Handouts and Evidence | Shadows of the Compañeros

A document should create a person to protect, a power to confront, or a choice about publication.

Handout: The Soldier’s Journal

9 Quintilis

Weather easing. Patrol returned from the north ridge. Orders came down to clear a Tarlaxian encampment inland. “No survivors.” I stayed back under pretext of tending supplies. The lads came back quiet. A few would not meet my eyes. Others laughed like it was a hunt.

10 Quintilis

Quartermaster brought me to inspect merchandise at the hill compound, five hundred paces from the main house. Entrance through the stable cellar. Underground, pens like a marketplace. Rows of people. Even younglings. One buyer wanted special goods. They showed him the smaller pen.

11 Quintilis

Another buyer today. Stroomdijk accent, boots red with dust from the low road. Wanted to test the goods. One of ours protested. They knocked him down and ordered the rest to fall in.

14 Quintilis, Evening

Distant gunfire from the coast. Word in the ranks says the man in charge is dead. Orders to pack light and move inland before nightfall. Not a planned retreat.

17 Quintilis

Rations low. Some lads keep staring into the trees like they see something. If I make it back, this book goes to someone who will use it. If I do not, I hope whoever finds this reads enough to know.

Handout: Resa’s Three Contradictions

NOTE	SURFACE MEANING	HIDDEN MESSAGE
“Pressure stable at twelve.”	The vessel is within transport tolerance.	The gauge never reads twelve in the chamber; the report is dictated.
“No eastern response observed.”	The device is isolated from outside fields.	Every real test warmed the eastern brass rail.
“Named subject absent.”	No unauthorized person entered the laboratory.	The named person or witness is present, and Resa wants investigators to ask why the report names them.

“Pressure stable at twelve.”

SURFACE MEANING: The vessel is within transport tolerance.
HIDDEN MESSAGE: The gauge never reads twelve in the chamber; the report is dictated.

“No eastern response observed.”

SURFACE MEANING: The device is isolated from outside fields.
HIDDEN MESSAGE: Every real test warmed the eastern brass rail.

“Named subject absent.”

SURFACE MEANING: No unauthorized person entered the laboratory.
HIDDEN MESSAGE: The named person or witness is present, and Resa wants investigators to ask why the report names them.