Mid-West Campaign
Session Forty-Two

Wednesday, 10 January 2001

The generally uninjured Benedict sees that Jane and Chuck are transported to Winterset for convalescence. Thepair arrive late in the evening and are admitted to the hospital while Benedict uses his super-powers to heal himself.

Thursday, 11 January 2001

While Jane and Chuck remain in hospital Benedict determines to use this time to track down as many loose ends as possible. Over the next five days he continually arrives at the bedside of Jane and Chuck, allegedly to visit them, but in reality to bother them with his new theories.

Benedict's most worrying theory is regarding Artemis Black. He believes that Black's meteoric successes to date are directly linked to the Joker's killings. Every time something good happens to Black, the Joker murders someone in return. Benedict thinks that Black may even realise this on a subconscious level which is why he has never actively pursued case S89. He has even found the time to write a very convincing paper on the subject Artemis Black: Complicit or Complacent? that he insists Jane and Chuck read over their saline drips. Ben also suggests that Alfred Brickman enjoyed much the same successes as Black for the same price and that he was only arrested once he broke faith with the Joker.

Benedict is also wrestling with his translation of Hamblin's Hieroglyphs. There seems to be a very strong link between it and the concept of travel between dimensions posited in the Book of Entrance. Benedict extrapolates wildly from his findings and believes he can trace the beginning of human life on earth to the crash of the ship carrying S.C.H.U.L.T. 5221 years ago.

Jane urges Benedict to find some perspective. He is not going to solve the mysteries of the universe where so many before him have failed. Plus, even if he did it doesn't change the remit of the evidence response team or their duties. Benedict disagrees - he thinks it will give them an edge.

Friday, 12 January 2001

Benedict's latest theory holds great interest for Jane. Case JOP312 centres on the removal of bodies from a military cemetery. What if this is being perpetrated by the same people who were responsible for augmenting Apache Joe? What if AJ really did die but was later dug up and returned to life?

Monday, 15 January 2001

Benedict returns to the hospital after spending the weekend going through old case files. He tells Jane that she must track down her sister's errant husband Greg Keller as a matter of some urgency. Jane is shocked that Benedict even knows about this, but Ben quickly explains that Todd blabbed everything to him in an unguarded moment.

Benedict also telephones the New York School of Music and makes an appointment to see Allan Milbanks on Wednesday. Milbanks was the expert in the works of Nikolai Rosakov identified by Jane as a source of further information about the Requiem for the Broken. This lead has been left dangling since November.

Wednesday, 17 January 2001

Chuck and Jane are discharged from hospital and Benedict quickly whisks them away to New York City. Artemis Black has finished his charity drive but is currently supervising the screen tests for his Dark Files TV series, and is therefore not present. The trio arrive in New York and hurry to keep their mid-morning appointment.

After Chuck has inadvertently trashes Doctor Milbanks's office the group settle down for a spot of civilised tea. Chuck comments to Jane and Benedict that an office building he can see from the window was the scene of a confrontation between Chuck and his friends and a bunch of nasty cultists back in 1995. Chuck says there was a portal on the roof, and priests. There were also zombies that seemed to be controlled by polyp like creatures that lived in their stomachs. A friend of his died there in a lift shaft. He wouldn't mind checking it out for old time's sake. As Milbanks joins them Benedict steers the conversation to the matter at hand.

Like many specialist academics Milbanks is extremely pleased to find someone enquiring about his obsession. He tells the agents everything they already know about Nikolai Rosakov but then he continues. Rosakov's patron, the Khedive, was a member of the Illuminati and was rumoured to summon demons and raise the dead. Apparently when Rosakov was sucked in to the Khedive's "grand plan", and it was for this plan that he Khedive commissioned the Requiem for the Broken.

The tune was designed to charm demons, although no-one is really certain if it was ever played. There are rumours that it was played in Prague around 1900, and that it was coincident with a number of odd deaths in the city, but Milbanks considers this to be nonsense. As for dying of madness, Milbanks does not think that is quite true - not in the terms the agents apprehend. Rosakov lived a Byron-esque life in Prague. He died of his excesses which would have been considered madness at the time.

The agents show Milbanks the music found with Gilgoolie's belongings. Milbanks is incredibly excited. The piece is designed to be played on an organ with four keyboards (or two harpsichords). He guesses there were probably three movements in the piece, but the agents only have the final organ solo. The music is smudged at the end by Milbanks successfully extrapolates what the last bars would be. He thinks that this last movement is the most important one in regard to the mythical "demon charming" aspects of the music.

The conversation becomes too much for Chuck, and the repeated mention of the phrase "large organ" sends him into fits of giggles. This is contagious and he and Jane have to leave the room. However, as soon as they do so they realise Benedict has been left alone while on duty. They try to return, but it is too late. The doors is barred Barber's Adagio for Strings is playing and the Joker has arrived.

Outside the room time stops which inside, Benedict starts to pray and make his peace with God and urges a confused Milbanks to do the same. Suddenly Benedict realises that he might have a way to save himself and calls upon the powers of his second, mineralised, nervous system. Suddenly spikes rip through Benedict's skin, and he grows chitinous plates over his body. The Joker attacks Benedict and, although he still feels the demon's piercing claws, he receives nothing more than a superficial wound.

Benedict barges through the doors into the hall and as he does so he has escaped the Joker and time starts again. Chuck and Jane are faced with a chitinous monster they have no reason to suspect is Ben. Noticing a chink in the armour Jane and Chuck open up on Benedict's crotch with a series of kicks and shots from a hand cannon. Benedict surrenders and changes back to himself. However, the shock is too much for his system and he collapses.

Benedict is rushed to hospital while Chuck and Jane do their best to clear up this mess. They remove any forensic evidence of shots being fired. Jane talks to Milbanks who fortunately has a history of delusional episodes. The pair take him home and put him to bed. Jane talks with Milbanks's wife and urges her to make sure her husband continues to take his medication.

Chuck and Jane head for lunch in a new restaurant built on the roof of the building Chuck mentioned earlier. In fact it is on the exact spot where the portal to another dimension once stood. Jane thinks she sees Kirsty, but Chuck does see Todd and Danielle sharing an intimate lunch.

Jane quickly discovers that Todd is in fact the father of Danielle's unborn child. Todd and Danielle are extremely embarrassed that Jane found out in this manner. An awkward situation is made worse by Chuck who displays a talent for tact and diplomacy reminiscent of the way the Mongol hordes pillaged China. Jane excuses herself and she and Chuck head down to the lobby.

The location of Danielle's estranged husband, Greg, is now a more pressing concern to Jane who asks Chuck to trace Greg's credit card and bank transactions. Greg is very quickly located in at a motel in Flagstaff, Arizona. From previous details it seems that he has been working his way across the country, and it would seem he is heading for LA. Jane realises that Greg is going after Todd. Jane immediately warns Dominic of the west coast team.

Jane then phones Dani and intercepts Todd and soon the four of them are at Danielle's apartment. Jane is determined to get to the bottom of things. Danielle and Todd met three months ago. Dani had been married fourteen months by this time and her marriage to Greg was already a sham. Dani was seeing a psychologist and met Todd, they got drunk and one thing led to another.

Dani and Jane have a blazing row, during which Dani accuses Jane of being just like their father. Dani says that she is certain the baby is Todd's and that she is keeping it. She doesn't love Todd, and Todd doesn't love her - he is too infatuated with Jane. Jane chooses to ignore this. Dani also says that she asked Todd to keep an eye on Jane to make sure she was safe. This annoys Jane. Todd himself says that he is standing by Dani and helping her with the child but he doesn't want to marry her.

However, they all have a more pressing concern in the shape of Greg. Chuck (when he isn't trying to hit on Dani) points out Greg's record of petty crimes and suspected links with organised crime. He is dangerous and he is gunning for Todd. Under Jane's questioning Dani admits that Greg hit her. This is enough to bring Greg in. Jane is ready to get on a plane, fly to Arizona and beat Greg to a pulp. However, as senior agent, Chuck suggests a better plan.

He phones ahead and has the local police pick up Greg. Jane promises to Dani that she is not alone and that they will see this through together. Dani says that she wants to divorce Greg, but knows he won't agree to it. Chuck can see a way around that. Jane, Chuck and Todd fly to Arizona in the late afternoon.

By 9:00pm the trio are in an interview room confronting the arrogant Greg Keller. Fortunately, Greg doesn't know what Todd looks like. Jane is boiling with anger at the man who dared to strike her sister, but Chuck cleverly manipulates the man into confessing his intention to mutilate Todd in certain unmentionable areas.

Chuck believes such an admission is enough to have Keller sectioned and placed under permanent arrest. He will see to it that Dani's divorce papers are served to Keller before that happens. Despite his pepperoni-stained appearance and lecherous demeanour, Jane's respect for Chuck increases.

Thursday, 18 January 2001

Early in the morning Keller is served with Danielle's intention to divorce him. He isn't happy with this as he considers Danielle to be his "property". He is then sectioned for being a violent madman.

Meanwhile in hospital in New York, Benedict wakes up and tries to heal himself. This causes a relapse and he collapses into a coma.

Saturday, 20 January 2001

Benedict manages to fully heal himself and is discharged from hospital.

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