Archie and Marshall Go for a Walk
Brant
Once Archie hangs up [with Frank Stanton], and before he speaks, Marshall claps his hands and motions for the door. “Walk with me over to the mess, I need a cup of coffee.”
Rob
Archie walks with Marshall. He looks pleased about the phone call, or at least he's chosen to appear pleased. "Well, that wasn't so bad! Stanton says Sophie passed her psych evals and could be back here after a month or two. And they're not going to force any Green Berets on us. I know you won't want to admit it, Marshall, but the sky might not be falling after all."
Brant
“No, no — you’re right for once,” he says jokingly, with a laugh. “Things do seem to be holding together. I’ll be interested to see if the Librarian can pull it off — but if she’s made it this far, well.” He trails off.
Rob
"I expect you noticed the cryptonym on that telex." (By which Archie means Sophie being assigned to 'THROWAWAY', and the fact that Charley's mother was assigned to the same program/status/designation.)
Brant
“Yes. I have to imagine it’s some kind of an in-joke with someone. Hat on a hat, otherwise. Anyway — it must be some kind of place, right? Either a … community where she might find the girl—ah, Charley’s—actual mother. Or a facility, where she might be able to sneak into the files, or … meet her in common sessions. Why do you think she’s doing it?”
Rob
"I was hoping to ask you that. Did she get herself eighty-sixed on purpose? To help Charley find her family? To expose some seamy element of SANDMAN? I suppose she identified — identifies — with Charley on some level, there's always been a connection there, on Sophie's side at least. But the night before she left, at the barbecue, she seemed quite sincere in her distress. I don't know how rationally she was acting."
Archie sighs, fiddles with his glasses. "It was kind of you to get that dossier for Charley. I'm impressed you could shake so much loose! I made a request months ago for anything they could tell me about the INDIGO program, about her history ... I heard nothing but crickets."
Brant
Marshall holds the door for Archie. “Yes, I think she did — I think she is looking to find out what she can about Charley’s mother. Maybe more than that. I’m dubious about her loyalties to the Project. I think she has, ah, doubts about the work. To be frank.” He pours himself a coffee, waved to a friendly security guard. “Hm, well — Wycliffe, in Logistics? — he got it for me. Had to do a bit of legwork. Wasn’t easy. But we shouldn’t really talk about that.” He smiles.
Rob
Archie holds Marshall's gaze for a second, then smiles back. "Fair enough." He fills a paper cup from the water cooler. "Doubts about the work? I don't believe that." Takes a long sip, rethinks that. "Well, maybe about some of our methods. Yes. She did say she was frightened by, how did she put it, her eagerness to experiment with the, ah, geometry of the other side. And of course the business at Dufton hit her harder than anyone."
(I can't remember but I don't think Archie ever heard about Sophie's suspicion that SANDMAN killed Wolf & co? Unless it somehow got back to him off-screen. If he hasn't I'd like to think that by now that idea might have occurred to him as a possibility, however slight.)
Brant
“At a certain point, doubts about methods and purpose can merge. One doesn’t—“ he pauses for a beat as a records clerk walks by—“one doesn’t go deep undercover, violate all sorts of protocols and clearance levels, expose oneself to head-crackers like Gunn and the, ah, deception specialists they have there — just because one has doubts about methods. Honestly, I think she stumbled upon something, or had something happen to her, that has conflated us in her subconscious mind with the Germans. They killed her whole family. But I’m sure you already knew that. Either way, she’s gotten away with it for now. She’s played us all — me included — quite well. We’ll just have to see what happens next.”
Rob
Archie raises his eyebrows skeptically on "she played us all including me" but nods agreement to "we'll have to see what happens next". "So: thoughts on how Ms. Abeille will fit in? Did her weekend at the Mission go well? Are you feeling good about working with her?"
Brant
"I think she has potential. She brings a certain ... perspective, I guess I'd say, that we lacked. She'll be working with me at the Mission going forward, just so you know. So I can keep an eye on her while she gets acclimated. Plus it gives her some cover with her family." He dodges the last question. "What about you? Thoughts on this thing with the Librarian? Abeille? MJ's new girlfriend?"
Rob
Archie laughs at the mention of Mitch's girlfriend. "Did you see how fast he said it wasn't serious? Like a teenager with a crush, ha ha." He doesn't have much that's new to say about Sophie or Genevieve, just remarks that it's funny Livermore is the most progressive office (meaning the most women in roles of authority) he's ever worked in.
On the way back to the URIEL office, Archie adds, "The other name in that file that caught my eye was PSAMETIC. I guess you know that story, the experiment of Psammetichus? I realize you can only go back to the well so many times, but if your friends at Granite Peak ever pass on any more about PSAMETIC, or these other names in Charley's file, that's information we can use. Charley deserves to know where she comes from and what's been done to her, but it's not only that: the doodad in her head makes it a security question for all of us."
Michael
Rob, I was just thinking about this yesterday; the David-Sophie-GRAIL TABLE suspicions, I mean. I don't think direct word ever got back to Archie on Sophie's suspicions: Charley was the one who got an earful about it and Sophie's dream during the RadLab mission and it doesn't seem like Charley would have just blabbed that to Archie in the past very busy couple of weeks. But honestly, since Dufton she hasn't been the same. And Archie's own memories of how exactly the GRAIL TABLE team died are also a bit hazy. The whole … culmination of that mission seems like a dream now.
Also? Archie's Sensitive and empathetic and had worked with Sophie for a long time. So if you wanted to make a Psychology roll with a +1 bonus for knowing Sophie as well as could be possible under the circumstances (like, a cumulative effect of your Sensitive over the years) I could see him putting two and two together on this. So that's Psychology-18.
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS by 9
Ok, made that roll by 9. The follow-up question is, does it seem plausible to Archie, that SANDMAN killed David & co? I guess that's ultimately up to me, but if he had any reason to be suspicious beyond Sophie's suspicions - and the general weirdness/horror of that whole scenario - that would be significant.
Michael
The official GRAIL TABLE post-action report — I have the words here from a Sophie scene with Marshall during Mission 4 — said their collective causes of death were "predator action due to electromagnetic/neurological effects on local fauna." In other words, pecked, bitten, or slashed to death by unknown animals.
Now, SANDMAN would have no reason to cover up internally if, say, GRAIL TABLE were truly slashed to death by ugallu or kulullû or šedu—they'd most likely just say so in the internal report—so it's a crappy cover if it's a lie. And Archie's no Naturalist, but really? Enough animals were summoned—in a desolate part of the Lake District—by the History B infrasonics/subduction event to be able to kill a team of David, Catherine, Elias, and the two medics and two computer technicians on staff at GRAIL TABLE? With no pun intended to the kulullû that Archie and Jo fought, it seems a little bit fishy. Whether you believe that Morgan le Fay brought the ravens of the North of England to kill them or not.
I'd say it's all collectively enough to make Sophie suspicious, and enough for Archie to understand why someone as disturbed as Sophie might be suspicious. If it's a cover-up for SANDMAN terminating their own people—certainly not unheard of in SANDMAN's history, I'm sure the deep dark Stoney part of Archie's brain might be able to internalize—the lie could've been done bigger and/or better, honestly.
Rob
Ah, that's interesting. I'd been thinking "predator action" was a straightforward euphemism for "ugallu or sedu or Morgan's ravens" but it's actually a bit more fishy than that. Thanks.
Michael
(Yes indeed. No need to obfuscate if it truly were Irruptors. In fact, an additional thing that comes to Archie—much more than this might require an Intelligence Analysis roll—one would think if they were trying to pillory GRAIL TABLE post-operation for being full of taint, they'd gladly volunteer and say, "Hell yes it was Irruptors! They got what they deserved for tinkering with History B!"
Brant
Referring to PSAMETIC, Marshall first responds, a bit to himself: “Yes, the name is, again, strange. Reminds me of my dad’s students — the teacher’s pets. Always making insider jokes that you only understood if you’d, I don’t know, translated the Iliad from Greek to Latin to English and back again.”
He pauses outside the building before going in: “It will be a while before I can go back for more. I will keep an ear to the ground … but Archie. A word of advice — it would do you a world of good, professionally, if you cultivated a bit more, ah, suspicion when it comes to the people we’re working with — working for. Just because we are all on the same side doesn’t mean everyone sees it that way. There are people in the Project who would snatch your job in a second if they thought you weren’t protected by Stanton. The only way up in an organization like this is to step on certain people, you get what I’m saying? And there are people with secrets who want those secrets protected at extreme cost. To say nothing of moles and the like. Basically, it would behoove you to remember that the only people you can really trust here are the five weirdos back in that basement office.”
He winks.
Rob
"It's not weakness to think the best of people, Marshall. Paranoia can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But I hear you. And I appreciate you looking out for me. We all do." He laughs at the wink, and counts on his fingers as they walk into the building. "One, two, three, four ... you sure it's just five 'weirdos' working here?"