The Gang Splits Up

Andersonspends the afternoon researching the Powerball jackpot numbers, and finds himself absent-mindedly filling a notepad with figures he doesn't remember deciding to write down. The numbers are all connected - obviously.

Dellaroche settles into the coffee shop attached to the New York Public Library.

Smith takes a moment to ground themself and realign with the objectives. Wei had been working on code inside the Fu Institute, and that code needs to be deleted.

Stevens heads to a hardware store for paint stripper, to remove the spray-painted sequence still marking the pavement outside the Ridgeway house.

A Separation

Stevens'phone rings. It's a lawyer, calling on behalf of Jared Stevens, who has retained him for separation proceedings.

Jackie is shocked, then furious. She calls her husband spineless for sending a stranger to do it, and stays aggressive throughout. The lawyer informs her that Jared has also filed for a restraining order preventing her from returning to the family home.

The call ends when Jackie tells the lawyer that he and her husband can both go to hell. She then sends Jared a single text: "Fuck you."

Hack Into the Mainframe

Smithmuddles through, and eventually believes they've assembled functioning malware, designed to be planted inside the Fu Institute to erase Wei's work.

Analyst Note: Field agent has independently developed hostile software targeting institutional systems. Handler informed of intent only in part.

The Book of Many Wonders

Anderson is called through at the library to view Libri Plures Admiratio.

The book is written in Latin, illustrated with planets and the movements of stars. Some of the imagery looks Persian or Indian in style, all intricate patterning. Elsewhere are drawings of knots, pulley systems and water pump mechanisms. None of it is remarkably ahead of its time. The cosmology is oddly consistent with the modern picture of the solar system, and one chart may depict the Milky Way, drawn artistically but still recognisable.

The Equation

The pages Wei photocopied are the last in the volume, a section titled The Laqueus Equation. It's a dense collection of mathematical notation Andersoncan't make sense of it.

The library's handler, Philipe Ramirez, says the notation has puzzled scholars for centuries, and that Claudan was one of the lost geniuses of his age.

The very last thing written in the book is an equals sign.

A Traveller in the East

Ramirez explains that Claudan was among the first travellers from the West to reach the Far East, and brings out the next volume: a travel tome of drawn people and islands, with maps covering Nepal, China and India.

Partway through, Anderson stops on an illustration of a great plateau, with three pointed mountains on the horizon and the moon dropping between the first two. He recognises it as the Lost Land of Leng.

On the forums, it's a legendary place in the far east, where the Chinese government supposedly trains people to read minds. The Three Mountain Society is said to worship blood gods and sacrifice animals, and some claim that serial killers in the United States are trying to commune with them.

Anderson and Ramirez lose themselves in Claudan's work.

Reporting Back to HQ

Dellaroche calls the operation handler about Newark.

He reports that everything was in order: the property's only occupant had died by suicide, the house was swept, and nothing else of interest was found.

Operation handler was irritated that a friendly will now have to be found to tidy the property. He asks whether Dellaroche managed an identification. Dellaroche mentions they were able to get prints but no more than that.

The operation handler thanks Dellaroche for his work and reports that the mailing list follow-ups have progressed: two of the incidents have been contained.

Looking for Access

Smith intends to deploy the malware against both the Alliance Police Department and the Fu Institute, and calls the operation handler to ask for a contact inside the institute who can get them through the door.

Operation handler returns the call an hour later with bad news: there are no friendlies within the Fu Institute, and leveraging Organisation assets there would be difficult.

Destroying the Physical Evidence

Stevens drives to the Ridgeway house in Alliance with paint stripper concealed inside a large metal water bottle. She flashes her badge as Vic Tanner to the only officer on duty, Officer Randolf.

Stevenscrosses to the graffitied sequence, still hidden under a bedsheet, and drenches it in stripper, using the sheet's movement to disguise what she's doing.

She goes inside to sell the pretence that she's working. The house is dark but as she moves through the rooms she notices the small marks of a home still full of a family's habits that no longer has anyone to keep them.

She lingers to act the part. In the kitchen, she hears voices and laughter from beyond the window, and the laughter sounds strange, almost like a laugh track.

Stevenssteps outside. The television next door is so loud that it carries down the street. It's the same house she canvassed the day before, where the man had been watching Heat.

Clauden's Final Words

Back at the library, Ramirez brings out an account of a literary motif that fascinated the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the final moments of great men.

There's a section on Claudan. A monk named Brother Michalis was present when a man who called himself a cosmologist and scientist, a traveller across many seas, came to a monastery to die. Michalis records that the man had the eyes of an ancient but the fair skin of a man in the peak of his youth.

Asked whether he wanted final rites, the man said he had no use for such things. Asked for any last words, he answered: "The solution is in my book. The solution is a solution to everything."

Then he died of apoplexy.

Ramirez presses a business card into Anderson's hand for the Claudan Circle, the author's fan club. Anderson mentions his own blog and podcast. Ramirez has heard of him, and the two natter on for a while.

Comparing Notes

Anderson regroups with Smith and Dellaroche and lays out his day, including a handful of fun facts about Claudan.

The group disperses for the night: Stevens to New Jersey, the rest to hotels in New York. Dellaroche calls Smith to check in.

Twenty-Six Seconds

Late that night, Smith receives a call from Special Agent Cainer, audibly excited. Smith agrees to meet at the hotel, and Cainer arrives with his laptop already open.

He's been to the 24th Precinct. On the day the weapon vanished, the precinct's storage area was being renovated, and the weapons were moved to the car park for a couple of hours. They were outside for six minutes.

Cainer plays the CCTV.

Wei sits at a nearby bus stop. He stands and walks out of frame. A dog runs into shot and is struck by a police car. The officer guarding the weapons runs to help. Wei re-enters the frame, walks directly to the boxes, takes a weapon out, and calmly walks away.

It looks planned. He had a twenty-six-second window. It all happened at 5:53 p.m.

The officers involved still denies any involvement.

What Does Molly Know?

Cainer relayed the footage to Gant, who had spoken to Molly Frank earlier that day.

Molly said Wei had been working on predictive analytics software. Gant described the weapon theft to her without giving a time.

"5:53," she said. Without prompting, she knew the exact time that Wei had taken the weapons.

Further Enquires

Dr Comox and the pathologist at Hammond want to speak to Smith tomorrow about the sequence.

Cainer and Gant have made no progress identifying Wei's"uncle."

Psychological Evaluations

Standard agency procedure to track how operations are impacting agents in the field.

Jackie Stevens – Received notice of formal separation and a restraining order against her return to the family home. Response was aggressive, followed by immediate resumption of field duties. Recommend urgent welfare consideration.

Malcolm Smith – Independently constructed malware intended to corrupt institutional and law enforcement systems. Requested handler assistance with access under limited disclosure of intent. Sustained fatigue and continued proximity to sequence-related data noted. Recommend restricting access to further analytical material.

Marcus Dellaroche – Delivered a composed and efficient report on the Newark scene. Continues to leverage institutional relationships effectively. Ongoing exposure to material connected to previous operation warrants continued monitoring.

Thomas A. Anderson – Lost approximately one hour during engagement with primary source material. Reports of recurrent dreams featuring the same imagery encountered in the text. Ability to distinguish speculative folklore from operationally relevant intelligence continues to erode. Recommend immediate reassessment of exposure.