Project Apollo

Chapter 21

"Thoughts?" There was a general silence over the room. The initial thought came from one of the new faces in the Situation Room - the disheveled man of the table, Mr. Hunterson. He puffed out his chest and spoke through one long, almost somber, exhale.

"And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free... John 8:32." He paused to take another lungful of air and then rattled off the developments "It fits... judging by Ezra's past."

"Peter, what is it?" The President asked for clarity on his thought.

"This passage, from scripture, is also our motto over at the CIA. That is why I believe that his target is Langley, Mr. President."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tobias and Catherine had retreated back into the lab and were analyzing the blood sample. Tobias's old television ran a rerun of Jeopardy, a show he watched religiously as he worked. It distracted his mind just enough to prevent it from overanalyzing his research.

"It's starship Captain James Kirk's middle name," Alex Trebek stated.

"What is Tiberius..." Tobias and Catherine both answered in unison. Their heads slowly lifted from their work and their eyes connected. Catherine smiled at Tobias, who nervously pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. After melting his heart, Catherine's head fell back to the microscope, her hair falling down around it. Tobias watched as it dangled before him. Catherine brought her head up again to glance at Tobias, not expecting him to be still staring. Upon meeting his eyes again, she fell into a fit of flattered laughter.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Across the warehouse, Xander, Ashton and Seamus analyzed the clue. They huddled over a crate with a large piece of paper with the second clue scrawled out on it.

"Xander," a familiar voice chimed into his ear. He turned from the clue and responded over his comm mic.

"Yeah, Hardy, what you got?" he asked, listening intently into his earpiece. Before the answer came a hard pound thumped through his temples, his head dropped, trying to quell the ache. His knees wobbled weak. He had to lean up on a crate to steady himself for the ten seconds of cranial agony. The reverberating pain subsided as his head cleared. He exhaled relief and shook his head free of the strange and surprising pain.

He was able to decipher the words coming over the comm unit.

"... 'and the truth shall make you free' is the motto of Langley. We think that's Ezra's next target," Xander grasped the gist and considered the hypothesis.

"Ezra mentioned in the Compound that truth is the cure to the disease of lies. But there aren't deities or a time component as the first and third lines of the clue indicate," he explained.

"We are going to send a team in case," Hardy updated.

"Understood but still brainstorm. I'm not convinced," Xander explained.

"You got it. Keep you posted." The comm unit went silent.

Xander gathered himself for a moment and rubbed the sides of his head, shaking off the remnants of the migraine. He then turned on his heel and returned to the table.

"The White House is sending a team to Langley," he updated the operatives. Seamus jumped at the lead.

"Well let's go..." Xander raised a calming hand.

"No... they're missing something. We need deities and time...frozen time..."

They racked their brains for as many references to Greek gods in the city.