Chapter 12: "Friday Morning in Boston"
Special Agent Lewis Erskine, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston Field Office, arrives early, hoping to catch up with everything that accumulated in his absence.

He is halfway through the stack of paperwork when he hears a commotion in the outer office. He recognizes both of the voices. If he didn't, he would be reaching for his revolver.

The door bursts open and Special Agent David Vincent rushes in, his doctor's bag in one hand. Thelma has both hands on his other arm, trying to stop him from bursting in unannounced.

Erskine says, "Jesus, David! You look like hell!"

The FBI "uniform" consists of a clean shave, a clean and pressed white shirt, conservative suit and tie, and well shined shoes.

SADV hasn't shaved in at least a day. He is wearing scuffed boat shoes, blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and a beat up jacket.

SADV cries, "He's gone!"

A chill goes down Erskine's spine. As one of the few agents who completed a rotation on the X-Files, he knows better than most what those words might mean when they are applied to a dead man.

He looks at Thelma and says, "It's all right, Thelma."

She says, "Yes, Sir." But she glares at SADV before leaving, and closing the door behind her.

For the first time in his career, except during his rotation on the X-Files, Erskine wishes an FBI agent dared to keep a bottle in his desk.

"David, please tell me you do not mean that McGuire has come back from the dead."

"No, he hasn't."

"But judging by your appearance and tone of voice, he did not simply break loose from whatever Mrs. Stoddard used for an anchor, and then drift away."

"No. I wish to God he had. That would be better than … " He shudders.

Erskine thinks, "It takes a lot to shake up David Vincent, so this must be really bad."

Aloud he says, "Tell me, David. Start from the beginning."

SADV lights a cigarette. He already smells like he has been marinated in them. He paces the floor as he tells Lewis everything: throwing the wands on the chart, the vision of McGuire's coffin on the water, the alias "Jeremiah Smith," the helicopter ride to USCGC Castle Rock, and finally throwing the wands in Boat Two and getting the Twenty-Ninth hexagram for third time in a row.

"Three times in a row, Lewis. Do you know what the odds are of that?"

"One in sixty-four cubed, whatever that is."

"262,144. You know my powers of concentration."

"Yes."

"It was no problem entering the trance, even in a moving boat, powered by a noisy and smelly diesel engine."

"What did you see?"

SADV shudders, and sits down as his legs give out beneath him.

"I am not going to like this," Erskine thinks.

"I saw McGuire in his coffin. He still had the goocher on his eyes and the lily in his hand. But he was frozen in ice, the clearest ice I have ever seen.

"The coffin was lying on the sidewalk in front of the Gilman House. Paul Stoddard was standing a few feet away. And ... Captain Obed Marsh was standing between them!"

"Marsh!?" cries Erskine.

Captain Obed Marsh was the Boss of Innsmouth. He was not apprehended in the 1938 raid. When SADV questioned the captured Innsmouthers, some of them laughed and said Marsh and his ship Sumatra Queen were at sea, and that no one would ever find him if he didn't want to be found.

And to date, the man and the ship have still not been found - a fact that has haunted SADV all the years since the raid. Erskine knows that SADV has often thrown the Y Ching wands hoping to get a lead on Marsh, without success. Until now, that is - if you can call David's vision at Devil's Deep a lead. And it is obvious that SADV is not pleased at finally seeing Marsh this way.

SADV continues, "Marsh was standing there between McGuire's coffin and Stoddard ... And he was smiling at me!"

"Jesus," Erskine says.
He thinks, "This is even worse than I thought."
Out loud, he says, "Smiling at you, like he knew you were seeing him through the Y Ching?"

"Yes."

"Has that ever happened before?"

"No. And for it to happen with Marsh of all f***ing people ... " SADV shudders again. Then he continues, "I came out of the trance screaming. I told Captain Harridge to return to the ship. The helo took us back to NAS Brunswick, and I drove back to the Collinsport Inn. I didn't really want to, but I threw the wands on the chart again. Nothing. No Twenty-Ninth hexagram. The hexagrams I did get showed me nothing. I stayed up all night. I alternated between throwing the wands and screwing up my courage to throw them. I did not want to see Marsh smiling at me again. The good news is, I didn't see him. The bad news is, I saw nothing else either."

"So McGuire is still dead, but he's not at the bottom of Devil's Deep anymore. And he is connected to Marsh some how?"

"Yes."

"Did you try the Tarot?" Erskine knows that SADV prefers the Y Ching over the Tarot. The Tarot must be interpreted. When the Y Ching works, David sees things. They are usually metaphors, but even the metaphors are clearer than the Tarot.

"Yes. Nothing, except I kept getting an inordinate number of cups."

"Whose element is water."

"Yes."

Erskine reluctantly asks, "Do you want to go to Innsmouth?"

"Hell no. I do not want to go to Innsmouth. But I have to."

Erskine shivers. But he says, "Then let's go."


Army MP's guard the gates of U.S. Army bases. Marine MP's guard the gates of U.S. Navy bases and U.S. Marine Corps bases. Air Police [later renamed Security Police] guard the gates of U.S. Air Force bases.

MP's and AP's from every military base in the Northeast do 30 day rotations guarding the U.S. Government Reservation at what used to be the Innsmouth, Massachusetts. They get extra pay during these rotations, but they still hate it with a passion.

There are at least four guards on duty at all times, two at the gate and two in a patrol car driving slowly back and forth on the otherwise deserted streets of Innsmouth. All of them carry Tommy guns as well as sidearms. M-16's, when they become widely available in the Department of Defense, will replace the Tommy guns. The guards' orders are very simple: shoot on sight and shoot to kill any human being - and anything shaped like a human being - that they catch inside Innsmouth or trying to get into it.

And on randomly selected days, P-2 Neptune patrol planes of the U.S. Navy drop depth charges into the waters on each side of Devil's Reef. Devil's Reef used to be a low island off the coast of Innsmouth. Bombing and gunnery practice during World War II left very little of it above the water even at low tide. And the waters on both sides of the reef were used for depth charge practice by the crews of anti-submarine planes. Planes, not ships. Things in the water could not hear planes coming.

SADV, like every FBI agent, was very busy during the War. But he made a point of observing some of these practices, every time a case, whether ordinary or X-File, brought him to New England. His dominant thought on these occasions was, "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good." He was FBI, not Army or Navy, but his influence played a part in making Devil's Reef a target. And after observing a practice, he set up a folding table and a folding chair on the sidewalk in front of what was once Captain Marsh's house, the grandest house in Innsmouth. Then he cast the Y Ching wands on the table, hoping for a lead on Marsh.

The guards at the gate are expecting Erskine and Vincent. Before leaving his office, Erskine told Thelma to call them. They carefully check both men's credentials, even though they have seen Erskine before. As SAC Boston, it is his duty to inspect Innsmouth at least once a month. Then they radio the guards patrolling the streets of Innsmouth to let them know that Innsmouth has visitors. By Erskine's order, they tell the patrolling guards to skip the blocks where the Gilman House and Captain Marsh's house once stood, to skip them until Erskine and Vincent leave.

Before leaving the guard-shack, Erskine and SADV move a folding card table and folding chair from the shack's storeroom to the back seat of Erskine's '61 Ford. The guards have often wondered what the table and chair are for, but they do not ask Erskine and SADV. They know too much about Innsmouth already.

Erskine drives slowly through the empty streets of Innsmouth. There are no buildings in Innsmouth, just rubble. It has been this way since 1938, when the town was leveled after what SADV found during the raid. Weeds grow in the cracks in the streets and sidewalks. Trees are growing in some of the cracks in the sidewalks. The frequently passing patrol car is the only reason there are no trees growing in the cracks in the streets.

They stop in front of the spot where Captain Marsh's house once stood. They set up the table and the chair. SADV throws the wands and concentrates on them. And gets nothing. He tries the Tarot. "More f***ing cups!" he snarls when he sees the results.

He hands the deck to Erskine, and says, "Lewis, you shuffle them. Let's see if that makes a difference."

Erskine shuffles the cards, SADV deals them again, and then puts his head in his hands in despair. More cups. Not the same ones, but more cups.

They repeat the whole process in front of the spot where the Gilman House once stood, with the same result.

"Let's get the hell out of here!" SADV snaps as he gathers up the cards.


On the drive back to Boston, Erskine tells SADV, "I'm not taking you back to the office. I'm taking you to my house. Take a shower, then take a sleeping pill and hit the sack in the guest room."

"I can't impose on you and Ruth like that, Lewis."

"And I can't allow you to drive any further in your current condition. Hell, I can't even allow you to walk around loose with a gun on your hip."

For once in his life, SADV doesn't argue.

Erskine stops at a drugstore on the way home. SADV buys a toothbrush and shaving things, while Erskine calls his wife from a phone booth to tell her they have a guest who will be staying over night.

After the nightmares Lewis had during his rotation on the X-Files, Ruth Erskine is horrified to hear who the guest is. She has met SADV only once before, when he bought dinner for the Erskine family to celebrate Lewis completing his rotation. She was astonished at how charming SADV was. But right now she remembers Lewis waking up screaming better than she remembers SADV's charm.

But Ruth knows that Lewis knows how she feels about Special Agent David Vincent. She knows he would not be doing this unless it was important.

Therefore, Ruth Erskine tells her husband, "Of course, dear."