There was all the usual stuff to do for Murphy and Emori — the living arrangements, the personal phones, some new clothes. They'd been through it so many times by now that Bellamy had it down to a mental checklist.

Although he did let Clarke and Octavia deal with the clothes.

Given a choice of quarters, Murphy and Emori had much preferred the beach house, with its multiple rooms and relative privacy.

"So I guess not all of us get to have our own place, huh?" Murphy remarked, eyeing Bellamy and Clarke with his usual smirk. "Seems like most of us have to share."

"Sorry about that," Bellamy said drily, the lie utterly blatant. "Clarke and I got here first and we've been working our asses off on this mission for months. And anyway, don't gave me that crap! The beach house is nicer and less cramped than any place you've ever lived."

Murphy laughed. "Don't get your shorts in a twist, Bellamy. I was just pulling your chain."

Bellamy rolled his eyes, suddenly recalling why, although he loved him, Murphy sometimes made him nuts.

Murphy and Emori had been there for a couple of days now, but this was the first time, since the night they'd arrived, that the whole group had had the chance to get together. All of them, including Rosa, had gone to the beach house to enjoy what was probably one of the last few warm days before the cooler weather set in.

"We are running out of space, though," Clarke conceded. "Rosa's been so generous in giving us all a place to live while we figure out what we're going to do, but I'm not sure where we'll put Jordan and Niylah when they arrive."

"Madi and I can double up, right, Madi?" Octavia offered immediately. "That'll take care of one of them…"

"Don't bother worrying about it," Emori interrupted quickly. "Jordan and Niylah aren't coming."

"What! What do you mean they're not coming? They have to come! Otherwise… who knows what'll happen to them when the bombs don't drop in a few weeks, and there's no grounders and no Ark."

It was clear to Bellamy that Clarke was upset.

"What happened?" he asked, just as surprised. "Why aren't they coming?"

Murphy shrugged. "They were supposed to be here right now because the plan was for me and Emori to come last. You know, keep the Prime thing going right 'til the end. But Jordan," he sighed, shaking his head, "he really bought into the whole… peaceful religion thing. He wanted to stay and help. Told us we were abandoning the Sanctumites. We tried like a dozen times to explain about the billions of lives here on Earth we were trying to save, even though that meant we'd have to leave there, but…"

He threw up his hands.

Emori took up the story. "He just… identified with the Sanctumites, and there was nothing we could do to change his mind."

"And… Niylah? What about her?" Clarke asked.

Emori sighed. "One of the Faithful had heard she used to have a store so they asked her to run theirs. And she loved it. Said she felt more useful than she ever had, even among the Trikru. And a lot more than she had with… all of you who came from the Ark."

Bellamy watched Clarke's face crumple as she turned toward him.

"But… aren't we letting Monty and Harper down, Bellamy? We were supposed to take care of their son for them. And… and… Niylah?"

Bellamy sighed. He wasn't happy about this, either, but he knew better than to try to make people do things they didn't want to do, even things that were supposedly for their own good. He'd learned that lesson long ago with Octavia, and then again with Jasper Jordan. And now it seemed his namesake was following suit. As for Niylah, it was understandable that her decision would upset Clarke. They'd been close once — even if not in quite the way he'd imagined at the time.

"I don't think Monty and Harper would blame us for giving their son the right to choose his own life, Clarke," he told her softly. "We have to accept that."

"But will he even get to have one?"

"Hey, the Faithful have convinced Jordan and Niylah that they'll be fine," Murphy said, shrugging again. "We tried to tell 'em they were taking a huge risk, but Emori and I might as well have been talking to a wall."

"But…"

"Look, Clarke, I know how tough this must be for you," Octavia broke in suddenly. "But even if he's Monty and Harper's kid, Jordan Green is still an adult. As for Niylah…" She sighed. "Niylah was… a good friend to me when I really needed one. But I've also come to realize that she's happiest when she has something or someone to kind of… fixate on. It was her store, it was you, it was me… and now it seems to be the Sanctumites and their faith."

"It's not a good way to live," Echo spoke up then. "But sometimes it's… hard to break the habit. And if she — and Jordan, too — if both of them believe they're where they're supposed to be, where they want to be, nothing is going the change their minds." She shrugged. "And what can you do about it anyway?"

Trust Echo to get right down to the nitty gritty, Bellamy thought. There was nothing they could do short of asking Gabriel to send Jordan and Niylah across time by force, and that was something he'd never agree to.

"I know," Clarke said sadly. "I just thought… after everything that's happened… if I could somehow save the last few of us…"

She trailed off, asking, "Do you think they might change their minds? There's still a few weeks yet?"

But Emori just shook her head. "I really doubt it, Clarke."

When her eyes filled with tears, Bellamy wondered for the hundredth time how anyone could fail to recognize Clarke's soft heart.

"Clarke." Rosa's quiet voice broke into the silence that followed.

"I'm sorry for making such a fuss, Rosa…"

"As far as I can see, you have nothing to be sorry about. I don't know about all the things that happened to you… to all of you," she said, surveying the group. "Or the things you had to do that you… maybe don't want to talk about. But I know how much courage it took to take on this task. Really, the enormity is almost… incomprehensible. You are, all of you, brave beyond measure. But I've known you for several months now, Clarke, and I can say with complete certainty that you aren't the kind of person who lets people down."

In a gesture most unlike Rosa, she took Clarke's hand and squeezed it tightly.

"You've saved billions of people, my dear. But if these two friends of yours want to go their own way, even if it turns out to be the wrong way, then I think you must let them. Not only in your head, but in your heart, too."

Clarke nodded, and Bellamy thought, not for the first time, that of all the things they'd acquired since they arrived on 21st-century Earth, the most important one by far was Rosa Santiago's friendship.

XXXXXXXXXX

"So… who's this Cadogan guy again?"

Murphy had waited until he and Bellamy were alone to finally ask the question that had probably been rolling around inside his head since the day he arrived. Considering it was Murphy, Bellamy gave him high marks for patience.

But he was happy to answer.

"He's the guy who was responsible for destroying the world."

Murphy frowned in surprise.

"What do you mean? That was Becca and her crazy computer program. Okay, Clarke told us that maybe she didn't mean to do it but still…"

"Murphy! Listen to me. Didn't you tell me once that you saw some kind of video where people were talking about someone disarming ALIE's fail-safe?"

"Jesus! I barely remember those months when crazy Jaha locked me up. But, yeah, maybe there was something about that."

"Well, Cadogan was that guy. Becca built the program, but it was Cadogan who funded her, and his people who turned off all the fail-safes she'd built in."

Murphy's brow wrinkled in disbelief. "But why the fuck would anyone do that?"

"Who knows? We weren't interested in the whys, only in stopping him this time around."

"And you did. Madi said Becca destroyed the ALIE program."

Bellamy nodded. "That's right. And she and Raven also destroyed Cadogan's clone of the program during a formal party, while Clarke and I kept him distracted. Raven had planted information online and he thought we were crazy rich and wanted us be his new members."

"Whoa! Sounds like it must have been quite an operation."

"It was. Everyone played a part. Echo and Indra even started a riot."

Murphy grinned. "I'd like to have seen that! But it worked. No more ALIE. So what the hell's the problem?"

Bellamy sighed. "The problem is that we stupidly thought if we stopped ALIE in this timeline, that would be the end of it. But it's not. Cadogan asked her to rebuild the program."

"And she said?"

"She said no, but that's not the point. The point is that he's not giving up. That whatever plan he has in mind, he's still at it and he'll eventually find someone to help him. Clarke and I talked it over and she agrees. Cadogan is dangerous because he's going to try again. Which means the planet's still in danger."

Murphy shrugged. "So stop him. I seem to recall you're a pretty good shot."

Bellamy huffed a laugh. "Yeah, it's not quite that simple, Murphy. This isn't Earth under the grounders. This is 21st-century America and you can't just go around shooting people with no consequences, and I'd rather not spend the next 50 years in jail. Or worse. And dammit, I don't want to be killing people again! That felt like shit the last time around."

"So what happens in 21st-century America when there's some nutcase who's trying to destroy the world? They just… let him?"

"Fuck, Murphy, I know you weren't much for school, but you must have studied about terrorists. There are people around who watch out for these guys."

"Great! So… go tell those people about Cadogan."

"With what proof?! Or maybe we should just tell 'em we're from the future and we already know he's gonna blow up the world."

"So… get some proof…"

"Of what?! We don't even know what the hell he's trying to do. Or why."

The frustration began to rise inside Bellamy the same way it always did when he thought about Cadogan. He knew the man was a danger, but it seemed like he could do nothing about it. It felt like a wall he couldn't seem to get past.

They were silent for a few moments, and then Murphy said slowly, as though thinking out loud, "But… what if there was a way to get proof?"

"Like how?"

"Just hear me out, Bellamy. What if you could figure a way to get him to spill the beans about his plans? Not only about dropping the fucking bombs but what the hell it all means. What his actual goal is."

"Don't you think I tried that when he was trying to recruit us? He was just… so damn cagey about everything. I couldn't get any information at all!"

"Oh, did I say you? What I really meant was… me. A much more persuasive kind of guy. A lot slipperier than your knightly self. More used to playing a part."

Bellamy snorted. "A con man, you mean."

Murphy shrugged. "If the shoe fits, then let's kick some ass with it."

Bellamy sat back, and tendrils of excitement began to ripple through him. Could that actually work?

Could the con man con the con man?

"So… what exactly are you proposing? Because we'd not only need him to spell out his plans, we'd need a way to record it. Audio, at least, but preferably video. Something concrete we could send to the authorities. It sure as hell couldn't just be your say-so, especially since we're trying very hard to stay under the radar, and the last thing we need to do is call attention to ourselves…"

"Well, that part would have to be up to you. But as for gettin' the guy to open up, I might have an idea about a way in as long as I can get some technical help from our resident genius. The same kind she gave you."

"You know Raven would be up for it, whatever it is, so what did you have in mind?"

But then he hesitated, rising. "Wait! Let me get Clarke first. If there are holes in your plan she'll see them right away."

"Yep! She's definitely the one to pick me apart. But I think even Clarke might go for this one."

XXXXXXXXXX

It took them a while to pull it all together, mostly because Raven wanted to make sure she'd be able to get Murphy's cover story and backup data exactly right. This wasn't just a one-night masquerade, like she'd done for Clarke and Bellamy. It was going to take some time for Murphy to gain Cadogan's trust, so his backstory needed to be airtight, convincing, and impenetrable.

And then there was the help they needed from Becca. They'd talked all around it, looking for other ways, but finally concluded that using Becca would have the best chance of success.

Becca had been happy to hear from her when Raven contacted her on the "safe" phone, agreeing at once to a meeting at the beach house. The temperature had begun to drop, so there'd be no opportunity for frolicking in the surf these days, but Clarke thought the house still held a warmth that was a welcome change from the utilitarian condo she and Bellamy occupied every day.

So the following week, the fourteen of them, including Rosa and Becca, met for lunch there and then got down to business.

"Are you sure this stuff really works?" was the first question Becca had for Jackson.

Which was understandable.

Because if it didn't work, then Becca would be putting herself in a very untenable position with Cadogan. She was already on his shit list for refusing to rebuild ALIE, and the last thing she needed was something that would turn him into an outright enemy and lead to a lot of questions she wouldn't want to answer.

But Becca was the only one with the access, the only one who could make it work.

"It absolutely does work, Dr. Franko," Jackson assured her. "We used it for months back on Sanctum and we never had any problems. The important thing is to have a consistent handler, and in this case, that will be you."

She nodded. "So I just… what? Dump it in their coffee when they take a break?"

"Do you ordinarily make them coffee?"

She laughed. "Hardly. But I have been known to have a drink with them in the evening. Especially now that there isn't much to do. The house and the lab are mine outright, I made sure of that, I expected Cadogan to remove the guards, but they're still hanging around." She shrugged. "Maybe he's forgotten all about us."

"I think it's more likely he's trying to figure out how he can persuade you to build him a new program or make use of you some other way," Bellamy said, and Clarke thought he was probably right. "But it doesn't matter why he's left his guards there as long as it suits our purpose. And they still go for monthly updates with the head of security?"

"Yep. They usually come back pissed off, so I don't think they like him much. Maybe that will help."

Bellamy nodded and Clarke caught his eye. It couldn't hurt.

"I think you should start small," Jackson continued with his instructions, "asking them to do little things for you. Then maybe escalate to something you might not think they'd do. If they respond with a kind of passive positivity to all your requests, then ask them for something more… radical."

He shrugged. "It's not an exact science, but I believe at that point you can make your big request. I mean, you're not asking them to commit a violent crime, so it's likely they'll just comply."

"But I am asking them to plant bugs and cameras in the offices of their big boss."

Jackson's smile was reassuring. "Yes, but they won't think of it that way. They'll just be doing what you requested and won't want to disappoint you because by then they'll be committed to doing your bidding."

She smiled wryly. "Let's hope so."

"Did you get the plans for the building, Raven, so we can be sure exactly where that stuff should be planted?"

"Right here, Bellamy," she said, pulling up on her tablet the building plans she'd downloaded from the city's Planning Department. "I'll go over them with Becca, then upload it all to her laptop. Okay, chief?"

Bellamy smirked. "Sorry. Just double-checking. So those should be in place in a couple of weeks?"

Raven and Becca nodded.

"Good. Now all we need to do is turn Murphy into the Reverend John Calhoun Murphy. That's the name we decided on, isn't it?"

"It sure enough is," Murphy said, and Clarke blinked at the drawl that came out of his mouth.

"Where the hell did that come from?" Miller wanted to know.

"I been watchin' movies set in the South for two days straight," Murphy explained, using his own voice. "Pretty sure I got it down pat."

"And why is it you need the accent?" Octavia asked.

Murphy shrugged. "Seems like every one of these guys comes from the South. Besides, Cadogan, of course. He's from Michigan…"

"Minnesota," Clarke corrected automatically.

"Yeah, I knew it was one of those M states," Murphy said, as though it couldn't have mattered less, although Clarke knew he wouldn't forget again. "Anyway, I wanted someone he couldn't possibly have met…"

"No one's met him… you… except the fake people in my fictional stories and films," Raven reminded him. "But we know John C. Murphy is real, because there are pictures! What was that old saying? It didn't happen unless there are pictures. Something like that. Well, this is the corollary. If it's on film, it's real."

She smirked. "Course there are ways to detect phony newsreels and stuff but nothing in this century that'll be able to detect my Ark programming. I'm teaching it to Becca, so between the two of us we'll be giving the Reverend here a whole new life."

"Why, I thank you lovely ladies," John C. Murphy said with a charming grin.

They'd also discussed exactly how this new version of Murphy should look, finally opting for leaving in place the facial hair that he'd been sporting as a Prime and that he hadn't shaved off.

"This is obviously my best role-playing look," Murphy observed, and Clarke had to agree.

"It definitely makes you look slightly sinister," she said, squinting up at him playfully. And when he smiled gleefully, she added, "but of course I know that deep down you're just a pussycat."

Murphy shrugged and smirked. "You got me, Griffin."

XXXXXXXXXX

After a couple of weeks, Becca thought her guards were sufficiently compromised that she was comfortable sending the first two off to their monthly meeting with the chief of security armed with a whole lot of surveillance tech.

"I built them myself," Raven had told Bellamy, "and they should be undetectable by current technology."

After that, they held their collective breaths until eventually, one by one, the strategically-placed bugs and cameras came online.

"Does that look right?" Raven asked anxiously.

"Yeah, that's definitely the Membership Office," Clarke confirmed. "And there's the chair I had my, uh, fainting spell on when I was almost clocked by that security guy, Jensen."

There were other cameras and audio devices placed strategically throughout the hallways, although they knew the chances of Cadogan spouting ideology in the corridors, much less making incriminating statements, was very slim.

"What about his office?" Octavia asked. "Isn't that where he's most likely to spill his secrets?"

Becca had thought it might be safer to be off the island for this first foray into surveilling the Second Dawn building and was watching the monitors with the rest of them.

"Bennett's the head guy on the island," she explained. "He has his monthly meeting next week, and he complained that he always gets called up to Cadogan's office. So that will be his job."

"And why is it that there're no cameras in that building?" Miller asked. "Seems like a nutcase like Cadogan would want to keep tabs on everyone in his orbit."

"Yeah, I was kind of surprised, too," Clarke said. "But that first day I conned my way into the building I heard the security guys complaining about there being no cameras. The head guy said Cadogan doesn't want any record of who belongs to Second Dawn or who might be walking through the building."

"Right," Miller nodded. "Well, all that's about to change, isn't it?"

The following week, Bennett successfully installed several cameras and listening devices inside Bill Cadogan's personal office, as well as a few other places they'd identified as having the potential to be informational gold mines. They waited an additional two weeks for repercussions — discovery of the equipment, reversion of Becca's guards, even failure of the bugs to operate properly.

But none of that happened.

A week after that, Raven declared that Murphy's cover and background were complete, and the next day, John Calhoun Murphy checked into one of the most expensive hotels in Alexandria, and began, in his charming Southern way, asking questions about the possibility of meeting the famous Bill Cadogan. After all, he declared with an engaging smile, he and Cadogan were in the same line of work— saving souls — and he'd come north to Virginia for the sole purpose of making the man's acquaintance.

It didn't take long for Cadogan to hear about this hitherto unknown preacher, who, according to news reports and a slew of testimonials and videos, had a huge following in places like Mississippi and Alabama. What, he might have asked himself, would it hurt to meet the man? He might be potentially useful.

The very next day, a messenger arrived at John C. Murphy's hotel suite with a written invitation to visit Second Dawn.

When Murphy reported this to Bellamy via his "safe" phone, Bellamy could hear the excitement in his voice.

"Game on," Murphy said gleefully.

And if it were merely a game, Bellamy would have unhesitatingly bet on Murphy. But there was so much more at stake here, so many lives dependent on his being able to pull this off.

XXXXXXXXXX

Bellamy and Clarke discussed it that night, after they'd made love for long enough to nearly slough off the worries of the day. They reminded each other that their relationship had become a happy place they could sink into, and then wondered aloud why it had taken them so long to figure it out.

"Maybe we just needed to find a place where every waking moment wasn't consumed with worry about our survival," Clarke said as she lay curled against his side.

"Maybe," Bellamy conceded. "Or maybe it was just too painful to try and be happy when it could all be taken away in an instant."

They were silent for a moment and then she asked, "Do you knew what day this is, Bellamy?"

He didn't, because he still had trouble remembering to keep track of the calendar. It would have been a pointless exercise everywhere else they'd lived.

"Wednesday?" he suggested.

She laughed softly. "Yeah, it's Wednesday, but I actually meant the date. It's… the day after the bombs dropped in the old timeline. I didn't want to mention it yesterday."

Bellamy huffed lightly. "I knew you were tense all day yesterday, but I thought it was just the Murphy thing. I hadn't kept track, but… we're all still here, so..."

"Yeah, it looks like we did it. Accomplished the mission… or at least the first part of it. But I also can't help wondering about Jordan and Niylah. If they even still exist."

"Either way, it's not your fault."

"No," she agreed, "and I suppose we'll never know unless we use the stone to try to go back and find out."

Bellamy looked down at her in surprise. "Is that a thing you'd want to do? Go back?"

She shook her head, her blonde locks sliding across the pillow.

"Not at all. I like it here. Or maybe I should say, I like it now. It's not perfect, not by a long shot, but it's the first place we've lived where we can count on eating every day, and where we aren't always fighting a war. I'd like to be able to stay, Bellamy, because I never again want to have to kill another person."

"We will," he told her, stroking her hair, trying to put every ounce of confidence he could muster into his words. "This plan will work, Cadogan will be stopped, and we'll finally be free to have a life together. It's the thing I've wanted since you and I sat under that tree after saving each other from Dax, all those years ago. Do you remember?"

"How could I ever forget? You wanted to run away…"

He sighed. "I was still such a kid, and scared, but… I already knew then that I needed you in my life…"

"And here I am," she said softly, rolling on top of him and beginning to kiss him. "And I'm not going anywhere."

The kisses soon became passionate, and in no time at all they were once again locked in that most intimate of embraces.

Only minutes later, he came inside her for the second time in an hour.

"Clarke," Bellamy said, overcome with emotion, "I need to tell you something…"

But then he paused, considered, wondered if it was really the right moment after all.

"Yeah?" she said, peering up at him as she came down from her own high.

He sighed, rolling off her and pulling her tightly against him.

"I, uh, I just wanted to say that I've never been this happy. Never thought I could be."

She looked up at him curiously, perhaps divining that that hadn't been what he'd intended to say at all.

But then she stretched just a bit to kiss him on the cheek.

"Good, because that makes two of us."

XXXXXXXXXX

They were gathered at Rosa's place, crowded into the living room in front of a half-dozen monitors to watch the initial meeting between Bill Cadogan and the Reverend John C. Murphy.

Or at least… they hoped to see and hear something.

They'd considered wiring up Murphy, but in the end decided it was too dangerous. Besides, while any evidence would be helpful, what they really wanted was Cadogan on camera damning himself with his own words while everyone watched.

So there'd be no possible way he could deny it.

Based on their own experience, Bellamy and Clarke had bet heavily on Cadogan taking the initial meeting with Murphy in the Membership Room. After all, it was a setup designed to reel in the wealthy, with it's comfortable chairs and couches and piles of Second Dawn literature scattered around the room. So Becca's guards had been instructed to conceal a lot of tech there, too.

Bellamy was beginning to wonder whether they might have made a mistake when on the monitor the door suddenly opened and Cadogan and Murphy entered the room.

"He must have met him in the lobby," Clarke said, excitedly. "That means he'd already checked the Reverend Murphy out and decided he was worth his personal attention."

As he entered the room, Murphy looked as consequential as they could have hoped.

He was nearly the same size as Bellamy, so he'd fit well into the expensive business suits hanging in Gabriel's closet, the ones that Bellamy had never had occasion to wear. Octavia had skillfully made the few alterations necessary, so the suit was now a perfect fit, a necessity if they wanted to impress someone as worldly as Bill Cadogan.

"Please have a seat, Rev. Murphy," Cadogan said in his usual genial manner.

"Oh, my goodness," Murphy said, dripping buckets of Southern charm that somehow sounded utterly genuine, "please call me John C. That's what everyone at home calls me to distinguish me from my daddy and my granddaddy. I'm afraid the Murphy family has no imagination and we were all called John."

He laughed self-deprecatingly. "So we've all had to go out and make our own mark so we don't get confused with all those other Johns."

"Hey, he's pretty good," Miller remarked, surprised.

"Yeah, John got really good at playing-acting, especially after the rest of you guys left," Emori said with a nod. "He was the one who really kept the whole Primes charade going. So he was… relieved when we got here and he could finally be himself."

"And here is doing it again," Clarke said, squeezing her shoulder. "We owe him for doing this."

"Everyone does," Emori said softly.

On camera, Cadogan smiled. "A noble pursuit, John C. And, please, you must call me Bill."

He paused then and gave Murphy what was no doubt meant to be a candid look.

"So I heard you were eager to meet with me, John C. Can I ask why someone who's so successful and has their own large following might want to look at what we're doing here at Second Dawn?"

Murphy grinned in what seemed like delight. "Why, thank you for those kind words, Bill. I do like to think our little flock back home is a happy one. But still, when I look at this beautiful building we're sittin' in, I think you must be doing something right yourself. So I just wondered if it might be something I'd be… interested in. Me and all those folks back home that seem to want me to tell them how to… look at the world."

"Exactly how big is your flock, John C?"

"Oh, give or take, I suppose a few hunnert… thousand."

Cadogan smiled to cover his obvious surprise. "That's very… impressive. But, you know, membership in Second Dawn is by invitation only, and I'm not sure we're looking for that many new members…"

Murphy laughed. "Oh, no, you misunderstand me, Bill. I wasn't suggesting some kind of merger. I was just thinking we might work together, you know, on the future."

"The future?" Cadogan looked taken aback.

"Yessir. Because I heard tell that you understood that this old world was going to hell in a hand basket. And that you were workin' on a way to fix that. I mean, Bill, if that's true, that would sure make my people happy."

For a moment Cadogan's face was utterly blank, but then his usual genial look returned.

"And where did you hear that?"

"Oh, I didn't hear nothin' specific, Bill. It was really just… idle talk. But my people… well, they're used to being told what to do and how to think. So if the world is going to change, they'll rightly know their place in it. And that could be such a help, couldn't it?"

He rose suddenly.

"But I've taken up enough of your time. I'll just take some of your pamphlets here to look over, but I'd bet anything that you and I, well, we think a lot alike."

Murphy smiled. "So good day to you, Bill. Thanks for seein' me. I'll be at the Westin for a while yet if you feel you might like to… have another chat. No, no, don't bother gettin' up. I think I can find my way out."

And then he was out the door, and Cadogan was left with a stunned expression on his face.

"Don't turn it off, I want to see what he does next," Bellamy said.

Cadogan did not disappoint. He pulled out his phone, and spoke into it hurriedly.

"Harcourt," he said to the man they knew to be his second-in-command, "I think we may have a solution to the problem of a working underclass. Although it seems we'd probably have to take a new member into the inner circle. But… I rather like him, even if his rise to power might have been a little rapid, so I don't see that as a problem. We'll discuss it at the next board meeting."

And then he was out the door.

XXXXXXXXXX

"What about those board meetings?" Bellamy asked. "Have we got equipment in that room?"

Raven shook her head sadly while Becca explained.

"The building's got a lot of conference rooms, Bellamy, but the main boardroom is on the eleventh floor, just one floor down from Cadogan's office and it's locked up tighter than a drum, with all sorts of alarms. I think it even has an eye-scan security system. My guys would never be high enough on the totem pole to get in there for any reason. I think that's the only place Cadogan's inner circle talks openly about their plans."

"Well, we'll just have to get Cadogan to talk about them somewhere else. Somewhere we can see, hear, and record."

It took only a few days for Cadogan to request another meeting with the Reverend Murphy. Which was a good thing because Murphy was more or less on his own, and bored as hell. But they'd thought that after the initial contact Cadogan might well be having him watched, making it much too dangerous for Murphy to meet with any of the others.

They kept in touch only on their "safe" phones and on their Ark-tech tablets.

"The next meeting's tomorrow afternoon, and thank fuck because I'm going a little squirrelly here."

"Murphy…"

"No, it's okay, Bellamy. I just needed to say that out loud to someone else. Don't tell Emori…"

"Right here, John," she said, thrusting her face into the screen from her spot next to Bellamy. "You're doing a great job, babe. Just keep it up. Couple more meetings and you'll have him spilling his guts."

Murphy seemed to visibly relax, and Bellamy wondered why he hadn't thought of having Emori talk to him from the start. If anyone knew what a difference talking to someone you loved could make, it was him.

"Yeah, no problem," Murphy was saying now, smiling. "Hey, you know what, this place has a fucking unbelievable restaurant and I'm off to have dinner now. So, uh, over and out, I guess."

Then he logged off.

Miller chuckled, shaking his head. "Trust Murphy to blow money on his fancy dinners."

"Hey, if this thing works, I don't care what it costs," Bellamy told him. "And you can thank Gabriel in your head, Miller, because it's his money we're spending."

Miller nodded. "Right. Hey, any chance that cash is going to run out soon?"

Bellamy shrugged. "It hasn't so far. And it only has to last a little bit longer."

Murphy met with Cadogan a few more times, always in the Membership Office, but each time he seemed to skirt around exactly what it was he was planning. After the visits, each successively longer, Cadogan always put through a call to Harcourt telling him that the connection with Reverend Murphy looked more and more promising.

Finally, on his fifth visit, Cadogan took Murphy up to his private office to "show him the view."

"Well, that is a mighty fine view you got here, sir. I can see clear across the river right into the halls of power."

Cadogan laughed. "They certainly like to think they're powerful, all those men and women."

"But they're not?"

"Truth to tell, John C., if all had gone according to plan, they'd be dead by now. Or at least… most of them."

Murphy's eyes widened in surprise. "And how's that?"

Cadogan looked at him for a long moment and finally said, "Hasn't it occurred to you that the best way to put the world on the right track again would be to… cut out all the deadwood?"

Murphy nodded. "More than once, Bill, but I never did figure how it could be done."

Cadogan sighed. "I had a plan, a very good plan. I had someone programming a way to… rid the world of the countries and cultures that are just a waste of space. Taking up valuable resources but contributing nothing."

"You found someone to program that? Well, that is remarkable."

Cadogan laughed softly. "Oh, no, she didn't think that's what she was doing. She thought she was finding a way to get more resources and spread them around. But what good would that have done? It would just keep feeding the incompetent and make it even harder for the rest of us."

Murphy nodded. "I totally agree, sir."

"Right, so I had some smart people at this end who figured out how to adjust her program without her knowing so it would do what we wanted it to do instead."

"And what was that?"

Bellamy recognized the excitement in Murphy's voice and he thought Cadogan might have, too. But not its source. Not the long-sought-after answer to the question of why someone had destroyed the Earth.

"What we did was… we accessed the program from this building and turned off all the unnecessary safety precautions that she'd included. But…my guys must have done something stupid, because when we tried to run the thing it not only destroyed our copy but her original program, as well."

"Oh, my. I imagine she was mighty upset about that!"

"Yes, she was pretty angry. Wanted me to start an investigation, but of course I couldn't have that."

"Certainly not! That wouldn't have done at all."

Cadogan shook his head sadly. "No, but the whole thing was a great disappointment to me."

Murphy nodded slowly. "I… see. So… what kind of adjustments did your boys make, Bill? What did you want the program to do?"

"Well, it was supposed to start a very small nuclear conflict, John C. Just a little one that we could control. Something that would last only a few days."

"But, uh, isn't that nuclear stuff dangerous? I mean, what if it got on you, or your people?"

"As it happens, I have a fully operational multi-level bunker right beneath this building. We could have held out there for a long, long time."

"I see. Well, I have to admit I'm also wondering how you could be sure to limit the damage to only those places in the world that needed to go. Although of course it's a first-rate idea!"

"My military consultants assured me the limited strike would work, and I have every confidence in them."

"Of course," Murphy nodded. "If you can't trust your military advisors, who can you trust? But, I assume that plan is now off the table?"

"You assume correctly. And our programmer cannot be persuaded to rebuild. And certainly I would never force her."

"Of course not."

"No, so now I'm left with the second option, one I was less inclined to go for because I do like to maintain control, but there seems to be no other way."

"And what's that?"

Cadogan paused. "If I tell you about this, John C., then you must be fully committed."

Murphy nodded. "I understand."

"Good. Well, I have been in touch with like-minded individuals in some other places around the world, and while we're going to have to start our little war by more conventional means we still expect the same outcome. But it did occur to us here that while our flock has many important people — all very wealthy, of course, but there are also Senators and Congressmen and even a Supreme Court Justice who are members of Second Dawn — but we don't have too many of the, shall we say, underclasses. The workers. And that's where your people come in…"

"Of course! That's just brilliant, Bill. My folks are always looking for ways to be helpful. And they generally don't have to be reminded to keep to their place. But, uh, as for myself…"

Murphy cleared his throat noisily.

Cadogan smiled. "No need to even ask, John C. We'll be having a board meeting of what I like to call my inner circle some time next week and I know you will be a welcome addition."

Murphy smiled. "Well, that's just fine. I can't tell you how flattered I am, Bill. I knew there was a good reason I bothered to take this trip up No'th."

He stood then. "So then I should wait for you to get in touch about this board meetin'?"

Cadogan rose, too, stretching out his hand for the Reverend to shake.

"Exactly. We'll see you soon."

As soon as Murphy left, Cadogan made yet another call to his second-in-command, Jim Harcourt. "Everything's in place for the board meeting, Jim. And wait'll you meet this Murphy guy. I think you're really going to like him."

XXXXXXXXXX

Murphy called Bellamy from his "safe" phone as soon as he got back to the hotel, just to make sure that every snippet of that conversation had been caught on tape, downloaded, and duplicated several times over. Only to be told, to his delight, that in addition, someone who works in the Membership Office had very obligingly been sifting through a membership roster, and that every name had been caught on camera.

And there they were. The Senators, Congressmen, and Supreme Court Justice, as well as two members in the top rank at the Pentagon. And a shitload of the wealthy.

Fifteen minutes later, Murphy checked out of the hotel, paying his bill in cash. But instead of exiting via the front door, as he usually did, he stepped into the restroom off the lobby where he entered a stall and changed out of his designer suit and into jeans and a T-shirt, repacking the suit into his rolling carryon luggage. Then he gave himself a quick shave with a battery-operated razor, pulled a ball cap low over his face, and exited the hotel via the underground garage.

The Reverend John Calhoun Murphy had just disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Back in Arlington, Octavia was asking Bellamy what they were going to do next.

"Raven's going through all the videos just to make sure Murphy appears nowhere onscreen. In fact, his part of the conversation has been completely eliminated from the material we're going to give to the authorities. So as far as they'll be concerned, Bill Cadogan was having a conversation with a completely unknown party."

He sighed. "But after seeing the names of so many powerful men on that membership list, I have no idea where it's safe to send either the vids or the list."

"I think I can help there," Rosa said. "I, uh, I have an old friend. We went to school together eons ago and now he works for Homeland Security. I think you should let me bring this material to him."

But Clarke was wary. "Rosa, I don't want you to get involved. It could be dangerous…"

"Please don't worry, my dear," Rosa said quietly. "But I must do something to help stop this madman."

"Maybe you could send it to the guy," Bellamy suggested. "The one in Homeland, uh…"

"Homeland Security. No, because he's rather high up, I believe, and I don't like to think of the material traveling through multiple hands before it gets to him. No, he's an old friend and if I call him, he'll come."

"Should we… do you want us to be here, too?" Clarke asked.

"Absolutely not. There's just no way to explain you. And in this case, I don't think it matters. I'll say it came from another old friend, a disaffected member of Second Dawn who doesn't want to be identified."

Bellamy smiled at her. "It must be nice to have old friends."

"It is indeed," she agreed, returning his smile. "And new ones, too."

Only a few minutes later, Rosa had already extracted a promise from her old friend at Homeland Security to visit her the following evening on a matter of "extreme importance."

They all left then, exhausted and looking forward to putting an end to the whole thing the following day. Bellamy went back to the condo with Clarke, but it wasn't until much later, as he lay in bed thinking over everything that had already happened — and what was certain to happen almost immediately once the authorities became involved — that it occurred to him.

He watched it all play out inside his head. The warrants, the arrests, the searches…

Then he sat up in bed with a start. "Shit!"

Clarke woke immediately. "What's wrong, Bellamy?"

He jerked his head towards her in alarm. "We have to move the stone!"