Another Name
Episode 3 of The Terminal List starts with James Reece burning all of his intel on Josh Holder. He’s determined to cover his tracks, and he crosses out Josh’s name on his “hitlist” and adds Saul Agnon. Now, this guy happens to be part of Capstone Industries and he’s the VP of Asset Management. Following Holder’s death, there’s no holds barred for our protagonist and he packs up his gear – including a hefty amount of weaponry – and heads out to meet this Agnon. Meanwhile, Katie feeds back to Jordan what she’s found out. Apparently doctors pushed for more testing but Reece checked himself out before that could be completed. It would appear this is against military regulation – perhaps to set him up as unstable? Either way, Katie learns Reece has actually got a tumor in his brain, which is directly linked to paranoia and confusion – explaining his symptoms. As for James, he meets with Katie and lets her know about Saul Agnon when they meet at a restaurant. She shows him the results but James notices someone acting suspiciously and immediately skips out. The guy has been sent to take out Reece, for some reason, but he manages to get the jump on his assailant. They also happen to have files on him in the front, which James takes and shows Katie. “Believe me now?” He says. Realizing his position has been compromised, James Reece decides to leave and get off the grid. He apologizes for getting Katie involved but she decides to help nonetheless. Specifically, she’s going to dig into Capstone and see what connection that has to everything. Saul Agnon is rattled by the recent developments and heads in to see his superior, Steve Horn. The latter shrugs off these concerns and tells Saul to go to Santa Barbara, which is his scheduled destination, to try and push through a big deal. Unbeknownst to him though, Ben Edwards shows up to scout him out. This move comes off the back of Ben catching up with James while he’s laying low at a motel. Over at Saul Agnon’s place, Saul is attacked from behind that night and eventually knocked out by Reece. When Saul regains consciousness, he finds himself in front of the army man himself. James demands answers, which inevitably sees the name of Steve Horn revealed. Steve Horn actually made his money in tech before moving over to VP. Saul is just a middle-man, Steve is the real villain here. Apparently he has friends all over the place and set up the ambush in Syria. Apparently this is linked to Project RD4895, which is worth a lot of money. Not only that but Saul claims that there’s a hitman by the name of Marcus Boykin connected to the death of his family. Just as James finds out this information, Katie too comes to the same conclusion, learning about Project RD4895 from her own sources. All of this leads back to Steve Horn, who seems to be the head of this snake and who James is going to get answers from. For now though, Saul can’t be left alive so James sets the scene up to make it look like Saul has overdosed on drugs, with a needle sticking out his arm.
The Episode Review
So the plot thickens and with that, so too do the questions surrounding the end-game of this plot. Its clear that James Reece is being targeted here…but by who and why? The hitlist is slowly growing longer, although one can’t help but shake the feeling that this probably should have been a movie given the pacing. Having not read the book I can’t say how well this has been adapted but there are definitely moments here that have been dragged out. The business deals with Saul over in Santa Barbara, for example, don’t add a whole lot to the story beyond showing Saul to be obnoxious and impatient… and he’s killed at the end anyway. The final scenes do seem to hint that everything is going to start picking up now, especially as the attention turns across to California and, presumably, hunting down Steve Horn and getting to the bottom of all this.
