Operation HUMBUG Part 1

If this corrective effort fails, millions of human bodies will indeed inevitably be chopped to pieces and chewed up by iron and gas. But even the habitues of the chthonic forces of terror will not learn one-tenth of what nature promises its less idly curious, but more sober children, who possess  in technology not a fetish of doom but a key to happiness. They will demonstrate this sobriety the moment they refuse to acknowledge the next  war as an incisive magical turning point, and instead discover in it the image of  everyday actuality. And they will demonstrate it when they use this discovery to transform this war into civil war and thereby perform that Marxist trick which alone is a match for this sinister runic humbug.
-Walter Benjamin, Theories of German Fascism (1930)

With Halina Esfahani (aka SHIELD MAIDEN) being remanded to "recommended" psych ward by her parents, Peter DeVille (Zonnenrand) electing to be a cooperative witness in his own trial, and their "mass shooting as mass ritual" plot being thoroughly thwarted, Operation OPAQUE LENS can be considered a resounding success. But there's more to this case than two lost souls choosing stochastic terrorism. 
 

Shortly before Halina's hard drive fried itself, a mocking notepad message typed itself on the monitor, indicating that parties unknown had full access to her machine remotely. Fraught interrogations indicated that Halina was a "consort" of an online, right wing occultic milieu calling itself the "Higher Order." One with more rigorous OPSEC and cybersecurity than most, and one with access to Real Occult Power through the amassing of a digital library of tomes. 

Though OPSEC protocols are only as good as the willingness to follow them.  Halina, or "Klaus Barbi Girl" to use her online moniker, maintained a telegram chat with another member of the Higher Order going by "Serrano's Shadow." Though he did not reveal his name or the name of his band, he intimated to Halina that he'd be playing at the Spahn in Culver City in early May. If H-Cell can positively ID "Serrano's Shadow," they could potentially get access to the Higher Order's custom server "The Great Library" without arousing suspicion. Well, that's the ideal, at least.

Posted May 3, 2024