"Papa, it's begun." "Run." "Hurry." " Look at that." "Can you believe it?" " That thing is huge." "Lauren?" "What are you doing?" "Come over here." "Hurry up." "God, you must be freezing." "Lauren, are you OK?" "Seven confirmed deaths and the number of missing persons continues to mount in the wake of the storm the National Weather Service has labeled the worst of the century." "25 inches of rain have fallen..." " Hello." " Hi." " It looks like I'm going to be late." " With the flooding." "Actually, it's this case." "I'm with the parents of a grad student who lit herself on fire." " Did she survive?" " No." "The parents keep saying that she'd never kill herself, so it's intense here." "Your guy has been a real comfort to them though." "I'm sorry, Catherine." "What guy?" "Dennis something." "He said he worked with you." "I thought from the Group." " I probably just haven't met him yet." " You'd remember him." " Make sure you get his name." " I will." "I better get back to the parents now." "Love you." "Love you." "Was that Mommy?" "What did she say?" "I have a secret plan that I can't tell to any spies unless they're in their PJs." ".. Teaching assistant set herself on fire." " Scoot." " I'll be right back, Daddy." "Some think this self-immolation, if that's what it was, had the trappings of a political act." "But none of the students we interviewed have any idea what she may have been protesting." "I hope her family hasn't seen this." "Yeah, it was on the news." "She reminds me of those Buddhist monks protesting the Vietnam War." "I think so too." "Ritualistic pose." "Focused beyond herself somehow." "Maybe this is why the parents kept saying someone else had to be responsible." " Who?" " They had no idea." "So I took it as a defense mechanism." "You know, find someone out there to blame." "Honestly, that guy who knew you encouraged them." " Did you find out what his last name was?" " No, he never came back." "It's got to feel worse when it's an only child." "I'm going to go peek in on Jordan." " I'll be up in a minute." " OK." " Watts." " Peter, Frank." "So you weren't washed away?" "No, still here." " Did you see the grad student on the news?" " Yeah, pretty grim." "Do we have somebody working on that?" "Dennis something?" "No, no one." "You think we should?" "Catherine spoke to the family." "They say it wasn't a suicide." "If I were the parents, I'd be telling myself that too." " If you want, I can do a little research." " Thank you." " It's open." " Frank Black." "I spoke to you on the phone." "Could you close the door, please?" "I'm not allowed to smoke in here." " You'd think I'd quit after yesterday." " Is this Lauren's desk?" "Not any more." ""Point-Set Topology. "" "Lauren." "She was mutant-bright." "She was offered a faculty appointment at Oxford." " Why didn't she take it?" " Her parents." "They're nice people." "They're just like "Great Britain, isn't that somewhere near England?"" "What do you think, Maura?" "Were there any warning signs before yesterday?" "Like what?" "Like little fires flaring up?" "I'm sorry, but do you people not compare notes?" "This is a complete Xerox of what your partner asked me." " Someone was here?" " A Dennis Hoffman." "You know, the snappy dresser." "The only reason I was willing to go through this again is cos he said you would be able to tell me what happened." "He said you'd be interested in that." " I can't believe it." " I know." "I don't even know what to make of it." "It's just so weird." "I don't know how it happened." " She was a great student." " Yeah, she was." "Frank Black?" "I would have come sooner, but I wanted you to see for yourself." " Have we met?" " Dennis Hoffman." "I'm glad we're teamed up on this." "The girl?" "The alignment?" "Boom." "Boom." " Doesn't get much clearer than that." " What doesn't?" "On May 5, 2000, seven inner planets aligned for the first time since the Great Flood." "Uranus at the meridian of its epicenter." "Earth, the focus of the biggest gravitational tug of war in 6,000 years." "Catastrophic Earth changes on alignment day, preceded by abnormal weather patterns now as stresses build." "Example." "Hurricanes." "Edouard, Andrew, Andhra Pradesh, Bay of Bengal." "Example." "The Sahara Desert advancing 70.7 meters per year." "Example." "Lima earthquake, 7.3," "Loma Prieta, 7.1, Irian Jaya, 8.0." "Example." " The hailstorm?" " Exactly as predicted." " You mean prophecy?" " I mean scientific fact." "Alignment every 6,000 years." "Obviously, Lauren knew." "She killed herself because a hailstorm confirmed the world was about to end?" "Nobody kills themselves over something that happens three years from now." "I have to believe that she was protesting something else." "People close to her have no idea what that might be." "Someone does." "So obviously there's others involved, someone behind this." "You've told people we work together." " Only those with a need to know." " I've never met you before." "Ask Peter Watts." "He'll confirm." "There are others involved." " Thanks for helping me out." " It wasn't a pleasure dealing with Hoffman but I impressed on him the need to leave you alone." " How'd you find him?" " Email." "He's always eager to talk." "Dennis came forward on a zodiac-cult investigation before you joined us." "Once he found us, it took a year to get him off our backs." " But he's not dangerous?" " Only if you listen to him." "On the girl, I came up with pertinent information." "Actually, a lack of pertinent information." "There's no birth certificate." "Public documents list Lauren as the Padillas' child." "That's impossible." " Too many recessive traits." " She was adopted?" "Never formally, meaning there's no record of her biological parents." "There's something else." "Scholarships." "Appointments." "An endless list of special programs starting at an early age." " I was told the Padillas weren't sophisticated." " Exactly." "There's been a pattern of positive interference in her life from outside." "The genetic parents?" "Whoever it is taking pains to remain anonymous." "But there are others involved." "That's what Dennis Hoffman said." "It's Carlin." "She's not coming." "Carlin?" "Carlin, honey?" "Are you OK in there, Carlin?" "Carlin?" "Cheryl Andrews MD, conducting autopsy under the Snohomish County Coroner." "Subject: a reported self-immolation, grad student Lauren Padilla." "P-A-D-I-L-L-A." "White female, age 25." "Elevated carboxy-hemoglobin confirms cause of death was hypoxia and severe thermal injuries." "Bone shrinkage and fourth-degree burning of extremities consistent with use of acetone accelerants." "Body posture consistent with use of acetone accelerants as well." " The kneeling position?" " Kneeling makes it sound voluntary." "This is called the pugilistic attitude." "It's very typical." "It's caused by the muscles contracting under intense heat." " What about the hands?" " Less typical, much less." "The mandala position, if you're a Buddhist." "What does that mean?" "Protest?" "An offering, supplication." "Beautiful eyes." "Congenital coloboma occlusion at three o'clock." "What do you think?" "It's obviously self-inflicted." "I wouldn't call it self-mutilation." "The shape means something." "In astronomy it's the symbol for conjunction." "Alignment." "She had a model of the solar system." "The planets were aligned the day she died." " Hoffman probably aligned them himself." " He said others were involved." "He always says that." "I think he knows something." "Dennis." "We had an agreement." "Yes, we did." "But now you've found something on the body, haven't you?" " Get in your car and go." " What's this mean to you?" "May 5." "I knew it. 5-5-2000." "Seven inner planets align for the first time since the Great Flood." " Uranus at the meridian of its epicenter..." " Yes, you told me about that before." "Catastrophic changes on that day preceded by abnormal weather conditions now." "The Bay of Bengal, you said that too." "Seven planets align." "Seven people survived with Noah." "Seven separate prophecies by Nostradamus predicting the apocalypse in May." "Listen, this is the beginning of the thousand days." "When the first trumpet sounds, there came hail mixed with fire and blood." "Revelations, verse seven." "Blood." "Exodus, chapter seven." "And the river was turned to blood." "River of blood." "There'll be more." "We found her right where you said, a few hundred yards downstream from the dam." " We left her the way we found her." " Good." "It wasn't pretty." "Andesol soil." "Volcanic." "The riverbed ruptured just below the dam." "The fish never knew what hit 'em." "They speculate that volcanic ash from Santorini turned the Nile River red in Ancient Egypt." " River of blood." " That's what people around here call it." "Connective fascia's pretty degraded." "I'd guess two or three days underwater." "Yeah, she went missing three days ago." "I figure she was murdered somewhere else then dumped over the dam." " No, I don't think so." " Someone want to tell me what's going on?" "I want to see my baby." "Zip that thing up." " Calm down, Lillian." "No." " Let go." " I have to see my little girl." " Now, listen to me." "Now, I'm not saying you can't see her." "I'm just asking you as a friend, please, let us clean her up first." "I don't want you to remember Carlin like this." "You're the one who knew where she'd be." "Yes." " I'm very sorry." " He's one of them." " No." " One of who?" "Lillian?" "Who are they?" "The ones that brought Carlin to you?" "I don't know." "I never knew." "My perfect baby and they took her." "Same congenital coloboma at three o'clock." "Carved icon I believe we all recognize." "There's definite family resemblance." "I'm betting the pelvic cavity should be highly interesting." "There were needle marks in her buttocks and a slight abscess of the surrounding adipose tissue suggests repeated intramuscular injections." "Someone was drugging her?" "By the angle of the needle, she was almost certainly injecting herself." "Both girls show extremely high postmortem estrogen levels." "I assumed Lauren's was a false reading due to extreme heat but seeing Carlin's, I'm quite sure they were both injecting menotropins." "Fertility drugs?" "Gentlemen, welcome to the realm of the truly bizarre." "She's a high-school senior, by all indications a virgin, and she's superovulated." "There are seven." "Seven mature egg follicles where there should be one." " They're the same, the two girls?" " Right." "They've got to be sisters." "Identical twins." " Frank, they're not the same age." " Seven years apart." "Identical offspring." "Being readied for the cataclysm on May 5, in the year 2000." "Like Noah preparing for the flood." "They know about both girls, Lauren and Carlin." " What should we do?" " Call the others." "This is called the blastomere separation, used for decades to create identical cattle." "Take a fertilized egg and let it divide a few times in vitro." "Then you tease the cells apart." "Each new embryo is identical to the original." "Freeze some for later and you could have identical girls seven years apart." " Both providing eggs for the next generation." " A few." "How many is that?" "In cows, a practical amount would be 20 copies, probably similar in humans." "So who does this procedure?" "No one would admit to doing it in a human but any gynecologist could." "Pretty ugly breeding experiment." "Think the girls who killed themselves wanted out?" "No." "Staying in assured they'd survive on May 5." "Both sets of parents said someone forced them." "Maybe they were removed from the program." "If you've got the genes, you don't need the people." "20 identical human beings no longer needed, no birth records, scattered over 50 states." "Gonna be tough to find." "The river of blood happened the way you said it would." "How did you know?" "I read Exodus." " Would you like some water?" " Thank you." "Dennis." "There are others." "There will be more deaths." " Are you mocking me?" " No." "There is someone out there who believes in May 5." "He's responsible for the death of two girls already." "I need to know who else believes in Earth changes." " Einstein did." " I mean today." " I don't know anybody like that." " Where would he be?" "Where would you be?" "Where will you be on May 5 in the year 2000?" "I really thought that when I finally found someone who believed" "they'd be good." "That the future would somehow be better." "I reserved a hotel room in Pocatello, Idaho." "Technically, it's a motel but it's supposed to be quite nice." "Pocatello, Idaho." "531 miles from the nearest coast." "4,448 feet above sea level." "A seismic oasis, especially compared to here." " Take a look at this." " Forget the Big One in LA." "When the Cascadia subduction zone shifts, Seattle's looking at a nine-plus." "All those Starbucks will be about 300 feet under." "Since I don't believe in telepathy, I had to assume the girls had prior contact." "Peter, I just want to say it's great working with you again." "They did have contact but it wasn't directly." "This is a picture of their calling patterns." "Both called this number just before they died." "The guy in the middle is pushing buttons?" "I don't know but watch this." "All in contact with the same guy." "Roughly 20 total." " 20." "That's what Cheryl said." " I checked a few of them out." "Missouri, blue-eyed blonde, AWOL." "Colorado, blue-eyed blonde, missing two days." "California girl, missing 24 hours." "Each one an only child." " You think they're being recalled?" " We could end up with a real mess." "Where, though?" "Pocatello, Idaho." "I know my building." "I've got pumps, emergency generators, elevator equipment." " No elves." " Our records show activity." "No one has any access to this area without my knowledge." "Two dozen people are missing and they're all focused on this place." "Clear." "Clear." "Clear." "Clear." "Clear." "Someone changed the cylinder." " What's in the box?" " I don't know." "None of this is supposed to be here." "It's a phone switcher." "It could be forwarding anywhere." " Who designed this building?" " Where'd you find him?" " Who did design it?" " A local woman." "Worked out of an office from a ranch an hour from here." "I forget her name but, you know, I still remember the phone number." "5-5-5." "2000." "I know you could care less but I got a dozen guys about to go into golden time here." "I say we knock with a domestic-disturbance complaint." "There've been two deaths already." " This could become extremely volatile." " We have movement." "They're in there." "They've made us." "Everybody in." "Go, go, go." " Let's go." " Go, go, go." "Come on, move." "Hey, I found something up here." " There's a suspect here." " Let's go, let's go." " Hurry." " Run." "Run." " This way." " In there." "Get in there." "It's OK." "Nobody's going to hurt you." "Little more, little more..." " OK, good." " Wait." "What is this?" " Protective custody." " You can't arrest them." "Those ten year olds found out today they're as individual as ants." " This is not necessary." " Sorry." "No Jonestown on my watch." " You're making things worse." " Frank." "He wants to talk to you upstairs." "I told him you understood." "I don't want to understand." "They're being locked in a bus." "Shipped off." "Do you know where?" "Do you care?" "Would you give us a minute?" "I want you to understand." "Noah was an insane man until the rains came." "And that day the flood began, all the people who had jeered showed up." "Imagine that scene." "The chaos, the violence." "People who had taunted Noah just hours before, now willing to commit any vile act to secure a seat on his boat." "I contemplated that scene for many years and I finally accepted" "that the people I wanted to see in the next world, people who would care for each other, as brother and sister," "did not exist." "I would have to make them." "When I saw the results, how perfect they are to each other," "I knew that the next world would be better." "Your daughters are crying down there." "The arrogance, not to take responsibility." "No." "The humility of accepting my place in the universe." " You want to take God's place." " I accept that on May 5 the planets will align and massive Earth changes will occur." "Not as a referendum on man's wickedness but as part of the eternal order of the cosmos." "We cannot stop this." "It is not about us." "And once you accept this, Mr Black, it is your responsibility as a human being to do everything you can to preserve what is good about humanity." "I was hoping, for the future, that you would understand." "The two girls." "You talked to them before they died." "They were your daughters." "What did you tell them?" " The truth." " What truth?" "That the thousand days had begun." "And that I'm dying." "I won't make it with them to the other side." "All my children," "I pray they'll be all right." "Come on, let's keep moving." "A chance to remake the world in your own image." "Maybe you'd be crazy not to take it." "I don't think that's what he had in mind." "Well, that's what he got." "Look at this stuff." "When you're breeding Einsteins 20 at a pop, that's a lot of ribbons." "We're wound down." "I'll send my guys home." " Where's Dennis?" " He was out front when they loaded the girls." "That crackpot?" "I haven't seen him since they left." " He's gone." " What do you mean?" "They're gone." "That bus will never get there." "Mason, Baker, get after that bus." "Get out there now." "Go." " What the hell is going on?" " The power's out." "The power was deliberately cut." "They found the bus empty." "Dennis is still at large." "Wherever they vanished to, he'll be with them." "The Ark." "At least we'll know where they'll be May 5, 2000." "It's a lot harder to dismiss when it's notjust Dennis ranting." "He just didn't know what to do with the knowledge." "These people obviously have a plan." "So how does it start?" "The great cataclysm?" "Nobody knows exactly." "All they know is how it's going to end." "I'm gonna get something for my daughter." "Thank you." "What is it?" "It's our solar system." "Here." "This is the sun, and this is us." "We live in a ball?" "Shall I tell Daddy the great news?" "She got in." "Green Valley Day School." " They accepted Jordan for next fall." " Good." "Good?" "Frank, she's set through the twelfth grade." "We're home free until 2010." "I am so proud of you." "We think you're the smartest little girl and you're going to grow up to be a smart big girl."