Constantine - The Novelization - Whoa is (Not)

of him that was ultimately more real, to an occultist, than his temporary mortal body.Flash ahead decades, a spiraling meteoric journey through time to: Mexico.To a ruined church... An emaciated man, a scavenger, kicking through the ruin, stumbling intoa hole. Reaching down to pull something out...Sangre de dio. The blood of God. The spear - only the point remained - that had driven intoChrist's side. A relic impregnated with divine energy.The scavenger turned - and seemed to see Constantine. No, he was looking past him. But hesensed him there, watching invisibly.Constantine followed this scavenger. Watched as the car piled up on the man - and didn't hurthim. Only the spear with Christ's blood on it could explain that.And Constantine watched the scavenger at murder. He was damaged goods, this man: Hekilled quite casually. With a sort of smugness, even glee at times. What would so powerful arelic mean in the hands of so nonchalantly murderous a man?Constantine jumped ahead in time, followed the scavenger to the truck stop. Watched himmurder a mother of two. Something in Constantine wanted to interfere - but couldn't. This hadalready happened; it was the past, set in stone, at least as far as a mere disembodied human spiritwas concerned.He followed the man to the car outside the truck stop's drive-in restaurant. And again thescavenger sensed Constantine, turned to look. And couldn't see him.It was then that Constantine sensed another presence: A dismal, minatory presence, watching,whispering to the scavenger. It was a diabolic presence, equally invisible but far more powerful,and very much in control of what was happening. The puppet master, pulling strings.Constantine thought about finding out who the scavenger was. Turning him over to the cops.But soon it wouldn't matter, in all likelihood. What was one murder more or less, now? WhenMammon ruled, there would be no more police; there would only be criminals, and victims, andnothing else.Constantine flashed ahead in time again to see the stolen minivan smoking and half crumpledin the broken back gate at Ravenscar. He watched the scavenger run up to a door, use the spear toeffortlessly smash it in.There was immense power in the relic, Constantine reflected - if a man who had no magicalabilities could use it to break open ordinary walls, a magician or a demon could use it to breakopen the wall between worlds.Would Mammon necessarily stop at Earth? Why not use his tools to spread Hell to the otherlevels of reality, to the astral worlds?Could Hell be spread into Heaven itself?The scavenger killed another guard, stuffed him in a custodial closet, found his way to ahydrotherapy room. He waited there awhile - seemed to listen, then, to someone unseen. Awhisper.Constantine could not hear what the whisperer was saying - probably because he was saying itwithin the scavenger's mind. He heard only distant psychic echoes, guessed at the message.The scavenger was told to find a place to rest, he gathered: for he made his way into anotherwing, found rows of sleeping patients. And there, an empty bed. Exhausted, he covered himselfwell with the bedclothes, and seemed to fall almost instantly asleep.Constantine approached the scavenger. Could he somehow take the relic from him? He wasnot material enough to pick it up in the usual way, but as it was charged with divine energy hemight use that to levitate it somehow, bring it away with him, since he was back in his own time.Transport it to a hiding place nearby, come back to pick it up, perhaps?He reached out to the sleeping man... sending out psychic feelers.... Where was the spearhead?The scavenger suddenly sat up and grabbed Constantine by the throat. Which was quiteimpossible.Yet the scavenger began choking him - with his free hand, the other one on the spear, the