Location: Lazarus' Office, True Force HQ

"Let me tell you what I see."

Lazarus stood behind his desk, staring out the window at the cityscape. His cybernetic eye glowed harshly. Standing on the other side of the desk were Dr. Archer, Jono Ginn (Chief of Computer Security), and Hal Kitz (Chief of Operations) of TruPharm and the True Force.

"I see failures all around me," Lazarus said slowly. "Julius Cato, my most trusted assistant, turns out to have synthetic-sympathies."

Lazarus slowly turned to regard them. His eye glowed brighter.

"And Jono Ginn turns out to be a liar. He is a dangerous hacker who lied to me about his past, lied to me about the hackers he supposedly hired, lied to me about the ease with which DaVinci and his friends could be stopped."

Dr. Archer calmly stared past Lazarus out the window. She and Elogin had already discussed this. After her failure to stop DaVinci, she'd quickly arranged for all the blame to land on Ginn. She would cruise through unscathed.

Lazarus slowly walked around his desk to stand before the assembled agents. He raised a hand and crooked a finger at Ginn. "Come here, Jono."

Hesitantly at first, the Chief of Computer Security did so. Lazarus grabbed him by the neck and forced him to his knees. He glared down, his eye glowing fiercely. Ginn slowly moaned, then screamed as his forehead burned from the concentrated laser beam being aimed at his face. Then there was a sharp SNAP sound as Lazarus broke his neck. He cast Ginn's corpse aside like garbage.

The True Force leader closed his eyes and worked to calm himself. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Dr. Archer. He crooked a finger at her. She started, then stepped forward.

Lazarus placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her down to her knees. His eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "Let me tell you what I see..."

Kitz and Archer walked out of the office, both thoroughly frightened by the recent bit of violence. Grace Mannex, Lazarus' secretary, looked up briefly, then went back to her work.

"Poor Jono," Kitz said.

"Be thankful he didn't do the same to us," Dr. Archer said. "I've got work to finish down in Lab Thirteen."

"Yes, I've got paperwork to do," Kitz said, walking off.

Dr. Archer looked at Lazarus' door again. She had underestimated Lazarus. He knew something, but Elogin couldn't probe him. The cybernetic implant in his head, there to help him use his cybernetic eye, precluded psionic interference.

This was not exactly good for her plans.