[center][h2]Report[/h2]
Day Three, Morning.[/center]

“Hello Nadim.” Azel’s tone was as cheerful as always, the tone of a man who had plenty to eat, plenty to drink and plenty of cash in his pocket for whatever else he might need or want. A man content with life, perhaps a little too much. “How is it going?”
“Hello, Azoth. I’m calling to update you on that angel you wanted me to keep an eye on.”
“Oh yes, Jasper. Lovely chap, though I suppose it’s too much to hope for that he’s kicked the bucket?” 
Nadim chuckled quietly. “I’m afraid he hasn’t.”
“Damn it.” 
“But you were right to assume that he’s connected to those “Angels of Faith”. I had a vision yesterday where he would help Miss Delmira and from what I can see on the CCTV footage, it came true.”
“Oh, wonderful. So the trap actually worked. Did the little firefly survive?”
“Yes, and she was helped by Ian Snyder and Jasper Dial.”
“Oh, those two working together now?”
“No, I don’t think so. It seemed to be a coincidence.”
“Hmm, I see. And what about his future actions, Nadim?”
“Yeah, I can’t see any threat to you in the next 8 hours ahead.”
“Good, let’s hope we keep it that way. Get in touch if you have something new. Now if you can please pass me onto Alex.”
“Okay.” His Clairvoyant said.


Alexander was another one of his underlings, a middle-aged Tamer with a balding head and a string of bad mistakes behind his back. Azel had been quite lucky to find him - he had enough dirt to his name to make him a very motivated employee. Not a willing one like Nadim but Azel liked variety. He’d chosen the angel because of the irony of a man called “Alexander” being his little underdog. It still made him smile now, months later. 


“Hello, Alexander, have you had any luck with treating Sharkface yet?
“No.” The angel said dryly. “And I’m not sure if I ever will at a distance.”
“Oh don’t give up now. I have high hopes for you. I heard you did a pretty good job with our little firefly?”
“Your little firefly has a name.”
“Oh yeah…” He played dumb. “What was that again?”
“Roanne Delmira. And I don’t think you’ve achieved anything with your little trap, all it did was induce an injury that was healed just as quickly. And potentially form a new alliance.”
“Oh my dear, but you’re missing the point! It’s not about the injury, it’s about her [i]faith[/i]. The Wings of Faith have this charming old-worldly notion that ‘faith’ has anything to do with their powers. And perhaps it does, who knows? I’m certainly not an angel, I wouldn’t be able to vouch for it one way or another.
“I think you should leave her alone.”


Azel’s grin couldn’t be contained anymore and it almost split his face in two as it broke out.
“What a wonderful world it would be if what we thought mattered, Alex! Then perhaps your whole kind would be eradicated out of existence with a quick thought and we could all live happy and undisturbed ever after. Now that’s a fairytale I’d like to read. But tell me, don’t you [i]think[/i] it would be amazingly interesting to shake little firefly’s [i]faith[/i]?”
“What I [i]think[/i] would be amazingly interesting would be for you to come talk to me face-to-face one of these days. The things I would do to you are hard to explain over the phone.”
 
Azel’s grin retreated a bit but his good mood was unaffected. Toying with Alex was the whole point, the angel didn’t realise. He could have found someone [i]willing[/i] easy enough, greed knew no boundaries. But to have control over someone that could break you in the blink of an eye? Now that was a completely different thrill. 


“Stick around long enough and you might get your chance. Well,... not like you have a choice anyway. Little Tara isn’t as scary as her father after all.”
He thought he could actually feel the heat of the other man’s rage melt the plastic of the phone in his hand. 


“Oh yes, I will. It’s the thought of that moment that helps me sleep at night.”
“I bet it helps you jerk off too!” Azel laughed viciously. 
He’d crossed the line, he knew. But it was precisely the sweetness of that freedom that proved Alex’ worth. It was also why they never had, and never would, meet in person. 
The line was dead quiet for a few long moments. Nadim had probably evacuated from the office already. But Azel knew that when he posed his next question, he would get an answer. After all, Azel had made sure he has enough on the man to make him a good little bitch.


“So back to business. Any success with any of the demons we pouched from Jasper’s ‘clinic’?”
The venom in the angel’s voice was so poignant he could taste it.
“I told you already, there’s not enough left of their personality in those bodies for them to even be worth the risk of trying. He might still be linked to them, if I probe any deeper he might be able to track me down.
“And you’re sure you’re not just scared of trying?”
“No, I’m not you.”
“So who can we use then?”
“One- you could go there and have a word with him yourself - nothing indicates that they have a way of detecting essence.”
“Out of the question.” Azel snapped. “I’m not going anywhere near that man.”


“Okay then,” Alexander continued, sounding vaguely smug. Azel’s eye twitched. “He also has a bunch of humans working for him - they’d be your easiest choice.”
Now the angel was just messing with him. He knew very well that the demon wouldn’t risk getting on the Peacekeepers’ bad side - he just liked to rub it in. Azel didn’t give him the satisfaction and waited for the other to continue. “But of course there’s also the option of setting a trap, like you did with Roanne.”
“Right. And he won’t figure it out, surely. How about one of his lackeys? Nadim has seen demons going out of his “clinic” and coming back carrying others, often passed-out humans or demons.”
“Yes, I looked into that. Yesterday I managed to peer into the memory of one of them but again, he was too broken to be of any use. I can tell you [i]something[/i] is being done in there, what exactly - I have no idea.”
“Well, keep working on it then.” The demon instructed and killed the line. Ideally, Alexander would find a way to get his grip around one of Jasper’s closest minions and that would give them a good idea of what the deal was with that clinic. Less-ideally, he could actually decide to team up with the “doctor” to get his revenge on Azel. What would he do then? Would he really go as far as killing Alexander’s daughter? 


[i]We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.[/i] He decided, yawning and opened his email. Scanning through the messages he spotted something that wasn’t spam and opened it. It was from Marcus, a remarkably likeable hacker and it held two links with a brief “you’ve gotta see this xDxDxD!”. 


The first link was a news feed about some baby that had fallen from the 13th floor onto a passerby and miraculously survived. Azel’s eyebrows rose but it wasn’t until the second video that he understood why he was watching this. It was one of those typical things you see on youtube, someone less bothered about the incident and more bothered about their Youtube fame. 


“How did you do that?!” A reporter was asking, shoving the microphone in the face of the young hero who looked supremely uncomfortable. 
“Well… I kind foresaw it and...”
“You foresaw it? Could you be a [i][b]Clairvoyant angel[/i][/b]?!”
“Well, y-yes...”
“What?! Really?! Can you foretell my future?!”
“Um, no, that’s not how it works… for me.. I can only see a few minutes ahead...”
“Really? So if I had to pick a scratchcard, you’d be able to tell the winning one?!”
“What?” The girl’s eyes suddenly stopped glancing at the gathering crowd and focused on the reporter. 
“Tim, are you shooting this? We need some scratch cards!”
“Are you saying that this is more important to you than that little child over there?” The girl’s face was priceless and for a moment Azel could swear she’d punch the reporter. 
His thumb paused the video, taking a good look at the angel. Pretty, no doubt about that, but even more importantly - useful. 


He returned the phone to his pocket and turned around to smile at Hazumi. 
“Looks like you might have a chance after all, princess.”