8/8

Played: June 2, 2023.

Monday. October 15, 1973. The skies over Alabama. Archie snaps back to the cockpit of Southern Airways Flight 243 from New York. Only an instant has passed in the “real world” despite him seemingly having spent several minutes talking with the Comte de St. Germain aboard the UFO. He thanks the pilots and goes back to his seat, taking a second to ground himself.

Unfortunately, word about a UFO sighting has already begun to spread among the passengers and crew. Archie orders another ginger ale and, when the attendant returns, deploys one of SANDMAN’s standard anti-UFO memes. “Golly,” he remarks, “I never thought I’d see one of those new stealth planes. They really are something, aren’t they?” The attendant smiles and nods. The woman behind him whispers to her husband: “A stealth plane.”

Upon arriving in Huntsville, Archie is briefed by his team, led by Kendrick. While he was gone, the team at Lake Champlain – Marshall, Mitch, Jocasta, Hilary, and a detachment of Mil-Ops boys – closed the subduction zone at Point 12 using underwater demolitions. Charley submitted a request for her infrasonic device (the one she first used to disrupt the Mansa concert) so that she can reconfigure it to counteract the disturbing humming that permeates the Pascagoula subduction site. She and Roger are preparing to take action to close the zone down there. Kendrick also reports that there is a woman waiting in one of the back conference rooms to meet with Archie. A woman from Control.

The woman from Control is about Sophie’s age, late 20s, with dark hair in something of a Hepburn pixie cut. She’s wearing a gray pantsuit and holds a black briefcase at her side. She rises as Archie enters; they shake hands. 

BETH Mr. Ransom, I’m Beth Cole. I speak on behalf of Control. You wanted to speak with Control; Dr. Stanton got in touch with the Peak earlier today. It’s probably time we have a discussion.

ARCHIE (in a friendly tone) It’s good to meet you, Ms. Cole! And golly, did you come out here from the Peak just today? You folks move fast!

BETH Dr. Stanton reached out around 11:30 Eastern and I was on a plane 45 minutes later. We have a lot to talk about, as I said, and the first thing is the request that you made of Dr. Stanton. Now, we have been filled in and understand what has happened here over the past few days. I think the first thing that you’ll need to understand, Mr. Ransom, is that the work of the Continuity Working Group is the work of Project SANDMAN. Now, whatever happened on this mission that has allowed Enemy action and evidence of the Enemy’s presence to expand and proliferate, that is currently being judged by Control. You did the right thing, in what you did, but we have to talk about ways to address the longer-term ramifications of your actions in a way that will support the cohesion of the Project at large. If you understand. A lot of this will be politics, and given that you’ve already made a move in that arena, we should probably address that first. You wish to take Dr. Stanton’s place?

ARCHIE I was never meant to be a field agent, Ms. Cole. I think I can do more good … it’s a little more responsibility. I understand what you’re saying about the Continuity Working Group but the case I made to Frank was for a belt and suspenders approach. There’s more than one way to skin a cat and, you know, we have had some differences in opinion about priorities and tactics but my commitment to the mission is completely unchanged. My commitment is complete.

BETH Your team, and the members of ALLOCHTHON, are currently working on reversing all the subduction zones that were triggered by the Continuity Working Group. It sounds like they’re making some progress.

ARCHIE It wasn’t as simple as the Continuity Working Group thought. The Opposition’s made … opportunistic gains. But I think it’s under control – or will be soon. 

BETH Obviously the CWG had within its number quite a few esmologists. Their predictions were that reversion to History B was inevitable. And, obviously, Control can’t adhere to only one plan. We have to keep in mind that any theoretician in the Project who finds themself blinkered or blinded as to one particular ontology is going to find themself in a tricky situation if and when that ontology does not unfold. What we need are project heads who are able to see in many directions at once. Now, I don’t want you to think this is some kind of job interview. Or that you’re on the stand trying to defend your actions. As I’ve said, decisions are being made right now at the Control level regarding longer-term patching up of the damage done over this weekend. What I need to know from you is – before we move on to how the Continuity Working Group itself is going to be disposed of – what I need to hear from you is what your plans are as head of North American memetics. 

ARCHIE Well, Ms. Cole … the Project has lots of moving parts.​​ I understand that. But, memetically, I think we’ve been playing defense. We haven’t been playing to win. And I just think that’s short sighted. We’ve got the better product! We’ve got to be selling our product to Americans and the world. That should be the easy part. Positive messaging – feel good messaging – it doesn’t have to be dumb! With all due respect to the memetics team, there’s been a lot of changes in the culture over the 10, 15 years - they’ve been playing catch-up. Or, worse, they’ve been too clever by half. Everything’s triangulation and honey traps and trying to co-opt the language of the Enemy. Forthright, positive messaging – that’s what the moment calls for.

Here Archie slips into pitch mode a bit, explaining ideas he has for the fall TV lineup and subway ads and comic books and breakfast cereal, much of which he pins to America’s upcoming bicentennial. In essence, he’s describing Morning in America. After a while, he catches himself and smiles abashedly. 

BETH Obviously, there will be a lot of specifics to hammer out. But I will bring that message back to Control. I feel like Control will be satisfied with this general trajectory. Now, the Continuity Working Group had a lot of irons in a lot of fires. A good number of them are crucial to the Project’s well-being and survival. What Dr. Stanton told us is that Anthony Reinhardt’s methods had gone a little bit … too far into Enemy territory. We’ve been told that Lieutenant Colonel Reinhardt was dispatched during the … events of a few days ago. It seems Dr. Stanton was almost relieved to hear that happen. 

Beth pauses.

BETH Mr. Ransom, there’s mustn’t – there mustn’t – be any more bloodshed within the Project. Decisions on how the Continuity Working Group’s resources are disposed of will be made at the Control level. We will, of course, welcome Operation URIEL’s input on any of the Continuity Working Group’s remaining sub-projects, given the overlap in your interests as they were plotted by the Continuity Working Group. (Chuckles). And the interests of many of the more … future-facing members of the CWG. Mr. Ransom, we understand what your operation has accomplished in the past eight months. We understand that the CWG put all of you through a crucible – into subduction event after subduction event. To test, to probe your abilities. As we talk about disposing of these CWG projects, yours – your operation might be the most important one of all. And you’ve essentially taken the throne from Dr. Gottlieb and the rest of his steering committee. We’ll consult with you on personnel decisions and if any members of the Continuity Working Group need to be … eliminated … we will use URIEL for that purpose. But we would ask that you not undertake any independent operations against the Continuity Working Group and that you wait for the greenlight directly from Control. And for me. I’ll be working with you.

ARCHIE Well, I’m glad to hear all that, Ms. Cole. Of course, I agree! This is what I want for all of us: to be on the same page, to be on the same team. We’re all working toward the same ends in life.

BETH I think, honestly, Mr. Ransom, that we’re looking at a much brighter future than we were just a few weeks ago. 

ARCHIE I’m glad you see it that way.

BETH And I’m very, very happy that we’ll be working with you more directly. Just a couple of things before I head back to the Peak. Control has now had an opportunity to review all of Operation URIEL’s reports from the past, well, the past five years. But now with a special focus on the past year or so. You know, as I mentioned, the CWG was definitely intent on putting you into situations where exposure to the Enemy might trigger secondary abilities. The rapid development of psi powers, etc. etc. I'm hoping – when your team gets back together after all of the hubbub of this mission is over – that you'll be able to convince all of them that they will need to come to the Peak for a complete debriefing.

ARCHIE Can you tell me what that would entail?

BETH Absolutely. There's different kinds of debriefing, of course. The reports have been excellent – extremely detailed. I detect the hand of Dr. Redgrave in many of them. He's got a great eye for detail. The problem is, of course, that each of you with these new abilities has new ways of seeing the world. We want to know what you've seen at crucial points in all of these missions. Call it a … “coloring in” of the details. We have some concerns over deep Enemy memetics being  … shall we say, present due to how much exposure all of you have had to subductions, irrupters, and the like. It's not going to involve anything neural. It's just going to be maybe a little bit of hypnosis to aid in memory retrieval. This is really just so we can kind of paint the picture of the past few years in your Operation a little more clearly. You know, essentially, your team is going to be operating at a higher security level after ALLOCHTHON is over. We think it's reasonable that we make sure that that security clearance is justified.

ARCHIE Well I'll put it to the team.

BETH That's all you can do.

ARCHIE But the truth is that, thanks to the machinations of the Continuity Working Group, we don't ourselves remember all of the events of the last few years. Our own memories are not entirely trustworthy or not entirely complete. So I guess my only stipulation is that we'd want to see all of your findings too.

BETH Does this mean that you and Dr. Redgrave and Mr. Hort and Mr. Martin would want to have the effect of the Urim and Thummim reversed on you?

ARCHIE Well, again, I can't speak for them but I guess I’d like my head put back together.

BETH That can be done. I mean, it will need to be done. Anyway, bring it to your team after ALLOCHTHON is brought to a complete, successful landing. The other element that we probably need to talk about is Agent RAVEN. 

ARCHIE Indeed. Is there anything you can tell me about Agent RAVEN?

BETH There’s a lot I can tell you, but the upshot is that what she went through with the Solarans left deep, deep scars. Memories of that time. Before she can be released from THROWAWAY, those memories need to be completely eliminated. I’m going to be completely frank with you, Mr. Ransom. She had prolonged, intimate contact with the Enemy. The intelligence we’ve gathered really hasn’t made a lot of sense, but it has been recorded. RAVEN’s prognosis for the future is good. The idea of her becoming an active agent again, well, that is something Control is discussing. As you can probably imagine, there are various parties within Control – there are two minds. One is that she is too compromised to release back into the field. Other believe that her knowledge would make her a unique and important research resource for the Project. So decisions on her status as a Sandman have not been completely made yet. But she will be released from THROWAWAY as long as these memories can not only be eliminated, but not prodded. 

ARCHIE I’d like to meet her. Or have some members of my team meet her.

BETH I’m sure you would. And reuniting her with Agent Helix is also within our plans. But again, what her emotional reactions would be to having that reunion … we just want to make sure her mental health will be alright. The long-term prognosis. It’s certainly a responsibility that we can delegate to URIEL. You have a talented psychologist on your team, as well as an associate member who has skills in this area. She’s going to need long-term psychiatric care. 

ARCHIE Could we arrange for some sort of interview with Dr. Redgrave? I mean, preliminary with any reunion with Charley.

BETH You’ve probably heard that the INDIGO Program is being shuttered. 

ARCHIE I heard that.

BETH It was a CWG operation. The returns just … well, just haven’t been enough to justify its continuation. Agent Helix’s future and the future of the rest of the Indigo Children that you’ve seen here in Huntsville and elsewhere, they’re going to remain associated with the Project but many of them are already being moved to foster homes, given cover identities, etc. In any event, we would want to release RAVEN into URIEL’s custody when the time is right. Is there anything else you’d like me to bring back to Control? Either having to do with the current operation or anything else we’ve discussed?

ARCHIE No, I think that’s all. 

BETH I’ll give you my telephone number and my ARPANET address. Feel free to reach out at any time. But I will be your sole conduit of communication with Control. I think you probably, at this point, Mr. Ransom, understand that the identities of the members of Control are kept in complete secrecy to almost everyone in the Project. I don’t see their faces. I simply give my reports to a blank screen and get my instructions and commands from something similar. There’s only a few of us in that inner circle, and I’m one of them.

ARCHIE Well! If we’re going to be working together, you’re going to have to call me Archie, Beth.

BETH Yes, well … this kind of informality may be part of the memetic matrix of the future. So, Archie, glad to do so. 

Beth and Archie stand, shake hands, and Beth walks out, escorted by Kendrick.  

Monday. October 15, 1973. Pascagoula, Mississippi. Roger and Charley receive word from the Mil-Ops diving team that they could find no physical evidence of kulullû or History B architecture in the water. This report is at odds with the warning Charley had received from Maman Brigitte, who was pretty insistent that there were kulullû around, and with Mitch’s discovery of the poison barb on the beach.

Charley’s infrasonic listening device arrives by expedited military courier from Huntsville. She immediately sets about reconfiguring it so that she can disrupt the audible “humming” sound that has manifested around the UFO abduction site. While she tinkers away in her hastily-requisitioned workshop, Roger’s been smoking outside. He’s a bit tense. Morris approaches.

MORRIS What’s on your mind, son?

ROGER What’s on my mind, brother? We have to go over to another world, part the veil, talk to a bunch of very, very long dead ghosts – possibly depressed ghosts. I don’t know. And it’s a – it’s mental. It’s a large task. We need to put all this stuff together and talk with these things and get them to pull away from the other side and close all the – it’s a lot. It’s a lot! And I just want us to be as prepared as we can. I have this, I don’t know … I don’t know. I keep thinking I’m relying too much on prophecy. I think there’s a little bit of, uh, practicality we need to try and get done and … it’s a lot. I’m trying to tackle as much of it as I can.

MORRIS The two of you, you’re both able to sense and speak with ghosts? That’s what I’ve gotten the impression of.

ROGER Well, it’s kind of new for me. And in terms of how … (pause). Charley’s amazing, right? And I don’t even know how far she’ll go. But she’s already beyond me, that’s for sure. The most I can do is open myself up the right way to the spirits and let them talk through me. That’s always been my gig. So the idea is to try and figure out how to do that. To be a bridge for communication. Charley on the other hand? She may even go over there and – I don’t know – she may even realign the universe with sound energy or something. We’ll just see. 

Charley emerges on the scene. Without a word, she clambers up a nearby stone monument where she aligns and configures the dish antennae for her infrasonic device. Once it’s ready, she climbs down, walks back to Roger, Morris, and Joe, and pulls the trigger. After a good long blast of about a minute, she releases the trigger. All anyone can now hear are the waters of the rolling waters of the Pascagoula River. The so-called “Singing River” has apparently been neutralized. Step one complete – but Morris says he’s still sensing History B vibes. The subduction zone is still present. 

ROGER My understanding from the scientific types was that the buzzing was a kind of barrier. And also that something was opening the door. Closing that down is great, but if the subduction zone is still here, then all we’ve done is remove the speed bump. Which means we have to go in. Based on the reports – Morris saying it’s still there, the frog-men not seeing the, uh … other frog-men … if the kulullû are here, and Maman Brigitte knows that, then they must be on the other side. So all we can do is go forward and try to communicate with whoever is keeping the door open. All I know is: it’s the dead. Either we have to shift them to come back, we have to put them back into the gede’s hands, or dissipate them or something. But that has to happen. We have to get the dead to do something.

He turns to Charley.

ROGER So, now that the bad sound is out, do you think we can use these devices (gesturing at Charley’s equipment and infrasonic device) to talk across the divide, to the other side? Because I think I'd like to try and bring up one of the fold on the other side and see if we can talk to them. But if you think we should go over and scout, that's the other question, now that part of the barrier’s down. What do you think, Charley?

CHARLEY Well, scouting is never a bad idea. I can easily do that. We could start there. I do think that you doing your thing, you doing a … seance type of thing is probably the way to go. But, um, Morris. I was listening to some of what you were saying … are you also able to speak to the dead? Why are you here?

MORRIS (chuckles) Charley, my talents reside in finding out where the Enemy is, where there’s influence of the Anunnaki, where there’s remnants of them being either created from nothing or having been here at one point. And this area is very, very thick with it. I can’t say that I’ve sensed any actual irruptors here. But now that the singing is gone, I can feel things a little more clearly. And, yeah, this whole area feels … tainted. Still. Nothing’s closed. Potentiality is still there. The possibility of Them having always been here is still here.

CHARLEY Does it seem lessened? I mean, it seemed like the infrasonic device worked.

MORRIS It worked. It got rid of that extra layer of History B … presence. It feels like that was now – now that it’s gone, it almost felt like that tone, that singing, was meant to entice people. The siren song I was talking about earlier this afternoon. The idea of Them trying to sing people into the waves. You know, that feeling is gone now and I don’t, at this point, I don’t know if it’s even just the literal singing of the river … but I feel like those two gentlemen you told me about, who got taken aboard the flying saucer? They’re part of the siren call too. In a different way. Maybe it’s memetics. I think it’s going to stop people from coming here and being looky-loos. It’s also going to stop any of us from walking into the water unannounced. Not that we had much danger of that, given that we’re trained. But you’ve got a lot of people around so all the better to not have it, if it’s really like mermaids in the water.

ROGER Yeah, no, kill that hi-fi.

CHARLEY So, Roger, I can go back under. I can look a little further into the astral. Maman Brigitte … she gave me a warning that kulullû are down there. But she wasn’t completely – it was, you know, a light warning. So I’m fairly sure I can go deeper without much danger. However, please keep an eye on me. Please wake me up.

ROGER OK, so here’s a plan. You go, quiet tiptoe steps wherever you go, and we’ll watch you. Just find someone to talk to, right?

CHARLEY Right, OK. Got it. I can do that.

ROGER And we’ll watch your silver thread.

CHARLEY Yes, watch it.

Charley makes some adjustments to the infrasonic device and hands Roger a bulky pair of headphones that she’s wired up to it. Roger tells Joe to stand guard with Morris, since he (Roger) won’t be able to hear anything in the “real world” while wearing the headphones. Charley lays down, donning her own headgear so that she can hear the deep electronic chants that will propel her mind across the veil. After about 20 minutes, she blinks her eyes open and finds herself floating in the Outer Astral: a wavy, gray-silver version of the material plane, redolent with psychic energy. She probes deeper, slips sideways, and eventually finds herself in the noosphere, the inner astral. 

Immediately she senses a non-functioning gateway to History B below the waters of the Pascagoula. It is semi-dormant but still humming with potential. She pushes her consciousness in that direction, following the vibe until she reaches the mouth of the river. Water poses no hurdle to Charley in this place, so she dives below the surface, plunging down and down until, suddenly, emerging out of the inky darkness, she sees a vast concave bowl. The bowl is carved into the ground: a vaguely hemispherical, reversed ziggurat that goes deep into the earth. Though she does not detect any trace of History B, she feels an unsettledness about the place, like the boundaries between histories are thin here. It feels like something could “slip” into this bowl at any moment, like an animal caught in a humane trap. Drifting closer, Charley discerns that this pit is, indeed, a portal, but one that goes both ways: it’s not just for things to get “out” of History B. It’s a way for things from History A to get in.

In the material plane, aided by Charley’s headphones, Roger listens intently while extending his perception beyond the veil. The binaural beats push his awareness deeper into the noosphere and as it does, he senses something: the dead. A great many of them. Dozens of people died here – drowned — though he’s unclear on the precise circumstances. On an intuitive level, however, he knows that a mass, organized death occurred here. The death of a group of people who were erased from History A and whose sacrifice weakened the ontological divide. Roger can feel the remnants of these dead making their way towards him, out of the water, drawn by the candle of his natural attunement to the spirit realm.

In the astral, Charley observes dozens of red pulsating orbs emerge from the riverbed and the pit itself. They are the only real color where she is, in a pit at the bottom of a river deep in the astral plane. Like Roger, she can sense, somehow, that these are the spirits of the dead, and that they are — or have been — trapped here. Something is leading them up to the surface now. “Roger,” Charley thinks.

Minutes pass. Roger feels the dead encroaching further, encircling him, closing in. Maybe 50 or more. He cannot see them, but he can feel their presence and it sends a shiver up his spine. He feels a slight nudge to open himself up, to serve as a vessel for one of these ghosts, but pushes that instinct aside. Back in the astral, Charley senses the bowl reverberate, or shift, like when someone disconnects the power from a fan and the fan’s blades keep whirring.

MORRIS The subduction zone is getting less powerful! Something – something’s shifting down there.

Roger doesn’t seem to notice; his eyes are closed in concentration and he cannot hear anything with Charley’s headphones on. So Morris turns to Joe:

MORRIS Should I … should I let him know?

Joe stares blankly at Morris for a beat before drawing his pistol, aiming it at Morris’ head, and pulling the trigger. Morris sustains the blast. He collapses to the ground. The commotion catches Roger’s attention. He opens his eyes to find Morris prone next to him, bleeding. Without removing the headphones, he draws his own pistol and spins around. Joe stands there, gun still raised, eyes glossy. Peering over his shoulder, a misshapen claw clenched into his trapezius, is a kulullû. It blink its nictitating eyes one at a time. Joe shifts his aims at Roger. Roger gets the jump and fires. The bullet goes through Joe’s shoulder, wounding him. The kulullû launches backward, off Joe, landing on the ground and scurrying like a lizard toward the water. Joe falls to his knees, grasping his shoulder and screaming in pain and confusion. The pistol tumbles out of his hand.

Roger gives chase. The kulullû stops and turns partially to face him. It’s holding a small rock on which is carved a glyph: HUL (“Delight”). Roger is unaffected. He opens fire as the kulullû races for the water’s edge; it swerves left and right, dodging Roger’s shots. A second later, and it is beneath the waves. Roger fires into the water once, twice, before turning and racing back to his team. Morris is still breathing, but faintly. Joe is dazed, rocking and back forth on the ground, gripping his shoulder. Charley is undisturbed. Roger performs emergency first aid on Morris to stem the bleeding and then screams into his radio for a medic and backup. In his headphones, he can hear the ghosts attempting to speak with him in some inchoate way. He cannot quite make it out, but it sounds like they are speaking in … Danbe?

In the astral, Charley feels the energies shift. No more orbs are emerging from the bowl. The “machine” has almost completely powered down. But now a new threat has emerged: ahead of her, descending at a rapid pace, is the kulullû. But here in the astral, it is no longer the tiny fish-thing thing that attaches itself to people’s backs. Here, with its psychic powers, it resembles a massive lizard-beast, a true chthonic monster with webbed flipper-feet, vicious eyes, and a snapping fanged jaw. Charley senses that it is racing toward her position. Toward the bowl.

Unsure what to do, and having never encountered a situation like this before, Charley wills herself to slip sideways, back into the outer astral. She succeeds! The beast “swims” “past” her, seemingly unaware of her presence. As it passes, Charley can sense that it is wounded. More than that, it is desperate – desperate to escape History A before the subduction zone fully closes and it vanishes from existence. A moment later (though what is time, really, in the astral plane?), the kulullû reaches the bottom of the bowl and slithers through a crack in the rocks. It is gone. So, too, is the last vestige of the subduction zone.

In the material plane, Roger finishes tending to Morris and goes over to Joe, who is still in shock and bleeding significantly. Roger tends to his wound while trying to keep him calm. Joe asks repeatedly in a stammering voice what happened. 

ROGER Joe, hold it together. It wasn’t you. You had a Pisces on you. But it’s as simple as that. 

JOE Where did it come from? It wasn’t there before!

ROGER They’re sneaky sons of bitches. And they’ve been around here. We’re in a subduction zone. 

JOE They wanted me to keep an eye on you. They told me –

ROGER Soldier. I need you to sit this one out. Just sit here. Don’t think. Don’t do anything. Just sit here.

A minute later and the cavalry arrives. Mil-Ops divers race for the water while a team of medical personnel attend to Joe and Morris. Roger, still wearing the headphones, ensures everything is being handled before telling everyone to leave him alone because he needs to concentrate. Charley, meanwhile, emerges from the astral with a knowledge of exactly how the Red Kings were powering this subduction zone: it was the ghosts of Pascagoula.

Tuesday. October 16, 1973. Keesler Air Force Base, West Virginia. Marshall, Mitch, Jocasta, and Hilary awaken the next morning at the SANDMAN field office to find reports coming in that Point One has been closed, though a taisher – Morris – was gravely wounded in the process and is in critical condition. The team is then briefed by the commander at Point Five HQ.

Point 5's epicenter is right near the border of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, a little over a mile east of Cameron, West Virginia, a town of about 1500. No major evidence of irruption has been seen here over the past 8-9 days; nothing at all like the stone circles under the waters at Lakes Champlain and Winnebago. The on-the-spot EM detection teams and taishers said the zone, before the EM bombardment on Saturday, could be sensed extending as far west as Cameron and beyond. Likewise, before the reversal EM radiation on Saturday, the effects of the zone were sensed to "leak" southward across the Appalachians, deeper into central West Virginia. Now, the remaining History B vibes seem to linger in a tiny spot right off Greene Valley Road; nearby older cemeteries have been surveilled and no weird sightings, mysterious exhumations or proxy baptisms, or UFOs have been sighted since T-zero of Operation ALLOCHTHON on Friday, October 5. Two points of interest within a half-hour's drive of Point 5 are worth mentioning, though. First, there are the local mounds. Moundsville, West Virginia, about 10 miles northwest of Point 5, contains within the city limits the Grave Creek Mound, a 70 foot tall Adena culture conical mound "dating" from 250-150 BC.

The site, a National Historic Landmark since 1964, is protected, and has been the site of amateur and professional archeological interest since white exploration and settlement in the 1770s Merriwether Lewis checked it out on his way to meet William Clark, and in 1838, local antiquarians discovered a "rune stone" that has since been lost, but remains in photographs and casts taken by the Smithsonian.

Second, Point 5 is about 20 miles almost directly north of the rough northwestern corner of the National Radio Quiet Zone, centered on the Green Bank Radio Observatory which, yes, was the first US installation to detect the EM fluctuations that heralded these twelve subduction zones opening back on October 5. 

Obviously, Green Bank and the "US Navy" installation at Sugar Grove, West Virginia (actually an NSA listening post) were able to detect the fallout of the triggers and subduction because they are within this Zone and are trained to look for anomalous radio signals. Project security rushed to both installations at the outset of ALLOCHTHON—SANDMAN counterintelligence and signals nerds, along with some applied anthropologists to observe and smooth things over with the scientists and spooks respectively at both sites—and have been a valuable source of insight on the progress of ALLOCHTHON since then. The SANDMAN personnel currently stationed at both Green Bank and Sugar Grove are not CWG-aligned, according to the ALLOCHTHON Files; to the CWG, they were useful SANDMAN pawns spreading the initial cover story: that no one knew how these subductions irrupted and that each zone was well-contained.

Once briefed, Marshall says he’ll take Jocasta, Mitch, and Hilary to the zone, but directs Jocasta to come loaded for bear. They stock up a van with equipment and weaponry (Hilary takes an ikoter). Before leaving, Mitch asks, “Do we have a map? A physical map? Like a big map sitting on a table?” Marshall says yes, of course they do. A member of the site team brings out a US Geological Survey map of the area and lays it out on a large conference table. Mitch pulls a nickel out of his pocket.

MITCH I think if I take a look at the map – I mean, it’s a parlor trick. And I’m not a big fan of it. But I feel like we’re on a real time crunch here and this is just going to get us through to this. Because there’s more important things happening elsewhere. 

MARSHALL So … would that work? Like, all the time? Or it only works when you feel like you need to accelerate the process? Like, I shouldn’t invest in an intern who just follows us around with a giant map of the world everywhere.

MITCH Yeah. No. That would not work. I feel confident saying that wouldn’t work without trying it because it would just … it’s (sighs) it’s not the right vibe.

MARSHALL OK.

MITCH It would be dumb and silly. It doesn’t work – I feel like I’m pushing it as it is, frankly. This may be helping or it may be hurting, I honestly don’t know. Let’s find out. 

He flips the coin. It lands head’s up – Thomas Jefferson – near the northern border of the Quiet Zone, almost precisely at a point that forms an equilateral triangle between the nickel, the Greenback Observatory, and Sugar Grove. That means it’s about a 15, 20 mile drive from their current location. A few minutes later and the four are on the road into the hills of West Virginia. Eventually they pull up a little bit outside a small town called Weimer. They park and proceed on foot in the direction divined by Mitch, with Jocasta in the lead. Eventually, they crest a steep wooded hill and find themselves looking down at a valley through which runs dry creek bed. In the middle of this field is a large, mesh, burnt-out satellite dish looming next to an equally burnt-out hut. The hut appears Mesopotamian in origin; no sooner have they spotted it than Hilary says, “That hut is made of clay.” Mitch looks around for an access road, shielding his eyes from the sun. He sees none. This thing stands alone, isolated. No power lines. No generator. The whole area reeks of History B, according to Mitch.

JOCASTA I have a suggestion.

MARSHALL Please.

JOCASTA To reference my previous thought, whether or not we know what this thing is, we’re pretty sure that it is a creation of the Enemy.

MARSHALL Right.

HILARY I would say so.

JOCASTA I think the move here is to call in a big noisy airstrike against this thing. Not only because it will conceivably destroy it, or at least render it damaged, but this is a good test of how in charge we really are. If we call in the airstrike and we don’t get it, we will know the extent to which we’re in charge.

MARSHALL I like it.

HILARY I agree, but should we gather any intelligence before other than just taking some photos?

JOCASTA We can talk about that – that’s your area of specialty.

HILARY I admit, I am curious.

MARSHALL Mitch, what’s the vibe around here? Are we in danger? Are there snipers in the trees?

MITCH Yeah, the vibes are bad. I can’t really be more specific than that. I don’t like it. I’m just gonna say I don’t like it. What I could do is remote view in there, see if I see anything like, skittering or beeping or thrashing or any other verbs that are bad verbs. And if it’s clear then somebody, you know, other people, they can go in and look at it.  

Marshall gives the go-ahead and Mitch attempts remote viewing into the building. His first attempt is unsuccessful at this low altitude. While he meditates for a second attempt, Jocasta checks her armaments and proceeds to stealth her way towards the hut, staying low in the tall grass and avoiding clear lines of sight. (Marshall and Hilary observe from the hilltop with high-powered binoculars). As she approaches the hut, she quickly discerns that it is certainly not of History A. It stands about 10 feet tall, 20 feet wide at the sides, with a half burnt-down wooden door. The whole structure is charred nearly black but there is no obvious major structural damage (e.g., from an explosion). It would seem the place and the adjoining satellite dish somehow caught fire. 

Once within reach of the building, Jocasta surveys the scene. Her archaeological education tells her that the building is decidedly Mesopotamian in “origin.” The clay used in its construction is not native to this area and the method of construction is unvarnished and somewhat crude. The satellite dish, meanwhile, is composed of complex lattice metalwork, the lines of which loop and curl and form odd shapes. Before she gets too lost in the pattern, her danger sense pings and she realizes the dish forms an elaborate glyph. She averts her eyes and radios Marshall and Hilary, warning them not to look directly at the dish. She then removes one of her gloves and touches the hut with her bare hand. In an instant, she hears a voice behind her say, “Hey, gorgeous.” Without turning around, she knows it is Pat Price. “That’s Mother Mary to you,” she quips, turning to face him.

Back at the hilltop, Marshall puts down the binoculars.

MARSHALL Hilary, if we were to assume that as some point in the pre-Ontoclysm past, the Mesopotamian-based Red Kings invaded the New World but were ultimately repelled by the indigenous peoples here, and if we were to assume that History A operates in parallel to History B so that a contemporary-esque invasion of the New World … uh, jettison that thread. It’s too complicated to explain. Basically, I’m wondering: do you think this is an Enemy broadcast station? Like a forward point for an invading army that They established as they were advancing into the continent? 

HILARY Well, would you rather I speculate mildly or wildly?

MARSHALL Let’s go mildly.

HILARY My feeling is that there may have been some kind of retro-creation here, built by History A that was replaced, in retro-creation, by History B. Because it was very similar to what stood here in History A. Now, if I were to speculate wildly, my opinion would come alongside what you’re getting at with the proviso that – if we are accepting the possibility of parallel histories – this continent is not entirely Theirs in Their 1973. I don’t adhere to this ontology, necessarily, but …

MARSHALL No, I think that’s right. 

HILARY I think the meaning of this building will become clear once Jocasta gets back and when Mitch is able to find out what is actually happening. 

Marshall sighs and lifts the binoculars to his eyes again.