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FROM: 011010010
TO: 0000010101, 000011010, 001000110, 001001011
RE: TARGET 0010111010110, CODE NAME INTRUDER
Acquired Intruder in Rural-Class Community 00101010100101 (Freeland, Iowa). Attached fax 00000001 is a single page of paper, which had been distributed widely throughout the city, in newspapers, on telephone poles and in churches, places of business and other widely visited locations:
(Attachment 000000001)
WEDNESDAY ONLY!
Are you LOST?
Are you SICK?
Are you LONELY?
Do you have a NEED?
MONEY?
LOVE?
HOPE?
Then:
COME TO THE REVIVAL!
REVEREND O'MEAGAN'S REDEMPTION REVIVAL
Featuring Sister Ruby and the Salvation Choir
FREE!
If you are LOST, Jesus is the ONE who will FIND you.
If you are SICK, Jesus is the ONE who will HEAL you.
If you are LONELY, Jesus is the ONE who will COMFORT you.
If you are in NEED, Jesus is the ONE who will FILL THAT NEED.
Only through FAITH IN GOD will you RECEIVE WHAT YOU NEED.
THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST!
COME TO THE REVIVAL!
(End Attachment)
The attention level of the community was significantly higher than average: on the order of 15.892 times higher than would normally be expected under such circumstances (according to NWO Standard Reaction Analysis Document 0032718, on file.) I believe this is due to advance work by Intruder's employees, who spread several rumors about the organization well before it's arrival.
A precis of several rumors I heard in my stay in Freeland follows:
When Wednesday arrived, I proceeded to the Revival Show to surveil. There was a large tent set up outside the town. Parking was $2. Neon lights in the shape of a cross were at each corner of the tent. Garish paintings of various Biblical scenes were done on each square of canvas (This unit is cleared for Biblical investigation under General Investigation Order 0010100110101011-01010-010-1). I entered the tent to find that folding chairs were set up facing a large low wooden stage with low ramps leading up to it on all sides. A schematic is appended as Attachment 000000010:
(Attachment 000000010 deleted for space)
I immediately performed a scan for Anomalous Paradigmal Perturbations using a 992-717 unit and discovered nothing usual. The readout is appended as Attachment 000000011:
(Attachment 000000011 deleted for space)
Soon the tent was filled with inhabitants of the community: families, individuals, many of whom, disturbingly, were not regular churchgoers. After a wait of 16.7721 minutes, the stage lights came on and the lights over the audience went down.
The choir, which a scan revealed only to be ordinary musicians, began singing a loud, boisterous hymn. After three such songs, the one identified as "Sister Ruby" (an obvious pseudonym) introduced Reverend O'Meagan. The Masses were extremely excited by the music, and were applauding in a rousing manner when "Reverend O'Meagan" took the stage.
Intruder's physical description is that of average height (within .001 standard deviations), average weight (within .001 standard deviations), blue eyes, dark brown hair, moderate complexion and average-class build. Intruder wore a sequined blue jacket emblazoned with glow-in-the-dark crosses, a grey flannel work shirt and black slacks. He carried a Bible and gesticulated with it as he spoke.
A transcript of Intruder's words follows in Attachment 000000100:
(Attachment 000000100 edited for brevity:)
"Those lawyers back in New York City don't want you to trust Jesus. Those bankers over in Los Angeles, California don't want you to trust God. They want you to work for them so that they don't have to. They want you to bring them food so they don't have to go. They want you to FAIL...so that THEY can SUCCEED. BUT!Intruder's speech was punctuated with shouts from the choir and from the audience. In many situations, he would elicit responses from the audience: "Amen" (6 times), "Hallelujah" (6 times), "Praise God" (4 times), "Praise Jesus" (4 times). The excitement level of the crowd was exceptionally high. It should be noted that at no time did the Reality Stress Perturbation Apparatus register anything above background levels.God takes care of his own. God knows who has faith and who doesn't. The Holy Book promises that God will take care of his children and Ladies and Gentlemen of Freeland, Iowa, I stand before you tonight and I say to you that although the lawyers may break their contracts and the bankers may break their word of honor that GOD DOES NOT BREAK HIS PROMISES!"
After 56.7271 minutes, Intruder stated the following:
"I feel God moving in Freeland! I feel the power of the Holy Spirit moving towards your needs!"He then began indicating members of the audience and several of their unfulfilled resource needs:
Mortgage (7 times), Family Matters (6 times), Illness (6 times) Crop Illness (4 times), Miscellaneous Money Matters (8 times, each one enumerated in full.)
The audience's excitement level skyrocketed: each indication was apparently totally accurate. Note that there was no, repeat, zero Reality Stress Perturbations during this period.
24.17823 minutes passed, during which the choir and Intruder kept the crowd at a fever pitch. Then he made the claim that the problems he named could only be solved through the power of God. 2.71 minutes passed, in which he built up to a major climax, and then shouted that he felt the healing power of Jesus in his fingertips, and leapt into the audience. Finally, there was some indication on the Reality Stress Perturbation unit. I also used the Life Sign Indicator Unit 09091-82 to determine exactly what was happening.
DISEASE RESULT STRESS Major Arthritis Walker discarded, total cure .0018 Chicken Pox Lessening of swelling, cure .00014 Common Cold Immediate cure negligible Flu Immediate cure .002 Lymphatic Cancer Immediate cure .00012 Cardiac Convulsions Immediate cure .00123 Crop Blight Immediate cure .00021 (several cases)As you can see, this is a terribly low reading, but all diagnostics indicated that the Perturbation unit was operating to within .00001 units of accuracy. It was then that I realized the full danger of this offshoot paradigm: it fosters such powerful belief that it reduces Perturbation temporarily.
What's more, at the end of the meeting, after the donation cans were passed (they collected $9,721.72), the Mental Aberration Quotient of the crowd measured at 6927173.72 times higher than it had when they went in. The DEI unit started to report malfunctions and I was forced to leave the area immediately.
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The Reverend Alfred O'Meagan is a thorn in the side of the Technocracy and the Celestial Chorus. The Technocracy despises him because he goes about restoring the faith and belief in God on which the Chorus was founded in the Dark Ages. The Chorus despises him because he fights dirty, often using no magic at all to do his work, ignoring Chorus cant about "The One" and "all religions being the same" and "the need to take care of the Sleepers." He considers it a fair trade to take a town's money and leave it hope instead. In the most extreme cases, Technocratic influence over a community can be lost temporarily due to the re-emergence of Faith. O'Meagan has singlehandedly given True Faith to 18 people since he began his organization 5 years ago, and he himself doesn't have one single bit. He is very difficult for the Technocracy to fight: if any arrive to countermagic him, he simply "goes Sleeper" for a night, and darned if the result isn't the same...
The Reverend Alfred O'Meagan
STR-1 DEX-2 STA-3 CHA-5 MAN-3 APP-2 PER-3 APP-2 WIT-4Talents: Alertness 1, Awareness 3, Expression 1, Intuition 3, Subterfuge 3
Skills: Drive 1, Etiquette 1, Leadership 5, Survival 1, Technology 1
Knowledges: Culture 1 (Reverend O'Meagan has an exhaustive knowledge of rural American cultures), Investigation 2, Law 2, Mimicry 2 (Reverend O'Meagan has an exhaustive repertoire of American accents: wherever he happens to be, he's always a local boy.)
Backgrounds: Avatar 2, Allies/Resources 6 (Reverend O'Meagan is the head of a large operation: it makes money, but everything not used to pay workers or maintain and improve the show is used in the community where they got it: usually unmarked envelopes containing anonymous donations. "Cast your bread upon the waters..."), Fame 1
Willpower: 5
Arete: 4
Spheres:
Up to the Celestial Chorus PageAnders Sandberg / nv91-asa@nada.kth.se