Ian frowned and readied himself to attack if needed, "You know I won't let you do that."

"And you will stop me? You will oppose the Lord and His will?"

"I don't know who you believe your G.o.d is, but what I believe tells me this is wrong."

The disfigured man retrieved a rusted blade, opened it in a quick movement, and held it out a small way from his body. "I know what I have been told, commanded to do by G.o.d, by my G.o.d through His angel. Do you believe you can overcome me then? With only your will to stop me?"

Ian shifted his weight to his back leg and raced forward. He seized the knife from the old man's hand, threw it into a wall far away from the three of them, and in one swift motion he stuck the villain in the chest with just enough force to send him reeling back into a wall. Ian resumed his battle stance once more, now with the girl he protected safely behind him.

The stranger struggled to return to his feet. He stared at Ian for a moment before he asked, "What are you?"

Ian remained ready and immovable, his eyes fixed on his opponent. But the young woman stirred at his feet and regained consciousness. He glanced down at her for only a second, but in doing so his foe vanished into one of the many tunnels. Ian frowned but decided to let him go, as he felt rescuing the girl took highest priority.

She awoke and after a moment jumped when she saw him. "Who are you?"

Ian tried his best to a.s.sure her everything was fine. "My name is, er...well call me Voltage. I'm going to get you out of here. Do you think you can walk?"

The girl nodded and Ian helped her to her feet. After a moment the pair slowly made their way through the same pa.s.sageway Ian entered through, all while he kept his hand pressed against the wall in search of a ladder to return them to the surface. He listened too while they made their escape for footsteps, incase their enemy might try to ambush them on their way out.

September 28th, 2029 7:20 PM.

Seattle, Washington Rain poured over Seattle as Rachel and Vladimir made their way through the International District in search of Cipriana. Vladimir walked amidst the rain without any worry or care. Rachel on the other hand utilized the small black umbrella Vladimir gave her the day they met to shield herself from the storm.

"How are we supposed to find her?" Rachel asked Vladimir.

"It is usually simple when Pyotr and I are tracking someone," he admitted, "Simply because there is a bit of a body count that acts as a trail. However, when we deal with anyone who is involved with Constantine it is far from that easy. They, Constantine and his group, have learned to cover their tracks exceedingly well."

"Do you look for him yourself?"

Vladimir shook his head and told her that Pyotr handled the initial sleuthing. "I can hardly scour the papers here in this state for a trace that might lead to him, while Pyotr has a much wider and larger search area. Ideally I would do a majority of all the leg work, but when you have an angel with heaven on his side, you tend to let them take up whatever part of the workload they offer to carry."

"So what do you do if you're not looking for him?"

"I do what Pyotr asks me to," he muttered. "Or as much as I believe is sound to do."

"And this is?"

He nodded. "Cipriana is a murderer, a betrayer, a harlot, a sodomite, and another handful or colorful words I would rather not rattle off at the moment."

Rachel stopped him and asked why Cipriana became the way she was.

They were near an overpa.s.s with painted red columns with golden Chinese dragons on them. He pulled her aside and agreed to reveal a bit more to her. "I mentioned that Cipriana loved Constantine, correct? When he committed his crime against humanity and left to begin his unnatural acts, Cipriana was one of the only members of our group of friends who wanted to try to reason with him. Now, neither I nor my comrades knew she loved him until years, rather, decades later. She departed from our midst with the promise to find him and to possibly act as a spy if needed, though it became evident much later that her promise was a lie. Her search for Constantine took her across the world, through different lives, nations, and cultures. I would imagine that over time she grew impatient of seeking after him and allowed herself a few of the more carnal things in this world, which over time grew to encompa.s.s anything she fancied. She may even have lost her love for the man she set out to find."

Rachel frowned and asked if he doubted she was with Constantine. "It sounded like Pyotr said she was with him, which could mean he is somewhere in the city, right?"

Vladimir said he was unsure, but doubted it. "If he was, Pyotr would be here with us now. And if Constantine was here there would already be some form of disaster."

"What do you mean?"

"Constantine brings death with him wherever he goes. When he was in Germany he aided in the Holocaust, in Rwanda with the genocide there, and throughout the world in the spread of disease, famine, and general death." He saw her expression of disgust and added, "If he was here there would be some dire matter at hand."

"Then do you think he could be in Africa? In one of the wars there?" she asked him. "Or in the Middle East? Or"

"Again," he stopped her, "I do not know."

Vladimir apologized and told her they needed to press on, but she stopped him and asked if there was a simpler way for them to search for her. "Can't you sense her blood or something?"

He shook his head and told her it wasn't that simple. "There are too many people here for starters, but more importantly, I do not know what her blood is like."

"You don't?"

"No. I gained my vampiric powers after she departed for India."

"And you haven't seen her since?"

"I have but since she has changed bodies her scent is useless to me now."

Rachel frowned and asked if he had any other skill he could use to find her. "You can't sense evil or anything, can you?"

He sighed and said that wasn't a part of his skill set. "Evil is something people can sense when they are in tune with spiritual matters, or that's what Pyotr has told me." Vladimir paused for a moment and examined Rachel. He cleared his throat and asked how religious she was.

"Not very," she confessed. "I'll go with my aunt on occasion, but"

"Never mind that," he cut her off. "I still think this might work."

"What might?"

"Just give me a moment to think this over..." he walked past her a few feet, stopped, turned, walked back, stopped, turned, and repeated the process for a few more paces before he stopped and asked her, "What do you think of me?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Do I feel different than other people you have met before?"

"I don't"

"How about Pyotr?" he quickly asked her. "How do you feel when he is near you?"

She shrugged and said she felt at peace.

"And when you are around me?"

"I felt fine when I first met you, but now I only feel agitated."

"Alright," he smiled. "After all the time we have spent in walking through this city I believe I understand why Pyotr set us out alone and without any clues."

"What do you mean?"

"It has to do with your power, or rather, another level within your power." He explained that some individuals are sensitive to energies that surround people and can tell, often without a look, if a person is good or evil. "I believe you have that power and that Pyotr set us out to discover this. Now, through all of this aimless walking over the past few days, have you ever felt something that bothered you to an exceeding limit? Have you felt something like a gripping fear?"

She paused and gave the matter some thought, but said she never felt anything like that.

Vladimir scowled as he tried to think of a better way to unlock her ability. He remained still for a moment and had a second idea. "Close your eyes for a moment." She agreed and he turned her toward the little foot traffic on the other side of the street and asked what she saw.

"I don't see anything," she flatly told him.

"Besides the obvious Rachel," he sighed. "Now listen to me; there are people on the sidewalk across the street, what do you feel from them?"

"What do you mean?"

"Do they make you happy? Sad? Angry? Anything?"

She gave it a moment to sink in, but said she failed to feel anything from any of them. "This isn't working Vladimir."

"It will," he told her. "Now listen, when your eyes are open you see the world as it is, however you miss the second part of human beings when you see them only with your eyes. The human soul is comprised of two things, which are a body of flesh and blood, and a spirit. Your eyes see the body, but you can sense how righteous or evil someone is when you try to feel them out with your heart. It is something like how you feel at peace when Pyotr is nearby; since he is righteous, you feel calm, which is a direct result of you being aware of his spirit. So all you need to do is look past the simple flesh and blood you see and look for the spirit within."

Rachel frowned and asked how he knew so much about that.

"It is something Pyotr has mentioned before," he revealed. "It was decades ago and I thought nothing of it, but apparently I was wrong."

"Okay, but how am I supposed to see someone's spirit?"

Vladimir confessed that he did not know. "This is honestly something Pyotr is far better suited to teach."

"Then why don't we wait until he's here to help?"

"Because we have wasted enough time for one thing," he whispered, "But something tells me Pyotr planned for this."

"But I don't know what to do," she reminded him.

"You have mentioned this before and it has yet to change," he muttered. "Try to imagine what the people have done in their lives, who they are, where they are headed, both immediately and in regard to their lives, and try to feel how moral and spiritual they are."

"I don't know what you're talking about Vladimir," she said. She finally opened her eyes in defeat, but found a startling change in everyone around her. Each and every person on the street or in their car was wrapped in a wispy silhouette of differing hues of gold. She excitedly explained the development to Vladimir and told him she discovered the ability.

"Perfect," he said with a bit of relief. "Now try to find someone that doesn't match the rest of the people in this city."

She looked at him and saw that shade around him was of a lighter color, and asked whether Cipriana's would be the same color.

He asked what she meant and reminded her that he could not know what she saw or anything of the matter. "This is something you are going to have to discover alone, as I cannot know what to look for."

Rachel took a breath and asked whether they should continue their search, which Vladimir quickly agreed to. She led the way this time and scanned the crowds and city for any sign of someone who would stick out from amongst the rest of the souls in Seattle. Vladimir quietly followed after her.

10:50 PM.

Baltimore, Maryland Ten hours pa.s.sed since the man who claimed to be Agent Ryuzaki Miyaza abducted James Resnik. After ten hours no one at the Baltimore Police Station had a lead to where they could be. To make matters worse, all radio transmissions within the city were locked by an unknown source, which Detective Felton and his team a.s.sumed to be the work of the stranger who kidnapped Resnik. None of the AM or FM radio frequencies were available, GPS systems were down, cell phones were blocked, as were all other forms of wireless transmissions. The communication breakdown encompa.s.sed all of Baltimore and a few miles beyond the city limits as well. To make matters worse, what started out as little more than robberies and scattered a.s.saults erupted into full-scale panic as the sun set. Reports came to the station about riots, vicious attacks, murders, and arson throughout the city.

Because of the frenzied state of the city, Chief Johnson called for every officer to help reclaim control of Baltimore. However, he ordered Bryce, Mia, Detective Felton, and Sergeant Murdock to continue their manhunt for James Resnik's kidnappers.

Chief Johnson partnered Mia and Bryce together and the pair spent their day in search of anything that might lead to Miyaza or Resnik. Bryce drove and drove well, contrary to his excited and restless nature, especially in contrast to the panic on the streets. Mia kept her eyes on the roads and noted the chaotic nature of the citizens, as they all realized how minimal communication was.

"You don't think this is part of Cladis' plan, do you?" Bryce asked Mia as he weaved through the streets in avoidance of pedestrians, stalled and abandoned cars, and whatever blockades they happened to meet.

Mia frowned and said this was something else. "If he had the power to do this from the start I think he would have."

"Really?"

She nodded even though he didn't see it. "Think about it; if there was a disaster of this sort, no one would have thought to look for any possible patterns in anyone's death because the deaths in the city would be far more numerous than before. Not to mention the crime wave would be overwhelming and we would never see it."

"Do you think Cladis wants the attention?"

She shrugged, which he did notice, and said, "I don't know. If he did then I feel like he would make a larger effort to publicize his carnage."

"Then what does he want?"

Bryce rounded a corner and found another blockade. He swore as he nearly hit it, but quickly realized there was more to worry about as a group of people brawled in the middle of the street for reasons beyond his understanding. He parked the car and dashed out, Mia followed after him and shouted to him to get back in the car.

He turned back momentarily to tell her the people needed his help. "We can't ignore them Mia, someone has to save them."

"What about Resnik?"

Bryce said he doubted they would find him in time. "There's only an hour left until he's dead, Mia. What hope do we have of saving him? He could already be dead for all we know. But those people," he pointed at the group that ganged up on one or two people at a time, "We can stop them and save someone."

Bryce turned to sprint over to the brawl, but a ragged man stopped him. He told the officers to focus on their task at hand. "It isn't too late. James Resnik is still alive."

"What are you doing here?" Mia asked Twelve.

"Wait," Bryce frowned, "You two know each other?"

"Yes," Twelve muttered, "But there isn't time for this. Are you listening to the broadcast?"

"What broadcast?" Mia asked. "The whole city's being screwed over."

"The group that captured James Resnik is broadcasting a transmission of their conversation across the city," Twelve told them. "It started a few minutes ago, Resnik is still alive, as are they, but from the sounds of things they intend on combating Cladis alone."

Bryce's jaw dropped. "Do...Do you think they can do it?"

Twelve said he wasn't sure. "Either way, we need to find them and recover Resnik before Cladis finds them."

"How do you expect us to do that?"

"Head to your apartment as quickly as you can and listen to the broadcast," Twelve instructed the two officers. "There could be some information that might lead us to them."

"That's it?" Mia asked. "You're asking us to hole up and cross our fingers for coordinates or something that their group might give up? Bryce was right. We should help regain control over the city."

Twelve looked around and admitted that the city was in turmoil but added that if those people could be found and apprehended, then communications could be released. "This is important Mia. Trust me and get moving."