by Greg Ballan
Erik grunted a few times as Shanda talked and they exchanged light conversation for several minutes. "Okay babe you tell 'Lil Man' daddy will see him soon." Erik suddenly laughed aloud. "Yes, I promise I will find a Vatican gift shop and get you a souvenir." He paused for a moment. "I love you, Angel. I'll see you tomorrow, or the next day at the latest." He tossed the phone on top of the small table and leaned back on the couch. He closed his eyes and assumed a deep meditative state. Tomorrow was going to be another busy day
◆◆◆
Erik heard Martin's light footsteps as he entered their living room area. The detective glanced at his watch. Three hours had passed. Erik's body required little to no sleep since his change but his mind enjoyed the peace and tranquility found in meditation. The past hours had refreshed his mental faculties. "You're up and about at a late hour, Martin."
Denton flinched. "Sorry, you startled me. I was trying not to wake you."
"No worries, Counselor. I wasn't really sleeping." Erik sat up and gestured toward a large armchair. He picked up a nearby hotel pad and began writing.
We need to talk, and I'm confident other ears are listening.
Denton nodded as he read. He picked up the pen.
Do a sweep. I've got an idea. I'll be right back
Martin left the room and Erik silently scanned their hotel suite. He found a small microphone hidden between the ruffles of the balcony curtains and another device under the lip of their coffee table. He casually crushed the eavesdropping devices and placed the broken fragments in a plastic evidence bag. Martin came back out of the room carrying a small black device with two blinking green lights. He walked around the room holding the box in front of him. As he approached the far wall, the lights flashed red and yellow. He walked toward the opposite wall and the device flashed again. There were listening devices inside the walls as well.
Erik pointed toward the plastic bag and Denton rolled his eyes. The elder agent turned a black knob and placed the device in the middle of the room. Erik's enhanced hearing picked up a high frequency static. "A white noise box?"
Denton smiled. "The latest tech gadget from our lab geeks. Not only will it scramble any audio sensor but if our friends have any video systems, they're about to get nothing but static as well."
"I'm impressed. I have to admit, our friends in the holy city are far worldlier than I'd have ever imagined."
Denton laughed. "The church has been around for a long time Erik, and they've lots of practice being sneaky."
The detective nodded. "So it would seem. I'd like to compare notes about the things we've experienced today. It's always helpful to bounce ideas and theories off somebody else before a large meeting."
"Good idea. I wasn't as much on the experiencing side of events as you were. I can give my gut reactions and my impressions of our friends on the police force and at the Vatican, but as far as the experiences you had, I'm only good as a sounding board and not much else."
Erik nodded. "A sounding board is exactly what I need right now because I have a theory and it's pretty farfetched. I'm very reluctant to bring it up tomorrow and I'm hesitant to even tell you. But I need to get it out there, ridiculous as it feels."
"Well it's just us now so fire away. I'm sure our nosey friends are quite distressed at this point."
Erik leaned forward. "Okay I'm just going to come out with it. I don't think our killer is human."
Denton raised an eyebrow. "That much I gathered already. Based on your reactions when you picked up the cross and the wreckage at the altar, I gathered our killer was something more than a run-of-the-mill human murderer."
Erik stared at his friend and tilted his head. "You seem to be taking this in stride."
Denton shook his head. "No, not really. I've just been nosing around the edge of things the last few years and have become aware of happenings that would drive a normal person insane. I've kept these things to myself because I feared if I brought it up my own life would be forfeit. I never expected my son to be involved with such things though, let alone be murdered by a non-human entity."
"Care to enlighten me, Counselor?"
"Remember when you were working with the government ferreting out the rogue leaders in Washington?"
The detective winced. "How could I forget? I've never seen such a cesspool of collusion and corruption. That investigation made me lose all faith in Washington and in our system. Each time, we thought we had all the rats trapped, there seemed to be another level of corruption even deeper, incriminating more people. Finally the President gave up and took what he had for a win and called me off. I was close, Martin, real close to finally netting some of the bigger fish. Somebody got to the President. I can't prove it, but in my gut I know that's what happened. Washington couldn't take the political heat from the headlines."
Martin shook his head. "I don't know, Erik. Initially when you told me about the investigation being squashed I agreed. But after seeing some of the political maneuvering taking place over the last several months I'm convinced there's something more involved. I intercepted some high level intel from Washington to our agency heads and the subject involved matters of state involving several high ranking committee members in the House and Senate. They were orders, or at least instructions, on certain courses of action to take in the 'War'. There was a series of symbols in the message that took me a month to crack."
"And…." Erik leaned forward.
"One of my friends is a Biblical Scholar and he told me it's a language he's only seen on a holy scroll, here, in a museum in Vatican City. It's believed to be a divine alphabet, the language of angels if you will." Denton paused letting his revelation sink in. "The coded message instructed our agency to pull resources off of projects and assign them cases I'd never heard of. Some of the assets were people in my direct chain of command and I know one of those agents was a key player in ferreting out the Washington corruption. That kind of repositioning on our chessboard requires coordination through proper channels and goes through my office. This obviously didn't. I waited about a week to see what would happen and sure enough I got a phone call from Washington informing me that three of my assets were being reassigned and it was all above my level of clearance. When I pressed, I was told I didn't have a need to know and was advised to drop the matter."
Erik rubbed a hand through his long hair and shook his head. "So you're saying some angel upstairs didn't want the pot stirred in Washington? That's one hell of a stretch to make based on an intercepted message, especially with you being an atheist and all."
The old man sighed. "I know, but I started snooping around and asking questions, probably more than I should have. Each time I mentioned the strange script to the higher ups they got very uncomfortable and nervous, like I was raising a taboo subject. I'd never seen seasoned staffers sweat and look so uncomfortable and tell me I'd be better off dropping the subject. Every federal document gets scanned and stored somewhere. I stayed late a few nights and ran some 'EYES' database searches for documents with similar script. I programmed the spectrum scanner functions in the search to look for typographic variants, word and letter patterns in documents, and even a few other encryption ciphers I knew of to conceal data. I was stunned when I actually got several hits. I started examining hard copies of files too. The different ways the symbols were hidden are absolutely brilliant. The documents were all from three high-ranking congressmen and one senator. The symbols were all cleverly hidden inside text or watermarked very lightly and barely visible to the naked eye. If someone wasn't specifically looking for these symbols, they could possess these papers and never know the markings were there." Denton paused a moment to compose himself. "I started doing some background research on these men and I couldn't find any common thread or any activity linking them together besides that script on some highly classified correspondence materials."
"Did you save the images? I'd like to get a look at these symbols. Maybe one of my sources outside the agency can shed some more light
on them. There has to be some meaning behind them. If we can decipher those messages, we may have a clue to who's behind the Washington conspiracy."
Denton frowned. "That's the problem, after two nights of snooping and building a case file, I was going to take all the data to an associate who has a source at the Archeological Institute in Seattle. She was going to take the images and have them analyzed.
Erik rolled his eyes. He knew what was coming.
"A very tall, lean man paid me a social call one evening. He knew all about me, Erik, all about what I was doing and all about my history with the firm. He told me if I valued my career, and more importantly my life, I'd stop snooping where I wasn't supposed to. I got the sense it wasn't a threat, but more of a warning. His tone was amiable and even borderline friendly. He advised me to enjoy my final years and live in peace, that digging into these symbols would only cause me more trouble and aggravation than I could tolerate. The next morning when I arrived at work, my computer had been wiped clean. My case files had been emptied, and my retirement paperwork was on my desk filled out awaiting my signature." Denton shifted his position on the couch. "I got the message." Denton looked over at his friend, "I have this dreadful feeling that my snooping somehow led to William's death. I feel responsible. If I hadn't poked my head into affairs that weren't my concern maybe he'd still be with me today."
Erik sensed the wave of despair. The detective knew the debilitating effect such emotional guilt would have on his friend. "Martin, if there's some connection between what's going on in Washington and what happened here, it has nothing to do with you. You said yourself you didn't have any leads or evidence. You wouldn't be given a 'friendly' warning then retired if the plan was to kill William all along. They would have leveraged your son in the warning to force you out and that didn't happen. Why block you out and then provoke you with something so horrible? 'They' would know something this drastic would only serve to pull you back into active status and into this investigation whether officially retired or not. I don't think." He paused to look his friend in the eye. "I know for certain, the two events, though seemingly related, are just an ugly coincidence."
Martin smiled. "Thanks Erik. I think I needed to hear that from an objective source. You wouldn't lie to spare my feelings would you?"
Erik flashed back to the fib he'd told his friend in the subterranean church. "No Martin. On something like this I'd be totally on the level. I'm telling you I'm certain there's no connection."
The old man frowned. "I'm starting to believe in the supernatural. A sense of darkness and evil in a church, you seeing a hooded figure cloaked in black, and the alphabet of angels. It's enough to make a man believe in God. I don't mind admitting I may have been wrong all this time. What a disturbing way to have a revelation."
The detective nodded. "Would it help if I said better now than later."
Denton chuckled. "Yeah, now I can spend the rest of my days repenting."
"Well, since you're in the mood to accept the existence of supernatural entities, you won't mind me telling you I suspect some type of vampiric being is responsible for your son's murder."
"A vampire? Come on now!" Denton nearly choked on the word.
"I know how bizarre it sounds, Counselor, but the smell of charred flesh in the chapel combined with what I saw in Brother Peter's memory, then factor the superhuman strength required to perform the feats in the basement chapel. We've just ruled out the entire human population. I know how messed up this sounds but I'm just throwing it out there as a possibility." Erik sighed. "And I also saw this being drinking blood from an open throat wound. Well, at least that's the impressions imbedded on that cross. Whatever killed your son and the other two men wasn't human." The detective forced the words out of his mouth knowing how crazy they would sound. "The data we've collected does seem to point to a vampire. As effed up as that sounds, it's the only conclusion I can draw based on the current facts."
"I hate to throw water on your theory, but how could a vampire exist inside a church? Don't they go poof or something when exposed to crosses and such?"
Erik frowned. "Yes, they're not supposed to be able to exist in such a holy place. I suspect we'll get some interesting results from the black fibers we recovered. Also if the relic inside that safe was as holy as we suspect, how in the hell…" Erik rolled his eyes at his own words, "Pardon the pun, but how in the hell did a Dark being survive an encounter with it, let alone steal such an object without being vaporized." Erik shook his head. "I don't know anything about this stuff. Shit! The only thing I know about vampires comes from the movies. Maybe the movies have it wrong. Perhaps our Vatican friends can shed some light on this tomorrow."
"Let's hope so. I know I wanted your help investigating my son's murder, but I never imagined it would evolve into such a bizarre mystery. Let's take stock of what we do have: We have impressions you picked up from a religious relic and images from a 'Jedi' mind meld with a distraught cleric along with his story, which does support your hypothesis by the way." Denton shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "The only physical evidence we have are the fibers, the dried blood stains and the wrecked safe. We found no prints or any other trace of physical evidence that can place someone else at the crime scene. I'm not doubting your word or your abilities, Erik. I'm simply looking at our situation from an outsider's perspective."
Erik shook his head, laughing.
"What's so funny?"
"You mixed up your franchises, Counselor. We can't have you upsetting the science fiction fandom. Every geek with a toy phaser or light saber just got offended."
Confusion clouded Denton's face. "I'm totally lost."
"The term is 'Vulcan mind meld' from Star Trek. 'Jedi' is from Star Wars." Erik smiled.
"Well I can't go around butchering the genre; I'd cause a disturbance in The Force." Denton grinned wickedly, "I got that one right. Can we get back to work now?"
Erik nodded. "By your command."
Denton's jaw dropped. "Please don't. You're gonna give me a headache."
Erik got back to business "I agree with your assessment with one exception, the black dried blood is the key. I think that will prove somebody else was there and tie back to our somewhat unorthodox hypothesis. We can speculate till the cows come home but we can't do anything more until we have the lab results. There's a story to get, Martin, and we'll get it tomorrow.
◆◆◆
Erik stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. He could hear Martin on the phone and knew they were being summoned to the Vatican Council. Erik anticipated an escort rather than a mere phone call. The detective could ignore any edict from the religious authority, but Martin was representing the United States Government and even though he was soon to retire, the elder agent still had to maintain a diplomatic posture. Erik dressed quickly tucking his sleeveless t-shirt into his pants. He grabbed a dress shirt from his closet and made his way to the large common area. Martin had opened the heavy drapes and was admiring the morning view of Italy.
"This is really a beautiful place, Erik. I'd like to visit Italy for a few weeks once this is wrapped up. I've always wanted to travel and see the world at my leisure instead of chasing terrorists, drug dealers or spies across the globe at a breakneck pace." Denton sighed. "William would have been a wonderful tour guide."
Erik placed a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm sure he would have, I can relate to your sentiment, When I got booted from the CIA I was resentful and angry. But I enjoy the slower pace and the less complicated life. I'm home at night and no one is trying to kill me. It's boring, uneventful yet satisfying at the same time. Retire and enjoy the peace."
Erik waited for his friend to reply but he didn't. The old man was intently staring at his arm. Denton's eyes were wide with shock.
"What's wrong, Martin? You look like you've seen a ghost?"
"Your tattoo." Denton pointed. "For the love of Pete, your tattoo has those symbols I saw on the papers." Denton moved
closer studying Erik's artwork.
Erik frantically gestured toward the walls.
Denton examined the ink work. "The noise box has been on all night. I don't need the Vatican hearing me groan, fart, snore or slurp my coffee in the morning."
Erik held his arm out examining his tattoo. "Where?"
"These marks right here, they're carefully hidden behind the barbed wire etching but I recognized them. God knows I've seen them enough in my head. There are three distinct symbols within the pattern. The artist was very clever. Just like the people who sent the symbols on the government documents." Denton looked over at his friend. "I hate to say this but you've been branded."
The detective stared at his arm. "Son of a bitch! Why?"
Denton's brow creased. "They knew."
"I don't follow you, Martin." Erik buttoned his shirt, gazing at his friend.
"They knew I'd call you. They know we're friends and they knew once I was told William was murdered I'd want to investigate and 'They' knew I'd bring the best field agent I could get my hands on to help." Denton sat on the couch. "They wanted you here for some reason, Erik. Our friends in the Vatican wanted you here, to see you for some reason. Those symbols on your arm mean something and my gut tells me our friends are keeping a great deal of information from us."
The detective absently rubbed his arm, his ice-blue eyes burning. "I'm running out of patience with all these mysteries. Let's cut through this bullshit and get some answers." Erik looked back at his friend. "'They have some explaining to do."
◆◆◆
Bishops' Council Room
Erik and Martin were escorted into a large chamber nearly fifty feet across. At the end of the chamber stood a solid white door with a pearl handle. The door was a vast contrast to the paneled wall and ornate furnishings decorating the chamber. Their escort gestured toward the door.
