Sovereign

Entry 10: Sanders' Journal - 02/19

19th February.

Talk about a colossal shitfest.

So the dreaded interview with Raphael Heath, Head of containment unit D (there are five, by the way) and moonlighting Nephilim happened yesterday. Safe to say, I completely botched it. I started so well, so damn well, up to the point where I brought up his ancestry. All I was trying to do was to verbally establish an interviewee background like Edwin had constantly drilled into me, knowing that by the time the interview started (thanks to my telepathy) I usually knew more about the person in the 'hot seat' than his mother.

Plus when you consider that Raphael isn't your typical perp (or mine, as we can't read his mind, remember that Zoe) there was no way things were going to go smoothly.

He got all snooty with me, pretending not to understand my pretty easy questions and slipping in non-committal one-liner answers. The interview really went downhill when I innocently asked if his dad was an angel of light or darkness. For Pete's sake finding out the guy sitting opposite you is the biological offspring of Archangel Raphael isn't something that happens every day, is it? I managed to steer the interview back somewhat and got some valuable information out of him, but not what I really needed. And everything crumbled again when he caught me trying to read his mind. Not that I wanted to do it, but I've become so used to probing during interviews that it's like part of my routine now, somewhere between bringing in a cup of coffee and turning on the recorder. He didn't like it. And he left, with half of my questions unanswered.

There goes my plan of inviting him out for a beer, so I can try out my telepathy in a neutral place.

The whole episode confuses me. If Heath is the biological son of archangel Raphael, what angle exactly is he playing, hiding in a bunker in the middle of nowhere, playing SWAT team leader to a bunch of supernatural misfits? From the little I read about nephilim when I was researching the histories and home pantheons of the staff here (which, trust me, is vast), the rogue Nephilim that have terrorized humanity over the centuries impressed it heavily on me that him and his kind are not people to be trifled with. Raphael is heavy duty even for this place, which would be every RPG geek's waking wet dream. And my years with the agency have taught me that everyone has an alternative agenda.

Plus he says he still keeps in touch with his father. It would be all heart crushingly sweet if an archangel left the hosts of heaven once a month for some father-son time but I don't buy that. If I finish this Pine street investigation with our memories intact, then I'll ask Edwin to look into it. If I don't, then it falls to you future Zoe.

What really got to me about this whole issue was that I had to document my failure and send it to Edwin who no doubt has started letting Norman read our correspondence before forwarding it to the higher-ups. If I know those two (and trust me, I do) Norman would have gone to him to complain about my sudden withdrawal and Edwin would have offered to let him read my reports, so at least he has an 'idea' of what's going on here. I wish I could tell Edwin to keep Norman out of the loop, but I don't trust the mail here. Whoever intercepts my mail might misinterpret it as me burning out. So I'm stuck. I just wish things were different. I don't want Norman to know I'm flailing here.

*Sigh*

If only I could fast track the interviews to Henry Delaney. From what I can tell, apart from Landsteiner, he is the one I want (or HAVE) to talk to. His name keeps popping up everywhere. But before that, I have to document the findings from one of the Esoteric missions that happened around the time of the Pine street incident (it's not from the actual apparition, but I'm pretty sure it's related, and I'm really trying to be thorough here. No need leaving it out.).

What further drives my need to include these early missions is the report from the Scout units and how closely it seems to fit with the rest of the story. From what I read about procedure here, there are two routes before the Containment units are activated. The Scout unit makes sure the Anomaly is legit, then forwards their prelim findings to the Affirmation unit (where the Head of Inquiry is chief). Affirmation does its job, checking the type, nature and level of destruction the Anomaly is capable of, as well as compiling other relevant data, before calling in either the Conversion (the ones who try to win them over to their side) or Diplomacy units (the ones who do conservative damage control). It's only when both fail that the Containment unit is called in (the ones who actually do the dirty work).

For reasons I need to get to the bottom of, this chain of protocol was broken and members of Containment Unit D were the first to investigate the region after Affirmation, ending up in some of sort of Orchid-essence-related injury to Raphael. Raphael has kept out the case report of the incident for me, I am to go through it in his office tomorrow and he has arranged for me to be locked in till I'm done though he won't be there to personally antagonize me. Small mercies. I have 24 hours to go through and transcribe for forwarding to Edwin.

Wish me luck.