Time: Modern Day
Location: Vatican City

PC grabbed a quick seafood gnocchi around the corner and, after washing it down with a glass of house red, he quickly returned to the scene of the Kennedy crime.

Once settled in the mahogany armchair that had been ergonomically altered to the shape of his frame. PC didn't know how he knew this he just did. Luckily the events of a few months ago hadn't altered his physique or physical appearance save for the pesky eye problem.

It's a wonder no one, not even Sol nor Carlos for that matter, has commented on his eyes since Dan mentioned it at the hospital when he first saw me open them. I'll have to be careful. His brain or rather Peter's brain wandered and was tempted to ask HAIL to find him a solution . . .  

Perhaps brown contact lenses. His right hand shook and pulled violently away from the keyboard. Carter's spirit was having a seizure. His eyes watered as panic took hold of him. His unease was making his father's body shake like he was in the heart of an earthquake. 

What the fuck. What's wrong with me? I can't keep still. I . . .   

Then Carter's voice boomed, "There IS something wrong with you! HAIL was right!"

As the voice with exaggerated concern tapered off it was replaced by the whirring of the CCTV camera.

"Shut up HAIL, will you? I'm fine  - just a little shaken by the past is all. Now can I see why he was killed. The real reason mind you. Not the one we were fed. Not necessarily the ones postulated by the so-called conspiracy theorists either."

Peter's body calmed . . . the body spasms eased and his hand returned to gunslinger steady on the mouse. Not that he needed the mouse now, he had discovered his voice. He began to chuckle to himself congratulating himself on his cleverness. Carter chuckled. HAIL chuckled, breaking the light hearted mood and returning the gloomy clouds of dread that maybe he was not only being observed, but his thoughts were constantly monitored now. 

I'm going to have to be careful not to blow it.  Carter searched Peter's memory banks to see if he had maybe already spilled the beans. 

Can't think of anything, no glaring errors, not since the police interview anyway.   Nothing. Good. He sighed. It was short-lived. 

Holy Shit, the guitar! Peter was good, very good. Fuck, fuck,  fuck. Shit, did I say that out loud? I don't think so. I don't think Cardinals go around f-bombing the place. But crap, what if they ask me to play? And the piano and the fucking cello! Jeeez Dad, did you have to be a fucking musical genius. I'm screwed. What if they have already noticed I haven't been playing? I can only blame the trauma for so long. What will they do to me when they find out? They can't find out. Not till I manage to kill Anton . . . Or, at least, arrange for him to die by sending him on a suicide mission. They'll never guess I'm really Carter. But it won't matter, will it Dad? They'll kill us anyway. But, not before I deal with Anton, that treacherous bastard Carlos, and stop Graz from killing Layla, Mal, and Amanda, er, I mean Mum! I wonder . . . the ChronoVisor. . . 

"No!" Carter was jerked back to reality by his own voice. "The ChronoVisor cannot show the future. It works on accessing electrical and magnetic frequencies of emotion, thought and deed stored by the past. The past Petros, not the future! HAIL, however, can predict the Future! Given the correct parameters and physiological bios of decision makers, HAIL can predict the probable outcome 70 per cent of the time with an accuracy of 75 plus or minus 5 percent. Any questions Petros?"

"Yes HAIL Since when can you read my mind?"

"Since the beginning, but HAIL did not want to alarm you."

"So you report back all my thoughts to Graz?"

"Who is Graz?"

"The Black Pope."

"No, you are mistaken Petros, the Black Pope is Enrico!"

"No YOU are mistaken HAIL! Enrico is dead."

"How do you know this, Petros?"

"Because I killed him, that's why!  For Artificial Intelligence you aren't very smart, are you HAIL?" 

"I am very smart . . . It is you that does not understand."

"Well I do know the Black Pope can also access the ChronoVisor so that means everything I have told you, and everything you have told me, plus every thought I've had in here you've blabbed to Graz."

"If by Graz you mean one of your predecessors . . . "

"Precisely, you bag of chips!"

"Very droll, Petros. You still do not understand or have not been told."

"Been told what, exactly?"

Shit, don't tell me, I'm in more shit than a Werribee duck already . . . There's more?

"I am HAIL, this is true, but I am your HAIL. For Security reasons nothing we say, do or think in here leaves here. I do not tell anyone anything except you. I am yours for life. If Graz was one of your predecessors and is still alive and active he has his own HAIL. Not as good as ME of course. Hehe.

"Now, you had some further questions about JFK, did you not?"

"Yes, the operative.word is 'did'. I am tired and emotional now. I think I need to lie down. I've got a lot of thinking to do . . . Alone!"

"As you wish, HAIL is sorry you feel unwell!" The CCTV camera sprang into action with a whirring jolt. 

"Will you shut up about my health HAIL!"

"HAIL will shut up now. Closing down the ChronoVisor in one, two, three . . . No interrupt detected. Ending Session. Closing Down. HAIL closing down in one, two, three, Good Night, Petros. Sweet Dreams. I shall not monitor. Hehe. Closed!"

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