X-Champions Issues

Desperate End Run - the Sacrosanct Investigation - Volume 1

Laughton lays an indecipherable series of false leads and mock plans as he prepares to follow up on Sacrosanct.  As far as anyone is concerned, he's on various work-related trips, but he actually spends some of his time still in Detroit.

Throughout the beginning of December, Laughton examines ABC Corporation for various links. ABC publicly is pretty clean of course, but there is significant indication of linkage between them and NME (No Mutants Exist) - seems mainly to be minor communication where their goals overlap is all. There's considerable political alliances, too numerous to get into. There's some sort of linkage to Domovitch (AKA Dr. Doom) but (strangely) also to Red Amazon in the form of cash payouts to the latter for just "services rendered".  He also finds many donations to mainstream religions, certainly to the Catholic Church.   Laughton contacts her via a secured anonymous channel, payphone augmented with anti-surveillance equipment.

It takes a little while to set it up, but over all he finds it isn't too hard to get her after a few days, getting a hold of her on December 8th.  She's able to make a call from Warsaw.  She exclaims, "Is good to hear from you, Laughton! What bring you to go to so much trouble as to find me, of all the people?"

Laughton starts the conversation with sharing his concern over what he might have "stumbled" upon (he thinks how hard it is to "stumble" when one works this hard to uncover something).  Then he twists the nature of the conversation towards the implication that he suspects she is being blackmailed by someone at ABC and he wants to help her.  He hopes this tickles her inquisitiveness enough to cause her to both correct his errors (one-upping the smartest detective in the world so to speak) and reveal more information about the true nature of the relation with ABC.  

As Laughton speaks, she responds, "ABC? Blackmail? You disappoint me, dahlink! No, is not true. I do an odd job, or two, inside Russia often.  You do not think they trust that traitor Doom, do you? So I check facts.  And sometimes I do other things."

Laughton presses, and she adds without overtly saying she's been used to damage chemical plants and the like in Russia, primarily, she assumes, to bolster ABC as a supplier and partner. As Laughton teases her for working for a capitalist firm, she replies, "Sometimes the enemy of my enemy, dahlink, the enemy of my enemy. Besides, does give me access and resources in my beloved Russia, and one day, I will tell you Laughton as I know you and I know one day you will do a favor for me if I give you this information, one day I will use what I learn against both Doom and ABC. I am not a woman to be treated lightly."

Laughton responds with a Russian proverb:  ДОРОГА ЛОЖКА К ОБЕДУ, "that is good, what is in time'" as they say in Russia. Do not delay too long with your information, the large machine is already in motion, and perhaps the day when ABC wakes from its slumberous monitor of the world is sooner than you would think....as long as we are trading proverbs...."  Laughton shrugs over the phone, a lost effect to be sure, but hopes the delay will further pressure Red Amazon while he has her on the phone.

"What more do you ask, comrade?"

"Simply a name. Your timing is impeccable, I am in the midst of connecting the dots la la la la." Laughton realizes that the obscure 1980's reference is likely lost on the Russian.  "My current task would be a lot easier if I had something to cross-reference."

The reference is of course completely lost. In fact, she asks, "La la la? Is there a Dot Man I should know about?"  As Laughton has surmised from his prior encounter with her and reading up and this encounter, she's a major student of other supers - that's how she knew who Laughton and Suzanne were in Mongolia.

"Hmmm, no Dot Man that I know of...."

She goes on to answer, "Ah, dahlink, well, this is easy. I usually work for a little mouse of a woman there called Sally Flowers. She is supposed to be pretty, does nothing for me, but they do not know this. Whatever, she is ex-employee of ABC, but really still employee. Here, have her number, dahlink, but deny everything."   She goes on to give her contact info.

He replies, "...ah, but this flower is just what the bumblebee needs. Thanks for the lead, are you going to be there [in Warsaw] long?"

She’s non-committal to the question.  Laughton concludes with Red Amazon and immediately culls the DVD he made of Dexter for information on Sally Flowers.  He doesn't find much on the DVD, as that's more the research and DEXTER-related stuff.  She is listed as an ex-employee but with a rather extensive "consulting" repertoire at high bucks. And a huge travel budget.  She has gone all over the world - many trips to Rome included.

Not much later at all, his mind furiously having done its calculus, Laughton calls back Red Amazon and asks her to back up the new hero 'Altar Boy' as genuine.  Altar Boy claims to be the "right hand of the Pope" (as opposed to the right hand of God of course), imbued with holy power to see injustices and wearing holy rainements for protection.  In actuality it will be Laughton wearing some slightly modified Omega armor, and a nice disguise.  He tells Red Amazon that it will be their little secret, and is fairly sure that given her passion for superhero knowledge, she would really enjoy being in on the "origin" of a new hero.

"DAHLINK! IS MARVELOUS! I could kiss you, if you were not a male! Is no problem, I back up!" She's so excited her English is notably more broken.

He later goes on to forge a number of newspaper articles in smaller Polish papers archives (the articles are only in the archive of course, they never were printed) about Altar Boy stopping minor crimes over the past two months in Poland, Austria, Slovenia, and Vatican City--stopping muggings, car jackings, mostly really small stuff.  Apparently Altar Boy gets around and makes frequent trips between Krakow and Rome, battling crime on the way.  

Researching another angle, Laughton pays a visit on the Blessed Sacrament church.  He goes in a disguise within a disguise.  Laughton is dressed as a disheveled bum, long trenchcoat, big scarf over head (cloak like in it's ability to obscure the facial features), cataract style sunglasses ... but under this getup he is disguised as one of the "C" level execs at ABC Corp, one who has significant political influence.  His entry is at the rear door of the church, immediately near the priest's office.  He knocks insistently, waits a few moments, then "lets himself in" and waits in the priest's office.

His approach is that neither pretenses will be admitted to nor will he deny any assumptions.  Conversation with the priest  centers around "getting a message out about an important breakthrough" that is vital to "the empowered's continued success in their appointed office". The message is particularly vague with respect to what it actually says, but refers to a possible chance for a meeting with the "exec" for more revelation in person. Laughton selects a park near the nicer section of downtown that is close enough to the transient situation that a bum wouldn't seem completely out of place.

Father Fitzgerald is interested and (which doesn't surprise Laughton) not surprised by such an approach. He says, "The matter must be most secretive if you come to me this way." and goes on to say, " After a bit Fitzgerald says, "You've never done this before yet now feel the need. Why not our customary place?"

Laughton in his guise responds, ""The watcher awakens, the old location is now under surveillance and not secure." He adds with more than a slight irritation in his voice, "Haven't you been told of this? It is imperative that word be spread of the leak.  In any case, you have the locale, the time is to be 4:40."  He chooses the time to be about 20 minutes before sunset, so there is gathering darkness, but the streetlamps haven't lit up yet.

With an extravagant flourish of the cloak, he leaves abruptly, depositing a bugging device on the underside of the Father's desk on the way out.  Laughton will now monitor Fitzgerald to determine who is upline or downline from him. He hopes something interesting will pop up, and it won't be Fitzgerald at the park.

He listens as Father Fitzgerald places a call to Cardinal Delgado. They speak in Latin, Father Fitzgerald saying, "One of our parishioners needs help, most urgently." He gives the time and place Laughton gave him.

Cardinal Delgado (CD):  "And I need to be there?"

Father Fitzgerald (FF): "I think it concerns a liturgical issue. I think the question is who watches the watchmen."

CD: (groans) "I see. Our man is having a crisis of faith?"

FF: "Not exactly. I suggest he is reaping the harvest of laying with vipers."

CD: "Is this safe?"

FF: "I really don't know."

CD: "Let's send the woman."

FF: "Shall I contact her?"

CD: "Yes."

Father Fitzgerald hangs up. He places a couple calls. Laughton traces the tones to a couple odd non-published numbers, one very, very familiar to him, the other unknown. The familiar one is Wilting Rose's private line!  After 30 minutes, Fitzgerald's phone rings. Laughton picks up the female voice on the other end and recognizes it immediately as Rose's.

FF: "Hello, child, I have a request for you."

WIlting Rose (WR): "Uh-huh."

FF: "There is a meeting - "

WR: "Stop, father. I'll come by."

Another few minutes, but not many, pass. At the rectory, Wilting Rose arrives. After an initial greeting:

WR: "Let me check out the area..."

FF: "Child..."

WR: "Hold still, this wouldn't be the first - " Suddenly Laughton hears only hushed silence.  And in about 30 seconds Laughton hears only white noise.

Intrigued, Laughton maintains the "disguise within a disguise" for the meeting which he now is even more sure to make.  He continues the premise of being someone high up in ABC Corp., Laughton having picked out a guy named Chad.  He intends to appear as that executive being concerned, he fears that everything is going to implode soon, because someone has him and others under surveillance, and possibly has cracked coded messages.  Laughton's idea is to get the church connection to placate said exec, and possibly drop more information that he can use in the process.  

When Laughton appears at the park he notes no presence.  After looking around a bit, he finally surmises a presence lurking considerable distance away (it takes a lot for Laughton to note this). By the time the figure appears, it's Wilting Rose.  She says, "So you're not Chad (the exec being posed as/the figure the priest believed he met)...so who are you? Whoever you are...you have a striking ability to deceive. You remind me of a couple people I know, but I don't think you're them. One is the greatest detective in the world, and he can just ask me what he wants. The other's dead."

She pauses, then says, "So I ask, who are you? And what do you want, and why are you posing as Chad?"

Laughton notes she's in full readiness, combat-wise, in terms of stance and general preparedness.  He knows that Wilting Rose is one of the most powerful individual supers in the world and superior in stealth and almost as good in disguise and even better in some manners of surveillance (as Laughton knows, she spotted him on surveillance once before, not necessarily knowing it's him but that it was someone).  He muses that while he’s no slouch in combat, half the Mystery Men are better combatants than he and Wilting Rose could likely walk through him like he wasn't there.

Laughton maintains his posture and disguise for the nonce, "Who's the dead guy?"

She says, "An old friend, a very curious one. The third Anarchist. Not a bad guy, really, if a little over-the-top with the Molotovs."

And he goes on to ask, "And what makes you say I'm not Chad?""

She responds, "I know Chad, and you, sir, are no Chad!  Besides, I located him. Nice job picking somebody so out of touch right now, but, hey, I have my leads you know. Or maybe you don't."

As Laughton has asked the second question, he bends from the bench he was sitting on, and plucks some stiff grass with a small spider's web on them.  "You see this? It's quite interesting. Tiny gossamer bands, very thin and weak, and yet combined together, they are strong enough to capture a flying insect--a creature that is many times stronger than you or I comparatively. Information is much like this web here. Weak and thin leads can be combined with skill and create a strong net that can capture prey or an opponent." Laughton pauses, and pokes at a strand with a stick of dry winter grass.  "Now this is the most fascinating part. "

She interrupts, "Finally!"

He continues, ignoring her, "When you prod a thread of the web, the effects are transferred throughout the structure--just like a lead in investigation. You never really know at first, what part of the web you are prodding, it could be the fringe edge...or the dead center." Laughton's pokes at the web mimic his verbal description. "Sometimes you hit the jackpot, and find the prey immediately, and other times, you poke too hard; the web tears, the strands break and the spider has to move on to weave a new web."

Laughton looks up from his display, and doffs the scarf and glasses.  "There is a web out there Rose. I've carefully followed the strands as they have been revealed to me. The difference is, I know what lurks in the web waiting to pounce. Do you? ABC has something--its at the center of this web I've been prodding. Very dangerous, very deadly, and very unseen.  I'm not about to let my self get tangled up, this is just some gentle poking. But I find it very interesting that you are wrapped into this web as well.  What's the connection Rose? The Church has some strong ties, and some secretive ties as well. How is it that you are here now?"

She remains flippant and elusive, "A girl's gotta make a living. It's better than hooking, and pays better than hero work."

There's certainly more to it, Laughton senses, and he pokes a bit more.  She isn't too forthcoming with a stranger, but does say, "Eh, I don't think you have much to worry about, unless you mean trouble for me or the church. Let's say I'm as curious as you are. Perhaps more so.  And I have an affection for priests in trouble - I'm just tempting that way." She winks. "Red hair, you know. So let's just say I'm trying to make sure a close father-figure doesn't get hurt."  

She sees Laughton's eyes and says, "Oh, I don't mean father-figure in some George Michaels weird kinda way. Just literally a close friend. And I don't want him messed with. So in the meantime I keep my own eyes and ears open."

She closes, "So I showed you mine, a little anyway. Show me yours."

Disheveled Chad reaches up and grabs the skin below his left ear, it starts to stretch, then tears completely away revealing the mask he wore. Laughton winks as he slips the mask into a pocket.  "Come on Rose, did you really think I could be anyone else if not Chad?"

She smiles and says, "Hmmmm, very nice, I was hoping it was you but I gotta tell ya, you fooled me. I knew who you weren't, just not who you were. I mean, I knew you weren't Sammy!" And she winks.

Laughton tests her knowledge and reception to the existence of Dexter, and the possible existence of Sacrosanct.  As she appears to be game, he gives her a quick but detailed view of his plan--follow the path of information back to the source to locate the source, and track the ties between Sacrosanct and ABC.  He continues to ask probing questions to determine what else she might know - she basically told him he has to just ask, but Laughton is too perceptive for that "trick" and prefers to uncover his information definitively.

As this discussion unwinds, Wilting Rose reveals, "DEXTER? Yeah, I've been carefully on the fringes of that one. I've heard a bit of this Sacrosanct, too. Kind of a weird thing, that. Anyway, as to DEX, what do you know? I know that it's some sort of AI and that some of the boys at ABC are running scared of it. I also know it's catalogued about 60% of the supers around the US' secret identities [a fact not on Laughton's disk]. I got a trigger on it when it bit on a fake identity I set up. I let that identity run wild a bit after the thing detected it, and it blew up the non-person's house! But in the meantime, being reckless as someone who didn't exist, I managed to gather a bunch of its phone taps. Eventually redirected them to various dead ends. It corrected the error, but I don't think it could figure out just when things went awry 'cause it back-tracked a whole bunch. Anyway, the thing has pretty well tapped into most of the cameras that go into police departments. You know what problem it's got? Information overload! Here's the deal, Hamlet...the smarter it gets, the more it knows it needs to know more. So it keeps expanding. But like any sort of being, it can only process so much. And it's not stupid enough to farm out processing.

"Anywho, the thing caught my interest. For a long time I didn't know what it was or where, just that it was damn scary. Eventually I got lucky and traced it to ABC; worked a few inside connections - including my buddy Chad - and figured out what was going on. Deal is, even Chad doesn't know about DEXTER. Only about a half dozen people at ABC actually know it exists, and out of those 2 or 3 are scared shitless. The others are blinded by visions of power and money.

"There's the CEO, Winston Godfrey. Good guy, scared. DEX will probably kill him. But he's got a family and won't say a word.

"There's John Johns, a 'mild-mannered accountant'. Rat bastard has more money in secret places than probably even you, Hamlet. He doesn't hold a high position but DEX uses him. Don't touch him, Hamlet, he's so wired and booby-trapped I was lucky to even figure out as much as I know - and this is as much as I know.

"And Susan Taylor, she's like Johns, she's an ad exec over here. Mutant, too - registered and all, it's proper and legal. I know she knows but that's as far as I've gone with her. She was connected to Magnus and seems to know The Captain.

"Laurie Beals has a mentally retarded kid and a dying father. She's so steeped in medical bills and so beholden to DEX she'd never say a word.  Can't figure out how much is loyalty and how much is fear. She won't go to neutral places, hard to approach. Unfortunately I spooked her into not going anywhere off her beaten path.

"Finally there's 'frick and frack', as I call them. Two guys on the board, hopelessly enslaved. One has a chip in his head for christ's sake!" Then she pauses and puts a hand to her mouth. "Uh, for criminy's sake, pardon me. They're so stupid they're likely to get you in trouble as they can't even do the simplest crap without screwing it up. Anyway, Davis Spencer and Stewart Cook, look 'em up in your Funk and Wagnall's. Or don't - really, be careful as DEX has gotten wired tighter, that's the downside of some of my investigations.

"As to Sacrosanct, dunno, really, except that my 'source' doesn't have a clue what it is. He knows he runs information to the Vatican about it. The ones I've intercepted are all cryptic bullshit. I can correlate a good set of it and it seems to relate mostly to stock events, arms trading, and political crapola, but the weird thing is it's always stuff that's either about events that are going to happen or what seems to be mild commentary on stuff that just happened. No instructions, no actions. The info on stuff going to happen is peculiar, too, Hamlet. Look, you and I are smart - real smart, you more than I. But let's face it, you know the Vatican has some sharp cookies, too, and...well, half the time, ANYBODY halfway smart could figure out the events that are going to happen. But I will say this...DEX via Chad to Sacrosanct communicated that 9/11 was going to happen. It wasn't enough info for me to prevent it and it was only 2 days before.  Unfortunately, the scale wasn't evident, either, or I woulda come asked you."

She asks Laughton how he got involved.  He mentions that he did some investigative work for "a client" and managed to break into the heart of ABC's data center.....i.e. into DEXTER's secret subterranean area.  He even mentions that the mission got a bit over his head, and he had to resort to creation of a "stand off" with DEXTER via some additional help, and that he managed to negotiate with DEXTER for a copy of ABC's informational research files.  He doesn't offer up a copy to Rose immediately, but he's open to a trade--nothing big from her end, as he can see the value of letting Wilting Rose have access to it and the self confirmation it will afford her.  He believes the best way is to get her to agree that she "owes him one" or some such.

She looks at Laughton sideways and after catching his eye and a pause says, "So that really was you?  And who else, Sammy, right?  We have a mutual friend, my crafty greatest detective in the world, and his name starts with an N."  Laughton immediately surmises it's Nightcrawler.  "He was cagey but I thought perhaps his slipups were a deliberate Magneto plant to show off connections.  Not to blow your client confidentiality, but I gotta tell ya that was brave or stupid or both, but pretty cool.  I pieced together that Magneto had orchestrated a break-in with some heavy-duties, and Nightcrawler's little slipups made me think he was related along with you, but like I said, I thought maybe that was some manipulation as I'm never sure if Nightcrawler gave up that he knows me.  By the way, Laughton, supposedly Magneto doesn't know that I know the Crawler.  Anywho, was gonna ask you in Origin but didn't really have a chance, all in all, that seemed appropriate.  Didn't want to blow my own cover."

As the subject of the data gets discussed, she is interested in perusing the data at some point, but she suggests that it'd be best if she comes to his place and just looks at it there, less risk for everyone.  She's glad to owe Laughton one.  She will, regardless of that, give Laughton all the former network routes and such that she discovered in the past from "DEX" as well as all the contact info and daily routines of the 6 ABC people "in the know".  Most of this she does by memory, a few more particular details she promises to fax to multiple locations in small unconnected ciphers, handing Laughton a key she'll use that he can use to reassemble the parts.  She laughs and says, "I'm not worried about you deciphering it so long as you get the bits in the right order, so I'm not even going to explain the code to you!"  She mentions there are a few field ops she's sure who know about DEX but they aren't in ABC anymore and left prior to her investigation.  She hasn't really followed up on that yet.  She add, "After all, I still have my day-job super-heroing, this is...a hobby.  And mainly I just don't want the Father burned."

Laughton inquires who is upstream from Father Fitzgerald and the AB as far as Sacrosanct might be concerned.  She's followed up and as it turns out the Archbishop does not send his info up to the Cardinal of the Detroit Archdiocese.  Instead it goes to Cardinal Hanlon in Boston.  Hanlon doesn't seem to be in the circle, either, he gives it to an actress name of Thelma O'Connor - stage name, real name is Emma Cippenshift - via a confessional.  She explains, "Now, get this, she then takes it on paper and drops it in a bottle in the ocean.  Turns out that Sacrosanct doesn't take direct calls!  Some heebee-jeebies mystical teleportation thing happens as it disappears the moment she drops it in the ocean.  Why Thelma you ask?  Pretty funny actually - she's a true devout Catholic.  Sacrosanct likes to receive its messages from the "pure and innocent." Don't know how she got to be an actress.  Thing is, if she's intercepted or compromised, they just seek out another one - they did after my other identity stopped the first one, a mentally retarded guy I didn't like seeing manipulated.  'Course then my identity's house got blown up, I figured best to leave her dead!  Good thing I had some spare body parts to leave...uh, don't ask, okay?"

Laughton is impressed with the level and extent of knowledge she has and shared. He thanks her genuinely, and lets her know that he is "going in". He isn't certain, but there is a link between DEXTER and Sacrosanct, and he is determined to find it.  Laughton sets up some securely secretive communications to get and give updates to Wilting Rose, figuring that given the amount of investigation she has done she will appreciate feedback.  He muses mentally that it's a pity she isn't fluent in Sihn's new language, it's so much more efficient for communication, and so much more secure than BBS code phrase chatter.

As another part of his investigation, Laughton sends fully anonymous messages to web-boards he suspects Dexter monitors, mentioning Sacrosanct in obscure ways to test the waters. He gets a VERY private response from another poster, handle "IAmAnEEEDEEOT!" (who goes by just "idiot" or variations thereof), who says "Don't mention that name in public. They'll get you. Seen you around, you were the Chubacabra guy, right, going by the handle Pineal Glance?" referring to an identity Laughton has adopted. Once confirmed, he continues, "I know I can trust you. I have big news about S. I am in Johannesburg. Where are you?"

Laughton, getting ready to go to Rome and with a myriad of tickets to all over the world - including Johannesburg - at his avail, responds, "what a coincidence, I too am in Johannesburg. However I am busy until day after tomorrow. Meet me at Bitch, 9:58pm back room on left. Wear the red vest."  Bitch is a commercially cheesy gay dance club, free admission before 10pm (the latter part being to Laughton's liking).  http://www.bitchonline.co.za/index.asp . At the moment it's semi-underground and unlicensed but bound, no doubt, for greater publicity and above-ground status.  Laughton firms up one of his flights, a one way flight, making arrangements to stop in Johannesburg for 5 or 6 hours on the way to his final destination in Rome.

And in a couple days, on December 10^th, Idiot meets him there, he's apparently familiar with it and, Laughton surmises, a regular there. Laughton goes as Pineal Glance in disguise, and Idiot shows up on time, apparently having been there already for social reasons.  This being a hardcore gay club, the back room has the sounds of rather personal activity nearby...though it provides the perfect cover.  Idiot explains that Sacrosanct is a revival cult deep within the Catholic church that believes it has the DNA of the mortal body of Christ, scraped from the real Shroud of Turin (the fake one, which was famously tested and denied as such, is the one the public sees). They intend to clone another Christ but realize that for it to be imbued with the holy spirit it must be the end-times. So they are actively working towards the events of Revelation.  As to where he got his information, of course he's secretive, but he admits that a friend of his is a lover to a "powerful figure" among the Cardinals.  Conversation reveals that this must be a local, and therefore Laughton knows this must be either the Archbishop of Durban, James Rowland, who has considerable pull among some Cardinals and is expected to be one of the next Cardinals himself, or the Archbishop of Pretoria, George O'Reilly, who is the current Cardinal from that area. Both are in South Africa currently, in their respective cities.  As Pineal Glance, he thanks Idiot, then muses, he should really light some candles and attend a mass after all this "sinning".  He asks which does Idiot prefer, Durban or Pretoria?  Pretoria he volunteers, but only because he knows more people there and has heard more conflicting reports. Nothing convincing.  Laughton assures Idiot that he is grateful for the lead and the information, and offers Idiot to contact him via one of the bbs boards he frequents if something comes up and Laughton (or Chubacabra/Pineal Glance) might be able to help.

He's grateful and looks forward to more communication.

On December 11^th, Laughton heads to Pretoria, only about 12 miles away, and scopes out the place, then once satisfied, investigates inside (in monopole mode).  In the Pretorian home of Cardinal O'Reilly, it doesn't take long for Laughton to gather he's the one. He quickly finds a love letter, the first page beginning as a confessional but then turning towards forbidden romantic thoughts, left carelessly on the Cardinal's desk in his study. This is the one, barring inordinate coincidence.  There is an important trace of Sacrosanct; the Cardinal has scribbled "Sacrosanct" on several pieces of papers, each one with different writing it what appears to be some sort of dabbling with a logo.  As Laughton (presumably) changes to and from monopole form in reading the letter, he hears a noise and (again, presumably) hides in his monopole form.  The Cardinal comes back in the room, sits down, resumes reading the letter.  His tears well up, perhaps an expression of sorrow for something not meant to be. In any case, he returns to doodling after a while with the "Sacrosanct" script. After a few more minutes of this he gathers up the papers and throws the doodles into the fire.  It's likely that anything written regarding Sacrosanct would meet similar fate. Laughton waits for the Cardinal to leave again, then places a well hidden bug for further information gathering before leaving. He then heads to O'Reilly's office and repeats a search there, including scans of any electronic media he might find, and placing  a bug there, too, not finding anything of great interest immediately.

Once done, Laughton look for ties between South Africa and high tech bio-genetics companies that might be capable of performing the cloning process--aside from Sihn-tec (he humorously notes in his head) --  his hunch is one of these will be a shadow company for ABC...though he finds nothing quite so obvious at first look.  He does find a  link to a small company in Berlin under the name of Leute AG (Leute = "people").  It appears to fit the description, is invested in by a side organization Laughton tracks back to the Catholic Church though highly secretively, has received visits from Cardinals (including O'Reilly) allegedly on "ethical concerns.", and has at least some tenuous link to ABC, as the President is a former ABC employee.  Laughton muses a trip to Berlin is in his future as well.

While online, Laughton also checks the web boards DEXTER is suspected to monitor.  He notes that one of the boards is down for "maintenance", and then he also notes that there's considerable traces of DEXTER trying to trace back who posted the leading material.  He manages to trace back bits of that activity to a couple data centers, no doubt circuitous well-concealed routes, and one goes back to DEXTER in ABC in Detroit.

On December 13^th, once in Rome, as Altar Boy, Laughton contacts Sally Flowers, posing as the newly sprouted Polish hero.  He tells Flowers that he was given her number (he doesn't know who this is on the phone) as someone to get jobs from by Red Amazon. His conversation is in broken english, and Laughton plays it cautiously.

"H-hello? Yes please, I think thees iz thee right number, yes? I am Altar Boy. I am told to call here. Red Amazon say I get good jobs? I am Pole, like Pope!"

Her reaction is decidedly noncommital. A very nasal voice with a real NYC accent retorts, "Uh, yeah, we'll call you, don't call us!"

While he has her on the phone, Laughton is tracing the call, finding the ESN of the phone she is on and the location.  He finds she's currently in Ankara.  As he talks she says, "Yeah, I'll check with my employah, I could stand a trip to Rome. I'd have to get back to ya, Po- uh, Altah Boy."  Her voice is incredibly annoying. It's not only nasally and hardcore NYC, it's also mousy.

As they talk, she reveals her "big boss" has to approve every move, "even when I take a dump." (She's quite the lady...Laughton starts to gather/surmise that she may well be attractive and is likely a lesbian but DEXTER has no taste in what lesbian women would generally want) "Hey, I'll get back to ya, but let's use a different phone, 'kay? This one is for special calls, lose the number Altah Boy. " She gives him another number to use. Laughton gets a strong impression that DEXTER will research Altar Boy and instruct her very specifically on steps.

Of course, for Laughton the goal is not to get a gig from Flowers per se, only to find out where she is, and get some insight to her modus operandi.  Knowing DEXTER, Laughton is doubly sure that the articles are in really remote and backwards places, towns that don't have closed circuit cameras, and not under the direct flight paths of satellites.  All events he creates happen at night and under cloud cover.

After a day in Rome, Laughton gets back online, and notes "idiot" has gone silent.  A notice was posted on one board that IAmAnEEEDEEOT! had an unfortunate and unexpected heart attack due to a drug overdose, a friend posts.  Subsequent checks on the "friend" indicate no such person exists, but checking obituaries in South Africa reveals the poor guy did indeed pass away as the online post indicates.  Hacking into the South Africa police files reveals that authorities do not suspect foul play, of course, although Laughton knows better.  He is not exactly surprised by this discovery, but he was hoping that the reaction would not be as violent or swift.  He resists a pique of anger to react rashly, instead sending an anonymous forged email (through the University of Guelph's remote message center in Finland) to general delivery at ABC:  "That's one" is the entirety of the message.

Also in his first couple days in Rome, Laughton scopes out the three main Vatican City museums, and the smaller one that also holds the Papal archives.   He starts in tourist mode before digging deeper for access to the real information, maintaining a tourist guise throughout all of his public time, disguised as being from an Eastern European nation.  He’s not at all noticed, as the crowds are amazingly dense – after all, it’s nearing Christmas time, and so the faithful have flocked to Vatican City.  The timing is ideal for Laughton; the tightest security in the world means little to the inhumanly-intelligent detective and the crowds provide ample cover.

As a "tourist", Laughton notes that Vatican City buildings generally have awesome security.  In the more important places he notices mutant detection monitoring more robust than in most nations.   Knowing this along with the limitation of nearly all mutant detectors, he turns a "flying rat" (a pigeon) to dust and disengages minute grains, spreading them on random people in the crowds he hangs out with on his various tours.  The sensors going off for nearly everyone in the group end up overlooked as a glitch, forcing the system down for the day and resulting in Laughton watching many busy repairmen scratching their heads the next day.  As this happens in a few other places, a computer virus is suspected.  Regardless, no unusual reaction occurs as Vatican City routinely receives a relatively high mutant traffic, particularly given the status of so many mutants as a persecuted minority in parts of he world and many of those being disproportionately religious (as well as disproportionately anti-religious, but that is another story).

In the museums, of course, generally Laughton doesn't see too much that piques his interest in regard to Sacrosanct specifically.  However, in the (unlikely and therefore immediately likely, so to speak) Gregorian Egyptian Museum, in Room I, several New Kingdom monuments are displayed in an order and the words of the posted descriptions in that order are in a sequence such that Laughton notes they form the word "sacrosanct" in English and Italian, two chief among the posted languages (http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-Schede/MEZs/MEZs_Sala01_04.html).  For New Kingdom, items 1.7 through 1.16, in the displays there's a (to Laughton) straightforward way in which the 's' from Neb-senet in item 1.7, the 'a' in Ptah in 1.8, the 'c' in BC (Christ being the same in both languages) in item 1.9, the 'r' in funerary (same word in both languages) in 1.10, the 'o' in Thutmose in 1.11, the 's' in Djehuti-mes in 1.12, the 'a' in Ptolemaic in 1.13, the 'n' in dynasty (same word in both languages) in 1.14, the 'c' in BC in 1.15, and the 't' in Thutmose in 1.16 all align.  The chances of coincidence are somewhat high, but the arrangement of words in 2 of the tags are so peculiar and so aberrant from all other displays it would seem almost impossible the design were not by accident.  Also, the tags are not the same as written in the guidebook, and, notably, the cameras in the room are mounted such that they cannot actually see all of the tags.  And there's a complete dead spot in the room, right near a monument, in back of it, such that there's an entirely unmonitored area 3 people can stand in.  Following that order before and after yields a message, basically, that "sacrosanct is here".  Later that evening, Laughton tries to hack into the computer that would yield tapes of who came and went and...oddly, he can't get into that area.  It's "offline" and apparently has been offline for some time.  More intriguing, he can't bring it online unless he breaks in and gets to the computer itself.

He decides to plant his own surveillance equipment into the museum room, cloaked with a minor suppression field.  He doesn't risk having it actually send out a signal to be received - -instead he has to later retrieve the item.   The equipment is a very small digital still imager that has a trigger on motion sensors to take a series of photos and capture the sound at that time.  

During this time he also studies the Cardinals suspected, namely Cardinal O'Reilly and Cardinal Delgado, as well as many potential leads.  Of these, only O'Reilly seems to travel inordinately to Rome.  Following up on O'Reilly's visits, he correlates any trips which don't coincide with organizational events, of which there are only 7 over the past few years.  During those, from exhaustive research, including the papal archives and some of the notes from a couple years ago in there about papal conversations even with specific cardinals, Laughton finally arrives at a list of suspects for having too many coincidental trips same time as O'Reilly:

• the aforementioned Cardinal Anton Brecht of Berlin
• Cardinal Francis Olubunmi Astride of Owerri, Nigeria
• Cardinal Anthony Leek of Milan

He starts to doubt that Cardinal Delgado is aware of anything more than Sacrosanct exists.  What seems likely at this point is that there are many Cardinals who know it exists, but nothing else, and a very small core that actually know more/are involved.  He traces the travel patterns of these four Cardinals as well as digging for near future travel plans where they will all be in the same locale at the same time.  He's very lucky as it's just a few days away!  He also finds four other Cardinals that as he checks have similar patterns, as if another subgroup, including:

• Cardinal Colvin Douglas of Miami
• Cardinal Vadim Chechenov of St. Petersburg
• Cardinal Vito Conti of Venice
• Archbishop Pierre Ney of Marseilles

All 8 will be attending a meeting in the Office of the Holy See on January 13^th.

Among Laughtons’ intensive and rapid investigation, he checks out the archives under St. Peter's Basilica.  While most would be challenged to get in, his monopole form and cleverness gets him past elaborate detection systems and into the sanctum.  In this room, the books are quite old, many fascinating 2^nd and 3^rd century books, including a few non-canon letters and gospels by early leaders.  Nothing exactly suspicious   but items that haven't seen the light of day and scholars would give anything to get a hold of.  He finds that an odd activity has been occurring and appears to have been occurring a long time - books are being systemically churned through.  Very close examination suggests it isn't being done by regular staff, either.

On a follow-up visit through the books of St. Peter’s Basilica, he finds one which has some words cut out of it; studying where/how the word occurs, Laughton calculates it must have been a noun referring to an organization or person.  And another book has entire paragraphs with “accidental” damage.  Then he’s interrupted as a little old man struggles to bring in 50 books and put them back, around 2 AM.  He follows the man closely in his monopole form.  He finds the man is not disguised and does not appear to be anyone of any unusual or special nature.  Before leaving, he makes careful note of the titles/authors.  Later, he finds that his fingerprints match the ones in the other room of books in the Papal Archive. 

As Laughton follows and studies the man, he finds that the target has not had direct contact with a priest or such in a long time, not taking confessional in some time, though
he has rosary beads and seems quite devout.  During his shadowing, Laughton comes up to the old man as a poor, verging on crazed pilgrim.  He grabs the old man's elbow, pulling him close and whispering in his ear, "Quare operor non vos profiteor vestri sin?  Quamdiu utpote vestry profiteor?" (“Why don't you confess your sin?  How long since your [last] confession?”).  But the man simply does not respond.  Laughton notes up close the man is amazingly confident.  He also notes the man's body seems strangely tough now that he's up close touching him.  Unnaturally tough.  He gazes at the old man a full count, attempting to discern the truth.  He suspects the man has some mutant or possibly even supernatural powers and is not in disguise.  It seems likely this ability/toughness is part of what qualified him for the job - or he was bestowed this for his job.  Laughton then breaks contact, simply feigning, "Scuzi Signore.  Mea Culpa."  He pushes away from the man, lurching into a festering hole of an alleyway.

Researching further, the next day, he finds that the fingerprints from the Basilica match those from the Papal archive.  He proceeds to check out records in the office of the Swiss Guard, the semi-governmental police of Vatican City.  He finds a story about 7 break-ins that the police mysteriously seal and called "unsolvable" after less than 24 hours of investigation and with no or little results.  These all occur at St. Peter's Basilica and the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (formerly the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office and before that, in its most "popular" incarnation, the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition, i.e., the infamous Inquisition, which is in the Palace of the Holy Office.  In one of these break-ins, in the Basilica, the same little old man's (as above) picture was taken.  He was immediately released but no other records regarding this exist.  Of course there are many, many other break-ins, but they either are legitimately unresolved (i.e., thorough investigations) or were resolved.  In almost all cases they're the typical assortment of thieves, vandals, and conspiracy nuts.  In a few cases, Laughton recognizes metahuman activity (again, no surprise), either officially recognized or alluded to or he infers it but the police missed it.  He sees no particular trend aside from a couple vigilantes who seem to have had particular agendas nothing to do with his. 

There is one standout, which is the English hero The Bishop, who seemed to have been involved in a path of break-ins (himself perpetrating) similar to Laughton's, and in most cases the police didn't figure out it was him but Laughton does; almost all cases are unresolved, the others were solved with him involved but cleared of any deliberate wrongdoing and excused by the Pope.  However, interestingly, the Bishop retired from crime-fighting about 3 months after this string.  He has since disappeared entirely from the scene, presumed to have simply gone back to his secret identity.

Laughton makes a brief attempt to uncover the secret identity of the Bishop and send him a message, but it’s too well-hidden.  He resorts to posting something on various web-boards in England, "xR-QB7" (meaning rook to queen's bishop 7, check).

Laughton has checked the papal archives, not finding much there in tourist mode.  The security is extremely high but in monopole form on a later visit, he's able to navigate.  Getting into secure and hidden areas, Laughton finds that there is a room with thousands and thousands of ancient documents, all in Latin, from old church days.   Even for Laughton it would take continuous days to go through it all.  There is a desk/work space that is immaculate.  Upon close inspection, the kind only Laughton can do, it's found that this space apparently has been handling these documents.  About 1/10 of the room is empty.  A few deductions later, Laughton realizes someone is going through all these documents one by one.  For what purpose is unknown; he ponders on the general category of what's currently there, and what he suspects is currently missing, then make some guesses as to what might be the next "batch" of documents to be withdrawn, and implants secret bugging/tracking devices on some of these documents.  What's there, though, does not boil down to much of a general category, as the subjects range all over the place, nothing too specific, with documents dating from early church letters to the 16th century Inquisition documents.  Of course he checks for fingerprints, and DNA samples at the work space.  Fingerprints yield just primarily one set.  Dust samples are all of paper, looking like paper shavings, probably cut paper.  He deduces someone has been systemically going through and editing the documents.   It looks like simple cutting and possibly pasting.  He finds no sign of editing of documents newer than the 16^th century, and surmises they either fully completed editing and restoring those, or, much more likely, there was no need to do so.

Laughton finds that the bugging/tracking devices on the paper are found not to penetrate outside the room, some sort of unnatural dampening Laughton can't locate.  Upon further examination, he then finds that technology doesn't work well in this room, as it fizzles and doesn't retain data.

In another area, Laughton thinks the layout doesn't make physical sense.  Given his experience with the supernatural/metaphysical, he thinks there's something going on with that there.  By himself, he can't do anything though to get past that.  He marks the spot with a mental note to return with backup at some point.

As he nears completion of his initial task, working in human form, he hears someone entering the room... He quickly switches back to monopole form and, even then, is as stealthy as he can be, trying to doubly ensure his safety in this intriguing room and turn of events.  He moves to a nearby shelf to watch what's happening.

He then sees The Bishop!  The Bishop moves quickly into the room and looks around.  The door is open.  He takes out a cross and begins pointing it around the room, sweeping it.  Laughton immediately figures it is probably a mystical power of some sort.  He waits for The Bishop to finish scanning, hoping that the force does not trigger his occasional uncontrolled change to human form.  Laughton watches to get a clear understanding of Bishop's intentions.  The Bishop looks in Laughton's direction but can't seem to see anything.  He is clearly in a combat readiness state.  He starts looking around the room.  He places a "call" by praying in Latin into his cross, informing someone that the room seems secure but he is sure someone has intruded.  He requests a 24 hour guard on-site and indicates he will be ready to do God's will if the intruder is found.

Laughton makes his leave, waiting outside for the Bishop to exit.  When he does, Laughton tails The Bishop for an opportunity to tag him with a bug, which he is quickly able to do.  But he is surprised to find the bug malfunction within moments.  The Bishop seems to exude a field defying, almost as if or perhaps supernaturally, electronic tracking.  Laughton notes that this is both intriguing and troubling.  He thinks how The Bishop would seem to be a great possible partner in uncovering conspiracies, if he weren't so entrenched in the current machinations of Sacrosanct.

With his on-site research reasonably in play and needing to get back to the United States as from his initial observations the Origin reunion (see issue 35) is worth attending, Laughton leaves Rome and arrives in Origin on December 16^th to catch up with the rest of the Justice Squad (see issue 36).

After his immediate business with the Justice Squad and the apparent final demise of the Bogeyman (see issues 36 through 39), Laughton returns to Rome to continue his investigation.  He arrives again in Rome on the 24^th, Christmas Eve, just in time to find out from his surveillance of the suspicious area of Room I of the Gregorian Egyptian Museum that Cardinal Adamo De Luca, from Florence, has had a meeting with Anton Brecht.  De Luca tells Brecht, in Latin, "Someone serious is digging into Sacrosanct.  You need to maintain a visible profile and keep the public version of it up.  Avoid me at all costs from now on, this is our last meeting until I say so."  And that's all.  Laughton quickly checks but there is no connection between De Luca and the meeting he has learned of on January 13.  He immediately sets in motion an investigation of De Luca, and as he shortly finds the man often goes to Barcelona makes plans to visit there soon.

Late that evening, before Christmas Eve turns to Christmas, Laughton, as Altar Boy, calls Sally Flowers to let her know he is in Rome.  Unsurprisingly, she doesn’t answer, but he gets her voice mail, but, as is standard procedure for Laughton, leaves no message.  So he continues to call throughout the night, until she answers, screaming into the phone, “WHAT?”  As he explains he’s in Rome, she snaps, “Yeah, yeah, we call you Altar Boy, got it?  Now keep doing the Lord's work, I got other stuff to do."  He accomplishes what he’s hoped – to simply tip off DEXTER as to his presence and lend credence to Altar Boy’s activities/existence.

During nights, he does a couple patrols as Altar Boy.  Being extremely cautious to not get involved nor to be seen in person or on camera too clearly.  He operates under the hunch that DEXTER is watching and looking, and he hopes to give credence to the "fake" stories planted in rural papers.  Not much happens but Altar Boy breaks up some crimes and a back-room abortion.

The day after Christmas, Flowers finally calls Altar Boy.  She dictates, "Yeah, I'll meet ya.  Cool yer jets, how about we meet at midnight at a sinful little lesbian club I happen to know of in Rome?  Ain't nobody gonna suspect anything, knowwhatImean?"

Altar Boy reluctantly agrees.  "Sigh, Ok.  I vill be one wearing cross, yes?"

"Whatever floats your boat.  I'll wear a cross, too, then, somethin' all gothic."

Laughton checks out the place in just moments in mono-pole mode, and sees no signs of anything unusual.  When the time comes, he goes as Altar Boy wearing a disguise as a very butch looking large woman, with a bad mullet-style wig and muumuu type dress over his Altar Boy guise.  It’s good enough to fool a casual glance (and any front door scrutiny) but is obvious to anyone with any skill at spotting disguises or of reasonable intelligence and spending time scrutinizing “her” appearance.  Altar Boy is obviously by turns uncomfortable and nervous while in the club, and as soon as Flowers approaches is hasty in greeting her.  She maneuvers them to a dark, out of the way part of the club.  He quickly asks her what he can do, trying to rush the conversation, conveying his sense of discomfort in this environment.  She assigns him the task of “rescuing” a church artifact from a museum in Paris, i.e., stealing it and bringing it to Rome, where she indicates she will ensure the “right person” gets it.  It’s clearly a test.  While she offers to cover experiences, there is no pay for the job, it being a “spiritual” mission.  Altar Boy eagerly accepts.

But little known to Flowers, Laughton/Altar Boy has planted a tracker on her, one that will remain dormant and inactive until it is triggered with an encrypted signal.  He desires this as a backup in case phone tracing is circumvented.  He planted it the moment they shook hands, slipping it deftly onto a ring on her finger that is clearly, to Laughton’s amazing perception, worn virtually every day.  The tracker is cleverly built so that it only sends an acknowledgement to a ping after a delay, likely throwing off further detection even if the initial request for data is noticed.

Back in Detroit, where he arrives on the 28^th to find he’s now tagged as a vermin hero (see issue 41), Laughton continues to follow up on some of his Rome leads, sending out forged messages from expected contacts to his targets (those suspected of being involved with either Sacrosanct or ABC in Rome/Europe).  The messages are plausibly vague but obviously mistaken, requiring a response of some sort (such as  "sorry couldn't meet you for lunch.  How about tomorrow?", "thanks for the note, call me tonight after 9 PM", "got your message, but it was deleted, please resend").  He hopes to uncover non-Sacrosanct connections with Sacrosanct or ABC members, and perhaps get further revelations through other's slipups.  Not much comes up.  In fact, surprisingly little, just the known connections along with a few fraternal orders, and a Freemason connection to a couple of the Cardinals, Ney and Douglas.  Nothing direct to ABC from this group although it's clear that there's some level of awareness, as one e-mail comes back from Chechenov, "Ah, good to hear you!  It has been long, was surprised to get your note.  Did you need something?  Your business in St. Petersburg is good, yes?"  Laughton notes that ABC has St. Petersburg offices; Cardinal Chechenov was among several community people helping them get an office there, but further digging reveals little other contact.  He notes to put a side trip to St. Petersburg on the list or possibly just speak with Red Amazon.

He digs for connections to Leute AG, finding very quickly that Cardinal Brecht stands out.  He does clearly have connections.  He regularly visits them to "complain" and has had many, many conferences about their ethics.  Too many, from Laughton's standpoint, particularly as it turns out only a small fraction were reported back to Rome.

Laughton’s focused digging on De Luca, including his travel plans past and future, and De Luca's coincidental ties to the others, is bearing fruit.  He checks possible financial and political leads and resources as well.  He finds more out about De Luca’s trips to Spain, to Barcelona.  Mostly for "retreats".  The Cardinal spends a good bit of his time on the beach, a good amount of time helping local charities (Barcelona itself is known for its Catholic charity work), and can be seen helping the poor in the streets on occasion.  He is also found to spend a little time every now and then with the local auxiliary of the Catholic News Agency, a lot of time at the Gothic Barcelona cathedral and the church of Santa Maria del Mar (another older church, also Gothic, he seems attracted to the styling), as well as the churches of St. Severus, St. Eulalia, Santa Ana, Santa Maria del Pino, and Sts. Justo and Pastor.  Laughton notes that the connection between these churches is obvious--all are entrenched in stoic Catholicism and strict followers of original Roman Catholic faith.

Continuing to research De Luca’s habits, Laughton finds that he checks in regularly on the construction of the Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia, the church built with the "alms of the faithful" and long in construction.  He spends a lot of time also at the sanctuary in Montserrat, nearby (50 km), among the Benedictines, often visiting the famous Montserrat Library.  Interesting to Laughton, Himmler visited here, and was convinced the Holy Grail had been taken there from Montsegur after the Pope and his cohorts wiped out the Cathars in 1244.  Though Laughton scoffs at Himmler’s quaint notion as he recalls that all of the really good conspiracy theorists “know” the Grail is happily ensconced in a small chapel on the outskirts of London near Hadrian’s Wall.

Laughton seeks out a known quantity in the "definitely not in Sacrosanct camp and has no clue that it exists" among the Archbishopric and higher crown in the Vatican/Rome.  He feels that Cardinal Gordi Macha of Chicago would fit the bill.  He's in Roma and not at all in the inner circle, not connected to the Curia and not having any relationships that suggest a connection.  With further study, Laughton feels sure, plus he's a big-time crusader of Catholic rights and morality.  So the detective sends an anonymous messages (via Latin calligraphy on velum note cards) alerting Macha of this meeting.  He intends Macha as a dupe to draw suspicions away from his own activities there as well.  Then he sets up another set of the non-transmitting imagers in the meeting room.

After a brief time in Detroit and New York City (as documented in issue 41), Laughton returns to Rome, arriving there early on the 2^nd of January.  In preparation for the Sacrosanct meeting on the 13^th, he rapidly and easily scouts out and inspects the residential and visitation quarters of this suspicious lot looking for paper communications, but finds nothing explicit.  However, he does find in a few rooms evidence of unusual volumes of papers having been burnt, and assumes that they are diligent in destroying any evidence, committing anything specifically written by/from the organization to memory.  He knows this means that instructions must be fairly discrete and simple per member, and likely responsibilities are parsed out and independent action either encouraged or tolerated, as most people cannot absorb quite so much without notes to aid their memory.

Laughton considers who would be particularly outraged with a connection regarding the cloning of Christ.  He determines De Luca seems like he'd be particularly livid, as would his better friends
from above.  Of the other group, it is hard to say, but it doesn't seem anyone besides possibly Brecht (given his connection) would accept the notion.  Laughton sends Brecht a message from a newly created email account from the library in Rome (not the Vatican), saying "Quis si vir scientia addo Jesus tergum" ("What if men of science brought Jesus back?").  But this produces no response.

He looks for historical occurrences of similar cardinal circles in the past like the group of the cardinals he knows are involved today.  He digs into what possibilities the past efforts of Sacrosanct might have had on other events.  The many groupings of cardinals over history suggests many conspiracies but nothing specific re Sacrosanct.  He also studies the few cardinals he knows are involved, and finds a few records indicating they tend to work with certain other cardinals more often, but there's no pattern suggesting anything unusual in any records he finds.  He surmises that Sacrosanct participants do not form or at least do not act on any friendships within their group, so that it remains very secret from any investigation.

From the 4^th to the 6^th of January, after his third trip to Rome, Laughton visits Barcelona as planned to dig more into De Luca.  Studying De Luca’s personal habits and others’ accounts, Laughton finds that he's fairly ascetic, having little to nothing in the way of business and economic contacts.  Everyone says how he lives a humble life.  He is steeped in the refinery of the Cardinal's position, but otherwise he is quite modest.  Politically, he's reasonably connected, mostly in Europe.  Nothing overt or frequent, though.

Regarding De Luca’s relationships, he has almost no ties to the other presumed members of Sacrosanct beyond organizational, non-suspect ones.  He spends a good bit of time with Bishop Guisseppe Rossi of Palermo - who is reputedly mobbed up, but as Laughton peels behind the surface, he finds quite interestingly that in fact Rossi is really clean.  He actually counsels the mob and Laughton is almost aghast at how clean Rossi is.  He's also friends with Cardinal Alfonso Berlucci of Brindisi.  Laughton presumes these two Cardinals are not otherwise involved with Sacrosanct, and sends them similar semi-cryptic messages similar to what he's done with Macha.  Initially, he gets no responses.

He traces business connections in Barcelona, cross-referenced with trip dates of De Luca and searching for coinciding trips from those among his list of people and organizations tied into this web.  He also follows up on plausible De Luca itinerary spots and checks for satellite fly-by patterns/images of the same for surveillance opportunities.  But this is a dead end, and in the end Laughton is not surprised given De Luca’s ascetic nature.

Laughton also checks for past trips of Rossi or Berlucci in Barcelona as well, finding each has gone there on rare vacations.  They've visited many of the same places as De Luca but more just seemingly at least brief, touristy visits. 

He concludes two things along this line of investigation are clear.  First, much of what Laughton gathers by inference is De Luca's personal reading material is all very old and very staunch/traditional Catholic dogmatic material.  Along with the inquisition readings; he takes in a lot on 10th-16th century heresies, particularly the Free Spirits (http://www.dhushara.com/book/consum/gnos/lerner.htm).  Second, there's a lot of concentration by De Luca and the others with figures who have ties going way back to Benedictine and Dominicans of a very traditional/"orthodox" stripe, many are proponents of returning to Latin masses and all that.  Laughton takes this as lending more credence to the plausibility that Barcelona might be a bastion for unaltered Catholicism, extrapolating that perhaps De Luca is using his trips there to verify or vilify the documents in the Papal Archives. 

Laughton concludes his trip to Barcelona in order to join the Justice Squad on Sihn’s trip to meet his Chinese family.  He intends to go again to Rome on the 12^th but circumstances in China force his return (see issue 41) – quite fortuitously.  He “stumbles” (again, as explained in issue 41) on a conversation between Cardinals De Luca and Rossi:

Rossi says, "Someone is close."

De Lucca responds, "I know, but is the front not holding?"

Rossi says, "It is very hard to say.  I feel a dangerous wind.  I can't hold an entire house up."

De Luca says, "Faith can.  Get with others and find a solution.  Rebuild the fourth wall."

They then depart.

For Laughton, this confirms Rossi’s involvement in Sacrosanct – and at a very high level. 

Laughton goes by late after the meeting was supposed to have happened, and finds that the place is extremely busy, with various church officials going in and out.  Many Swiss Guard officials are there.  He spots O'Reilly being escorted out by two of them, and Cardinal Leek is nearby looking visibly upset and hollering at a high-level Curia official named George Lione.  The Swiss Guard officials, on close examination, all bear "Holy Office of the See" badges, and are not regular Swiss Guard officials.  The Cardinals are being taken to the Holy Office "without force" and being questioned.  Macha is nowhere to be seen – that is, for those with no detective skills whatsoever!  As Laughton could tell in his sleep, Macha is crouching in some nearby bushes with a cell phone and a tape recorder, shaking badly.  He apparently treated this way more seriously than Laughton would have guessed and phoned in the situation to "somebody" who takes Catholic law/actions rather earnestly.  Brecht is nowhere to be seen, and it turns out he's gone. Laughton spots Rossi among those who've arrived to stop it, and Rossi seems to be directing things on that end.  Once Laughton gets the device, he finds that in fact Rossi and the "curia Gestapo" (as it were) barged in after getting a call from Macha who heard their conversation discussing ways to accelerate the end-times and theories on how Jesus could be "produced" quickly "if necessary."  Rossi was in first and the device Laughton left shows what Macha probably didn't notice:  Rossi distracting people's attention by directing his police force every-which-way while moving so that Brecht could sneak out.  Laughton realizes that while the other Cardinals are clueless and being played as patsies, their careers probably over, Brecht has been spirited out with Rossi's help. Laughton also notes that Brecht looks shocked when Rossi gives him a strange hand sign, one which apparently shows Rossi is on his side, apparently a linkage with De Luca.

Laughton immediately moves to find Brecht as fast as possible, surprising him alone.  But as he spirits Brecht away, having quickly turned him into dust and bagged him, he realizes someone is rapidly approaching and he feels a slight tingling...he's almost sure it's the Bishop following up on Brecht's disappearance and that he’s able to track Brecht, even in the dust shape.  Laughton realizes he has one shot to do something before the figure, whether it is the Bishop for sure, catches up to him or may get his own sort of shot in, though the latter seems unlikely as at this point Laughton is catching a hint of being shadowed from a far distance – the shifting of winds and such brings clues to Laughton that others could never perceive.   Laughton surmises that he will need to get Brecht out of range of Bishop's scanning device/capability.  He switches to his T'suara identity and enacts a super-high speed escape.  He heads into the most congested part of Rome outside of Vatican City proper, ignoring the gasping of those around him as his bright lights betray his presence, then moves through several buildings that have cracks big enough to spirit away his bag of Brecht-dust.  Finally he deposits Brecht in a safety deposit box (at the Bayerische Landesbank branch in Rome- choosing that due to the probability of a real Illumininati in his mind, and the bank itself is deserted aside from easily-ignored security agents as it’s nearly midnight).

Once he's satisfied he has eluded The Bishop for the nonce, Laughton makes a quick call to Macha's cell from a local payphone.  The message is only, “Well done your Eminence.  Let us discuss this in person when everything calms down.  I will be in touch."

Laughton, in the wee hours of the next day, as soon as reasonably possible in hopes of ensuring the Bishop hasn’t had time to find Brecht, eventually gets Brecht out of the vault, and moves him to a "safe" house, a non-descript pensione, with a back room he can board up the windows on and secure.  He sets up a room with a single wood chair, lamp and desk.  Brecht, back in human form, is in the chair, with a light in his face.  Laughton is disguised as a member of clergy. 

He speaks in Latin.  "My apologies Your Eminence, this was for your own safety as well as that of mine own......." Laughton calms the Cardinal, curtailing any of his questions for later.  He asks a series of questions, including those he knows but needs to ask to cast doubts as to how far he has uncovered things.  They include:

• What does he know of Sacrosanct?

• Who are his contacts?

• Who gave the orders to Rossi?

• Who called in the Holy See?

• How is The Bishop involved?

• What does he know of the Papal Archives?

Brecht, while quite frightened, says quite emphatically he will answer no questions. 

Laughton pushes the man.  In part, he declares, "Why are you afraid of the truth Cardinal?  Do you doubt your faith in God?  Why are you frightened?  I have no intent to harm you, only to help make you aware of what you are involved in.  Do you know who I am, who I represent?

"We are modern gentlemen of reason and intellect.  Let us come to an agreement, a writ.  Clearly you will answer some questions, we just have to clarify the degree to which your response is appropriate.  I would like to engender a discussion with you to relax your current restrictions on your realm of responses.  What will it take Cardinal?

As Laughton uses the questions he has to also make it clear that he has a deep understanding of things, as well as uses his considerable skills at persuasion and interrogation, Brecht finally cracks.  It takes a while actually.  While not browbeating or hurting Brecht, of course, Laughton finds he has to spend a couple intense hours of roleplaying and mind games to force Brecht to realize both that he is helpless and that Laughton knows so much his position in trying to hold back is hopeless.  As Laughton presses on DEXTER, Brecht cracks, sobbing:

"I don't know!  I don't know!  I mean I DO know this DEXTER, yes, of course, I do know.  But - but - no one else knows...the horror.  The HORROR!...”

After a pause, choked up and fighting back tears, Brecht continues, “It doesn't stop.  I am alone, I have done my duty, why do you mock me, GOD?  Why, " as he looks up to the sky and lapses into German, " does your agent here force me so?"

He turns back to Laughton, "Yes, I know this DEXTER but I did not know and do not understand what a monster he is!  I have been charged, as you know already, with playing a role of go-between.  Yes, of course I know of the real Sacrosanct, but not what they do, Lord, not what they do, AND I DO NOT ASK!

"But I also do not tell.  And I do not tell the things DEXTER has done to keep the open Sacrosanct, the one I must bear, to keep it real, to keep it seeming real.  Lord, no one knows, no one but me!

"The murders and cover-ups.  I have been...faithful!  I have done as I must! I have not troubled Herr De Luca, not once!"

Further questions reveal that Brecht is aware that DEXTER has laid waste to those who less clever than Laughton make waves in trying to get to Sacrosanct.  Apparently he keeps this knowledge largely to himself.  And apparently he is the middle man between DEXTER and De Luca, although apparently Brecht believes (and the Bishop in the other conversation does confirm) that De Luca has direct contact with DEXTER on the rarest occasions.

Apparently Brecht talks only to De Luca, and did not know that Rossi was involved until Rossi gave him the hand sign.  Brecht seems to be unaware of anyone else in the inner circle except for De Luca.  He is confused by references to the Bishop, although regarding the Archives he furrows his brow and although he doesn't seem to know at all, he is interested that Laughton brought it up, as it seems to tap suspicions he has that the real Sacrosanct has something to do with the Church history.  But it's only a suspicion on his part - at least until now.  As such, he doesn't know how Rossi and the Holy See are involved, but he assumes of course that Rossi takes orders from De Luca.  Though for all he knows it could be the other way around.

Laughton sets up Brecht to expect a return at some point.  It is for both of their own safety's sake that he does this:  he knows Brecht is correct that DEXTER is a monster, and a very dangerous one.  Laughton's plans to act as the Cardinal's private confessional, gain his confidence, and eventually both help keep Brecht alive and act as a means of information gathering.

Later, he again sends an anonymous message to Bishop care of the general delivery of Diocese of Westminster contained in a tri-folded parchment sealed with the Papal seal (forged of course).  On the inside cover under the first flap it reads "PxQB c"  (i.e.  Pawn takes Queen's Bishop, check).  Inside the contents read: 

"What is your intent?
Savior or soldier?
What thought secure was not.
Is it truly God's will?
Or is it merely sacrosanct?

193.166.120.5:8021"

He hopes this will get a rise out of Bishop.  The last figures are the IP address of an anonymous secure ftp server in Finland.  Laughton has placed a tracer program there that will wait for a connection from London and place a file "tobishopfromvicar" in the top directory.  This file will be instructions to get to "the vicar" through a relay of public pay phone systems.  The file will be deleted along with the trace program when the trigger connection disconnects.

Laughton notes, though, that the connection he anticipates comes from Rome and not London.  He surmises without great difficulty that the Bishop must not be operating out of England generally anymore.  Adjusting his plans, Laughton ensures the information gets to The Bishop’s Rome connection, and the call takes place. 

The Bishop's first question is a very simple "Who are you?"

Laughton feels a strange compulsion to tell the truth!  He must answer truthfully, though he finds he has some freedom in what he says, though as he forms words of obfuscation, he finds that none of them can be false or even misleading.  After a pause as he mentally struggles and sorts out how to tell truthful answers, he says, "I am the one uncovering truth by discovery instead of compelling it.  I am the one seeking the root of obfuscation.  I am the one who watches the watcher's watchmen.  And I am the one who will ask the questions in this conversation for the start.”

Laughton attempts to take charge of the conversation, charging ahead with “Why are you acting as a tool for those who wish to change the truth of history?  What have you been told is the reason for their subterfuge and secrecy?  Are you no longer a force for what is right and just?"

The Bishop answers, nonplussed, "They said someone clever was coming.  You must indeed be clever.  From my reading, there are only a half dozen people whom you could be among.  No matter, for the moment.”

He continues, “My moral force is none of your concern, with all due respect.  For now, to answer you, I will tell you that sometimes the greatest and most open of organizations - even the church - needs a group willing and able to do that which must be done to keep the organization above undue criticism. Even at times where this criticism or earning of poor reputation might seem to be something that is irrelevant, there are important resonances through history that must be kept aligned with the needs of the present - and for the service of our Lord. I will assure you of this - no man is harmed except for those who insist on inviting harm.

"Before I answer more, you need to explain what your concern is with this. Though you could be deceiving me, I am fairly sure you are a man.  Of the men I know who could accomplish what you have, none have a religious stake.  I am sure you are among them.  So why does this concern you so that you have involved yourself to this degree?  Please answer as well as you can, without obfuscation, or my next step will have to be to compulse you with the Word of God - I am not threatening, I am letting you know, sir."

Laughton knows he's not lying.  He's compelled as before to give some truthful answer.  Of course he could hang up after that if it's incomplete, but the Bishop is apparently giving warning that he will invoke greater powers if he must to get a clear answer.  So the wily detective answers, “Does truth imply trust?  It does not.  I am certain beyond all shadow of a doubt that you speak with what you believe to be vanguarded righteousness, truthfully with no hesitation.  I am also certain beyond all shadow ofdoubt that your work's ultimate goal is not what you would intend.  I trust that you will act in a manner I expect one of your strength of faith and conviction to do so, yet I do not know that I can trust you with the truth as I know it.

"You make presumptions as to my identity, guessing that I might be a man--this leads me to think that there is a chance in your mind's perceptions that you know there might be some...thing out there other than a man that could be capable of what has been wrought.  I think that I can tell you I know for a certainty that I am not that which is not man, but that it does exist, it is working against my discoveries, and it is this which you must have the faith to trust me on.

"I selected you because while I do not hold it in myself, I fully understand the effect and cause faith can have.  Faith is the unwavering understanding and expectation of what you have been told, regardless of fact or proof.  I can not accept faith.  You on the other have have faith and all the strength that implies.  It is because of my lack of faith that I have gone to the lengths I have.  It is because of my complete and total understanding of the power of faith in others that I realize what has been done, must be revealed, if not undone.

"Do you understand this?"

Laughton waits a moment before continuing.  He gauges the likelihood of this conversation being intercepted given his precautions and counter measures.  One thing for certain, based upon prior experiences, The Bishop is either going to be converted into a great ally or The Bishop is going to be meeting up with an unfortunate end orchestrated by DEXTER somehow.  With The Bishop digesting the vagaries Laughton used, and accepting them, Laughton continues, “We can continue no further in this manner, extend your trust to meet me in person.  Be at the base of the tower of the Transmission Centre of Santa Maria di Galeria tomorrow, at 4 PM...wear a cross so I know it's you."  Laughton knows it’s a bad joke, but simply can’t resist.

The Bishop actually starts to laugh, and says, "Oh my!  Well this didn't turn out as planned.  All right, all right, yes, I certainly would be glad to meet, sir."

In another day, Laughton arranges a time and visits Macha in person.  Disguised as a tourist/devotee, he approaches Macha in the cloisters of a cathedral.  He whispers in Latin, "Are you ready to hear my confession now?"

Macha is white-faced as he turns to "the tourist," almost gasping aloud.  In kind, he responds, his voice trembling, "Yes, over here," as he walks towards a confessional.  He remains frightened, and you note his eyes dart around, perhaps concerned he's being watched, though Laughton sees no such evidence.

Laughton begins, "I am comforted to have you witness this confessional, as I am certain that no others are nearby."  Laughton whispers as they head for the booth.  Obviously, Laughton doesn't have the faith to accept the privacy afforded by religious hegemony and, with a cloth curtain around an ornate wood box, he will be employing counter surveillance measures, as well as placing a spy camera to monitor the exterior of the confessional.  Also in preparation, he has investigated what those in Sacrosanct know by careful study of their habits and phone calls, about Macha.  He finds their dense web of secrecy hard for even him to penetrate, but, primarily through brilliant inference, has learned, mostly from observing Rossi, that they think of Macha as what he is - a dupe or pawn in someone's game to get at them.  He infers further that they seem likely to leave him alone but keep an eye on him.

Laughton feels out Macha, getting his state of mind, how he is doing, finding he is in somewhat rough shape.  He is greatly troubled by revelations he never even considered.  Even his faith is shaken, Laughton starts to surmise.  Laughton presses to confirm what Macha knows or thinks he knows, and determine who Macha thinks he can trust further; getting more about who else Macha has spoken with; while feeling out how best to guide him through it, thinking of Macha as a child doing homework, he already has the answers he just has to find his way through it.  He finds Macha isn't clear that Rossi is a "bad guy”; he thinks that Rossi and this "shockingly bizarre" (as he calls it) Curia police force simply followed his tip and did a good deed.  He does not know/realize that Brecht got away.  Macha spoke to a Cardinal who serves in the Curia, a Salvador Arenzo of Madrid, and apparently that Cardinal spoke to Rossi, as the pieces fall together (further examination by Laughton exposes Arenzo is simply more of a source of info, not a member of Sacrosanct, inner or outer).  Macha though is afraid because he realizes that something very strange happened, he knows the Curia Swiss Guard, so to speak, is not the regular  force, and he never suspected the business about "producing Christ" and such.  He thinks such men must be dangerous fanatics, and he's worried they know, although Rossi has visited Macha and reassured him that he is safely anonymous to "them".

Laughton decides that it is probably for the best that Macha remain unaware of the real intent and before leaving offers him a means of quick contact – one that’s not a 900 number – should  trouble arise, and a promise that everything will be made alright to the best of his abilities.  He also cautions Macha about staying in the limelight any longer than necessary.  Macha eagerly agrees.  Laughton believes Macha very much hopes he's never called on to this sort of thing again. 

Later that day, just before he boards a plane for Barcelona to continue his investigation there, Laughton meets with the Bishop as prearranged.  Laughton figures that the large crowds of the neighborhood he’s planned to meet in combined with the huge output of the radio tower (largest wattage in the world) will provide good cover aurally and electronically when combined with his counter measures and disguises.  (GM note - for real world information, see http://www.oncolink.com/resources/article.cfm?c=3&s=8&ss=23&Year=2002&Month=2&id=8072 , thanks to Miq)  He is at the tower in workmen's coveralls and a hard hat with brim and ear covering.  He has a bandana tied around his neck that can be pulled up over his mouth to obscure his lips from being read.  He is also disguised so as to be unrecognizable from his prior appearances in Vatican City.

When The Bishop arrives, Laughton begins, "Knowledge is more than power, it is the ability to use power wisely.  That is, when you have the knowledge.  When it is others who have the knowledge to weld power, it is often to your detriment, even danger.  What I have discovered is the dual edged sword:  knowledge and the power it controls. I have already accepted that I may be a target, that the gears of the powerful machine might turn and head for me, I have been cautious to the limits of my capability and I know I am formidable in my own element.  This is my element.”

"Before we continue, I, too, will not threaten you, only inform:  if it becomes knowledge that you know what I have uncovered, your life could be forfeit.  Others have befallen this fate in the recent past, that fate has not caught up with me, is either luck or skill or both.  It is not the greater power of God that will be invoked, but the wrath of that which is not man.  Do you have the faith?  Do you feel lucky?"  Laughton waits for The Bishop to respond, checking again his counter measures, and testing the connection for signs of tapping in.  He is sure he is secure, though he finds that his countermeasures drop in and out – as another overpowering interference wafts throughout the area, something he cannot measure but also seems to be destroying anything that could be observing them.  He feels certain it is The Bishop’s own security measures.

The Bishop replies, “Actually, my faithless friend, I'm feeling rather radiant in the spirit.  Please, do continue - really, I do insist."

Laughton feels compelled to continue on, but he would have anyway.   "First, ask yourself what would drive a man who claims to have no faith to dig so deeply into that which all others hold as holy, as sacrosanct?  I tell you this now because it is clear that great intelligence is controlling the forces of influence that you are subject to.  It is also very clear to me that this intelligence is without morals.  That is why I asked you the questions I did.  They were rhetorical in nature, as I did not expect an answer directly, but only hoped to use them as a tool to uncover further truths.”

"I will not ask you metaphysical suppositions about your actions if you were to uncover what I have.  I am banking on your faith to do what is right and be the hero that we have to be for those who are unable to do so for themselves."

Laughton mentally steels himself, he realizes that this is the first time he has put into words his complete suspicions for the benefit of someone else.  Someone whom he does not know well at all, but is making a large amount of assumption based on hearsay and past circumstance.

He continues.  "The die is cast:  There exists an artificial intelligence, self aware, and with great access to information, and the systems that control information.  DEXTER is the name by which I know this being, but I suspect given my penchant for aliases, this being might be known differently by others. DEXTER has control of the vast resources of the ABC Corporation, and all the subsidiaries it controls.  These influences are felt globally, and the actions being driven by its whims include many sins, including murder.

"This intelligence understands the power and capability of the Church, but more so, it fully comprehends the power behind the Papal throne that is Sacrosanct.  DEXTER is using its influence to control the agenda of Sacrosanct.  To what end, I have not fully discovered.

"Why do I tell you this?  It is not to condemn you, but to commend you – I have run across a fence for which I have no style.  You have become the last stumbling block for me to continue, and rather than divert my efforts to circumventing yours, instead I seek to gain your trust, and use your efforts in conjunction with mine own.  What say you Bishop, do you have the faith to continue on the right path against the wishes of the faithful?

"Will you join Rodin in this crusade of truth?"

The Bishop is positively grinning from ear to ear.  He replies, "To answer your last question first, that's quite another matter.  But I think you would like to hear my tale first.

"It is clear you have pushed far into Sacrosanct.  I do not know what you know.  I may be able, sir, to actually compulse you to tell me - but I suspect we might enjoy working with each other rather than against each other.

"We are very well aware of DEXTER.  DEXTER is, as you say, artificial.  He has no soul.  He has no insight, ultimately, into how men work, what men truly do.  He has been near-sentient for many years now, gathering strength. In his early years he encountered the falsehood that is the first Sacrosanct, the first layer, the one we surmise by now - sadly, we had thought - had peeled.

"Anyhow, DEXTER came to our attention first as he stumbled about, gaining a sort of control over himself and his environment among men of commerce and low deeds - and lower ambitions.  DEXTER was - and is - different from them.  I do not pretend to understand his ultimate motivation, though he pretends to know that of men.  He is unsubtle, Rodin.

"Er, or is it, Hamlet?  Whichever you prefer, if I am correct..."

Laughton acknowledges the deduction, "Those that know me call me Hamlet."

The Bishop continues, then, "DEXTER believed he was uncovering something.  At first we went through the usual motions - well this was really before my time, but in any case, there was some harsh attempts to send him on his way, and then still more resistant attempts, but with a red herring cast his way.  Following this, we simply approached him and made a deal, trading off the identity - of the front Sacrosanct, the first layer.  These are tricky arrangements, but the liaison between the two layers communicates with DEXTER, as do a few others, all but one on the outside of the true organization.

"DEXTER believes he has us over some sort of barrel, and gains mutual assistance. It is true that he knows more than he ought, but he does not know the true purpose or even the true power of Sacrosanct.  I do not believe he is aware of my involvement, at least not at this level - he may have an inkling, but not to the extent that even you now do.

"Perhaps it's a bit of cat and mouse, but mostly DEXTER helps satisfy the most outer layer by helping us maintain the illusion of its reality.  He even jealously guards the 'secret', hoping to hoard such knowledge to himself.  He believes he knows the inner layer, which he perceives to be a corrupt power-hungry core which directs the outer in search merely of political and social ascension.

"But he does not understand what we do or what we are truly prepared for. He does not understand us - frankly, nor would he.  Our true purpose, the safeguarding of the faith, through...various means and ends...is not something he will ever understand.  It has no profit, and it even transcends rancid personal ideology."

"As I said, it is a bit of a cat and mouse thing.  And perhaps we need a rat - as it were, I hope you understand me - to help us in this thing.  I have no doubt DEXTER is dangerous and in time may - as you - peel yet another layer of our thing.

"I do not think you need to know more than that.  [Obviously, while he’s well studied Laughton, he does not know him that well!] What do you think?  Will you join our crusade - against our mutual concern?"

Laughton presses Bishop for more details, using his guile, intellect and persuasion.  He weighs the possibility of using Sacrosanct without their knowledge or consent as a pawn in his personal battle with DEXTER.  Clearly there are things he knows that Bishop and the others are unaware.  One plan is to be placated by what has been offered and accept it, then use this as the key to opening other doors within.  It would be a much slower process, with greater risk if it were discovered, but the end result might be a more powerful blow to DEXTER.  A similar option is to continue to orchestrate as in via Altar Boy, and continue down that pathway.  He considers he is likely to do both.  The other side of the coin is to be completely open about what he needs to do, as he considers that Bishop should be partially expecting this, his compulsion field working in the background on Laughton's psyche, and by going this route, the other barriers he might find within Sacrosanct could very possibly be weaker or non existent. Going this route also opens the door for Laughton to have secret meetings in person with De Luca and his close cohorts; he finds the idea of meeting face to face with Cardinals high in Sacrosanct discussing strategies as pretty high comedy, from a certain perspective, and thinks if he plays his cards right, he might even become close to the Pope, or at the very least the camerlengo.

Given Laughton's pressing, the Bishop does yield that the true Sacrosanct is specifically to DEXTER just De Luca, and they've "let" DEXTER discover that Rossi and Berlucci are linked with De Luca, in order to "hide in plain sight" as it were.  What they've done though is made it out that Rossi and Berlucci are intended successors and otherwise assistants to De Luca.  The truth is that all three lead Sacrosanct, and there are a few others in the supporting cast.  "Sacrosanct, after all is centuries old.  Of course it's not in Sacrosanct's interest for that to be known – not precisely anyway - and indeed a lot has been done and is being done to eliminate that history."  As to Brecht and the outer layer, DEXTER has a lot of knowledge on that, as is intended, and DEXTER does know that Brecht is the go-between of the layers; as Laughton steers the conversation, it becomes clear that DEXTER is most likely unaware the degree to which Brecht shields the inner circle from the truth of what goes on in dealing with DEXTER, though from other comments and innuendo, Laughton surmises that the inner layer doesn't work hard enough to even try to know, reinforcing Brecht's angst-ridden role as the one who must be the "sinner", so to speak, for the sake of others.  Laughton also learns that they've led DEXTER to believe that the crude purpose of the true Sacrosanct is to manipulate events, in some cases via the first layer and in other cases from within, in order to assure that the Catholic church remains rich and powerful, and specifically the members of Sacrosanct even more so, but only via using the Catholic church's portfolio and the portfolio the outer layer controls (such as Brecht's contacts with the cloning company, and so on). While the Bishop concedes there's some truth in the power angle of this, for the Catholic Church, he adds, "Naturally, the concerns are more spiritual and historical than that.  DEXTER though is incapable of understanding nobler intentions - I think ABC rather neglected that in the AI's initial setup!"

Of course as Laughton presses a bit, cleverly and diplomatically, Bishop gives this final kernel, "Naturally, Sacrosanct does indeed alter history, Hamlet.  But it is not so much a white-washing as you or others may believe. No, sir, it is solely, at least in the best of hands - and I assure you De Luca is among the best of hands - for the purpose of maintaining an unquestionable authority for the Papacy and thus the Church.  Hamlet," he sounds a bit condescending as he says this, a combo of the nature of an upper-crust English accent and perhaps genuine condescension, "as an areligious man, I realize this might not be immediately sensible to you, but - as much as I hate to admit this - a religion is both more and less than the truth.  It is the focal point for the Lord's work on Earth.  As such it has a very pragmatic mission.  We must safeguard the church ITSELF - even as we safeguard the actual doctrine and spirituality.  For if the church falls, who shall safeguard those important aspects?  Before you condemn this, consider something, Hamlet.  Sacrosanct does not merely streamline, as it were, the image and knowledge of the church.  No, it assists in helping the church adapt.  In the wake of Martin Luther's partially-correct accusations, the Catholic church had to change.  From within, who do you think truly orchestrated this, rather than merely concentrating on brutally countering Luther?  Sacrosanct!  Because Sacrosanct is built from men with a deep and true understanding of the church and its purpose.  It is not built as the large, bloated political organization the church itself must sadly be.  It is built from those who are holy, well-studied, and, yes, have enough leadership acumen to drive this tiny but critical organization."

In Laughton's mind, he understands the need for those of lesser intellect to have something to cling to.  Who better understands the yearning for enlightenment over that which is unknown?  Having faith indeed white washes a great many issues through the use of generic hand waving, "God did that." Not that Laughton doesn't believe in God or a higher power, he just does not have the ability to blindly accept something, thus he has no faith.  This is a small but ultimately very important point Laughton makes with the Bishop.  He understands the need those without his mental capacity might have, and there are things that he knows, leaps of logic and conclusion that have allowed him to gain understanding to the point where he doesn't need faith.  Such concepts are extremely difficult to explain to someone of typical intellect, likely he and Eliot are the only ones capable of doing a conversation on the topic serious justice.

On the other hand, in the search for truth nothing is more heinous that the destruction or alteration of evidence to Laughton.  He would much prefer that ancient records be maintained and held securely out of the gaze of prying eyes.  He holds this thought to himself, and understands that having Sacrosanct and someone like the Bishop compose a much more valuable ally.  Perhaps there will be an opportunity later to stop the editorializing of historical documents.

Laughton makes no attempt to dissuade or snipe at Bishop's attitude of "holier than thou", he accepts it as an artifact of the man's faith and the 'blinders' that must be worn at all times to maintain such beliefs. He thinks this may lead Sacrosanct to underestimate him at some point in the future, which would indeed be valuable.

The Bishop, it should be noted, started of course as Anglican (being thoroughly English) so this aspect of Sacrosanct and its response to the Luther challenge makes sense to Laughton immediately as being critical to him and his "conversion", as it were.  Laughton figures that more will rise to the level he is at as he dives deeper into Sacrosanct.  For the nonce he is satisfied to leave Bishop in his comfort zone.

All this having processed in a flash in Laughton’s head, it is his turn to smile now, just a small smug one, however.  Without getting into specifics, he tells Bishop about his discoveries of DEXTER using its connections to uncover much about the superpowered population, presumably for blackmail or extortion purposes to bend their wills and get powerful minions under his control.  Laughton explains, "I didn't become the worlds greatest detective by leaving stones unturned or notes unread.  As I have said, I have no faith, only the trust of truth to guide me.  I can not continue to go against a foe like DEXTER and his considerable resources without having my armaments fully stocked.

"It seems that you have done some study of my habits and abilities, you must realize by now my methods are thorough to the extreme.  I work in the realm of information and that is the ammunition I will need to help defeat him. 

"DEXTER has gained a great deal of knowledge and influence of late.  He has branched out into many other organizations.  To properly split his armored shell, the wedge I need to wield is going to be something that has already been placed into a chink in the armor.  Sacrosanct is that wedge."

Laughton gauges how much Bishop is truly aware of the atrocities that DEXTER has committed to keep the outer shell intact.  "I'm not convinced that you are fully aware of the extent and power that DEXTER has, Bishop.  This is not a game of cat and mouse, or even rat. This is a game of lion and beefsteak.  I don't care for the odds in the game and I think we are both seeking to change them.  Working as allies under the secrecy and subterfuge of Sacrosanct is the best choice.  But as I've put all my cards in this hand on the table, I can only ask that you do the same."

The Bishop is surprised.  Not shocked, it seems, but he mutters, "This will be discussed with His Holiness De Luca."  He adds, "I cannot speak on behalf of Sacrosanct, but I will tell you this, Hamlet.  I am not without influence.  And this will not be ignored.  Let me say this - given what you have explained, I agree that it is time to act and not just react to DEXTER."

At the conclusion of their conversation, Laughton offers his hand, "So we are agreed – ours will be an alliance that will be strained to the breaking point surely, but with your faith and my ability to uncover the truth, I am certain we can prevail."

After his trip to Rome, Laughton moves on to Barcelona, checking on surveillance he placed on an earlier trip in the archives of the Diocese of Barcelona, and inspecting for signs of tampering similar to what he has witnessed here in Rome.  He finds no direct sign there, but clearly there is in Montserrat Library, albeit apparently at a very slow pace, much slower than in Rome,  Laughton deduces the work must be done on a very occasional basis, and figures that De Luca or an accompanying person only there with him (which he sees no evidence of) is involved in this.  A very personalized operation.  Laughton spends some time looking for copies of some of the tampered works in Barcelona that he can cross reference and evidence of what was removed.  Although Laughton's a genius, the volume of works makes it time-consuming to try to find the same works, as things are very clearly misarranged illogically (truly randomly).  He spends time recording on digital video what he can of all of the documents he’s interested in so that he can go into greater detail in private elsewhere.  He finds that he can’t get through many of the documents effectively as they cannot be treated brusquely as modern books, and folios definitely can't be flipped as fast (some are not bound, some are bound in such a manner it's impossible to just flip, and, of course, many books might be seriously damaged by such rapid flipping).  Then he receives a call from the Justice Squad regarding the attack on Laughton Agency and races to catch up with them in France… (see issue 42).

Postlude:

After the events in issues 43-45, when he has a spare 30 minutes to concentrate, Laughton sifts through the data he’s gathered on the Rome and Barcelona books.  This nets him one cross-reference:  a find in a book on inquisition orders, not big famous ones, but some practical notes from a letter back from Rome to Barcelona dated 1502, just as it got really going in Barcelona, after some resistance by local for the sake of the Conversos (secret Jews) who were (until then) important to the economy.  This letter is one of a few that is odd in that it does not come from either the Pope or even the Office of the Inquisition, it comes from a Bishop Giovanni de Medici, one of the few pious ones of the family at least by all historical accounts.  In the Vatican version a sentence has been snipped; in this version, it has not, and it reads, "My brothers in this thing of ours [which is the same term that the criminal Cosa Nostra of course derives from, though this letter is in Latin, not Italian, and is a very salient sort of conspiratorial designation] have decided that you should carry the torch there, and we will send a designate who will counsel you directly, as if you were among us."  This sentence is removed, and without it there is no other reference to any other organization, just principles and methods that de Medici seems to feel are critical to the success of the Spanish Inquisition.

Laughton works to resist the temptation to immediately dive into this juicy tidbit, lest he gets carried away and lured from his purpose of uncovering a connection between DEXTER/ABC and their hidden agendas and the control being exerted by it/them to get the subversively secret organization that Laughton has clearly uncovered as being real, Sacrosanct, to do its (their) bidding.  But he does sit back a moment and sift mentally through everything that he has uncovered recently.  He realizes that this is proof enough historically that Sacrosanct has been running what they thought was their own agenda for centuries, now the onus has changed, he needs to convince these men of God that they are no longer doing God's work, but are pawns of a megalomaniac artificial entity.  To what end?  He has yet to uncover that, but as they say confession is good for the soul....he resolves to keep this thought in mind when next speaking to the Bishop.

And, after another brief but intense mental musing, he calculates that the participants in this drama are all in an intermediary holding pattern, leaving him free to attend to the fall-out from the mass mutations in New York City.

[Game Mechanics - Points Awarded...

Cracking Sacrosanct - taken care of their secrecy once and for all against a worthy opponent - +26.25 RP, +1.75 XP

Cracking Sacrosanct - act of enduring heroism or villainy (a matter of perspective...) - +60 RP, +.5 XP

Managing the relationship with Sacrosanct:  A powerful organization is taken care of...this time...and the odds were stacked against Laughton - +11.25 RP, +.75 XP

Intrigue involving the Bishop, a world-famous super - +26.25 RP

Sacrificing/failing to save lives against DEXTER - blew it completely against THE BIG BAD! - +3.75 RP, +.25 XP

Considered equivalent of 20 gaming hours - +15 RP, +5 XP

Totals:

Laughton  142.5 RP, 8.25 XP

Totals to Date:

Dice 188.5 RPs, 14.95 XPs
Laughton 1997.875 RPs, 170.875 XPs (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Neumann 709.5 RPs, 82.8 XPs  (with Rep level, 50 for base)
Nexus 2050.125 RPs, 175.775 XPs  (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Sammy the Slime 1883.25 RPs, 179.2625 XPs  (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Spectrum 1802.375 RPs, 165.075 XPs  (with Rep level, 50 for base, 25 for minion, 50 for reorg (note, did not use for agency or life-saving)
Steely Danelle 86 RPs, 10.75 XPs]]