Silence hung over the cathedral, the deep dark quiet that creeps up some time between midnight and dawn. The fluorescents in the sublevels had long since cycled into low power mode, and shadows gathered in doorways. Sebastián's footsteps sounded strangely soft on the industrial carpeting, even though he was almost trotting just to keep up with Usman. The security guard was very tall and very brisk.

Walking through the hospital, the young intern nodded in greeting as he passed some familiar faces, but did not stop for a chat. A high profile patient had recently arrived, and it had cost him a pretty penny to be the on call when they arrived. He reached the elevator bank and pressed the button, standing back to wait for his car. Fairly quickly, it arrived and the doors slid open, revealing the buxom blond candy striper he’d been hitting on recently.

"Hey bunny" he said with a smile

"Hi" she replied with a little blush "You goin to the party tonight?"

"You goin?" He stepped into the elevator, brushing against her as he passed, giving her a charming smile.

Sometime before the unveiling...

It was the longest walk of her life. And one she would not soon forget. As they moved north, away from the Numbers, and crossed over from Freetown into Riverside Hills, Ophilia felt a wave of relief. Not that she felt especially safe in Riverside, certainly not at this hour, but it was different here -- for some reason, she felt like the worst was behind her.

Sebastian kept a silent eye on a group of shadows that had followed them for several blocks, but decided not to pursue them into the neighborhoods of Riverside. There might have been as many as fifteen of them at one time. Whatever had kept them at bay for so long was beyond him. Until the last one shrank back into the last alley, he held his breath.

9:00pm

South, Sebastian said, so south JACE went. But south where? He crossed over the Stewart, but felt like he was flying blind. The proverbial needle in the haystack and JACE was wasting his time.

JACE sighed. Although he enjoyed flying, he would much rather be in his lab, modifying the ebola virus to make it less infectious and more deadly. He was convinced it would make the perfect addition to his arsenal, if he could just get it to respond properly to gene re-sequencing.

Then, as if in response, his HUD flashed a subtle alert. Monitoring the police band was a simple subroutine and these alerts were commonplace (one of the newer, more annoying additions to the suit). He went to ignore it, but something caught his attention. Instead, he tuned in.

“In local news, an unidentified meta-human wreaks havoc this evening on a small, local church. We have Donna Grey live on the scene. Donna?”

A young blonde with artful makeup and a maroon pant-suit materialized on screen. Behind her was chaos as news crews crowded around spectators who crowded around police barriers which encompassed the wreckage of a very old and once elegant-looking church. Now the building had a gaping hole in one wall, the size of a Volvo. Emergency lights sliced through the evening in alternating red and blue. She spoke loud over the noise around her.

The Apostate walked the streets of Midian, hounded by Despair and Exhaustion. All that kept them at bay were the words of Psalm 88, repeated endlessly in a whisper in his lips. He listened to the cries of the damned that flamed up through the grates in the gutter, wailing red up to him accompanied by the sounds of breaking fingernails. Despair drank the red in laciviously, hunching ferally over the crack in the earth. To the Apostate, Despair looked grotesquely sexual in this moment, roistering in the desperate cries for unknowable relief.

Sebastián walked into his den, the inviting aroma of coffee preceding him. Rich mahogany bookshelves lined the south and west walls, filled with a mixture of medical texts, and recreational reading. The large sectional couch, capable of housing at least 5 people, only held one tonight, and it's occupant seemed to be staring out over the balcony. The door to the balcony were open, a tall, floor to ceiling affair, allowing an impressive view of the city. Streetlights and streetlamps both illuminated the night, giving it an almost festive air.