Julia Carpenter walks in on Walter Langkowski in the central atrium of the C.S.I.S. HQ. He is deep in thought. Outside of him, the only thing in the room is the early morning sunlight.

Julia: Nice to have a quiet time.

Walter: Huh? Oh, yes, it's been a nice respite.

Julia: So what's got you so entranced? Still thinking of how to increase the fold?

Walter: No, figured that out weeks ago (smirks). No, just thinking about something I overlooked, I'm sure I did.

Julia: What? About a mission, or Omega history?

Walter: Not quite. But yes, that's part of it, in a round about way. Omega Flight was a sloppy idea with no cohesion and we've paid the price. Talisman and Beta Ray Bill join us for one day, two months in and Walker's gone too. He may have been a bit uncouth...

Julia: A bit?

Walter: ... but he could handle himself in the field and believed in order. We both know he was aching to go back to the States, though. Now here we sit, just us two and a bunch of spies surrounding us.

Julia: What about Michael?

Walter: Him leaving was more inevitable than Walker or you...

Julia: I haven't gone anywhere, I like it here!

Walter: I know, but if things had been different you and your daughter would be in Colorado now. Pointer never had a chance, no matter what happened.

Julia: What do you mean?

Walter: I never got to see his file or do a work up on him with C.S.I.S. in charge, but now with things changing I've gotten a chance to read everything. To describe him best, even his old self, you'd say 'non confrontational'. Milksop. The man did not have the mental fortitude to be a hero, one of us. He had only two choices, run away and hope to be left alone, or cave in to his vampirism. He chose the latter, now who knows if Pointer still exists or is it all Weapon Omega now. I think Pointer left the building before he left us.

But that's not what bothers me. With Puck and Guardian coming back, Nemesis too, Department H will be humming. It's the Master.

Julia: The guy Carol Danvers killed?

Walter: The same. You see, the guy never added up. A Neanderthal captured by a Plodex ship, using his mental strength to, in time, take over the ship and bend it to his will, a flawed genius who could've taken over the world if he had the patience to do it. No Kang or Apocalypse, this guy was the total package but he always jumped the gun. A guy like that, though, wouldn't be taken out by Danvers.

So my question is this: how did a Neanderthal accomplish so much only to be killed so easily?

Julia: Overconfidence, in his home, back was turned, vanity I suppose too.

Walter: But don't you see? Eshu never allowed anyone to enter the field of play able to overmatch him. We never had a fair shot of taking him down, no matter what the situation. I don't think Danvers killed Eshu. Or that we really knew the Master.

I mean, his Neanderthal instincts could've forced him to always confront us, but why would that caveman trait remain and all other attributes vanish?

Julia: OK, I follow. You think our enhanced caveman wasn't the Master.

Walter: Bingo. Once, Eshu played the role of Joshua Lord. What if that wasn't the role after all? What is Joshua Lord was the Master and not Eshu?

The planning, the experiments, the gamesmanship. Not Neanderthal. Maybe Eshu's story was all true, but a bit or two was left out. He didn't overcome the Plodex ship, Lord found him and saved him. He was Lord's puppet, messing around so the real Master could accomplish his goals.

Julia: OK Sherlock, nice story, do you have any proof that the Master lives and walks among us?

Walter: Look at this (he shows her several papers). Joshua Lord's holdings still exist, he's a billionaire, if real. His holdings would include media, weapons, and biogenetics. That last bit should sound interesting. Let me connect the dots. Eshu was always involved in biogenetics, his utopia depended on it. Lord Enterprises has always been involved in biogenetics, cutting edge stuff. And look at this: years ago an A. Thorne and a D. Courtney were leading scientists for Lord. We knew screw-ups with names of Alec Thorne and Delphine Courtney; Courtney was a robot, but maybe based on a human template.

Julia: How does this help your case?

Walter: Eshu was always trying to remove Alpha Flight from the playing field. Thorne and Courtney certainly tried to as well. What if all 3 were just following orders, Lord's?

Julia: Any pictures of this Lord, social security number, high school yearbook...

Walter: No, and I'm not surprised. This Lord may be big on power behind the throne stuff and maybe always avoided notice.

Julia: Quite a house of cards.

Walter: The others needed convincing too, and they fought Eshu.

Julia: So what brought on all his musing? Just that bored, or in need of conspiracy theories?

Walter: Two hours ago, this image was taken by a spy satellite. It was a fluke I saw it come in, no one else could've realized the significance He shows he the photo. To you it's just a shot through a skylight at a crowd of people going into an elevator. But look at these two.

Julia: The balding guy and the slim brunette?

Walter: Alec Thorne and Delphine Courtney.

Julia: If you say so.

Walter: Not going to ask what building?

Julia: Well, it's not Dairy Queen.

Walter: The biogenetic division of Lord Enterprises. When you cam in I was sifting through more photos of the place, looking for Lord.

Julia: And?

Walter: I've gone through all of C.SI.S. and Department H's files, and back again. I can explain everyone except these two men. The one only shows up once in any image, the other three times.

Julia: The one guy, the portly one, he looks about 40, maybe older. The other guy is barely 25, if that.

Walter: The kid is Lord.

Julia: So what, he found Eshu when he was 10?

Walter: Why do you think Lord Enterprises was under surveillance? Illegal genetic tampering. Like age reversal, mutancy, bioweapons research.

Lord is real, he's the Master.

Julia: So if he is the Master, why isn't he making a move against us?

Walter: Pointer killed most of my teammates, saving Lord the trouble. Omega Flight and C.S.I.S. are no threat. He's had time to fulfil his heart's desire without any interference. I'm sure he's gotten his fingers in far more pies without Department H snooping around. C.S.I.S. thinks he's making his move before H.A.M.M.E.R. can do anything about it.

Julia: But if you're right, his luck just ran out.

Walter: Department H is back, Alpha Flight is back. Damn right his luck ran out. I'm sure he couldn't believe it when Pointer did his deed, then SHIELD folded up tent. He must've thought Christmas just arrived. Now it's Hallowe'en, so to speak.

Julia: So what do you want to do?

Walter: If I'm right, he has a force of enhanced humans ready and waiting to cause more havoc and open doors for him, just like Eshu did. We know where his team would be in the building. I propose we go meet them.

Julia: Look before you leap much?

Walter: Trust me. Guardian, Puck and Nemesis are waiting for the go word over at Department H. Pack your things, we're going to join them there. Unless we get intel that keeps us in our seats, we'll walk into Lord Enterprises by sunset and force his hand.

Julia: Walter, this is a house of cards. Crazy talk. We are not assaulting a major industrial facility based on your speculation! Honestly, your evidence is paper thin.

Walter: Let's see what the others say. If we're lucky, Talisman will be joining the fun.

And as you guessed, Alpha Flight did engage the Hardliners, and WAlter was proven correct! Ah, the stories to tell...