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The transmission opens with the Anchor at the desk, explaining that yesterday’s Veiler threat was neutralized by the decoy route that sent them away from the University of Chicago and instead to one of its Centers. The Anchor then asks for the solution to the cipher, which the participants provide. The video then cuts once again to the Veiler’s perspective: a hand rifling about in the contents of the Go game in an unidentified room.
Cutting back to the Anchor, the participants are asked to engage in another calibration protocol: a series of ethical questions that are meant to calibrate the “Affective processor.” The Anchor and the viewers supply a variety of poignant answers to the following questions, achieving 400% calibration:
- What does your present in 2019 owe to 2049, and what does your future of 2049 owe to your present in 2019?
- What does an individual owe in response to a global problem such as climate change? How far must any person go in changing their actions or habits?
- This system that I live within is broken. The Veilers have taken power. They have found ways of feeding a large population and keeping them alive, but they have also undermined so many personal rights and freedoms in the process. Most of us believe that this has to change. Is it preferable to change the system from within or to destroy it?
- The Veilers come to your home. They tell you that the Anchor (Yours Truly) has committed crimes by being part of an organization that conducts dangerous experiments with time communication. They tell you that you are their best hope for righting this injustice. You know where the Anchor is located. Do you tell the Veilers?
The Anchor is encouraged by and proud of the conversation, and the efforts being made to gain access to the SPORE. The next cipher is projected on the back wall as: “13 23 24 13 11 22 34 / 12 34 34 44 23 / 31 34 33 14 34 33,” and the Anchor offers the hint “tap your way through the sequence.” As the stream concludes, a transparent figure enters the frame — an echo from an alternative timeline. This figure is the first Anchor, Professor Patrick Jagoda. The figure frantically moves across the back of the room, bracing himself against walls before acknowledging first the seated Anchor, and then the camera and participants. The stream ends.
Within minutes of the stream ending, the players recognize the numbers as a Playfair cipher and solve the answer “Chicago/Booth/London”. After solving this cipher, they conduct research to learn that, while a Playfair cipher has a key, the version they completed would actually be called a Tap Code.
