As the team is caravaning back to the Ranch from Roswell (Gavin and the coyotes in the back of the van, the one on the floor and the others in a cage), Thielo begins to hallucinate, seeing blobs of color everywhere and rapidly losing the ability to see the road. He sensibly pulls over rather than drive into a ditch. As the others come over to find out what has happened, his vision begins to settle, and it seems to be like what can be seen through the aura goggles. Alexandra gets into the driver's seat and has gotten perhaps five more miles when she sights a hitchhiker at the side of the road. It's Sam, still wearing his tattered suit and carrying a guitar case. His sign says "Albuquerque" on the front, but as he walks over Alexandra sees that it says "Roswell" on the back.
Sam thinks that Santa Fe is just as good as Albuquerque, he isn't going anywhere in particular now that things have gotten kinda ahead of schedule. Alexandra says she didn't know these things had a schedule, and Sam says that it's like winter - you don't know exactly when it will arrive, but you know about when it's coming. "Well, we might have done something of a snow dance," says Alexandra. Sam rides with them for a while before asking to be let off when they cross a big highway. "Guess you're in the deep end now. Be careful."
When they get back, most everyone decides to go to bed and sort things out in the morning. Dr. Staadler looks at Thielo's eyes (after ordering Alexandra out of the room) and gets extremely disturbed by all the little levers inside, although she knew Thielo was a clockwork. She orders him out saying she can't do anything for him, and goes to sort something that is already sorted.
In the morning, Thielo's vision has not improved. They decide to watch the videos (although no one can get the pyramid open) and hope that Thielo will be able to see them. He can't, as it turns out, but everyone else watches. Esteban and Angelina, who didn't see the actual event, are convinced that there was another camera which had a better view of what happened, but are eventually persuaded that there could have been no such third camera. Everyone puts it down to a strange effect of the tape. They also discover that the pyramid now has a golden aura that it didn't have before (okay, Thielo can't help but see it and tells everyone else). They can't get it open, though.
Anabel Cassandra (Esteban's teacher in Amoromancy, "Pamela" on the soap opera "Time Marches On") calls him and tells him that shooting is over for now and she'd like to come see him. He tells her he's in Santa Fe and they agree to meet when she flies out. Esteban goes and buys some more upscale clothing than has been his wont up to this point.
Gavin is not feeling well, and goes out to rent a huge pile of videos. He tries watching some knight and sword movies, but those don't work and he ends up watching secret-service and spy movies, instead. Angelina and Orchid talk to him about his discomfort, but don't come to any conclusion. He heads out to think.
It should be mentioned that Orchid has been extremely distracted since the ascension and has taken to wearing a white lab coat and reading a lot. Not that she didn't read a lot before, but now she ignores anything short of a car crash while reading.
By dinner everyone has returned. Esteban is wearing a jacket and tie in a very fashionable mode. Gavin has a dark suit and sunglasses. After some running about they realize that they're all dressing more formally... like MiBs (except for Thielo and Angelina). No one seems too disturbed about it, though.
The next day is mostly calm. Around noon Anabel arrives and calls Gavin and they agree to meet for dinner. Alexandra spends the entire day working on glasses which she hopes will allow Thielo to see the normal world again. But anyway, Anabel meets Esteban for dinner and they talk about Esteban's missions a little - she doesn't pry too much into things he can't talk about - and about the soap, who's sleeping with who and why, general amoromancer shop talk. Finally Anabel asks about this rumor she's heard that the Inquisition has a philosopher's stone, stored in a pyramidal box. Esteban admits that they have a box, but doesn't know what's in it. She really wants to have a look... and suddenly Esteban finds himself really wanting to get it for her.
So Esteban drives to the Ranch, goes in, finds the pyramid on a table in the library next to Orchid, takes the pyramid (Orchid all the while totally ignorant) and goes back to Annabel's hotel room. There they futz with the device for a while and are unable to get it open.
Meanwhile Darwin has noticed that the pyramid is gone and starts calling around to see if anyone has it. No one does, and they're getting alarmed... finally he gets to Esteban, who admits to having it and begins, finally, to wonder why he went and got it.
At this point Anabel gets the box open. Her face is lit from beneath by a golden light, and she says "Oh yeah, that's the stuff" and closes it again. Afterwards she can't remember opening the box and doesn't really want it any more like she did. Esteban tries to persuade her to come in for questioning, but she really doesn't want to go in - she apologizes for enchanting him, and for crossing the Inquisition, but she won't go in... until Esteban makes her feel calm about the whole thing and she gets into the car.
On arrival at the Ranch, she snaps out of it and refuses to go in the door. Esteban is about to calm her again but she gets the drop on him and he stands like a stunned cow as she takes his keys and turns to get in the car. The others have come out, expecting Esteban, and Thielo races over and tazers her before she can leave (after resisting an attempt to calm him). They take her inside, handcuff her, and put her in the holding cell. Everyone is worried about her ability to break out again - they decide to have Esteban and Thielo go in and everyone else stay outside being paranoid.
Anabel tries to be helpful - she's quite afraid of the Inquisition - but doesn't remember what's in the box or how she heard about it. She does remember wanting the stone that she was sure in was in the box - at 40, she is seriously worried about her career as an actress and wants the youth that the stone is rumored to be able to grant. Esteban manages to persuade her to let herself be hypnotized to recover the rest, and Orchid comes in to do that. From this they learn that she just suddenly thought of the pyramid and what it contained a few days prior in the afternoon... about the time of the ascension. They cannot, however, get her to say what's inside, only getting her to say "Oh yeah, that's the stuff" again. Esteban gets her some gin and some food, and they leave her in the cell to discuss.
Everyone is pretty worried about who knows about the pyramid. They call up Violet and discover that she doesn't know that the Inquisition has a pyramid. Gavin decides to call Damien (who's been out of town since shortly before they left) and explains that they suspect that the pyramid has been charged and everyone may think it has something useful in it. Damien says that this explains his present situation.
He's in Chicago, where the Naked Goddess cult has issued an ultimatum to TNI: turn over the pyramid with the original of the Naked Goddess tape inside, and they won't get rough. They've already kidnapped a TNI member. The problem, of course, is that not only does TNI not have the tape (and didn't know they had the pyramid yet) they were pretty sure that the NG Cult still had it. Damien directs them to get the thing open and try to figure out what should be done with it.
They spend a while fiddling with the box and find out the following things. First, the box will only open when there is one and only one person looking at it from the side that the opener is working on. Cameras seem to count as a person in this case. Also, it only opens once for a given person in their limited experimentation.
When it does open, the opener says something like "Ah, that's the stuff" while lit from beneath by golden shimmery light, and then closes it up again. During this time, no one is able to move around in an attempt to see what's in the box, stick their hands in the box to prevent it from closing, or anything like that. Opening the box generates a little cut-scene in which it is opened, and nothing can interfere with it.
"Oh my god, we've got Marcellus's briefcase!" - Angelina
They put the pyramid in the safe and retire to think about what to do with it. Alexandra manages to complete Thielo's glasses while thinking, and they look completely ordinary. Unfortunately, they only work when the user is dressed in a manner appropriate to a secret agent - suit, tux, black infiltration gear, or other uniform.