Protagonists#

Short, Lance - Foreign Service Officer (Γιάννης)
Miller, Liam (Agent Dave / Jocko) - Naval Special Warfare Group One (SEALs) (Παναγιώτης)
Lensing, Emma - Professor of Philology (Τάσος)
Bennet, Wendy - Criminal Intelligence Analyst / Assistant Professor of Criminology (Κωνσταντίνα)

Charlotte’s Rest Veterans Home – 14:00pm (Sunday, September 4th, 2016)#

Jocko and Nikita arrive at the hospital after the ambulance they saw earlier, but before the state police does. They immediately start removing incriminating and unnatural evidence:

Nikita deletes video footage from the surveillance system installed in the nurses’ station, after watching it first. The footage showed:
- The paramedics arrive, rushing through the door with the stretcher, and running down the hall with a nurse.
- Before the front door can close, Elle Gable walks through with effortless timing.
- She hides in a broom closet while the patient dies. She waits. When they remove the body, the girl goes through the door closing behind them, walking with a confident flourish of her rags into the assisted living hallways.
- She is flanked by two large dogs that come out of rooms down the hallway in exact unison.
- She strolls to the nurse’s station. The nurse doesn’t get past a quizzical look before the giant schnauzer vaults the desk and clamps down on his throat, thrashing like a shark.
- Gable doesn’t even look at the dying man as she passes, moving through the nurse’s wing to the nursing home hallway.
- The feed follows her and the two bloody hounds. They enter Franklin Price’s room precisely as the Agents go through the main entrance.
Jocko gets attacked by a bat in Price’s room. The bat ends up dead in Price’s mouth.
Jocko takes Gable’s knife and picks up a pamphlet from St. Laurence Church, clutched in Price’s grasp.
Jocko douses with accelerants (pharmaceutical alcohol) and sets Franklin Price, Elle Gable and the dog on fire.

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Lance joins an unconscious Wendy on the ambulance heading to local hospital. On the way there, he recalls details of his encounter with Elle Gable:

Gable’s scream appeared rehearsed.
She had signs of methamphetamine abuse and scars of addiction and self-abuse.
It is unclear is how she secured enough narcotics to support a habit, as there’s no evidence she even knows how to speak.

Recovery and Subterfuge#

Lance and Wendy are transferred to the Riva Road Surgical Center in Annapolis, MD for treatment and surgery.

Jocko uses his military training and manages to tamper with the hospital records, so that they don’t reveal the injured patients’ origin. The fake paperwork prepared by Emma weren’t completely thorough.

Jocko calls Pitzerelli for help. After mentioning Wendy’s name, the agents are transferred to another private clinic in Baltimore, MD.

Investigations - Monday, September 5th, 2016#

Jocko acquires an ultrasound generator to fend off bats, and purchases firecrackers.

The agents share their findings on both previous and new information they managed to acquire:

St. Laurence Church:#

Located in Miami, Florida.
It is run by Father Mauricio Robledo.
No online presence.
Funded by Catholic Charities USA and the Broward Partnership Pompano Beach Center of Fort Lauderdale, both legitimate(?) non-profit organizations.

Kerry Houghton’s murderers’ facial recognition software results:#

John Doe:

Arrested numerous times for public intoxication and petty theft charges, in Broward County, Florida.
The suspect never gave his name in any arrest or stint in jail. He never even spoke, according to his files.
No name, no known address.

Thomas Perez:

Matches photos posted to a social media page for Maryland home-school families.
Susan Cunningham, mother of three adopted teens, posted photos showing her family studying, praying, and working and playing on the family farm. She usually calls the young man “Tommy,” but in one post he gives a full name, joking that he was in trouble: “Thomas Perez Cunningham, you get down from there!”

Elle Gable:

Bought a Greyhound ticket at a self-serve kiosk in Miami on 16 AUG 2016. She paid in cash.
The kiosk snaps a picture of all ticket holders so drivers can confirm purchase. The photo matches the assailant perfectly. She’s even wearing the same clothes.
The bus she rode got into Baltimore four hours before the crime took place.
The bus station where Elle Gable’s travel originated is in the same Miami neighborhood as St. Laurence Church.

Blood Tests:#

Wendy did bloodwork of herself, Jocko, and Houghton’ dead cat.
The results revealed no traces of the Stew within.
The blood type was of different type every time it was tested.
What come to Wendy’s mind is the theory behind Schrödinger’s cat and quantum mechanics, in which the observer effect refers to the fact that the act of measuring or observing a quantum system inevitably alters its state.

Naachahaat:#

Emma’s mentor, Professor Andy White, reveals that “Naachahhaat” mean “Tooth” in Old Egyptian.

St. Mary’s County Corrections, MD - Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 – 09:00 am#

Lance visits Becky Marshall at the St. Mary’s County Corrections facilities. He manages to glean into her psyche and gains her trust. She tells him everything about Thomas Perez:

Adopted in 2002 at the age of six. Returned to the state in 2005.
His intellectual disabilities hinted at nothing of the behavioral or emotional struggles the child suffered.
She had a biological daughter in 2003. Samuel’s reactions to the new child grew increasingly violent.
The family exhausted itself financially trying to find therapists capable of improving Samuel’s behavior.
By the time they found him with a knife in their daughter’s room, they were at a breaking point.
Their daughter is now in permanent custody of her biological grandmother.
Becky Marshall hasn’t heard from her ex-husband in years.

She feels that she didn’t do enough to help Samuel and keep her family together, lost her will to live and hope. Lance convinces her that there is hope, giving her a gleamer of hope in her eyes.

Cunningham’s farm, Wicimico County, MD - Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 – 09:00 am#

Jocko and Emma drive to Cunningham’s farm in Wicimico County, MD. During the trip Jocko opens up to Emma and she realizes that Jocko is starting slowly to lose his mind. Maybe it is depression, maybe something more important.

Upon arrival they make the following discoveries:

Dead from malnutrition animals in the barn.
Smell of rot in the farmhouse.
No signs of struggle or forced entry.
Both parents and both adopted siblings were murdered there and left to rot weeks before the Houghton killing.
They were stabbed to death in their sleep.
Seventeen-year-old Thomas Perez is missing.

Further investigations and communications:

An SUV car is missing. The make, model and license plate numbers were sent to Pitzerelli.
Wendy theorizes that the cause of Perez’s arm injury (from the Zion footage) must have been the result of struggle during the murder.

FBI Case 07-195121#

Wendy calls Tony regarding FBI Case 07-195121. Pitzerelli informs her that to gain access to it there are two options:

Months of hearings after directing communications to the FBI Office of General Counsel and the DOJ’s Office of Inspector General. Pitzerelli has already begun the process.
Personally investigate it in other ways using current access and knowledge of FBI databases and systems. If caught one will face disciplinary actions.

Rounding up the day#

Pitzerelli forwards the agents a response to a BOLO request. Kerry Houghton’s red ‘97 Toyota Corolla was found abandoned in a neighborhood in Charlotte, North Carolina. King-Torino Children’s Refuge is in the same town.

The agents prepare to take an airplane as soon as possible.