Miles's hands clenched under the table.He felt exposed.Vulnerable."How do you know about what happened in Seattle?"
"Easy!The news coverage was quite detailed.Poor Mario Stevens, dead from an asthma attack in a sealed environmental chamber.And you were there with him, weren't you?Trapped in that small space, running out of air, watching him die."Kane leaned forward as much as his restraints allowed."How long did it take?The dying, I mean.Did it feel like hours or was it mercifully quick?"
"We're not talking about that," Miles snapped.
"But we should.It's relevant to your question about numbers.You want to know how many disciples remain because you're trying to calculate your odds of survival.You're wondering how many more environmental chambers or sealed spaces or oxygen-deprived deaths you'll have to witness before this ends."
"That's not what this is about."
"Isn't it?"Kane sat back, his expression shifting to something that looked almost sympathetic."You're afraid, Dr.Sterling.Not of death exactly, but of the process.Of suffocation.Of slowly running out of air while you're still conscious enough to understand what's happening.Mario Stevens showed you exactly what that looks like."
Miles forced himself to stay calm."How many disciples did you recruit?"
"The periodic table has 118 elements.Surely you've done that math already."
"So there are 111 more?"
"I didn't say that,” he said with a chuckle.Kane studied him with those sharp eyes.“You're the one making assumptions.But let's say for the sake of argument that I recruited extensively.That I found brilliant, damaged individuals in cities across this country and showed them a truth they couldn't unsee.That I gave them purpose and direction and the tools they needed to complete their work.How would that make you feel?"
"It would make me more determined to stop them."
"Would it?Or would it make you realize how futile your efforts are?You can't be everywhere at once, Dr.Sterling.You can't prevent every murder.And each time you fail, each time another body is discovered, you'll wonder if maybe this time will be the one that finally breaks you."
Miles met Kane's gaze directly."You're trying to get in my head."
"I'm already in your head.I've been there since you first read my manifestos and started connecting the elemental murders.You've spent so much time studying me, trying to understand my philosophy, that you can probably predict what I'm thinking better than most people in your life."Kane's voice dropped lower."The question is whether that knowledge is helping you or destroying you."
"I'm not like you.Notat all."
"Oh, of course you're not.You have empathy and conscience and all those human limitations that make you vulnerable.But you also have something I find fascinating.You have the ability to see patterns that others miss.You think like I do in some ways, which is why you've been so successful at tracking my disciples."
"If I think like you, then I know you're not going to answer my questions directly."
"There's the scientist again.Always looking for concrete data."Kane shifted in his chair, the chains rattling softly."Very well.I'll give you something concrete.The work will continue whether I'm here or free.Whether you catch ten more disciples or fifty.The ideas I've planted can't be killed by arrests or prison sentences.They'll grow and spread and manifest in ways you can't anticipate."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer you're going to get."Kane's expression changed, becoming more serious."But I will tell you this, Dr.Sterling.You can do all the predicting and analyzing you want but you’ll never be able to get ahead of it.”
"When will the next one hit?"
"A stern, brave question!But of course, I can’t tell you.Besides, even if you knew, there’s no way totrulystop it.You could arrest fifty disciples tomorrow and there would still be more waiting to complete their work."Kane leaned forward again."You can't win this, Dr.Sterling.The best you can hope for is survival.And based on how tired you look, how the panic attacks are affecting you, how you're probably drinking too much and not sleeping enough, I'm not sure how much longer you can sustain even that."
Miles stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor.The guards at the door tensed but didn't move.He looked down at Kane, at the man who had orchestrated so much death and suffering, and felt something shift in his understanding.
He'd thought he knew what Kane was: a killer and a manipulator.A brilliant but deranged former professor who'd built a cult around elemental philosophy.But sitting here, seeing the depth of calculation behind those intelligent eyes, hearing the precision with which Kane had dissected his psychological state, Miles understood that Kane was something worse.
He was truly brilliant.Truly depraved.And truly capable of orchestrating horrors that would continue long after his death.
"We're done here," Miles said, more to the guard than to Kane.
"Already?But we were having such a productive conversation."Kane smiled."Do come back soon, Dr.Sterling.I do enjoy our talks.They're the most intellectually stimulating part of my incarceration."
Miles signaled to the guards, and they moved to escort him out.He didn't look back at Kane as he left the room, but he could feel the man's eyes on him until the door closed.
Morrison met him in the corridor and walked him back through the security checkpoints.The return journey felt longer than the trip in.Miles's thoughts churned with everything Kane had said and everything he'd left unsaid.The taunts about Seattle.The refusal to provide concrete numbers.The promise that the work would continue regardless of how many disciples they caught.
Morrison unlocked the final door and Miles stepped out into the afternoon sunlight.He stood there for a moment, breathing fresh air and trying to shake the feeling that Kane had gotten exactly what he wanted from their conversation.
