Day One Day Two Day Three Day Four Day Five Day Six Day Seven Day Eight

Using the directions Gideon gave, Tex travels to the NEXUS lab, where Greg Call was hiding out before he died.

Greg Call's Lab/NEXUS

 

As Tex enters the NEXUS lab, he enters a scanning area. A white glowing light shines down from above, and a computer voice tells him to stand by for the scan. The section of floor Tex is standing on begins to rotate, and various monitors around the room show Tex's skeletal structure, vital signs, etc. When Tex has made one complete rotation, the floor stops.
The lights in the room die, and a single red light shines on Tex's head. A monitor nearby shows a side view of Tex's head, and the picture is changed, layer by layer, until a view of Tex's brain can be seen. A small square pinpoints an area of Tex's brain, and a warning message flashes.

Once inside the lab, get the notes from the clipboard hanging from the exam table. Examine the notes, and Tex will decide that he's been implanted with the P333 implant. The one nicknamed "Overseer" in the note from the Fresno office. Now he needs to find the right Kamikaze implant to neutralize the Overseer. Before you go looking for it, though, be sure to get the passcard from the clipboard, too.

In the corner of the lab is Call's computer. Approach it, and get the newspaper clipping from underneath the keyboard. Examine the clipping to learn more about Val Davis's death.
Next, find the chip-making machine made by Frito-Intel. On top of the machine is a syringe. Get it.

Find the wall of autoclaves. We're looking for the one labeled N216, which should contain the Kamikaze implant we need to get rid of the Overseer. It's the one in the upper right-hand corner.

On the wall next to N216 is a passcard scanner. Use the Gideon Enterprises passcard on the scanner, and the autoclaves will open. Get the bottle of saline soluition from the N216 autoclave.
Combine the saline solution with the syringe to load the syringe with the Kamikaze implant.
Examine the combined syringe/solution...and wince if you're squeemish.
For the Kamikaze to work, we need to guide it to the Overseer implant.  Go to the Implant Removal System, and turn it on.
A view of Tex's brain will appear. Follow the path traced in blue below to reach the Overseer implant. Watch out for the antibodies that course through Tex's brain. They're out to destroy the Kamikaze, which they see as an infection.

When the implant is neutralized, Tex will hear someone entering the lab. He finds a place to hide, and waits to see who's visiting.

That "someone" turns out to be our mysterious informant. He enters the lab cautiously, and takes a look around.

"Hello?   Hello??"

On the chance that someone is hiding and waiting for him, which is true, he calls out: "Okay, I'm really not very good with surprises!"

Tex emerges from behind the console he was hiding behind. "Well, if it isn't my mystery man. What's your name?" he says.

"Larry Hammond," he says. "I would've told you earlier but I have some serious trust issues going on. With all that's happened, I've got the right to be a little paranoid."

Larry Hammond. That was one of the names on Slade's hit list.

Tex asks Larry what he knows, from the top, starting with Linsky.

"Well, Linsky and I both worked on STG," Larry says. "But I didn't know him back then. I recognized his picture in the paper from when he had his suicide."

"Well, that's helpful. How about STG?" Tex asks.

"It was a really mysterious operation," Larry says. "When Greg brought me in to do some programming, I didn't know anybody on the design team and we weren't encouraged to get to know each other either. Once we got our instructions, we went off to work in different places. None of us knew what each other was working on."

Tex asks Larry who was in charge of the project. Larry tells him that Call had been there the longest, and that he pretty much ran everything, but when Tex asks him if Call was "Overlord," Larry says no. He says there had to have been higher-ups.

Larry goes on to tell Tex that Greg Call had contacted him, wanting his help to locate the other STG passcards. He gives Tex his card, along with an envelope given to him by Call.

"Now, he said don't open it unless something happened to him," Larry says. "I think something happened to him."

"What are we supposed to do with it?" Tex asks.

"What are we supposed to do with it?" Larry says. "Uh uh. It's your problem now. I told you everything I know, I gave you a passcard, and I gave you what Greg gave me. I'm out of here. I'm gonna go somewhere and try not to get killed. Hasta la pasta, baby!"

Larry goes to the door but Tex calls after him. "Hey, Larry. Thanks for the help."

"Anytime."

After Larry leaves, examine the stuff he gave you. A word is written on the envelope: WARD. There are two notes inside.
One of the notes contains a bunch of chess terms, and the guidelines for some kind of chess simulation called "Stalemate."

The other note is a message to Larry, but the wording seems kind of...off. Maybe this letter was written in some kind of secret language known only to Larry and Call. Or maybe it's just written so that anyone who doesn't know how to read it will be lost. But we might know how to read it.

Remember the note from the UPEX package at the Fresno office? It said that one of Call's codes was to use every third or fourth word in a message, usually starting with the name or first word. Let's see if that works.

Starting with the first word, "Larry," go through the letter by every third word. Using this method you'll get: "Larry, sure should this can to a can out..."

That doesn't seem to be working, so let's try every fourth word: "Larry, if you can figure this out my pass word follows in the first letters. Good Am Most Brain In The." So Call's password is...GAMBIT.

We've got Call's password, now we need his card and his passcard reader. It's kind of dark to be looking around in here, though. I think we need some more light. That big light panel by the door should help. Flip it on.

Well...hello. Something is sihllouetted when we turn on the light. Something small and rectangular. Something card shaped. Move the front of the panel to get what's behind it: Greg Call's passcard.

Now we need his passcard reader.
Look on the long shelf on the wall by the autoclave. Call's passcard reader is on top. Now we're good to go.
Go to Call's computer, hook up the passcard reader, and scan the passcard. When prompted, enter Call's password: GAMBIT, and listen as Greg Call answers a lot of questions from beyond the grave.

Greg Call's face appears on the screen, and begins to fill in many of the gaps.

"To Larry or whoever's watching this, I'll have to assume that my first plan has failed... and I'm probably dead. The purpose of this message is a warning, and afterwards my computer will reformat, so listen up.

"I've enjoyed a long friendship with J. Saint Gideon, we founded Gideon Enterprises together years ago, and I believe that he is a good man and has honorable intentions regardless of how I may disagree with his philosophy.

"For years he has worked on a program called Overlord - a world-wide surveillance system which would allow him ultimately to control key political figures - thereby speeding up the world peace process.

"This was all made possible about a year ago. A breakthrough in nanotechnology allowed us to create microscopic devices that, once implanted inside someone, would allow us to control the physiological reactions, the chemical reactions, make the person a slave to positive response.

"And in this way was born the STG project, sort of a Pavlovian remote control program. We recruited seven other scientists and put them on different phases of the project so none of them would know what the entire project was about. We gave them passcards which allow them to transmit data to a central Overlord computer.

"I found out shortly thereafter that John Klaus, one of the scientists, was intending to sell out the project to the Law and Order party. When I went to Gideon with my fears, he disregarded them. Either he knew something that I didn't, or he was simply too obsessed to listen to reason. Regardless, I took it upon myself to implement a fail-safe program into Overlord which I called STALEMATE.

"Now in order to activate this STALEMATE fail-safe program in the Overlord system, all eight STG passcards are required. I made a plan to track down the other seven passcards. I started with Carl Linsky's home once I'd learned that he'd committed suicide but I was unable to find the card.

"The thought crossed my mind that since Carl Linsky and John Klaus were friends, that possibly Linsky staged his own death and is working with Law and Order and John Klaus, but I can't substantiate that.

"At this point I'm not sure who I can trust, outside of Larry Hammond and J. Saint Gideon, though I'm not sure how much J. Saint Gideon will listen to me at this point. Regardless, Gideon's program, Overlord, must be deactivated. If not by me, then by whoever is watching this."

Click here to continue...