Slugs
Randall arrives at Susan’s
and gives her a long embrace
I love you
Out with-it paperboy
What did you do wrong?
Everything
What are you feeding me tonight?
Slugs
To make up for everything
Slugs?
What are slugs?
I hate slugs!
They’re not bad with salt
Have you ever had them?
No!
You’re not feeding me slugs!
How do you know
You don't like them
If you’ve never tried them?
I don’t need to know
I don’t want to know
What I want to know
Is where did you go?
And what did you do?
Out with it!
(Randall gestures shh silently
with his finger
shows her the airline tickets)
Just out of town overnight
Research for work
I had help
Someone from the funeral
The veil?
She told me to tell you
About the trip
And that your life was in danger
My life is in danger?
We’ll see about that
She lost Warbel and Phepps
And nothing could stop it
She said I couldn’t protect you
And I needed to tell you
Who’s Phepps?
Her friend
There’s another thing
She might be them
I don’t know for sure
You think she’s them?
And you went with her?
I didn’t think so at the time
She knew Warbel
You’re quite the cheery guy
And for this
You’re feeding me slugs?
Hmmm, I see
I don’t want slugs Randall
I want steak
Expensive steak
Steak works for me
And I need to talk to the veil
Can’t
I Can’t?
We can’t call
Unless it’s an emergency
Oh it’s an emergency paperboy
You can bet on that
Ok then
You can talk to the veil!
But you need to use this phone
That’s a very good answer
And I want a very good dinner
Of course
Not slugs!
Not slugs
You can call on the way
She said to call her L
Seems you’ve gotten cozy
Haven’t you?
Special phone to talk?
Is it a direct line to Russia?
Maybe
12001
Hello is this L?
This is Susan
Susan yes
I expected your call
You’ve got a good man there
A bit annoying sad to say
He never shuts up about you
He told you I was helping him?
Yes, he said I was in danger?
You are
Please allow me to clarify
We’re all in danger
Me for trying to help
You for loving him
And everyone else
Because they're in the wrong place
At the wrong time
Who’s doing this?
Knowing that
Isn’t part of the rules
Look Susan
Your guy is safe with me
I’m not interested in him
And he’s completely into you
You’re both lucky
I’m helping him
(she pauses to collect)
Because I’ve lost my people
This fight comes to you
You don’t have to look for it
I’m sorry for saying this
But it’s not good
Thank you L
Take care of yourself Susan
Be careful
I mean that
Goodbye
12002
She’s not ‘them’
You rat!
She’s completely charming and nice
I feel drawn to her myself
And I don’t even want to be
Don’t tell me you weren’t Randall!
I’m drawn to you Susan
All that charm?
Yes she seems perfect
Too perfect
And that’s how she would seem
If she were them
She’s helping you!
Maybe, maybe not
I don’t know
Shut up!
She’s not them
That’s how they do
You know?
But it’s not you it’s them
You need help Randall
Serious help
She’s not them!
How did I get on the wrong side
Of this argument?
Oh!
Now we're arguing over her?
No dear
That’s right paperboy
Good answer
Now let’s go
She’s not them
(Randall was relieved
the conversation had gone well
in spite of his apprehension
How did that happen?)
12003
Well that’s just rude!
MIT/Massachusetts Institute
of Technology
Tech Development department
(Daniel’s lab)
Lydia!
Did you locate your other drive?
Two drives as requested Danny
Still have an open bay?
Of course
Let’s get you in and taken care of
Drive number one and now two
And here we go, buckle up
For drive number three
It takes a little while
Like some coffee?
Please
Once your drives are complete
I can copy them to a static drive
Or burn them to compact disk for you
That way you’ll have a working disk
Thanks Danny
Daniel
It sounds like your drives are done
Thanks Mark
Wow that was faster than expected
Shall we see what we’ve got L?
Or will you have to kill me after?
Sure D
And that was an answer
To which question?
Let’s see
Uh-oh
Well that’s just rude!
Uh-oh?
Uh-oh's not good Danny
What’s rude?
What’s uh-oh?
We got nothing Lydia
The drive ate itself
Ate itself?
Hold on
Yup, it’s gone
After the first fifteen sectors
We’ve got nothing
Drive one is still in tack, it’s good
Drive three ends at sector fifteen
And drive two
Mirrors drive one from fifteen on
Matching drives produce zeroes
It sucks L
English Daniel?
We’ve been bombed
Hit by a Worm or Trojan?
English, please?
I need to trap the first fifteen sectors
And scan them for a virus
Either
One of the drives was defective
Or wrong to begin with
Ok here’s what happened L
Sectors are hard drive sections
Data groupings
It’s like a stack of pancakes
The stack is partitioned, bordered
By concentric rings called cylinders
And sections which are like pie slices
The first fifteen sectors
Of drives one and two were read
To create drive three
That worked ok at first
And then something changed
That caused drives one and three
To write drive two
And three was blank
So drive two was re-written
As a copy of drive one
The question remains
Whether It was inadvertent?
Or nefarious?
Was drive two bad to begin with?
Was it a coding error?
Or just maybe someone
Didn’t want the data to be recovered
Either way it’s my fault Lydia
I should have imaged the drives first
It would have taken longer
But we’d have more answers
It’s not your fault D
You hurried for me
Who’d have thought
We had to make copies?
We don’t even know
What’s on the stupid drives
It just happened
I don’t know what happened L
But I’ll find out if I can
It’ll take some time though
I’ll Image the first drive
Scrub the data on it
If there’s an answer we’ll find it
Unfortunately
We’re dead in the water
Without the second drive
What about the third drive D?
You said there were three
Do you have it?
Or know where it is?
No
But I have an idea where to look
That drive puts us back in the game
Good Danny
You try to find out what happened
And I’ll try to find the other drive
That works L
Check back in a few days?
12004
Atmospheric, Oceanic
And Planetary Physics
Oxford University - Science Area
International phone call
Physics lab, Collin
Collin it’s Lydia
L my God!
How are you?
I heard about Allen
I’m sorry Collin
I should have called sooner
We read the news L
You just lost Jonathan
Terrible thing
No one expected you to call
Collin I need your help
Before Jonathan went away
He was working on something
He asked Allen and I to help
We split up the data
Allen took some
And now he’s gone
I’m afraid Collin
And I don’t know where he left it
Did he share anything with you
Before he died?
Did he act in a peculiar way
Or say anything about me?
Sorry L
Police said
It was a mugging gone wrong
With a gun like it's New York
Hardly
Never made it to his car
I read
Died in the rain poor chap
He was classic Allen on the day
Nerdy old-fashioned Allen
Pounding away at his diary
On that outdated monstrosity
He called a computer
Allen said it was tragic
The loss of Jonathan that way
Of course he was concerned for you
We all were
We all are
But we thought
Give it some time
And you’d come ‘round
And here you are
So what is it L?
Anything
What’s left of his things?
Files and computer equipment
Are they gone?
Protocol L
It all gets imaged and scrubbed
But the truth is
It’s all still in his office
Out of respect I imagine
But more than that
It’s so old
No one wanted any of it
So we planned to trap the files
And scrap the lot
When?
Soon I imagine
No one’s got an agenda just yet
Rather ghoulish to consider
His secure work is still in the lab
Don’t suppose your data
Could be there?
I don’t know Collin, maybe
I need to have a look
And a go through his office things
Would that be ok?
Sure L
You’ve got the clearance
Given events
We can assume the need
How soon can you arrive?
Bless you Collin and thank you!
Monday morning?
I’ll have a friend with me
Given all that’s happened
I don’t like to travel alone
That’s fine L
But you know the rules
Your friend
Won’t be allowed in the lab
Understood Collin
I'll have you there
And besides
When we go to the lab
He can stay in Allen’s office
He'll be fine
Right then Monday it is
It’s good to hear your voice L
It’ll be lovely to see you
12005