks caller ID, then puts the phone away. Blake taps her on the shoulder and says, “Ann, you should answer your phone.” She is startled; the young man with her looks protective. Blake asks the young man for some privacy, then tells Ann, “You’re being followed. Why? Why are you important? Why are you nervous?” Ann says she doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Blake phones Steve (he and Jeremy are on the road) and tells him that the man who was with Frances is watching Ann now.

Baseball cap guy calls Frances Gray at a Boston area code. “Some armed unknown’s making contact with Ann. He looks like he’s trained. I’m going to disengage. Have my partner pick her up later.” He turns, bumps into Kef and excuses himself, and continues on his way. Kef follows.

Blake gives Ann his business card and shows her his PI license. “They’re following you. I wonder why. Why are you important?” Ann: “I gotta call someone first.” Blake: “Is Harold at his parents’ house?” Ann barely conceals her startlement. Blake: “He might be easier to crack than you.” Ann says she’ll go home and call Harold.

Kef gets the license and description of baseball cap guy’s rent car. He drives off and turns west toward Enterprise. Kef calls Steve and tells him.

Blake calls Kef and tells her about Ann. Blake, Paula, and Kef get into their car. Blake calls Steve’s number and talks to Jeremy. They don’t need help. “Tell Steve it’s okay to wound him.”

As we’re leaving, Tyson pulls up behind us. “We want to talk to you about what you might have seen yesterday.”

Ann lives between Damascus and New Brockton. When we get to the Bradley house, her car isn’t there. We continue to Harold Cassidy’s house. A pickup is there, and Ann’s car parked behind it.

Steve realizes he’s been made. He asks Jeremy if he can shoot Baseball Cap’s tires out. Jeremy replies, “How’s he gonna get away from us? If I point the gun at him, he’ll duck and wreck.”

Blake knocks, and Harold opens the door. “You’re the person who’s got Ann in a dither?” He unlatches the screen door and lets them in. “Frances, Ann, and I have always been able to bond together.” They had been in a group meditative trance at the Damascus graveyard on May 26, 2002 when something went wrong. Something appeared and flooded their minds. They summoned the vortex, then fled. They never tried to link again. Blake asks if they could locate Frances if they linked “with a third person.”

Baseball Cap starts pulling away. Jeremy takes the wheel and Steve aims at his tires. Jeremy mashes the accelerator and brilliantly passes the car between them. Steve rolls a 3 to hit the tire. Boom! Baseball Cap loses control, rolls the car.

Blake calls Paula inside and says that Harold and Ann think they summoned the vacuum vortex. Ann, Harold, and Kef form a circle. Kef feels in her mind a link with Ann, but Harold can’t seem to link. After fifteen minutes Kef sighs and breaks contact.

Baseball Cap’s car slams against a pine tree. Several cars stop. Steve approaches the car. Baseball Cap is alive and bleeding (a lot) and unconscious (his airbag deployed) from head wounds. Steve reaches into his pocket, pulls out a handkerchief, and takes BC’s cell phone, then squirts liquid poison into his mouth. Another man helps Steve pull BC out of the car. Due to a few well-placed ideas by Jeremy, no one seems to associate their car with the one pursuing BC.

Jeremy calls Blake. “Well, we caught him.” “Is he talking?” “No, he’s unconscious. He wrecked his car.” “Did Steve shoot him or shoot the tire?” “He shot the tire.” “I told you just to wound him.” “We didn’t shoot him.” “If Steve’s over there, the guy’s going to die. Did you get his cell phone?” “Did he have one?” “I don’t know, you’re there.” “I’m not there, I’m sitting in the car, talking to you.” Etc. Steve says to move the car due to the risk of fire. A state trooper pulls up.

Harold promises to see Ann safely home. Kef insists on driving while Blake calms down. As we get to the sheriff’s office, Jeremy reminds Steve to call Blake. Blake gets worked up again. BC’s name is Drake Hendricks. Kef takes Blake’s phone away, as the conversation seems to be going in circles. Blake goes into the sheriff’s office. Sheriff Walker and Deputy Tyson ask him about being at the church. He explains that he was working a missing-person case. He implies he was looking for Frances and then Vivian. He explains that his client is engaged to Carla Gray’s sister.

Kef calls Steve on Blake’s phone. BC’s partner may be named Donna. Steve and Jeremy are near Ann’s house. We head for the hospital where Carla works. Steve and Jeremy get to Harold’s. Two more cars are there and nobody is watching. They go to the Grays’ house.

6:15: At the hospital, Blake wants to talk to Carla. At the Grays’, a man and a boy are playing catch in the front yard. Carla says things have been quiet. There was an accident on Metcalf Highway that would have gone to Troy. She will call Blake when she gets off shift.

We all meet at an Italian restaurant in Enterprise for dinner. Steve gives Blake and Kef some AP ammo. Steve is going to watch Ann.

BC’s phone rings. It’s a Boston cell phone number with no name. The call goes to voice mail. Male voice, gravelly: “You want to talk to me.” Jeremy: “Gee, wonder if that’s meant for us.” Steve calls the number. “Y’all are pretty good.” “We try.” “Name a price [to quit your investigation].” “$100 million and Vivian alive.” “She’s more important to me than to you.” The voice offers $150 million. “I don’t think I’m interested in your money, Dr Nix.” “I’ll have to take care of you another way. Time is on my side.”

Blake: “I’ll take Kef and Paula. I feel better knowing Steve and Jeremy are together.” Steve and Jeremy go to the hospital. Blake calls Ann; Harold is with her at her house.

8:30pm: Blake calls a policewoman he knows in Boston. She spoke to Professor Nix at MIT in the course of a missing-student investigation. He wore shades, claiming sensitivity to light. He was in good physical condition for a 45-year-old man. Blake says that Nix and Frances were “experimenting” in the field of physics; she makes the mental connection regarding the explosion. She will go investigate him. Drake Hendricks had a long rapsheet; Blake says he died in Troy AL. Donna Mixon is 5’7” with dark brown hair. He gives her Rudy Carter’s name and says “Connect the dots.” Nix has something that punches through people’s chests.

Steve calls Kef and says that Carla can get off work. We all meet at the Grays’ house. Carla, Ann, Harold, and Kef link minds. Carla reaches out with her mind, then recoils with horror, breaking the link. She saw a farmhouse, and Frances was powerful and filled with hate. And Frances was feeding her flesh to Vivian…

[September 13, 2003]

Kef and Paula talk to Ann, Harold, and Carla and calm them down.

Near 10:00pm, Friday, June 13, 2003. Blake and Steve notice a car cruising by, driven by a woman (no shades). The car has Houston county (Dothan) plates. Blake plays with the phone he got from Drake Hendricks. The phone rings and Blake answers. Nix says, “Don’t you feel exposed?” Blake hints that the cops are coming. “Do you want to talk with the guy who’s going to kill you?” Blake gives the phone to Steve. Nix: “I’m told you’re going to be my executioner. Look to the skies.”

Steve slips outside. Don Gray goes after his shotgun. Kef moves the circle to the dining room in the back side of the house. Blake goes upstairs and looks out the boy’s window. Steve and Blake both see large dogs sniffing around. Blake asks the kid if he has a BB gun; it’s a Daisy pump. Steve draws his silenced .45, aims. Blake fires and hits a dog directly in the snout, but there’s no reaction. Steve hits one in the foreleg; it tumbles and barks with surprise, but there’s no blood.

Blake: “Little man, put on your shoes, it’s time togo.” The boy throws back his bedcovers; his shoes are already on. Blake enters the dining room and tells Kef “We have to go.” Don, Carla, and their boy Ed get in Don’s car; Harold, Ann, and Kef in Carla’s; Blake and Paula in another car; Steve and Jeremy in another. Steve gets his scope from the trunk. Something on four legs comes running up fast. Blake puts the car in gear, intending to run a dog over. Steve sees two dogs about 45 yards away. Don aims his shotgun.

Blake peels out. Steve fires 3 times, gets one solid hit and the dog’s head disintegrates. Jeremy pulls out. Kef whips her car around expertly (Blake: “She’s the One – Nea!”). Don fires and misses.

Steve aims at the other dog. Kef accelerates. A dog leaps toward Blake through the windshield. Blake brakes such that the dog hits the grille instead – the dog punches through into the engine compartment. Don jumps into the car and Carla pulls out.

Steve fires at a zigzagging dog and turns its brain to mush. The other dog rips at stuff in Blake’s engine block. Blake slams on the brakes, flinging the dog back out. Jeremy looks around, sees nothing else coming. Carla backs out and turns around.

Paula starts a spell. The dog (it looks like a German shepherd) stares at Blake with red glowing eyes; it’s pretty torn up. Steve aims. Kef heads for the highway; Jeremy waves. Blake runs over the dog. Carla follows Kef, running over a headless dog.

Steve sees that the dog isn’t moving, and runs to the car. Blake tells Paula, “Let’s get out.” Jeremy backs the car up to him and Blake moves the guns to the trunk. Jeremy moves to a passenger seat as Blake, Paula, and Steve get in. As he reloads, Steve looks for the car that cruised by. Blake zooms past Kef just as Steve phones her and explains they had to take one car. Kef asks that Blake let her keep up.

We pull onto a side road hidden in trees. Steve gives Don a hunting rifle to use. Don asks what those things were. Steve replies, “Cybernetic dogs.”

Kef asks Carla to get some blankets, and they spread them on the ground. It’s after 11:00pm now, and the moon is almost full. Ann and Harold form a link, then scream and faint. Harold starts awake with a gasp, and some pine straw catches fire. Ann says, “We linked too fully with Frances.” Frances has a great hatred of humanity, and implied that Harold and Ann would help her control “it.” It will take four more days to “turn” Vivian and the boy.

The cat suddenly appears at Kef’s feet. Blake suggests that Don, Carla, and Kef try linking, then talks to Ann and Harold about overpowering Frances. Carla goes into REM for about five minutes. She reports seeing a house near a crossroads a little outside of Victoria with a couple of dogs on guard.

Blake’s cell phone rings. It’s Deputy Tyson asking about the torn-up car. It looks like something large was dragged off. Two investigators are missing from the site of the graveyard explosion, a state trooper and an Army investigator. Around 6pm it got a little windy and the men vanished. Blake says the wind is the problem and is linked to the disappearances; the men are probably in the woods, dead. Blake and Tyson conduct a “hypothetical” question and answer session. Tyson says he’s running interference with the sheriff. Blake tries to explain the “wind” and the Johnsons and Frances Gray. Tyson promises that if Blake helps him, he will do his best to keep Blake out of the pen. Blake warns Tyson about the wind, and people who wear sunglasses at night.

We reach the Victoria crossroads about 1:00am (Saturday morning). Carla indicates we should turn right. Steve uses his wireless laptop to obtain maps and satellite photos. Kef suggests that one car look for the house; Carla gets in with Jeremy, Steve, and Paula. After a mile and a quarter, Carla indicates a house on the left. The nearest neighbor is 300 yards away and across the road. Behind the house lie woods and some cultivated land. It’s four miles to the next crossroad.

1:30am: They return to Victoria. Steve suggests that Carla, Ann, and Harold form a gestalt and distract Frances. Paula, Ed, and the cat go with them to a church in Victoria.

Jeremy sets up where he can watch the front and back doors. Don covers the back door from the woods. Kef stealths up to the house like a ghost.

2:30am: Everyone is in position. Steve sees that there are two or three people in each bedroom. Three cars are parked in back, including the one that cruised the Grays’ house.

Steve, Blake, and Kef move in. Steve and Blake put holes in some tires. Blake pries open the window. Steve sees two guys playing poker at a card table, and another man lying down. We go to another window; there are two smaller people sitting in chairs. Blake jimmies the lock, opens the window, raises the Venetian blinds and pulls the curtains. Blake hears three dogs moving around, and a man and a woman talking – the man is Nix.

Steve creeps in and cuts the ropes. The kids are drugged. Steve hands out Vivian to Kef and Tom to Blake. Steve tells Blake to get the kids to the car, then call Nix. Steve falls back to Don’s position.

2:45am: Blake and Kef put the kids in the car. Blake returns to the house. Kef drives to the church with Vivian, Tom, and Don. Kef puts Don behind the wheel and positions herself near the triangle [of Carla, Ann, and Harold]. Kef signals when contact is made.

Blake phones Nix. Nix: “You’re annoying.” Blake: “I’m close.” Blake describes the dogs, the people, and the fact that two of the occupants of the house are now missing. Nix suddenly asks Frances what’s wrong. Nix: “You’ve got them.” Blake: “I’ve got you, too.” Nix: “You have me at a disadvantage.” Blake: “Did you get back your headless dogs?” Nix: “It’s going to be a pleasure. Eventually I’m going to kill you.”

Jeremy sees the curtains move in one window. He aims, fires, and hits someone in the leg; there’s a female cry of pain.

Blake: “How was that? Is she okay?” Nix: “You’ve got the children. What else do you want?” Blake: “I can’t let you leave.”

Steve sees the back door open. He can’t see the person, so he shoots through the wall.

Nix: “So we have to fight our way out of here.” Blake: “I didn’t say I couldn’t let them leave.” Nix hangs up.

The gestalt is sweating, being beaten down. Kef steps into the center, kneels, and speaks words of encouragement.

Steve tosses a flash-bang into a puddle of gasoline; one car catches fire. One dog crashes through the back screen door (in Steve’s general direction), the side window (toward Blake), and the front window (toward Jeremy).

Carla yells cryptically, “Trying to port up the link!”

Steve fires, drops one dog, steps toward the house. The other two dogs run straight away from the house. Blake fires and blows a dog’s head away. Someone inside smashes a window, then sprays the woods with gunfire. Kef makes a quick decision and starts breaking the gestalt. Jeremy fires, hits five times (reducing the dog to two legs), then steps behind a tree.

Jeremy drops to the ground and aims at the door. Window Man finishes the sweep, putting a bullet through Jeremy’s bomber jacket. A man dives out the window, pointing in Jeremy’s general direction. Bullets fly out of the kitchen window close to Steve. Steve walks his burst but the man dodges. Steve runs, palming a flash-bang, and asks “Can I save Frances?” Blake hits redial and the call goes immediately to voice mail. Carla snaps out of it and thanks Kef, who starts helping her up.

Jeremy shoots and hits the man on the ground. Blake fires at the woman and she falls back and down. Steve throws the flash-bang through the kitchen door. The dying guy fires a sweep towards the moon. Kef motions to Don to help Carla and moves to Ann.

Steve enters the kitchen and shoots the blinded man dead. Blake runs up to the shredded window. Jeremy switches to single-shot, stands, and walks toward the house.

Steve reverses his taped clip. Blake goes through the window and announces “I’m in.” Jeremy moves around the front of the house.

Blake hears Steve moving, but nothing else. He walks up the hallway. Jeremy keeps moving at half-speed toward the corner where Blake entered. Steve finishes the flip; he sees Blake but no one else.

The window in the great room is broken out; there are signs of a struggle on the sofa, but no one is there. Steve sees heat signatures about six seconds old headed into the pine woods. Steve goes out the window, saying “They’re in the woods.”

Blake phones Deputy Tyson, who answers on the first ring. Blake says they rescued Vivian and Tom; he mentions the burning cars and various dead guys. Blake asks Tyson to put out APBs on Frances and Nix. Frances is “armed and psychotic” and Nix “a crazy Yankee.” He suggests they shoot Frances in the legs and Nix “everywhere.” “If you hear those ticking sounds, grab your hat and run.” Tyson says, “Please clean up the dogs.” He doesn’t want the government getting them.

Jeremy heads toward the road, finding an unconscious dog. He continues to the road, paralleling Steve. Steve finds the tracks of two people leading into the woods. He tells Kef to have the gestalt distract Frances again. Just across a stream, Steve sees where they smeared mud to hide their IR signatures. Jeremy goes and gets the car.

Blake kills the last dog; he and Jeremy put the three dead dogs in the trunk.

[September 27, 2003]

It is 3:30am, Saturday, June 14. Steve is pursuing Dr Nix and Frances Gray through the woods. About 100 yards ahead he hears the sounds of a fight.

Kef is trying to organize another gestalt. She and Harold are struggling, while Ann slips readily into a trance. Kef regroups, lets Harold rest, and encourages Ann and the cat.

Steve hears a splash. From the map he remembers there being a big creek – Whitewater Creek, which flows into the town of Elba. He sees traces of a fight on the creek bank, and something hurled into the woods. The creek at this point is 8-10 feet deep, quick-flowing, with a sandy bottom. There is a female body crumpled at the base of a pine tree. No sign of Nix, and no heat trails. Blake suggests, “Shoot her in the leg.”

Steve, pointing his gun at her chest, stealths to within two yards. Her sunglasses are broken and there’s a bruise on her face. Her body temperature is less than that of a normal human. There’s no ticking sound. Steve checks her pulse, which is less regular than a human’s. Ann can sense Frances, but she seems to be asleep. Blake stops the car, gets his 30-.06 and scope, and goes after Nix.

Steve calls Kef. He tries injecting Frances under the tongue with Suspend, then picks her up. Her body feels like flesh, and she weighs about 170 pounds.

Blake sees something in the water, moving fast, swimming downstream. Jeremy drives to a bridge. Blake gets out onto the bridge and aims at Nix swimming toward him. He fires and gets one solid hit. Blood – or is it hydraulic fluid – stains the water. Blake fires three more shots; Nix dodges two of them, but one hits his chest. Then Nix is beneath the bridge. Blake crosses to the other side of the bridge but doesn’t see Nix. He tells Steve that Nix is under the bridge.

Steve calls Kef – he’s shot Frances with Suspend and will put her in Blake’s car. Jeremy puts the car in park and gets out with his gun. He goes into the woods and watches the bridge. Kef takes Ann, Paula, and the cat and heads for the bridge. She stops about ¾ mile away; she “feels” that Nix is moving south. Jeremy goes under the bridge and sees a trail of fluid in the water. Steve puts Frances in Kef’s car.

3:45am: Heading toward Elba. Blake drives to the next bridge. There are no houses nearby. Blake sets up on one bank, Steve on the other.

Tyson calls Blake from the house in Victoria. Blake fills Tyson in. Tyson: “What part of my county are you in? Should I alert the Elba police force?” Blake: “If worst comes to worst, I’ll surrender.”

Kef walks upstream, Blake and Steve dogging her. At 4:00am Tyson calls Blake; a woman in Elba reported that a bleeding man stole her husband’s car. The address is about ¼ mile from Jeremy’s car. A cop car goes by, lights flashing; Jeremy follows the cop. Blake, Steve, and Kef head for Enterprise. Tyson describes the stolen car as a 1986 Chevrolet Caprice, license 19C-4321, and adds, “Don’t kill any Alabama citizens.”

We see Nix’s taillights. Steve leans out the window and prepares to fire. Blake hands Kef his phone; she dials Nix and actually gets an answer. “Hold for Mr Drummond, please.”

Nix cries, “We’ll end this now!” He swerves around and comes straight for us. Steve fires, and AP rounds pierce Nix’s vitals, arm, and hand. The windshield shatters; the car continues, weaving. Blake slows a bit and veers, and Steve shoots out a tire. Nix’s car starts flipping over and strikes a tree.

Kef’s Danger Sense rockets up; she warns Blake who accelerates away. Steve fires again and Kef’s Danger Sense pegs; she yells “Duck!” and pulls Steve back into the car.

A small thermonuclear explosion occurs.

Jeremy calls Kef; she warns him to stay away. We will meet in the clearing in the woods. Jeremy stops in a driveway to avoid the cops. Blake tells Tyson about the nuclear explosion. A decontamination crew will be flying in from Fort Rucker.

5:15am: We all meet in the clearing. We discuss what to do about Frances and the vacuum vortex. The cat doesn’t like being near Frances. 5:35am: We head toward Dothan. 6:20: We pull up to the hotel. There’s a message for Kef – Su Li and Father O’Hare have left. 6:30: Paula checks Frances’ aura – turmoil, anger, hate, shifting darkness, gloom. 7:00: Kef showers and goes to bed.

2:30pm: Blake gets his wake-up call. Steve, Jeremy, and Frances will fly to Dallas.

3:45pm: Steve, wearing a new face, goes to his room to get Frances – and she opens her eyes. She thanks him for helping her, and offers to help put things right. She thinks Nix was heading to the cemetery to make a deal with the creature. He had a good rapport with it. “I just want to help,” she says. Blake and Paula go to see her. Frances says that Harold and Ann and her mother helped her. Paula gets the same aura reading as last night. Steve loans Frances some sunglasses. Blake, Steve, Jeremy, Paula, and Frances get into a car. Kef feels her friends are agitated (except that Steve has his “game face” on). Frances says Nix wanted to boost the creature’s power; after turning the children, he would have gone after Harold and Ann. Frances has more range with them.

Blake heads for the Grays’ house in New Brockton. He calls Kef. Carla calls Blake and he tells her to hook up with Kef.

Frances seems eager to get to the cemetery with Ann and Harold. They go to Naper Field, an airport in Dothan. Blake distracts Frances while Steve loads the dead dogs into the plane. Steve drugs a drink and offers it to Frances; she says it tastes flat.

4:45pm: Frances seems a bit woozy. She says Nix limited the creature’s area. Kef arrives at the airport, and she, Paula, Carla, Ann, Harold, and the cat enter gestalt. Suddenly Frances turns to attack Steve… then goes limp. Ann says that Frances is the one who controlled the creature. It can travel through time and space and send other people there.

6:15pm: We reach the cemetery. The county sheriff’s car is sitting at the old store. Blake calls Tyson. Tyson says he’ll replace the waiting deputy.

6:40pm: The gestalt combats great malevolence and evil. There’s a heavy backlash and Harold and Ann go unconscious. Blake comments, “We’re not dead, so that’s a good thing.” Blake walks off with Deputy Tyson. “We were working for my client’s fiancée – hypothetically.” We “negotiated aggressively” with the terrorists. Blake’s going to buy a new Chevy for Thelma and Collis Parrish. Blake assures Tyson his friends are “pure gold.”

Steve: “There’s enough naturally-occurring trouble that we don’t need to make more.” He composes a message to Infinite Solutions and sends it off. [I’m not sure from my notes, but I think Jeremy and Steve had flown to Dallas.]

Sunday, June 15th, 8:30am: A response from IS. The transport device will arrive in four hours, and transport will occur at 8:30pm.

6:00pm: Jeremy flies Blake, Kef, Paula, and the cat to Dallas.

8:30pm: Frances and the three dogs disappear.

Later: Blake testifies to the grand jury.

We figure that the fight between Nix and Frances had been staged.

Ann and Harold’s psi abilities are burned out. Come fall, Ann will attend the same university as Harold. Carla Gray wants to keep in touch with Kef.

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