Ch 5 We're not Alone!
"Jocasta, do me a favor and run a background search on Asheboro checking for any connections between it and any subsidiaries, spin-offs, etc of an entity called Lotus Enterprises," Kevin told the team's AI then looked to the others, including William.
"So yeah, about four years ago this bunch was developing "crowd-control techniques," "non-lethal weaponry" and so-called "preemptive pacification measures" and stuff," Kevin told them making finger quotes as needed. "Basically these assholes were in the business of low-grade mind control, helping despots maintain power by controlling their populations. Subliminal advertising, chemicals in the food to boost suggestibility, that shit. They operated in the Balkan regions and were disappearing homeless, refugees and local Romany to use as test subjects. I figured to be going after them for Dev when he nixed it."
"And it was because that Doom guy that runs Latveria went scorched-fucking-earth on their asses," Kevin told. "No survivors among them. Except the prisoners. They were okay. Ended up in Latveria. From what I've heard about the place it means they're still kinda prisoners, but at least they're not lab rats anymore."
"Any way, Lotus's research focus was on weaponizing depression. Sapping the will. It's not like you loved your despot or anything like that, you just couldn't be arse to care about overthrowing him," Kevin continued. "Kind of like the way this reporter dude doesn't seem to give a crap about... the news."
"I don't know that's what this is. Honestly, I don't think that's what this is. Doom was pretty damned thorough. And if it's him, why the hell would he do this in Asheboro even as a test run? Still, we're gonna wanna be careful. Noise-filtering earplugs. Light-filtering glasses. Nose-filters. If I could set us up with NBC suits that didn't look like NBC suits, I'd do it," Kevin concluded.