* * * *
Alder walked into the small meeting room of the church. Father Hernandez, Sister Justine, and Michael sat around a table with papers and handwritten notes sprawled around. They remembered Alder from the visit to Stephen’s house a couple of days earlier. All three, appearing tense and frazzled, were trying to agree on the information to present to Bishop Grielle.
“Excuse me,” Alder interjected, “I finally tracked you down, but I don’t know if you remember me or not?”
Father Hernandez answered first. “We do, forgive us if we don’t remember your name.”
“Alder Dennison,” Alder offered.
“What can we do for you Mr. Dennison?” Father Hernandez queried.
“Look, with what happened to my coworker, truthfully, I didn’t think too much of it. I mean, yeah, I thought some weird stuff was going on, but when my family is involved, I start to get worried.”
Father Hernandez jumped up to grab a chair by the wall and bring it to the table. “Please take a seat and join us,” he said.
“Mr. Dennison, it sounds like something is troubling you,” Sister Justine remarked.
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“Well, you mentioned something about your family,” Father Hernandez said.
Alder took a couple of deep breaths before beginning with his narrative. Describing the encounter at the park and the odd comments made by the stranger, he then recounted the meeting at Stephen’s home. Lastly, he shared the unusual incidences involving his wife and daughter. Ensuring his listeners knew every detail, he worked to be meticulous. Alder’s goal was to ensure that they give their best help to him in clarifying everything that happened. He purposefully left off the information regarding his daughter’s toy building blocks so as not to reveal too much and he hoped not have to delve into what he had learned at his company earlier that morning.
“Mr. Dennison?” Michael asked, “What did this lady in the park look like?”
“Call me Alder, and it’s hard to say.” Alder tried his best to describe the alleged homeless nomad but wasn’t sure if he’d been successful based on the long silence that followed.
“Do you think it could be her?” Father Hernandez asked, directing his question to Michael and Sister Justine.
“I’d place that bet; sounds like she’s a ringer,” Michael answered.
“Could be who?” Alder inquired. “You know who I’m talking about?”
“We had a similar situation while down in Mexico. She called herself Ashere. Did this woman mention her name?”
“No, but does any of this stuff mean anything to you?” Alder asked.
“To be truthful, what you’ve describe here is quite interesting and is in line with the fact that all we seem to be doing is chasing the shadow of angels, nothing concrete,” Father Michael lamented.
“Yes, and we thank you for this information, but what exactly is it we can do for you Alder?” Sister Justine asked, recalling his reluctance to provide information earlier.
“Well, there’s one more thing I didn’t mention, what happened over the weekend that involves my daughter.”
The three remained quiet, waiting for Alder to continue. Michael rudely gave Alder hand gestures of pointing his finger to the side and rolling it in a circle meaning, “get to it already.”
“Me and my wife went in to check on her while she was taking a nap. When I looked down at some of the alphabet blocks, some of the ones she put together spelled out a name.”
“What name?” Father Hernandez asked with heightened anticipation.
“Aurora.”
“What?” Michael asked rhetorically. Alder took it to be an actual query.
“The blocks spelled Aurora.”
Sister Justine was the first to remember how the name had disturbed Alder when it was brought up at Stephen’s house. She leaned in to ask her question: “Mr. Dennison, you seem to know something more about Aurora. Is it something your daughter may have heard before from yourself or someone else?
“No, I rarely discuss work at home. Plus, my daughter just turned four. For her to know how to spell that word would be …”
“Mr. Dennison, what is it? Aurora?” she continued. The other two researchers knew he would need to be pressed for more information and were impressed with her skill in presenting a compassionate bearing during the questioning.
Alder was becoming nervous, rubbing his hands together, awkwardly glancing at the religion-based pictures hanging on the walls, fidgeting in his chair; it was obvious he didn’t want to broach the topic. He was considering revealing to the three the same restricted company information he warned Stephen not to reveal. Stephen had limited access to Aurora, only knowing the project’s name. But Alder had probed much deeper into the project, now knowing more details than he should. Gary purposefully attempted to restrict the information on the true scope of the project. Alder knew the three Church investigators were seriously interested in finding out what he’d discovered. Thinking about his daughter’s alphabet play blocks had kept him from having a restful sleep the previous evening. He was curious and knew something had happened for his daughter to come up with the name but didn’t want to believe a mysterious, pretty, winged man was involved.
Alder finally decided to answer. “Look, the information I’m about to tell you, you can’t tell anyone, especially anyone from my company. Let’s just say I happened to accidentally review some files I probably shouldn’t have.”
“Trust us, this will be kept strictly confidential,” Father Hernandez reassured. Sister Justine took a quick glance at Michael, who gave a quick scowl at Father Hernandez but regained his composure. He didn’t want to make their guest uncomfortable about revealing any additional information.
“Good, because whatever is happening, it’s affecting my family and I don’t want anything to happen to them. My wife is pretty much scared shitless, and to be truthful, I’m afraid myself.” Alder took a deep breath and continued: “Aurora is a project that started in Mexico. It has two tracks, one in our genetic engineering side of R & D; the other’s on the biomedical research side. I didn’t get a chance to see a lot of the details for both, but whatever happened down in Mexico severely delayed the project by years. And …”
“Wait a minute,” Michael interrupted. “Your company was involved with Aurora in Mexico. I thought a company called ...” he began while rummaging through several sheets of paper on the table before finding his intended target. “I thought a company called Aversol was involved with Aurora ten years ago in Mexico?”
Alder bore a look of skepticism. He had anticipated that the three would be more intimate with the details of the Aurora given that they’d already introduced the subject at Stephen’s. Then at least he could justify to himself that someone else knew more about the project and wouldn’t feel as guilty revealing confidential company information. “Aversol was one of our subsidiaries. It was renamed when we thought bad press would hurt the project, even more so when a possible virus outbreak might have been blamed on them. They changed the name because some of the research work that was being done wasn’t allowed in the states. Same thing for Mexico and a couple of other countries they were working in. They weren’t supposed to be working on certain types of genetic research. The rumor is, with the right payoffs, the research rules were made quite a bit more lax. Then there were some employees, researchers and technicians and all, who were killed in the little small town outside Aguascalientes, I believe it’s called El …”
“El Refugio?” All three listeners responded almost in unison, interrupting Alder’s explanation.
“Yeah, El Refugio,” Alder replied, realizing they were more knowledgeable than he’d given them credit for earlier, forgetting they’d discussed the village earlier at Stephen’s home. “Anyway, they renamed the division Waterfall and relocated to another site just outside Aguascalientes. Internally in the company, th
ey felt there could be a cloud of negativity associated with the original name. They got back on track, and things were progressing well. They hit another major milestone recently; then that was nearly jeopardized when the angel visits recently killed key researchers and some of their family and friends here in Los Angeles. One of the recent notes to the Church, routed through my boss, basically questioned whether angels are attempting to disrupt the progress of the project, as previously predicted.”
“Why would he be interested if angels were involved? And predicted by whom? I mean, let’s see, the first event here in L.A. pretty much killed everybody in attendance, and the second, only one person died,” Father Hernandez commented.
“Yeah, he was one of the key research doctors at Waterfall, a virologist if I read the paperwork right. The company got lucky; they were able to recover a lot of his work,” Alder said.
“How’d you come to know about all this?” Sister Justine asked.
“I’d rather not say, but circumstances allowed for me to …” Alder cleared his throat, “somewhat thoroughly review this information.”
“Wait a minute,” Michael said excitedly, as he jumped up out of his chair and started to walk in a small circle, pointing his index fingers straight up in the air. “Let me just wrap my head around this. It just hit me. You say that Aversol was an old subsidiary of Everest that was closed in Mexico ...”
“Companies renamed,” Alder injected.
“OK, renamed ten years ago. And the only incidents known to date where an angel decides to go rogue, it seems now, involve the same company’s employees working on the same project where many already had been killed,” Michael continued.
“Well, let’s see, the first witness worked at an Aversol research lab in Mexico,” Sister Justine jumped in.
“Then there's the Crestview episode, where the only death is a researcher who worked at Everest, and the angel making the visitation there mentions the name ‘Aurora,’” Father Hernandez added to the exchange.
“Could it be that those associated with the project in Mexico, and in L.A., were at a funeral of someone who worked at the labs at both places, then associates, friends, and families attending the funeral all died in visitations from fallen angels?” Sister Justine summarized.
“Let’s see, something happens to someone in the company, they die; there’s a funeral, as if to gather all those people together, then there’s two angels we know who are named Abriel and Gishmael …” Father Hernandez paused, eyebrows furled, mouth open, his expression suggesting an impending epiphany. “Wait a minute, Gish ... ma ... el …” Father Hernandez commented, trailing off while pronouncing the angel’s name. Both Michael and Sister Justine were oblivious to the change in his expression.
“Then the key question is,” Michael noted rhetorically, “why would the angels we know as Abriel and Gishmael kill those associated with the project, along with their friends and family? Could they be considered seraphs in opposition to God, the Church, and this project?”
“They must be fallen angels then if they’re against the Church?” Sister Justine responded.
Father Hernandez jumped in excitedly, “Who's to say they're fallen angels? I’ve been thinking about this for a minute … their names, would it be that simple?”
Michael was stimulated by Father Hernandez's burst of excitement. “You intrigue me boy toy. Go on.”
“They may not be as we suspect,” the Father answered.
“What do you mean?”
“Look at their names. Remember how, in many Judeo-Christian beliefs, the etymology of a name can have great significance? Well, in Hebrew, ‘el’ is God, the suffix ‘-el’ means ‘of God’ or ‘like God’; some texts even say ‘son of God.’ Your name Michael means ‘who is like God,’” Father Hernandez commented.
“Yeah, and remember, even though I’m named Michael, I’m an agnostic. Names don’t necessarily mean a thing.”
“True, we definitely know you’re no angel,” Father Hernandez jibed.
“Did you just zing me?”
Father Hernandez gave Michael a quaint, wry smile.
Michael returned the smile.
“Father, Michael, can we continue please?” Sister Justine insisted.
“Anyway, none of this applies to us, fallen humans, but what about angels?” Father Hernandez continued. “They directly serve Him or are against Him. All angels at one time or another directly served and worshiped God. In the Bible, Apocrypha, and other non-canonical texts, those who do are still suffixed with ‘-el’ and those who don’t are named or referred to differently. Lucifer, Legion, Moroni from Mormonism …”
“But you have Uriel, keeper of the gates of hell, and many others in apocryphal books and literature who still have the ‘-el’ suffixed to their name,” Michael added.
“Then can we say, with accuracy, if they’re of God anymore, or serve him? In the canon, only two angel who were associated with God and named were Gabriel and Michael, archangels. And remember in the Bible regarding the Book of Life, if there’s one for angels, wouldn’t their names be smitten?”
“If these are angels of God, then why pursue the course of action they're taking?” Michael pondered.
“And don't forget what happened the first time Abriel showed up in Mexico,” Sister Justine added, “the second one showing up impelling or coercing the first one to leave.”
“Crap, that’s right. Our first witness said he thought Abriel said to the first angel, ‘the Lord rebuke you.’ All this time we’re all thinking that as angels presented eulogies, not one has ever revealed their name. Come to think of it, none of them revealed their names in the reports I read when I used to research these events a few years ago. Could it be the angels presenting the eulogies want to remain inconspicuous?” Michael questioned.
“Inconspicuous how?” Father Hernandez responded.
“Maybe because they’re fallen and not of God anymore?”
“Just because they never revealed their names doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t be of God.” Sister Justine responded.
“After the censure of the very first angel, the best I can remember, most times God reveals the name of his appointed messengers in major ways,” Michael answered.
“Most times is key,” Father Hernandez responded. “We’re just speculating now. And why would the fallen angels be involved in all of this? Too bad we don’t have references that present the overall history of angels. I recall coming across an interesting concept during my research though. Someone wrote that if mankind has a Holy Bible, wouldn't God have a Holy Bible for angels full of sacred writings concerning their history?”
“What do you mean ‘someone’ padre?” Michael barked, “That was me from one of my treatises on angels when I was a seminary student.”
“That was you? It was referenced as being from someone who was excommunicated from the Church whose writings should be discredited.”
“I can’t believe they wouldn’t even give me credit for my own work. That’s a bunch of bull …”
The Father interrupted, “Mr. Saunders, we really need to get back on track.”
“The influence of human history,” Sister Justine whispered. Both men were barely able to hear or comprehend her.
“What?” they both said.
“Michael, something else you wrote in one of your treatises years ago, the influence of human history. Angels have been the instruments of God acting as messengers for his word and helping to manifest his provident influence on human history. What if our two primary angels are attempting to impede, or halt, Aurora? Look at who were killed both times. These two angels could be in conflict with the other angels.
“So what are you saying? These angels are now in some sort of war?” Sister Justine questioned.
“Angels have always been at conflict with one another. The battles now, depending on the reference sources, are ongoing between the fallen angels and the
elect angels. They struggle now not to determine winners and losers in each contest but for the souls of men,” Father Hernandez said.
“Very good boy toy, you’re right. They operate in the shadows to make an impact on the affairs of man. Now why would they become so overt?”
“Isn’t all of this just conjecture anyway?” Father Hernandez forcefully qualified. “We shouldn’t let ourselves be fooled that this is the actual state of affairs for what we’re facing.”
Alder felt the conversation was getting way too religious for him. He needed to make sure he provided everything that he knew, especially seeing the exchange ignited by the information just provided.
Alder joined in. “There’s more. It has more to do with my company’s client who’s spearheading the project. I was able to correlate some of the information I approved over the last couple of weeks to shadow accounts and budget codings when I got back to my office. The Church, behind the front of our medical clinics and laboratories, is funding Aurora’s research and development. The research was to make heartier genetically engineered crops for poor and starving countries.”
“We already know that the Church is involved with Everest. What exactly are you saying?” Michael asked.
“I may not know too much about the science stuff, but one portion of the project I read discussed a lot about cloning, and who’s paying for it.”
The room became silent except for the sound of air circulating through the vents. All three investigators stared impatiently at Alder, perturbed he hadn’t finished his train of thought.
“Well?” Michael blurted out, tired of waiting.
“Is the Church funding a cloning project?” Alder queried.
All three were confused. Sister Justine rose up out of her seat after a couple of minutes of silence. “I have to excuse myself; nature is calling. Please wait before you continue with anything else. I do want to find out more.”
Out of respect for the Sister, the men waited patiently, thinking she appeared to be taking a considerable amount of time but attributing it to the idiosyncrasies of being a female. After several minutes, she returned, and all three expected Alder to continue. Alder, himself, was still waiting for an answer to his question but, by their extended silence, they may have not thought it was an actual query.
“No seriously, is the Church funding a cloning project?” Alder questioned again.
“What you’re saying is that you’ve seen information that the Church is paying for a cloning project? Doesn’t that sound a little strange?” Father Hernandez asked.
“A little strange, yes. But I do know that, from what I’ve seen, the Church is definitely paying for a major portion of the project. There are other contributing sources of funding, just not as much as the Church. There was more to what I found; I just didn’t get a chance to go through everything. I could only take a look at paperwork for a couple of the project folders. But there are other parts to Aurora.”
“How did you come across all this information?” Sister Justine asked.
“I’d prefer not to say, and let’s leave it at that.”
No one challenged him.
“Please don't tell anyone I provided you with this stuff either,” Alder pleaded.
“So, Mr. Dennison, what does this have to do with your family?” the Sister continued questioning.
“Because of all these weird things happening,” Alder paused, not wanting to continue. But he did. “Hell, all that’s been goin’ on, a short while back with everyone dying, my friend Stephen going blind, it all started to get to me. Then there was the strange event with my daughter that worried me and my wife, especially with all this supposed angel stuff going on at my house.”
“You mean like with the blocks?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, I mean, come on, my daughter claims a glowing pretty man catches her after she falls while climbing on the dresser in our master bedroom. Then some letter blocks in her room spelled out Aurora. She claims she didn’t do it but, again, the glowing pretty man who was playing with her. What’s going on? I’ve heard of imaginary friends, but nothing like this.”
Alder hoped one of the three would be able to provide him with some sort of insight. They remained quiet.
“Well, is there anything you can tell me?” Alder asked.
“Look Mr. Dennison,” Father Hernandez replied. “I’m not sure what we can tell you that you already don’t know, or what we could do to help. We do appreciate you coming down here. We just don’t have any answers for you.”
Alder became visibly irritated. “I don’t know why I wasted my time coming down here.” He stormed out.
Father Hernandez followed and caught up with Alder in the hallway. “Mr. Dennison, we really do appreciate you coming down here to talk to us, but you have to realize, in many ways, we’re just as lost as you.”
“You’d think you’d know more about all that your Church is involved with Father?” Alder quipped.
“Is that really fair? Just like you know everything about what your company is involved with, including Aurora?”
Alder refused to comment and left.
After nearly a minute standing in the hallway with the accompanying hum of fluorescent lights in the drop-down ceiling, Father Hernandez returned to the room with his companions. “Now it’s my turn, I have to go relieve myself. I’ll be right back.”
As soon as the Father left again, Sister Justine quizzed Michael on a comment he’d made earlier. “Michael, you said you were agnostic. I thought you gave up on God and became an atheist?”
“I never said that at any time, did I? It’s kinda why I still teach religious studies. I’m still searching and helping those who are to. Truthfully, I think I’ve been more agnostic than anything else, questioning but never fully accepting.”
“Even during seminary?”
“Yep, I guess you can say even during seminary.”
“And all these years I always thought you were a believer in the Father, Blessed Mother, and Son. Why go through seminary if you neve …”
Michael jumped out of his seat, startling the Sister. “You know what; I have to go take a leak too.” He left because he didn’t want to try and make up a story to keep from telling her the real reason for going to seminary. Sister Justine suspected. It was to follow her and hopefully serve with her, even if they couldn’t be together the way they once had. He had to admit to himself that this was why he agreed to continue to work on this investigation; now his feelings for her were threatening to reveal themselves.
Once both men returned, they were able to finalize their collaboration and complete a rough outline for the final report. Work would still be needed to research references to corroborate facts and minimize theological speculations. One thing was certain; they knew the Church hierarchy would find some of the viewpoints in the material unpalatable. Nonetheless, their goal was to make sure they presented the truth of what they discovered, minus the discussion with Alder Dennison.