Memory Beads

Document

Greater DC

Danika Bails Celia Out of Jail

* Celia Thatcher and Danika Thatcher are talking in a BMW sedan. Danika is driving.
* Danika: I don't understand how--
* Celia: Because I was stupid, mom. I *am* stupid. I wanted to impress you. I wanted to show you that I don't need special treatment to get into the program.
* Danika: Sweetie, you don't... I mean... Look, speculation is Finance. That's not even my division. I'm in Fabrication. You don't need to become, like, a daytrader to impress--
* Celia: Oh God mom. I know the divisions. Me and Scott, we used to play Bingo at the picnics, finding a kid from a family in each division. I know that Fabrication... Look, can we just go home?
* Danika: Sweetie. You shouldn't let pride... There's no shame in having a family member sponsor you. Primex--
* Celia: TAKES! CARE! OF ITS OWN! I know, I know.

Sewers

Gil tells Billy about the cult

* Two young men are walking in the sewer, holding flashlights. They are both white and dressed in brand-name casual clothing.
* Billy Banks: So tell me again.
* Gil Hadrick: It's all good, man. You met the sales target, you moved the needle, you showed that you have the goods. Now you get the private meeting with the Man.
* Billy: This isn't some kinda multi-level marketing bullshit, right?
* Gil: Oh fuck no, man. This is a chance to get in on the ground floor of something big. You wanna leverage this low-threshold opportunity. We're going to the moon, man. You'll have equity in the next big thing. No second thoughts, I hope?
* Billy: OK, OK. I'm here. I just don't... Why the sewers? I mean, this is some dark and smelly... shit.
* Gil: I told you. This is off the grid. We gotta keep it closed loop for now. Too much competition. We're going to be first to market, and it's gonna be epic. It's gonna be righteous.
* Billy: Sometimes this sounds kinda culty.
* Gil: Just wait for the download and listen, man. Just wait.

The Bunker

Brigganocks

* (Brother Iron is talking with RJ Foster.)
* RJ: I still don't understand. You're saying that you talk with mice?
* Iron: No. I'm saying they're talking mice. Mice-folk, really. They're fey, so they have more in common with Zenovi than with Terran mice.
* RJ: Well, whoever they are, they're doing solid work replacing the cable runs. It's great having help that can get directly into the conduit.

Clara Nores

* (Nails is talking with Lisette.)
* Nails: How can you be sure she's not an operative?
* Lisette: She's thirteen, sir. I did a thorough background investigation--
* Nails: Which RJ reviewed?
* Lisette: Which RJ reviewed, sir. And she's just what she seems. Clara Nores, 13 years old, She's in 8th grade at Eliot-Hine Middle School. She lives with her aunt Soledad Nores on Penn.
* Nails: And she just happened to find some stray paramatter, and then ask about it on the Internet?
* Lisette: Only the dark web. She's very skilled. I mean, for 13, sir. She made it almost impossible to trace the postings.
* Nails: Almost. If you traced her, others could.
* Lisette: Wait. Are we worried she's an operative, or a target... sir?

Containment

* (RJ Foster is talking with Lisette Carrell.)
* Lisette: It's an impressive system. What's it for?
* RJ: It's a containment unit. Nails decided that it's necessary. Ikhilzis' status is highly unstable. If the symbiote survives reconstitution, it could be an unpredictable factor.

Decorating

* (Nails is talking with Brother Iron.)
* Nails: The setup team has moved out. Most of the dorms are cleared. The new furniture is coming in.
* Iron: We'll want to monitor whether each individual shows any particular tastes in decorating. That's one sign that their personalities are intact.

Domestic Routines

* (Brother Iron is talking with RJ Foster.)
* Iron: We need to ensure that they adopt the typical domestic routines of humanoids.
* RJ: So we're talking, what, eating, sleeping, playing games...?
* Iron: Yes. Everything should contribute to a feeling of being alive.

Druid Divination

* (A scene of Brother Iron in the woods near Lake Michigan.)
* Brother Iron. Stygi. Wolf howls. Divination using the moondust pool.
* Iron: "I see no other way. Aiden has agreed to store the bodies. They'll be unseen by the targets. But we also can't let the Relentless Understanding find them. There seems no other way. I'll just have to leave breadcrumbs."

Duty to Raptor Blue

* (Nails is talking with Brother Iron.)
* Nails: It weighs on me. The responsibility. The duty. Raptor Blue did so much to set this up. We've got to make it work.

Etchinar

* (Brother Iron is talking with Lisette.)
* Iron: I only met Myriad. I heard stories about Ruby Bridges from Jane Irwin, because she was working with Raptor Blue.
* Lisette: They're fascinating, the Assembler Rebellion. I mean, assemblers scare me--
* Iron: And me!
* Lisette: And AForms, too.
* Iron: Absolutely.
* Lisette: But the Rebellion, I mean, the Etchinar. They didn't let their origin define them. To grow beyond the xenophobia of the, the Reavers. It's, it's really... impressive, I guess. And now, what they're doing with paramatter, with myxels and MForms, it's somehow less creepy and more... beautiful, I guess. More natural?
* Iron: It's making what we're doing here possible. These MForms are the only way to keep Raptor Red unfindable by the targets. I can't say it's natural, but it's less... exploitive. Assemblers repurpose living organisms to create AForms. MForms are more...
* Lisette: Path of Giving?
* Iron: (laughs) That's, that's true.

Mr. Smith's Apprentices

* (Nails, Brother Iron, and RJ are talking.)
* Nails: OK, from the top. We know that the dracolich, Mr. Smith, served Nicol Bolas. Smith, in turn, had several apprentices. They were running his operation...
* RJ: The Gray Vault. They were information brokers, more or less, as you know. They were a secretive cell of Nicol Bolas' Death Dragons.
* Nails: The Gray Vault. Right. Raptor Blue... terminated Smith...
* (Nails looks distacted for a moment, as if troubled by his memories of deliberately OD'ing on Wasteland to catalyze those events.)
* Nails: ...and later one apprentice, Caterina Berrett.
* Iron: Correct. We know that Berrett first killed two of her rival apprentices on Earth. And earlier, on Tessera, the Titan Breakers killed Vesperchoke Thorntail--a black dragon. We thought the only other apprentice of Mr. Smith was Nasha Pogray.
* RJ: The Drow tynker? She's in the Keyes Lab in Yalod Angara. Raptor Blue gave her that facility. That seemed like a questionable choice.
* Iron (frowns): Only if you see her as a Lolth fantatic. Nasha is secretly a follower of Dolmodeen. House Pogray is part of the alliance to free the Drow from Lolth's control.
* Nails: A righteous cause. (He says that with calm sincerity and a touch of true faith.)
* RJ (still skeptical but moving on): OK, well, Nasha gave Proud Flame valuable intel on the Gray Vault and the Death Dragons. It helped bring down Caterina.
* Nails: So then how does Joseph Rossman fit in?

Virus

* (Nails is talking with RJ.)
* RJ: The reports are unreliable, but it appears to be an insentient self-replicating pathogen. A computer virus, basically, but it infects paramatter.
* Nails: And this is what the Therosians are calling the Violet Creep?
* RJ: No. That's the probability balancing matrix. There's a theory it's divine in origin, but corrupted with adintec.
* Nails: And both are related to paramatter?
* RJ: Yes. The virus propagates through paramatter. Repurposes it, really, And this is what Cult of the Frayed seems to worship. Or at least exploit.