Sat - Feb 14 - It's a Mystery to Everyone!

[Samantha McManus]

"No, it's... hard to place."

[Nailah Weaver]

"If they're not psychic constructs and it's not magic... Could that girl really be a cosmic entity capable of creating this place before she could even walk?"

[Samantha McManus]

"Perhaps not her..."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Maybe not... But if someone or something goes to this effort to protect her then there has to be something else that makes her important. Her mutation isn't that powerful or unique. We're still missing a lot here..."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye, something doesn't fit."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Okay, let's look at what this changes... If they're just simulacra then they might not know as much as I assumed, which means somebody else might know who her parents are or where she came from."

[Samantha McManus]

"And merely arranged for her to be here, indeed even for here to exist, so that there would be a safe place for her to be."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Indeed. I think our best bet is to try and get some insight into what happened for her to need that safe place. There are obviously people after her, as unconnected as they might seem, but this place wouldn't protect her against that so it must have been to give her a comfortable place to live. Let's see if we can do what an actual orphanage might have done and find out where she comes from. If she was born in this town then there has to be some kind of record on what happened to her parents."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye. Government records it is, then."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Maybe we can get someone to keep an eye on this place if we can't figure out what exactly is going on. There was no harm done in twenty years, a little longer won't hurt regardless." she says before they bid farewell to the 'nun' and head off, next destination: town hall and the city archives.

[Narrator]

Town Hall and City Archives are--well, it's a big building full of computers and paper. Some credential flashing and the two of them are in.

There's a LOT of paper.


And 'Vasquez' is not only not an uncommon name, but it's not Altamira's 'real' name, either, so there's a LOT of deadends.


Eventually, after long enough for them to probably become a bit frustrated, the closest they found was an old article in El Diaro Montanes, about Hurricane Vincente, and the aftermath thereof. It was only a category 1 hurricane, nothing too major or too bad, so the damage was relatively light--a few bridges knocked down, power out for several days, a fire in Cobreces that gutted a neighborhood, said to be caused by a freak lightning strike, the closure of highway 131, and some severe flooding due to the torrential rains.

[Nailah Weaver]

"It has to be the fire. It fits too well not to be." she decides, leaning back in her chair for a moment after being hunched over articles and files for much too long.

[Samantha McManus]

"Considering the school?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"The school, her fondness for fire, the vision. This one actually makes sense for once."

[Samantha McManus]

"It does, but in ways we were hoping it didn't, aye?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"Very much so. It still could be something else, but it's looking less and less likely..." she sighs. "All the more reason to get to the bottom of this as soon as possible."

[Samantha McManus]

"I almost wanted it to be a coincidence for once. I bloody hate being right about these sorts of things."

[Nailah Weaver]

"At least it didn't seem like an inevitable catastrophe is on the horizon. Cobreces isn't too far away, we should make sure, even if something tells me that no one is going to be quite sure how the fire started."

[Samantha McManus]

"Aye, that seems to be the pattern."

[Nailah Weaver]

"It's like a scavenger hunt, except at the end there's a burned down block of houses." she sighs and gets up.

[Narrator]

*************

The fire was a dead-end. No one really knew how it started, and most of the people there were new, so they couldn't tell you who was living in the houses at the time.

The school was less of a dead end. Teachers talked glowing about Altamira, and of the nunnery, with the noticeable exception of some of her late middle/early high school teachers. It turns out Altamira went through a phase of not really paying too much attention to her studies, and her grades reflected it--but they kept all their records on paper, and, well, those two years of records were lost in the fire. Without those, Altamira's records have been spotless.

The nuns, it seems, have had very little interaction with the town proper, though when they do come into town to get, like, food and things, they always seemed nice enough.

Oh, and one of the kidnappers from the second attempt at Altamira is still in the county jail on a life term <_<

[Nailah Weaver]

"Finally something solid. Would you be so kind as to check if it would be possible to visit him?" Nailah asks the officer in the small police-station of Santillana del Mar who was so friendly to pull out the old files on Altamira's kidnappings.

[Narrator]

The police officer went down the stairs, and, a few minutes later, called Nailah and Sam to go down, too.

There sat a man named Hernando Sainz, who showed signs of old burns on his face (and presumably other places, but, hey, clothing). He had a long scar underneath his right eye, going from just above his mouth up lost in the depths of his scraggly black hair. He stood up when the two professors arrived.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Good afternoon Senor Sainz. Would you mind answering a few questions for us?"

[Narrator]

"Let me check my planner. I'm awfully busy at the moment," he said, drolly.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Yes, I can see that. No reason to forgo common courtesy though."

"So tell me, how did a kidnapping lead to a life sentence?"

[Narrator]

"They planted evidence on me. I never did anything wrong in my life."

Sam's a telepath, and can probably tell he's lying. Nailah is not a telepath, and can probably tell he's lying. The drunk nextdoor sleeping it off is not sober, and can probably tell he's lying.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Nice try, but why don't you safe us the hassle of reading the files and tell us what happened."

[Narrator]

"It's 40 years, not life. They added a trumped up terrorism charge, to go along with conspiracy and kidnapping charges."

[Nailah Weaver]

"I'm not here to hear the official version."

[Narrator]

"In that case, I'm innocent of all charges. ALL of them."

Well, HE certainly believed that, that much was clear.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Care to elaborate why you believe that?"

[Narrator]

"Not particularly, but as I doubt you'll just leave me alone...

I was doing the world a greater service. Or trying to, at least."

[Nailah Weaver]

"By kidnapping a harmless little girl?" she, well, kind of lies considering the way things are starting to look.

[Narrator]

He barked out a peal of laughter. "Harmless. Sure."

[Nailah Weaver]

"My patience with vague answers is wearing pretty thin today, to be quite honest so start talking or don't. Either way is fine with me."

[Narrator]

"You know the girl? Kill her. Now. Before it's too late."

[Nailah Weaver]

"Yes, we'll get right on that. Meanwhile you could explain if you have any reasons for thinking she's that dangerous."

[Narrator]

"I'm serious. She is El Diablo and the antichrist, she will destroy us all unless we destroy her first!" he said, suddenly quite animated. "You MUST stop her!"

[Nailah Weaver]

"I've heard enough of that. Would you please check why he thinks she is the Devil, Sam?"