Two ascensions remain
Another month passes, with little to report aside from rumors of a few weird incidents and a videotape of a TV medium getting possessed by something which proclaims the end times and then gives him a brain aneurism. That is pretty much judged to be complete in itself and good riddance besides. Angelina goes to Italy on vacation.
"I've never been to the opera. I'm going to the opera while there's still opera." - Angelina
Finally, SILVER's attention is grabbed by a front page story in the NY Times, which presents proof of spontaneous human combustion. The two reporters have two full pages of interviews, photos, and so on (though they leave out specifics to protect the victims). Apparently extreme emotion is a common thread.
This gets the team excited, and after failing to get in contact with the reporters at the Times (their extensions have been disconnected) Esteban manages to get the home number of Isabel Plant, one of the two reporters. He calls up and starts to leave a message on her machine, but is interrupted by her picking up and asking how all the weirdos are getting her number and hanging up again.
Ever persistent, he calls back and she starts ranting at him about being crazy and annoying her and he manages to slip a little mojo down the phone and she agrees to meet him for dinner the next night at Nobu. Everyone is briefly rude about his asking her to dinner but when they realize it's to get information instead of charges they're nicer about it. Esteban also relays that the evidence is gone and that she has been fired (both from her ranting). SILVER (minus Thielo) heads to New York the next day.
"I don't just know things about spontaneous combustion. I'm also a nice guy." - Esteban
On the plane they get to read the NY Times front page retraction and apology for the story of the day before. Other news sources, most notably the Post, indicate that from ten to sixteen people have been abruptly sacked at the Times offices.
With the rest of SILVER at a nearby table, Esteban meets Isabel Plant, who could be the mousy reporter in any one of a number of movies. She turns out to be the hard-drinking mousy reporter, however. She doesn't want to talk much about combustion, but she confirms that she and many others have been sacked and that the notes and tapes were stolen from her desk late at night after the early edition came out. Her apartment was also ransacked "by librarian rats". Apparently everything was put back very neatly and there are tiny footprints all over everywhere.
Towards the end of dinner Angelina notes two men come in in long coats, packing sawed-off shotguns. She isn't fast enough as they come towards Esteban and Isabel... but suddenly blades flash across the restaurant and strike their arms, making them drop their weapons and flee. Iron Chef Morimoto (out to check on his patrons) looks at his hands confusedly and retreats to the kitchen.
Esteban manages to persuade Isabel to come back to his hotel room for her own safety. Gavin follows to help keep them safe. Meanwhile, Alexandra tries to get to talk to Morimoto but is told he's had to leave. Then Angelina and Alexandra break in to Isabel's apartment, and find everything preternaturally neat. The CDs are in alphabetical order, the spoons sorted by size, the clothes by color, and the documents reverse alphabetical by first letter of second word. And every surface is covered with dirty little footprints. Examination reveals that there are no notes pertaining to the combustion case, though there are others, and that the computer no longer works. They leave none the wiser.
At the hotel, Isabel drinks some more and passes out. The team confers about what to do and decides to wait for morning. In the morning, Isabel wakes up with a horrible hangover and doesn't remember the night before. Esteban manages to persuade her to call one of her contacts to try to remake the story, but the woman won't talk to the reporter any more. Isabel begins insisting that she should go home, not remembering the shotguns the night before. Esteban can't persuade her not to, and tazes her as she is about to leave.
This brings the others in and they berate him for tazing her. It's decided that yes, she should leave and that the Sleepers probably won't attack her, they just want to prevent her from talking to TNI. So they tell her she tripped on a lamp cord and electrocuted herself. She's confused enough to believe them and Esteban gets her a cab home. The team confers a bit more but decides that there is little point in following the combustions after the Sleepers have been cleaning up so thoroughly.
Back at the Ranch they return to peaceful contemplation until late Friday night Esteban returns home to find Richard Dawkins in his kitchen looking the worse for wear (and wearing only one shoe, with a wreath of holly leaves around his neck). He claims to be there to give Esteban the truth. He also claims that the chalk circle he is standing in is a protection spell. Esteban is able to call the others and they come over - Angelina arriving at first in a fuzzy bathrobe before deciding to change. Dawkins reveals that the Comte should be arriving.
About ten minutes after everyone has arrived, the Comte (as the Diplomat from Magonia, though looking older than he did previously) does arrive. When asked what he is doing, he says "removing an obstacle" and that he's been chasing Dawkins for days. He looks at the protective circle and pulls a stiletto which he says some words over before stabbing Dawkins expertly in the heart.
As Dawkins falls, he says faintly "While my blood flows, the truth..." Gavin clues in immediately and starts to ask the Diplomat questions about the universe and what he's striving for, and the others join in. The Comte figures out quickly that he is compelled to speak truth, but doesn't seem to be able to break it. He threatens them to let him leave but they stand firm and he doesn't actually attack them. Gavin's first question is which is better for the team personally - the King in Yellow or Schabler?
"For you personally, it doesn't make any difference, because you will not be part of the next world."
They ask him what he's striving towards and he says the perfection of humanity, a humanity that will not fly apart once all 333 archetypes manifest. So far, it always flies apart at the end and we have to start over. He doesn't know what the perfect humanity means, but it will be good. The King in Yellow would take them off that path, onto a different path.
Angelina asks him several questions about who he's plotting with ("Everything") and similar questions about his conspiracy that get inappropriate yes or no answers.
Esteban asks him what question he does not want to be asked, and he says that he would prefer if they didn't ask him how much they mattered to him. They don't, and let him leave. Dawkins's blood stops flowing from his wounds.
"He believes in the let's throw Chaos into the works because the Christmas is a good thing." "Either way though, we're toast, according to them." Well, yeah." - exchange about philosophy.