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Exposing them to something. Infecting them with something. With what, precisely, and to what purpose, I have no idea. Again, there are skeleton records to suggest that the effects of this infection, whatever it was, were studied over a period of years, but no hard data remain.

Whatever the nature of the infection was, the mortality rate was high, running from seventy-five percent at the start to maybe fifty percent by the end.

Those who survived, and were old enough by this point to remember the procedures, were given post-hypnotic blocks and reintroduced to the general population by way of foster homes and adoption services. It’s not outside the bounds of possibility to imagine that a number of mothers got their supposedly deceased infants back under a new guise.

In any case, Stanley, it struck me that these kids are now old enough to have children of their own. That got me thinking, so I ran some comparisons and extrapolations from such data as remains extant.

Your missing kids, Stanley, the disappearances you’re investigating, are the children of the Janus Program subjects.

I think somebody, somewhere is covering his tracks. Like I said, the background material on this thing goes as far back as the death camps-and like the death camps, I suspect that all of this was done for no consistent or coherent reason at all. It was done for the simple reason that someone could do it and get away with it.

It hasn’t ended, Stanley. It hasn’t stopped. The disappearances of the kids, the murders in [section deliberately defaced from source] are just the visible tip, for the simple reason that this was where the victims were most concentrated. Is the same thing happening, to some less noticeable extent, throughout the entire country? The entire world..?

This is all too big for me, Stanley. It’s just too big. I said I’d never thought of myself as a coward, but I’ve been lying awake nights, just wondering what people with those kind of resources-people capable of even countenancing these things-are capable of doing to me.

You, too, Stanley. My advice to you is to drop it. Leave it alone and walk away. Find yourself a rock or something and crawl under it and hide.

They’re just going to do this, and do it, and keep on doing it-and you can try to pretend it’s not happening or you can stand in their way and let them roll right over you.

There’s just no way you’re ever going to stop it.

Radio None

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“And our top story of this cycle must be the tragic collapse of the Golden Gate Bridge, killing seventy-five thousand. The death-count is so high because this once-historic construction was at the time blockaded by a coalition of demonstrators protesting US involvement in the Congolese War.

“We here at WWAXXZY News fully support freedom of speech and the expression of ideas of all kinds, however repugnant they might be to right-thinking citizens of this great country of ours.

“We have to ask, though, in the light of such an appalling tragedy-should we not be thinking of curtailing the free expression of ideas to gatherings of no more than, say, three men and a dog? We here at WWAXXZY News say yes, and if Amendment 7054 is passed, you won’t be able to say anything other than yes either.

“What makes the atrocity doubly vile, White House sources say, is that there are strong suggestions that it can be traced to Congolese-backed terrorists themselves, loosening the cables, as opposed to simple faulty maintenance. Despite the White House’s statement, rumours are already circulating some of the more scurrilous datanet sites that it may actually have been carried out by rogue elements within our very own government. The conspiracy theory goes that they wanted to kill two birds with one stone by inflaming the Congolese situation and removing opposition in one fell swoop.

“The terrorists responsible are still at large. They could be anywhere. They could be anyone, even people known to you. Stay in your homes. Stay off the streets. Stay in your blocks. Report any suspicious activity-any activity at all-to representatives of your local officially designated Black Squad.

“In other news, the body of controversial rap music, action figure and sex industry entrepreneur Big Master X was found floating in New York’s Hudson River today. Although a suicide note was found pinned to his body, the boys at NYPD Inc. are refusing to rule out foul play. Our love and thoughts go out to the family and friends of Big Master X during this difficult time. To read the suicide note in full, log into the WWAXXZY datanet using the keyword ‘floatingfatboy’ and remember to have your cashplastic at the ready.

“And on a lighter note, old William Hicks is at it again. Originally intended to address the Golden Gate rally himself, the senator was discovered last night, wandering Times Square in New York, without his trousers and muttering that he had seen proof that both the US Government and the Multicorps are colluding to cover up the fact that we are all of us living in a recursive virtual reality which vast and unimaginable Entities from outside space and time are playing like a game.

“Well, if that were true, it’s certainly game over for Mr Hicks in this presidential race. Relentless indeed, Bill.