(Geez, I need to be briefer!)
Some drama among the party and Corat's immediate boss, and Corat 'confesses' to Yasukuni as a smokescreen to keep the party's attention from his real mission. A costly misdirection, but it works. Nisroc upstairs is doing his own tap-dance. We find out that Ryuki has/had been geased at one point, though we get no details. We also learn that Marty flies the plane that holds the Wind tether, and that Marty has been seeing a witch doctor to try to father a child. Faith's servitor points him in the right direction, with a little miracle. Marty, as it turns out, is the reason that plane is a tether, having landed it safely against all good advice in a firestorm.
The party gains a new member, Sunae, a soldier of Fire. Mitchim gets word from his pawn shop that a Habbalite is pawning a Nazi dagger, intentionally drawing the attention of Shenmachel, whose previous role was a priest in that era. This will have to wait though, until they can sort the Baron issue out. They go to the Marches via Gabriel's volcano and negotiate with the Loa to
rein in their own. On the way back, they meet the Dylan brothers, tandem dreaming in technicolor.
Upon returning to San Francisco, they also learn that the kami have ended their contract with Nybbas, and Eli has been spotted.
The Nazi dagger has numbers on it which prove to be coordinates. The Habbalite, M'ranoch Atel, was the demon who'd killed Shenmachel's vessel back in the 40's and apparently wants a rematch. He starts murdering curanderas and other witchy folk to make sure he's got the party's attention, leaving them little choice but to be at the time and place marked on the knife. It's clearly a trap, and as it unfolds it appears designed for maximum loss of life and Disturbance, Disturbance he intends to pin on the party...or use to draw The Corps, the Malakim squad, and their infernal counterparts to one location. The party intercepts his goons before they can arrive at the location, an abandoned airfield, spirit away most of his potential hostages, and beat his accomplices in battle. In the process of taking M'ranoch himself, however, there's an implied promise of survival which is broken by Shenmachel's sword, causing a serious division in the party despite their victory.
A dispute that is witnessed by Kyle, Corat's best friend on The Corps who was sent to take a report on 'the mission', Yves' cover version of it. Did such a diverse team function as a team? Laurence has gotten wind of this version of the story and has agreed to remove the Discord if the answer is 'yes'. While it's not a
perfect yes, it's good enough for The Sword. Corat's role is to receive a head injury while assisting Interpol (Shenmachel's role) and is taken to a hospital on the edge of the Mojave, near Michael's Death Valley tether. There, Corat advises his team, he will likely have a large number of mortal visitors--the recruits. He asks the party to hang around and offer them moral support, get to know them a little bit and ease their worries.
Ryuki arrives early and shows by his actions that he can sense Khalid's presence inside the hospital. He's worried and does not trust this situation at all, testing Corat's vessel for his presence and setting up wards and gimmicks rather promiscuously. While the other recruits get hotel rooms, he insists on sleeping in the hospital room. He's approached by the thief Kevin, who says "You're mother's a nun," which makes him quite angry...because it's true. Ryuki secretly meets with Kevin, telling the party he's gone to get himself some dinner. Kevin tells him that he's stolen a copy of Corat's address book and that all their names are in it, along with some notes about each of their abilities and character flaws. The recruits let Ryuki run interference and plan to meet at the Morris' (pop star and her father) tour bus at a specified time. They meet, but they don't realize the bus driver has carried a Shedite into their midst.
The angels notice the meeting and approach the bus. Corat awakens, his Discord removed, and joins them all for a talk.
The Shedite named Vetis realizes he has some very valuable information deep in enemy territory, and attempts to flee the scene by jumping between people. Danae's psychic senses tell him that Ryuki is an exorcist, so he possesses him to avoid getting thrown out. The angels are prepared to take him bodily to someone who can fix the situation so Vetis leaps again, trying to conceal his whereabouts. Ryuki and the angels trap the demon. While this is going on the group is slowly gaining an audience of angels, curious. They are joined by Archangels, Michael and Janus, who has dragged Eli along for the ride, Dominic and Laurence, Marc and Gabriel, and Khalid. The true purpose of Corat's mission is revealed, and the recruits consider their options. All agree to work for Heaven, though few are sure in what capacity.
(It is revealed that when Eli went on walkabout in 1957, he went around blessing random pregnant women. One of those women was Ryuki's grandmother, and he inherited his Symphonic sense from his mother. His mother, unable to cope with it for lack of celestial guidance, is cloistered in a Buddhist convent. This is why he's obsessed and angry with angels.)
Laurence, wanting to be certain all the recruits are suitable, sics a squad of his seraphim on them, to engage in combat. They were ready for this, and with the other recruits' help Ryuki creates a nasty Disturbance to try to fend off the angels. It is only partially successful.
The Archangels begin to rehash old arguments in front of the recruits, to the party's embarrassment. Zahirah and Sunae get into a terrible argument about faith, made worse by class and cultural tensions between Sunae's grandfather and the recruits.
Laurence urges his fellow Archangels to leave, and one by one they do. Ryuki leaves some spent magic items on the ground, deliberately, hoping that one of the angels will find them interesting enough to pick them up and take them home. This is how he intended to choose his first Superior. To his disappointment, Zahirah and Mitch return the items to him.