Sense8

Season 3

I am a new Netflix member. A month before this posting I subscribed so that I could see "Jessica Jones" and "Daredevil." I didn't think there would be much more to see after that. I was very wrong. I discovered a library full of entertaining television series and movies, and at the top of this list, so far, is "Sense8." I binged through seasons 1 and 2 of "Sense8"in less than three days and then began imagining a story arc for a season 3. Halfway through writing this story arc synopsis the announcement of the show cancellation came out. This is now my imagining of a series ending season. For me, this series is built around an immensely entertaining premise.

I fancy myself a storyteller. I have spent many years pitching movie scripts and TV series pilots that I have written. I have had no success in this. I did manage to get one of my scripts optioned, but that expired after 3 years with only $2250.00 to show for it. Script writing has been limited to a hobby for me, so far. This confession notwithstanding, I believe in my stories. Over the past few years I have directed my storytelling at websites for posting fanfiction and original fiction stories under the nom-de-plume Horatio Jaxx. Two weeks back I uploaded one of my stories, "Cristian," into Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing. I write this to serve as a preamble for the "Sense8" story arc below.

In a Youtube video, I heard it said that Lana Wachowski wanted the central characters in "Sense8" to have lives while this homo-sensorium drama was unfolding. I was happy to hear this because I believe this absence of a day to day life was a major flaw in the second, third and fourth seasons of "Orphan Black." The producers of that series seem determined to hold on to the hide and seek, fight or flight, pattern of season 1. For me the practice of concocting schemes that sustain and expand the pace and pattern that worked initially causes the story to grow stale. How are the bills getting paid? Is Kira in school? The first story sets the stage for the stories that follow, but it should not be used as a cookie cutter for all subsequent stories. I believe that the situation and characters in an ongoing story need to evolve to keep the series fresh. I bring this up because I was concerned about this not happening in a season 3 of "Sense8." Now that season 3 is not going to happen, I am writing this just to put into words my idea of a good story arc to close out the series.

Since Whispers did not die in season 2, I anticipated his return in a third season of the series. Whisper's return had me worried because I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2. I have no problem with Terrence Mann or Whispers, the character that he plays in the series. What worries me is the effect his return would have on the series. Is Whispers going to walk away from his kidnapping unscathed and free to continue his fiendish pursuit of Angelica's cluster? Will the show protect Terrence Mann's character and perpetuate him as a fixed villain throughout the series? Are they going to continue with what has worked for seasons 1 and 2? A return to the status quo doesn't work for me. Whispers is too great a threat. Will spent half a season hiding from him. If Wolfgang escapes from BPO, he will be in the same situation, and Kala is now known to Whispers. In my opinion, something must change. There is no way I would let Whispers survive without some major change in the situation between him and Angelica's cluster. With this as my muse I came up with this story arc scenario.

LINE BREAK

Picking up where season 2 ended, Jonas is now restrained, guarded and on blockers in a remote location on the outskirts of London. The cluster interrogates him for all that he knows about BPO and homo-sensoriums in general. During the interrogation Jonas tells the cluster that he agreed to work with BPO to save them.

Will: Why is BPO devoting so much time and expense into hunting us?

Jonas: Because you're Angelica's cluster.

Nomi: What does that mean?

Jonas: A lifetime of memory and knowledge can be passed between sensate siblings and between sensates and their cluster offspring within an instant. Angelica's knowledge of BPO's inner workings makes you a danger to them.

Riley: But we don't know anything.

Jonas: Don't be so sure. You may know more than you think. Either way, it doesn't matter. The potential that you might know something is enough for BPO to act on.

Nomi: Why did you come looking for us?

Jonas: "I promised Angelica I would protect you. It's a promise I want to keep. I need to keep—I loved Angelica, more than I ever loved anyone before her. But I was afraid of BPO—of Whispers. I was a coward. I knew, as long as she was alive it was just a matter of time before Whispers found me. I abandoned her. I used you to convince her to take her own life. And I have been trying to pay restitution for that cowardice ever since."

Riley: "If you loved Angelica then help us."

Jonas: "That's what I've been doing. You have to understand, homo-sensoriums existed two-hundred-thousand years ago and were wiped out. Being a sensate is not a strength. It's a weakness. There's no running from BPO. There's no hiding from them. In the end, they will find you. There are only two options, cooperate or die."

Will: "How are you cooperating with Whispers."

Jonas: "I'm not cooperating with Whispers. I'm cooperating with BPO."

Nomi: "BPO's Chairman has employed Whispers to run its homo-sensorium manhunt."

Jonas: "BPO is a front. It's a fake organization financed by portions of budgets for top secret government programs around the world. These government programs are so black that the politicians don't know what they're doing or where all the money being funneled into them is going. BPO is under the direction of a group of high ranking government bureaucrats from around the world. The Chairman is one of them"

Will: "What do they want from you?"

Jonas: "They want me to report back to them about what Whispers is doing."

Sun: "And what do you get out of it."

Jonas: "I get to live, and so do you—if you cooperate."

Will: "If we work for them?"

Jonas: "Yes."

Nomi: "And you thought we'd agree to that?"

Jason: "I told you. There's only two ways out."

Will: "Why does the Chairman want you to spy on Whispers."

Jonas: "What BPO is now is largely due to Whispers. He has made himself a highly valued asset. He is the first collaborator."

Will: "So, what's happening here? Is the Chairman is grooming you to work alongside Whispers?"

Jonas: "No Will, BPO doesn't want another Whispers."

Will: "Then why keep you alive? Why would they risk keeping us alive?"

Amanita: "Because it's a lie. They're just using him to get to all of you."

Jonas: "You're missing the big picture. I didn't see it myself until a few days ago. Broadly speaking, there are two agendas at work inside BPO. Even though each member favors one side or the other, these agendas don't compete. On one side, there are those members who see us as a threat to sapiens. They think we should be culled out of existence. To them it doesn't matter if we're exploited as disposable puppets along the way. Then there are the other members who are intrigued by Whisper's work in remote manipulation of sensoriums. They're the ones who aided Whispers when Croome attempted to side line him. From their perspective, sensoriums are utensils to be exploited, and they don't mind if we're being culled out of existence while this is taking place."

Riley: "How is that different?"

Jonas: "The difference is in how much they value Whispers. While I was Whisper's captive, I had a lot of time to think about BPO. And I've heard things. One of the things I heard is that BPO has assessed the number of sensoriums worldwide as more than seven-thousand. That got me to thinking. Why would BPO expect Whispers to find so many of us within his lifetime? It wasn't until I learned the truth about blockers that Whispers made sense."

Will: "What truth?"

Kala: "They make us sterile."

Riley: "What?"

Jonas: "It's a temporary condition, but if you continue to use them the effect is the same."

Riley: "You knew this?"

Kala: "I had my questions about a couple of chemical compounds in the blockers. But the quantities were too small to be a hazard to health. And any adverse effect would take several weeks to several months of repeated use to manifest."

Will: "Which is exactly what you do when you're living in constant fear of being captured and lobotomized."

Jonas: "Have any of you heard the phrase super cluster?"

Everyone: "No."

Jonas: "I heard Angelica speak of a super cluster or extended clusters many times. She thought it should be possible for clusters to interconnect into large clusters."

Will: "And how is this significant?"

Jonas: "I think BPO is afraid of us forming into super clusters."

Sun: "Why?"

Jonas: "When two sensates from different clusters connect telepathically, it's called visiting. That's because they communicate by talking inside each other's head. When sensates from the same clusters telepathically connect they have the option of merging their minds. We call this sharing. When compared to communicating by thought, talking is clumsy and inefficient. When a sensate gives birth to a cluster, he or she become a part of that new cluster alongside the one he or she is bound to. When Angelica bounded all of you together she shared that moment with me. For a brief time, it felt like I was sharing with you. But I wasn't. I was sharing with Angelica and she was sharing what was happening in her mind with me. That's how I knew who and where all of you were. Angelica believed that when a sensate gives birth to a cluster he or she becomes the lynchpin between two clusters. And when the other members of these two clusters birth clusters they become lynchpins and so on."

Will: "A super cluster?"

Jonas: "Exactly."

Lito: "What could we do with that?"

Nomi: "What couldn't we do?"

Will: "And BPO is trying to prevent this from happening."

Jonas: "They already have. We fear each other as much as we fear BPO. The number of sensate collaborators out there is growing by the dozens every few months. A super cluster could potentially expose a thousand secrets to a thousand-different people all at once—many of them would want to use that information to their advantage. Our Psycellium is not a strength, Will. It's our weakness. It's why sapiens wiped our kind out 200,000 years ago, and it's why they're going to do it again."

Nomi: "But is this super cluster possible now."

Nomi is visibly intrigued by the idea of a super cluster.

Jonas: "Yes, theoretically. But you couldn't be a part of it—Angelica is dead."

Angelica's cluster is dispirited by Jonas' conclusion and spread apart to ponder their futures.

LINE BREAK

On the morning of the next day, Lito, Capheus, Nomi and Amanita return to their homes and lives. There is nothing more they can do there until a plan for recovering Wolfgang is devised. In a separate room from Jonas, Will, Riley, Sun and Kala have Whispers secured and under watch. He is kept on blockers so that he cannot intrude upon the deliberations going on between Will, Wolfgang, the other members of the cluster and with Jonas. Sun is careful not to show her face to Whispers. She is the only one of the four that he does not know by sight. Angelica's cluster spends several days searching for Wolfgang. Whispers tells them where he was when he saw him last. But Wolfgang, speaking through his telepathic connection with the cluster, tells them that he has been moved. He also warns them against coming for him. The torture sessions have stopped because Whispers is not around to benefit from them.

After several days of searching, the cluster conclude that a swap is the only way to get Wolfgang back. Kala fervently supports this plan despite the concerns of the other cluster members about a Whispers for Wolfgang swap. Wolfgang is fiercely opposed to this idea. He fears for Kala's safety more than any of the others, and he fears for his own safety last. By Wolfgang's thinking, the cluster will be captured sooner or later if Whispers is allowed to resume his position inside BPO. Wolfgang orders Will to kill Whispers. When Will declines to do this, Wolfgang attempts to kill himself and fails. Will takes Whispers off his blockers after Wolfgang's failed attempt at suicide. He allows Whispers to see Wolfgang's physical and mental condition. He tells Whispers that Wolfgang will keep trying to kill himself until he succeeds. He warns Whispers that when Wolfgang dies, he dies.

Out of fear for his own life, Whispers tells Will and his cluster siblings that the connection between non-sibling sensates can be broken. He explains that BPO'S research on homo-sensoriums discovered this and kept it their secret. To break a telepathic connection, Whispers tells them they must shut down all brain activity, and to do this they had to stop the flow of blood to the head. He said that the heart should be stopped for two minutes to be sure. When the brain activity comes back, cluster siblings reform their telepathic connections automatically. He tells them that these connections are effectively hardwired in the brain. He continues to explain that sensates from different clusters do not have fixed connections. They must reform the telepathic link through eye contact, and then it will hold through continuous interaction between the two brains. Whispers tells them that chemical blockers discombobulate the mechanism for communication between sensates, but they do not break the telepathic connection. Even when they are asleep and unconscious, the connection is there. Whispers tell them that only a secession of brain activity can sever the telepathic connection. This information is telepathically communicated to everyone in Angelica's cluster. They all agree to the swap if Whispers' connection to them can be severed.

Over Whispers' objections, Kala stops his heart for two minutes. Whispers wanted the break to be performed at Will and Wolfgang's end, but Kala is quick to recognize that breaking the connection on Whispers end severs all his non-cluster sensate connections. After Kala breaks Whispers' connection to her cluster, he is put back onto his blockers and the swap is arranged.

The swap is an elaborate operation performed on the crowded streets of London. To make it work, instructions are relayed through Wolfgang to his captors. They are raced through the city to lose any followers. Capheus, Lito and Nomi come back to London to participate in the exchange. Lito's return to London creates an inconvenience for the movie production that he is a part of. He justifies his planned absence as a funeral for a close friend. Because this will be his second mysterious trip to England, Hernando and Daniela insist on coming with him. Nomi brings Amanita with her. The exchanged is completed with plenty of daring-do, luck and skill. They all rendezvous at a remote safe-house secured by Lito. This is a happy scene. The cluster is together again and are experiencing a sensation of freedom. Wolfgang and Kala are together at last.

During the clusters first hour in the safe-house Hernando and Daniela are brought into Lito's secret sensate life. The cluster does this despite resistance from Hernando and Daniela. They both must be convinced of the existence of this telepathic connection. To do this, the cluster members correctly identify the playing card that each member has secretly drawn from a deck. Daniela continues to be resistant to their claim of a telepathic connection and grabs the magazine Latina that she had been reading. She opens it to a random page and displays it so only she, Hernando and Lito can see it. She then instructs the other members of the cluster to read from that page. This they do, one after the other—in Spanish. Daniela changes the page several times and continues to get the same result. She and Hernando are convinced and amazed by this demonstration.

Over the many days that this debate and exchange drama unfolded in England, Kala's family become aware that she is missing, and they set into motion an investigation into her disappearance. Capheus wins his regional election, and Detective Mun continues to be in the coma that followed the surgery for his gunshot wound. In the days that follow the shooting, Sun's brother battles internet allegations that it was he who perpetrated the embezzlement that his sister went to prison for. Nomi and company are responsible for many of these internet allegations. Nomi also alleges that Joong-Ki shot Detective Mun. Nomi uses social media images of the gala event to show that Joong-Ki was not pointing toward Sun after the first shot rang out and that she was not holding a weapon when it did. Joong-Ki's pocket politician, Minister Park, tries to give Joong-Ki cover by suppressing the warrant for his arrest and by alibiing his claim that he did not fire the shot that fell Detective Mun. Despite these defenses, mounting evidence gradually swings public opinion against Joong-Ki and his pocket politician. A growing scandal rises from these events. Joong-Ki's business begins to suffer from the bad press, and investigative reporters—tipped off by Nomi, Amanita and Bug—soon discover the dismissed warrant for Joong-Ki's arrest. There is also the threat of Detective Mun awakening from his coma. The doctors expect this to happen soon. Joong-Ki sends men to the hospital to kill him, but the police are alerted by Nomi, and the assassins are captured. Evidence shows that Minister Park provided the security clearance needed to attempt the assassination. Joong-Ki flees the country while Minister Park is giving testimony against him in a plea deal. Mun awakens and verifies that he was at the gala to arrest Joong-Ki for embezzlement and that it was he, Joong-Ki, who shot him. Ultimately, Sun is cleared of all charges against her. All this happens while she is in England with Will, Riley, Kala and Whispers.

LINE BREAK

After the swap with BPO and the brief celebration behind it, Capheus, Nomi, Lito and Sun return to their homes. Capheus moves into his new position as a politician, Nomi goes back to San Francisco with Amanita and into its techno-geek underworld, Lito goes back to his movie shoot and Sun returns to Seoul.

Amid some fanfare and much awe, Sun takes her place as the new Chief Executive Officer of her family's now failing business, Bak Enterprises. She visits with Detective Mun in the hospital after he awakens from his coma.

Sun: "I apologize for my brother. He showed very poor manners in shooting you."

Detective Mun: "That's alright, I'm use to needing medical attention after an encounter with a Bak."

LINE BREAK

Shortly after Wolfgang's release from BPO, Lila pops into his head. She is surprised to see that Wolfgang is alive and free as rumored. She is not alone, but Wolfgang cannot see her cluster sensates. They want to know how he got away from Whispers. Wolfgang tells her nothing about his escape. He does tell Lila that he is coming for her. Lila shows a slight amount of alarm and pronounced anger in reaction to this threat. Wolfgang disconnects the visit with blockers. He then has Kala permanently break their connection by suspending his brain activity for two minutes.

Aware that their faces and identities are known to BPO, Will, Riley, Wolfgang and Kala separate as couples. Will with Riley remain in London at the safe-house. Wolfgang and Kala leave for Berlin. Kala insists on making the trip with him. Wolfgang's intention is to kill Lila and, if need be, her cluster. Kala and Wolfgang are motivated by revenge. Will and Riley are motivated by BPO's threat to their cluster. They fill that BPO must be neutralized, one way or the other. Nomi, Sun, Lito and Capheus agree to provide what financial and logistical assistance they can to both endeavors. Their telepathic connection gives them a completely secure communication network.

Will instructs Riley to connect with the Old Man of Hoy and Puck. But both these efforts fail to connect. Will surmises that all Riley's sensate connections outside of their cluster are on blockers and quarantined to prevent telepathic visits from her. Will understands that the sensate community believe there is no escape from BPO after Whispers has made a telepathic connection with one of them. After these failed attempts by Riley to reach a sensate outside of their cluster, Capheus reaches out and makes a telepathic visit with one of the sensates that he recently connected with. This sensate is shocked to learn that Capheus is part of the cluster that Whispers was now actively trying to capture. Despite a rumor that this cluster escaped BPO's grasp, this sensate is afraid that his telepathic connection with Capheus will expose him and his cluster to Whispers' notice. He explains that all sensates who are telepathically linked to Wolfgang or one of his sensate siblings are under quarantine until after he and his cluster are destroyed by BPO.

Despite his fears, Capheus' sensate connection from another cluster agrees to pass the word along that Riley wants a visit from the Old Man of Hoy. They put in the message the phrases, "it's time to stop surviving." This sensate puts out the word despite fear of his connection to Capheus and his cluster. In addition, this sensate tells Capheus that he too will be going into a telepathic quarantine after he passes the message. The sensate explains that the quarantine is to protect his cluster from the danger that Capheus and his cluster represents to them.

Several days after Capheus' contact sent out Riley's request for a meet with the Old Man of Hoy (OMH) she gets a visit from him. OMH tells Riley that he felt compelled to make the visit because of her general knowledge of his place of residence. Riley counted on that knowledge being a motivator. OMH tells Will and Riley that the Sensate Archipelago is abuzz with rumors about their clusters encounters with and escape from BPO.

OMH: "What do you want?"

Will: "We want in. We want access to the Archipelago."

OMH: "As far as the Archipelago is concerned, you and your cluster are dead. Hitching their cluster to yours could get them killed too."

Will: "Chances are they're dead already. It's just a matter of time before BPO finds them, or their children, or their children's children."

OMH: "If that's true then hooking up with you is just tempting fate?"

Will: "What If we have something that can give homo-sensoriums a fighting chance."

OMH: "And what would that be, laddie?"

Will: "A way to break the telepathic connection from a sensate outside your cluster."

The Old Man of Hoy is surprised by and suspicious of this claim.

Riley: "That's how we got away. BPO is out of our heads. They can't track us anymore."

OMH: "And how did you manage that?"

Will: "You tell the Archipelago that we want entry onto the network and we'll tell them how to do it."

OMH: "It doesn't work that way, laddie. The Sensate Archipelago is a network of sensates that are responsible for each other. It's a network built on trust. We are sworn to take our lives before revealing our secrets. No one in the Archipelago is going to risk these connections on a cluster that BPO has its hooks into."

Will considers this point and then tells OMH how to break the connection from a sensate not in his cluster. Will tells OMH this under the urging of Riley. They refer to the method as a rebirth because the sensate awakens with no telepathic connections when he/she is revived from death. The natural connection with their cluster siblings reattaches automatically shortly after the awakening. The unnatural connections do not. He explains that BPO had this information and kept it a secret. OMH agrees to pass this information on but makes no promises. OMH instructs Will and Riley to be in attendance of the next soccer game at the Orange Velodrome in Marseille. He tells them to take seats on the west side of the stadium and not to take any blockers. OMH tells them that if they get wind of any BPO trouble with the meet, they will give them a call on their cell.

On the day of the soccer match, Will and Riley take seats on the west side of the stadium. They quickly make telepathic connections with five sensates in the stadium. OMH is one of them. Will sees OMH for the first time. The five visiting sensates tell Will and Riley that they tested the rebirthing, verified that it works and invites them into the Sensate Archipelago. When asked what he wants out of this entry into the Sensate Archipelago, Will tells them that he wants the sensate community to go on the offensive. He tells them that the nature, objective and the leadership of BPO must be changed and can be changed if they work together. The sensates that he is talking too are receptive to this thinking. Will tells them that they must organize, they must marshal their resources and they must crackdown on collaborators and headhunters.

Will: "Several among us can't go back to our homes, our lives, our families, because BPO knows who we are. This can happen to any one of us in the future. This goes beyond BPO. This is about powerful people who want to either kill us or exploit us. This is a war and we need to be an army."

By the end of this meet, Will is on track to be this homo-sensorium army's commander and chief. During this visit with the five sensates from outside of Will and Riley's cluster, Kala comes in and asks for help.

Kala: "Wolfgang is in danger. They're going to kill him."

Will, Riley and the visiting sensates provide what help they can.

LINE BREAK

The day after OMH arrives for his first visit with Riley following the Whispers swap, Wolfgang and Kala are slipping into Berlin. Lila tells Fuchs that Wolfgang is coming after him. She advises him to take Felix as a hostage so that he can control the time and place. Lila's cluster is doubtful this tactic will protect her. They think Fuchs is becoming suspicious about her loyalty to him. They are worried that Wolfgang might turn Fuchs against her. They decide that she needs backup to protect her from Fuchs. Two of her cluster members declare they are coming to Berlin and that they are bringing support from other headhunter clusters.

Wolfgang discovers that Felix has been taken by Fuchs. He calls Fuchs and tells him that Lila is playing him. Fuchs is receptive to this claim, partially because he has been thinking it himself and in part because Felix's claim that Wolfgang didn't want anything to do with the whole business. But Fuchs does not want to believe that Lila is plotting to betray him. He tells Wolfgang to come to the club tomorrow at 10 AM. Fuchs tells him that Felix will be there, and he threatens to kill him if he does not show up.

The next day Wolfgang arrives at the club alone and on blockers. He leaves Kala in the motel room they procured with cash, and he does not tell her where he's going. Kala turns to Will for help when she discovers Wolfgang is gone.

Kala: "Wolfgang is in danger. They're going to kill him."

In her visit with Will, Kala learns of their new alliance with the Sensate Archipelago. The five visiting sensates put the word out and learn where Wolfgang is going to meet with Fuchs. This information is relayed to them from the sensate clusters that are helping Lila and her cluster. Kala races off to the club over the objections of Will, Riley and the rest of their cluster minus Wolfgang, he is on blockers.

When Wolfgang arrives at the club, Fuchs, Lila and Felix are there. Fuchs is there with four gunmen. One of them has a gun to Felix's head. Fuchs wants to know the truth about the Khalial plot to kill him. Wolfgang argues that Lila was plotting to kill him, Fuchs, and that she asked him to come in on the plan. Wolfgang continues to explain that Lila found out that he, Fuchs, had learned of the Khalial plot and framed him, Wolfgang, because he refused to take part.

Lila argues that she had no way of knowing that Fuchs knew about Khalial's phone call to her. She claims that Wolfgang is trying to twist everything toward her to get back into his, Fuchs', good graces.

Wolfgang: "Think about it. Why would Khalial call Lila and offer her money to kill you If he didn't trust her to keep his secret? Lila knows I'm coming for her and she needs you for protection."

Fuchs finds this argument compelling and Lila takes notice of this. In response, Lila argues that she has her own protection and then directs everyone's attention toward the rear entrance. It is at this moment that Lila's two cluster siblings and four more men enter the room with guns in hand. Fuchs' men take their weapons into hand. Wolfgang produces his hand gun.

Lila: "Baby, if I had wanted you dead, I would have done it a long time ago. Kill him and let's get things back to the way they were."

Fuchs is confused by this new turn of events. These new gunmen do not belong to him. He fears them, and for the first time he fears Lila. Everyone is waiting on Fuchs to say how to proceed. It is in the middle of this standoff that Kala arrives inside the club. Wolfgang is shocked to see her there.

Fuchs: "Who are you?"

Kala: "I'm with Wolfgang."

Fuchs: "What do you want?"

Kala: "I believe there's a huge misunderstanding going on, and I'm here to clear things up."

Kala is not on blockers. She immediately connects with Lila and the six other sensates in the room. Wolfgang has no idea what's going on in their heads. His blockers have him in the dark. Kala and Lila exchange barbs across their sensate visit. Kala then turns her attention to the four gunmen supporting Lila and her two cluster siblings. She directs their attention back to their clusters for new orders. Will sends the word out commanding that these four men protect Wolfgang, Kala and Felix or pay the consequences. The message racing through the Sensate Archipelago and beyond is that the days of collaborators and headhunters are at an end. The four gunmen are ordered by their clusters to switch their allegiance to Wolfgang and his cluster. Lila and her cluster members are aware of this change as it is happening. They watch with mounting fear as the four gunmen move away from them and move backwards toward Kala and Wolfgang. When the four men are situated alongside Wolfgang, much to his surprise, Kala turns her attention towards Fuchs.

Kala: "Now, Mr. Fuchs, if you'll just let us have Felix, we'll be happy to walk out of here so that you and Ms. Facchini can hash things out."

Fuchs considers it for a moment and then signals for his men to let Felix go. As Kala, Wolfgang, Felix and the four gunmen are moving toward the front entrance, Lila calls out.

Lila: "Wolfgang?"

Wolfgang stops to give Lila a look and then a response.

Wolfgang: "Any regrets?"

As Wolfgang, Kala and Felix are hurrying away from the club they hear the reports of multiple gunshots coming from inside.

LINE BREAK

After Wolfgang's blockers wear off, the cluster comes together around him and Kala. They bring Wolfgang up to date on what has transpired while he was under the effects of the blockers. Wolfgang and Kala then make their way to Paris and the deluxe hotel room that Sun purchased for them. After a day of bliss, Kala accesses her E-mail account. It is late in the evening. Kala learns that Ajay is facing prosecution for his part in the political corruption investigation and that she has been listed as a missing person.

Kala attempts to call Rajan and gets no answer at the home or cellphone number. After this attempt, she calls her parents. They are delighted to hear from her. Her parents attempt to query her about where she has been and what has happened. Kala ignores these inquiries and asks about Rajan. Her parents explain that Rajan is under arrest in Delhi. They explain that Rajan is refusing to give testimony because he believes confederates of Ajay has kidnapped her. They tell her that Rajan is scheduled to give his sworn deposition at 10 A.M. the next day. The last thing they tell her is that if he does not comply the immunity deal he made with Agent Singh is null-and-void. Kala immediately sets off for Delhi with Wolfgang.

Kala arrives at the Delhi High Court at a few minutes past ten in the morning. She races into the room where Rajan is seated for his deposition. Her presence assures him that he is free to give testimony against Ajay. The decorum of the room restricts her from approaching Rajan. When Rajan finishes giving his testimony she and Rajan come together in the hallway outside the courtroom. Rajan peppers her with questions. She assures him that she was not kidnapped and at no time was she in any danger of being so. She is reluctant to explain any further than that and is prevented from doing so by Whispers arrival.

LINE BREAK

After Whispers return to BPO, he informs the Chairman that Will and his cluster know how to break a telepathic connection between sensates from different clusters. The Chairman is displeased to hear this and angry with Whispers for giving them this information. Whispers defends himself by saying they would have killed him if he did not. This does not diminish the Chairman's anger at Whispers. He would have rather held onto the secret and lost Whispers—Whispers is replaceable.

Whispers argues that the capture or killing of Will and his cluster is even more necessary and now urgent. He points out that his knowledge of Kala Rasal's appearance and his ability to get into her head makes him indispensable in the pursuit of her. The Chairman agrees with this and sends him to Mumbai, India to collect Kala. His flight arrives late in the afternoon and a day before Kala's return flight to Delhi. Armed with information about Kala's home address and the address of her parents, Whispers goes to these locations first. After a time, he learns from Kala's family that Rajan is under arrest in Delhi and Kala is missing. Whispers leaves for Delhi and the location where the deposition is scheduled to happen. It is his hope that Kala will go there. When he arrives at the Delhi High Court at 10:50 A.M., he is accompanied by 4 Delhi Police Officers. He is in possession of an Interpol Red Notice on Kala resulting from a British warrant for her arrest.

Soon after Kala and Rajan come out of the courtroom, Whispers seizes her with the help of the four Delhi Police Officers. Kala's appearance and name matches what Whispers saw and read out of Wolfgang's mind. Their immediate telepathic connection confirms for Whispers that Kala is homo-sensorium. Rajan objects to Whispers' seizure of Kala and challenges the authority of his Red Notice. But his effort fails. The Delhi Police Officers are under strict orders to enforce the Red Notice. Kala is lead out of the courthouse in handcuffs and with Rajan following behind. Whispers sends a message to Wolfgang through Kala as they move.

Whispers: "Wolfgang, I know you're watching. If you don't want me to do to Mrs. Kala Rasal what I did to you, then surrender yourself to me."

LINE BREAK

During the whole of Nomi's return trip to San Francisco, she is obsessed with the idea of a super cluster. She cannot help but think that the presumed weakness of the psycellium can be turned into a strength through a super cluster. Shortly after her arrival home, she takes part in the assistance that her cluster and the Sensate Archipelago gives to Wolfgang and Kala in Berlin. This act of strength in numbers further enflames her intrigue with the idea of a super cluster. Not long into this pondering, Nomi is approached by The-Guy, Bug's E-Death contact. He is homo-sensorium and was one of the Sensate Archipelago members that supported Wolfgang and Kala in Berlin. He is a genius at computer programming and hacking. After Nomi tells him about the possibility of producing a super cluster, he explains to her how he could hack any computer or computer network in the world if he had a super cluster at his command.

The-Guy: "There's no way they could track us. Our minds would be working as one from behind several hundred different terminals around the world. All we would have to do is keep switching terminals every 30 to 45 seconds. We would be the perfect intranet—undetectable and impenetrable. From their perspective, we would look like a mass of attackers making random assaults at their system. But, in reality, we would be a single brain directing hundreds of computers to make a coordinated assault on the system that we're trying to penetrate."

The-Guy goes on to explain that any limitations in computer science, decryption and mathematics of members would be offset through mind sharing inside the super cluster. Nomi's imagination is excited by this idea, but she soon comes to the thinking that it would be difficult to marshal enough homo-sensoriums to make it work. Despite this thinking, she reaches out to Will with the idea.

Nomi: "Hacking into computers and encrypted data would be a hundred times easier if we could do this. With a large enough cluster—a hundred or more—we could shut down BPO. We have to get the Archipelago working on this."

Will is excited about the idea of a super cluster operating as one across the internet. Nomi quickly convinces him of the extreme potential a super cluster would have for seizing control of any computer, any database, and for crippling entire networks.

Will takes the idea to Jonas for his opinion and is told that the homo-sensorium community is too thin for this.

Jonas: "There are not enough lynchpins. BPO gives priority to terminating cluster parents. Like I said, they're afraid of super clusters."

Will ponders this for a moment and then hits on a memory. He turns to Jonas with a new thought.

Will: "How did we share with you when you were on the operating table?"

Jonas: "You didn't. You couldn't have."

Nomi: "Yes, we did! I could feel myself strapped down. You had a cramp in your right foot and the strap around your left wrist was hurting you. We weren't visiting you. We were sharing."

Jonas: "That's not possible. You would need Angelica to share with me."

Will-Nomi: "Angelica was there!"

Will: "I saw her. You saw her—didn't you."

Jonas: "She was a dream—an illusion. Angelica is dead."

Nomi: "That's not the first time I saw Angelica. And it did not feel like a dream and it was not a memory."

Jonas: "Then what was it?"

Riley: "It feels more like an echo of her thoughts… memories… feelings in our heads."

Nomi: "You're right. When we share, we must leave impressions of ourselves inside each other. That's the only explanation that makes sense."

Jonas: "Can it be true?"

Will: "Have you seen your sensate parent or other members of your cluster?"

Jonas: "Yes… sometimes, when I think about them."

Nomi: "That has to be it. When we think about them, we conjure up the residue of their minds inside our heads—a ghost."

Will: "And we can use that ghost to share with all of the clusters that they were connected to."

Jonas: "Oh my god… I think you're right."

Nomi: "And if we are right, then we don't need the help of the Archipelago. We can reach out on our own and connect with…"

Nomi-Will-Jonas-Riley: "Everyone."

Jonas: "Will, you're going to need me in on this. I'm the only living connection between Angelica and an outside cluster."

Will agrees with this and chooses not to put Jonas on the blockers so that they can use his telepathic connection the ghost of his sensate parent. Through him they hoped to connect with the dozens of sensate off springs he produced. They all agree that producing this telepathic share would be more extensive than anything they had done in the past. They would not only be reaching out to more sensates than they ever had before. They would be reaching back in time to find ancestors who could bridge them over to homo-sensoriums in the present. They had no idea how long this would take or how much concentration would be needed. Will, Riley, Jonas, Nomi, Capheus, Lito, Sun, Wolfgang and The-Guy take a short period of time to prepare and situate themselves. When they are ready, they reach out to share with their siblings and then with their sensate parent, alive or dead. The connection to the ghost of dead sensates takes longer and needs more concentration, but this is only a minute of effort at the most. When the ghost share is completed, they reach out to find new siblings and do so easily. The growth of the cluster expands quickly. It only slows when a new ghost must be resurrected. In 5 minutes time Angelica's extended cluster numbers in the hundreds. In 10-minutes time, it numbers past three-thousand. Whispers is avoided by all in the growing super cluster. The-Guy's cluster merges with Angelica's cluster at the 8-minute mark. At the 15-minute mark, The-Guy is orchestrating a hack of BPO with the use of 73 tentacles of his mind that have access to a computer. An additional twenty to 30 tentacles go active every minute. 70 percent of the homo-sensoriums around the world are merged together as a single mind. Everywhere homo-sensoriums are racing for the nearest online computer so that they too can participate in the effort. The number of tentacles goes past 600 at the 18-minute mark. By the 23-minute mark, they are in full control of BPO's mainframe and any BPO computer connected to it around the world. At this same time, they are reaching out to networks, systems and databases belonging to other entities that have links to BPO's mainframe. In 40 minutes time, homo-sensoriums are tinkering around in government mainframes, databases and networks in every industrialized nation on the planet. The intrusions are so subtle and painless the governments of the world do not know how to react. Attempts to track the intrusion repeatedly fail. The hackers appear like fireflies winking on and off. Their presence is too brief for them to believe that the intrusion had done any harm. By the time the word goes out that a hack of unprecedented coordination and proportion is in progress, everything seems to go back to normal. There is no sign that the intrusion is continuing. The only noticeable change is the erasure of BPO's databases, the disappearance of all its funds, and the disappearance of all the funds in the top-secret government agencies that bankrolled BPO. In addition to this, a two-word text message is sent to the Directors of each of these top-secret government offices:

SUPER CLUSTER

Immediately after this super cluster rally, Bak Enterprises accrues several large new accounts from investors outside of the country. The money is far more than enough to prevent Bak Enterprises from going into bankruptcy. As this is happening in Seoul, Korea, the Government of Kenya is getting notice of a large order of medicine and medical supplies that purportedly has been procured by Capheus during his time abroad. This is a boon for Capheus because the price for the medical supplies is equivalent to pennies on the dollar of its true cost.

LINE BREAK

When Wolfgang climbs out of the taxi that he and Kala arrive in, he sets off for the park across the street from the Delhi High Court. As Kala hurries into the courthouse, Wolfgang pays little attention to her with his eyes. He follows her movements with his telepathic connection to her. By the time Kala gets to the room where Rajan is, Wolfgang has found a bench situated in the shade of a tree where he can wait for her return. He is nearly thirty minutes into this wait when the act of formulating a super cluster begins. Wolfgang participates in this from his seat in the park. Nearly an hour later they are done. Halfway through this time Whispers arrive to collect Kala. Wolfgang's location in the park prevent him from seeing Whispers go into the courthouse. But his connection to Kala make him fully aware of what is happening when she walks out of the courtroom.

By the time Whispers reaches the curb of the street in front of the courthouse, Wolfgang is standing on the sidewalk across the way from them. Whispers does not see him at first. His attention is fixed on inserting Kala in the waiting police car. Rajan is watching from halfway up the steps to the courthouse. Kala had just been secured inside the car with Whispers alongside her when both their eyes take note of Wolfgang through the street-side window of the car. Whispers' and Wolfgang's eyes meet. Almost at that same instant an official government car races up and blocks Whispers car from leaving the curb. An instant later, Whispers jumps out of the car, points at Wolfgang and begins shouting orders that he be arrested. The two men that just arrived in the official government vehicle ignore Whispers' shouts. They show their badges to the local police officers and then they pin Whispers against the car and begin handcuffing him. Suddenly, Whispers is in a state of shock and confusion. He has no idea what is going on. The two men identified themselves to the local police as Officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation. They instruct the local police to free Kala and then they force a terrified Whispers into the back seat of their government vehicle. Kala is released from custody and standing free on the sidewalk as Whispers is being driven away. Wolfgang telepathically visits with Whispers as he rolls away down the street. He tells Whispers that there has been a shift in power and that he and his super cluster are going to bury him so deep inside India's penal system that the government will not recognize their error until they start looking for someone to claim his remains.

As the car with Whispers in it speeds away, Rajan hurries down the stairs and to Kala's side. He begins to pepper her with questions. He wants to know what happened, where had she been and who is the man across the street. As this is happening, Wolfgang flags down a taxi. After opening the taxi door, Wolfgang pauses and looks back at Kala. She, in turn, calls out to him to wait. Wolfgang stops outside the open door of the taxi. He tells the driver to wait. Kala turns to look at Rajan as she speaks.

Kala: "I do care for you Rajan, but I don't love you—I have to go."

Kala breaks away from Rajan and runs across the street just in time to thread between crisscrossing traffic. Rajan tries to follow, but he is checked by the traffic. Kala stops in front of the open taxi door and turns back toward Rajan.

Kala: "Good bye, Rajan."

Kala then climbs into the back seat of the taxi in one quick movement. Wolfgang hurries in behind her and shuts the door. The taxi speeds off a second before Rajan can reach it.

LINE BREAK

The day after the rally of the super cluster, Nomi goes to her parent's house for a family dinner. She arrives in an expensive new car. She tells her parents that she used the interest from an investment in Bak Enterprises to buy it. Amanita accompanies Riley and is introduced as her fiancé. Nomi's sister Teagan called for the dinner upon her return from the honeymoon. Teagan insisted on Nomi's presence over the reluctance of her mother, Janet. Tom, Teagan's husband, is there with his parents, siblings and their significant other. Despite the tension between Janet and Nomi, the dinner proceeds quietly up until the arrival of Agent Bendix.

Special Agent Jeffrey Bendix bursts into the event with two other FBI Agents. He argues with Lawrence Marks at the front door and shows him a hardcopy warrant for Nomi's arrest. Lawrence, Nomi's father, is reluctant to let him in and reads the warrant carefully. When he is satisfied that the warrant is valid, Lawrence allows Agent Bendix and the two other FBI agents to enter his home. He then leads them into the dining area where everyone is seated. Agent Bendix first asks Nomi's parents to identify her as their child, Nomi Marks—formerly Michael Marks. When they do this, Agent Bendix declares that he is arresting Nomi on the charge of committing a fraud to evade outstanding warrants.

Bendix: "According to the Social Security Administration, Nomi Marks is dead."

Family and guests in the room are shocked to hear this. They all look at Nomi with amazed expressions as the two assisting agents help her to a stance and then handcuff her. Nomi displays a mild look of surprise mixed with a distinct look of frustration. An instant later, the agents start to walk back through the house with Nomi in tow and the dinner party behind them. A few steps out of the dining area, Nomi responds to Agent Bendix's last remark.

Nomi: "Are you sure about this, Agent Bendix. I think you should check the Social Security Administration records again."

Bendix: "Not this time, Ms. Marks. I've got you and here's the warrant. You're coming with me."

By the time they get to the front door of the house, Agent Bendix's cellphone begins to ring, and the progression stops. After taking the cellphone out of his suitcoat pocket, Agent Bendix pauses to note the caller.

Nomi: "Better answer that."

Agent Bendix hesitates to give Nomi a suspicious look and then he answers the call with a declarative, "Agent Bendix." For the next several seconds he listens to the caller. At the end of this time, he disconnects the call without voicing a response to the caller. He then inserts his cellphone into his suitcoat pocket, looks to Nomi with a glum expression and then speaks.

Bendix: "Let her go."

When the assisting FBI Agents hesitate to respond, Bendix repeats his command in a slightly more definitive tone. The two agents remove the handcuffs. Nomi takes a moment to massage her risks and then looks up to note that Agent Bendix is still standing there with a stunned expression.

Nomi: "You can go now."

Agent Bendix turns about and leaves with his two assisting agents. Apart from Amanita, all eyes look at Nomi with questioning expressions. Amanita can barely stop herself from laughing.

Lawrence Marks: "What was that about."

Nomi: "Oh, that's nothing. It won't happen again."

Lawrence Marks: "And how do you know that?"

Nomi: "Intuition. I believe Agent Bendix is about to get a new posting… to Albuquerque, New Mexico."

Amanita laughs.

LINE BREAK

Will and Riley are in a rental car and on the last leg of a trip into Iceland when the sensation of Nomi's trepidation fills up within them. Will is quick to calm her with his assurance that he will take care of it. The arrival of Agent Bendix at Riley's family dinner surprises all of them. It was believed that the E-Death had dismissed all the warrants on her. The minds of Nomi and her cluster race to figure out the grounds for Agent Bendix's arrest warrant. Will is quick to come up with the probable charge.

Will: "He knows you faked your death. That could produce a charge of fraud to evade an outstanding warrant."

Nomi: "Can you fix it?"

Will: "Give me a few seconds."

The FBI and Social Security Administration data networks are now wide-open systems to Will, Nomi and all other sensoriums that were a part of the super cluster hack the day before. But it falls to Lito to do the honors. He is the only member of their cluster close to a computer terminal. This act does not come without some embarrassment for him. He is in the middle of filming "Iberian Dreams" when he races off the set. Along the way to his trailer, he seizes a laptop from a production employee.

Lito: "I'll bring it right back."

After running into his trailer, Lito accesses the Social Security Administration's database with a deftness burrowed from Nomi. In the span of a few seconds, he changes her status from deceased to alive. He then switches his attention to the FBI database. In the span of another few seconds, he terminates the warrant for Nomi's arrest. After killing the warrant, Lito accesses the E-mail server at FBI Headquarters in Washington DC and then the E-mail account of the Special Agent In-Charge of the Records Management Division. With Will's help, it takes Lito just under a minute to send out an urgent message to the Special Agent In-Charge of the San Francisco Field Office and to all agents on staff. The content of the E-mail informs the San Francisco FBI Office that all charges against and warrants directed at Nomi Marks are dismissed and that all actions in progress involving her are to be stopped ASAP. Lito then accesses the database for the Human Resources Division of the FBI and commences work on a transfer order for Agent Bendix to the Albuquerque, New Mexico Office. When he finishes doing this, Lito shuts down the computer and hurries back onto set.

Will and Riley are privy to all of this through their telepathic connection with Lito and Nomi. When it becomes clear that Nomi is out of danger, they relax and ride out the remainder of the trip without worry. A little more than an hour later, they arrived at the home of Riley's father. When they climb out of the car, Riley's father, Gunnar, comes out of the house and approaches them.

Riley: "Dad, this is Will."

LINE BREAK

One thing that I would back away from in this series is the way it describes how sensate clusters are formed. In the series, they say all the sensates in a cluster are born at the same time, and that they breath their first breath at the same moment. But what makes them a cluster is the spontaneous and simultaneous psychic mind merge by another sensate to just these sensoriums that were born at the same moment. This mind merge happens at a much later date in the lives of the newborns. Apparently all sensates periodically, and spontaneously, reach out with their telepathic powers, find a group of genetically ideal people who were born at the same moment and psychically bond with them. And in doing this they psychically bond this group of matching birthday-sensates to each other. My problem with this is the question, what happens to sensorium infants that are born minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years apart from any other sensorium? The process described in the series sounds like something that would be so rare as to be a once in a million years event.

The way I would describe the process is like this. Grown sensates are predisposed to spontaneously reach out and psychically merge with sensoriums who are not already tethered to a cluster and whose psycelliums are compatible and are fully developed. These spontaneous psychic mergers would be events that happen once, twice or even three times in the lifetime of a sensorium. How many times would depend upon the length of the sensorium's life. In writing it this way I could say that clusters have been slowly growing larger over the centuries because of population growth and a corresponding growth of the number of people in it with the sensorium gene. In my mind, it just works better this way.