The Magnus Protocol 46 - Slipping

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RustyQuill presents

The Magnus Protocol

Episode forty-six

Slipping

Well, shit.

Claire did say there was nothing here.

Yeah.

In a lot of the ways, you are already lucky that so much of your programmer's trail still existed.

Yeah.

It has been almost 40 years, Lee Pikin.

Can you not leech in me right now, Heinrich?

I know this was overdue.

I know that by rights the whole Berlin trip should have been a bust, but that doesn't make it any easier seeing my final lead turn out to be an empty patch of demolished scrubland.

I'm sorry, Heinrich.

I shouldn't take it out on you.

You've been nothing but helpful.

Nothing.

When you haven't been scaring me shitless.

Panka.

It just.

it feels like such an anti-climax, you know.

In my long experience, few things end in a glorious shower of blood and screams.

Most things simply fade away.

Hmm.

So,

what is next for Alice Dyer of the OIAR?

Guess I just go home and lie to Gwen about my expenses.

Unless you're still thinking about killing me.

You're not still thinking about killing me, are you?

Heinrich?

Arsa.

I suppose I'd better call Celia then.

Yes, you should probably tell your superior about that man I killed, also.

Oh, God.

I'd forgotten about Dane.

Do you have any idea how much trouble I'm gonna be in for that?

Ich Viste at Nipponhof.

I'll take that as a no.

Do not despair, Alice.

I have been considering, and the trail of this man is perhaps not as ended as you believe.

How do you figure that one?

We have concluded that Klaus Schweitzer is no longer in Berlin.

Right.

And almost certainly has not been so for over 30 years.

Are you going somewhere with this, or are you just rubbing it in?

Your organization.

It has a copy of his program, yes.

Apparently.

Or a version of it at least.

But so his program came to you.

Is it not very possible that perhaps he did as well?

I mean,

okay, yeah, sure, but then perhaps your next investigations are to be closer to the home.

Celia?

Celia?

Yes.

Sorry, I'm

hi, Gwen.

How can I help?

Remaining conscious would be a start.

I know, I know, I just

haven't been able to catch much sleep recently.

We all have trouble sleeping, Celia.

But you don't let it interfere with the work.

Did you need something?

Did Alice say what day she would be back?

No, just that she was done there.

She sounded pretty down about it.

I'm guessing she didn't get many answers.

She'll get over it.

Answers don't always help.

Sometimes they just make things harder.

Hm.

Something on your mind?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you got exactly what you wanted and somehow it just made everything worse?

Yeah.

Yeah, I have.

It's awful, isn't it?

Yeah.

Anyway, I should let you get back to it.

If you can stay awake.

I'll manage.

How about I manage and you sort the caseload?

Sure.

Let me know if Alice calls again.

Will do

Elric Capital, Board of Directors Meeting Minutes, Saturday, 13th January 2024.

1.

Call to order.

The meeting was called to order at 10.03 a.m.

by CEO.

2.

Certification of Quorum Members present.

Redacted, CEO.

Redacted, CFO.

Jeffrey Malachi, Senior Vice President, Consulting.

Zach Francis Allen, Senior Vice President, Human and Labor Resources.

Ina Lake, International Consulting Representative.

Members attending remotely.

Iris Lee, Senior Vice President, Recruiting.

Mark Mitchell, Communications Specialist.

Members absent, none.

3.

Approval of minutes.

Zach Francis Allen motioned that the minutes of the 17th November 2023 meeting be accepted as amended.

Irisly seconded.

Motion passed unanimously.

4.

Project Updates.

Ina Lake provided update on ZoroTrade winddown and liability.

All participants in closed beta expected to be removed from balance sheet by Q2.

Mr.

Malachi requested status of programmer who initially conceived and oversaw the app's expansion.

Ms.

Lake confirmed all Zorotrade operations had been successfully ceased and Elric liability reduced to zero.

The programmer who had originally approached Elric for investment had succumbed to an early test run, Q3 2023.

Redacted asked what, if any, assets had been recovered from Zorotrade or whether it was a complete loss.

Ms.

Lake answered that all non-hostile company assets and liabilities had been seized and/or sold with a total return of 43 million USD.

Redacted commented that the sum was insignificant.

Iris Lee provided update on booth development, minimal changes in situation since previous board meeting.

Mr.

Mitchell commented that it had been nearly two years from initial investment.

Redacted commented on the size of the funding amount and the lack of return.

Ms.

Lee responded with criticism for the work ethic of the engineers and began to read a list of concerns and delays from project leads Bailey and Chavez, but was unanimously refused the floor after initial two points.

Zach Francis Allen provided update on specialist investments of which seven are active at the time of these minutes, down from nine at the end of Q3 2023.

Redacted requested reason for drop in number.

Mr.

Allen explained that W.

Leibowitz, aka Teeth, had been killed in an altercation in Glasgow shortly before Christmas.

The investigation management team had successfully limited Elric's liability.

Redacted asked what second loss was.

Mr.

Allen reported that G.

Mears, aka Inside Out, had renounced further Elric capital investment and sent a video message to Mr.

Allen asserting such.

Redacted demanded to view the message, overruling Mr.

Allen's objections, and the video was shown.

Following a brief recess to allow members to clean up, the board meeting was moved to room C as janitorial staff were adamant it would take multiple hours to fully remove the smell.

Mark Mitchell motioned to pursue retaliatory action against G.

Mears.

Aina Lake seconded.

Motion defeated, four votes to three.

5.

Other business.

Redacted reminded the meeting that Dr.

Augustine had requested to give an in-person presentation to the board and was waiting to provide it.

Mr.

Malachi requested a reminder of Dr.

Augustine's position.

Ms.

Lake provided overview of Dr.

Augustine's extractive grief service, for which an initial round of seed funding was provided in 2020 to limited success, and which ceased operation in Q2, 2023.

Mr.

Malachi expressed surprise that the presentation had been agreed to, and was informed by Redacted that the motion as to whether to allow it had been deferred to this meeting.

Redacted motioned to allow Dr.

Augustine's presentation to commence.

Einerleg seconded.

Motion carried, five votes to two.

Following a brief recess to allow Dr.

Augustine to be informed that his presentation was to be permitted, the members moved to meeting room F, which was preset with appropriate AV equipment.

Mark Mitchell objected upon Dr.

Augustine's arrival, observing that the specialist in question was not Dr.

Augustine at all.

Ms.

Lake commented the specialist appeared to match Dr.

Augustine's description.

Mr.

Mitchell highlighted digital artificing on his video call that made it clear Dr.

Augustine was not a mundane specialist, an observation agreed with by Ms.

Lee, while Redacted noted that Dr.

Augustine's skin did not appear to sit right upon the frame of the specialist in question.

The specialist, claiming to be Dr.

Augustine, attempted to calm the members, admitting to having only taken those parts of Dr.

Augustine necessary to gain admittance.

Mr Malachi asked if Dr.

Augustine was still alive.

The specialist replied he was not, but observed that this was a moot point as Dr.

Augustine had no extant formal relationship with Elric Capital at this time.

Redacted agreed and urged the other board members to give their time and attention to the specialist.

The specialist wearing parts of Dr.

Augustine introduced themselves, providing the name of Adam, though noted that over the past few years they had taken many names, including Robert Blanc, Michael Egan, Arthur Winstead, Alistair Brown, and others.

They claimed to be a creation of Dr.

Augustine as part of his experiments into grief redirection strategies.

Ms.

Lee professed ignorance as to the details of this investment, redacted, informed her it was overseen by Richard Kent, who was forced to resign from the board in Q3 2022 following his death.

Mr.

Adam agreed to suspend the presentation while the minutes from previous meetings regarding investment in Dr.

Augustine's activities were located and read.

Once the minutes had been read, Ms.

Lee and Mr.

Malachi both expressed additional confidence in their knowledge of the situation.

Following this, the being, calling himself Adam, began to detail the process of his creation as he understood it.

He professed to have little understanding of the processes, instead operating on an instinctive level to convert himself into a facsimile of the dead using available cadaverous elements.

Redacted queried whether this was the reason Mr.

Adam killed Dr.

Augustine.

Mr.

Adam explained that the doctor was a first attempt to extract the necessary components while alive, but this process had proven sufficiently traumatic that killing Dr.

Augustine had been the only sensible course of action.

Redacted agreed that this was understandable and noted for Mr.

Allen to investigate the specifics of Dr.

Augustine's estate and follow up with any appropriate condolences for surviving family.

Ms.

Lake queried Mr.

Adam's motivation in requesting a meeting with the board.

Mr.

Adam answered that, since they had been created with funding from Elric Capital, it logically followed that the board would have a purpose in mind now that Dr.

Augustine was dead.

Redacted asked what Dr.

Augustine had provided Mr.

Adam in terms of a purpose.

Mr.

Adam related the briefing he received upon his initial creation.

He was a proof of concept for new grief support pathways, whose function was to replace the deceased for however long the surviving client wished and was able to pay for such a service, using parts of the deceased to match them as close as possible in both physicality and manner.

Redacted pointed out that the withdrawal of funding was specifically due to the failure of this proof of concept, that Mr.

Adam, referred to in Dr.

Augustine's funding application as simply the creature, had offered no comfort to their clients, but rather invoked a reliably intense terror.

Mr.

Adam became agitated and began talking extensively and animatedly about love, claiming to have been created to love and to comfort and that every cadaver he had used had imbued in him a deep love for the client that had hired him.

He stated that he was a being of deep, warm feeling despite inspiring only revulsion and fear to date.

Mr.

Malachi pointed out perhaps this was understandable in light of this emotion being acquired through the mechanism of eating the cadaver of a client's loved one.

An outburst from Mr.

Adam followed, leading Redacted to threaten an early close to the meeting and reiterate that he was still unclear as to Mr.

Adam's exact motivation for attending.

Mr.

Adam claims to have spent most of the last year restrained in Dr.

Augustine's basement, since his creator had fallen into a deep depression following the withdrawal of Elric Capital funding.

He further claimed that Dr.

Augustine had been endeavouring without success to find a way to destroy what he called his greatest mistake.

Dr.

Augustine had, however, taken to drinking heavily and did not maintain Mr.

Adams' restraints properly, allowing a successful escape attempt followed by the murder and harvesting of the doctor.

Mr.

Adams stated that Dr.

Augustine had talked extensively about Elric Capital and had often blamed them for his creation.

This led Mr.

Adam to assume that the board might still hold an ongoing intention for him.

Redacted briefly summarised the basics of venture capital and private equity investment, emphasising the indirect nature of such business.

This led Mr.

Adam to become agitated once again and he made several threatening statements demanding to know why he was made only to suffer.

Redacted suggested Mr.

Adam could make an an investment proposal of his own.

After a brief recess, Mr.

Adam made a presentation suggesting his own continuation of Mr.

Augustine's work, finding the bereaved and taking the form of their deceased loved ones in order to determine if there was still an optimal combination of factors

that might allow Mr.

Adam to effectively inhabit the position and affections of the deceased individual.

Mr.

Malachi asked what sort of returns might be expected, since Mr.

Adam was not suggesting a coherent payment model for this service.

After some hesitation, Mr.

Adam proposed he may be able to access the monetary estates of the deceased, although Ms.

Lake raised legal concerns that would need to be assuaged.

Ms.

Lee asked what the prospects for growth would be, to which Mr.

Adam did not appear to have a clear answer.

Redacted motioned to fund Mr.

Adam continuing Dr.

Augustine's research project for a further 18 months.

Zach Francis Allen seconded.

Motion defeated.

5 votes to 2.

Mr.

Adam expressed extreme displeasure with the decision and became violent, leading to the summoning of security staff to eject him.

Mr.

Malachi declared dead from blood loss and stomach trauma, 11.23am.

Two security staff declared dead from broken neck and internal hemorrhaging, 11.31 and 11.33am respectively.

Mr.

Adam declared dead from assorted injuries at 11.26am, 11.34am and 11.40am.

See coroner's note.

Members moved to meeting room D to allow for medical and clean-up personnel.

Iris Lee motioned to defer appointing a replacement for Jeffrey Malachi as senior vice president consulting until the next board meeting.

Redacted, seconded.

Motion carried unanimously, one in absentia.

6.

Adjournment.

Meeting adjourned 11:46 a.m.

by CEO, redacted.

No,

no,

no, so wet,

whatever.

Do you need me to call someone?

I should call someone, right?

No!

No, I'll be fine.

I

have a phone.

Just.

How far is it to London?

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by RustyQuill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 international license.

The series is created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J.

Newell and directed by Alexander J.

Newell.

This episode was written by Jonathan Sims and edited with additional materials by Alexander J.

Newell, with vocal edits by Lorianne Davis, soundscaping by Tessa Vroom, and mastering by Catherine Rinella, with music by Sam Jones.

It featured Billy Hindle as Alice Dyer,

Lorianne Davis as Celia Ripley, and Anuja Battersby as Gwen Bouchard, with additional voices from Jonathan Sims.

The Magnus Protocol is produced by April Sumner with executive producers Alexander J.

Newell, Danny McDonough, Lynn C.

and Samantha F.

G.

Hamilton, and associate producers Jordan L.

Hawke, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius Deraven, and Megan Nice.

To subscribe, view associated materials, or join our Patreon, visit rustyquill.com.

Rate and review us online, tweet us at the RustyQuill, visit us on Facebook, or email us at mail at rustyquill.com.

Thanks for listening.

Coach, the energy out there felt different.

What changed for the team today?

It was the new game day scratchers from the California Lottery.

Play is everything.

Those games sent the team's energy through the roof.

Are you saying it was the off-field play that made the difference on the field?

Hey, a little play makes your day, and today it made the game.

That's all for now.

Coach, one more question.

Play the new Los Angeles Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, and Los Angeles Rams Scratchers from the California Lottery.

A little play can make your day.

Freeze play responsibly must be 18 years or older to purchase, play, or claim.

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