Murders

Much as it annoys me to do so, it appears I shall have to start stacking puzzles upon you after all. I suppose this one isn’t too bad though, it’s even related to the previous one. Maybe it’ll help. I hope it does, the time has come for me to act, and I must move forward. My apologies for this.

 Start with the answer for the last puzzle; suppose that each of its pieces were a number. But if a piece can be a number, perhaps the place where it was originally found could be a number as well. What do we get if we add it all up?

Ahead

My good mood from finally figuring out a way to beat Him has begun to fade.  Now I can see the enormity of the tasks ahead of me.  But I suppose any large task is simple enough when broken down into its smallest pieces.

I am here to help you with your own puzzle pieces, if you all need me.  Feel free to ask.

Mission

Today marks a rather tumultuous day. It’s the day we stop just running and spying and start fighting back. We have a mission, we have objectives. We will win.

 Of course, at times like this, perhaps one is prone to look back at the mistakes they’ve made. Falling back into nostalgia is the bane of all reflective people I suppose. But then again, sometimes the pieces of what could have been can lead us to the way forward.

Deductions

We had a minor scare today, someone came up to our apartment door and knocked without sending a message from within our web of trust. It turned out just to be a confused drunk, but it served to highlight how vulnerable we are here. We changed apartments again, just to be sure. We’re starting to make a noticeable dent in the funds I stole from the Organization... We may have to find means of generating more.

Today I ask you to look past what is obvious and see what is unseen. Strip these hollow words down to their basest ingredients, and find their hidden meaning.

M's Report

We’ve arrived at a new secure location.  This time around we cannot fortify as much; in Greece we were able to exploit some of our still-remaining connections and establish a base under Thessaloniki.  We just needed to reinforce and wall off a section of the catacombs.  Suppose we could do that again here, but there aren’t any locally embedded Agents in a position to help us get in unnoticed.

    So for now we just have to rotate through a series of shabby apartments, constantly on the move.  Easier to escape if we’re caught, but also harder to operate since we can’t keep any of the usual heavy equipment. 

    For now I’ll leave our location a mystery.  Have to make sure we haven’t been followed, and that He is well distracted before we can become complacent.  After all, being a detective isn’t all about how much you can find out.  Sometimes one has to make sure that information can remain safe from prying eyes.  Sometimes it takes just a little skill, to preserve the truth.

Debriefing

We're packing up the base and getting ready to move out.  For those of you who aren't in the habit of reading the comments on posts, know that He has raided our compound, and He gloated about it a good deal within the comments.

My fears about the infiltration team were true; they were compromised.  But the team leader, M, managed to escape before His influence could take over.  M pretended to be under His control, and managed to get deeper into His forces that way.  During the course of the raid on our base, M showed himself to still be my friend by way of a coded message; specifically he overrode the base's automated announcer through the blog's comments, rather than some other less obvious means.

M is a superb hacker, the best in our Organization.  M wouldn't reveal his presence in a system for so trivial a matter.  And the message he overrode the auto-reporter with was a request.  "You can't escape."  To Him it would look like simple gloating, but I've never known M to taunt his enemies like that.  Indeed; friendliness and a relaxed demeanor are part of his conditioning.  He was telling me to stay put and wait for help.

Once the infiltration team was just outside my door, M reactivated the base's internal defenses.  The team was situated right where the defenses were heaviest, with no way of escaping.  They didn't stand a chance.  It didn't feel like victory, it felt like murder.  All the more reason we can't let Him win.

I suppose I'll tell you all what M and the rest of the team found within His compound after I get word of the current puzzle being solved.  For now, I could use a little return to established routine, get my mind off of all the chaos of the packing around me.  I shall be here to answer requests for hints.

Best and Deadliest

The infiltrators have dropped off completely.  I don't mean that they're dead, their trackers would have shown an attack before they disappeared if they were.  I mean they willingly shut off their trackers, and then destroyed them.

They were either found out and forced to do this, or... No, I won't think like that, not until I know for sure.

(1)  (2)  (3)
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Waiting

Oh, don't worry, I wouldn't pile on extra puzzles.  I have been trained to have some patience after all.

Same eerie silence all through today.  Somehow that just makes it all worse.

Powers

Lost contact with the infiltration team in the middle of security updates.  Their trackers are still working and showing normal activity.  Standard operating procedure is for them to escape as soon as it's not suspicious to do so, and meet back during the next comms shutdown if they're not being followed.  Getting worried, no, paranoid.  I need to stay focused.

All of the world gives us information, if we but look.  Pieces of a great puzzle, that is for us to put together.  The easiest way is to take what is most obvious and immediate in each piece, and determine how they fit together as a whole.  Through this, the mysterious can be solved.
(1)  (2)  (3)

Conditioning

Forgive the somewhat later posting.  Things appear to be in motion, and His agents are behaving unusually.  My own infiltrators within His forces are being more closely scrutinized.  We think He's up to something, but we do not know what.

For now, He leaves as I enter.  Just as He lays to sleep, I waken.  As He dreams, I work.  Perhaps He is protected by the God of Dreams, perhaps so are we all.  Whether we are waking or sleeping he may enter our minds to weave the spells that release us from bondage to reality.


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Services

A few people have asked me about the nature of the person I so vainly call 'Him.'  They have wondered whether he is a god or demon, or some other supernatural power.  I cannot accurately answer these things, for I honestly do not know.

But I can tell you this.
He's probably too short to be a god.


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Introductions

Do pardon the earlier brusqueness, things were rather in a panic.  Please allow me to introduce myself...

Entry

There is no time for me to explain, at least not right here.
I can only hide so much from Him, I can only keep it that way for so long.

And He is after me.
I will have to reveal my hand soon.