5/4

Played: September 24, 2021.

Thursday, July 12, 1973. Charley spends the day touring Livermore with her brand-new RFID device, looking for the receiver that — she suspects — is remotely connected to the chip in her head. She finds nothing. Dispirited, she and Archie leave Livermore around 6:00 p.m. to head home for dinner. When they get to the front steps of the Ransom’s home in Pacific Heights, Charley’s RFID starts beeping frenetically. The receiver is located above the front door of the Ransom family home.

Charley tells Archie what she’s found. The two carefully inspect the front door as Charley’s RFID pings frantically. After a minute or so, Archie finds a secret compartment in the lintel of the doorframe. He pushes a panel aside and finds a small, smooth plastic box inside a hollowed out compartment. Archie boosts Charley up to look inside. She sees a beige plastic box, a little bigger than a deck of cards, with a battery pack and a radio receiver. The plastic case contains something that Charley can’t identify. Charley says that the box looks pretty advanced and asks if she should remove it. Archie says he was going to ask Charley the same question. Charley assesses the box a bit more and determines that it is definitely some kind of battery-powered transmitter-receiver that is designed to store data — namely, the data stored on Charley’s chip. Charley says she is going to pry the device open to inspect the interior but needs a screwdriver to do so. Archie ponders a moment. This scene is starting to look weird. He snaps one of the house numbers off the door frame then goes inside and fetches a stepladder and his toolkit. Clever.

Charley pries open the lid of the box. Inside she finds a round metallic disc that seems like it can spin. It has a reader on it much like a reel-to-reel data disc, but much smaller than anything she’s ever seen before. Using her techno-empathic abilities, she discovers that the disc is capable of storing approximately 100 times more data than even her chip, but is currently empty. The base programming data used to format the disc is unknown to her. The whole thing is incredibly complex and baroque, and far exceeds even SANDMAN’s known capabilities. But it is not an Anunnaki device: unlike the Houdini cassette, for example, it is not something out of History B, or tainted by History B. Charley tells Archie she’s never seen anything like this before. She says she’d like to bring it back to Livermore for study after they’ve inspected the rest of the home for more devices. Archie agrees but says they’ll have to wait to use the RFID inside the house until the family is either absent or asleep. So, tinfoil hat for another night.

Friday, July 13, 1973. Mitch heads to SRI for a second day of testing and the rest of URIEL assembles in the Rooster House. Charley and Archie share their discovery with the team. Marshall asks how they think it’s possible this thing got installed without anyone noticing. Archie says that he, too, is concerned and is starting to think it’s not SANDMAN. He says he’s curious to learn how long it was there and suggests maybe Jocasta use her psychometric abilities to discover more information. Jocasta says she’s willing to do so, and hypothesizes that she may be able to “read” the other side while they are “reading” the device, but cautions that her ability to do so is still experimental and would require her to use her abilities outside the Rooster House (and possibly aided by narcotics). But she could also attempt to just get a “plain reading” on the device to determine what is on there.

Marshall interrupts and says the team should think this through for a moment before proceeding. He says that it seems like the device cannot originate from SANDMAN because it is too sophisticated. He thinks this points to the “roving cult” that Charley’s mother fell in with in the ‘60s, the Solarans. On the other hand, who else had access to Charley from birth in order to implant this device and knows where she’s currently residing? SANDMAN. That, he says, points to the existence of a secret cabal within SANDMAN with access to technology far beyond anyone’s ability and knowledge of URIEL’s inner workings. But if that’s the case, why go through all this rigmarole just to spy on the team? They already know everything.

Archie winces at the terminology Marshall throws around in front of Charley. He says that the sense he got from the materials Marshall obtained is that sometimes projects like the INDIGO program go a little rogue and only interact with the rest of SANDMAN when they want or need something. Roger notes that they observed this with GRAIL TABLE: an experimental project that went off on its own and wound up compromised. Marshall nods along. He agrees the facts only best fit that it’s SANDMAN or something inside SANDMAN. How else could they have such unfettered access to URIEL? Roger says that they don’t need to be omnipotent or even that powerful to break into Archie’s home. Marshall says that’s not what he means. A break-in is easy. But:

What I’m talking about is that they sent Charley here and they have been able to follow her well enough to know — I mean, because when Charley came here, we were going to just set up a cot for her in the lab. And it ultimately transpired that Archie’s family adopted her. That points to either very strong esmology where someone predicted that this is exactly what would happen and, you know, could get access to Archie’s house and all those other things completely undetected by all of us … I mean, between, you [Roger] and Jocasta and me, to say nothing of Mitch and his ability to just like stumble into whatever it is we need to stumble into — for none of us to have seen or suspected anything until this minute — a strange man sitting in a car outside of Archie’s house, someone following them home one day — it all points to something.

Roger asks if Marshall is saying that they’ve been sloppy and Marshall says no. He goes on:

No, no. It points to — the tension I have now is, if this is something within SANDMAN that is highly placed and very secret, it is not our role to be questioning it and it is not our role to be dismantling it or messing with it. I don’t know what you all talked about after you read the INDIGO file but the vibe I got is that you’re disquieted by it, and that you all sort of view Charley through the lens of — well, she’s a child, I mean, she’s a child — but the people who run this organization, the people like me and my superiors, we do not see Charley as a child. She is a weapon and an investment. And they are not going to tolerate us messing around with that. That’s not our bailiwick. Our remit is not to do those things. And we can have a whole moral conversation about all that but, uh, “ours is not to question why … ”

Archie disagrees. He views this as a continuation of their conversation after the events of the St. Francis: it’s a matter of operational security. He also thinks they should take Charley’s RFID “doohickie” over to everyone else’s residences to make sure they are clean. If it turns out that this is a SANDMAN experiment, or whatever, it will be incumbent upon them to explain what is going on. Jocasta agrees. She acknowledges that she may be prone to paranoid thinking and says she will try to keep this as rational-sounding as possible. She notes that, if the device is not a SANDMAN device, SANDMAN would obviously want URIEL to deal with it. On the other hand, if SANDMAN — or a group within SANDMAN — is responsible, then their motives could be legion. Regardless of whatever those motives are, however, dismantling the device is operational security 101. Alternately, if the group responsible implanted the chip as some sort of test, they’ll be disappointed or upset if URIEL doesn’t find it. They’ll question URIEL’s capabilities. Archie nods in agreement: “the folks who put it there are either our friends or they’re not and it doesn't seem awfully friendly to me. But if they are then they should let us know.”

Going on, Jocasta notes to Marshall that the fastest way to determine if SANDMAN is responsible for this device is to sabotage it. Right? Marshall nods. The team makes some compelling points. He says his thinking is likely influenced by his experience working with organizations like SANDMAN and the reaction of higher-ups within such organizations to the perception of dissent or disloyalty within the ranks. “The reaction of suspicion directed up the chain of command is not just sit down and have a polite meeting on a Friday afternoon and be, like, ‘Oh well, we were trying to run this operation but you caught us! Good job. You’re all very good at your jobs.’” He then tells them a short story about how he was charged with dealing with an agent in Vietnam whose loyalties to U.S. efforts in that country had come under suspicion, implying that the suspect is now dead despite, ultimately, having not done anything wrong (as later investigations determined).

Those are the types of people we’re dealing with now. We’re not dealing with ad men who are just going to have a sit-down with us and explain their position. If they see — my fear for all of us is not — and I’m not trying to convince anyone here to do anything — but my fear for all of us is that what is going to be done with regards to Charley and this device can be perceived in certain quarters as disloyalty. And though we are a free country, we are not a free organization. And disloyalty within the organization does not get addressed with write-ups and sternly worded memos. They get dealt with in harsher ways.

Roger interjects, noting that shitstorms come down from the brass all the time, and grunts learn to cover their asses. So his question for Marshall is: how is he going to cover their asses? Marshall’s says he’ll have to meditate on that and before leaving says that he’s worried that it’s already a lost cause because they have no way of knowing what information Granite Peak extracted from Sophie during her interrogations. URIEL might already be under surveillance for disloyalty and if they are, his ability to run interference will be limited. He leaves.

Archie smiles and says to Charley, “See? He wants us to think he’s a cold-blooded heart of stone, but he’s just trying to protect Charley. Just like everybody else. It’s just, uh, he just won’t admit it. But he’s more worried about you than anyone here.” Jocasta is dubious about that proposition but says that the only logical course of action is to intervene because otherwise the whole system is mad:

I have no doubt, to be completely honest, that the situation is what Marshall describes. We’re playing for extremely high stakes here and we’re fighting against an enemy that can remake the very basis of our reality and a tiny slip up can lead to unfathomable consequences. But we’re either dealing with an operation that intentionally introduces discoverable security leaks and will kill us for investigating them, in which case we’re operating under a practical definition of insanity — like, there's literally nothing we can do. Or we’re risking something much worse, which is that SANDMAN brass, who are obviously monitoring us, paying attention to what we are doing, is going to find out that we found out about an explosive and unknown security situation and didn’t do anything about it because we’re so terrified of the consequences. I don’t think they would consider us a functional intelligence operation.

As Jocasta gets more keyed up, Roger puts a hand on her shoulder and squeezes. He says that they are going to do something about it. Jocasta takes a deep breath and tries to center herself.

At SRI, Mitch sits in a waiting room outside another room which contains a CAT scan machine. To kill some time, he draws out three Tarot cards and lays them on the coffee table before him:

“To represent the root of the element earth and the material world Assiah, Lady Harris gives us the ultimate coin of the realm centered upon money-green layers of the vegetal embellishments that historically have adorned the world’s currency.”

Mitch ponders. He interprets the Sun to represent Charley. It’s a kid on a horse, right? That sounds like Charley. She probably likes horses. The Angel of Judgment suggests that the chip in Charley’s head needs to be unearthed, dug up, exposed to the light clouds. And when it does, Charley will be in fine shape: she’ll receive a shiny coin for her efforts! Hell yeah!

As he wraps up his reading and shuffles his cards back into his deck, a nurse comes in. She apologizes to Mitch. Apparently the machine is on the fritz, and will take at least a day to fix, so he’s free to go. Mitch thinks for a moment that this may be some kind of test, but ultimately concludes he should head back to Livermore and inform URIEL of he may need to take matters into his own hand with regards to the chip if they haven’t reached consensus. He intends to destroy the chip with his pyrokinesis. He leaves SRI and drives off to Livermore.

Back in the Rooster House, Jocasta meditates to calm hers nerves and ready herself for a psychometry reading of the data storage device. Genevieve, meanwhile, seeks out Marshall and finds him smoking in a conference room.

Viv: Hi Marshall! We’re on what, day three, day four? Something like that?

Marshall: Yes. Everyone’s first week is always rough.

Viv: (laughing) Great, great. So, to some of the things we talked about. I had initially thought that I would just start working with Charley directly — oh, first of all! What you said before you left is actually what I said the last time we talked as a group about this when you weren’t in the room. So I though that was interesting. Just that level of awareness of looking outside and looking inside and I’m not certain that that’s occurring at all levels of the group. My sense right now — and I just wanted to check with you as someone more familiar — is that it would actually be most beneficial for me to talk to Jocasta and Archie at this point.

Marshall: By all means!

Viv: OK. I’m also kind of looking for a little bit of an assist here. You’re already doing it just naturally … but there’s so much gravity around Charley, and I don’t think the system is going to be able to shift because of the inertia of that gravity until, uh … basically the kid needs a little bit of breathing room, right? With this thing that’s happening and her exceptional status. I think she needs a little bit of breathing room before I would even be able to approach her.

Marshall: Oh, that’s very good. I have been saying this. I said the exact same thing to Archie when I last spoke to him. I recognize that she is a child —

Viv: Yes, so here’s the thing. Here’s what I see. So what I see is, yes, a child. Maybe a child. Someone who has not been incarnate for very many years is not the same thing as a child, right?

Marshall: Yes.

Viv: There are 30 year old men who are more children than Charley.

Marshall: Yes! I mean, with her past life recall and her natural abilities, I have said, I think to both Jocasta and Archie, that she is, in my mind, like a bodhisattva. We can’t save her. She’s here to do what she’s going to do.

Viv: She’s here to save us. That’s a beautiful position. Very, very nice.

Marshall: But they’re so concerned with protecting her, that I think they’re doing her a disservice. And I do worry about what that does to group cohesion. But, yes, I like where this is going.

Viv: Yes, alright. Great! Fantastic. I will decide if I’m going to meet with them together or separately. Do you have any insights there?

Marshall: I don’t. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with there. But I do also have a proposition for you, which is … this thing with the mother. And with the cult. I have it in my mind to go out west to this place, I think it’s in New Mexico. I can’t remember the name of the town. Regardless, between the mother having sort of a background in Indian culture, and with sort of the group dynamics surrounding, as you say, this gravity around Charley, I would like to try to run down more information about Charley’s mother and this group, but without necessarily involving everyone else because I think that there is a thread to be followed there.

Viv agrees and says she’s happy to go. They part ways.

Back in the Rooster House, Jocasta completes her meditation and then touches the data storage device. She receives no visions, but senses that it was constructed sometime in the past two years. She also detects that the strongest emotion associated with the device is one of boredom and frustration: the sense of a repetitive, mundane activity that needs to be done over and over and over again, ad nauseum. This strikes Jocasta as strange. The device is a piece of miracle technology. How could whoever assembled it find it boring? “Maybe they make them [the device] so often that the process is meaningless to them … I don’t know, folks, I couldn’t pick up much. This feels like something a machine would normally do.” This fact also blows Charley’s mind given the sophistication of the device.

Mitch arrives at Livermore, mid-morning. Nobody expected Mitch and he is greeted by Marshall and Roger with an air of surprise. Roger asks if he “washed out.” Mitch explains that, no, they sent him home early because there was a problem with one of the machines. Mitch asks if the team has decided what they’re doing with the chip. Marshall says they’ve decided to do something with the chip. Mitch asks what. Marshall says he’ll need to ask the rest of the team. Roger informs Mitch that there’s been a development and then explains how Charley found the data storage device at Archie’s house. Marshall makes himself scarce. Mitch heads off with Roger to find Charley.

In her lab, Charley analyzes the data storage device. She’s unable to penetrate the programming: it is too foreign, too opaque. But she is able to intuit a few things about the programming language itself, which is that has its roots in 1973-level programming language, though much more evolved. Truly advanced stuff. Mitch knocks on her door and she tells him to come in. Roger and Mitch enter. Mitch says he’s there about the “thing” they’ve all been talking about. He takes a seat at her desk, where Charley has surrounded herself with machinery and technical equipment. They talk.

Mitch: Listen, Charley. I’m gonna level with you. As I’ve intimated in the past, I feel like I have multiple information sources coming at me at different times. And right now I’m getting a real strong vibe — a real strong vibe — that we gotta rid of this chip and we need to do it like ASAP. Do you have a chip removing machine or should I melt it with my brain? Because let me show you (he pulls out the three Tarot cards from his reading at SRI and lays them on the desk).

Charley: You want to … melt my brain?

Mitch: No! I do not want to melt your brain! I do not want to melt your brain even a little bit. No, no. I do not want to melt your brain. What I want to do is get rid of the chip. One way to get rid of the chip, probably without hurting you, would be to melt it with my brain. But I feel like that’s not the optimal way to do it. I’m hoping that you have some kind of chip removing machine because there was some talk of that as a as a possibility. I don’t know, like an electromagnetic pulse is, you know, the keyword phrase here that, uh, that I’m trying to point at. What’s the … what’s the situation, Charley?

Houdini pipes up in Charley’s head, asking if she can transfer him to the data storage device just so that he can continue to exist while simultaneously getting him off the chip. Charley thinks, “OK.” Aided by his aura sight, Mitch gets the impression that some sort of internal conversation is going on between Charley and Houdini. He tells Houdini to pipe down. Charley explains that Houdini doesn’t want to get melted, but Mitch responds that he considers Houdini an acceptable loss. But, melting the chip while leaving it inside her brain is “way low” on his order of preference in terms of dealing with the chip. He’s really hoping that there’s some sort of device Charley can use to destroy the chip. Then they’ll all go get ice cream. Charley says, yeah, absolutely — but first she needs to take care of Houdini. And she’s a little bit nervous about the procedure.

Mitch addresses Houdini. “Ehrich, I know you can hear me. If you are in some way responsible for bad things happening to Charley, I will find some way to punish you for it.” Houdini lapses into complete silence, intimidated by Mitch’s threat. Charley explains that she’s just going to transfer Houdini to the data storage device and that she doesn’t understand why Mitch hates Houdini so much. Mitch says he doesn’t hate Houdini. It’s just that he knows Houdini saw an opportunity with the chip and took it. That strikes him as a violation and it rubs him the wrong way. Roger asks Charley if Charley invited Houdini onto the chip. Charley says she did. She argues that Houdini is a friend — Mitch says we’re all friends here — and that he’s without a body. Roger says he also has friends without bodies, but he has rules with his friends, and she should have rules too. Charley concedes that sounds right, but notes that it’s not a problem. Houdini is her friend. She’s going to give him a new home. It’ll only take a little while. Then, they can destroy the chip.

They head to the Rooster House with the data storage device and the EMP device. Charley transfers — and does not copy — Houdini to the data storage device. Then she flips the switch on her EMP device, aiming it at her head. In a blink, Charley is flooded with a sudden montage of past lives but quickly comes to. Mitch checks her aura: the chip is fried, its components burnt out entirely.

Inside Building 451, Viv seeks out Jocasta and finds her in the ladies’ room, smoking.

Viv: Jo. You’ve been so kind to me and orienting me here, and in watching the last couple of interactions, I really think that you and I should be talking but I also feel like, if I were to just like, ask you to come to my office, it would feel like you were in some kind of trouble. And that’s not what I want to cultivate at all. Like, I was watching those feelings rise in you and the intensity of the situation and what you’re called upon to do. And I want to be able to help you.

Jocasta: Well, to be honest with you, I already have to see an Army psychiatrist on a regular basis —

Viv: (laughing) That’s bullshit and you know it.

Jocasta: (chuckling) — it’s a somewhat adversarial relationship, and I’m not really clear as to how involved he is in what I’m doing here. I have a feeling he may know less than he lets on, or more than he knows, but that’s the kind of answer you’re gonna get from me a lot.

Viv: I can dwell in these possibility spaces with you.

Jocasta: I, uh, I don’t have any objection to it, Viv. I … I … I could probably use it to be honest. I’ve, uh, felt a little adrift since the last mission. I know it seems strange to say that because it was only two weeks ago, if that —

Viv: Yes. It’s clear that time moves differently here, and it’s clear that you move in very different worlds.

Jocasta: Yeah. Time moves much differently for me than I think even the rest of the group. But, uh, I have no objection to it. It’s a very kind gesture. And we can certainly do it any time. But, can I make a suggestion to you before we proceed?

Viv: Absolutely.

Jocasta: Read my file first.

Viv invites Jocasta up to the Mission. Jocasta says that sounds great; she needs to get out of the city for a little while. Viv says she’s quite impressed with the place. Jocasta says Marshall “certainly knows what he’s doing,” whatever that means.