Protagonists#

• LaBarbara, Emmy - Agent Cod - Physicianr (John)
• Miller, Liam (Agent Dave / Jocko) - Naval Special Warfare Group One (SEALs) (Panagiotis)
• Roth, Dustin A. - Agent Taramis - CDC Assistant Program Manager (Tasos)
• Bennet, Wendy - Agent Locke - Criminal Intelligence Analyst / Assistant Professor of Criminology (Konstantina)

The Bridge of Hope - Monday July 13th, 2020#

After making a phone call and introducing themselves as FBI agents, Cod and Taramis drive to San Antonio, Texas, to meet Nelinha Esteves.

During the trip, Agent Taramis fails to find additional information regarding the following:

• Maps and floor plans of ICE’s installation in El Paso
• Home addresses of Alan Rapp and Terry Smedley
• Connections between Laugherty and Tillman

At the offices of the Bridge of Hope, Agent Black (Taramis) and Agent Red (Cod) meet with and interview Nelinha Esteves. Unfortunately, the meeting does not go as expected. Cod reveals that their intention is not to help the children, but to remove those responsible for the situation.

Esteves responds that if the federal government requires her assistance to do this, then ICE must be effectively untouchable, and involvement would place her in a dangerous position. As a result, she refuses to provide any information or assistance.

They return to El Paso later that night, after midnight.

Surveillance: El Paso Water#

Agent Jocko monitors footage from a hidden camera, watching for any movement outside Tillman’s house. No one appears to enter or leave the apartment.

Later, Agents Jocko and Locke find a vantage point atop the nearby Franklin Mountains and stake out the Fred Hervey Water Reclamation Plant, as well as the Surplus building.

They observe an employee filming a TikTok dance with a partner inside the control booth, using the facility’s security cameras to capture different angles. This inadvertently reveals the locations of all the cameras.

Tillman’s Apartment - Tuesday July 14th, 2020#

Agent Jocko complains of a stomachache caused by all the peanut butter he ate the previous day, but he still joins Agent Taramis in breaking into Tillman’s apartment.

The apartment has one room, a living/bedroom with a mattress on the floor and no other furnishings. Folded piles of clothes are stacked along the wall. A kitchenette barely used. An empty fridge. A soap-scummed shower and immaculate toilet, the towel crusty and dry from long use without a wash.

A laptop and journal lay on the bed sheets, which they take with them.

Agent Taramis reads the last page of the journal dated the day before. It reads, “They are coming. You are here.”

Back at the motel:

• Agent Locke examines the laptop. It is used to recruit monsters. In addition to lurking on dark web forums for child pornographers and sex traffickers, Conradin’s spoofed accounts regularly browse hate sites, church groups, county sex offender registries, and even ICE’s own personnel records. The names and aliases of offenders are compiled in a spreadsheet, which is the only file saved on the local drive.
• Agent Taramis reads the journal front to back.

BMIA#

Agent Cod contacts Montgomery Baxter, the author of the Babies Missing in Action (BMIA) article from 2018, and arranges to meet him in the afternoon.

She then visits Providence Children’s Hospital, posing as an FBI agent. By speaking with doctors and nurses, she verifies the information presented in the article.

That afternoon, she meets with Baxter, questions him, and ultimately threatens him to keep silent about their meeting.

A Walk in the Water Plant#

Agent Locke devises a way to enter the Water Plant disguised as an EPA agent.

She and Agent Jocko stake out the facility from a Dollar General and a Waffle House in Mesquite Hill:

• The surrounding area is completely flat
• Rocky desert stretches in all directions
• There is a gatehouse at the entrance
• No movement is observed outside.

Locke tells Jocko that this place looks reminders her of the dreams the Teeth had about ancient Egypt.

Agent Locke then drives to the water plant, where she is allowed inside by a guard named Gaddis Creel. Inside, she encounters two employees. One of them gives her a tour of the premises, allowing her to better understand the layout of the surplus area.

Before leaving, she collects water samples. She suspects that Gaddis Creel is one of Conradin’s pedophiles.

Conradin’s Exercise Book#

Later in the evening, Agent Taramis informs the rest of his companions about the contents of Conradin’s journal.

Key points:

• Discovery of the God: While with his father, he read Saki’s “Sredni Vashtar” and adopted the name for his god. He catalogs strange impulses, certainties, and fragmented memories from Cornucopia House, theorizing his brain damage connects him “to the quiet that let us first hear.”
• Insight: The journal is the most complete accounting of the force’s beyond manipulations ever assembled. His partially segmented brain (from eldritch sorceries) gave him limited direct access to divine knowledge, which he translated into human words as best he could.
• Research: Studied Egyptology, history, mythology, and quantum physics (simplified by tutors). Used his father’s wealth to buy a degree and research the god’s earthly history.
• Ancient History of the God:
  • Worshiped by cults in mythical Atlantis and Lemuria before recorded history.
  • Earliest Egyptians knew it as Bast: protector against evil magic/spirits, one of the Eyes of Re who battled the chaos serpent Apep.
  • Warred with the Black Pharaoh (Nephren-Ka).
  • Its own hunger eventually consumed its worshipers, causing its power to withdraw and wait.
• Nature of Bast: Depicted in sketches as a ferocious lioness, a sunlit guardian and hunter among the stars, “made of stars and devouring stars.” It (never “she”) feeds on unnatural power. Power itself is its prey.
• Role of Servants: Bast manipulates reality and causality. It singles out, marks, scars, and claims servants forever: the Teeth (including Conradin).
• Creating New Teeth: Conradin explicitly describes the ritual method to create new Teeth and continue the cycle. This is the sole purpose of the Private Side facility at the Surplus.
• Current Hunt: Latest entries show him using federal ICE resources to locate the existing Teeth. He is close to identifying them but is not searching aggressively as he expects the information to “reveal itself.”
• Final Entry: The last page is dated the day before the Agents arrive and simply reads: “They are coming. You are here.”