Starbreaker Chapter Summaries
Chapter 11
Isaac Magnin meets with Ethan Brand, a religious leader who represents Christian communities. Brand is concerned about the effect that the events in Boston will have on the plans he and Magnin have been working on. Magnin admits that he orchestrated events to drive Liebenthal to attempt a coup d'etat, so that Magnin could then use Morgan Stormrider to eliminate Liebenthal before he exposed the involvement of Magnin and Brand in a clandestine gun-running operation.
Chapter 12
Morgan and Naomi have returned from Christabel's funeral. Both agree that Christabel's family had acted strangely at the funeral, and Morgan suspects that at least one of Christabel's relatives might have had a reason to kill her. Morgan shocks Naomi by suggesting this, and shocks her further by admitting that even though he believes it is impossible to obtain justice for Christabel, he still wants to find her killer in order to take revenge for her murder. Mr. Nigel, manager for Crowley's Thoth, calls them and asks about the band's future. Morgan and Naomi reach an agreement with Mr. Nigel, and learn that a pornographic video of Naomi made a brief appearance on the net before being removed by an anonymous net samurai.
Chapter 13
Naomi follows Morgan into her bathroom to find him washing his hands, which he had cut into with his fingernails due to emotional stress. They eventually learn that they both have a rare genetic condition in common, which gives their appearances certain feline characteristics, such as slit-shaped pupils and retractible claws instead of fingernails. Morgan tends to hide his eyes behind sunglasses as a result of this condition, while Naomi hides her hands beneath gloves. Morgan admits that he used to feel that the condition made him deformed, but eventually realized that it was not physical deformity that set him apart from others, but a psychological defect. Naomi pulls Morgan back to earth, and they call Claire. Morgan persuades Claire to admit that she had been the samurai who had removed the porn video of Naomi from the net.
Chapter 14
Morgan, enraged by the contents of the video, insists on calling Claire again, finding, and confronting the person responsible for the video. Naomi is content to have the video off the net; she does not want to demand restitution, because a lawsuit would require making the video public. Morgan, however, had not thought of a lawsuit. Naomi reasons with Morgan and persuades him to leash his anger. After doing so, Morgan calls Claire and persuades her to give him the information he requires.
Morgan then goes to Edmund Cohen, who is both an old friend of his, a mentor, and a member of the Phoenix Society's Executive Council. Despite his anger, Morgan offers Edmund a chance to explain himself. Edmund tells Morgan about his night with Elisabeth, and explains that he kept the video, which he thought was a good fake, in order to show Morgan what he was missing by staying with Christabel. Morgan explains that the video would have done no good; he had been committed to Christabel and wasn't going to toss her aside or cheat on her just to pursue what he had written off as an adolescent infatuation.
Understanding Morgan's point, Edmund apologizes and decides to swear off alcohol before it gets him into further trouble. While discussing the disposal of Edmund's booze, Sid Schneider (a friend of Morgan's and an retired Adversary) shows up. He has orders for Morgan: Morgan is to return to New York immediately for an assignment in Boston.
Chapter 15
Ethan Brand comes to Elisabeth as she stands naked upon her balcony. They call each other by their true names; after enduring Elisabeth's contempt, Brand hands Elisabeth a set of maglev tickets and tells her that Isaac Magnin wants to see her in Asgard. Elisabeth accepts the tickets, sends Ethan Brand on his way with another taunt, and speculates as to why Magnin wants her to come to Asgard.