Looking forward, she could see two men sitting in the only seats at the front of the van. One was Nicholas Czewt, his large presence dwarfing the passenger seat as another man, dark with long hair tied back, drove silently. She looked around, noticing some of equipment from the Expo; rolled up tenting, some old chests and a large wicker laundry basket filled to brim with the small baggies that Francis has discovered the second night they had gone to the Expo.

Czewt turned around, his eyes meeting hers as she pulled up her legs bound at the feet, bending her knees to keep her balance. The van swayed back and forth at the fast rate of speed they were traveling, making it extremely hard to control.

"So, you are back with the living now?" he said to her, his face betraying only a stoic resolve.

Angie made a silent prayer and closed her eyes for a moment. She prayed Rollie would hear her somehow, that this was all a nightmare and she would wake up at home, in the loft.

"You try to contact your lover, but sadly- he doesn’t hear you, my dear," Czewt told her, with a sardonic grin.

He mumbled something to the driver who made a sharp turn, immediately throwing Angie off balance and she went rolling to the other side of the van, hitting her head against the wall.

"I bet that hurt," he said, in almost a whisper, "well, fair is fair but I am afraid, my sweet Eckvara suffered much more than you have so far."

Angie tried to breathe. The gag and her clogged nose from blood clots, were making it hard. Her head was throbbing and she could feel the knot rising over her left ear where she had hit the wall.

She lay on her side, breathing shallowly as he turned back around in his seat, leaving her alone for awhile. She tried not to let the tears that were welling in her eyes escape because she did not want to show this man her fear.

They stopped suddenly after a bumpy ten minutes or so and she could see by the position of the sun through the front windshield that it was late afternoon. She watched the two men get out of the van and waited. It wasn’t long until the back doors of the van were opened and Czewt and the longhaired man pulled her out by her shoulders, then stood her up outside. As her eyes grew accustomed to the light, she could see that they were in an orchard, an apple orchard. She could see the rotting apples on the ground as the trees had been picked clean.

Czewt directed the other man he called Lazaro, to remove the binding from her feet so that she could walk and he then pushed her along as they headed to a small hill in the distance. With each man holding an elbow, she was literally almost carried. They walked briskly with no talking.

"Baiel!" called out Czewt, at the top of the hill and Angie was surprised to see a row of single story housing, more like shacks below them. She could see smoke rising from the duct pipe stoves that had been made with little care. There was a whistle from the man called Lazaro and suddenly, a younger man with medium length, dark hair poked his head out a window at the end of the shacks.

"Nicholas! You have returned very quickly! Where is Eckvara?" he yelled, his accent as thick as Czewt’s.

Czewt pushed Angie forward as the man called Baiel frowned, seeing the small woman bound and gagged, walking down the hill with his friends.

He came out, dusting himself off. Angie could see his hands were stained with a thick, greenish resin as were his clothes. She looked back up at the smoke coming from the duct pipes and realized she was standing at one of Czewt’s manufacturing farms and that the man was probably making Hashish.

"Eckvara is, my son- dead, she was killed, murdered by this woman’s friends last night!" Czewt told him, touching his shoulder gently.

Baiel looked at Czewt incredulously. He flashed a look at Angie of horror and anger at the same time. Angie realized now that Czewt had never left the Plaza. He must have watched them all the entire time that they were there and then waited for them back at the loft. Why he blamed them, she didn’t know. She had not known why they had been a target from the beginning, after Eckvara had cut her with the knife at the Expo. It made no sense to her, all the poisoning with the drugs, the induced hallucinations- why?

The man Baiel moved closer to take a better look at her as Czewt nudged her toward him, pulling her head back by grabbing her hair. She winced in pain, as Baiel trembled in front of her and then, without warning, spit in her face.

"You killed my wife? You killed Eckvara!" he shouted and then, taking his fist, got ready to hit her. Czewt stopped him, grabbing his first with his powerful hand and hugged him tightly.

"This woman is but the least of the ones that did this to Eckvara. Hold your anger for them and we will use her to draw them to us. They have conspired to stop us, to stop the flow of our life’s blood! We will avenge Eckvara, Baiel. I have started the Kalmad. A drop of this one's blood burned me here," and he showed the younger man his hand.

Angie could see that he had a circular burn on his hand, and she suddenly recalled that after Eckvara had cut her, the drop of blood that had hit his hand.

"The Kalmad is very old, Nicholas. There are not many except me that remember the last time it was evoked," Baiel told him, surprised, "but enough of this now, did you bring Eckvara back to me?"

"No, their kind took her away to be butchered with their crime medicine. I was to be next but Eckvara led them away from me. She saved me, Baiel." Czewt smiled at the younger man, who hung his head, weeping opening.

"Lazaro, take this one to the sieving shed. We will deal with her later. Come, Baiel, you must join me for the Kalmad’s fire. We do not have much time, my hand is trembling." He held his hand up for Baiel and Lazaro to see and even Angie could see his hand, as if it was in some fine motor seizure.

She was roughly pushed by Lazaro toward a shed in the middle of the row houses. Inside, already growing dark, she was pushed down on her knees. There were two old women working from a large vat. They had large colanders and were vigorously shaking them, pushing the hemp resin down into the cones, forcing the juices out into smaller containers.

Angie closed her eyes, and sat on the bare ground floor surrounded by hostile faces. Most spoke what she imagined was Romanian, there was an occasional word of English in the midst of their conversations. She desperately wanted to get the gag out of her mouth and breathe fresh air. Her lungs were burning from the fumes in the shack. The sweat trickled down her back and chest as she waited with fear in the dark…

Rollie stood in the loft, alone. He had worked the full day, tired from only the few short hours he had gotten last night. He had seen the GARP unit, the mask not made. He had also seen the broken plaster mask in the floor. He knew what had happened. After calling Mira, he made a resounding promise to himself and to Angie, in spirit. He was going to end this F/X help for Mira. He would never do this again. It had taken Angie from him, once again. He could feel that Angie was hurt and in pain.

Mira arrived with Francis, who was flushed and hyper. Mira looked drained, letting Francis call the shots. Vanduran called while they were all still there and assured Rollie that they would find Angie and that he personally was on his way over as well.

Rollie was not impressed. While Francis told the lab personnel where to dust, Rollie only shook his head. They were dusting over places they had dusted so many times, he wanted to laugh. Mira seemed dazed by it all. Her face was rigid but her eyes vacant.

Vanduran arrived a half hour later. He came in, briefly taken back at the first glance of the loft. He had never been in Rollie’s loft. He walked over to him, his face betraying his embarrassment and anguish.

"Rollie, I know that I can’t say anything that is going to make you feel any better, but we WILL get this guy!"

Rollie looked at the man who could have arrested Czewt two days ago. He looked at what he saw as political posturing, spin doctoring and control. Mira wouldn’t even look at him.

"Captain, I don’t really want to talk to you right now, unless it is to tell me that you know where he has taken her. His note here makes it clear that he intends to harm her, no deals, and no trade. He wants the rest of us as well."

Captain Vanduran’s jaw tightened, but he nodded in agreement to Rollie’s wishes. He walked over to Francis who was busily getting the lab personnel to pick up some mud samples they had found near the door.

"What do you have, Gatti?" he asked his detective.

"We got a partial foot print, mud and some other debris. I’d say, the shoe was like a work boot, the sole looks like it. We’re going to take it down to the lab and run an analysis. You never know."

"Yeah, do it!" Vanduran agreed with him.

Mira was looking at Rollie. He was not talking to her much. She walked over and touched his arm, "hey, you need something, maybe some tea?"

"No," he told her flatly, and she immediately returned to her chair. Vanduran didn’t even approach her. He had picked up the note that Czewt had left for Rollie.

"What does he mean here, 'you killed her'?"

"He thinks we pushed Eckvara out the window, Captain," Francis told him, "and maybe, from his prospective- we did. I got in the room, she was backing up and went up and through the window, just like that."

"Have we got the autopsy report back on her yet?" he barked out to anyone who was listening.

"No, Captain. The jury isn’t in yet, other than massive trauma so far. The tox reports won’t be ready until later."

"Great! Everything is friggin’ useless!" he murmured, bumping into the Ectoplasmic creature by the workbench. He jumped slightly, frowning as he studied the creature’s face.

"I can’t sit here any longer!" Rollie said with anger, standing up and looking upstairs. He just left them all there, going up to the chamber and closing himself off from everyone. Mira warned Vanduran not to follow him.

"Better leave him alone, Captain. He’s alright, just trying to get a grip, you know."

Vanduran looked at her and shook his head, "this place gives me the creeps and you say, they actually live here as well?"