"Watchman, How Much Longer the Night?"
—Isaiah 21:11 (NAB)
Dramatis Personae:
God's ways are not our ways, of this we are sure. The Chosen are not selected solely from the ranks of the pure of heart. People from all walks of life, sinners great and small, even the agnostics and atheists (until now) have found themselves to be called to be Sentinels. After all, the struggle is not only for the earth, but for the souls of such as these.
Our Seventh Seal crusade involves the following characters, described as the angels first found them:
Vance Brennan is a recovering Catholic, working the third shift at the corner gas station somewhere on Chicago's near west side. But he's not blind to what's going on in the world. He doesn't sleep much, so he picked up the idea somewhere on late-night television to look look around the city for, well, monsters. You see, some things just aren't rationally explainable unless you broaden your reality. He figures that the X-Files show was inspired by seeds of truth and built up into fanciful fiction.
Jimmy Garfield, an easy-going, shy young man who never attended college. Jimmy's been pursuing a rather interesting hobby. He's been making his living as a cat burgler. It seems that climbing into locations with fewer locks than ground-level doors and windows is more his style. Taking from the rich, giving to the poor, or at least to himself, since he's so far below the social status of his 'clients'. As for religion, that's something that other people do.
Sean O'Hara looks good, can talk like the best of them and drink like the tough Irishman he is. He's been working sales at a furniture store, but makes most of his money from his "projects". He doesn't steal money from people, but if he can talk them into giving it to him willingly and investing in his scheme, well, that's OK. He can't help it if his killer smile dissolves people's suspicions.
Jeb George is trained to take bullets, or to stop them from being fired in the first place. Sure, he didn't make it into the Secret Service, but he's found similar work as a bodyguard for a local mobster "businessman" who is (rightfully) a bit paranoid. He's sharp and quick, and he can take it as well as dish it out. (Body armor helps.)
Brisco Smith works hard for his living. He's got a auto-repair place and has an aptitude for getting machines working again, even if he doesn't necessarily have the right parts. But parts aren't usually a problem. Brisco also runs a small chop-shop and re-distributes the parts certain people bring to him, although most of the actual owners don't know where their vehicle disappeared to...
Arron Smith is tough, quick on his feet, and well suited to his supervisory role in his gang, the Latin Kings. He can talk slick, stay on top of things and use a baseball bat with impressive skill, though not for baseball. His mother is less worried about his "job" than the fact that he doesn't make it to church every weekend. His "little drinking problem" makes getting to church in the morning a bit difficult.
» The Story of Our Crusade
Rabecka is a young woman usually found in front of a computer keyboard. If she goes looking for information, she finds it, even the stuff behind corporate firewalls, inside state records, and in the hands of federal employees whose job it is to keep hackers like her away from them. A spike of conscience keeps her away from using that information as freely as opportunity would allow, so she keeps her job in the Virgin Entertainment megastore on North Michigan Avenue for fun and rent money. Besides, she meets the strangest people there...
Billy Jim Cole, blues man extraordinaire, can do amazing things with a blues harp. When he stands up there in his pin-stripe suit and starts wailing, people forget their troubles. Although his band's regionally released CD's are a hit, he just doesn't have a national album. Yet.
Percival "Perry" Johanson just graduated from high school. He's always had a strong creative streak, whether it's thinking outside the proverbial box or singing in the musical. Good family, good grades, good friends – the future looks bright indeed, even for a guy who walks with a permanent limp. The car accident that caused the limp may have left some mental scars as well...
Peter Franks appears to be just another white-collar worker. He likes to keep up that appearance while he carrys out his work on behalf of the Russian company Ruskneft, using dubious means to acquire sensitive information on their competitors. Call it spying if you like, or espionage. He gets the thrill of the mission while feeling a little like a Robin Hood—a very well-paid one at that.
Warren Burns is a psychiatrist. More or less. He has the education, but doesn't have a license to practice. Warren's idiosyncracies and comments about demonic possession have managed to sabotage his reputation among the professional community. That's OK, because he's found a way to start a practice by word-of-mouth and carry on sessions with clients below the radar of society. As for those demons, he's sure he'll find a real one among the people who come to him. Eventually.
