5/3

Played: September 1, 2021.

Monday, July 9, 1973. Marshall delivers the files he obtained from Major Stephen Wycliffe regarding the INDIGO Program and Agent RAVEN to Charley. Charley asks him how he got it. Marshall smirks: “Contrary to what some people may think, I’m actually quite charming.” He leaves her with the documents. After Charley’s had a chance to review, the team assembles in the Rooster House that Roger constructed (with Charley’s help) over the weekend. Superficially the Rooster House resembles a regular Quonset hut, though significantly smaller in size and with the words “ROOSTER HUT” spray painted using an Army stencil on a sign outside the entryway door. Inside are several empty rum bottles and playing cards scattered around; to an outsider these give the impression of the space being an unauthorized “after hours” poker club hangout, but in reality all these accoutrements have been meticulously placed by Roger to appease and entice the loa.

Everyone reviews the dossiers’ contents while Charley sits in silence. Marshall explains a bit about where he obtained these records, and then goes to leave. Charley asks him why he’s leaving. Marshall explains:

Well, my role here at URIEL is … how can I put this? I have competing loyalties. I am loyal to the Project and to the institution and there are people who are superior to me who, uh, depending on their involvement in the INDIGO Program and in the nature of the thing inside your skull probably would find it, um, unacceptable to learn if you folks — if the rest of the team — were to do something that would impede or compromise their goals. And I have certain obligations to report certain things that come to my attention with regards to SANDMAN’s priorities. But if I don’t know that things are happening then I can’t very well report it can I? And if I’m subsequently questioned about something that happened, if I don’t actually know anything, they won’t be able to get anything out of me. I think once you’ve read the dossier you’ll have a keener understanding as to why I think it best for operational security purposes that I perhaps not be around here in this room for this discussion. Does that make sense?

Charley says it does. Marshall leaves. Archie asks Charley how she’s doing. Charley says she doesn’t know. She says she was excited to get the information Marshall obtained, but she had hoped for more answers than she got — if anything she has more questions now. Archie says he understands but reassures her that the files give them a lot to work with and many leads to follow, if she wants to go that route. Charley says she does. She then asks aloud: what does everyone think “Operation THROWAWAY” is? Is it where they send retired agents? Is it a similar program for everyone, or different depending on the person? The name of the program doesn’t ring any bells with Archie off the top of the head. He thinks Charley’s assumption about the program, given its name, is likely accurate, however. Roger shares some of the rumors he’s heard: that THROWAWAY is where the Project sends its agents who can’t hack it anymore, or who have become so toxic that they can’t be trusted in the field. But even broken assets are assets, too valuable to simply terminate. He’s heard tales of secret, isolated communities in the middle of nowhere, found on no map and unacknowledged by all official sources.

Archie asks Charley what she wants to do about the “doodad” in her head. (The files, notably, contain no mention of or reference to any chip). Internally, Charley hears Houdini sigh: “My God … this is inhuman.” He says he did not comprehend the sheer horror implicated by the chip and with what appear to be SANDMAN’s new methods. With that revelation, he apologizes to Charley and says he is willing to die if that is what it takes to destroy or neutralize the chip. Charley says, out loud: “You’re not going to die, Houdini.” Turning to Archie, she says he wants the chip “out of her,” but she does not think that’s logistically possible, so in the alternative, she wants it destroyed. “We can’t always get what we want,” she says quietly. Archie asks Roger if that seems possible.

Roger says, sure, it’s possible to disable it so that it doesn’t transmit data, but that to really destroy it would require a direct EMP blast or actual surgery — and they don’t have any brain surgeons on staff. He also observes that their goals are further hampered by the absence of any information in the files about the chip, how it was made and by whom. Archie notes to Charley that they don’t know if Charley’s abilities are linked in any way to the chip, but goes on to say he thinks the chip is not a SANDMAN tool because the files say nothing about it. He says he thinks they are completely justified in destroying the chip on the assumption that it is a legitimate, non-SANDMAN related security risk. Charley repeatedly mutters, “I don’t know,” before saying:

I can’t understand … it seems like maybe I was born with it? But then that doesn’t match up with Jo’s vision, so, you know, unless her vision … you know, it’s a vision so, um, well. But for what it said in the dossier about my mom, when she showed back up after that mission, they did all of those tests and she seemed for the most part fine. Except for me. That was where they were noted, I mean what is that “in utero taint”? What was that? So, you know, if … I. don't know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Anyway. We should neutralize it.

Jocasta interjects:

If we as a unit of SANDMAN have been given no information about this thing — if we don’t know how it works, we don’t know what it does, we don’t know how it got there, that we certainly know that it was placed there without a fellow agent’s consent, then regardless of whether it is being used for SANDMAN purposes, it is not in any way out of line for us to assume that it was put there with hostile or nefarious intent. If we can neutralize it we should. We haven’t been given a scrap of information by anyone in leadership that it’s supposed to be there or that it’s doing anything to further our unit or our organization’s ends. Also, all that aside — although I feel from an operational standpoint that should settle it, but all that aside — I do want to ask Genevieve what she makes of all this because it’s fairly obvious to me that beyond what it’s doing to a member of our team, it’s having a deeply traumatic effect on a human child. And I don’t want us to lose sight of that.

Viv has been watching and taking notes during this whole discussion. She chimes in, looking at Charley:

You know, I’d say this is unprecedented but apparently it’s a thing that goes on, right? Charley … I’m less worried about the chip and more worried about what she was just saying about “taint.” Because I know it’s hard to feel it in every moment but every one of us is here for a purpose from the universe and to feel like you’re being told that that is not the case, that there's something wrong with you it’s really big and really scary. And I want to hold space for that and to also say that it’s emphatically not true. That there's nothing wrong with you and that you are a gift.

Charley scribbles away on a piece of paper (solving Euler equations). Viv goes on, explaining that she knows it must be hard and awkward to be dealing with this in front of so many people. “It’s a big team and it’s a big, weird problem, and it’s hard to be the center of something like that.”

Mitch asks a technical question: does Charley know when the chip started recording? Charley thinks a moment and then tells the team that it seems to have started recording right before she came to URIEL. Roger asks if there’s some way to determine if the chip was blank prior to the start with URIEL, or if it had data on it before that and it was wiped before her “deployment.” Charley says she hasn’t looked into it that far. Roger encourages her to investigate that because they can use that information to determine more about who’s responsible and what the chip’s capabilities are. Archie says that they can also do more to investigate the circumstances of Charley’s mother’s disappearance. He then asks her again how she wants to proceed: destroy it? Use it as a tool to ferret out the parties responsible? Something else? Charley says it makes sense to try to use the chip to “catch them” and then destroy it.

Jocasta posits that the smartest move is to destroy the chip and then bring the information to SANDMAN because the only rational assumption to make at this stage is that the chip is unauthorized and represents a security risk. She explains that they can’t reasonably engage in tradecraft using the chip if they have no idea where the chip came from, or who they are dealing with. But Roger disagrees: sometimes the only way to find out what you don’t know is to take a risk, casting a line, seeing what bites. Roger also notes that they have access to ORACLE, a computer that can literally simulate alternate realities and predict the future. Archie agrees with Jocasta that this can’t be SANDMAN. Roger nods along. Archie then opines, if it wasn’t SANDMAN, that Marshall had no basis for recusing himself. Jocasta asks if they should then go to SANDMAN with the destroyed chip, but Genevieve objects: is that the right order of operations? Shouldn’t the team go to SANDMAN with the chip intact, and then see if they want it destroyed, or ask for help in deciphering it? The team debates how best to proceed at some length. Jocasta grows vocally paranoid.

Viv asks what Archie would do if they found the chip in another agent. Archie rejects the analogy: the chip isn’t in another agent, it’s in Charley. He also proposes an idea: that they destroy the chip but go to SANDMAN and say that it was destroyed “in the field.” Lots of things happen in the field, after all, and sometimes it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Viv says this sounds very wise, pitching it to SANDMAN as, “something happened to this chip and then we found it,” rather than, “we destroyed this chip, what do you make of it?” Jocasta, growing more tense, posits the following metaphor:

This is an imperfect metaphor to be sure, but metaphors are all we have. I’m not alone in this in this unit, but I have an intelligence background as do many of us. If we were assigned to a safe house to monitor enemy activity and during the course of our work, we found that the safe house was infested with monitoring equipment with bugs, cameras, things like that. Our first move would not be to go back to our supervisors and say, “Did you guys put this here, is it okay if we do something about it?” The first job would be to shut them down, then we figure out what was going on with them later. If the brass tell us later, “Oh, we put that chip in her head to monitor you guys,” then we say, “OK, we didn’t know that, didn’t have any information to go on, it’s your decision now what to do about it moving forward.” But we did the thing that was the most secure and the most reasonable under that circumstance, which was just to put an end to surveillance of ourselves and our unit that we reasonably believed was the security risk.

Roger disagrees slightly, noting that they actually would not destroy all the devices in that metaphor, but would destroy some of them but otherwise attempt to identify and coopt the rest so that they could establish some modicum of control over the situation and the information being shared with the “other side.” Archie shuts the debate down, stating that it sounds like everyone is on the same page, it’s just that there’s some disagreement over whether they destroy the chip now or destroy the chip later after using it to “shake something out of the tree.” But, he observes, it’s untenable to use Charley as a “triple agent” for any extended period of time. Charley asks why anyone thinks SANDMAN would tell them the truth, if they brought the chip to Granite Peak’s attention. Jocasta says they don’t, and that it is very likely that they won’t, but if they are going to play that hand, it is better to put it on them — SANDMAN. Archie says that it seems like there’s no question that no one wants to bring this SANDMAN, at least not immediately, and Roger notes that the only person who is obligated to bring anything to SANDMAN is Marshall, and he’s not there. He says he thinks the best course of action is to control the chip and then destroy it and then, maybe, go to SANDMAN. Archie agrees and tells Charley that she and Roger can work together to get a better technical grasp on the chip before destroying it. He then, abruptly, asks Mitch how his weekend was.

Mitch says he had a good time. “Better than the con, definitely better than the camping trip before that.” Archie asks if he’s planning on following up on SRI that week, and Mitch says it’s on his agenda. The team brings Marshall back into the Rooster House. Jocasta lights a cigarette; she’s getting a bit sweaty and tense. Marshall tells the team that he’s been thinking a lot about Sophie and SRI, and the connections between the two, and that he’s deduced that Sophie wants URIEL to find a particular person, someone special, at SRI before another party does. He tells them a bit about the dream he had that led him to this conclusion. As Marshall explains his theory, Mitch’s serendipity tingles a bit. He remembers Mary-Lynn telling him something about her being excited to meet a particular person at SRI who may be able to help her with her abilities.

As the meeting breaks up, Roger says to Marshall: “Sitrep. Per deniability. Ongoing.” Marshall smiles and nods. Mitch flags down Viv and asks how the “old-timer,” Zeb, was doing up at the Mission. Viv says that he seemed like a very interesting individual and that, based on her interactions, he seems like he’s doing well. He’s not “all there,” certainly, but he’s functional and at peace. “Being here,” he told Viv, “have been the best couple of months of my life.” Viv relays this all to Mitch. Mitch: “Bitching.” Roger and Charley start work on the technical analysis of the chip. They learn that the chip is set to auto-upload its contents to a remote receiver located somewhere. Aided by Roger, Charley spends the rest of the day developing a device that will “ping” as it approaches a receiver.

At around 2:00 p.m., Archie gets a call from Frank Stanton.

Archie: Frank. It’s good to hear from you.

Frank: I wanted to call as soon as I got, uh, word from the Peak. First things first, I just want to have you be able to kind of lay your head to rest right now — all of your worries. The technical interviews of your librarian came back clean. She’s not compromised. She has passed with flying colors. So that’s the good news. The other news isn’t bad news, it’s just that she’s going to be on mandatory psych eval for the next 90 days. She’ll be seconded to a psychological treatment program administered by the Peak. You should be getting the official notice via your Telex right now.

Marshall brings Archie the Telex. Archie reviews it and remarks, half-joking, “THROWAWAY? Well that doesn’t sound very promising, Frank.”

Frank: (chuckling) Obviously I can’t give you all the details on location, I mean it’s isolated. But the code name is basically because this is the kind of facility that moves around a lot. So it doesn’t stay in one place for very long. And the people who are there … I mean, this is a rehab facility, Arch. This is not — she’s not retired, you know. So it’s very important that if after 90 days, if the docs at THROWAWAY find her to be ready to be recycled, we’ll have her join back with you. But I have to tell you Arch, like I said, she passed on loyalty but, you know, psychologically she’s pretty fragile right now.

Archie: OK. That I believe. Just so long as she’s not strapped to a board somewhere … that they’re taking good care of her.

Frank: Arch, she passed. Like I said, she — there’s nothing, I mean, you know, it was a technical interview. You know I would be completely frank with you. She’s gotten through what we need to find out from her with no problems.

Archie and Marshall give each other the side-eye, but both independently believe that Frank is basically telling the truth about Sophie passing the Peak’s tests. Frank resumes:

I do want to make sure that you understand, Arch, that I know that your team has been through a lot over the past seven to ten days. It’s been a very, very long month for you so far. A lot of big stuff has been happening over there in the Bay Area. I want to ask you right now if you feel like URIEL has what it needs to continue working at the intensity and the pace that you have been. And the reason why I’m asking this I know you have a new member and we’ve gotten doctor — uh, Ms. Abeille — cleared. Obviously she and the science fiction author have been around some pretty intense History B energies. I’m glad that you have at least one of them permanently assigned to the team at this point. I’m glad that you have a full compliment but given what happened at Berkeley, at Le Conte Hall, and given what happened with the retro-creation that you had to deal with at the hotel … what I want to find out from you is do you think that your team needs the aid of a more or less permanent commando team nearby in the Bay Area somewhere that you can call on and scramble. What I want to know, Archie, is have you used your esmology to see what the hell is going on in the Bay Area right now, and do you need further support from the Peak when it comes to a little muscle?

Archie and Marshall scramble. With some assistant coaching from Marshall, Archie pushes back that the thing that makes URIEL work is its people and its autonomy. Is Frank telling them this is happening or is he genuinely asking? But, during a pause on the line, Archie covers the receiver and whispers to Marshall, “Do we really not want commandos? I thought you were the one to requisition them!” Marshall whispers, “We were in the middle of an active subduction zone! Have you met these fucking mercenaries?! They’re whack-jobs!” Archie gets back on the line as Frank speaks up. He says this is a genuine offer. They’re not on their way. He says he agrees autonomy is good, especially with URIEL. He says that if Archie changes his mind, Granite Peak is a two-hour flight away. Archie says he appreciates Frank’s outreach, and Frank offers a temporary replacement librarian. Archie says: “We could use a girl around the office.” Frank says he’ll see what he can do. They hang up. Marshall heads off to meditate. In doing so, he pieces together the evidence he’s gathered so far, realizing that Sophie likely intended to get herself assigned to THROWAWAY to find Charley’s mother.

Back at the Rooster House, Mitch flags down Charley before she heads back to her lab. He says he thinks it might be helpful if she sticks around while he “plays with his cards” and see what they have to say about the chip. He lays out a spread, but they don’t give him much more than a set of options, the very things the team covered in the meeting: destroy it, sabotage it, or subvert it somehow. Mitch senses that the cards just aren’t clicking with him right now. He shrugs, and they part ways, only for Marshall to intercept him. Marshall asks Mitch if he thinks Mary-Lynn is the person that Sophie wants them to find at SRI. Mitch says he doesn’t get that vibe. Archie wanders up to them, and Marshall asks Mitch if he’s given any thought to what happens to people who “fall into their orbit.” Mitch says he’s known this girl was, like, three days, so let’s just see what happens. Marshall shrugs and wanders off. Archie claps Mitch on the back and says he couldn’t be more pleased with how things are going with him and Mary-Lynn.

That afternoon, Charley takes the receiver-detection device and wanders Livermore. She finds nothing. Dispirited, she and Archie leave around 6:00 p.m. to head home for dinner. But when they get to the front steps of the Ransom’s home in Pacific Heights, the device starts beeping frenetically. The receiver is located above the front door of the Ransom family home.