Noah,

There is an entry in the index under Otis Johnson’s name. Do not read it unless Lin asks you to. This same warning is there in the entry. She doesn’t want us to remember what she did unless we need to. We don’t want to remember it either. All we need to know is that it was ugly and it got results.

Here’s the takeaway: one of the first things Jeff did after he robbed us and stabbed Mrs. Hastings was to use some of the resources the CPP provided him with to set up this death trap. Otis got a fat monthly payment to stay in town and keep a small radio receiver on him at all times. I checked it out after Otis was dead and it was a modded out version of one of the debug access points Jeff stole from the lab, tweaked to pick up all the frequencies the bots can speak anywhere in a wide radius. It must have triggered as soon as we got into town. Once he got the beep from the receiver, Otis was supposed to call Keith, the merc that killed Yang Song. Keith had been paid an even more obscene sum to stick around town until his skills were needed and was promised double the payment once the job was done.

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And the really important part: Otis had a phone number to call once the job was done to report in and get the completion bonuses for both of them. Jeff would have wanted to hear about this, so there’s a chance he might still have the phone that number goes to. Our first solid lead in way too long.

Again, do not look in that index entry unless Lin asks you to. You really don’t want to remember what she did. Just know that whatever you need to do while you’re tracking down Jeff, Lin will understand. She gets it.

Also, don’t ever cross Lin.

She can be more terrifying than you can possibly imagine.

—Noah