I knew this chapter would take awhile, but I I do apologize for the delay. I did a lot of work on this and a lot of edits and reedits. I think it all compiled right. I'll read it again later, but I feel like I'm about to go blind. Anyway, enjoy...

Chapter 8

Cult of Personality

Eric Byer took a long drink of water before continuing, "In 1990 when the US came to understand the threat posed by this virus, they sent a team to collect and destroy the canisters. This was a long term 'back burner' mission that we gave little hope of success. Four operatives were assigned, separately, to facilitate this."

"Two of the four devices were eventually collected and destroyed. The other two assets claimed to have been unable to locate or obtain theirs."

"Later it was discovered that the other two devices had 'gone missing'- as in stolen. One of them had been in the hands of Saddam Hussein and was one of the reasons the first gulf war had actually started. We knew that Hussein was collecting such material to try to ensure his own survival at any cost. It wasn't until years later that, under interrogation, Hussein continually insisted that it was not sold to Syria with the rest of his WMD's. He claimed that the one he had was kept near him at all times and had been stolen from his palace during the first Gulf War. He claimed that the guard in charge of it sold it to an American spy for the sum of three million dollars in gold, only he was double crossed and killed for the device."

"The other was in South America in the hands of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet." Bourne heard two knuckles pop loudly and saw it was elicited from Paz Carrasco, the asset that had let him jump off of the roof in New York; in his profile he was listed as Chilean. He saw Jason looking at him and nodded curtly. "He was placed under house arrest in Britain in October of 1998 and not released until he gave up the location of his device. He also claimed that years prior the device was stolen right on from underneath him."

Malana smiled, "Did they leave a white glove with P.P. on it? I always wanted to do that…"

Ash whispered to her father, "Why would someone urinate on a glove?"

"No, P.P. not peepee. Wait, you've never seen the Pink Panther?" She shook her head. "What kind of father am I?" he scoffed.

Byer glared at their murmuring both and they fell silent, "At first, when we found out these two went missing, we thought they would be sold on the black market or used as a token during defection to a foreign power. Later we came to believe that one of the assets had taken them and was going to use them as a means of self preservation- a retirement plan. If we were to kill him, then later the virus would be released and he would win. It is the ultimate safety net."

"Wait…" Kirill asked, "If this is true, why has he not declared it so?"

Byer shook his head, "From his cell? No. We would've had five years to get it out of him. He never intended to be captured. He was going to inform us once he was safely in hiding somewhere, which never occurred."

"Two assets had gone off the grid at different points during the time when the two canisters are known to have gone missing. Furthermore, when they came under scrutiny, neither agent passed the sniff test. 'Bishop' Diangelo Ziccardi- they all head religious titles as nicknames, was the most likely suspect and one of the other assets Kane 'Padre' Tolman was deployed to take him out and retrieve the virus or… obtain its location."

"Kane took out Bishop but claimed he couldn't locate the device. It was the opinion of his handler that Kane was withholding information. That- coupled with the fact that: Padre went off the grid for four days afterward, blatantly refused to account for his whereabouts, and his questioning of authority, resulted in his incarceration."

"Wait," Cross blurted. "So, they had these thing since the early nineties right? What if he died on a mission or something? Wouldn't he have left something somewhere to prevent it from going off?"

Byer shrugged, "We checked his lawyer and for safe deposit boxes and the like and found nothing. Besides, he's been locked up for almost five years and nothing like that has surfaced as it should have if he had bothered to make such arrangements. Maybe he wants it to go off no matter what?"

Reina asked, "If he had ten years, why keep using the same device that the Nazis made? Why not use a modern rig? He could set it off whenever he wanted and even be able to remote trigger it from the other side of the planet."

"Nostalgia," Nicky said simply. "Besides, why fix what's not broken? The other dictators left it alone for fear of breaking the vial at the heart of the device while trying to extricate it. Hitler didn't provide an instruction manual and the device is terribly complex as you will see later. It's like a giant clock and it was designed to be activated if the gears stopped for any reason."

Bourne suddenly interjected, "Sorry, but what about the other operatives and even the director and his handler. They had at least some knowledge of the operation and could have either reallocated other assets to intercept the devices or even done it themselves. If Kane was checking in properly, then they would have known the meeting location and could have sought to frame him?"

"That is highly implausible… Two of the assets are dead. One of the others is here now, as well as their handler."

"Well what about the fourth asset- where were they during the op?!"

Byer interjected, "The fourth asset died prior to the church incident…"

"…and this has been confirmed how?" Cross demanded.

"CNN… The fourth asset had gone into hiding and it was sometime before he was located. It was only when he was seen on the news that his identity was substantiated…" He motioned to Goens, "Skip to part two…"

A video started playing of a familiar looking four story structure in a desert. "On Sunday morning February 28, 1993 ATF agents attempted to serve an expired warrant for child abuse at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas…"

Goens blurted loudly, "Oh, please tell me Koresh was one of these guys!"

Byer shot him a glace so chilling that he immediately shut up. "Koresh was indeed the fourth asset and the ATF had no idea what they were in for. He had devised this compound, amassed arms, and recruited an army of maniacal followers in order to insure his survival. By the time we knew where he was, killing him would have proved difficult. After Koresh, we looked for candidates with lone wolf mentalities and took great lengths to ensure that they never met each other unless there was no other choice."

"When 'the Messiah' abandoned the program he chose fight over flight- in the long term. The assets in the Emerald Lake Program were masters of manipulation and psychological warfare. He trained all of his followers to the extent that just one of them was able to destroy the FBI building that was the headquarters of the agents that conducted the botched raid on that compound." A picture of the Oklahoma City bombing flashed onto the screen. "He conditioned these people to die for him and his cause and built a web of intrigue around himself hoping that it would make him untouchable- physically or politically."

"The ATF turned the case over to the FBI. Once the Feds realized who Koresh was, I was sent in the guise of a negotiator to talk them out. The negotiations were really about the device, not the compound. We were certain that he had one of the devices, the one from the Middle East, and was more than willing to being about the end of the world rather than to die or go to prison."

"After months of negotiations going nowhere, the FBI became unhinged and decided to breach the compound to insert gas. Once I found out- they had waited for me to go to sleep, I… commandeered one of the tanks and had it breach the outer wall near the stairwell so that I could enter the structure and eliminate the threat."

"I went to the deepest part of the structure first and found that everyone was dead, presumably of hours of inhaling CS gas. I couldn't take the chance of being wrong though. I rigged the structure and then made to leave when I discovered the device. Koresh had displayed the device in videos he sent me, but I wasn't sure that it wasn't a fabrication he made in order to keep the standoff going. I lit the building and escaped in the tank. I then spent a month living in a tank in the desert to ensure I wasn't infected."

"…but you saw him right, his body?"

"No. I didn't go through the whole compound and it was full of gas which lowered visibility. If he was originally in the structure, he died in it. I can find no conceivable way that he could have fled or faked being in there. We have recordings of him there on site. There were no long tunnels leading away from the compound and we were using night vision, motion sensors, and heat sensors to watch the compound. No one left there alive."

Nicky coughed, "Now that we have been adequately distracted, can we get back to the man that is at present trying to destroy all human life on earth?"

"…meaning that there is human life elsewhere," Goens muttered low enough so that only Reina heard it.

"We think he kept one or both of the devices to ensure that he wouldn't be killed. We think that the idea of a five year timer was appealing to him, meaning that he has approximately six to eight weeks to reset the timer, based on his window of opportunity before incarceration."

Bourne butted in, "What makes you think that he is using five years? Or, once again, the device even?"

Byer motioned to Nicky who took the reins, "Kane is extremely crestfallen with the decline of our times and cites our landing on the moon as the pinnacle of humanity. The entire world to him looks ill. Everything he sees sickens him. He views the world through this idealistic lens; he has this 1950's view of everything. It's not really 'rose colored glasses', but the decent of mankind from dizzying heights, to the gutter in just a few years."

"For example, he told me once of going through Wal-Mart and becoming physically ill at the sight of the people there- that he considered subhuman. I believe he would use the device because it comes from a bygone age and the five years just seems an appropriate length of time; also, he wouldn't have to retool the device."

"All of his evaluations were always A plus across the board. But its things that weren't on the check lists that caused me to have concerns over his stability. The most obvious outward sign the he was coming apart was the way he spoke. It was a slow transformation and I thought at first that it was just a guise that he was working on. The way he spoke changed to become more refined; he almost sounded like Yoda or something."

"In addition, his manner of dress became more sophisticated and he started doing odd things. He wouldn't drink soda from plastic bottles; he bought glass ones from somewhere. He started wearing old hats and scarves. He started drinking 7 and 7's and smoking cigars. He bought an old car…"

Kirill barked, "So, you sold him out for: drinking, smoking, and his ensemble?"

Nicky's eyes narrowed to slits, "It started affecting his work. He would request antique weapons- like a M1 Thompson, Luger's, and Mosin–Nagant's. No one in their right mind uses those anymore. He wanted to travel everywhere by train or ship. Whenever he requested women they were never sophisticated enough. He nearly beat one of them to death when she took it too far and curtsied- he took it was mocking."

Major Tyler interrupted, "So, you hired hookers for these guys?"

"I hired escorts, the best in the world and as often as they liked. These men- and women, give up their lives. They can't have outside connections anymore. Any 'local attachments' are to be terminated. Escorts are the trade off, release of sexual tension is paramount; otherwise… …unfortunate things could -and have occurred."

Everyone in the room seemed on edge and they each had a different reason. The tension was so high in the room that everyone was afraid to speak. Bourne's eyes were boring into her so hard he expected to see the wall behind her. She didn't look at him, but he knew she was watching him. She was deliberately avoiding eye contact with him and considering Marie's death who could blame her? He knew what she meant by all local contacts would be terminated and wondered if she ever arranged the killing of anyone he loved.

"What about you?" Ashley asked more loudly than she had planned and sounded quite awkward.

"Me? Did I hire escorts for myself? That's a very personal question…" Nicky snapped.

Ash turned scarlet and shrank into her seat under Nicky's glare, "No, could you have 'local attachments'…"

"No," she said flatly.

"Anyway, he broke eight of her bones including her pelvis and caused brain damage. He claimed that she tried to drug him and that she was a soviet spy."

"That was the first real indication that he was losing it. Other assets- they would have been sent to isolation or reprogrammed immediately," she again avoided Bourne's gaze as he wondered if and when she had made such recommendations for him. He suddenly wondered if she had helped him out of guilt.

"But, Padre had always been the poster boy for stability and my superiors ignored my recommendations and kept him in the field; they actually increased his workload thinking that keeping him busy would keep him straight. Obviously most rational people would realize this is totally idiotic, but my advice was patently ignored."

"Once he was pulled and sent for evaluation my recommendations were once again ignored, as were my continuous requests for a status update. Shortly thereafter Treadstone fell apart and most of the people involved were dead. Kane existence slipped through the cracks."

"So, you forgot about him?" Paz accused.

Her eyes narrowed so tightly it appeared as though she were staring into the Sun, "No, I didn't forget about him. I knew that if I brought him up once Conklin- our section chief, was dead that he would've been eliminated. That is exactly what they tried to do when his existence was discovered. The long history of assets being unable to assimilate into normal life dictated that."

"So…" Cross began…

"LOOK!" Nicky screamed so loudly that her voice cracked. "We aren't here to discuss your retirement plans. Every damn one of you knew what you were getting yourselves into- you volunteered for it! I was twenty years old when I joined the Treadstone program and even I wasn't naïve enough to think that I was going to walk away from this. The 'star' for me has already been cast and is sitting in a box ready to hang on the wall at Langley- right next to all of yours and all of my dead friends. I was only three years older than that girl right there," she pointed to Ashley, "and I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to walk off into the sunset; so suck it up."

She inhaled and exhaled deeply, "This guy has a bio-weapon that only around 1 in 10,000 will have immunity to. Do you all get that? Does that register to all of you? Did we mention birds can get it? Huh? You should all understand what that means!"

Ashley gave Byer a questioning look and he knelt beside her, "Normally you could create quarantine zone, walls, fire breaks, etc. If birds can get it, then it can go anywhere. Sooner or later even the smallest of islands would become infected…" he explained. She nodded gravely.

Nicky continued her rant, "This is an extinction event. You need to stop thinking about yourselves and start thinking about anyone else on this planet that you don't want to have the flesh melted off their bodies… CLEAR?!" There was murmuring, "I SAID IS THAT CLEAR!?"

There was a loud chorus of 'yes sirs/ma'ams'. She stormed up the stairs to the back row and barked something at Kirill and Bourne saw him get out a cigarette, put it in her mouth, and light it for her. She collapsed into the seat next to him as Byer briefed them for the next few hours.

They covered every aspect of Kane Tolman's life from birth onward. There were many things each of them would say were completely irrelevant, but everything meant something to someone there. Bourne was fascinated to learn that Kane once beat Bobby Fischer in chess; sure it was 17 games and it was 14-1-2, but he beat him once. When asked he stated that he won by playing for a draw every time, which spoke volumes. He played his game slowly and carefully, drawing it out until the last piece.

He also claimed flying kites, during his off time, helped his aim when sniping; it helped him identify air currents. He often kept a pet canary and Bourne suspected it was to identify a gas attack or even a food taster.

After the first few hours Bourne realized that he would give everything he owned, granted it wasn't much, for a copy of all of his own reports. There must have been a mile of paper on Kane. Every aspect of everything he had ever done had been studied under a microscope. Everything was in there, from favorite foods to who he dated in Junior High School. Bourne was tempted to ask Nicky for his, but something told him she would say no.

During that next break Nicky approached the man he had apparently been in the SEALS with; Bourne quickly made himself scarce. Jason had no desire to deal with that at the moment and he figured that Nicky was probably bringing him up to speed on his amnesia anyway.

As he passed the front of the make shift crisis suite he heard the Australian woman ask Goens, "So, you are really Anonymous?"

"Not anymore apparently…"

"You're not what I was expecting…"

"Yes, I am quiet charming- and my rugged good looks…"

"No, you're more like a game show host…"

"The Love Connection...?"

"…more like Card Sharks."

"Great show!"

Bourne walked the interior of the theater complex, learning the layout and used the facilities. It still struck him as odd that they were here at a theater, but it did have an odd sort of brilliance to it. They had some of the best sound proofing known, but that only came into play if they were found and surveyed. He guessed that the incident in Australia was proof that it was possible and worse still: it seemed that Padre had recruited at least three followers already.

Bourne returned and they had already started to discuss the potential targets where Padre may have hidden the device.

They were looking for sites that symbolized America's golden age during the fifties and sixties. Very quickly their white board was filling up with dozens of places.

Allen Goens called out, "Wardenclyffe…" and everyone just looked at him. "Oh, come on guys. It's like the worlds very first cell phone tower and transmitter that Nikolai Tesla built in like 1902? He was way ahead of his time… It didn't work and it was used to help discredit him…"

Byer nodded, "Kind of… unheard of but we'll add it."

Nicky yelled from the back row, "Penn St. Station. The one built in the 20's could have been one of the wonders of the modern world- it was a thing for beauty and the tore it down and put up this brick eye sore in the '70s."

Byer nodded and added it, as his ex-wife called out, "Here's one close to that, the SR-71 Blackbird moth balled on that aircraft carrier in New York harbor…"

"Good! I like that one… I'll add the Apollo rocket / Launch Pad in Florida too."

Bourne walked to the front, "The Titan missile silos…"

"Good!" he simply added silos.

Bourne heard everyone moving, as they became in grossed they were all migrating to the front. He saw Ashley open her mouth then snap it shut, "Miss?"

Everyone looked at her and she blushed, "Well I saw Men in Black the other day and they talked about the World's Fair? They had one every decade; it's like the Olympics for scientists… They used to build- like a monument to it every time…"

Everyone kept looking at her until Bourne spoke up, "She's right. I like that one. The Eiffel Tower was one of them… The Space Needle in Seattle too."

"Fernsehturm?" Nicky asked looking at Bourne out of the corner of her eye, her mouth twitched slightly to let him know she was teasing him.

"No, that's just a T.V. tower…" he said flatly. It was across from Alexanderplatz station where he had abducted her and threatened to blow her head off. It looked similar to the Seattle Space Needle but had a geodesic sphere instead of an observation deck. It was the tallest structure in Berlin.

Byer nodded, "Ok, Ashley. Go research it and get me a list of all US sites…"

Malana spoke up, "Waikiki Natatorium War Memorial? It's a memorial to World War One soldiers that is in a state of total ruin. The state keeps trying to destroy it to build a beach front hotel or something." Everyone just looked at her, "Believe me it's a huge deal in Hawaii; they've been trying to do it since the eighties. It was a beach front pool inside a stadium- like a colosseum."

Byer shook his head, "Right idea, but wrong area. He wouldn't do it in an isolated place like that. He would want maximum exposer. Someplace with a lot of people going different places…"

"LAX?"

"No, airports are too high security. I don't like that one, but we'll put it as a last resort. Maybe check in with TSA as we go to major airports."

Kirill said louder than he had intended and clearly with a smirk in his voice, "Disneyland."

Half the people there laughed and Byer snapped, "There will be none of that. Every idea should be thrown out there."

"Kirill's dead on." Nicky cleared her throat, "Walt was a visionary that dreamed of a better age and thought mankind was on the cusp of a Golden age."

Cross added, "Lots of people- millions go through there a day. They say on an average day they have a visitor from every country on Earth."

Byer wrote it at the top, "I think that is our best guess thus far…"

"The UN?" Paz asked.

"No." Nicky said definitively. Everyone looked at her, "It has always been horrible; it'd be like killing a bunch of lawyers."

"A good start…" Cross laughed.

Byer nodded, "We'll have a team in New York anyway, so we'll check it on the way, but I agree. It never stood as a symbol of greatness. Same thing as D.C. as a whole, politicians have always been corrupt."

When they were done they had amassed a list of a hundred possible ideas of places that could have been targeted. They added locations for an hour, then sent another hour trying to prioritize them. Then they had to grid them out into some sort of search pattern. Different targets would obviously require a different type of search and a form of diplomacy.

They would have two primary assault teams and two primary search teams. Byer believed that they had eight weeks before the end of the cycle of when Padre could've last armed the device. Eight weeks to find a deranged assassin and a device the size and shape of an industrial fire extinguisher. They didn't think he would go straight to the device, but they thought that he would move it whenever he did go to it.

Cross looked up and saw that the Air Force major was the only one still in the seats, even the man in the strait jacket had joined them. "Problem Major?" The woman didn't respond and Cross barked, "Major!"

She turned towards him and blinked a few times as her eyes came into focus, "Sorry, Mr. Cross?"

"Problem?" he repeated.

Byer said softly as he capped his pen and tossed in on the desk, "She's figured out why she's here…"

She laughed, "No, dear," she said mockingly, "I figured that out the moment I saw that film…" She got up and walked to the fire exit that they had entered. "…and the answer is 'yes' Eric. There is a bar across from Panera; I am going to go and get drunk. Ladies?" As soon as she said 'bar' Kirill, Nicky, and Reina were in motion. Cross yelled, "…and the question being?"

She paused with her back to them and her hand on the door, "I am the pilot of a B2 stealth bomber. The question is 'If they fail, could you drop a nuclear warhead on an American city to prevent the end of the world?' Yes I could…"

The complete silence was deafening.