Tuesday October 7

After a 9 am team meeting located in Chief Dodd's office, Denason and Mallory flew out to Denver for an on site look at the Red Rock Amphitheater, and to begin instigating security plans that involved the Denver Police Department, and a private company also located in the city.

Hal and Samantha spent an hour and a half at the police firing range before their previously arranged noontime meeting with Soong Chu-Yu. The Chinese man suggested they meet for lunch at the little restaurant next door to Yu's own business establishment.

It was a typical autumn day in the Southern California region..Hot, and gusty. A Santa Anna condition had developed over night sweeping super heated air off the Sonora desert into the Los Angeles basin, and with it a heightened risk of brush fire. It is not unusual on days like this to walk outside to a perfect calm, and within seconds seek balance against a thirty five mile per hour wind blast that seems to emanate from all directions.

Samantha and Hal waited patiently in the beige sedan as a swirling torrent liken to a miniature tornado swept along the street in front of the Fong Wong Chung restaurant spitting sand and litter like a psychotic parade queen throwing candy from a passing float.

She turned to Hal and giggled. "I think I just saw a celebrity walk by."

"Really?" He commented looking around.

"Yeah," she grinned.."The Tasmanian Devil."

On the count of three they forced open their doors against the gale and rushed to the sanctuary of the restaurant's calm interior.

The place was bigger than it looked from the outside and spacious in appearance due to it's mint green walls. A great deal of ornate decor graced the corners such as six foot replicas of Ming dynasty vases, and wood carvings depicting animals associated with the Chinese calendar. The center section was arranged with somewhat close table seating, but lining both side walls were booths sandwiched between embellished teak wood privacy partitions for those seeking a more intimate atmosphere..Near the back left wall a scrolled wooden archway depicting two dragons formed the entrance to another dining room set aside for private parties..Although they were not seated there, Samantha caught a glimpse of the rooms interior, and saw that it was done in a deep cardinal red, coupled with green highlights, with a variety of colorful Chinese lanterns.

They were met by a pleasant faced middle aged male donning black slacks and a white button down silk shirt who lead them through the main seating area and up a section of wooden stairs located at the back right corner of the restaurant..The landing at the top of the stairs opened to yet another dining area that's seating overlooked the first floor setting against a long banister of exquisitely carved cherry wood. The ends of which where depictions of fruit bearing trees that's trunks spread as they rose to include limbs, branches, and leaves..Spanning the fifty foot space between the trees was a railing also carved in cherry. An elaborate vineyard of twisting grape vines loaded with fruit..Although the main floor below was filled with clatter and the hectic nature of a noon day rush, the top floor was empty of patrons except Yu who stood when they approached from a six seat capacity circular table.

After exchanging hand shakes Samantha asked about his wife Chan.

"She's holding down the fort next door." Yu advised.

"I'd like to walk over there and say hello before we go." Samantha said.

Yu smiled, "I am sure she would like that Samantha."

The three of them drank jasmine tea while Hal brought the man up to speed on the case including their meetings with Nick and Michelle..He felt it important Yu know that Nick was the apparent target in the mad cow incident. Then both he and Samantha recounted Nick and Michelle's version concerning the event yesterday in Utah..

Yu's interest in Nick Flannery became apparent early on.. He seemed to gain a sense of excitement when learning of Nick's involvement, as if in his mind, a missing piece of a puzzle had been found..He then summarized for the detectives his meeting Sunday afternoon with Father Barbarossa, Shai Lin, and Rafael Trujillo..

While doing so Yu took from his briefcase the plastic bag the detectives had previously left him containing the broken piece of plastic lens they'd found at Desert Center..There was no water in the container now, and the plastic lens was completely visible..

"It would seem whatever component caused this item to be invisible is now gone." Yu advised.

"Interesting," Hal commented. "That could mean Mister Gilespie is no longer able to cloak his where-a-bouts as well."

Yu then produced the little wooden box Father Barbarossa had left him after the four men had concluded their meeting Sunday afternoon..He opened the lid and inside was a small six inch dagger..It's blade appeared to be that of gold, but which Yu explained to be actually orichalcum. A metal discovered in ancient times during the smelting of copper and bronze that's rarity at the time made it's value second only to gold...It was in fact so uncommon orichalcum proved to be even rarer than gold as it's mines were long ago exhausted.. The hilt was of white carved bone or ivory. Embedded on the inside of the grip was a triad of four carat ruby stones, and on the opposite side four slightly smaller emerald jewels.

"It's quite beautiful," Samantha commented.

Yu nodded, "It's on loan to us by Father Barbarossa a friend and archeologist..He found this item quite by accident and believes it to be the Crewennan dagger."

"Never heard of it," Hal commented.

"Me either," Samantha confirmed.

"That makes three of us," Yu added..."Both Father Barbarossa and my mentor Shai Lin are familiar with it however."

Yu went on to explain the Crewennan dagger's creation originated back to over 305 B.C. at the beginnings of the Ptolemaic era of Egyptian dynasties. An alchemist practiced in arts of black magic forged the dagger under explicit instructions contained in the Egyptian Book of Thuth. The magician's motivation at the time was the book's prediction that if properly conceived, the tool would enable him an ability to summons demons..His intention being that once conjured they might act as a viable resource in carrying out his life's work. Unfortunately for the wizard, the spell contained in the Book of Thuth did not include any means of safe guard against the inherent nature or behavior of those entities summoned..He was subsequently devoured by the first demon successfully risen.

Over a period of time the dagger fell into a network of magicians who proclaimed to enlist themselves solely within the boundaries of white magic. During this era the dagger's attributes were somewhat amended to include control of those demons summoned, even to the extent of ordering them back to the depths from which they came..

Yu advised.."Legends of the dagger's use a weapon against forces of evil however, suggest it's power may only be released through the hands of a specific host."

Samantha shook her head.."I am not sure I follow..Are you telling us we have to stab this Zoot Suit man?...This demon,..as you describe him?.. With that little knife?...To,..to what?..To make him disappear?...To make him go back to hell?"

Yu nodded.."That's the general idea."

"Jesus,"...Hal said.."This is just like the China Town killer."

"Not exactly," Yu said.

Sensing Hal's rising anxiety Samantha attempted to put things in perspective.."We just have to find this guy...Which we do anyway, and do him with this dagger before he does us."

"Not exactly," Yu said again.

"What?"..Samantha asked.

"Yeah, what?" Hal echoed.."What exactly do you mean by, not exactly?"

Yu shrugged.."The plan of attack we used against the samurai poltergeist was based on deception...We used a weapon from his own time that he believed mortally wounded him...Your not going to have that kind of advantage this time..Not with this guy."

"But doesn't it boil down to the same thing?" Samantha asked..."That little knife,..it's history, what it allegedly has the power to do?...Doesn't this Zoot guy need to see it?..Recognize it?...Fear it, for it to work?"

Yu shook his head.."We are dealing with a Qlippoth, a demon, an enemy of all that is good..A direct opposite of the natural harmony of the universe..The dagger is meant to be wield by the essence of good against the essence of evil..Evil cannot maintain it's power of control when overwhelmed by good...The Qlippoth fears only that essence of good..It is what I mean when I say the successful use of the dagger must be accompanied by a host."

"A human host," Hal offered.

"That is correct," Yu advised.

Samantha advised, "I volunteer..I am trained for it."

"Yes," Yu said.."And a good person as well, Samantha...However, in this instance we mere mortals have no say in who becomes the accepted host."

"Go on," Hal said.

"Once the Qlippoth was invited by human intervention from the realm of the underworld, the issue became a battle..A continuing war of sorts that has become an interwoven aspect of life as we know it..Beginning long ago stemming from the war of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness...It now becomes the choice of those members of the Sons of Light to name a human host to champion this battle."

"And, it is our job to find this host, and give the dagger to them?" Samantha asked.

"That is my understanding," Yu said..

"Any clues on how we do that?" Samantha asked.

"As I said," Yu offered.."The battle has already begun..Those involved are already gravitating toward the battlefield."

Herman Gilespie slept on the concrete floor of an abandon warehouse somewhere on the outskirts of Palisade Colorado, and for the first time in as many days experienced seven dreams. These were not the nature of such fragmented wonders that often slip softly away at the advent of dawn, as experience by those who's waking consciousness reflects a harmonic journey of the soul...These were instead the makings of a particular essence of experience that imposes a kind of suffocation liken to an infant startled awake by a cat perched upon it's up turned face..The kind of dreams that coagulate from liquid to semisolid mass, stitching themselves between the frameworks of the mind, leaving a condition so elegantly described by Ian Anderson as 'thick as a brick'.

Making matters so much more the complex, Herman dreamed himself as he once was, a boy of ten years happily playing sandlot baseball with a group of childhood friends..The smell of dust, the feel of denim and leather, the crack of a bat, and the smile in his eyes expressed a perfect surrounding of time and space under a warm summer sun.

"What went wrong?"..Were the first words he murmured upon awakening..And for a moment he perceived that perhaps the disturbing dreams were a kind of clarity he had not previously experienced..

He drag up to his knees choking against a rising fume of particle dust that covered the warehouse floor. Squinting in reaction to dispersing beams of sunlight that penetrated the rotting seams of boarded windows running across the upper walls of the building. His eyes had become increasingly sensitive to light over the course of the past two days..A condition first dismissed as simply due to his newly acquired habit of nighttime travel. Somewhere within his scope however, he knew it not to be true..Like the rolled hunch that had formed at top of his back, or the noticeable extension of his arms that now hung to his knee line, he knew that his eyes increasing sensitivity to light was yet another link in a chain of events preparing him for a specific deed..

Remembering something from the previous evening, he stooped down picking a pair of woman's sunglasses off the floor where he'd been sleeping..People were so vulnerable he thought slipping on the glasses..Such easy targets..Unlike the wildlife he'd encountered traveling the wilderness..He'd tried to hunt game..To shoot rabbits and deer with the rifle. Their keen instincts had always out smarted him staying a step ahead, just beyond his capabilities. People on the other hand, were not at all accustomed to actions of the uncivilized..Too many years living in the luxury of law and order had dulled their better judgement. Leaving them in full trust that others around them would naturally abide by the same rules of conduct...The previous owner of the sunglasses had proven this point entirely..

Saturday night he'd snagged a ride on an east bound freight train that got him over the state line near Green River, and stayed on until it's direction shifted south toward Grand Junction..From that time on he'd been on foot and famished skirting the I-70 along a wilderness line that slowly shrank eastward finally giving way to farmlands rich with fruit trees and grape vineyards at the bottom of the Grand Mesa plateau.

He had managed to sustained himself with periodic dishes of road kill quickly learning the sign of circling buzzards and ravens over the interstate..When he was sure the sound of approaching traffic was clear, he'd scare off the scavengers tearing what remaining carcass was left to him from the macadam, devouring it uncooked while hiding in the brush off the shoulder of the roadway...At first this practice repulsed him and often caused a violent reaction impossible to keep down any substance..But as time passed, he came to crave the raw flesh and metallic taste of dried blood as others might enjoy a delicacy...His body adjusted as well no longer suffering the effects of the bacteria that grew like wildfire in the bloating flesh of the unfortunate victims..

It was here on the out skirts of the small town of Palisade he'd come across an old farmhouse Monday evening some four miles from his current location..At first glance he thought it to be abandon property as the acreage was over grown and unattended. On closer inspection however, he found a single light burning in the living room, and saw a woman through the window, sipping tea and watching television from an easy chair.

He pulled open the screen door and knocked twice imagining her slow progress as he'd determined her age to that of one inherent to such frailties as arthritis, or calcium deficiency..The porch light flicked on and he smiled as she open the front door donning a look that reflected expectation of a social visit from a friend, family, or church member...What she received was the butt end of his rifle slammed into her forehead spiraling her four feet backwards and landing in a heap on top of some meticulously polished hardwood floor..

"What's for dinner, ma?"..He said, stepping inside and closing the door..

For some time no sound escaped the interior of the farmhouse..Only the reflection of his shadow, huge and foreboding against the single lamplight, as he searched the premise for any other persons that might reside there..But soon,..soon enough,..the silence was broken by the sound of ripping flesh, and a reminder to himself about himself..He had become the emancipated version of the obese woman he'd met in his apartment, what now seemed a life time ago.

"What are you thinking about?" Michelle asked Nick pulling his unfocused attention from the restaurant's parking lot just outside the window of their booth.

He didn't reply at once, instead found himself admiring the flirting eyes that stared back at him over the rim of her coffee cup.

"I was thinking about what happened." He said.

"Yesterday?"

"Yep."

"Well, we got through it, right?" She said taking his hand.."What ever it was, we got through it together."

"I am worried about the next time," he said gently stroking the top of her thumb.

"Assuming there is a next time," she offered.

He nodded.."Yeah well,..I am pretty certain there's going to be a next time."

"So you don't believe maybe we were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

He shook his head.."I don't think those crazy cows were an accident..I believe someone was chasing us over there in Blythe..And I think we were very lucky to have escaped alive yesterday."

"Ok..But I don't see what we can do about it Nick..I mean, I don't know how we can avoid it."

"I don't either", he said..I can't control it, and I am worried something's going to happen to you...To the guy's in the band...To anybody that's around me when it does."..He squeezed her hand before continuing. "Look baby, maybe we should take Hal and Samantha up on their offer to fly you out to your folks place...We could leave your bike stored here and pick up it on the way back...I think I should head up to Denver alone."..He was shattered by the look of disappointment in her eyes and finished slowly.." Michelle, if anything happened to you I couldn't live with myself."

She nodded.."And if something happens to you?..If I'm not there to help you?..How am I going to feel?"

"You would feel my loss..I've no doubt of that honey..But this thing,..whatever it is, for what ever reason, it wants me..I swear, I don't think it will rest until I've at least had the opportunity to confront it."...He thought for a moment then added.."And, if nothing happens I'll come for you in Aspen."

"You mean before the battle of the bands?" She asked.

"Before the battle of the bands, he said...."I want you there, you know that Michelle..I just need to know it's safe."