June 29, 2013
The Manipulator's Trail

We caught a lucky break this week on the case involving the puppet master. Actually if I can I'd like to move away from that name even though it's the one that immediately springs to mind. To a certain degree this person is pulling the strings of others as if they were puppets, but that is a terrible image to present of people in general, that they are shells to be flopped about. Maybe it's just semantics. I think from here on out I'll call him or her a manipulator. I think it has all of the right connotations and conveys the abhorrence deserved. Any way, we got back on the trail of the manipulator and it was likely due to it being a trap set up for us. We weren't going to let that get us down. Or fall into it.

After conversing with the rest of the team, and pondering what Tommy Dearing said, I decided on a different approach this time. We watched the targets for a while. It was a man and a woman just like before. This time we followed the two of them. They went in a hotel room they must have been booked into. Later by surreptitious means I saw the woman give the man the gun before she left on her own. I took the opportunity to put some of my attention on the gun. I used that to keep tabs on the man when we went out again in the late afternoon.

I tracked the man to a graveyard. He spent a number of minutes at a particular grave. When I snuck closer for a look see I saw him talking to someone. He didn't appear to have a phone out, or a Bluetooth set on. I didn't dare get close enough to listen. If he was talking to himself he was rather animated. At one point he almost seemed to be at odds with what was apparently a second silent side to a conversation. None of us know what to make of it. We will continue to watch the both of them. If the man returns to the grave I'll be sure to have Sarah close by to get a read of his emotional states.

Tags: Domine, empathy (psychic), graveyard, mental domination, Sarah Jayne, split focus, surveillance, team, Tommy Dearing, OSIR, victim.

June 23, 2013
Undeterred, I Carry On

I'm sorry for being a day late. After all of the excitement, and the inescapable turmoil I become engaged in, I found it hard to decide what to talk about. I'm coping with what happened, now, though that has only been for a short while--roughly since shortly after last week's post. As they say it's a process, and by now I should be better at it. Sarah insists that it's good that it's not any easier. I don't need it to be easier, I need it to be quicker. If I shut down every time, I had better just quit and we can live in hiding and avoid conflict. I don't think I can do that. I need to do something. I can't be a quitter, or someone who lets his talents go to waste.

It's maybe best that I leave off here. This week I'm going to press the Protectorate to send us out on something new if there are no more leads on our elusive puppet master.

Tags: guilt, The Protectorate, Sarah Jayne.

June 15, 2013
Seeing the Difference

Hi, it's Josh. I'm back, at least until I kill again--sorry I guess that's too dark even for gallow's humour. I'm glad that the O.S.I.R.'s letter got posted to the blog last week. I hope everyone read it over. Tommy Dearing is right about one thing, we need more training in what we are doing, not just in the use of our gifts. I have to take full responsibility of that. I am weighing the team down getting into fighting shape since I have the least experience with my gifts.

I reject your guilt trip, Tommy. Thank you for reminding me, reminding all of us in the Protectorate, that we need to do better, because we know that you won't.

Tags: Malcolm Jonovich, murder, O.S.I.R., prime people, psychic, Tommy Dearing, OSIR, training.

June 8, 2013
Admonished When You're Down

Sarah here again. We received an interesting piece of mail. We have a post office box so that our home address is safe. I still don't know how the letter got to us, but it did. I conferred with Myron about posting it, and mentioned it briefly to Josh. It was hard to find a good time, and I didn't tell Josh about the second part of it. Josh's better than the first time he had to deal with this kind of trauma. At least he has work this time. He gets up, he goes to work, he comes home. He stares at the sports on TV when the local channels carry them. He holds me when we sleep. He's so very quiet. Anyway, here is the letter as it was written.

I hope that this message finds you in good physical health, though I know you are having emotional issues still at this point. By now maybe you are beginning to understand why protecting the people and upholding the law is best left to the professionals. Even if you have the right psychological makeup, the will, and the physical condition required, there is so much more you're missing with your lack of real, proper, training. This is all aside from the fact that you have chosen a dangerous, illegal, and immoral path to follow. Your unearned, unearthly power has done what power does and corrupted you. You are a shining example of why your kind is dangerous and untrustworthy. Just look at all of the terrible things you are responsible for...

You've sent five federal agents to the hospital. You've assaulted three civilians. You've kidnapped another civilian and tried for a second one before the recent change in focus to a more permanent solution. Your actions have led to the murder of one woman. You've killed three men directly, yourself, and seek for a fourth homicide. You look for help from a man whose arm you've broken, and that you blinded in one eye. You constantly bring danger to everyone around you, especially those closest to you. Look at poor Myron Nath. This is what happens when you take matters into your own hands.

Tags: abduction, assault, guilt, Joshua Rhoads, murder, Myron Nath, O.S.I.R., police, Sarah Jayne, Tommy Dearing, OSIR.

June 1, 2013
Right Name, Wrong Man

Hi, it's Sarah. Josh couldn't post today.

We've received terrible news. The man Josh pushed into the street was not Malcolm Jonovich. Or rather he was, but he was not the puppet master we sought out. He was just another pawn, although we can't be sure if it was entirely unwilling. Certainly the real threat was using something less detectable than full mental domination of the man who died. Myron monitored the situation remotely thanks to Josh and declared he was not possessed of another's will. Needless to say both Myron and Josh are devastated. Certainly Josh feels the brunt of it since...

I hate to say this and I mean absolutely nothing, except to point it out... Josh could have bounced the man's head off a streetlight or knocked him flat on his face on the sidewalk and given him an extra knock against the stone. We decided as a group after all that if it became the difference between one or more lives and that man's life we would take him out. That's easy enough given it would come down to Josh to do it. The chances of one of the others of us getting that close to the manipulator would be too low given how cagey he was.

Malcolm triggered the two women's attacks, but that could have been with a simple instruction anyone could have given them to make them do what that they had been manipulated to do. It's hard to understand just what was done to their minds and how they were set to go off like dominoes.

We were first put onto Malcolm by the Protectorate. They had done the initial legwork and we took over from them. Then they got pointing us back to Malcolm when we lost him. I don't blame the Protectorate, but at the same time they are just as responsible as we are for what happened.

Tags: Joshua Rhoads, Malcolm Jonovich, murder, Myron Nath, The Protectorate, Sarah Jayne, surveillance, victim.