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Episode 72

Fifteen minutes after leaving the farm, following a quick stop at the hotel where only Joseph alighted to collect something from his room, the headlights of William’s Daimler hit the sign indicating that they had found ‘The Mews‘.  All five got out of the car; the cramped conditions making the three back seat passengers more than glad that the journey, if only temporarily, had come to a halt.
  Phew!”  Harvey exclaimed.  “I didn’t realize that three people could be so close together for so long without being physically joined at the hips.  I really must go on a diet.”
  “Never mind, Harvey, we could be here for a while, so you will have a chance to stretch your legs,” Joseph remarked as he led the way through the gate and along the rose lined path to the front door.  He was about to knock when the porch light came on and the door opened to reveal Laurie’s niece Malena.
  “Come on in.  He’s been expecting you,” she smiled sweetly as she stepped back in the hallway to let everybody pass before locking the door behind her.  
  Nobody in the group had any doubts that she was telling anything else but the truth as they all made their way to a large lounge room where Laurie was sitting in front of a computer.  He got up as they entered, shaking everybody’s hands, welcoming them to his home, and offering tea and coffee all round.  An offer accepted gratefully by all of them.   Malena took their orders and went out to the kitchen.
  “Please, everybody.  Take a seat.”  Laurie offered,  “Make yourself at home.  Joseph, did things not go to plan?”
  “They did not exceed expectations.”  Joseph replied.  “We closed a door, but we are still at loggerheads with the Punjanini.”
  “You must get along well with Arkerious, Joseph.  You both are very sparing with your replies. and information.”  Laurie noted with a small chuckle.  “You did battle with Rangor tonight, did you not?”
  “Yes, that we did. that.”  Joseph replied with a cheeky grin on his face as he spoke.
  “And did you defeat him?”
  “Well, not exactly.  We simply closed a door.  But that was all we had expected to do,  If we had done more it would have been unexpected.”
  “What do you mean, Joseph?”  Martin asked in disbelief, “We left his carcass hanging on the wall.  How could we have not defeated him?”
  “Yes,  Joseph … you  never answered my question back at the farm.”  Mary piped in, “I asked you if it was really all over and you never answered my question.”
    “Ah, that was when the mystery witch was being revealed as being Harvey,  He took everybody;s attention away from their other thoughts I should imagine.”
  Mary looked at Joseph and accepted his reply … still, she had her reservations.  “Alright,, you have me there, Joseph, but can you please explain just what did take place with Rangor.”
  “Certainly.  I had an unexpected meeting with Arkerious this afternoon while I was meditating and I never got the chance to speak to any of you.  And judging by what we found in our car it was just as well we didn’t because we have no idea who planted the listening devices.  Anyway, what Arkerious and his fellow guardians all acknowledged was that Rangor was capable of cloning himself – and they were fairly certain that is what he has done, but they had no way of knowing which one would come to the farm.   There were some facts that couldn’t be verified; things such as the current location of the statue, and whether or not Rangor knew were it was.  But we can surmise what took place. and are pretty certain that it was the proxy that came to the farm.  Arkerious believes that the Punjaniti was expecting the possibility of the statue not being at the farm.  And he may have also suspected the transfer station at the farm may have been compromised.  No matter what we have been told, whatever was going to happen tonight, it was only a test run.  The real  action was to occur tomorrow night – tonight had only been a test run, so it didn’t matter quite so much if things went wrong tonight, but I doubt that things would have finished the way they did if we hadn’t arrived on scene … and certainly not ending the way it did had we had not come prepared.”
  “So the version of Rangor that we faced was not the real thing?”  Martin exclaimed,  “Is this why we were able to defeat him?  Did he not have enough power because he was only a proxy?  But how did we do it?  All we had were the mirrors, and we were lucky the way they broke up; a million individual shards of glass striking him all at the same time,!  I’ll bet you anything you like that that couldn’t be arranged to  happen.  It was just pure luck that we survived. then? “
  “I am afraid you would lose your bet, Martin.”  Joseph retorted with a huge grin on his face.,  “The entire structure of each of the mirrors was precisely handmade to do what they did,  Each individual mirror was meticulously designed and constructed  They are made of a combination of electro-plasma and nano technology, some elements I could never pronounce and handcrafted by some extremely savvy other-world experts in defence.   The mirrors were built to absorb the power from Rangor every time he attacked,.  Every time Rangor released power into the room, each mirror, and all of the broken pieces of glass on the plates placed around  the room, would absorb the power and that would cause the glass to reassemble its structure into smaller pieces before deflecting the unused power back into the room directed exclusively at Rangor.   Once the mirrors reached a pre-set saturation point they were programmed to release themselves, and their stored power, directly into Rangor.  There were elements in the mirrors that, to make it simple, super-glued the proxy to the porthole, thus making the proxy useless to Rangor, and permanently blocking the  portal.   The grotesque image on the wall will have changed within the next forty eight hours; the chemicals in the glass will cause the entire image to absorb itself into the wall of both the house and the transfer portal.  That particular portal will never be able to be reused, but mind you I have no idea what will happen should they try to renovate that wall, or even demolish the house itself, for that matter.
  Unfortunately, however, the guardians are reasonably certain that Rangor either has, or can manufacture, a new portal for tomorrow night   We won’t know anything for certain until tomorrow night … and we have to work out where it is going to happen before then,  So we have  to be extremely careful in what we do next, and be wary of virtually everybody.  There is a new script being written , and, although we may be key players in this story that is unfolding, I don’t think that we will receive a script to keep us in the loop.  We will have to wing it … and get it right every time.”
  “Are you saying there were aliens involved in this now, Joseph.  Beings from another planet?”  A perplexed Martin asked,  “May God help us all.  This whole thing is getting out of hand.”
  “So the battle is still on.” Laurie remarked with a bouncy, positive and slightly excited voice, totally ignoring Martin’s concerns, ” Well then, what can I do for you all?”  
  “I understand that you are a bit of an expert on computers here in the village, especially when it involves the internet.”  Joseph replied.
   “I wouldn’t call myself an expert.  My son helps me a lot when I get stuck.  Now, he is an expert.  Computer Intelligence is his trade in the navy.  Any thing that you need to know I can ask him on the spot.  I have arranged for him to be on standby and we have a video link already tied up.  There he is on the screen.”  Laurie turned to the screen and spoke into a small microphone, “Robert, say hello to some friends of mine.”
  The face on the screen was that of an impressive looking young man somewhere in his late twenties or early thirties.  He smiled and gave a small wave.  “Hi!  I’m pleased to meet you all.  Dad said that you had a few questions that I may be able to help you with.”
  Joseph shook his head in amazement.  Despite all that had happened, he found that he was still having some degree of difficulty coming to terms with these continuous seemingly pre-ordained situations.   He was starting to feel like he was in a movie where he was the only cast member who didn’t have a script, and began to understand how Jim Carey’s character was feeling when he began to realise he was the sole focus of a scripted reality show in ‘The Truman Show’ which he genuinely took to be reality.  Joseph  was beginning to wish that eventually something would happen to them that nobody already seemed to know was going to happen. 
  “We are pleased to meet you too, Robert, and yes, we do have a few questions.” 
   Laurie indicated for Joseph to sit at the seat in front of the computer which he did with some trepidation.  Although Joseph worked daily with computers, he felt a little bit intimidated sitting at the desk with all of the equipment that Laurie had assembled there.  Immediately in front of him was a huge thirty six inch high definition monitor with a web-cam sitting on top of it.   Scattered in various areas around the desk were the computer located in a tower, the keyboard; speakers; a scanner, three printers, a digital camera, various headphones and microphones all plugged into an apparatus that Joseph did not recognise which was also connected to the computer tower, along with two mobile phones and an ancient sixties landline connection, and several peripherals that Joseph did not recognize.
  “My name is Joseph,” he continued, “and the others, if you can see them, are Mary, Martin, Raji and Harvey.”  They all waved on cue.
  “Yes.  I can see them all right.   Hi, everyone … Hello, Harvey.  Now, what I can do for you, Joseph?”
  “Robert, we need some information regarding tracing internet interception.  Is there any way that you can trace if there is a bug on someone’s computer, and if there is, can you work out who is tracing it without making them suspicious?”
  “It’s possible.  Is it a tower or a laptop?”
  “Laptop.”
  “Do you have it handy?”
  Joseph reached down and picked up the computer that he had collected from the hotel and displayed it to the web-cam
  “Okay.   Now, do you know much about computers?”
  “I know how to despise them when they don’t wish to co-operate.”  Joseph admitted.
  “In that case, please put Dad on so that I can get him to set a few things up for me.”
  Joseph duly got up and moved out of the seat allowing Laurie to take his place just as Malena entered the room with the hot drinks.
  She walked over to Joseph and handed him his drink with a smile, then moved on to serve the others, ever so gently brushing herself against him as she passed.  Mary did not fail to observe the subtle movement, and exchanged her cheerful expression for a much darker mood.  Joseph, however, was so distracted by what Laurie was doing he had failed to notice Malena’s flirttion, far less Malena’s reaction.

********

Laurie and Robert exchanged words for several moments as Robert instructed him to do a range of things to the laptop including running a number of programs and then connecting the laptop to a small grey box on the table that had several cables running out of the back.  When they had finished Robert asked Laurie to put Joseph back on.
  Once Joseph was seated, Robert asked for his patience for just another minute while he ran some quick tests.  Finally, he spoke again, “I am able to download everything that is on the computer and I can have it analysed in a couple of hours.  The trace will take a bit longer and I will lose my access to my unit’s computer about the same time.  I should have your answer ready about seven thirty a.m. tomorrow, your time.  Would that be soon enough?”
  “Yes, that would be fine.  Also, could you do me one more favour?”
  “Certainly, what is it?”
  “Raji, what is the name of that professor that you made contact with, and his website?”
   Raji reached into his pocket and pulled out a small tattered notebook, which he thumbed through until he found what he was looking for, then called out the information that Joseph had requested, “Professor Robinson of the Philadelphia Private Museum.”
  “That’s the one in the States is it?” Robert asked.
  “Actually, no … It’s somewhere outside London, I believe.”  Raji advised.
  “Did you hear that?” Joseph asked, intrigued with the revelation.  There was something in his mind now regarding Professor Robinson; something that began to connect the dots in the ever growing map of events his already overcrowded mind was creating, but he could not retrieve anything from his mind with the exception there was a connection there somewhere.
  “Got it,”  Robert replied.
  “Could you just have a quick look at that site for me please.”
  “Anything in particular I should look for?”
  “Excuse me for a moment, Rpbert?
  Joseph got out of the chair and asked Laurie to step away from the screen for a minute, and once Joseph felt that they couldn’t be seen or heard by Robert, he stopped.
  Does your son know about your involvement in the supernatural?”
  “Oh yes!  Most certainly!  He is gifted too you know.  He’s next in line to take my place when I’m gone.”
  “And he can be trusted to be discreet in his investigations?”
  Laurie stiffened a little bit at the suggestion that his son could be anything but discreet.  “My son is highly regarded in his work by his fellow workers – and his superiors – and by Parliament itself.  He has been given special recommendations by no less a person than the Prime Minister, and the leaders of several of our allied countries as well.”
  “Please don’t get yourself worked up, Laurie.  I meant no offence.  This thing that we are dealing with has made me suspicious of a lot more people than I would ever have imagined that I could have doubted.  And, the person who has gotten hold of the statue that I am after may turn out to be the most menacing enemy that I have encountered to date, because he arranges his own killings, he does not call up the Punjaniti.   And that makes him dangerous because he can make an instant decision on everything he does without being answerable to anybody.  We believe everything he is doing is purely for self interest.  The only advantage that we have is that he remains unaware that we know he has the statue,  and we don’t want him to become aware that we think that way.  Our future may rest in the trust that is placed in you and your son this very night, … and there is every chance that there is a bug in the laptop which could backfire on us in our investigations .”
  Laurie seemed to accept what was said and shook his head in agreement.  “My son can be trusted completely,” he replied softly. “I am sorry if I misinterpreted what you asked.”
  “That is fine, Laurie.  I am fairly certain that this will test us all before it is over.”  Joseph offered his hand and Laurie took it and both men shook hands in a unique bonding.
  Joseph then walked back to the desk and resumed his seat.
  “Sorry to take so long, Robert.  Please do the check on the computer first.  When that is completed, then go to the professor’s site.  If my assumptions are correct then you will know what to look for.  I won’t hold you up any longer and I look forward to seeing you in the morning.  Thank you.”
  “No problems.  See you in the morning … Goodnight, Dad.”
  “Night, Son.”  Laurie called out as he reached forward and turned the computer off. 
  The screen went blank and Joseph got out of the chair.  “There’s not a lot more that we can do tonight”, he stated, “so we may as well get a good night’s rest. before an early start and a possible long day.
  As a result of Joseph’s words those that still had liquid in their cups quickly finished off the contents and rose to their feet.  But before they could move too far Laurie asked them all to remain in their seats for a moment.
  “Ah, there is something that you all must know before you leave according to Arkerious.  And that includes you, Joseph.”  Laurie insisted.  Joseph was surprised by Laurie’s request, but obeyed and went to sit in the large lounge, which, at that very second was unoccupied, but before he had settled in, he found himself seated, albeit locked, between Malena and Mary.  He couldn’t understand the dark looks that the girls gave each other, but something made him feel glad that Rosetta was not here as well, “But before I start, does any one want another hot drink?” Laurie asked. “This may take a little while.”
  Orders for tea and hot cocoa were given and Malena got up tp prepare the drinks.  And as she did, Mary unexpectedly began nudging Joseph with her shoulder.  When he turned to face her, she tried her best to get him to move along to where Malena had been sitting so that Mary would occupy the middle seat, and Malena, when she returned, would have to sit beside her.  But before she got the message across, Malena had returned to the room and, smiling sweetly, asked Mary if she would mind helping her in the kitchen to save a little time.  Mary felt trapped, and not wanting to make a fuss, weakly agreed and left the room with her.
  “Ah, it’s good to see the ladies are getting along.”  Laurie remarked innocently.
  “Yes,” Joseph replied, still a little uncertain about the undercurrents of hostility that he had sensed from them both.  ‘Must be a woman’s thing,’ he thought innocently.  “Laurie, that time that your son indicated won’t be too early for you will it?”
  “To bed with the owls and up with the roosters.  That’s the way it is with me, laddie.  No!  Don’t worry about me losing my beauty sleep,” he laughed.  “It will be fine with me.  You can come for breakfast if you like.”
   “I might take you up on that.  Only there will only be the three of us.  There will be no need for Raji and Harvey to be involved at the moment, but I will need their help a bit later in the day … if that is all right with you two?”
  “I will be there when you want me,” Harvey offered.
  “And so will I,” Raji chipped in.
  “Good.  I will call you as soon as I am ready.  Then,”  Joseph said, turning to face William again,  “we will be pleased to take you up on the offer of breakfast.  Thank you, Laurie.
   The conversation somehow turned to the weather until the girls arrived back with steaming mugs.   They handed them around, Malena ensuring that she had Joseph’s drink,in her hand  giving it to him as she sat down beside him, and sitting so close to him their legs were touching, and Mary was surprised nobody was staring at the steam she knew was coming out of her ears as Laurie began his story.

********“

I had a vision earlier tonight.”  Laurie began after everybody settled down with their hot drink,  “It was not entirely clear.  It seemed to be filtered.  It was as if I was not to be witness to everything that happened, but to see enough to tell you about something that may be important to you.  In my vision I saw witches just before they entered the farmhouse at Forster’s Farm.  The vision suddenly jumped to the four of you also entering the room and attempting to break some mirrors, then hiding behind them.  Actually, there are five of you, aren’t there?  Still, I only saw four of you.  I didn’t see you in the vision, Harvey, for some reason.  Well, I know now that you were the witch, but in my vision that was not revealed to me.  The next thing that I saw was flames attacking and destroying, all of the witches in the room with one exception.  This one remained blurred in my vision, but he, or she, walked over to your group and was embraced by the four of you.   That’s where the vision stopped.  I can’t explain it, nor do I feel that I need to.  The important thing is that all the witches in the village now seem to have been destroyed.  It seems rather sad for their lives to end this way and their loved ones will be hard done by.  They have not only been lost by their husbands, wives or partners without their loved ones knowing what happened to them, but they cannot claim on the deceased’s insurances because there are no bodies to prove the deaths.  A deserted wife’s pension is probably the best that some can expect, and a half-hearted hope for a reunion with their loved ones is all that they have to live for.
  Anyway, what will be will be,” he sighed.  “The reason for my story, however, concerns young Jamie Hudson.  Jamie was an impetuous loner who longed for a better life than living here in the village.  He was never really into devil worship and witchcraft, but when he got the opportunity to join the witches, he jumped at the chance.  He joined up on the belief that he would get some magical powers that he could use to his own advantage.  He thought that it would enable him to get himself a good job and lots of money and things.
  Jamie came to me the morning after the night of the long light.  He was scared.  He knew of my reputation and had come to me for my guidance.  He no longer had any faith in the witches, and as everybody had been wearing their hoods at the time, he had no idea who had died and who had lived, so he felt that he had no one to talk to.   He was fearful that if he went to a house, and the husband had not returned, he would confront a worried woman who would question him about the previous night’s events, and he would panic and confess everything that he knew.  Afterwards, when he had finished telling me about the things that he had witnessed, I advised him to leave the village without leaving a forwarding address.  But I told him to let me know when he found a permanent address and I would keep in touch with him and advise him when he could return safely to the village.  And as far as I know, that’s what he did.
  In his confession to me, he told me exactly what had happened that night that the strange lights were seen at Forster’s farm – well, perhaps not everything, but everything that young Jamie witnessed.  He told me that the Grand Wizard had had his spies checking on the farm ever since the professor’s arrival, and had discovered the existence of a knife that was encrusted with jewels.  The wizard said that he had been getting visions from Lucifer in his dreams for the past week or two.  He said that the Devil had promised him, and his followers, great wealth and power if they followed his instructions.  All they had to do was enter the farmhouse on a certain night of the moon and create a circle in the lounge room.   Then they were to place the sword, and something else, in the middle of the circle and recite a series of words.  It was stressed to the coven that the correct pronunciation of the words was essential and they were all supplied with a recording of the chant.  The Wizard had said that for some reason he could never see the other item in his visions clearly, so it mustn’t be too important and they probably wouldn’t need it.
  When they arrived at the farm that night they had planned to knock on the door and they would then trick whoever answered them into coming outside and then overpower them and bind them with ropes.  They figured that once they got one out of the way the other would be easy to overcome.
  However, when they arrived at the farm, both the professor and his assistant had gone to the barn, so the witches entered the house to search for the sword, leaving Jamie outside on guard.  He was to come inside once he had seen the professor returning and a trap would be set.   Jamie waited patiently in the dark.  Eventually he saw two men leaving the barn door. The moon was bright that night, and just before he rushed back inside, he saw somebody moving between the trees.  He waited and he watched.
   One of the returning men suddenly fell down, and as the other stopped and reached down to help his fallen companion, out of nowhere a shot could be heard in the still night air.  Only it was a strange sort of shot.   More like a thump sound, was how he described the noise that it made, in fact so close did it feel that Jamie actually jumped when he heard it.
  The man that had been reaching down to help his fallen comrade also fell to the ground.  Then the first man to have fallen got himself up and tried to help the other one, but it appeared that he couldn’t, and he started running to the house.  As soon as he started coming Jamie ran inside to warn the others that someone was coming.  But not before he saw the man in the shadows come out into the light and walk over to the fallen man.
  Inside the house ,to Jamie’s surprise, he found the witches walking slowly in a wide circle; walking around three gagged and bound naked bodies that lay on the floor.   Jamie did not know why they were tied up, but he knew who they were.   He recognized them as tourists that had arrived in the village that morning and had been befriended by the Grand Wizard, who had invited them around that night to witness the event.  The Wizard had told them that they had a chance to see some real witches at work and they jumped at the offer.   Jamie realized now that it had been a trick to get some sacrifices, but before that moment Jamie had never believed they would go that far.  He wasn’t in the coven when our Malena was attacked several years ago, and was naïve enough to believe that the talk of sacrifices was just that – talk.
  The Wizard motioned to two of the witches to deal with the man who was coming, while he continued with the ritual.  ‘It was too late to worry about the other man”, he had told them, ‘Our lord was coming.  He would arrive any minute now.  Just deal with the one that is coming”.  And just seconds later the man walked in the door, and was overpowered.  At the exact same minute, the Wizard struck the first blow into one of the two females.  It is totally unbelievable to think that the Grand Wizard, or anybody else in that room, would have expected the carnage that was to follow.
  A bluish smoke came pouring into the room from the wall and sparks began crackling through the air, and then the most evil face that Jamie had ever seen in his short life appeared on the wall.   The face grew bigger, occupying a larger space in the room … and as it did arms and a torso also appeared.   One hand reached down to take the sword from the Wizard, when it suddenly stopped and looked around. 
  It asked something of the Wizard that Jamie did not comprehend.  The Wizard simply shrugged in a pathetic apology and the creature roared again,only this time it reeked of uncontrollable anger.
  To put it in Jamie’s words, the creature went ballistic and the room exploded into a violent eruption of lightning bolts hurtling in all directions throughout the room.   There was pandemonium as the bolts struck some of the witches, exploding in their bodies, and setting their clothes on fire.  The horror that took place in front of Jamie;s eyes seemed to go on forever in his mind, what with the screaming, the burning remains of the witches, and the roaring of the creature, but the whole thing probably took only minutes.
  By the time that Jamie and a few others found their feet and ran for the door, those that had been struck down were lying over the top of the three bound and gagged victims.   The creature that had come from the wall gave a final scream then released a stream of energy so powerful into the pile of bodies that the entire house lit up.  Jamie instinctively looked behind him and saw it retracting into the wall.  As it pulled back, a red streak could be seen running down the back of the wall.
  Jamie ran outside as fast as his legs could carry him and he swears that before he got out of the house, he could feel the floorboards vibrating beneath him.  He said the same sensation could be felt on the ground outside.  It was as if he was being followed from beneath the ground.  And when he stopped for a second to check his bearings, an explosion of light spiralled upwards from the ground beside him almost blinding him, and separating him from the others.  He was certain that he was either going to die, or faint, but something deep within him got him motivated again, and he never stopped running until he reached my house,
  However instead of knocking on the door, he hid in my car, which I never lock, and stayed there until morning light broke, then still covered in a lather of sweat and his eyes still bulging from the fear that still surrounded his young mind, and the horror that he had witnessed, Jamie finally came to my front door to tell me his story.
  “Well that certainly explains some of things that we have come across.”  Joseph stated, but not everything!  There were drawings on the walls and a crucifix and a mirror in the front entrance.   Did the witches do that?”
  “Ah!” Laurie shyly confessed.  “I put the crucifix and mirror there.  But I am afraid that it was nothing sinister.  I just did it to appease the locals who were a bit concerned about events when we visited the farm the following day.  I told them that it should keep away any evil spirits that may be hanging around.  It seemed to make them happy enough, though I doubt that it achieved any other worthwhile purpose.”
  “How disappointing.” Mary exclaimed.  She had been so sure that it had served a sinister purpose.
  “What about the drawings on the walls?  What were they supposed to communicate?”
  “I am sorry, but I have absolutely no idea at all,  I thought that they were strange, but I hadn’t been to the farm for years before that day.  I have no idea how long they have  been there.”
  “It may have been local kids,” Malena chipped in.  “There is not much graffiti in the village, but the strange events that preceded their appearance may have inspired one or two budding artists to make a start in the art world.”
  “Possibly.  You have not heard from this Jamie since, Laurie?”  Joseph asked.”
  “Nary a word.”  Laurie replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
  “Well, let’s hope for everybody’s sake that there are no more witches left.” Joseph remarked.    “We may not be able to stop Rangor from entering, but we can certainly make it hard for him by not making the tools that he needs, available to him.  From what I am beginning to understand about today’s Punjani, they may not want the Punjaniti to enter this world either.   If they are as wealthy and as powerful as Raji indicated, then I doubt very much that they would want to give it all up to serve a god as pure servants.   In fact I think that the Punjani would also be aware that Rangor would have no need of them at all once he had entered our world.  It’s either going to totally destroy the world as we know it now, or we will be living in subservience to it.  Whichever, I would not like to be here on this planet if he does arrive.”

 ********

There was a moment’s reflective thinking amongst the group before Joseph advised that it was time for them to leave.  He would see Laurie and Malena in the morning and everybody thanked them for the night’s hospitality.  On the way back they dropped Raji and Harvey off and then parked the car back at the front of the hotel where William was waiting. 
  “Everything go as planned?”  William asked, his face showing signs of grave concern..
  “It certainly did, my friend.” Martin replied jovially.  “I thought that your guardian friends would have told you that.”
  “What they told me was nothing less than amazing.  Come inside and I will tell you over a drink.” 
  “Sounds good to me.”  Martin admitted and walked in to the hotel without waiting for the others, “Ive been sober far too long.”
  Joseph and Mary had other ideas for the remainder of the night, but they felt that they should know anything that William might have to tell them, so reluctantly they too accepted his offer and followed William as he led the small group to a booth at the far end of the room.
  And as they made their way between the crowded tables they barely noticed the fat figure, wearing a stunning silver bracelet, that occupied the booth prior to theirs, but he certainly had noticed them.  While they were seating themselves he had reached down to his briefcase and extracted a small radio.   His short podgy fingers, more dexterous than they appeared, delicately inserted the plug from one end of a small cord, into his ears, and the other end into the radio.  Then he began slowly twisting the dials on the minuscule radio until he got the reception that he was after.  Once finished, he withdrew into the darkest part of the half-lit booth and settled back for however long it would take for William’s story to unfold.