(AUGUST 14, 2075)
O’Brien (O): What’s up on your end?
MacDouglas (M): I left the drive attached to the frame in
the main lab. Should be about fifteen minutes to get the full download. How’s your end looking?
O: Team’s set for tomorrow night. I’ve got remote ac-cess to all the doors and I think I located the subject holding area.
M: You think you located it? Grabbing their subjects is the meat of this op. You know about the contamina-tion, right? The lab needs clean subjects for parallel testing, we need to get them those clean subjects, and this place has what they need.
O: Easy, Mac. I got this covered. I know what the payday is with and without the subjects. Data’s something they have plenty of. Test subjects are not.
M: Did you make sure the team coming in knows all the protocols for this extraction? We don’t need some run-ner punk getting a conscience or going all trigger hap-py and getting us all infected. Make sure they know the targets are highly contagious and need to be tranqed and bagged as fast as possible. Make sure they remem-ber to use those special bags that ops provided.
O: Done already. I already canceled the first team when they balked at the need for the faraday bags. The new guys are pros who specialize in unique extractions with zero conscience and professionalism to spare.
They’re the team that pulled off the ghoul snag in Chicago during that op last year. The ones that bagged over fifty ferals for the FauxFlesh line. They actually did three other runs into Chicago, but the hauls were smaller—didn’t get the grapevine spread.
M: Good to know. When they coming in?
O: After zero one hundred. We should be clear by then.
Not a big fan of being around when things go down.
M: I know that’s right.
O: Whatever they’re grabbing is spookier than most. All these safety protocols, the faraday bags … Do you know what they’re looking to take?
M: [mumbles]
O: Spit it, Mac. Whatcha got?
M: I took a look at some of the files after they trans-ferred, y’know, to make sure they were clear. Maybe read a bit.
O: You’re going to make me drag this out of you, aren’t you?
M: I couldn’t really follow most of it, but what I did looked interesting. Ever hear of psychological rescripting?
O: Brain-washing?
M: Exactly. Sort of. Only more so. Psychological re-scripting, is like full personality overwrite. Putting in a whole new identity.
O: No wonder the bill’s so high for this one. This fringe science stuff is hit and miss. Can’t tell if it’s bullshit or serious until the results are in.
M: This one looked serious. Reports I saw were about nanite vector retrovirus, alternate personality devel-opment, and viral pattern transmission.
O: (long pause) Science was never my favorite subject in school.
M: We all have our skillsets.
O: So does that explain the faraday bags and the no-contact protocols?
M: Not really. Faraday cages stop transmissions and electromagnetics. Don’t do anything I know with nanites.
O: One of the op team requirements, was “no nanoware.” Had to cut a good team for that. Would have been cheaper than the ones we hired, but would have voided the contract if anyone found out.
Not worth the risk.
M: Hmm … maybe there’s some kind of interference issue—
outside nanites messing up the nanites in the study or something. That could explain the faraday bags.
O: This whole thing screams snafu. Hope these guys don’t screw this up.
I’ve managed to gather a small collection of corpo-rate memos discussing various aspects of CFD. I wish these memos pointed the finger better. They don’t pro-vide much direct epro-vidence but they do point the way toward some of the responsible parties at the major corps. I don’t know if it makes me feel better or worse that they all seem as clueless as we do. I can be happy they didn’t do this intentionally, but accidents through idiocy on this scale …?
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Many scientific advancements were at first accidents.Don’t be so quick to damn this. It could be the future.
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Beaker>>>INCOMING MESSAGE
From: Dr. Gordon Browne To: Cerberus
The project is moving forward at anticipated pace. The primary research facility is fully operational and we’ve established secure protocols for coordination with our partner projects. Data is being securely consolidated at the primary facility and operations are being contracted to minimize exposure at all other facilities.
I’ve attached a list of facilities that will need data disposal.
Highlighted facilities are those I believe will need staffing adjustments. I’ve attached notes detailing what adjustments I recommend and my reasons for each. Any such adjustments are subject to your approval and/or modification, of course.
On the subject of personnel, I would like to reiterate my concerns regarding Dr. Xavier. While I understand that the criminal activities of Winternight in the mid-’60s corrupted or destroyed records for a significant portion of the population in her region, I also know that for the majority of the citizens affected some form of corroborating information could be found in other databases—if only in retailers’ transaction records. However, repeated searches—sophisticated and thorough searches, I might add—have found no data at all on her prior to ’64. I know you consider the matter closed and have accepted Dr. Xavier’s bona fides based on her record since that time and have expressed disapproval of my continued questioning, but I feel obligated to tell you that I will be—at my own expense—employing alternative assets to further investigate her past. Until my concerns, which I think quite reasonable, have been addressed I will not be fully comfortable with her position on this team.
Full updates on individual projects will be uploaded to the primary data storage for your perusal. However, I’d like to direct your attention to two projects I think deserve closer consideration and possible expansion:
Deep Resonance Intelligence Acquisition (Dr. Eric Hilliard):
This project shows a lot of promise in developing enhanced recovery of lost data and unexplored aspects of electrokinetic research. Dr. Hilliard’s findings indicate unique functions of the EK mind could significantly improve the reintegration process for our primary subject in Project Vulcan. An allocation of additional funds to acquire additional EK assets could accelerate development of this promising avenue significantly.
Nanoviral Identity Alteration Syndrome (Dr. Varun Soni):
Dr. Soni’s study focuses on understanding nanoviral process with particular emphasis on preventing a viral invasion or even curing victims of such an invasion. However, his team’s research has found information that could be useful in addressing issues of mental health and developmental disabilities—as a curative measure or as a bio-weapon, depending on application. I believe an increase in the budget and staff to explore and develop these options would yield substantial long-term benefits.
From: Dr. Penelope Ann Xavier
To: Aaron Creech, Executive Director of Project Analysis Re: Oversight Report request
Mr. Creech,
While I understand that you desire to stay fully apprised of this project and feel the need to receive your Oversight Reports every Monday by noon, neither I nor my staff work within the standard zero nine to seventeen office hours. Your reports will get to you when they get to you. If you can’t accept that, I’ll inform our superiors and our corporate partners that your desire to force a twenty-four-hours-a-day program to conform to your office hours is hindering this program.
In fact I will provide you with your Oversight Report right now.
We are progressing as expected but have been hindered in the
process by the needs of bureaucracy to interfere with my staff’s research and demand pointless reports that will look much the same every week until we make a breakthrough, at which point I will immediately present that breakthrough to our project team.
Remove my project from your Oversight Report role call and leave us be. To accommodate your need for constant updating, I will include you among those who receive the minutes of my meetings with project managers.
–Dr. Xavier From: Aaron Creech
To: Dr. Xavier
CC: Project Vulcan Management Team (EVO, AZT, NNT), Project Vulcan Staff (EVO, AZT, NNT)
Re: re Oversight Report request Dr. Xavier,
Your request to be removed from my Oversight Report list has been forwarded to the project management teams for all cooperating corporations. Until such time as this request is approved you will be required to file accurate and complete oversight reports every Monday. Given the demands of your project, you are allowed a twenty-four hour window—from 0000 to 2359 North American Eastern time—during which your staff and yourself can submit fully developed, sharply articulated, and properly formatted Oversight Reports to the Project Analysis office.
As I have the attention of all individuals related to this program within this communication, I would like to address the need for substantial oversight on such a complex project. Coordinating efforts between three of the world’s megacorporations, one of the most well-known educational facilities in the world, and all cooperating organizations is no easy task. The potential waste of time and resources resulting from miscommunication or unnecessary duplication of effort alone would warrant close supervision by a project analysis team. However, having so many component groups involved, many if not most of whom are unfamiliar with the others, presents a very real danger of infiltration. Sabotage is the most obvious possibility. But infiltration without sabotage would be as bad or worse. The consequences of the wrong entities being cognizant of what we’re working on—
what we know and what we don’t know—cannot be overstated. It is imperative that oversight reports from all cooperating agencies be clear, cogent, and comprehensive so the project analysis team can be fully conversant with all activities and thus better able to detect anomalies or potential breaches.
Thank you, A. Creech
To: Aaron Creech
From: Celedyr, NeoNET Project Lead, Project Vulcan Re: Oversight
Mr. Creech,
It is rare to find an individual who is willing to stand his ground against the threats of powerful personalities accustomed to command—or at least autonomy. My staff will certainly do their best to deliver their reports as requested.
As for myself I would like to deliver my reports to you in person so my communications can be as accurate and articulate as you desire.
Please reserve one hour each Monday afternoon for lunch with me at a location to be determined by the current status of the project and my schedule. The location will be messaged to you by 1100 each Monday.
–C
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Was there more than that? Did Creech get eaten?>
Snopes>
No. But he has made Mondays interesting in the month since I got that chunk of data. I have put a tail on him every Monday when he heads out to lunch and every Monday he’s managed to shake the tail. One of them got shaken so badly DocWagon had to pick them up. This guy is a high-value target if he is getting all the Oversight Reports for this project and weekly face-to-face meetings with Celedyr, but other than this there is nothing special about this guy.Once it was clear Celedyr favored cooperative interactions, the recalcitrant Dr. Xavier came around to the idea. Even though she still doesn’t like Browne. She also alludes to an incident that raises a flag with me.
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ButchFrom: Dr. Penelope Ann Xavier To: Celedyr
I will admit that at first I was skeptical there would be any benefit to collaboration between our parent corporations, but I have come to see the advantages of joint operations these past weeks. It is my understanding you are in the process of centralizing all your assets engaged in this current project. I would be honored if a tour of your completed facilities could be arranged. If I may suggest, establishment of a secure connection between our respective databases could be mutually advantageous.
Please accept my apologies for the incident when your coordination team visited my lab unannounced. The inability of one member to pass the retinal identification due to an eye infection triggered the automated defense system. I’ve
My decker got identical copies of this letter from two different commlinks. On the surface, the two are completely unrelated: One is a lab tech on Project Ima-go for NeoNET, and the other is a research assistant on the Dickens Program at Evo. Two different projects at two different megacorps received all but identical let-ters. Though I have not found a direct connection, both groups are researching cyber viruses which means it’s possible, even likely, that both are under the Project Vul-can umbrella. However, I Vul-can’t help thinking that it would be in the PFs’ best interests if CFD victims in disparate research programs pooled their resources as well.
There’s a better-than-even chance the guy in this next recording has been overwritten. The evidence is circumstantial and I won’t say definitely one way or the other until I get close enough to test him. If I’m right he represents one of the biggest problems we should wor-ry about: A CFD victim in a position of authority able to
… Well, listen and you’ll hear what I mean.