Protagonists#

• Short, Lance - Agent Myra - Foreign Service Officer (John)
• Tucker, Jamal - Agent Sentinel - U.S. Secret Service - Personal Protective Detail Division (Panagiotis)
• Veronica Mare - Agent Artemis - Professor of Anthropology (Tasos)
• Bennet, Wendy - Agent Locke - Criminal Intelligence Analyst / Assistant Professor of Criminology (Konstantina)
• Coniglio, Heath - Agent Blacktail - FBI Intelligence Case Officer (Istvan)

Afterhours Research – Monday, October 22nd, 2019 – Ithaca, New York#

Agent Blacktail calls an old acquaintance. Frank Carincola from Phenomen-X, but can’t reach him.

Agent Myra dives into 4chan and Deep Web sites, looking for McKay’s underlined and highlighted passages from The Catcher in the Rye. He finds many similar posts and discussions revolving around paranoid ideas about matriarchy and perceived threats to masculinity.

Agents Artemis and Locke, and Sentinel, examine McKay’s laptop and mobile phone:

• Phone
  • PICKY EATER: A photo manipulation program and a web aggregator. It is a plug-in for common web browsers. It rewrites firmware and drains batteries in record time. Looks more like hardcore malware.
  • The name Robert Wallace shows up several times in messages, calls and e-mails.
• Laptop
  • Burned out power supply unit. Needs replacement.

The Unnatural Chip - Tuesday, October 22nd, 2019 – Ithaca, New York#

Agent Locke buys spare parts to repair the laptop. At the store, she asks whether any customers have brought in computer equipment with damaged PSUs, but the answer is no.

Turning on the device reveals:

• A Word document on the desktop contains McKay’s paranoid manifesto, dedicated to the need to keep women from finding and hurting men. He saw threats to masculinity and the male identity everywhere. He saw himself as an alpha predator in training, strengthening himself to steal back his power from scheming “females.” He mentions the PICKY EATER app amongst a list of Deep Web software useful for “heightening security against the matriarchy.”
• PICKY EATER’s installation files on the computer. They can easily be saved and installed on other devices. A help document on the desktop explains the apps purpose as a web aggregator and warns that the program does not work without accompanying hardware. The document’s anonymous author offers to mail flash drives to users or to send instructions if they wish to install the circuitry internally. The contact email address has never existed.
• Opening the laptop and examining the motherboard reveals a higher-dimensional chip casting its ‘shadow’ into three dimensions, rising and curving like a melting sphere, depending on the observer’s angle.
• Chatlogs between McKay and Wallace saved as screenshots. Wallace encouraged McKay’s most violently outlandish and paranoid fantasies about secret conspiracies of women in power. Some early conversations between the two are still archived on 4Chan’s/pol boards. Wallace eagerly steered McKay’s venomous incel rhetoric towards eugenics.
• Wallace sent McKay a copy of PICKY EATER. They met on video chats to help him install the PICKY EATER circuit in his laptop.
• Wallace’s IP address places him in Bangor, Maine.

Agent Blacktail sends an e-mail to Robert Wallace with the message “I need your help”, using McKay’s writing style.

The Bower Case#

Following an inquiry from the Agents, Pitzerelli calls Agent Myra back and tells him to investigate the Bower Case, as there are mentions of PICKY EATER in the FBI’s case file.

Agent Locke, using her hacking skills, schedules an appointment with Special Agent Colin Boone at the FBI Cyber Crimes Division in Washington, D.C. She then calls Pitzerelli to brief him on the case. He praises her for her hard work and leadership.

She leaves for Washington DC, set to arrive around 18:00. On the way, she texts Pitzerelli from her private phone number to inform him know about the meeting with Boone.

At FBI HQ, she meets Special Agent Colin Boone, who provides the following information:

• Picky Eater emerged during an FBI investigation into Charles Bower, a former MIT theater arts professor.
• Bower was arrested after child pornography was found on his computer, phone, and laptop. The images were unusually disturbing and appeared to be doctored, with no identifiable victims.
• The FBI focused on determining the origin of the images and the nature of the Picky Eater technology.
• Bower claimed he began using Picky Eater in March 2016 as an AI tool to generate surrealist imagery for theatrical use.
• He said he discovered it on an online message board, could not recall its creators, and installed it on a school computer.
• Bower later bought a new phone specifically for Picky Eater integration, asserting such phones were widely available in stores.
• He had no prior criminal history, and his behavioral change was described as sudden and unexplained.
• In 2017, Bower began openly showing graphic images to colleagues and students, behaving as if he expected approval and admiration.
• Investigators found a large volume of additional material on his office computer.
• During interrogation, Bower became confused and delusional, denied wrongdoing, and framed the investigation as persecution.
• The interview ended in a violent outburst, requiring restraint and sedation.
• Boone recalls Bower’s disturbing references to “wives” and a supposed “Reformation.”
• Due to erratic behavior and the severity of the charges, Bower was denied bond.
• Defense doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia, and he entered an insanity plea.
• The trial had just begun when Bower was found dead in his cell, having hanged himself from a light fixture.
• FBI agents were unable to find any online record of the Picky Eater app or evidence of phones sold with it preinstalled.
• No information could be uncovered about the app’s creator or origin.
• Special Agent Boone requested NSA consultation on Picky Eater, but the request stalled in security approvals.
  • The consultation was delayed due to an unexplained overlap with another case requiring unusually extensive clearance.
  • Bower’s death ended the investigation before the NSA review was completed.
  • Boone was never informed of the nature of the overlapping case.
• Boone believes Bower’s Picky Eater phone remains in the FBI evidence archives in the headquarters basement.

Agent Locke visits the building’s archives to locate Bower’s phone. The clerk mentions that the evidence was accessed on October 8th by Department of Justice investigator Audra Powell, acting on behalf of FBI Special Agent Fallon Taylor. The evidence was logged as checked back in 48 hours later.

The clerk is alarmed to discover that both the file and the phone are missing. After reviewing CCTV footage, it becomes clear that Powell never returned the evidence, despite what the archives log indicates.

Delta Phi Epsilon#

Agents Sentinel, Blacktail, and Artemis search Delta Phi Epsilon’s sorority house for any clues related to the case. The building is still undergoing maintenance repairs, and all residents have been moved to temporary housing.

In the basement, they find a dusty file box containing documents related to years of Pledge Week recruiting, along with photographs from Fall 2018.

By comparing the photos from McKay’s phone with those found in the sorority house, they identify discrepancies between the private and public locations. In McKay’s photos, private rooms resemble public ones. Agent Blacktail theorizes that this makes sense, since the shooter was only familiar with these areas. This theory is supported by a photograph found in the basement showing him in public spaces.

Looking for Robbie Owen, the owner of the room in which McKay attempted to break into before he was shot, reveals that she currently is not in her apartment.

The Warrant#

Pitzerelli responds to Agent Myra’s request for a warrant to gain access to Cornell University’s student files and records, as well as CCTV footage and internet access logs.

They uncover the following information:

• Attendance
  • McKay flunked 15 hours of credits in fall 2018.
  • He repeated those courses in spring 2019, failing everything again.
  • He was enrolled in a third attempt before instructors dropped him in mid-September 2019 for non-attendance.
• Payments
  • McKay was granted a private room in a crowded dormitory for two years.
  • He is two semesters behind on tuition and fee payments, yet Cornell keeps him on campus.
  • Asked to explain this phenomenon, administrators struggle to excuse the oversight.
  • They suspect failures in the bursar’s office software. They can think of no other explanation
• CCTV footage
  • McKay hasn’t been in any CCTV footage since November 2018, until October 14th, 2019.
• Cornell’s Internet Access Logs
  • MacKay hasn’t used his internet access credentials since 2018, until October 14th, 2019.

Working Group NARNIA#

Agent Locke, still in the federal building, searches for Powel and Fallon. She is logged out of the system the moment she discovers about Working Group NARNIA. Not long after, she receives a call from Pitzerelli, who demands to know what the hell she’s doing in Washington D.C., and why she is searching for those names.

Agent Locke hangs up and disposes of her phone.

Garlic/Banana#

The agents contact each other late at night. They establish the codewords “garlic” and “banana” for any further communication, to verify each other’s identities.

Night Road Trip - Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019#

The Agents split into two groups to accelerate their investigation:

• Agents Blacktail and Locke are heading to New York’s FBI’s office. Their goal is to locate Agent Fallon Taylor, a member of Working Group NARNIA. They have McKay’s phone with them.
  • Blacktail receives a phone call from his brother Brad, whom he had not spoken to in years.
  • He also receives an email from Robert Wallace and replies that it is not safe to use this means of communication. He suggests meeting in person: “It’s about MIT but can’t say more, the line is not secure
• Agents Artemis, Myra and Sentinel drive to Frosty Oaks Trailer Park outside Bangor, Maine, looking for Robert Walace. They brought along McKay’s laptop
  • Agent Sentinel receives a call back from Barrack, an old friend.