

## Effected Intent

by  
**Alan D. Ross**

Copyright 2008 Alan D. Ross  
Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition License Notes:  
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

### Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: Just another Day at the Office

Chapter 2: T.G.I.F.

Chapter 3: Scientific Method

Chapter 4: Field Trip

Chapter 5: A boy named Jack

Chapter 6: Senioritis

Chapter 7: When Steve Met Robert

Chapter 8: Dead Man's Curve

Chapter 9: Bill Gets a Part Time Job

Chapter 10: Steve Starts Work on the Project

Chapter 11: Robert's a Loose Cannon

Chapter 12: Bill Strikes Gold

Chapter 13: Robert and Steve Make Progress

Chapter 14: Bill Gets In

Chapter 15: The Ties That Bind

Chapter 16: Bill Finds Something Odd

Chapter 17: An Evil Plan is Born

Chapter 18: Bill Finds More Information and an Ally

Chapter 19: Testing Begins

Chapter 20: Homeland Security

Chapter 21: The Plan Emerges

Chapter 22: Pulling it all Together

Chapter 23: Final Planning and Korea

Chapter 24: Darren Gets Enough

Chapter 25: Korean Impact

Chapter 26: The Past Collides

Chapter 27: Last Minute Planning and Go Dark

Chapter 28: D-Day

Chapter 29: Wrap Up and a Hint

Introduction

This book was a long time coming, first conceived in the spring of 2003. A lot of the background on Bill was written in the fall/winter of 2004-2005 and then it sat. I thought of working on it during National Novel writing month in 2007 but wrote Dead Man's Hand instead.

During May of 2008 I was able to work on it and by early June it was almost thirty thousand words. The rest was finished during nanowrimo this November and just wrapped up.

Hope you like it!

Alan

**Chapter 1  
** Just another Day at the Office

Bill was sitting at his desk, half watching the clock and half programming the new payroll system interface. His desk was in the middle of the office; luckily he wasn't stuck in some cube farm. The sun was shining behind the trees and the sky was bright and clear, making him daydream about the outdoors. Adjusting the buttons on the payroll screen, his mind wandered. He went to the kitchen to make popcorn and stretch his brain.

Don Nelson was in the kitchen. "Hey Bill, how's everything?"

"Using popcorn as bait for conversation. What's new and exciting?"

"Kids stuff. It's baseball season, so we're always running to games or practices. Amelia got smacked in the face by a line drive the other day, she is really proud of her black eye. Joanie's flower shop is busy since it's wedding and prom season. She's going to have to hire additional help next year."

"Maybe I'll design some software to run the business more efficiently," said Bill. "I could develop a web site so Joanie would be free to focus on arranging flowers."

"You know how she feels about computers. She was unhappy when we upgraded her cash register to accept credit and debit cards. She's still not used to that thing." Bill laughed and nodded his head. He'd heard plenty of stories about Joanie and her difficulties with the cash register, alarm system, phone system, et technical cetera.

Don made more small talk but appeared to be preoccupied, so Bill let the conversation drop. Don headed back to his office so Bill did the same--back to work on the payroll tool.

Bill put his headphones on and launched an internet radio site. He tuned in to the sports talk zone, which was filled with basketball playoff and baseball season discussions. The two hosts were pontificating about which NBA team was the greatest of all time; and, of course, they were at odds so they could generate the appropriate level of controversy and irate callers. The hosts were debating between the Lakers' dynasties, with one host picking the Kareem/Magic era and the other selecting the Shaq/Kobe era. Callers were joining the show, yelling about the Celtics and Bulls and just about any other team. Bill thought the Bulls of the 1990s were the greatest team ever.

Adding a logo and confidentiality statement to the interface, Bill entered test data to see how the program was working. He plugged in an imaginary salary of $87,450 annually and then put in standard state, local and federal deductions. He checked the numbers, found the data was accurate, and stared at the screen. He wondered what it would feel like to make that kind of money, what he would be able to afford. His mind started wandering to all the things he could buy with that kind of money. He snapped back to the present and opened a spreadsheet that documented all of the test cases for the new program. Some time must have elapsed, because the yo-yo sports talk hosts were now arguing about which NBA player had the biggest afro and the tallest socks back in the 1970's. He clicked the radio over to a classical music station and entered the test data.

Bill stretched and checked his e-mail. He generally kept his it closed during the day so he wasn't distracted when he was programming. Bill told people around the office that he would only check mail a few times a day and if there was something urgent, they should come over and ask him. His e-mail was mostly updates to projects and spam so he spent a few minutes cleaning up his mailbox, enjoying the classical music in his head. He browsed to CNN and checked on the news, but quickly closed the browser as all of it focused on death and destruction. At least the web wasn't as sensational as the local television news, with all of their news clips of fires, car crashes, and body bags.

Bill was checking his test case document, getting ready to enter the next set of data into the program when a visitor stopped by. "Hello, William."

"Hi Mom, what's happening?"

Kathy Wheeler took a seat and sighed deeply, "Been a really long day, starting to get calls from the media and I think it's only going to get worse. Do you want to trade jobs with me for the next couple of months?" she said with a smile.

"Sure, let me talk to the press, I'd have a field day with them. I wouldn't have a job when I was done, but I'd have a lot of fun in the process."

"Oh yeah, you're so tough, you'd end up winning some kind of award for the way you dealt with them."

Bill just smiled back, knowing that the truth was somewhere in between. Kathy Wheeler wasn't really old enough to be Bill's mom. She was an attractive, 40-something woman who could still turn heads. Kathy ran the office, though her official job title was "administrative assistant." She had the most inate people sense Bill had ever known, with an ability to deal with all types of personalities and still keep her cool. Bill almost felt corny for thinking about her that way, but she meant so much to him over the past eight years that they had worked together. She always treated him well and had really earned the nickname "Mom."

"What are you working on, son?" Kathy asked.

"Fiddling around with the new payroll program, working through test cases and trying to figure out a way to increase my salary by, oh I don't know, eight thousand percent," Bill grinned.

Kathy laughed and said, "I think you're worth every penny you're getting paid." They both laughed and shook their heads. "You know it's going to work, why bother testing it?"

"With the new federal regulations around auditing of all computer systems and applications, it's best to make sure everything is tested and documented. In fact, I would like both you and Don to do some testing once I've made progress so I can include you as references in the regulatory paperwork."

"Kathy! Kathy, where are you?" Don's voice boomed down the hallway. "I need you in here right away!" Bill and Kathy both broke out in quiet laughter, knowing that it was guaranteed to be something minor, and that Don couldn't survive ten minutes without Kathy.

"Coming, dear," replied Kathy, trying to hold in the laughter. As she walked away from his desk, Bill said "See ya later, Mom, good luck with Don." She waved and walked to Don's office. Bill worked on the next test case, trying some additional pay periods to make sure the software's logic comprehended months with five Fridays, since Friday was payday around here.

"Yes, Mr. Nelson, what can I help you with?" Kathy asked.

Don starting ranting and raving about some e-mail that he had just received from his boss, demanding to know where the first budget numbers were for next year. "When are we going to get started on this?" he asked Kathy, a bit frantic.

"I've already sent them over to Amy. She probably hasn't passed them to Mr. Peterson yet." Kathy calmly informed Don. "I'll go call her and see what's happening. I'll be back in a couple of minutes, try to continue breathing."

Don pretended that he wasn't nervous and went back to his e-mail. He sure was glad that those numbers had been sent. Even though it had been several years since Don almost lost his job, he wanted to make sure that he didn't put himself in that position again. His wife's flower shop was making money but they have a big mortgage, a couple of car payments and two kids with braces. In other words, they were living the American dream, and he didn't want anything to happen to it.

Don got up from his desk and walked out to ask Bob what was happening with the office equipment upgrade. They had finally obtained budget approval to update the ten-year-old Xerox machine, fax machine and phone system. Bob worked with Bill to select a multifunctional device that would handle all of the scanning, printing, faxing and copying needs, eliminating the need to upgrade their printer at the same time. This had allowed them to spend a bit extra on a phone system that was integrated with the environmental controls for the building and included a complete voicemail system. Bob was charged with all maintenance for the office, including equipment, plumbing, electrical and any other needs. He told Don "The MFD will be here tomorrow and we should be up and running before lunchtime."

"What is an MFD?"

"A multifunctional device; the beast that will replace our printer, copier and fax machine and also scan documents. It set us back about twelve thousand dollars, remember?"

"Great, let me know if you have any problems." Don headed over to get an update from Kathy.

Bill completed his next test and updated the testing document. So far everything was going as planned so he had plenty of time to work any bugs out and get the new system in place. His mind starting wandering, thinking about the comment he'd made to Kathy about modifying his paycheck. He wondered just how difficult it would be to actually do it and ran through a couple of different scenarios in his head. He realized that in such a small office environment, any kind of anomaly would be easily detected by the human controls in place. He continued along with the mental exercise anyway, devising a plan whereby he would create a new vendor in the system. From there, he could enter a purchase order to the vendor for some services to be rendered, like computer software audit. Then, he could issue the funds and divert them into his bank account. He realized that this plan would not only be detected by audit but would also likely require collusion with another person to make it happen. Instead of trying to figure out how to complete it, his mind went to work on the solution to the problem to keep it from actually happening. The most appropriate controls would be to limit who had access to the various functions of the program, protecting it from abuse. Another feature that should be included was an audit function, where all activities would be logged and stored in a location for review. This would also mean that individuals would need to have their own accounts to the application so activities could be distinguished. Bill sighed, wondering why he always did this to himself. He took down some notes and decided that he would need to do some scrubbing on the application to add this additional functionality. He decided he'd better take the time to properly document everything so he didn't forget. He looked at the clock and realized that it was getting close to quitting time.

Don found Kathy on the phone and started pacing back and forth in front of her desk. She ignored him and continued with her conversation. "Yes, Amy, I'm sure I sent it. Check your e-mails from me and you'll find a message from last Tuesday that has all of the information attached. The message was sent around 2:15 pm. See it? No problem, glad we sorted this out. Say hello to Mr. Peterson for me."

Don smiled and said, "Thanks again, Kathy." He headed back to his desk and Kathy decided to spend the last half hour of the day ordering office supplies.

As she began searching for pens and pencils, Margie Brown walked into the office. "Margie! It is so great to see you! And look who you brought along with you!" Kathy exclaimed as Margie and her newborn son, Joshua, came into the office. Margie had been on maternity leave for three months, and this was the first time she'd been back.

"Figured I better come in before next Monday or it will be too much for my system to handle." Margie had a difficult pregnancy and ended up spending the majority of her final trimester on bed rest. Between that and her maternity leave, it felt like she'd been gone forever.

"So let's cut the chitchat," said Kathy. "Let me go wash my hands so I can hold him!" Kathy ran to the restroom and immediately everyone surrounded Margie and Joshua, oohing and ahhing about the baby boy.

"He looks so strong and healthy, congratulations, Margie" said Bob.

Don cooed, "What a beautiful baby, Margie. I'm really glad you came by the office to let us meet him. I almost remember those days." Everyone laughed. "You know that if you need some additional time off that is no problem at all."

"Thanks so much, Don. I really appreciate all you've done already. I know if I spend any more time home there is no way I'll be able to come back. I could spend all of my time caring for this little guy," Margie said. By this time, Kathy was back, standing with her arms out ready to hold the baby. "Careful with his head," reminded Margie.

"I will, even though it's been a long time, I still remember." As Kathy took the baby into her arms, he started crying.

"See what you've done, Kathy?" Jerry joked as he stepped over and began making funny faces. Jerry was the office clown, but ironically had the serious job of working on all campus policies and disciplinary actions. He used his sense of humor to lighten the mood and to offset the serious aspects of his job. Jerry was blowing up his cheeks and making a monkey face, which was quite comical on his five-foot-ten-inch, two hundred and eighty pound, bald frame.. Everyone was laughing and the baby was startled enough to forget why he had been crying. Kathy smiled and talked baby talk to Joshua.

"Would you mind holding the baby a few more minutes so I can talk to Don?"

"No problem," said Kathy, "just don't go too far 'cause if he gets hungry, there's nothing I can do about it!" Margie laughed and walked with Don to his office.

Bill approached Kathy as the crowd dwindled and folks got ready to head home for the day. He looked at the baby and wondered if he would ever have a son to hold. "It's been a while since you've had a baby to hold."

"It's second nature for a mother." Kathy knew that as soon as one of her kids had a child she will be all over that grandchild. She was really glad that both her son and daughter had chosen to stay in the greater Cleveland area. They might have aspirations to move to warmer climates, but were both so entrenched with friends and family that it seemed unlikely they would ever move away. She wondered if Tony or Kristine would have a child first, but since neither of them was currently involved in a serious relationship, it might be a while. She enjoyed holding Joshua, feeling the soft skin and looking at the little miracle.

"Would you like to hold him?"

Bill got a bit nervous and said, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea. I'm not sure if Margie would want me to."

"Nonsense. Go to the restroom and wash your hands so you don't get any of your germs on him." Bill walked to the restroom about the same time Margie came out of Don's office.

"How'd that go?"

"Don was surprised but understanding. He really is a pretty good guy," said Margie. "He had no idea that Joshua doesn't really have a father, but after the initial shock of what I've been through ran through his brain, he asked what he could do to help." Margie was on the verge of tears and Kathy asked her to sit down. Bill was coming; Margie got quiet and looked at her feet.

"Is it ok if Bill holds Joshua? I already made him wash his hands, so Joshua should be pretty safe". Margie didn't divert her attention from her feet but simply nodded her head as Kathy handed the baby to Bill.

"Why don't you show Joshua around the office while Margie and I have a quick talk?"

Bill grabbed the baby, careful to cradle his head and making sure the blanket stayed wrapped tightly around him. He said "C'mon little guy. Let's show you around and see what kind of people we can introduce you to." He chuckled to himself and walked down the hall toward Don's office.

"So what did you ask Don to do?"

"I just told him that I need him to be flexible with my work schedule because of my childcare situation. If it weren't for my sister-in-law I have no idea what I would do with Joshua. I also told Don the real reason I needed to come back to work was because I needed the money in order to survive." Margie was crying now, but trying to hide it.

"Let it out, Margie, things are going to be ok, you'll see." Margie was having trouble hearing what Kathy was saying, let alone believing it. She tried to pull herself together as Kathy slowly stroked her hair and talked calmly to her. "You know that I'll do whatever I can to help you, dear. And my Kristine will pitch in when she can. Joshua has more people to love him than he can even imagine."

"I wish he could have his father. I wish I never met his father. Oh hell, how can I say that when he gave me Joshua. Who knows if I would have ever had a child otherwise." Margie wiped her eyes and continued. "I have tried to reach him a few times, but he thinks that all I'm after is his money. I told him that I don't want anything from him except occasional support for our child, and I hope that he wants to take an active role in Joshua's life. He said, 'You know there's no way I can do that, Margie.' That's all he said. He hasn't said a word to me since." Margie got quiet as Don and Bill walked back toward Kathy and Margie.

"Babies are fascinating," said Don. "All three of my kids were so alert and each day seemed to bring new life and experiences to them. It is so amazing how much they seem to absorb. It's another thing to remember how short this time is, even though when you're living it, like Margie, each day can seem eternal." Bill thought about this for a few seconds and didn't respond. He didn't know what to say, he was just basking in Joshua's energy and he knew that words would only cause that bond to sever. He handed Joshua back to Kathy and said hi to Margie. Margie looked away, tears still in her eyes.

"Time to wrap it up, people. Let's shut down everything and head home," said Don. "Thanks again for stopping by, Margie. See you Monday, and remember what I said, anything at all." Margie couldn't reply, but nodded a thank you to Don. Don went to his office to collect his laptop and briefcase.

Bill headed to his desk to shut down his PC, put notebooks and pens away in the drawers and made sure that everything was straightened up. He walked back to Kathy's desk and Margie was gone. "Where did Margie go?"

"She was too upset to talk anymore, thought it best to leave while she had some composure back," Kathy said as she finished shutting down her computer and grabbed her purse. Don and Kathy said, "Goodnight, Bill, see you in the morning."

"Have a good night." They left, and Bill rang the buzzer. He took a last look around the office as two armed guards came through the door and took him back to his prison cell for the night, where he was serving a life sentence for killing his friends.

**Chapter 2  
** T.G.I.F.

Kathy was the first one in the office. She liked to get in early, make coffee and settle in without the phone ringing and people asking for things or engaging in idle conversation. Today was Friday, and she was happy because it was the last week she would have to manage both the office and the accounting for the prison. In Margie's absence Kathy had really stepped up and really had been doing the work of two people.

She saw her voicemail light, ignored it and walked to the kitchen, where she unpacked Bill's daily lunch. Kathy always packed something special on Friday, because she knew he would be stuck eating prison food all weekend. Today's special was steak and baked potato, Bill's favorite, with mint chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. Friday was also doughnut day, so Kathy brewed coffee. She ran into Bob on the way to her desk, plucked a doughnut out of one of the boxes he was carrying, curtseyed and said, "Perfect timing."

"Good morning to you too," Bob chuckled.

There were voicemail messages from the _Plain Dealer, Beacon Journal_ and one of the local TV stations. Kathy decided to start with the TV, since they tended to take the first answer and report on it. She called the reporter Jim Reynolds and said, "Hi Jim, this is Kathy Wheeler returning your call."

"Thanks for calling me back. We have received several anonymous tips about what's been going on over there and I want to give you a chance to set the record straight. Is it true that you have had seven cases of prisoner abuse in the past six months?"

"There have been some prisoner complaints, but nothing that has been substantiated by our review boards. You know that our prison has one of the best records for fair treatment of inmates, Jim."

"We have heard from several friends and relatives who claim to have seen physical evidence of abuse."

"There's not much more I can tell you, Jim. There have been no substantiated abuse claims in the past six months."

"Alright, Kathy. I'm going to keep talking to people and if I have any more questions, I'll call you back. Have a nice Friday."

"Same to you, Jim. Bye now." Kathy had similar, but less pleasant, conversations with the newspaper reporters, who lacked additional stories and were trying to create one out of the alleged reports of violence. Kathy became the self-appointed public relations officer a few years ago when she realized that it didn't make a lot of sense for her to play middleman between some prison official and the media. Time to grab some coffee and give Don an update, Kathy decided.

Bill was standing in his cell, waiting for the guards to come over and escort him to the office. His morning routine had been the same for the past eight years: breakfast with the population and then an escort to the office. Most of the other prisoners left Bill alone, but there were a few that liked to pick on him about his little "office aid" job, and some had much worse things to say. Bill was used to the abuse by now and knew it came with the territory. This morning the block was quiet, so he was just passing time by thinking about the weekend. As the guards led him down the hallway, he figured that he'd pass most of it reading and working out.

He buzzed into the office and headed straight for the kitchen. One of the best perks of having this job was getting doughnuts on Fridays. Bill grabbed a couple and a cup of coffee and headed to his desk. So begins another day in paradise, he thought as he powered up his computer.

Kathy was bringing Don up to speed on the discussion she had with Jim Reynolds. Don was listening, nodding his head, and asked a few questions before he told Kathy that he had a meeting. Friday was staff meeting day. Don called in to his staff meeting in the morning, and then the local staff meeting took place immediately after lunch. This was the worst possible time of day to have a meeting, and Don knew that everyone would be anxious to get it over with as quickly as possible. Kathy left the office and headed over to see if Bill was in yet.

"Morning, Billy, how was the commute?"

"Traffic was a bit heavy, but I managed to arrive on time."

Kathy chuckled. "I brought in your favorite for lunch today, so don't eat too many doughnuts. And when you're awake enough, please stop by. I have a work question to ask you."

"I can help you with it now if you'd like. What's on your mind?"

"I was thinking that it would be nice if there was a way that I could store and identify reports about the prison and then be able to query them. It is difficult for me to respond to reporters when they have access to information that's not at my fingertips. It's not an official request and, if you want, I can run it by Don to make sure it's okay for you to work on."

"I'll think about it a bit and let you know. Don't bother asking Don about it until I get back to you," Bill told her. Bill took out a notebook and started jotting down some thoughts and a sketch to solve Kathy's problem. His mind was always running so if he didn't write it down, he'd either forget about it or build the wrong tool. Bill got back to work on the payroll program, because he needed to give a demonstration today during staff. He had now documented several test case results and had also implemented username and password controls to limit access to the application and various functions within it.

Don swiveled his chair around so he could look outside. He was thoroughly bored by his staff meeting, paying enough attention so that he could hear his name if there was a question. The weekend was here and the weather was nice, so he knew that it would be the usual--unning the kids around all weekend and trying to squeeze in some yard work. Don wasn't against working, but as he got older he found that he'd rather just hang out and relax on the weekend. That's one of the challenges of having kids when you were older: you get to a point where you run out of steam. Don and Joanie had spent the first seven years of their marriage trying not to have children and the next six trying as hard as they could. Don was almost 40 when Scott was born and nearly 45 when Ricky was born. He had a lot of friends that were getting ready to retire, with their kids finishing college or already in the working world. Don figured that he would probably have to work about another 47 years to pay for everything that was coming.

"Don, can you please give us an update on the vendor consolidation project?"

"Uh sorry, please hold on a second, my computer is acting up." Don scrambled to open the document. Typical that he would zone out just when he needed to be sharp. "If you take a look at the document titled Vendor Consolidation rev 6, you'll see that we are recommending selecting a single supplier for each major consumption area. This will increase efficiency and enable us to save money because we can leverage the purchasing power of all seven prisons in our system."

"What happens if there is a strike or if one of our major suppliers goes out of business?" Mr. Peterson interrupted Don.

"Our contingency plan will be to have secondary suppliers identified and terms negotiated. We also recommend increasing storage at each site in case something does happen."

"Where am I supposed to keep extra items? My prison is already overcrowded! Do you include a budget for additional storage?" Joe Thomas sounded like he wanted to jump through the phone and choke Don. "I think we should force all of our vendors to keep three days inventory on hand and make them eat those costs."

"I agree with both Joe and Don in this matter," said Mr. Peterson. "Let's take a vote to ratify the recommendation of moving to single suppliers with the agreement that all selected suppliers will keep three days inventory on hand. Any opposed?" There was silence. "Okay, so that measure has passed. I have one more topic for today and that revolves around the use of prisoners as labor. Our unions are getting upset with us for the number of prisoners we are using in the labor force. Due to cost constraints, we would like to increase the number of prisoners in the workforce. The union wants to limit the number at each prison. We are stalled in our contract negotiations."

"Could we give them a nice raise with the concession that we can continue to use prisoner labor at an agreed-upon threshold?" someone chimed in.

"That has been suggested and they are considering our offer. I'm wondering if we could push for non-union positions to be filled by prisoners. Don, you have had someone working in your office for several years. Can you talk about your experience in this area?"

"We have been using prisoner labor for the past ten years. Generally prisoners are added to labor crews to help with general maintenance and landscaping activities. There are some exceptions, such as Bill Miller, who have worked in our office. Bill has actually been with us for over seven years and has been a prisoner here for almost fifteen. Most prisoners who end up working in office related jobs are at the end of their sentence and the job offers them valuable experience for the outside world. Although Bill is serving multiple life sentences and wonders if he'll ever leave the prison, he is also one of my most valuable employees. I doubt if I could replace him on the open market."

"Thanks, Don. I would encourage all of you to think about prisoners in non-union positions that can be filled using non-union labor. If we can make this deal with the union, and renew the contract, this will be one method where we could cut costs. Any questions?"

There was silence on the phone. Everyone was anxious to get to lunch and ramp down their weeks. The meeting adjourned without further activity. Don hung up the phone and took a look at the items that he needed to pass down to his staff after lunch. He jotted down a few things and then hit the door, because he had errands to run. He swung by Kathy's desk and asked if she needed anything while he was out.

"A million dollars and a new Mercedes would be nice. If you can't get either of those, there's nothing I can think of."

"If I find a running Mercedes with a duffel bag in the back seat, I'll bring it back for you," Don joked. He headed down to the office and asked Bill if there was anything he needed to help pass the weekend a bit faster. Don said that he was going by Borders and didn't mind stopping in.

"I could use the newest _Dr. Dobbs Journal_. I'm all set for books right now, thanks."

Don wrote down the magazine title on his notepad and stuck it in his breast pocket. Some folks in the office called him Colombo behind his back because he always found a way to wrinkle his clothes, often forgot to shave for a day or two and because of the notebook. It was a very fitting description, which caused a lot of laughs in the office. Don headed out the door and was greeted by a beautiful spring day. He wished he could just start his weekend now, but figured to make the most of the lunch hour.

As soon as Don took off for his weekly errand run, the office congregated in the kitchen. Don was known for his extended lunch breaks on Friday and the staff took advantage of it by either doing some running around of their own or getting together in the kitchen for a nice leisurely lunch and game of cards.

The queue at the microwave was long, so they used two tables during lunch: one for eating and the other for the weekly gin rummy game. They didn't play for money, just for office bragging rights. Bill had snuck in a minute before everyone else, so he was heating up his lunch. Friday's lunch was the last good meal he'd have for a few days, so he always relished it. Kathy had been bringing Bill food every day for many years, and when she was out of the office someone else always took care of him. The value of being able to eat real food most days of the week was something that Bill really couldn't measure. This brought him closer to the outside world than the work did. In the early days of his work in the office, he would go back and have lunch with the general population in the prison cafeteria. Once in a while, someone would get fast food and bring something back for Bill. Over time, this grew into a fairly regular habit until Bill was spending about half the time eating real food. Then he and Kathy got closer until Bill adjusted his eating habits and only ate a minimal amount of prison food. He shared his prison food, using it to get favors from some of the tougher inmates. Bill hadn't been picked on in many years, aside from the usual "office aide" or "office bitch" comments he sometimes heard. It was easy to ignore these comments-- a lot less difficult to ignore aggressive physical contact, which is what he was scared of the most in his early years at the prison.

Bill dug into his steak and ignored the chatter around him. He savored each bite and thought about how he was going to pass the weekend. It had been some time since he'd had a visitor, and he was hoping that someone would make the drive down from New York since the weather was so nice. He didn't really blame his family for the infrequency of their visits; it was a long day to see him for thirty minutes. Kathy sat down next to Bill and asked, "How is everything?"

"Perfect as usual, Mom. I swear that one of these days I'm going to pay you back for everything you've done for me. Not sure how, where or when, but it will happen."

"For what, a little bit of food? You know I can't stand cooking for myself, so you actually keep me cooking. You're also a very patient guinea pig when I try new recipes."

"Just remember, if I ever get out of this place, you'll have nothing to worry about. Now I've got to get down to some serious card playing, I have my reputation to protect." Bill cleaned up his dishes and sat down at the card table. "You guys ready for your weekly beating?"

"Sure Bill, you are probably the world's best gin rummy player," laughed Rich James, aka "Superfreak." "We should all just quit since you sat down." They dealt Bill in and continued with their game and joking around. Friday lunches were almost always the best of the week, since everyone knew that another week was done. Bill was in the middle of his second hand when Don came into the kitchen. "Hey Bill, can I have a word with you?"

"You're in trouble!"

"Probably be grounded all weekend!"

"Don's going to take away your birthday!"

Bill said, "Blah, blah, blah," and headed over to his office. Don handed him a fat Borders bag, and Bill said, "What's all this stuff?" He looked inside the bag and saw the magazine, but also saw the latest Matt Scudder book and a journal.

"I know how you're always scribbling things down here and there. This will give you a chance to organize your thoughts and know where everything is."

"Thanks a lot, Don, I will see if I can get my Mom to send down some money so I can pay you for this."

"Nonsense, you know how I love Borders. Shopping there for you gives me an excuse to buy a bunch of things. I also know that you'll pass me that Scudder book, so I can read it when you're done. Looks like a really good one, more action with Mick Ballou and the farm."

Lawrence Block was Bill's favorite author and the Matt Scudder series were some of his favorite books. He savored those books when he got them, but limited himself to a chapter a day, at the most. Bill scanned the back cover and got the gist of the plot. He took out his journal and headed over to the room for staff. People started filtering into the room.

Don believed in effective meeting management, a residue of one of the prison management classes that were required every year. His meetings were generally efficient and communicative. He didn't keep much from his staff and didn't mind ending the meeting quickly. Everyone was prompt, so they got right down to business.

"At staff today we spent a lot of time discussing the union contract negotiations and their impact on our bottom line. The union is pushing for us to stop using prison labor for all union positions, and we're trying to negotiate a fixed number of jobs per prison. We have offered them a raise in order to compensate for some ratio of union to prison workers. The union will be voting on our offer soon, and hopefully there won't be a strike. Things get pretty ugly when there is a strike in the prison. We also discussed a new vendor system where we will eliminate duplicate vendors for similar products or services, instead selecting one vendor per product. There was also a discussion about prison labor for non-union positions, and we spent some time talking about you, Bill."

"No wonder my ears were burning. I'm not losing my job, am I?"

"Not as long as I'm in charge here. The bottom line is that we're going to try and fill non-union positions with prison labor where it makes sense. Nobody get nervous or start spreading any rumors--there will be no cuts in the current labor force--but as positions become available, we will look to see if we can fill them from the 'population.' Is that clear?" There was a general nodding of heads and a few murmurs. Nobody liked to think they could be replaced by a common criminal. "We all know that Margie is coming back Monday. Please note that she will have a more flexible schedule due to Joshua. If anyone has a problem, please come see me directly. The only other thing on the agenda today is the demonstration of the new payroll tool that Bill is developing. He's going to show us all how to use it to enter our hours, view year to date information, etc. Show us what you've come up with so far, Bill."

Bill turned on the overhead projector and connected a laptop to it. "While this old thing warms up, I want to give you some background information. It has been difficult for Kathy to do two jobs in Margie's absence, and one of the headaches for her has been time cards. They take a lot of effort and people always need to come back to her with questions. The new system needed to be easy to use, for people like Don, and also needed to be comprehensive, so if you're buying a house or have other questions you can view year to date or historical information easily."

"What about privacy?" asked Jerry Thomas. "I don't want everyone knowing how much money I make."

"We all know that you make way too much money," joked Kathy.

"I have built in accounts for everyone, and only Kathy and Margie will have access to view or modify other people's information. The system logs all transactions and Don will get a report of weekly activity." The projector was ready, so Bill showed the desktop of the computer on the screen. "I'll install the application on all of your systems once the final version has been approved. All you have to do is double click the icon and the program will start. Let's run through an example, using me as the guinea pig." Bill entered a bunch of information and then clicked save. "The database is now updated, and next Friday I should get a check for $2,300 after taxes." Everyone laughed.

"Thanks Bill, the program is really coming along. Let's go around the room and see if there are any" There was an update about the new office equipment and some miscellaneous talk about upcoming vacations, doctor's appointments and other usual small talk. Bill was busy jotting in his new journal. The meeting adjourned and everyone headed back to their desks. Only a few more hours and the week would be over!

Bill worked from some sketches he had made in the journal and began to transfer them to Microsoft Visio. He had developed a flowchart and logical diagram for Kathy's request earlier that day and was just wrapping it up when she stopped by.

"Don't forget your afternoon snack, son. Brought in some strawberry rhubarb pie today—with ice cream, of course." Kathy smiled and turned toward the kitchen.

"Not so fast, Kath. Come take a look at this."

Kathy headed over to Bill's desk and said, "Very pretty, but I have no idea what it is."

"That's your new information storage and retrieval system. All I need to do now is code it and make it pretty for you."

"The one I just asked you about this morning? I told you it wasn't a big deal. It would be really useful, but don't go out of your way for me."

"Oh yeah, this from the woman who feeds me 90% of my annual calories. It's the least I can do, and I'm happy to do it."

"You're one smart cookie, Bill. Seems you can do anything. A jack of all trades. In fact, that's going to be your new nickname. Jack. Now come over to the kitchen for some pie, Jack."

Bill's mind went one thousand miles away in a flash. He mindlessly nodded as she walked away, but he couldn't move. It had been a really long time since anyone had called him Jack. He just sat there, silently mouthing the word. Jack.

**Chapter 3  
** Scientific Method

The lab bench was crowded but organized, with a definite method to the madness. A number of beakers were lined up on the matte black soapstone, some with clear liquid and others with dyes.

Steve was wearing a crisp blue lab coat and his own safety glasses, not the cheap ones that the company provided. He was muttering and scribbling into a lab notebook, trying to understand what had gone wrong with the experiment. Another couple of weeks out the window, and he would have to synthesize more polymer and start again.

The other chemists who shared the lab knew to stay away when Steve was in this mood, he would bite the head off anyone who interrupted him. There were three others who shared the lab but didn't feel part of the same team as the loner. All would have preferred him to get his own lab, but the manager of the team kept trying to make Steve more of a team player.

Steve looked closely at the beakers, focusing on the dispersion of the dye in those that were colored. He was trying to find visual clues as to why the material had failed to behave as expected. All three beakers showed some clear dispersion from one area, a weakness along the surface of each of these spheres. Steve wondered if it was from the sealing point of the spheres where the dye had been injected. He was completely lost in thought, mumbling to himself as he took notes.

Rob Bailey stormed into the lab, completely oblivious to Steve's train of thought and mood, and blurted, "Another bad round, Steve?"

Steve clamped his teeth together as hard as he could and slowly turned his head, fire in his eyes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before responding to his boss. "Some trouble with the batch, yes. I came in this morning and found that the solution had turned color in three of the eight samples, which means the degradation period missed the predicted result by a few days. I was making some observations, but haven't come to the root cause of the failure yet. Can I get back to work?"

The other chemists had to turn their head to hide the snickers. It didn't matter how many times it happened, it was still funny to watch Rob trying to get Steve to change his behavior. Steve was in his fifties, so change wasn't likely. In fact, the opposite was true. Every time Rob had to confront or correct Steve, the chemist ended up deeper in his shell. There were times when he became stone-faced, and wouldn't even acknowledge what Rob was saying.

"There is something else I wanted to talk to you about. I was supposed to go over to the middle school tomorrow and give them a talk about science and a little demonstration. I have an urgent staff meeting tomorrow and want you to cover the school visit for me."

"Tomorrow? Do you have your talk or demo prepared?"

"I don't have a script or anything, I was just going to describe the kind of work we do, how chemistry improves daily lives, and talk to them about the need for more science and technology professionals. For the demo I was going to just do a basic reaction of baking soda and vinegar--the old homemade volcano trick."

"Why me? Can't someone else cover it? These guys are all better with people, and I'm not very fond of kids, especially teenagers."

"That's precisely why I picked you, Steve. This is a good opportunity to work on some of the skills we talked about in your last review."

"Opportunity? That's one way to put it. Ok, if I'm stuck with it, I'll put something together today. What time is the appointment?"

"Nine o'clock."

"Ok, I need to get this wrapped up so I can start working on the demo for tomorrow, I'm going to think of something a little better than the science fair volcano! Maybe one of the little tyrants will actually appreciate it."

Rob shook his head and left Steve to his angst about talking in public, let alone on short notice, and to teenagers. He had been managing Steve for a few years now and thought that Steve had come a long from where he was at the beginning, but still had a long way to go. Rob didn't have much history on Steve other than the fact that he was a Vietnam veteran, and had a very negative war experience that made him a serious introvert. Even though the war ended thirty years ago, it was still in the mind of his most brilliant chemist, and Rob was convinced that he could change him with persistent steps.

It took Steve a few minutes to get refocused, especially because he had a new, urgent assignment in front of him. Steve extracted a failed polymer sphere from a beaker and looked closely at the surface. It didn't appear that the leak was from the insertion point, but instead seemed that the leak was due to a thinner surface on one part of the exterior of the sphere. The dispersion should have created an equal surface, but obviously hadn't. At least he was able to figure out the "what," so now he needed to think about "why." The next batch was going to be based on PGA (polyglycolide) instead of PLA (polylactide), because there might be a problem with the way the PGA was polymerizing. Since the target use of these materials was inside a human body, there were some strict limitations to the types of materials that could be used.

Steve had previously worked on various projects and programs, mostly in support of polymerization of plastics for use in the automotive and aerospace industries. Over the past few months, he had thought about developing bio-reabsorbable materials that could safely be used in the body and would deteriorate at a known rate. He was working on creating a product that could be injected into the body and release vaccines or other medicine on a predefined schedule. This would alleviate several problems that had come up in the medical industry including people forgetting to come in for updates on medicine and incorrect dosages due to handling lots of meds. These issues took a lot of time and money for doctors, patients and pharmacies.

The marketing team met with a couple of pharmaceutical companies and initial interest was very high. Steve had filed several patent applications, working with the legal department to insure that the entire domain would be covered before disclosing, since he didn't want the pharmaceutical companies to pick this up on their own. Over the past few months Steve had worked with lots of different materials, working to first develop an effective set of polymers that would be bio-absorbable or bio-reabsorbable. He focused on inert materials that were easily sterilized, provided no inflammation or incompatibility characteristics and could be metabolized in the body without a trace. He felt that the right material was close at hand. It was painful, because in order to have meaningful data, the experiments he ran lasted over a month. The dye was expected to show up on the twenty-eighth day at the earliest and the thirty-second at the latest. So far, he'd not yet made it to twenty-eight days, since something went wrong with the sphere part of his sample. Many of the tests were working within the control time frame, so he continued to tweak settings and hope that the next batch would provide the first set to release in the acceptable window. Once repeated, the test could be demonstrated to one or more of the pharmaceuticals.

He cleaned up the experiment and all of the equipment, leaving his part of the lab in typical immaculate condition. Steve's complete disdain for messes led him to believe that his co-workers shouldn't call themselves professionals when their work spaces and equipment were in such an abysmal shape. The same was true for the shared office area the chemists had; it wasn't hard to know which desk belonged to Steve. While others brought in photos, artwork, calendars and other things , his area was sparse and uninviting. It was probably the only desk in the company that was regularly dusted and double locked, using not only the standard locks, but also a bar with a heavy duty tamper-resistant lock.

Steve hung up his lab coat and sat down at his desk to prepare the talk and think about a demo. He would never admit it, but he was a bit excited to be able to come up with something that would wow the kids. The talk was going to be pretty basic; he would bring in a few parts that were in use and describe how chemistry had help to make the parts better and cheaper. He thought about how he was going to try to get them interested in science but didn't think that there would be anyone worth a damn in the class, so that part was probably going to be a waste of breath. He turned on his computer and opened the word processing programto type up some speaker notes. Speaking in front of any audience was something that made him dizzy and physically ill before, during and after.

"Steve, don't mean to bother you but was wondering if you were going to join us for lunch today?"

"Hi Denise, I'm busy working on an 'opportunity' for Rob, will have to eat at my desk today." Steve immediately turned back to his work as though Denise had already left the area and gone to the cafeteria. The company offered subsidized lunches and quality food, but Steve preferred to bring his lunch most days, rather than deal with people. Once in a while, he surprised his co-workers and went to the café with them. He even went out with them a few times a year on Fridays, which was the designated 'off-site' lunch day.

It didn't take long to complete the speaker's notes, which Steve sent to the printer so he could read while he ate. He never did anything on the computer while he ate, since he despised crumbs in his keyboard. The notes were fine, so Steve started working on the demo, really wanting something good. He thought about what middle school age kids might find cool, but realized he didn't think about kids often. The other chemists had come back from lunch, so he asked, "What kind of chemistry-related things do middle school kids like?"

"My kids like anything that blows up or makes fire," Denise said.

"Probably not the best thing for a school demonstration."

"What about glow sticks? All of the kids I know are crazy for them," Tom Salmon offered.

"That's a good idea, I should be able to do something this afternoon for that, thanks," Steve replied, already looking up the formula for the reaction. He remembered that it was a combination of hydrogen peroxide and some kind of ester, which turned out to be phenyl oxalate ester and a fluorescent dye. He had no shortage of dyes around from the current polymer sphere experiments, so he was able to mix up several quick tests. He thought purple would give the best effect. Simply mixing the chemicals in front of the kids wouldn't be good enough; he needed to add some drama and intrigue to make an impression. If he combined the glow stick chemicals and a quick setting epoxy,that should be good enough. The biggest trick was going to be separating the chemicals, so he could perform it like a magic trick. He thought that a glass ampoule inside of a beaker would provide the separation and let him provide some additional mystery. Steve had some ampoules in the lab that would probably do the trick so he tried one as a test. He filled the ampoule with the ester, dye and hardener, which were the smaller ingredients by volume. He then cemented the ampoule to the bottom of the beaker with some super glue and made sure there were no leaks. He poured the peroxide and resin into the beaker and then used a glass stirring rod to break the thin glass of the ampoule and start mixing everything together. The reaction created a swirled dye within the hardening epoxy, and before long he was unable to stir the solution.

Steve carefully filled two more ampoules and attached them to beakers, checking them for leaks. With the other chemicals in a sealed jar, he was all set for his demonstration. For the past couple of hours while he'd been doing the preparation, his nerves had even left him. Maybe he wouldn't be too bad tomorrow.

He carefully went around the entire lab, making sure that there was nothing unsafe. Steve was almost always the last one to leave, and most days he didn't even hear the others tell him they were leaving for the night. Once he was certain there was no imminent danger, he cleaned up his desk area and made sure that everything was locked up. Gathering up his demo gear and speaker's notes, Steve left the building and took the short drive home.

Claire was already home; she beat him during the school year unless there was an open house or some other school function. Steve liked coming home to his wife-- she was probably the best thing that'd ever happened to him in the thirty years of his adult life. She was in the kitchen, cooking dinner, which smelled great, as usual.

Steve set down his stuff and they exchanged small talk about their days, and the things that had gone on. He told her about the latest set of polymer testing, and she talked about trying to get high school kids interested in Shakespeare.

"I saved the best for last though."

"What's that? Some better news about the polymer testing?"

"No, Rob thinks it would be a good 'opportunity' for me to take his place tomorrow at the middle school. He assigned me to go talk to a group of eighth graders about science and give them a demonstration."

"I know that you're probably all nervous now because you have to go talk in front of an audience and better than that, a bunch of teenagers."

Steve didn't reply to Claire, and fidgeted around in his chair, thinking about the assignment. She got the hint and went back to her cooking, no longer offended when he clammed up. They'd been married for almost ten years now, and it had taken Claire a long time to get used to all of her husband's idiosyncrasies. For the first couple of years, she was convinced he would open up to her over time, but there was just too much that had happened to him at such an impressionable age. Time might soften things, but couldn't erase them. She was content with Steve and knew that he loved her back.

Dinner was quiet, and they cleaned up together and did the dishes before going to the living room. Usually, Steve went on the computer and Claire spent time either reading books or grading papers from her classes. Tonight she was caught up in a recent mystery novel she checked out of the library. She quickly got lost in the words on the page, imagining herself as the heroine of the story, solving murders and living a very different life than that of an English teacher in a small Ohio town. Her escape was deep and complete, and sleep found her after about an hour of reading.

Steve got caught up in chat rooms and message boards, following the threads but not contributing much to the discussion. When he did contribute, there was always someone out there who would flame him and cause him to get angry. It was easier to just watch and see what was being discussed and let the community know that he was here to help when needed. Claire had fallen asleep some time ago but that didn't really matter to Steve, except for the fits and spurts of snoring that kept distracting him.

Claire usually went to sleep three or four hours before Steve, since his body rarely required more than a few hours of sleep a night. He spent the alone time online, either doing research or keeping up with some of his old friends from the war. There were lots of places to keep up with Vietnam veterans, and since the internet had taken off, many old veterans were online looking to either catch up or talk about their experiences. There were also kooks that showed up in the chat rooms or message boards, referring to the war as a waste of time and discussing the 'atrocities' committed by American soldiers in Vietnam and other areas of Southeast Asia.

Tonight there was a thread going back and forth talking about the need to 'get over it.' Some anonymous user was ranting about how the words "slavery" and "Vietnam" needed to be stricken from our vocabulary. A few vets had jumped all over the guy, but he wouldn't let it go, to the point where Steve could tell that some regulars were getting really angry. Steve thought the point was probably valid for someone who hadn't been there. But, to him, it was like telling a living slave that they need to forget about that whole era and put it behind them. The war would live on in history, with both correct and inaccurate information. Over time there would be no veterans of the war around to talk about it. All Vietnam vets were in their fifties or older now and they weren't going to live forever.

He was happy to have the computer because it was not only a way to connect, but also a way to escape the world. Claire chose her books over the computer, and when they had first met, Steve was also an avid reader of books that allowed him to escape the world he lived in. When she came home talking about the World Wide Web, Steve went out and bought a computer and became instantly hooked. It was invaluable from a work perspective as well, keeping Steve current on research topics and papers being published for polymer chemistry. Once the world started opening up more to the technology, vets started showing up online, looking to connect. This provided a support structure and a way for geographically dispersed veterans to stay in touch. Steve was very active in many of the forums, especially those dealing with prisoner of war survivors. Although he didn't talk about his experience in the prison camps verbally, finding it impossible to bring the subject from his lips, it was easier to share experiences through the wire, with a veil of anonymity. The World Wide Web was responsible for Steve's sanity and temperament.

Shutting down the computer, he woke Claire up and they went to bed. Steve's mind wandered back to the presentation tomorrow, and he hoped that sleep would come.

**Chapter 4  
** Field Trip

Claire woke up with the sun and was immobilized by pain. Her legs were numb from the ankles down, and her joints screamed. Most mornings were painful. This was an intense reminder of her need to lose weight before she lost her feet due to poor circulation. Forcing blood to her head to block the pain, she slowly pulled herself sideways and pulled her legs off the bed, willing the blood to flow south. Her Christian upbringing forced prayers from her mouth, although the words did not match the beliefs anymore. Steve was up, which wasn't odd, since sleep always came in short fits for him.

As the feeling in her feet returned, she struggled up and walked to the bathroom, ready to start the day. Her eyes were clear and her hair didn't look bad--pretty impressive if you ignored everything below the chin. Once her makeup was on, she smiled in the mirror and felt better than she had a few minutes back. She thanked God that they lived in a ranch and hobbled to the kitchen.

Steve was sitting at the table, showered and dressed, reading the newspaper. "Morning," He quietly said, and continued to work the crossword puzzle.

"Morning, did you sleep last night?"

"About the usual; you have a good rest? What's a five letter word for doled?"

"Slept well, sore this morning, I'll bet rain is in the forecast. Try meted."

"Sorry to hear you're sore, thanks for the word." He worked the puzzle, mumbling to himself.

"You better hurry up or you'll be late for school," Claire said as she filled his travel mug with coffee. "And don't forget your tie."

"Don't worry, teacher, I should be on time, and I'll bring an apple in case I'm a bit late. Rob should have taken this trip; he's the one who agreed to do the demonstration for the little brats." He finished the crossword, folded up the paper and put it neatly down for her to read after school.

"Never know, the next Steve Pfister might be in that class and your demo may be the reason he or she chooses to major in chemistry."

"More likely someone will ask how easy it is to synthesize drugs like ecstasy or crystal meth." "Such a great attitude, Mr. Sunshine. How many times have I told you that teaching follows the 90/10 rule? 90 percent of the benefits come from 10 percent of the students. Not everyone is cut out to be a scientist, but for the ones that we can influence, especially in middle school, our influence can be great."

"Ok, I will keep an open mind today." Steve lied. "I better run, see you after work." He pecked his wife's cheek and walked out the door. He was back in the house thirty seconds later to grab his tie and coat.

"My absent-minded professor, enjoy your day." Claire chuckled as Steve went back out the door. She was right behind him, headed to Lincoln middle school, where she taught eighth grade English. She enjoyed the benefits of a short commute, with the school just a few streets over from their house. Steve and Claire loved the city they lived in and had nice neighbors – typical Midwest suburbia.

Steve drove to the freeway and merged into traffic, running through his demo out loud. He was grateful for the invention of cell phones, because to anyone driving by, it looked like he was on the phone. The truth was he talked to himself all the time and wasn't a fan of cell phones, didn't even own one. He cursed Rob again for passing this task on to him as "an opportunity to connect with some kids and help push a few minds into the field of chemistry." Foundation Chemical Products prided itself on community involvement; and outreach was more than encouraged, it was mandatory that all employees spend some time volunteering. At least this little field trip, along with his work in the Explorers program, would help take care of his obligation for the year.

As he exited the freeway and headed toward the school, Steve tried to remember what it was like to be a teenager. Not having kids had disconnected him from the younger generation almost completely, and he had trouble remembering what his teenage years had been like. He thought back to growing up in upstate Minnesota and the challenges of a rural community and those long winters. His most vivid memory was wanting to get out of there and never go back. The military gave him the opportunity to get out and get an education, but also gave him a free trip to Vietnam, which brought its own set of challenges. Steve quickly left that thread behind and concentrated on getting to the school. He found a visitor's spot out front, grabbed his briefcase and the box that contained his demonstration equipment and tried to steady his nerves as he approached the front door.

"Hi, my name is Steve Pfister from Foundation Chemical, and I'm here to give a demonstration to Mr. Baldwin's science class."

"I was expecting a Mr. Bailey today, are you filling in for him?" The secretary asked.

"I work for Rob. He had a last minute meeting today and asked me to come in his place."

"Do you have a background check on file with the school system? We require background checks for anyone interacting with the students."

"I have one on file with the county due to my work with the Boy Scouts Explorers program. Is that good enough?"

"I will take your word for it, please fill out the line on the visitor's list, and I'll get you a temporary badge. Can't be too safe these days."

"Totally agree," Steve muttered as he filled out the form and grabbed the badge. "Where is Mr. Baldwin's classroom?" he asked the secretary.

"Down the hall, first right, third classroom on the right, room 118. Please come back to sign out and turn in your badge when you're done."

"Will do, thanks." He collected his stuff and ambled down the hall. Schools and hospitals had the same effect on him, they both give him the creeps, though he wasn't sure why. He ran through his little speech one last time, took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A rumpled little man with a long brown beard ambled over to the door and opened it for Steve. "Welcome to 8th grade chemistry! My name is Chris Baldwin."

"Steve Pfister from Foundation Chemical – filling in for my boss Rob Bailey, who sends his regrets," Steve replied as he handed his business card to the teacher. He followed Mr. Baldwin to the desk at the front of the room. The class was pretty full and the kids were a bit restless, but for the most part, they were interested to know what was going on. Or, more likely, they were just happy to be relieved of another boring class.

"Class, I would like to introduce our guest today, Mr. Pfister, who works at Foundation Chemical Products as a chemist. He is here today to tell us a bit about what it's like to work as a chemist, the type of work he does, and the products that Foundation Chemical produces. Please give him your undivided attention and be on your best behavior."

"Hi everyone, my name is Steve, and as Mr. Baldwin said, I work as a chemist. How many of you think chemistry is exciting?" About half of the class reluctantly raised their hands. "You with your hands up are wrong, working in chemistry is like doing homework eight hours a day." The class laughed.

"We spend most of our time working on reports and analyzing results from our experiments, and then repeating our experiments again and again to prove the results we're seeing are right. Before you all give up on being chemists though, there are some very fun and exciting parts of being a chemist. Do you guys have questions, or would you like me to just stand up here and talk for the next hour?"

One of the boys raised his hand and Steve mentally rolled his eyes. The kid looked like a little skateboarding troublemaker. "Here comes the drug question," Steve thought.

"What is the most important thing that chemistry is going to provide for the world in the next twenty years? Will it be alternative energy, pharmaceutical, or something we haven't thought of yet?"

Steve froze for a second, staring oddly at the kid, never expecting that question. "Well, I'm a bit opinionated because some of my current work is related to disease control and prevention, but it could really come from anywhere. Good question."

There were a couple of other general questions about working in the lab, common things like explosions, fires, etc. Steve didn't feel like trying to extend the conversation, so he pulled out his demo gear. "Going to show you a little magic now." He lifted the beaker up and swirled the clear liquid around for the class to see. There was interest in most of their eyes, but some of them were daydreaming. "Anyone have a pencil? Trade you for a company one?" A few kids raised their hand, including the skateboarder. Steve pointed to the kid and he came up to trade pencils. "Don't want you thinking I'm pulling a fast one with a special pencil. This is very special liquid, even though it looks like water." The kids were paying a bit more attention now, wondering what was going to happen next. Steve put the pencil in and began stirring around the perimeter of the beaker, the liquid swirling. "If we add some energy from the pencil, something fun might happen. What are your favorite magic words?"

The class was shouting different ones at Steve and he took the opportunity to use the noise to cover him breaking the ampoule with the pencil. "We'll stick with abracadabra." He stirred vigorously and the glow started to spread through the liquid, more concentrated in some places than others. He could feel the fast acting epoxy hardening, stirring was becoming a chore. The class was 'oohing' and 'aahing', everyone paying full attention now. It took only another 30 seconds and the epoxy was set. Steve took this moment to let the epoxy finish hardening. "Everyone like my little magic trick?"

Mr. Baldwin was appraising Steve, wondering as much as the rest of the class what had just happened. "Class, do you have any questions about the experiment?"

"That looks like a glow stick." A girl offered. "I love those, can you teach us how to make them?"

Steve smiled and passed the beaker to the first kid. "Part of this trick is to have it colored like a glow stick; the other part was to make the liquid turn into a semi solid material. Pass this around but be careful and don't touch the material. See if you can stir it."

The kids took turns looking at the beaker and pulling on the pencil, everyone ten times more engaged than when the talk started. Steve, pleased, thought this wasn't a complete waste of time, though he wasn't going to tell Rob or he'd have Steve out every month doing these dog and pony shows. "Anyone care to guess what my trick was all about?"

"All of your ingredients were in the beaker and activated when you mixed them up," someone guessed.

"You're partially correct, but not all the way."

The skateboarder was thinking hard, trying to figure it out. He asked to see the beaker again and slowly rotated it in his hand, examining it closely. Spotting a few shards of broken glass in the solution he ventured a guess. "You had another glass container in the beaker with some of the ingredients and used the pencil to break it."

Steve's face broke into a devious smile, and he enjoyed the suspense a few seconds longer before responding. The other kids were grasping the idea and several were nodding their heads in agreement with the hypothesis offered by the other student. "Very good observation, want to see how I did it?"

The class was fully engaged as Steve pulled out the spare beaker with the ampoule already cemented in place. "There are two chemical reactions happening at the same time in the beaker. The active ingredients are put into this glass vessel, called an ampoule, and then I cement that to the beaker. The glass is very thin and the chemicals are transparent so unless you came up and looked very closely you wouldn't notice the ampoule."

Steve passed around the beaker so the students could inspect the empty beaker. "The first reaction is for the glow stick effect, which is a combination of hydrogen peroxide, phenyl oxalate ester and fluorescent dye. When they combine, the reaction puts off excess energy that shows up as light, which was the purple color. The second part was a quick-setting epoxy, which is made up of two parts: a hardener, polyethylenepolyamine, and bisphenol-A, which is an epoxy resin. When the two of them are combined, they create a plastic-like substance, which is why the pencil ended up getting stuck."

"Class, remember our discussion about potential and kinetic energy? Which do you think these reactions represent?"

Most of the class had confused looks on their faces; it wasn't easy to grasp the concept of kinetic and potential energy. "Mr. Baldwin, do you have a rubber band I could borrow for a minute?" The teacher nodded and fetched one from his desk, handing it to Steve. "Here is an easy way to remember the difference between potential and kinetic energy. It was taught to me by a chemist who inspired me when I was about your age, and it has stuck with me all this time." Steve looped the band around his thumb and stretched it as far as he could toward his elbow. He then pointed his thumb at Mr. Baldwin's head and said, "This is potential energy. There is energy stored and ready to be released. Anyone care to guess what type of energy it would be if I let the rubber band go?"

Mr. Baldwin's lip was pursed and he was staring out of the corner of his eyes, hoping that Steve didn't release the rubber band in a display of kinetic energy. The kids got the basic idea and were starting to get excited, hoping for a demonstration. Steve relaxed the rubber band and handed it back to the teacher, who unconsciously let a big sigh escape his lips. "That's all I had to show you today. I wanted to let you know that Foundation Chemical teams up with Boy Scouts for a program called Explorers. The purpose is to get high school kids interested in science and math partnered with people at the company to help them learn and grow their interests. You don't have to be a Scout to be in Explorers, and I am involved with our chemistry program, so hope to see some of you in the future."

"Please thank Mr. Pfister for coming and sharing his demonstration with us today class." The class clapped as Steve packed up and left. He signed out and sat in his car for a couple of minutes, catching his breath. Even though he'd appeared calm, he'd been nervous for most of the time and it had taken a toll on him. A few minutes of silence helped a lot and before long he was on his way to work. It was still only mid-morning, but feelt like it'd been a full day.

The lab was quiet and Steve didn't bother to wonder why, but instead settled into his spot and enjoyed the solitude. He needed to get back to work on the bio-reabsorbable material development, and needed to improve his material or be stuck on the project for a long time. Not wanting to try another batch of what had recently failed, he decided to try something a little different, and moved to a carbon-based polymer. He racked his brain and searched a couple of journals before deciding to try a combination of dextran and polytetrafluoroethylene, or PTFE for short. The gel-forming and rheological properties of the two might be a good combination and provide some of the key attributes needed, especially the time degradation. He was in the midst of synthesizing the polymer when his team came back, Rob leading the way.

"So how did it go today? Did the kids like your demonstration?"

"It wasn't too bad, there might even be a future chemist in the class." Steve turned his head away from Rob and focused on his work. He didn't want to give him too much, and hated being interrupted.

Rob walked to his office and the others settled in to their work. When he thought the polymer was at the right thickness, he started the process of forming the spheres that would hold the dye, hopefully for thirty days. Maybe it was his optimism, but this new material seemed to be forming quickly and consistently, which was encouraging. The team was going to lunch, and Tom came to invite Steve, who decided to tag along. On this day he had experienced more social interaction than he normally got in a week. He even participated in a discussion about the Indians, even though he didn't follow sports. He'd been to a few games at Jacobs Field when Claire dragged him to some event or another, but other than knowing some of the basics, he was lost.

The conversation drifted to the meeting that Steve had missed while he was at the school. Some upcoming budget cuts were going to stop some projects and maybe even create some layoffs. The table was gossiping about which projects and people they would cut if it was their choice, focusing primarily on management. Steve ignored this discussion and focused on his food; he didn't like to get caught up in this kind of chatter.

The remainder of the afternoon was pretty mundane. Steve wrote his status report and a summary of the last batch of testing. There was another batch that was due next week, and he hoped that there wouldn't be a dye leak. Steve had enough experience to know that it was likely to fail like the previous batches. He thought the new batch might be the key.

The house was empty when Steve got home, and he remembered that Claire mentioned a meeting after school. He thought about the computer but looked outside and wanted to take advantage of the great weather. Wiping the dust off the seat, he checked the tire pressure on his bike and took a ride, letting his mind go back to the simplicity of childhood. He and his brother used to ride their bikes whenever possible, taking them places that beat television or books. His brother had found trouble after Steve went to Vietnam and had been killed in prison. Steve tried to shake the memory of what it had been like to get the notice that his brother was dead:the hurried trip back to the states for the funeral, his mother and father inconsolable. He lost track of time and distance and, before long, was several miles from home. Stopping the bike to get his bearing, he saw the prison, surrounded by razor wire, on top of the hill,.Steve was flooded with memories, his own plus ones of his brother. He wondered about moments like this, when the mind and the body collide, without any conscious thought or planning.

The ride home was uneventful, and Claire was home when Steve arrived. They spent the waning daylight on the front porch, reading and enjoying being together.

**Chapter 5  
** A boy named Jack

"My mom sent me over to pick up a cake mix but I'm not sure which kind to get. Can you help me?" Tom asked the woman behind the counter at the convenience store.

"Sure, let me show you what I've got." The older woman ambled out from behind the cash register and wobbled down aisle 4. "We've got a whole bunch, what kind of cake is she going to make?"

"I can't remember; it's for my Dad's birthday. She's going to kill me if I bring home the wrong one."

"Don't worry none, we'll figure it out." She grabbed a couple of boxes from the shelf. The door to the store chimed. "I'll be back at the register in a second."

"I'm just getting a newspaper. Can I leave 10 cents on the counter?"

"Sure thing, have a nice night."

"You too," Bill Miller said as he headed out the door to his car, newspaper and case of beer in hand. "Bet Tom is just now remembering that he needs to get a chocolate cake mix," Bill laughed.

"That was awesome!" said Don Mitchie, one of Bill's buddies from the back seat. "We're going to get laid tonight!"

"You think there's enough beer back there to make you look good to any of the girls that are gonna be at my house?" Mike Watts shot at Don.

"You ain't had pussy since pussy had you," added Bill.

"Fuck both of you guys, just wait 'til tonight, I'll have the last laugh."

Tom came whistling out of the store, chocolate cake mix in hand. He stepped into Bill's "Deuce" and they took off down the street. "Worked like a charm, Bill, what kind of beer did you get?"

"What do you care? You're going home to make chocolate cake with your mommy!"

"Very funny," Tom said as he tossed the cake mix box out the passenger window. "Let's go to Mike's house and get the party rolling." Bill revved the big block in his Buick as they turned off Main Street and raced down route 394 to Mike's. Bill wondered who was going to be at the party tonight and hoped he'd end up with someone. The summer had been fun, but he kept hooking up with out-of-towners each weekend, mostly people who camped at the Lake from Erie or Buffalo. As the summer started to wrap up, Bill was looking for a local girl to hang out with. He couldn't believe that he was going to be a senior in a month. Time to decide what he was going to do after high school.

Bill dropped the guys off at Mike's house and said he'd be back later. He didn't really feel like spending the next four hours listening to them go back and forth with their typical bullshit. He headed back towards Main Street and took a right on First Street. He flipped left on Union and pulled into his driveway. His mom was sitting at the dining room table, talking on the phone. Bill flipped her the paper and said, "Dad home yet?" His mom shook her head no, so Bill flipped on the TV and started looking for something to watch. MTV was showing the Michael Jackson video "Thriller." It looked like a movie to Bill; he couldn't believe how much was going on in this video! He had to pick up this tape next time he headed to the mall in Jamestown. After the video was over, he knew there would be a bunch of commercials coming, so he flipped around some more. He stopped on ESPN and watched a short story about the upcoming football season. He was hoping the Bills would be better this year. His dad usually got tickets for a couple of games and Bill really enjoyed those Sundays. There was a lot of talk about the Forty-Niners and the Dolphins, with one commentator wondering just how many Super Bowls the Dolphins would win with Dan Marino at quarterback. Dave Miller came through the door.

"Hey Billy, what's happening?"

"Not much, Dad, how was your day?"

"Made some juice, finished up another week. Looking forward to this weekend, it's supposed to be a nice one. Was thinking that we could head out tomorrow morning early and do some fishing?"

"I'm going to be at Mike's house tonight and won't be home until later tomorrow morning. How about Sunday?"

"Sure, I'm sure your mother won't mind if we miss church. Fishing can be a very religious experience, after all," Dave laughed.

"I heard that! If you two are heading out Sunday you best be back in time for service, and you better come back empty handed or with cleaned fish!"

Dave winked at Bill and said, "Yes, dear, nothing could keep us from church on Sunday except a Bills game." Dave was a diehard football fan and there was nothing that could pry him away from the TV on Sundays in the fall, except the chance to catch a game in person. He was a wiry guy who was a bit of a local legend for having taken Westfield to the state championships in the early 1960's. He had decided to follow in his father's footsteps and serve in the army instead of going to college. He didn't talk much about Vietnam other than to say he was glad to be home.

The Welch's plant was one of the town's leading employers, but things had been kind of sketchy over the past year or so as some jobs had been migrating to Massachusetts from Western New York. The plant had been an institution in the town since the late 1890's. Dave sometimes wondered if he would have a job much longer, and worried about what he would do if he found himself unemployed. He liked working at the plant and considered the people that worked there his second family.

Dave had been working at the Welch's plant for almost twenty years, and he was a supervisor on the production floor. It didn't matter if work was great or terrible, Bill never knew because Dave was always happy to be home. They had their moments, but for the most part Dave and Bill got along fairly well. All Bill had to do was stay out of trouble, do well in school, and get in by curfew.

Dave believed in military strictness for these things, and when Bill got out of line he found himself suffering through long punishments. Dave was a little man, but he was tough and still had most of his youthful speed. He tried to stay in shape by running, though it was mostly to be able to keep up with Bill when they did things together. One time Bill was busted cheating on a test and Dave not only grounded him but put him to "hard labor" for one month. He hated punishing the kids more than anything, but he knew that it was part of being a parent.

Susie was a lot softer than Dave. When Bill was in trouble she would always let him sneak a little TV, skip a chore, etc. She and Dave had been together since high school, and it seemed that they would never separate. They had lived in the house on Union Street since Bill was a baby, before Ellie was born. Susie took seasonal work at the mall in Jamestown but other than that she'd always been home with the kids. Her kindness rubbed off on everyone, but especially on her children. Ellie was a volunteer at the hospital who loved to work with sick children, and Bill would do just about anything for anyone. She was proud to see that her seventeen- year-old son still wanted to hang around with his father. Dave liked nothing more than spending time with Bill and had always encouraged him to try new things. It was really hard to believe that this might be the last year they spent together as a family. Empty-nesting was starting to set in already. She knew that she needed to enjoy the time they had and worry about the future when it came.

"Billy, would you please go over to the hospital and pick your sister up? Dinner is almost ready and will be on the table when you guys get back."

"No problem, Mom. I'm starving so don't blame me if I set a land speed record."

"O.K. Richard Petty, I'll have the checkered flag out when you get back."

Bill jumped in his car and headed back to Main Street. The hospital was just a few blocks away right on Main. His sister was standing outside talking to a couple of other candy stripers, including Molly Horton. Bill parked the car and jumped out.

"Hey, Molly. How's your summer been? Ready to go back to school?"

"Not really, I like sleeping in and then heading to the lake every day. How about you? Still working over at the Institution?"

"Yeah, the job is fine, but it does stop me from tanning." They both laughed at that one, Bill was one of the fairest people in town and a couple of hours in the sun turned him bright red. "There is a party tonight at Mike's house. Well, not really a party, but you know."

"Is there going to be beer there?"

"Good chance. Why don't you grab some girlfriends and head over?"

"Alright, maybe we'll see you there."

"Later. C'mon Ellie, Mom's got dinner on the table."

They both jumped in the car and headed home. "Wait 'til I tell mom and dad what you guys are up to tonight," Ellie joked.

"I'm scared. All we're going to do is rent a couple of movies and hang out, duh."

"Sure, Billy, I believe you. I'm sure mom and dad will too. How about I don't tell, and you can get me and my friends some beer next time I'm 'watching movies' at a friend's house?"

"You're way too young to drink. Fifteen-year-old girls get in trouble when they drink beer." Bill had heard many times from his friends just how hot his sister was starting to look. He had cracked a few of them over some of their comments, but knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

"So that's why you invited Molly tonight! Her birthday isn't 'til next month, she's still 15! You're such an ass sometimes."

"I'll get you beer next time, just keep your trap shut about tonight."

They pulled into the driveway, and sure enough, dinner was waiting for them. Mom always took pride in her cooking, and tonight was no exception. She had cooked pork roast and broiled potatoes and the whole family dug in. The dinner conversation was mostly small talk about how Ellie's afternoon had been at the hospital and what plans were for the weekend.

"Since the boys are going fishing Sunday, we should head over to the mall tomorrow and buy some new clothes," said Susie.

"Any excuse to hit the mall!" joked Bill.

"I need new school clothes; tenth grade is a big year. I'm hoping to get asked to homecoming this year. I just hope it's not one of your gay friends that will be asking me."

"That's all I need in my life—a friend dating my sister."

"Wouldn't that be cute? You guys could double-date."

"Thanks a lot, Dad. I'm sure you'd want to ride along and chaperone the whole thing too. I'm a senior this year-- I do actually have a reputation to keep up."

After dinner, Bill helped clear the table and then headed upstairs to get changed. He took a quick shower, changed and was out the door in about twenty minutes. Mom told him to be careful and Dad told him to behave—the usual. He pulled into Mike's house and saw everyone sitting around watching MTV and calling people on the phone to pull the party together. Mike's parents had to run to Rochester for the weekend for some family thing, and Mike hadn't found out until that morning. It was easier to pull parties together during school, but word spread quickly in a small town.

"I saw Molly Horton when I picked up Ellie at the hospital. I told her to get some friends together and head over. Hopefully she will."

"We're going to need more beer. I can drink about half that case myself," said Don.

"Sure you can, you threw up last time after three beers!"

"I had ten that night on an empty stomach!"

"Right. I'll keep an eye on you tonight."

They jumped in the car, and this time they went north to Mayville. There was a deli there that would sell beer to anyone old enough to put their money on the counter. They didn't want to press their luck by going back to the store in town, and also didn't want to run into any of their parents. Don and Mike grabbed a case of beer and Bill and Tom grabbed some chips, pretzels and straws. They paid for their stuff and headed back down 394 toward Mike's house. Bill pulled out two pints that he had shoved in his pants: one Peppermint Schnapps and the other one some rotgut Vodka.

"Damn, Bill. You are a fucking clepto!" Tom said.

"Just thought we might need a couple extra things in case the party gets rolling. There is no way in hell I'm going to drive once I start drinking, so this is my insurance policy."

"What else did you jack? Is the cash register in your sock?"

"Did you just call him Jack?" asked Mike.

"No, but that's not a bad idea. The fucker steals everything, so his name might as well be Jack."

They got back to the house and started drinking and playing cards. People started to trickle in, and before they knew it the party was going pretty well. There was a nice mix of boys and girls, which almost never happens at parties, so the guys were spread around talking to different groups of people. Bill saw Molly Horton and her friends come in so he headed over with some beers and straws. Most of the girls drank their beers with a straw because they'd been told that it intensified the buzz. Bill thought it was pretty stupid, but went along with it anyway. "Hey girls, how's the buzz coming along?"

"Great," one of them giggled.

"Thanks for inviting us, and for the beer," said Molly.

"No problem, just don't get so drunk that you forget to give me a thank you kiss."

Bill wandered in the kitchen and found a bunch of people playing quarters. He sat down and sank his first turn. He pointed to Don and said, "Drink up, bitch." He sank another and pointed to Tom, "One for you too, girl." He missed his next one and stayed for a while, laughing and joking around. When he got up to stretch, he saw that a bunch of new people had come over.

"Yo, what's up Terry?!"

"Billy, how's your summer?"

"Great, working over at the Institution, hooking up with out-of-towners every weekend, getting ready for football practice to start."

"Yeah, I'm doing about the same. Putting in time at my grandpa's orchard, the usual. Westfield gonna be any good this year?"

"Hell yeah, we've got a lot of players coming back."

"Us too, and you guys are our homecoming game this year."

"See you 'round Terry, there are better-looking people to talk to right now than you."

"Oh yeah, this is a great party. Later."

Bill saw lots of familiar faces from school sitting around the living room and dining room. He walked through the kitchen, grabbed a beer and headed out to the back patio to see who was hanging out there.

"Hey, Jack, where have you been?"

"Just hanging out, Mike. What's going on out here?"

"Had to break up a fight between Laura and Michelle. Michelle spilled a beer on Laura's new shirt and Laura popped her in the face. It was pretty funny, but I didn't want it to get ugly. Michelle took off and Laura is inside trying to get the beer out of her shirt. She's got quite a right hook."

"Where's the schnapps you jacked, Jack?" asked Tom, who already looked like he was over his limit.

"You're gonna be driving the porcelain Caddy already, Tom, why would you want to drink more?"

"Hey, Jack, you're not my Dad. Just pass that shit over and look out!"

Bill handed the bottle to Tom and watched him take a shot and make a sour face. He laughed and took the bottle back from him. Bill headed over to talk to the group that was hanging at Mike's picnic table in the yard.

"Hey people, what's up?"

"What's up, Jack?" asked Rob Ryan, captain of the football team.

"Where the hell did you get that already?"

"Tom was running around telling everyone to call you Jack, but he didn't say why. Is it because you like to jack off?" the group busted out laughing.

"Only to pictures of your mother," Bill shot back. Rob was a bad ass, but he was pretty drunk and Bill didn't really care.

"Very funny, Jack. I'll remember that one when you come across the middle during football practice in a couple of weeks. I need a beer." Rob got up and a couple of his friends followed along. Bill sat down in his spot.

"You're lucky he didn't kick your ass, 'Jack,'" an unfamiliar voice behind him said. Bill flipped around and saw Dana Weiss, only the hottest girl in school. Bill had a crush on her back in junior high but their paths hadn't crossed much during their high school years.

"Thanks for the advice, Dr. Weiss," Bill smirked at her. "What brings you out here, slumming?"

"Something like that. We just got back from France and I was a bit bored. Is there anything to drink here besides beer? I hate beer."

Bill passed her the schnapps. "Careful with this stuff, it's not French wine."

Dana took a little sip and then hammered back a full shot. She waited about ten seconds and took another one. "Here you go, but don't go anywhere, I'm not done yet."

"I'm impressed; you didn't even make a face. Why don't you sit down? It's not easy to talk out of the back of my head."

Dana sat down next to Bill. Damn did she smell good! Dana was about average height with auburn hair and green eyes. She had a few freckles on her nose and cheeks. Her legs were tan and she was wearing a short skirt. Bill was dying. He took a drink of the schnapps to calm his nerves. Dana grabbed the bottle and took a shot. Bill grabbed it back and took another. Dana matched him.

"So what are your plans for the rest of the summer, Dana?"

"Just going to get ready for school, maybe visit a couple of colleges. Any idea where you're going to go yet?"

"Not sure, been thinking about RPI, but also looking at Carnegie Mellon. Both are good schools and far enough from home. What about you? Still planning on following your father's footsteps and going to med school?"

"Yeah, that's my plan right now. I hope to get accepted to Case Western Reserve, can just stay there from undergrad all the way through med school. That's Dad's alma mater too."

"I'm sure you'll get in without any problems. I hadn't thought about Case, but have heard that they have an excellent computer science program. I'll have to get some info on the school."

"I've got about 85 books and catalogs at home. I'll give you a call and you can come over and pick some up. What's your number?"

Bill gave Dana his number and figured that he wouldn't hear from her. "So how was France? Looks like you spent a little time on the beach."

"It was pretty good. Being on vacation with my parents was kind of a bummer, but I was able to get out and have some fun while I was there. The Riviera is a great place to vacation, lots of beautiful people."

"Bet you had your share of looks while you were there."

"Oh yeah, nothing more exciting to Europeans then a dorky teenage brat from the US."

"Right. You're beautiful Dana." Must be the schnapps talking now, Bill would never have the guts to say that sober.

"You're sweet, Jack." Dana leaned over and kissed Bill. He grabbed her hand as his heart raced. "Looks like my friends are heading home now, so I'm going to take off."

"You can stay if you want. I'll give you a ride home."

"No thanks. I've had enough to drink and I don't want to get home late and end up in trouble." Dana kissed Bill, this time with her mouth open. Bill was in heaven. "I'll call you about those brochures. 'Night."

"Bye, talk to you later." Bill watched her walk away and studied her from her hair down to her feet. This was a night he wouldn't soon forget.

"Earth to Jack. Earth to Jack."

"What's up, Tom? You still standing?"

"Come inside, Don and I hooked up with some Mayville girls, and I think we've got a chance to score."

"Right behind you, Tom."

The party had mostly emptied out for the night. There were a few people at the kitchen table playing Bullshit. Four girls sat in the living room talking to Mike and Don. Tom and Bill sat down.

"This is our friend Bill, but you can call him Jack."

"Hi, Jack," said a cute little blond. "Why don't you sit down and make yourself comfortable?"

"Don't mind if I do. What's your name?"

"Amy, I live over in Mayville and heard from Terry Jones that there was going to be a party over here tonight."

"Terry's cool, known him since we played midget football together when we were kids. He your boyfriend or something?"

"Nope, just here with my girls looking to have some fun. We are all free for the night, did the old sleepover switcharoo."

"Cool, Mike's parents are gone for the night, so we're all staying here too. Might as well enjoy ourselves." He passed Amy the schnapps and she took a shot and made a face.

"This is awful. Tastes like peppermint flavored Nyquil."

"Works pretty well though, take another hit." Amy forced down another shot, shuddered and passed the bottle to her friend. The bottle made its way around one and a half times before it was dead.

"Anyone want to switch to vodka?"

"Sure, pass it over," said Mike. Bill tossed the bottle to Mike and put his arm around Amy. Before he could gauge her reaction, she straddled him and started making out with him. Bill immediately got excited and Amy reacted by grinding on him. That was enough of a signal for Bill, so he picked her up and headed upstairs to one of the bedrooms.

Bill woke up in the morning and was surprised to see that Amy was still lying next to him. When he kissed the back of her neck, she rolled over and they went at it again. Bill couldn't believe this party, it was better than the movies.

"Oh my, Bill, I think I've found myself a new boyfriend. What are you doing the rest of the day? Besides me I mean?"

"I need to head over to work around noon, but no other plans until then."

"Can't you call in sick? I'll make it worth your while."

"Afraid not, need to make as much money as I can this summer. Give me your number so I can call you."

She gave Bill her number and some more of what he craved. As they stumbled downstairs they found that everyone else was already awake, hanging out in the kitchen eating some breakfast and talking.

"Oh, you two finally wake up?" asked Mike.

"Yeah, about two hours ago," grinned Bill as he grabbed some orange juice.

"Way to go, Jack!" said Tom. Bill smacked him on the back of the head and laughed. Amy was sitting in Bill's lap; she was quite a little honey. He decided to call Terry for the scoop on her, but figured he'd be seeing her again, if for nothing else than the sex.

"We need to head back home," said Mary.

"Bill doesn't need to be to work for a couple more hours, let's hang out," pleaded Amy.

"I can give you a ride to Mary's before I go to work."

"You sure you don't mind?" Amy said as she wiggled back and forth on his lap. "Wouldn't want to put you out or anything."

"Not a problem, you'll just have to give me some gas money," Bill laughed. Amy playfully smacked him and then kissed him.

"Get a room you two," complained Mary. "Ok, we're going to take off then, catch you later. Thanks for the party and the sleepover."

"I'll call you," said Mike. Mary waved and the three girls headed out the door. The guys headed out to clean up the back yard. There was a ton of trash out there from last night, including a couple places where people had been sick. Bill carried Amy back upstairs and into the bathroom.

"What do you have in mind now, Bill?" Amy grinned as she took her top off. Bill took off his clothes and turned on the shower. He had always dreamed about taking a shower with a girl; it was right up there on his fantasy list. They stepped into the shower and Amy playfully pulled at Bill. "What's this? You happy about something?"

Bill showed her what he was happy about. Then they washed each other off and got out and dressed. Bill was exhausted. He had more sex in the last twelve hours than in his whole life. He was sure that he was dreaming, since this was all just too damn good to be true. They headed out the door and Bill drove Amy back to Mayville.

"I want to see you again, REAL soon."

"Me too, Amy, you are unbelievable. Are you always so frisky?"

"Can't get enough, Bill. Anytime you're in the mood, give me a call. You've got a nice big car, I'd like to try the front and back seat."

"Damn. Will have to take you up on that one!" Bill leaned over and they made out for a couple of minutes. Reluctantly, Bill broke it off. "I need to run to work now. The Institution needs me."

"Not as much as I do. See you later." Bill watched Amy walk up to Mary's front door. Amy turned back to Bill and sent him a sweet smile. He didn't know anything about her except every inch of her incredible little body. He backed out of the driveway and raced back down 394 to the Institution.

Lake Chautauqua was a seasonal area that was invaded by folks from all over the country from Memorial Day through Labor Day. People came either to enjoy the lake and the area or to spend some time at the Chautauqua Institution. The Institution had been around forever and provided education, fine arts, sports and many other activities. Bill worked in the sports area, handing out equipment and sometimes teaching classes on basic physical fitness to some of the elderly that visited.

Bill pulled in and headed over to the tennis courts. There was a group lesson scheduled for 12:30 and he knew that some people would already be waiting to check out rackets and balls. He opened the equipment shop and began to hand things out. All of the activity of the past day had taken a toll on him and he was seriously ready for some sleep.

His afternoon dragged on and he found his thoughts bouncing between Dana and Amy. Amy was a lot of fun, but Dana was the real prize. He wondered if he'd hear from Dana again. Maybe he would find some excuse to see her if he didn't hear from her in the next few days. He'd probably be seeing a lot of Amy, at least until football practice started.

When his shift was over he headed home and crashed. His mom woke him up around 7:00, and asked him if he wanted to get up and eat dinner. He headed downstairs and ate dinner in front of the television. His folks were a bit mad at him for not calling or coming home, but he could tell it wasn't anything serious.

"I want you to get our fishing gear ready and packed after you're done eating and take out the trash."

"Ok, Dad, will do. What time are we heading out in the morning?"

"Around 5:30. We'll stop in town for some breakfast and see if there's any talk about good fishing spots. If we don't hear anything we'll head over to Bemis Point and work our way north until we catch our limit."

"Clean fish and home in time for church."

"Yes, dear. We wouldn't want to miss church. If we're late you and Ellie can head over there without us."

Susie gave Dave the bent eye and headed to the kitchen. The Love Boat was on TV, but Bill decided that he wasn't really in the mood for that. He headed upstairs and gave Amy a call. He found out that she was going to be a junior at Mayville high school and that she had three brothers and two sisters. She didn't work or play any sports but didn't really mind school. They had a few common friends and she had a decent sense of humor. "Want to go out one night this week?"

"How about tonight?"

"I'm going fishing with my Dad in the morning, after last night I need to get some sleep."

"What happened last night?"

"Just hung out with some friends and watched movies."

"Oh yeah? I get the feeling you're lying to me, Billy. You're going to be in trouble the next time I see you."

"We'll just see about that. I'm going to go now. I'll call you tomorrow or Monday to make plans. Bye."

"Bye."

Bill gave Terry a call. Both said they had a blast at the party. Bill asked, "Do you know a cute little blond named Amy from Mayville? Going to be a junior?"

"Amy Meyers? Oh yeah, she was at the party last night. She's a wild one, loves to pass that pussy around. Did you get some of that, Billy?"

"Hell yeah, almost more than I bargained for, she's crazy."

"Don't worry about knocking her up, she's on the pill. She is a fun date, but I wouldn't want her as a girlfriend, that girl just loves to fuck."

"Thanks for the warning. I'll probably hang out with her sometimes, but won't look for anything serious."

"No problem, Billy, tell Mike that was a classic party. I'll catch you later."

Bill hung up the phone and headed out to the garage. He packed the waders, rods and tackle boxes into the trunk of the car. He made sure he had a flashlight and all the other odds and ends Dad liked to take out. He took out the trash and double checked everything then he said goodnight to his Mom and Dad.

"Up too late last night?" his Dad said with a grin. "Your mother was worried, but I told her you probably just slept late and had to run straight to work. I remember those days, what was her name?"

"Amy, she's from Mayville. Nice girl, comes from a big family. She's a friend of Terry's."

"How is Terry?"

"Doing well. We're Mayville's homecoming game this year."

"Speaking of homecoming, I haven't seen you running or doing much exercising at all. You're going to die next week when camp opens. If you want me to work with you, just let me know. I could use an exercise buddy."

"Thanks, I need to do something this week. Don't want to hit the first day cold, or coach will run me into the ground. I'm going to hit the hay, you going to wake me in the morning?"

"Yeah, see you in the morning."

Bill headed upstairs and was asleep before his head hit the pillow. Dave woke him up in the morning, and they drowsily headed over to the Main Street Diner where they had a big breakfast and talked fishing with about six other guys. They said that the walleyes and muskies should be biting. Since Dave and Bill would be shore fishing, they were going after trout. They headed over to Bemis Point and started wading. It wasn't long before they got some bites, and pretty soon they were catching fish at a regular clip. They had almost reached their limit when Bill noticed that it was almost church time.

"Hey, Dad, we're going to miss church if we don't take off."

"Don't worry, I told your mother last night that we were going to miss church. Told her there'd be plenty of days for church but not too many more fishing days. She relented without too much squawking. We can take our time and enjoy the day."

"Cool, did she offer to clean the fish too?"

"Nope, that one still falls on us." Dave laughed. "We've got plenty to clean, but we're going to have some good supper tonight." They started working their way back to Bemis Point, still catching fish fairly regularly. They stopped at a park and cleaned all of the fish. When they were done they had a really nice group of fillets. They put the fish on ice and headed into the Casino to have some chicken wings. The Casino was pretty crowded and they grabbed a seat at one of the community picnic tables inside. Bill saw a bunch of people he knew, some locals and some regular out-of-towners who camped around the lake. Their wings came and they sat around and talked about old times, how things had changed, the upcoming school year and many other things.

On the drive home, Bill thanked Dave for the day and for not blowing his stack about the previous night. Dave felt really proud that his son wanted to spend time with him and that he respected his parents enough to feel bad when he made a mistake. He was a good kid and Dave was proud of him.

They got home mid-afternoon and found Ellie and Susie back from church and shopping. "Hope we're having fish tonight, because I didn't plan on cooking anything."

"Lots of fish to fry, Billy and I are cooking. Just relax and let us do the work."

"You going to clean up too? That's part of the job for people who don't have time to go to church on Sunday."

"Sure, we'll clean up too."

"Oh Billy, some girl called for you a while ago."

"Who was it, Ellie?"

"What's it worth to you?"

"C'mon, just tell me. Was it Amy?"

"Who's Amy? Some new love of your life? It wasn't Amy, so you probably don't even care. I'll just throw the number away. You probably don't even know any Danas."

"Dana called? When? Where's her number?" Bill was really surprised at this one. He honestly hadn't expected to hear back from her. He grabbed the number out of Ellie's hand and stuck it in his pocket. He'd call her after dinner.

Dinner was really good and the family all enjoyed the food and the company. Clean up was kind of a pain, since there was grease everywhere, and Mom was in there supervising. Bill smelled like he had jumped into the frying pan with the trout, so he headed upstairs to take a shower. When he no longer smelled like a battered fish, he gave Dana a call.

"Hey Dana, this is Bill Miller calling you back."

"You sound so official, like you're calling your lawyer." Dana laughed. "I put together a small stack of catalogs, brochures and other information from Case Western. Do you want to come over and pick it up?"

"Sure thing, see you in a bit."

"Do you know where I live?"

"On Main Street, right? The old brick house with all of the trees."

"Yep, when do you want to come by?"

"How about a half hour?"

"See you then. Bye."

Bill headed back to the bathroom and finished getting ready. He wasn't into primping like some of his friends but he wanted to make sure he looked ok. He ran down the stairs and told his Mom he'd be back in a little while, needed to go pick up some college brochures from a friend. His Mom started to ask him why, but by the time anything came out of her mouth he was gone. Bill parked in front of the impressive house and walked to the front door.

The man who answered the door looked more like a college professor than a doctor. He had longer hair, thick glasses with wide plastic frames and was wearing a sports coat with jeans.

"Hello, Doctor Weiss, is Dana home?"

"C'mon inside. Have we met?"

"My name is Bill Miller. Dana and I go to school together. She wanted to give me some information about Case Western Reserve University."

"My old alma mater. What are you thinking of majoring in?"

"I am leaning towards computer science at this point. I have been working with computers the past few years and find them to be an amazing tool."

"The hospital has had nothing but bad luck with computer systems. Maybe after you graduate you can come back and straighten everything out. Let me go get Dana for you. Nice meeting you."

"You too, sir." Bill nervously shifted from foot to foot and waited for Dana to appear.

She came out of one of the back rooms and said, "Don't just stand there like a potted plant, come on inside. And sorry about the joke, it's one of my Dad's favorites and it's been burned into my brain."

Bill laughed. "We've all inherited some kind of sayings or another. Thanks for calling me back, didn't know if you'd remember."

"No problem, I had a nice time talking to you the other night," She blushed.

They went into the library and sat down in a pair of comfortable leather chairs. There was a table between them where Dana had set out a bunch of different information. Bill smiled, "Do you work for the school or are you just planning on attending next year?"

"Very funny. As soon as the school finds out that a donating alum's kid wants to go there they swamp you with stuff. Dad is a big supporter of the school, especially the biology department. He wants me to follow in his footsteps and major in biology, but I'm not sure. I like chemistry."

"Chemistry was fun last year. Physics and calculus this year-- I might be in for a shock. Tough to do homework during football season."

The conversation continued and they talked about everything. By the time Dana's Dad came into the library and told him it was time to go, it was after 11:00! They had been sitting there talking for over three hours. Bill couldn't believe it; he thought he'd been there less than an hour. Dana walked Bill to the door and then walked him outside. They stood by his car and talked for another forty minutes or so, and then the outside lights on the house started flashing. "Dad's signal to get my butt inside."

"It was great talking to you tonight. Thanks for the brochures." Bill was really nervous now, and wanted to see if he could get a kiss. Just then Dana leaned in and gave him a really long one.

"Thought we'd never get there," she smiled. "Glad that we did. I better hustle inside. Dad is going to lose his temper in a minute."

"Um, before you go. If you're not busy some night do you want to go out?"

"Anytime, just give me a call. Night."

Bill floated home.

**Chapter 6  
** Senioritis

"Hi Billy, how was school?"

"OK Mom. The coach worked us really hard, wants to make sure we win our homecoming game. Ashville has only lost one game this year and they have one of the best running backs in the state."

"I'm sure you guys will win this one, especially with all the fans that come out for the game. Looks like the weather is going to be nice all weekend. Are you going to be in the parade?"

"I don't want to be but coach says he wants us all in it. I'm trying to hitch a ride on the senior float even though I didn't work on it."

"You might want to check the mail, something came today from RPI."

Bill opened the mail and yelled when he saw "Congratulations". He had been accepted to Rensselear Polytechnic Institute! This was where he wanted to go to school, they were one of the best for computer science. "Mom, I got in!"

"I knew that, got a call today from an admissions counselor. Seems they sent that last week and thought it was here already. I'm so proud of you, guess we'll be making some trips back and forth to Albany now."

"This is so cool! Can't wait to tell everyone. Except Dana."

"She'll understand Bill. Besides, she isn't so far away that you can't see her a lot. Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"Not for a teenager, Mom. I think I'll keep this news to myself until after this weekend, don't want anything to mess up homecoming."

"Your call dear but the sooner you get it over with the better."

Bill shrugged and headed upstairs. He had lots of homework to do, no time to get distracted. He started working on his calculus problems, ripping through them fairly quickly. His physics homework was a lot tougher and he was gnawing on his pencil trying to figure out the motion problem. He didn't realize the phone was ringing.

"Billy, are you in space? The phone's for you."

"Thanks Ellie. Hello?"

"Jack, have you started the calculus homework yet? I can't figure out this stupid shit."

"You should have been paying attention in class instead of trying to look down Mary's shirt. Alright, here's what you do. Grab a blank sheet of paper. Write Hi on the top and Ho on the bottom. Now here's how this all works: take Ho times the derivative of Hi minus Hi times the derivative of Ho over Ho squared."

"What the hell did you just say?"

"Ho d Hi minus Hi d Ho over Ho Ho. Got that? Try it."

Bill heard scribbling and breathing on the other end. Mike was muttering to himself, and after 20 seconds it finally clicked. "Jack, you are a fucking genius. I'm going to school where you do, not ready to figure all of this shit out on my own."

"I'm getting back to my physics, later Mike." Bill hung up the phone and thought about Amy. He hadn't seen her in a few weeks, ever since Dana freaked out and told him he had to make a choice. There really never was a choice, as Bill only cared about Dana. The only hitch was Dana was adamant about staying a virgin and Bill had gotten used to regular sex with Amy. The thing was that he loved Dana. Part of him would rather be free to play but most of him would rather be with Dana.

"Lots of homework tonight?"

"Hey Dad, how was bowling?"

"Good, we won 7 points off the first place team. We're only 3 points out of first. The best news is that my boss is on the team we whipped tonight so I'll get to rub it in all week. Your Mom told me you got some mail today. Congrats, that's great news. When will you accept?"

"Couple of things. First of all, I'm not telling Dana about RPI until after homecoming, don't want to ruin the weekend. Second thing, I'm going to see what happens with my Case Western and Carnegie Mellon applications. RPI is still my first choice though."

"Alright, we can keep it quiet until after this weekend. I'm not sure why you're still considering other schools, I always thought that RPI was your choice. Oh yeah, in case you're interested, I got tickets to Sunday's Bills game against Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins."

"You got them? That's killer! I can't believe we get to go to that game! How did you swing that?"

"Called in a few favors, only cost me a kidney."

"That's cheap, you have two of them anyway." Bill laughed.

"I'll let you get back to your homework, talk to you later." Dave headed out of Bill's room as the phone rang again. "Hello. Hey there, just talking about you, were your ears burning?"

"Just got back from working on the float. Been thinking about you all night, wish I could see you."

"Me too, tough football practice and then straight to homework. Working on physics. How's the float coming along?"

"The float is almost done, we'll finish tomorrow night. Then we can start working on decorating the school and the gym for the dance. I also got you a spot in the car, right next to me."

"No place I'd rather be. Why don't you teleport over here and sleep next to me tonight?"

"I need to tune up the teleporter, you'll have to settle for the phone tonight baby. Actually I'd better let you get back to your homework, I need to make sure I'm ready for the morning. See you tomorrow."

"Night Dane, pick you up at the usual time." Bill hung up the phone and wrapped up his physics homework, not sure if he'd done all of them right but beyond the point of caring. He went down to the kitchen and heated up some leftovers for dinner. He finished eating, said goodnight to his parents and fell asleep."

****

It was the fourth quarter and Ashville was up by 8. Westfield was driving and on third down Bill caught a pass across the middle and ran it all the way down to the 8 yard line. The crowd was going nuts, the team could hardly hear in the huddle. Two plays later Westfield scored on an end around play. Time was running out and they needed the two point conversion to force overtime. The crowd was on their feet. A fake handoff, quarterback rolling to the right, looking, looking and throwing across his body to the left hand side of the end zone. An Ashville defender knocked the ball down and Westfield lost by 2. The fans were all on their feet as the team left the field. This was the toughest loss most of the Westfield players had felt and they took it very hard.

Bill and Dana spent a while talking in her driveway. She knew how he felt and so they didn't say much to each other, they didn't need to. As Bill started to pull away, he knew he couldn't hold in the RPI news any longer. He called her back to the car and told her about the acceptance letter.

"That's great news Bill, I knew you'd get in there! Why didn't you tell me right away?"

"Because I thought you'd be upset and because I want to go to college with you. I love you Dana Weiss."

"I love you too Bill Miller. Now let me tell you that it doesn't matter where we go to college, there is nothing that will keep us apart. Do you understand me? Nothing."

Bill believed her, he felt in his heart that they would always be together. He said goodnight and drove around for a while. He ended up heading to the lake and circling the whole thing. His Dad was still up when he got home, sitting in the living room reading.

"Tough game tonight, your catch was great. Ashville has a really good team. You hanging in there?"

"I'm doing ok. Just told Dana about RPI and then took a drive around the lake. Going to get some sleep now, night." Bill headed upstairs and laid in the bed for about an hour, trying to figure out what he should do next year. He thought about the game, how he might only play football for a couple more weeks. Maybe growing up wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

"Morning Mom. Something smells good."

"I thought you might like some French toast and bacon for breakfast. Make you feel better about last night."

"Thanks, I think I'm over last night now. Looking forward to the dance tonight. Need to do some running around today; pick up the corsage, get my suit from the cleaners and clean up my car."

"Just take care of the car, I'll get the rest done for you. Now eat your food before it gets cold."

"Thanks Mom. This French toast is killer." Bill finished his food and ran over to Mike's house. They took Bill's car down to the self-serve car wash and got it all cleaned up. It was still morning and they had the whole day to kill. It was one of those "Indian summer" days, where the sun was out and the leaves were still on the trees. The smell of fall was in the air.

"Want to head up to the mall?"

"Why not, nothing better to do today." They drove north to Jamestown and wandered around the mall for a while. Usually they'd be messing around, pushing each other but today they were both a bit quiet.

"I told Dana about RPI. She was totally cool about it. Also told her that I love her."

"Well that was fucking brilliant, now she'll have you so whipped you won't even know which end is up."

"Fuck you, she will still be cool, that isn't her thing."

"Hope you're right. So are you going to RPI? I don't think I can get in there, who is going to do my calculus homework for me?"

"I'm not sure, going to wait and see what CWRU and Carnegie Mellon say. Part of me wants RPI and the other part of me wants to go to school with Dana."

"Yeah, I know which part that is. Think you'll finally get to bang her now that you told her you love her?"

Bill punched him for that one. "That will happen when she's ready. We've already had enough talk about that subject. As long as we find other ways to play I'm cool."

"I know that I'm getting laid tonight. Amy has been rubbing off on Mary, all Mary wants to do these days is fuck. She went and got the pill so we've been going at it like rabbits. Let's get out of here, still need to go get some Asti for tonight.

They headed down to Mayville and picked up a couple of bottles of Martini & Rossi Asti Spumanti for the night. Bill dropped Mike off and told him they'd be there to pick him and Mary up around 7:00 for dinner. He thought about Amy for a second, wondered what they'd be doing if he was taking her to the dance. He headed home and took a shower and got his monkey suit on. His folks were waiting for him when he got downstairs.

"Look at that handsome man, let me get a picture."

"C'mon Mom, I'm sure you and Dana's Mom will be taking a hundred pictures at their house. Let's just go over there." Dave and Sue followed Bill over to the Weiss' house. Bill introduced his parents to Dana's and they made all of the usual small talk. Dana walked downstairs, she looked gorgeous.

"Dana, you look incredible. Are you sure you're my date? Maybe I'm just your driver and you're heading to Cinderella's ball."

"You don't look half bad dressed up either" Dana laughed. They kissed and Bill smelled her perfume, the same one she'd been wearing the night of Mike's party. Their parents cooed over both of them and made them pose for what seemed like hours. Finally Bill said "alright, we're going to miss dinner if we don't head over to Mike's now. I'm sure Mike's Mom is going to want to take another roll of pictures."

"You kids have fun and be safe. I want Dana home by 1:00, not a minute later."

"Thanks for the curfew extension Dad." Dana kissed him on the cheek and Bill and Dana headed out.

"They make a fine couple. Won't be too many years and they'll be married. Maybe even to each other."

"Dana has a lot of schooling ahead of her and a lot of growing up to do. I don't want to rush anything."

"Neither do I, just know that Bill thinks the world of her and sometimes the first love is the one that lasts forever. Thanks for letting us come over and take pictures, your house is beautiful."

"Nice meeting both of you. We'd like to have you over for dinner sometime."

Dave and Sue left the Weiss' house. "I don't think Shari liked it when you mentioned Bill and Dana getting married. I think she almost had a heart attack." Dave laughed. "I'm sure they see their Dana settling down with a doctor, someone better than Billy."

"Those kids are good for each other. She doesn't put up with any of his nonsense and he treats her right. Dana could do much worse than ending up with Bill."

Since they were dressed, Dave surprised Sue by taking her out to dinner. They sat at a candlelit table and reminisced about being young and talked about what it was going to be like to move on with their lives once the kids were gone. They laughed about the old days and held hands like young lovers. They were asleep in each others arms by 11:00.

Bill and Dana stepped out of the car and into another photo op. They smiled and Bill kept looking at his watch until Mike got the hint. Everyone said their goodbyes and the four kids headed over to Webb's, where they had a reservation. They had steak and talked about school and college. Mary was a junior so she was just starting to think about where she wanted to go. After dinner they headed straight to the school. The girls wanted to dance to every song but the boys only wanted to dance to the slow songs. They saw all of their friends, laughed at the drunk ones and the bad dancers, and had a great time. Around 10:30 they were all ready to head out so Bill headed over to a quiet spot on the lake and parked the car. They broke out the Asti and they were all feeling pretty good after a while. Bill and Dana were making out in the front seat when they heard things getting a little crazy in the back. Bill asked Dana if she'd like to take a walk so they jumped out of the car.

"It's cold out here." Bill took off his coat and draped it around Dana's shoulders. Bill grabbed a blanket out of the trunk of the car and they sat down in the sand.

"I brought you a present."

"I didn't get you anything."

"We'll see about that." Dana handed Bill the rubber and he didn't stop to ask if she was sure. It was a bit uncomfortable for Dana so Bill was as gentle and quick as possible. When they were done they Bill held her close and told her he loved her. Mike was honking the horn of the car so they headed back, hand in hand and a silent bond between them.

"Mary has to be home by midnight, we need to kick it." Bill and Dana dropped off Mike and Mary and headed back to Dana's house. It was still pretty early, just barely after midnight.

"Want to come inside for a while?"

"Sure, I'd love to come inside. You."

Dana was blushing a bit. "Give a boy your virginity and you become just another piece of meat."

Bill started to say something and realized he didn't need to. They headed inside and Dana changed into some sweats. Dr. Weiss was still up but he thanked Bill for getting her home on time and in one piece and headed up to bed. There was a fire in family room so they sat in there.

"I need to tell you something Billy. Yesterday when I said you should go to RPI I was lying. I don't want you to go there, I want you with me."

"And that's where I want to be. My mind has just been so set on RPI for the past couple of years that it's hard for me to think of any other school. If I'm accepted to Case I will visit there and see how I like it."

They fell asleep in front of the fireplace. Bill was startled awake at 2:45 by the phone ringing. Dana answered it and said sleepily "hold on Mrs. Miller."

"Hi Mom, we fell asleep, sorry about that. I'll be right home." He kissed Dana and told her he loved her and then headed home. His Mom and Dad were both up but they weren't mad, just worried. Bill apologized again and headed for bed.

****

Bill, Mike and Don were at the mall, doing some Christmas shopping but mostly making fun of people. Don was great at imitating the way people walk and he had Mike and Bill about to piss their pants they were laughing so hard. They talked to some girls that were hanging out at the food court and Don actually got a phone number.

"Wow, I didn't even see that girl's white cane until we left the table."

"I wondered how you got her number, figures that she'd have to be blind."

"Fuck you assholes, Lisa has perfect vision. That's why she didn't look at you two and I got the digits." Don was still a big lerp but he was growing into his size a bit this year. He still looked like the same old "Big Bird" to everyone at Westfield but would probably be alright when he went to college.

"Are you going to buy anything today or what Jack? We've been doing laps around this place for hours now."

"I can't figure out what the hell to get Dana. I want to get her some diamond earrings but they're too fucking expensive and I can't figure out how to snatch them without getting busted."

"My Dad got my Mom a nice ring from the Pawn shop, why don't we try over there?"

"That's a great idea Don! Now all I need is something to trade. Bill wandered around the parking lot of the mall, on the lookout for security guards. On the third car he found what he was looking for. There was an unlocked Volvo with a Blaupunkt stereo system. In the blink of an eye he had the deck out of the car and tucked under his coat. "Let's go to the Pawn shop."

The Pawn shop near the mall didn't have any jewelry so they went to downtown Jamestown. The shop was caged and the owner was a bit hesitant to buzz three guys in at a time. Bill told Mike and Don to wait in the car and got into the shop. "I need something to give my girl for Christmas. What will you trade me for my car stereo?"

"That's pretty desperate kid. You're better off not buying her anything and hanging on to your system. You'll find out that women aren't worth the effort."

"C'mon, I want to get her some nice earrings. Trade me a pair of diamond earrings for this baby. The Pawn dealer looked at the radio and said "nice, where'd you steal it from?"

"I'm no thief, I bought that deck last summer with money I made working at the Welch's plant."

The dealer looked at him again but Bill had his poker face on. "ok, here's what I've got. I could probably trade you for some quarter carats, you want gold or silver?"

"Gold all the way." Bill sifted through the earrings and found a pair that really sparkled. "I like this pair, are we cool?"

"Yeah, we're cool. Just remember there's no refund on those so when your girl dumps you just let her keep them."

"Merry Christmas to you too." Bill headed out to the car and flashed open the box for Mike and Don.

"Holy shit! Are those real?" asked Don.

"Yeah, hope she likes them though, she can't bring them in and trade for something else."

"Of course she'll like them—I can't believe you got those for free. You'll definitely get laid now Jack. She will unlock that pussy for you when she sees these babies." Bill hadn't told his friends about Dana and him having sex because it was none of their business. They were full of their "blue ball" comments and how Bill might want to use a crowbar to get her legs open. He just told them all to fuck off.

"She keeps telling me she's saving it for her wedding night. I guess we'll see in a few years." Bill laughed.

"Are you visiting Case during break Jack? I'd like to visit with you if I can even though I haven't been accepted yet."

"I'm sure you'll get accepted, just a matter of time. It would be great if you came along with me, I'm sure we can find some fun things to do in Cleveland. Dana will be skiing in Colorado and I don't really feel like hanging out with her family for a long weekend. It will be a bit weird visiting the campus during winter break, they just have a few folks around who either don't go home or are there to conduct the tours."

There was a huge blizzard Christmas Eve and Westfield was still buried under almost three feet of snow on Christmas Day. The snow left as quickly as it had come and the trees were shimmering from the ice that had formed before the temperature fell. Jack sat in the living room, wondering if the roads would ever clear. The phone had been ringing off the hook all day, relatives sending Christmas wishes and others sending regrets, there was too much snow to travel over for dinner. Susie was cooking a huge turkey dinner and it was just going to be the four of them to eat it.

Dave was sitting in front of the fireplace, reading a book, and Ellie was up in her room listening to music on the boombox she got for Christmas. Bill wondered what Dana was doing and hoped that he wouldn't have to walk over to her house later. He hadn't seen a snow plow all day and didn't feel like getting his car stuck in a ditch somewhere.

"Choice time Billy. Peel potatoes or shovel the walk and driveway."

"I'll take the driveway Mom, work up more of an appetite for dinner since we've got enough food to feed a small army." Bill got his snow stuff on and headed out to the garage. He worked up a good sweat and was about halfway done when the snow plow headed down the street. That plow was a sight for sore eyes. He recognized the driver as "Big Joe", one of the football coaches. As Joe swung around to come back down the street, Bill pegged his truck with a couple of snowballs. Joe slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the truck, at least as fast as a six foot ten four hundred pound man can.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Joe was really mad, but he got a lot more pissed when the next snowball hit him square in the chest. "You better start running you little shit!"

"I'm surprised you're not playing Santa somewhere coach." Bill was doubled over laughing.

"I've got your Santa right here Jack" Joe said as he lifted Bill and pitched him into a snow drift. They were both laughing now.

"Want to stay for dinner coach?"

"Wish I could Jack, need to finish digging the town out, been going for about six hours already. I need to get back to it, tell your folks Merry Christmas."

"Same to you coach." Bill finished shoveling and headed inside.

"What was all that about?"

"Coach Joe came by in his plow and I pelted it with snowballs. He threw me in a drift to pay me back."

"Go get some dry clothes on, it's almost time to eat. Bring your sister down when you come back."

Bill changed and got Ellie and the family had a very quiet dinner. This was the quietest holiday any of them could remember and it was a bit sad for Susie, she felt like the ghost of Christmas future had paid them a visit. After they all ate way too much and cleared the table Bill grabbed Dana's presents and took off. The Weiss' were in a similar situation and were still eating. "Merry Christmas everyone."

"Merry Christmas. Grab a plate Bill."

"No thank you, we just finished eating—I don't want to see turkey again until next Thanksgiving." Bill sat down at the table next to Dana. They made small talk about the weather and presents, the Weiss' hoped the weather stayed clear so they wouldn't miss their flight in the morning.

"I'm supposed to drive down to CWRU for a visit, not sure if that's going to be possible or not. My mom wants me to stay home so I might end up here for the weekend."

"I watched the weather today and they said things were going to warm up a bit over the next couple of days, shouldn't be any problem with the drive to Cleveland. Make sure you stop and have pizza in Little Italy, Mama Santo's has the best pizza outside of New York. You should also check out Shaker Square and Coventry but stay out of downtown, especially at night."

"Thanks Dr. Weiss, Mike and I were wondering how we'd spend our free time. We're going to be staying in a dorm."

"Which one? I lived on the north side of campus with the other Reservies."

"I think it's Glaser but I'm not sure."

"That's south side, you'll have fun with the elephant stairs, especially if they're icy."

"Present time." Dana pulled Bill by the hand to the living room and handed him a big box."

Bill shook the box and thought for a second. "Bet it's a pony." He opened it and it was a sweater. "Odd looking pony."

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, it's great." Bill said as he pulled it over his head. "What do you think?"

"Perfect, brings out the blue in your eyes. Open this one next."

"Your turn first" Bill handed her a box.

Dana's eyes got really wide when she opened the box. "A Forenza sweater? Bill, this is way too much! I love it!" she hugged and kissed him. They exchanged other gifts and then headed back to the library, which had become their hideaway when they were together. Dana's parents gave them a lot of privacy, which was great for Bill and Dana. They were sitting together making out when Bill said, "Oh yeah, there is one more little thing I picked up." He handed Dana the box and she was grinning back. When she saw the box she got a bit nervous, thinking that Bill might have bought her a ring. She was relieved and surprised when she saw the earrings.

"They're beautiful, what bank did you rob to get these?"

"My piggy bank."

"I can't take these Bill, this is too much."

"You don't like them?"

"I love them, and I love you." They spent the rest of that night just sitting together, needing few words.

Bill and Mike had a great time in Cleveland and Bill actually fell in love with Case Western Reserve. They had a blast in Little Italy and on Coventry, which is the area where all of the artists, poets and other "out-there" types hang out. Bill had made up his mind to attend Case and so had Mike, now all they had to do was survive the rest of their senior year.

Spring fever was tearing up the senior class at Westfield. The weather was nice and the last thing on anyone's mind was learning. Bill and Mike ditched school one day and headed up to Niagara Falls. "What's bugging you these days? Don't know what color dress to get for prom?"

"Ha ha Mike. Dana's parents have really been leaning on her to see other people, they don't think it's a good idea for us to be exclusive. Now that we're both heading to the same school they're afraid she'll give up the chance to date around. She told me last night that she's going on a date with some college kid, a son of another doctor over at the hospital."

"So go find Mayville Amy to get back at her."

"That's the problem, I don't want anything to do with other girls."

"Then maybe it is too serious between you two, you're seventeen years old, you should be getting all the pussy you can. There's plenty of time to settle down later."

"It just pisses me off Mike. The thought of her kissing another guy makes me nuts, let alone the thought of her fucking someone else."

"Maybe she's just doing it to make her parents happy, did you ever think of that? Jesus, we're supposed to be having fun, why don't you drop it? Prom is in a couple of weeks and I'm sure you and Dana will have a great time. Don't ruin it by thinking of all this negative bullshit."

"You're right, fuck it." They had a blast the rest of the day, doing all of the things they used to do as kids—going on the Maid of the Mist, going under the falls, talking about how they'd love to go over the falls in a barrel. By the time they got home all of Bill's worrying was gone.

Bill and Dana had a great time at their prom and ended up in third place for prom king and queen voting. There was a bit of an awkward silence between them, not because she was dating someone else but because they both could feel this era of their life passing them by. They both felt that a lot of changes were going to happen when they went off to school. On Sunday most of the class headed up to Fantasy Island, an amusement park near Buffalo. The weather was great and they all had a blast.

Graduation came and the parties went. Seemed like Bill partied every night for a few weeks. He was working at the Institution again, and Dana was on a trip to Europe. Things between them had been a bit rocky, as she seemed to be spending more and more time with Rob Carpenter, her other boyfriend. Bill had met him and knew that he could kick Rob's ass. The problem was that Rob had been a nice guy and gave Bill no reason to hate him. Bill kept to himself while Dana was away and when she got back they had a really hot night together, which made him feel a lot better.

One night Bill was hanging out at Don's house, drinking some beer and watching movies. On his way home he decided to swing by a few of the private spots on the lake and see what was going on. When he reached Mayville he saw Rob's car and the windows were all fogged up. Bill was really jealous and the beer didn't help. He thought about going over there and starting something and then he had an idea. He headed down 394 to Ray Pesarcheck's house. Ray was an old friend of Dave's and Bill did odd chores for him once in a while. Ray kept an old "farm truck" on his property and the keys were always on the visor. Bill parked his car at the edge of Ray's property and snuck down to the barn. He prayed that Ray wasn't awake as he took the truck out and headed back to Mayville. There was enough moonlight to see so Bill killed the lights on the truck when he got near the lake. He eased the truck right behind Rob's car until he was touching it. Then he hit the gas hard and pushed Rob's car right into the lake!

Dana and Rob were holding each other, making out and listening to the radio. Rob had been getting a little too close lately and Dana wasn't feeling the same about him. She loved Bill and didn't want to be with anyone else, despite what her parents wanted. Rob was putting his hand up her shirt and she was about to stop him when she felt a bump on the back of the car.

"What the fuck is that?!" Rob screamed. "Oh shit, someone is pushing us into the lake!" The car started easing forward as the truck behind them revved—the headlights from the truck kept them from seeing who it was but Rob was going to teach them a lesson when he found them. First he'd have to figure out how to get his car out of a foot and a half of cold Lake Chautauqua water. Before he knew it, the truck was gone and his car wouldn't start. "I'll bet it was Miller, I'm going to fuck him up!"

"Bill wouldn't do something like this Rob. Probably some kids just out joyriding, looking for some fun." Dana knew it was Bill but stuck up for him anyway. They were both soaked, standing on 394 trying to flag down a passing car to take them to town. Dana figured she'd have to dump Rob another time, that might push him over the edge right now.

Bill knew that the water was shallow there but the car probably wouldn't start after being up to the hood in water. He raced back to Ray's, parked the truck and headed back home. He strolled in the front door and said goodnight to his Dad. His heart was racing and it took forever to get to sleep. He kept expecting the police to show up or Dana to call but nothing happened and he finally fell asleep.

Dana showed up at the Institution the next day. "We're you trying to tell me something last night Bill? Rob wants to kill you."

"I don't know what you're talking about D, I was at Don's house last night. What happened?

"Someone pushed Rob and I into the lake last night. It looked like an old pickup truck but the headlights were bright so it was hard to see."

"Oh shit, were you hurt?"

"No but Rob was really pissed. You sure you don't know anything about it?"

"Maybe you should watch who you hang out with, seems like someone might have something against Rob."

Dana just shook her head. "I don't think I'll ever understand guys." But she understood perfectly.

"We going out tonight? Wanted to head to the movies."

"Sure, just as long as we don't park by the lake."

Dana lost interest in Rob after that and her and Bill spent a lot of time together the rest of that summer. In late August they headed to school, Mike and Bill in Glaser on the south side of campus and Dana on the north side of campus.

**Chapter 7  
** When Steve Met Robert

Steve was standing by his workbench, staring absentmindedly into space and muttering to himself periodically. Denise and Tom gave him space, sensing that he was on the verge of something profound. The results of the polymer experiments had been getting better each week. Tom and Denise often talked about Steve, wondering why he was kept around but when the results came they understood.

Steve was proud of the most recent results, the polymer spheres breaking down within minutes of the expected result. Steve had spent most of the day in the lab, watching the beakers and taking notes, rooting for the experiment to finish on time. It was now mid-afternoon and the buzz was spreading around the building – there was genuine excitement around this invention. Each week had brought a string of successes, but that didn't stop Steve from spending most of the weekend wondering what he was going to find when he came in the office Monday. Even the company lawyers, normally reserved, were getting excited about the results.

Rob approached and it didn't even bother Steve, he knew that there was nothing his boss could do or say to change his mood. Steve calmly finished his sentence and closed his notebook. "Hi Rob."

"Another great week Steve. Just got out of a meeting with George and he is very excited about the results. He wants to meet with you as soon as possible, have you updated the data?"

"Haven't had time to do that today but will only take a few minutes." Steve walked away from Rob, notebook in hand. He didn't even acknowledge Rob.

Rob started to say something and left it alone, walking over to Tom and Denise to see what they were working on. This was not the time to pick a fight with Steve, especially when George Wall, the company's vice president, was happy with him and his team.

Steve sat down, entered the most recent data to the statistical analysis program and pressed the graph button. The charts continued to show the trend of the past few weeks, demonstrating that the process works very predictably. He printed out the charts on the color laser printer and double checked the results before going to George's office. The vice president had been brought over from a petroleum company three years ago with a mission to cut research and development budget while raising the yield of the division. It was a tough job and George Wall had proven his merit, slicing the R&D budget by thirty percent while exceeding the results of his predecessor.

Walking like a praying mantis in a lab coat, Steve marched down the shiny linoleum halls toward the corner office of the vice president. George's office furniture was all hardwood and the floors were carpeted, providing a silent environment. George's administrator was Eleanor Smith, who had been with the company for over thirty years and had supported some of the founders. She had the toughest reputation in the company and gave no quarter when people approached her charge.

"Mr. Wall is very busy, is there something I can help you with?"

"Rob Bailey sent me to see Mr. Wall, said he wanted to meet with me."

"I'm sorry, I don't have you on my calendar."

"Send him in Eleanor, you're going to scare him away." Boomed a voice from the inner office. Eleanor made no apologies, simply bowed her head slightly and pointed to the back. Steve put his head down and walked into the office. George Wall stood up, reminding Steve of an aging drill sergeant. Wall stood six foot two but had the broadest shoulders Steve had ever seen. His hair was always buzzed and he had the face of a ninety twenties boxer. George had played college football at Purdue and had even been drafted by the Packers but decided to stay in school and pursue his doctorate instead. He told people that his knees thanked him every day for that decision. If you met him on the street you'd think he was a furniture mover or truck driver, not a vice president of a billion dollar chemical company. George sat down and Steve followed his lead, sitting across the beautiful walnut desk.

"Are those the latest results Steve?"

Steve passed the packet of data and charts across the desk without an answer.

"These look promising, the data gets more convincing every week. Have you varied things much?"

"I've kept everything consistent since I first met the expected result last month. I don't want to start testing the variations until there is enough data to support the basic assertions."

"This is fantastic, Rob has been keeping me updated but I wanted to congratulate you personally. We expect significant revenue opportunities once we complete the FDA trials. I wanted to let you know that we're giving you a special bonus as an appreciation of the idea, the hard work and the patent work you've been doing with the lawyers. You'll be receiving one thousand shares of company stock to show our appreciation and to keep you interested in remaining a Foundation employee."

Steve was floored, this was almost forty thousand dollars worth of stock! That would pay off their mortgage and let them take a long trip this summer. "Wow, thank you so much Mr. Wall, this means a lot to me."

"You are one that we want to keep. In fact, that's not the only reason I wanted to talk to you today Steve. A special project has come up that needs immediate attention and total discretion." George paused.

Steve nodded, wondering if he was supposed to say something.

"There are national security implications to the project, though I won't even know all of the details. I haven't mentioned anything to Rob yet and even if you agree to work on the project he will know little about what you're doing. You'll be independent, not answering to anyone within the company until the project is over."

"I have a lot of work to do on the time release stuff, also working on some new ideas. Will I still work here or be working somewhere else for this project? I'm willing to do it if you want me to Mr. Wall."

"I'm glad you're willing, I've already committed you. We're meeting with the government representative in about thirty minutes so why don't you go back to the lab, close up for the day and meet me in conference room 8?" Mr. Wall did not wait for a response and Steve got up and left, not acknowledging Eleanor on his way out. He stopped in the lab for a few seconds to make sure everything was as it should; next week's experiments already started, and then locked up the office area. Rob must have already gotten a call from Mr. Wall because he came out to speak with him.

"What is the big project Steve?'

"I have no idea, Mr. Wall said that I need to go to a meeting in a little while where I'll find out what it's about. If I can share anything with you I will Rob."

"I've been told to let you come and go as you please for the near future. The duration is unknown and I won't be advised as to the nature of the project. Maybe it's military related and going to use some of your background."

"Like I said, I don't know anything at the moment but need to go now." Steve locked his desk, shut down his computer and was out the door. Entering the conference room he saw the company's chief legal advisor, Mr. Wall, and a very angry looking man at the table. They were arguing about the need to know about the project when Steve walked in.

"This is Steve Pfister, our top polymer chemist. He's the one who has been working on the time released delivery system. Steve, meet Robert Swanson, who works for the Central Intelligence Agency."

Swanson stood up to shake Steve's hand. The man was old, hunched over and balding. He had a beaked face and beady eyes that made him resemble a bird, but a very angry bird. His nasaly voice said "Pleased to meet you" as they shook hands.

"Same here." Steve returned as he sat down at the table. The melee resumed almost immediately, the Foundation lawyer insisting that the company be aware of how and where their technology would be used before agreeing to sign any of the documentation. Robert, though appearing to be a bird, was tenacious in his defense of the need for secrecy.

"God damnit, this is a national security issue and I'm not going to budge. We can do this the easy way or we can make it tough on the company. If you continue with this you're going to have every three letter organization in the government after your asses!"

George Wall put his hands together and rested his chin against them, looking like he was in prayer. All eyes were on Wall as he thought through the situation. "Ok, we'll sign it but you better be playing straight here Swanson. This technology is going to revolutionize the pharmacology industry and Foundation is counting on it to help drive new revenue growth. We are all for national security but need to protect our own interests."

"I guarantee this project will not preclude Foundation from pursuing the revenue stream you desire with the pharmas. If this project is successful it will propel you forward and we will not lock down this technology to the government, it will be available to pursue for profit."

"Let's sign this so we can get to the project details." There were a number of documents that needed to be executed, mostly around the secrecy and exclusivity for the government to have access to the technology for the duration of the project, which was projected to be six months in length. All had seen non-disclosure agreements in the past and it was standard practice for Foundation to have all of their employees sign such agreements but none had seen any with these kinds of terms, which included imprisonment and even death if treason was detected. They all signed and then the lawyer left the room.

"Ok, what's the project all about?" Mr. Wall asked.

"I am only going to be able to provide you the most basic details, only Mr. Pfister and I will be privileged to the most sensitive information. We are aware that there may be parties in the world who are interested in launching bioterrorist acts against our military presence around the world, especially in the Middle East."

"I thought we found nothing in Iraq, are you telling me that there was something there?"

"I'm not going to confirm or deny anything except to say that the threat of attack is higher than ever and we have seen some adverse reactions to some inoculations. It forces us to break them up into several boosters that need to be delivered over time, which is a very difficult task, especially if the forces are deployed."

Wall nodded his head. "This is going to be a very early field trial, I hope there is proper due diligence performed before we try anything serious. I don't want all of the hard work to go down the drain and I most certainly don't want anyone getting hurt or killed because we didn't test enough."

"There's not much else I can tell you. I expect that most of the work and testing will happen here at Foundation and that Steve will have access to the equipment he needs to progress in a timely fashion. We will use the center for disease control in Atlanta as a validation point."

Steve was listening but couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had developed the system with a hope that someday it would be useful for humans but thought that was at least a decade away, with all of the trials and also first using the process for animals. Going straight to our own military is a huge step and it caused him to get a lump in his throat. The last group he wanted to hurt was the military.

George Wall had heard enough. "You have my full support and Steve will have the freedom and access to any resource he needs to be successful. Please keep me as updated as possible." He stood and shook Swanson's hand before leaving the room. Steve was anxious to hear more.

"Let's take a ride." Swanson said as he got up from the table. Steve followed, wondering where they could be going. The car was a standard white four door rental, Steve was expecting a blacked out Suburban like the CIA usually used in the movies. Once they were on the freeway Swanson started to make small talk, already knowing everything about Steve and his life. "So you were in 'Nam?"

"Yeah, spent a few years over there, delayed by a stay in the Hanoi Hilton."

"I was there but luckily never captured. Did two tours before coming home to finish school and join the government. It's kind of like the mafia, once you come in you're not getting out."

Swanson got off I-480 in Independence and drove through the ubiquitous business parkways before pulling into a low slung row of office buildings. They went into a dark building and Robert disarmed the alarm system. Upstairs was a conference room and some office space that looked like it was rarely used. Robert closed the door and they sat down at the table.

"Here's the deal Steve. We have some chatter that the North Koreans are looking to make some noise against America for our anti-nuclear stance."

"Haven't they recently relaxed their stance on nukes? I thought they were coming around."

"We think that it's a ploy to take attention away from them when this attack is launched. It looks like they're planning a smallpox attack on American soil."

"What a disaster that would be."

"Our predictions show that a well planned launch of this type could affect millions in the first few months. Our hospitals would be overwhelmed and the economy would come crashing down worse than it already is. This could be the straw that breaks the proverbial back."

Steve didn't know what to say. He sat for a second as Robert stared him down with his beady hawk eyes. "Why do you think my invention will help?"

"Smallpox is one bad mother of a virus and the vaccine is not very pleasant on the system. The CDC have been working on a vaccine for a long time but have found that it's best for people to build up a tolerance instead of taking the whole vaccine at once. It can only be taken intravenously so that means bringing people in three or four times over the course of many weeks. This isn't very practical if you're trying to get several million people immunized. When we heard about your work from the patent office we became interested."

"This is a lot to think about. I have just been working on proving the reliability of the concept, haven't even considered a human trial. Are we on a very aggressive timeline?"

"The threat seems very real to us and we don't want to take any precautions. We are working to get traditional intravenous vaccines ready for the most critical members of the government in Washington and along the West Coast, which is where the attack is rumored to be targeting."

"Ok, I will do whatever is necessary here. Will you be spending a lot of time in the area during the project?"

"Yes, you can consider this location to be your new office, only using Foundation when necessary. Downstairs is a well equipped lab at your disposal. We can also bring in other government employees to assist if desired."

"It would be good to have a few chemists join the team."

"Ok, let me get started on that, you just get to work. I'll take you back to your car now. Here's a key, the alarm code and all of my contact information. I'm at your disposal around the clock."

Steve took it and tried to absorb all of this. He remembered some talk about smallpox when he was in college and knew that it could be nasty. He also thought there were a couple of different varieties of the disease. "Is this the bad version of smallpox we're talking about?"

"If you've heard about smallpox then you'll know there are two main variations of the disease, a major and minor one. The one the North Koreans have developed is reputed to be a major-major or super-major version. The CDC is planning for a mortality rate of over seventy percent but it may be worse than that."

They left the building and rode in silence. Steve drove around before going home, trying to think about how much he could share with Claire. He needed to tell her something but didn't want her to worry about him day and night for the next few months. He decided on a story about a new business venture for the company that was super-secret and would take a few months. She was really happy about the stock that Steve had received and was hopeful that this new business venture might yield more of the same.

Steve spent a few hours that night researching smallpox. The disease had killed millions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries but was declared eradicated almost thirty years ago. There were large assumptions about the current immunity of the population, many of which had never been vaccinated against smallpox. Were we sitting ducks? What was he up against? He tossed and turned the night away thinking about what he was embarking on.

**Chapter 8  
** Dead Man's Curve

Freshman year at Case was a challenge for Bill. He had never needed to study in high school but found himself spending a lot of time hitting the books. The competition was incredible and he couldn't believe how smart some of the people in his classes were. Mike was having a really hard time and had scored 23 percent on their first calculus exam. Bill had failed his first physics exam but had scored around average so he wasn't too worried. He and Mike had been checking out some of the fraternities and at this point they were leaning toward Gamma Delta Iota, also known as God Damn Independent. The rest of the social situation was a double negative for Bill-there was a 4:1 ratio of males to females at the school which meant that it was tough to meet girls and it also meant that Dana got more attention than she'd ever had in her life.

Bill and Dana still spent a lot of time together but Dana dated around a lot and it wasn't because of her parents now. Bill had learned to adjust to this and spent a lot of time at John Carroll University, another small college that was only a half hour from Case and had a better girl to guy ratio. Mike and Bill also went to visit Don at Kent State University, and those weekends were really crazy. Mike left the engineering school and changed his major to business. Bill learned how to study and started doing fairly well. During the spring there was a new rush of fraternity activities. Bill wasn't really interested in joining a frat but one of his professors was the advisor to a fraternity and kept asking Bill about joining. Bill liked this history professor and he spent some of his free time hanging out with him discussing the subject so he thought he'd give it a shot.

Bill's dad died when they were sophomores, a major heart attack. He had lost his job at the plant and couldn't find steady work. Bill thought he'd died disappointed that he wasn't able to provide for his family. He thought about dropping out but his mother had insisted that he stay and finish, it was the only way to avoid repeating what had happened to Dave. His Dad had left behind a reasonable amount of life insurance so there was still enough money to live and get him and Ellie through college. Ellie had stayed local and was in a nursing program, still working part time at the hospital.

Being a senior was tough and exciting for Bill, who was busy supporting one of the computer labs at the school, everything from networking to the personal computers. He had been able to get internships each of the three summers and had plenty of companies interested in hiring him after graduation.

Dana had crushed her MCATs and was already accepted to Case Western's medical school so Bill thought he would take a job in the Cleveland area. There were a number of Fortune 500 companies as well as large banks and schools. Case was even discussing the possibility of Bill staying on in the department, with an opportunity to continue his education. He hadn't made up his mind, still thinking through his options.

Great spring morning, Bill and Dana had gone out the night before and woke up in her room in the sorority house, her roommate conveniently away for the weekend. They were laying together, watching a Milli Vanilli video on MTV.

"These guys look so dumb."

"They're hot though, especially the one on the right. And that German accent." Dana cooed.

"Vee have vays to make you stop thinking like that."

"What would those be, Mister German guy?"

Bill spent the next hour showing her, never tiring of being with her. Even though there had been others for both of them they still stayed very close and for the most part committed. They held each other, and he traced his finger along the curve of her back, relishing the soft skin.

"What are you boys going to do tonight?"

"Don is coming up and we're going to Jon's house for a party." Jon had been a suitemate of Bill and Mike freshman year but had decided that Case wasn't for him and moved on to the real world. They still got together sometimes and Jon threw a hell of a party, worth it for Don to come up from Kent.

"That should be fun, I wish I could go there instead of having the annual alumni dinner for the sorority."

"We'll miss having you there, it should be a fun time. Might even do some of the 185th street crawl, Don has never done that."

"Now I'm really jealous, you better sleep over Jon's house, don't want you driving after all that."

"That's the plan, Stan."

Dana kissed Bill. "Don't want you to go but I've got a ton of stuff to do for the dinner tonight."

"Sure, have your way with me and then kick me to the curb. Anything you need me to do for you today? If not, we're going to Coventry for the afternoon."

"More fun without Dana I see. We've got everything covered for tonight unless you guys want to volunteer to do the dishes."

Bill laughed and got his clothes on. "Any plans for tomorrow?"

"Nothing, what do you have in mind?"

"Was thinking about a baseball game, the weather is going to be great and Nolan Ryan is pitching for the Rangers. I haven't mentioned it to the guys yet but they'll probably be up for it."

"Sounds like fun, maybe I'll bring a couple of the sisters along too."

"Ok babe. Love you, have fun tonight."

"You too, stay safe."

A couple of fraternity brothers were playing catch with a football in front of the frat house and Bill joined them. "What's the plan for tonight Bill?"

"Party at an old buddy's house over in Euclid."

"We're going over to John Carroll to a party, if your plans fall through feel free to join us."

"Thanks guys, my buddy Don's heading in and we're also going to do the 185th street crawl so I don't think we'll meet up with you. Might go to the Indians game tomorrow, Nolan Ryan is pitching against Greg Swindell."

"That should be a hell of a game, maybe I'll tag along." They made more small talk and a few other guys joined them. Don pulled up a few minutes later, horn blazing at the sight of Bill. He had really come out of his shell at Kent State and was already accepted to law school at Seton Hall. They hadn't seen each other since spring break, which had been early this year.

"Jack! How the fuck are you?"

"Still better looking than you Don." Mike must have heard the horn and had come out of the house.

The three of them spent a few minutes catching up, all of them so similar and so different from high school. Time didn't matter to them, the months felt like minutes and they all were instantly transported back in time five years to all the memories they shared.

"Got any food Jack, I'm starving."

"Let's go to Mama Santo's and get some pizza." Mike offered. "Don can buy; he's going to have a lawyer's salary soon." They joked around and had a great lunch in Little Italy, just down the street from the campus. After lunch they went to Coventry, which is an artsy part of the east side of Cleveland. They had fun looking in shop windows and making fun of people, still acting like teenagers.

Mike drove his old Honda Civic out to Jon's house and they hung out for a while. Jon was in a band and they played some heavy metal music for an hour or so. Nobody else was hanging out, this wasn't much of a party after all. They decided to do the 185th street crawl, which was a saying for going up and down the entire street and having at least one drink per bar. There were over a dozen bars on the street and the three of them were completely tanked as they worked their way back up from Lakeshore Boulevard on the west side of the crawl.

They were almost done, the freeway was in sight ahead and there were no more lights from additional bars. The last place looked like it was hopping, there were also a few nice cars parked out front, including a sleek black Camaro Z28.

"This is what I'm going to drive after law school." Don said, running his hand along the sleek exterior. He tried the handle and the car was unlocked. They looked in the cabin and couldn't believe how sleek it was.

"Look there boys" Bill said, pointing at the sun visor above the driver's seat. There was a key ring that was barely visible. "We should take it for a quick run and see how it rides."

"Shit Jack, this isn't taking a case of beer, this is serious."

"I know but we'll have it back before anyone notices." Mike didn't need to be asked twice, he was already in the passenger's seat. Don shrugged his shoulders and jumped in back, leaving Bill as the driver. Bill slid into the seat and started the car, the engine feeling like an extension of his foot. He put the car in gear and they were off and running. He didn't know the streets around here too well so he jumped on the freeway headed toward downtown, planning to turn around in a few exits and bring the car back. Hadn't thought about the parking spot, most likely wouldn't be there when they got back.

"Let's see what this thing can do Jack." Don said from the backseat. Bill punched the gas and the car lunged forward, quickly eclipsing eighty miles an hour. Traffic was light and Bill had no problem weaving through the cars, the handling of the Chevy was so responsive and the big tires hugged the road.

"This car rocks, I want to drive."

"O.K. Don, let me jump off at MLK and we can switch." Bill didn't see the cop on the side of the freeway in Bratenahl, which was a notorious speed trap in the Cleveland area. The lights came on, Mike seeing them first.

"Oh fuck Billy. The cops are coming, push this thing." Bill glanced up, saw the red and blue lights and slammed the pedal down, the car quickly distancing itself from the cop. Bill was going to get off at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard but there was another cop car getting on the freeway.

"Shit, hard to outrun a radio." Bill tried to stay calm, thinking that grand theft auto would not look good on his resume. He thought about the best way to go and decided to just go as fast as he could to try and get some distance between the car and the cops so he could find a place to get off the freeway. At East 55th another car joined the chase and Bill was starting to think that there would be a new cop at each entrance. Maybe he could get off in the flats and lose them down there, they could chill out and find a ride back.

"Bill, they aren't going to give up, maybe we should stop."

"Give me a few more minutes Don, I have a plan to lose them downtown." Bill pushed the car forward, Cleveland Municipal stadium coming into view, when a better idea hit him.

Bill waited until the last possible second and jumped into the left lane to merge off route 2 onto route 90, which was a wicked bend in the road. The Camaro was built to corner, should be able to leave the cops way behind and lose the car once they got downtown.

The car held the road for a second or two and then completely lost contact, the world going into slow motion. The Z28 made contact with the road again at approximately the same moment it slammed into the wall and ground to a stop around the curve. Bill lost consciousness as the car sparked and screamed to a halt. He woke up, pushed the air bag off his face and oriented himself to the situation. Bill's legs are pinned and he can't pull them free to see what's happening with Don, who isn't making any noise. Mike's head jerked and a guttural cry exited his mouth. His eyes focused on Bill, trying to get a grasp of the situation.

"I can't feel anything in my legs Jack, are they ok?" Only Mike's head is moving, the rest of his body is pinned to the door of the car and he looks immobilized. Bill focuses on the darker section of the car and sees that Mike's legs are completely mangled and most likely no longer attached to the rest of his body. He wants to look Mike in the eye but can't stop staring at the legs for a few seconds.

"Look fine to me Mike, when the ambulance gets here they'll check them better." Bill lied, not having the heart to tell his best friend that he was dying. Mike's breathing became labored and tears ran from his eyes.

"I'm fucking freezing Jack, can you turn the heat on?"

Bill made the motion of turning the heat on and asked if that was better. Mike said it was but he was starting to fade, Bill could see the light in his eyes going out. He grabbed Mike's hand, which was cold and unresponsive, and tried to get his buddy to stay with him a little longer. The sirens and lights were getting closer and Bill knew that this was probably the last time he'd see Mike. He worried about Don but didn't want to keep yelling while Mike was fading.

"Mike, hang in there man. Think about the lake, all of the times we had fun on it. Remember the casino, all of the towners?"

Mike's mouth attempted a weak smile. "We had some fun Jack. After they fix my legs we'll have to go there for a weekend. It's spring and things will start hopping again soon."

"Yeah, me and you up at the lake, tearing it up again." The paramedics were swarming on the car now. "The ambulance is here Mike, everything's going to be ok."

Mike's tongue attempted to lick his lips but didn't quite make it, the light in his eyes going out. Bill wanted to cry but just sat there in stunned silence. The paramedics were pounding on the window, yelling to see if anyone responded. Bill turned his head from his friend and nodded to them. It took a couple of hours to get him out of the car but Bill was numb from the shock of what had happened, not able to recall the saws or the jaws of life working on the Camaro. Don hadn't responded and Bill overheard the paramedics say that he was gone too. How could he face anyone after this? He couldn't believe what was happening and wish he'd died in the crash. Don and Mike both dead?

As they extracted him from the car, two cops put cuffs on him and were staying close by, even though the paramedics told them Bill wasn't going anywhere.

"I'm guessing you stole this car, even a Z28 can't take Dead Man's Curve at the speed you tried. I was close behind you and we were doing around one twenty when you took the turn."

"I stole the car from in front of a bar on East 185th, was going for a joy ride and then bring it back."

The cop just shook his head, figuring that Bill was probably in a hell greater than any words could invoke. He didn't mention that they were calling off the pursuit due to the unsafe speed and took down Bill's information from his driver's license.

"New York?"

"I'm a student at Case Western. The front seat passenger is, was, also a student there. Mike Watts. The guy in the back is Don Mitchie, student at Kent State. We've been best friends forever."

"You'll have a long time to think about it, lucky that car had an airbag or we'd be zipping you up in a body bag too."

Bill had a broken femur but was able to make the court date with the public defendant at his side, unwavering from entering a guilty plea. He was nearing his twentieth anniversary in prison, close to the point where half of his life will have been spent inside.

**Chapter 9  
** Bill Gets a Part Time Job

Most people looked forward to the weekend, but not Bill, who was stuck in the general population and unable to enjoy the "freedom" of his work in the office. He spent as much time as possible in the library or in the yard working out. He kept himself in good shape as a matter of pride, not for self preservation.

When Bill first got to the prison he was in good physical condition but was no match for the lifers and other hard core prisoners who spent as much time as possible on their prison bodies. He found himself in some very uncomfortable situations the first few months inside, including one very ugly incident where three large men tried to take advantage of him in the shower. Bill had found like a trapped animal and in the end had not given in to their desires but had suffered three broken ribs and needed seventy four stitches to repair the damage. He had put two of his attackers into the prison clinic, one for an extended period of time with a rupture. After that he had started to trade food, cigarettes and other prison currency for protection. His parents were so shocked by what had happened they made sure to provide enough that Bill wouldn't be hurt like that again.

Over time Bill grew a reputation as someone who could help inmates get information, work on their appeals and learn. His favorite place was the prison library and before moving to the prison office he spent most of the week in the library and earned a lot of favors for it. When new prisoners arrived, they were quickly warned that Bill was a good ally to have and not to be fucked with.

He was stuffed when the dinner bell rang but went to the dining hall with the rest of the general population, knowing that he could give his food away tonight, especially after Kathy had filled him to the gills on steak and pie. There was not much talk at the prison dinner table, most inmates introspective or weary of casting their eyes in the wrong direction. After dinner he sat on his bed and read until lights out, thinking about the job and what he was going to do next week, excited that Margie was coming back. Bill dwelled on what it was like to hold the baby, thinking that it was the first time in his life that had happened. Most of his old friends were already parents and he was an uncle a couple times over from Ellie and her husband Brad, who still lived in Westfield, not far from the house where he grew up. Lights out came too soon, as always, the silence broken periodically by the sound of guards' heels on the floor or the odd prisoner muttering in their sleep. Bill was up for some time, his mind swarming about babies, his own stunted life and what the weekend would bring. He thought about visitors and hoped that someone would come see him. It was getting rarer and rarer every year as people continued to move on with their lives. Bill understood but still took the time to write to his Mom and sister at least once a week and still sent mail to some of his other old friends, though most of them never wrote back. He usually wrote Dana a letter a few times a year and she came to see him about once a year. She had married a doctor when she was in medical school and had two small children. He pined for the future they had talked about together though he wasn't naïve enough to think that she did the same. Bill was trapped in an emotional time warp, scarred and ripped in two for the things he had done and forever stuck in halted relationships that had no way to continue due to death or immediate physical separation that a life in prison brings.

Saturday started off normally, Bill joined the general population for breakfast and forced himself to eat. The table was abnormally talkative, many of the guys expecting visitors. "You got anyone coming this weekend Miller?"

"Angelina Jolie was going to stop by but Brad found out and now she's not coming, guess I'm stuck again."

A couple of guys chuckled at that one and went on talking about seeing their wives, girlfriends, parents and kids. William Thomas, a giant of a man, came over and plopped down hard next to Bill. "Miller, I need to speak with you. Talked to the PD about my appeal and they said the work that we did was really good, might actually have a chance this time." Thomas was serving multiple life sentences for a crime he claimed not to have committed. This was standard in prison but Bill had become good friends with him over the past ten years and didn't think he had it in him, even in anger. The evidence was being looked at again and the Public Defender was pushing to use DNA and see if they could exonerate Thomas from the crime. Bill had worked many hours on some of the appeal language to get him a court appointed attorney. If William got released from prison Bill knew he'd have at least one visitor.

"That's great news about the appeal, how long for the DNA test?"

"A few weeks, can do that time sitting on my head. We working out today? Heard it was raining outside so we either go to the gym or the weight room."

They made small talk while they worked out, mostly pushing each other. Bill had tried to get William into the prison office but hadn't been successful, hopefully he'll be saying goodbye to him. As they worked out, Bill thought about getting out, something that he knew he'd never really pursue but at the same time a dream that he needed to cling to in order to survive the years inside. There was talk that he could get parole based on his behavior and record in the prison but he thought that getting a life after he had taken two that mattered so much to him seemed unfair. Many people tried to change his opinion of the situation but he couldn't get his head around it.

He worked himself hard, enjoying the pain that his body felt. William worked out four or five days a week and could probably bench press a bus. They were almost through with the last set of curls when one of the guards called him over. "Miller, report to the warden's office immediately."

William looked at Bill to see if he knew anything but Bill just shrugged and walked toward the guard. He asked for time to shower but was denied. He wondered what it could be about and prayed that it wasn't something about his family. The warden had a notebook in his hand and told Bill to take a seat.

"We are expanding our recycling business and I want you to supervise the Saturday crew. I know that you work Monday through Friday so if you want to trade one of your work days for a free day I will talk to Don about it. I need someone I can trust to make sure the work goes smoothly on the weekend and we're supposed to be supplementing the workforce with inmates where possible."

"I can pick up the Saturday on top of what I have already, will let you know if it becomes too much. What's the job about?"

"We receive paper, plastics and cardboard from local companies and make some money by sorting the raw material and getting it ready for pickup."

"Sounds pretty straightforward, warden."

"It is but sometimes there are metal objects that get put in the containers for plastic or paper. I need someone who will keep an eye on things so we don't have someone crafting shivs out of soup cans while they're supposed to be working. We have metal detectors at the door but a lot can happen in a work area. Your job is to make sure the work is moving along and notify the guards of any suspicious behavior."

"When do I start?"

"Next Saturday, right after breakfast. You'll have about an hour to get settled before the other workers come in for the day. That's all."

"Thanks warden." Bill went back to the gym and worked out some more, missing lunch but not caring. He ate very little during the weekend. His muscles ached and he was drenched in sweat but felt clean. After the longest shower in memory Bill went to the library to see if there were any new fiction novels. He had the Scudder book from Don but was only reading a chapter a night so wanted something else to fill the time. He liked John Sandford's 'Prey' books, which talked about life in Minnesota. Bill enjoyed reading fiction that was set in different places around the U.S., especially since he'd seen so little of it in his life.

Bill talked to the librarian, Doug Sales, an introvert who had worked at the prison for longer than Bill had been there. Doug was hard to get to know but an invaluable friend. He had befriended a number of inmates and had helped Bill acclimate to prison life and provided him a safe place to be for a large percentage of his first few years. Doug was friends with Don Nelson and after seeing Bill's talents and passion with computers had been the one who suggested Bill move to the office, knowing that while it was still in the prison it felt a step closer to freedom.

Don had been skeptical of bringing a prisoner to the office and had set up Bill by coming to the library seeking computer assistance, telling Bill he'd heard about his reputation. Bill spent the better part of an hour working with Don, explaining in terms that made sense and even going beyond the request to suggest some software that would automate some of the trivial business items that the prison office faced. At the end of the discussion Don offered Bill the job. Bill was torn because of the relationship he had with Doug but was promised that if the office job didn't work out he could come back to the library. That was almost fifteen years ago now and Bill had never regretted the move.

"Hi Doug, any new fiction for me?"

"That's a fine 'how do you do', Arthur." Doug had a habit of calling Bill Arthur after the famous writer Arthur Miller, who was one of Doug's favorites.

"Sorry Doug, have a lot on my mind. The warden just gave me a Saturday job working in the recycling area. Too bad I can't earn any extra lights time with it instead of the few cents per hour they pay me."

"Not much I can do about that but I do have a few new books that I kept aside because I knew you'd be by eventually." Doug smiled and handed Bill three new books, a Sandford, a Neal Stephenson and a Stephen King. They spent the next few minutes making small talk and then Doug said he needed to get back to work. Bill hung around until dinner time, making the most of the pass that the warden had provided when he asked to see him. Bill spent some time at the computer working on a spreadsheet to track the things he was working on and needed to research. He wanted to come into the recycling job prepared. The actual research would need to wait because the library computers weren't connected to the outside world. Printout in hand he said goodbye to Doug and went on his way.

Sunday was a boring day for Bill, with limited yard time and another round of going to the prison cafeteria three times. He gave away too much food in anticipation of a new work week and was starving as he tried to read before lights out. He wrote a long letter to his mom and another to his sister, both of them long and probably repeats of things he'd written in the past. It was a good elixir to put his life on paper, even if it was repetitious. Bill had considered writing some fiction but thought he was more suited to code development, found it hard to put a few sentences together into something that didn't put the reader to sleep. His mind kept drifting to Cathy's new nickname for him. He wondered if Jack was going to stick, like it had through college. His dreams were random and there were flashes of life in college, Dana, Mike and what might have been.

**Chapter 10  
** Steve Starts Work on the Project

Steve woke up in a sweat, the light of the world not yet on. He didn't wonder about the time, knowing that he was not going back to sleep so he got up and went to the kitchen as quietly as possible. It wasn't even four yet and he was pacing back and forth from the refrigerator to the doorway, muttering to himself. He skulked into the family room and turned on his computer. Over the weekend he'd spent some time researching smallpox and saw some of the gruesome photos of the different variants that existed in the world prior to elimination. If the North Koreans had really created a more virulent strain, the world was in for a major shock. He was a polymer chemist, not a medical doctor, but the images in his mind were frightening. Steve had even dreamt of a hospital ward with the patients' skin falling off in chunks as they lay in untold agony.

Robert had not been in contact with Steve over the weekend but he didn't really expect anything, everything had been said at their offsite meeting. Now Steve was going to have to balance the work he was doing at Foundation to get the polymer delivery system through FDA trials with the special project for the CIA. It would be easier if he could inform his co-workers but he remembered the harsh language of the documents and knew that the U.S. government is not one to be trifled with when it came to matters of national security.

There wasn't much in the way of research to do so Steve checked the Vietnam veteran forums to see if there was anything interesting. He had just been there last night but hadn't been paying much attention because his mind was racing around so much he couldn't concentrate, which was not typical for him. Steve liked to work on one project at a time and give all of his focus and energy to it, which is one of the things that Rob had been 'coaching' him on the past couple of years. He caught up on the messages in the forums and closed the browser, content to play a few games of solitaire to pass the time. That lasted about two minutes and he once again was pacing around in his mind.

'Wonder if I can find anything about the North Koreans myself?' he thought and went to a search engine. There were some obscure references to smallpox and the impact on Korea before and after the Korean War but not much beyond it. He did find a couple of posts where they were generically mentioned as a country that might be pursuing biological weapons of mass destruction but it was overwhelmingly Middle Eastern dominated, especially focused on Iraq. Even though the exact contents of what had been found in Iraq were classified and not scheduled for release for another thirty years Steve thought if the American government had found something truly substantial they would have paraded it out for all to see as proof of the rationale to invade. Failing to find anything significant in his amateur sleuthing efforts, Steve caught up on the news of the day, checked the weather, and shut down his computer.

The sun was cresting the horizon and the house began to fill with natural light. Steve knew that Claire would be awake soon, her natural alarm clock rarely failing, so he moved to the couch and pretended to be sleeping, the current book he was reading resting in open position on his chest. He leveled out his breathing and focused, remembering what it was like to try and get sleep in the prison camp in Vietnam. Back then he could go to sleep on command, learning that you ate when you could and slept whenever possible because neither food nor sleep was guaranteed by his captors. The smell of the jungle came back to him in a flash, the noise of the camp not distracting him from his need to sleep, even for five minutes. He lay on a roughshod bed made up of palm fronds on the dirt floor, just enough to hopefully keep the bugs from crawling in his ears and eating his brain. His ankles and feet were numb, he'd been on them for at least a day, forced to stand and stay awake, periodically questioned, hit and then abandoned by the bi-lingual interrogators. If he took his boots off now, he didn't think he'd be able to get back in them. Sleep came quickly and he found himself praying, a broken English prison camp religion of some sort, hoping that he'd get at least an hour of shuteye before the next round of torture started.

They stood over him, shouting in Vietnamese and shaking him. He wished they'd put a bullet in his head and be done with it. Instinctively he covered his face to protect his eyes, some of his fellow captors had fire ants put in theirs when they didn't wake up fast enough. He was shouting compliance when he noticed that it wasn't the Viet Cong above him but Claire, trying to wake him. He teetered on the edge of belief and worry that he was in 'Nam and dreaming about home before his mind woke up enough to realize where and when he was.

"Are you ok Steve?" Claire had probably seen him like this a few dozen times in their marriage but not in the past few years, when it seemed that Steve had finally gotten past the dreams. This was primarily due to his contact with other vets and the ability to vent it out of his system. The pressure of this assignment, the fact that it was really Southeast Asia and not the Middle East and the knowledge of what might happen had caused him to revert.

"I'm ok Claire, thanks. Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep so I moved down here." He looked at the position of the sun on the horizon and knew that he'd only been asleep for a few minutes, funny how the mind can put you into such a vivid dream in a short time period. He slowly sat up and checked his feet, making sure that they weren't swollen before standing up. Claire hugged him close for several seconds, not saying anything but providing assurance that she was there.

"Guess I'm nervous about the opportunity. This is time sensitive and I need to continue with my delivery system testing and work on this new business opportunity at the same time."

"What can't you have Tom or Denise pick up the testing? You always take on too much yourself; they are capable people who are well paid for what they do. Everyone knows it's your idea."

"It's not that Claire, well, who am I kidding, you're right on some level. I don't trust anyone else to pick up my work for fear that something will happen. At some point other people will be manufacturing this and there's enough data to start the trials. Denise has excellent lab habits, maybe I'll ask Rob if she can pick up some of the work while I'm starting the other project."

Claire made a cup of tea for herself and went upstairs to get ready. Steve worked on breakfast and packed a lunch, not knowing how long his day was going to be and sure that he would need the energy the way his brain was busy burning up calories. He didn't like Claire seeing him in the dreams again and hoped that as he moved forward with the project the stress level would go down. Steve skimmed the paper, looking for any new news about North Korea though he knew he was already up to date from his early morning web search. He was confused because everything he'd read stated that North Korea was pouring all of its energy into the nuclear program and not spending any effort on chemical or biological agents.

He left Claire a note on the kitchen table telling her to have a good day and he wasn't sure when he'd be home that night. Since they didn't have kids and this was the school year she'd be occupied so that wouldn't be an issue. There was some early morning traffic on 480, probably the factory workers that started at seven, but other than that the ride was uneventful. The building looked a bit ominous in the dark and as he entered the lobby behind the smoked glass it gave him the feeling of being in a cave. Once he disarmed the alarm he turned the lights on and went upstairs. There was a small kitchen with a coffee pot so he brewed some and went to pick an office. Robert had claimed the one closest to the conference room but hadn't left anything interest laying around the room. Steve picked a room and spent thirty minutes cleaning it to his satisfaction.

The lab was downstairs behind the lobby and was well equipped with a hood, analysis equipment, mixers, scales and unopened chemicals. This place had been put together recently and no expense had been spared. He marveled at the immaculate soapstone counters and started to inventory the stock on hand against a printed list that had been left on the small metal desk in the lab. There were a handful of laboratory notebooks on the desk; by habit he filled one out with his name and the date, flexing the stiff binding back and forth.

Robert barged into the lab "Why the hell isn't the door locked? Did I not mention that we're working on a national security item?"

Steve tried to respond but as quickly as he'd stormed into the lab he was gone, Steve could hear his little bird frame stomping up the stairs. He shook his head and figured he better lock the door behind him, something he'd never had to do in his long career at Foundation. "Might as well get to work." He designed a set of experiments which would simulate quarter doses in order to minimize the side effects of the vaccine. The first set would release within days of each other and then the time between release would increase by days until the desired duration, which was a four week total cycle. Steve's previous experiments led him to believe that there was linear scalability, which meant he could predict with accuracy the release time, up to one week increments for four weeks. He didn't see Robert again until lunchtime because there was a small bathroom off the lab, which meant he didn't need to go upstairs.

Robert came in as though nothing was wrong, Steve thinking he was going to hear about the door again. "What do you like for lunch?" He surveyed the lab, seeing the early results of Steve's synthesis. "Nice start on the job Steve."

"Thanks. And I brought a lunch today, guess I could save it for tomorrow. What did you have in mind?"

"Some fast food, I'll go find something, you can eat your own lunch today. I'll lock the door on my way out." He stalked out, his head forward and his legs barely bending, exaggerating his bird image. "We'll talk when I get back."

Robert came back about an hour later and Steve was still in the lab, head down under the hood, making sure that his little spheres were forming normally. Steve completed the delicate phase of rinsing the new spheres, careful not to damage the surfaces. He double checked everything and went upstairs to get some information from Robert, wanted to know more about the project.

"Can we talk? This is a lot of information to take in such a short period of time." Robert got up from his chair and motioned Steve to the conference room, where they both sat down. The projector warmed up when Robert attached his laptop computer to it, it was the first time Steve saw the computer and hoped he'd get one too.

The first document that Robert put up on the screen looked like one of his Vietnam vet forums and had a bunch of Korean text in it. "Are you familiar with forums and chat rooms?"

"Yes, I know what they are."

"We have been monitoring a few in North Korea as well as some that are hosted in various places around the world. They are usually ephemeral in nature and finding them quickly is like the proverbial needle in a haystack exercise. Our guys are good and they usually spot them within a few hours of the site being created. This one is an example where they kept it up for several days and we were able to grab almost everything said." Robert flipped to the next document and it was in English, roughly translated but it was easy to see what was being discussed. "This was almost a year ago and the powers that be dismissed it as radicals. It's not easy to tell who the forum posters are and there will always be fringes who talk about this kind of thing."

The next few documents had the date circled and showed that the communication had been escalating the past few months, going from very vague references to more specific dialogues about the strain of the virus they were working on, how it could be effectively delivered using aerosol release systems. Robert had certainly done his homework and this was starting to look scary to Steve, who thought about the pictures he'd seen when searching the web for smallpox information.

"Have they discussed a date and location yet?"

"There were some vague mentions about 'multiple targets' but there no indication of where and when. We continue to monitor the channels but they may be going on local networks now, which are harder for us to tap in to."

"No idea who, when, where. But this is a really big what. I can see why there is some urgency. What is the capacity of our smallpox vaccination supply in the country today?"

"There is enough to vaccinate a few million people but since this is a new strain we're not even sure if this is going to be helpful, which is why the new vaccine has to be much stronger than the ones we have today."

"Anything else you need to know at this point?"

"Can I get a computer for this office? I have one at home and one at Foundation but it would be good to have one here and a laptop would be best because I could use it in the lab, office and at home."

"I will get you one tomorrow, just don't lose it. Wouldn't want the data on it getting in the wrong hands." Steve nodded acknowledgement as Robert closed his laptop and turned off the projector.

Steve wrapped up his first batch and left for the day, not saying anything else to Robert. He went to Foundation to check in, finding that it looked the way it did every other day. Denise and Tom tried to find out what Steve was working on but he said it was a special project for the company and he couldn't talk about it. Both offered to pick up any of his work that he needed help with. He thanked them for the offer and told them he'd be taking them up on it. Rob was sitting in his office, having a stare down with his computer.

"Hi Rob, just wanted to let you know that I stopped to check in on the next round for the trial. Everything looks ok but I might want Denise to pick up the work for me if I get too busy on the other project."

Rob must have been deep in thought because he barely acknowledged Steve. "Sure, whatever you say Steve. Need some privacy please."

Steve shrugged and walked to his desk to open his mail. There were several new journals but nothing urgent so he packed it in his briefcase and went home for the day. It had not been what he had expected, guess he was expecting Robert to be more forthcoming and not just jump down his throat.

**Chapter 11  
** Robert's a Loose Cannon

Steve never thought he'd miss having Robert around but he did. Sitting at his desk in the small research facility he drummed a pencil absentmindedly on the desk and looked at the plot of the newest data set. The results were good and it looked like everything was going to work but he had questions. He'd tried Robert's cell phone a couple of times but it always rolled to voicemail and when he got a call back it was always abrupt, Robert speaking in quick, harsh words.

The past few weeks had been marked with progress, especially when Robert had given Steve the brand new laptop, complete with cellular data card so he could get a connection to the internet from anywhere. Steve liked the flexibility of the computer, especially since he could connect to Foundation and keep up with his email and other information that was being shared without going to the office every day. The work there was moving forward and the corporate attorneys were pushing the U.S. patent office to expedite the patent requests they had filed for the delivery invention.

Robert had suddenly vanished last week, sending Steve a quick mail that said "Need to go to D.C. for some reconnaissance, not sure when I'll be back. Call the cell if you need anything." Steve was busy for the first few days and had relaxed the next few days but now he needed some guidance on what to do next. He'd even gotten to the point where he was so bored he spent a lot of each day in the Vietnam vet forums, something he'd never done outside of his family room at home. The recent election campaign had raised awareness of prisoner of war issues and even though the majority of America only knew Vietnam from movies, history books and stories it meant something else to an aging generation of men and the wounds seemed fresh for Steve. He'd gone from being depressed to being withdrawn and was now getting angry. There were a fresh batch of antagonists in the forums, minimizing POW suffering and throwing gasoline on the memories of the veterans.

He wrote a long email to Robert that detailed the progress, asked what the next steps should be and also inquired as to when he'd be back from D.C. Steve thought about other work he could focus on but everything that crossed his mind was very Foundation oriented and he didn't want to get into any legal situations with where the testing had been done, especially since the government was involved. In the area adjacent to the lab was a well equipped machine shop with a mill, lathe, band saw and grinder. Though it was against common sense safety rules Steve spent a couple of days honing his skills on the lathe, starting with softer plastics and working his way to stainless steel, which was much harder to work with. There was some satisfaction in working with his hands and keeping his mind off chemistry. He had some old oak around the house and thought he could make Claire something interesting for their anniversary, which was in a few weeks.

Robert sat in a conference room somewhere in the D.C. corridor along with a dozen or so other men and women. His boss, James Richards, had been reading him the riot act for the past week, wanting some results and asking a lot of questions. This was their bi-weekly staff meeting, where all of the agents came back from the field if at all possible to provide most current information about their activities. Anna Flores was talking about possible infiltration of a fraud ring in Florida, something she'd been working for almost a year. It was a very complex operation and there were times when it was tougher for a woman field agent to make entry because of the male biases but she was doing a good job and said the hook was set. Terry Horvath went next, he was involved with stopping illegal immigration activities that were happening on the Mexico/Texas border. This was a newer class of activities though, with a lot of Asians coming in via Mexico, especially from China. Robert wondered how they ever got out of China with all the surveillance the Chinese government has in place. Maybe they were abroad and looking to defect. The reports were largely uninteresting and Robert was daydreaming when James asked him to provide his update.

"The chatter continues but has slowed down in the past few weeks, not sure if they're getting ready to move or still mobilizing. It's still unclear what the specific threat is but it appears to be either chemical or biological in nature."

"I thought you said last time that you were sure it was biological in nature and very specific to smallpox." Terry said.

"That's what the early reports looked like when we analyzed them. I'm following up on some possible mitigations in the event we do have an outbreak. If it is smallpox, one of the problems we're going to have is vaccination. We don't know if people who were vaccinated decades ago are really immune and there is an entire generation that has not been vaccinated against the disease."

"So what, specifically, do you really know?" Anna asked.

"I know that there's something going on and that smallpox is possibly involved and it's going to take time to get to the bottom of it!" Robert snapped back, suddenly red in the face at having to defend his work.

"Don't take it personally but when we're talking about an attack on our own soil I get nervous in a hurry." Anna replied.

Robert clammed up and refused to acknowledge her reply. They all worked with him for years, should know by now not to question every detail and step in the process – Robert is damn good at what he does and way beyond being micromanaged.

"Settle down Robert, we all know that you're making progress. You're working on the touchiest case right now and we all want to be kept up to date." James looked at Robert and wondered if the old man wasn't really hiding something. He'd been assigned to this section a couple of years ago and had a great relationship with the team but always wondered about Robert, who worked alone, only shared information when it helped him with an investigation, and used unorthodox tactics to get results. He was what the whole "spook" image was based on and he earned that image. Robert knew things about people, embarrassing and illegal things that kept him protected. He had been assigned to James as a punishment because James hadn't handled a situation in Central America well. Robert knew all of the details, how James went from paradise back to D.C. and almost out on his ass in a matter of a few weeks. He sat and stared at James, unwilling to budge on his silence and basically calling him out as weak. James had no choice but to move on after attempting to get Robert to say anything else about his current assignment.

The rest of the meeting went quickly, everyone else understanding the mood that their boss was in and not in the enviable position of having leverage against him. Nobody wanted to turn James' anger against them. They shuffled out of the room when the meeting was called to an end, Robert still sitting in his chair, not interested in all of the small talk that accompanied a walk back to their work area, which was in another building on the campus. James also stayed behind and Robert rolled his eyes and let out an audible groan, knowing what was coming, the never ending tug of war.

"When are you going to start being a team player?"

"How many times are we going to have this conversation? I get the job done, work alone and answer to pretty much nobody in this company or country."

"One of these days you're going to get yourself in a jam and won't have anyone there to bail you out. This isn't the 1970s anymore, we have had enough public controversy over the past decade and want to portray a much more positive image. Those who refuse will be shipped out, mark my words." James didn't wait for a reply, simply got up and walked out of the room, steam coming out of his ears. Robert enjoyed the moment and had lost count long ago how many times they've had something like that conversation. He checked his cell phone voice mail messages. Steve had called again; Robert didn't like the fact that he required so much hand holding. It was important that he kept him isolated and focused on the task at hand.

He dropped by his desk, logged on to his computer and read email, picked up other correspondence and left the building without saying another word. There was some new information from the CDC that had been hand couriered over and he was interested to see what information Atlanta had sent. The ride home was short and there was no traffic but as he got out of his car the skies opened up and he was nearly soaked by the time he stepped into his house. He poured himself some scotch and sat down at the dining room table to review the CDC information.

The document was market Top Secret and Robert was surprised as he reviewed the contents that they'd passed it to him. There was information detailing the CDC's own and sponsored research activities into smallpox and some results that were quite staggering. Turns out that the CDC had in its possession a strain of such virulence that they were reluctant to compare it to the ferocity of known strains. It hadn't been easy to get a copy of this report and Robert knew that there wasn't a person within the CDC who would admit to the information or releasing it to anyone. Fortunately for him, he had strong leverage over a senior director there and had politely reminded him of some of the messes he had cleaned up for him and how it would be embarrassing if that information was released to the press. The man had some choice words to say to Robert and slammed the phone down but the material came just the same. It was about the result, the ends always justified the means.

The first fifteen years of Robert's career with the CIA had primarily revolved around traveling the world cleaning up other peoples' messes. His job was one that nobody else wanted and he relished because when he came into a situation he had every local asset as his disposal for the duration, no questions asked. Robert was smart though, capturing photographic evidence of all of his trips using Polaroid cameras and tucking the pictures and notes away where nobody could find them. He knew that if he didn't have leverage there would come a day when he would be cleaned. There had been a couple of close calls and Robert had been saved by showing copies of what would be released in the event of his death. He didn't mention who all knew where his stash was for fear that those people would conveniently disappear at the same time. Truth was that nobody else knew where everything was and only a few close friends had ever seen bits and pieces of it, but there was enough of a whisper that he was off hit lists throughout the government and especially in the CIA.

Many of the people that Robert had helped over the years had grown in responsibility and were now leaders in various branches of the government. He had about ten more years of good leverage built up and didn't plan on working that much longer. He scanned the rest of his mail and shredded it, nothing there. The CDC report was worth a second look and he thought if the North Koreans were even close to something this strong there could be big trouble. He thought of calling his CDC contact to thank him for the report but didn't want to rub it in. He scanned the information and encrypted it on his hard drive, validated that he had it, backed up the encrypted data and shredded the report.

The sun was setting behind the gloom and Robert was on his third scotch. He was going back to Ohio in the morning but was now restless. He lit the fireplace and burned the contents of his shredder, never can be too careful. The fire did nothing to ease his edginess so he decided to take a walk, ending up at the Metro station that was about a half mile from his house. He rode around and switched trains a few times, mostly out of habit, before departing at a station across town, not in the best neighborhood of our nation's capital.

The walk to the strip club was dangerous but Robert enjoyed the feeling that someone may come after him, sometimes looked forward to it. Even though he looked like a bird, there was a sense that he gave observers that he wasn't to be messed with. Part of it was the fact that he dressed like an inner city detective and nobody wanted to get up a cop's ass in this town. There were too many businessmen and low ranking government workers who made good marks. Robert even stopped by a group of thugs and made small talk, asking if there were any new street walkers that didn't mind the rough stuff. There were some shrugs and Robert knew they weren't going to help him, probably thought he was D.C. vice, so he continued to the strip club.

Robert was in the V.I.P. booth with a young thing who called herself Chandi, rhymes with Candy. She reminded him of some of the girls from Vietnam that he'd enjoyed during his tours there and he knew that it was going to be a fun night. She was shy, not knowing how far she could go. Before long she'd be giving head back there without concern but for now she was trying to stick by the rules. Robert kept his hands to himself, making her feel as comfortable as possible as he fed twenty dollar bills into her g-string. The girl was getting giddy from the money, it was unusual for this club to attract people with real money, she was usually stuck with groping drunks milking their last fifty bucks.

After almost an hour in the booth Robert popped the question. "Do you ever take your talent outside the club?"

"We're not allowed to do that, don't want to lose my job."

"I won't tell if you don't, just thought you might like to pick up a couple thousand dollars for a few hours of fun."

The girl thought of her young kids at home and how long it normally took to make two grand. That would get her through a few slow weeks and let her buy some new stuff. "What do you have in mind? You've probably heard this before but I've never sold my body for sex."

"Oh, I believe it but I'm sure you have some special talents that someone like me could appreciate."

"Just you and me? I'm not into multiple person sex."

"Just the two of us in a quiet place from when the club closes until breakfast. I'll even buy you breakfast if you're up for it."

"Let me make a phone call and think about it for a while." Robert knew the hook was set and she probably just needed to let her mother or aunt or whoever she lived with know that she wouldn't be home until the morning.

"Couple of things though. If you decide to do it I want you to take these pills. Even though you'll be into it, it helps when there's a little Ecstasy involved."

She thought about it for a minute and started to get scared. Robert sensed this and pulled out five hundred dollar bills from his pocket. "Tell you what, I'm asking you to do something for me so I'll show some faith. Here's five hundred, take it and the pills and if you don't want to come with me at the end of your shift you can just go home."

"Just like that?"

"Yeah, just like that. As you can tell, I'm not the prettiest man on the planet and have done this a time or two in my life. Everything goes much better this way." She took the money and then took the pills, Robert watching them slide down her slim, caramel colored throat. Now all he had to do was pay the manager a few hundred bucks to get her out of here in the next hour or so, as soon as she was done with her next set. He took a handful of Viagra, keeping the roofies and ecstasy for another date time. The manager settled for three hundred, which was cheap to Robert, so he ordered another scotch and waited in anticipation. As luck would have it, Chandi was up second so he only had to wait about twenty minutes and they were out the door. The girl said she was feeling strange but by the time they got to the CIA safe house a few miles away any inhibition she had was long gone.

The night was a blur for Robert and would be a blank for the girl, who was completely pliable to his twisted needs and was a pawn in his game of control and reliving the memories of his time overseas. Robert had taken out all of his anger and frustration in Vietnam using the local women, who relied on the world's oldest profession to feed their families. He was ruthless, cruel and inflicted endless pain on the girls. Chandi was so high from the drugs that she just grinned when he hurt her, which made him go harder. By the time he was done, she looked like she'd been taken behind a building and attacked by several men. He helped her get her clothes on and basically carried her to the car. Breakfast for her was out of the question but he couldn't have a cab pick her up here or drive her home, didn't want to end up answering questions later. She was able to recite her address so Robert drove toward downtown D.C. and found a cabbie who was happy for a hundred dollar fare. Robert told him that if the girl didn't get home in one piece he was going to hunt him down and it wouldn't be pretty for him. The cabbie nodded acknowledgement and helped load Chandi into the cab. Robert had buried three thousand dollars in her purse while he was getting her ready, knowing that he had received more value than that in return and she might need to see a doctor when the drugs wore off. He raced to the airport in time to catch his flight back to Cleveland, the girl long out of his mind by the time the short flight ended.

Steve was sitting in his office when he heard the front door chime. He thought it might be a delivery and was surprised when it turned out to be Robert. The man looked like he'd been awake for days and had been beat up, he could hardly walk.

"Are you ok? Looks like you got beat up."

"Rough night last night, didn't get much sleep. How have things been going here? Are you ready to start working with the vaccine?"

"I think so, the last batch came out as predicted and the material is edible. I ran some tests by ingesting some of them made with a small release cycle. My urine was Technicolor the past few days, kind of fun."

"Glad to hear you're having fun. I got a communication from the CDC while I was back there and it looks like the North Korean strain may be worse than projected. My boss is all over my back to move forward, we have a full support team back in D.C. in case we need anything."

Robert went to his office and closed the door behind him. Steve could picture him climbing into the small sofa in the office to sleep off whatever he'd been through during this trip. He found it odd that the CDC could have a sample of whatever the North Koreans were developing and Steve wondered how they would get it. Maybe they had people inside the government over there. He shrugged and went down to the lab, not hearing from Robert the rest of the day.

**Chapter 12  
** Bill Strikes Gold

Another week almost done, Bill thought as he sat in the kitchen enjoying a Friday doughnut and coffee. Things were back to normal with Margie in the office and she'd worked out most of her childcare situation to where she was there almost four full days a week. Her mood was much better than it had been when she'd come back. Kathy explained to Bill that mothers suffered from post partum depression and that could be multiplied with the separation anxiety of leaving your new child in the care of someone else. Over time Margie's attitude and appearance had changed back to her normal sunny self that Bill had come to know over the past few years.

Don had his weekly staff meeting today and he needed to make a presentation so he was already sweating bullets. Bill had seen him several times today, pacing frantically around the office and looking like he'd run a marathon. He was in the kitchen rehearsing what he was going to say, muttering to himself as he wore a path into the floor.

"What's wrong Don? You not ready for your presentation?"

"I'm ready but still nervous that they're going to throw it out. It's important for us to continue down this single vendor strategy but a lot of the other prison managers are nervous and want to hang on to the old ways. I built this to show my value to the team and am counting on them adopting it."

"We've got great data, Don, how can they refute it?" Bill had spent a lot of time working with Don to analyze and graphically present the data. It was compelling financial data that should save millions of dollars per year. The emotional impact of the decision was holding it back.

"Just present the information and try to keep the emotion out of it." Bill wondered how he had such wisdom, must have rubbed off from someone else because he'd never actually been in that situation.

"Thanks Bill, appreciate your support and confidence. I'm going back to my desk to practice again."

"Let me know if you need anything." But he was out the door without acknowledging the comment, Bill surprised there wasn't a trail of sweat behind him. He picked another doughnut and went back to his desk to work on the new purchase order system. The prison still used an old manual process that made integration of data and auditing painful. Having an automated system would help with budgeting, reporting and may also force further automation across other prisons in the system. Bill hoped that this could be Don's next project after the single source vendor one and was building the foundation in anticipation. Margie and Kathy had done all of the data entry to convert the old vendor list into a database and they'd also helped design the user interface to make it as intuitive as possible. Bill had reused some of the routines from the payroll program in terms of how approvals and authorizations were used, even tapping in to the same security database so he wouldn't have to manage one for each application.

Bill had his headphones on and the music cranked up in his ears, locking into his coding world. He jumped about a foot in the air and almost fell out of his chair when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry Bill, didn't mean to scare you." Shannon Walker said, now standing awkwardly near his desk, wondering if she should just leave.

"Glad you did Shannon, how's everything going?" Bill took in Shannon who was average height but well proportioned with an open, friendly face that was sprinkled with freckles. It was always great to see her though it was a torture exercise for Bill to keep his eyes on her eyes. Her visits stayed in his memories for a long time and he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen her. Her voice was like sweet music to his ears as she began to speak.

"Busy as ever and not getting any richer but that's the life of a public defender. I've got a few cases right now because our office is overburdened, not too many criminals who can afford representation. How about you?"

"Trying to keep myself busy. The prison is helping, they've added recycling manager to my list of things to do, that's how I spend my Saturdays now. They said I could give back a day from the office but this is the closest I have to a life so I'm doing both."

"You know that I could make an argument for parole Bill. All that you do for everyone inside the prison and this office would be evidence enough of rehabilitation and your resume would look very good to employers in the area. Why won't you think about it?"

"Shannon, there are times when I dream of nothing but being free. It's how most prisoners cope with long stretches inside. But what happened that night, watching my friends die, caused me to die that night. I know what it did to my dad and that he might have lived a lot longer had I not put that stress on top of everything else."

"You need to think of your mom and sister, how much they would like to have you in their lives again. Your debt has been paid again and again, there is so much you could do outside the fences of this prison."

Bill wanted to hug her, didn't want to have this conversation. He started choking up, thinking of freedom. Shannon touched his knee and they sat for some time before Bill broke the silence. "How are the boys?" Shannon had four boys and had put herself through law school after her husband decided he didn't want to be married anymore. It had been a long, rough stretch but she stuck through it. Her story had inspired Bill, it would be so much easier for her to move to corporate law and make more money but she really wanted to leave a mark on the world.

"The boys are ok, it's almost football season so I'm going to be very busy the next few months. My mom and dad help out a ton during the season, making sure everyone gets to practice and works on homework."

"Good to hear but summer practice can be hard, I remember those days well."

"Did you play in college?"

"No, I wasn't good enough to play on Case's team, when I got there coach Chapman has loaded the team with a bunch of great players and even though I'd played all my life there was no way I could compete at the next level."

"I tell the boys that it gets harder when they move up. They are good players but I'm not sure they'll play in college. It's going to be me and the government putting them through school. The good thing is that they were all old enough when I went through law school that they understand the importance of doing it when they're young."

Bill and Shannon had become friends during one of her cases, where she was having trouble getting information that she needed for the case. Bill had helped her do research and then helped her organize the information. The thing that instantly attracted him to her, aside from the fact that she was hot, was that she never treated him differently because he was wearing the orange jumpsuit. They didn't see each other too often but when they did it was good for both of them.

"I have to go talk to my latest client, will you be here later? Oh that's a pretty stupid question, isn't it?"

Bill blushed a bit for her. "Don't worry about it Shannon, I'll be here. Do you need anything that I can help you with?"

"Thanks for offering, but unless you can represent some clients for me I can't think of anything else." She smiled and went to talk to Kathy for a minute and then left. Bill found it hard to concentrate, thinking about Shannon's hair and the light touch of her hand on his knee.

"Earth to Jack, come in Jack."

"Hey Mom, happy Friday."

"Haven't seen Shannon in a while, did you guys have a nice talk?"

"Yeah, seems like she's as busy as ever, don't know how she manages her career and raising four boys."

"I can't imagine but she always comes round with a smile on her face and a kind word out of her mouth. She stopped by on her way out and really wants me to talk to you about parole, thinks you'd be an easy case. I told her that I know how you feel about that subject but would talk to you anyway."

"She tried to talk me into it but I told her I deserve a life sentence and don't ever expect to see the outside world again. I'm not sure I'd be suited for the world, even though I've kept up electronically there's so much that I've missed. I owe it to Don and Mike to stay here for the rest of my life."

Kathy shrugged and patted him on the arm. "You know that we will support you whatever you decide and if you want to go for parole there'd be a line around the building to support you. Almost time for staff now, I better go get set up so Don doesn't pop that last hair on his head." She was laughing as she walked away.

Bill decided he'd done all the work he was going to do and decided to pass by Don's office to see if he could get a reading on how the staff meeting had gone. Even though it was only a few minutes until their staff Bill was curious. He strolled by and Don was on the phone, probably telling Joanie about it. He seemed relieved and it looked like someone had cranked down the air conditioning if you used his forehead as the humidity gauge. Don even smiled at the phone and laughed at a joke from the other end so all must be well in the world. Bill smiled as he moved around the office toward the kitchen, proud of Don for keeping it together and sticking to his guns with his boss and staff. More coffee to get through the meeting, Bill wondering what Kathy had brought him for lunch. He was hoping for steak, something substantial to get him through the weekend, especially with another day of work ahead of him tomorrow.

Staff was quiet when Don walked in the room, anticipation on the faces of all to get work of how it had gone. Don sat down at the table with a firm stare, looking like he'd just lost his best friend. The table collectively shifted in their seats, waiting for him to say something. "So...just got done with staff. They completely bought off on the idea, now the real fun begins! Lunch is on me today!"

Everyone congratulated him for his success and the mood of the team lifted. Kathy made Don replay the meeting for them with detail and he was glad to oblige. There had been reluctance at the start, several other prison managers bringing up reasons why it couldn't be done but Don had won them over with the data and the charts in the presentation, there was no way they could refute the data. "Bill, I wanted to let you know that it was the way the data was presented that really drove it home. Once they saw the data even the most vocal opponents shut up. Thank you so much."

"That's why you pay me the big bucks Don, don't ever forget that." Bill smiled, all of them knowing that Bill felt indebted to everyone in the room but mostly to Don and Kathy for all they'd done. No additional words were said and Don smoothly moved through the rest of the meeting without incident, everyone anxious to get out for the free lunch that Don was going to buy. Kathy had read Bill's mind and brought a loaded steak dinner and enough food to feed two people, including a layer cake with raspberry in the middle and whipped cream frosting.

"I wish we could bring you out Jack, maybe one of these days we can make it happen."

"My orange jumpsuit might stick out a little bit at Applebee's, Mom." Bill laughed. "This meal looks better than anything I could get in a restaurant, I can't wait to dig into it. Go on now, don't want to hold up the whole team on account of me. Have a great time and I'll see you when you get back."

Kathy blew him a little kiss and ran out of the kitchen. Bill put his plate in the microwave and started on the salad, which was an incredible mix of fruit and vegetables with a dressing that was sweet and sour. He thanked the sky for the opportunity to have food that wasn't from the prison kitchen. It was too quiet for Bill so he hooked up the speakers to his computer and streamed the 1980s rock station that he listened to when he wanted to reminisce. He was singing and dancing to Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" when he sensed someone looking over his shoulder. It was too early for the team to be back, so he wondered how embarrassed he was about to be as he swung his head around and saw Shannon, a smug look on her face.

"I was waiting for the moon walk, too bad you spotted me, I think you should continue." Bill was red with embarrassment, didn't know the last time he'd done that and was mortified that she caught him in the act. Could have been worse, but not by much. He raced over to his desk and turned down the music but left it on as a distraction. Steadying himself with a few deep breaths, he returned to the kitchen and tried to act as nonchalant as possible.

"I guess that could have been more embarrassing but it's hard to imagine how."

"Don't worry, I thought it was cute. Bet you don't get to dance or sing much in the rest of the prison."

"Probably the first time I have danced for almost twenty years but never was very good at it." He was already over it and wondered why she was back. "Everyone went out to lunch, Don took them out to celebrate a project he got the other prison managers in the system to agree to follow. I don't think they'll be back for a while, which is why I was doing that."

"Kathy told me they usually go out to lunch on Friday but someone might stay back with you. I thought we left off on a touchy note and wanted to make sure I didn't ruin your weekend with our talk earlier."

"Don't worry about it Shannon, it's something that gets brought up a few times a year, I'm used to talking about it. Everyone knows how I feel but still want to change my mind. So what do you have planned for the weekend?"

"We're going to the beach, the kids love to spend the summer weekends playing in the lake. A lot of their friends go and it turns into an all-day affair."

"Sounds like fun, do you swim much?"

"No, I have a book or some case paperwork that I read between little naps, it's really relaxing. Once in a while I'll take a quick dip if I'm overheating. Sundays the boys' dad picks them up and takes them out for the day, usually over to his parents' house in Medina. They have some land and the kids can play with the animals or ride horses, it's different than city life."

Bill was thinking of what to say next when Shannon stood up, came over to his seat and gave him the deepest kiss he could have imagined. He wrapped his arms around her and held her so close, not knowing how much he'd missed that contact. She sat on his lap and they made out like teenagers for the next fifteen minutes or so. "I've been thinking about that for a long time Bill and it was better than I had expected."

"You can't imagine how I feel right now Shannon. Every time I see you the memory of your visit stays with me for weeks. This will keep my mind occupied for months, hopefully it won't be that long before I see you again."

"I'm still here silly, why are you talking about next time. Let's enjoy the rest of the time we have here. She kissed him again, this time with her arms around him, protecting him from the world he lived in." Bill wondered what man would be dumb enough to leave a woman like this but he knew that if he did ever get out he would want to spend a lot more time getting to know Shannon.

They both knew that private time was running out. Bill threw away the portion of his lunch he didn't eat and got the cake out of the refrigerator. He shared it with Shannon, feeding her pieces and stealing chaste kisses. When the cake was done they held hands under the table and made more small talk about growing up. The gang showed up five minutes later, all giddy from lunch and the good news. The mood in the office kept up throughout the rest of the day, not much work getting done but nobody concerned. Shannon made small talk and then said goodbye to Bill, he really hated to see her leave and could still feel her lips against his.

Sleep came at lights out for Bill, most likely due to the excitement of the day. He woke the next morning and the realization hit home that he was going to be working again. Making his way through breakfast, he went to the recycling area and checked through the metal detector. The Saturday crew was pretty mellow and Bill hadn't had much supervising to do. Most were looking for a few extra dollars a month and some good behavior points for the next parole board. Bill wandered around and made his presence known before getting so bored he decided to pitch in and help out. The paper area had the most material to go through so he started a new table and grabbed a box to sort. The idea was to make sure there was only paper in there and to make it as compact as possible for transport. The first box was filled with miscellaneous instruction manuals and material safety data sheets. Someone must have been cleaning out their cabinet, this stuff was old. There were also some status reports having to do with polymer chemistry, guess these were from Foundation, a local chemical company. Bill didn't know much about what the company did but thought this was one way to find out. He took his time going through the material, most of it over his head or reminiscent of freshman chemistry at Case with Doc Oc, one of the favorite professors on campus.

Once he was through the office cleanup stuff he noticed some recent material that had been thrown away. This was less chemical related and had some code, system names and database schemas documented. "IT trash" Bill thought, rummaging through the mostly uninteresting things. He was getting bored when he saw some firewall information, it was a document that contained all of the information about their firewall complex and included all of the network addresses, rule sets and administrator account information! Bill set the papers aside and dug harder, like a kid finding his grandpa's baseball card collection looking for Mickey Mantle cards. It didn't stop there, the next group of information was related to all of the company's internet site and related infrastructure equipment, including all of the database and application server information. He kept digging and got more information, including account information on remote connectivity for managing systems away from the office. By the time he was done it had been over two hours and he had a stack of papers over three inches thick in front of him.

He set the pile aside and covered it with some plain paper on the top and bottom of the stack and then finished with the paper he had been sorting. He checked on the rest of the crew and they were all wrapping up for the day. Bill and the guards cleared all of the workers and then the guards checked Bill out.

"Lot of paper there Bill, what you going to do with that?"

"Use it for drawing and writing letters home."

"Whatever you say." The guard wanded Bill to make sure he wasn't carrying any metal out and then sifted quickly through the stack to insure Bill didn't bury a sharp piece of plastic in there, like the old fake book safe trick. Finding nothing he gave the stack back to Bill and they locked up the recycling center for the weekend. Bill skipped dinner and by the time it was lights out he had a comprehensive document that outlined Foundation chemical's entire public facing network, including all of their servers and applications. He wondered if anyone at the company had such a detailed document and couldn't wait until Monday so he could get it into Visio and print it out.

Bill sat in the dark for hours, thinking about what he'd found. For a convicted felon, this information could lead to nothing but trouble. Bill thought about how much he could learn by studying their network but wondered how much trouble he'd get in if he got caught. Was it worth losing his job in the prison office for hacking? He needed to think about it and for now would just document the environment and maybe scan the environment to see if this was current information. Either way he knew a lot more about Foundation chemical thanks to the recycling job and would like to continue learning from an environment he normally wouldn't have access to.

He got braver day by day and at the end of the week he had fully articulated the chemical company's entire infrastructure and was now researching how current everything was. There were some systems that were kept very current but many that were literally years behind in terms of versions of the software and the operating system patch level. This information might not mean anything to most people but to someone who worked with systems and applications it meant a lot. Bill determined that each group who was responsible for an application was also responsible for keeping it current. He researched some of the vulnerabilities in the versions that were present within the network and thought that it would be trivial for an attacker to compromise the systems and be able to use the system resources for their own gain or leverage the attack to steal or modify information about the company. Bill wanted to know more about the company and how their systems were used so the next step was to capture and analyze data that the computers in Foundation's network processed and stored information.

Bill was worried about downloading malicious code from the prison office until he thought about it for a second and decided to use one of Foundation's systems to connect to the web and pull down some common spy and analysis utilities. He downloaded wireshark, which is a legitimate network traffic capture and analysis tool and also grabbed some applications that would analyze the activity on the computer itself and write the data to a file that Bill could research at his leisure. He targeted the systems that were significantly out of date, thinking that an administrator who was on the ball might notice some subtle changes to the file system or the presence of a new application. There were stealthier tools but why risk it when the company was giving him the information without a fight? By the end of the day Thursday Bill had installed backdoors and information gathering software on two dozen systems of different kinds, from web servers to their file servers, database servers and even on their firewall complex. Each night he would print off some of the data to see what was useful and what was noise.

He spent Friday writing a series of scripts that parsed the various types of data and summarized the key information based on variables that Bill had assigned such as customer, account number, credit card and many other fields. The weekend was spent updating what was now turning into a book about the chemical company's information technology landscape, all he was missing was information about how Foundation's users connected and what kind of software was included on the users' computers. This was less interesting but something he would do next week. The weekend recycling job provided additional information about some systems that weren't in the same network as the one Bill had been browsing, these were meant to only be accessed from inside the company. Once again someone had been kind enough to provide username and password combinations that would provide him with administrative access to the company's resources, and these ones contained finance, human resources and legal information.

Sunday Bill spent several hours working out with William, who then shared some of the cookies that his mom had brought on her visit the previous day. It was bittersweet for Bill because it had been a long time since he'd had a visitor and kept hoping that he'd get the call that someone was here to see him. Even though it entailed going through a rigorous search, including a cavity check, it was worth it. He only took one cookie, knowing that he'd be having good food from Kathy the next day. Bill went to bed in a melancholy mood, especially after writing long letters home to his mom and sister telling them how things were going and reminiscing about growing up.

**Chapter 13  
** Robert and Steve Make Progress

Robert had turned one wall of his office into a scenario plot, showing chatter that had been intercepted by NSA and Homeland Security in one section, a map of the Asia Pacific rim that extended to the Western United States on another part of the wall and then some high level summary of the CDC data in another part. He was working to connect the dots and make sense of it all. Steve was sitting in the chair, watching the old bird work, thinking that he looked like an angry vulture, stalking back and forth along the wall. Once in a while Robert would stop and scan the room with his beady little black eyes, trying to put the missing pieces together.

Steve was validating that his formula will work for the quantities required to disperse the vaccine over a period of several weeks. The interesting thing was that the actual vaccine only took a few grains per dose so the contents of the sphere could be made quite small, not much bigger than a ball in a typical ball point pen. It made more sense to keep the spheres small if possible and then just increase the number of spheres that were carried in an injection. The tough part now was going to be balancing the number of spheres and being able to pick up the spheres with the syringe. Steve was working on the correct level of dispersants required to keep the spheres elevated in the saline solution that would carry the sphere into the muscle of each person being inoculated.

He had been experimenting with a number of different spheres of the same size that could fill the role of delivering stages of the virus at different times; an equal amount of spheres that would break down in one week, two weeks, three and four weeks but were the same size instead of using single spheres. Being in this research project had given Steve a level of single minded thought and clarity that he couldn't have achieved in a year at Foundation with all of the distractions. It reminded him of graduate school, when he was focused on a single task and project. He hoped that some of the behaviors from the project could be carried back to the job when he got there.

Robert used push pins and connected chatter to the sources and to the derived destinations, using string to show the path. It definitely appeared that there were people involved in the plot in North Korea and the United States, communicating in multiple ways, from instant messenger and forums and using some asynchronous means like anonymous email accounts where information was never transmitted across the internet but instead each collaborator used email draft messages to talk, minimizing the risk that information would be captured in transit. What they didn't understand was that when they were looking at the messages or contributing to them, the data still traversed across the web from their system to the central mail server and could be captured. This also meant that many people were sharing the same email account so if any of their computers were compromised an attacker would know the password that many were using.

"We still have a few missing pieces, I'm going to D.C. for a few days. I want you to meet me there so we can start testing. Bring some spheres and I'll work out getting the right medical people to assist us with our testing. Are you sure that the material used for the spheres is safe?"

"Yes, it is based on the materials used for artificial hips and knees except that it is broken down at a faster rate. I've been ingesting the spheres for the past few weeks and running some experiments. I now know how long it takes for my body to digest food based on coloration of my stool. I used some strong dyes in the spheres and set them for different periods in terms of hours."

"That's very creative of you but I don't think I need to know that much about your digestive system. What else do you have to do in the next few days?"

"We need to determine how we're going to safely test the dispersal system so I'm working on what we can include in the spheres since I don't want to go straight to smallpox. What do you think of the dyes? I can focus on ones that will show up in our urine and be inert every other way."

"That's a good idea, what else?"

"I have shortened the polymer development cycle by creating multiple small spheres that have different release periods. This will help with injection and makes the manufacturing process a lot less complicated. The next step is to work on dispersants that will make the spheres easy to pick up by the syringe and insure that they're all not lost on the walls and bottom of the bottle."

"Ok, let's go with the dye, work out the rest over the next few days. Might be best if you drive down to D.C., don't want to raise suspicion by shipping or carrying the material on an aircraft."

"I can do that, should I find a hotel to stay in there?"

"You can stay in the guest room at my townhouse if that suits you or you can rent a room and I'll take care of the expenses."

"I'll probably take a hotel, where should I stay?"

"You can stay right in the city if you can find a place you like. All of the big ones are there but sometimes they're booked up for conferences or conventions. My flight leaves in a couple of hours, I'm going to get ready to go to the airport. Keep in touch via email and I'll see you early next week."

Steve sensed the dismissal and went over to his office and caught up on his Foundation email. Having the laptop with cellular card was great, he could blend personal and work into the same machine. He hadn't been using his desktop machine at home since he got the laptop and Claire joked that he had finally joined the twenty first century. It was especially funny coming from her, she still hated using the computer for anything and only did so when forced to for school related information. Steve really liked using the remote connection option to get to Foundation's systems from wherever he was.

His mail was relatively boring so he deleted ninety five percent of it and spent about an hour replying to the ones that needed his attention. Overall things were going good with the U.S. patent office but they wanted some additional information. Steve told the outside patent attorney that he would make copies of all his lab notes, which were always dated, signed and co-signed by one of the other workers in the lab for this very reason. There were some status update requests from Rob, who wanted to know more details about what Steve was working on. He ignored the first few requests, found the most recent one and provided him a brief update without disclosing anything that could jeopardize the project. Rob wouldn't be happy but Steve didn't care and was beginning to hope that this project could continue for the next year or so, it was turning into such a nice break from all the company bureaucracy.

Steve left work early, called Claire and told her to be ready to go out to eat and stopped by the florist to pick up some roses. She had been great over the past couple of months and he wanted to take a break to show her how much he appreciated it. Claire loved Morton's steakhouse, which was a downtown Cleveland institution. She was surprised by the flowers but was also wondering where they were going. They used to love the New York Spaghetti House and had been sad when it closed down but Morton's was every bit as special to them. Claire put on a dress and Steve a coat and tie and they took the drive downtown. It was clear and the humidity was down, a very nice June evening. The restaurant was crowded and they had to wait a while but neither minded as they caught up on things. Claire was in her last week of school and looking forward to the summer break. He told her that he was making progress and how much he was enjoying being so focused and uninterrupted by the overhead that comes with a company.

"Sounds like a sabbatical where you can really focus on one thing and not be bogged down. Would be good if Foundation provided those, I'm not sure how many companies are doing that anymore."

"I hear that some of the tech giants like Intel do it but mostly because they burn their people up if they don't have an opportunity to release the pressure that builds up every seven years. One of my friends from college works there and talks about the frenetic pace and the value that a sabbatical brings, both personally and professionally."

"It's too bad we can't have a more open system like they have across Europe, especially like Germany, where they get a very large amount of time off every summer, much like we get as teachers."

"We can hope but I don't see how it's going to get better any time soon, with the current economy situation it seems that everyone who's left in a company will have to work that much harder to keep a job. This housing market and all the government bailouts are going to be with the country for the next few generations."

"Even the kids are talking about the economy, that's the first time I can remember that happening in my career. It's funny how open the kids are with the internet and all of the media coverage that's geared to them on television. They are worried and I'm hopeful that they'll become a very active generation in helping to get America turned around. They are environmentally conscious and now they're becoming quite economically conscious as well. It's a bit interesting that they're not overly opinionated on the war, it seems that it's not really on their mind."

Steve flashed back to his return from Vietnam and the challenges that he faced. He hoped that if this generation wasn't overly opinionated on the war they would not hurt the troops when they came home. It's one thing to hate the government, Steve knew about that, but leave the soldiers alone or help them get back into life. "The government of this country has been out to lunch for the past forty plus years Claire. I can't believe how bad they've compounded the problems this decade, it really sickens me. There's nothing but incompetence and sycophants on Capital Hill. To think that I'm lucky enough to have to go there next week. Maybe I'll accidently put the whole government out of commission." Steve was starting to get wound up now.

"Can you come back to tonight please? I know how you feel about the government and I'm sorry that the conversation ended up going there. Let's enjoy the night and this great surprise." She kissed him on the cheek and rubbed his back for the next few minutes and their name was called. Steve relaxed with the first glass of wine and the conversation became much lighter and more related to the meal. The food was wonderful and afterwards they went for a walk around Public Square, which was jumping a bit because the Indians were home that night. It was fun to see a revitalized downtown Cleveland, both Claire and Steve reminiscing about the days when you wouldn't venture downtown after dark. The ride home was nice, both of them sated from the night and the meal. Claire was even able to coax Steven into bed, where she lay lightly snoring, a combination of the wine and the love making.

Steve quietly got up and went to the family room, computer on his lap and plugged in to the outside world. He had swallowed the bile that filled his throat earlier as he thought of the current situation and the way the government had handled it. Letting New Orleans drown and suffer after Katrina was nothing to the way the government had been mismanaging money, the war in the Middle East and everything else. They had failed Steve in Vietnam, when he came home, and every year since. He logged on to a discussion forum that discussed just how messed up America was and it was amazing to see how much activity had come to the forum since the recent election. There was general fear in the forum that putting a democrat back in office was going to cause additional anti-war sentiment and cause the economy to further spiral down the tubes.

Steve entered a live discussion room and found much of the same rhetoric being spewed around, apparently mostly from opinionated but inexperienced college students. Steve remembered back to college in the early seventies, when the anti-war sentiment mixed so well with an airheaded generation who hadn't seen what he had. It sickened him and he was surprised he had finished school in the face of all that. The situation today was reminiscent of back then, with an up-and-coming generation with a different set of values and expectations than the ones before them. Generation X had been unlike previous ones but still was grounded in rational thought. The new generation appeared completely disconnected from history or reality to Steve. He started pecking back at some of the people in the chat room and was immediately attacked. Anger rising, he mentioned the fact that people shouldn't talk about war unless they've served their country in some capacity other than sitting on their asses and bitching about it.

Someone named fckthewrld asked Steve if he was in Desert Storm and Steve answered that he was in Vietnam, to which most of the people in the room immediately started calling bullshit. Steve and the kid got into an argument and by the end of it Steve was as wound up as he could remember, blood rising to a boil at the ignorance of this guy. Once people started believing he was in Vietnam they started slamming the war and the government, to which Steve agreed. He mentioned what it was like to come home and have no support from the people and a government that gave up on a generation of men, thousands who had given their lives in Asia.

He tried to steer the conversation to the current economic situation and how the American government and people needed to be turned on their head in order to make a difference, even going so far as to say that a depression would put the country on a better track than an irresponsible bailout but the idiots kept bringing up the past, the war and saying that Obama was going to fix the economy and make sure everyone got free education and health care.

Steve ended up closing the browser and slamming the lid on the laptop, realizing that while the theme of the website was anti-American government, most people in there were just anti-war and not smart enough to figure out that the United States was no longer the economic power it once was and hadn't been since we decided that 'guns and butter' was a good idea. He stewed for another hour or two in the dark before going back to bed and falling asleep for a few hours.

Robert was still up at that hour but was busy with another task. He had gone back to the same strip club and found that Chandi was willing to help him out again. He always went back to the same place to see how the last girl would behave and this was the first time that one had come up and asked if she could go again. This made him nervous because he had really worked her over and knew that she suffered for the money he'd paid her. Maybe she had a pimp that was going to mess him up but he decided to play along anyway because if she took it last time he could push it further this time. He took her to the VIP room for one set but only to feed her drugs, four pills this time, along with a stern warning. "If this is some kind of trick I will make everybody's life a living hell."

"It's not a trick, I could really use the money and with the pills I don't remember a whole lot about what happened. I was in pain but it was worth it. Times are tough and guys aren't coming in here dropping hundreds of dollars a night anymore."

Robert bought it and paid off the manager. He took Chandi to a different house this time, one that was out of the city and away from any neighbors. He didn't want to take chances that anyone would hear the screaming that was going to happen for the next few hours. She was all over him in the car and he really enjoyed the ride out to the house. In the garage of the house was a tool bag that he grabbed on their way in. He lit candles for multiple purposes; sight, smell and wax. Chandi's energy peaked in the first hour before the drugs started to weigh her down and she was extremely aggressive, giving Robert what he wanted. She hit him and choked him and he returned the favor before cuffing her to the bed and using the candle wax. She screamed a few times, which only made Robert want her more. This time he let her spend the night, not wanting to venture back to the city. He wouldn't bring her back this way again so it didn't really matter if she could remember where she'd been. He gave her another roofie so she wouldn't feel too bad until later and slept for a couple of hours. He dropped her off, went home to clean up and started digging for more information.

**Chapter 14  
** Bill Gets In

The IP addresses were calling him. Those numbers that machines used to connect to one another on the internet kept screaming at him to check them out. Bill was staring at the Visio diagram of Foundation's corporate network, which was several layers deep and included very comprehensive information that shouldn't be in the hands of anyone outside the company, let alone a convicted felon. He knew he should leave it alone, it had been fun enough to see how the various aspects of a large corporation's information technology division worked together, he didn't need to commit a crime by actually exploring those systems. But what was the harm in looking around?

"What you doing, son? Hoping that we can test that purchase order program today, both Margie and I have some time."

"Hey Mom, just seeing how big companies document their environment, what some of the complexities are and how things fit together. As we grow, it's important that we know how to grow."

"I don't know what you're talking about as usual but I'll take your word for it. Nice picture, whatever it is."

"Thanks, how about we meet up after lunch to do the testing? I need to work on the program a little bit more and run a few tests but it should be ready to go by then." The truth was that he had quite a bit to do and hadn't touched it in the past couple of days, completely obsessed with finishing the documentation and then going through Foundation's public websites to see how all of the content was put together and make sure he had the right information in his diagrams. Luckily he could probably finish the purchase order program in the next few hours so he got busy on it. Kathy walked away when he launched the program, knowing he was going into Jack mode and wouldn't be saying anything else.

The database calls were working fine for the vendor but the update function and report generation was bare. Bill started to work on the database update functionality, writing the snippets of code that would take data from the purchase order form and update the database so there would be a record of the transaction. He was able to successfully get an entry in the database but when he went back to change a price or quantity the program crashed. It took a while to find the bug and then he moved on to some more testing, including invalid inputs and overwriting information before saving the final version. Things were going his way this morning because everything snapped into place within an hour or so. He grabbed coffee and ran into Margie.

"Hey Margie, how's Joshua doing? Everything going ok these days?"

"Hi Bill, things are going fine, thanks. I find that each week it gets better from the work perspective and it's actually good for Joshua and I to have some time apart, being together around the clock would take a toll. My childcare provider is very caring but doesn't want to be his mommy so it's working out just fine. How about you? Anything new and exciting?"

"I'm managing the recycling crew on Saturdays which is pretty interesting. There's a good group of guys and it makes the weekends go faster. Other than that it's pretty much the same old stuff for me."

"Guess it would be, that was kind of a stupid question. I'm sorry Bill."

"C'mon Margie, don't be sorry, it's a very common question." He smiled at her but she was a bit shaken and left the kitchen with her head down. Bill stirred his coffee and looked in the fridge to see what Kathy had brought him for lunch. Spaghetti, which was one of Bill's favorites. He needed to get that program done so he could eat, he knew there'd be salad and garlic bread too.

Bill had outlined what reporting features he wanted to enable for the purchasing program and started writing the database interface that would extract the key elements based on the authorization of the user. He needed to make sure that there were some limits in the system and that he adhered to them. He printed off the database schema and then mapped out the draft reports he'd indicated. The coding part was fairly straightforward and he made sure that during testing today they could at least print out reports of purchasing activity they had done during a given time period. He entered a few purchase orders using a couple of different test user accounts and then ran reports, making sure that he couldn't run reports against different user accounts. Both of these worked fine so he had enough to go into the testing by Kathy and Margie after lunch. Glancing at the clock he saw that it was past eleven thirty so he saved everything and created a couple of quick documents that described how to use the system using screen prints and some basic text. Kathy and Margie could hand write some notes that Bill could use in the next version of the documentation. He printed two copies, stapled them and went to the kitchen for lunch.

The gang was all in today, talking about the comeback the Indians had the previous night, beating the hated Red Sox in the twelfth inning on a homerun by Grady Sizemore. Bill tried to follow but it wasn't as fun when he couldn't see or hear too many of the games. He preferred to spend his evenings in his cell as opposed to trying to hang around the common area where the prison gangs gathered under the auspices of being sports fans. The city loved when their sports teams were winning and died with them when they were losers. The Indians had come within an out of going to the World Series the year before last but had a tough season last year. Everyone was hopeful that they could return to form this year and spent lunch talking about when they were going to go to a game together. The prison office and their families usually attended one or two games a year with their families and it was something they all talked about. Bill heated up his food and enjoyed it, savoring the meatballs and garlic bread the most. The talk turned to the pending summer vacation and Bill tuned out a bit, thinking back to the Foundation company diagram.

Kathy and Margie were waiting in the conference room after lunch. Bill took a couple deep breaths to calm down and went in to run them through the process. They got the hang of it right away and each created some of the common orders they ran on a weekly or monthly basis to get the hang of it. They printed their orders and each ran reports to see what they'd done. "This is definitely going to make my life easier Bill, I really appreciate it." Margie said.

"Ditto here, Jack. Do you want us to test the approval process, I want to be sure that I can explain it to Don so he doesn't have a panic attack."

"Sure thing, who wants to be Don?" they laughed and then Margie entered the purchase order and saved it. Kathy logged in with Don's privilege level and was prompted to review the purchase order that Margie had entered. She approved the purchase order and then ran a report showing everything that had been entered into the system for the past thirty days.

"Everything's working as usual Jack, this is going to save us a lot of time and trouble, thanks so much."

"Thanks for the lunch, it was awesome, especially the meatballs. And no problem on the purchase order system, I think this might end up being Don's next thing. If we can get integrated purchasing system throughout the entire prison system that will be a huge cost saving and tie directly to the work Don's been doing on single vendor sourcing."

"Couldn't agree more on the purchasing system and I'm glad that you liked the meatballs, I tried something different and used a recipe from Food Network. Instead of bread crumbs they have shredded bread that's been soaked in milk. They looked so good on TV that I had to make them."

"They're a keeper for sure. I'm going to get back to work, thanks for the testing and if you have any other thoughts let me know and I'll get them worked in to the program. I plan on finishing up later this week and we can move to the electronic system the first of next month so there isn't any confusion with accounting." Bill went back to his desk and put his headphones on but didn't turn on the music. He didn't want anyone to be able to sneak up on him. The Visio diagram was open on his desktop and he looked it over once again, thinking about how he should investigate the network. Based on the system names and information he'd found in the recycling it didn't appear that they were running any kind of network intrusion detection system so he thought the first thing that he could do would be to run a simple port scan to see what services were listening for connections on the machines that were public facing, which meant available to users on the internet.

He had downloaded a few scanning programs for network testing on the prison system a few months ago with Don's permission and had learned his way around some of the common tools that system administrators and the bad guys used to explore networks. NMAP and Nessus were two scanners that he had become somewhat familiar with. He started with NMAP in its least intrusive mode, turning off anything that might trigger alarms and set the IP address range to the range that appeared in the network diagram. It looked like Foundation had a reasonable address block allocated to them. Companies and organizations acquired address space so that there wouldn't be confusion or collision on the internet. Bill set the scanner to provide information on which ports were listening and the scan ran in about two minutes, during which time Bill didn't know if he took a breath. When the scan finished he saved the report and closed NMAP as well as the Visio diagram and switched his screen to the source code for the purchasing system. His heart was in his throat and he noticed that he was gripping the arms of his chair as though he was riding a roller coaster.

After his heart rate dropped below one hundred and fifty beats per minute he looked around and saw that nobody was around. He opened the Visio diagram and the scan results and took note of the open ports, adding the information to the servers in the diagram. Bill noticed that they had a lot of ports open, which were connection points that were listening for communication. Most companies limited the number of ports they listened on because it meant that attackers had more places to attack. This was commonly referred to as the attack surface. There were some really insecure ports available to some of the servers including Telnet, which is a service that allows for remote connectivity to a server but sends all of the information that's transmitted back and forth in the clear, which meant that anyone who could intercept that traffic could determine the usernames, passwords and data and use that information. Telnet had been replaced by SSH, the secure shell, and Bill thought that all companies would have moved to SSH for all public facing services.

He saw that Telnet was even available to the firewall, which was a critical mistake because if an intruder could compromise the firewall then they could gain access to anything behind the firewall and cover up their tracks. Bill finished the document and determined that the chemical company was as insecure as possible. The responsible thing to do at this point would be to report to the company administrators or at least let their human resources department know anonymously that they should investigate. Bill knew that he should do that but thought that as long as he didn't steal any information or disrupt services it should be ok to look around. He was bound to learn something interesting and once he was done playing around he could let the company know.

The office was still quiet so Bill tried one of the username and password combinations he'd found for one of their web servers. He connected using the Telnet application and entered the logon information. A few seconds later he was rewarded with a directory prompt and was able to look around the system. He found out which web server they were using, which is the program that organized the information on the web pages and where administrators set up the rules of the website, how information was gathered and presented and who had access to make changes, add web pages, etc. Bill added the web server name and version to the Visio diagram so he could look it up later but he guessed that it was an out of date version that was also vulnerable to compromise.

Bill was afraid to probe any deeper using tools because the systems were more likely to crash while being probed if they were out of date. He walked through a few systems, connecting from the server he had originally connected to so he would minimize his footprint in case they were tracking outside access. It was a similar story across their network, with servers and applications that were out of date and easily accessible. He spent the rest of the afternoon gathering information and documenting what he found. That night he pieced it together further and had a great deal of knowledge about how he would go about fixing the network at the company.

**Chapter 15  
** The Ties That Bind

Steve double checked all the material he'd packed from the lab, even though he'd already been through it ten times to make sure it was placed safely in the trunk of the car, the polymer spheres suspended in the saline solution. His clothes were packed and he'd even put together a couple of extra boxes in case in needed to stay and perform some experiments. Claire looked out the window and saw him talking to himself, checking on his equipment and making sure he had everything, like he was going to the moon instead of the Nation's capital.

Double checking her bag, Claire made sure she had what she needed to deal with the last work week before summer. The kids were gone for the year but there were still grades to get out and reports for summer school teachers so they knew how to deal with the kids and which subjects each student needed help with. The last week of school was a lot of fun for the teachers, who let their hair down and had some fun, blowing off the steam from the year.

Claire loved the surprise dinner the other night and had decided to one up Steve. She waited for him to come in the house to spring it on him, rocking back and forth in anticipation. Steve was lost in thought and walked right by her into the kitchen, calling for her. "Have you seen my raincoat? I need to pack it, weather channel said there might be rain in D.C."

Claire had to laugh. "Take a few steps back, you just walked right by me and the raincoat."

Steve rubbed his furrowed brow, wondering how that had happened and took the coat from her, starting back to the car.

"Not so fast mister. We've both been working hard so I booked us a little trip for the weekend after next."

"I'm not sure I can get away from the project for too long, how long is the trip?"

"Settle down, it's just a long weekend. The project will live without you for a few days while we vacation at one of our old favorites."

Steve knew right away. "The Shaw Festival? That sounds wonderful, how did you get tickets for mid-summer?"

"After the other night's surprise I wanted to one up you. There was a package deal with the Prince of Wales Hotel."

"That's going to be great, we've always wanted to stay there. That's going to be a great weekend Claire. I guess the project will survive without me for a few days. The bar has definitely been raised, going to be fun figuring out how to top this one."

"I'm not done yet Mister. We'll be driving around in our convertible for the trip too, wanted to put a little cherry on top of the surprise."

Steve's mood improved a few notches as he thought about the upcoming getaway, melting away some of the stress that had been building around this trip to D.C. "I'd better hit the road, going to be a long day. I'll call you from the road." Robert had given Steve a cell phone, the first one he'd ever owned. It took some figuring out the past couple of days to understand the different functions but it seemed to be a good thing to have, especially when driving four hundred or so miles from home. He gave Claire a long hug and a kiss that lingered for a few seconds. "Love you."

"Love you too, drive safely and I'll talk to you later. I should be home around the normal time but if I miss your call I'll call you back."

"Don't panic if you don't reach me, I'm driving through and over mountains on the way, no guarantee of cell service the whole trip."

"It's better than having to find a payphone along the way." Claire stole another kiss while he was still close and he was off, checking the contents of the trunk and carefully placing his raincoat in the backseat, along with an umbrella. She had to shake her head at her absent minded professor.

Robert sat in the safe house, knowing that his play time was over for the time being. It had been a rough night and he was sore in places he'd never been sore. The girl went off in a cab, saying that she needed some sleep but otherwise not much worse for wear. Robert had seen some tough girls in his life but this Chandi took the cake in terms of her ability to take abuse. "Must have been a fun childhood" he said to the empty, silent house before picking up loose ends and making his way back to the city. Steve was coming today sometime and Robert needed to rehearse the potentially unpleasant conversation they were going to have tonight or tomorrow morning.

Steve was making decent time but slowed a lot as he traversed the mountains in Western Pennsylvania, slowing in the smaller towns because the highway patrol and local sheriff's loved to write tickets to Ohio drivers and probably every other state as well. He stopped off in a greater Pittsburg area restaurant for an early lunch, knowing that the population dwindled along highway 76 after the famous "three rivers" city. The scenery was really nice this time of year but nothing compared to fall, when the leaves and the rivers provided a backdrop that was hard to beat. He stopped at a couple of the vista points along the road, taking a few minutes to soak in the view and stretch his legs. When he was younger it was possible for him to do a few hundred mile stretch of driving without stopping for anything but gas but that was no longer possible or necessary.

The little diner was fairly empty and the food was average. Steve thought about calling Robert to tell him where he was at and decided there wasn't really anything to gain from that. He thought about the testing and seeing how the polymer method was going to behave in their bodies. This was way better than the journey Foundation was embarking on with the Food and Drug Administration but if there were adverse side effects it would be he and Robert that would feel the impact.

Steve had a book on tape for the ride that he hadn't remembered to play until after lunch. It was a non-fiction book about habits of highly effective people that Claire had bought a couple of years ago to help Steve deal with Rob and his co-workers at Foundation. The reader had a pleasant voice and British accent and Steve got swept away in the content, thinking about how so many of the examples of how not to behave reminded him of himself. Before long he had listened to two tapes and was in Maryland and knew that he needed to stretch. He found a rest stop that had a gas station and filled up the tank, emptied his bladder and grabbed a snack and a drink. The landscape was rather non-descript on the other side of the Appalachian trail though he was not far from the Cumberland gap, at least according to the signs on the highway and the literature and maps in the rest stop.

Back on the road and onto the next tape, Steve found himself coming out of his shell, which he rarely did. The words that came out of the car speakers were encouraging and Steve felt his insides begin to open up in some strange way. The traffic was picking up on its way out of the beltway back to the Maryland suburbs, many two hours away for some government workers. Steve was thankful that he didn't have to drive anything like this on a regular basis. He ditched highway seventy for two seventy in Frederick, the last major highway change of the trip. Should only be another hour or so depending on the traffic, Steve thought as the next habit was introduced by the reader of the audio book.

Once he got close to the city it was a rat's nest of people coming and going mixed with a lot of tourists who didn't know where they were. The last five miles of the journey took over an hour and the sun was going down though it was still at least an hour from being dark. He saw the sign for Arlington National Cemetery and wanted to go there during this trip, had seen so many pictures and videos over the years. The truth was that he had only been to D.C. once as a child and that was on a longer trip so there weren't many memories other than seeing the White House, Capital and Lincoln Memorial. He and Claire had talked about visiting but had never done so, probably because she was aware that being so close to the government could cause Steve to have some kind of breakdown. They had conveniently avoided such discussion prior to this trip, especially after the way Steve had reacted on their date.

The Hotel Monaco was as majestic as it looked on the web, Steve thought as he pulled up to the valet area. "Can I park the car myself? Do you have a self park area?"

"Yes sir, if that's what you prefer, please take the car around the block and you'll see the entrance to our garage. You can leave your vehicle parked where it is while you check in." Steve thought about parking but knew it would be easier if he already had a room key so he checked in and got his room key, parking pass and information about the hotel and some of the local attractions, hoping that he and Robert wouldn't be working the whole time he was here.

The room was huge and he had a view down Seventh Street and could see the top of the Washington monument and the light from the Capital. It sent chills down his spine but he was still feeling mellow from the book he'd listened to on the drive down. He thought about Claire and realized he hadn't called her. Claire figured he had driven straight through and wasn't worried about him. He told her about listening to the book on tape and how he'd actually felt himself thinking differently than he ever had. "Thanks for getting that for me, sorry it's taken so long for me to get around to listening to it."

"Not a problem, glad that you tried it and that you like it so far."

"How was your day at school? Get all the grade work done?"

"Made good progress but won't wrap up until Wednesday or so. What time do you start work in the morning?"

"I'm not sure, need to call the project manager and see where and when we're meeting. For tonight this hotel is very nice but the surrounding neighborhood isn't so great, probably best if I just try the hotel restaurant and then call it a night."

"My plan is to do a little bit of work, some reading and then bed. Going to miss you next to me tonight."

"Same here. I'll call you tomorrow and let you know how things are going. I'm hoping that I can do a little bit of sightseeing while I'm here."

"The Smithsonian should be remarkable. I'll bet you'd also like the Library of Congress. Seems like there's enough there to occupy you for a long time. Sleep well."

Steve hung up and unpacked his clothes. He really wasn't hungry, really wanted to know what Robert had in mind. The bird man's phone number was programmed into Steve's cell phone, just had to go to contacts and make the call. Robert answered on the first ring, as though he knew Steve was in town and about to call him."

"You in town?"

"Yes, just checked in to the hotel."

"Tired?"

"Not really, did you want to meet up for some dinner?"

"I'm not hungry, was thinking that we could take a little walk."

"Is it safe for me to walk in this neighborhood? It doesn't seem like the safest place in the world."

"As long as you don't end up in some alley you'll be fine. The reputation is worse than reality in D.C. these days. If you come straight down seventh you'll run straight into the reflection pool. Turn left and head toward Lincoln, we'll meet at his feet."

Steve thought this was a bit strange but didn't mind a chance to see the Lincoln Memorial and if he remembered anything from his visit forty five years ago. He remembered that Kennedy was dead and Johnson was the president when they came. The White House seemed sad because JFK was no longer in it for the young Steve. It's funny how much the assassination of Kennedy had shaped his generation, in terms of believing in America and themselves. It's why they went to war and also why it hurt so much when they were abandoned by the government and the country. The world was dark but the street was well lit and Steve felt safe as he ambled toward the hub of the city. The street dead ended into a park and he could see the Capital to the left and Washington monument to the right. This was an immense area and there were still lots of people walking around and enjoying the warm evening weather.

Starting for the Washington monument, Steve saw the Smithsonian buildings and realized what a journey he had in front of him. This was going to take at least a half hour, hopefully Robert wouldn't mind waiting. He thought about calling him again but decided to enjoy the walk instead, picking up his pace toward the giant obelisk, which was lit by some huge spotlights at night. It seemed close but Steve was winded by the time he reached the base. Lincoln was off in the distance, the view obstructed by the new World War Two memorial park.

Robert was already at the Lincoln memorial, checking his phone every few minutes to see where Steve was. The phones were paired and Steve's GPS location was transmitted to Robert when he wanted it, simply by pressing a few buttons. Robert paced back and forth, looking to the world like he was seeking something he'd dropped on the ground. Anyone who made eye contact got the cold stare and immediately looked away, which suited him just fine. The chemist was moving again but it was going to be a while, there was still the new park to deal with, that could keep him busy for a half hour. Robert had to admit that while he took this whole area for granted, there were some very impressive things to see here in the Nation's capital.

Steve walked with purpose toward the new memorial park, admiring it more the closer he got. It was really a thing of beauty, especially at night with the backdrop of the trees and the reflecting pool in front of it. As he got closer, the scale of it hit him like the Washington monument had. There was room for hundreds of people, or maybe even thousands, to be inside at a time. It was open, intricate and the water that flowed through it provided a sense of both power and tranquility. The intricate metal work combined with the sturdy concrete and stone reminded Steve of the feeling of ancient Greek architecture, though he'd never experienced that firsthand. He made his way slowly around, admiring the carvings in the stone, the openness of each of the four archways. There was an intricate brass inclusion near a waterfall that was very tranquil and he sat on the edge of the stone and gazed into the water for a few minutes, feeling peace even though there were dozens of others milling around and taking photographs to capture the memory of a trip.

Knowing the Robert was waiting was eating at the back of his mind and started to intrude on the moment. Steve knew he could come back again during this trip but also thought that this first visit, this night, was going to be a special one so he pushed the bird man out of his brain and took another stroll around the monument. He stopped to look up at one of the gates and through the symmetrical stonework saw the crescent moon. Now he wished he had a camera to capture the moment. The Lincoln memorial beckoned in the distance, Steve not fooled by the fact that it looked small in the distance. The spot lit tribute to another agent of change for American reflected into the pool of water, a beacon to Steve. He walked along the reflecting pool, which had been used in so many movies and such a frequent gathering place that he felt he knew it already.

Robert peeked at his phone again and saw the movement of the chemist, now beyond the war memorial. It would only be a few minutes now. He thought hard about what he was going to say, steely eyes staring into the distance. Robert pocketed his phone, his quarry nearly in sight, and waited.

Steve's mind was churning as he made the last quarter mile of the journey. Maybe he would ask Robert for a ride back to the hotel, this walk had taken a lot out of him after the long drive today. He was running on adrenaline as he purposely marched toward the now much bigger seated Lincoln. Steve was glad that Robert wanted to meet tonight instead of the morning, the only thing he'd have seen otherwise was the hotel's restaurant and his room. He saw Robert ahead, casually standing near the foot of Lincoln's chair, now seeming as big as his own house.

"You made it. Thought you got lost or something."

"That's a much longer walk than I thought it was going to be and there were quite a few things to see along the way. I was only in the city once and it was a long time ago. You are lucky to be so close to all of this history and beauty."

"I figured that you'd be doing some sightseeing along the way and can't say that I blame you, it is quite amazing, especially if this is the first time you're taking it in as an adult. Let's walk." Steve followed Robert, looking over his shoulder to see more detail of the Lincoln memorial as they walked toward the trees that ran adjacent to the reflecting pool. Robert walked with purpose and said nothing, Steve having to struggle to match the man's gait. The path was wide and well lit and the little man had a destination in mind. They turned a corner in the path and Steve saw it. His heart stopped and so did his feet, falling behind the bird man as his head became light. Consciously he knew where this was and he'd seen so many photographs and videos but it just wasn't the same. The low slung black wall was gently lit in the night and there were flowers and candles resting along the wall. It was eerie, haunting and Steve wanted to turn and run.

Robert looked over his shoulder and noticed that the chemist was stuck in his tracks. This might be easier than he thought it was going to be. He slowly walked back toward Steve and readied his speech. "This is why I wanted you to come out tonight Steve. You needed to see this and experience this moment at night. It's one place where I spend a lot of time in this town."

Steve was speechless for a minute, walking along the path toward the wall, not sure if he was going to make it. His left hand absently reached out and felt the names, his eyes looking ahead at how long the wall continued.

Robert let him have his moment, each time he'd done this over the past few years the reaction had been different but profound for the veterans. It was amazing how many people had never seen the wall but given so much in the war. The chemist was now scanning the wall with his eyes, looking for names. Some went straight to the book and others did exactly what Steve was doing, just looking. He was calmer about it than some, who frantically searched until they found someone they lost.

Steve was scanning slowly, trying to remember the names of everyone in platoon that had been killed in action and at the same time looking for some who didn't make it out of the prison camp, either losing the will to live or having it drilled out of them by the Viet Cong. His mind went back in time as he saw the name. James, poor James. Beaten so badly that he just gave up. Steve couldn't even utter his last name, but would never put the look in that young soldier's eyes out of his mind, remembering how they'd tried to get him to come back but he went somewhere else inside and never came back, dead the next day. The VC had laughed and pointed at him repeatedly as if to say "this is going to happen to all of you." Steve didn't know how he'd gotten through that time, where he'd found the inner strength to continue until he heard the mortar fire and the bullets flying, when the U.S. had pushed far enough to take back the land, the VC retreating, but not before executing another dozen prisoners.

Robert watched the man crumble before his eyes, falling to his knees, both hands sliding down the wall with a squeaky, screeching sound that was matched by the howl coming from his mouth. He choked up for a second, knowing that he had caused this but also knowing that this was an essential step in the plan. He slowly walked over to Steve, placing his right hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry this is so painful, the first time you touch the wall it's like everything from Vietnam comes storming back into your psyche. I remember the camp like it was yesterday."

Steve turned back to the man and his opinion of him changed in that instant. If Robert had also been a prisoner of war then he had more in common with him than could ever be discussed.

"I've known you for some time Steve. I'm 'quietstorm' on the boards, we've had so many conversations over the past couple of years. It's not an accident that I found you at Foundation. Your work is interesting and we share so many common bonds. We're here to see if you want to join me on a mission. It's been a hell of a long time and for so long I wondered if I would just get eaten away by it all. The explosion of the web brought me back together with others who had been through the same things that I had and let us vent to keep us sane."

"I'm not sure what you're asking of me" Steve said through his tears, which had been so many years in coming and now showed no sign of stopping. He stared at the wall, others around them stopping their conversations to watch and also out of respect to someone who was opening doors on feelings that the observers couldn't comprehend.

"You and I, along with many others, were used and abandoned by the country we believed in. We have moved on in life and become productive members of society but there is a score we can settle. I have been putting together the pieces for a number of years, looking to even the score with the government and create a different sort of legacy for those of us who gave so much and lost it all."

Steve considered the words, the tears stopping as his brain moved from emotion to logic and tried to process what he was hearing. "I can't believe you're quietstorm, are there others on board?"

"Everyone who's been on the board for the past few years that could help us in the cause have been approached. I have worked long and hard to build a team and we are getting stronger by the minute. You'd be amazed how many people are willing to carry forward against a decade old grudge. As we get older we realize that there's not that much more time, but we are strong. We also have support from a large number of Gulf war veterans, many of them realizing that through their PTSD they were also abandoned by a government and the people who claimed their war was 'no big deal'."

Steve didn't know what to say, there was a big difference in harboring resentment to the bone and taking action. He touched James' name again and thought for some time, the bird man patiently waiting for some kind of response. "I'll do it Robert, for James and all the others. We're repeating past mistakes today and it's going to cause another ripple as this generation matures and realizes how much they gave up for so little. If there's something we can do to stop them or to save the sanity of a new generation I'm with you."

Robert bit back a grin, thinking that this had gone so much easier than he thought. It was always harder when his recruits had a family, there was a reluctance to let them down. Since Steve didn't have kids there was probably less of that. He knew that it could still get dicey when they went over the plan and the potential damage was revealed. "The goal is to make such a statement that the government as we know it will crumble and no longer will our young men be subject to the whim of a few." He held his hand out and helped the chemist rise to his feet.

"What do you need from me Robert? How do we move forward?"

"Save that for tomorrow, you've been through enough tonight my friend. Do you want to be alone? I can give you a ride back to the hotel."

"I think this is enough for one day, if I stay here any longer I may not have the strength to walk back to the hotel." He stared at the wall again, taking in the scope and thinking about all the names that were etched into the black granite slabs. Nothing else was said on the way to the hotel and Steve cried himself to sleep that night, letting go of so much that had been stuck inside him.

**Chapter 16  
** Bill Finds Something Odd

Mike was dying, he had to do something but he couldn't move. He was pinned between the door and the steering wheel. Mike's legs were basically gone and Bill tried not to look. He tried to talk to his best friend, to tell him he was sorry for doing this, sorry for everything but he didn't get the chance. Mike died before Bill could apologize to him. The scream wouldn't come out, there was a pain in his heart that would never go away, he knew it in that instant. His body shot up from the bed and the first thing he did was feel for his leg to see if it was broken. He wasn't in the car, it was the dream again. Almost twenty years and he was still haunted by that night. Bill wished for the light, knowing that he wouldn't get any more sleep.

It was early Sunday morning and the cell block was quiet save the periodic snoring coming from one cell or another. The recycling crew had worked on some other company's material and they must have a much stricter policy around disposal of classified information because Bill found very little of interest, choosing to spend the time actually working instead of rooting around. Bill getting bored with the chemical company, not much more he can do with the information he had and thought this would probably be the last week that he'd do any investigation. He thought about everything he knew and how it might be possible to let the company know without giving himself up. Under recent legislation Bill had most likely committed several felonies and if caught would not only lose his prison office job but also any other special privileges and access to computers. There was little to gain at this point and a lot to lose.

He spent the remaining hours before dawn thinking of how he could anonymously release the information he'd collected. There were programs called remailers that would strip the mail header information, which was used to track the routing of messages, and replace the headers before sending the message through several more mail systems to further remove the sender from the recipient. The challenge with remailers was that many mail systems today classified them as spam and would delete them before the intended recipient could see them. Maybe if he sent repeated messages some would get through and if he didn't use common spam subject lines they might get through. He could also set up an anonymous website but then there was the challenge of how to get the people he wanted to visit it to actually go there, which was typically done via email. Maybe a few different emails that pointed to an anonymous, secure website would work. It came down to how much Bill was willing to risk in order to make the chemical company more secure. Probably better to back out all of the modifications he'd made to do the monitoring and delete any evidence from his computer system in the prison office.

Daylight brought his only day to do what pleased him, at least to the degree you can when in prison. He was very hungry at breakfast, which was a bit of a surprise and then it was off to the gym with William for a good long workout. "So what's new Billy? You look like you're getting fat from sitting on your ass all week."

"Thanks William, I appreciate that. Pulling six days a week doesn't leave much time for working out, except for some pushups and situps in the cell at night."

"Think we'll push you a bit harder today then."

"Great, I could use a good workout. Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep. Body probably needs to be worked hard so I can get a good night sleep tonight."

It was a great workout but Bill could barely lift his arms when they were done and knew that his chest would be really sore tomorrow. They finished before lunch and during lunch Bill was paged, letting him know he had visitors.

"Expecting anyone today Billy?"

"Not that I'm aware of. Hopefully it's my Mom, haven't seen her in a while."

"Tell her that even though we've never bet I said hi and hope that all is good for her."

"Thanks William, I'll see you at dinner time." Bill went to the visitation area and wanted to turn and run. Instead he almost fainted in shock. In front of him was his mother, sister and Mike Watts' mother, Jean. He would never forget the look that Jean and Mike's dad Joe had given him during the trial. They wished he was gone and nothing that Bill could do or say would change their minds. After a few seconds, Bill was able to approach the table where the three women sat.

"I'm so glad to see you guys, it's been so long." Bill hugged his mother and kissed her on the cheek, boy did she feel frail. There were tears in her eyes, she was probably having similar feeling, expecting to see her baby and seeing her now approaching middle age son. He hugged Ellie, who looked great, now a mother of two young children and still keeping the glow of youth about her.

"Mrs. Watts", Bill approached her, uncertain of what to do. "I'm surprised to see you, thank you for coming."

She stood and hugged him, thinking of her long lost son. "Joe died earlier this year and I think that part of the reason he passed so young was because he could never accept what happened back then. I have spent the past six months confronting the past and don't want to have the same fate. We needed to talk."

Bill thought of his own father, who had died way too young and Bill knew that if he had been alive when the crash happened it would have pushed him to his grave. "I'm glad to see you, he said as they released from the hug and sat down." His heart was heavy but seeing all of them was going to have a cathartic effect in the coming days.

"We brought you some goodies, know that you get some of this during the week from Kathy but it might be good to share with some of your friends who don't have the same opportunity." His mom passed over a gigantic box of cookies, brownies, cupcakes and other treats. Bill's mouth watered as he thought about digging in to them later. "How are things going Billy?"

"Not much new that I haven't relayed to you in my letters. Been really busy between the prison office work and the recycling activities of the past couple months. Still spend some time in the library and work out when I can. Don't see outside much, as you can tell by my skin tone, hear in the office how nice the weather's been so far this year."

"There hasn't been much rain, have to water my garden so everything doesn't die. Had to get some help from Warren this year, couldn't do the digging and planting anymore." Warren was Ellie's husband and Bill knew he was like a son to his mom. Warren had been down periodically before they had children but now stayed back to take care of the kids when Ellie did come to visit.

"How are Warren and the kids doing El?"

"They're fine, kids are getting bigger all the time, we're looking for a place with a bigger yard so they don't destroy the house with all that pent up energy. Never thought having two boys would take such a toll on the house." She extracted some pictures from her purse and passed a few to Bill, a couple of school pictures, sports pictures and then some candid shots that had been taken around Easter. They were cute kids and Bill could see some of himself in the older one, Joshua David, who had received his middle name courtesy of his dad.

"Joshua is going to play football this year, just signed him up a couple weeks ago. You'll never guess who's running the midget football program. Terry Jones, he asked about you and wanted to send his best. He has three boys and they all play football, I hear that they're pretty good. Terry is a history teacher at one of the high schools, forget which one."

"Terry was a good guy, glad to hear things are going well for him. I'm really glad you guys came down." Bill grabbed his sister's hands and held them for a while, something they would have never done as kids. It was great to feel the bond between them, the look in her eyes that said she loved him and even though he was a lifer she still cared. He looked at Mrs. Watts, who was crying.

"I'm so sorry Mrs. Watts; I know this is hard for you and personally I never thought I'd see you again. Not a day goes by when I don't think about Mike and Don and wish I could go back and change it. Not for them, but for me. I'd take the life in prison if it meant they'd still be here."

She couldn't speak and Sue had her arm around her shoulder. "I know this is hard dear, remember what we talked about though. This time is for you, it's not about how Billy feels, it's about how you're feeling and telling Bill."

Jean Watts composed herself for a second, steeling for the coming words, which she'd had plenty of time to think about. "Bill, when I saw you in that court room, there was a part of me that wanted to hug you and tell you it was ok, that I knew it was an accident. Mostly I wanted to kill you right there, didn't care about my own life, just wanted to shoot you and have you be gone – some justice for taking the life of my only child. I carried that hate around inside for the past twenty years and part of me knew that it was wrong but it became my identity. I was the woman whose only child was taken away in his prime and now she had none." Bill tried to interrupt but she held up her hand. "This is hard enough, please let me finish Bill. Since I lost Joe I now understand that there's only one way to move forward and that is to forgive you for what happened. I always knew it was an accident and even tried to think about what I would think and feel if it had been Mike who was driving that night and you that died but it was impossible for me to truly do that because it wasn't that way. I am here to tell you that I forgive you, can you please accept that forgiveness?"

Bill was crying now, thinking about what it must have been like for both Mike and Don's parents these many years. He glanced down at the picture of the nephews he never met and wondered what it would be like for Ellie and Warren if the boys were taken from them. "I'm so sorry Mrs. Watts, I accept your forgiveness."

"Now for the big one Bill, part of this cycle and the reason for this visit was not only for me to forgive you but for me to implore you to forgive yourself. You've done the best you can given your situation but harboring these feelings had to be eating you up. It's time to move on, time to live your life. There's nothing you can do to bring Mike and Don back but there's something you can do to save your own life. This is a non-negotiable request Bill. It might be impossible for you to truly believe the words but I want you to promise me that you're going to live your own life."

Bill sat for many seconds thinking about this, all eyes across the table anxiously watching for his response. It was apparent that they'd spent a lot of time talking about today and getting this message across to Bill. His mom and sister had spent many years telling him to move on but that wasn't the same as Mike's mom doing the same. "I promise to try Mrs. Watts. I can't promise that I'll do it but I'm going to try and move on." The three sets of eyes across the table showed relief mixed with sorrow, thinking about the past two decades and all that had been lost but relief that things might change.

They talked for another hour or so, most of the time spent talking about what was happening in western New York, which was now a shell of what it once had been. Jamestown was a ghost town and the rest of the area suffered from an economic downturn that showed no signs of slowing, especially in light of what was going on in the American economy. The hope was a change in the White House might be good for America and their depressed area but it seemed that there was little hope. Everything from Erie to Buffalo was a shell of what it had been in the post world war two era and there was no improvement in sight.

When it was time to leave Bill hugged his mother a long time. "Thanks for having the strength and courage to hang in there Mom. I will take Mrs. Watts' words to heart and think about forgiving myself. Maybe I'll be out someday and we can have some time together."

"That is one of the things I live for Billy. I've been blessed with beautiful grandchildren and a daughter and son in law that live nearby but I miss you and your father with the rest of my heart." Bill was torn apart, thinking about everything that had transpired in the past few months, as if there was a shift in the energy of the universe and the world was changing for him. He said goodbye and went directly to his cell, needing a break before dinner. Sleep didn't come but he wasn't feeling the despair in the same way either. The dream had been a sign to him that something was going to happen and he hoped that it was the last time he had that dream, hoped with all of his heart. His brain passed to more pleasant thoughts, the time that he and Shannon spent together in the prison office. It was something he had bottled up in light of all that was going on but it was another ray of hope for him, that maybe he could one day leave and have a relationship with someone.

He must have dozed off because the dinner buzzer woke him with a start, at least he hadn't been dreaming. Gathering up some of the goodies in his care package, he went to the dining hall and filled his tray without the intention of eating. He gave away his food to his friends and passed William the treats as a payback for the ones the big guy gave him when he had visitors. "Thanks for the stuff Bill, I ran out of what my mom brought earlier this week and was craving something that didn't come from Dr. Mengele's cafeteria experiment from hell."

Bill tried to think of something other than the meeting today, which was haunting him and forcing some things to the surface that were normally reserved for his dreams. He thought about forgiving himself and what that truly meant. His thoughts went back to freedom, having a place of his own or moving back in with his mom, helping her take care of the garden and the house, relieving her of some of the emptiness in the house and her life. He also thought about staying in this area, maybe going to work for a company like Foundation to help them secure their environment, something that would be challenging, interesting and beneficial. After a while all of these thoughts began to give Bill feelings of agoraphobia, thinking that he'd spent so much time in a confined space, the sight of the open sky might cause him to go insane. He curled up under his blanket, further confining himself to something safe and was asleep before lights out, catching up on what he'd missed the night before. It was the most peaceful night he could remember.

Today was the start of Don's big two week family vacation, they were driving around the country seeing famous spots, including Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and then heading south to the Grand Canyon. It was a very ambitious vacation, especially with small kids, but don and Joanie had been taking the kids on trips like this for most of their lives and it was something that everyone looked forward to. Bill remembered how much he and Ellie would fight on a drive to Boston, which was only five hours away, couldn't imagine spending a couple of weeks in the car with her. Don and Joanie had a pop-up camper that they took, which gave them cheap lodging and still kept their sport utility for doing local commuting. The mood around the office was light, everyone looking forward to some stress free time.

Bill was working on extending the purchasing program to now deal with the accounts payable side, making sure that they were integrated. Don had successfully pitched the purchasing program to the other prison managers before he left for vacation and now Bill was working with some of the other IT people across the prison district to get them to adopt the system. Ultimately they would all be connected so that better leverage and coordination could be done. There was substantial cost savings projected and Don was looking to Bill to help drive the effort. One of the other prisons had brought a prisoner into the office to do some programming and it had felt strange to Bill the first time he talked to him. Kathy had asked Bill to work with him and help him acclimate to the job and Bill had to think back to what it was like that first few months, how apprehensive the other office workers were and how protective they were of their personal items, thinking that any inmate was going to steal anything that wasn't locked down. Tim was facing the same things that Bill had gone through so long ago and he tried to relate how to deal with the situation by staying calm, not taking things personally and build up trust slowly, one action at a time.

"Hey son, you seem distracted today, what's on your mind?"

"My brain has been on overdrive lately, there is so much happening. Do you have a few minutes to talk?" she nodded that she did and they went to the conference room and closed the door. Bill sighed and rewound his brain to see where to begin. "I had visitors yesterday. My mom and Ellie came down but you'll never guess who came with them. It was Mrs. Watts, Mike's mom. And the strangest thing was that Saturday night I had the nightmare of the wreck and lost about half the night's sleep."

"So what happened with Mrs. Watts?"

"She told me that she forgave me for what happened and she made me promise to forgive myself. It was very emotional but at the same time it did cause me to think of things in a different light."

"How long have we been telling you the same thing Bill? You've heard this message from everyone in this office and your family for a lot of years. Even Shannon sees that you have to move on from what happened. We all want to see you walk out of here one day."

"Talking to Tim down at Chillicothe is also bringing back a lot of memories, this is such a dramatic time all around." Bill was holding back tears and his head was starting to hurt.

Kathy put her hand on his shoulder and rubbed his back to calm him down. "Take some time to let everything sink in Bill, you can't possibly absorb everything that's been happening too quickly. The timing is probably good with Don out of the office for you to let your mind wrap around some of this and forget about the work for a few days. I'll bring you some special food too, maybe that will help. You've been here a long time, don't make big decisions without taking some time."

Bill thought about it and thanked her for the talk. Kathy left the conference room and he took a few more minutes to think about everything that'd been going on. Talking to Kathy hadn't settled anything but still made him feel better. He went back to his desk and tried to concentrate but couldn't so he wrote an email to Mike to ask him what he should do. This seemed a bit stupid to Bill but for some reason he felt like he needed to do this right now. It took almost an hour to get all the thoughts and feelings on to the page and when he was done he'd made a decision. There was no point in sending it off to the ether so Bill deleted the draft message, not wanting to look at it again.

After lunch Bill was ready to get back to work. He spent about an hour reading about anonymous remailers and some of the ways that they could be leveraged without coming across as spam to the recipient. Most were in countries that wouldn't cooperate with the United States in an investigation, primarily in Eastern Europe. There was also the possibility of finding an unpatched or misconfigured mail server that could be used to spoof the source address of a message, which is what a lot of spammers do.

Bill decided to study the messages coming and going from Foundation's mail server to see what typical corporate email traffic looked like. They had some rudimentary spam filters in place and Bill studied the messages that were blocked, most of them had content in the subject line or body of the message that referred to sex, drugs or some combination of both. It was pretty obvious how to avoid the spam filters, most of them seemed to use basic keyword matches or ran checks on the source address of the message to see if it was on a blocked list or what was commonly referred to as being "black holed", which can be quite detrimental to conducting business if nobody else will accept emails from your domain.

Bill moved to the mail server and checked their logs, which revealed all of the sender mail addresses, recipient mail addresses and subject of the message. It also contained the mail header information, which was the routing information of the mail messages. He scrolled through thousands of messages before deciding to download them to a file and sort through them programmatically. He did a frequency count on senders and recipients, looking to see if there was anything interesting. Most of the mails were between Foundation and their suppliers or their customers. A number of employees subscribed to mailing lists, which caused quite a bit of traffic across the company gateway. Bill was getting bored when he came across a count of twelve inbound and fifteen outbound messages that were sourced from or intended for cia.gov, the mail server for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Suddenly Bill wasn't bored anymore and wanted to know more.

**Chapter 17  
** An Evil Plan is Born

The wakeup call was a shock to Steve and he woke up wondering where he was and then wondered how he'd slept all the way through the night. There was plenty of time before his meeting with Robert so he brewed coffee in the room's miniature pot and splashed water on his face. He looked ok, didn't look like a man approaching sixty and felt like he was deciding whether to go to college or into the service. This was similar to that decision in the fact that it was a major fork in the road.

Last night seemed surreal. Steve went to the window and pulled back the heavy drapes, revealing a grey and misty morning in the capital city trying to sense if the world had changed in any way since he came back to the hotel last night. He remembered the wall, the touch of the cold black granite and the flood of emotions as he saw the names. Today he'd go back and see if he could find names of others, maybe take some pictures. It was unbelievable that Robert was quietstorm, someone that he had shared all of his thoughts and memories with over the past few years on the message boards and in private chat rooms.

The coffee helped bring Steve back to the moment. He showered and shaved, thankful he'd brought the raincoat and umbrella as he glanced outside again and saw that the skies had opened up. Today's weather was turning into a good metaphor for his life, cleansing what was and hopefully bringing sunshine behind it. The bellhop offered to call a cab and Steve took him up on it then remembered he wasn't sure where he was going. He called Robert's cell phone and the bird man gave him an address and said he'd be there in thirty minutes. The cab took a few minutes to get there and the driver had to make a phone call to see where the address was, he'd never heard of it. Turned out to be about fifteen miles outside the city in a semi-rural area of Virginia. Steve wondered if this was Robert's house, had at first expected to meet in his office but apparently people don't discuss treason against the United States government in the offices of the CIA.

The house was isolated and Robert's car was parked in the driveway. Steve paid the cab driver and walked to the front door. He knocked out of habit and the bird man annoyingly said "come in, you think the butler is going to answer the door?"

"Sorry, habit. How are you today?"

"Let's skip the bullshit and get down to business. Have you had a chance to think about last night? I mean really think about it? This isn't some child's game, this is our chance to really stick it to the American government and to the people who treated us and those who followed like shit."

"I understand how serious this is and yes, I'm committed."

"Before I tell you anything else you need to be positive. You know some things but I've got plausible deniability on my side at the moment and we could cut ties and walk away from each other. You're at the line right now my friend and if you cross that line there will be no going back. Failure to commit will result in you vanishing from the face of the earth and if we think there are others who are aware we'll make sure to take care of them too."

Steve's face became hard and didn't give any indication as to which direction he was going to choose. His face changed shape as he worked through the implications in his head. It wasn't easy to make such a decision with limited information, what if he was expected to blow himself up in some terrorist plot? He wasn't foolish enough to believe in the promise of seventy two virgins or anything after his life here was done. The things he'd seen in his life had taught him that this was the only chance he had, that God was a crutch for those without the intelligence and the constitution to believe in the truth. One thing he knew from his dealings with Robert until now was that it was going to be something big, quietstorm wouldn't spend years working on a plan that would be a letdown, this had to be something big and since he'd recruited Steve for his bioresorbable polymer sphere work there must be a key role for him here. He deliberated some more, the bird man watching with his beady, black eyes and furrowed brow, imploring him to give an answer.

"I'll do it Robert, it doesn't matter what it is. I have confidence that if you've been working on a plan it's going to be a good one and there will be an impact to the government. The visit to the wall last night cemented any doubts I would have had previously and though I suspect this was intentional on your part I'm on board."

"I'm glad you've joined the cause, this is the crowning achievement of twenty years of planning, networking and seeking the perfect opportunity. I know I told you most of this last night but I want to make sure you know that the pieces are lined up and you're joining at the right time, the time of action. Now I want to give you one more chance to back out before I tell you the plan, if you want to walk away this is the time, I'll drive you back to the city and you can sightsee for the next few days and then fly back to Cleveland and your work at Foundation. Take your time Steve, don't underestimate the importance of your decision."

Steve didn't hesitate "I'm in, let's get to work."

Robert looked into his eyes, seeking any wavering or doubt and not finding any, walked Steve over to the dining room table, where his briefcase sat. He took a deep breath, trying to decide where to begin and how much to give the chemist in his first dose. There had been a couple of recruits who decided they didn't want to participate after Robert gave them the overview and their bodies were never recovered. Robert had access to locations and means of disposal that weren't pleasant but were very effective. He hates using them because he understood what each of these people had been through and didn't want to be the one to take a survivor of so much and turn them into a victim but they'd all known too much and there was too much at stake.

"I'm going to start at the beginning. In the mid eighties I started thinking about revenge on the government but I couldn't make the right plan. Over the years in the CIA my specialty was working at an ugly job called cleaner, which is about what it sounds like. I was the best in the government at cleaning up messes and as I did I kept evidence and collected favors. Some forgot about what I'd done for them and many people that I'd helped have risen to very high places in the government. During the early nineties I became a bit desperate and even tried to reach out to bin Laden to forge a partnership but he completely nuts, which forced me to go in a different direction."

Steve was listening, finding it hard to believe that anyone would want to partner with bin Laden, in the wake of the 9/11, but back then it might have seemed like a good idea. He found himself working his way to the edge of his seat, the anticipation and details of the story capturing his undivided attention.

"Once the World Wide Web started taking off in the late nineties, I found the method to recruit likeminded individuals who would be willing to join a plot with me and might have some ideas on which direction to plot. Most of the people who joined the effort were small minded, thinking of foreign U.S. targets or local destruction that could cause some panic. There was one idea posed that would have been very destructive to the government, which was a Wall Street financial attack that would have crashed the stock market and created so much fear it would have imploded the economy. This would have been ideal in the wake of 9/11 but since I had not partnered with bin Laden I had no way to put this kind of plan in place. Missing this opportunity was a mistake but I was determined to continue to build the team and wait for the right chance to present itself."

"That's a long time Robert, I can't imagine being able to stay so focused for over two decades. How many people are aware of the plan you're going to talk to me about?"

"There are four of us who know the entire plot and another dozen or so in key support roles. When you extend my network to those who owe me favors and will have no choice but to help us, the number goes over two dozen total. Let me get back to the plan, we can discuss logistics of the team in a while. During our initial meetings I talked about the chatter around a bioterrorism threat. It is something that we've worked very hard to create over the past year, starting with some vague discussions from Asia and ramping up to include some specific information that I can use as needed. Truth be told, I don't answer to anyone at the CIA and have been working this on my own. There is no awareness but it does make for a compelling story when I have to talk to company men like your vice president Mr. Wall."

Robert nodded, wanting to hear more.

"The crux of the plot is to release a new strain of smallpox in America that will decimate a large percentage of the population, especially on the West Coast. The blame for this attack will fall on the North Korean government and knowing how loony Kim Jong-Il is, they will deny or not say anything about the matter. Some question the rationale for attacking the West Coast. I don't know about you but the West Coast has always been full of tree hugging, military hating assholes who would rather save an owl than an American soldier. The epicenter of the attack will be San Francisco, the bastion of liberalism. Some have argued that they also tend to be anti-government, but if you look at the common leftist ideology they are only anti-government from a military perspective, they prefer to have government involved in every aspect of life. By creating an attack and exposing a plot to attack a major city on the west coast, we'll be able to start the infection where it will hit the hippies hard."

Steve hadn't thought this was going to be a target against Americans but rather the United States government and was wondering what the hell he'd gotten himself into. He'd read 'The Stand' and remembered King's eerie description of the country after Captain Trips took hold.

The bird man watched the chemist take this in, knowing that the magnitude of the plan was going to hit him like a ton of bricks. He stood up and went to the bathroom and then came from the kitchen with some coffee for both of them.

Steve's mind was racing when Robert got up and left the room. What should he do here? Does he really want to be part of the cause of the death of millions of Americans? What about Claire? They would have to disappear together and start over, would she ever understand? Steve was cold and his skin was white and clammy at the thought of being part of a plot that would make 9/11 pale in comparison. Robert brought back coffee, as calm as if they were discussing the weather or making plans for a golf outing.

"If you need the bathroom, it's at the end of the hallway. Let's get back to the plan. When the news comes out that there is a new strain of smallpox that has broken out in Korea Americans will start to perk up. When the news leaks that there is information that the West Coast of the U.S. is being targeted, America will panic and the CDC will prepare to vaccinate millions of Americans using your technology as the delivery vehicle because the virility of the new strain means that we have to have a new method to deliver the vaccination in stages. The only problem for America will be that the vaccine will be the old one so symptoms of being vaccinated will still show up and the last time released dose of the spheres will be the real strain of smallpox. By the time the government realizes what has happened we'll be long gone and hundreds of thousands of Americans will be infected, providing a launching pad for the vaccine that will cause panic and the collapse of the government, especially in the face of the current economy and lack of faith."

"Wow, this is going to take a while to set in. The plan seems brilliant, though I would have thought we'd go after the government and not the general American public. Have you thought about targeting government workers instead, creating a cave-in of the existing government and having the vaccination plan be hushed so that when the public finds out they would have further hate and distrust of the government, essentially causing chaos or even full anarchy?

"That's been a topic of debate but in the end the team thought it would be best to take America out and start over, creating a new set of values for society that weren't so material based and more toward protection of our own, not shunning."

"If this strain of smallpox is as strong as you've indicated, starting with the government might still have the same impact but would squarely put the blame on them. People will assume cover up and will be calling for the heads of any survivors, provided they're not scrambling to isolate and protect themselves and their families from infection."

"It's much harder to get things certified for the government and the odds that we'd be able to keep it quiet are slim. Once we obtain a copy of the virulent strain and the vaccine for it we can start work on production of the fake vaccine, after our team is safe from infection."

"We have someone in the CDC?"

"We have one person on the team and someone who has a lot of responsibility that owes me a couple of favors from my cleaning days. He'll be reluctant but have no choice, unless he would prefer to spend the rest of his days in Leavenworth."

Steve thought about this for a minute. There were a lot of dependencies. "How will we launch the virus in Korea without pointing suspicion back to us?"

"That's another fun part of the program. One of our team members is a specialist at getting in and out of places he's not supposed to. We've already done a dry run and he's been in and out of Korea three times, twice for surveillance and a third time for a dry run of the plan, which worked very well. He was able to release a canister in a busy part of Seoul without detection. The world will be quite busy quarantining Korea and trying to determine the cause, which will provide great cover for us."

Now it wasn't only Americans who will perish, this would likely turn into worldwide epidemic and millions or even billions would likely perish, especially if there wasn't mass production of the vaccine in quantities that would slow the spread of the virus. Steve excused himself and went to the bathroom, half out of need and half to think about everything that Robert was telling him. This was like living in a horror movie plot, not at all what he'd expected when he signed up. The only thought that buoyed him was that there was no way in hell the United States government would survive this type of incident in tact or even as a shadow of what it had grown into over the past few decades. He went back to the table scared shitless about what he was doing but nonetheless committed to success of this plan.

"Is everything ok Steve?" Robert had been watching to see if the chemist was using the cell phone, wanted to make sure he didn't squawk about the plan. He thought he could trust him based on what he'd learned from him over the past few years online and after what he saw last night but this was different. Steve nodded that he was ok and Robert continued.

"We will produce our vaccine in the facility back in Ohio, I have a couple of others who are going to join us. Before you go back to Cleveland I need you to put together a list of all the equipment you'll need to ramp up production, we need to make enough spheres to support delivery of one hundred thousand vaccines. Having a short supply will insure that people will be fighting for access, which will cause people to travel to the West Coast cities and buy their way into line before returning to their lives around the country. This will provide us several infection zones without the work. Once we've overseen the administration of the first hundred thousand vaccinations we can leave the rest to the CDC. They'll be too busy getting real vaccines created and doing damage control to come look for us."

"Where will we go? We're going to be above bin Laden in terms of most wanted. There aren't many places in the world where you can hide from the United States government, even if you go where they don't have extradition treaties."

"This is where having favors to call in comes in very handy. We will skip from country to country, shedding identities and leaving false leads as we go. I spent a number of years in Africa and that's where we're going. Places where technology hasn't caught up and the trail will be full of dead ends. We have sufficient funds and resources to last a long time and the odds that these areas will be hit by the virus are slim. We will be vaccinated but I sure as hell don't want to end up surrounded by a bunch of suffering and dying people. I hope you like the mountains, we're going to end up living in a small encampment in Western Africa on a river."

Steve thought about Claire and his old life, wondering how he's going to walk away from her and knowing that they'd better have a memorable time on their upcoming trip because it might be the last memory he'll have of her. Robert was done talking and they were silent on the way back to the city. Steve thought about going back to the wall but needed some time to let all of this sink in and he also needed to get the equipment and supply list created. They were going down in history as the revolutionaries that caused the next age in the world, the preservation era.

**Chapter 18  
** Bill Finds More Information and an Ally

As Bill looked through the output of his mail filtering program he dug a bit deeper into the mail server to look at the messages that were between Foundation and the CIA. All of the CIA messages came from one person, Robert Swanson, and they started a couple months ago. It was impossible to know if the person on the other end was really Robert Swanson but the first couple of messages were to a Robert Wall, who was a Vice President of Foundation. This is where the initial meeting was set up between the CIA and the chemical company. The last message from Swanson to Wall provided details that there was a "matter of National security" and the CIA was interested in pursuing some of Foundation's upcoming technology around bioresorbable polymers as a vaccine delivery system. Specifically it called for Steven Pfister, the chemist who invented the polymers, be assigned to this special project and that the CIA could not provide any additional details. Bill found a note from Wall back to Swanson stating that Foundation would support this project.

This was becoming complicated, there might really be national security implications and Bill's digging could potentially compromise everything. He hesitated and decided to open his favorite program, visio, to document what he found. Bill put two buildings on the diagram to represent Foundation and the CIA and then copied a few "people" on to the picture, which he labeled Swanson, Wall and Pfister. He had reviewed all the messages between Wall and Swanson so he put a link between them and added a few comment boxes that detailed the communication. He set out to follow the conversation between Swanson and Pfister but little information about the project was detailed in any of the mail messages. There were details of a location for the project work to continue, which was also in the greater Cleveland area, located in an industrial park in Independence. Bill added another building to the diagram to represent the project location.

It was past four o'clock and Bill didn't want to go back to his cell for the night with empty hands so he dug through the mail server and grabbed the rest of the mails without reading them. He also printed out his visio diagram so he could update the sketch directly until lights out. The rest of the messages were brief so Bill wasn't walking out with a ream of paper. He shut down and wondered again what he'd gotten himself into, trying to figure out how bioresorbable polymers could be used to deliver vaccines, maybe the information was on one of Foundation's servers and he could figure it out. If he was able to make sense of this project and everything that was going on it was going to be far enough, would leave it at that. This had been one of the most exciting things Bill had ever done and it made him wonder what he would have done with his life if he hadn't ended up in prison. Network and computer security was a very interesting field, especially for someone who spent a lot of time as a thief.

The last few messages between Swanson and Pfister discussed a need for the chemist to go to Washington for a meeting but there were no details of the meeting. The tone had changed and the text had gone from HTML, or web based, to text based messages, which made Bill suspicious. He would have to check those messages in the morning to see if something had changed in the way they were constructed or where they'd come from. What was strange is that the last couple of messages also communicated public based email accounts for the two to start using when emailing each other instead of using Foundation and the CIA's mail servers. Bill thought that the CIA must have strong, current encryption technologies that could be employed to thwart eavesdropping on the conversation, why would they need to use public email accounts? This was the last thing he jotted on the page before lights out but as he lay in bed he thought about all he'd found. There were some notes from the chemist that talked about test results of the spheres, where the dyes were being released on time. Maybe there was a complicated vaccine that required updates over a time period and these spheres would release the next phase of the vaccination as needed. This seemed like a good idea but Bill thought of the shots he'd had from doctors over the year and tried to picture a sphere the size of a golf ball under his skin, not the most comforting thought to ease into sleep with.

"What's been on your mind, you're a million miles away from this place."

"Busy with a project in the office William, nothing bad, just trying to figure some stuff out. Luckily the boss is on vacation this week and next so I've got time on my hands to crack this nut."

"Most be some serious shit, you're usually not this distracted unless something's going on. Something to do with your mom coming down over the weekend? Thanks for those cookies and brownies, been a real treat."

"No problem, I'll bring you some more, she brought enough to feed the entire population of the prison. I think I've blocked their visit, it was a real trip for me. My mom and sister were fine but Mike Watts' mom also came down for the visit. Mike was with me for the car crash, he was my best friend. I watched him die, trapped in that car."

"Damn, no wonder you're finding something else to distract you. Did she bring you a guilt trip?"

"The opposite, said it was time to forgive myself and that she forgives me for what happened. She lost her husband earlier this year and thinks that carrying around all the bitterness the past twenty years helped drive him into the ground. She made me promise to try and forgive myself."

"Maybe it's time, brother. The parole board would most likely let you out. If the new evidence they found in my case exonerates me we could get out at the same time."

"Not sure what it would be like to live outside William. I've spent almost half my life in this place and the thought of how big the world is scares the shit out of me."

"Just remember that there's pussy out there and there's none in here. If nothing else will motivate you to get out, that should do it. When we're outside this place it's going to be a lot of catching up."

"We'll see, at least you're innocent so when you get out there won't be guilt on your shoulders. I'm not sure I could live a normal life knowing what happened to my friends."

"Damn Billy, we've been down this path enough times during the past five years. You're a model prisoner, have helped so many others and there's no fucking way the parole board would deny you." William shook his head, anger rising. "When are you going to figure this out? Even your friend's mother told you to forgive yourself. How much more do you need than that?"

"I need to run, time to start work. Later." Bill got up from the table.

"That's real adult of you Bill, just run away from the discussion. When you're really ready to talk about this shit, let me know."

Bill lost the conversation, clutching the papers in his hand. Wanted to figure out what was going on with this project and that's all he wanted to do. If anyone brought up parole for him today he was going to freak out. The office was quiet, everyone still enjoying their vacation time away from the boss and nobody paid any attention to him as he got some coffee and dug in for some more detective work.

He was going to attack the public email accounts directly but decided that it was more likely someone at the major providers would be watching. If the chemist was working remotely he was probably using software to connect back to Foundation's network. Bill knew how they did remote connectivity, using a virtual private network, or VPN. He logged on to the VPN server and looked for connections from 'spfister', which was the user account that the chemist had with Foundation. The last connection was last night and the one before that was the previous morning. Bill flagged the account to let him know when it was being used to connect and got back to documenting all that he knew at this point. It was getting a bit more complicated but still using email as a primary method of communicating. Since they had dedicated lab space for their project they may also work together a lot in person, which would alleviate the need to share a lot of detail in email. Bill was contemplating this when he got a pop up on his screen, letting him know that user spfister had connected to the VPN server at Foundation.

Bill used one of the generic administrator accounts from the chemical company to log on remotely to Pfister's computer. He couldn't use a remote desktop solution because that would log the chemist off the computer and he couldn't use a screen sharing session because it would require permission to start the session. Bill could browse the file system, see which programs were open, and could also install additional programs on to the remote computer. Bill opened another window on his computer and connected to a different system on Foundation's network and downloaded some spyware, which he renamed to "PatchMon", to make it look like a legitimate program. He copied the installation file to the chemist's PC, hoping he would stay online long enough to get it installed and copy some files. He installed the spyware but didn't start the program, going first to the antivirus program on Pfister's computer and creating an exception patchmon.exe, so no alarms would be raised.

Luckily this hadn't taken long and the chemist was still connected to Foundation's network. Bill set up the spyware to capture keystrokes as well as images of the screen every couple minutes when the chemist was using a web browser. This would help him but he needed to be careful not to transmit too much data or the computer's network performance might suffer to the point where the chemist became suspicious. He decided to send the text and keep the screen images local to the computer so he could review them when connected. The chemist must have been using a web browser because the screen captures were showing up in the directory as Bill watched the remote computer in use. He opened the first few and found that Pfister was logged on to a Vietnam veteran's forum, a discussion board that covered a lot of different topics. Bill didn't know such things existed but based on the number of active users (forty three according to the note on one of the screen captures), it was a busy forum.

The chemist was in a POW forum, talking about what it was like to try and survive against the odds and torture of the VC. Bill took a note about this fact and added it to the document he was building about Pfister. There were many more shots from the forum, mostly boring. Bill decided to leave the computer and check in on it later, the spyware would notify him when Pfister was on the web, even if he wasn't connected to Foundation's network. Bill found another directory on the computer in the documents folder called 'current project work' and opened it. There were around thirty files and Bill didn't know which were good so he downloaded all of them. He disconnected from the remote computer and all of Foundation's systems, something in the back of his mind telling him that someone might be watching, though he knew from the past few weeks that was highly unlikely.

The documents he downloaded included some good presentations about the polymer work Steve was doing around bioresorbable polymers. These materials degraded at a specific rate that was predictable and if inert materials were used the body would process them normally. The assertion was that this method could be used to create spheres that would release medicine in a patient over a predetermined interval. There were several United States patent applications in the directory but the wording used in these documents might as well have been Greek to Bill. He stuck to the presentations the chemist had put together to describe the idea to co-workers and management. The size of the spheres was amazingly small, seems that most medicines are diluted in saline or another inert solution. The invention promised to help millions of people who didn't follow up on their children's immunizations, getting the first set of shots but then missing others, which created a lot of cost to the medical industry.

It was all very interesting, even if the actual chemistry was above his head. The chemist showed detailed results where he'd used different colored dyes and was able to predict to within an hour the release of the next color over the course of a few weeks. This was good work and the story was compelling. If Bill had money he would invest in the chemical company, thinking that this type of invention could make them a lot of money over the next few years. There hadn't been any updates to the documents in the project directory over the past few weeks, which led Bill to believe that whatever he was doing with the CIA was consuming his time and may not be stored on this computer. He would have to go back and run a search to see what new documents had been created in the past few weeks, maybe the chemist was keeping the CIA project information separate from the chemical company work.

Bill extracted some of the key information from the presentations and reports and added it to his expanding notes about the chemist. He was torn, needing to continue this work but finding that it was likely some eccentric application of the polymer work Pfister has been doing and not much more than that. The chemist's computer would be giving Bill information over the next few days, no reason to sit and create conspiracy theories. Besides it was lunchtime. Bill heated up his tuna casserole and then joined Kathy and Margie for lunch, thinking he'd been ignoring them too much this week.

"Jack, where have you been?"

"I've been here Mom, just had a lot on my mind this week."

"That's pretty obvious. I've been by your desk two dozen times and you never notice, even without headphones on. Can't remember you being this way for more than an hour at a time, usually you're all nerves when working on a tight deadline."

"Sorry about not noticing you, taking the time while Don's away to do some research and try and help a friend of mine inside to get some information about his case."

"Let us know if you need any help, we're kind of bored this week too."

"Thanks Margie, I appreciate it and will let you know if I need anything. I'm going to take a break from it this afternoon, is there anything you guys need from me?"

"Yes there is, son. We're going to spend the afternoon in the conference room, playing card games and telling stories. Everyone is a bit lost this week and it will be a good way to blow off some steam. I'll be back, going to spread the word." Kathy took off like a woman possessed. Bill and Margie had to laugh.

"She's something else Margie, don't know what I'd do without her."

"That makes two of us, she's been taking such great care of Joshua that he'll probably end up calling her grandma."

"How's he doing? Is he crawling yet?"

"Good guess, he's been starting to scoot around, funny how fast they change." Kathy was back, waving them to the conference room. The rest of the afternoon was spent laughing and joking around, a great diversion for all.

Bill came in the next morning and saw that there were new files on his computer. Pfister wasn't online but had been the night before. The keylogger file was big, meaning the chemist had typed a lot of things. Bill started from the top and found his email account password and logged on as to the mail provider as the chemist. There were a number of messages from Claire Pfister, apparently his wife. She was excited about an upcoming vacation they were going to take to Canada and was just about done with the school year, must be a teacher. No talk of children but Pfister was probably pushing sixty years old so they might all be grown and moved on. There were a few messages from someone called 'Quiet Storm' that Bill opened next, which is where his world went completely sideways.

He opened the messages from the earliest, which had been sent yesterday morning. Robert was telling the chemist that they were now bound together and their mission couldn't fail. He also reminded Steve that his commitment was not retractable. Bill thought this was a bit ominous and wondered if there was some kind of CIA plot against someone that the chemist had got himself in the middle of. The next message was a reminder to Steve that he needed to provide a list of equipment and resources required to start production of the "vaccine", odd to Bill that the word would be in quotes. Pfister had replied to this message with a long list of chemical equipment and a request for a few assistants who were at least smart enough to be trained in the basics of lab technician work if there wasn't anyone on the team who had direct experience working in a chemical lab. He also reminded Robert that they were going to do the injection testing and they'd need a doctor or a nurse to administer the inoculations for their trials. Bill was starting to wonder why they were testing on themselves already, according to the project documents from Foundation the method was going to just begin trials in the lab and it was projected to be at least a year before they were cleared to test on humans.

The next message thanked Steve for the information and said he'd follow up on it immediately. He also wished the chemist a safe drive back to Cleveland and said he'd see him at the project facility the day after tomorrow. The last message had been sent and not even opened by Pfister yet. Bill clicked on the message, needing to remember to mark the message unread when he was done. He made a little note to that effect, didn't want to forget and compromise his investigation. This message simply had a web site address that was all numbers, meaning that it had not been registered in the domain name service, which is a large integrated directory that helped translate IP addresses into friendly names that users could remember, such as www.google.com. Bill wrote down the logon information to the site, marked the message unread and then typed the IP address into his browser. The site that came up was unremarkable, simply prompting for a username and password combination. Bill entered Steve's information and pressed the 'continue' button on the screen.

The site was eerily decorated in red with black skull and crossbones pictures in a random pattern, appearing to be floating in blood. The text was white and outlined "The Cause", which was led off by a paragraph detailing how the United States government had been tried and convicted of treason against its citizens and armed forces over the past forty years. It read like any anti-government website but then the content shifted to a much more ominous tone, outlining a plot to overthrow the government by spreading smallpox around the world. Bill thought of the current economic conditions in the country and knew that something like a smallpox outbreak would cause the country to panic and potentially collapse.

The plan was outlined and it sickened Bill to read it, thinking of this new strain of smallpox and the millions of people that would die around the world. Bill was stunned as he read the hate spewing from the site and thought about the implications. He tried to determine where the site was but the route to the server was obfuscated by a number of network points that wouldn't divulge information. It was most likely hiding somewhere outside of the United States, anonymized from the world. Even though Bill couldn't determine where the site was, he had more information than he wanted about this diabolical plan. His hands were shaking as he tried to capture the information in his document. There is also specific information for all of the members of "The Cause" to stop using email for communication and to use the discussion board on the website for all communication. Bill didn't want to click on the board for a couple of reasons. If he showed up as logged in, they might shut the site down. The chemist was driving from D.C. to Cleveland and wouldn't be stopping to check out the web site. The conspirators, or more accurately terrorists, thought that using a single repository for communication would prevent data from traversing the web, the way email does. What they didn't seem to understand was the data to show the forums would be transmitted the same way a mail message would and since Bill had compromised the security of one of the PCs involved, he'd have access to almost everything they were doing, as long as he was careful not to get caught by the terrorists.

This has all hit Bill like a ton of bricks, the seriousness of the situation setting in. No longer a game, this is a matter of life and death and Robert Swanson was right when he approached the chemical company. It is a matter of national security, just not in the way it was communicated by the CIA agent. Bill has to act, they are getting ready to start testing and production of the virus strain that will kill a significant portion of the world's population. It's no longer about giving up his privileges or having additional sentence time tacked on, he needs to act. There is a chance that he'll be able to act anonymously but he's not sure who to approach, it just can't be anyone in the CIA. He thinks about the chemical company again but even if they lose the chemist at this point they might be able to mobilize somewhere else and launch the plan. There is no way in hell most people would believe him, he doesn't even know if he'd believe himself in this situation.

Bill decides to turn to the web to see if he can find someone to approach. This isn't going to be easy but it has to be done. The department of Homeland Security was a separate entity from the CIA and had even been at odds with them from time to time.

Searching for stories, he found one that looked promising. There were some stories from earlier in the month where a huge fraud ring had been broken up by Homeland Security. The thieves were praying on people whose homes were in foreclosure and had bilked millions of dollars from innocent victims just trying to hang on to their houses. The lead agent was shown in one of the articles, Darren Ward. Bill decided that he would try to reach out to Agent Ward and see if he'd do something to help stop this evil plan.

**Chapter 19  
** Testing Begins

The ride home gave Steve plenty of time to think about what he was embarking on, his bravery level going down the further he got from Washington. The one thing that seemed certain is there were still a lot of hurdles in terms of getting the real virus out of the Center for Disease Control and also making sure they had the right vaccine for themselves so they didn't face the same fate that millions of others would. He wondered if he could find a way to walk away, maybe stash away as much evidence as possible with a lawyer and let Robert know that he was walking away and if something happened to him the information would get out. That's what they did in the movies but Steve doubted this would work in real life, especially in this case.

He forgot to stop for lunch and barely found a place to fill up the car. He called Claire from the road, forgetting that she was at school, and left a message on the home recorder telling her he'd be home around dinner time but needed to stop at the lab first to drop a few things off. Back in the car, he remembered the book on tape and put in on, letting it melt the stress away. The next section talked about being assertive and standing up for what you believe in. This had two meanings for Steve, it could be interpreted as sticking with the project, believing that the government was a terrible fraud and needed to be broken up or it could also mean that he needed to stand up for not killing innocent civilians the way he had in Vietnam.

If they made progress Steve was determined to talk to Robert about changing the plan away from the world's population and focusing on the government. There had to be a way to leverage the intel to get the government leaders clamoring for the first vaccines, they wouldn't want to wait with the rest of the population. Greed would lead them right to the fate Steve, Robert and all the others wanted for them. The collateral damage would be great but possibly containable in a shorter time period. It didn't make sense that Robert would want to hurt civilians, especially after the rap that Vietnam veterans had taken. Maybe they could even make a single bad batch for the government leaders and then vaccinate the rest of the country with the real vaccine, which would leave a huge hole in leadership and a very clear message. Steve's logic made perfect sense to him and he knew that he could convince Robert to follow a more pragmatic approach to the attack. The others should understand and Steve will be able to persuade them.

Feeling better about the situation Steve called Claire from the cell phone and told her to get dressed to go out again. She protested, saying that she was tired and tomorrow was the last day of work so he relented, agreeing to go out the next night instead. He could use the time tonight to catch up on the boards, he'd been so busy while in D.C. that he hadn't had a lot of time to be active. So much to say now, especially after visiting the wall and Arlington national cemetery. He remembered how haunting it was to stand on the edge of the hills, seeing nothing but the haunting white headstones against the lush green grass of the cemetery. He couldn't imagine what it must look like in the fall, the crimson leaves on the ground the bloodshed from the bodies of our young men.

The lab had a bunch of UPS stickers on the door, indicating that there were a bunch of deliveries waiting. Steve would call tomorrow and request a big delivery, he could roll the overhead door in the area adjacent to the lab and make it easy. Wasn't much to do until the equipment arrived. He went to the kitchen, made coffee and waited, then sat in his office and logged in to Foundation, best to get the work out of the way first. There wasn't much of consequence and he thought about the grind of corporate life; how much time was spent moving das machinery from point A to point B one click at a time, caught in the mire. By the time he'd finished his first cup of coffee he was closing the connection to Foundation.

The boards were another story, lots of activity in the past few days, especially since the presidential election was coming this fall. The anti-war contingency had found its way back to the forums and were spewing their bullshit. Steve thought about that tape he'd listened to and decided not to let the actions of other people bring him down, at least for the next few minutes. He looked for new posts from quietstorm but didn't see anything. Steve created new discussions that talked about his experience in the capital city, especially the wall. Before he was done posting about Arlington there were already responses to his wall post, talking about their first times. He'd returned to the wall two other times, once during the day and another time at night and had gone through the book and found many of his friends. By then his heart was heavy and his brain taxed from the conversation with Robert and seeing the wall reinforced his thought that the plan must be rethought.

There were a few new emails from Robert, one telling Steve that the bird man was going to Atlanta, which he already knew, and another to order the material, which was done. One other message talked about a website and simply had an I.P. address, username and password. Steve logged on to the site and was shocked by what he saw, the background of the home page looked like bloody skulls and it sickened him to think of what was planned. The plot information was contained on these pages, as well as some of the key members and the role they had. There were no nicknames or code words, simply the first names of everyone involved.

He closed the site after a couple of minutes, afraid that if he kept looking he'd want to run away. Needed to stick with the plan of going after the government, it was the most practical in this situation. He spent the afternoon cleaning up the lab in preparation for the work ahead, didn't want to be stuck doing it once all the new equipment arrived. It was Steve in his element, making sure everything was perfect and by the time he went home that night, the lab was spotless.

Friday brought a bunch of deliveries, even a couple of the things he'd sent to Robert had arrived. It took most of the day for him to sort through everything, find a place for it in their production line and test the equipment to make sure it was working. He left work early and stopped for flowers to bring home, hoping that Claire would be ready to go out before the Friday rush, better if they could get a table and enjoy a leisurely dinner without having to wait an hour to do so.

"Flowers again? What's the occasion?"

"Celebrating the end of the school year for you and my return home from Disneyland on the Potomac."

She shook her head, not wanting to get into a government conversation tonight. "Where are we going for dinner?"

"Surprise though my guess is you'll have figured it out on the way." Steve was hiding something, Claire could tell. He was trying to shine through a sullen undertone. The trip must have taken its toll on him but it was something he needed to do for a long time. She wished she could have been there to hold his hand the first time he approached the wall, knew that must have knocked him down pretty hard. Fighting back the urge to help, she simply held his hand gently as he drove. They were headed north, toward downtown, which didn't give her any indication of where they were going. Once he picked up highway 90 westbound she knew.

"Pier W? We haven't been there in so long!"

"One of these days I'm going to surprise you Claire, guess I'm too predictable."

"Nothing wrong with that, I can't wait to get there now and all of a sudden I'm really hungry for some seafood." She grinned at him and he caught it out of the corner of his eye, pleased that they were going to get this time together. The dinner was pleasant but there was an undertone of stress, Steve wanting to tell Claire about the plan and Claire wishing he'd unburden to her. They talked about the upcoming trip next weekend, both really looking forward to it. Steve never gave her details of his wall visits or the trip to Arlington, the way he felt when he knelt at the Kennedy grave as the sun went down, the flame and the single long stem red roses someone had put there burning a lasting image in his mind.

When Steve arrived at the project site Monday he was shocked to see three other cars parked out front. He was used to this place being his and wasn't sure what it would be like with other people there. It was necessary but another short era was about to end, one with a disaster on the other side. Walking in, he heard noise coming from the lab and wasn't happy about that. He went into the lab and saw a man in his late thirties, short and skinny with straight blonde hair looking through the cabinets. "Lots of stuff here, shouldn't be hard to get things rolling with The Cause. I'm Jay."

"Hi Jay, I'm Steve Pfister."

"Oh, the chemist. Cool, been wanting to meet you. I've done lab work for the past ten years but haven't seen anything as cool as what you've got with the polymer spheres, that was genius."

Steve paused, not used to such unabashed praise. "Thank you, look forward to working with you too. What has your lab experience been?"

"General chemical lab stuff, gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer, the like. I'm a quick learner and hope to be helping with synthesis of the polymer and formation of the spheres."

"No problem, I can use the help. We're on a short timeline and don't have time for a lot of nicety. I run a tight ship and appreciate personal space. See that bench over by the hood? That's my bench. Please keep your work off that bench and whatever area you take down here I need you to keep it clean."

Jay didn't expect this but had dealt with chemists for a long time and knew that most of them were extremely conscious of cleanliness, didn't want to end up contaminating their work and end up with something they couldn't repeat. "Loud and clear, sir."

"You a veteran?"

"Desert Shield and Storm, been out for about ten years, I stayed on after the war and picked up some lab skills. You serve?"

"We all did, as far as I know. I was in Vietnam in the late sixties, did a couple of tours."

"What did you do in 'Nam?"

Steve hated when people who weren't there called in that but didn't get a chance to correct him because the UPS truck was beeping outside. They walked through the connecting door between the lab and the production part of the facility and rolled open the big overhead door. There were three big packages and Steve and Jay struggled to get them into place and uncrate them. The large centrifuge, autoclave, mixer and mill had arrived. "Hope there's enough power in this place to manage all of the equipment we're bringing in." Jay said.

"There should be, this used to be a machine shop and they had a lot of big lathes, grinders and a bunch of electric welders so it should be ok. Forgot to ask something, I saw a couple of other cars in the lot, is anyone else here?"

"Two old guys. Sorry about that, two other guys were here when I arrived this morning but Robert picked them up and they took off in a hurry, not sure where they were going. Think their names were Mickey and Rudy but I'm not positive. Said they'd be back later but didn't give me any idea where they were going."

Steve half nodded in acknowledgement. "Let's break for lunch, we can get back to the setup after." He wanted to sit down for a while and also needed to check in with Foundation, might be something going on there he needed to be aware of. Doubtful but his corporate brainwashing made him believe he needed to check in all the time. Jay took off for lunch, probably just wanted some time alone. There was an urgent request from Rob to come in and meet with the patent attorneys, there were a few new patent applications and they wanted to make sure they had the claims right. The applications were attached to the message and Steve printed them off, along with an acknowledgement that he'd contact the attorneys as soon as he'd had a chance to review the claims. Steve had been through the process enough times that he could probably write his own patent applications. He thought about that as a futile exercise given the current plans but needed to do it in case things didn't work out with The Cause.

He was responding to another request when the door chimed, indicating that someone had come in and there was commotion in the main area outside his office. He went out and saw the bird man and two others, both grizzly looking veterans. Introductions were made and Robert led them to the conference room. "Where's Jay?"

"He went to get some lunch, should be back in a while."

"We need to get going on this, we've got an urgent situation we need to brainstorm on. The fucking CDC guy wouldn't give up the virus and the vaccine when I went to see him Friday, decided to call my bluff on blowing the lid off his cleanup, which was quite a bad situation. This is the hinge for the project, without the virus we might as well be a bunch of fucking dicks doing a circle jerk." Robert was spitting as he spoke, obviously not used to rejection.

"Let's blow his cover." Rudy offered, a shake in his voice and his left hand, probably a stroke victim. "Maybe if we blow the lid off it there will be enough confusion that we can get the samples out."

"More likely they'll lock the place like Fort Knox, we can't risk that now. What else can we do?"

"What if you produced the evidence and went to see him again? Seeing pictures might change his attitude. Offer to leave the CDC and go show them to his wife, if he has one."

"He has one alright, they are socialite elites in Atlanta and he is a pillar of the black community there. He's a staunch Obama supporter, which I don't understand. How could a veteran support that guy over a war hero?" It was a rhetorical question and nobody tried to answer. "That's actually not a bad idea, if he wants to see his brother elected president he'll need to play ball with us. Either that or it will be on the front page of the Atlanta Journal Constitution and all that he's worked for to build that socialite reputation will be in the ground. Good idea Steve, I better get moving on that. I want to bring you with me Myron, you can help me get the message across to our brother."

"What about the testing? Do you want us to start without you? We didn't take the injections last week, slipped my mind."

"Oh yeah, let's get the doc over here and then we can take off." Steve was impressed, didn't think they'd have a medical doctor on the team. Robert made a call from his cell, told the man it was urgent and said "I guess an hour will be ok."

"He'll be here in a bit, has a couple of patients to see first. Are you ready? He won't be happy if he gets here and we're still getting set up."

"I'll get on that now, want to give me a hand?"

"Sure, just let me hit the head." Rudy said, limping out of the conference room. Steve didn't wait for Robert to remind him this was urgent and went down to the lab to get things unboxed and double checked. He'd need a couple more samples in order to cover everyone, had just made a few last week. Jay came back around the same time Rudy got down to the lab and they watched as Steve put together the extra samples, making sure there'd be enough and a couple extras in case something went wrong.

Jay was taking notes as Steve went through the process. "We start with saline solution, which is used to carry the spheres into the body. The injection is given intra muscularly, meaning that it's put into a large muscle instead of under the skin or in the vein, which is the way that a lot of other injections are delivered to humans. The saline is inert to the human body, the same way this surfactant is. I found a good surfactant that is silicone based, so it will also pass through the body without harm." He added a few drops of the liquid to the saline solution and stirred it in. "The next step is to add the spheres, which are more durable than you'd think, given their job in the body and the process. We can dissect some spheres later so you know see what I mean. Each twenty milliliters of solution can support thousands of spheres but for this experiment we'll only need about fifty spheres. Each one is nominally one tenth of a millimeter in diameter they pass through a common needle easily. The trick is to have the surfactant to keep them from becoming a glob, which wouldn't work so well."

"What's in the spheres?" Jay asked, head cocked wondering what he was in for.

"Good question since you're going to be injected with them. These are simply four colored dyes that will be released over a period of days. We'll measure success by noting the color of our urine, it should go from bright yellow to green and then blue and finally black."

"Cool." Rudy was obviously not the deep thinker of the team.

"Have you tested this before? I don't want to turn into a werewolf or something."

"Nope, hasn't been tested yet but I'm confident enough that if you all want to skip it I'll take the injection and show you the results."

"I'll take it, guess if we go down we'll all go down together. Wouldn't be much of a team without our chemist."

Steve nodded, counted off twenty and made eight batches of the injection, getting the job done and getting the bench cleaned up just as the doctor arrived. Robert and Mickey met him in the lobby and everyone congregated in the lab. There was a brief discussion about what they were injecting today and what to expect from it. Everyone was comfortable participating, even the doctor, Rob Ravich.

"Before we begin let me tell you that this invention is incredible Steve. I can't tell you how many sick people I've dealt with over the years because they didn't come back for boosters once they've had initial immunizations. Add the side effects that come with bundling multiple vaccines together and this could revolutionize the way medicine is done. It's also the perfect way to execute The Cause."

Steve was proud that the doctor believed in his invention, thought that it would have been better if it was going to be used for good first but once the dust settled maybe it would end up getting used for a better purpose. The doctor gave the injections and then took one himself before excusing himself to go see some patients. Robert and Mickey left the building for their Atlanta visit, saying they'd be back in a few days. The plan was afoot.

**Chapter 20  
** Homeland Security

There were no more fingernails to gnaw on, Bill had bit them all to the quick, something he hadn't done since he was a kid. The urgency and severity of what he uncovered had killed his appetite for food and sleep. Every person he'd seen in the office the past few days had asked if he was ok, the beard growth, hollow eyes and sunken cheeks scaring them. He told them he was fighting a stomach virus and that kept them at bay, nobody wanting to get sick in the middle of summer. Mumbling to himself, he composed the draft email message to send to Darren Ward. He'd found how the department of Homeland Security named their email accounts and was to introduce himself to Ward, just needed to test the remailer program he'd downloaded. This one automated the task and allowed the user to determine how many hops the message would take before being sent, providing the ability for greater obfuscation.

After reading the content for the tenth time, Bill attached a word document to the message and sent it to himself, putting in foo@foo.org as the sender email address and asking the remailer program to go through four remailers, which would remove the origination information safely. He sent it to his gmail account and waited for it to hit, knowing that it might take several hours and if any of the servers were offline it could take longer. To his surprise, the message popped up in a few minutes. The header information was all spoofed except for the last hop, which was from a Czechoslovakian server. There was a problem though, the attachment to the message was gone. It seemed that most remailers didn't accept attachments. There was word on the web that a few did but Bill was leery of that though he wasn't sure why.

Bill recomposed the body of the message to include the salient points from the document he'd attached and sent it to himself using the same settings as before. The message came through fairly quickly and looked ok. It took him a while to determine what else to talk about in the message, didn't want it to look like complete insanity. He read through it as though it was something he was going to receive, making double sure that it didn't look like spam. The next step was going to be important, he needed to send it from an anonymous location, couldn't chance sending it from the prison or the chemical company, even with the crutch of the remailers behind him. He thought about all the intercompany connections that Foundation has with its customers and suppliers and tried gently to see if any of them were accessible. He didn't try too hard for fear of raising alarms and started in geographic locations that would be less likely to notice. Pay dirt was found in his new favorite country, Czechoslovakia, where there was a supplier to Foundation that had the same security philosophy as its customer. Bill was able to log on to their web server using the default username and password combination and had full administrative access. He created an anonymous email account from a free provider and sent the message from a web browser located on the company's server. It was past lunch time and he planned on sending another one in a couple of hours, nothing to do now but start chewing on the cuticles of his fingernails.

Darren sat in his little office at the Department of Homeland Security, itching for something to do. "Sucks being between cases" he said to himself as he monitored the real time chatter that was captured from around the world, ninety nine percent of it complete garbage. He'd been looking for additional fraud terms, thinking that someone might want to jump at the vacancy that was left from his recent bust. Smiling at the thought of busting down the door on those scumbags who had bilked innocent Americans out of hundreds of millions of dollars, praying on their desperation with the economy and the fact that they were naïve or dumb enough to take on mortgages they couldn't afford. Poor economic times brought out the creeps and these times were getting pretty serious, in fact most of the threat these days came from our own soil, not the middle east, which had been the case for Darren's entire career with Homeland, almost five years now.

Darren was an undergraduate computer science major at Rutgers when 9/11 happened. He had planned on going to Harvard to pursue an MBA but decided that he was going to use his talents to help America. The next wars would be fought on the cyber front, information being the key to new attacks and collaboration between conspirators. There were offers at graduation from the CIA, NSA, FBI and Homeland Security. He chose the new department because he thought it would be a younger man's world over there, being a relatively new agency. He was partially right, finding that some of the upper level directors were old boys but there was a different sort of vibe to the department, one where there was a possibility to advance and also to take risks when warranted.

"Hey Darren, want to go to lunch at that Italian place in Falls Church? I'm dying for some polenta."

"Sounds good George, going crazy staring at the chatter anyway. Anyone else around?"

"They're all busy on their cases but claim they don't need any help so screw it, we can go to the music store afterwards, there is a new guitar I want to check out."

"Your wife is going to beat you to death with any new guitar you bring through the door. How many can you possibly play?"

"That's not the point. You should take up playing, I could give you lessons during these slow times, even though they seem to be getting fewer and further apart."

"Monica will kick my ass if I start spending money, she is watching the pennies like a hawk. With the real estate market down so far she wants to buy a house and she's too stubborn to do it any way other than the old fashioned way, twenty percent down plus closing costs and six months of payments in the bank."

"You're the one who married the negotiator." George laughed.

Darren thought about his wife, who ran their household budget like she ran the purchasing department for the defense contractor she worked for, saving them millions of dollars a year and providing a wakeup call to fat, lazy suppliers who were used to milking government contracts. He was glad to have this stretch at home, had to spend most of the time earlier this year working his case.

George drove to lunch and they made good time because it was early. The big guy was an ex-Marine and heavyweight wrestler, an asset to Darren, who was average size and was better with his brain than his fists. His appetite was legendary and he ate an entire appetizer, lasagna and then two pieces of tiramisu for dessert. They talked about the Nationals, both of them becoming baseball fans since the team came to the city.

The guitar shop was dead and George spent an hour talking to the owner about guitars, which looked like toys in the big guy's hands. George ended up getting a really good deal on a new Gibson model, even after Darren tried to talk him out of it. The store owner offered him a starter guitar set for a good price but he wasn't interested. Golf was the only thing that got his spare time, he relished his free time with Monica too much. George claimed this would pass after another ten years of marriage but Darren didn't think that would happen.

The office was buzzing, seemed one of the teams had uncovered a plot against the American embassy in Bolivia and had thwarted it at the last minute. These wins were why Darren had chosen this over a corporate life. He'd never be rich but the job was saving lives of Americans and that was hard to put a price on. After a brief celebration he returned to his office to stare at the chatter some more. There was an odd email in his mailbox that had landed in the junk mail folder. He opened it because he was bored and the subject line intrigued him. It was from someone calling himself Jack, with an address of jackof@alltrades.com, telling him that he's going to be sending him information about a terrorist plot he's uncovered. Darren opened the header information and saw that it had come from a known remailer server in Eastern Europe.

There's no way to reply to the message and "Jack" has made it clear that the communication has to be one directional because he can't give up his identity. Darren wants to delete the message and forget it but his interest in piqued. He logged in to a few of the remailer servers the department maintains in Europe but found no trace of this message. He was hoping that the person on the other end would hit one of their remailer servers. Remailer servers had notoriously been used by all kinds of bad people, and was a favorite of child pornography buffs. The department had acquired some Czechoslovakian domain space and set up several remailer servers that were more robust than a lot of existing ones. The software on these systems included great backtracking capability and had helped the department crack several cases. Darren thought this was one of the most ingenious things he'd heard of and when it was combined with Carnivore, the FBI's content matching software, they were able to pick up a lot of chatter that would normally be blind to them. Unfortunately this message hadn't come that way, it was a dead end.

Before he logged off the last remailer server another message popped up in his junk mail folder. The sender was Jack and this one had details about a bioterrorism plot being planned against the United States. Darren found himself sitting straighter and closer to the screen, thinking that maybe there's something here. He decided to keep it quiet for now, didn't want to cry wolf about something. He decided to do some detective work to find out what needles were out in the proverbial haystacks. Darren started with

web crawler data, looking for anything that would give an indication of the potential plot or who this Jack is but came up empty.

Darren went back to the chatter database to look for any talk of smallpox or other viruses. Most of the talk was related to computer viruses, not human viruses. After some crafty keyword combinations, he was able to locate some smallpox chatter that has been going on for a couple of months that appeared to be coming from Asia, which validates what he's been told in the email. He wondered who Jack was but learned long ago in this job not to dwell on the pieces of the puzzle you couldn't see and focus on what was available. No more mail from Jack, he would check later, it was time to go home and surprise Monica by cooking dinner.

Monica could smell dinner when she walked in the door of their townhouse in Alexandria. "You little devil, did you play hooky this afternoon?" she dropped her briefcase and kissed him, having to reach up on her tiptoes.

"You're a sight for sore eyes." Darren picked her up and dropped her sweet little ass on the counter to kiss her more seriously.

"You just saw me this morning, guess someone is feeling randy today."

"They say men think about sex seventeen billion times a day, I think it goes up by a factor of four when work is slow. And guess what, we've got about forty five minutes until dinner is ready."

"Such planning on your part" she said as she got down from the counter and tiptoed toward the room. "Last one there gives a backrub first" she yelled, beating him by a few steps. Darren paid the backrub tax and they made it out just in time for dinner.

"Tell me about your day mister jumps his wife when she walks in the door."

"It was ok, things are too slow. George and I took a long lunch to Falls Church and then spent about an hour at the guitar shop. He bought another one, I think Beth is going to blow a gasket. The team that's in Bolivia cracked a coup against the American embassy there so the mood was good around the office. Cory hasn't been around, something about budget meetings. I'll never figure out why it takes six months to set a budget, seems like something that should be straightforward to me."

"You've heard me talk about working with the government enough to know that's not the case. Everyone pads all their items and then fights tooth and nail for any judgment against their budget, knowing that during the review cycle everything will get cut again. It takes several iterations but I agree with you, would be a lot easier if they set the final target up front and only went through the process once."

"Common sense cannot prevail in the labyrinth that is the United States government, I'm thankful to be a low level employee who doesn't have to deal with such things."

"Yeah but you're a great leader and that means you'll likely end up running teams or a division in the future. Everyone there, regardless of age, looks up to you and appreciates the way you work and your results. That's how most good leaders come up, not because they're looking for it, they can do it better than anyone else."

"Thanks Moni." He kissed her. "Something else interesting happened this afternoon. When we got back from lunch there was an email from someone calling himself Jack, saying that he was going to make me aware of a terrorist plot. A while later a second message came through that indicated it was a bioterrorism threat against the United States, some kind of smallpox attack. At first I was going to ignore it or dump it in the trash but I decided to do a little follow up work and there has been some chatter originating out of Asia talking about a new strain of smallpox that is much more virulent than anything we've ever seen in the wild."

"That's scary, were you able to track down who this Jack was?"

"No, he was pretty smart about it, not sure why he wants to remain anonymous but people have their reasons. The worst part is that I can't answer his mail, there's no way to know where it came from. I had hoped he might end up using some of our covert networks around the world but no such luck. Hopefully he'll keep sending me information and at some point I'll be able to track him down."

"Is there a vaccine for this new strain of smallpox? Can we get immunized against it?"

"There's nothing official anywhere on the subject. I'm going to call on some friends at the CDC to see what they know tomorrow but want to see if this Jack is a crackpot or if there's something to it before I start raising red flags around the government."

"Probably a good idea, the last thing this country needs is something as serious as this. I remember seeing photographs in high school biology of smallpox victims, it was not pretty and the mortality rate was pretty high."

"Yeah, smallpox killed more people in the last couple hundred years than all other diseases, even though there hasn't been a confirmed case in a very long time. Not sure that they're even giving smallpox immunizations to children anymore, which makes this threat scarier. Can you imagine if only the children were dying?"

Monica shuddered and sat closer to Darren, thinking about the horror of that scenario and thankful that they hadn't started a family yet. She was glad that he talked to her about work but this was the stuff nightmares were made of.

**Chapter 21  
** The Plan Emerges

Steve was coming in earlier these days, enjoyed having some time to himself at the project site. His coworkers at Foundation gave him space but the others working on The Cause knew no such boundaries and he wasn't sure how to get some space. A couple hours a day, usually around lunch, he would close the door to his office and put a 'do not disturb' sticky note on the door but that only worked half the time. Since Claire was on summer vacation she slept in most days so it was easier for Steve to come in around five thirty and then leave at a reasonable time. That didn't mean he went home, he was spending a lot of time in parks and libraries, thinking about the way his world had gone tits up over the past few months.

He hid out in his office during the early morning hours but didn't go on the vet forums, instead spent time researching life in Africa and wondering if there was any way he could get Claire immunized and then somehow have her find him once he had vanished. Would she want anything to do with him? It was doubtful, who would want to live with someone responsible for the murdering millions of innocent people? His life was turning into three parts: home, chemist and philosopher. The philosopher in him was about to implode, unable to wrap his mind around what was going to happen in a matter of weeks. His library time was spent reading books on philosophy, everyone from Hegel to Nietzsche but he had never particularly resonated with this type of rationalization.

He heard the bell, it was early for Jay or Rudy, who generally came in around eight thirty or nine. Robert and Mickey came up the stairs, a few boxes in hand. "Good news, the cause prevailed."

"Good to hear Robert, we've got all the equipment set up. Going to tell the story of your trip to Atlanta?"

"After everyone gets in. If you see Rudy and Jay let them know we're going to meet in the war room."

Steve's heart was beating faster, could it really be true that there was a live batch of virulent smallpox in one of those boxes? Philosopher Steve was going to be in high gear, trying to wrap his mind around this. He needed to think about the plan to infect the government instead and determine the right time to spring this, maybe the others would go along with his plan.

He got another cup of coffee and tried to settle his nerves, taking a trip through the lab and around the production facility, which was really coming together. He went to the bathroom and wasn't surprised to find that his urine had gone from green to dark blue, some greenish hues still present but that was acceptable. The dye had worked well for him and the others who'd been in Ohio, hadn't heard about the doctor, Robert and Mickey yet. The next injection would be the vaccine, which would be direct for them, no messing with spheres for that.

The others weren't in yet so Steve went through the inventory of supplies he needed to oversee the polymer synthesis and also made sure they had enough surfactant and saline solution. He had already checked everything yesterday but didn't want to run into problems when he reviewed everything with the bird man later. The door chimed and Jay came into the lab, he was using the small desk as his office space and had the bench across from the desk, which he kept exceptionally clean. Rudy was more interested in working in the production area and was taking ownership of that domain, which suited everyone.

"What's happening? Are Robert and Mickey back?"

"Yes, came back this morning, we're going to meet in the war room as soon as Rudy arrives. I think it's good news."

"Fuck yeah! That's awesome news, can't wait until we start putting everything together."

Steve didn't comment back, thought about asking Jay how he felt about attacking the government directly but thought better of it. Robert would have a fit if he thought his authority was being undermined, best to bring it up to everyone at the same time. The doorbell chimed and Rudy came in. They met him in the atrium and all went upstairs for the big meeting. Robert and Mickey were already seated at the table, three mysterious aluminum containers on the table in front of them.

"What you're looking at is history in the making gentlemen. Mickey and I went to Washington and I pulled out the information I have on our CDC friend and we made some fine color copies of everything. You should have seen his face when I showed it all to him, he called me every name under the sun and was still resisting. Mickey mentioned that our next stop was to his home to see what his wife thought of this, followed by a trip to the Atlanta newspapers and television stations. He may have doubted my will but Mickey held firm and he relented."

"Kick ass Robert." Rudy said. "Is this still all being done off the books or is there now an official 'project' in the CDC?"

"Unclear at this point but potentially important. It would be a bit suspicious if there was a smallpox scare and we came in off the street saying we have a vaccine and a new delivery mechanism. I'm going to suggest to our contact that he follow up on some of the chatter we've created out of Asia and start a top secret project in response."

Rudy smiled, happy that Robert had taken his idea. Steve thought this might be helpful because once the government became aware of a project like this they would be clamoring for the vaccine at first notice of an outbreak anywhere in the world.

"What about the delivery system? Will that be part of the documentation for the top secret CDC project?"

"Another good point Steve, I'm not at full strength due to lack of sleep the past few days. I'll call our CDC friend and have him initiate the project and include the new delivery mechanism due to the complexity of delivering the vaccine and the need for multiple boosters due to the strength of the new strain. We're a go, the first thing I'm going to do is call the doc to give us all the vaccine, I've been assured by our friend at the CDC that it's legit but we will have to do some testing with the vaccine before we expose ourselves to the smallpox. It might be just like him to trick us and then hope we vanish and erase all roads back to him."

"This will take some time, any thoughts how we can test the virus? We aren't set up for a quarantine zone." Steve asked.

"We've got a friend in Chicagoland who has access to the facility we need and can safely evaluate this. As soon as Mickey and I have had a chance to rest and we've all been immunized by the doc we'll head to Chicago to do the actual testing. There are two types of smallpox in these containers, one is a large sample and there are autoclaved syringes that have doses of the virus that can be given intravenously."

"How long does it take the vaccine to work?" Jay asked.

"We need to get a series of injections, one every other day and a total of four injections. It's long, complicates our plan and could make all of us sick for the next couple of weeks so hope you all don't mind shedding a few pounds."

"Jay, Rudy and I will spend the time working on a small quarantine environment here at the facility so when we imbed the virus into the spheres we don't end up spreading the virus. Don't want to let Pandora out of her box too early. We'll meet after this and get a list of equipment we need to you before the end of the day."

The meeting adjourned, Steve and Jay carefully transporting the live virus containers down to the lab and into a locked cabinet. "Looks like we've got a few days of sitting around, not much to do in the interim."

"I would like to learn about polymer synthesis, even though it won't likely be applicable where we're going. Maybe it would be smarter for us to start learning some African languages, if they're at all similar. Not even sure where it is we're going, might have to learn it when we get there."

"The polymer stuff isn't a problem, I've got to run some test batches on the new equipment to make sure everything scales. We can repeat the dye test, it's a pretty easy one."

"Freaks me out every time I piss, looks like the toilet cleaner my mom used to use."

Rudy came down to the lab and they sat down to talk about what was required to set up a safe environment for handling the smallpox. From the information they had, it didn't appear to be a major airborne infection agent unless a person was already infected. It was important that they isolate the raw material and do the sphere work in sealed containers which could then be run through the giant autoclave Steve had installed as part of the equipment setup. They needed to determine how to unseal the small work environment they were going to use to load the spheres. Rudy designed an attachment to the autoclave that could be used to unseal the glass box they were going to use. Steve was wondering how easy it was going to be to make spheres in one of those, especially since the gloves had to be non-permeable so were thick. They would have to practice making spheres using the gloves for the next few weeks and determine the best method.

Over the next few days they made many batches of polymers and each worked at forming the spheres and insuring that the reagent was inside each little shell of the sphere. This was straightforward without the gloves, Rudy and Jay were as good as Steve before too long. They'd all received the first dose of the vaccine and were having side effects, mostly flu-like symptoms. The mood around the facility was starting to go down, nobody appreciating the delays. Mickey and Robert had made one trip to Chicago to provide the vaccine for the animal testing. They were becoming two peas in a pod, which was alright with Steve, kept the bird man from bothering him.

After the second round of vaccine nobody was in any shape to be at work, all of them down with side effects for several days. Claire was worried about Robert but he said that something was going around the project site, nothing too serious, and he'd be better in a few days. His already skinny frame was now reduced to a weight he hadn't seen since his POW days in Vietnam. Claire tried to feed him but he couldn't keep anything down. The third and fourth rounds had less side effects but all of them had visibly suffered over the past week and a half.

Robert and Mickey went to Chicago to do the animal testing and they used the glass enclosure, normally used for working with radioactive material, to open the containers to see which one had the syringes. They sealed the container and hoped for the best, couldn't autoclave the container for risk of neutralizing the virus, even though the CDC's analysis of the strain showed it was fairly robust in liquid form.

The testing was going to take a few days and was going to be conducted on two chimps, since they had close DNA to ours. The immunized chimp had shown many of the same side effects that they had, now it was just a waiting game. Their sphere practice had worked well, the dye color changing in the beakers at the prescribed time without any variation. Steve was proud that his work was scaling so well and Jay and Rudy were up to speed on the process and following the recipe to make batches of polymer and create the spheres.

"If this test works and the one chimp doesn't get sick will you guys feel better?" Jay asked as they sat around the war room table eating lunch.

"I'll still be nervous but it will make be willing to try to work with the actual virus. We need to make some batches, there's not enough there to make what we need for the attack."

"We're too close to hit the wall now, we are going to do this and then vanish. It's going to cause such a disruption to the world and the people will no longer accept the American government, especially when they believe the ones they put in office are responsible for the attack." Rudy hadn't spoken much about his feeling around The Cause but what was coming out of his mouth was caustic. "I wish I could be there to see this go down, I might just stick around to see what happens, try to blend in as the few in a thousand that won't get infected."

"I've thought about that too." Steve said. "If we can point this to the government and away from us then there's no reason why we can't live here. The country will be a shell and we'll be able to set up any kind of life we desire."

Steve had thought about that and also the possibility of giving Claire the vaccine and then having them disappear, maybe to Canada or some remote part of the United States. He didn't want to leave the country and didn't trust Robert to get them all the way to a destination safely. There would be complete chaos in the world and a total lack of trust.

Jay must have been thinking the same way, he got lost in his thoughts the same way Steve did. In the wake of the chaos there would be millions of square miles of the country being shared by just a percentage of those who are already here today. Most likely border security would crumble, meaning that people could migrate north or south at will. The next generation of the United States would be a further blending of Canadians, Mexicans and probably other Central and South American natives, migrating north to take advantage of all the abandoned real estate and stock of food and supplies.

Robert and Mickey came back the next morning, shit scared look in their eyes and excitement in their voices. "It worked, the infected chimp died an incredibly ugly death and the vaccinated chimp is fine, though it misses its brother."

"It was a sight to behold, all I could picture is all of the assholes dying the same death. We have some pictures that show the symptoms and even a video of the chimp screaming before it died."

"No thanks" Jay said. "I don't need to see that to believe it, the look in your eyes tells me all I need to know."

Robert laughed the most evil way Steve had ever heard, causing the hair on his entire body to stand on end. This was one sick individual and Steve was wondering how far he'd go to protect himself. It was time to think about escape plans.

"We need to do our human testing, don't want to have any more delays by waiting for vaccination of a test subject. One of us is going to have to do it."

"I'll do it." Rudy volunteered. "I'm probably the most expendable member of the team anyway. Better put me in a safe place in case I get the disease and make sure I have some morphine so I don't feel much."

"Thanks for your sacrifice Rudy, we're going to take you up on the offer. I'll make sure doc provides the right drugs in case you get the disease but based on what we saw in Chicago I don't think you will. I've got a house that the CIA used to use in the city, not the safest neighborhood but if something happens to you we'll burn it down."

"Makes sense. Just make sure I don't get murdered for being in the wrong neighborhood."

"We'll keep a camera on you around the clock to see what's happening. You'll be able to see us and talk to us from there. Let me call the doc, do you want to get anything to make your stay better? Books, movies, music, anything like that?"

"I'm bringing a piece, if I get infected I'll take the morphine and shoot myself. Other than that I wouldn't mind bringing a small TV and some movies, never been much of a reader. Maybe some nudie rags to look at and pass the time. And a radio, can listen to Indians games."

They all went to the house, Robert had been right, it was in a really bad neighborhood. Curtains went aside in the few inhabited houses, wondering what all the old white men were doing in their neighborhood. Looked like city workers to most of them, but it was strange that they were bringing stuff into the house. Maybe they were just helping some homeless person out, some new outreach program.

Inside the house was pleasant enough, it was odd that it hadn't been ransacked or looted. All of the windows had some serious bars on them and the doors had prison grade locks on them. Nobody was getting in the house easily. There were also some padlocks on the outside, which meant that once they left Rudy there he was only coming out if they wanted him to. The house was brick and wood but it looked like it would burn well enough to get rid of him if he died and nobody would probably pay much attention, the houses on either side were boarded up, probably also owned by the CIA.

Rudy was calm throughout the entire process. They had carried the syringe in a special container, which Rudy opened in another room. "It's not broken or leaking" he shouted from upstairs. Doc Ravich went up the stairs in a biohazard suit, his eyes showing his fear. He came back down several minutes later, container in hand.

"I think we're safe but you should autoclave this and then dispose of it." He handed the container to Robert, who was wearing gloves and a respirator, all of them were. The doc had removed the biohazard suit but still had his respirator on. It was reminiscent of a fifties sci-fi movie, Steve thought. All were quiet on the drive back to the project site, where they turned on the web camera that was connected to the one in the safe house. Rudy was pacing back and forth very nervously and didn't respond when they first tried to speak to him. They thought the audio was broken but the man was just lost in thought, responding after the fourth time they spoke to him.

"Feel strange but it might be just nerves. You guys going to be watching me around the clock?"

"We'll keep an eye on you until this evening. If you show symptoms we'll take shifts checking on you, otherwise Steve will check on you in the morning since he's normally here a few hours before anyone else."

"Thanks for doing this Rudy, very gutsy."

"Thanks Mick, sometimes you gotta take one for the team."

There wasn't much else to say after that other than to give Rudy encouraging words. He said he was going to watch some movies and maybe take a nap, the house was comfortable. Not much changed during that afternoon though it might be too soon to tell. Jay said he'd come by around nine to check on Rudy and Steve said he'd be in early but if they needed him they could call the cell and he'd come anytime.

Steve was picking at his dinner and hadn't said more than "hello" and "what's for dinner?" since being home. Claire was losing sleep due to his mood and behavior and had to talk to him about it.

"We need to talk."

"Ok."

"We've been together a long time and have been through a lot, especially in the early days. I knew that you were a distant, private person. But something's happened since you started working on that project, especially since you came back from D.C. Can you please talk to me? You're losing weight, aren't sleeping and haven't been talking to me at all. I'm scared Steve, please talk to me."

"I'm sorry that you're scared Claire. The project has tight timelines and there are still some significant testing hurdles to overcome. It's so much more important than my work at Foundation and I'm not used to that kind of pressure."

"Can you talk about it? You know that I'd never tell anyone."

"I can't Claire, it's something that can't be disclosed to anyone outside the team."

"What happened in D.C. Steve?"

Steve spent the next hour telling his story, crying at several points, especially the first time he saw the wall and touched the cold, black granite and felt the names carved into the wall. He was crying for what he was doing, not just what he'd seen in D.C. and it felt good to let it out. She held him and stroked his hair, glad that she'd finally pushed him on it. He was asleep before her that night, having fully unburdened. Claire lay next to him listening to the rhythm of his breathing and wondering if she should be paying more attention to the project he's working on.

**Chapter 22  
** Pulling it all Together

"Morning, son." Kathy was already knee deep in work, probably organizing something because there was nothing else to do.

"Hi mom. Last couple days of freedom, pretty soon you're going to be at Don's beck and call again."

"He called yesterday afternoon to say they were back in town and to make sure there was nothing major going on here. I told him we'd all been sitting around playing games and enjoying the free time but he thought it was a joke."

"Good one, I'm sure that once he's back we're going to be running around catching up on his perception that everything's behind schedule."

"Stop by the kitchen, I brought you some homemade strudel that my neighbor Martha Stemple made. She doesn't see well anymore but still can put together some baked goods. You've been so busy lately, are you sure everything is ok?"

"I'm doing fine, just preoccupied with something personal. Should be fine in a couple of weeks. Thanks for asking and for the space, it's important to me."

"Let me know if there's anything I can do." Kathy thought Bill had taken the parole discussions seriously and was working on something related to that but didn't press him on it.

The strudel was better than any baked item he'd ever had, including everything his mom made, which was saying a lot. He snuck back into the kitchen and took another piece, hoping that others wouldn't notice him taking extra trips. As he opened his email he was half expecting something from Darren Ward but there was nothing of any importance there. It had been several days since he sent Darren a mail and should give him an update.

He launched the backdoor monitor program that was installed on the chemist's computer and didn't see any current activity. Scrolling through the keystroke logging program there were some orders that had been placed for additional processing equipment, which meant that they were still putting shop together and probably not yet manufacturing the virus. He noted some of the things that were being bought, thinking that might help Darren see how things were coming together. There was also some talk about a trip to the CDC to visit with a senior director there but no indication of the outcome of the meeting.

Bill summarized the update and send another anonymous mail to Darren, using the same program. He had thought about trying some others but decided not to add any additional variables to the equation. After the message was sent he put together some basic HTML code, which was the computer language that a lot of websites used to present content to users. His first instinct was to simply mirror The Cause website but this would likely give Darren a trail back to him, especially if Homeland Security was using any kind of web crawling technology, which is how the search engines collect content. The situation was critical but there still wasn't evidence that this was more than just a plot, no reason for Bill to give himself up yet. Isolating himself, the prison and Foundation from the information is still very important to him.

Putting the actual HTML code together is the most trivial part, Bill has plenty of information about the project and knows that he can put together a compelling story for Darren. The hard parts revolved around where to put the web server so he can retain anonymity and how to permit collaborative communication on the website through something like a message board without leaving bread crumbs back to him. It was getting to the point where he'll have to take some additional risk but he'll save the collaboration for later. The other thing he could do is set up ephemeral, or temporary website content and then migrate it to various servers so he's not in one place for too long.

Bill put his head down after lunch and pulled together the code for the website, including much more information there than on The Cause website. He added a spot for Darren to leave him a message, a little input box. Now he needed a site and a plan to get the information that Darren puts in the input box without leaving tracks. This is not a trivial problem for Bill and he scoured google looking for a good approach. There were a bunch of lame approaches but nothing that was bulletproof. The best method appeared to be hosting your site in a country that wouldn't share information with the U.S. government and mentioned China, India, Africa and the old standbys in Eastern Europe. Bill didn't want to go around cracking websites of the world but thought it might be able to find a way. This might take some time and his head was hurting by mid-afternoon.

Darren was sitting in his office, looking at the newest email that came from Jack. This one included more concrete information about the type of equipment the project was buying as well as some link back to the CDC, which was something he could check out. He made a few phone calls and finally reached someone he knew in Atlanta who told him off the record that there was a top secret project around smallpox. There still wasn't enough information to let him know that it was more than a plot and damnit why won't this Jack talk to him?

Darren called to George, who sat in the next office. "Can you come in here for a few George?"

George came over. "What's up, want to take a field trip?"

"Can you shut the door?"

"Something wrong?" George's face took a serious pallor as Darren composed his thoughts and how to approach the subject.

"I've had some anonymous tips in the past week and I want to get your take on it. We need to keep this one quiet for now, there's not quite enough to go on."

"You've got my word, must be something serious."

"It might be. I received a couple of mails the other day from someone calling themselves jackofall@trades.com, who claims that there is a bioterrorism plot cooking against the U.S. regarding a new strain of smallpox. I've tried to trace the messages back but they've been run through some remailers."

"Were they our remailers?"

"Unfortunately not, If I ever get a chance to talk to this guy I'll tell him that some of his messages aren't getting through and he should try some other remailers without telling him to use ours directly."

"So what details are available so far? Smallpox is something that's been discussed for years, especially when we were going after Saddam but there hasn't been a viable new strain of the disease. Is this threat supposing a new strain?"

"According the mails this new strain is much more virulent than any other and the supposition is that existing vaccines will not provide any protection, meaning a doomsday scenario. I've been skeptical but received some additional information today and was able to weasel out of someone at the CDC that there is a top secret project right now dealing with a new strain of smallpox. Off the record, of course."

"Of course, those guys can be worse than the spooks sometimes in terms of coming clean with the bad stuff. It might be a coincidence, there's likely a chance that the CDC has ongoing top secret projects for biological and chemical weapons. What does the chatter suggest?"

"Backs up what was stated in one of the emails, there is some chatter coming out of Asia about smallpox, hasn't been much but has been going on for the past few months. Not sure if the CDC's project is a reaction to this or something else entirely."

"And you can't find this Jack? Why don't you put Terry on it? He could find any needle in the haystack that is the world wide web."

"Like I said, I'm just bouncing this off you now but I'm starting to believe there might be something to it. If I ever get anything more tangible from Jack that doesn't come from a truly anonymous remailer then I can put Terry on it but for now I don't want to dig around and raise any alarms. I'm thinking this Jack is somehow related to the project but is nervous about the potential disaster that may be looming if this becomes real."

"There aren't many people in the world capable of constructing a new strain of something like smallpox without a tremendous footprint of resources. The Chinese government could probably do it and maybe the North Koreans but I can't think of many others."

"Our own government comes to the front of my mind. All it takes is one person to open Pandora's box and start the next bubonic plague. Thanks for talking this through, I'll let you know if I get anything else from Jack."

"I'm itching thinking about smallpox, let me know if I can do anything to help. There's nothing big going on in my world right now and I could use some action besides fighting with my wife about guitars."

"Was going to ask what happened with that but figured that it wasn't good if you weren't talking about it."

George left and Darren reread the latest mail from Jack. Maybe he could track down the source of the project by tracing down who's been buying big chemical equipment. This was going to be tough because there were no make or model numbers and the stuff wasn't likely so big to attract attention. Maybe some additional detail would be forthcoming and he could trace it down that way. Not much else he could do until he heard from Jack, who was turning into 'deep throat' for The Cause.

Bill figured out how to put up the website safely over breakfast. Even if Darren could trace him to one country that didn't share information, there was little chance he could do it through three or four. He found some names of hosting providers in Africa as well as a few subversive Chinese sites, which he was leery of. It was doubtful that anything happened in China without the government knowing about it.

He created a virtual machine, which appeared to be a regular computer but was really borrowing resources from another system within the Eastern European supplier of Foundation chemical. He used the virtual machine to request a new website from an African provider located in Nigeria and thought about all of the scam emails he's received over the years, promising him millions of dollars. When he was bored he would send them responses but never got replies because his mail back to them was always a big joke. Before long he had a Nigerian hosted site, loaded with advertisements, which was how they were able to give the space and bandwidth away. There were some strict limits in terms of how much network traffic the site could have per month but that wouldn't matter in this case.

Bill installed a small web browsing client so he could connect to the site in Czechoslovakia and tested it, ensuring that he could see the content. This worked fine but he still had some nagging in the back of his mind that he was leaving a door open to be discovered. There was only the link between the prison and the remote servers but he was going to initiate all communication with the web sites from anonymous places, never directly from the prison or even from Foundation. After thinking it through he felt like he could continue so he drafted another note to Darren and sent it off. It was Friday, which meant steak for lunch. Bill would have traded it for more of Martha Stemple's strudel but he didn't mention that to Kathy. After lunch he sent the complex password to Darren, not wanting someone to intercept either message and be able to gain access to the site.

Darren came back from lunch Friday looking forward to the weekend. Another mail was in his inbox from Jack and he hoped it would give some additional insight, didn't want to be on the fence with this all weekend. He'd talked to Monica about it in greater detail last night and she advised him to break it open, saying that once in a while it was ok to cry wolf without all the information, especially if this was as serious as it seemed from the little information he'd received.

The mail had a website address and a username along with a signature of Jack. Darren went to the site and tried the username but it was useless without a password. He pounded his keyboard in frustration, yelling at Jack across the miles. George heard him yell and came to see what the fuss was about.

"Jack sent me a website and username but no password. Lot of good that does me, not like I can pick up the phone or respond to the email and tell him he forgot."

"Maybe he didn't forget, perhaps he's just paranoid and is sending the password under separate cover. Any other messages come in?"

"Nothing so far but you could be right. He's being careful about having his identity revealed, would make sense that he wouldn't want any other information being compromised. Good call, I'll sit tight and see if something else comes through."

While he was waiting Darren did some brief detective work, trying to find where the website was. "Another Czechoslovakian site" he muttered to himself. "Maybe we should provide free websites in part of our address space too." He wrote that down on his doodle pad, something good to follow up on in the future. His mail indicator flashed in the system tray, letting him know something had come in. It was another mail from Jack, this one a password. Darren went back to the website and entered the password, which took him to the home page of Jack's site. There wasn't much new here that wasn't in the mail but seeing everything well organized in one place made Darren see things differently. The plot still hadn't been revealed and there were no details of where the smallpox was coming from or what the actual target would be.

There was some information that had supposedly been pulled from The Cause's website and it was very strong anti-American rhetoric, the kind that normally sourced from outside the U.S. but Jack had clearly stated that this was an American group. This worried Darren because insider threats were typically downplayed these days, most of the work that Homeland Security performed was focused on attacks coming from abroad, where most of the big ones had come from. He thought about Oklahoma city and the tragedy that had occurred there and shuddered, thinking the American psyche couldn't handle this type of attack right now.

Darren found the comment box that Bill had put on the website and saw the note above it "Think it's about time we have a way to talk to each other. It won't be real time but if you post something here I will update the code. The site location may change so don't freak out if it's not available the next time you try it. If I move it you'll receive emails with the location, username and password." Darren looked at the screen and asked it "Who are you Jack?"

He wrote a brief note to Bill, thanking him for bringing forward the information and to please keep it coming. Darren also implored Jack to contact him directly, promising full immunity and as much anonymity as possible. He also told him he hoped to meet him someday and wished him a good weekend. Darren pressed send and called Terry and George to his office.

"Did you get something Darren?" George asked, Terry wondering what they were talking about.

Darren spent a few minutes telling Terry what he'd been getting and how it was all anonymous. He showed him the website and sent him the logon information along with the address to see if Terry could find anything. Terry took the information, asked Darren to forward all emails and left to dig in. George looked around the website and said "Not much here so far Darren, just some anti-American bullshit rhetoric and veiled threats of a biological attack. We get this kind of thing all the time and you know that it's always more hope than substance."

"I agree George but something about this one feels different, especially since there is some chatter and based on what my CDC contact said. Speaking of which, let me tell Terry about that as well." He sent off the filtered chatter that discussed smallpox along with a note summarizing what he'd heard from the CDC, unofficially of course. George and Darren spent the next few minutes debating the merit of it, George not as sold as Darren was. "Another thing is the way Jack is being so careful, as if he doesn't want them to find out and go underground. This guy is a pro and that raises the hair on my neck."

"I'll give you that one but other than that it looks like hundreds of other sites we find a year and remember that many of them are in the U.S."

George left out of boredom and Darren stared at the screen, wondering if Jack was going to reply today or later. He refreshed the website several times in hopes that he just missed a post, maybe they could have an actual conversation through the website. If he could talk to him there was a chance he could either make him slip up or get him to volunteer his assistance.

Terry came back in about forty minutes later. "You've got a pro on your hands Darren. The site is in Czechoslovakia, where we can't reach."

"Yeah, I found that out. Was thinking that we should give away free web hosting in the same space where we provide the remailer services, maybe we could trip up a few more people that way."

"Not a bad idea, I'll get to work on that in the next couple of weeks. We can set up some virtual machines on the servers and do some limited web hosting. Cast a net and if we find something we'll be able to get additional funding for more hardware. Back to Jack for a minute though. Everything is registered anonymously and the web logs and source code are locked down well enough that I couldn't access them. There is a chance that he'll log on directly to the site to look for your post and reply to you so I've placed a new type of tracing program on the site. Even though we don't have direct access to it I can triangulate against all the major internet providers around the world and see if there is traffic destined for this site. It's a major pain in the ass to filter the data but I've got some scripts that do a good job of it, especially if it's coming from the U.S. I've also got a little bot program running that will refresh the site and send an alert if the content has changed. We'll find this guy Darren, he's good but nobody is that good."

"Thanks Terry, I appreciate it. Have a good weekend." Terry left and thirty seconds later Darren's instant messenger program popped up. "Got an alert while we were talking, check out the site, I'm tracking down where he is now."

Darren refreshed the web page and saw a reply to his comment. "Darren, when I read about the fraud case you just closed I knew you'd respond to me when I reached out to you. Unfortunately my identity and situation complicates things and I can't come forward right now. I will keep you posted on any developments as soon as I become aware of them. Have a good weekend, Jack."

Terry came in a few minutes later, shaking his head. "Nothing, looks like this guy is accessing the site from another dark site, something that's off our radar. I can ping some secondary sources to see if I can get some logs and see where the post was made but it's going to take some time and a lot of favors."

"Don't call in the favors yet, this thing is simmering but I don't know if there's enough there to make it boil. I'm leaving for the weekend, if you get any alerts over the weekend, give me a call."

"Will do, in the meantime I'm going to look through our web crawler program to see if it can correlate any of the information posted on that site to other sites. It's likely a needle in a haystack but worth looking."

A few hundred miles away Bill logged off everything and took down the site in Czechoslovakia but kept the site in Nigeria. He didn't want to give Homeland Security a chance to find a way in. He decided to use virtual machines every time he built the site and to move it around if possible so they couldn't lock in on a single location. This was getting complicated, luckily he had everything documented and was being as careful as possible. He hoped nothing significant happened over the weekend that would create additional danger.

**Chapter 23  
** Final Planning and Korea

It was apparent by Saturday afternoon that Rudy was not affected by the virus but he was getting a bit stir crazy in the house. Jay had checked in on him but there was no audio capability, just the webcam. They wrote notes and held them up for each other, Jay telling him to hang in there, it was better than the alternative. They even played tic-tac-toe using the cameras but that got boring in a hurry.

Jay wrote a note "Indians game tonight, that should keep you busy for a few hours."

Rudy's response "Call Robert and get me the fuck out of here. I'm not sick."

"I'll call him, hang on a second." Jay put the note up and extracted his cell phone, figuring that the old buzzard was going to give him hell for even asking.

"Robert, this is Jay. Yeah, Rudy's fine but now he's getting a bit stir crazy. We've been writing notes back and forth and he wants to get out of the house."

"Why are you calling me with this? Rudy spent half a year at the Hanoi Hilton, he can stay in a comfortable house with movies, books and a goddamn radio for another day and a half!" The phone disconnected.

Rudy had been watching and figured the kid had gotten an earful from Robert. "Thanks for trying, I'll try to enjoy my time here." Truth was he had been scared shitless of getting smallpox and didn't want to die. The first few hours his body produced an acrid sweat and stench that made him think he was sick. Sleep was elusive and the nightmares of his skin falling off caused the panicked state he was in. He still had the pain medicine in case he got sick, would probably take something to help him sleep tonight.

Everyone was in early; even Rudy, who had been picked up by Robert in time to have the doc check him out and release him. There were no signs of the disease but he did have quite an appetite for some reason. They stopped for donuts and bagels, Rudy picking out enough for ten people.

"Jay told me you were whining to get out, should have been a vacation for you compared to what you've been through."

"I was freaked out because of the nightmares, couldn't help thinking that I'd wake up with my skin melting off my body. The walls were talking to me, telling me I was going to die a very painful death. All I could hear was the sound of my breathing and heart jumping through my chest. By the time I talked to the kid I was freaking out. After that it got easier, the morphine helped me sleep and maybe caused this hunger."

Robert didn't say anything, was just glad that the vaccine had worked and they were on for the plan that had been building in him for the past twenty five years. Rudy continued babbling but the bird man didn't notice, he was focused on building the final steps of the plan and getting the Korean situation underway. Everyone was in the office and happy to see Rudy. They congregated in the war room to construct the next phases of the project and fill up on the massive amount of breakfast food.

"It's go time everyone, this is what we've worked so hard for. Let's not have any last minute fuckups. We will meet here at the beginning and end of every day until we're done and if we need to pull nights and weekends we will. Mickey will be in charge of organizing the Korean infection, Jay will update the website, Steve is in charge of production of all things chemical and Rudy has field coordination." He wrote the names and areas on the whiteboard and then added the key tasks underneath each area.

"Each of you are responsible for adding the tasks and providing updates for your area. If there's anything that needs attention don't wait until the end of the day, bring it to me immediately. Understand?" There was general head nodding around the room. Steve was last to nod because he was wondering if this was a good time to bring up the plan change. Since they weren't talking about the final infection he decided to do it later, chickening out again. He waited until the others had added their tasks and then wrote down the things he would be working on over the next couple of days. The first priority was to create the special polymer spheres for the Korean infection because that was going to take a few days once the spheres were ready.

Robert watched with earnest as the task lists were populated. He asked Steve if he needed any help today.

"Yes, I'm going to need Rudy and Jay once they're done with their tasks. There is a lot of work to be done to get the Korean sample ready for transport. It should be ready to go tomorrow sometime, how are we going to get it in the hands of our associate there?"

"We'll discuss the logistics of the Korean infection at the afternoon meeting, I have most of the details ready but there are still some gaps that need to be filled. Mickey and I will work out the final elements."

Steve left the conference room and went down to the lab, wishing he didn't eat that second donut, the sweet taste of jelly creeping back up his esophagus. He and Jay had prepared a batch of polymer late last week in anticipation of vaccine testing coming back ok so now it was time to start to form and fill the delicate spheres. There was only going to be one layer in this batch so the spheres would be incredibly small, less than a tenth of a millimeter in diameter. He got everything set, knowing that Jay wanted to help with this process.

Jay updated the website to let everyone else on the team know that vaccine testing was complete and they were a go for the next phase. He provided some information on who would be leading each area and let everyone know to be on standby around the clock in case there was a need to put them in play. This update was brief but was important, everyone who logged into the site would know that they'd passed a major hurdle in The Cause. He logged off the computer and went down to the lab, hoping that Steve hadn't already started building spheres. "Ready to get started?"

"Been waiting for you, knew that you wanted to help build these little ones. They are going to be fun, just like the dye ones except only a single layer. The plan is to have a two hour release period based on what Mickey told me just now. He still doesn't have all the details but I think they're close enough. These might end up being a bit fragile because they will have such a small release period. Time to build the death bubbles, Jay."

"That's a hell of a thing to call them, you feeling ok today?"

"Yeah, just thinking about how much we tried to dispel the rumors that we were women and children killers in Vietnam and now that's exactly what we're going to be." He took the raw polymer over to the bench and gathered the smallpox sample. They normally would do this under a hood but if the smallpox spilled or something else went wrong he didn't want to release it over his hometown. "Bring over some of the forming solution and let's get moving."

Jay wondered if the old chemist was breaking under the pressure. He had a valid point but all of them knew that without significant casualties nothing would change and the American people would be screwed indefinitely. It was only through swift and decisive action that change would come. He ignored the fire that burned in Steve's face and concentrated on the task at hand. If this continued he'd need to let Robert know but for now he put it down to stress.

They worked in silence, putting together the tiny spheres using Steve's formula to determine how thick they would be and what the internal volume would be. "Now comes the fun part" Steve said quietly as he opened the container that held the smallpox. The virus looked like a normal powder, something like a fine ground sugar that bakers use to make icing. "According to the CDC information, we only need about six granules for each sphere, this is a really potent batch. For the interior volume we have that means we need to mix up about one gram per liter. Since we're making such a small batch we only need one tenth of a gram and one hundred milliliters of the forming solution. That should give us enough to build around two thousand spheres, which will more than cover the thousand we need for the next round."

Jay carefully measured the liquid and then used the balance to weigh the powder, under cover of the glass enclosure. Even though the vaccine had worked neither of them were willing to tempt fate. The process was tedious and it took Jay a few tries to start getting it right. Steve watched, deciding at some point that if he didn't actually make the spheres his role was diminished a bit. He knew this was complete bull but the brain does things to compensate. Once Jay got the hang of things the process went fast and before long they had the material in a desiccant, which would draw off the forming solution and leave the small spheres with the smallpox inside. This was a quick process and would be followed by a rinse to make sure there was no trace of the smallpox on the outside of the spheres.

They cleaned up very carefully and went upstairs to get some lunch and give Robert and the others an update. It would be helpful if they knew how the Korean infection was going to happen so they could best package the spheres once they were ready. Steve stuck his head in Robert's office and asked him to meet in the war room and then did the same with Rudy and Mickey. He grabbed a bagel and realized that it was already two thirty, no wonder he was starving. Jay gave an update while Steve was eating and then asked if they had the Korean plan yet.

"I talked to our team member in Korea and we're a go for one of our plans. He works in the local Coca Cola bottling company in Seoul and will slip the spheres into a batch as it's being made. The time between batch and final bottling is forty nine minutes so if the spheres will last that long the plan should be a go."

"You've been busy Mickey. We constructed the spheres to have a two hour life, so that will be plenty of time. How should we package them for shipping to Korea? Does it take a long time to get things through customs there?"

"We are shipping him a new digital camera and it should only take a few days. Can you package the spheres into a double A battery? We can pack the battery in the camera and he can disperse the spheres that way."

"It's going to be tough, we need a completely dry environment or the spheres will end up degrading in the two hour window. The plan was to ship them dry and then he can dump them. I guess we could do that with a battery as long as we vacuum seal it and then pack some desiccant in with it to prevent any moisture from attacking the spheres."

"Let's do that. We don't need to send him the vaccine, he's going to leave the country after the smallpox has been planted, doesn't want to be caught. I'm making arrangements for him to be flight that's bound for the United States. Hopefully the plane will land before the virus outbreak, otherwise it will likely be turned away at our border. Since we're all here, what are the other updates?"

"The website has been updated so all should know what's happening. I'll put up the Korean information in a couple of days, once we know the package has arrived." Jay said.

"I've got the first big batch of polymer almost done for the fake vaccine." Rudy had not bothered Steve once, he was glad to have such competent help.

"You have my update about the Korean attack. Once you have the battery done I'll pack it in the camera and get it shipped. It would be best if we could get it moving today. UPS is open until six and I'll rush it over there."

"Ok, we'll get moving, the spheres should be dry now. Give us another hour and we'll have something. Does anyone have any batteries?" Nobody seemed to have any extras and couldn't think of anything that used them.

"I'll run out and pick some up while you guys finish the spheres. Anyone need anything else?"

"Thanks Rudy, was going to ask for a Coke but don't think I'm going to drink another one of those for a while. How about some Pepsi? Something with some caffeine, been a long day."

The old man limped out of the room and the meeting broke up. The spheres were dry so Jay rinsed them with the Freon, which wouldn't degrade the polymer because it was an inert material. He almost made a joke about the ozone but thought better of it, didn't want to wind the chemist up again. Once they were rinsed, Jay added some desiccant to keep them dry and put them in a sealed tube until they could add the battery. Rudy had returned and Steve was dissecting the battery.

"This is going to be tough, the battery shell isn't airtight." He took a couple of vials from the supply cabinet and found one that almost fit inside the battery shell. "We can probably make this one look ok, I don't think anyone is going to be testing the camera in customs." He was talking to himself as he fit the vial in and put the bottom of the battery back in place. "There's nothing holding the bottom in, we'll have to pack something between the vial and the bottom of the battery."

All two thousand of the spheres fit into the single vial and they packed desiccant in to keep them dry on the journey. Steve used Teflon tape to create an additional seal on the vial and they rinsed it before removing the vial from the sealed environment. It had gone smoothly and Steve had no doubt that they'd contained the smallpox." Robert and Mickey came downstairs with the camera just as Steve finished packing it in the battery.

"I can't believe our Korea guy is going to disperse the virus without being vaccinated. That's pretty brave." Jay said.

"It's easy to forget how important a task we're on, any one of us could die, that doesn't really matter. The success of the project is what matters, along with the changes that come from it." Robert focused his beady eyes on Jay, waiting for him to look away in shame or to say something. Jay chose to look away and Robert continued. "Let's hope this arrives in one piece. I just had a conversation with our friend in Korea, telling him that the camera he wanted is on the way. I told him that he should change the batteries before using it because they're old. He got the meaning and will let us know when he's received it."

Mickey took the camera and left for the UPS depot, which was just a few miles away and would get the package moving tonight. If all went according to plan there would be Coca Cola bottles being distributed in and around Seoul that were contaminated with smallpox. The Korean team member had gone to great lengths to demonstrate ties back to the North Korean government as well as some groups in that country who were very militant and bent on destruction. The South Korean authorities would point the finger north and the world will believe it was a conspiracy from inside Korea. It really didn't matter where the blame came from, the United States government would be in scramble mode, locking down the borders and looking for the vaccine.

Steve turned into an automaton, going through the motions at work over the next few days, anxiously awaiting word that the virus had been launched. He wondered if any of those bottles would find their way to the airport there and end up transporting the virus all around the world. They may not need to do anything beyond this initial drop to create the chaos and anarchy Robert was looking for. He still couldn't bring himself to say "we" when talking about the project, as if he was just playing a role in a play or a movie and wasn't really a key participant in the pending destruction.

Claire was getting more concerned about Steve by the day and tried to discuss it with him again but he wasn't hearing it. Every time she tried to talk to him he clammed up further until he wasn't talking at all. She was going to have to hire a private investigator to see if he was having an affair or what was really going on at that other site. She didn't even know exactly where it was, only had a vague idea. He didn't even use his computer anymore, spent no time in the forums that had been his second life for the past few years. He just sat in his chair and pretended to read or stared into space. When he slept, he had horrible nightmares, talking and screaming in his sleep. She picked up some of it, seemed to be Vietnam related or about his brother, who he rarely talked about. She knew that his brother had died in the local prison but what could be bringing up those memories? Maybe the project had something to do with the prison on the hill.

At the site they had completed ten large batches of spheres, all with the smallpox virus in the center. They had reproduced a large amount of the vaccine as well, enough to make up almost fifty thousand vaccinations. There were now ten thousand vials of the contaminated virus and they were working to duplicate the virus so they could extend that much further. The package was somewhere in Korea by now and may even be delivered imminently, Steve had to talk about his plan now.

The evening wrap up meeting had brought no news of a delivery yet, though the man lived alone so he would probably miss the actual delivery. He had a good sized mailbox in his apartment and the delivery instructions said to leave the package if nobody was there to sign for it, which the UPS agent thought was odd but didn't argue. Steve waited until everyone had given their updates, cleared his throat to muster his courage, and spoke. "I've been thinking about our plan and wanted to modify it if possible."

Robert looked like him as though he had leprosy, his head cocked to the side. "You want to modify it? Who do you think you are?"

"Just let me speak Robert, if you don't like it pretend I never brought it up." Steve had his courage and the bird man didn't shut him down, instead made a rolling motion with his left hand and said "spit it out then."

"Our target is the government, we all agree on that account. I have some problem with all of the innocents being killed. It was our legacy from 'Nam, everyone always says we murdered women and children. I don't want this to be our legacy here. My idea is that we give the government the batch with the smallpox and let the general public have the real virus. This would be Biblical in nature, striking down at the heart of those we hate and leaving the others to decide the best way to proceed.

Everyone was holding their breath and looking at Robert, who was considering his words carefully. "I see where you're coming from but I still think the impact of the cause would be much greater if millions died."

"I like the plan Robert, have had more than enough of being called baby killer in my life. Even though we'll be somewhere else, the American public will hold us up as heroes, admiring the surgical precision with which we decimated the piece of shit government that shafted us all of our lives."

"Mickey, what about all of the hippies? Remember your stories of coming home and getting spit at? I thought you wanted revenge on them." He felt his grip going away, his anger starting to take over. "This is about making the biggest statement in the history of the world!"

"I agree with Steve, it would be so much greater if only the pigs in power were dying, not innocent civilians. People won't soon forget the judgment brought against the United States government. I think we should change the plan."

"I'm with Rudy and Steve here." Mickey said.

"I like this plan too." Jay added, a bit quiet after his tongue lashing from Robert earlier.

"The government are going to be the first ones clamoring for the vaccine Robert, they think they're above everyone else. We can take those greedy feelings and shove them right up their asses. No more President, cabinet, congress, senate or any of their sycophants. Think about it Robert, we might even get invited back to help run the new government."

Robert thought for a minute, his hands together over his nose, his eyes staring into the black granite table of the war room. This was supposed to be so much more but he could see in the eyes of his team that they were sold on this new plan. He would have to settle or someone might crack. "Ok, let's make two sets, one for the government and the rest for the general public. But let's not limit ourselves to Washington, we've got lots of state and local government people to take out while we've got the chance."

Everyone around the table nodded in agreement, the new plan silently approved. "I'm expecting that we'll find out sometime tonight that the camera has been delivered. His flight is tomorrow night Korean time so we've got about thirty six hours if all goes according to plan. We need to continue bottling the vaccine and the virus, expect that this is our last weekend of peace while we watch CNN and wait for the shit to hit the fan."

The meeting adjourned and Steve went home and had a civil dinner with Claire, telling her that the project was going to wrap up in the next week or two and it seemed like they were over the biggest hurdles. Claire was so relieved that he was communicating that she didn't see the sadness in his eyes, the knowing that he'd be leaving her, possibly for good. Steve had thought about bringing home a syringe of the vaccine so Claire would be protected but there was no way she'd be able to keep that one quiet and Robert wouldn't stand for him making arrangements for her to be protected. He was going to do this before he left, wanted to make sure to leave it behind so she wouldn't get infected, though she might not want to live once she found out what he'd done. They even walked that night, going around the block as the sun was setting.

Steve checked his email that night and there was a message from Robert letting him know that the package had been received and would be dispersed the next day. He was going to check the forums but couldn't bring himself to do anything but lay in bed and wonder what he'd gotten himself into.

****

It was lunchtime in Korea and the plant was relatively empty, the line shut down for the food break. He knew there was a two hour window on the stuff in the bottle so he waited until the break was nearly over and dispersed it into the large vat before walking back to his desk. Whistling as the line started back up, he watched the bottles start moving, making sure that the virus would be mixed in and sealed before the spheres vanished and hell was infused in the world's favorite beverage. He held his breath when the two hour mark was reached, scared to breathe even though he knew it was all bottled up at this point. The cases were full and off to the warehouse, where they'd be picked up and shipped overnight around Seoul. The Coca Cola bottling company was a very efficient one.

His co-workers wished him a pleasant vacation as they left the plant for the night. He thanked them and went straight to the airport, where he'd fly directly to San Francisco and await further instructions. Once he was through security he found a public internet terminal and sent an email to Robert letting him know that the package had been successfully delivered and he was on his way across the ocean. He looked forward to seeing his old friend again soon. He signed off the computer and napped while he waited for the boarding call, wishing he could stay and watch the destruction take form.

**Chapter 24  
** Darren Gets Enough

One more week of this and he'll be completely crazy, Darren thought as he surfed the web looking for interesting news and checking out the new movie releases that were coming out. He'd been begging for work and had spent a couple of days combing through intel reports and chatter logs for some other cases but neither developed into anything important. George had dragged him off to another long lunch and bought another guitar in the process, something of a déjà vu of the past month around the office. There was a birthday luncheon for one of the other agents, Darren didn't even remember who it was but had signed the card and donated twenty bucks toward the food and some presents. At least it was a diversion from waiting for something to happen.

He checked Jack's website for the hundredth time this week and saw that something had changed. There was some additional information about supplies, indicating that they were in some kind of chemical production activity but not enough to nail them yet. This was getting old, seems like it's never going to amount to anything. Frustrated, he wandered over to see how the party setup was proceeding. He helped hang decorations and set up the food and drinks, actually didn't smell bad and the cake looked really good. Darren felt like he was in some corporate world, not the place for an adrenaline junkie. He settled in to yell surprise at the unassuming co-worker, still unsure who it was.

Bill had a very filling lunch, able to put aside the thoughts of what the terrorists were doing nearby long enough to enjoy what Kathy had brought. The mood was relaxed, as though everyone in the office was getting ready to go on vacation. He and Margie talked for a while, mostly about Joshua and what plans she had for the weekend. He reminisced about the summers in New York, thinking about the Institution and the memories of growing up in and on the water.

"If I was free this weekend the first thing I would do is get crispy in the sun and cool down in the water. I know Lake Erie isn't the most beautiful body of water in the world but it would seem like heaven to me."

"My aunt and uncle used to have a boat and we'd spend a lot of Saturdays out on the lake, doing exactly what you're saying. Even tried water skiing a time or two but that didn't work out so well."

"We liked riding tire inner tubes better. It was easier to hold on and more fun. My dad used to call it legal child abuse and loved to drag us through wakes and try to get us off the tube." Bill mused, getting lost in the memory.

Margie gave him time to remember and focused on what was left of her lunch. Bill didn't really come back, cleaning up his dishes and wandering back to his desk without another word. He was lost in thought for some time, not enough memories and too much time between really good ones. Needing to get out of this mindset, Bill logged on to The Cause's website to see if there was additional information. The site was still the same so he checked out the logging program to see if there'd been any email traffic to the chemist's computer. There wasn't much on the computer, the chemist either was using another machine or hadn't been doing much lately online. Toward the end of the file there was text from an email communication from Robert that mentioned Korea being a go, though it didn't mention a time or location within the country.

Bill updated the website to include the information from the email, setting up the website on a different virtual machine to further obfuscate his location. He used the same anonymous remailer and sent off a note to Darren, letting him know the website had been updated. He logged on to the Nigerian server to do this and also updated the box on the site, telling Darren that he wished he had more for him but something was definitely happening in Korea soon. He kept the connection open between Nigeria and Czechoslovakia, in case Darren responded.

The email popped up late in the afternoon, Darren staring dumbly out the window, waiting for the clock to reach four so he could go home. There was no sense sitting around to fight more traffic, better to start the weekend early and surprise Monica again, which she was really getting used to. They were going to Virginia beach in the morning, planning on spending the day there and getting some sun.

He read the mail and thought that it was good but not enough to call in the Calvary. The timing and location weren't qualified and there was nothing new in any of the chatter to indicate corroborating evidence but this was a very big break in terms of expressed intent on the part of the terrorists. Darren checked the website but found nothing new except for the note from Jack.

"Why don't you come forward? I can offer you protection and by working together we could solve this faster." He refreshed the screen every few seconds, hoping that there'd be a response. Darren thought if he could get some one on one time with Jack he might be able to talk him into coming forward.

Bill stared at the screen, thinking about what to say without giving himself away. He was stumped and couldn't come up with anything. He simply typed "Can't right now, will keep you posted. Jack"

Darren was mad but didn't want to push Jack away from the case. He had brought consistent evidence and the Korea lead helped substantiate what had been claimed before and meant that progress was happening. He left for the weekend thinking that things were going to open up soon.

**Chapter 25  
** Korean Impact

Park Jung's head was swimming and his legs felt like lead as he tried to get out of bed. He needed to go to work, hadn't missed a day at the factory in over fifteen years but his body wasn't cooperating. He was having trouble breathing and felt feverish, probably had picked up the flu from someone at the plant. His wife Min was standing at his side, arguing with him.

"You need to stay home today, the factory will survive without you for one day. You will rest and I'll cook some food to make you feel better."

"I cannot miss work, don't want to lose my job."

"You never miss work, they will understand. I'll send Ho over to tell your boss that you will not be in." Ho was their grandson, who shared their home with their daughter and son in law, who was in the military and stationed in the north, helping to guard the border between North and South Korea.

The older man started to argue with his wife but his body won and he lay back down, his breathing shallow. He slept most of the day, lost in dreams brought on by the fever, most of them about jungles and being unable to cool down. His wife sat on the bed and tried to comfort him, but it seemed that he was getting worse. Maybe it was a twenty four hour flu and he'd be better in the morning, she thought as she placed the cold cloth on his forehead and prayed the fever would subside overnight.

That night neither of them slept, the man screaming in terror as the nightmares raged on. At dawn's first light she ran to get the doctor, who came with bag in hand. Min hadn't noticed the sores that were forming on Jung's torso and face and stared in horror when she and the doctor returned to the house. The doctor called for an ambulance and stayed away from the man, not knowing what he had but determining that it looked like something that might be contagious. He followed the ambulance to the hospital and told the paramedics to leave the body until he had a chance to talk to the doctors in the emergency room.

The hospital staff prepared an isolated room to treat the man and took extra precautions to protect themselves from the threat of infection. Jung was brought in on a stretcher, barely conscious now. "If I didn't know any better I would say that this looks like Variola Major but there hasn't been a case of it in a very long time." The lead doctor said.

"We better call someone fast, if this is smallpox it's nothing I've seen before, especially since he only showed symptoms in the past twenty four hours. Seal off this room and bring in the entire family so we can keep them in observation." The hospital administrator had been called in during the setup of the room. A physician himself, he'd seen smallpox firsthand when he was young and remembered how contagious it was.

"There aren't many free beds and they're scattered." A nurse offered.

"Double people up and make some room available, we need this now!" He barked back.

They gave Jung some morphine and prayed for him, knowing that it wouldn't be long before his body shut down. The old man was delusional and they tried to question him to see where he'd been before he got sick but all he talked about was the vultures circling the forest. He died a few hours later, too drugged to know that his insides were turning to jell-o and unable to recognize the faces of his family, who were watching him die from the window of the hospital room.

Similar stories emerged around Seoul over the next day, dozens stricken and succumbing to the virus without many clues. The news media tried to keep a lid on the story but it was being spread around by the people, who were locking themselves in their homes and talking about it on the internet. The death toll quickly reached one hundred and there were probably others. The government arrived and started searching the residences of the infected, finding one common item, the bottles of Coke. Analysis showed it as the source of infection, which was directly given to the media. The company was more than cooperative and able to trace back the batch that appeared to be contaminated and recall all that hadn't been sold by taking all of the stock back from every location that had received a delivery from that batch.

The Korean government set up a triage center where they quarantined anyone who might have had some of the contaminated drinks or been exposed to those who had died. They separated the people into three groups; those who were infected, those who were high risk and others who they isolated as a precaution. They peppered the airways with notices about what to do if the symptoms showed up and were flooded with people who were scared and those who were looking for vaccinations from the disease.

By the end of the weekend the country was in panic, even though the government assured them that the situation was coming under control. It was still unclear, however, if anyone had bought some of the contaminated Coke and then traveled, it was impossible to know that immediately. The South Korean government alerted the rest of the world and alerted them that there was an outbreak. Since there was no direct evidence of infection outside of Korea the threat was treated as moderate and governments began burning through passenger manifestos from all inbound flights from Korea in the past week, which left them with tens of thousands of people to follow up with.

The news media was all over the story by Sunday afternoon and there was no putting the genie back in the bottle. The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta was flooded with phone calls and their website shut down because there was so much traffic to it by Sunday evening. The story was the same all over the world, as governments scrambled to find anyone who could be infected and to prepare what to do in the face of this new biological threat. It was all hands on deck in the United States government, the Sunday afternoon blowing up like the fourth of July.

Darren was sleeping in from their late night together at the beach when the phone rang for the third straight time. "Damnit, the world better be on fire."

It was James, Darren's boss. "There's been an outbreak of smallpox in South Korea. Hundreds are dead, some new strain. We need all hands on deck to start chasing down possible leads as well as corralling the potentially infected."

"I'm on my way James." He got out of bed, Monica starting to stir.

"What's happening Darren?"

"I need you to stay inside until I let you know. I may not be able to come home for a while. There's been a smallpox outbreak in South Korea, it's a new strain and hundreds are dead."

Monica's face showed shock and fear, similar to the morning of 9/11. "Is this related to what you've been getting from Jack?"

"Yes, I guess he's a good source. I wish like hell he would have told me more, still think he's holding something back. Maybe he sent me more information since the attack."

She held him a long time and didn't want him to leave. "Is there a chance we've been infected?"

"I don't think so, the only infected people seem to be in the greater Seoul area. I will call you as soon as I know more. I love you Moni."

"I love you too baby, please stay safe." She held him some more and he kissed her and headed out the door. The world seemed quiet, he wondered if the news was already breaking. When he got in the car the news was filled with information and modulated between drilling fear and trying to instill a feeling of calm with the listeners. Darren switched off the station and took the nearly dead beltway to the department of Homeland Security. The office was full and everyone was running around looking for information that could assist in the apprehension of the suspects.

"Just got word from South Korea that a North Korean group has claimed responsibility for the attack, saying this was just the start if the world doesn't leave North Korea alone. Kim Jong-Il has publicly denounced the attack and disavowed any knowledge of the act or new strain of smallpox. His government is cooperating with other agencies around the world to try and determine if a vaccine can be developed quickly."

"I've been chasing a ghost around this. Let's grab a conference room." Darren brought his laptop and proceeded to tell James everything.

"I wish you would have brought this forward Darren. It's probably twenty-twenty hindsight but I understand why you didn't. You haven't been able to find out anything else?"

"Nothing beyond what I've told you. I'm pretty sure the person leading up The Cause works in the government, they have access to too much information and seem very well backed and organized. Not sure who this Jack is though, maybe someone who is working with them or somehow stumbled on it in an official capacity and doesn't want to get caught in the middle of something." He showed James the website and they reviewed everything that Darren had found in the chatter of the past few months.

"This is pretty sketchy, not much different than what we get from dozens of other places each year. What made you keep up with this one?"

"It was just the way that Jack reached out to me, how safe he was. If we'd have found him after the first couple messages it might have been different but he's smart and doesn't want us to know who he is." Darren also told James about what he'd heard off the record from the CDC contact that there was a new smallpox strain and also some top secret work to develop a vaccine. This got James' interest and he immediately started sending emails looking for information.

James got called away to an upper level meeting and left Darren in the conference room, alone with his thoughts. Darren asked Jack if he was around in the chat box of the website and waited for a response. He updated his chatter program to search for everything from the past couple of days and found nothing significant. CNN had reported that the North Korean group was taking credit for the attack. James reached out to a friend over there and asked how the tip came in.

"It was strange, came in on an anonymous tip line but the caller ID was blocked. We tried to keep them on the line but they disconnected after giving us the tip."

"Let me know if you hear anything else and especially if you get word of anything breaking out in the States. Thanks for your help Tom."

"No problem Darren, please do the same. I don't want this sucker punching the United States because the government sits on it too long. If you hear about a vaccine I'd like to know about that too, for my wife and kids if they can have it."

"I understand, hang in there buddy." Darren stewed a bit as he refreshed the website and didn't see a response from Jack. Was he possibly involved? Had the group gone dark? Darren called Monica and told her that for now there were no cases in the United States. He was probably going to be in the office overnight but he'd call her later and would let her know if he heard anything urgent or more concrete. He hung up and got back to digging through leads, intel and chatter before succumbing to the need for sleep sometime in the early morning.

Robert and Mickey were celebrating. It was hard to find an open restaurant but eventually they found a diner that was either oblivious or simply didn't care about the news and had the place almost entirely to themselves. There was no waitress but an older Greek came out from the kitchen to take their order and make their food.

"This is the beginning of everything Mickey, I keep wondering if I'm going to wake up and find this is all a dream."

"The news has picked this up so well, the panic level is rising. Look out there, it's like doomsday, everyone is afraid to come out of their homes. This is better than I could have imagined."

"We're just getting started, I hear that the government is all screaming for the vaccine and tomorrow we're going to offer it to them." The two men toasted with their milkshakes and grinned as they stuffed their faces.

**Chapter 26  
** The Past Collides

Bill hardly touched his breakfast and had moped back to his cell with his head down, ignoring everyone who tried to talk to him. It had been a hell of a week and he just wanted some time to himself today, get himself lost in a book and forget about everything until it torched off again in the morning. It was going to be hard for Bill to keep up the activity level around The Cause with Don back in the office, he kept his eye on him even after all these years. Yesterday had been tough in the recycling center, with a fight breaking out and the guards busting a couple of heads before it was all done. Bill ended up stuck until well past dinner trying to explain what he'd seen and done and the way he saw the events unfold. While he hadn't been in direct danger it was a scary thing and it cost him most of last night's sleep.

The block was quiet and Bill was dozing off as he tried to read, head bobbing down as he sat propped up on the bed, back against the cold cinder block wall of the cell. He hoped for a couple hours but heard the buzzer of the public address system like it was a bullet passing through his head. "Bill Miller come to the guard station pronto." The announcement was repeated but Bill was coming to his feet, still dazed from his state of near sleep. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, Homeland Security is pouncing, what else could it be? Bill's heart was in his throat and his life is running through his mind as he started down the block toward the center of the prison. His body was rubbery and felt like he was floating down to the guard station, which was just ahead.

"I'm Miller." He told the guard behind the desk who didn't bother looking up.

"Visitor, you know the drill son."

Bill was really shitting bricks now, picturing Darren Ward and a bunch of other Homeland Security officials waiting on the other side of the door. He tried to calm down his heart, which was beating like he was running up Mount Everest. Bill slowly counted to ten and his heart stopped racing so hard. If this was it he needed to face up to whatever awaited him behind the door. He knocked and peeked through the door, all of the blood leaving his body in a flood as he saw Dana sitting at the closest visitor's table.

She stood when she saw him and hugged him without a word. It had been almost ten years since he'd seen her but everything came flooding back when his arms were around her. "Hi Billy" was all she said, also caught up in the reunion. After a minute or so they broke the hug and sat down across the table from one another. Dana looked incredible to Bill and for a minute he thought about the first time they'd kissed, sitting at a table similar to this one almost twenty five years ago.

"Dana, you look beautiful, it is so great to see you."

"Thanks Billy, you look good too. You looked like you'd seen a ghost when you peeked through that glass but the color suits you better." She squeezed his hand across the table and was also thinking about that party so many summers ago.

"What brings you here? I'm not complaining, but I haven't seen you or heard from you in so long I wondered if I'd ever see you again."

"Something about passing twenty years got me thinking about you. Back when I used to visit you were so sad and it seemed like I'd make you worse when I came by. I didn't really want to stop but I couldn't stand to hurt you."

"Damn, all these years I thought you didn't care anymore Dana. I am so glad you came back. So how are things for you?"

"Let's not talk about that today Billy, let's talk about you, reminisce and hold hands until the guards send me home. Ok?"

"Whatever you say. Remember how I was working in the prison office? I'm still there, doing most of the computer work. It's the closest I can be to the outside."

"Wasn't there a woman in the office who took care of you?"

"Kathy. Still brings me food every day, she's the biggest reason I haven't wasted away to nothing in here. The people in the office are still the same and over the years we've all grown closer. I've learned a lot of things and been able to work on some pretty cool stuff."

"That's great to hear. How's your mom and sister?"

"They were here recently and you'll never guess who came with them. Mike's mom came by. Mister Watts died earlier this year and she wanted to tell me that she forgives me for what happened and made me promise to try and forgive myself."

"That must have made you feel good."

"Good but tough, lots of memories came back to the surface. I think about the accident all the time but I hadn't seen her since the trial and remember how she and Mister Watts looked at me, wanting me dead."

"Have you forgiven yourself? What about parole?"

"I'm thinking about forgiving myself but haven't tried for parole. Almost everyone has been pushing me for a lot of years to do it but I'm not deserving of it. Mike and Don didn't get a parole option."

"Oh Billy, when are you going to learn? You did the crime and you've owned it but don't let it be your identity. So many victims get their identity from their ailments or circumstances. You need a new identity, what happened was an accident, quit letting it be your life." She squeezed his hand as he sat there thinking, a tear in his eye.

"I can't believe you're here Dana, feel like I'm in a dream. You look so incredibly beautiful." All of his problems had melted away and suddenly he felt like the high school boy at that party, the night they first kissed.

"You're silly, I'm old and tired looking." But she appreciated the comment and missed him sorely. "Been a while since anyone told me that."

"Are you still married to the good doctor? Tell me about you, it's pretty obvious what I've been up to the past decade."

"Still married, we have two girls, age seven and four. I am going back to work next year when Kenzie goes to kindergarten. It's been great to be there for them but I miss interacting with adults."

"Two daughters? You're going to be in trouble, especially if they take after you in the looks department."

"Don't make them grow up too fast, I'm not ready to deal with them as teenagers. Let's see, we live on the east side of Cleveland, in Moreland Hills, you ever hear of it?"

"No, what's it like?"

"Semi-rural, close to parks, the river. It's really a beautiful place. We moved there after Laurel was born, she's the older one. It's a nice, safe place to raise a family and there is plenty of land for the girls to explore, ride horses and have friends over. Dad is retired now so my parents visit quite a bit, we've got a guest house on the property. He's been lecturing part time at Case, something he always wanted to do."

"Sounds good. What about the Mr.?"

"He's a doctor at Hillcrest hospital in Mayfield Heights, runs the internal medicine department. Basic doctor workaholic, never realized how hard it must have been for my dad to spend so much time with us, it's too easy to get buried in work when you're a doctor."

"Are you still in touch with anyone from school?"

"Nah, have a new circle of friends, mostly people with kids our kids age. Haven't seen anyone from school except at the periodic reunion or fundraiser. Also don't go to New York anymore since my parents come down here all the time, feels like a foreign country when I go there, things have changed a lot. Downtown Westfield is a ghost town since the plant shut down, there are rumors that the hospital might be next, which would devastate the town."

"Oh man, I hope that doesn't happen. Ellie is a nurse there and her husband works there too. They'd probably have to move to find work and my mom would be up there all alone."

"More reason to get paroled?" She squeezed his hand again. He hadn't noticed but his hands were sweating, he was so lost in seeing her. Bill didn't answer her right away, thought how much torture it would be for him to be out of prison but unable to be with Dana.

"Earth to Bill? Where did you go?" Dana was still holding his hand but her foot was going up and down, making the table vibrate. Bill could tell she was getting ready to leave but he wanted her to stay as long as possible.

"Just thinking about parole and wishing that you could stay longer."

She smiled and her green eyes lit up the room, a moment that Bill would never forget, even if she never came to visit again. Dana slowly leaned across the table and kissed him gently on the lips, the smell of her perfume going to his brain and the feeling of her lips a long lost memory. "I have to go but promise that it won't be ten years before you see me again."

"Do you go online? Can I email you?".

"Sure, I forgot that you work in the office and probably have access to the web." She took out a piece of paper and wrote down her address. His hand felt cold and numb without hers touching it. Bill stood, took the paper and hugged her for a long time, not saying a word.

"I will see you soon" she said, squeezing her old lover one last time before quickly turning and walking away. It had been an emotional visit for her and she sat in her car crying from the flood of emotions. The amount of courage required to break the ice after all that time had taken a toll but now that the chasm had been crossed she wouldn't wait so long again. As she got on the freeway and started the cross town trek, Dana wondered if she and Bill would have married had things not happened the way they did. She daydreamed of the feel of his hand and the softness of those lips, and even let her thoughts stray further.

"Who was that, Miller? Haven't seen her before."

"An old friend, haven't seen her in ten years."

"Hopefully she'll come around more, generally the view around here is filled with trailer trash and crack whores."

Bill chuckled and floated back to his cell for the night. When he woke in the morning his heart was still light from Dana's visit. The coffee tasted better, the office seemed brighter and Bill was whistling in his chair, thinking about what he was going to say in his email to Dana. He heard some commotion from the other side of the office and saw Kathy coming over, a somber look on her face.

"What's up Mom? Rough weekend? You'll never guess who came to see me yesterday."

"Hopefully it wasn't someone who's been to Korea recently."

"Korea? Did I miss a joke?"

"It's not a joke, there's been a smallpox outbreak in Korea, hundreds of people are dead. According to CNN, this is a new strain that isn't protected by the vaccines we got as kids. My kids weren't even vaccinated, smallpox was thought to be eliminated from the world."

Bill couldn't focus on what she was saying, his world slipping away. "That's unbelievable, is there any sign of it outside Korea?"

"Not yet but hundreds of flights went all over the world. Seems like it was spread by putting the virus into a batch of Coke that was bottled in Seoul, the South Korean government thinks that it was only distributed to local grocery stores, not the airport or any hotels. A North Korean group is claiming responsibility but the government says they have no knowledge or evidence of it. There is a lot of talk that this is reminiscent to the Taliban in Afghanistan." She was shaking her head as she walked to the kitchen, leaving Bill sitting there staring in to space, so far away from his daydream world of Dana.

Bill logged on to CNN, where there were pictures of some of the infected people, bodies being carried out of houses and even eerie scenes showing the quarantine zones, the people as dead looking as holocaust death camp prisoners. Despite all of the death, there was some encouraging news and additional information that made it seem like they'd contained it to the country. The death toll in Korea was expected to stay under one thousand and the government estimated that containment is approaching ninety five percent. Bill's mouth was dry but his forehead was wet with sweat, it was freaking him out to have the reality of the situation smack him in the face. People have died and he may have been able to prevent that by coming forward sooner. Between the confusion over Dana's visit and the disaster in Korea, Bill felt himself slipping away. He heard Don's voice from across the office and thought "oh shit", it wasn't going to be easy for him to hide or focus on The Cause. He wondered if he should just open up to Don and tell him everything, which immediately seemed like a dumb idea. It wasn't even nine in the morning and his world was unraveling, needed to hold it together. He opened his purchasing project to make him appear busy if anyone walked by and decided that he better not wait to find out what was going on with The Cause.

The chemist hadn't been doing much online other than some basic Foundation Chemical company work and a few visits to the Vietnam veteran forums. It wasn't until Sunday afternoon when the interesting traffic hit the computer, between emails from Robert and an update to the website. The email talked about the victory in Korea and how the operative had escaped without infection. It then directed the members of the group to log on to the website and to quit using email to communicate, implying that the government would be watching a lot more carefully now that there was an outbreak and imminent threat to America's safety. Bill was trying to keep it together and hoped that he wasn't too late.

The website didn't look much different at first, sending Bill into a panic. He noticed the new button, innocuous in appearance, which simply stated 'action'. Clicking it, he was transported to a new page that showed some of the pictures he'd seen on CNN along with pages of text, all written by Robert. The rollercoaster continued for Bill as he read the chilling words on the screen, the hair on the back of his neck up and his arms turned to gooseflesh at the hate spewing from the site. The crux of the text was how the United States government was going to pay for its past sins and provided a detailed articulation of a plan that Steve had come up with to surgically remove the government from the American population. By infecting the government after the American population had been vaccinated, we would be rid of the scum and be able to start anew. The military would be left intact except for those highest in the government in order to insure safety during the transition. Robert called it America 2.0 and wondered if he'd be able to apply for a trademark. Bill read on, disgusted and intrigued by the intricate plan, which would imbed the virus into a type of time bomb that would sit in the bodies of all government officials at the federal and state level and even to the local level where possible.

The government was already scrambling to find a vaccine for the new strain and had uncovered the 'project' that the CDC had on record, along with the novel work that Steve and Robert had been doing around vaccination using the bioresorbable polymers. This was still top secret but it was known across most of the three letter agencies in Washington and all were clamoring for access to the vaccine, not caring if it had been tested or not. The plan was coming together perfectly, they were to meet Monday and pack for a field trip to D.C., where they would work with the CDC to get the vaccine administered, starting with the Oval office and moving to the House of Representatives and Senate. There was enough contaminated material to administer to thousands of recipients and they had plenty of the actual vaccine, enough to protect hundreds of thousands of Americans. The plan was to continue production of the real vaccine and travel with the smallpox to make sure those who deserved it were given it. They would have a three week window and then government employees would start dropping like flies. By then the majority of Americans would be protected and those that weren't would be deserving of the fate that went before them. Robert closed the note by telling the team that their bravery made them heroes and that they needed to stay focused for the next few weeks and that he was tempted to stay behind to watch everything fall apart. Bill was cold by the time he reached the end of the note but knew he needed to go on, had to get this information to Darren.

He copied all of the contents of the website to his computer and then went through his detailed network diagram and removed access and logs from all systems within Foundation, leaving little trace that he'd ever been there, knowing that with some normal use of the systems all traces would be gone very shortly. Only some of the router and firewall logs would have any evidence, it was impossible to remove everything. Once he removed everything he signed off, hoping that he had eliminated all trails, knowing that Homeland Security was going to be all over the company by this afternoon, probably shutting them down and freezing everything to review the logs.

The chemist's computer was online, so Darren removed the spyware program and all traces and deleted them as best he could. It was likely that they might be found so he put an NSA level disk formatting program on the computer and ran it, making it unlikely that anyone would be able to trace anything after that level of scrubbing was done. He was disconnected from the computer as the process started and he wondered if Steve would go running to Robert and cause an alarm to go off.

There were only three things left to do, the first was to update the website for Darren. Bill pasted in all of the information he had, which included the location of the production site because Robert had provided it to those who needed to travel and help with production of the vaccine. He logged on to the Nigeria site and left a message for Darren in the chat box on the website, telling him that this was all he had and wishing him luck in capturing those responsible before true terror hit our soil. Bill nuked the Nigeria site and ran a timed batch program that would cause the Czechoslovakian site to remove itself and the virtual machine it was installed on in twenty four hours, which would give Darren enough time to get the information but not enough to get court orders to track down who had been using it. Bill sent Darren an anonymous email through the remailing program to let him know the website was updated and then closed all non-work related programs, including his web browser. His heart was beating so fast it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest and he was lucky that Don hadn't come over to catch up.

**Chapter 27  
** Last Minute Planning and Go Dark

Steve and Claire had spent a quiet weekend, reminiscing about their recent trip to Niagara on the Lake, sleeping in and going shopping. They decided to stay in Sunday afternoon and catch up on some reading. Steve stayed in the family room with Claire, ignoring his laptop, trying not to think about what was coming. He couldn't concentrate on the book in his lap so he flipped on the television and turned on the news. All of the news channels were showing Korea, each with red headlines scrolling on the bottom of the screen talking about the smallpox outbreak. He watched with rapt attention and didn't even notice when Claire looked up and asked what was going on. Before long both of them were locked to the screen, the graphic images of the dead being carried out of homes and loaded into ambulances hitting both of them hard, Steve more than he could say.

He thought about the death that he had created in the lab, the grains of smallpox inside the small spheres that he'd carefully walked through construction of with Jay. Even though he had purposely not made them he couldn't help but feel the full weight of responsibility squarely on his shoulders.

"This is incredible Steve, have they said anything about America?"

"Not yet, seems like it's only in Seoul right now." He tried to maintain his composure as he thought about leaving her and what she'd think when she knew the truth. Claire was starting to tear up and the guilt consumed the chemist. He walked over and sat next to her on the couch, taking her hand in his. She was squeezing it hard, eyes glued to the television. There wasn't much to say at this point and all of the channels were running through the same information every ten minutes or so, followed by an interview with some "expert" who gave their opinion of what was happening and what Americans should be concerned about. All of the networks were putting out an open call on behalf of the government to anyone who had come back from or through Korea in the past week, which was tens of thousands of people. They all needed to be placed under observation and the Center for Disease Control was working with the Red Cross to set up centers around the country for those who had been in or through the city of Seoul. A while later, both numb, the anchorwoman announced that the cause had been discovered and it appeared to be tied to a batch of Coke that was bottled locally in Seoul and distributed only to grocery stores around the city, it didn't appear that any of the affected bottles made it to the airport or any major hotels, which caused a huge amount of relief to the current expert on Fox News. "We've probably dodged the proverbial bullet this time Jane but this new strain is in the wild and the United States government had better be working on a vaccination before the country collapses from panic." The anchorwoman stared into the camera with that patented vacant look and repeated the final words the expert had said as they broke to commercial.

Claire was visibly shaken by all of this and Steve knew it was time to talk to her about it. He shut off the television and looked into her eyes. "Please don't worry Claire, we need to talk though."

She cocked her head, couldn't remember the last time he'd said that to her. It was always her who started the conversation. She was going to ask him what he wanted to talk about but he continued unprompted.

"I've been working on a top secret government project that is developing a vaccine for this new strain of smallpox using the bioresorbable spheres. Sorry I couldn't tell you before, but we didn't think there would be a breakout of the virus before we finished our preparation. We've done some testing and we're working with the CDC to validate the vaccine is safe for humans but I took it a few weeks ago and haven't had any major side effects. Remember when I was sick? That was due to the vaccine, it gives some of the symptoms of smallpox."

"I thought something was going on but couldn't figure it out. This is the first time you haven't been telling me about what you're working on. It makes sense now, at one point I thought it was another woman."

He put his arms around her. "Nothing like that, I just couldn't talk about it. Nobody at Foundation knows what I've been working on, just that it was a matter of national security. Now that there's been an outbreak, we'll probably have to proceed with giving the vaccine without full testing, it's better than taking the chance of an outbreak here in the U.S."

"How did the government find out about this?"

"I'm not even sure, only been told the minimum needed to do the job. Haven't ever met anyone from the CDC, been working through the CIA, which is where the lead came from that there was a new strain of smallpox out there and some noise that there might be an attack in Asia somewhere. I guess we know where now."

She hugged him and held him very close, nearly smothering him with her enormous breasts. "I am so proud of you, your invention is going to save millions of lives. You're a hero Steven."

He froze, thinking that she's not going to feel like this for long. "I don't know about that Claire but hopefully everything will go fine when we start vaccinating. I'm going to have to go to D.C. tomorrow based on what's happening in Korea but I want to vaccinate you before I leave. I don't know what I'd do if you got infected."

"Can you give me the vaccine in the morning? I don't want to get sick before you leave for D.C. Need to give my hero some loving tonight." She pushed his head gently to her chest and purred. Steve hoped he could perform with the knowledge of what he'd done and the fact that he was leaving in his head. They turned the television back on and watched for updates, but there wasn't anything of significance in terms of new information.

They ordered Chinese food delivery for dinner and Claire was upbeat despite the dire circumstances of the smallpox outbreak, locked in the notion that her introvert of a husband was a hero. Steve sat there thinking this was the last supper, the last time they'd ever eat together, after all of these years he was going to be a bachelor again. A felon, alone in the world, trying to hide and maybe create a new life.

After dinner they talked on the front porch, watching the young families stroll by, kids in tow on cycles, tricycles and on foot. Many waved and a few said hello, going on with their lives in spite of the possibility of epidemic. Steve was glad they didn't have kids, would have compounded everything. Maybe he'd write Claire a letter from D.C., tell her everything so that she'd understand a little more. They had some ice cream sundaes and looked for something other than the news to watch. They watched a couple of programs, flipping through the news channels during commercials. The news was a bit encouraging, the Korean government has isolated the source of the virus to a local Coke plant and all of the infected bottles appeared to have been sold in the city of Seoul, so the breakout was most likely localized to the city itself. Most of the contaminated lots had been returned and the anchorman thanked the world for computers.

Claire and Steve made love that night and she fell asleep, leaving him staring at the ceiling in the dark. The hours passed but sleep would not come. He thought about getting up but wanted to spend as much time as possible with Claire. Steve dozed off at some point and woke in the pre dawn light to prepare for his trip. He packed quickly, taking a couple of outfits for different climate types and packing some of the small personal items he didn't want to leave behind, including several photos of Claire.

She woke up when he was loading his bags into the car. "Coffee is ready, let's have breakfast." They ate together but didn't say much and before long it was time for Steve to leave. He had the syringe on the living room table. Claire picked it up and looked at it in the light. "So these dots are little spheres?"

"Yes, the vaccine requires multiple boosters to be effective so each one is wrapped inside those little spheres and will release over the next few days. It saves the complication of tracking down people to give them a series of shots." He checked for bubbles and then gave her the shot in her shoulder, Claire barely flinching.

"Even though it seems safe in the U.S. now, I'm glad that you gave me the vaccine now. My hero." She kissed him and held him tight. "I'm going to miss you, hurry back from D.C. so we can take another trip. I've got something in mind that I'll book for later this summer, in case it takes you longer than you think."

Steve felt like the world's biggest heel at that moment, looking down into his wife's blue eyes, which were welled up with tears. She was so proud of him and he was so ashamed at that moment. He tried like hell to keep some sense of composure, hugging her close so she wouldn't see him screwing his facial muscles around to stop the tears from coming. Had to leave now. "I've got to go Claire, Robert's going to have a fit if I'm late."

They hugged again and he promised to call later, either on the road to D.C. or when he got there. She was waving as he pulled out of the driveway and he wished he could have a picture of that moment. Steve was as sad as he's ever been on that drive, knowing he'll probably never see her again and even if he could she'll not want anything to do with him. He couldn't shake it but needed to compose himself as he pulled into the project site, surprised to see a few cars already in the lot.

Steve checked the lab and it was empty, lights not even on, so he went upstairs and found everyone in the war room, eating donuts and celebrating the huge victory in Korea. "The man of the hour is here." Robert said, holding his jelly donut up as a toast to the chemist. "Sit down, have some coffee and donuts, we have a lot to celebrate. And I've been thinking about your plan, thinking about it a lot. The sheer and simple brilliance of it reminds me of the little spheres you invented, just perfect for a surgical removal of the government."

Robert's excitement is contagious, the others at the table proud and excited in the moment and ready to proceed with their plan. Robert read the team the message he'd placed on the website last night, all of them swelling with pride at the thought of what they'd accomplished and looking forward to the final stages of The Cause. Steve's mind pushed aside the thoughts of Claire and thought about the destruction of the United States government, rallied by the words coming from the bird man's mouth.

"We still have a lot to do. Since we've changed the plan, we've got team members coming in from around the country to help us produce more vaccine here as well as help with the Washington activity. Things are going to get tight as hell everywhere because the CDC is picking us as the lead supplier of the vaccine and we'll have all kinds of three letter agencies crawling up our asses shortly. I've kept the location quiet but will have to release it once we make it to D.C."

"Where are we setting up in D.C.?" Steve asked.

"We'll be staying at the hotel you were at last time and working out of an area that's easily accessible from the White House and Capitol Building, hidden off some of the connecting tunnels so we don't attract too much attention and can efficiently deliver the virus to those who matter most."

The meeting broke up and everyone was busy packing up, double checking that they had the right stuff in the right places, didn't want to mix up the vaccine with the virus. Steve wanted to send a note to Rob, his boss at Foundation Chemical, to tell him that he was going to be out of touch for the next couple of weeks. He logged on to his computer and was checking his chemical company mail when his computer crashed and wouldn't reboot. He was freaking out because he was also going to write an email to Claire to tell her he loved her. He tried to restart the computer but it didn't work, nothing was happening. Robert poked his head around the corner of the office, hearing Steve muttering in frustration. "What's going on?"

"My computer just died, won't even boot up now."

"Don't worry about that, we need to get moving so we're in D.C. by dark, you can get on another computer or get that one fixed when we get to Washington."

They were driving down together in a couple of rented Suburbans, leaving their vehicles behind. Robert was pacing nervously around the production area downstairs, anxious to get on the road. Jay was going to stay back and lead up the production of the vaccine, working with the CDC and whoever else felt a need to show up. It was likely that the CDC would pick up on the production instructions so they could build their own batches in Atlanta, they could probably make ten times the amount every day. Even though Steve knew Jay would be fine, he was reluctant to leave production to someone else. Robert wouldn't let Steve stay behind, he was the lynchpin for D.C.

Everything was ready to go around lunch. The team met in the war room and Robert let them know that everything was going dark tomorrow, once everyone was in place in D.C. and Cleveland. "We're going to pull down the website tomorrow, it's too risky to leave t up. I have bought a couple dozen prepaid cell phones with all the other numbers programmed in, don't use any other form of communication. Is that clear?"

General head nodding followed, no questions were asked, the air in the war room thick with anticipation. The breakup of the meeting was anticlimactic, no more rallying cries or group cheers. Everyone met downstairs by the Suburbans, did one last check that everything was ok and shook hands or hugged goodbye, saying they'd meet again soon and should be brushing up on their Swahili and getting ready to be really tan. The mood was light as they loaded up and hit the highway, destruction dead ahead.

**Chapter 28  
** D-Day

Darren rubbed his tired eyes and tried to focus on the clock in the lower corner of his laptop's screen. It was six fifty and he'd been going all night, looking for information and hoping that Jack would update the website with additional information. Neither had happened but he'd still been unable to sleep. He called Monica to wish her a good morning and told her he'd caught a few hours of sleep in his office.

"Like hell you did, you've been up all night."

"How do you do that? You're right, I haven't slept and I look like shit."

"Any progress?"

"Nothing major, waiting for Jack, hopefully he'll come through for us. Otherwise this group is just smoke and may show up anywhere. The panic level is down since the news came out that it appears the outbreak was isolated to Korea but there is a tension on the Hill that I haven't seen in my time here, probably about what it was after 9/11."

"Is it safe for me to go in the office or should I stay home today?"

"Can you work from home? I would feel better knowing you weren't out until we've got this thing cracked."

"Ok, wasn't looking forward to getting ready anyway. When are you coming by me?"

"Not sure, I'm going to be stuck in the city until something breaks. Miss you and love you lots."

"You too Darren, please try and get some sleep and stay safe."

"I will, talk to you later." He went in search of coffee and found that people were coming in to the office, some of them hadn't heard yet, which was amazing to him. There was a briefing by Tony Flores, the director of Darren's section of Homeland Security, who dispelled all of the rumors and myths going around and brought everyone up to date. It was quite boring for Darren to watch and he dozed off for most of it. When the briefing was done he went back to digging, fresh coffee and donut in hand, he needed all the caffeine and sugar he could get. He was called into James' office, where his boss and Tony Flores were talking.

"Darren, I want to thank you for all that you've been able to provide so far and I have some information I couldn't share out there because we don't know if anyone inside our agencies are involved in this plot. There is a small group of us from the CIA, NSA, CDC, FBI and Homeland who are sharing information that is very delicate. We have word from the CDC that there is a smallpox project in that agency right now but they haven't made the link to the current breakout. The CDC is sending a team to the city with the hope that they can start administering a vaccine to the government, we will need stability in the event of an outbreak. We're not sure where we'll be setup but all of the major agencies will be there to get the vaccine and to assist with getting the government vaccinated. Please let us know if you learn anything new."

Darren agreed and went to check his mail and the website. Jack has been busy and there is a lot of new information. Darren wants to raise the alarm but takes the time to slowly go through the rhetoric and the information on the site, everything coming together in a hurry. He is chilled by the plan and the messages on the site. He sent a link to the site across to James and Tony, printed a copy in case something happened to the site or network and then ran down the hall to James' office. "I've got it, they're going to administer the virus inside the vaccine somehow. The people bringing the vaccine today are responsible."

James and Tony reviewed the information and checked out the website for themselves, angered at the words and wondering how the hell this had happened right under their noses. "Who the hell is this Jack? Are you sure he's on the up an up? What if this is a major diversion and the real attack is happening somewhere else?" Tony rifled questions at Jack like an interrogator.

"It's what my gut is telling me sir. This is someone who has somehow stumbled upon this plot but can't come forward. I am willing to bet my career on this information."

"You may be betting more than your career here, this may be the lives of millions of Americans at stake." Flores shot back. "What do you think James?"

"I'm going with Darren on this one, let's break up this vaccination party and take these bastards down hard." They worked on the plan of attack and how they'd approach the situation, immediately dispatching a team to Cleveland and the address that had been provided for the production facility, even though all indication was they were working on a real vaccine there. There was an immediate need to contain any live smallpox samples that were still in the wild and to destroy them as soon as possible. The main thrust would be at the vaccination point in D.C., where they'd meet the terrorists head on and try to take them alive in order to get any additional information. Darren was asked to lead up the tactical team and take the terrorists down.

Steve woke up early and took a walk from the hotel down to the National Mall, thinking about all that had happened since the first time he walked the same stretch of earth prior to the fateful meeting with Robert. He thought about that trip that he and Claire would never take, wondering just the same what surprise she had in mind. The morning was warm, leftover dew on the grass tracking the progress of the lanky chemist as he walked toward the Washington monument. He strolled past the obelisk and continued toward the World War two monument, hoping that he could gaze into the waterfall and calm his mind before the inevitable occurred today.

The monument was nearly empty, a couple of joggers making the rounds and a few stray early morning walkers. Steve was able to find a quiet spot and think about his life and all that had been since he joined the military. He thought about his brother, dead in the prison back near Cleveland and how his whole family line was going to vanish, there were no other living Pfisters in his line. Trying to concentrate, he could feel the power calling him from beyond the grove of trees in the distance. The wall was beckoning and Steve had to heed the calling. He started walking but didn't even get to the reflecting pool when his cell phone rang, Robert on the other end. "Where are you Pfister?"

"Taking a walk Robert, I thought we were meeting at eight."

"Meeting has been pushed up to seven thirty, same place. Make sure you're there." The bird man hung up before Steve could respond. He walked faster, thinking there would be enough time to see the wall again before going to the meeting. Almost out of breath, he saw the sun reflecting off the granite and viewed the wall in a completely different way than he had at night. It was more powerful this time, as he went to the book and found the names of his fallen friends. They were the reason for this mission and he would get strength from them now, when he needed it most. In his mind, he was back in time, young and naïve, headed for Southeast Asia after boot camp. The visit had cemented his desire to complete the mission, trying to make up for some of the misery the government has put on him and so many other veterans. He noticed the hour and walked double time back to the hotel, arriving just as the meeting was starting. There were a hell of a lot of people in the room and Steve felt himself go into ostrich mode, burying himself into the woodwork, though that didn't last long.

Introductions were made and there were representatives from the CDC, NSA, Homeland Security, CIA, FBI and the joint chiefs. This was a very high powered meeting in terms of attendees and they were strictly business. Robert gave them some background on why they'd started the program, Steve's invention and how they'd been working over the past few months in case of something like what had happened in Korea. The CDC representative reluctantly said that they'd been partnering but there had been no field trials. The formulation of the vaccine in the bioresorbable spheres appeared to be an accurate representation as well as a prudent delivery mechanism.

"How long does it take until the vaccine is fully active in the body?" One of the feebs at the table asked Robert.

"Less than a week, the body needs time to recover. There are flu-like symptoms that get better as the time progresses." There were a few additional questions about the side effects, and then Steve showed them on the board how the spheres work and told them about the concept of bioresorbable. Heads were nodding around the table, everyone impressed by the invention and timeliness of the availability.

The next hour was spent planning the day, getting the site set up and then an orderly fashion to get government employees the vaccine. The President was out of the country so they would start with the cabinet and then move to the Senate and House, which would take most of the day today. The next few days would focus on additional key government employees and military leaders. There were also requests flooding in from around the country to get state and key big city governments vaccinated as soon as possible. The CDC would take responsibility for transportation and vaccination of the non-D.C. recipients. Robert mentioned that there was adequate supply to make sure there was coverage for all the major governments around the country, including second and third tier cities. They needed to insure rapid vaccination in case there was an attack being planned. The team assigned leads from each organization to liaise with one another and put together the site and logistics for the vaccination. The Cause team were all assigned to this part of the project since it was the most urgent and would start today. They would likely peel off and support other activities after today.

Agreement was made to spend the next couple of hours pulling together the logistics and then reconvening for a working lunch, after which they'd start the vaccination process. The team broke up, the core team heading for the Capitol and the balance dispersing to their various agencies to provide updates and determine the vaccination order once the key government members had been inoculated.

The Homeland Security representative came back and gave Tony Flores an update on what was happening, Tony thanking him for the information and telling him he'd get him a list in the afternoon. He immediately called James and Darren to his office as soon as the agent left and told them to hurry it up.

"It's coming together Darren. There was just a meeting held between multiple agencies and the developer of some new vaccine invention. They are planning to start vaccinating government officials after lunch, off the tunnels between the White House and Capitol Hill. They're going to bring everything they have, ostensibly so the CDC can take over management of all the vaccines going forward. Now I'm going to ask you again, is this a vaccine or is this the virus?"

"Again, I don't know with certainty but I believe the information we have warrants the use of force to curtail any vaccination using the material in the hands of this group of individuals."

"What if this is a smokescreen for something else? What if there is an attack that is going to happen concurrently using another delivery method like the Coke one? Passing the virus in the bubbles caused by carbonation was quite ingenious, what if they got the virus into the air systems of government buildings?"

"Why this diversion then? What do they gain by this? This is the perfect opportunity to execute what is written on that website, the surgical removal of the core of the United States government."

"If that site is real, if this Jack has caught lightning in a bottle, if if if. I'm not sure we have enough intel to make this move."

"We don't have much to lose here, Director. If we make a mistake all we've done is taken the vaccine offline until we can test these little spheres and see what they really contain. It can't take the CDC more than a day or two to do disassemble them and see what's inside."

"It's easy for you to say, it's not your ass on the line here." The older man thought for a good minute, eyes closed like he was praying. "Ok, let's do this, I think the risk is worth the reward. Darren, take our tactical team, all of them. I don't want any mistakes." They worked out a plan, needing to isolate the material from the terrorists and making sure none of them got to their phones to alert the people at the production facility. Tony called back the agent who had been at the morning meeting and briefed him on what his role was, essentially to separate the group from the material. Darren was instructed to take them alive if possible, they would like to get answers and it would help to have several of them to interrogate.

The tactical team was assembled thirty minutes prior to the start of the meeting, hiding out around the block from a pair of tunnel entrances that would trap the terrorists. There were questions about whether or not they were at risk for exposure but Darren told them to just stay away from any syringes and they should be ok. As a precaution they all took respirators to wear into the takedown, which made the rough crew look even more menacing.

Robert and Steve thought they were on the precipice of something truly revolutionary as they waited for the government officials to finish eating. They had transferred the entire contents of the Suburbans to the CDC, who were now responsible for the safe keeping. The bird man was nervous with the material no longer in their possession but knew there was no other option. Mickey and Robert were making small talk, never having been to the tunnels between the Capitol and the White House and wondering if the President was going to come home early to get his vaccination. Steve sat off to the side, quietly contemplating his fate. He thought about calling Claire but knew that he'd have a chance once the vaccinations were under way. The rest of the team showed up about ten minutes early and had the infected vaccines with them.

"Before we get started, we'd each like to get vaccinated." The FBI rep said, stepping forward to the table for an injection. The first CDC doctor asked Steve to come over to give them final instructions.

"Shake up the bottle a bit to make sure the spheres are dispersed in the liquid fairly evenly. Then draw it up and give the injection intramuscularly, any large muscle will work. We used the arm when we had ours, remember that there will be side effects for the next few days and maybe up to a week." The doctor nodded and so did the FBI agent, who was the first recipient. Robert stood off to the side and nudged Mickey a little bit, knowing that the revolution had begun.

There were only a couple of minutes to go and the room was feeling the calm before the storm. Over five hundred people were expected to come through the door the rest of the day. As it got to the top of the hour, a man came through the door with a Homeland Security badge on.

"Our first customer is here." The CDC doctor said to Darren, who was looking around the room.

Darren whistled and before anyone could blink there were ten agents blanketing the room with automatic weapons, resembling aliens in appearance. "Everyone stay put, nobody move a muscle. This is a takedown, step away from the tables and get up against the wall.

"There's obviously some kind of mix up here, we're working on something top secret, you should think twice before interrupting this operation." The FBI agent said, growling through clenched teeth.

Robert was panicking, this was not supposed to happen. There was no way he could be taken alive, didn't want to face the consequences. He reached for his phone to alert the others and was caught across the jaw by an automatic weapon, knocking the phone from his hand. Mickey reached for his gun to defend Robert and was shot, now chaos was taking over as people were screaming. Darren called for calm and quiet and it took about one minute for everyone to listen to him. "We have information that this material isn't a vaccine but actually live smallpox in those little spheres. We're not positive but there's no way we can take that chance folks."

A CIA agent stared at Darren, green around the gills. "I just took the vaccine, most of us did. Are we going to die?"

Darren was working on a response when he noticed the man with the broken jaw reaching in his coat again, a gun coming out aimed directly at him. The man's black eyes were filled with more hate than Darren had ever seen for the second before his head exploded from the tactical team member's shot. Darren pulled his gun and put it to the remaining man's head until they had him cuffed. Someone needed to be alive to talk and this geek was as good as any, didn't look like the violent type anyway. He called back to the office and told them there had been two casualties and several people had been inoculated with the suspected smallpox. Instructions were given to isolate those who had been given an injection and to take the prisoner to the White House, where a special interrogation room had been set up.

It happened so fast that Steve could hardly tell what happened, at least until Robert's head exploded and there was a gun in his face. He was cuffed and they were leading him out of the room when he stopped. "I will help, we can save the ones who took the injections. They aren't contagious either."

Darren looked at the dejected man, who was tall, lanky and old. "You must be the chemist, let's go talk." He was happy that they had the man behind the spheres, it would help them get to the bottom of things faster. As the tactical team escorted him to interrogation, Darren called the office to report in, even though he was repeating some of what was told earlier. "Two out of the three terrorists are dead and it appears that about ten people received injections before we interceded. There was no communication back to the project site and we're taking one survivor to custody. He appears to be cooperative and has provided details about the vaccines, it seems we might be able to save those who were injected."

"Great work Darren, looks like your source was accurate after all. Thanks for believing in your gut."

"Thank you sir." Darren walked with Steve, who hung his head low, not saying anything else on the walk over. Inside the interrogation room Steve was asked about the contents of all the live smallpox and he confirmed that it was all in the spheres with them, with the exception of the batch that was sent to Korea, which was all used in the bottling plant attack. He told them how the spheres worked, the CDC representatives recording the information and transmitting it real-time to their lab in D.C., where they would investigate whatever the chemist revealed. They talked about the project site and Steve was open about all of the exit points, the lack of neighbors, and approximately how many people they'd find at the site and where they'd be working. Darren drew up a brief schematic that the chemist validated and it was sent to the team on the ground in Independence Ohio.

An hour later word came that the Ohio site was contained and all prisoners had been taken alive, no casualties. The CDC was in route to Ohio to validate the lack of smallpox at the site, which was quarantined.

Steve cried as he talked about their plan to take the government down, why they were doing it and all of the steps along the way. He couldn't believe it when Darren told him that Robert had never served in the military, must have been using it to recruit volunteers for his project. "Turns out he was a very sick, twisted man who just wanted to make a mark on history." Steve was in shock, wishing that he'd also been shot in that room, wishing he'd never invented the spheres or met the evil little bird man. He was locked in a special cell somewhere in the city and put on suicide watch. There were no phone calls, no way to let Claire know that he was ok. He wondered how she'd view the news when it came out.

By late afternoon they knew the composition of the spheres and validated what the chemist had told them. They gave vaccines to the ones who'd been injected and isolated them until they were certain that they didn't get infected. It was going to be a long month for those folks. There were no signs of smallpox in Ohio and that site was completely locked down so it posed no threat. Darren couldn't believe how close they'd come to destroying the bulk of the United States government.

**Chapter 29  
** Wrap Up and a Hint

There were two dead bodies, nine prisoners and ten people in medical isolation; no way this would be completely buried from the media. The American public wanted answers about smallpox and needed assurance that the threat was gone. The first stories broke the next morning, with 'unnamed sources' talking about the terrorist plot and takedown. It was front page news all over the country and Bill heard about it first thing in the morning, before he had a chance to log on to his computer.

"They were working nearby, in the prison." Rich James said.

"So close, hope none of that stuff got out around here."

Bill listened intently, finding out that they were busted in D.C. and also here in Ohio, with nine in custody that would likely receive the death penalty for the terror they'd caused. "It could have been so much worse, I hope they keep that stuff locked up tight." Bill added to the conversation.

"I'm sure they will, from what I heard on the radio this morning it was a real close call and a few people had received injections that might have infected them if not caught in time. The plan was to wipe out the entire government and give citizens the real vaccine to cause a new revolution."

Bill left the kitchen and checked the news sites, learning all that was discussed and more. They were not releasing the name of the chemist who'd been captured, apparently the technical brains behind the method of attack. Bill knew who it was and wondered how the man was doing. He knew what it felt like to kill and to pay the price for the crime. There was a certain amount of pride knowing that he'd had a role in bringing down the plot and he wished that he could call Darren Ward and introduce himself. To him it was retribution for some of the things he'd done and all the pain he'd caused others. He thought about parole, wondered if that was something he would ever really pursue. It was time to get back to work, there was plenty he needed to do for the prison, time to leave the detective work to the professionals.

Steve Pfister sat in isolation in his cell, wondering if the world knew what he'd done. An attorney had come by who would represent him but the evidence was so great that the only real hope was for life in prison.

"I'm going to plead guilty." Steve told him.

"That's your choice but you do have options."

"Tell them I'm guilty and I waive my right to a jury trial." The attorney seemed to understand and asked if Steve wanted him to talk to his wife.

"Please tell her what I've done and that I don't expect her to come to the trial. Most of all tell her I love her and I'm sorry."

The attorney agreed and left the visitors room, Steve taken back to his cell, which reminded him of all he fought to escape in Vietnam. There was no way he was going to spend the rest of his life here, would kill himself if the government let him live. He was completely numb, especially with the knowledge that he'd been used by Robert.

Before moving back to work there was one more thing Bill wanted to do. He opened his anonymous remailer program and put Darren's address in. He thanked him for believing in him and for taking down the terrorists before a tragedy occurred. Bill toyed with the idea of giving him his identity, thinking that Darren might keep it quiet if he asked him to but decided he couldn't do that. "If I ever get out, I'll look you up" was the last line of the email and he signed it J.T. (Jack of all Trades). He was smiling as he sent it, knowing that it would drive Darren crazy thinking about it.

###

