[April 3rd]

[evowhisperer]

*It's a video of a man holding a paper sign in one hand, and a tablet with a BBC newsfeed in the other. He's a new face, but an old number: this is the first time he's made anything but a text post on the network at all (doppelganger not included). It's too bad, really; no one has to recognize him to know that the bruises on his nose are recent, but extremely few people will ever realize that he'd once had a goatee that is now gone.*

*He brings the tablet close first, showing that the top article is about one Alicia Kerren. There's a couple of others beside it that are distressingly similar. Next he brings the sign close, and it reads:*

Has anyone been following the news about this mysterious cancer?

 

I need more information about these cases. I can't be sure until I find out more, but it could be urgent. Does anyone have contacts related to this, or unusually superior hacking skills?

Comments

[Video]

[dead_black_eyes]

I've been following it.

Why do you think it's urgent, Cesar?

[Private Video]

[evowhisperer]

*He'd be pinching the bruised bridge of his nose, if he didn't need his hands to sign.*

{It might be work related.}

[Private Video]

[dead_black_eyes]

Tell me what you're able, and what I can do to help.

[Private Video]

[evowhisperer]

*It's not comfortable or intuitive to be open about this, especially considering the last time he gave confidential material.*

{You know I work for a medical technologies company.}

{I don't know if I've told you that my project has been going poorly. We've been seeing things like this on a microscale. No one's tried it on a larger one, but if they did...}

[Private Video]

[dead_black_eyes]

Yes, I know... but you didn't tell me that it was going poorly. I just knew that you were working very hard and your hours were long...

[Should have pressed. Should have been more insistent, asked for more details.]

You've been seeing this? In the laboratory? What if they tried it on a larger scale?

[There's a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach, and that is intuitive.]

[Private Video]

[evowhisperer]

{Nothing identical. We've been working with different cultures, and completely different circumstances, and there's a very high probability that this isn't even the same issue at all.}

*Except...*

[Private Video]

[dead_black_eyes]

Yes, but even so... despite the high probability that it's not related, I think I know you well enough to realize that you wouldn't be posting this kind of request unless you were truly worried.

[Private Video]

[evowhisperer]

{I am worried. If this is the same process then there's a strong possibility Kerren may have been killed deliberately.}

[Private Video]

[dead_black_eyes]

[A furrow appears in L's brow.]

I have the resources to get into most systems without leaving a trace. I can get this information. That being said... I'm part of this now, and I need to know you're not going to hold it against me that I am compelled to finish what I start.

Text

[solvethepuzzle]

[... He debates this for a while. He's still coming down from the stress of the incident two nights ago, an incident caused by one who shares that face. It's his instinct to shy away. He hurt him, threatened his life, threatened Tony's . . .

[But it wasn't this Cesar. Should he be assigning the same blame because they share the same face? He really shouldn't. The double had done that, hadn't he? It's not right or fair to do that.

[Even so, where he would normally at least grant the courtesy of an audio reply to someone using video, he sticks to text here. It's a concession he'll grant himself.]

I might.

Text

[evowhisperer]

*Either Cesar doesn't want to talk about it, or he hasn't realized that this number is Nathan's: he treats the text as though it were any other coming towards him from the Wide World of the Network.*

Good. Specifically I need to find out more about the cancer, and the medical case as a whole.

Can you do this for me?

Text

[solvethepuzzle]

[Rather than anything to do with Cesar, this matter concerns the Numbered as a whole. The timing of Alicia Kerren's death had been extremely suspicious. It's the main reason he is offering despite his reservations.]

It depends on how well security is set up, but I should be able to find something.

Text

[evowhisperer]

Anything you can tell me at all will be more than I already have.

For the record, it would also help if you could find more about the other cases, Giancarlo Imenez and Monica Grier. And others, if you see them.

Text

[solvethepuzzle]

It goes without saying that any other cases should be investigated. I do not need to be told as much.

[Because that is very, very basic. Nathan is a smart kid, Cesar. He knows these things.]

Text

[evowhisperer]

Sorry. That wasn't meant as an insult.

*The case files should be simple enough to track down. What should be a little harder to find (and a lot more ominous) is that these have signs of having been modified. Not that nurses and doctors aren't allowed to update files as they learn more, but why would a legitimate source take pains like these to cover their tracks?*

Text

[solvethepuzzle]

[The case files are so easy to track down it's pathetic. Poring over them takes longer than actually finding them. He has to look up some of the more complicated terminology, but he overall grasps the content rather well. The changes, though, are what occupy more of his attention.]

There is clear evidence of tampering with these files.

Text

[evowhisperer]

What do you mean? Tampering with the case files?

Can you tell what's been changed?

[Texted]

[espigeonage]

I heard a little about it. Unhappy business.

...I feel like maybe I could get a pulse about hacking. I got how to break automatic security a while ago, it felt so easy I have to wonder.

[Texted]

[evowhisperer]

Could you try?

I can't say for sure, but this could be very important.

[espigeonage]

I'll try. Is there a place to start?

let me guess it's the US gov't.

[evowhisperer]

Most likely. I've never searched for anything like this before, but I'd start with finding the case files. They might belong to whatever local police department was nearest to where the bodies were found.

[espigeonage]

Surprise, surprise... I'll see about getting into my old IT job's stuff first just to tell if I actually get a pulse for it. Don't want to raise any flags.

[and he got that echo approved! Julien is a leet hacker. ...I don't understand computers, myself. Clearly this is a good combination. About fifteen minutes pass.]

Well. I thought the new manager would work out! That or people are so scared they want to butter him up, the tone of these emails is a little hollow. Anyway. Give me some time.

[Anything you want him to find?]

[evowhisperer]

*Cesar can only imagine that these new echoed tricks come from an extremely skilled background because no one on this end has any idea either. Doot doot, fifteen minutes pass...*

Congratulations on your new echo. Please take as long as you need.

*And he'll wait some more.*

*He doesn't know what the pidgeon will find, but Julian sure knows: the coroner's report and hospital files on all three victims are locked behind the standard expected security for their locations, and they tell a tragic, mystifying story wrapped up in medical jargon. These are the files Cesar asked for.*

*There's something off about Julien's findings. Not anything about the language of the content itself, but about the files: they've been modified, and whoever did it took pains to cover their tracks.*

*The trail is hard to find, and may take some more time.*

[espigeonage]

Right.

[Having worked at Aaron Strider's clinic for a few years Julien can piece through medical jargon with a little help from Google. Hm.

It does take time.]

Man, this whole thing is sad. You want copies?

This was already suspect but the files were tampered with. Carefully. They have someone, or a whole set of them, who's really good.

[evowhisperer]

Yes, please.

That's disturbing. Do you know what was changed, and can you tell who did it?