When we entered the council chambers a representative of Blandine was speaking on the ill effects the fighting was having on the marches and humans' dreaming psyche. To my disappointment our entrance caught the majority of attention from the seraphim. Laurence looked upon me with understandable doubts. I grit my teeth. Some day, Laurence, your confidence in my abilities will be restored. I swear it. Joduthun handed the book to Laurence. He began to flip through it. After a second review of the book, Laurence ordered the council into recess and adjourned to his office with Joduthun, Myself, and an impressive celestial who I later learned was the Archangel of Lightning, Jean. Laurence ordered me to give a full report. I told him and the others how we had been given Ron Gardener's and Carl Meade's name and address by the Franciscan, Father Remy. I discussed our attempts to contact and meet with Mr. Gardener and how we eventually captured him to question. I also explained that this book and a large number of other documents were discovered by Malcolm, and that he would bring copies of the other documents shortly. This proved to be the case, since Malcolm arrived not long after I finished my report. He handed copies of the documents to Jean and excused himself with some nonsense about burning down the Spires. This alarmed Laurence greatly. He got very agitated about Gabriel burning down most of Heaven and issued the statement that Gabriel must not be allowed to do this. He then magically re-filled my essence and ordered us down to earth to... well do something about Kezef and Dominic. He wasn't very clear on his orders. I asked Jean if he could supply us with a phone listing of calls made to and from Ron Gardener's apartment. He provided this list in a very timely fashion and we descended to earth armed with a course of action - Check up on Father Remy. This time we planned to subject him to closer scrutiny.
When we arrived in the monastery parking lot we were greeted by an injured young lady. She addressed me by name even though I don't think I'd ever met her and introduced herself as Karen, Mercurian of the Sword. She wasted perfectly good essence proving to us that she was indeed a mercurian by going celestial. Then she proceeded to explain that she was also on assignment in DC. The Inquisition had captured her and she had escaped. I treated her wounds and armed her with a 19th century long bladed knife that I was carrying. The longblade is an excellent second weapon. It can be used in the off-hand to parry and to attack from the corps-a-corps position. The longblade can be thrown, but it is better suit to hand-to-hand attacks, which Karen will hopefully stick to. She seemed to have the sense not to throw away her only weapon. This still left me with a pair of more classical throwing knife and a boot knife to back up Soulpiercer should I need them.
Karen, Malcolm, and I debated the merits of attacking the compound Karen had just escaped from. It was only a few miles down the road. I felt confident that I could get in, and do a great deal of damage, but I was worried about my ability to protect Malcolm and Karen during the assault. The consensus was that we should call in some Malakim as backup. Malcolm and I both spoke with Dumial about the backup. We agreed to meet them at a convenience store down the road.
We were met at the store, not by malakim, but by 3 calibim. I would not be beaten by a trio of calibim this time! I activated Soulpiercer's realm spanning abilities and attack the submachine gun wielding demons. Malcolm aided me by pelting the demons with mundane consumer items while I gloriously stripped the demons of their forces. They were able to wound me superficially with their infernal spray of bullets, but in the end there were two dead and the third was captured by Malcolm. Some time during the fracas we were joined by a black clothed biker. He suffered several minor bullet wounds, which slowed him dramatically. Our mysterious assistant was not very durable. First we questioned this man, who I now recognized as the man who was leaning on Malcolm's car the day before. He begrudgingly told us he was an impudite assigned, not by The Game, to watch over us and assist. Absurd! His assistance had been so marginal as to be useless. And look at him now. He was practically crippled. I though about killing him right then, but decided to wait.
Next Malcolm woke the captured calibim to question him. The demon, unable to use his resonance or bring his songs to bear thanks to having a jacket tied over his head, decided to assume celestial form to escape. This was a big mistake. Malcolm is fearsomely strong in the celestial realm. He easily captured the demon. Karen helped me see the two of them as Malcolm forced the demon to tell him where Kezef's stronghold was and then destroyed the demon. I told Malcolm not to assume corporeal form yet. He had to rush this information up to Heaven.