Silencing the Screamer
Part 9
by Christina Kazmierczak, published on January 17, 2001
Grace fiddled with her shirt. "The police are going to be here any minute to take our statements and I feel consigned to the sand box."
Gregor bent his head to one side. "Pardon?"
"Where my parents used to put me wen I was-"
"Darn it darn it darn it." Alexi said as she poked a knife up into the air, placed her finger where the whole was and brought it down to the ground. On the ground and onto the first circle surrounding her. She then traced her finger backwards across the chalk, thereby scattering it.
"The socks are already done so spill it." Grace said as Alexi started on her circle.
"Well, I was able to pinpoint who is doing the killing. Well, who is attempting to do the killing. He isn't protecting himself at all. No track covering. No traps to hit one unexpectedly. Pretty obvious and pretty dangerous."
"And why, prey tell, is that..."
Alexi shook her head. "It tends to speak of three thing I know of. One, he is an ego maniac that doesn't think he can be stopped. Two, he can't see what he is doing and therefore is clueless about it's affects. Or three, he is doing it to find out what will happened and basically doesn't care about anything that happens to anyone else...darn it darn it darn it"
"Can you be anymore vague? You have edited what you said to me the entire time I've been here. First we have one thing killing kids, then we have another. Now you know who the killer is but you won't tell us. Give us the truth!"
Alexi broke the last circle, muttered something, then turned back to Grace. "Okay, here it goes. Back in the seventies the Vatican contacted a friend's mom to do some research for them. Most of what she found they already knew including what a lot of people would find heretical. Some of the ‘heresy' was pretty mainstream – like the old testament being about three distinct tribal gods, or the fact that many of the early Christians saw God as female."
"Like the Gnostics." Grace said.
"Er, yeah. Anyway, she also found many different opinions on how Judaism and later Christianity came to be. She also found information on a group of people who thought by taking the blood of innocents they could bring about a nice bit of power for themselves in their God's name. But innocence had a very different meaning back then. One aspect of which was that a person was an innocent if they never purposely hurt someone. You might have heard of the protection of innocence -- this is what it represents. One has protection from certain boogie men as long as one does not purposely harm someone or get pleasure from harming someone. Can we say name calling. I think we can boys and girls. And so the crusades and the inquisition and witch trials came to be."
Grace looked skeptical. "So you are saying that no one during these periods believed in what they were doing? That greed was the motivator for everything."
"I am not saying that at all. Just that a group of between six and eight people use their prestige to get power by basically conducting blood rituals. No scratch that. At least three to ten groups of between six and eight people. Now this is where it gets really complicated, so I will take a better known group and discuss by analogy: Neo-Paganism."
"Time out. How are Neo -Paganism and Christianity related.?"
Alexi stared at Grace. "Well Druidism and I was getting at that. Anyway, there were two basic groups in ‘Druid' Europe. The priestly class and the everyday people. Within those groups there were three interrelated but different religious belief systems. Animism, the belief that all things had a spirit, was one. This was especially true for trees. The belief in a single god was another. The belief in a duality or multiplicity of gods was the third. I am a little fuzzy on that concept.
Later, after Christianity came to Europe, two groups of nobles in England decided to call themselves Druids as a way to thumb there nose at established religion. One was in the 13th century, the other in the 16th , I think.
Later, 19th and 20th century people began publishing books on druidism and witchcraft as a means to protest the old anti-witchcraft laws. A lot of this stuff was a mixture of entirely new ideas, superstitions and a whole mess of romanticism.
Later, still a group of college students in the state of – I believe it was – Connecticut got together to talk philosophy and religion. Because their college only allowed discussion of Christian religion philosophy – they decided to call themselves reformed druids.
Now over the years these people have all claimed the titled of Druid. Quite a few of them intermingled. Now, very few of the people calling themselves druids today can actually figure out which group they came from. Which, generally makes no difference."
Grace raised an eyebrow. "And? What exactly is the point?"
"Well, no one knows which group was responsible for what. So there were these 60 or so people running around making human sacrifices. The bloodshed was pretty bad. Especially when these groups intermingled and exchanged ideas and couldn't figure out they were from different belief systems. Many of these groups overlapped and often killed each other. Out of the suffering they caused a being came into existence. We will call it the Screamer from the sound whirling air currents always made around it. The groups each thought that they should be the one who controlled it. Nope. The thing goes and gets a conscious on them."
"Tante pise." Grace flicked at her clothing.
"And she speaks French too." Alexi said sarcastically. "Or at least tries to."
Grace stuck out her tongue.
"Any way. Each group has continuously come up with some one or some gimmick to try to control the thing. Grace, your sleazoid professor is one of the controllers, the one attempting to kill all the kids now. But he isn't getting the final kill, Screamer itself is putting the kids out."
"And you got this how?" Gregor raised an eyebrow.
"Basically, sleazoid has never had or has blown every basic psychic protection he was ever born with. So I am getting alot of the more personal information directly from tracking him. He actually thought that by doing the ritual killings he could bring Screamer here." Alexi whistled. "And apparently, sleazoid's plan worked. Oh, and he already knows who we are and what we are doing."
"Wonderful." Grace said putting her head in her hands.
Gabriel stared at Sidney for the umpteenth time. "Maybe if I just throw you out the window. No. You are a computer. You would probably come up with a way to save yourself before the whole airplane depressurized. You're just a machine, but why do I feel like you are laughing at me."
"Pardon?"
Gabriel looked over at the person next to him. [Must have got on at the last stop. Heathrow?] "Nothing, just a little man versus computer problem."
Gabriel eyed the man. [Could be a good character if I ever chose to write fiction.] Gabriel could tell that the man sitting besides him was tall, muscular and a bit of a hunch back. Dark bushy hair and eyebrows over a slightly olive complexion. Darkly brooding good looks. [If you swung that way.]
"San Diego huh? I am going there myself. Lovely city. If I may, I could bring up some of the local web pages for you."
Gabriel turned Sydney toward the man. "Be my guess. Its not like I am having any luck."
Twenty minutes later Gabriel not only had connections to several local webpages but had also been given a fairly in depth lesson on the joys and uses of computers. Not that Gabriel cared at the moment.
"So what brings you to San Diego Mister?" Gabriel turned the last word into a question.
"Vulcan."
"Like in Star Trek?" Gabriel sounded enthusiastic.
Vulcan chuckled. "Like in the Greek/Roman god of the forge. I was born with a clubbed foot and my mother had a deformed sense of humor." At that Gabriel snorted. "But it fit. I am a metallurgist by profession."
Gabriel waved a hand threw his hair. "Metallurgist. So if you work with forges why do you know about computers."
Vulcan brought his large, soft hands up for Gabriel's inspection. "Do these hands look like they touch anything but the occasional dirty dish? Computers are a large part of my industry know. You wouldn't believe how much purer we can now get metals like gold or silver as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago. The uses for superconductivity along are fantastic."
"Right."
"As to your previous question. Jewelry is what brings me to San Diego. For my wife, I am buying a piece by an artisan who has figured out a way to make rings into a kind of diorama with moving parts."
"Interesting, I am sure."
"The other is a ... well..." Vulcan lowered his tone, " a knife that some believed cursed."
"Cursed." Gabriel piped up from where he was starting to doze. "Why would you want a cursed knife?"
"I don't believe it is cursed and I am not doing it for me. It is for a coalition of several brotherly orders that have been thrown out of the Catholic Church for protesting against various policies. From the treatment of natives in the Americas to the persecution of witches, these groups have been thrown out for standing up against church policies they didn't believe in. But I think the Vatican is also a contributing factor here."
"Now, why would the Vatican be interested in a cursed knife?"
"I wouldn't say cursed. I guess it is just a symbol of evil they don't want to be associated with anymore." Vulcan brought out a hard bound book, opened it and showed Gabriel a picture.
Gabriel let out a low wolf whistle as he read the paragraph under the picture. "18k gold with platinum. Used during the witch trials to ‘assist' in confessions. Was rumoured to be in the collection of various heads of europeans states and the Vatican private collection till the 1960's when it was sold to a group of private collectors/investors. Fairly nice blade but nothing too unusual. What, are they melting it down for its weight?"
Vulcan shrugged. "Well, that's part of it. Then the coalition wants the thing put in various acids to take out as many impurities as possible. Then a little exposure to sonic and electrical currents. Make it as pure as can be. Separating the gold and platinum if possible. Then melt it into six to twelve ingots. Distribute them evenly so each can take part of the burden. If I had my way I would nuke the whole thing into ash. Keep it out of anyone's hands. Put it in everyone's hands. Keep it from being used again." "Might as well sell it to the U.S. mint. I am sure it would make a lovely addition to the new state coins." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Lets just add some more cursed metal into the coinage. Aren't there twelvdes scheckles floating about somewhere. Why are you telling me this?"
"Sometimes, Mister Knight, the truth is the best type of subterfuge."
Last update: October 24, 2007
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