Marshal: Please state your name for the Dictaphone.

Witness: Oscar Hicks.

Marshal: Sgt. Oscar Hicks, if I’m correct. Former inventive mind of Colt’s Manufacturing Company. I presume your engineering and leadership skills saved a lot of our boys during the war.

Witness: You always butter up people like you’re about to ask for their daughter’s hand?

Marshal: Engaging with law enforcement is never pleasant. I try my best to alleviate that. Thank you for agreeing to work with us on untangling some of the dark spots of this case.

Witness: Well, if what I’ve been hearing is true, the happy family et entourage should be out of the country by now, along with Monsieur Francois, so there’s no harm in me talking a spell about-

Marshal: Ah, correction. Mr. Francois was captured in Baton Rouge late last month. Hell of a job it was, so I heard. His whole estate burnt down in the process.

Witness: You’d risk a testimony for the sake of truthfulness? Funny guy. I doubt you really have him, man’s crazy like a loon and B.R. dances to his flute like a pack of rats, so let’s agree to disagree.

[Silence]

Marshal: Keep that to yourself. Morale is weak enough without people thinking we didn’t catch the millionaire behind this whole mess.

Witness: Another miss for the great Nimrod. Francois never knew anything but the broad strokes. His buy-in was my services, his docks, and ten thousand dollars of his own money. If there’s a mastermind, it’s the the fox-eyed nameless Negro.

Marshal: That…complicates things significantly. Did you know he was Prince Remus?

Witness: Didn’t until I was arrested. Not surprised. I kept my distance and spoke mostly with the doctor, but you could tell he was smart as a whip and smarter than the man holding it.

Marshal: Right, let’s…try and move forward. We already know a bit about your initial involvement, but what can you tell us about what happened later and the connection to the…unnatural phenomena we’ve recorded?

Witness: Well, Freestone warned me and Ms. Lilith, a warning your people caught, so we fought our way out of the docks in Brooklyn and left for Pennsylvania. Then, letter came warning us that you’d pinned down the state. We were staying in one of Francois’s personal properties, not on the company books, so we’d avoided-

Marshal: You received a letter? From whom?

Witness: Came out of the tar. Don’t know how it works or who sent it, don’t want to, don’t think man should have to see that sort of thing. Anyways, I’d been keeping a low profile but I knew I couldn’t keep hidden from a well-manned search. So I decided to take the train to Pittsburgh and make sure I got arrested there.

Marshal: You know they have you on multiple federal charges, right? Depending on how your trial goes, you may be in jail for the rest of your life.

Witness: Got paid to do a job, so I’m doing it right. If it’s my last job, it’s not a bad last job.

Marshal: And before Pittsburgh, you were previously…

Witness: I was previously protecting any accomplices I may have, as I am now. I’m here to eluci..elucri…clear up some confusion, not sell anybody out.

Marshal: I’ll refrain from that line of inquiry then. I can’t speak for the prosecutors for your trial though. Continue.

Witness: I have ties to a certain community that knows the importance of keeping a secret. We will leave it at that or this testimony is over. I left Ms. Lilith in the care of two of them, but she wouldn’t let me leave without sending a message along with me. Same letter also told her that the wizards had her kid, and that got her spooked. She’s a cold woman, same as the boy, but they’re like fire when it comes to each other.

Marshal: Would this be related to the telegrams from Europe we intercepted in Brooklyn?

Witness: Oh, so that was you, Nimrod? Not bad. Had to wire half of Scandinavia before I could figure out where they’d gotten to, and when I finally track them down, it’s a dozen questions to prove I’m ‘real’. How much information did you bilk from them?

Marshal: Not much. We responded claiming that you’d fallen direly ill and your replacement was in dire need of information about your expedition. We learned the route of the ship and confirmed Dr. Birch’s connection, but one day they just stopped responding.

Witness: Yeah. George said he asked ‘Mr. Henry Eichmann’ to look after my mistress, and he didn’t question it.

Marshal: Well…questioning other employees under Francois painted a charismatic picture of you, even with your advanced age. A mistress didn’t seem unbelievable.

Witness: Funny, funny guy. I haven’t thought about taking a lover since 1862. If the person taking my place don’t realize that, then nobody trustworthy would be left. Better to wait until they can get someone stateside to figure out what went wrong.

Marshal: 1862…

Witness: Easy on that rocky brain of yours, Nimrod. As far as this is concerned, it’s just a year. I got the message sent, gave my own updates, went to Pittsburgh, had myself one last cool drink, and then broke a bar window. And that brought me here.

Marshal: And you think that’s why the Midwest went to hell in February?

Witness: Well, I don’t know all the details, but I gotta say, it was one fierce letter.

NAMELESS DREAMER STOP

THEY ARE GOING TO KILL OUR SON STOP ALL I CAN DO IS SIT AND HIDE STOP IN THIS BODY I CANNOT EVEN WEEP FOR HIM STOP

HIS COMPANIONS HAVE LOST HIM STOP EVEN THE LAW HAS LOST HIM STOP HE IS ALONE STOP HE IS BEYOND HUMAN HELP AND SO I MUST CALL UPON A GREATER POWER STOP

SAVE HIM STOP SAVE HIM STOP ON GOD ABSENT AND WAITING I SAY SAVE HIM STOP PLEASE STOP DO NOT TELL ME THAT YOU CAN CROSS THE GREAT OCEANS AND SPLIT THE VEIL PRIMORDIAL FOR ONE LOVE AND NOT SAVE A LIFE FOR ANOTHER STOP

I HAVE RAISED SO MANY CHILDREN BUT THIS ONE WAS MINE ALONE STOP YOU PROMISED I WOULD NOT HAVE TO SACRIFICE WHAT LITTLE I HAVE LEFT STOP YOU WILL HAVE A TRICK YOU ALWAYS HAVE A TRICK STOP PLEASE JUST FOR ONCE BE A GOOD FATHER FOR HIM STOP

Reynard,

Or Anansi or Loki or. I don’t know who you feel you are right now, just that I stand behind you.

Hicks finally got through. My fears have unfortunately been validated; Brooklyn was compromised by the Marshals. Hicks and Lilith got out safe, but Hicks is about to throw himself to the wolves as a distraction to keep the law off of her. I can’t imagine how the American legal system would even begin to handle her, but it wouldn’t be pretty..

Lilith also sent along her message, which I’ve included for you personally. Victor has been captured by the same wizards he foiled last October. The Marshals are hunting him as well; he left Henshaw with Lilith’s body but left behind a traumatized townsfolk. It’s…quite dire, it seems. They’ve suffered while we’ve been stuck here negotiating.

She’s certain you can do something. I don’t know the full breadth of your ability but if Victor can be saved, save him and damn the expedition if you must. We’ve already found so much evidence to support Lee’s theories, and I will not claim the fruit of the tree of life over your son’s body. If I die before we can try again, I die. You’ve proven you cared enough.

Teddy,

I told Skadi I was out of time and we needed to settle it today. She laughed and said she might consider it if I paid Tyr’s price. There and then I paid it and shut her up. You have your audience with Njord.

It’s been so long since I’ve let myself get hurt. It’s awful, but I am focused and, as it turns out, ambidextrous.

Tyr. Brave, noble, stalwart Tyr. NoNE among the Asgardians did Fenris trust more than him, and so it had to be Tyr to betray him, my son. Bastard. I had a family here. Sons, a daughter, wives, grandsons. Stabbed to death, set on fire, electrocuted, eviscerated. Tricksters don’t make good fathers. They suffered so much. They always do.

Ten thousand years, ten thousand lives, and I am so alone. I am not choosing between either of you. You will reach Eden, and so will my son.

Take care of the expedition. Sleipnir, grey-haired son of mine, still walks free, and he is eight-legged as I am and will recognize a spider’s attention. And one child will save another, and I will show these simple pale men ten thousand lives worth of cunning, of gods and men, and they will never again escape the terror of being caught in a web.

Marshal: So, and I’m just saying this for clarity’s sake, you think Prince Remus somehow got from Scandinavia to the middle of North America in, at most, seventy-two hours.

Witness: Don’t ask me how, mind you. I handle practical matters, Marshal, not matters of the divine or the supernatural. But by all accounts, your Prince Remus was very good at impractical matters. And if he could see a way to save his son, I don’t think he’d care if it made sense to us normal folk.

Marshal: I don’t doubt that it happened at this point - this case has been nothing but factors that don’t make sense - but the methodology still escapes me.

Witness: Maybe he stole a really good horse. Who knows what they have up in Swede country?

Marshal: And I was also told about your theory about the route?

Witness: Well I don’t exactly have a globe in prison, but I’ve been piecing some things together. Cincinnati, that’s obvious, but I hear there was a rain of blood reported in Indianapolis that turned out to be…

Marshal: Soup broth, or at least that’s the explanation. Couple of people were damn sure it was blood.

Witness: And in Kansas City, someone let a bunch of horses loose, didn’t they? Ran up and down the streets causing a ruckus, nearly trampled a man known to formerly be in the slave trade?

Marshal: Sergeant, we do get a lot of-

Witness: I don’t go by that title no more. Call me mister, plain and simple.

Marshal: Mr. Hicks, we do get reports of unusual phenomena on a daily basis. For it to present a meaningful trend, we would need more evidence.

Witness: Mr. Marshal, your Prince Remus is nothing but a showman. I’m certain you can track him by his mischief. Call up Canada or Greenland, see what nonsense they had brewing that day, see if it forms a line.

Marshal: I suspect that we will not be granted the funds to take such an inquiry any further, but I’ll put it into the logs. Maybe someone else will be able to take it forward one day.

FORMER MINNESOTA GOVERNOR FOUND DELIRIOUS AND NUDE BY RIVER, CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN DRAGGED INTO THE RIVER BY FROGS

MULTIPLE FAMILIES REPORTED MISSING IN WINNIPEG, SIGHTINGS OF AN EIGHT-LEGGED MOOSE REPORTED

Witness: Whatever you say. Just thought the connection made sense, so figured you’d want to hear it. Civic duty and all that.

Marshal: I’ll take anything I can get at this point. I can’t fix this anymore but I can at least try and finish the case report properly.

Witness: In my experience, nobody reads a report after it’s filed, but maybe you’ll get lucky. The way Henshaw looks right now, someone might crack it open again one day. You know some fancy exorcist is going to go by there?

Marshal: Oh? What a waste of money. We already assessed the town for spiritual damage in late January, and that came up negative. I hope the new mayor isn’t paying him to show up, not when we’re still trying to hire that psychosomatics expert to weigh in.

Witness: Funny guy. Come visit me in prison some day, Nimrod, assuming Francois doesn’t just pay my bail and bust me out.

Marshal: Oh, I’d like to talk much sooner. We can talk about who died in 1862 to seal your heart, or why in blazes you think the man we have in custody in Louisiana isn’t Francois.

Witness: Has anybody tried to bust him out?

Marshal: Nobody’s reported any attempts, but-

Witness: Then you don’t have him. Francois got taught proper when he was young about how to treat people who don’t have what he’s got. Half of Baton Rouge owes something to that man, whether it’s a meal, a job, or a medical procedure. If you had the real Francois, and everybody in Baton Rouge believed you had the real Francois, there’s be mobs and armed rebellions and possibly some maniac trying to bomb the jail wall. Don’t ask me how he pulled off tricking you, but he must have. Maybe he finally hired that body double.

[Silence]

Marshal: I think I’m going to leave that part off of the record. Good day, Mr. Hicks.

Witness: Like I said, having him in custody wouldn’t help you anyways. Good day, Mr. Marshal.

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