mirrornet; text - backdated to the 25th

[sassguard]

I don't know what I saw yesterday, but I don't think I'm the only one who saw it.

I need information about a brainwashing facility that might have existed twenty, maybe thirty years ago. Or anything dealing with imPorts, if there's a record of that. I've been looking into it, but I haven't had a lot of luck turning anything up.

I want to know if that was real.

Comments

Private

[sassguard]

I'm sorry. That was a hell of a thing to go through.

[ But, in the middle of all that, there's a detail that catches his attention. ]

You said you spoke to an officer -- did you get their name? Do you think you'd be able to recognize them if you saw a picture?

Re: Private

[bindsthedead]

No name. But if I saw a picture, I think I might recognize them-I couldn't see their eyes through the glasses they were wearing.

[sassguard]

All right. I don't know if we'd be able to find anything, but it's a start.

Do you recognize if you were in Heropa, or somewhere else? And do you know what year it was?

[bindsthedead]

I don't know. The woman's clothes seemed out of date, and the pamphlet said the Soviets had been enemies for forty years instead of sixty. But beyond that, I don't know.

One thing I do know is that one of the protesters? Was Captain Holiday. And I think his husband was involved as well.

[sassguard]

Was the woman way too cheerful and asked people to call her Lori? Because I remember her, all right.

That's pretty damn incriminating. Maybe we need to have that chat with Holiday after all.

Sorry, I don't think I even got your name, did I? I'm Commander Shepard.

[bindsthedead]

Yes, that's her.

If we can reach him. I've been doing some reading- there really isn't much publicly available- I was able to find the text of that law they were citing, and some articles about the protests- all of them critical, of course.

I didn't see Dr. Holt- Holiday's husband- but what I've found suggests he was involved with the protests too, if we can't speak with Holiday.

I'm Sabriel.

[sassguard]

Sounds like you've found a lot of information, Sabriel. Can you send me what you've found so far, anything that gives a better picture of what was going on? From what you've said, it sounds like what we saw wasn't entirely made up.

Holt's a good lead if we can't manage to figure out how to talk to Holiday. Were you planning on looking for him?

[bindsthedead]

Not as much as I'd like.

[Eventually Sabriel sends him a file with pictures of the articles, law, courtroom sketch, and mugshot.]

I think someone- probably more than one person- tried to cover this up.

I think we need to find out more about what was going on before the last group of imPorts tried to reform the government- and why this was hidden, instead of being dragged out into the light.

[sassguard]

Thanks. This is a good start -- and it gives us some ideas about what to look for. Who were the Uncendiaries? Were Holiday and his husband involved with them?

[ More questions than answers. Definitely his favorite thing. Not. ]

Covering this up was definitely the work of more than one person. There's no way a single person could have hidden all this. What I don't understand is how they convinced ordinary people to go along with it, unless we go ahead and assume everyone got brainwashed into forgetting about it too.

If this was a real law, somebody had to write it -- and somebody else had to approve it. And somebody had to write these articles. If they aren't dead yet, maybe they can tell us something useful.

[bindsthedead]

Perhaps. But what I found isn't even the full text of the law- the articles mention Clause F, but I couldn't find it anywhere.

I thought Holiday was with the faction of the government that worked with the imPorts for reform? I'm not sure how Holt was involved though.

[sassguard]

The picture makes him look like he's on trial for something, doesn't he?

Do we know when they got married? Maybe someone was using him to get to Holiday. Or maybe that's how they met.

[bindsthedead]

I think so. But as for your other questions... I don't know. We should probably ask them.

[sassguard]

Right. I guess there's no substitute for going to the source.

I'm going to keep looking to see what I can find, but it's probably better if we could ... coordinate this.

[bindsthedead]

I'll speak to you before I try to speak to either of them. Particularly Holiday. It's best if we avoid tripping each other up, since we'll be lucky to get even one conversation with him.

[sassguard]

Are you registered?

[bindsthedead]

Yes. And even after what I saw, I'll probably stay registered until further notice.

[sassguard]

Probably for the best. We still don't know where that came from in the first place -- imPorts defecting might be exactly what they want.

[ Not like there isn't a precedent for other countries trying to win imPorts over. ]

I'm unsettled, so I've probably got more restrictions to deal with than you do. But I also work for Heropa's police force, so if there's anything you find that you might need me to check police records for, you know where to reach me.