SEASON 1

Opening: 2061

In a comfortable Annapolis hotel room, high overlooking the Chesapeake, an alluring woman, TASSIMA MILOVITZ (35), apparently recently awakened and wearing little, opens a case on her bed. From within she withdraws components and assembles a CIEX-branded device resembling a rifle--though it has a long compressed air tube for a barrel. To the current observer we might assume it is a toy due to its synthetic materials and unthreatening appearance. It is electronic and wirelessly connected to a controller device about the size of today's mobile phones. After the rifle-device turns on, Tassima opens a small case and pulls out what appears to be a 6-inch long bullet (a self-guided micro-missile). She inserts it into a portal in the tube, completes the preparation, then sets the whole device on the bed such that it is pointed out of her open balcony door.

On Tassima's handheld device appears the image of a man, along with the name Walter Nicholls and the number BWS287665211456. Tassima taps the image, waits a moment for the tubed device to respond. Then she selects Manual over Auto, and begins to eat her breakfast. Occasionally she glances at the display on her device. It reads "Searching".

32 miles away, inside the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Senator Nicholls of Texas walks with colleagues, angrily denouncing the idea of a trillion dollar no-bid contract for CIEX, with mutterings calling the new President Mengsei incompetent. As the Senator heads toward an exit, he smooths his grey hair and puts on a deep green bowler hat. (Bowler hats and well-appointed suits being the fashion.)

Just as he steps into the daylight (in Washington D.C.), a pale green light glows on Tassima's handheld device (in Annapolis). She casually finishes her bite, then taps the "Send" icon. The air-compressed gun quietly hisses from pressure and suddenly the micro-missile whooshes from the tube.

We stay with the micro-missile as it flies out over the water, banks and slows from the initial propulsion, then ignites its tiny rocket engine, accelerating itself rapidly until it is zipping just under Mach 1 across the terrain, small fins guiding it. As it flawlessly adjusts for buildings, rising and lowering, smoothly turning, we see it is heading for the U.S. Capitol.

Senator Nicholls is moving toward a group of reporters. As he approaches them, he tips his hat and smiles. The first question is asked, but before the Senator can complete his answer, a sudden impact nearly rips his head off. The blood-splattered crowd scrambles in horror, running inside the building. The bloody green bowler hat rolls into the street where it is picked up by an unknown hand.

Back at the Annapolis hotel, Tassima finishes her toast while watching her handheld device. Once she gets confirmation of "IMPACT ON TARGET," she walks onto the balcony with her coffee, appreciating the view.

One Month Earlier: AT The PRESIDENTIAL Inaugural Ball

The attendants at the crowded Presidential Inaugural Ball include:

• CHEN MENGSEI (48), President of the United States

• DIANE MENGSEI (40), the First Lady, and their two children, including their 11-year-old son

• PATRICIA JOHNSON (53), Vice President of the United States

• SCOTT ROSE (48), (Samuel Scott Rose - 15 letters), CTO of CIEX

• ANGELA DERASMO (44), Director of the Secret Service, and wife of Wesley Orman

• WESLEY ORMAN (44), (Wesley Mark Orman - 15 letters), was with FBI, now the new White House Chief of Staff, and husband of Angela Derasmo

• DONNA KARPER (50), (Donna Leah Karper - 15 letters), CEO of CIEX

• RYAN WESCOTT (64), Executive Director of EON, Ecumenical Order of the Nazarene.

• TASSIMA MILOVITZ (35), (Tassima Milovitz - 15 letters, if no middle name)

• BEN BELL (25), (Benjamin Lou Bell - 15 letters), First Lieutenant, U.S. Marines, son of one of the astronauts lost in the Lunalpha disaster.

• SENATOR NICHOLLS (71)

• BIYU MENGSEI (38), sister of President Mengsei. A Chinese citizen, and officer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

CIEX CTO Scott Rose and Secret Service Director Angela Derasmo discuss the security there at the Ball, and what was installed that day in the White House. The focus of the discussion is on new CIEX technology deployed to protect President Mengsei's BWS (brainwave signature) from being captured. Rose mentions how CIEX has completed its sweep, removing all traces of President Mengsei's BWS from the CIEX Space Program, where Rose and President Mengsei served when they were in their twenties.

Other discussions fall on EON Director Wescott and Tassima, a 'celebrity' social couple in DC circles. Their age difference, her exotic beauty and mysterious background, and him being the head of the powerful and radical Christian movement called EON, only add to the rumors of Wescott being secretly opposed to the new president, even though Wescott was one of the largest contributors to President Mengsei's campaign. Nevertheless, it's clear that Wescott and VP Johnson are allies. At one point, Tassima and Ben dance.

Biyu Mengsei notices that there are some bees in the ballroom. Attendants are dispatched to help eliminate them. Ben volunteers and leaves. When he returns with some staff, they cannot find any bees.

At one point, CIEX CTO Scott Rose and Biyu are seen dancing together. Biyu is wearing a dark navy dress. It is common knowledge, especially to President Mengsei and the First Lady, that Rose and Biyu are in love, but it is not good "appearances" for the CTO of CIEX to be seen close with a ranking officer in the Chinese People's Liberation Army, even if she is President Mengsei's sister.

Donna Karper, CEO of CIEX, and Senator Nicholls have a tense exchange. Nicholls tells Karper that she will be subpoenaed to give testimony, that the CIEX's Mars Station is turning into another trillion dollar overrun, reminding him of the Lunalpha disaster.

After that, CIEX CEO Karper walks away to talk with EON's Wescott privately, while CIEX CTO Rose confronts Senator Nicholls over what the Senator was saying publically about CIEX. When Biyu gets too close, Rose and Senator Nicholls break off their conversation. Personally, Biyu is offended that Rose would treat her that way, but professionally she understands.

CIEX CEO Donna Karper, Secret Service Director Derasmo, and Tassima, are all wearing different yet similar dresses, each slightly different shades of navy or midnight blue. Chief of Staff Orman, a hot head and alcoholic, had insisted that his wife, Director Derasmo, wear that particular dress, over a burgundy one she had considered wearing.

An unidentifiable person, wearing what appears to be a dark navy coat or dress, brushes by Rose first, and then by President Mengsei’s son, bumping into the boy slightly.

The boy tells the First Lady that he thinks one of those bees stung him. President Mengsei looks at the spot on his son's body, but says he doubts it, or there would be a swollen place and it would still hurt.

WATCHING INAUGURATION EVENTS FROM OTHER LOCATIONS

There is major concern now for President Mengsei's safety, and in particular the President's BWS getting compromised and a hit on him happening like it did to the Senator. Director Derasmo conducts additional investigations and the results are, once again, that the President's BWS is safe, that all coding of it that every happened has been erased, and any attempt to collect it now would be noticed and blocked.

Marcia sees all the national hysteria starting up over the coincidences, and finds her OCD kicking in. Here is a problem worthy of her talents, she thinks. Though considered crazy by many (she is certainly a-social), even within her Truth in Numbers group, Marcia has a gift for patterns. She begins by throwing out the notion that it could all be a "coincidence". To her, there must be someone pulling the strings.

Paul also sees the mass conspiracy reactions mounting. He calls his looney mom, knowing she will all worked up about it. The next day, while at CIEX (as part of the investigation team) Paul is asked by a CIEX Employee how many letters are in Paul's name. Paul says 16, that his middle name is Aaron. The CIEX Employee teases Paul, saying that it's only the extra “a” that keeps Paul from being a killer. Paul asks the CIEX Employee how many letters are in his name, but gets no answer. Others observe the two talking.

The next day, when genetically-enhanced DNA "sniffer dogs" are brought into the Annapolis hotel room, the FBI finds evidence that leads them to the CIEX Employee — who has not shown up for work. Paul is questioned by Director Derasmo about his private conversations with the CIEX Employee.

CIEX CEO Karper and CIEX CTO Rose learn that one of their CIEX employees is the key suspect.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE MURDER OF THE CIEX EMPLOYEE

Now the FBI investigation expands to the death of the CIEX Employee — their best suspect in the assassination of the Senator. This leads them to Paul (the DHS employee in the BWS Enforcement Division) due to his unusual behavior, his conversations with the CIEX Employee, and the CIEX Employee dying at Paul's apartment building. But they also consider that an unknown woman was seen on the security system at Paul's high rise apartment building that evening. To us the woman looks a lot like Tassima, or maybe Marcia, but the FBI and Derasmo have no idea who she is.

At his apartment, Paul succeeds in crafting an improved BWS code-capture-software and implants it into a basic wrist device. He then goes out on the street to try it out, capturing the brainwave signatures of many people, including those with protective headwear (bowler hats and scarves).

When the DHS and FBI, under the assigned leadership of Secret Service Director Derasmo, investigate the murder of the CIEX Employee, they get into Paul's apartment and discover what he is up to relative to BWS.

Paul tries to assure them it was an experiment, to do his job better at the DHS — looking for back door processes. He claims the CTO of CIEX (Rose) asked him to try to break their BWS capture system.

Director Derasmo talks with Rose, and Rose confirms the story. But Paul will stay on Director Derasmo's radar.

Marcia dives deeper into the statistical probability of a third Vice President Johnson also born in the eighth year of the corresponding century. The probability is 117.6 Billion to 1. But some other people named Johnson born in 2008 also went on to significant political success. Marcia begins looking at them, seeking any clues. Did any of them, and especially Patricia Johnson, benefit from any sleight of hand, beyond the usual political endeavors? Marcia also begin creating algorithms that process all 15 letter men.

CIEX CEO Karper demands a meeting with EON Director Wescott, and Wescott assures her that he knows nothing about the CIEX Employee death. This meeting reveals an ongoing collusion between these two, highlighted by the fact that Wescott's group, EON, is the prime shareholder of CIEX, controlling the board and thus the CEO. It's clear that Karper doesn't believe Wescott is so 'uninformed' as he seems.

Rose confronts Paul. In this confrontation we learn that Rose had not instructed Paul to find a backdoor into their BWS capture technology. Rose is impressed with the device Paul is working on...though Paul lies, saying that he hasn't been able to get it to fully work. Rose now has Paul squeezed, working privately for him, or else Rose will reveal to the FBI Paul's lie (the lie about being instructed by Rose to do the backdoor BWS experimentation.)

President Mengsei gets in a virtual-presence-call with his sister, Biyu, but he is upset to learn that their virtual call is being monitored by the CIA (also in the virtual space).

Marcia discovers that in 2032, when Patricia Johnson was 24-years-old, Johnson was at a party in St. Louis where Johnson's girlfriend and a young man both overdosed on synthetic heroin and subsequently died. Though the police were summoned, no public record exists of the event, neither in Nazarene official records, nor in any other press coverage. At first Marcia assumes it was squashed when VP Johnson ran for Governor of Nazarene in 2056. But then Marcia realizes it was erased in 2033, just one year after it occurred. Other than Johnson being the daughter of a prominent Nazarene church leader (now deceased), there were no other VIPs at the party, and similar overdoses were regularly reported. So why would anyone care, at that time, to do a public-records-wipe (not an easy thing to accomplish) — long before Johnson decided to run for public office?

ROSE'S COLLECTING OF LUNALPHA HELMETS

STEALING THE PRESIDENT'S BRAINWAVE SIGNATURE (BWS) CODE

CIEX CTO Rose, an affable man carrying dark secrets, begins his own digging into the CIEX Employee's death. Rose discovers that the CIEX Employee was an entrenched member of EON.

Rose meets with his romantic partner (and President Mengsei's sister) Biyu in a virtual presence chamber and they have a form of 'virtual sex' — which is surprisingly "life-like". During that virtual encounter, Rose asks Biyu if the Chinese have found another helmet for him, adding that the remaining one that Rose is looking for belonged to Biyu's brother, Chen (President Mengsei). Biyu is confused because Chen came home with his helmet from the Lunalpha Disaster. In fact Chen's "helmet of a hero" is on display at the Smithsonian. Rose says President Mengsei moved that helmet to the Oval Office, and that there was another helmet from Lunalpha that belonged to President Mengsei.  Biyu agrees to see what she can find (via the PLA and Chinese Space Program) thinking Rose is wanting to get it as a sentimental gift for her brother.

EON Director Wescott tells CIEX CEO Karper of the curious, old helmet shopping by her CTO (and best-friend of the President), Rose. Wescott says that his instincts tell him that there could be something to it and "suggests" Karper look into it. Karper says she's already aware of it, and that it's nothing, that Rose had found them all. "No," Wescott corrects her, "He's still looking."

A few days later, CIEX internal investigators confirm to Karper that Rose has indeed not stopped looking for helmets from the Lunalpha Disaster — that Rose is looking for one more — and now there are reports that the Chinese PLA are also looking.

Karper decides to meet with Director Derasmo. These two women don't like each other, and Derasmo thinks the whole Rose and helmet thing is nothing, that Karper is just trying to save her job (from Rose taking over CIEX) by painting Rose as being in collusion with the Chinese. But Karper explains to Derasmo that of the five who made it back to Earth (Rose, Mengsei, and the three rescued) from the Lunalpha Disaster, the only other helmet that Rose could be looking for is that of President Mengsei, and it's possible the helmet could still have President Mengsei's BWS.

Derasmo digs in: everyone knows Rose and Biyu love each other, and Rose has proven time and again not to be giving the Chinese U. S. or CIEX secrets — and Rose is certainly not colluding with Chinese operatives to steal one of the U.S.'s greatest state secrets: the President's BWS. Derasmo will do nothing that might embarrass her boss or his sister, and certainly not to help Karper win corporate gotcha points.

Later, when Director Derasmo does ask President Mengsei about his helmet from the Lunalpha Disaster, he shows it to her. Derasmo asks President Mengsei why then would Rose be looking for yet another one? President Mengsei almost reveals himself by his stammer, but then says he doesn't know. After Derasmo leaves, President Mengsei has Rose invited down from Boston to some Washington event.

When Wescott returns to CIEX for information, Karper at first lies about Rose and the fifth helmet. But then Wescott threatens to have her removed as CEO — if she gets to live at all — due to her not being a devout enough EON member, Karper caves and reports that yes, Rose is trying to find a helmet that likely was President Mengsei's — and yes, it may have President Mengsei's BWS still programmed into it — and the Chinese may be seeking it too.

A few nights later, after the Washington event, Rose and President Mengsei talk at the White House. In their conversation we learn more about what really happened 20 years earlier in the Lunalpha Disaster. They have a code of silence between them, and Mengsei thinks Rose should know better than to be drawing any attention to those long-buried events.

Rose assures Mengsei the helmet was just to have been a gift to Mengsei, and that Biyu was helping him with it (which we know isn't the whole truth). Mengsei is upset at Rose's stupidity, for getting Mengsei's sister Biyu involved, and thus the Chinese PLA, and wondering how Rose thought Mengsei could ever explain having two helmets from that same day — he throws the one in the Oval Office at Rose. There is obviously significant tension on this subject between these two men.

Rose confesses that he wanted it to be sure President Mengsei's BWS was not still programmed within it. But even that doesn't make sense to Mengsei as no one would ever know that random helmet with no name tag ever was Mengsei's unless someone went looking — he and Rose are the only two people on Earth who know they switched their helmets before flying back to Earth. And why risk giving the Chinese PLA a head's up and compromising Biyu? For what? Outside the Oval Office, Chief of Staff Orman has overheard some of what was said.

Paul IS TARGETED TO BE THE PATSY

The widespread term among the conspiratorialists for a man with 15 letters in his name and thus a possible would-be-assassin-suspect is a "15". It's a bad thing to be a 15, as 15s are tracked, identified, and monitored by hundreds of thousands of strangers via the all-invasive Net (what the internet is called). This widespread activity is beginning to include female 15s too, and even non-American 15s.

New crackdowns are occurring against people harassing any 15.

President Mengsei's son continues to get worse and the best physicians are baffled by the underlying cause. The idea of the boy reacting from a bee sting still lingers — though President Mengsei still doubts the boy was stung — especially as the supposed bee-sting occurred too long ago to still be causing such a reaction.

The illness is kept a strict secret as Mengsei and the First Lady are already very upset with the popular declarations that one of Mengsei's children must die to fulfill what the masses see as a prophecy. When that "prophecy" gets to the ears of his kids, President Mengsei is outraged.

When Paul confronts his mother for spying on him, Paul learns from her that his middle name came from the first name of his maternal grandfather, Aron — but in the hospital, they incorrectly spelled the name the common way, with the additional "a", as in Aaron. Thus Paul's real name is Paul Aron Saltier — and thus he is a 15. 

Marcia turns to her group, Truth in Numbers, for help, and they come together to replace Marcia's stolen equipment. Though Marcia says it was just a thief, not believing in coincidences, she does feel certain that EON did it. That's exciting to her, because, if it was EON, then her new hypothesis must be right — EON contrived for Patricia Johnson to be the Vice President.

Paul's mother invites Paul to a meet her new friends at the DC chapter of Truth in Numbers — a fringe group of nutters who all think they can predict the correct "15", the person who will assassinate the President. Paul is not happy that these people encourage his mother. At the event, Paul meets Marcia and there is immediate chemistry between them.

To Paul's horror, in front of the group, his mother announces a "funny thing" — even her son is a 15. But don't worry, she says, he's obviously not the right color. Immediately there is a new take on Paul, even from Marcia. Paul is uploaded into the worldwide database of 15s.

This upload pops up on a holographic screen at EON, and is put in a digital report to EON's Director Wescott. Wescott is pleased, because with what CIEX CEO Karper told Wescott earlier about Paul (that Paul was being looked into regarding the CIEX Employee homicide), and Paul's name coming up on the 15 registry — Paul may be just the man for Wescott's purposes.

President Mengsei’S SON DIES

President Mengsei's son dies and the nation goes into mourning. CIEX CTO Rose is with his friend, President Mengsei, through the ordeal, and of course Biyu comes from China. It is noted that Rose is obsessively focused on helping Derasmo protect Mengsei during the funeral.

While there, Biyu gets a meeting with Derasmo, and tries to convince Derasmo that the Chinese government suspects the President's son (Biyu's nephew) was murdered. Plus, the Chinese want to offer their help in investigating the matter — from afar, perhaps they may see things more clearly. Derasmo politely declines and says there is no evidence of any foul play.

But privately Derasmo is conflicted — she is beginning to see potential suspects and possible traitors everywhere. In fact, normally this type of offer (one from the Chinese PLA) is something Derasmo would report to the NSA and CIA, but considering the circumstances, the unknown allies and foes, and who made the offer, Derasmo decides to keep it to herself.

On the streets there is mass hysteria that the death of the President's son is "the sign" that the fates are repeating themselves. Surely now Mengsei will be assassinated. The worldwide conspiracy theorists are out in force. There is no privacy for any 15 — they are tracked and identified by swarms of people who believe they're solving the assassination before it happens. All protections once afforded 15s are removed.

The First Lady tries to convince President Mengsei to resign, that it's bad enough that they lost their boy, why risk the rest of the prophecy coming true? But President Mengsei will not give in and scolds her for believing such nonsense.

Wescott tells Tassima that he needs no connection back to CIEX for LE POREM to be performed properly — thus Rose must go. Tassima offers to kill Rose, but Wescott says no, not before Rose finds President Mengsei’s helmet.

WESCOTT MOVES MORE CHESS PIECES

During a flight on a CIEX Supersonic, Low Orbit Jet to the funeral of the President's son, EON Director Wescott tells CIEX CEO Karper that CIEX should consider moving their headquarters to St. Louis, where EON is headquartered. Karper says Rose would never agree to such a move. Wescott then suggests that Rose should be tossed from CIEX, adding that the "rose" is turning into a "thorn". Karper refuses, that she won’t fire Rose, saying it would cause a huge renewal of focus from the FBI, and would likely get her fired too. But maybe that is Wescott's plan, she asks? Wescott denies it.

With her new, and even better equipment (now a full quantum computer), Marcia runs the statistical odds of all three Presidents, each 100 years apart, all losing a son while in office. The odds are astronomically against it being anything but by design. But by whose design?

• Random chance?

• Supernatural?

• Some form of quantum, dark energy, made evident only by its probative, century-long sine curve — a perfect, ever repeating phenomenon like the universal Golden Rule?

• Or could the boy's death have been orchestrated by EON, in addition to EON making Johnson the Vice President?

That last theory begins to fade from Marcia's internal plausibility rankings. Marcia goes to Paul's place and they discuss the odds. Paul's mother can't help but chime in with her latest theory — aliens.

Marcia has found a friend in Paul, an equal intellectual but also someone who doesn't dismiss her numerology as "unscientific". And in her, Paul has found a gentle, brilliant soul who accepts his long "disappearances" where he works on his "projects" without speaking a word to anyone else. While there, Marcia sees what we see, that Paul is still working secretly at home on his BWS capture technology.

At the son's funeral, Wescott visits with a U. S. Senator from the State of Nazarene (and a devout EON member), and is observed doing so by Biyu.

The boy's death has also sparked a heated debate inside the DHS/Secret Service and the FBI — to take the Lincoln/Kennedy/Mengsei similarities seriously, or not. Secret Service Director Derasmo is highly skeptical that a 15 is to be suspected. Nevertheless, her concern is certainly high for an assassination attempt of any sort, from anyone, by any means, on any day — not just a person with 15 letters shooting Mengsei in the head on a Friday.

Nevertheless, Derasmo gives in and blocks President Mengsei from any appearances with his wife on a Friday. Derasmo thinks it's ridiculous, but can't avoid seeing the obvious coincidences and feeling the pressure. Mengsei is not happy that it will make him appear to also believe his fate predestined. But the death of his son and the subsequent funeral have him too badly shaken absorbed — he goes along with Derasmo's recommendations.

Now, for the first time, Derasmo has the Secret Service look hard at the top 15s that the conspiratorialists factions have identified. She favors the results being produced by the group Truth in Numbers. Derasmo is surprised to see Paul's name on that list. She instructs that Paul should be watched by the Secret Service, regardless of whatever the FBI is doing.

CIEX CEO Karper is told by a Nazarene Senator that the Senator will guarantee massive tax breaks and other financial incentives for CIEX to move headquarters from Boston, Massachusetts to St. Louis, Nazarene. CIEX CTO Rose strongly opposes the move, as it is just another effort by EON, and especially her 'master' Wescott, to take full control. Karper confides that she agrees with Rose and feels trapped.

Karper rejects the Nazarene Senator's offer, saying that Rose would make too much of a fuss, and besides, everyone knows Rose is to be next CIEX CEO, so his opinion will be consulted.

At home, Secret Service Director Derasmo gets heated pushback from her husband, Chief of Staff Orman, about the Secret Service's focus on the DHS employee Paul. Orman claims that Orman was told by DHS to get her to back down on the grounds that Paul is one of the DHS's most useful, brilliant BWS techs, and is especially needed to protect President Mengsei's BWS.

But this second-guessing of Derasmo by Orman is a final step too far for Derasmo, especially Orman going behind Derasmo's back in the White House,. The couple falls into a serious fight, leading to Orman storming out, claiming never to return, and Derasmo insisting that indeed Orman should never return.

Rose BECOMES CHIEF OF STAFF, ORMAN GOES BACK TO FBI, Karper TURNS ON Wescott

An ugly leak (by Derasmo one can guess) reveals that Orman had predicted President Mengsei's son’s death. It is too much and President Mengsei asks Orman to resign, to quietly go back to the FBI where he had been.

Wescott asks the Nazarene Senator find a way to suggest to President Mengsei that CIEX CTO Rose should be the new White House Chief of Staff. The Nazarene Senator convinces his good friend and fellow Nazarenes, VP Johnson, to talk to President Mengsei about it. That happens, and President Mengsei agrees, primarily because he wants/needs to keep the peace with the Nazarenes. But privately, President Mengsei is concerned about his old friend Scott Rose coming to work in such as sensitive and powerful position as White House Chief of Staff.

Rose leaves CIEX and goes to the White House as the new Chief of Staff. His relationship with Biyu is back in the press, with the usual detractors.

Chief of Staff Scott Rose and President Mengsei know President Mengsei’s BWS was once programmed into President Mengsei's old helmet on the moon. But they can't say anything as that would only bring up that whole issue in bad way. President Mengsei is surprised Rose is still looking for it, thinking they settled that matter earlier.

Rose says it is just for precautions, even though he is sure the BWS code was long destroyed by 20 years of exposure to radiation in space. He tells President Mengsei that was what was the case for the four Rose already found, and that he'll bring one in and show President Mengsei. But we see, at Rose's home, Rose secretly erase the codes from the other helmets, before bringing one in as 'proof' of them being radiation-wiped.

Derasmo sees Rose bring the helmet into the White House.

President Mengsei is convinced and agrees that if Rose can find Mengsei's real helmet from Lunalpha, that it's probably best to get it in and destroyed. President Mengsei, Rose, and Biyu (in China) meet in a highly encrypted virtual space to discuss it. Biyu convinces her brother Chen (President Mengsei) that no one knows why she is acquiring it.

Orman is angry. He thinks his ouster as Chief of Staff — especially due to "someone" (yeah, he's sure it was Derasmo) squealing on him just because he made a joke about the President's son — is all a plot by Rose and Derasmo to get rid of him and to thus get Rose in. He starts wondering if Rose and Derasmo are having an affair.

When Orman is back at what is now only Derasmo's place, moving his things out, Derasmo tries to make nice. Derasmo comments on men holding on to their silly treasures, and mentions seeing Rose bringing a helmet in that day to President Mengsei, and something about the Lunalpha Disaster.

Now the Nazarene Senator has gone back to see CIEX CEO Karper, and now re-ups his invitation for CIEX to move to St. Louis.

Karper says that now that Rose is gone, she is more inclined to agree to the move.

When Paul tries to follow Marcia's cold algorithmic logic, it doesn't make sense to him and he says something insulting. Marcia gets upset and they part. But afterwards, Marcia thinks she is onto something — what had really upset Paul wasn't her logic-path, but was her continually producing results that led to EON, and by extension to CIEX, being the nefarious orchestrator. So perhaps it was CIEX specifically doing this? After all (she reasons) Wescott is a primary shareholder of CIEX.

Orman communicates to Wescott — Wescott is at his DC home, in bed with Tassima — that Orman now thinks he knows where the President's BWS can be obtained.

Orman, now back at the FBI, starts an investigation into the Lunalpha Disaster, against the wishes of his estranged wife, Director Derasmo. Orman and Derasmo file for divorce.

Things are coming clearer to CIEX CEO Karper now. She sees she's being played — something bigger is going on. She sees that Wescott's goal all along was only to get Rose in the White House. If CIEX really did move to St. Louis, all the better for Wescott. But the truth is that Wescott never really cared about that. So Karper backs out of agreement to move the company to Nazarene. The Nazarene Senator is upset, but sure enough Wescott isn't bothered by Karper's decision.

Seeing for sure she was but a pawn on Wescott's chess board, Karper is on a full war footing with Wescott — she wants to purge CIEX of EON influence. She begins firing people based on their religious affiliations to EON. Wescott warns Karper to stop.

INVESTIGATING THE DEATH OF THE PRESIDENT'S SON

Although President Mengsei's son’s death is considered a medical anomaly, if not suspicious, others in the Secret Service and the FBI come to Secret Service Director Derasmo, suggesting an investigation into poisoning, retracing evidence and everyone who was in possible contact with the boy. But Derasmo tells them not to, as that scenario was simply not possible, that the boy was well protected, that there is no way the Secret Service could have allowed that.

Derasmo is beginning to show cracks under the pressure. The idea that someone intentionally killed the boy just to make the events line up with Kennedy and Lincoln is just too outrageous and nonsensical to be taken seriously. And to say so would not only insult the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service, but the President and First Lady themselves.

Others push back, saying that perhaps Derasmo needs to take some time away, to gain clarity, because it's entirely possible that there is a killer out there. If they can find who killed the boy, then they can stop whomever may be planning to kill President Mengsei. Derasmo still tells them to stand down on the idea.

But the DHS begins the investigation anyway, and we learn that the idea is being orchestrated by FBI Exec Assist Dir - Criminal Services Orman (ex-husband of Director Derasmo). Orman now gets himself appointed as the head of the investigative team.

A new hunch by some on the team is that the boy was injected with a slow-acting neurotoxin. They go back to events where random people might have been in contact with the boy, and that leads them to the surveillance footage of the Inaugural Ball. Orman reminds them that bees had been seen there. They look on the surveillance videos for anyone usual getting near the boy. It shows nothing.

Orman notes that Ben was there — Orman had invited Ben to the Ball without clearing it first with President Mengsei. Now Orman summons Ben to the FBI. They seem to know each other. Ben describes the events of the evening, that someone had said there were bees — yes, he had seen one too — and then he left to get some help to get rid of them, but upon return found none. Orman concludes that it must have been a bee carrying some rare toxin that slowly got to the boy.

Derasmo is upset to learn that the FBI went against her recommendations, and especially upset that her ex, Orman, orchestrated it. But now Derasmo must deal with the evidence the team is presenting — but the bee thing is bothering her. There was something she had seen in some sweep of someone's home — yes, Paul's. She had seen a drone cyberbee at Paul's house.

Marcia has now begun investigating Paul due to his strange behavior toward her. When he is away from his home, Marcia gets Paul's mother to let Marcia stay back at Paul's place one night. In the middle of the night Marcia gets up and is about to go through Paul's things to see what she might learn....but....

Derasmo knows she can't get a warrant on such a hunch about Paul, and frankly wants to keep this to herself for now — the bee thing is probably silly — so Derasmo and one of her team have Paul sent on an out-of-town trip. While Paul is gone, Derasmo+1 break in and investigate Paul's apartment — unaware that Paul's mother now also lives there. Derasmo finds a number of drone bees there, and a couple with the capacity to carry a stinger of sorts, but the field test shows no evidence of a neurotoxin on them. Nevertheless, Derasmo takes one of the cyberbees with her. They leave behind evidence that would make it appear they are part of the CIEX team.

While Derasmo and her partner are there, Marcia and Paul's mother are hiding in a bedroom. They don't know who is out going through Paul's things, but later find evidence that it was someone from CIEX.

Paul is brought in for questioning by Derasmo, but he has an alibi for the evening of the Inaugural Ball (being at his mother's house with his mother), and Paul has a logical reason for why he has the drone bees. Derasmo has to let Paul go as there is no evidence that puts one of his cyberbees in the ballroom that night, much less any evidence of one of his having a slow acting neurotoxin on it.

Paul asks his mother if she heard anyone in the apartment the prior night, but his crazy mother won't answer until Paul gets Marcia to come there. Paul thinks it's all a ruse to get the two of them back together — but of course his mother just wants Marcia there to corroborate what happened. Marcia arrives and admits what she was doing, and she and Paul apologize and reconcile. But when Paul says it was the Secret Service who broke in, Marcia shows Paul the evidence that it was someone from CIEX.

A result comes back from the microscopic autopsy: the boy had an increased level of digital-lithium (D-L) made by CIEX in his system. D-L is embedded in the walls of the White House and other sensitive government buildings to block any access to any brainwave signatures (BWS) that are inside the building — the primary focus being to protect the President's BWS code from being stolen and/or tracked. But D-L can't be inhaled or otherwise ingested, so how did it get into the boy's body? Again the idea of a micro-injection is floated.

Derasmo and her team want to have the boy's body 'virtual mapped", down to the cellular level, for analysis. Derasmo gets her way, but can't get the a proper virtual forensic reading by available technology. Derasmo turns to Biyu to help, and against Derasmo's instincts Derasmo sends the data to Biyu in Beijing who then has the Chinese use the same technology they developed for age-reversal gene therapy to examine the massive data file of the boy's virtual body, looking for any sign of an injection point.

Derasmo tests Paul's cyberbee, but this time not for a neurotoxin, but for D-L. Sure enough it has a trace of D-L concentrate on its stinger. But that still is not enough evidence to say it was the cause of anything.

Derasmo is rewatching security video of the Inauguration Ball when she comes across footage of the independent news reporters at the Ball. In those, Derasmo sees a cameraman temporarily put his camera down on a table, with it pointed at the crowd where the President's son was. Derasmo goes to the network and gets that footage shown to her — when the camera was temporarily set on a table. (Cameras in the 2060s never turn off, they are always recording whenever their lens is uncapped.) In that footage she sees just the waist level of someone wearing shadowy dark blue get near Rose, then slightly bump into the boy. She watches it over and over again. Derasmo cannot be sure, but it looks intentional.

Derasmo quickly starts looking at other photographs, seeing who was wearing dark navy at the Inaugural Ball. There were three women, CIEX CEO Karper; Wescott's date, whoever she is; Biyu, and herself. Derasmo goes to her closet and looks at that dress she wore and remembers that her ex Orman had insisted she wear it that night. But of course that couldn't be her bumping into the boy. She would have remembered that, wouldn't she?

What]s haunting Derasmo is that Biyu was in dark navy, that Biyu was close with Rose that evening, and that now Derasmo has turned over the only evidence of any such injection to Biyu and the Chinese. But Biyu would never kill her own nephew — nothing is making sense for Derasmo.

Compounding the problem, Derasmo realizes that there were many men wearing dark navy long coats that night at the Inaugural Ball — U. S. Marine officers, including one, Ben Bell, whom Derasmo had seen just the day before coming out of FBI headquarters. Derasmo inquires and finds out that Orman had sent for him.

SEASON 2

THE BOY’S DEATH IS RULED MURDER, LEADING TO NEW RELIGIOUS FERVOR

The results come in from the Chinese: They have found an unmistakeable injection point, and the cell tissue would indicate that it was made about the time of the Inaugural Ball. Derasmo can't keep this quiet. Derasmo tells President Mengsei and the First Lady, and then Derasmo lets the Chinese present their findings to the heads of the intelligence departments. Biyu, Rose, Orman, and VP Johnson are in the room as well. All are shocked, angry, dismayed, and now must consider that someone is attacking the Presidency.

There is a warming with the Chinese over their confidential help, and all are impressed that the information didn't get leaked by the Chinese. Nevertheless, word quickly leaks in the U. S. that the boy was murdered.

Now the conspiratorialist are out in million-person marches. Many demand President Mengsei resign to save his life, but he refuses as that may be exactly what the killer wants.

This mass hysteria is much worse than seen ever before, and now includes larger religious groups, especially the Nazarenes. Masses are claiming it is a divine sign, that it was done by the hand of God. Wescott now has all the EON churches preaching this message, and hundreds of thousands of people start joining the Nazarene movement. There is new talk of other states going the way of Missouri-to-Nazarene. There is even talk of a change to the U. S. Constitution to declare the whole country for Christ.

CIEX CEO Karper is dismayed to see ties to yet another CIEX BWS product in the news relative to a killing, but now she believes she understands things more clearly. Karper isn’t so sure that EON didn’t kill the boy. Karper begins to wonder if her romantic partner, VP Johnson, isn't in on it — VP Johnson is the one who has the most to gain, as Karper sees it, and VP Johnson is the one who had once advocated for the whole nation to convert as Missouri did, which seems to be a surging idea in wake of the boy's murder.

Karper abruptly cuts off her relationship with Johnson. Then Karper takes her thoughts to Secret Service Director Derasmo and Lead FBI Investigator Orman, telling them her theory — EON Director Wescott is behind it all. Orman is alarmed and tries to assure Karper that Karper is imagining things, that EON couldn't be behind it as the news that it was a CIEX chemical will hurt CIEX considerably now, and EON relies too heavily on CIEX dividends for funding of the EON operations. Derasmo not only disagrees with Orman, but is alarmed by Orman's bold use of such twisted logic.

THE BOY’S MURDER IS EXPLAINED AND KARPER IS KILLED

After their meeting with CIEX CEO Karper, Secret Service Director Derasmo now starts to have her ex-husband, FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman followed.

Derasmo learns Orman has re-opened his investigation into the Lunalpha Disaster. Then she is told that her Secret Service men lost Orman's trail.

Meanwhile Marcia is has become convinced that this is the work of CIEX directly. Unable to provide irrefutable evidence to Paul for her CIEX hunch, Marcia dives into trying to write an algorithm that will prove it. Paul is consumed with his work on BWS capture for the DHS.

Orman calls Karper, inviting Karper to meet again and talk more about Karper's ideas regarding EON's blame, apologizing for previously dismissing Karper's notions. Karper is happy to hear Orman has changed his mind, and invites Orman to join her on her flight back to Boston, that they can talk in private on the way. Orman agrees.

When Karper shows up to her jet, she finds a different pilot. Inside, she finds FBI Exec Assist Dir - Criminal Services Division Orman and, to her shock, EON Director Wescott.

Orman quickly ties up Karper. The plane takes off and goes beyond near space and leaves the atmosphere. They are weightless.

Here Wescott tells Karper the truth about what they did to the boy. It was called Operation Isaac, named from Abraham being told to sacrifice his son Isaac for God. Much the same, the President’s son needed to be sacrificed for God. Wescott says his lovely friend Tassima was who stuck the boy. But Wescott adds that since Karper's dress matched Tassima's that night, some may think it was a hit by Karper, by CIEX. No matter.

Wescott tells Karper that Karper's body will never be found as Karper will die from oxygen starvation in about five minutes, and then her body will burn up as it re-enters the atmosphere.  "Poof — you will be erased. Gone in a blaze of glory. Literally", Wescott says.

Wescott explains that they killed the boy to spark the predictable, mass fear and conspiratorial chaos that is now erupting down there on Earth — like setting off a bomb next to a flock of sheep — all Wescott had to do was open the corral gate on the other side.

Orman and Wescott don helmets and the jet begins to be depressurized. Karper asks if President Mengsei will be killed. Wescott whispers, "That all up to God now," then shoves Karper out into the void of space.

GETTING President Mengsei’s BWS FROM HIS LUNALPHA HELMET

President Mengsei learns from Chief of Staff Rose that FBI Exec Assist Dir - Criminal Services Division Orman has re-opened an investigation into the Lunalpha Disaster. Neither President Mengsei nor Rose want this, but President Mengsei won’t interfere. President Mengsei tells Rose to just let it play — that the FBI will find nothing. And if they do, then justice must take its turn. This is not the answer Rose was hoping to hear.

Word gets out that CIEX CEO Karper is missing. Orman suggests to Rose that perhaps Rose should be investigated for Karper’s death, that perhaps Rose killed Karper as cover-up for Rose’s involvement in the other murders, including Senator Nichols and the CIEX Employee, and even the President's son. Rose doesn't react much. But when Orman adds, “Maybe you've even got something to do with that fire at Lunalpha 20 years ago.” At this, Rose decks Orman, and Orman takes note that it was Lunalpha what pushed Rose too far, not the accusation of Rose killing the President's son. They tear into a full fight and Rose nearly kills Orman before they are broken up.

Rose returns to President Mengsei and President Mengsei is shocked to see his Chief of Staff looking so beat up. Rose thinks Orman's actions are just revenge for Rose getting Orman’s job in the White House. Rose asks for President Mengsei to shut Orman down, for both their sakes, but again President Mengsei refuses as he thinks Rose is being ridiculous, that Rose is battling his own demons over the Lunalpha matter, and that President Mengsei getting involved will only draw attention to it, if not raise suspicions of a cover-up.

Rose suggests that EON is a common denominator to the deaths of late. But neither Rose nor President Mengsei can see why EON would do that — how it would serve EON's interests? Then President Mengsei notes (from a report on his screen embedded in the surface of the Resolute Desk) that EON's membership is estimated to have grown by 1 Million in just the past week.

President Mengsei is feeling overwhelmed. He meets virtually with his beloved sister, Biyu, and tells her that he and Rose (Biyu's romantic partner) want Biyu to come permanently (defect) to the United States. President Mengsei needs Biyu with him. Biyu guesses correctly that President Mengsei is afraid. Biyu says she will consider it. What neither realize is that a spy for the Chinese PLA is also 'present' in that virtual room.

Marcia has a breakthrough in her work: she confirms that all the Johnsons born in 2008 who were elected in the United States to any office were helped in some way by EON, if not by Wescott directly. In addition, Marcia discovers that CIEX was a major funder of President Mengsei's campaign, even though the funding was done through associated companies. Finally, in Marcia's view, the odds of the boy dying are so astronomically small, and due to a CIEX chemical, that there is simply no mathematical solution but that CIEX, working through its largest owner, EON, has orchestrated the scenario to date. And with Senator Nichols being assassinated with a CIEX BWS gun, Marcia is all the more certain. This leads Marcia to the conclusion that CIEX CEO Donna Karper, and the ex-CIEX CTO and now White House Chief of Staff, Scott Rose, must be at the center of it. Marcia now believes that the reason CIEX broke into Paul's apartment the other night was not to recon Paul, but to recon her, because Marcia was getting close to the truth about them. Marcia asks Paul to help her bring her conclusions to Angela Derasmo, the head of the Secret Service, the woman who interrogated Paul about his cyberbees.

But Paul says no. Paul thinks Marcia is taking her ideas too far. First, Paul reasons, the press are suggesting that Donna Karper is dead, as she has mysteriously been missing for over a week. But more importantly — at this point Paul deals Marcia the cold truth — something that we didn't know either — Paul tells Marcia that he knows Marcia's supposed university degrees are all bogus — Marcia has no more than a high school education — and with tens of thousands of other conspiratorialists out there, with all their own crazy ideas, Marcia will not just be rejected, but laughed at, and Paul's credibility will be even more at stake because Paul would have recommended Marcia to the Secret Service as being an expert. Marcia is devastated and leaves — after first wildly accusing Paul of working with CIEX, of just wanting to cover it up, and now using Marcia as his excuse.

Biyu's connections in the Chinese PLA have finally found the last helmet (what turns out to be President Mengsei's actual Lunalpha helmet) and Biyu has it internationally drone-shipped to Rose. But Rose knows he is now being watched by FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman, and that Orman specifically mentioned the Lunalpha Disaster.  Rose has the drone deliver it to a different place for pick up, but doesn't realize that the FBI were already tracking that specific drone. The FBI see Rose get the box. Rose is home but an hour before the FBI are at his door, with Orman saying they want to look around. Rose has little to hide, he thinks. To his reasoning, there is no way the FBI would know the significance of the helmet — they are just there on the bogus theory by the asshole Orman that somehow Rose had something to do with the murders. When one of the agents asks about the old space helmet in the box, Rose says it is just something he is collecting from his astronaut years. 

What Rose doesn't notice is the BWS code-stealing-device on Orman’s wrist. (It's the same as Paul was making in Paul's apartment.) At one point Orman lingers near the box, then removes the helmet and puts it on and parades around with it, using his hand with the device to hold it up. Orman and Rose exchange some terse words and Orman and the agents leave.

Once they are gone, Rose quickly records President Mengsei’s BWS code from the helmet, then digitally wipes the helmet's data clean.

Outside, Orman calls Wescott and tells him that they finally have the President's BWS code.

DERASMO LEARNS THE CODE IS OUT AND DEVELOPS A COUNTER-PLAN

Chief of Staff Rose takes President Mengsei's Lunalpha helmet to the White House. But before Rose can give it to President Mengsei, Secret Service Director Derasmo intercepts it. Rose tells Derasmo that Rose is upset that Orman is investigating him. But Derasmo is not moved. After all, Orman is her ex-husband — not that Derasmo had any influence over Orman when they were married. Besides, Orman is the Executive Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Services Division — Orman can do as he pleases. Rose is surprised when Derasmo comments that after all, Rose himself is a 15, so who can blame people for keeping an eye on Rose?

Rose takes offense at even the slightest suggestion of treason on his part, of being dishonest with President Mengsei.

Derasmo keeps the helmet and Rose goes into the Oval Office. There Rose lies to President Mengsei, saying the helmet had no codes when Rose got it from Biyu, that it was naturally radiation-wiped, like the others, from being exposed on the surface of the Moon for 20 years.

Meanwhile, Derasmo has asked Paul to meet Derasmo at a designated place.

Derasmo gets a call from Orman about the helmet, and Orman’s suspicions that Orman claims he developed from following Rose. They fight, but Derasmo still takes note of the info and Orman's suspicions that Rose copied the President's BWS code from that helmet.

Paul arrives at a designated meeting place and sits with Derasmo. At first Paul is very cautious, but then Derasmo apologizes and tells Paul that the whole affair the other day, about the cyberbees, was just a misunderstanding. Now Derasmo needs Paul, and for Paul to be discrete. Derasmo produces the helmet and Paul takes it back to his place. After running some diagnostics, Paul reports to Derasmo that it was not radiation-wiped, but manually wiped, and very recently. Paul realizes that Derasmo is suspicious of Rose. This makes Paul reconsider that perhaps Marcia's theories about CIEX and Rose might not be so crazy.

Now Derasmo is convinced that President Mengsei's BWS is on the loose, either in Rose's hands, or someone else's, maybe the Chinese have it, or maybe even Orman.

Derasmo knows it’s only a matter of time before someone takes a shot at President Mengsei, using that BWS. But Derasmo no longer trusts anyone in the White House or the FBI. Certainly not Rose or Orman.

Derasmo needs to get the BWS gun (that she knows must be out there somewhere) to shoot automatically, to cause the BWS gun to be falsely triggered. Derasmo asks Paul to meet Derasmo at Derasmo's home to discuss this more.

At Derasmo's home, Derasmo asks Paul to privately build something for Derasmo — an android copy or clone of President Mengsei that can emit the President's BWS and thus take the incoming BWS micro-missile. The head will need to be designed to absorb and contain the micro-missile for later evidence. But also, it must look extremely lifelike. There are already human copy drones, so Paul should start with one of those.

Derasmo also tells Paul that Paul is being watched too much at his apartment, by FBI and others, and asks if Paul has somewhere else he can go, to hide away while he does her secret work. Paul says yes, a floating house on the Potomac River (Marcia's).

After Derasmo checks out Marcia (seeing Marcia is just a nut-job numerologist/conspiratorialist), Derasmo agrees to the plan. Derasmo will get the floating house's coordinates and then have parts shipped to Paul — anything Paul needs. Under no circumstances should anyone know what Paul is up to.

Paul also tells Derasmo that his girlfriend, Marcia, has some theories on CIEX and Rose being behind the murders and setting up the coincidences. But Derasmo is not interested in the theories of some conspiratorialist.

Later at Marcia's house, the first thing Paul and Marcia decide to do is to build android clones of themselves. They kid about then being able to have a foursome with themselves.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON THE MOON and a suspect is found in chicago

Secret Service Director Derasmo tells President Mengsei what she knows — the helmet was not actually radiation-wiped as White House Chief of Staff Rose claimed, that it's likely that Rose wiped it himself, and thus likely that Rose now has President Mengsei's BWS code. President Mengsei realizes he can no longer trust Rose — a difficult realization as they are friends and have such a powerful secret held between them (regarding the Lunalpha Disaster).

Rose realizes he is cut out, that Derasmo may suspect that he kept President Mengsei’s BWS. He starts to wonder if President Mengsei trusts him either. Rose is dropping into madness, self-doubt, and shame. Even Rose is beginning to wonder why he kept President Mengsei’s BWS, and why he can't bring himself to erase it now. It is during this despair that Rose realizes that FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman must have captured the President's BWS during that bogus search.

Rose can't let Orman now kill President Mengsei using the BWS code that he, Rose, obtained. Rose heads to the White House, flying drunk, and wrecks his drone car (flying vehicle) into Lafayette Square. After Rose is brought inside the White House, the First Lady hears drunk Rose saying something to President Mengsei about them killing those people on the Moon. 

President Mengsei confides the actual story of the Lunalpha Disaster to his wife. (We see it through a series of flashbacks.) When Mengsei and Rose were astronauts, in their late twenties, they were instructed by their direct manager at CIEX (who at the time was Donna Karper), to sabotage the Agricultural Research Unit at CIEX's Lunalpha Moon station. It was all part of a plan by CIEX to get a trillion dollar contract for a new lunar research facility, and thus new inter-space shuttles which CIEX needed to keep up with China relative to Mars exploration. Yes, Mengsei actually saved the three people, but the other four died in a fire that he and Rose started. There is more that Mengsei isn't saying, but the First Lady doesn't press President Mengsei.

Plans are made for Biyu's defection, but President Mengsei is having second thoughts. He hates the idea of putting Biyu at risk, and Biyu can hardly claim political asylum because so far the Chinese have done nothing but be helpful. So that means Biyu will have to sneak out, because Biyu is an officer in the PLA and the Chinese have banned Biyu from anything but sanctioned travel. And now that President Mengsei doesn't fully trust Rose, how can he trust that Rose will not somehow undermine the deal with Biyu? President Mengsei knows he can trust Rose's love of Biyu — that much President Mengsei does know.

Secret Service Director Derasmo is extremely agitated knowing that President Mengsei’s BWS is out, and there are very few she can trust to tell that too. But now, if President Mengsei is in the open, the hit could happen, and there is little Derasmo can do.

Marcia's "applied numerology" work turns up a likely suspect (a 15) in Chicago — where President Mengsei and the First Lady are scheduled to soon be for a Good Friday event. She sends a message to Secret Service Director Derasmo.

Derasmo comes to Marcia's floating house to meet with Paul about his work on the President and First Lady android clone targets.

Derasmo mentions Marcia's ideas regarding Rose and CIEX, and Derasmo appreciates them, that honestly Marcia's ideas are as good as the intel Derasmo was otherwise getting. Marcia is pleased. Marcia shows Derasmo her work in more detail, explaining to Derasmo how Marcia's algorithms have brought forward the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect (as potential assassins have begun being called).

Derasmo leaves and then sends a Secret Service team to watch the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect, but won't tell her team her source. Someone in the Secret Services mentions the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect to someone in the FBI — soon FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman learns about the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect, but tells the FBI to let the Secret Service handle it — then Orman tells Wescott. Wescott is pleased and dispatches Tassima to "set it up" before the Secret Service can get onto the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect.

In Chicago, Tassima is observed (by the Secret Service) walking near the apartment of the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect. (She has a backpack containing a broken-down BWS gun, but the observers don't know that.)

By the time the Secret Service raids the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect's home, they find a BWS gun there and arrest the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect. As President Mengsei was scheduled to be in Chicago, Derasmo feels a moment of relief, that perhaps they have found their man. But Derasmo can’t be sure because President Mengsei’s BWS was not uploaded to the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect's BWS gun. All she can do is arrest the man for having the illegal gun.

Derasmo and her team start interrogating the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect about his plans, the BWS gun, and how and from whom the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect was to get the code to input into the BWS micro-missile. The Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect won't say anything, which only makes Derasmo more assured that he is their man.

Meanwhile, Derasmo is told about them seeing Tassima near the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect's apartment, and Derasmo tells them to find Tassima and bring Tassima in for questioning. Derasmo is told that Tassima is in St. Louis for a big Nazarene event. Derasmo tells them to go there and bring Tassima to her — something they are clearly hesitant to do.

Derasmo sets up a meeting with Paul and tells him that Marcia's information looks to have been perfect, and thus Derasmo won't be needing the android targets at the upcoming Good Friday event. Derasmo now has high praise for Marcia and Marcia's techniques. To Paul's chagrin, Derasmo tells Paul that Paul should now spend more helping the real genius of the two of them, Marcia. To this Paul pivots and brings up his thoughts for permanently altering someone's BWS — it hasn't been successfully done yet, but Paul has an idea. Derasmo is intrigued.

NAZARENE IS IN OPEN DEFIANCE OF THE U. S. GOVERNMENT

Arkansas has agreed to join Nazarene — combining the two states into one large state of Nazarene. This highly alarms other states, especially the ones bordering the now-bigger Nazarene.

A major ceremony occurs in St. Louis, the capital of Nazarene, as a massive cross is suspended beneath the Gateway Arch — now renamed Resurrection Arch. Lawsuits had delayed the cross suspension for 20 years, but finally the Supreme Court (now primarily EON-leaning) ruled in favor of Nazarene.

It is being guessed by the resistance to Nazarene — led by Texas — that the mystery with the President's coincidences has led to two of the Supreme Court justices flipping in favor of removing the separation of church and state. Now there is open talk of a Constitutional Amendment to declare the whole nation for Christ — battlelines are being drawn.

During the Nazarene event, CIEX's new CEO is announced — he is also a leader in EON, to no one's surprise — and CIEX announces that they will soon be finally moving their headquarters from Boston to St. Louis, bringing 185,000 jobs and 2 Trillion in annual revenue.

Tassima is in St. Louis with Wescott. When the Secret Service show up to take Tassima in for questioning, Wescott makes a request of the Governor of Nazarene, and the Nazarene State Guard won't let the Secret Service get near Tassima.

Back in Washington D.C., Secret Service Director Derasmo is outraged, but FBI Exec Assist Dir - Criminal Services Orman is upset with the Secret Service trying to go where they don't belong. Orman leaves to go attend the Nazarene events himself.

During the cross-hanging ceremony, Wescott is informed that three BWS guns are ready — each having the range to cover a third of the nation — San Francisco, (West Coast), St. Louis (Central), and Washington DC (East Coast). The Chicago one was a plant to lead Derasmo and the Secret Service astray.

Wescott wants what he calls the 5th Act of his Grand Opera, LE POREM, to occur as it must: on a Friday — preferably the upcoming Good Friday in Chicago — with President Mengsei sitting next to his wife. They have a number of possible 15s (patsies) in various cities. They just need to black bag one and have that 15 patsy found near the BWS gun that is eventually used.

Wescott estimates that since the Secret Service think they already have their Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect, the Secret Service will relax some at the Good Friday event.

Rose MAKES HIS DECISION

On Thursday, March 23, 2062, the day before Good Friday, White House Chief of Staff Rose is a mess. He knows he will lose Biyu if she ever learns what he did in the Lunalpha Disaster, and how Rose caused her brother, President Mengsei, to be blamed too — if it all comes out.

And Rose realizes FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman captured President Mengsei's BWS code that night in the ‘search’ — thus Orman is in league with EON Director Wescott — thus the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect was just a ruse set up by Wescott — thus EON will still be planning to kill President Mengsei the next day in Chicago. Rose knows he must do something — not just anything — but something honorable.

Rose tries to tell Secret Service Director Derasmo what he thinks regarding Orman and President Mengsei's BWS code, but Derasmo only half-listens. Derasmo thinks they have their man now: the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect.

Derasmo and President Mengsei think Rose is losing his mind. Privately, President Mengsei is more concerned about Rose opening up about what they did in the Lunalpha Disaster.

President Mengsei leaves a virtual presence message for Biyu — saying Biyu should stay put in China — that it isn't worth the risk — that the whole defect idea was his — that he is glad Biyu didn't do anything rash.

But what President Mengsei doesn't know is that Biyu has already been arrested in China on suspicion of being a double-agent for the United States. Their primary evidence is the virtual meeting Biyu had with President Mengsei where Biyu agreed to try to defect.

President Mengsei and the First Lady are relieved that Derasmo feels so confident about the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect, but Derasmo confirms to them that the secret dummy plan is still in the works — just in case Derasmo may think it necessary sometime in the future.

Chief of Staff Rose confronts FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman, openly accusing Orman of being in league with EON to kill the President. Orman has FBI agents arrest Rose, but eventually lets Rose go. Orman tells Rose's theories to Wescott, who says that he has grown weary of Rose and tells Orman to go kill Rose.

But later, Orman instead lies to Tassima — saying Wescott wants her to go kill Rose — that it should be easy because Rose is stoned out of his mind. Tassima goes and finds Rose alone and moves in on him. But Rose was just faking the disability to lure in whatever predator he knew was coming for him. Rose overpowers and kills Tassima.

Rose gets access to Tassima's house, and there breaks into her hidden system. On it Rose discovers the central coding program for all three of the BWS guns in the nation. Rose doesn't know where they are exactly, but that they are in those three cities, and set to automatically fire. He sees President Mengsei’s BWS code is loaded into them — so he knows now that Orman did in fact steal it from him — thus Rose is the reason President Mengsei will die the next day.

The sun is coming up on Good Friday, and President Mengsei and his wife are scheduled to be at the outdoor event in Chicago. Rose knows this is when it will happen. If Rose turns off the guns, then Wescott will know Rose did that ahead of time, and simply go to ground, kill Rose, and wait to kill President Mengsei later. Or if the St. Louis BWS gun — the one that Rose can see is in range of Chicago — doesn't fire for some reason in the moment, then, same thing — Wescott alerted, Rose killed, President Mengsei killed later. Besides, Rose needs the St. Louis BWS gun to fire so that Derasmo can trace the BWS micro-missile back to the St. Louis BWS gun, and eventually trace the evidence to Wescott.

But Rose can't let President Mengsei be killed.

EON TAKES THE SHOT, ROSE DIES, AND TEXAS ARMS UP

Good Friday comes and President Mengsei and the First Lady are at an event in Chicago. Chief of Staff Rose has unexpectedly flown in to be with them. President Mengsei is pleased that his troubled friend Rose is there. Now perhaps they can start rebuilding their friendship, now that the Chicago 15 Pre-Suspect has been caught.

Rose sees President Mengsei and the First Lady sit down next to each other. At first Rose sits nearby.

Wescott is at the event as a guest. He is excited — he is about to witness his 5th Act of his Grand Opera (President Mengsei’s assassination) right in front of him. But why is Rose there, Wescott wonders. Wasn't Orman supposed to have killed Rose?

With President Mengsei in the open, and sitting next to his wife, Wescott presses a remote "on" button. 260 miles away, the BWS gun in St. Louis comes on. Once on — as it is set on auto-fire — it registers that its micro-missile's target has been found through the BWS system — thus it activates and launches its micro-missile. We start to follow the screeching micro-missile as it zips from St. Louis to Chicago at Mach 2 — it will take ten minutes to arrive on target.

Suddenly, as the choir is singing, Rose stands, and starts to leave the viewing area, seeming to want to get away from President Mengsei. President Mengsei gets up to summon Rose back, but sits again.

Wescott sees Rose walking away, and mutters to himself, "Not wanting any Presidential brains on your coat?"

Wescott tries to reach Tassima, but gets no answer. We see that she is dead in Rose’s place, with a written document beside her body.

Rose then inexplicably starts walking, then running away from the outdoor crowd, removing his bowler hat as he goes.

We follow the micro-missile as it slows near the event and closes in on the main viewing area where President Mengsei is sitting, still watching Rose.

Rose is now in an open area, away from people.

Rose stops, turns toward President Mengsei, and salutes him. Just then the micro-missile rips through Rose’s head.

We now realize that the prior night, too late to find the BWS guns, knowing he can't shut them down without just delaying the assassination, thinking no one would believe him if he tried to warn them, and ultimately feeling great guilt over Lunalpha, Rose switched his own code for that of President Mengsei's in Tassima’s BWS auto-fire system.

In China, Biyu is in prison, and there she has seen Rose's death on live media. Biyu is told that she is responsible — but another, more kindly guard, says that's not true, and holds Biyu as she cries.

Once President Mengsei is moved into protection and on his way out of Chicago, He is shaken badly by the sight of the death of Rose.

And to make matters worse, President Mengsei is informed:

1. Texas has declared itself militarily independent of the United States, and thus Texas will be arming its northern and eastern borders against any any incursion by Nazarene.

2. President Mengsei's sister, Biyu, is in a Chinese prison, accused of being a traitor for attempting to defect to the United States, and if she is found guilty she may be executed.

SEASON 3

THE INVESTIGATION HEATS UP

The nation is up in alarm over the expansion of Nazarene. Now Kentucky and Tennessee are heading to a vote on joining Nazarene. Public confrontations have broken out, with many killed in the violence. The Supreme Court continues to support the states' rights to combine if they wish.

And there is still much talk about the public killing of Chief of Staff Rose. As Rose was seen walking out to an open area, the presumption is that somehow Rose knew he was about to be killed.

Secret Service Director Derasmo is in full battlestations. Why would Rose commit such a public suicide? Why was Tassima’s body found in Rose’s home, presumably killed by Rose? Why was Rose’s suicide note seeking to accuse the Nazarenes (as EON members are now widely called) and Orman?

And now Derasmo learns that President Mengsei's sister, Biyu, has been found guilty of treason. But Derasmo is certain the Chinese would never execute the sister of the President of the United States. But lengthy prison? Perhaps. Derasmo is torn up about this, as is President Mengsei, of course. They must find a way to undo it in a way that lets the Chinese save face.

Derasmo immediately recommends the FBI Director suspend FBI Exec Assist Dir - Criminal Services Orman due to investigation into his role, if any. Before he leaves, Orman tells a junior to continue looking into what happened in the Lunalpha Disaster — especially what started the fire.

The military was able to track the flight of the mini-missile back to St. Louis. The Secret Service and FBI will now send in a covert team to the location — covert so as not to run afoul of the Nazarene Force.

Inside St. Louis, the team finds an unconscious, random "15", lying near the gun, the St. Louis 15. They grab the St. Louis 15 and get him out of Nazarene. In doing so they realize the unlucky man is not guilty of anything other than being a 15. They know the next step will be someone coming to kill the St. Louis 15, so he is put into witness protection.

But there is no other evidence that points toward anyone else. Still, Derasmo thinks Rose might be right, in his suicide note, that the Nazarenes may be behind this. She asks Marcia to consider it too, to see what her quantum algorithmic programs tell Marcia. The idea that EON and Wescott are behind the murders was always Marcia's second theory, so Marcia is ready to go.

EON Director Wescott (and de facto leader of all the Nazarenes) is uncomfortable with the focus now turning on Nazarene. He is distraught over the death of Tassima and blames Orman for being a coward and sending her to kill Rose, against Wescott's direct orders. Wescott tells Orman that the next time a shot is taken at President Mengsei, it will be Orman pulling the trigger. Wescott orders that the St. Louis 15 be killed.

Wescott descends into megalomania: determined now more than ever to see Act 5 of his Grand Opera LE POREM through to the bitter end — whatever the cost. Wescott and the Nazarene churches continue to drum up public hysteria by preaching a form of predestination, and declaring the devil's hand in the Presidential coincidences, each 100 years apart. They declare it cannot be explained any other way than God punishing America for their sinfulness and letting the devil push a 15 letter man to kill President Mengsei. They use the 666 "Number of the Beast" as evidence: 6 + 6 + 6 = 18, then subtract 3 = 15 (They justify subtracting "3" for the three days Christ was in the tomb, or for the three words in the assassin's name, or as an omen that it was to happen three times.) EON hosts worldwide prayer vigils, with millions praying for the safety of President Mengsei.

Derasmo and her team wonder if perhaps President Mengsei's BWS code was not really stolen. Why else would it not be used? Sure there is Rose's pre-suicide explanation, but now the FBI's research is beginning to show that perhaps Rose was feeling guilty about Lunalpha and took himself out before he had to testify against President Mengsei — but the details on that are still far from clear. The rest of Rose's notes, Derasmo thinks, were written to confuse the issue. But how did Rose get a BWS gun, and why fire it from St. Louis? Well, he had been CTO of CIEX, as Marcia had warned her, so getting a BWS gun and micro-missile could have happened. But St. Louis? Perhaps to further make Derasmo think it was a Nazarene conspiracy.

Derasmo is careful not to take the bait because this is now looking like someone is trying to spark a violent conflict between the U. S. Government and Nazarene. Either someone outside Nazarene wants to see the U. S. military go in and put an end to Nazarene — or someone inside Nazarene wants to see the U. S. military try to do that, thus igniting a surge in recruitment to Nazarene's cause in the name of Christ.

President Mengsei wants it all settled down. He debates heavily declaring marshal law so that he can go around the courts and send in Federal troops. The masses protesting any action by President Mengsei against Nazarene exercising its state's rights are a large as the masses protesting President Mengsei's apparent hesitancy to to anything at all. 

Derasmo is still worried about the threat to President Mengsei — if President Mengsei's BWS was stolen, then it's still out there and a real threat to President Mengsei. Derasmo and her team need to stay close on Orman, but Orman is extremely good at losing them. They start tracking Orman by his BWS, but Orman's bowler hat and other ways help keep him hidden. This exceptional difficulty in tracking Orman finally exasperates Derasmo, leading to Derasmo now asking the FBI Director to reverse himself and have Orman re-instated. The reasoning is that Orman will be easier to track if he thinks no one is suspecting him. But it's a long-shot and no one is particularily surprised when Orman doesn't show up for work.

Orman reports to Wescott that the St. Louis 15 has been put in witness protection, but as Orman is now back reinstated in the FBI (thanks to his ex-wife Derasmo's mistaken reversal), Orman can now find out the location of the St. Louis 15.

Meanwhile Wescott decides to go a different direction, to go 'old school', and find someone who can be his full-on Lee Harvey Oswald — not just a 15 to be used, but someone who can be unquestionably blamed. Wescott circles back to what he learned earlier about another 15, a DHS employee named Paul. Paul has raised FBI and Secret Service suspicions before. And Paul has no ties to EON, so perhaps by using Paul, Wescott might get the focus off of the Nazarenes.

Wescott sends Orman to find Paul and start tracking him.

Orman tracks Paul to Marcia's floating house.

IS Paul THE 15 LETTERS MAN?

The new FBI agents investigating the Lunalpha Disaster discover that President Mengsei and Rose switched their helmets before the trip back to Earth. But why? They bring this information to Derasmo, and Derasmo is equally confused — but Derasmo thinks the whole Lunalpha investigation is a ridiculous distraction — is concerns something that happened a long time ago — don't they all have a real crisis on their hands in real time?

But the FBI agents also mention something else that gets Derasmo's attention — they say Orman has asked about the witness protection of the St. Louis 15.

Marcia has been continuing to run her algorithms on 15s, getting the possibilities narrowed more and more. With a new, top-down design, Marcia gets a whole new approach to produce the top five 15s — her top suspects according to her algorythm.

She is shocked to see that Paul is on that new list. She attempts to prevent Paul from seeing the results, but Paul does. Paul is furious at Marcia, almost striking her, and she leaves.

The now-scared Marcia turns over her results to Derasmo, and Derasmo also is intrigued that Paul would show up on the list.

Derasmo reviews with Marcia what is known of Paul:

• Paul initially lied about being a 15.

• Paul was caught developing a secret BWS capture device that was later suspected to be used by the discredited FBI Exec Assist Dir Orman (and Derasmo's ex-husband) to steal President Mengsei's BWS at Rose's house — at the time Paul claimed Rose had told him to do it, but that never seemed to jibe with Rose's story.

• Paul was the last person seen talking with the CIEX Employee — their best suspect in the murder of the Senator Nichols two years prior.

• The CIEX Employee died after a plunge from Paul's high-rise apartment building.

• Paul possessed cyberbees capable of injecting a poison, and there were bees (real or android) were observed at the Presidential Inaugural Ball.

• President Mengsei's son thought he had been stung by a bee.

• Paul's cyberbees tested positive for residue of D-L, the same chemical injected into President Mengsei's son, killing the boy.

Marcia makes her case again to Derasmo — Marcia is beginning to think Paul is the actual 15 Letters Man — the Pre-suspect who Derasmo should be focused on — the man who Derasmo has consistently overlooked up to that point. But Derasmo tells Marcia that there simply isn't enough evidence, even if Derasmo agreed with Marcia — all they have is circumstantial. Besides, Paul had a good reason to have the things he did — they shouldn't jump to conclusions. But in truth, neither Marcia or Derasmo can shake the thought that perhaps Paul is the would-be-assassin.

PRESIDENT MENGSEI HAS HIS BWS REPLACED

Derasmo sets up a private meeting with Paul. There Paul reveals to Derasmo what Paul  has been working on — what they discussed briefly before — a way to replace a person's natural BWS code that their mind emits. But it could have some negative effects on the brain. They need some subjects to test it upon — a number of prisoners volunteer in trade for reduced sentences. For every prisoner, Paul's method seems to work, with no side effects, so far.

Though clearly Derasmo now doesn't trust Paul, she also can't deny that Paul's idea for permanently protecting President Mengsei might be just the thing needed. But Derasmo knows she will never let Paul get anywhere near President Mengsei.

When the idea of BWS replacement is presented to President Mengsei, he agrees to do it. But before President Mengsei undertakes the procedure, he instructs VP Johnson that if he (Mengsei) does not come through the procedure or comes through mentally incapacitated, then VP Johnson must do whatever she can to get Biyu out of prison. The best suggestion is to do a prisoner swap, to find a Chinese spy inside the United States and turn that person over to the Chinese in trade for Biyu. The problem with that idea is that relations with China have so improved that the United States currently has no Chinese spy. "Make one," President Mengsei tells VP Johnson. "We have to be seen giving the Chinese somebody, to save face for both countries."

The BWS alteration procedure is completed and President Mengsei's seems to be alright. Now no one in the world, except President Mengsei and Derasmo, know President Mengsei's new BWS code. If any would-be assassin fires a BWS-guided micro-missile at President Mengsei, then the mini-missile will be blind to the new code and only hit whatever is transmitting that old BWS code — like an android clone of President Mengsei.

ORMAN COMES AFTER MARCIA AND PAUL

Orman learns who Paul's girlfriend (Marcia) is — Marcia is the one who has been providing information to Derasmo, and he learns that EON raided Marcia one time for hacking into their Nazarene system. Based on Paul's apparent closeness with Marcia, Orman decides Paul is not a good patsy for Wescott — he decides to act on his own and kill both Paul and Marcia. Orman is tired of taking orders from Wescott — for this one hit, Orman will make the decision himself.

Orman's sees Paul and Marcia in Marcia's floating house. Orman uses a small, military drone to blow the house to bits — taking out much of the whole floating neighborhood — killing many adults and children.

But Derasmo, not trusting Paul at all, and now by extension perhaps not Marcia either, had ordered Paul and his BWS lab, and Marcia and her powerful quantum computer, be moved into protective custody in a safe house that only Derasmo knows about. Paul's mother is allowed to come with them — but that's it — and no leaving the house.

What Orman didn't realize was that who he saw in Marcia's window were Paul and Marcia's android clones — left behind — having an android clone conversation in the kitchen.

Orman reports to Wescott, saying at first that he took care of Marcia — someone who was leading the FBI and the Secret Service toward EON by way of hacking into EON and by following the stolen BWS code. But Wescott interrupts, saying he doesn't care any more about President Mengsei's BWS code — now Wescott wants the setup done in such a way that Wescott's perfect patsy, Paul, will appear to be the shooter of President Mengsei (with a laser guided bullet). Wescott asks what Orman learned about Paul, and how soon Orman can be ready to grab Paul.

Orman must confess that he's pretty sure Paul is dead too. Wescott is enraged at Orman's stupidity. Wescott would kill Orman right then and there if Wescott didn't need Orman's "inside information". Wescott warns Orman that the day Orman fails to be useful will be Orman's last day alive.

Trying to appease Wescott, Orman gives Wescott the location of the St. Louis 15 who is now in witness protection in Oregon.

DERASMO DECIDES TO GO WITH THE ANDROID CLONE AND LURE THE SHOT

San Francisco has a terrible earthquake and President Mengsei and the First Lady plan to tour the damage and meet with first responders and the victims' families there.

Secret Service Director Derasmo tells Paul to get the android clones of President Mengsei and the First Lady ready to deploy at any moment.

Meanwhile, when when the FBI runs its most advanced quantum computer analysis, it too has Paul as one of the top three Pre-suspects. Also on the list, but in the 32nd ranking, is Orman himself. Derasmo and others note that. It is also noted by the FBI that Derasmo is who asked that Orman to be reinstated to the FBI post haste. The FBI Director asks Derasmo if Derasmo knows where Paul or Orman is, but Derasmo says no. The FBI Director doesn't believe her — perhaps Derasmo herself is to be watched.

Derasmo tells them the FBI Director that he needs to move the St. Louis 15 — that the man is no longer safe — wherever they put him.

The FBI are very much against President Mengsei being in the open at all, and strongly suggest that Secret Service Director Derasmo cancel the President's plans in San Francisco. They are surprised when Derasmo pushes back, arguing that San Francisco is President Mengsei's home — there is simply no way that President Mengsei won't go there after the disastrous earthquake. But this refusal makes the FBI further suspect Derasmo.

But of course Derasmo has her own plan — she tells Paul and Marcia to get the android clones to San Francisco.

VP Johnson has an idea regarding the Chinese and Biyu. The Chinese agree to do a swap, but it must appear to be for an American who can be said to have betrayed America for China — just reverse to the Chinese PLA's accusation against Biyu. Derasmo has an idea as to who they can use.

Orman, following Derasmo, realizes that Paul and Marcia are still alive, and that they are working for Derasmo. But Orman doesn't know what Paul and Marcia are doing.

Wescott orders Orman to get to San Francisco to do the job and to get another patsy-15 ready there.

Derasmo learns Orman has been spotted entering San Francisco, supposedly as part of the FBI's clean up task force — but that the FBI didn't ask him to do that.

Derasmo realizes by focusing on what the algorithms and Marcia's hunches told her, Derasmo has missed the most obvious 15 in front of her — her ex-husband and the FBI's Exec Assist Dir - Criminal Services, Orman. The search is on for Orman in San Francisco.

The event occurs and President Mengsei and the First Lady are in the open. It is a Friday.

Derasmo closes in on Orman, tracking him by his BWS. With no more time, Derasmo orders the use of an illegal — it can cause irreparable brain damage — reverse-BWS-jamming device to try to knock Orman unconscious remotely via a highly targeted blast to Orman's BWS. It works — but not before Orman fires a laser guided bullet at President Mengsei's head.

On impact it is clear that Orman shot President Mengsei's android clone instead.

Derasmo and her team capture Orman, unconscious, in his sniper's nest. On Orman they find information about the actual location of the St. Louis 15.

Derasmo calls VP Johnson to say that they must do the swap for Biyu right now, immediately.

To Derasmo, Marcia's methods have proven to be useless, as clearly Paul wasn’t the to-be-assassin.

Paul and Marcia break up when Paul realizes Marcia was telling the Secret Service all along that Paul was their prime would-be-assassin suspect.

With Orman in custody, and mentally damaged by the reverse-BWS-jam, Orman gives up Wescott. Orman also says someone is in route to kill the St. Louis 15. Derasmo is pleased to show Orman a media report — the Chinese have swapped Biyu for an unnamed Oregon man who admitted to working secretly for the Chinese. The man, Orman sees, is the St. Louis 15.

In St. Louis, Wescott is now well-protected 24/7 within the EON compound. Wescott tells the world that the U. S. Government has made up charges against him as an excuse to send heavy military into Nazarene. Wescott calls on all "Godly Americans" to not believe the false news reports, but instead to stand up and resist the tyranny of President Mengsei and the breakaway Texans.

SEASON 4

LUNALPHA DETAILS COMES OUT aND DERASMO DEVELOPS A RASH PLAN

In 2063, Oklahoma and Kansas dissolve into the now massive singular state of Nazarene, and border skirmishes with Texas heat up. President Mengsei is still hesitant to send in federal troops on either side, thinking that to do so would ignite a full civil war. Besides the Supreme Court keeps supporting Nazarene's right to self-determination, and Texas' right to protect its borders.

Biyu has now come to the United States, and is almost secretly living in the White House for her own protection. This is causing major opposition from members of the Administration who still see Biyu as a threat.

The battle heats up between Nazarene and the Texas led resistance. Under Wescott's orders, Nazarene begins public beheadings of captured spies, followed by drone-couriering of the heads to the victims' families in Texas. But this barbarity is a bridge too far, so President Mengsei finally orders in U. S. Army Rangers to force a cease fire. But key senior military leaders in Washington are Nazarenes themselves, and as such they drag their feet on carrying out President Mengsei's orders.

Meanwhile the continuing FBI investigation into the Lunalpha Disaster has finally discovered evidence that both Rose and Mengsei intentionally set the fire in the CIEX Agricultural Research Unit of Lunalpha. The damning info is kept private — for now.

President Mengsei decides he must admit the truth to the public about the Lunalpha Disaster — yes he was doing his job by starting the fire, but he never intended for anyone to get hurt. And President Mengsei knows he will need to resign.

President Mengsei tells this to Secret Service Director Derasmo and others in the White House, but they all disagree strongly with President Mengsei's plans — the situation with Nazarene is far too dangerous right now — President Mengsei must put the country first. If President Mengsei resigns, VP Johnson will be the President, and she (being the ex-Governor of Nazarene) will surely side with Nazarene against Texas. That will spark a full civil war.

The solution, Derasmo thinks, is to first capture Wescott, reveal him to be who he is, and thus undermine the whole of Nazarene. Then President Mengsei can do as he wishes, and VP Johnson will not have the power that she might have otherwise.

But the worry is that the damning information about what happened on Lunalpha will get leaked anyway, before Wescott can be captured. After all, no effort to get Wescott has been successful over the prior six months.

Biyu has an idea. Biyu tells Derasmo that there is one possibility, and that it's something only Derasmo can do. We don't hear the plan, but Derasmo is stunned by the idea.

Derasmo knows she must decide quickly, and thus agrees to Biyu's radical idea — both swear to not reveal it to anyone else, certainly not President Mengsei — lest they be stopped from proceeding. Biyu contacts her Chinese connections. Derasmo contacts EON and asks to meet with Wescott, one-on-one, unarmed, and that Derasmo will allow an EON plane to pick her up in Washington D.C. and fly Derasmo to St. Louis.

Marcia cannot shake the thought that the threat from a 15 is still lurking, so long as President Mengsei is in office. Marcia dives back into her numbers, but this time Marcia will come at it from a direction Marcia considers ridiculous — keying her algorithms off of numbers found on an ancient Viking carving — an idea one of her Truth in Numbers members has been laboring Marcia about for almost three years. To Marcia, the source of the random numbers is meaningless, but she finds it curious nonetheless.

Marcia and Paul reconcile. Paul has come to understand that Marcia's OCD issues led Marcia to think of Paul as the possible future-assassin on a purely logical way, not as a matter of heart. Marcia is also apologetic.

Paul decides to help Marcia with her new efforts. This is the first time Paul has paid much attention to Marcia's 'scientific' numerology. Up till then Marcia did her thing on her own. Now with their combined intelligence and scientific intuitions, a new algorithm for predicting the 15 is achieved — they keep it a secret that their new approach is based some Viking carving.

DERASMO GOES TO ST. LOUIS AND FINDS THE TRUTH

Derasmo travels to St. Louis on a CIEX jet, and is taken into house arrest deep within EON's headquarters, the replica of the Vatican Basilica. Derasmo is not given permission to see Wescott, who has become somewhat of a god to the Nazarenes. All communication devices are removed from Derasmo and her BWS is blocked by keeping her underground. They scan Derasmo's body and find no other tracking devices.

Derasmo is submitted to a series of brainwashing efforts, each seeking to further bring her to the Nazarene ideology. Derasmo seems to be giving in, changing. Eventually Derasmo is taken to Wescott.

Initially Wescott thinks Derasmo is faking, and refuses to talk with her.

Eventually Wescott gives in. But to test Derasmo's loyalty, her "conversion", Wescott requires Derasmo to reveal all the secrets Derasmo knows about President Mengsei. Derasmo tells Wescott about the Lunalpha Disaster, the one thing that will bring down President Mengsei's presidency and install the Nazarene VP Johnson as the new President.

Wescott is convinced Derasmo is converted, that she is a Nazarene.

Eventually Wescott shares with Derasmo his Grand Opera: LE POREM. It was called that because of the phrase, "third time's a charm." Wescott regrets that it was never completed, but now that Nazarene has grown so strong, and with President Mengsei soon to have to resign, then the final act is unnecessary.

Derasmo questions the name, as it shouldn't be Le Porem, but rather the Latin translation of "charm" is one word: leporem. But this insolence alarms Wescott. Has Derasmo been faking her "conversion"?

What Wescott doesn't know, is that before Derasmo went to St. Louis, Derasmo allowed the Chinese PLA to imbed her with an undetectable artificial cochlea in her left ear, rendering herself deaf in that ear. But the new bio-cochlea biologically records all that it hears, from the moment it is inserted to the moment it is removed.

Wescott demands to know if Derasmo is truly Nazarene. Derasmo assures Wescott that her beliefs are authentic.

Of course Derasmo's 'conversion' was not real, and now that she has heard (bio-recorded) enough from Wescott, there is only one thing left for Derasmo to do — only one way to get the bio-recording out of Nazarene undetected.

Derasmo kills Wescott with a simple heavy object — then she waits. As Derasmo knew they would, soon the Nazarene guards rush in and kill Derasmo — she falls across Wescott's bloody head.

EON AND PRESIDENT MENGSEI ARE BROUGHT DOWN

The body of the ungodly murderous "spy" Derasmo is butchered, with her torso dumped in the Mississippi, and her head drone-shipped to President Mengsei.

It is now clear what Biyu had suggested, and Derasmo had agreed to do — going to see Wescott was a one-way, suicide mission.

In St. Louis there is a massive state funeral for Wescott, and he is laid to rest in a magnificent tomb under the Resurrection Arch.

But the battle between Nazarene soldiers and Texas Home Guard, on the Texas border, gets more intense, and the Nazarenes are being defeated.

In Nazarene there is open talk of civil war against the whole of the United States, if the United States military doesn't come to Nazarene's aid against Texas. But this is a step too far for many in the Nazarene government. Talk of change is stirring within.

Biyu must now tell her brother, President Mengsei, not only what Derasmo did for the Nation, but must admit that it was Biyu's idea, as only Biyu could get the Chinese to secretly help as they did — it had to be secret lest word would get back to President Mengsei who would clearly have stopped it. President Mengsei is overcome, but understands.

Derasmo's head is taken to Walter Reed Army Hospital where the bio-cochlea is removed from it. Now the evidence provided by Wescott, in his own words, is given out worldwide.

But in that recording the world also hears Derasmo tell Wescott about President Mengsei's role in the death of the four astronauts 20 years earlier in the Lunalpha Disaster. President Mengsei realizes Derasmo was ever-faithful to the truth, all the way to the end — Derasmo was not only being sure that President Mengsei would come clean, Derasmo was giving President Mengsei a lighted path to do so.

With the already simmering tensions inside Nazarene, the evidence of Wescott's horrible plans against President Mengsei tips the scales. Now internal factions break out in the power structure of EON, and the Nazarene Force falls into disarray.

President Mengsei agrees to resign, but first relieves from duty any hesitant officers, and orders U.S. military to St. Louis.

In St. Louis, many CIEX and EON leaders are arrested. A new, temporary government is put into place, and someone cuts down the cross hanging in the Arch, smashing both it and Wescott's tomb below. The next day someone has installed a massive Texas flag hanging from the top of the arch. (The flag is quickly taken down.)

A constitutional ballot initiative goes forward in Nazarene to withdraw to its original borders.

The date for President Mengsei's resignation is set for Saturday, August 23, 2064, the day after Derasmo’s funeral.

Marcia and Paul imput all the new revelations into their Viking carving-based-algorithms. At the top of the new resulting list is Benjamin Lou Bell: a U.S. Marine, a 15, a Southerner, and the son of one of the men who died on the Moon in the Lunalpha Disaster.

Marcia and Paul try to get the Secret Service to take notice, but are rebuffed. With Derasmo dead, Wescott's plans aired, and President Mengsei resigning in three days, no one is concerned any more about 15s, or such threats or ideas.

Marcia and Paul decide that they must track Ben on their own.

President Mengsei IS ASSASSINATED BY A 15 LETTERS MAN

On a cloudy, dark evening in August, President Mengsei and the First Lady attend the funeral of Secret Service DIrector Derasmo, at Arlington Cemetery, where Derasmo is given full military honors. President Mengsei gives a speech in which he honors Derasmo for giving the ultimate sacrifice for her country. President Mengsei breaks into tears when he speaks about how Derasmo was so much more honorable than he was. Biyu is there too, standing near her brother.

Marcia and Paul learn that Ben has recently been moved to the Joint Base at Ft. Myer, where he has inexplicably joined the US Army Military District that conducts funerals at Arlington Cemetery. They race to Arlington Cemetery.

At Arlington Cemetery we see Ben in the Honor Guard's twenty-one gun salute. His rifle comes up. He fires each time. Are those really blanks? Will he turn and fire on President Mengsei? He doesn't.

The funeral continues, and Marcia and Paul are getting close to Arlington. They are using a drone car (flying vehicle).

Ben is now near President Mengsei, as the flag is being folded from the top of the casket.

President Mengsei and the First Lady sit at the graveside memorial, with Biyu nearby, as bugler plays taps.

One Honor Guard brings Derasmo's folded flag to present to Derasmo's daughter. Ben formally picks up another pre-folded flag to be presented to President Mengsei — a flag from the ceremony to be flown at half-mast over the White House.

Marcia and Paul are nearly shot down before they can land, due to them coming in so fast toward the location of President Mengsei. But they manage to land safely and run to the gates. Nevertheless, the Secret Service will not let them in. They shout but...

As Ben approaches President Mengsei, Ben whispers something in President Mengsei's ear. President Mengsei looks surprised, but can do nothing before Ben pulls a simple, old .38 pistol from within the folded flag, and calmly shoots President Mengsei point blank in the forehead, killing the President instantly. Ben is immediately jumped upon by Biyu who snaps his neck, killing him. The Secret Service swarm, protect VP Johnson, and take Biyu into custody.

On Friday, August 22, 2064, Chen Mengsei, the President of the United States, with a seven letter last name, having entered Congress in 2046, and having had a son die while he was in office, is assassinated by Benjamin Lou Bell, a young, Southern white man with 15 letters in his full name. The assassin is murdered before he can be tried for the assassination. Vice President Johnson, born in 2008, is then sworn in as the 53rd President.