Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat, Ep. 19 - "Catch and Release"

Episode Date: March 5, 2022

Ep. 19: Doomed to Repeat - “Catch and Release” Having finally learned Marlene’s secrets and how to stop her the agents of PERENNIAL decide they must split up again to complete their mission. Merit, Warp, and Boomer stay in Lansing to plot the demise of Phenomen-X and get more than they bargained for when they finally meet with the radicalized members. Hyde, Tuck, and Samael pay a visit to a familiar incarcerated face who might be the only person who can show them the ritual needed to banish Marlene. Make sure to listen all the way to the end on this one! TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood and gore, death, body horror, mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder, PTSD, manipulation, religious trauma, mentions of snakes, workplace and sexual harassment mentions, infighting, the topic of Covid-19 including conspiracy theorists, drug and alcohol use, attempted abduction Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Aaron - Agent Samael • Allegra - Agent Tuck • Amanda - Agent Boomer • Caleb - Agent Merit • Eli - Agent Hyde • Zakiya - Agent Warp • Sergio - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst, Joe Sanders • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Glitch Machines (glitchmachines.com/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) MAY DAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Patreon (https://patreon.com/maydayrp) • Twitter (https://twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Twitch (https://twitch.tv/maydayroleplay)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes in adult language. For a full list of trigger and content warnings, please check our show notes before each episode. Listener discretion is advised. Hello and welcome to episode 19 of Doomed to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Erin A. Papst and I'm Agent Samuel. I'm Allegra, I'm Agent Tuck. I'm Amanda Dominic and I'm Agent Boomer.

I'm Caleb and I'll be playing Agent Merritt. I'm Eli and I'll be playing Agent Hyde. I'm Zacchia and I'll be playing Agent Warp. I want to take a moment to address an important topic that's part of tonight's session. Those of us at Mayday often role-play characters that have expertise and skills or might be suffering from conditions that we are not personally experienced in. In this episode in particular, we tackle aspects of disassociative identity disorder and its treatment method using simple game mechanics.

And we want to acknowledge that. We mean no offense to those who might suffer from DID and take the condition very seriously. We thank you again for enjoying our show and as always thanks to our patrons who keep us motivated. Now, let's begin. Dear Hyde, the greatest flattery creation can give to creators making use of what is offered. I hope you find your return instructive and know everything I do, I do for you.

Because at the end of the day, you hesitated and I didn't and I went. I would sacrifice your entire team to know what hides near Caligotti. What possesses a person to leave behind everything for it. If you said something when he re-upped his tour, maybe if you stopped allowing the Bureau program from making martyrs out of our brothers, maybe we wouldn't even be here. You're not one for keeping promises. Anyways, all I needed was the fob in a few hours and those files would have been ours. But Boomer has just such a shitty knack for timing things and so possessive, your team.

Like drugs and fobs and knives. You hold on to the little things as if they matter, like you're gonna make a difference. And since the Calig wouldn't give me my heels, no matter, a good analyst makes room for options and improvisations. I went to the source instead. Cause it was simple, warp or better yet the knife, just wanted the knife, but possessiveness. Warp is full of surprises. He thinks he bested me, at most he delayed me, and I'll be sure to repay him in kindness.

My advice, Hyde, cut and run, they're never gonna trust you again, but when times get hard and you trust in yourself, you could get so much further. I'll be watching, give my love to the team. It's Wednesday, June 3rd at six in the morning. You have all foregone sleep and you decide to all sit down and listen to these FBI audio tapes. Who's hitting play? I'm handcuffed.

Nope. Yeah, I'll do it. But you hit play and it picks up. There's that kind of slow mode. The audio comes up and what you realize in the first couple of hours, these are multiple recordings of church services at a certain point you feel comfortable kind of fast forwarding through sections because it's many, it's multiple of these church services. You listen long enough to understand that the context is that this is audio being recorded

of congregants of an unknown church engaged in a kind of pseudo-christian service involving snake handling. Some of you know that there are certain churches like Protestant churches that dance with snakes, etc. But this church makes frequent mentions of something called Saint Yig. They also refer to this deity as the Scaled Redeemer and the Blessed Serpent. At several points, you can hear congregants cry out after having been bitten. One person is refused medical treatment and wails in agony in the background.

I'm going to ask that everyone make a sanity test for this first half of listening to these very odd services. Am I still unconscious? Yes, you are. You are, so you do not need to make a sanity test. Does what need to make a sanity test? Because this is just kind of like a, you know, people at church. Because it is so close to the unnatural, I'm going to say no.

There was a little bit more of a helpless element to this. I would agree with you. I failed with the 59. I failed with the 90. I failed with an 82. Failed with an 81. I failed with a 99. Oh, boy.

Not a one of us. All of you have failed. You're all going to lose one sanity. Agent Merritt, you are going to lose two sanity because you critically failed. That was fair. Do you want to push that or no? No, I'm riding the wave. Is anybody like super close to their breaking point?

I'm four away. I'm four away. I don't think we've broken yet, Merritt, so it's about time for us. That's terrifying. I don't know. Although, if I could pick two agents that I wouldn't want to break, it would probably be our asses. Please don't.

And now, Sergio Plot, do you break us specifically? Eventually, the recording changes and the next chunk is a series of interrogations done by two agents who call themselves Agent Nolan and Agent Nick. They are interrogating members of the congregation about their church and about their God Yig. They eventually question a man that they call Jebediah about this ritual they witnessed him perform, a ritual to bring the deceased back to life. And Jebediah starts going into detail about the ritual. He explains the components you need, a leather pouch with pieces from local animals along

with pieces of the host. There needs to be a ceremonial dagger with a sigil carved into it and he recommends usually using human or animal bone. And then finally, he does recite some of the ceremonial chanting that needs to be done before stabbing the weapon into the host. It is very clear to all of you that Bahman took this ritual from these recordings. At this point, Agent Mallory steps out. Those of you with very high human intelligence, I think Merid and maybe Tuck, Tuck you're

at like 60, right? I got 50. You have 50? Okay. I don't think anyone understands it as well as Merid does, but it's clear that Mallory is made uncomfortable by the introduction of some of the more unnatural elements. They step out for Bahman. The last hour are personal notes by Agent Nick and Nolan, revealing that the ritual

Bahman used was in fact corrupted or incorrect, that it did not summon back the spirit of a deceased person, but a malevolent spirit that the congregation referred to as a pilgrim of Lang, L-E-N-G. The ritual allows this traveler to take one step into our reality, bringing its soul or its essence with it, and its goal is to self-actualize into our reality, but it can only do this by taking the same ceremonial weapon and murdering a living soul with it during a lunar eclipse. The only way to get rid of this spirit, they mention, is to perform a ritual known as the closing of the breach.

They cite that the ceremony must be particular to the type of entity you are banishing, usually requiring at least the ceremonial weapon, that it be destroyed, and that in its destruction it help break the tie that this entity has to our reality. The dagger has to be destroyed is what you're saying? The dagger must be destroyed in part of the ritual known as the closing of the breach. They make a final note that their partner Nancy is familiar with the spell after reading about it in the cult de ghouls. Ah, and that's all that you sense in about eight hours of listening to this is useful

to you. It's now about 2pm, before we go too much into discussions about what the next step is. I want to point out that around 11am, Agent Merritt, you get a call. Okay, I'll give it an answer. It is the man who you gave information to, the man who is part of Phenomics, and there is a kind of resoluteness in his voice, a kind of succinctness in his voice, that fear is gone, that intimidation is gone, and he says, listen, if you're serious about meeting

with us, there's a subway at the corner of this street and this street. Meet us there at four o'clock, we think we got something that proves that you guys are up to something. Maybe we'll be willing to give it back to you if you're willing to give us a little something. I think that sounds great. I'll meet you at your coordinates. He hangs up. We have an issue, and then I'll just, I'll explain it to the rest of the group that

we have to go meet this. Mallory returns and is curious to see what the results are, what do we think the next move is. I think we have to go through with this ritual. When's the next lunar eclipse? Is that something I can roll the no or just Google it real quick? If you Google it real quick, the next lunar eclipse is on June 5th, 2020, in two days. Good timing.

I mean, this has to be why she was so hell bent on getting the knife. She was afraid we knew the ritual, and it's coming closer and closer. We have to be prepared. Mallory asks that you clarify what is this ritual and what is it entail? It's a way to break the pilgrims hold on reality. She's something called Lang, I think. I heard that part, a pilgrim of Lang. And to do it, we have to destroy the dagger and sever Lang's ties.

That means just kill the body, right? Tuck is rough. Tuck's eyes are barely open and they're just swish, swaying back and forth. I was under the understanding that someone had to die for it. For the pilgrim of Lang to stay in this realm, someone has to die. But I don't think to kick her back out, I don't think anyone has to die. Mallory speaks up again and says, well, I've never heard of this ritual. How do you learn it?

Do you know anyone named Agent Nolan or Agent Nick? Are they still around? As far as I understand, no, Nick and Nolan have been missing since Katrina. There was one agent actually close to you that would know the actual spell, Agent Nancy. Nancy, we have. As you remember, Cicada was compromised, so we had to move it to a temporary facility. Do you think you need to speak to her? Yes.

Definitely. Seems like it. Oh. Okay, so Nancy, and then you have your issue with the Phenomics, crazy people. Yes, so it feels like maybe we need to accomplish both of those at the same time. I hate that we keep splitting up. We need to decide who needs to have a conversation with Nancy and who needs to stay here and deal with PhenomenX.

Can we just send PhenomenX in, pretend like to send them on a rogue mission and they can, I don't know, spy on our homegirl while we go to Agent Nancy? On Marlene? Yeah. Give them something special to do and actually have them be like, don't go too far, but like, spy on her. They're looking for a conspiracy, so we'll give them something to play with. I think that'll be the last thing they ever play with.

Well, then that takes away one less problem we have to deal with, too. If we're going to frame them as being the cover story for the actual murders, the people who have gone missing, then we can't sacrifice them to Pilgrim, not on good conscience. We're already ruining their lives. We might as well do it in a human way. All right, if you guys are serious about this Nancy thing, I need to make some phone calls Give me a second. She steps out of the room again.

When we were at Cicada, Mallory mentioned that there was a, there was a mission that Nancy didn't come back from and I could have swore she mentioned New Orleans. Now she's mentioned that Nick and Nolan went missing on, on that, I can't see how this isn't that. Something happened. I have a feeling that maybe Mallory was, she knows more than she's letting off. I'm just finding it odd that a bunch of agents for a program we all think we work for keep getting weirdly tortured, destroyed, missing, all the above.

This job doesn't particularly have a great survival rate, I'll give you that. But we're making this, no, we're not keeping the knife for any weird things powers or we're going to allow them to just take Marlene and put her in a box so they can use her, right? This is something I wanted, I wanted to broach with all of you and I think Merritt glances at the door and maybe gets closer to everyone else doesn't want Mallory to be listening to this part. I know that this is uncouth of me to say, but if they're asking us to take this thing back to the program or majestic, I want no part of that.

I don't know how all of you are feeling, but this thing, whatever it is, the pilgrim does not belong in any human hands. We need to put this ritual through, we need to destroy this thing. Doing anything else is putting more people in danger. I agree, on both counts. I wanted to put this out there because I know that as a team, that is not anyone's responsibility to follow me in that line of thinking and if it goes against mission prerogative, I understand if you have to do something different, but in my eyes, I can't let her get away again.

I think we all need to come to an understanding right now because I know this group has been splintered multiple times as I look at Hyde very intensely. If you're not with us, get out now or I hate to say there got to be consequences. Are we all in agreement on that? I look at everybody. It's just, it has so many caveats to what you're suggesting. I mean, with Hyde, I don't know how to tell you this without you trusting me, which I know is a fractured idea amongst us anyways, especially after the last few days we've had,

but I think Hyde has had a mental break. How do we account for the rest of us not being affected by who we are, but being affected by our minds? But Hyde wants to survive. We all want to, right? Am I wrong in that? We want Hyde to survive, correct, Sikhs? Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I'm bleeding in handcuffs, so I've just got to just nod and- No, you're not bleeding anymore. I patched you up, Boomer. Oh, yeah. Well, still like almost lost my arm. It still hurts like a bitch.

Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. Like all of us are sort of nursing some form. Yeah. We're all, is Boomer the only one that's not hurt? No.

I just got a little head bump. Samuel, you got up about an hour ago, so you're part of this conversation. Okay. Thank you. We'll roll a D4 and that's how much willpower you've gained. Four. No! You got nearly eight hours of rest.

You're feeling better. Wakey, wakey. We just need to do that at Marlene. But your back is in agony. Yeah. And I'm still at four out of 12, so listen, you're right, and Hyde does want to survive, and maybe that will keep us together through whatever break this is. I just need you to be aware, Max, that in the future, should any of us break past that,

maybe Hyde is the least of what could happen to us. We have no understanding of what we're subjected to, what that can do to our minds. And I've seen what happens to a human under ordinary stress. I've seen what happens to people when they have complete control. God knows what this is doing to us, what the pilgrim could do. If we agree that we're looking after each other, it means that we have to look after each other through everything. That is a very fair point, and I see why you think that.

Yes. That's why it's hard to say yes. But just so everyone's aware, I'm all for burning the bitch down, never coming back because this thing does not need to be a part of this reality. Let's be honest, we don't need to unleash another thing in 2020. I think we're all in agreement on that one. I completely agree. I'll even agree with the color you added.

I'm assuming they're not just going to let Nancy out of her cell. Yeah. Did you not catch how they said it? They didn't even call her like he, she, it was a distinctive it. We have to understand whatever we're dealing with inside of that cage and make no mistake, it was a cage we saw her in. She is what we read about in the 1984 case. She's as good as Tanika.

She eats corpses. She has become something else now that is not taking away her humanity. Of course, there's still a person warped against whatever parasite has caught in her, but whoever we put in that cage with her, we need to know that they can go a few rounds. Well, that seems like it would be me. I don't think it does seem like that, Samayel. I don't think anyone's going in the cage. You're on the bench per injury, okay?

I can handle it. You can't sit up straight, Samayel. Do I need to? I do feel like he would be a good addition to that team. He has a certain way about the unnatural. He should be there. I don't think he should be in the cage, though. Can we not just, what, can they not put her on Zoom?

Mother, actually, that's not a good idea. Okay. Oh. I don't understand why we physically need to go to her. I really don't want to be the one to ask Mallory if we can put her in. I was going to say it's a really good suggestion, but it saved a lot of time. It could save so much time. I'm getting up.

I'm going right out in the hallway. I'm just going to do it. Guys, they're a ghoul Zoom. Zool. Click. Open the door. Mallory. She's on the phone and she kind of takes it away from her ear.

Yes? Question. Is it possible at any chance so we don't lose time? Can we arrange for a secure Zoom, Discord video chat, a private Twitch stream so therefore we can go ahead and communicate between us and Agent Nancy? There's a pause and she walks closer to you and whispers, Agent Boomer, that's a pretty good idea. I will admit that, except this asset that I am arranging for you to see is beyond classified.

The facility that is temporarily holding it doesn't even know it exists and communications are heavily monitored. I just can't take that risk. It's got to be face-to-face or nothing. Not to mention the person closest to the asset with even high enough clearance to run the video conference is Oaks. You haven't met our security director yet, but she's not very computer savvy. Oh my God.

Oh. I just can't risk pissing her off. I hate this bitch. She wants to Zoom with Oaks. Oh, that's great that you're, wait, what's Oaks do again? You said there's security? I'm in the middle of a public hall. I'm not going to say too much.

Tell the group that they can be where they need to be in two hours if they need to. If they just use hide. If hide can fly. We'll fly, but FYI, I do think you might want to bump up the requirements on your agency admittance. Let's go. And then I'm going to close the door. I'm like, and then I'm going to turn back to the group.

Apparently someone named Oaks is too dumb to click join the game. Dumb. And then we're walking. I would hesitate to ever say that sentence twice. I would not be surprised if all of us were bugged by Oaks right now. Well, Oaks, if you can't work Zoom, you kind of dumb. What were we saying about looking out for each other in in dangerous situations? It's just shocking to me how quickly we managed to lose credibility every day.

So we got the we got the fly there. We're flying there. Yes. We need to make a decision on what teams are going forward. We need someone who can speak to Phenomenon X, get them in on the cover story, blame them for everything that's happened on the civilian side, and we need another team to parlay with Agent Nancy. Well, I know where I'd like to go.

I personally would like to speak with Nancy, but I also started the Phenomenon X lead, so I understand a few people would rather have me there. Well, I hate to say it. I think they would only trust you. That's true. I feel like they would listen to anyone in black coats and red ties, but also no offense. They're kind of like, it's nexus, racist. What boomers trying to say is they're more likely to trust a white dude.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's exactly what I'm getting at. I suppose that means I'm right for the job. I would like to take warp. Warp has done the most investigation of Phenomenon X and has an understanding of the alternative brain. I think she would do the most good there, but it's up to you, Warp.

I have no problem spending time with the potential terrorists. My only concession is, and I understand how this sounds, but I would like to stay with the knife. So wherever the knife is going, I would like to go with it. Can I ask why you would like to hold on to the knife? I've gotten used to holding on to it, and... Can I hold it for a second? She likes the knife.

Just one second, Warp. Yes. Okay. Hand me the knife. Warp? Yeah. Sam, you just also woke up. Are you sure you want to be knocked out again?

You can. You can't hand it to me, can you? I can, right? Yeah. No, there's nothing stopping you from handing it to me. Cool. Yeah, then I hand it to him, but I don't move my hand too far away. I try to take a step back from Warp.

She takes a step forward. Uh-huh. Okay. Warp, are you feeling all right? Apart from the past 48 hours, I feel like I always do. I just, it's a very effective weapon, and we don't have time for me to learn to do anything else. I'd just like to say where it is.

Warp, can I ask you a question? Yeah. The idea of us destroying the knife, how does that sit with you? That's a different box. I think we need to open this Lord of the Rings box, though. If we have to throw the ring in to the volcano, will you allow it? Yes. Hmm.

Anyone else buy that? Do I buy that? Are you going to try and go with it? No, I don't, I don't, I don't want to, like, endanger myself or endanger any of you, and I understand that Marley needs to go when the time comes. I have 48 hours to prepare for that. Warp, is this like your spindle, your wool? Yes.

I see. Samayel, what are you doing with this knife? I, um, I'm just, I'm not taking it, I assume it's in some kind of a sheath or something. Nope, it's just a bone handle knife. That makes me uncomfortable, so I will hand it back to Warp. I just wanted to see if she physically was capable of handing it to me. Thank you. I'm going to, I'm going to pass over some hand sanitizer to Samayel.

It's disgusting. It's been cleaned, right? It's been cleaned. It's still got a lot of blood in it. It's just, no. It's probably got a little blood caked in somewhere. Oh no. Yeah, some crust.

Probably in the, in the, in the rune. Marley's single. Yeah. Oh man. Okay, well, I feel that, um, somebody that has seen Nancy already. Should come with me. So maybe that's Tuck? I'll go wherever y'all need me.

It sounds like we're going to need Hyde to fly us, Sam to do. Well is Hyde in the condition to be flying right now? That's the question, I suppose. I don't even think Hyde is home. No. Can Sieg's fly? Can you fly? Yeah, about that.

I'm, I'm not a pilot. We might need to go commercial. Mallory. Mallory comes in shortly after, seems, seemingly positive. I don't know how I swung this, but, um, we can get there in two hours, Oaks will meet us there. We can have, uh, about an hour with the entity. Hyde can't fly right now.

Why can't you, is it your arm Hyde? Sure, it's my arm. It's the other personality. Sieg's, do you have the ability to go away? I mean, I've never tried it before. It's kind of when finally dozed off. How long do you have to sleep for? Like a 30 minute cat nap in the car, get you there?

Shit. I don't know, maybe. Does anyone feel like they have any skill in psychotherapy or something that we might be able to put her into a, a different state? Will that be my first time? It's what my degree is in. I could do some sleep therapy. I also have some edibles that I carry.

Would the answer be weed? If we give her like just a little bit of maybe like an indica that could help make things go maybe a little faster as well. Just throwing that out there. Boomer, I, uh, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't know if that's the best idea. Wow. I also don't do drugs.

It's, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't need weed. Sam or Merit, you're up. If you guys want to work together, that is also an option. Yeah. Let's, let's work together. That's what we're doing now. Right. By all means.

Yeah. I'll just have to know what you're versed in, Sam, and then see how I can affect that. So Sam, your, your psychotherapy is at a 60. I think that, uh, using Merit's assistance will give you a plus 20 to that. It doesn't merit to have a little higher than that. No, I have a 30. Mine's in human intelligence. Okay.

So, um, yeah, using my, um, training as a, as a therapist, I will, uh, try to sus hide back out from, from Sikhs. Try and make a psychotherapy roll. 11. Oh, it's a crit success. Sikhs, could you describe to us what it looks like as you transition between these personalities? Um, Sikhs is probably just gonna chuckle a little bit, but she's going to look both of you in the eye and she's like, you're not going to be ready for what happens next.

And then she's just going to boop disappear. So there's this point where you could see the personality of Sikhs kind of go into a not a trance, but a kind of a dose and when their eyes flutter open again, you see this look of kind of confusion and, and, and, um, unsureness coming from hide hide. This is, um, this is a little different than waking up and not remembering the last 24 hours. I'm going to ask for a sanity roll. Shit.

We're just going to Sikhs back again. Oh, that. Wow. Okay. You don't, you don't lose any sanity. And I think the reason is, and you tell me if otherwise high just isn't ready to fully embrace this and accept this, you don't remember what's just happened in the last six to seven hours and your arm is killing you.

My head hurts. I feel like I got hit by a car. Well, take it easy. You're safe. Everybody's fine. There's a lot to process height, but you do have an injury on your hand. It's real, uh, understand that it's hurt, but we've treated it. There was a situation while you were gone, uh, and we have an understanding of what's

wrong with you now. What? A better understanding. What happened? You may have some form of dissociative identity disorder. Sometimes naturally, sometimes as a result of stress, um, a person can manifest two independent personalities, uh, with decoupled memories. Obviously, I'm not a psychiatrist, but, uh, I think we can all agree that that is seems

to be what's going on. I'm sorry. That sounds dumb. That sounds really dumb. That sounds dumb, super dumb. I'm fine. I'm fine. What do you, what do you remember?

Huh? What do you mean? What I remember? Do you remember how you got here? Yeah, I came here by plane. I have the plane. I fly the plane. Were the discussion in the airport, uh, in the conference, uh, conference room?

Uh, yeah, well. What next? What happened after the conference room? Uh, fuck, I dropped Mallory off, went to the hospital, Sam did some weird shit in the morgue. I'm going to give Sam a pointed look because I didn't know that. And then we went to, we went to Bowman's. We went to Bowman's.

We went, Bowman's got like a new person there. We went, uh, smelled like cleaning supplies and we left. We left. No. That's not what happened. We walked away. We, we, we, it was such as fucking we left. You left.

Uh, okay. And then what happened, uh, what happened after that? This won't tell how to get here. Do you know what day it is? Uh, do you know how you're sitting on the, like, how you know you're sitting in this room right now with a busted hand? You guys are asking me a lot of stupid ass questions. I know exactly.

Answer them. It's what, Tuesday, Wednesday, Tuesday. I don't know. I don't remember. It keeps time. Fuck. Hi. You had a mental break.

You went into what we can only assume is a switch as a result of your DID, but obviously we cannot diagnose that from this position. And you went on a chase after Marlene after realizing that she had come back. You made a deal with Marlene to trade warp and the knife for God knows what. And we had to head you off at the airport. You took warp hostage. I believe you also put in a call to your, um, your good doctor. Uh, that's, I haven't talked to, uh, I haven't talked to Doc since the Tormac.

That's my look at your phone. You can see it in the, in the call history logs. Won't you? Why don't you give her a call right now? You can literally just look in the call history logs and see it for a line. Did I, did I, did I hurt warp? I just, I don't know. She hurt you.

Yeah. Hyde is back. Hyde is not completely convinced of what you're telling her, but she's operational. And I think Mallory at least was certainly pushed to resolve this and move on. Yeah. Listen, um, that doesn't matter right now. Are you good to, are you good to fly? Yeah, I'm, I can almost fly.

Yeah. Is it with your, even with your hand like that, you can fly? Uh, yeah, it should be fine. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's go. See, so it's got out in the cockpit.

I'm going to have to come to a chair. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Are you good with working on your hoax here? Yeah. You all make your arrangements.

You know, you've got about two hours before Merid and the others will need to meet up with these phenomexors and tuck and hide and semial are going to rush to the airport. I just like to pull out my extra firearm that I have because I think I have a couple like service pistols. I'm going to take it out and I'm going to give it to Boomer. You can't be the only one not armed. Don't use it if you don't have to. I would love not to use it.

Okay. If you have extra bulletproof stuff, I can put on like my legs or my ass or something I would also appreciate that. I'm not going to bulletproof your ass just for Liz. I don't think we're carrying it right here. You tell her that and I'm not dealing with that drama. Bulletproof your ass. Tuck, let's make it a priority that at least one of us checks in with another member of

the outside team every hour, a text, anything so that we know that the second we don't get that hour text were in a situation. Sounds good. Start it. Whatever time it is on the hour. You'll say it's 10 minutes before three. All right. I'll text you a three.

When you guys are actually interviewing, can you actually, do we want to be on that zoom call? Because at least we have people who are competent to zoom in so we can see too. Listen, if they'll let us video chat from a secure facility, we will. But I feel like that's unlikely to happen. Mallory kind of stops you all before you leave and she says, look, I've been going over the last 24 hours in my head and merit hide. I have one question for the both of you.

Are you still using the same weapons that you had in Messick? Yes. Yes. Oh, shit. Well, I think it's important that we're all 100% on the same page about the severity of this, regardless if we succeed at capturing this entity. My theory is that we probably, you probably have less than 48 hours before that detective Emile Brown has a warrant for your arrest.

If I know the way they work, he's probably already been out to the Janowitz apartment this morning. All the witnesses have ID'd all of you. He's going to probably dig those bullets out from the walls and he's going to submit them for comparison. And eventually, probably in the next hour or so, he's going to find a match between Janowitz and Messick and he's going to submit a warrant and that warrant will probably be for the seizure of your weapons.

And once they find a match, it's over. This is, this is all over. But we could bring him in. We could make him a part of this. He already believes it. You can try to bring him in, Merrick, but cops, once they've got the smell of blood, he's not going to relent. Not until somebody is in custody.

I just want you to be aware of your options and I want you to be aware that if you don't solve this at a certain point, I can't help you anymore. And there's no way we can plant this on our lovely phenomenics. The larger issue, I think you can. For some of you, this is probably going to be a slap on the wrist. For those whose bullets match the crime scene in Messick, I don't think this is going to be as easy. Do I have your permission to bring him in?

You have my permission to try and bring him in. Yes. Agent Merrick, a good first step is getting rid of that gun. If you don't have the gun, they have nothing to trace it back to you. Can you guys take it on the plane? Take it with you? Yes. And then just a scope of it?

Yes. You could literally bring it into the facility. Yes. I was also thinking maybe we could give it to Phenomen X. Easily. That's right. Yeah, we'll give it to Phenomen X. Oh.

So at this meeting, I tell them it's not safe. I offer them a handgun and protection. And that leads back not only to what we did here, but in Messick. Merrick, do you have another weapon? I have another service pistol in my duffel. If I take care of Emile Brown before they can link the weapon to us, we're still ghosts. Yes, but remember, if we end up having to take this person out, maybe we shouldn't use the same weapon that's in other locations too.

That's definitely not my plan. I can cover you with a weapon that would be adequate. I have, I'm going to pull out Bowman's pistol that I had from like a logbook a time ago. Oh. And I'm going to have, I had it strapped on my ankle. You didn't disarm me all the way through. I'm going to hand it to you. It doesn't have a serial number on it.

Okay. And it's fully loaded. On that note, I'm going to take my bag because it has my carbine in it so that I'm not going into wherever they are unarmed also. Please watch yourselves, watch each other's asses. If all goes well, we'll be back together by 8.39pm tonight. And that gives us a little over 24 hours to find this thing and stop it. Good luck.

Every hour. Every hour. Great. And Tuck and Samuel, you are driving to the airport and hide your cell phone rings. Great. I'll pick it up. Wait. Hide.

Who is that? You recognize the number? It's Thornbill. It's, it's stock. Okay. You were talking to some, never mind. Go ahead and answer. Oh, fuck.

I'll answer it. Hello. Hey. Hey. Hey. What's up? Listen. About that thing we were talking about last night.

Yes. I have a team in Wright-Patterson AFB that can be to you in probably under an hour. You contain it. We'll be there. Sound good? Okay. Sounds good. Um, there's a, I'm looking at, at Samuel.

I'm motioning for you to, I'm motioning for you to play along. We are, um, we might need just maybe a bit of a delay on it just to secure it. Um, we, we're, we're putting something in place and it might take a longer than an hour. Hey, it's all good. Your handler contacted the DO, contacted us. I got the permission. We're ready to go when you are.

Beautiful. Thanks, Doc. We'll see you. Well, I won't see you, but the team will see you soon. Great. Um, yeah. I'll talk to you later then. You get to the airport.

You jump into the plane, fuel it up, and you take off any last things you guys want to do before you leave Lansing. I think just filling her in on all the shit that we learned, uh, whatever she doesn't remember. Mallory sits in the, uh, the passenger seats in the, in the co-pilot seat and says, hi, we're heading to a place called Mount Weather. It's in Virginia. We're going to land in a small airport nearby and then Oaks has a helicopter that we can

helicopter over to Mount Weather. The three of you, does anyone have anything in history? Nope. Yes. What is your history? 80. Okay. I'm not going to ask you for a role with such a high history.

Samuel, you've heard the name Mount Weather before when any kind of theoretical nuclear explosion or, or nuclear fallout were to ever happen invasion of the country, Mount Weather is a place that the Joint Chiefs of Staff and that the heads of the government would be moved to. It is really only come into the public eye more broadly recently in the, in the early 2000s. Uh, but it's basically a top secret facility that is supposed to house our government. Should there ever be any kind of fallout or end of the world scenario?

Oh, shit. I had her in a bunker last time makes something put her in a new one. I mean, I guess, uh, well, we must be very special. You'll be flying for the next two hours. We'll say that you do have Wi-Fi so you can communicate, uh, that you're okay. But let's go to the other team. You have about an hour before it's 4pm. Are you doing anything in preparation for this meeting?

Uh, I'm just going to be very clear with how we want to make sure these weapons are handled. So I'm going to try to plant it on them. Like, are we going to go to a second location or are you going to just do that there? So it's not in public? Well, I'm thinking if we can get them to show us their place of operations, we would be in a better place to, uh, plant whatever it is we need to plant, including the weapons. Um, we need to know how they live if we're going to plant them as the perpetrators of this crime.

Do, but what do we need to clean things up? Like make sure your fingerprints are not even on the weapon. That they're not even on the bullets, that they're not even on the parts, like you're a residue. Yes. So I'll go through a deep clean of the weapon, uh, and then, uh, all deep clean hides as well, obviously. And then those two will be turned over to them, uh, as defense weapons, of course, will

wear gloves on the way over, so no prints of transferred. I'm going to, uh, have to, perhaps doctor some files with the FBI if I have to on what happened to my service weapon before this goes out. So I may have to make some sort of contact with the FBI to allow them, uh, this information that my SIG was taken some weeks ago or months ago. Okay, gotcha. Yeah. So you file the paperwork, get it already, sign it, date it for a couple of weeks ago.

This is going to get me in some heat with where I work, but it's much better than me losing my job or going to prison for forever. Then it's just a matter of convincing them to hold on to the weapons against all ends. Um, I'm thinking some sort of angle that spouts off about the Second Amendment, uh, about keeping themselves safe against the government and understanding that anyone who tries to take them away from them are meaning them harm, so that they feel instinctually aggressive towards anyone that, uh, comes after them. We need them in a situation where they are so afraid of what the police are capable of

that if a Mill Brown or anyone from the police department were to investigate them, they would open fire because any amount of aggression from them towards the police department would all but erase any ability of looking for another suspect, right? They come in suspicion that this group is connected with these murders and then they open fire. It's an easy shut case and would keep us ghosts. Is there anything I'm missing here? Is there anything you two think we should do?

And you wanted to bring your, your buddy in, correct? The detective? Oh, a mill. I want to have a conversation with him. I want to see how amenable he is. During our first conversation, he admitted that he thought something was supernatural about the Jane Doe's from the get go within hours of knowing this person. He is someone who has an understanding that what he saw could not be rationally explained.

And I think given some understanding and bear with me, given some information on what's happening here, he would want to be a part of the solution. I was the same way during my inciting incident. I was someone who saw too much too early and had to be brought in. But the second that I was, I realized the good that I could do. And if a mill can see that, I have no doubt he'll, he'll go along with us. It's just a matter of getting to him before he can connect the dots. So I wonder if we shouldn't put in a call before we go to the nominux.

Go ahead, put your call in. Do we want to reveal warp with myself? He's met you as consultants, multiple voices are better than one, I think in a situation where someone is telling you that the dead can walk. And I think it might help him to have three voices to support him in, you know, the threshold that it takes to accept. Well, I hope he accepts him quickly because if we have to take him out, I am, that that's just another, that's just another thing we got to deal with.

So I don't want to think that. I think that we need to set up a program meeting. I think we're all familiar. We've been in a situation where the program calls us and tells us where to be. And that room just happens to be in a room where no one else, where if someone were to go missing, no one would know. And we give him an option, the same option we were given, yes or a no that coincides with six feet underground.

Is there, do we, I mean, could we just like get like an Airbnb or something that's super forgettable under like a fake ID or something? I was thinking maybe I could contact, I don't know, maybe not Mallory, maybe anyone else in the program that's not busy right now, but ask if we could use the hot tub palace. What's up? What's up? I'll give her a call if she has a life right now. You can attempt to, yeah, sure.

You give her a call and agent Mallory, yes. We're working on the Emil situation and with that situation being what it was, we need a acceptable location where we could discharge a weapon and a body. And my first thought was perhaps the safe location you put us in when we first arrived in Michigan, the hot tub palace. Yeah, I don't see why that isn't possible. Just give me a couple minutes and I'll text you back. Perfect.

Thank you. Sure enough, after about 10 or so minutes, you do get the confirmation. You know, when would you like to schedule this meeting? Well, probably has to happen tonight, right, gang? Yes, exactly. So I think maybe four hours from our meeting from Denominix. So from, let's say, closing time, which is probably around 7.30 till, you know, three in the morning you have the place if you want to go, the key is under the mat, something

like that. Perfect. Is there anything we can do in terms of body disposal or silencing our weapons from shooting inside? Or should we? I mean, obviously, the more subterfuge you can manage the better. I don't know where you're going to get it other than buying a silencer at a local store or something.

We try to requisite off at the police station, but they're probably already looking for you. Merritt, believe it or not, I think I may know this. We just either need a water bottle or what are they called? What is it like a thing that little kids on a bottle? They drink that. A nipple? Yes. That could also work.

Pulling last of this logic into this by making a sense. You want me to put a nipple on my gun? Mallory, I'll call you back. I appreciate it. Thank you. We don't have to kill him with a gun. There are tons of other silent, quick ways to kill somebody. Warp has the command knife.

I understand your love for the knife. Well, that's, I wasn't talking about the knife. I was talking about a syringe. I was just asking as a planning situation, but we can go with other ulterior motives. Absolutely. We can make a homemade silencer. They do exist. Hold on.

Absolutely, they do. They do not work nearly as well as a real knife. That's true, but at least it'll actually help muffle a lot of it. So even if we can't do it 100%, at least we're going to half-ass it. That is exactly how I feel about murder, half-assing it. Okay. I think we need to call Emile. Okay.

You're going to call Emile. It rings a few times, and just when you think you're, he's probably not going to pick up, he does. And he says, what can I do for you, Agent Brown? Officer Brown, we understand that this situation has been very unusual. Everything about this case has been very unusual. Becoming more and more unusual the more I stay on it. You trusted me the other day, and we had a conversation that felt extremely private in

our line of work. Yes? I trusted you at some point. Yes, I did. I am asking you to trust me one more time. Not just for yourself, but for the sake of our country, for the sake of everyone in Lansing, Michigan. Agent Merritt, where were you last night?

I was at the Janowitz apartment, where I discharged my weapon multiple times against an enemy that I cannot fully explain unless you put some trust in me. There is more to this situation than you understand, and I need to meet you head on. Can you give me that? You saw what we both saw, and you understood it. And if you have any questions of what that was, and what that could be, then you will give me this. And otherwise, I can't help you.

There's a long pause, and he says, I just need to know one thing. Where were you the weekend of April 18th? What if I told you I can tell you tonight? If we're meeting, we're meeting somewhere public. I can't give you that. You expect me to just walk into some dark alley and get shot in the head with you? I'm not stupid. Not at all.

Not at all. It's a private business, inside. Just you. Then, just you then. Okay. I see anybody else there, I'm calling for backup. Emil, I promise you I'm doing this for a good reason. It is the hardest thing in the world to see, and some days I don't see it myself.

This is for a good reason. Whatever reason you have, Agent Merritt, the only thing keeping me from you is a warrant that is probably going to take another 24 hours to get to me. Then I guess you and I have one more night. He hangs up. I'm an asshole. This guy. Okay.

Oh yeah, he's the asshole. He's usually better. Understand that he thinks we killed six people. I think we'd be a little upset too. What's concerning me is that now you're going alone. Yeah. So, what are we doing? Boomer, are we background?

Are we hiding? I think this guy's bringing him back up. There's no effing way. I understand. He can't bring back up without a warrant. He's going to do something. That man is, like you said, he's not totally dumb. He's already figuring this out, and he's going, think he's going crazy.

Boomer, he's not the one that we should be afraid of. So we stay out of sight and see if he has background or backup, and if he does, then we take care of it. FYI, Merritt, if we do, if you do end up having to take him out, remember, I think we're in a pool place. There's chemicals there. We can probably just light the dish on fire too. My worry for Arson is that there was a murder in Messick that connected the burning of this

place called the Bowman's Cabin. I believe there was an arson there, and I believe it led to some discovery of clues at the scene. There's, there's a chance that there's some place to have dangerous chemicals in this building, not a whole lot, but some. We just need to, we just, if we do need to kill him, we just need to dismember him and dissolve his body in a barrel and bury it. I'm glad we could be as candid as we are here.

I ain't doing that. I'll let you to do that shit. Completely all right. As long as you're watching our back. Oh, I ain't gonna watch it, but I'll watch your back. I'll watch, I'll have my back towards you, and I'll watch there. Well, we do need to discuss the hoaxes. I don't know how we're actually bringing them in.

I know how we're getting rid of weapons and blaming that on them, and that could easily be the hoaxes. That is the, the literal smoking gun that leads them to the murders. But how else are we connecting this group? If we're, if we're trying to sell the hoax to everyone else that they're responsible. Boomer, how hard would it be to access Phoenix's account, the one that's been sort of hyping everyone up? Because we could just attach Phoenix's account to one of the Phenomen X people, say that

they've sort of been their own villain the entire time to entertain themselves. We could also use that account to facilitate our story. Phoenix leaks the story that FBI agents are willing to speak, or whatever it might be, right? Then when we meet with them, they already have our trust knowing that we're moles on the other side. Oh, we could, we can easily get to that. We need to link the actual crime as well.

If we could find a way to take their theory that somehow we're, what was it, killing babies? Vampire Nazi pedophiles is the last thing I wrote. So if we could find a way to connect these murders with actual vampire Nazi pedophiles or whatever thinking they were doing, that they killed these women because they thought they were vampire Nazi pedophiles, then we have a cohesive story. They find the guns, link them back to Phenomen X and the murders. They find the bodies and connect it to a series of bizarre mythology on this website that

explains they killed because they thought they were vampires. And then in addition to all this, they find the people who have now been fed this lie that the government told them to kill. And from there, how else do you put it on anyone but them? I think, I think we have a plan. I think so too. Okay. So before we go to this meeting, let's hack into Phoenix's account and start spreading

some lies. Sir, since I have like an 80% in computer science and my background, do I need to go through anything? Or can I just go ahead and just start doing everything that we just mentioned? Can I just do it? And because it's like cool, I think we can bump it up even higher. If I assist, I've got a nice little 40 in computer science. Yeah, I think it's reasonable because of your high computer skills.

What happens is, is you go onto the Phenomen X website, you go to the message board section and you know that you need to start fishing for this password, which is not easy. It's a little time consuming. It's going to take you time and you're running out of time before this meeting is happening. So you could skip the meeting or you could take the laptop with you. I'm worried about separating us again even further, splintering off, but I could stay in the car with the laptop too. If warp goes in or not, I'll definitely stay in the car.

So I'll say that you start working on it, but it's going to take at least an hour to kind of properly fish for the email, you know, get the information, get the password, try to log in, make a post, all that kind of stuff. So it's going to take some time. Oh, before we go, I did want to say something to warp very quickly. And that's warp. I don't want you to take offense to this, okay? Because I have a love for your eclectic fashion that runs deep.

In fact, since I met you, I thought that the way that you dress is so indicative of who you are. And I think that's a very special thing about a person. But right now, you look nothing like a fed. I need you to dress like a fed. So maybe no overalls, no overalls, oh, hold on. And I'm going to go into my bag and because I have like a bunch of different like business attire and shirts and all that, I'm going to go ahead and be like, I think these are

going to work. And I'll give her a big merit coat, too. Okay. It's just for the meeting. I can do that. I can do this. This is the hardest thing warp has ever done. I'm so upset.

I think it looks good, nowhere near as good as your usual look, but you could pull it off if you needed to. You're probably like still wearing Keds or something, you know, as opposed to ideals. Warp, think like you're cosplaying Scully, what was that? Was there any sort of agent that assisted you during the seizure of the farm? Was there anyone you liked? No. Oh, God, pick your favorite agent that be be talk.

Can you be talk? Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, my heart. I'm agent talk. I'm agent talk. I'm married. I live in D.C.

Let merit be the one to lead conversation. Correct. That feels that feels good. Also, I'm going to hand over a pair of sunglasses. I'm like, you have a very expressive face. We want to minimize that. Can I just flip my glasses down because I still have the two? I'll just flip my glasses down because I still have the two.

I'll just flip my lenses down to the red ones. No red. That's a door stick with play because they're too cool. No agent would have something too cool. Fine. She gives them to boomer and puts on the normal. Would you like me to hold on to them so when you get back to the car, you can get them. Okay.

I'll put them gently inside my jacket. Okay. Let's get this over with. Oh, you head to the rendezvous point. You head to the rendezvous point and it is a subway sandwich store in a strip mall somewhere in downtown Lansing. Get some tuna. There's a rather large parking lot. Are you just parking as close as you can to the subway?

I think we'll park across the street on the car facing the subway so that they can see us pull up. And boomer, I assume you're staying in the car. I'm staying in the car. Boomer, could I get you in the passenger seat just so it looks like someone's staying in the car to monitor the situation? I'll lean over and say have the laptop clearly on the dashboard like you're communicating with the government. Got it. Okay. Oh, so we're going like very blingly like not.

Yes, I'm with you. Remember these folks think that we're the born supremacy, not the actual FBI. Bless our hearts. Okay. Yes, I'll do that. Let's cut away. Cool. Back to the other ones.

You all land, we'll say around 5.30. Just so everyone's aware, last time we were in a place like this, they black bagged us, separated us and interrogated us before we were allowed to go in. So just mentally prepare for that. And I'll give Mallory a sharp look. Got it. Thank you. And when you get out, there is a helicopter waiting for you. And in it, you are the only person that recognizes there is a tall woman with short blonde hair, thick aviators on. Mallory leads you to that helicopter.

You jump in and you fly off. You can hear the helicopter pilot communicating with some kind of control tower and then Oaks kind of chimes in, gives some kind of code signal or something. And you eventually, after just a few minutes, break the top of this mountain. And towards the top is this flattened area that has several white buildings. In fact, it's quite a large facility. There are streets and thoroughfares and it looks like a place where you could run a large factory. You can see that there are tunnels that lead into the mountain, but you land on a helicopter pad, jump out and Oaks says... Alright, so listen up.

They think I'm checking in on some assets that we've left for storage. Don't make too much of a stink. I think I can buy you like an hour. Mallory chimes in and says, the last that Oaks has updated me, the prevailing personality, well, it's the last person they ate. A woman I knew named Tanya. You're going to have to get through them first and see if you can get to the personality most willing to assist, which is probably going to be the original. I understand. I have to warn you, if you don't succeed, Jean Qualls will make things more difficult.

Why is that? Jean is Agent Nancy and to say that we've been good to her would be a outright lie. I see. They're going to do anything they can to try to escape. So that's why I suggest you try to reason with the original. Constance. Constance, yes. Well, we'll do what we can.

You are led into one of these very large tunnels and there are officers with AK-47s standing there. Oaks gives their badge. You are all checked and I would say that your phones are taken from you, unless you protest. No. I'm going to text Boomer. We're going to be dark for the next hour. Take this is our new time to update every hour. You are led into this tunnel behind some blast doors and you find that it is just kind of this long meandering tunnel.

It has a curved ceiling that runs down to your sides. And there are tons of vehicles and pieces of equipment that are just kind of here for storage. There's big, big white drapes, big plastic drapes over these things. And Oaks eventually stops in front of a tanker. It's got huge tires. It can fit about 10 to 15 people in the back of it. Those of you who are less familiar with this kind of stuff, it kind of looks like that aliens to ship when they roll in to the base. But Oaks puts in the security code.

This very large back bay door opens, revealing an interior that is metal, not super inviting. There are seats on the right and the left of the interior of this vehicle. It's clear, clearly like transportation for army personnel. And one side has been retrofitted with this kind of thick plexiglass that does a square around these seats. And you can see that there is a woman lying there on her side. Her face turned away from you, facing the wall. Oaks gestures for you to enter. Says we'll be on the outside here.

Ma'am, do you have anything to add to what Mallory said? I think this is damn stupid. That's my added addition to all this, especially considering how fucked you all sound back in Lansing. Well, my eyes. I can't disagree with you there. Just don't be stupid. This thing is smart. It's going to want something from you.

I know. And with that, Tuck and I will go sit down. Hyde, are you going in as well? No. I'm going to stand outside. The door closes and eventually shuts. And Mallory and Oaks and you Hyde are standing outside. Is there anything you want to do during this time?

No, I'm nervous as fuck, though. I don't really want to be there. I feel very, I'm a little nervous, but I'm just going to try to be quiet, not look any of them in the eye. Just kind of lean and wait. You just kind of naturally glance over and Oaks is totally sizing you up, just kind of staring in your direction. If she does that, then I'll eventually make eye contact with her. Because I don't like to be sized up like that. When you do, she says, you're Hyde.

Yep. That's what they call me. I hear you're a pretty good pilot. Oh, who told you that? You were recommended. I think it was Thornbill. Tuck has a soft spot on her heart for me. How are things over in Lansing?

As well as it can be. Where's my boy Merritt? Garden the research team like he's supposed to. I hope he's okay. He's a sweet kid. Dumb is a box of rocks, but he's a good kid. His heart's in the right place. I wouldn't give him such a hard time.

He should have seen. He's such a fucking flirt with me. I should have. There's not really a lot of HR in this business, if you know what I mean. Well, it sounds not like something number one Opsack is supposed to be doing anyway. So it's perfectly fine that you kept it in check, right? Oh, I kept it in check. Don't you worry about that.

This terrible, terrible woman. I want to kill her. Let's cut to the inside. The two of you sit down and the door closes. And you are left alone in this not very well lit interior. I mean, there is a light on. But behind this plexiglass is a thin frail woman turned away from you. Not moving.

Not acknowledging you. Nothing. Tanya. There is a stir. She's seen this woman, Samuel. But as she turns, Agent Tuck, you recognize her as the woman that you confronted in Cicada, the woman that was apprehended. They fed her to, okay, cool.

Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. Hate this. I'm sorry, Tuck, is there something I'm missing? I think, yeah, I think Tuck has a physical reaction and leans close and says, this is one of the women that tried to break Nancy out of Cicada. And I think they fed her to Nancy. Understood. She's at this point, she has kind of rolled around and is looking at you and has sat up.

And there is just this forlorn, somber look on her face like she's been defeated. Tanya, my name is Blake. How are you doing today? I'm not doing well at all. I'm dead as far as I understand it. What makes you think that? When someone doesn't even go through the trouble of torturing you, shoots you in the heart and feeds you to a thing, I'm pretty sure I'm dead. So you remember?

Unfortunately, I remember everything. Tanya, I understand that there's a couple of you in kind of a roommate situation. You don't understand. There's so many of us in here. I know, I know. It's horrible. However, I would very much like to speak to a woman named Constance. Is she home?

She can be home. Is that okay? Blake, this is the first time someone has spoken to us like this. I can't let you see her without a promise. You have to promise me that you're going to tell them to stop feeding us. If they stop feeding us, we'll go into a stupor. We'll go into a hibernation and then we'll be useless to them. You have to tell them to stop feeding me.

I look around and see if I notice any recording devices, microphones, cameras. If you'd like, you can try to make an alertness roll. Even a search roll, if you think that's going to be better for you. I would rather do a search. That is a 47 out of 60 is a success. You can't really stand up in this, but you can kind of sit up a little bit and turn around and look. You don't immediately notice any kind of cameras or audio gear or something like that. Tanya, now I'm in a pretty tough situation here, and I don't have as much power as I wish I did.

But what I can do is promise you that if you help us out right now, my friend here and I will do everything that we possibly can to make things better for you. I'm going to ask Agent Semile that you make a psychotherapy roll to start walking her back so that you can bring constants forward. Is there anything I can do to assist him? Do you have any training in psychotherapy? No, outside of like hanging out at a psych hospital as a teenager, no. No, unfortunately it requires that you have something in the skill. I'm just going to stay quiet and just be there.

29 is a success. You take a couple minutes, you are able to bring Tanya back, and the body kind of slopes and its head falls forward, and you see a kind of shimmer that you've never seen before. And in front of your eyes, this person shifts, but for a moment you both see what is truly underneath this disguise. It is emaciated, mongrel-like, a human face is gone, and instead there is this elongated canine-like snout.

I'm going to ask you both to make sanity checks, witness a ghoul transforming for the first time. All right. Six. I succeed. I fail. Samuel, you do not lose any sanity. Why? I imagine because Samuel has seen this kind of thing before. At the very least he's read about such things, so he knows what to expect. Agent Tuck, you are going to roll a D6.

Four. Can I project? I have to project, I have to project or I'll lose it. Three. Three is going to be subtracted from your sanity loss, so you're only going to lose one sanity. Your willpower is reduced by three, and one bond is reduced by three. I'm going to take my therapist down. Tuck, why does this affect you so much? I mean, I think it's unexpected. I don't think she's expecting a physical change. I think she's expecting more of a hide-and-seek, DID kind of situation of, like,

a mental, emotional change rather than a full-on physical change, and it's, you know, jarring. Her clothes remain the same, but when the woman looks up, it is the face of Deborah Constance, which you've seen on the internet before searching for them. Holy shit. Deborah Constance looks, if you thought Tanya looked bad, Deborah Constance looks broken, completely destitute, wearing the weight of responsibility on her shoulders for this entire personality matrix that is Agent Nancy.

She looks up at you and just, just kind of sighs. Hi. Miss Constance, we're big fans. It's nice to meet you. I wish I could say the same on my end. Now, Deborah, I'll cut straight to the chase here. I understand at one point in your life, you read a certain book that made you into what you are now. Yes.

Do they want me to pull something out from it? Yes. And now I, I don't know what pulling it out means for you, but there is a piece of information in that book that we are very badly in need of. You aren't Oaks. You aren't James. Who, who are you? We're new.

This is Sam Eil and I'm Tuck. Sam Eil, Tuck, it, it's upsetting to see such fresh faces. Miss Constance, if you're prepared to help us today, there is a chance that that aid will allow us to maneuver into a position where we may be able to help you and pull an end to all of this. But you have to give us a little bit of information right now. Agent Sam Eil, I've been in this body long enough to know that promises like that you can't make. I've heard it before. What? We're probably just the same as everybody else you've heard it from before.

Tell them why should I trust you? Because we're trying not to be. Because you got no one else to trust. What is it that you need to know? Are you, have you ever heard the name Yig before? I've heard names like that, yes. No, Tuck, refresh my memory. It was an acolyte.

A pilgrim of Lang, Lang. Now, we know that there is a certain ritual or piece of hyper geometry in that book that would allow somebody like me to dispel such a creature. And I need to know what that is. Well then, the closing of the breach would be the most logical ritual. That's the one. That is exactly what we're looking for. You came here to learn the ritual from me. Yes.

Then I need, there's nothing you can fucking give me. Maybe there's something you don't give me. This thing, this agent Nancy, she's full, she's too full. They keep feeding me personalities and I can't control them all. I don't want you to free me. I want you to kill me. I can't make you a guarantee. What I can promise you is that we will do everything in our power to make that happen.

I'm going to ask for a persuade role. In this instance, if Tuck, if you have any experience, you can also lend an aid there. I have a 50 in persuade. I have a 20. So should I make that role or shall Tuck? I think agent Tuck can make the role and we will say that you have a plus 20, because I think, Samuel, you've been doing a good job of kind of laying it on the line, being honest with her.

Oh God, I hate this. I hate this. I hate this. Use your best dice. I'm trying. What'd you get? 99. Oh.

Ah, shit. We're fucked. We're so fucked. I'm going to cry. You make the promise that you will end her life. And she starts kind of blinking and dotting her head. And she says, no, no, I'm getting switchy. I'm losing control.

And suddenly she corrects herself. And in that moment, again, the face changes. In a very handsome woman, a girl looks to be maybe in her mid 20s. You'd say she was probably a rave girl in the 90s. Looks up, erects her back, smiles at you and says, That was very clever trying to talk to Deborah there. But now I'm in charge. My name's Gene Qualls.

Nice to meet you. You're familiar. I'm aware of what you want. I can give it to you. After all, I was the original that read it. But it's going to cost you something. And what might that be? She looks at your person and she says,

Father, you got a paper clip or maybe a little pen or something on you? Why is that? It might help me. You want a pen? You don't have to let anybody know. You could just slip it under my tongue. I think you know why we can't give you that. Well, I think you know then what my answer is.

I look at Tuck. Tuck, we need that information. I know we need that information. What's she going to do with a pen? There's a lot she can do with a pen. Disassemble it. Take the spring out and try to pick the handcuffs. She wants out.

You heard what Constance said. And if we give her that, then that's oaks on our ass. All right. Here's a pen. Samuel. Making sure that I'm out of stabbing distance, mind you. Her hands and feet are bound. So the best you can do is kind of pop it into like where her arms are bound.

She grabs it with very impressive dexterity considering how bound she is. But she takes it and says, you know, you're cute. I appreciate that. Different time maybe. All right. I'll tell you what you want to know. She begins explaining to you what the closing of the beat of the breach requires. Once she learns of the entity that you are dealing with,

that you destroy during the ritual. You destroy the weapon that was used to bring her here to bring it here and to chant and recite some strange words. Samuel, you are familiar enough to know that they are not really Latin. It sounds like a very old language. You're not really able to parcel out what it is, but they train you to say it. I'm going to say that if you are the only one that is attempting to learn it, it is going to cost you a D8 insanity.

Can I try and help learn it? You will also need to make a D8 insanity role if you want to learn it. I'll give you it. I'll give you a D8 sanity. It's risky, but I'll do it. Okay. So over the next hour, you learn the exact incantation that needs to be recited. Give me a D8 role.

Seven. Are you going to project that? Yes. I will have my break in point if I don't project it, so I'm going to project it, which is also risky. But if you want, I will allow you to cost one willpower. You can just roll a maximum of four. I'll do it.

Okay. Remove one willpower. You're going to remove four sanity from that loss, which means only three sanity. And you are going to lose four from a bond. I will take the four out of the Hive Strip Club, which will reduce that bond to zero. Finally, we're breaking bonds. When damage to a bond reduces it to zero, the relationship is damaged beyond repair. Cross it off the sheet.

The only way to regain a bond with that character or group is to build it from scratch as if it never existed. I'm going to say that you do not have to make a sanity roll. Okay. Because I just don't immediately see anything about that. So that bond is simply reduced to zero. So you lose three sanity, but you now feel that you have memorized the spell. And Gene explains to you that when you recite the spell, it's going to take an hour to finish

the recitation. The entity needs to be somewhere within 30 feet of you. It's going to cost five willpower, which you can share amongst other operators if you don't have enough willpower yourself. And it's going to cost a d6 and sanity. Okay. But you know the spell, you look at Tuck, you feel ready, and you get ready to leave. Before we leave, I'm going to, I'm going to hang back for a second and say, Tanya, I'm

really sorry. If I'd known what they were going to do to you, I wouldn't have. I would have stopped you still, but I would have tried to stop them. I know that's not any consolation. And I know you're not in control right now, but I wanted to say I'm sorry. Gene smiles and says, I'll tell the newbie you said that. We see you agent Tuck. Probably.

Can I make sure the tell Mallory and Oaks that she has a pen? I don't know what this crazy bitch is going to do with a 10 with a pen, but I gave her a pen. You both step out. Semi-L you inform them. Oaks is immediately like, oh, fuck no, what? And they hang back to make sure they get that. And you get on your way.

You jump in the helicopter and you head back towards the plane. So tell Mallory what the other one said, Constance. And yeah, I'm sure that they I'm sure that they're aware of that situation and are choosing to ignore it, but I will make sure they're laid out information just in case. Tuck, you have not received an update after an hour. I'll text Merit. I'll text Merit and say we're we're good. How are y'all?

That's a great question. Let's return to Merit, Warp and Boomer. Last we left you, you had arrived parked near the subway restaurant. Boomer, you've decided to stay in the car while Merit and Warp are going to step out. You walk across the street and as you enter, you can see that sitting in a booth is a tall man wearing a USA shirt and that fat comic book guy who you have been interacting with agent Merit over the phone. What do you do?

Is there an empty booth next to where they're sitting? Like back to back with them? Back to back? Sure. Sure. I'm going to sit in that booth with my back facing to his back and I'll speak in whispered tones. Now real quick, Warp, are you sitting next to him?

Are you on the outside or are you on the inside of the booth? I think I'm sitting opposite of Merit, so I'm facing the same direction. So you can see the folks? Yeah. Okay. They immediately clock you when you guys walk in. There are currently, I'd say about two patrons getting some sandwiches and some folks behind the counter, but the two gentlemen are sipping on colas and kind of nervously waiting for

you. Merit, you clock them, they clock you. They are very clearly nervous. And when you sit behind them, they're kind of unsure what to do, but they kind of stay forward. I, in whispered tones, I'll speak back to them without even looking at them. I assume you sweeped this place? You're a friend, Roger works here.

He said it was cool if we meet. Is Roger here? I don't know Roger. You don't have to know where Roger. Yeah, he's the day shift manager. You can trust him? More than I can trust you. And you swept for bugs?

No, we didn't sweep for bugs. And I'll look at Warp. Agents, could you? By all means, agent, check for bugs. Warp's gonna... Oh, god damn. Warp's gonna look around. She's gonna...

She's gonna touch her watch. And just sort of hold it up around the room. I love her so much. We're all clear. We're all clear. And then I'll finally stand up, I'll smooth out my coat, and then I'll move over to the next booth and sit opposite them. I see.

And then Warp, where are you sitting? I'm gonna take Merritt's seat. Okay. So your back is now to them. Okay, wait, wait, wait. Yes. Sorry, Merritt, you're sitting in front of them, right? Directly in front?

Yeah, so I'm sitting at their table now opposite them in front of them. Okay, no, never mind it. Yeah, no. We don't want to give our names to you, they say to you, Merritt. The kind of fatter guy with long gray hair gestures to the very tall man with a USA shirt on. He says, you can call him the Freedom Patriot. I'm White Knight 69. Sergio, question.

Am I listening in on this? No, you are not. We'll go search them. You are getting very close, Boomer. You are starting to, you've sent the email and you're kind of just waiting to get the, I forgot my password email that you can use to then hack into the website. And just out of boredom, you kind of just go and you peruse the message boards. And you see that there's a post for today. And it's from one of the members, not Phoenix.

But it says, Patriots of Lansing. I've experienced a miracle today. Meet me at my house at 8am. And I will share it with you. The Phoenix has risen. I am going to screencap this and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to forward it to the whole group. So in our group chain, so everyone can see and they can get informed. And I'm going to be like, this is what just, this popped up.

So, Tuck, while getting on the plane, you get the text from Boomer with a screen capture of the post made this morning on the Phenomenics website. I think we can infer what happened. I think you're right. We need to go. We need to hurry. We need to hurry. We need to be fast. Back in the subway, Merritt, you sit down in front of them.

And the one who calls himself Freedom Patriots says, we want to know what you have. You got to show us something before we feel comfortable sharing what we have. It depends on what you want to know. We want to know about Messick, about why you're stealing children from Michigan, who you're giving them to. And you think that we'll give you this information purely on the basis that you have something on us? Yeah. In fact, we learned this morning we got something big on you. Right.

Right. I suppose that came from your website, right? Phenomenics. Yeah. From that. Wow. Leak that you suppose you have? Phoenix.

Look, Phoenix is not some kind of LARP, okay? They have good information that they've been feeding us. We believe them. Where do you think they get their information? You know, if this was yesterday, I'd probably believe you. But we've seen Phoenix for what they really are. Hey, you got that knife on you? Oh, fuck.

And they're both going to leap at you. Oh, shit. Titties. Cool. Agent Merritt, they're both going to try to pin you to the ground. This is the bad place. This is really bad. Why did we let Warp stay?

God damn it. It was supposed to be safer. Yeah. Right. This is all because we missed our appointment. Is that what you say? Is it take you down? Yeah.

That's my dying breath. The appointment. They make an unarmed combat strike against you to try to pin you. And the first one succeeds with a 46. He leaps across the table, grabs you, and just kind of tosses you to the ground. You're just surprised at the sudden violence. The other one is going to attempt to zip tie your hands. Oh, fuck.

Oh, no. They're going to catch you run. I'm going to say this is another unarmed combat. He succeeds with a 41. Both your hands become zip tied behind your back. Well, this is crazy. Warp has a 14 dexterity, so Warp is going to go next. You just hear a sudden calamity of sound behind you when you look Warp.

They're both on top of Merritt, and one of them has successfully zip tied his hands. And the rest of the restaurant is suddenly staring at this. I'm sure what's happening. Get the fuck out of here. Okay. Can I say anything to Warp? It's not your turn yet. Okay.

I think she's going to stand up as quick as she can. And how far is she away from this? She's like right there, right? She's like, yeah, you're less than five feet away. Fucking hell. She's not super strong. Okay. She's going to, yeah, because she can't use the knife.

She is going to try to make a run for Boomer. So you're just going to run out of the restaurant? Yeah. I'm going to make a run. Actually, was there any chance that I identified their car? You're going to attempt to run out of the store and look for it? Yes. Okay.

Make a alertness roll. Boy. Yeah, this could probably be somebody in the car. That's a success with a 16. Yes. You see that their car is parked about three cars away. The problem is, is that when you look in that direction, you see one of these phenomena extras,

the one that wore military clothing. He's in combat fatigue. He's walking up to the restaurant and he sees you. And you can see that he's beginning to pull out his gun. No. Fuck. Ah, she's going to try to run. Ah, fuck.

It's right in front of the subway. She's going to try to protect herself. She's going to think about getting away. She's going to just think about getting away. She's going to physically run away and see hopefully the knife agrees because it's in her hand. You just run towards your own vehicle, correct? Yeah.

You start running. Agent Merritt and Boomer, you both have the same initiative. Who wants to go first? I think you go ahead, Merritt. Do I think I could probably try and break these zip ties and run in the same turn or I'd be stuck in one? You could attempt to break the zip ties, stand up, and maybe get to the front door of the subway.

Okay. Make a strength times five role to try and break these cuffs. All right. You can't break these cuffs. I can break these cuffs. That was unexpected. 33 under 55. Oh, my boy.

So with all of your strength, you snap them open. They are not the kind that police use. They're probably the kind you can buy at Home Depot. I will say that you take a point of damage in snapping these open. Your hands are free. You're able to stand up and you're able to move. You get to the door and you can see warp running towards the car. You can see the familiar larping army guy walking towards you,

pulling a weapon out of his pocket. Is there a way, like, because I might have seen this, can I record this on my phone? If you'd like to. I want to. There's a reason. It is your turn, Boomer. What are you doing?

You're getting out of the car and pulling your phone out? No. What I'm doing is I'm hopping in the driver's seat real quick. And then I'm going to have the car ready to go. Get in the car. But I want to hold until I see the opportune moment to drive up towards the front to get them to. And also, if I spot the guy with the gun going in,

I may just ram him with the car. Okay. It's a lot of things that you cannot do on your turn. I know. But I am aware of it. I appreciate that. You're in the driver's seat, and it sounds like you try to get as close as possible to Warp.

Right. Can I just hold, like, hold an action? I'll try to get close. Yes. You're holding an action to pull out of the parking lot as soon as she gets there. Gotcha. The man with the gun in the parking lot pulls it,

and he's about to aim it at Warp. But then he looks and he can see that Merritt is basically opening the door. And he's going to swing his gun over to you, Merritt. He's going to scream, don't you fucking move or I'm going to fire! And he's going to hold his action on you. At the top of the initiative, we'll say that it is Warp. Okay.

Am I at the car? Is it safe to say I'm at the car? Nope. You've got to cross the street. You get to the intersection, and the car's on the other side of the street, and right now, roll me a luck roll to see whether it's red or about to turn green. Oh, damn.

That's a 30. That's a success, which means you get to the light, turns green, and I'll say you have enough action to get to the other side of the street, but not to the car. Okay. Do I see him move the gun off of me? Do I have time to turn around before I run across the street? I think you probably glance back once or twice, and yeah, you see that he

is now aiming at Merritt, who is in the threshold of the door. Okay. If I have time to do that, I'm going to cut what I presume is left towards their car, like on the other side of the cars in the parking lot, like if he's on the sidewalk, I'm behind the first level of cars, and I'm moving toward his car. So you're saying you're not crossing the street? I'm not crossing the street.

I'll say that you are, next turn, you can get to one of their vehicles. Cool. On their turn, the two men rush up off the ground following you, Merritt. They pull your weapons, they reach in your pocket, pull out two guns, and they aim at the back of your head. They say, if you fucking run, we're going to blow your head right now. Shit. And they hold their actions.

And it is now your turn. What are you doing? I mean... You have to be hostage. Yeah, I don't see any situation where I can see the sacrifice my life or go with them, I guess. The folks in the restaurant had their hands up. They are cradling themselves.

A lot of them are screaming. A lot of them are screaming. The folks behind the counter are certainly ducked behind it. You turn slowly to face them, and you see that coming from the back of the restaurant is another two figures, another two faces that you've seen before. The other one is wearing a kind of heavy cloak with a hood over it. And when they look up, you see the cold, lifeless eyes, the gray eyes of Erica Young, who you know is Marlene, walks up and takes your cell phone.

They look to their members and say, make sure he can't get out of the next bindings. And they start using your cell phone. And warp your cell phone rings. Oh, I can't see that. Can I? I answer it. You hear a voice, no woman you've ever heard before, say, if you want Merritt to live, give me the knife.

Okay. And I expect you to tell me what you were going to tell me about this. You can give me the knife now, and I can tell you. I see you. Better yet, I sensed you were close. Okay. We'll talk later. You see Erica Young's corpse hang up and then turn to the others and say, carry him out.

And they all begin moving. They have hogtied your hands and your feet. And they are all four of them holding onto you, one arm each, and they carry you out of the subway. Warp, you can get to one of their vehicles if you'd like to do something. There's the vehicles empty. It's quite messy. There's a lot of comic books in it, half open comic books. There's a bunch of, like, old ratty clothing.

You can see there are maybe some beers hidden under the seat, but nothing else of note. Okay. No cell phone, no laptop, no nothing. You don't see any kind of electrical devices now. Okay. Fuck. Fine. I do want to pop their front tires then and leave.

I think easy enough, you think it and the blade moves quickly and just stabs each one. There is this loud hiss as the air rushes out and you've popped all four tires. Agent Boomer, you're watching all of this from the other side of the street. Is there anything you want to do? You know what? Do they see me? A merit and the gang that's carrying them out? They have not noticed you.

Okay. I am going to record, especially that footage of merit in danger, hogtide with this group, specifically, even if it's only three seconds, that's more than enough, just that action of him hogtide and being pulled, grabbing that. And I'm going to try to motion warp to get in the car so we can book at the F out. I wish we had. And he has his phone, correct? Marlene has the phone.

Yeah. I'm going to crack him still. So that's fine. As long as they keep the phone on them, we can always keep an eye on him. Warp, you finished popping the tires. Are you running back to the car? Yes. Ah, yeah.

Would I know enough to chuck my phone in the back? Oh, it's like a pickup. I assume it's a pickup truck. I mean, if you are thinking of it, you probably know that you could attempt to do something like that. Keep your phone because they called you. And if it rings, it'll be in the car. That's true.

I would know that that. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, that's it. You run back to the vehicle that has boomer. You jump in. Let me ask that you both both make alertness roles. Let's go. That's a fail with a 42 out of 40.

I failed with an 84. You are too frazzled, nervous, scared to look out for the vehicle that has merit. You don't see a white truck pull out from the back and then disappear. So where are you heading? I'm going to ask what I'm like, I'm going to show the video that cop. He wants in. Let's just get him in earlier. You want him to help us with this now today?

We'll think of it this way. Merit's not going to be there for this meeting. So he's already going to be suspect and merit. We don't know how much time he has. I think we need to at least get his ass into gear. Merit will send him this little video to be like this is why you needed to meet us now. Let's go and we'll just take it from there. Okay.

And if he doesn't and if he doesn't, I need you to think stab stab with the knife and then kill it and we'll we'll deal with that problem at another time. Okay. Question. Can you ask the knife to destroy itself? I've never tried to do that and personally I don't want to give it a good test run. Not right now, but I just thought that thought just occurred to me as I'm like going a billion miles an hour and we're going to just.

As you discuss what to do, Agent Merit, you are thrown into the back of a dark, smelly pickup truck. The rest of these at least two, I'd say about four individuals total jump into this vehicle. Your face is flat on the ground, your hands tied, your legs tied and you are being driven somewhere. Is there anything you're doing in this moment? I think that I am practicing my breathing. I'm trying to stay centered and I'm thinking of anything that I can to take my mind off

of this. Let's have a sand test to see how well you do in that meditation. A thirty eight under forty four is a success. I will say that you do not lose any sanity, however you are going to put one point towards adapting to helplessness. I think this is where we'll bring into a close for the evening. Fucking hell. God damn it guys.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. No one died this episode. Well, hold on. No one could death. I think. Catherine Oakes stomps back towards the tanker to retrieve a pen Agent Samael left behind. She'd be shoving his face into Nancy's glass enclosure, making him dig it out if she thought

he wouldn't fuck that up too. She hits the button and the back of the tanker opens. The moment Jean Qualls recognizes Oakes and that she is alone, the girl recoils to the opposite end of her enclosure. You can have it. I place it on the floor. Jean says. Would unlock these cuffs anyway.

I know that. She shows her still shackled arms. No harm. No foul, right? Oakes bends over and peers through the thick glass to smile at the thing in the pen. There's always a price for breaking the rules. You know that. She says and pulls a heavy duty stun gun from her pocket.

She hits the button again and the tanker door closes behind her. Nancy's eyes wide with terror watch Oakes unlock the cell and swing open the door. Oakes takes a knee. A plastic pen waits for her on the floor just out of reach. As she reaches for it, she hears the almost whispered sea song you like. Sounds like Qualls is saying something. Language Oakes can't understand. And suddenly Oakes blinks and looks down at her hand to notice her stun gun.

Why was she holding that? Why was she on her knees? What time was it and had Perennium already arrived? Before Oakes can think to survey her surroundings, Jean has already pounced. A canine-like muzzle climbs down on the back of Oakes' neck and bites hard, tearing flesh and bone and sinew. Oakes' eyes bulge, her mouth opens to scream, but her windpipe has been crushed. Her spinal cord cannot send the signals from her brain to her arms to fight or her legs

to run. Oakes can only wonder why had she opened Nancy's cage in the first place? She just couldn't remember why as if her memories had somehow been obscured. A twist of Jean's jaw and Oakes is gone. The ghoul calmly lets the body fall from her maw before she fishes the keys from Oakes' body and unshackles herself. Without a sound, she disrobes out of her prison jumper, disrobes the body of Oakes, and then dawns the dead woman's camo fatigues.

Jean takes a deep breath and then goes about the task of consuming Catherine Oakes. Tracking open the skull and feasting on Oakes' memories, her personality, her preferences. Commuting with the flesh and inviting another into her fold, Nancy now sharing the same dreams and nightmares with Catherine Oakes. Most importantly, she knows everything Oakes did, including how to contact and where to locate the director of the program.