DOES JANUS KNOW ABOUT ARMAGEDDON?

Miranda. She had agreed to play along and go through with the wedding and still she was killed. Why? Because "grieving fiancé" rates higher with the pollsters than "happy newlywed"?

Damnit! Miranda ... Alex ... Rachel ... even Stillson's own father ... all dead. How many more people are gonna be sacrificed in order to get Stillson to the top? And when -- no, if he gets there -- countless more are gonna die.

I hate that all I have are visions of their deaths and no real proof as to who's responsible. That part's more of a waking nightmare than the visions themselves. Nothing physical or tangible to point to, just the uncontrollable rush of images and the feeling -- compulsion, maybe -- that I have to do something while not being able to prove anything.

I am going to stop him, though. Stillson is not going to end up in the White House. Why else have I been given the visions of Armageddon, except to prevent it from happening? It's up to me!

But have I made any headway?

Once, for that one brief moment when Stillson thought Miranda had gone overboard, that was the only time Armageddon didn't punch me in the solar plexus when I shook his hand. But the end of the world came back. I've seen it happen all over again, and it's all Stillson's fault. And Janus'...

Malcolm Janus. That sonofabitch! Is he doing Stillson's dirty work, or is it the other way around? He came out of nowhere and suddenly Purdy's gone global and Stillson's a media darling! Who is this guy?

Even my buddy Bruce, Mr. Google-meister himself, can't dig up anything on him. Does he or did he ever work for Argon Security? Is he from the D.o.D.? Homeland Security? What?! He's gotta have access to some highly classified stuff. How else can he know so much about ... everything, everyone, me, about how my visions work?

It's like playing chess with a master-rated machine; Janus can see 10 moves ahead, while I -- even with my visions -- can only see five or six. I always told my students that knowledge is power, and Janus is the definition of powerful.

And what was Janus trying to tell me by quoting from Daniel 5:7?

"Whosoever shall read this writing, and show me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom."

What was it Bruce said? That, maybe, Janus was inviting me to join him and Stillson as "the third ruler"? That can't be right. I'm pretty sure neither Janus nor Stillson has grasped the concept of "sharing" yet. And I don't think Janus was just trying to scare me, either. He obviously knows a lot about me, so he should also know I don't scare too easily.

What, then? He went to an awful lot of trouble, bypassing my security system, breaking into my house and planting the Gideon's from Stillson's D.C. hotel room on my bed, just to deliver a vague threat. Hang on ...

The Book of Daniel. It was one of my mom's favorites. She used to read from it at bedtime when I was a kid: "Shadrach, Meshach and to-bed-we-go." It was our little joke, "to-bed-we-go," instead of "Abed-nego." Those three guys were thrown into a fiery furnace, but were kept from harm by an angel of God.

Does Janus think that the three rulers of the kingdom are like those three amigos, that they -- we can't be harmed, that we're somehow above harm? Or is he trying to point out that I, like Daniel who "had understanding in all visions and dreams," am able to foresee Stillson's rise to power, but not do a damn thing about it?

Wait ... the end of Daniel 5:

"God has numbered thy kingdom, and finished it ... thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting ... thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians..."

That sounds more like the toppling of a nation than a mere regime change. Has Janus has been telling me to read the writing on the wall? Can it be possible he knows about Armageddon?