Special Agent Damian Coles walked down the corridor a cup of steaming coffee in his hand.  After a short pause to collect his thoughts he pushed the steel door at the end of the hallway open and walked into a small poorly lit room.  “So what was so important that you had to interrupt the case that I was working on?” he asked the two men standing in front of him.  The first man was tall and fidgeted nervously with a pen, constantly clicking the button on the very top.  The other man was heavy-set and quietly sipping at a styrofoam cup of coffee.
 “How’s Roger doing, Damian,” asked the tall man nervously as he looked at the other man.
 “Roger is doing fine, Adam.  He’ll make an excellent FBI agent in the future, but I don’t think you called me all the way down to DC just to talk about how the new kid’s doing.  What’s going on here, Scott?  I left a rookie up in Danford to handle his first case so this had better be damn good.”
 “Do you remember the Nolond case?” rumbled Scott as he came closer under the light.
 “Barely, it happened quite a long time ago,” replied Damian.
 “Adam, why don’t you fill Damian in with the necessary information.  You were here during the case and helped put Nolond away.”
 “Okay.  The Nolond case occurred about seven years before you came to the FBI and was one of the strangest cases that we’ve ever processed here at the Bureau.  It involved a man named Tomas Nolond who believed that he had been sent by God to cleanse the world of sin.  Like most religious fanatics he tried to kill anyone committing sins.  The funny thing was that he wasn’t following any set patterns for most Christian religious fanatics.  They usually go after strippers, prostitutes, and other people that commit sins against the church.  Nolond seemed to be targeting pagans.”
 “Pagans?” asked Damian quickly as his head shot up.
 “Yes.  Virtually anyone that didn’t follow a ‘major’ religion as he called it was executed.  It was the way he did it though that was unnerving.  He would tie his victims to crosses and hang them in public areas with a sign hanging from their necks telling people that they had thrown away their false idols and repented back into the light of God’s will.  He would also have many of their religious artifacts at their feet in a bowl that was filled with burning incense.”
 “This is all very interesting, but what does this have to do with the Peter Morris case?”
 “We’ve always believed that while Tomas Nolond was going around and murdering pagans, he was also preaching about the healing power of God,” replied Scott.  “We’ve had a couple reports of some cults that have sprung up that have been similar to Tomas’ beliefs.  One of those areas is the town of Murbrook and Danford.  We have information that he went through that area before we eventually caught him a couple of weeks later in Lincoln.”
 Damian stared reflectively into his cup of cooling coffee.  “You think that Tomas might have some influence on the Peter Morris case?”
 “Yes,” replied Scott.  “The Bureau believes that the Morris case was influenced by religion.  The notes that you faxed back and the lab reports all tend toward a group of religious fanatics.”
 “It doesn’t rub, though,” murmured Damian.  “Peter Morris was a Christian, Catholic actually and he wasn’t even that religious.  The only cult was a group of high school students that formed a pagan club after school on their own.  They studied everything that Tomas Noland was against.  Most of it was a passing fad, you know the popular kids do it and everyone else copies them, but Peter Morris stayed out of the whole thing.  About the only other deviant that I’ve come across was Joseph Walter, and that was through Roger.  According to what Roger told me he was your typical run of the mill Christian right.  I’ll call him and see if he’s dug up anything new on the Walter family.”
 “We’d still like you to talk with Tomas Noland before you leave.  He might have something to do with the case and he did go through that area awhile ago.  As Assistant Director I’ve learned that shrugging things off as coincidence is asking for trouble.  Anyway I’ve already called ahead and they’re prepping Tomas for tomorrow.”
 “I’ll check in first thing in the morning then,” said Damian as he stood up and shook both men’s hands.

 Damian sipped from his mug of coffee and stared at the walls.  Across the left wall was a row of one way glass mirrors where Assistant Director Scott Wallington stood with a few prison guards.  Tomas Nolond was viewed as a level one threat, someone that was both dangerous and intelligent, a rare combination.  Noland’s classification meant that at least five guards needed to be on duty in the prep room and at least one guard needed to be in the main room with Damian.  Damian sighed and shuffled his papers, he had read through the case file the night before and had noted many similarities between the Noland case file and the Peter Morris murder.  Damian now understood why Scott had wanted him to interrogate Noland, the similarities were amazing.
 Damian sat up and leaned back in his chair as he watched two guards lead Tomas Noland into the room.  He was a tall man, taller than Damian and wore his dark brown hair neatly clipped and trimmed.  He looked freshly shaven and his black eyes darted from side to side, taking in the whole room.  Damian was surprised that Noland’s eyes were clear and free of the raging fanaticism that most religious zealots had.  Rather they were sharp, bright, hard; the eyes of a man that had no remorse for his past actions and yet understood the circumstances at which he had been placed into a maximum security prison.  His orange jumpsuit hung loosely from his frame, as if it were a size or two too big and his hands were shackled by polished steel handcuffs that were attached to his leg chains by a another long chain.  This chain was hooked up to a thick steel ring and more chains were wrapped around his waist.  One of the guards attached another chain to the steel ring and strung it to the back wall of the room where another large ring was embedded in the wall.  The other guard quietly pulled out the steel chair across from Damian and pushed Noland into it.  He then joined his partner by the door and stood quietly at attention, his hand resting lightly on his guard’s baton.
 “You are the special guest of honor?  The man that they’re been cleaning this hellhole up for,” smirked Noland as he leaned forward.  He spoke quietly, carefully, as if he were thinking about each and every word and their effect on his audience.
 “I would have to plead guilty on that score,” answered Damian with a slight smile.
 “Never plead guilty, Mr. Coles.  A good lawyer can pull miracles for you, and you never know what a jury might vote on, at least that’s what my lawyer told me.  Of course, I do blame my lawyer for my current situation so I don’t hold his opinion in high regard.  Enough about me, however.  I was told that you wanted to talk to me about something, something relating to my previous life.”
 “There have been some similarities between your case and another case that I am currently working on,” replied Damian cautiously.
 “They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” mused Noland.
 “Well, Mr. Noland…” started Damian
 “Just, Tomas.  No one uses titles in here, we’re not civilized enough,” interrupted Noland.
 “Well then, Tomas.  A young teenager was murdered in a small town called Danford,” said Damian as he reached into a manila folder and removed some pictures that had been taken from the crime scene.  “As you can see from these pictures, the body of the victim was suspended in a public place much like the way that you placed your victims.  I know that there are some differences between victim here and your victims, but there are some similarities.”
 “May I take a closer look, Agent Coles,” asked Noland as he peered at the black and white crime photo.  “These are obviously wrong, Damian.  May I call you Damian?  It has such a…devilish ring to it.
 “Certainly.  Why are they wrong?”
 “I never disfigured my victims.  You can go to Hell for it”
 “Really?”
 “Yes.  I’m not as bad as that nutcase Adam might have you think.  Scott also had it completely wrong the entire time.  I was not trying to kill off pagans because I disagree with their religion, I was trying to do my duty as an American.”
 “What was that duty?.”
 “To save the world, of course,” smiled Nolond.  His face then turned deathly serious.  “There are threats out there, Damian.  Threats that you’re cycloptic FBI cannot deal with because they do not have the vision to see them.  Tell me, Damian, what kind of man do you think I am?  Please be truthful, I hold the truth in high esteem.  Do you think I am a zealot?”
 “Yes, but most zealots aren’t killers, you’re more an exception rather than the rule.  I think you’re a man who is willing to do what needs to get done no matter what the cost.  But that’s beside the point, what I want to know from you, is what you did when you passed through that area.  Is there some connection between you and the death of the victim?”
 “You would like to believe so now wouldn’t you?  You’d like to believe that there is some easy answer out there that’ll take care of all your problems.  That what happened was just some freak accident, something you can brush under the rug and forget about?  Things don’t happen that way, Agent Coles.  Things are never cut and dried.  They are never what they seem.  Yet, what if I said yes.  What if I said I knew all about the victim and his girlfriend, Lucy Walter.  Maybe I am revealing my hand too early.  I think you are in over your head Damian.”
 “I understand life is difficult, Tomas.  But, you did pass through that area and your message was not one of peace and love, but of death and violence; therefore, there must be some connection to you and the murder.  The evidence is right there in plain sight, similar methods, similar reasons.  The common denominator in this whole case is religion, you killed pagans and in this case the pagans killed a Christian.  Now, why would they do something like that?”
 “Why?  Why not.  Agent Coles, for someone so bright as yourself you tend to box yourself on with FBI rhetoric.  You believe that what I did was connected to your case because of religion and that all religious matters are the same.  That is what they teach you, correct?” asked Tomas, his voice growing quieter.
 “I don’t believe I understand where you’re going with this, Tomas.  You blame the Bureau for your actions?  That doesn’t make much sense.”
 “No, I’m not blaming the Bureau for placing me in this maximum security prison.  I’m blaming your society, Agent Coles.  You’ve been trained that sociopaths such as I are insane, there is something fundamentally lacking in our characters, some switch that makes us different from the rest of ‘humanity.’  Yet if you saw me on the street, talked to me, let me teach your children, you would probably just view me as slightly eccentric, wouldn’t you?  Yet, because I’ve killed dozens of people over religion I must be insane.  Why?  Society has killed even more people than anyone can ever kill.  It has killed because of race, creed, colour, sex, and beliefs.  Your society that you work so hard to protect has become ignorant, a dinosaur struggling to survive in a new world.  Children are raised to believe that being different is bad, a detriment to society; they are taught to yearn towards uniformity, become an easy replaceable cog in society’s great machine.
 “Bah!  Society created me moreso than any mental disease ever could.  You should thank me Agent Coles.  You should all thank me!” yelled Tomas as he stood, up, kicking his chair away.  “I cleansed this world, and I will cleanse it again.  That boy should not have died and his death will lead us to a new future, one much darker than you could ever predict in this world!  It is on your head now Damian.  You will be the one to bring him.  I have tried to help you before but you never listened to me.”
 Damian stood up and grabbed Tomas Nolond by the shirt collar.  “Well, God dammit, I’m listening now.  Tell me.”
 “Protect the girl, Lucy Walter.  She is the key to this matter and all the world hangs in her balance.” shouted Tomas Noland as the two guards tried to restrain him but as they did Tomas managed to slip a small piece of paper in Damian’s front pocket..  “I know all.  I will be with you, Agent Coles!  I’ll follow your every move!  You will have your answers when I give them to you!”  Tomas Noland suddenly broke off his ranting and his eyes grew wild, fiery.  He began to cackle wildly, “I am with you always, Agent Coles.  You will never escape me!”

 “He’s completely mad then,” asked Director Scott as he placed a cup of coffee in front of Damian.
 “No.  He’s very intelligent.  That was all a play to get attention,” answered Damian.  Silently he thought to himself, ‘and to keep you and Adam away from bungling the case’ as he patted his front pocket to make sure the piece of paper was still there.
 “Who is this Lucy Walter then?” asked Scott.
 “Peter Morris’ girlfriend.  Don’t worry I’ll call Roger and have him put a constant guard on her to make sure that she stays healthy.”
 “Did he tell you anything new about the case?”
 “Weren’t you listening in, Scott?”
 “Of course I was, but I didn’t hear anything that revealing except for the Lucy Walter thing.”
 “He gave me enough to work on.  He has a brief idea of what’s going on in Danford but that’s most likely from reading the papers.”
 “What did he mean by saying he knew Peter Morris?”
 “He gets a lot of newpapers, I checked that before I interviewed him.  One of the papers he gets is the Danford Daily Gazette which printed out a bunch of articles on Peter Morris’ life and who he was.  He gets the paper because he lived around the area as a small child, actually you should have checked this out yourselves, he lived in Murbrook and during his college career he taught summer classes at the Danford High School.  It doesn’t place him at the scene of the crime but considering that he was even in the same town as Peter Morris makes the whole situation very interesting and convoluted.”
 “What are you planning on doing about the case then?”
 “I have to stay here and do that extra work on the Morgan and Simmons cases before I can go back to Danford.”
 “Okay, then.  The Bureau will put you up in a Holiday Inn nearby.”
 “Thank you, Scott.  When I get more information I’ll tell you about it and keep you informed.  I’m exhausted though, so I’m going to head to bed.  Have a goodnight, Scott.”
 “Good night, Damian.  Thanks for coming down.”
Damian gave a small wave over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

Damian collapsed heavily into the large stuffed chair in his room.  The table in front of him was littered with evidence from the Morris case.  He had made sure that Shawn got double prints so that he would be able to look at them when he came to DC.  Damian slowly unwrapped the piece of paper that Tomas Nolond had slipped into the breast pocket of his suit.  He knew that Tomas was allowed a pad of legal paper once a month and a soft wax pencil.  It made his writing hard to read but it was all he had and so Damian would have to try and decipher what Tomas had said.  Unfolded, the paper was about half a piece of paper from his legal pad.  Tomas’ small, neat handwriting filled the entire page and appeared to be a letter to Damian.

Dear Agent Coles,
I just received a wonderful message from Director Scott that you would be visiting me today and I am so ecstatic that I sat right down and wrote this letter to you.  After all it is not everyday that I get to meet a celebrity of your caliber especially since I was the main reason why you’ve gotten so popular.  I have been reading the dailies, especially my hometown Danford Daily Gazette and I must say you have found yourself in quite a quandary. Of course, Director Scott and Agent Adams will be utterly useless but I do believe that my old friend Edward Jax will be of great assistance.  It was, after all, his doing that put me in this institution.  However, I will take full credit for his subsequent retirement and change of his name.  It really is too bad about his wife, she was a wonderful person but she just could not handle pressure well at all.
Enough reminiscing about the good old days let us get down to serious business.  Our young victim was not the first victim of this group, but he is the most important one.  The earlier victims were cases of random violence.  These people were amateurs but they are getting some guidance from someone, someone who likes to play games.  The face in the locker was amateurish and not the result of a true professional.  The next victim will be dealt with in a far more intelligent manner.  The time is coming near and they are on a schedule so more victims will start to appear with each passing day.  They will also attempt to eliminate their competition; even kill two priests with one stone.  If you find out more I would absolutely love to know. I am sure we can work out something where you can get me the information I want.  Convey my respects to Edward and his dead wife, Agent Coles.
Sincerely,
Tomas Nolond