Episode 1: London

Episode 1: London is the first episode of the second season of the Limetown podcast.

Synopsis
+120 hours from Lia Haddock's abduction.

Transcript
[heavy footsteps]

[chains rattling] [0:01:07]

[locks clicking]

Interrogator: Good afternoon, Charley. Tell me about your dreams. Tell me everything you remember. ...No. Do you not wanna talk today? I can come ba--

Charley: I don't dream.

Interrogator: Okay. So, is it warm enough in here for you? Are you finding the accommodations comfortable?

Charley:  Sure.

Interrogator: The couch is new-ish. The bed is not. I’ve had a chance to go through the first batch of tapes, so I'd like to start our larger conversation now. When would you say this first garnered your attention? Was it Lia's broadcast?

Charley: No. That was a sideshow.

Interrogator: So, when would you say you first turned –

Charley: The  Sincerely Sandra  call.

Interrogator: Okay... the  Sincerely Sandra  call.

[sound of tape being inserted into tape deck; tape plays]

Doug: Are you still there?

Sandra: I'm here, Doug.

Doug: I was just saying, I’ve been sober six months.

Sandra: That's wonderful, Doug.

Doug: And, Abby, if you're out there listening, I just wanna say how sorry I am. I loved that cat as much as you did.

Sandra: She hears you, Doug.

Doug: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry on your radio program.

Sandra: Never apologize for feeling too much, Doug. it's what makes life worth living – the happy times, the sad times. It’s important to be honest with yourself.

Doug: Thank you, Sandra. She always loved your show.

Sandra: No, thank  you, Doug.

[transition music plays]

Sandra: My next call is coming from Lia in Sacramento. I see you've requested "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot. Such a lovely, haunting song. Who's this going out to, Lia?

Lia: My uncle, Emile Haddock.

Sandra: And why is this song important to you two? ...Lia?

“Lia,” using previously recorded clips of her voice: You're going to find me in pieces if you don't do exactly what I say. I’m waiting for you at the bridge. Giving you 72 hours. Goodbye.

[tape stops]

Interrogator: Why did that get your attention?

Charley: It got everyone's attention.

Interrogator: Why did it get  your attention?

Charley: Because… the resolve required to do something like that was admirable. [00:04:07]

Interrogator: Admirable?

Charley: Yes. And the opportunity to hunt someone of that caliber was too much to pass up. Also, I got paid a lot of money.

Interrogator: Ah. Always money. So that's when you went to London.

Charley: So that's when I went to London.

[tape deck being loaded; tape plays]

Charley: [speaking over sound of announcements at airport] JFK Airport, terminal 7. Two men have been standing near the emergency exit, watching me. They are dressed as custodians or are custodians. They don’t appear to be fixing anything. Otherwise, business as usual.

[tape stops]

Interrogator: You record these notes often. [tape fast-forwarding] Any particular reason?

Charley: I’m thorough.

Interrogator: [chuckles] You’re paranoid.

Charley: [snickers] That’s… interesting, coming from you.

Interrogator: Why? [tape fast-forwarding]

Charley: I didn’t chain myself to this floor.

Interrogator: I’m being careful.

Charley: You’re being thorough.

Interrogator: Ah. Here we are. London.

[tape playing]

Charley: Lobby of the Bridgemont building, approaching the security desk.

Man at security desk: One second. Who are you here to see today?

Charley: I have an appointment with Eugene Demeter.

Man at security desk: IDS?

Charley: Uh, yep, sorry. IDS.

Man at security desk: What was your name?

Charley: Charley Latimore.

[tape stopping, fast-forwarding]

Interrogator: We can skip the elevator stuff and all the waiting around in the waiting room.

Charley: Why are you playing these at all?

Interrogator: I need it to be top-of-mind for you.

[tape fast-forwarding; tape plays]

Nia: Charley?

Charley: Yes?

Nia: We’re ready for you.

Charley: Great.

Nia: Do you want help with the bag?

Charley: That’s alright.

Nia: This way.

Charley: You worked here long?

Nia: Me? Maybe four months. Are you applying for a job? [00:6:10]

Charley: I am.

Nia: Oh, amazing. But it’s a great place to work, lots of benefits – and the location, obviously. Hi, Akshay.

Akshay: Hi. Hey, Nia.

Charley: This is gonna sound so dumb, but I’ve been going on so many interviews – what exactly is it that you do here?

Nia: IDS? A lot of things, mostly centered around events: insurance, logistics, marketing, you name it. Anyway, we’re going to put you two in here. I’ll make sure Gene is on his way. He’s not great at time management these days. Here he is. Good luck!

Charley: Thank you.

Eugene: Hello. Nice to meet you in person. You  are  Charley, right?

Charley: I am.

Eugene: Good. I didn’t wanna get my wires crossed. Could you imagine, me blathering on about Limetown and you’re the wrong person. Um, look –

Charley: Gene.

Eugene: I’m a little nervous talking to you. You’re very intense. I’m going to be telling you things that I’ve never, ever in my life said to anyone.

Charley: Gene. I would urge you to take your involvement in Limetown very seriously.

Eugene: I do!

Charley: And from now on, be extremely selective in who you talk to about this. You think you can do that?

Eugene: Yes. And I’m not ignoring you, I’m just writing this down. ‘Be selective’ –

Charley: No, I also wouldn’t write any of this down.

Eugene: [laughs nervously] God, yeah, that obviously goes without saying! [crumples paper] I haven’t really been getting a lot of sleep in the past few days. I might need you to hold my hand through this. It’s all very new to me. Would it make sense for me to tell you who knows I’m involved?

Charley: I think let’s wait on that. What I’d like to do first is come to an agreement about terms.

Eugene: Okay.

Charley: And then maybe take this to a more private location to discuss the scope of your involvement in this thing.

Eugene: Yeah, absolutely. You wanna talk about money?

Charley: I would. Normally, this kind of thing would be more fluid, but considering the scope of this project, I’m going to need to ask for a considerable amount of money up-front.

Eugene: Well, that seems fair.

Charley: I would need 1.2 million to get started.

Eugene: [sputtering] One point –?! [lowers voice] 1.2 million pounds?

Charley: Yes.

Eugene: To get started? [door knocks] Yes, hi, Nia. What’s going on?

Nia: I’m sorry to interrupt, someone’s calling for you, and they wouldn’t take a message, so –

Eugene: Who is it?!

Nia: Special Agent Marcy Gravis? She says she works for the Department of Homeland Security.

Eugene: Tell her I’ll call her back.

Nia: She said it’s urgent.

Eugene:  Tell her I will call her back. I’m in a meeting.

Nia: Okay! Thank you!

Eugene: I don’t have 1.2 million pounds.

Charley: Correct. You have 1.5 million in this bank account, I’m leaving room for the fees.

Eugene: But that’s – look, okay, look. See, that money’s for my kids.

Charley: Well, I think if your kids had the choice between having that money and having their dad, they would choose the latter, I would hope.

Eugene: I understand what you do is very challenging, I do. But can’t we just be reasonable and bring it down a little bit, just to start? I mean, maybe we could just work our way up to that number.

Charley: No, no, I’m sorry. That is the starting salary for having your life unfucked.

Eugene: Yeah, but I have –

Charley: If you’re not willing to pay that, I can’t take you seriously.

Eugene: But I am serious!

Charley: Then say yes.

Eugene: I just feel really kinda majorly pressured here. [intercom beeps] Christ!

Nia: Mr. Demeter, now there are some men here. They’re from… sorry, where are you from?

Eugene: Just tell them I’ll be out in five minutes. [00:10:03]

Nia: Okay. I’ll do – [intercom beeps]

Eugene: I can’t in good conscience give you that much money, not without knowing what that money gets me.

Charley: It gives you a chance.

Eugene: A chance to do  what ?!

Charley: A chance to not go to jail for the rest of your life because you’re financially tied to the greatest American conspiracy of all time.

Eugene: I’m paying you my children’s future for a  chance ?!

Charley: It’s one more chance than you have right now.

Eugene: [phone rings] Oh, god. Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot here. I’m not a bad person. I didn’t boil any people in acid. Argh! [slams phone] Okay.

Charley: Okay?

Eugene: Okay. I’ll withdraw the money today. You’re hired.

Charley: Okay.

Eugene: Well, congratulations, then! You’re a millionaire! And you haven’t done anything yet!

Charley: That’s not true. I’ve already removed the single-most incriminating piece of evidence from the equation. [bag unzipping]

Eugene: What am I looking at?

Charley: Tapes. Lots and lots of tapes. The ones your former employer, Brenda Radowski, a.k.a. Terry Falstaff, a.k.a. Lenore Dougall, sent to Lia Haddock’s producer.

Eugene: The Oscar Totem tapes.

Charley: Sure. Uh, to be clear, that’s a bit of a misnomer. A lot of them are Oscar’s, others are from after he died, some are just nonsense thrown in with the rest. It’s not exactly a… curated experience. What it is, really, is an insurance policy. Everything this individual hid away because she knew it implicated some very powerful people. And now, it’s yours.

Eugene: You’re giving these to me?

Charley: Yes. Put them somewhere where no one will ever find them but you. Don’t tell me where you keep them.

Eugene: Okay, but shouldn’t you have them? [bag zipping]

Charley: I already pulled the audio off them.

Eugene: I don’t understand. How do  you  have these?

Charley: ‘How’ isn’t really a question you want to ask me.

Eugene: Right.

Charley: But I think you’ll find as we move forward that intercepting a package is a pretty small order of business for someone in my line of work. Grab that sheet of paper?

Eugene: Yes.

Charley: I want you to write down three numbers: mine, your wife’s, your lawyer’s. You’re going to stick that in your pocket, it’s the only people you talk to for the next week. Okay?

Eugene: Is this a test? You said not to write anything.

Charley: Eugene, just do what I say, and don’t call them from your iPhone. Put that in a drawer and buy a burner. Do you know what a burner is?

Eugene: It’s a cheap phone?

Charley: Correct. As for Nia and Akshay and all the other people running around here with their heads cut off, they’re all getting something called ‘mandatory professional development.’ Say that with me: ‘mandatory professional development.’

Eugene, simultaneously: ‘Mandatory professional development.’

Charley: We want them scattered. It’s hard to put together a story if all the key players are in different locations. Sound familiar?

Eugene: It does, yes. What about the special agents?

Charley: Who?

Eugene: The suits in the lobby!

Charley: Oh. [laughs] They don’t know anything.

Eugene: What?

Charley: They’ve been paying visits to anyone even vaguely connected to Fitzgerald & Butler.

Eugene: Well, then, they don’t know anything?!

Charley: Not really.

Eugene: Well, you could have told me that!

Charley: No, Gene, I don’t think I could have.

Akshay: [knocking] Mr. Demeter?

Eugene: Go away, Akshay! Just leave me alone!

Akshay: Uh… yes, sir.

Charley: Oh, on the back of that, write this down, too: Pink Nori, 12 Camley Street, 1600 hours. That’s where you’re going to meet me.

Eugene: That’s in half an hour.

Charley: Yeah, Gene. We’re on Limetown time, now. We don’t really have time to burn.

Eugene: Okay. I’ll make it work.

Charley: And when you talk to the agents, make sure you ask lots of questions about Lia Haddock.

Eugene: Why?

Charley: Everybody on planet Earth wants to know where Lia Haddock is – except the guy who took her.

[tape stops]

Interrogator: At that point, did you think Eugene knew where Lia was? [00:16:15]

Charley: You said you listened to the tapes, right?

Interrogator: Yes.

Charley: So… you have the facts. Why bother with what I think?

Interrogator: Interesting.

Charley: Why is that interesting?

Interrogator: No reason. Let’s continue.

[tape plays]

Charley: Pink Nori, a few minutes after 5. Gene Demeter is over an hour late. The only people in the restaurant are the waitstaff and an older white gentleman who is working on his laptop by the window. Going to give Gene another –

Sushi Waitress: You need any more hot water?

Charley: Sure, thank you.

Sushi Waitress: [pours water] You still want to wait on food?

Charley: I-I think that’s my friend!

Sushi Waitress: Oh.

Eugene: I’m with her, thanks.

Charley: [to Sushi Waitress] Could you give us a minute? [to Eugene] You alright?

Eugene: I don’t know if I’m built for this. It was one thing when nobody knew. I just hope this all gets easier. I assume it gets easier. Does it?

Charley: Did you get rid of your phone?

Eugene: Yeah. I didn’t have time to get the burner phone, but I told my staff to go home and await further instructions from me. Oh, and I brought the first cash payment. It’s in the bag. [unzips bag] You can look in it if you’d –

Charley: Don’t touch the bag.

Eugene: [zips bag] Okay.

Charley: I need to ask you a couple of questions.

Eugene: Shoot.

Charley: Do any of the remaining 163 Limetown survivors know who you are? Would they recognize your name from a list or be able to pick your face out of a lineup?

Eugene: No.

Charley: You’re sure?

Eugene: I’m sure. I’ve never interacted with them.

Charley: That’s good. Question number 2: do you know where Lia Haddock is?

Eugene: No.

Charley: Do you know who took her?

Eugene: I do.

Charley: You do?

Eugene: I do.

Sushi Waitress: Anything for you to drink?

Eugene: Yeah, I’ll take one of everything. [laughs] Sorry, only kidding. Let me look at the – is this the drink menu? Sorry, do you have whiskey?

Sushi Waitress: We have beer.

Eugene: Yeah, yeah, a beer’s great. A single beer. Thank you. [to Charley] The man who abducted Lia Haddock is named Daniel Rassmueller. R-A-S-S-M-U-E-L-L-E-R.

Charley: Okay. How do you know it was him?

Eugene: He told me.

Charley: Before or after?

Eugene: Before.

Charley: He confided in you?

Eugene: I guess you could call it that.

Charley: Well, what would you call it?

Eugene: Not confiding. This guy is like the Employee from Hell. I don’t say this lightly, but he’s a deeply disturbed individual. Are you hungry?

Charley: No. No, Gene. How was he your employee?

Eugene: Well, it’s complicated. By design. I was responsible for withdrawing the money and bagging it; he was responsible for delivering it to the people who needed it.

Charley: The Limetown survivors.

Eugene: Yeah, I realized later.

Charley: You didn’t know you were paying Limetown survivors?

Eugene: I had no idea. It’s not like someone sat me down and said, ‘Hey, you wanna join a conspiracy?’ I was 27 years old. I was working as an associate at what is now IDS (was called something else back then). I was just paying my dues, hoping to put a dent in my loans. And one day, out of the blue, someone says, ‘Hey, Brenda Radowski – Lenore – wants to talk to you. Be at this hotel room in an hour.’ I’m like, ‘Okay? Why does my boss’ boss’ boss, Brenda Radowski, a very accomplished person and highly-respected individual who everyone in our firm seemed to be scared of, want to talk to an associate? I’m nobody.’ But you don’t question things too much, you know? You’re conditioned to do what you’re told. So, I went. And when I got there, she was very nice, very welcoming. The whole reason I was there was framed as, ‘this is the kind of things all the associates are doing! It’s just a side-job!’ So, she sits me down, hands me a stiff drink, and says, ‘Are you interested in making some money on the side?’ I mean, okay, what kind of money? She says – and I shit you not, this is what she told me it was – ‘a botched class-action lawsuit.’ Our fault, a total clusterfuck. So, Brenda says my help was needed in making these giant annual payments to people all over the world. It was all very simple and straightforward. I’d get the list FedEx’d to me and on it would be the names and addresses and payment amount and the date I was supposed to deliver this information to a third party – my partner. So, it’s a two-person job. I take the money out, package it up, this other guy delivers it. I mean, obviously this is a highly unorthodox task she’s given me, but what do I have to lose? I mean, did it occur to me that maybe I was doing something that wasn’t 100% legal? Well, daily! Did I ever think for one second that I was paying the people of Limetown to keep quiet about the existence of mind-reading technology? Not even once.

Charley: So how did you find out you were paying survivors? [00:22:18]

Eugene: Daniel told me. Like I said, the way it was set up, I’d never need to interact with him. I only needed to get the money to a certain place by a certain time.

Charley: Where?

Eugene: The marina. There’s a dock with a blue light at the end of it, it’s just past the bathrooms. There’s a boat called Richard’s Folly, the back door would always be open, and I would drop it in the cabin. And for two years, I did just that with no problem. And then one night, he was just  there, sitting in the darkness.

Charley: Why don’t you describe this Daniel for me?

Eugene: Okay. Well, he’s a very large man. [chuckles] You’re gonna laugh, but the first time I saw him, I thought he was a kayak or something propped up against the wall. Then he started moving. The first time he talked to me, the first thing he said was that he had this secret he was keeping all to himself and that he was tired of keeping it. Then, he told me who the money was for.

Charley: Why would he do that?

Eugene: I didn’t ask. [to Sushi Waitress] Excuse me, could I get another one of these?

Charley: Okay, so, this Daniel guy does the job for two years after Limetown. He transports the duffel bags full of cash to the people he’s supposed to, he gets curious who these people are and does a little digging on them – maybe he asks one. And then something changes: he knows what he’s a part of and he decides he’s going to spill the beans to  you, the only other person in this conspiracy he knows.

Eugene: Well, that’s possible.

Charley: And you were unfazed, even once you knew these were Limetown survivors?

Eugene: Well, I wouldn’t say that. Just, not fazed enough to stop. Not that I could have! I tried, once, in 2010. I had so much money already and my daughter had just been born. It just felt like time to pass the torch, and, I don’t know, the only way I could think to end it was to tell the only person I knew who was in on it – Lenore – or whatever her name was. At this point, she’d dropped off the face of the planet.

Charley: So, what did you do?

Eugene: I waited for him. I went to the boat with the money and I sat in the darkness, just like he would. I waited. A few hours later, I heard it: the heavy creak of this massive man walking slowly down the dock, like – like he had all the time in the world. I remember it stopped at the door, the glass door th-that leads into the cabin. He’s so big he blocked out the light. He just waited there on the other side of the glass, was looking in at me. He knew I was there. I don’t know how he knew, but he knew. So, um, after what felt like maybe ten years, he slid the door open so slowly… and he walked in… slides the door shut behind him. He says – and I’ll never forget this – ‘Do you want to know why I never go to the dentist?’ [laughs nervously] I mean, this is how he talks! Like, he’s talking past you, like, responding to something you never said! I didn’t say anything, I was too afraid. So, he takes a step closer, rattling the glass. Then he asks me again, ‘Do you know why I never go to the dentist?’ I mean, he’s nearly on top of me, now. He says, ‘One time, I heard a story about a little boy named Kiernan who waited for his dentist in the dentist chair when some stranger snuck in and poured lye down his throat.’ Kiernan’s my son’s name, if you didn’t know that. So, I-I-I don’t remember exactly what happened after that, but I remember I left the money and he let me leave. B-but the assumption was that I would be wise not to get in the way of what he was doing, there would be  dire consequences. I asked myself for years, ‘Why would Brenda hire someone like this?’ That’s when I realized that Daniel’s job, it wasn’t just about delivering the money, it was keeping people quiet no matter what it took. [00:27:56]

Charley: …including Lia Haddock. So, why abduct her?

Eugene: I don’t know.

Charley: Lenore, in her final conversation with Lia, seemed to think she’d be kidnapped as some sort of pawn to get to Emile?

Eugene: Sure.

Charley: Why would Daniel want Emile? Do they know each other?

Eugene: I don’t know.

Charley: I’m assuming you heard Daniel’s threat to Emile on Sincerely Sandra. ‘Be at the bridge in 72 hours or Lia ends up in pieces’?

Eugene: I did.

Charley: That stands at 57 hours and counting, by the way.

Eugene: Yeah, I-I’m very aware.

Charley: So, what’s his motive, here? Daniel does a job for a decade keeping Limetown survivors alive, paid, quiet. Lia starts broadcasting the story of Limetown for the first time, and so he attempts to shut the survivors up. He takes out Warren, then Max. But if your whole goal is to keep Limetown a secret, why not just kill Lia?

Eugene: I don’t know.

Charley: Clearly, in Daniel’s mind, finding Emile is more important than Lia. It’s more important than the story of Limetown being made public. It’s more important than the secrecy of your entire operation.

Eugene: What does it matter? I’m just having a hard time seeing how doing a deep dive into this maniac’s head is going to help protect  me  and my family. I mean, what exactly is our plan, here?

Charley: Our plan is to make Limetown disappear.

Eugene: [laughs] You’re kidding.

Charley: I’m not.

Eugene: With everything that’s happened, your plan is to put the cat back in the bag?!

Charley: Yes.

Eugene: Well, doesn’t that seem impossible?

Charley: Only if you care about the well-being of the cat. Look. It has been 38 hour and 15 minutes since Lia Haddock disappeared. In that time, there’s been this flood of information about Limetown. No one person can wade through it. There’s a thousand people every hour who say they know for sure who took Lia Haddock, another thousand who say they know one of the survivors, and then you got another thousand who say they’re 100% sure that the guy who works in the mailroom has the  exact  same voice as the guy who showed up at Lia Haddock’s hotel room and banged his head against the door, screaming her name. Right now, everybody knows everything, so nobody knows anything. And that, Gene, is a good situation for us. Fifteen years ago, Limetown was the biggest story in the world. Five years later, it was just another Wikipedia article. Do you know why that happened? Guess.

Eugene: People moved on.

Charley: Exactly. But people can only move on if you let them. The story can’t be allowed to develop, it has to remain a mystery. If I do my job right, in five years – five  months  – people will be asking themselves, ‘Hey, whatever happened to that reporter that got abducted? Did anyone ever find her? Shrug.’ People, deep down, they want Limetown to be a mystery. That is what they love about it. So, our goal here is to make sure that Lia Haddock and the person who abducted her are never seen or heard from again.

Eugene: I see.

Charley: Do you? I don’t deal in euphemisms, Gene. With your acknowledgment, I am going to kill Daniel Rassmueller and I’m going to kill Lia Haddock.

Eugene: I mean, don’t – I mean, there are no other options?

Charley: Not from where I’m sitting.

Eugene: Okay.

Charley: Okay.

Eugene: And when it’s done, me and my family will never have to worry about this?

Charley: I don’t believe in half-measures, Gene. Last question: on the Sincerely Sandra call, the demand for Emile was to be at ‘the bridge.’ Do you have any idea what bridge they could be referring to?

Eugene: I don’t.

Charley: Do you know who would? The implication is Emile would know where ‘the bridge’ is. Who knows Emile well?

Eugene: Living?

Charley: Is – that – a real – question?

Eugene: Well, I mean, I don’t know. Jesus. Alison Haddock, I suppose. The wife of his brother, Jacob. She’s the only person in Emile’s life who isn’t missing or –

Charley: Dead. Missing or dead. So, Alison Haddock.

Eugene: You’re telling me you’re going to go talk to Lia Haddock’s grieving mother and try to get the same information pretty much every law enforcement agency in the world is after?

Charley: Yes, Gene, that is my plan. Now, here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to go home, pack a couple suitcases, and get your family to Worthing. Do you know where Worthing is?

Eugene: Yeah.

Charley: Once you get there, there’s a Travelodge called The Worthing Homestead. Room 22 is already booked under the name Harry Frost. Pay in cash. Don’t do anything but stay in the hotel and wait for my call. Do you understand?

Eugene: Yeah, I think so.

Charley: You think so, or you do?

Eugene: I do.

Charley: Then wait for my call. [00:33:10]

[tape stops]

Interrogator: Was that the first time you’d heard the name Daniel Rassmueller?

Charley: Yes.

Interrogator: When on Oscar Totem’s tapes did you first hear him?

Charley: Why do you call them Oscar Totem’s tapes?

Interrogator: It’s shorthand.

Charley: But you know there were as many of Lenore’s tapes mixed in as his.

Interrogator: Yes. Apologies. We shouldn’t forget Lenore, she was  very thor  –

Charley: – Thorough, yes, I’m flattered at the connection you’re attempting to make.

Interrogator: So, when did you first hear Daniel?

Charley: After, on the plane ride home.

Interrogator: Were you surprised with what you heard?

Charley: Yes.

Interrogator: Why?

Charley: Because it was surprising.

Interrogator:  Charley  –

Charley: I don’t know what you want me to say!

Interrogator: I just want your opinion, your thoughts!

Charley: But you’re only asking me questions you already know the answers to.

Interrogator: I’m trying to understand your choices.

Charley: You’re just a boy wearing men’s clothes. Just play the conference call, get on with it.

Interrogator: [sighs, loads tape into tape deck] This is from 45 days before The Panic. [tape player snaps shut] A conference call Lenore conducted from Limetown.

[tape plays]

[weird siren-like noise in background]

Ken: Can you say that again?

Lenore: Who’s outside? Can you mute your line? [siren-like noise stops] I said, as of this morning, half the town has the tech installed into their brains.

Kelly: That’s a very big problem.

Lenore:  Yes, Kelly, thank you.

Ken: Geeze, that’s a whale of a problem.

Lenore: Lucky for you, I solve problems.

Ken: What is the proposal?

Lenore: Complete eradication.

Ken: Complete?

Lenore: Yes.

Kelly: Outside of the asset.

Lenore: Of  course, outside of the asset, Kelly.

Daniel: …Is no one going to say anything right now? She just said we have to murder 300 people.

Lenore: Who is speaking?!

Ken: Rassmueller.

Daniel: My name’s Daniel, ma’am.

Lenore: Ah. The new leader of the taskforce. Welcome to the Big Leagues. Daniel, it’s not polite to make subtext text.

Daniel: I’m not interested in being polite.

Lenore: This isn’t up for discussion, Daniel. We have no other option and even less time.

Daniel: With all due respect, of course there are other options than  mass murder.

Lenore: You’re doing it again, Daniel. Think of how this plays out. Really think ahead. That’s over 300 loose ends. We’re trying to zip things up over here –

Daniel: What the fuck is happening right now?! What are we doing?!

Lenore: Our  jobs, Daniel.

Daniel: There’s a way to do this. You said half the town has the tech.

Lenore: Yes.

Daniel: That’s an asset. That’s the option of a long-term study in an organic environment. …Hello?

Lenore: You’re a smart man, Daniel.

Ken: Wait, I’m lost.

Kelly: He’s saying we keep the people with the tech alive to study the long-term effects.

Ken: I think I can sell that. Is that an option?

Lenore: Theoretically.

Ken: Well, that seems… pretty good… so what would need to be done?

Lenore: Daniel, are you willing to claim responsibility for the survivors? And before you respond, let me explain what that means in basic English: it means until the day these 163 people die, after living long, full lives, they never speak a word of anything that’s happened here, and if they ever do, then that is on you. That is your responsibility, and that means when I personally dig the mass grave, your unidentifiable corpse will be buried in all the rotting meat of your mistakes. Is that clear?

Ken: Jesus, Brenda, I don’t know about all that –

Lenore: Ken, stop talking. Is that clear, Daniel?

Daniel: Yes, ma’am.

Lenore: Wonderful. Let’s play it out; I’ll start the Excel sheet.

Kelly: Great. Please be sure to CC me on any correspondence.

Lenore: Of course, Kelly, how could I forget you?

Daniel: Ms. Radowski? Thank you for listening to reason.

Lenore: No, Daniel. Thank  you. [phone hangs up] [00:37:40]

[tape stops and is removed]

Interrogator: Daniel saved half the town. What a guy.

Charley: Lenore was right, they should have tied up all the loose ends.

Interrogator: You genuinely believe that?

Charley: You can’t honestly believe otherwise.

Interrogator: Oh, I do, and I can.

Charley: I would have appreciated working with her.

Interrogator: She was quite a person.

Charley: But she got old and she got sloppy.

Interrogator: She had a change of heart.

Charley: Like I said.

Interrogator: When did you hear the second Rassmueller tape?

Charley: I don’t wanna hear the second tape again.

Interrogator: Would you rather I pull your fingernails out?

Charley: Yes.

Interrogator:  That’s  why we have to talk about it. [inserts new tape]

Charley: Please don’t play that.

Interrogator: Were you listening alone?

Charley: Stop.

Interrogator: You  do  dream, don’t you?

Charley: Fucking  stop.

Interrogator: She never hears your screams, does she? Just turns the volume up.

Charley: Stop!

Interrogator: [tape fast-forwarding] What surprised you most about the second tape?

Charley: Please don’t make me listen.

Interrogator: This is important. This is the first time you knew – the first time you  knew  there was something  after Limetown. Let’s turn the volume up.

[tape plays]

[screaming in background]

Daniel: The children are screaming!

Unidentified man: Rassmueller, please… please, stop.

Daniel: They’re screaming! Don’t you get it?! If the children are dead, then how can I still hear them?!

[tape stops]

Interrogator: Are you ready to tell me where Lia Haddock is?

Charley: I already told you: I can’t tell you.

Interrogator: Then we’ll continue this conversation in a few days.

Charley: Please, at least leave the lights on. [00:39:54]

[doors closing and being locked]