Grace
What Grace has seen so far is pretty damning, and she's pretty sure she doesn't want to dive into this rabbit hole to see how deep it goes. But she wants a mountain of indisputable evidence with names to go with it. She feels some sympathy right about now for Sam, who had to watch all night as The Artist's minions skinned people alive.
First, let's find out who is responsible for the .onion site. Let's see who is running 'Mortis Cafe' as the hex address reads. Let's read their email. And see what comes next.
flux
Grace, seeing as how she is not only with the Mercurial Elite but is also a brilliant computer person, only has to take a good twenty minutes while some program runs in the background and she decrypts the emails in the box. Public key? Private key? Pfft, when you're a mage data is data. Knowledge and power is a digital skeleton key that can unlock damned near anything with modern-but-mundane encryption.
The emails for the webmaster at Mortis Cafe are from the standard anonymous email service that anyone with a little bit of time and a lot of boredom can secure. The person who does most of the maintenance at the current happens to be someone who is currently going by "nomnomdead" (Or "Nomz" as people in emails tend to call them) and they put forth the requests to the execs at Vivid Xxxtreme to up the security on the site and bandwidth issues. Overall, the emails that this person gets are very standard emails that someone gets when dealing with any website- evenif that website livestreams torture and murder.
There's a rather heated discussion thread in one of the between Nomz and someone named DocBrad. It would seem that DocBrad was trying to convince Nomz to talk to the execs about moving their operations out of the states and into Thailand. (Aren't you sick of Montana yet?) The argument is that they would be able to operate Mortis Cafe with a little more freedom in Thailand and branch into other markets.
Nomz was having none of that, and has seemed to tell DocBrad to take his money and ideas and fuck off (No amount of coin is going to make me let Murphy know freaks like you want more than you're already getting. We cater to voyeurs, not monsters.) There are occasional emails from execs asking Nomz to survey a few emails, and a few more regarding IP addresses and ranges that needed to be blocked, and the occasional mention of reference.
Someone going by the name of Capricious seems to do the background checks of potential buyers in, and is new to the job. It would seem that DocBrad was doing it before he and Nomz had their falling out.
Grace
Voyeurs not monsters? That's what they call their snuff stream? Voyeurism? Monsters do what -- kill children on live video? Because that would be the market to 'branch into' in Thailand. Ugh. The banality of it all is sickening enough. Bandwidth issues and IP blocking and torture.
Okay. Chill. They're in Montana? Isolated place. And who are the execs here? Any financial or employee data that might lead to DocBrad, Nomz, or Capricious?
flux
As expected, Nomz isn't on any of theliteral payroll documents in the server though Vivid Xxxtreme seems to have an abundance of money tied up into miscellaneous fees and equipment costs- the kind of costs that would imply that they are buying a new piece of major filming equipment every month or, at the very least, buying a new car every two months. Many of the purchase orders and involices are for companies with either very generic names or for goods that are easily returned for cash.
Or, conversely, for goods that aren't actually goods.
The employee data is complicated for this particular company. Models, talent, financial advisors, HR- there are dozens of names. And interns. They have interns. Grace knows that when she looks through the employee and financial data that they are easily covering some of the cash made in their livestream shows at Mortis Cafe by saying they pay their infrastructure top dollar (even if she knows, with a little digging, that half of the people in company don't seem to actually exist).
She knows the payrates are wrong, the models she's heard complaints from online have said as much- they didn't see most of the money that they were promised, and they were promised enough that the offers were tempting. Savvy people would have seen them as "too good to be true", or perhaps just overinflated. Vivid Xxxtreme pays their talent on the higher end of average, even though most of their actresses don't see most of their money.
There is, however, a curious list of people in their internship program- one of them being a Lydia Zharkova (who exists in both their internship program and in the contract employees section under talent) and a Bradley Olliver as head of that particular department.
Grace
Lydia. And DocBrad? Do they keep all their victims on payroll in order to launder the money? Grace sighs. Bradley Olliver goes on her list.
It's time to go ask the internet about what she's found. They are creatures of the deep web here, there's bound to be some chatter, right? Ask about them. Anonymously. Carefully.
There's some key words. Nomz, Mortis Cafe, DocBrad, Capricious... Things she can look for in her own way.
[Corr 2, Entropy 3 -- Index the Unindexed. We're searching the deep web for things that should be unsearchable... except Magick, yo. Diff = 6 - 1 (personalized instrument) -1 (Taking time)
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (4, 5, 6) ( success x 3 )
Grace
[Extend!]
Dice: 3 d10 TN5 (2, 3, 6) ( success x 2 ) [WP]
Grace
This shouldn't be possible. But Grace has a quantum computer with an ungodly number of qubits under her dashboard. The creation of the index is, as in all search operations, the hardest. She must invoke a quantum oracle and tie it to the data of the web. From there, a combination of partial quantum searches (fast, to probabilistically weed out the non-matches) followed by full ones (to get closer to an accurate result) allows her to get somewhere.
It's not easy. And it's still not fast. She'll get back fuzzy results. But what remains after the filtering is the best shot she's got.
flux
Say what one will about the data that she had, it would seem that Nomz (or nomnomdead) was a smart cookie when they picked out the handle to go by. They made a distinct choice, and one that is easy to get picked up and looked over. There's little bits of information here and there, but the most accurate thing she can figure out is that Nomz is young- younger than she is and younger than Samir and probably not old enough to drink. (Three years ago, from a forum thread relating to amateur film making. Wilhemina: U still grounded or RU ponying up 4 festival? Nomnomdead: hahahahafuckoffyes.) Doesn't spend a lot of time going other places. Had some ties with Silk Road and Evolution before they went down. (Lilyphobia: Thank god for SR3, I don't have to leave my house for weed now. TehEmperator: Whoa there, going Nomz on me? Lilyphobia: haha, Nomz couldn't hit the mailbox, I'm not that bad.)
There is other information there as well. DocBrad seems interesting enough. Some people think he runs a travel blog, goes along the world and experiences life and the world around him. Either a travel blogger or a talent scout, but he's as much a Doctor as Kesha's producer is and probably just as skeezy. Seems interested in fastest toys and best buys, purchased a few bogus passports and doesn't have any complaints against him. (Oberon22876: real fuckin' whale, this guy. Callas himself discerning. I'd say he can fuck himself but he always finalizes quick so why the fuck do I care?)
DocBrad aparently met Capricious on a trip to the Ukraine, said "If I'd known the fucker was going to steal my job I woulda dropped him in Chernobyl." Capricious is a shady figure. Doesn't dabble in much outside of moving money around for people. Is a person who knows people, and knows how to know people.
Mortis Cafe is an interesting one. There's rumors that float around about whether or not it is real. Some complaints about the buy in being too high to see nothing. Something about being accepted in sometimes but tossed out others. (The name "Capricious" really does fit. Took the cash and never gave the codes to get in.) Some people say it's the real thing. Other people say it's a hoax, there are some videos circulating around that are taped showings of what is there, but those tend to just be rumors.
Another rumor is an interesting one. Grace comes across this conversation on a forum:
u/killimanjango- Mortis is FAKE. Ten grand to get in to a cheap magic show
Justice: whoa, whoa, I know the real thing when I see it, this is real.
Oberon22876: No, he's legit. Bought in twice. First was primo, 2nd- bitch just disappears. video quality cut out, no refunds and no moneyshot. lame.
Isis: Never happened to me. MC delivers, sounds like someone has buyers remorse.
Justice: Pics or it didn't happen.
The integrity of Mortis Cafe has been questioned, given that the first videos seemed so good and then one video where their "model" literally seems to disappear. Nobody seems to have video of it, but the footage seems to be the stuff of urban legend now.
Grace
Grace has 'just disappeared' plenty of times, and her brow furrows at the thought of someone Awakening during torture. But, Awakening enough to escape.
She bites her lip and eyes Lydia2.jpg. Perhaps she can remove the Trojan, piece together the actual video underneath. That shouldn't be too hard. Watching it, however...
That's going to be hard. Maybe Lydia... got away? Only one way to be sure.
Grace
[Int + Computers, Diff 8 -3 (Chloe IV)]
Dice: 9 d10 TN5 (1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 7, 7, 8, 10) ( success x 6 )
flux
The other hacker who left the files might have been good, but let's be honest here: Grace was better. The average IT nerd would have been plugging away at this file for hours, converting it from its current format to the format it was supposed to be viewed in while removing the virus attached to it without accidentally letting the virus build in a back door and leave your system a zombie in a network of interconnected zombies.
She opens up the file, and it plays.
"I don't know why I'm recording this, it's not... it's not like I can do anything," the voice says. It's male, sounds like some Californian or someone else from the west coast. Like it's a voice overand the person has a dozen or more things running on his toolbar and he sure as shit isn't running an out-of-the-box operating system. "I don't-"
He sighs and turns off his microphone, clearly wearing a headset of some kind. It's just an empty room on screen and IMs are going off and there's a host of things that seem like distractions in the wake of this. The video is going on.
There is a brief interview when our person of choice comes out- she looks like she hasn't eaten anything in a couple days. She's still pretty, when she speaks she sounds like she's Russian. ("My name is Lydia... I'm twenty one... I live with my boyfriend and I am starting college in the fall.") There are other questions asked and she looks uncomfortable, doesn't want to answer some, but does anyway. Most of the questions are hard to hear, asked by someone off camera.
Instant message chat outside of the chat in the webcast comes up in the video.
nomnomdead: Please don't watch.
nomnomdead: I tried
wordsoffire: i can't leave
nomnomdead: sasha
nomnomdead: stop
His connection lags, the video in the room starts to fade out. Lag. It looks liek his connection is going to go dead.
wordsoffire: nomz, knock it off
wordsoffire: i have to see
nomnomdead: you don't live here, please.
wordsoffire: i can't leave
nomnomdead: neither can I
The video goes on, things start to become unpleasant. There is standard fare as one would expect. Faceless people and expect camera angles to obscure the right people and damned if that blood doesn't look real. Someone pays twelve grand to have them pull one of her teeth out- and that seems to be the catalyst for disaster. At one second she is obscured and the next there is a loud electrical pop. Half the lights falter, and in what looks like half a heartbeat Lydia is gone.
Just a pile of clothes and a confused man holding a pair of pliers.
The feed from the room cuts out.
nomnomdead: wtf
wordsoffire has logged off
The video ends.
Grace
This is... confusing. Not the woman disappearing, necessarily. Videos can be edited, and so can the universe. Maybe it was Lydia herself, or someone watching who decided to hell with the Rule of Shade. No. The social connections here are bizarre. Nomz -- a kid? In charge of this thing? And he doesn't seem to be doing so willingly.
Who is wordsoffire?
Who is it that she helped to deliver this payload?
Maybe the answer can be found within the virus. Botnets need a way to phone home, after all.
Grace
[Int + Computers, Diff 8 -3 (Chloe IV)]
Dice: 9 d10 TN5 (1, 1, 3, 3, 7, 7, 8, 10, 10) ( success x 5 )
flux
And it does go back. Grace has no problem navigating the complicated world of the online, because to her this is home. To her, there is no complication. She is here and this is simply the way things are. She travels forth, and within an hour she does trace the trail back through all of its loops and swirls (and my, what an impressive little network there is) to an apartment in Portland.
Leased to one Sasha Armstrong and Lydia Zharkova.
flux
She's done well enough that, if she wanted, she could easily tap in and see what he was doing via webcam or security system. He didn't leave the back door open per se, but to Grace Evans there is no such thing as doorways.
Grace
She's tired. This whole ordeal has taken its toll on her, despite all the cans of cherry soda and chocolate-covered coffee beans she took with for sustenance. But, it's not going to be over yet, is it?
Grace could look in on Sasha if she wanted to, but privacy is a thing.
No, let's just say hi. Hacker to hacker.
[Corr 2, Entropy 2: Secure Connection. Directly connects to a target device, bypassing networks entirely, and encrypting the transmission. Diff 5, - 1 (personalized instrument) -1 (taking time)]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 5, 6) ( success x 2 )
Grace
[Extends!]
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (3, 5, 8) ( success x 2 )
Grace
A message pops up on the computers hooked into the network for Sasha's apartment. No traceroute will be successful, almost as if the data just appeared directly at the port.
It reads:
Hi, Sasha.
Don't panic.
I saw what you just did. Call it fate, but I was doing nearly the same thing at the time. I want to help.
flux
What. The actual. Fuck.
And he goes through the motions, too. Checks the traceroutes and can't find anything that he can see going on. Grace can see the general processes and the pushback on something that isn't there.
hi, Fate. How do you know my name?
Grace
Short version? Trojan -> botnet -> network -> apartment -> lease records -> Sasha and Lydia.
I assumed you were Sasha, and Lydia was the woman in the video.
You're not about to be busted or anything. I'm like, the furthest thing from a cop.
flux
good, because i am way too pretty to go to prison. If the cops get this it will go underground again and pop up somewhere else.
Do you know where she went?
Grace
He's looking for her. Lydia who disappeared into thin air. Does Grace know where she went? She breathes out a sigh.
I actually went and cracked their servers because I wanted to stop them. I would like to keep them from going underground again and popping up somewhere else.
That's when I found that someone had beat me to the punch and was fighting an admin. Admirably.
I don't know where she went. Do you know where she left?
flux
She was going to meet some guy about a travel blog or something. She said he'd done some mission work in Thailand and wanted to talk to her about maybe doing the same in Russia. I'll check the texts.
(a moment later, he opens a picture of a business card- Dr. Bradley Olliver [phone] [docbrad@internationalcharitiesinc.org)
That's the guy's business card. It was supposed to be some big trip up to Salem, she took a Grayhound. Got off in Salem but she never got back on.
Grace
Okay. Next question, who is Nomz?
Sasha seemed to know the guy -- kid. Nomz who tried to shut down Lydia's torture, but failed. Who seems to be in on this whole thing, but why a boy like him?
flux
IDK if he's just really sick or agoraphobic or both. He's into film making- we met because he was looking for someone to submit a project for him to the LA Indie film festival. He didn't want his name on it on account of who his mom was- Nomz was scared it would bias the judging panel.
There's some silence after that, as if Sasha is trying to figure out what to type next.
We hacked together for the lulz (poor Scientology). He went pretty dead air on things about a year and a half ago. I know he lives in Montana now with his dad.
Grace
Who's his mom?
And, who's his dad? That seems to be the more pressing issue. If his dad is making him do this... Grace, well, let's just say she's trying to find an out for Nomz. It's not that long ago that she was a kid online doing bad things for the lulz herself. If someone could be salvaged...
Maybe it's too much to hope for?
flux
Bunny something. She was some scream queen in the 80's and 90's.
Grace
Anything else you can tell me about all this? About Lydia? About where she might have gone perhaps?
flux
She randomly disappeared on camera, IDK where the fuck she would have gone.
A pause
She likes animals and hates thunderstorms. She used to go camping a lot so if she was out in the middle of nowhere she could actually last for awhile.
Grace
Middle of nowhere is a big place, Grace thinks. She's going to have to trace the girl somehow, though. Ugh, think.... Maybe she has a hairbrush or a toothbrush or something in the apartment? Something to get DNA out of? Something to help Grace with the tracking?
I'll see what I can do, Sasha. Don't do anything too crazy -- not that that was crazy. Good job. Let the sickos burn.
And then, Grace is focusing on another task. She's looking around the apartment for XX chromosomes -- female DNA. Something Lydia used has got to be here, hasn't it?
[Corr 2, Life 1 -- Looking for a hairbrush! Diff = 5 - 1 (taking time) - 1 (personalized focus)]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 5, 8) ( success x 2 )
flux
ANd she finds it! She finds it relatively easily at that because everything is exactly where one would think it would be. Sasha and Lydia seem to be tidy people. Hairbrushes are in a drawer in the bathroom and ne'er do the two's hairbrushes seem to meet.
It comes up easily enough, and is more than enough for her to find anything she needs.
Grace
A few hairs out of a brush shouldn't be missed. It's not like Sasha is going to open the drawer some day and go berzerk looking for hair that's gone. Her target's small enough that she can just reach through and grab a couple... But the universe isn't going to like it much.
She starts up the program again, having found what she needs, and it shouldn't hurt... too much?
[Corr 3, Life 2 -- Teleport some DNA samples! Diff = 6 - 1 (taking time) - 1 (personalized focus)]
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (8, 9, 10) ( success x 3 )
Grace
She doesn't feel the ice in her veins as she reaches through a wormhole and pulls through a few bits of Lydia's information. It's something. Something to hone in on. She can ask the universe where the majority of this information can be found, can trace it back to the source.... hopefully.
[Corr 2, Life 1 -- Trace the strands back to an owner. Diff = 5 - 1 (taking time) - 1 (personalized focus)]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (1, 7, 7) ( success x 2 )
Grace
[Extends!]
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (2, 4, 8) ( success x 2 )
flux
If the FBI had the kind of technology and skills that Grace Evans had, there owuld be no missing persons cases. That, or at the very least, they would be greatly limited. Grace is a very capable mage, very capable and very thoughtful. Had Lydia even been dead, she would have been able to find where her body was without a problem, if only because she has the adequate knowledge of both the living and nonliving to be able to make this work out for the best.
She goes through her motions, plays through the scenarios and follows the data to where it seems to want to go.
The location she finds is remarkably close- Colorado Springs.
Which, as Grace is well aware, is nowhere near Montana.
Grace
Ugh. Colorado Springs. Bastion of conservativism in Colorado. But whatever, it's close, right? If she wanted, she could drive there right now, except...
The sun is rising.
Grace has been up to this all night, and forgot to sleep again. But at least Lydia isn't out in the middle of nowhere. She rummages around in her laptop bag, and pulls out a bit of tape, which she uses to secure the hairs to. If she needs to find the woman again, she can. And she will. Tomorrow.
Just... There's a niggling thought. What if she's in danger? Usually, Grace wouldn't do anything like this, for fear of catching someone in the bath or mid-coitus or something, but... She just wants to know if Lydia needs help like, now.
[Corr 2 -- What's going on at that location? Is she on the street bleeding, is she asleep in a nice bed? What? Diff = 5 - 1 (taking time) - 1 (personalized focus)]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (8, 8, 9) ( success x 3 )
flux
What she does see when she tunes in is two people sitting at a diner. She knows that she's looking for Lydia- she knows that she's looking at Lydia, but even looking directly at her it is like her brain wants to forget that she is there at all. Wants to pass her off as some other brunette who is sitting across from a couple of off-duty cops. They're both Hispanic women, one decidedly more petite than the other. The smaller one looks serious, has her eyes trained on the door like she's expecting something bad to go down.
The other one is decidedly more calm.
Things, for now, seem to be relatively safe at this unassuming greasy spoon. One of the things that Grace does get, though, is the feeling of magick. The very distinct feeling of somethin g supernatual on the other side of that line and it doesn't seem to be entirely centered around Lydia. Grace knows how supernatural creatures seem to flock to each other.
... is this what's going on here?
Grace
Yup, definitely something Grace is going to prod at in the morning. Afternoon. When she gets up.
The connection drops rather immediately, now that she knows Lydia is safe, and what's more -- there were more people on the other side who might have an idea what Lydia is.
Shields. Up. Now. And then, to one of her temporary homes, to sleep this off.
[Corr2: Warding against what Grace just did to someone else, lol. Diff = 5 - 1 (taking time) - 1 (personalized focus)]
Dice: 3 d10 TN3 (5, 5, 9) ( success x 3 )
Grace
[extends!]
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (1, 1, 9) ( success x 1 )
Grace
[grr!]
Dice: 3 d10 TN4 (1, 3, 7) ( success x 1 )
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