The next morning there is some debate about what to do about the whole King In Yellow thing. Alexandra, especially, is dubious about helping out what she describes as the end of the world. Why should she care if the King In Yellow gets to decide what happens after she and the whole world are annihilated? She's all for trying to unseat existing archetypes. It is decided that fixing the King In Yellow at least gets rid of it and doesn't actually advance the end of the world, although they're still debating about that when they are interrupted by Darwin. Alex Abel wants to talk to them, now.
They go into the conference room where Abel is on the phone and he tells them to pack their bags and bring all of the ritual components they can think of and head to Washington. They'll learn more when they get there. Everyone goes to pack up, which takes a little longer than usual because they're taking some pretty odd stuff.
Esteban goes home and gives his sister $2000. He tells her it's for emergencies while he's away, and if she doesn't spend it then it's hers anyway - he reasons that that way she won't be so tempted to blow it on unimportant things. He then gives her a little driving lesson. She's getting pretty nervous, because Esteban is obviously trying to make sure she'll be okay if he doesn't come back and terrible things happen. Angelina reassures her a little before they go, and Esteban promises to call when he can. The only other event of note is Gavin saying goodbye to Gwen, and Gwen being a little less gushy than she normally is.
The team flies to Washington (D.C., there's a bit of confusion on that point, but luckily they're not doing the flying) where they are met at the airport by Alex Abel, Ryan Morrison, and a bunch of government agents. They all hop in to Abel and Ryan's SUV (which is government issue) and Alex Abel begins to brief them on the situation.
About two weeks before the daughter of Senator Bob Rumpson (the third most important Republican in the Senate) was attacked while walking home from school, and left in a trance-like state. Several days later, someone claiming to be the attacker, and claiming to be able to restore the daughter (DeeDee) contacted the Senator. Senator Rumpson contacted the FBI, and together they arranged to work with the kidnapper (or whatever the criminal should be called). The FBI, being quite good at such things, was able to track down the man, one Alan Q. Simpson, to a house in Virginia. His only demand was for the Senator to call a press conference and read a prepared speech live.
The FBI chose to raid the house. Unfortunately, during the raid things went pear-shaped and Simpson was killed. Abel suggests that perhaps the FBI ran into things it was not prepared to deal with. For example, two agents also were put into a trance during the attack... but they could be seen on a large TV in the house. One of those agents was Dawn Morrison, who recognized that she had been somehow put inside the television. She repeatedly told whoever was watching (without even knowing that anyone necessarily was) to contact her uncle, Ryan Morrison.
Through Ryan, the FBI was linked up with the Inquisition. Now Alex Abel has sent his premier magical team to solve the problem. He tells them that the full resources of the inquisition are behind them - if they need the sacred jewel of Anathar and it's in the Louvre, the Inquisition will get it. He also stresses how important it is to recover DeeDee. Any methods that will be used that have any chance of failing dramatically should be tested on the FBI agents first.
He also briefs them on the FBI situation. Assistant Director Amanda Pelf was in charge of the raid on Simpson's house, with Special Agent Dirk Godfrey also in a supervisory role. After the raid, Pelf was not willing to contact Ryan Morrison, so Godfrey went to another assistant director, Mark Wallace, to make things happen. It's clearly not the sort of thing one is supposed to do in a hierarchical organization.
They arrive at Simpson's house - the FBI agents have been left there, although DeeDee is in intensive care since she's been in a trance for about two weeks now. Alex Abel introduces them to Godfrey, who is to act as their contact. He introduces them to the agents who are around. He also shows them the bodies of the two agents and the television. The rest of the house is full of television equipment, including a full broadcast-quality editing deck, acres of videotape, and many many televisions in all sizes and types.
Examining the bodies reveals them both to be muttering in a low tone. On the television, Agent Sachmo Kebid can be seen wrestling an alligator, while Dawn Morrison's voice can be heard off-screen. The muttering matches pretty well with what one would expect the characters in a nature encounter show to be saying, rather than Sachmo's swearing and Dawn's insistence: "Call my uncle!" To Thielo's sight, the TV, bodies, and a peculiar remote all have a staticky aura.
They also view the FBI tape of the raid, in which they break into the house and are doing well until they encounter Simpson and he zaps one of them with an electrical attack of some sort and quickly incapacitates Sachmo and Dawn with some sort of remote. The other agents go a bit berserk after that and he is killed.
After initial inspections, Alexandra begins to attempt to hook a ghost-talker machine to the television. Meanwhile, the others examine some of the videos, including a spoof ad titled "Got Monkey" and lots of confusing clip tapes - it seems that Simpson created tapes which are virtual collages of television programming. Alexandra also tries to talk to the televisions but they don't want to speak with her. "Master master master!" is pretty much their whole vocabulary.
Around dinner time, Alexandra succeeds in hooking up the ghost talker and they are able to communicate with the people trapped in the TV. Sachmo is clearly going nuts, while Dawn is a little more collected. DeeDee, when they can talk to her, is pretty far gone. They let the FBI keep talking to the people and trying to reassure them while the team heads to a hotel to discuss what is to be done. From that discussion, Ryan heads to Chicago to work some of his contacts looking for mages like Simpson, and the team has Godfrey send the remote to a lab to figure out what keys have been pressed (although the lab is not to press anything! Really!). Alexandra also warns Godfrey that she may need to borrow something from the Smithsonian, but doesn't know what yet.
The next day they continue examining things in the morning, and talk some to A.D. Pelf who comes in distressed because the FBI can't keep Rumpson from visiting any longer. She insists on hearing the explanation that SILVER is going to give to the Senator if she lets them talk to him. Thielo cooks up something about brainwaves that emphasizes the scientific over the magical, and she is satisfied. The Senator comes in at noontime and listens to the explanation and is able to talk to his daughter in the television (after yelling at the FBI some about not having been told before: the team smoothes it out by saying that no one knew if the people in the TV were actual brainwaves or just a trick).
In the afternoon, Esteban performs a proxy ritual and turns Alexandra into a proxy for Alan Simpson. In this state, she tries to talk to the big TV but is rebuffed. The smaller TVs, however, are less suspicious and are willing to talk to her. One of them even remembers how the remote works for the big TV - you put in a channel and press the blue button to put people in, and the same channel and the green button to get people out again. It also remembers that getting someone out of a channel where there isn't anyone breaks the big TV. And it remembers that one of the agents went in on channel 3.
Angelina questions the two agents in the TV trying to find out what was on when they went in. Sachmo doesn't remember, but Dawn remembers a sitcom that Angelina isolates as "Three's Company" which was on cable 22 at the time of the raid. We leave the team debating on how to proceed to get the agents out. There is talk of sending someone in and getting them out again as a test before messing around. There's also consideration about how to find out what channel the girl is on...