The Magnus Protocol 38 - Circling Back

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Rusty Quill presents

The Magnus Protocol

Episode thirty-eight Circling Back

Hello?

In here, it's open.

Yeah, I can see that.

Decided to get a head start, did you?

I wanted to make sure I'd check the place out before the landlord tossed everything.

Well, if he wasn't going to before, I'm sure he will after he sees what you did to the door.

It's fine.

Colin was always moaning about him as a rent-hiking deposit-robbing arsehole.

And you're sure no one noticed you breaking in?

Pretty sure.

But hey, more reason for you to help me bag this stuff up quickly.

I doubt a few bags are going to be enough to carry all this.

Nah, forget the computers.

Colin was paranoid enough that there's no way we're getting anything past his security.

Besides, he didn't exactly trust technology by the end.

Pencil, the paper.

Yep.

Where do we even start?

Notebooks first, then any loose sheets that look like they might be to do with portals, dimensions, stuff like that.

Alice?

Don't start.

I just don't think that whatever is going on with Freddy has anything to do with what happened to Sam.

Freddy is evil.

It killed Colin.

Hilltop is evil.

It took Sam.

They're connected.

Not necessarily.

You can't just assume that everything bad is connected to the portal.

Watch me.

Look, I know I'm jumping to conclusions, alright?

But until we can decode all this gibberish, it's all we have to go on.

And it's the only way I can make any of this make sense.

You can have a go-with a program or

I've already lost two friends to this thing.

I don't want to lose another.

A lot of alchemical stuff in this one.

Formulas, symbols, equations.

Anything you recognize?

Symbols for lead, zinc, sulphur.

I think this one is phosphorus.

Don't really see what they could mean here, though.

We'll figure it out.

Of course, we will.

I assume this is why your casework has stalled.

Hmm.

Your cases?

Your job?

According to the system, you haven't even opened one tonight.

Piss off.

Excuse me.

Sorry, you're right.

Piss off, boss.

I assume these are Colin's documents.

Mm-hmm.

And have you found anything?

Well,

it looks like Freddy was originally made in Berlin, back in the late 80s, maybe early 90s.

There's a lot of references to someone called Friedrich, who I think might have been the original programmer.

Is that

useful?

Colin certainly thought so.

He was trying to find out more from a contact over there, some guy called Heinrich unheimlich.

I'm sorry.

Heinrich unheimlich.

Yeah.

What?

Alice, do you speak any German?

No, not as such.

Why?

Unheimlich.

It means.

creepy.

Weird.

I don't think it's a real name.

Well, it's what Colin called him, so.

I see.

Well, keep me updated, I guess.

Dear Diary, God damn it, Mummy and Daddy still aren't back from their stupid trip.

Really?

Friday, 13th March, 1992.

Dear Diary, Berlin is rubbish.

There's nothing here but old sad buildings and old sad people.

My feet hurt from all the walking and standing around in boring train stations, waiting for boring trains to take us to boring walks and I'm bored.

Saturday, 14th March 1992.

Dear Diary.

Okay, so maybe Berlin isn't that bad, actually.

Today mum took me to the Musical Instrument Museum near the park, the Tiergarten, which I think means animal garden.

Mum told me it used to be a hunting ground for the important people in the city.

I kept looking for animals when we were in there, but I think they're all gone, and that made me sad.

Mum promised to take me to the zoo later.

The Musical Instrument Museum, the Musik Instrumenten Museum, is so cool.

There's so many old instruments and they look so weird.

We weren't allowed to play any of them, which doesn't make any sense, but I can't play any instruments anyway, so I guess it's not so bad.

Right as we were about to leave, someone came up to Mum holding a box.

They had really big eyes that looked like a cat, and they kept touching the box like it was going to run away or something.

They started talking to Mum, but I couldn't understand what they were saying.

I really, really want to speak German like mum.

I keep asking her to teach me, but she doesn't want to.

She thinks I'll get bored like when I asked her to teach me to play guitar, which made my fingers hurt.

But this is different.

Speaking German won't make my fingers hurt.

Although I didn't think playing guitar would hurt my fingers either.

Doesn't look like it hurts.

I like watching mum speaking German, all those cool sounds.

It's so cool.

It's like a superpower.

People are nicer to us.

We get free stuff all the time.

Maybe this was what this person was doing, giving us free free stuff, because my mum speaks German.

They were talking super quickly, but Mr.

Cat Eyes was smiling.

Mum looked a bit weirded out, but then also started smiling.

Cat eyes looked at me and I felt weird.

They kept talking in German and I looked at Mum but I could still feel Mr.

Cat Eyes looking at me with his big cat eyes.

He moved the box towards Mum and she shook her head.

I think Mr.

Cat Eyes wanted Mum to take the box.

Mr.

Cat Eyes said something and opened the box.

It was a small toy carousel.

It looked old.

I think it was made of wood.

It had a green and white big top with white and pink pigs instead of horses, which I thought was funny.

Mum looked at it and she looked all weird, like when she sees something really nice in a shop window, only this time it was different.

It was like she was almost a different person for a second.

She spoke to me, telling me how pretty it was.

Mum said that she thought it was an old toy, maybe from East Berlin.

I guess maybe it's because East Berlin was also old.

She nodded at Mr.

Cat Eyes, took the box from him, and Mr.

Cat Eyes walked away.

Mum gave the box to me and said it was a present from the nice German man.

I called out, Danker, but he'd already gone.

Mum said I said it wrong, but I think I said it okay.

As we were walking past the Brandenburg Gate, which is smaller than in the pictures, I thought I saw an animal in the the bushes but it was Mr.

Cat Eyes.

He was watching me, hidden in the big green bushes of the tier garden.

Mum took me to a street market afterwards and we ate chips, which were really good.

Monday 16th March 1992.

Dear Diary, we are back home from Berlin.

It feels really, really good to be back home in my own room, in my own bed, and I can see all my friends again.

Mum put the pig carousel Mr.

Cat Eyes gave us in Berlin on the table in the kitchen.

Mum thought it was pretty, but she also said it was a strange thing to give to someone.

It didn't make any sound or light up or anything.

The pigs don't even spin around.

Then we put it on the windowsill in my room.

Mum said I should be careful with it and not to play with it.

What's the point of a toy you can't play with?

The pigs look different.

When I looked at them in Berlin, they were pink and white, but...

Now they're different colours.

They're red and black, like they've been in a fire.

That's That's weird, right?

Is it because we went on a plane?

Do planes make pigs change colours?

Is it because they're German pigs and we're not in Germany anymore?

I tried asking mum, but she just looked at me and said I needed to eat less sugar.

So now I'm not allowed anything I like.

Tuesday 17th March 1992.

Dear Diary.

Something weird happened last night.

I heard a noise which woke me up.

It sounded like an old music box.

I looked up and saw that the carousel had lit up and it was spinning.

As it span, the pigs began oinking, getting louder and louder.

They didn't sound like normal pigs though, like when we went to visit that farm.

It was sad and angry.

It wasn't fun to listen to.

Maybe they were oinking in German.

I sat up and watched it, wondering if Mum could hear it.

I got up, walked over to the windowsill and picked it up, but as soon as I picked it up the noises stopped and all the lights went out, so I put it back down on the windowsill and tiptoed back to bed.

I asked Mum in the morning if she had heard anything, she said she hadn't, probably because she was snoring.

The carousel didn't make any noise during the day.

I picked it up, shook it, looked it all over, and I couldn't find any lights or anything that made a noise.

Mum told me to stop playing with it and leave it alone.

She says it's delicate.

I asked Mum if we could move it to her room and she said she needed to move some of the other old boring dusty aunt aunt ick stuff out of her room first.

Whatever that means.

Wednesday, 18th March, 1992.

Dear Diary.

It happened again last night.

The carousel lit up while I was asleep and started playing music and the pigs started oinking.

I tried to just ignore it, but it was too loud.

I can't believe Mum can't hear it.

I went over to the carousel.

The pigs' mouths had changed, they were more open than before, and they had teeth now.

Do pigs have teeth?

I don't remember the pigs at the farm having teeth.

The pigs' teeth were a bright white with red dripping down them.

I looked closer and saw the centre of the carousel had little pictures of really sad people.

It was scary.

The pigs kept oinking and spinning with their red and white teeth and the sad people in the carousel looked at me.

I had an idea and went over to my bookshelf to find one of Mum's old phrase books.

I couldn't find anything that meant, is anyone there?

The closest I could find was, who are you?

V.

Heysensee, as best I could.

Then I asked about where it came from.

Konst du Aus Deutschland.

But maybe I was saying it wrong, because nothing seemed to happen for a while.

But then it changed.

The carousel kept spinning and music kept playing, but the pigs stopped oinking.

They started saying something in German.

It sounded like a nursery rhyme.

I asked Spreckensee English, the way mum taught me in case I ever got lost in Berlin.

But I don't think it heard me, so instead I went and got my notebook and rainbow pen and wrote down what it was singing.

Heinrich und Heimlich wist du mit mir Spielen.

Heinrich und Heimlich bist do in den Dielen.

Heinrich und Heimlich ho bist du in sicht.

Heinrich und Heimlich is mein Eltennicht.

The carousel started shaking.

and the frills at the top started to twist.

Then the centre of the carousel started turning red, like it was filling from the bottom, and the sad faces looked scared with their hands reaching for the top.

Dark red stuff started spilling out of the pigs' mouths onto the windowsill and dripping down onto the floor.

I picked it up before it made too much mess.

And then it stopped.

In the morning the pigs were back to normal, and the sad people were back.

I went to mum to tell her what had happened, but she was speaking German on the phone.

She asked me to wait until she was done, but I kept saying it was urgent.

Finally, she sighed and put the phone down, and I told her what had happened.

She didn't believe me and said I was dreaming.

I told her about the voices, but mum said it couldn't have been German because I don't speak German, so I said I would show her what I wrote down.

I dragged Mum into my room and showed her the mess, and she was so cross.

She said I had to tell her what I'd done to it, but I kept telling her that I hadn't done anything, and it had just happened.

She picked it up and looked it over to see if it was broken or sticky, but it wasn't.

I got my notebook, I opened it to the right page, and then gave it to Mum.

She sat down on my bed and started reading.

She was very quiet for a long time.

Then she looked at me and I didn't really know what to do, so I just stood there watching her.

I've never seen Mum not know what to say.

She always knew what to say.

She asked if I wanted to get rid of the carousel.

I nodded.

She said she would take it to where she sells all the old dusty stuff, and I thought that sounded like a good idea.

Then she asked if I wanted German lessons.

I said yes, but only if she came with me.

She said that was fair.

I also asked if I could get piano lessons, but she didn't seem to like that idea so much.

Mum helped me clean up the mess, and now it's all shiny and clean and smells of flowers.

She put the carousel back in the box and went out to sell it.

She said she wouldn't be long and I could call her on the phone if I got scared.

She's been gone a long time.

I got hungry, so I made myself a ham sandwich, but I think I did it wrong, because it tasted wrong.

I hope mum comes back soon.

Right.

So I wanted to have a chat in here, away from any nosy PCs.

You're saying Freddie responded to the name Heinrich and Heinrich.

Which tells me it is definitely something I want to investigate.

And definitely something to discuss a bit more privately.

Exactly.

You have Colin's notes spread all over your workstation.

Webcam's taped, but I forgot about the mics since we never used them.

So do we just rip them out?

Not unless you want to be reformatted like Colin.

Allegedly.

After Colin attacked the system.

Whatever.

Look, the point is I need to go to Berlin.

Uh?

what?

Why?

Heinrich is Colin's contact.

They were scheduled to meet in person.

When?

Five days from now.

I reckon Colin got impatient and went after Freddy too soon.

That does sound like Colin.

And this Heinrich has agreed to meet with you instead?

Not yet.

You haven't even checked.

Look, if there are any contact details for him in that library of paranoidry there, I haven't found them yet.

This is a long shot.

Celia.

I agree with Alice.

Oh, of course you.

You do?

You do?

Right.

Yes.

I certainly think it's worth a look.

But there's something else, isn't there?

You're keeping something back, I can tell.

Oh.

Well, I think.

uh

I think Heinrich and Heinlich might be

an external and there it is what sort?

I don't know.

The spooky German sort.

It sounds like he mostly scares children, and if automatic translations of sketchy creepypasta are to be believed, he maybe eats parents.

Maybe?

I mean, it wasn't entirely clear, but since I'm not a child or a parent, I figured it might be chill.

No.

Too dangerous.

Oh, come on, you me with externals all the time.

Meaning I know the risks.

Besides, those are properly vetted externals who have signed an agreement with the British government to punish.

You're being monster racist.

Please, Gwen, this is a good lead.

Fine.

Thank you.

But I'm arranging some security.

That's fair.

This feels risky.

I'm not the one staying here with the man-eating Snoopbot 5000.

For the last time, Freddie didn't.

I was talking about you.

I'm capping your expenses.

Damn it.

Mr.

Starkall Services Group.

How can I direct your call?

Yes, hello.

This is Gwendolyn Bouchard at the Office of Incident Assessment and Response.

I'd like to speak to Mr.

Brett Lars, please?

Of course, Miss Bouchard.

May I ask what this is regarding?

Tell him.

Tell him we're ready to give you a trial run.

The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill 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 Amber Devereux and Jonathan Sims and edited with additional materials by Alexander J.

Newell,

with vocal edits by Lori Ann Davies, soundscaping by Tessa Vroom and mastering by Catherine Rinella with music by Sam Jones.

It featured Billy Hindle as Alice Dyer, Anusha Battersby as Gwen Bouchard, Lori Ann Davis as Celia Ripley, 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 The Raven 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 via mail at rustyquill.com.

Thanks for listening.

Hi, I'm Amber Devereaux, the writer of the case for this episode.

If you enjoyed it and you want to hear more of my work, be sure to check out all my work at Tincan Audio.

We make audio drama series such as a fantasy series called Camelin, The Tower, which is an experimental audio drama concept album.

We also have a collection of queer horror stories called folkslore, which you can also listen to on there.

You can listen to all of these by following the link in the show notes below, or you can find everything at tincanaudio.co.uk.

Thank you for listening.

To give you an idea of what you can expect, here is a little clip from the trailer for our latest fantasy series, Camelon.

Anna and Sophie Green in Portsmouth.

What's happening in Caleroon?

Listen, is this real?

I've been seeing news reports about dragons.

Let me look that up for you.

Where are you calling from today?

Bristol, Bristol.

Bristol.

Bristol.

Leicester.

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.

Please play responsibly.

Must be 18 years or older to to purchase, play, or claim.

What do you think makes the perfect snack?

Hmm.

It's gotta be when I'm really craving it and it's convenient.

Could you be more specific?

When it's cravenient.

Okay.

Like a freshly baked cookie made with real butter, available right now in the street at AM PM, or a savory breakfast sandwich I can grab in just a second at AM PM.

I'm seeing a pattern here.

Well, yeah, we're talking about what I crave.

Which is anything from AM P.M.

What more could you want?

Stop by AMPM where the snacks and drinks are perfectly cravable and convenient.

That's cravenience.

A.M.

P.M., too much good stuff.

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Hi everyone, it's Billy Hindle, the voice of Alice in the Magnus Protocol.

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Hello everyone, it's Shahan, voice of Sam in the Magnus Protocol.

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