Mid-West Campaign
Session Eighty-Four

Thursday, 21 June 2001

Jane returns to New Orleans, and arrives at the airport late in the evening. She is met by the other agents, including Ben in an "I Love Louisiana" T-shirt (it was all they could find for him in Wal-Mart). The agents quickly brief Jane on what has been happening in case ES174 in her absence.

They tell her that they have just come from a conversation with the spirit of Peter Ellis Dean. They know that Dean is currently inhabiting someone's body but they do not know whose. He leaves that host to periodically possess the people that killed him. The agents know that la Ville has a daughter. It is that daughter, as well as Roger de Tour, that the agents feel obliged to protect.

It seems that Dean is only killing the eldest heir of the people that killed him. The eldest heir can be more important than other children - but usually this worth is in terms of blood sacrifice and soul-selling. There might be implications for Elise Steiger's family, but not for this current case.

Unwilling to raise the whole Samael issue, Jane tells her fellow agents about the Nathan Harlow dilemma. No-one can think of a way to determine which Harlow is which. McPike asks how Jane found out about Nathan, and Jane has to bite the bullet and tell them the sorry tale.

They don't take it well. Benedict is particularly outraged that Jane stooped to such things. Jane defends herself, she says that she was doing it for her sister, but that doesn't butter any parsnips. McPike wants to go to Los Angeles, dig up the time door and stop any of this from happening. With increasing anxiety, Jane points out that they cannot do this. Samael is a being that exists outside time. Now that he is out, he is out across all time. There is no turning back the clock.

The more the others round on her, the more Jane begins to see that having Samael abroad in the world could be potentially quite dangerous. "I may have been a little hasty," Jane admits with hindsight, but she doesn't see how the world is going to end because of it. "Maybe it'll all just blow over."

Ben gives up, and leave for the nearest Catholic church. New Orleans is an Archdiocese and should have a cathedral. He swiftly finds the place and enters the confessional. Ben is driven by guilt, and he confesses to pretty much everything; he also gives the priest a quite comprehensive run-down of the current case in order to explain the context of how he participated in a séance. He also admits to having met voodoo gods. This is too much for the priest who runs off and gets a superior.

The second priest arrives after about fifteen minutes. He listens to everything Ben has to say. Ben reveals that he once impersonated Papa Legba. When Ben mentions that a colleague returned Samael's sword, the priest asks to break the seal of the confessional and talk to Ben more candidly. Ben steps out, and it is revealed that the priest is Archbishop Francis Bible Schult. The Archbishop is wearing the green robes of the exorcist and wastes no time in dowsing Ben in holy water.

Ben talks very candidly with the Archbishop. He mentions the Joker killings and that he slew the demon that was behind it. The Archbishop seems to have heard of the Joker, although he calls the demon "Alastor". The whole thing is a bit too much for the archbishop who runs off to speak to a cardinal.

Meanwhile, Jane has put off telephoning Artemis Black for long enough. At McPike's insistence, she makes the call. She was slightly less nervous about speaking to the Devil. Black dismisses the whole Harlow issue as a non-problem. He'll just get all three to walk into his specially warded room, and the two that get flung out by the Elder Sign are the copies. No problem. Did Jane want anything else?

Summoning her courage, Jane tells Artemis to sit down and pour himself a drink. No, a bigger drink than that. She starts at the beginning and tells Artemis everything. She dwells heavily on the brain bug issue to confuse the whole Satan-thing. It doesn't work. Black is stunned. Jane has never heard him so taken aback or so frightened.

He calls Jane utterly thoughtless. Jane says that she wasn't thinking clearly; that she did it for Danni. But Artemis takes the view that Jane has killed Danni: she's killed everyone! The archangels aren't going to sit still for this. They're going to try and take down Samael. And what happened last time the angels had a barney? Michael threw a bloody great big asteroid at the Earth. "An extinction level event, Jane!" Jane remembers the words of the prophecy of Horus-Ra: "The first war will mirror the First War," and she starts to feel sick. Artemis doesn't pull punches. He makes no secret of the fact that he thinks Jane has ushered on Armageddon!

Jane is by far the most pathetic and needy person he knows. Only Jane would think that giving Samael his sword back was fair trade for two people. Did it not occur to her to ask that he wiped out the Brain Bug Fleet, or the Sil? Was she just not thinking? Jane points out that she actually swapped three things for three souls. Artemis despairs. Jane tries to raise the issue of the brain bugs and what is happening now in the Department of Agriculture.

"Oh, fuck them!" Artemis exclaims. What does the brain bug fleet matter now? Satan is on the loose. The chances of the human race surviving the next five years is highly unlikely. He might as well just put his feet up and wait for the asteroids to start raining down!

This is the point where Artemis reduces Jane to tears. She is pacing around the carpark of the New Orleans International Airport blubbing and apologising in equal measure. "All right, all right Jane," Artemis says a little impatiently. Obviously, the Archangels are going to be tied up dealing with all this. Maybe there won't be another war - after all the world hasn't ended just yet. Artemis says that he'll sort out the brain bug situation. He'll make some calls, perhaps get some people bumped off.

As Jane puts the phone down. Clint Stone has remembered that today is the Summer Solstice. As the sun sets at 9:24pm, Stone has what can only be described as a 'psychic moment'. He starts to bleed from his eyes, screams and then passes out. While unconscious, he starts to viciously spasm on the ground.

He is not the only one to experience something odd at the setting of the sun. In Washington, Artemis Black has a mild headache (although this might be more to do with Jane). Wondering how he is going to manage the escape of Lucifer (and possibly turn it into a best selling book), Artemis reaches for the telephone. However, both Georgeson and Valerie Hudson are not responding to his calls. Then the phone rings: it is Huntingdon-Price of NTOPFOR.

"What have you done?" demands Price, explaining that all his psi-ops personal have collapsed. Black says that Samael has been released from his prison. This means nothing to Huntington-Price. Artemis explains that on the NTOP scale of 1 to 7, Samael should be considered an 8. This is a language Huntingdon-Price can understand. Artemis wonders exactly how this is related to Samael's escape. He calls Georgeson again.

Georgeson reports that 75% of the signai rescued from the shaggai ship have been laid up. Magic using shaggai are popping out of people left right and centre. There is a ripple effect that seems to be emanating directly from the Wichita headquarters. Artemis explains what is going on, and asks Georgeson if the supercomputer has the means to contact Raphael. He wants to know what the Archangels are likely to do about this situation. Georgeson says he can try, but Raphael doesn't always speak to him either.

Black then gets a call from Dominic Rocaan. Dominic reports that he has accidentally broken Bradley Ecks's arm. Bradley was about to reset the video to record the giant amoeba episode of Star Trek, and cancel Dominic's recording of a Discovery channel special of wild flowers of the Indus. As Dominic grabbed Ecks, he had a seizure. A strange psychic event. Artemis explains to Dominic what has happened, but he has two more incoming calls that he has to take.

The first is Rock Mulholland. He doesn't know what Artemis has done, but whatever it was it easy for the east-coasters to take down a rather stubborn sorcerer.

The second is Valerie Hudson. The psychic sounds as though she suffering from the world's worst hangover. "The devil is free!" she announces. Artemis calmly reports that he already knows this, and explains what happened. "Jane is probably the safest person in the world at the moment," Hudson says, sagely. She adds that there are further ramifications to this dread event.

With the escape of Samael, the Game is broken. The rules of the Game do not apply to Samael, and so he will do as he pleases. Artemis is quite pleased that he won't have to worry about the Game anymore, but he doesn't like the fact that it took Samael to do it. Hudson says that now is the time to talk about Bruce.

Hudson reveals that Bruce is not human. He is a yig construct, but Bruce himself is unaware of this. Bruce has joined the FBI to learn as much as possible. When he retires, he'll take a boat down to South America, return to the Yig and tell them everything. Artemis thinks this is wonderful news. He has been wondering how he is going to contact the yig and make an alliance, and now everything is coming together for him.

But there is also bad news. All the world's psychics, magic-users and supernatural creatures have been adversely affected by the release of Samael (even Wendell Wells). Her apprentice, Richard Midden, has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Hudson's own gifts have been gravely affected. With Samael on the loose there is no telling what the future will bring. She will no longer be able to predict future events, only draw conclusions from what has happened. She apologises for this, but it is out of her hands.

Back outside New Orleans airport, Clint Stone leaps to his feet. He feels as though he is channelling raw power and energy. He trembles. He shakes. Then he bursts into fire! McPike grabs a fire extinguisher from the car and tries to hose him down, while Jane attempts to pull into the ground and extinguish the flames. Stone fights Jane off, and she's forced to back away and put out her own hands. Stone gestures at McPike and the fire extinguisher explodes in his hands.

Jane thinks that she knows what is happening. Clint isn't burning. Of the thirty known Stones, twenty-nine of them are fire spirits from Kahoolawee. Clint Stone cannot be the original. However, Stone himself is in denial. This is nothing to worry about, it is all coincidence. He resists the urge to allow the flames to engulf him, and the fire dies down of its own accord.

Artemis is getting desperate for information. Is a new celestial war on the horizon or not? He calls out for Lilith (the only contact he can think of). He demands an audience with her. "You bastard!" cries Lilith. She totters into Artemis's room; he is in an incredibly dishevelled state, her make-up is a mess and one of the heals on her shoes is broken. She evidently blames Artemis for this stark reversal in her fortune. Then she is followed by another man. Artemis instinctively knows that his is Samael. "Call me Lucifer," he says, "I prefer the name because I gave it to myself." He then summons Lilith's couch and sits down on it with Lilith. Lilith is obviously terrified, and a prisoner. She could not leave if she wanted to.

"So, what now?" Artemis asks Samael candidly. "Oh the standard campaign of revenge and having fun," replies the Prince of Lies. Artemis says that he is worried about the impending war and the effect it will have on Earth. Samael shrugs. He says that what happens next is really up to the archangels. This does not fill Artemis with optimism for the future.

Artemis asks that if there is going to be a big war, could they please do it on another planet. Samael says that it has to be here. The human race are the "chosen of God and all that". He doesn't share the archangels' obsession with humanity, however he can see where they are coming from. "It must be a bit like playing the SIMS," he says.

Samael asks what it is that Artemis wants, but Artemis is too canny an old bird to fool for any trick that puts him in Satan's power. He says that "I would like us, for humanity, to make its own path and not be constantly toyed with." It would become clear to any listener that Artemis sounds as though he is making a campaign speech.

So, Samael continues, if he were to restrain the activities of pan-dimensional beings who prey on humans what would Artemis do for him? Artemis says that he couldn't possibly ask anything of Satan that Satan wasn't going to do anyway. Samael is amused. "You are an admirable individual," he says to Artemis Black.

Samael is now more candid with his intentions. He wants revenge on his enemies and his old allies (such as Lilith) who abandoned him for all this time. Lilith trembles. Samael swats at her and a gate to hell opens that sucks Lilith in. He will deal with her properly later.

Artemis wonders why Samael wanted the couch and the brick. They seemed quite odd choices. Samael is pleased to reveal why. Both the items material links between a dimensional being and reality. If Samael has the item, he controls the link and that gives him power. The couch was Lilith's, so he has power over her. The blood on the brick was that of Gabe, and so he has power over him. Gabe is currently Samael's prisoner in Hell. That's one of the archangels down.

This sort of thing would never have happened in the 'old days'. Samael says that the Game has made his brethren weak. All this playing by rules has made them overlook what someone who doesn't play by the rules could accomplish. None of the others could take advantage of material links like this because the rules of the Games forbade it. Now the Game is gone and there is only Samael.

Artemis points out that even with Gabe gone, there are still six archangels out there to oppose him. Samael says that actually it is only four. He has nothing but contempt for the powers of the Metatron (the seventh archangel who replaced Samael). As for Raphael… well, he and Raphael has come to an understanding. Raphael has promised not to interfere, or lift a hand to aid either side as long as Samael doesn't wipe out mankind. The death of continent or two won't stir Raphael to action, as long as 20,000 humans are left alive to continue the species. Why would Raphael do such a thing? Well, Raphael hates the Game and wants it to end. Samael is destroying the game, so they are on the same side.

That leaves Michael, Uriel, Israfael and Azrael. None of them are as powerful as they once were - not even Michael. The absence of God has diminished them. Normally, Samael would also face the Heavenly Host. But it is Gabe's job to sound the trumpet and raise them. He can't do that while trapped in hell, and while the others to individually try to rouse them the Host will never arrive in sufficient numbers to cause Samael any trouble at all.

The devil excuses himself and teleports away. He appears, dressed in the robes of a Catholic priest, in the cathedral in New Orleans. He then sits down next to Ben. He asks Benedict if the agent has ever read the Talmud. He then says that Ben should look into the Cult of Revelations (Gabriel's cult), and thing of the link between Gabriel and Satariel. He then tells Benedict to "have fun with his faith", dips his finger into a font of holy water, just to prove who he is and then returns to Artemis.

Samael confesses that he doesn't see the point of mortals. Artemis asks what has happened to Samael's other followers (besides Lilith). Samael replies that Satariel and Gamaliel the Obscurer were playing the Game. However it is important that he and his fallen angels "all pull together" in the fight to come. He says that he will destroy the game completely in about twelve and a half minutes, although from a human point of view it might take a century.

Artemis says that he would be very pleased to see the game destroyed. Samael tries to use this to get Artemis to swear allegiance to him. When Artemis wants to know what Samael's intentions are toward the brain bug fleet, Samael wants something in return. Artemis steadfastly resists. He asks the devil not to consider him a servant but a "like minded individual". Samael is amused. "Oh, I am going to enjoy your rulership, Artemis."

In New Orleans, Ben looks at the font where Samael stuck his finger. All the holy water has boiled away. Archbishop brings Ben a telephone. Ben speaks of the Game, and asks about the Cult of Revelation. The archbishop says that it is a group of exorcists that work for the pope. Old Father Barnabus here at the church is a member. Then Artemis tells the archbishop that Satan was just here. The archbishop is shocked. He hangs up the phone (on the pope!). He performs the last rites on Benedict and asks him to come back tomorrow.

Outside the airport Jane sees twenty-eight balls of flame in the sky. These are the fire spirits that were masquerading as the other Stones. They did not manage to remain in a human form as Clint Stone has done. That means there are now only two Stones in the country. Clint is fake, and the other Stone is the real one. Obviously, she doesn't mention this to Clint.

Then Jane's phone rings. It is Todd O'Connell. Danni has gone into labour at last. Jane says she is on the way. She has to phone Michael Levin to find out where they are: the Artemis Black Hospital in Boise, Idaho. Jane excuses herself from her fellow agents. She'll catch the 10:30pm flight to Boise leaving the other three to continue the case.

McPike and Stone pick up Benedict and head to la Ville's residence. It seems that Louis la Ville was a magic-user as Peter Ellis Dean said. The psychic phenomena has laid him low, and given the corpulent old git a serious stroke. The agents arrive to see him being loaded into an ambulance outside his home.

At the airport, Jane gets a call from Michael Levin. "We've found them!" he exclaims. He means the five DoA agents possessed by brain bugs. Those agents (including Jenson Kant) are at the hospital. Levin needs back-up, and Jane's team in Estelle are closest - they are only four hours away. Jane contacts McPike and diverts the team to Boise. She then phones Artemis for help.

Artemis contacts MK Ultra and sends in one of his teams to assist Levin. However, he can't get through to Levin to let him know MK Ultra are coming. As McPike, Stone, Oaxaca and Munroe head to Idaho, Black waits for news from MK Ultra. Soon, he gets a call. The extraction of Levin was not a success. They couldn't make themselves known, and the MK Ultra team has taken heavy casualties from Master Sergeant Aloysius Mountebank Montgomery. A man the MK Ultra agent describes as a "double hard bastard" who won the congressional medal of honour. Artemis orders MK Ultra to pull out.

Friday, 22 June 2001

Around midnight, Artemis receives an email notifying him of "terrorist activity" at the hospital in Boise, the rest of the team see what's happening through a live news feed. Jane tries Todd and Michael's telephones but there is no reply. The hospital is on fire. The news anchor is interviewing a doctor that escaped the blaze. Jane and the others can read between the lines and get an idea what has happened.

The brain bug possessed DoA agents arrived disguised as members of the EPA (Environmental Protection Service). Then MK Ultra turned up, also disguised as EPA members. The brain bug group were trapped inbetween MK Ultra on one side and Monty on the other. When all the brain bugs were dead, Monty and MK Ultra started fighting each other.

Eventually, Artemis and Jane get through to Levin. Monty has already gone to ground - Todd, Michael and Danni will disguise themselves as patients and wait for law enforcement to arrive. Every one is well and uninjured. Danni has had a baby girl, weighing 8lbs and 9 oz. She doesn't have a name yet. Benedict expected Danni would be giving birth to a boy called Damien with the number of the beast tattooed on its forehead.

By the time the mid-west team arrive, the local FBI have the area secure. McPike volunteers to assist the locals and soon Jane has been reunited with her sister and the others. Danni is still high on drugs and almost completely out of it. Todd is rather overwhelmed by becoming a father. It turns out that he and Levin delivered the baby while Monty held off the bad guys. Michael says that Todd fainted once.

Danni is moved to a safer hospital in Boise. Jane goes with her. She is going to spend two weeks with her sister before returning to work. McPike, Stone and Benedict take the red-eye back to Estelle. They leave at about 4:00am.

Finally, it should be noted that the same psychic effect that caused 28 Stones to return to the fire spirit state also had an effect on one of the Nathan Harlows. Michael Hunt burst into flames and returned to the heavens. His memories were equally divided between Classic Harlow and Fit Harlow. The question is: which one of those Harlows is a demon, and which is the real McCoy?

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