A notorious serial killer who was once a lawyer but began "judging" his victims, James Pike, paints a wall with his own blood. When the guards try to wake him, they discover that he is dead. Then, as a Doctor Kaplan performs an autopsy, Pike awakens and leaves.
Boone and Lili arrive at the prison, and look over the strange paintings that Pike drew. They include strange curving runelike letters, and a pair of twins in the center. One twin's entire face is taken up by a giant eye, the other's face with a giant mouth. And at the bottom is a giant, sleeping.
Boone is uncertain why he's been assigned to find an escaped serial killer. He soon discovers that Pike may target Da'an, since he possesses a CVI. The Taelons were attempting to rehabilitate Pike with CVIs, and that Pike's motivational imperative was to love humanity. But Pike's psychosis is retained, and he has tapped into his CVI in a manner that allows him extreme pain control and faking death.
Boone takes the unhappy Da'an to a prison, where he reveals that the paintings on the wall retell a Taelon myth, in which the twin named Shakarava is lied to by his brother Umrathama, and is cast into the void. But Shakarava returns and wreaks vengeance upon Umrathama. But when Boone asks who the giant is, Da'an refuses to answer.
A hallucinating Pike looks up data involving Boone, then goes to a motel and makes one man stab another, then shaves their heads and paints them with more Taelon letters. Boone speaks to Belman about Pike's CVI, which is breaking down. It turns out that all CVIs break down after a time, killing their owners. Shortly after, Pike attacks Belman in her car.
Boone is attacked by Pike, who makes more strange comments from the Taelon myth. Then he sends a hologram to Da'an's office, while downloading data from the computer. Lili manages to find Pike's hideout, where Belman has been trapped, her head shaven and painted with more Taelon letters. She has been forced to transfer Sandoval's skrill to Pike.
Boone finds Sandoval, seriously ill, his skrill gone. He then calls Da'an and advises him to take certain security measures at a conference.
Pike is at the conference, and shoots a hologram of Da'an, then collapses. Boone approaches him as Da'an walks out.
The dying Pike has figured out that Boone's MI is non-functional, and tells him that he must find the truth, and that "they are afraid the Sleeper will come." He dies, leaving Boone to ponder the information in his CVI.
