The next day Gavin is dispatched to Seattle with "Invisible Puppeteers" - the book is apparently important enough to warrant a courier.
Everyone else wonders what to do at the Hospice. Dan introduces them to the computer which submits reports and also retrieves them from the Inquisition's main computer. It's voice-password protected. And he uses the computer to request a few checks on any credit cards that Mr. Montiago may have. The first one in the morning turns up no recent activity.
Also this morning Esteban takes Tina shopping, but first stops by the St. Ignacius school for girls to see about her schooling. Tina of course hates it, but is smart enough to see which way the wind is blowing. It seems like a reasonable, if strict, school, and the Vice Principal speaks Spanish. Her name is Sister O'Malley. "Dorkiness is a virtue" she says.
Alexandra and Thielo spend the day making a set of ether vibration goggles. Alexandra powers her magery with the memories of her visit to the Guggenheim - modern art and ether seem pretty similar. The ether goggles reveal auras around most people... Alexandra and Esteban have flames in their heads, which most people do not - magery? And Esteban notes that Thielo's aura is curiously regular, but says nothing.
In the late afternoon Esteban and later the Strausses keep watch on Montiago's apartment, but a lack of action leads them to break in again (with less fanfare than the last time). It is apparent to Thielo that no one has disturbed the apartment since they were there. Alexandra sniffs about with the goggles and finds nothing of interest until she decides to ransack the toilet tank, which turns up a rock wrapped in a ziplock bag. This inspires Thielo to do a really thorough ransacking of the place, which turns up some money hidden in the mattress but nothing else exciting.
They wait to unwrap the rock until returning home. It proves to be a ragged chunk of concrete, with a medallion bearing the yellow sign set into the top. It doesn't do anything noticeable, though it bears a slight aura to the ether goggles. The yellow sign medallion seems machined, rather than handmade.
Also that evening, a second credit card check reveals that Montiago has bought a plane ticket from Austin to Portland tomorrow morning, and then to LA in the evening. The group resolves to meet him at the airport.
That night, Alexandra dreams of a man in ragged clothes walking the streets of a strange city. The supposition in the morning is that it was Montiago, somehow passing through this city while on his way between Portland and Austin.
In the morning there is some procedural debate, but in the end Thielo waits by the gate, Alexandra in a car in the waiting area, and Esteban by the baggage claim. The plan develops a little hole when Thielo can't recognize Montiago getting off the plane, but he is able to narrow it down to a few people and Esteban recognizes the right person. Montiago is wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans and a ragged pair of sneakers. He gets into the queue for taxis.
At this point things get a bit confusing. The next few paragraphs all go down in a matter of minutes.
First, Esteban throws a spell on the man behind Montiago, causing him to get really pissed at Montiago for no good reason. He begins calling Montiago a cutter and general lowlife. After a little bit of this, his forehead mysteriously starts bleeding and he stops harranging Montiago. By then Esteban has stepped forward and starts trying to bullshit everyone that he is first airport security, then an undercover policeman. He convinces people enough that they are willing to let him handcuff Montiago first and then figure it out.
At this point an ear-piercing sound stuns everyone momentarily and Montiago is off and running. Thielo catches him but is unable to rip open his sweatshirt and grab his stuff. Alexandra, however, brings him down with an entangling attack squid which goes for his ankles, and he isn't able to get it off quickly enough to prevent Esteban and the somewhat reluctant Thielo from handcuffing him and bundling him into the car. They use the stungun on him and then hood him.
At the hospice, they throw him into a cell, still handcuffed but unhooded, and take all his stuff (tickets, notes and a copy of "The King in Yellow" from his pocket, lint). They realize that no one really knows how to interrogate him and go upstairs to discuss things.
Renee comes upstairs a while later asking where the prisoner is. He has vanished from his cell. They look about with the ether goggles and poke around, but he seems to have more than vanished, he's actually gone. Later inspection of the cell video reveal that he opened the cell door and stepped through to nowhere. During this poking Alexandra learns that Dan has a second aura to his right, like a sort of ghost twin, but also says nothing about it.
There follows some experimentation with the cell and the invisibility spell to try and figure out what happened. Little is learned, though Alexandra succeeds in casting the spell a few times. She has Thielo run out and get a cat, which proves to really dislike invisible people, scratching Thielo pretty severely trying to get away from Alexandra. They also learn that the spell only works in Greek, not in English. It seems to last around half an hour, usually.
In the evening, while Thielo is out, Alexandra sees a faceless stranger beckoning for her from the mirror. Behind him is a fanciful city, very clear and detailed. While it only lasts for a moment, it freaks her out: she screams and people come running. No lasting harm seems to have occurred.
During her blathering she mentions Dan's strange aura, which leads to a revelation of the statue of Romulus and Remus that keeps Dan and Dave from dying of AIDS - as long as they stay together. Dan becomes very depressed and retreats to their room to play show tunes very loudly.
There is some further discussion of Montiago and Dan and Dave's tragic situation, but that's it for the action.