I don’t know what to say. Too much has been revealed in the last 48 hours for me to even relate all of it, and at any rate, if you’ve been watching the news on NNT then you already know what’s going on.

If you haven’t, Nash was able to get an interview with Stone to discuss what has happened over the past several weeks. Everything we’ve found out here turned out to be right, and most of the pieces make more sense now.

According to Nash, an extraterrestrial virus called “Andromeda” killed everyone in Piedmont with only two exceptions: the Ritter’s new baby, Sylvie, and my Uncle Kyle, both of whom are now being treated in the Wildfire Lab. And if there were any other survivors, they’re gone now… obliterated by the nuclear warhead that was accidentally released over Piedmont after a technical malfunction. The town where I grew up has been wiped clean off the map, as if it were never there.

The military blockade that kept me and others from getting into Piedmont to find more information, it seems, may also have saved our lives. If we had managed to get past them, and andromeda was still present, we would probably have died instantly… or worse.

Maybe it would be better if I had. My parents, Sam, my neighbors… everyone from home is gone now, except for my uncle, who I still haven’t been able to talk to. I sent Stone another email, asking if he’ll be okay, and when I’ll be able to see him. After everything that has happened, Stone probably has a lot to worry about, but Uncle Kyle is all I have left.

I don’t need answers anymore. I just need this to be over.

Found another new access code for the Wildfire intranet… and this one unlocks the file on Dr. Stone himself:

JEST OR ENEMY

Most of this information was already available on his website, but it’s interesting all the same. It’s also interesting that the government knew about the ill will between Stone and Keene, though I’m not sure why they’d make a specific note of that in the Wildfire files. Unless, of course, Keene is also involved in this somehow.

Based on this access code, it also seems clear that the personnel files, at least, are protected with anagrams… so the next thing is to figure out possible access codes for the file on Tsi Chou, the only remaining scientist on the team. Suggestions?

Jesus, this is huge… way bigger than anything I had suspected. Just got another message from Frohz3n, and this one included a document that he says he and Wheezer had been tracking down for over a week — a classified letter from Dr. Stone to President Scott.

(view as PDF)

In his message, Frohz3n also told me that he was able to track down the names of three scientists who Stone recommended that President Scott appoint to this top-secret medical team: Dr. Angela Noyce, Dr. Charlene Barton, and Dr. Tsi Chou. I’ll try to find out more about who they are, but if my suspicions are correct, I suspect all three of these doctors are currently MIA, just like Dr. Stone.

Either way, we definitely weren’t meant to see this. And if this team has been assembled in this… underground lab that Dr. Stone proposed to President Scott, does that mean that what happened in Piedmont involves a biological attack? Or… what, an extraterrestrial infection? That sort of thing only happens in movies… It just seems too surreal to imagine.

Several people sent messages encouraging me to keep looking for a link that connected Dr. Stone to Major Keene… and after two days of digging through the library archives, this is the only thing that has turned up. I’m assuming this is what they wanted me to find:

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So Major Keene is not only the hero of the Houston incident, but a distinguished scientist. I’ve never even heard of the virus discussed in this article, but apparently it’s important in the scientific world, and the source of a bitter dispute between Keene and Stone. But I was reluctant to post this, because even if it does show that there’s a history between the two of them, I have no idea what this has to do with Piedmont. Are Stone and Keene both involved, somehow?

I’m getting more and more worried that I’ve been wasting time following dead ends. I don’t see how knowing any of this is going to help me figure out what happened in Piedmont, or what happened to my family.

Well, I just got finished talking to Lance Stone. With some convincing from those of you who friended him on Facebook, he agreed to IM for a few minutes this evening.

He didn’t have a lot to say, but he did confirm that his father is not on a family vacation, as his automated message indicates. I’ve copied the transcript of the conversation here so that the rest of you can see what he said for yourselves.

(view as PDF)

So Stone didn’t go on vacation. He did, however, get into a car with some official-sounding types, and his son hasn’t heard from him since…