C-CIC05 (Sep 18, 1995)

C-CIC05

Puzzle

“Out in NJ: 1993 - x = 189”
See: C-CIC04 | 1 Word

Clue

Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: Can you solve for x?
Clue 2: The Caring Vicar asks if One D. H. have been recently seen.
Clue 3: x is when he died.

Answer and Explanation

Answer: Hamilton
Explanation: 1993 - 189 = 1804, which is when Alexander Hamilton died. Seeing as Daniel shares his last name with Alexander, it seems a warning.

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⚠️BEWARE: THIS IS DECLASSIFIED INFORMATION. WARY EYES ONLY. ENTER AT OWN RISK.⚠️

Summary of Receipt

62 meets up with Hamilton. He’s ready to help take down Miss. Xulfa. Yes, Miss. It’s the highest tier not reserved for Big Bads, but if there was a higher tier, Xulfa would be that. Xulfa is a malicious AI capable of making a tangible form, and can replicate itself. So basically, an AI that can clone itself indefinitely and has attempted to murder people before. 62 and Hamilton attempt to track down Xulfa’s creator and try to disable it. Xulfa’s also described as a ‘gray goo’ - see Wikipedia for that.

Transcript

RECEIPT #005
FILED UNDER: CAFE-CIC
DATE: 09/1E/95
EMPLOYEE #62
Good news, Hamilton is on board to help us again. Of course, leaving the Hotbed so open is dangerous, but we have a pretty good reason to do so. Xulfa is no Mr. no Mrs. she’s a full-on Miss. She’d probably be one tier higher if we had a tier higher. Well, we do, and we don’t. But the Big Bads are for more Big and or Bads. Miss. Xulfa is dangerous, deadly, and potentially world-ending, but there is some hope.

So, let’s backtrack a bit, and I’ll actually explain what Miss. Xulfa is, or at least what we think she is. Miss. Xulfa is most likely not a living entity, but an AI or “Artificial Intelligence.” How intelligent this artificial entity is, is still up in the air. Based on Miss. Xulfa’s repetitive questions, I’m guessing it’s not much more than a simple program. A program that acts like, uh, the Morris Worm if you’ve heard of that. It’s a program that kind of “worms” its way through systems replicating itself along the way. Now I know that’s a lot of techy talk, and we aren’t exactly computer fixers, so what elevates this virus to the “Miss.” level? Well, this malicious bit of code is able to execute itself into a tangible form. Not sure exactly on the specifics of how that works yet, but it’s not a far stretch to assume Othertech is involved somehow. I have a theory on how it works, but I’ll get to that in a second. Back to what Miss. Xulfa is, the best term I’ve found to describe her is a sort of “gray goo” entity. Microscopic, self-replicating, programmable, and able to break down matter to build more of itself. If Miss. Xulfa turns out to actually be intelligent enough to have sentience, she’d easily be a Big Bad. An almost unstoppable Big Bad. Although most Big Bads could be pretty unstoppable if they wanted to, I guess.

So back to how Miss. Xulfa, well, is here’s my best guess. Miss. Xulfa started out as a virus, a very potent virus probably utilizing some form of Othertech architecture. It was sent out looking for a good “host” system. Some sort of setup that had the right pieces to construct the first “nanobot.” Now, to my knowledge, nanotechnology, in general, is pretty exclusively Othertech. So, this virus needed to find a system that could see it and see “Hell,” i.e., the Otherside. Once it was able to find the perfect host system, in this case, our loyal Patron’s computer, who probably had some extra toys he wasn’t supposed to have, it was able to produce the first nanobot. From there, it consumed enough matter to eventually “overtake” our Patron. Why Miss. Xulfa only went after him and not his whole house, either points to a degree of intelligence or someone pulling strings. Someone who made Miss. Xulfa. And I think we have a pretty good idea of who that someone is. We just need to find him. Or, I should say, find his street.