The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.— Psalm 116, v3
Excel, a Seraph of Lightening who specialises in being dropped into technical support jobs, is summoned to the boss. Jean assigns him to an investigative job; an independent researcher by the name of Andrew McKenzie is producing innovative work on lasers, rather more so than would have been expected. Excel is to find out if there has been any diabolical influence on his work. It has been arranged for Dr McKenzie to need an assistant temporarily, specifically someone to sort out his computer after a "virus" hit it, and Bob (as Excel's vessel is known) has been recommended to him. In case of emergencies or obvious demonic involvement, Excel has local backup in the form of Boriel, a Malakite of Lightening with a role as a T.V. repair man, Barry John. Jean recognises that this is somewhat outside Excel's normal activities; unfortunately he is the angel available at the time. He is instructed to do his best, and not to hesitate to call on the boss if problems occur.
Meanwhile Magariel, a Cherub of Creation in service to the Wind, goes round to a local night club, Giuseppe's. Magariel's male vessel's role is as a roadie (Ralph Garry), but the tour he was with has finished, so he's mostly here to relax and only secondarily to check the place out for possible gigs. What he finds is a place frequented by teens and twentysomethings, with discreet bouncers and friendly bar staff. Not at all bad, and in general a happy swinging place. Which is why the sixteen year old nursing a half of lager and looking like a wet Sunday sticks out like a sore thumb. Being a sensible sort, Magariel neither attunes himself to this random stranger nor goes over and talks to someone who has clearly gone out to be alone in the middle of people, but he does keep an eye on him. He is not the sort to worry about the bar staff turning a blind eye to an underage drinker, but in the interests of completeness he does use his Cherub of Creation attunement to check that both bartenders on duty are human by getting them to make him cocktails. They are both human, so that's OK.
Eventually the youngster leaves, so Magariel trails him. The kid walks away, then leans up with his back to a wall looking frustrated for a bit. Then he gives the wall beside him a good solid thump, pushing himself upright and walking off. Magariel notes that the thump did do noticeable damage to the (admittedly soft) stone wall, implying a fairly extreme human strength, and the kid doesn't look nearly that strong. He also didn't hear any disturbance. Unsure as to exactly what he's tracking, Magariel follows along; he is spotted, so acts casual and loses his target. This he finds worrying.
(At this point Magariel's player began a very familiar litany, "I need more Perception." Ironically, Magariel already has the highest Perception of the PCs, but apparently 9 just isn't good enough.)
Excel (Bob) turns up for work at Dr McKenzie's lab, a second floor flat in Thornton Avenue (just off Chiswick High Road). McKenzie has apparently beaten him there only by a few minutes, so Excel's first job is to put the coffee on. After a brief interview, Excel gets the job — McKenzie isn't one to stand on ceremony, except that he prefers being called Andrew to Andy! Fixing the computer takes a relatively short time, largely because Excel has read the report on what the Kyriotate "virus" did. In the course of several conversations with Andrew, he becomes somewhat suspicious of McKenzie's wife, Shelly. Other than that, no demonic influence is obvious; clearly this will require some thought. Further research reveals that Shelly is currently in Miami with her parents, is black (Bob, it should be noted, is an asiatic vessel, appearing Indian or Pakistani), and is due back between Christmas and new year, and that Andrew lives in the flat above the lab. Observations over several days show Andrew to be a good researcher who doesn't seem to be getting feeds from elsewhere, though what happens after Excel leaves work (usually late, after the pair get a takeaway from the Curry House opposite) is not entirely certain; McKenzie is the sort to work late and rise late.
In the evening, Magariel goes back to Giuseppe's, but fails to find his mystery teenager.
Blakely, Mercurian of the Sword, has a role as Dr Joseph Blakely, forensic examiner for chunks of west London. This morning he has a corpse to play with, a young woman in her late teens fished out of the river under Hammersmith Bridge. Blakely's examination is painstaking, revealing that she had been in the water for a day or so. She had been weighted down, but had come adrift since the rope was somewhat rotten. She hadn't died of drowning; a more likely cause of death was having been cut open from crotch to sternum. There were signs of restraints at wrists and ankles. There were some signs that she had been sexually abused, but immersion in the river had put paid to any chances of getting a DNA sample, at least this time.
The uniformed officers do their job in finding out who the body is, eventually tagging her as Jane Weaver. Later in the afternoon her younger sister is brought in to identify the body — both parents are out of town at the moment. Jennifer is somewhat distraught, but is kept company by two boys of about her age (mid teens), one fair haired and solemn, one dark haired and nearly as upset as Jenny. Quizzing the officer on duty later, Blakely discovers that the boys are friends of Jennifer's, David Wood and Zachary Philpotts. Apparently Jane had gone out clubbing on Monday night and hadn't come back, which ties in with Blakely's estimate that the body had been immersed in the early hours of Tuesday.
During the afternoon also, Helophel, Seraph of War and roving reinforcement for the angels in West London, turns up to her cover job as a cleaning lady of apparently chinese extraction at a telemarketing firm. She witnesses a small altercation as a woman storms out of the office, half-heartedly pursued by a man Helophel identifies as Alex Verison, the Supply Manager (i.e. the man responsible for the stationary cupboard). Correctly recognising the tag-end of a lovers' tiff, Helophel sits Alex down with a cup of tea, which seems to cheer him up a bit.
In best Silent Witness tradition, Blakely decides to go out investigating. Poking around Hammersmith Bridge with the scene-of-crime officers, he discovers some tracks (two people, one with large feet and the other with rather elegant shoes) and the heavy-duty bin bag that the body had been carried in. The latter goes back to the lab for detailed analysis, and the search in the nearby area widens. Blakely worries that it may start snowing soon, but he can think of one Windy in the area who he might be able to ask to divert it; Magariel. He can't, nor indeed is he certain of the location of any Tethers to the Wind in London (there was one at the top of the Post Office Tower, but he's got no idea whether or not it's still there — Janus' Tethers tend to be somewhat impermanent), but he does offer to help look for clues.