"Watchman, How Much Longer the Night?"

Canto XI

The System

Scene 1

"I have a really bad feeling about this."
— Obi-wan Kenobi, in The Phantom Menace

A bit of the summer heat had arrived prematurely, and even though it was well after dark, the temperature was still in the mid-70's. Rab didn't like riding on a motorcycle, but it was convenient in the city traffic. And in this weather it would have been pleasant, except for her anxiety about falling off. Jimmy ignored her anxious grip on his waist.

They pulled up outside the warehouse where the children had been found. Although the detectives had scoured it weeks ago, they were hoping to find hints to help the tsaba begin its work. The access door was down a narrow, dark alleyway, illuminated briefly by the headlight of the motorcycle. As they got off the bike and stood in the dark, Rab shuddered involuntarily in the warm air.

"I don't like this place."

Jimmy looked the building and the alleyway over very carefully, letting his eyes adjust to the dim light. All of the windows had been bricked and boarded. "Yeah. I know what you mean. This place gives me the creeps too. Stay sharp."

Remnants of yellow police tape still hung in front of the rusty iron door, which swung open with a noisy protest. Jimmy paused a long time at the door, listening. Satisfied, Jimmy clicked on his flashlight, led them in and closed the door. Inside, the bitter smell of urine was mixed with some kind of medicinal odor. A bare concrete hall led into the open warehouse. Some old machinery and a trackless conveyor belt were pushed against one wall. Chipped concrete pillars reached from the floor to the water-damaged roof, where tufts of pale insulation hung exposed. Powerful, but bulb-less lights dangled from the ceiling pipes. One window on the wall opposite the entrance was broken, the boards torn off. A shaft of humorless glow from the street beyond the window provided some light, but seemed to provide mostly shadows They looked around briefly, taking note of the iron shackles that were anchored into the walls and pillars.

Rab paused, looking anxiously around the room. She was sure she could hear a sound, an organic muttering similar to the gentle sound of insect wings. Her vision clouded, and she found herself looking at a warehouse that wasn't empty. Dozens of young people, teens, mostly, were chained to the walls and pillars. Dirty plastic buckets filled with waste sat at their feet. The captives were filthy. They were all in a daze, with a drugged, empty stare. A noxious smoke filled the room, enveloping the captives and making Rab's head spin. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment.

When Rab popped her eyes back open, the warehouse was empty once more. All was quiet, but a hint of the smoke's odor still lingered in the air.

"Let's get out of here and call in more of the team. I really don't like this place, " Rab insisted.

Jimmy nodded, and they moved back outside to the motorcycle and the more comfortable summer night under the city streetlights.

Scene 2

"Paranoids are the only people who notice things these days."
— Jane Stanton Hitchcock, The Witches' Hammer

Early the following evening, Jimmy and Rab returned to the warehouse with Vance, Sean and Billy. The late April sun was still relatively high, and the beam of light through the broken window in the warehouse provided a modestly sufficient amount of light. Several of them had flashlights to illuminate the shadows as the searched for clues.

Shackles. Metal bowls, used as crude braziers, with a smelly, tarry resin on the inside; probably drugs of some kind. A tiny paper orchid in a corner, the kind that were handed out by charities in thanks for donations. A patch of burnt concrete where something had been burning outside the bowls.

They had been searching for a while, and agreed that there were not quite enough pieces to the puzzle to make sense of.

Suddenly Jimmy motioned for silence and whispered "We've got company!"

No one else had heard anything, and there was no where for them to go anyway. So, they all turned to see if someone would walk out of the hallway.

The intruder was a clean-cut man, young and trim. A dark blue overcoat hung unzipped over a black t-shirt and jeans. He froze in the entrance when he saw four people facing him in the dim light.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

Jimmy, unnoticed in the shadows, noticed the man's hand drift toward his open jacket. Gun. Jimmy stayed out of sight.

At first, no one said anything, but then an image snapped into Rab's mind.

"You're, um, Ziolkowski, from the police station, right?"

The other tsaba members were just as surprised as the new arrival that she would call the man by name.

"Do I know you?" he asked uncertainly.

"Um, no," said Rab, "not really, but I saw you, in uniform, at the precinct station." The man relaxed slightly, although he was still wary.

Vance was now able to put the face to the memory (although he couldn't figure out how Rab knew his name). "Do you remember meeting us the day the suspect for all of this was brought in?"

"No," said Ziolkowski. "Should I?"

"I guess not," interjected Sean. " 'Twas pretty busy that day."

Vance followed Sean's lead. "We didn't stay long."

"You still haven't answered my question." Ziolkowski pointed out. "What are you doing here?"

Billy cleared his throat. "We're here because we think something is fishy about this case. I know we're not privy to the investigation's inner workings, but what we've heard so far doesn't quite add up right."

Sean noticed Ziolkowski looked suspiciously at each of them. "I know we look like an unlikely bunch," Sean said, walking casually forward a couple of steps. "We're not Scooby Doo and the gang, but we've been talking together, and came to take a look at this place. We're just looking for missing pieces of the story."

The man still appeared suspicious.

"Were you here the day the children were found?" Sean asked. This seemed to catch Ziolkowski off guard.

"Yes. I was."

When he added nothing else, Sean motioned to the warehouse, turning slowly around. "But you're back here, yourself, for some reason." When Sean was facing the newcomer again, he was again standing a little bit closer.

"But instead, I find you guys," the man said thoughtfully.

"We certainly don't mean any harm," said Sean. In a smooth, natural move, he extended his hand and stepped the short remaining distance to Ziolkowski in a disarming manner. "My name's Sean."

The man put out his hand and accepted Sean's handshake before he even knew he was doing it. "Steven. Ziolkowski, as the young lady said."

"Well met," said Sean. Sean liked to measure a person by their handshake. Ziolkowski's grip was firm, confident, but neither aggressive nor hesitant. He was probably someone they didn't have to fear.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to fill you in on what we've observed so far." The others were puzzled by Sean's openness with the off-duty officer, but Ziolkowski seemed to relax more as the conversation continued.

Sean told Ziolkowski of their meager discoveries. The man listened attentively, and wandered over to look at the burnt area on the floor.

"And we found this," said Rab, holding out the little paper orchid. Ziolkowski took the flower and looked closely at it for a long moment.

"Where was this?" Ziolkowski asked.

"Over there, by the old machinery."

Ziolkowski looked around expectantly, but said nothing else. "Something still doesn't make sense. I came back in part because when I questioned local witnesses the day we found this place, the man they described seeing near this building didn’t match the suspect that Bauer brought in. I don't like the way the case is being handled." He paused a moment.

"It just smells of a frame and cover up, to get the publicity of the arrest. I know I shouldn't stick my nose where it doesn't belong, but I came down here anyway."

Their conversation over the next several minutes helped to convince Ziolkowski that the group was sincere. Before long, they were considering how to help each other with their investigations.

"I don't have enough information to get Internal Affairs involved," Ziolkowski admitted. "I'm still considered a rookie, and anything I bring up can easily be explained away."

Jimmy, who had slipped out of the shadows and was now leaning up against one of the cement pillars, spoke up for the first time. "Is there any way you can look at Bauer's files while he's out of the office?"

Ziolkowski turned to look at Jimmy, momentarily startled. "Who is he?"

"He's with us," Vance said.

"When did you arrive?" Ziolkowski asked Jimmy.

"I've been here the whole time," Jimmy said matter-of-factly.

"But I didn't see you until just now."

"I was waiting, out of sight, until I knew whether you were a 'good guy' or not."

Ziolkowski didn't feel threatened, and his estimation of the group of strangers rose a notch. He thought about Jimmy's initial question.

"Access to Bauer's files is restricted. I'd need a key to get into his office if he locked the door. Which, of course, I assume he does. And breaking in would attract a world of hurt. I don't see how I could learn anything that would be worth it."

They all sat quietly, thinking. When Jimmy spoke up, he could barely believe what was coming out of his own mouth.

"Suppose that someone else slips into Bauer's office. Your job is not at risk. What would they look for, and where might they find it?"

Scene 3

"R2 says the chances of survival are 725... to one"
—  C3PO in Star Wars: A New Hope

The voice on the phone was concise. "He's left the office to drive to a crime scene." The call ended.

Before they went into the police station to meet Ziolkowski, the tsaba members said a prayer together sitting together in Sean's van. Billy wrapped up the prayer with a special blessing over Jimmy for strength and guidance. It all seemed awkward, but they knew that they were sincere, if not eloquent.

Jimmy and Sean then stepped out and walked together through the morning air into the precinct building.

"God be with you, " Vance said quietly as they walked away.

Jimmy's hearing was good enough to hear Vance's words amidst the sounds of the street. I've got to pick a lock in the middle of a police station. God, you had better be with me! Jimmy prayed nervously.

Ziolkowski met them at the door, in uniform, since he was about to begin his shift.

"Come this way please," he said formally. He clipped a visitor's badge to each of them and led them through the crowd of officers and civilians. Upstairs, the majority of the floor consisted of officers' desks, only half of which were in use at the time. Most of the desks faced away from the detectives' offices, separated from the main room by a windowed wall with Venetian blinds. Since they were being escorted by Ziolkowski, none of the other officers they encountered gave them a second glance.

Ziolkowski first led them over to a desk near Bauer's office door. Then Sean and Ziolkowski stood in conversation, screening Bauer's door from view as Jimmy knelt down to deal with the door.

The lock quickly complied with Jimmy's prodding. Not expecting someone like me, of course. He opened the door enough to slip in, and then closed it quietly. A quick scan through the office confirmed that he was alone, and a glance through the blinds confirmed that no one had noticed.

Bauer's office was unkempt and in disarray. This guy is lazy and unfocused. Scattered reports and old lunch wrappings littered the desk that occupied the majority of the room. Stuffed folders jutted from a metal cabinet that wouldn't shut. I could ransack the place and no one would be able to tell the difference, Jimmy thought. Time to look for clues.

A manila folder on the desk held the criminal record of someone named Harlen Arkady. The file had a mug shot and a long list of drug and pedophile charges. Strangely, a sticky note stuck under the picture held a scribbled "Nowhere to be found!!!!" Odd way to refer to such a criminal, as if you were expecting to find him at his mom's house.

A second manila folder in the same stack held the file on the suspect Bauer had hauled in to pin the abductions on. John Doe. Drifter/homeless. There was almost nothing in the file at all.

Another manila folder, beneath the other two, seemed to contain random notes about the warehouse case. The warehouse address scrawled on a scrap of paper. Names of some of the children on a page from a legal pad. Terse psychiatric reports from St. Francis Mental Health Center on the state of the victims. Not all of the victims had been released yet as of the date on the reports. Nothing else that caught his eye. Time to widen the search.

By the file cabinet, Jimmy saw an old, framed photograph of a healthier looking Detective Bauer shaking hands with a much neater gentleman, surrounded by a group of children and teens. A small metal plate on the frame was engraved "Covenant House: Harvest Festival". The gentleman in the picture with Bauer looked oddly familiar to Jimmy.

Before he had time to look at anything else, Jimmy heard a double-tap on the glass wall of the office. Trouble. He moved over to peer through the blinds. Bauer was back! Sean had engaged Bauer in a conversation across the room. At the moment, Bauer wasn't looking toward his office. Ziolkowski was moving across the room toward the other two, and would block any glance Bauer might take toward his office right about... now.

Jimmy stepped out of Bauer's office and drifted over to a window to look at the street below. Tuning his ears into their conversation, Jimmy could hear Bauer thanking Sean for something he had said, and drawing the conversation to a polite close. Bauer then walked over to his office, ignoring the young man by the window, unlocked his door and went inside.

Scene 4

"The important thing is not to stop questioning."
— Albert Einstein

"There is no way that should have been that easy!" Billy was saying, trying not to raise his voice. "How did you get past the basic security?"

Vance, Jimmy, Rab, Sean and Billy were at a coffee and pie dive they had scouted out. They were going over the day's events through the steam of their coffee.

"Ziolkowski gave us visitors' badges," Sean said.

"And nobody questioned you?" Billy pushed.

"No one," said Sean, making the sign of the cross.

"Dumb luck," Billy mumbled.

At that moment, Officer Ziolkowski, now dressed in street clothes, came into the diner and joined the group.

"What did we learn?" he asked.

"In the time I had, not much." Jimmy filled them in. Covenant House. Harlan Arkady. John Doe. St. Francis Mental Health Center. Rab began tapping away at her laptop computer to see what she could find.

"When I intercepted Bauer," Sean added, "I noticed that he'd whiskey on his breath, even at that hour."

"By the way," Jimmy continued. "Bauer was one of the shooters."

"What are you talking about?" asked Ziolkowski.

"When they gunned the guy down, I was near enough to see. Bauer was one of the police officers. The rest were in uniforms, but he was in a suit. I recognized him, but it didn't seem important until now."

Ziolkowski hid his surprise that someone from the group had been near the accident.

"So, our theory is that Bauer is covering up for whoever the real culprit is, maybe this Arkady fellow?" Vance asked aloud. "We still don't have much to go on."

Rab looked up from her screen. "Covenant House is a charity, southwest of downtown that takes in runaway and homeless teens. Interestingly enough, their place isn't very far from the warehouse where the children were found.

"St. Francis Mental Health Center is north of the city a ways, in Northbrook.

"It will take a little hard-core work to learn more about Arkady."

Ziolkowski spoke up. "Arkady is a nasty specimen, on the streets because of some technicality at his last trial." Ziolkowski seemed oblivious to the possibility that Rab's information gathering was not technically always legal.

"How are we going to get inside St. Francis, or Covenant House?" asked Vance.

Billy spoke up. "I have an idea..."

Scene 5

"The spirits do not require anyone's belief to exist."
—  Charles de Lint, Forests Of The Heart

As Sean and Billy walked out of the St. Francis Mental Health Center, Billy was both elated at their luck, and distraught because of what they had seen.

"Sean," proclaimed Billy, "I think you could charm the pants off a nun."

Sean had sweet-talked their way in to see the two teens, using Billy's desire to offer music for the residents as a cover story. Somehow, it had worked. The first teen remembered a lot about her captivity, which was one of the reasons she was still in treatment. Although she was shy, and her answers were always short, the man she described as their captor matched the description of Arkady, not the John Doe Bauer had arrested. What got Sean and Billy's attention was that she said she had been living at Covenant House before her abduction. No doubt, there was more to her story than she was willing to share with strangers. At her request, Billy performed a rendition of a Stevie Wonder tune as part of the visit.

They had more difficulty visiting the other teen in treatment. Although his body had been detoxified, his mental state had actually deteriorated. He was under a suicide watch. Billy and Sean had befriended the desk nurse sufficiently to be allowed to look in on the teen through a small glass window in the door of the room, although they would not be allowed to go in.

Within a padded cell, they saw a disheveled teen bound by a straight jacket, sitting crouched in the corner. The patient stared at them through the window. After a moment, he leapt up suddenly and began screaming nonsense at them. To the Sentinels, they boy's features suddenly changed. His skin turned yellow and his eyes were bulging black orbs. His open mouth revealed rows of shark-like teeth. The nurse, who seemed to see nothing amiss, led them away.

Talking more with the nurse, Billy had asked to see the video surveillance of the boy during the time they were just there. The boy's features didn't change on the video, although the yelling was real. It didn't seem to be random nonsense to Billy, who took note of the syllables and pattern. They were both quite shaken by the encounter.

Before they got into the van, Billy asked for a few minutes to himself, to clear his head. As Sean leaned against the van, Billy wandered over to a bench in the little courtyard by the entryway.

Billy spent several minutes in prayer, asking for peace and guidance. A few moments later, he felt a charge in the air, like pent-up static electricity. Looking up, he saw a ghost of a woman in a old-style nun's habit, like a faded version of her former self, standing in front of Billy. She had a kindly expression on her face, and Billy felt no fear.

"Who're you?" Billy asked shakily.

"I am Sister Margaret Augustine," she said. "I am here to assist you."

"I'm... not sure I really understand," said Billy.

"Like yourself, I served the Lord. And by the Grace of God, I may still serve in this small way, a martyr sent to guide you."

"Can I ask you about that boy?" asked Billy, leaping to the first thing on his mind. "It's like the legion has infected him, or something..."

Margaret Augustine nodded. "You have made and interesting choice of words. There is truth in them."

"How are we supposed to do something about that?" Billy pleaded.

"First, you must eliminate the power that is responsible for the boy's state. Seek out the head of the snake, before it strikes others and brings greater evil into the world." Margaret Augustine began to fade. "Then attend to the victims. Pax vobiscum," Billy heard her say as she left.

When Billy returned to the van, Sean eyed him strangely.

"Are you alright? It looked from here like you'd gone and started talking to the air."

"I'll explain on the way back. Let's go."

Scene 6

"Hey this is terrific!" Zaphod said. "Someone down there is trying to kill us!"
"Terrific," said Arthur.
"But don't you see what this means?"
"Yes. We are going to die."
"Yes, but apart from that."
"APART from that?"
"It means we must be on to something!"
"How soon can we get off it?"
— Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy; Zaphod and Arthur in a certain-death situation over Magrathea

Darkness fell before they made it back into the city. Sean chose to drive surface roads, since they were in no hurry, and they had time to talk and process what they had seen and heard. They were not long on the road before their journey became more eventful.

Sean noticed the pair of headlights coming up fast behind him, but since the road was empty of other traffic, it shouldn't have been a problem. A moment later, a pair of leather-clad riders on black Japanese sport bikes were flanking the van. Unusual for Illinois, they were wearing shielded helmets, and their faces were hidden. Sean was about to brake to let them pass, but the riders drew black blades, seemingly from beneath their sleeves. Sean gunned the engine, but the riders easily kept pace. One and then the other taunted the Sentinels by dragging the blades along the side of the van, causing a piercing screech from the contact.

When one of the riders clipped off Sean's passenger side mirror, the Sentinels knew that this was going to end badly if they didn't do something soon. Sean yanked the van's wheel to the left and right, but couldn't strike the riders. Worse yet, he almost lost control of the van.

"Billy! In the box between our seats, there's a gun."

Billy dug out Sean's illicit 9mm, inserted a clip and put a round in the chamber while Sean tried to keep the riders' blades away from the windows.

"Do you know how to use that?" Sean asked, trying to keep an eye on his mirrors and on the road. Billy answered by rolling down his window and beginning to squeeze off rounds at their pursuers whenever they were on that side of the van. Sean slowed down some and moved to the other side of the deserted road to keep the riders where Billy could see them. They continued to harass the van, leaving dents and scratches along the sides and taking out the taillights.

Most of the clip later, Billy still hadn't hit them.

Billy slumped back into his seat and re-fastened his seatbelt. "Maybe I should have learned to play video games or something." He extended a hand in blessing over Sean. "You'll have to use the van."

"Hang on."

Sean accelerated again, down the center of the road. Predictably, the riders flanked them and zoomed up to get at the Sentinels. As Sean saw the rider on the passenger side raise his blade, he twitched the van to the right, bumping the cycle and sending it off the road.

With a loud CRACK! the mirror on the driver's side of the van disappeared. The remaining rider slipped away from the van, and then raised his blade again. Sean angled the van across the road as the rider closed in, and a moment later, the overconfident pursuer ran out of road and disappeared into the ditch.

 

:: End Canto 11 ::

7th Seal Image: Pat Loboyko. ©2005 Scott Mitchell.

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Living his own worst nightmare...

Image by Pat Loboyko, ©2002 Creative Illusions, Inc.