© Anna-Karin 2000-2001
At the industry lot:
Kenneth is still sleeping when three angels approach his bed in the corner of the huge room. The newcomers all look alike, unnaturally beautiful, with long blonde hair, blue eyes and white clothes. The only way to tell them apart are their hairstyles. One has hair to the shoulders, another in a tail and the third has it flowing down to the small of its back.
Contrary to popular belief there's nothing merciful or benevolent about these people. They may be on the Bosses side but they're not the kind of angels that won't find pleasure in torturing people they think are on the wrong side. Pretty much like poster boys for the local nazi party.
One of the angels reach down and shakes him awake.
Kenneth: Uh, what, who are you people?
Angel#1: We are messengers from God.
Angel#2: And we want to know where Gabriel is.
Angel#3: And we have reason to believe that you know where he is.
Angel#1: So tell us.
Kenneth: No.
The three angels look at him. They are not used to hear that little word from mortals.
Kenneth: Where is Ankael and Jurel?
Angel#2: Dead.
Now Kenneth see the bodies of his guardians lying on the floor behind his visitors.
Kenneth feels like going mad there and then, but somehow he manages to get a grip on himself. It's him versus those three angels, but he will not let himself get intimdated. And he sure won't kneel to beg for mercy or to worship them. He can't let Gabriel down. Or Anna-Karin.
Kenneth: Why?
Angel#3: We ask the questions here now.
Angel#1: Where is Gabriel?
Kenneth: Nowhere.
Angel#2: Wrong answer.
Angel#3: Do you know what we do to people who won't tell us what we want to know?
Kenneth: You turn their cities to salt.
Angel#1: We used to do that in the past.
Angel#2: But we have moved with the times.
Kenneth starts to laugh. And he can't stop laughing.
Angel#3: What's so funny?
Kenneth: You...you sound like Donald Duck's nephews, you know; Huey, Dewey and Louie.
The angels are not amused and the one closest to Kenneth hits him in the face.
Anna-Karin and the other angels watches as Gabriel traces his finger along the lines of the ancient text. Here and there he do a slight rubbing motion, as if erasing something from the page. They are still in the Vatican library.
A small bird flies settles on Gabriel's shoulder and tweets-titters something into his ear.
Gabriel: Are you sure?
Bird: Tweet-twitt teeeeet tweeeeeet!
Gabriel: S***.
Anna-Karin: What did it say?
Gabriel: Kenneth's in trouble.
Anna-Karin: What!
Gabriel: Everyone, except the door guards and the look-outs, back to the lot! And take Anna-Karin with you. I'll join you as soon as I have erased the whole formula.
Anna-Karin: No. No. I'm not gonna hitch a ride on angel-back again. No. No way.
The flight back to the lot is less nightmarish then the previous flight, mostly because of the two angels that carried her in their arms folded together to form a chair. Anna-Karin still clung to them as if her life depended on it, which it in a sense did.
They land silently behind a hegde.
They can't see much since Kenneth is inside the house, so Anna-Karin tiptoes into the building, followed by a couple of angels, in bird form. The rest flies to land outside the cracked windows, ready to attack whenever the order comes.
Kenneth is held up by two of the three angels sent from the Boss, and the third asks him questions over and over. He looks like he has been beaten several times in the face, and he has one black eye, and bleeds from the mouth.
Kenneth: Go fish in the lake.
Angel#1: That's the twelfth time you have said that.
Angel#2: And that is the wrong answer.
Angel#3: So, once again, where is Gabriel.
Anna-Karin choses that moment to step forward out of the shadows.
Anna-Karin: According to the Swedish law; Lex Persson, or something like that, it is my duty to stop a beating that I happen to witness.
Kenneth: What took you so long?
The man has trouble talking and it comes out as a mumble.
Anna-Karin: An computer-illiterate angel, and my own fear of heights. What have these jerks been doing to you?
Kenneth: Stupid question!
Anna-Karin: Let him go!
Angel#1: Not until he has answered our question.
Anna-Karin: And that should be something really important, like who created the world?
Angel#2: The lord did.
Anna-Karin: Which one? My landlord?
Angel#3: No, you heathen. The Lord.
Anna-Karin: You sure he just didn't nick the copyright?
Not finding anything intelligent to say as a reply to that, the one angel with its hands free leaps at Anna-Karin, who is prepared though.
In the moment the angel gets a hols on her outstretched hand, Anna-Karin turns and draws a circle in the air with her hands, turns back, and sends the very surprised angel to the ground.
Anna-Karin: Attack!