Last time, you'll recall, our envoys got arrested. Tuulugaak Hanta and Mercy Williams are taken to the hospital (Tul is showing signs of a concussion, Mercy needs stitches on her leg). Khalil Barnes is treated on-scene, and Arlo Miller and Amelia Rostov are unharmed. The police attempt to talk to all of them, but SAVE policy and Khalil's reminder to shut up and ask for a lawyer stick with all of them. It's Sunday, however, so they're just sitting tight and waiting to be arraigned.
Dr. Kirby Bellman, their HQ coordinator, visits Tul in the hospital and checks in on him, asks what he remembers and so on. He then drops in on Mercy as well, but curiously says that he heard Tul talking to a cop and is worried he might have said something damaging. He also gives Mercy a tablet so she can do a little research, and she looks up djinn. Without access to SAVE files, she only gets what's available - to wit, djinn or jinn are supernatural beings from Arabic folklore. Islam holds that they have free will and can therefore accept God's judgment, but there are older stories (since djinn predate the Islamic faith) that cast them in more monstrous roles. Nowadays, you mostly hear about them in the context of the "genie" that grants wishes, whether that's in a "friend like me" kind of way or a "twisted the wish and make you suffer" kind of way.
Meanwhile at the jail, Arlo and Khalil talk briefly and then get a visit from Detective Lance Winslow. He, too, asks what the envoys remember about what happened and gives them a little rundown on how the cops are leaning. Khalil reveals that he asked his brother Hamza to come down to Seward, and Winslow offers to make contact with him and make sure he's all right. Khalil gives him the name of a hotel, but lies - Winslow is being cagey and not revealing anything that Khalil didn't already know, and he knows that the djinn seems to be able to take on others' forms. Plus, you don't talk to cops.
Winslow drops in on Amelia, as well, and tries to get her to talk about what exactly is going on. Amelia is careful to avoid saying "SAVE," but does mention QCOM and gives Winslow her card. She notes that when he asks about QCOM, he gets the street name wrong. Might just be a mistake, but...
In the morning, a woman named Alison Bauman visits the envoys, first at the hospital, then at the jail. She tells them that she's an attorney sent by SAVE to get them out of this, and as such she's defended people who have been in weird, violent situations before. She's relieved to hear no guns were discharged, reminds them not to talk to anyone, and mentions that she talked to Dr. Bellman this morning and he said he hadn't talked to any of the envoys. "Son of a bitch," mutters Mercy, realizing the conversation she had was probably with the djinn.
The envoys are brought to the courthouse and arraigned, and Bauman gets them all out on bail. She takes them all to lunch and kind of lays out the situation: There's probably no way Amelia and Arlo are getting convicted of anything, certainly not anything serious. There's probably no way they're connecting any of the envoys to the death of Monte Noble; forensics say he died Thursday afternoon or evening, so if they all have alibis for that time that can be verified, they're clear of that. Now, why was Monte's corpse in the hallway and apparently walking? "Nice thing about being a defense attorney is I don't have to answer that."
The murder of Tim Straw, the other barber, is a bigger problem. Both Tul and Khalil have enough forensic involvement in the scene, and are not-white enough, that they might wind up the scapegoats here, and Alison is under no illusions: in cases like this, often the powers-that-be find a way to make the problem go away before anyone gets too uncomfortable. She'll do her best, and it's not like anyone got possessed any actually killed someone, but she needs them to be good while they're out on bail.
"But, of course, you have to figure this out," says Dr. Bellman. "Because that thing is still killing people." They talk a little about creatures that can take other people's forms. Clearly the djinn doesn't have to kill someone to impersonate them, since Bellman is still alive, so that's good. Likewise, Khalil doesn't think it gains any kind of knowledge about a person by taking their form, because it was clearly fishing for information before. The envoys come up with a code word ("artichoke") and then split up. Khalil goes to find his brother. Amelia and Tul go to see John Petty's mother. Mercy and Arlo go to do some more research (mostly Mercy, Arlo goes along as backup and using the Protective Art).
Khalil meets up with Hamza and explains more or less what's happening, but doesn't tell him about SAVE in any great detail. Hamza tells him about the same thing as Mercy learned earlier: Islam teaches that beings like djinn and angels are real but that they can submit to Allah the same as people. Legends about djinn tend to really be about the dangers of getting everything you want or cautionary tales about temptation. Hamza even mentions the Wishmaster films ("Dad didn't let us watch those," says Khalil. "Yeah, I think he was actually right about that."). Hamza does also mention that in the stories, djinn are often defeated by returning them to their vessels (bottles, lamps, boxes, he's even heard of stories where they're trapped in rings).
Meanwhile, Mercy dives into SAVE archives on the subject, and winds up reading the some of the writings of Mafuz El-Hasham. El-Hasham talks about an encounter with a djinn and notes that it seemed to want to entice others into doing horrible things (like, say, shooting their friends?). Mercy also finds parts of Ruby Garrett's Report on Monsters (excerpted in the Chill sourcebook Monsters), and El-Hasham's addenda, which talks about "spirits" and incorporeal creatures that fit the definition of monsters. The information doesn't offer an easy method of defeat for djinn, however, but the idea of putting it back in a bottle and closing said bottle does recur. They need to find that vessel.
Amelia and Tul arrive at the home of Elle Petty. She lets them in; she's obviously in poor health and the place is in some disarray, just because she's having trouble keeping it up. She's also obviously distraught because of what happened to John. Amelia sits her down and talks about what services QCOM could hook her up with, and Tul checks out John's room.
John's room is pretty neat and Tul doesn't find much (and no djinn bottle), but he does find a receipt on a desk from someplace called Alaska Fast Cash Anchorage - the receipt indicates that John sold something for $2400. Amelia learns from Elle that John paid one of her medical bills, and that the day he left to go to Houston Spears' house (the day he wound up dying), he said that he was going to be able to pay off all their bills once he talked to Houston.
Amelia and Tul help her clean up a bit, and then check John's workshop downstairs. John was trying to fix his Playstation, apparently, but tucked behind the bench, wrapped in a cloth, they find a long, slender, blue glass bottle...with no stopper.
A moment later, they hear a knock at the door, and then Elle talking to someone. Tul wraps the bottle back in the cloth and puts it in his jacket, and they go back upstairs to find Detective Winslow talking with Mrs. Petty. Amelia is immediately suspicious, of course. She asks if Winslow is here about what they talked about, and he says he is, could they talk outside? As they leave the house, Tul pulls out his phone to text the others, but Winslow looks at him and says, "hey, that's rude, put that away." And Tul immediately does, because that sounds very reasonable.
They talk a bit, and it becomes clear fairly quickly that this ain't really Winslow. He tells Tul to put the bottle back and Tul starts heading for the house, but Amelia touches him and uses Disrupt, breaking the control. The djinn tells them to give back the bottle, that from here it gets unpleasant, and it starts to rain blood.
Tul runs, but the djinn raises a hand and blows on his palm, like blowing out a candle. Wisps of smoke rise up, and Tul collapses, screaming in pain, as his flesh starts to blister. Amelia calls him to the car and raises a Sphere of Protection. The djinn pokes at the Sphere, and he and Amelia exchange some banter - he asks Tul nicely to return the bottle, and Tul refuses. Amelia asks what he wants, and he muses that seeing John's face when he realized what he'd done was pleasant. Amelia says that this is just mean, and the djinn corrects her: "No, the word you want is 'cruel.'" Amelia also asks about Allah, and the djinn replies, "He had His chance." And then he disintegrates into smoke.
Amelia drives Tul to the HQ, and he texts the others. Mercy, of course, is already there, and cuts Tul's shirt off. There are burns over his whole body; they look like brands. Amelia wards the room, and then runs to the bathroom, trying to get the smell of burnt flesh out of her nose.
Mercy takes a picture and then uses Heal, and the wounds close (Tul heals quickly, as it happens). Hamza and Khalil arrive shortly thereafter, and Hamza looks at the picture and recognizes the pattern as Arabic writing, albeit an old form. It basically says that this person is a thief and will burn.
Khalil decides to head to Anchorage and find out what John pawned at that store - maybe it was the stopper? Arlo and Hamza goes with him, Tul settles back to rest, and Amelia crashes on the couch.
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