Chapter Synopsis (May 25 2007)
The chapters alternate between Michael's and Elisabeth's points of view. Later chapters may share multiple points of view or give other characters a voice.
Remember, this is nothing but spoilers.
01 (TVL) - Michael Archer lives in San Francisco, working as an analyst for the Empyrean Group, a large consultancy. It's not the best job, but it got him out of his last gig in Russia, which deeply disheartened him. He drives to Lake Tahoe for a long weekend spring skiing with his friend Walt. Arrival; Walt throws a party and Michael meets a girl, Tammy. Walt and Michael ski, then discuss Michael's professional options. Walt, girlfriend Laurie, Michael and Tammy go out on the town, dinner, gambling, late night drinking. In the bar Michael has hallucinations of foul odors; abruptly he is in a fight with Tammy's drunk ex-boyfriend. Michael beats the man savagely. He flees back to San Francisco.
02 (IAD) - Elisabeth Battrie worked on a great project for Straightforward Consulting, but it ended. Background on Elisabeth - father died when she was young, mother alcoholic. Elisabeth is a big pot smoker and she is "sensitive to energies and powers." Stuck in Washington in a useless division, she is bored and discouraged, and now about to be downsized. A night on Capitol Hill eating alone. At a bar a man chats her up. Interested (horny) at first, she soon sours, and she storms out with sudden resolve to get her life in order. Her pal Missy, a talented witch, reads Elisabeth's fortune with (corporate themed) tarot cards and predicts better things to come. Magda Crane, a powerful executive from Boston, invites Elisabeth to work for her, conducting low-key industrial espionage. As part of her new job she performs a ritual to bond with a Polyglot, a semi-sentient demon that lets Elisabeth speak all languages.
03 (OAK) - Michael comes to work to find his bosses know about the fight. He is fired, then immediately invited to work for Bill Thorn in Corporate Security. Bill drives Michael to the warehouse district of nearby Oakland. Another hallucinatory episode. When Michael recovers Bill explains that Michael is psychic, sensitive to unseen information about people and places. Discussion of the nature of sensitivity, which Bill feels is an evolving sense, finally an organic process. For each psychic the extra-sensory perception translates to the dominant sense, creating what appear to be hallucinations; for Michael smell, for Bill sight. Michael realizes this explains a similar fight he had a decade ago that led him to stop drinking. Discussion of the history of Empyrean Group, which Bill feels has a divine mission. Bill invites Michael to work for him, promising that he will learn more about himself and about the firm, but is mysterious about the work.
04 (LHR) - In London Elisabeth - now thanks to the Polyglot speaking British slang and even spelling differently - befriends staff at Mercurex, a new mobile phone venture. She clicks with Rex, a stylish gay mathematician who works on encryption, but also is involved in magic. Elisabeth feels the company is insufficiently profitable, and suspects the phone network has other mystical purposes. In discussing her suspicions with Magda's staff she learns she had a predecessor, Sasha, no longer at Straightforward. A wild night drinking at a nightclub leads to a coked-up 3-way between Rex, Elisabeth and a drag queen. Following this Elisabeth starts to feel exhausted. Rex has cast a spell on her to kill her; were it not for the Polyglot she would be dead by now. With Missy's help Elisabeth breaks the spell, which kills Rex.
05 (SFO) - In the plus column, Michael is getting acclimated to his new sense of smell, enjoying the delights of spring produce and feeling more connected to the world. In the minus, his new job sucks. Michael has spent a dull month reviewing background checks. It has been a test. Bill reveals that the CEO of Empyrean, Luther Koenig, gets detailed visions in his dreams, which he feels are divine; Koenig sends Bill and Michael to try to help the people in his visions. Michael begins firearms training. An attempt to save a Latino gang leader by giving him a new identity. On a date Michael goes to a scotch tasting, which appeals powerfully to his new senses. He books a flight to Scotland to try whisky at the source.
06 (FCO) - Elisabeth is in Rome to perform a small errand for Magda, but hiding under cover of budget by assisting with a scientific conference hosted by the Rome office. A friendly Sunday dinner with Rome communications director Minerva Piacitelli and her friends sours when Minerva makes it clear she knows Elisabeth speaks with a Polyglot. Scenes from the conference. Monday evening Elisabeth does a web search on Sasha and finds nothing. She learns about Magda's patrician background, that she has been a widow for forty years. More scenes from the conference on Tuesday. When a speaker has an epileptic attack and is disoriented, Elisabeth asks him what he thinks of the London network project. Wednesday her actual mission, decoy and courier for a computer program, takes her through Roman ruins and shopping too; learn that Elisabeth is unable to have children. A lunch with Minerva's flirty friend Alessio - who works for Empyrean! Elisabeth runs, and as a gesture of defiance marches into a basilica. She discovers that thanks to the Polyglot, she feels feverishly hot on holy soil, and she cannot touch the flame of a votary candle. Minerva confesses that the local office has been collaborating with Empyrean, their shared belief in free-market models making them allies against the entrenched clubby Italian elites.
07 (COS) - A week before his trip to Scotland, Michael comes to Colorado Springs to help Bill with a politically sensitive investigation of Jerry Pendry, an evangelical Christian candidate to the Empyrean board. The city has a strange invigorating effect on Michael, that Bill attributes to power in the "spiritually fertile" region. Discussion of the recent history of evangelicals and Colorado Springs. Talking with the candidate's admin, Michael senses she is his feverishly devoted lover. Michael has bad dreams. Further investigations show Bill and Michael that Pendry can distort people's perceptions -- Bill calls it "pernicious charisma" -- and maintains a small cult of a few families, hiding in plain sight in a gated subdivision. On a shooting range Bill tells Michael of his frustration that they can't use their information to get Pendry arrested; Bill fears that Pendry will next corrupt the young children of his current devotees. Michael, full of doubt, visits a megachurch campus, and talks with a stranger he meets there. He is not relieved.
08 (ABZ) - Elisabeth arrives in Aberdeen on a cold rainy night, again speaking and spelling British. The hotel is of lesser quality than she expects. Night walk to buy cigarettes, encounters with unpleasant escorts. Due to the weather Magda decides they should order room service. A long conversation in Magda's room, interrupted by Magda's occasional unexplained bouts of strong pain. They discuss Elisabeth's recent performance, and Magda gently tells Elisabeth to watch the amount of drugs she takes. Discussion of sensitivity, a trait Magda shares. Over dinner they talk about Magda's lesbianism, her marriage, and her early career at Straightforward. Discussion of Elisabeth's career goals. Over coffee Magda explains that Straightforward has grown fat and happy, less concerned with truly disrupting the social fabric than leeching off it. Elisabeth's corporate espionage is part of Magda's plan to destroy the firm. Magda tells the story of Sasha, Magda's protege who had a change of heart and left the company. Back in her room Elisabeth has a short intense freak-out. She goes to the hotel bar. At the bar she meets a man who is tasting Scotch whisky - Michael. They are clearly attracted to each other, and Elisabeth for one is horny.