Mid-West Campaign
Session Eighty-Five

Friday, 22 June 2001

Clint Stone takes a little time to recover from his fiery experience and does not accompany the other agents back to Louisiana. Joe McPike and Ben Oaxaca arrive back in New Orleans at 8:00am, and head straight to the hospital in Estelle to check on the condition of Louis la Ville.

Leaving Benedict at the door to save him from the bigot's ire, McPike interviews la Ville alone. McPike mistakenly believes that la Ville has been prescribed the wrong medication, and he hastily rewrites the notes. Fortunately, Joe prescribes the wrong drugs for the mistaken condition , which happen to be the right drugs for what la Ville is actually suffering from. Genius.

Remarkably, a stroke has made the man slightly more intelligible. McPike asks la Ville if he believes in the occult and the supernatural. La Ville replies that he does believe, at which point Joe candidly informs him of the real reason why he is in the state, and that the ghost of Peter Ellis Dean is out for his blood, and the blood of his daughter.

La Ville replies that it is all "poppycock", but McPike can tell that he is unsettled. La Ville definitely knows of the murder of Peter Ellis Dean, and he certainly took part in it. However, he genuinely doesn't seem to know anything about the magical binding of Dean's spirit. La Ville orders McPike out of the room, and the agent complies. Both Ben and McPike hear la Ville making a telephone call moments later, but they do not know who he phoned.

They are just leaving the hospital when McPike receives a call from agent Sebastian Malkin. He has been assigned to the team to cover Jane's absence. Malkin is currently in New Orleans, and McPike asks him to get a cab to the hospital. The agents will wait for him there. Malkin is currently disguised as a rabbi as part of a different case. He hails a taxi and changes into something slightly less comical on the back seat.

Forty-five minutes later, the cab pulls out at the hospital. McPike and Ben are waiting. Malkin gets out of the taxi. He is still wearing the long hair and ringlets, but also an FBI-issue trench coat, fedora, dark glasses and black gloves, which is odd in the heat. He has a hunch and walks with something of a limping gait. McPike comments that hospitals always attract weirdoes, and is crestfallen when it becomes obvious that Malkin is walking toward them.

Sebastian Malkin extends a gloved hand and introduces himself to the other agents. He has a peculiar, rasping voice. This close, it seems as though Malkin has a rather serious skin complaint. What skin is visible beneath the tangled hair on his face is rather grey odd-looking.

McPike asks Malkin if he is familiar with the nature of the cases handled by evidence response. Malkin says that he is, and that he has been working with the unit for the last fifteen years. He has never been permanently assigned to any team. They assume Malkin is another one of Eisenstein's solo agents (like Justice). The group adjourns to the canteen to fill the peculiar Malkin in on what has been happening.

As Malkin removes the ringlets from his hair, McPike and Benedict tell the newcomer everything about the case. Malkin believes that the weak link has to be Roger de Tour. As if on cue, Roger de Tour bursts into the canteen. He is angry and slightly manic. He demands to know what the agents have done with his father. Gerald de Tour is not at his nursing home! La Ville couldn't have phoned him, it was too soon. Has Peter Ellis Dean backed out on their deal, and possessed the old man?

McPike tries to tell Roger de Tour what is going on, although he skilfully omits any mention of the supernatural. Roger doesn't follow what Joe is saying, he is also his father's son and is particularly rude to Benedict. Suddenly their conversation is cut short because they can hear scream and gunshots coming from the other side of the hospital. The agents charge toward the noise with Roger tagging along.

They witness Gerald de Tour in a dressing gown and holding an enormous Colt 1911 hand cannon. He has shot a black orderly in the back, and the man slumps to the floor. Malkin stands in front of Roger to shield him. McPike draws a TASER, fires it at Gerald but misses. Benedict draws his TASER and fires. He thinks he should have hit, but the bolts are deflected by some invisible field in front of the old man.

Gerald shoots at Benedict. The agent dodges the first bullet but is hit by the second. The bullets seem to be armour-piercing, as well as enchanted and Ben feels spiritually weakened as well as having a large hole in his shoulder. He runs away. Malkin charges Gerald de Tour, covering an impressive distance. He tries to slam into Gerald de Tour, but he also bounces off an invisible field and lands at the gunman's feet.

McPike dodges into a side room, pulls a gun and shoots at a fire extinguisher on the wall close to Gerald de Tour. Unfortunately, it is a water extinguisher and it drenches Malkin. Again the water does not penetrate Gerald's magic field. The old man aims his gun at Malkin and shoots the agent twice at point blank range. The bullets injure the agent, although not severely. Malkin retreats, scampering back into the side room opposite McPike.

Benedict returns and tries to get Roger de Tour to follow him to safety by taunting him with choice insults. This doesn't work, and Ben heads outside to get some heavy armour from the trunk of the car. Gerald de Tour shoots at McPike who ducks back into the room. Malkin climbs out of the window, and plans to circle around to la Ville's room and get behind the shooter.

Benedict arrives in a crowded lobby full of panicking people and utterly fails to pacify any of them. He decides that there is actually nothing in the car that can help in this situation, so he too attempts to get behind Gerald de Tour. He strikes out down a random corridor.

Back near la Ville's room there is an ominous 'click'. It seems as though Gerald has run out of bullets. McPike comes out of his room, gun levelled at de Tour. He demands his surrender. De Tour casts a spell, magically reloads his gun and shoots McPike in the stomach. The agent drags himself back into the side room.

Meanwhile, Malkin opens the window and slips into la Ville's room. Louis la Ville is dead on his bed: he has been shot twice in the chest. There is also a nurse in here, dead on the floor. He hurries out into the corridor. Gerald de Tour has entered the side room where McPike is hiding. The outrageously ugly agent has nowhere to turn and is shot at point blank range. He goes down. Malkin races down the corridor toward the sound of gun fire.

Malkin realises he must act quickly because McPike is bleeding to death. Malkin enters the room with his hands raised. He is convinced that this is not Peter Ellis Dean, but de Tour himself. Malkin says that this is solving nothing. He says that the agents want to help de Tour against the spirit of Dean, but de Tour must cooperate with them. Gerald de Tour pays attention to none of this and put a spiritual whammy on Malkin, and snares control of his mind.

Meanwhile, Benedict Oaxaca has arrived outside the window to the room. He sees Malkin on his knees before de Tour, who has his back to the window. He quickly shoots de Tour in the back of the head. The old wizard has no magical defences back there, and Ben kills him in shot. Freed of the mind control, Malkin leaps over to help McPike, but his first aid skills leave a lot to be desired. Benedict scrambles through the broken window and manages to stabilise McPike.

"I see I didn't have to wait four days," says Roger de Tour. The son has now been possessed by Peter Ellis Dean and has watched the whole thing. Dean's vengeance kick is at an end, as all the people who killed him are now dead. However, he is still trapped in the world and wants release. Benedict says that evidence response can help him. But McPike is dying, and in the confusion of stopping the bleeding and finding a doctor, Dean has gone and taken Roger's body with him.

McPike is rushed into theatre and it is touch and go whether he will pull through. Benedict is fearful at another beating at the hands of rednecks. He suspects that de Tour used to be the grand wizards of the KKK in the area, and that the fact he was killed by a black man is not conducive to Ben's health. He has to get out of Dodge.

After being patched up by a nubile black nurse call Lil (Ben gets her number), Ben telephones Artemis and explains the situation to him. Artemis tells Ben to go and check into a hospital in New Orleans. He should be safe, there but he needs to leave immediately: Malkin can remain with McPike.

Ben departs in a hasty cloud of dust. Malkin checks into the phone in la Ville's room. There is no redial button, but he requests full telephone records so they can see who it was la Ville called after the interview with McPike.

[Here we go again! On 26 October 2001, Artemis Black gave the authorisation for Benedict Oaxaca to be snatched from time before the following events could take place. After leaving Estelle, Benedict is met by agents Burchill and Ecks and taken to the future. See Session 106 for details.

In the original time-line, Ben left evidence response and defected to the Catholic church. The following blue text is part of the old time line and is only remembered by Todd O'Connell and Bradley Ecks, although it has been reported to all the evidence response agents. Artemis Black knew the Benedict was taken into the future, so any mention Artemis makes of Benedict in subsequent synopses take on a very complexion.]

Benedict Oaxaca arrives in New Orleans in the early afternoon. Rather than heading to hospital as Artemis instructed, he goes to the cathedral with the intention of doing some more confession. Present at the cathedral is the archbishop, and also another man who smoking a cigarette.

The man is introduced to Ben as Hughes, an apostolic vicar. He holds the authority of a bishop in the church hierarchy. Hughes has flown in from Rome to find out all about the release of Samael and what really happened. Benedict wastes no time in telling Hughes absolutely everything. The whole episode with Samael has badly shaken Ben's faith and he needs to give something back to Church.

Ben and Hughes talk for hours. Ben gives him complete details of every single case evidence response has been involved in, as well as details of all the agents and as much as he knows about the release of Samael. He speaks of archangels and demons, of wizard and aliens (the presence of which Hughes finds hard to believe). Ben compromises the entire organisation. Hughes probes very closely as to know released Samael. Ben doesn't pull any punches here and drops Jane right in it.

He says that Jane Munroe released Satan. She has risen the dead before. She does not seek repentance. She would probably do it again in similar circumstances. How would Ben stop Jane from contacting the Devil again? Would be do the "Lord's work". Hughes reminds Ben on the passage in the Bible that says witches should not be suffered to live. Ideally, Hughes would opt for burning at the stake.

Ben half-heartedly defends Jane, but his resolve is easily broken. Still, he isn't particularly willing to be Jane's assassin. Hughes understands this and offers him the chance to leave evidence response and come and work for the church. Ben has been considering this possibility himself and readily agrees.

Hughes says that he works for an organisation called the Order of St George. He lays Benedict down on an alter in the cathedral and heals his wounds with a magic ointment. Ben says that his colleagues will try to find him and speaks of the nanites in his body. Hughes says that they will take care of that. And thus, Benedict leaves evidence response. Whether he will cross paths with his old colleagues is yet to be seen.

Thursday, 5 July 2001

It is the day before Jane Munroe is due to return to work. She, Todd and Danni are living a particularly chaotic life looking after the new baby. Jane is a bit choked that Danni chose to name the baby after her. Motherhood completely terrifies Danni, and she is glad at having Jane at hand. Todd is completely overwhelmed and wants to return to work as quickly as possible.

There is a knock at the door. It is Artemis Black bearing gifts. An enormous selection of Artemis Black brand baby-merchandise including outfits with Artemis's face on them, bobble-heads, action figures and a cuddly Artemis for the cot (squeeze his tummy and he says "Victim Schmictim"). There is a also a CD with numerous baby songs on it that Artemis has recorded, such as Baa Baa Black Sheep.

Todd hugs Artemis when he says that he expects to see Todd back at work the following day. Then he and Jane go into the garden for a serious talk. He says that he wants Jane to take some considerable time off: three months to be precise. Jane protests. Artemis counters that Jane released the Devil! He can understand why she did it, but it was a reckless decision that could have destroyed the world. "If it was anyone else I would have them thrown in the loony bin," Artemis says, "but you've saved my life Jane, you went on Operation: Certain Death. You've done a lot of good work."

Artemis wants Jane to get some perspective. Forget about work and spend time with her family. She needs to rest. She is so stressed by everything that has been happening, so determined to save everyone that she isn't making the right decisions. But Jane can't let go. What about Harlow? What about what happened to Stone?

Artemis says that it is all in hand. He tells her that Benedict is missing. Georgeson couldn't locate him, and neither can Black's operatives in MK Ultra. Artemis suspects that Benedict is dead. [Yes, Artemis is lying his socks off. How do we know? See session 106.] This upsets Jane: they didn't part on good terms. Artemis says that after three months, he'll conduct a psyche evaluation. Jane can see his point and appreciates him coming all the way to Wichita to tell her in person. She is beginning to feel a little churlish at rejecting three months off work.

Artemis heads back to his Lotus-7 and snaps on his driving goggle. He disappears in a cloud of smoke. She is due to return to work on 24 September, almost exactly one year after this entire sorry business began. She takes her coffee and returns to her family.

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