April 14th

Peter gazed at the campfire, watching the color of the flames, the way they licked at the air. He watched as the firewood seemed to come alive as it was being consumed. He remembered staring at the flames as a child. Before the fire in the temple, he had loved staring into the flames as he was now. It had taken many camping trips with Blaisdell before he regained the pleasant sensation of watching firelight.

"What are you thinking, My Son?" Caine asked.

"Nothing really," Peter admitted. "Just memories. Camping with Paul mostly. We would hike a couple of miles into the woods. Usually to the best fishing sites. We'd spend three or four days and then hike back to the car. We'd eat the fish we caught and whatever was edible that we could forage. I remember one year, we found a bunch of wild blueberries and I ate so many of them that I got sick. We ended up spending an extra day because I couldn't hike out."

Caine smiled. "He is a good father to you. He has given you many pleasing memories."

"One of the best," Peter said. "I wasn't an easy kid. Not after the orphanage. I was grateful to be out of there, and I guess I'd bonded with him a bit when he kept coming around talking to us kids in there. but it took a while before I believed that I wasn't going to be sent back, and sometimes I'd push just to see how far I could go and he always knew what it was about. I swear the man has to have the patience of a saint."

"You have always pushed. Even in the temple." Caine said. " It is part of your nature to test the boundaries. This is not always a bad thing."

"I guess that depends on who you ask," Peter said with a grin. "So how long are we staying here?"

"There is a town not far from here." Caine said, "If we leave in the morning we could be there by nightfall."

Peter nodded "Good I could stand a hot shower and a laundromat to wash our clothes."

Caine nodded. "I too would like to be clean. We should stay long. It is too soon to risk it."

He nodded again. It hadn't even been a week yet. Most of the time he psyched himself out by thinking of it as a road trip with his father. Then every so often he was pulled out of that fairy tale and back into reality and the fact that he wasn't on holiday, he was being hunted.

"Are you sure you are alright?"

"Yeah, Pop. I'm " He shrugged "As alright as I can be."

"Does it… that trouble you?"

"Nag? No. If I didn't know it was there I wouldn't know it was there… if that made sense."

Edward Kline folded his arms across his chest and stared calmly at Paul Blaisdell.

"You were in Chinatown that morning, asking questions about Peter Caine. Why?" Paul asked.

"I was hired to look into his disappearance."

"By whom?" He asked.

"You don't have to answer that." His attorney, one Ms. Andrea Montgomery, said.

"Did your client also send you to beat the Shaolin priest Master Khan?"

"I didn't beat up any priest." He said.

"Now you see, we have several witnesses that saw you follow Mr. Khan from one shop to another, then continue to follow him as he walked home. Two of those witnesses saw the final blow you delivered and you were standing over him after he hit the ground."

"They saw me bending over an injured man. I don't believe they saw me hit him."

"Now why would they lie about seeing you hit him?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask them."

"Mr. Khan is recovering nicely. He's pressing charges and unless you come up with a good reason for us not to do so, you are going to jail. "

"Only until his bail hearing." Ms. Montgomery stated.

"You're getting ahead of yourself, counselor. The judge might not grant bail. No matter how much his employer is willing to pay. We are well aware that he is employed by Gray Industries, as are you Ms. Montgomery. But then again, Miranda Gray is a highly intelligent woman. I'm sure she's smart enough to know this isn't a good time for her to be connected with a man who goes around attacking priests. In an election year, that adage about no such thing as bad publicity doesn't hold water. Just ask Mayor Conlin."

"This interview is over, Captain Blaisdell." Ms. Montgomery stated.

"I'll have an officer escort, Mr. Kline, to his cell," Paul said. If it had been possible for him to put the man in solitary and block all light, he would have arranged it in a heartbeat. He got up and walked to the door. He opened it but paused before exiting. "We will speak again, Mr. Kline. Be sure of it."

He walked out into the corridor and closed the door. "Jenkins, will you escort the prisoner back to holding." He said and went to his office before he said or did something stupid.

Kermit followed him into the office. "I'm impressed. There isn't a mark on him."

"Only because his lawyer was there." Paul said as he sat behind his desk." Hopefully, I've planted a bug in her ear that maybe Kline isn't someone that Miranda is going to want in her employ during the election."

"He'll probably just recruit more cult members while in prison."

"As long as they're behind bars, they can convert the whole prison for all I care. They aren't going to have evil artifacts or places to torture people into submission."

"Not on the same level anyway." Kermit said, "Never underestimate a monster's ability to find a way to be monstrous."

"As long as he's in jail I won't be tempted to do something that would land me behind bars."

Miranda Gray sat down for a late dinner at Gastronomique with Dianne Reese.

"Well, I see that most things are going to plan," Dianne said.

"Other things will follow suit." She said, "Even Peter Caine. He can only hide for so long"

"And if he has found a way to leave town?"

"Even better." She said, "We are everywhere, and he can hide, and disguise his face but he cannot hide that he carries a fragment of Nag within him. Eventually, he will be found. I have no doubt. In the meantime, your Mr. Kline has become a liability."

"He is loyal to the order, Ms. Gray." She said softly. She knew that the bitch had called her to a public place to give her news she wouldn't like so that she wouldn't put up a fight. She just hadn't thought it would be this.

"Of course, he is, other than trying to poison Nag's avatar, and telling his attorney that if I don't get him out of jail he will tell Blaisdell everything about his son's disappearance. Yes other than that he is very loyal." She said, keeping her voice quiet and pleasant, but her eyes were telling a different story. "He is one of yours. Take care of it. Permanently. He couldn't even manage to kill the damned priest."

"Yes, Ms. Gray." She said.

"I recommend the sole Meuniere. It is quite good here. You should order that."

April 15

Peter and his father broke camp at first light and began the long walk out of the woods. It had been a pleasant illusion. Camping in the woods could be such a normal thing. He could pretend he wasn't on the run and dragging his father with him on an aimless path to escape cultists that wanted to put a giant ghost snake inside him.

Now they were headed back to the so-called real world, where he could no longer be Detective Peter Caine, he was Peter Lee, a Basketball coach on a vacation of sorts with his father David, a retired Homeopath and herbalist He had read the background Kermit had put together so many times that he knew it better than some of the details of his real life. His wife, who had been his high school sweetheart and a Junior High English teacher, had left him for the Football coach and he needed time away. So his father suggested that they see the country and collect plant specimens.

"So do you know anything about this town we're going to?" He asked. "Is it one of the places you stayed during those 15 years?"

Caine nodded. "I was here 7 years ago."

"Should we go there if they know you?"

"We are not going into the town itself. There is a woman who owns a horse ranch. I worked there while I was there before. She was a good friend. I think we will be safe there overnight."

Peter nodded. His father was a good judge of character. He believed that these things had been true 7 years ago. He just hoped that they were the same now. "So this woman, just how good a friend was she?"

Caine laughed, and smiled but did not answer.

"That good huh," Peter said, shaking his head. "You know as a kid I could never imagine you with a woman."

"When you were a child I was still missing your mother. I could not see me with another woman either." He said, "I still miss her, but I no longer feel the need to be alone for her sake."

"You and Skalany looked to be getting close."

He looked at his son, studying his features. "Does that bother you?"

"Only in the usual way."

"Usual way?"

"You know… parents don't have sex, they have never had sex, especially your mother, and they definitely don't have sex with people you know." He laughed a little.

"I know I talked to you about these things when you were a boy." Caine teased. "Have you forgotten how children are made?"

Peter laughed "No I have not forgotten how children are made."

It was good to hear Peter laugh. It almost sounded as though he felt it.

Edward Kline carried his breakfast tray to the table and dropped it to the surface with a clang. He was getting impatient. Miranda should have gotten him out of here by now. She had the power to do it. Even before she'd become the Darling of Bayview, she'd had the power to get him sprung.

He ate the scrambled eggs that he could tell were made from powder, and the cold toast, smeared with margarine, he saved the half banana for last to get the taste of the rest of it out of his mouth. When he did finally get out of there he was going to find Peter Caine and take every second of his time in jail out of the man's hide. If he had stayed put, none of this would be happening. In the meantime, there was someone much closer that he had business with.

He dealt with his tray and found a guard "I need to speak with Captain Blaisdell of the 101st precinct. I'm gonna tell him what he wants to know." He said after making sure the man did not have a signet ring or any other snake on his person.

"And what exactly is that?"

"The name of the person that killed his son."

Lo Si accompanied Master Khan into the district attorney's office where he was to give his deposition. He would not be allowed to be in the room with him while it was going on but they had all agreed that no priest was to go anywhere alone while the Harbingers were there.

"Thank you for coming with me, Lo Si." He said. He knew that Master Lo Si was a Shamballa master. But even Shamballa masters could be killed by a bullet they didn't see coming. Khan did not doubt that the local sect of the Harbingers would use any weapon available to take them out and they had tried to kill The Ancient once already. They were making an end run against their priesthood with what they tried to do to Peter. They weren't going to take that defeat lying down.

"You are welcome." Lo Si said as they entered the office. He took a seat in the waiting room while Master Khan checked in with the receptionist. He was led back to a conference room where ADA Kenneth Baxter, Andrea Montgomery, and a court reporter were waiting.

He was sworn in and took a seat.

"You understand that you are under oath and being under oath means you are sworn to tell the truth?" Baxter asked.

Master Khan nodded "Yes."

"Have you ever given a deposition in the past?"

He shook his head "No, sir."

The assistant district attorney explained the procedure to him "And if at any time you don't understand one of our questions please let me know. Can you state for the record your name?" Baxter asked.

"Altan Khan." He said.

"And your profession?"

"I teach boxing and self-defense at Nathan's gym. I am also a Shaolin priest."

The questions about his identification, marital status, education level, and employment history took the better part of half an hour. He was beginning to feel as though they were picking him apart.

"I'm not comfortable giving my current address." He stated.

"And why is that?" Ms. Montgomery asked.

"Because I don't want your client's friends to know where I live. I don't live alone and I do not want anyone else endangered." He answered honestly. "The police have my address and the district attorney has my address."

"I assure you, I will not be giving anyone your address. To do so could cost me my license to practice law." She said.

"And if anything happens to your residence or those therein, it could also lead to her finding herself in jail as an accessory," Baxter said, looking pointedly at the defense attorney.

Master Khan considered it a moment, then gave the address for the vacant house next door. It wasn't precisely a lie. The landlord was going to let them expand into the next house as well, they just needed to fix It and the yard up. This way if it leaked, they would know without anyone being harmed. If Baxter thought anything of it he said nothing.

"Good. Let's proceed."

Kline stepped out into the yard for his one hour a day of natural sunshine with the other yard animals. He'd been told that his message had been delivered and he was just going to have to wait his turn like everyone else. Well, it wasn't like he had anything better to do.

He walked around the edge of the yard, intending to keep to himself as much as possible. He had no intention of making friends. Either Miranda would get off of her coils and get him out of there or Blaisdell would. He didn't care which. Then he'd figure out where Caine was, but not to give him over to Miranda for Nag. That would never happen if he had anything to say about it.

He continued to walk, giving a wide berth to anyone who approached, keeping an eye out for anything that might deliver a dose of poison. He knew that old trick left right and sideways. He could write the book on it, as well as hiding in plain sight. They weren't supposed to remove their signets, but that didn't mean that it wasn't done.

The hour was over and the inmates began to file back into the prison proper. The guard would block the door with his billy club after each inmate to prevent them from crowding each other. The theory was that if there was enough distance between them as they went through it would give less opportunity for the inmates to stab one another.

Kline walked, to the door and continued through only to be brought short by the club being pressed against his chest.

"Getting a little impatient aren't ya? Back up." The Corrections officials said.

Kline rolled his eyes and stepped back behind the door frame, scratching at his chest. He was allowed to proceed and headed toward the library. It had been 24 hours, and he was beyond bored.

He continued to scratch his chest as he browsed. He cleared his throat, as it began to tickle and itch.

Peter was tired. He was still getting used to walking. The plus side to it all was that it was easier to sleep at night when he was too tired to stay awake. He hadn't said much for the last hour they'd been walking.

Caine led them down an incline to a dirt road. "It is this way." He said. He had not pressed his son to talk. In normal times Caine preferred companionable silence to most conversations. He had tried to lure his son out of his shell over the past week as they sat around their campfires. Sometimes he succeeded sometimes Peter answered his questions with a silent shrug. He let him be while they walked, however, hoping that Peter could find a sort of meditation in the walking as he had done. Sometimes he thought his son was coming back to normal when he became compelled to fill the silence with words.

"You sure?" Peter asked. "It's been 7 years."

"I am sure." He answered as he continued to walk.

"Okay." He followed his father. The road twisted and turned, with a steady upward grade. "So do you think your…friend… will remember you?"

He smiled. "She will remember. I was here for several months."

"Several months? How many months are several months?" Peter asked.

"Almost a year."

"Wow." He said and his father shrugged.

They came to the main house ten minutes later. Caine walked up to the door and used the massive knocker.

It opened a short time later, and a woman, a little younger than his father opened the door. Her face lit up "Caine, Oh my gosh, it is you. Come in. Please."

"Thank you." He said smiling. "Carol, this is my son, Peter."

Her eyes widened. "He's alive!" she laughed a little "Well of course you are, you're standing right here. Please come in, both of you. It's nice to meet you, Peter." She was an attractive middle-aged woman, with reddish brown hair and green eyes, tall and lean.

"Thanks. It's nice to meet you too." He said. She seemed nice enough. She seemed to have fond memories of his father.

"So I'm not going to assume you're here just to visit after all this time," Carol said. "If it's work you need I always have plenty of that to go around and you've always got a place to stay here. You know that."

"Thank you." Caine said, "We will not stay long."

" Stay as long as you like. I was about to make dinner. You're welcome to join me."

Caine bowed his thanks.