Q’Shar sat by the wide table, making himself comfortable on the cushion. In front of him stood refreshnts, pushed to the side a few seconds earlier to announce the start of the official part of the discussion.
Finally, once settled on the soft pillow, the cat looked up at the person sitting in front of him. It was an older man dressed in priestly clothing, a man the cat knew.
“So, Father Ethan. I’m having a bit of déjà vu. Our last eting also started with refreshnts. Will this one go the sa way?” the cat asked.
“Well, Mr. Q’Shar, this ti around your client isn’t present to threaten the lives of my personnel…” the man answered with a smile.
“Well, there are none of your personnel here to try judging my client’s power, so sure... Although your presence is surprising. I heard Leo’s position is shaky right now, not to ntion the Riswalts...”
Ethan gave him a tight smile.
“I’m afraid you’re confused. I’m a man of God and God’s position only strengthens with the competence and power of our pope.”
The cat tilted his head lightly.
“Oh, really? I could have sworn you were very close with the sa family that let the skinwalker into the church etings.”
“Your information must be outdated. The man was a Riswalt traitor and a murderer. We had nothing to do with him.”
The cat’s smile widened further.
“Really?” he asked with a low purr. “I wonder why you don’t have any servants around. I don’t even see an altar boy.”
“Earthly conveniences are inconsequential to a servant of God.”
“You didn’t seem to mind them last ti.”
“Last ti was mostly due to your client. He did seem to have... expensive tastes.”
“That he does.” The broker nodded. “So what does the head priest, now downgraded to a ssenger, have to pass on to Clan Alhazred?” Q’Shar finally asked.
Ethan took a deep breath before speaking, slowly picking each word.
“The church would like to know... why?” he finally said after so hesitation.
“Why what?” Q’Shar asked, pretending to be confused.
Ethan paused for a second, once again trying to pick the words properly. “When the deal was struck, we were under the assumption that this would end up as a simple ssage to those who would not take us seriously or try to hurt our interests. Your client’s work, I believe, went past a ssage and entered the territory of... a strongly worded letter.”
Q’Shar nodded his head lightly.
“Well, you should have made the request more precise.”
“Yes, but let us not pretend we don’t speak the sa language. We expected a corpse, maybe magical wounds, even signs of torture. The theatrics were a surprise.”
“To us both, I guarantee you.”
“And did you perhaps receive an explanation to solve that mutual confusion?”
Q’Shar smiled widely. “That I did, yes. Olga!” he shouted for the old cat lady.
The older woman entered the room carrying a phone. Unlocking it, she clicked the screen a couple of tis, finally turning it over and pushing the device toward the priest. Ethan took it and looked at what was shown. In front of his eyes was a ssage from a contact titled ‘Headache.’ It read: “Not a war cri if we’re not at war.”
The priest stared at it for a few seconds, rereading the text, trying to find so aning in it, before slowly raising his eyes to the cat, confusion clear on his face.
“So... is that it?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not much of an explanation.”
“Yes.”
The cat once again agreed. He had to admit to himself that he didn’t hate the priest that much. He was just a man doing his job. But there was sothing strangely freeing in letting soone else deal with Sam’s bullshit for once.
“Could you get any more explanation?”
“That might be hard, but we will try to give you a proper one. It’s just that sotis my client’s ways are... mysterious.”
The priest twitched at that, but kept his composure, taking a deep breath to steady himself.
“I understand. Saddening as that is, I would like you to write a proper letter to the Vatican explaining your client’s actions, as the unnecessary cruelty of it might end up driving a wedge between the arcane and mortal worlds.”
“We would not want that, I assure you.” The cat smiled his business smile. “We will stay in contact,” he said, ending the eting.
The priest gave another tight smile and finally left Q’Shar’s eting room. Once he was out, the cat fell back onto the pillow.
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“Will it really be all right?” Bakari asked, entering the room after seeing the priest out.
“Yes. The fact that they sent a priest who lost his pull and position ans it’s just theatrics. Clentus must have really gotten to know Sam, though. He assud he would pull sothing extra. I’m just not sure what ga the pope is playing. Is he trying to alienate the mortal part of the church or force them to pick a side?”
The cat sat looking at the wall as thoughts and theories raced in his mind.
Rey looked at the computer screen showing the footage from the traffic cara near one of the cri scenes. Sadly, no man in a strange, branch-like mask showed up on the monitor. To make it worse, so of the places didn’t even have any caras nearby, so they ended up using those in the area, sotis tens of them, to see everyone getting in and out of a given cri scene. The footage was way too long to review manually, so they had the FBI IT departnt run an algorithm to cross-reference the license plates between the cri scenes, but that didn’t produce any results.
“We are missing sothing,” Filip said, looking at another monitor displaying the man in the mask. “I’m starting to think it’s a whole well-resourced organization doing this. The man we’re after is just the muscle.”
“Maybe it’s the guys from the ritual?” Josh suggested, looking at Lan.
The woman gave him a stink eye. “They were real,” she grumbled. “I’m not making it up. It was a whole ritual. They summoned a demon.”
Josh chuckled at her response.
“Is that supposed to keep it away?” he asked, pointing to a silver cross around her neck, a recent addition standing out against her usually ssy clothing.
“It’s consecrated silver, lted from a cross from Old St. Peter’s Basilica, taken during the Sack of Ro in 1527,” Lan recited, clearly defensive.
“Who told you that?” Filip asked, frowning as he turned to the woman.
“The old dude in an antique shop.”
“Wait. How much did you pay for it?” Josh asked, the corners of his mouth twitching upward.
“Five hundred dollars,” Lan said in a half-whisper.
“Pffff.” Josh began laughing. “You got scamd out of five hundred dollars.”
Filip just sighed before comnting as he turned back to the screen, “If I spent five hundred dollars on trinkets every ti I woke up not rembering the previous night, I’d bankrupt the FBI.”
“I rember everything, just my cara didn’t...”
“Because it didn’t happen?” Josh suggested, trying to explain the phenonon. “What do you think, Rey? You like the cross?”
“Yeah. Better safe than sorry,” the policeman answered, not an ounce of humor in his voice.
“Really?” Josh asked, surprised.
“You can read a place’s past just by interacting with it. Are demons and magic so hard to believe?” Rey asked them, still deadly serious.
“I an... it might be explained by so brain mutation or maybe... I don’t know, but going from psychic stuff to summoning a full-fledged demon seems like two very different things,” Josh said, slightly uncomfortable at the serious look in Rey’s eyes.
“You’d be surprised at the mysteries this world holds. You yourself said in the visions that the veiled man can’t be shot. Didn’t you think that might be magic, or also a gift like yours?”
They all fell silent at his words until Filip finally spoke up. “Well... we didn’t really check the angle much, but the only person I ever t doing sothing like that was Josh. In my whole career with the FBI, we never had a magical suspect, and magic or not, he should still be flesh and blood, right? Even if he’s gifted in so way like our Josh.”
“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. And there are more and more strange cases each day. I heard the police are pulling out of certain neighborhoods due to a lack of personnel. Our case could be a symptom of sothing else,” Rey continued.
“You think our suspect is using magic?” Josh asked skeptically.
“I think there are many possibilities we shouldn’t disregard.”
Before they could keep exploring Rey’s newfound faith in the paranormal, Filip’s phone rang. The man took it out, and upon seeing the caller, a deep frown crossed his face.
“Hello?” he said, picking it up.
“Hi. I need you to co to a cri scene, and fast.”
“Look, Jim, I’d really like to help, but I’m retired, and I have sothing—”
“I know. You asked the guys to give you a call if anything fitting your case shows up, and this is giving you that call.”
Filip got up from the chair as the rest followed, hearing the conversation.
“The veiled man?”
“Yes, or no… I don’t know. We have wounds that fit your case. I don’t know. Look, the new guys are vomiting, two technicians have already contaminated the cri scene. I need soone experienced.”
“Got it. Give the address.”
“Just go to Vaugler’s main building in New York. I’ll et you there in nine hours.”
“Got it,” he said, and hung up.
The rest didn’t need any commands as they began picking up their things to move.
“That was a detective friend from the New York Police Departnt,” Filip explained as they began moving. “I asked a few old contacts to be on the lookout. We have to get to New York as soon as possible. If I got the call, then the FBI won’t be far behind.”
They took their stuff and moved to the car as fast as possible. They booked tickets during the drive to the airport, and after a six-hour flight, they arrived in New York and took a cab imdiately afterward.
The whole process took eight hours, so, as they drove, Filip was hoping they hadn’t begun cleaning the scene. But as they arrived, the police cars were still there, though parked to the side with the lights off.
They got out of the cab, helping Josh with the wheelchair.
“Jim,” Filip greeted one of the policen.
“Good to see you.”
“I hope you didn’t clean y—” Filip began, but Jim cut him off.
“We didn’t touch the cri scene. The agencies are already squabbling over whose case it is. Vaugler wants it on the down low, so for now the whole building is out of commission. Gas leak,” he said with a chuckle.
“Fuck , corporations work fast.” Filip shook his head. “Can you get us in?”
“Yeah... Just. Look, get yourself ready.”
“I’ve slled worse, trust .”
“It’s not that. The AC was set to max, the bodies are relatively fresh. It’s... Just don’t let it leak or the board of directors will eat us alive. No reporters. Got it?”
Filip looked at Lan, who rolled her eyes and put down her notebook.
“Got it.”
After the short talk, Jim allowed them into the building. They took the elevator to the highest floor. The doors opened to a modern reception decorated in black, gray, and brown shades, with luxurious carpeting on the floor and so modern sculptures depicting geotric shapes. They were led behind the reception, walking down a corridor with eting rooms to the side, all with glass windows showing the skyline of New York. Before they ca to the end of the corridor, Jim stopped them.
“You need to prepare yourselves.”
They nodded in response.
“And look, Filip. I show you the cri scene, you catalog it as one of yours, and you take this fucking ss off my hands. Right?” Jim said.
“If it’s one of ours, then yes.”
“Good,” Jim said, moving to the side.
They walked out of the corridor only to stop dead in their tracks. Josh and Lan looked away, while Filip and Rey winced.
“What the fuck is this?” Filip whispered.
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