10:45am
EVANS' HOUSE

Susan was drinking coffee at the table. Her son Henry was in the
living room with a toy. The TV was on. Suddenly, there was static.
Then, a picture of an African-American woman holding a microphone.
The screen showed her standing at the edge of the cliff. She said, "Good morning. This is Andrea Hall, Channel Nine. We interrupt this program with a special report. A plane crashed at the bottom of this peak just last night."

Susan looked over at the television. "What? Wait.." She got up and
sat by the TV, on Henry's right side. "That's the cliff I always go to."

The reporter continued, "The cause was due to lack of sufficient
fuel, while the police are determining if it was negligence. They are
baffled by the nature of the situation. Apparantly, the pilot, though
she was killed in the crash because of the explosion, has only led to
another mystery. Medical examiners have determined that she was
already deceased at least six hours PRIOR to the crash. They believe
that she was alone, yet they do not understand how the plane was
flown..as it was not on 'Auto-Pilot'. We will have more on this story as it develops. Now, we return you to your regularly scheduled program." The screen returned to a kids' show.

Susan said, "My God. How?"

Henry asked, "How, what?"

"How can a plane be flown, when the pilot was dead before? No one
else was there.."

"That IS strange, mom."

"Well, I'll ask Wallace tonight." She walked to the kitchen, picked up the mobile phone, and dialed a number.

An older woman's voice came on. "Hello?"

Susan asked, "Yes. Alice Davenport?"

The lady replied, "Why, yes. This is she."

"Ok. This is Susan Evans. I understand that you're a therapist? That you work with my husband at the hospital?"

"Yes."

"Well, Mark is coming up. His dad is leaving him here for two weeks while he's in Tokyo. You see, Jack's wife passed away recently and Mark is having a hard time. Any kid would."

"I understand. If it's alright with Jack, I can speak with Mark when his father is away. I'd be glad to help the boy in any way I can."

"Alright. I'll talk to him ewhen he arrives. He said he'd be here soon, anyway."

"That's fine."

"Oh, did the police talk to you?"

"Yes. I didn't know much..except.."

"Yes?"

"Well, that victim had a scar on his neck, like some brand. Wallace told me it was Hebrew or something. The examiner said that it was ancient, it appeared to be a 'mark'. Like a seal."

"Oh..I remember you gave me that book to look at. The one on
Hebrew cabalist markings? Legends and stuff about angelic myths."

"Yes. I may need it back. The body's scar looked familiar somehow."

"Sure, I'll bring it over tomorrow."

"Okay. Bye, Susan."

"Bye." Susan hung it up.

Henry rose to his feet. "Mom, I'm going outside for a while."

"Alright."

The boy grabbed his coat and went for the door.

2:41pm

About fifty feet from the house, Uziel was perched high in a tree,
on one of the limbs. He looked below at the house. Then, he saw it. A
brown jeep pulled into the driveway. A man and a boy got out. Uziel
sniffed, looking at them. "Yes! Mark and Jack. They're here." He saw
Wallace come out with a girl--'Connie' on his back. The man put her
down. She, in turn, led Mark into the house. Jack and Wallace
followed. Uziel nodded. "So..the monkeys are all together now." The
Lieutenant decided to stay. Gabriel ordered him to watch the house.
He would do so, until told otherwise.


8:20pm

The entire family was at the dinner table: Susan, Wallace, Jack,
Mark, Henry, and Connie. Henry was showing Mark how to open the
lobster. "Then, you need to get the insides out. That's where this
comes in." He wrapped a utensil around it, squeezing. Didn't do much,
so he pounded the claw-piece.

Mark laughed.

Susan whispered to Jack, "See, Jack, he's going to be just fine."

Jack nodded and said softly, "Yeah."

When they were done eating, Susan said, "Oh, Wallace. Did you hear about the plane on the news today?"

Jack said, "Oh, you mean that plane accident. Yeah, me and Mark
heard it on the radio when we got here."

Wallace said, "Right. The medics at my work don't underestand
abouty the pilot's body, though."

Jack said, "What do you mean?"

Wallace replied, "She didn't die from the crash. In fact, she'd been dead a long time, at least five to eight hours. And there wasn't evidence of a passenger. Hmm. One mystery just led to another."

Mark said, "How? What other mystery?"

Wallace said, "We got another body the night before. Brutally
killed. Our tests showed several anomalies. He never had eyes. His
blood contained agents that can only be common for a fetus. And his
bones--well, it's like he was never born."

Henry looked up. This was new to him. "Huh? Never.."

His father said, "That's what it all points to. Everyone has signs
of growth in their skeleton..growth rings, DNA..except him. And his
vital organ, the heart..it wasn't removed by tools."

Susan gasped. "You mean..by..the guy's hands? HOW??"

Wallace shrugged. "We don't know *how*, Susan. Just that it
happened. This is beginning to look like something right out of 'The
X-Files'. Maybe I should write this stuff to Chris Carter, huh? They
could use it in an episode."

Susan said, "Oh, what about that symbol on his neck? That scar."

Mark suddenly dropped his fork in surprise.

Susan said, "Mark? You ok?"

Mark asked, "A scar. Was it..*here*..on the left side? It looked
like a brand?"

Wallace said, "Yeah! Exactly. How did you guess?"

Mark said, "I saw someone at the funeral. He had a scar, too."

Jack looked over at him. "Who? Who was it, son?"

Mark answered, "He said his name was Gabriel. He had..a crown."

Susan asked, "Gabriel? Like, in the Bible?" She got up and grabbed
a book from a shelf. "Wallace, take a look at this book Alice gave
me." She handed it to him. It was labeled, 'Hebrew Cabalist Writings'. "It's got something to do with angel legends, old history of cultures."

Wallace flipped through it. He found the chapter 'Angelic Seals'. He looked through the various symbol. He found the one that was on the corpse. "Susan! It's..the SAME. Here. It says, 'Reja. Angel of Portents. One of the lower angels'. And next..'Cedael. Angel of
Justice, one of the chieftans under the archangel Michael'." He gave
it back to Susan.

She looked at another page. It showed the symbols of other angels:
Danyael, Samayel, Razure, Zebul, Machon. She came upon pages of
illustrations. Below each sketch was a symbol. She read it aloud. "Here's one. 'Raphael. God Has Healed. Charged with healing the earth'. And..'Cammiel. Chief of the Order of Powers.' Mark, here's one of Uziel and Gabriel."

Mark took the book now. He read the one that had a trident. "'Uziel, Strength of God, lower soldier angel and Lt. to the Seraph or archangel Gabriel'." He looked at the next page. A picture of an angel thrusting a spear into a dragon. "This is it! See? The crown is below this picture. 'Gabriel. God Is My Strength. The angel of death, vengeance, revelation, annunciation. One of the highest ranking angels in religios lore'. But..this doesn't look like the man I saw."

Wallace said, "I should inform the police. They gave us a piece of
evidence. A very old Bible. It's in my room. I'm going to let one of
the linguists at the college look it over for a translation. But remember, these aren't REAL angels."

Connie said happily, "I like angels. Like on TV. Those cute little
things.."

Wallace said, "Connie, I don't think it's those kind."

Henry said, "Yeah, *Connie*. They're made up, not that YOU would
know."

Susan scolded, "Henry..that's enough."

Wallace spoke up. "But maybe this killer and victim knew each other. They may be in some fanatical cult that brands them as members, but now they're taking each other out. It's happened before."

Susan took the book back and closed it. "I promised Alice that I
would give this back to her. Oh..Mark. She wants to speak with you
soon."

Mark said, "Uhh...I.."

Jack replied, "It's okay, Mark. It'll help, you'll see. Give it a chance."

His son nodded. "Okay. I'll try."

Jack got up. "Well. I have to go. Mark, I promise I'll be back soon." He walked out.

The room had become very silent. After five minutes, Mark got up
from the table. "I gotta go say goodbye. Be right back." He ran out
the door.