Post by Catsmate on Apr 5, 2022 10:38:43 GMT
It’s Quantum....
Two days ago programming wunderkid Lachlan Hayes was reported missing by his employers Starbright Quantum Solutions. The company has influence and managed to get the police to take the disappearance of an adult, with no suggestions of accident, let alone foul play, seriously1.
Hayes was missing for two days when the police were notified and they performed a wellness check on his luxury apartment with the aid of a management masterkey. They didn't find (and haven’t found) Hayes.
However an unusually thorough investigation by the bored PCSO2 upon whom the task descended has found an anomaly. Perhaps....
She found CCTV footage of Hayes in multiple places at the same time. Or at least sufficiently far apart that he couldn't plausibly have managed to travel between them.
Specifically on the second day of his 'disappearance'
The locations are too far apart for plausible travel. The police right-off the matter as issues with the timestamps on the video recordings.
The PCSO is a 'special', one of that nebulous network of contacts that UNIT has established to gather low-level intelligence and act as an early warning network. She checked the timestamps and they're insufficient to explain the anomaly. She emailed an anonymous address with the details and uploaded the files.
UNIT flagged the matter because of the nature of the work being done by Hayes and his employer. SQS is involved with cutting, not to say bleeding, edge research into quantum phenomena. Naturally UNIT have someone on the inside; while they didn't report on Hayes's disappearance (considering it insignificant) they did find that his boss, Dr. Imaad Schaffer, is frantic, SQS are very keen to find Hayes (and have employed their own investigators; they suspect Hayes of industrial espionage).
Oh and an experimental Quantum Processing Unit has disappeared.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Which suggests a serious degree of influence.
2. Police community support officer. Not a genuine, warranted and sworn, constable but almost there.
Two days ago programming wunderkid Lachlan Hayes was reported missing by his employers Starbright Quantum Solutions. The company has influence and managed to get the police to take the disappearance of an adult, with no suggestions of accident, let alone foul play, seriously1.
Hayes was missing for two days when the police were notified and they performed a wellness check on his luxury apartment with the aid of a management masterkey. They didn't find (and haven’t found) Hayes.
However an unusually thorough investigation by the bored PCSO2 upon whom the task descended has found an anomaly. Perhaps....
She found CCTV footage of Hayes in multiple places at the same time. Or at least sufficiently far apart that he couldn't plausibly have managed to travel between them.
Specifically on the second day of his 'disappearance'
- He left his apartment building at 09:13
- He visited a hardware store at 09:22. The store is eleven kilometres away from the building.
- He used an ATM, withdrawing £1,500 in multiple transactions, at 09:35. The ATM is off a busy shopping street and around nine kilometres from the hardware shop.
- He was caught on the street near a court building at 09:43.
The locations are too far apart for plausible travel. The police right-off the matter as issues with the timestamps on the video recordings.
The PCSO is a 'special', one of that nebulous network of contacts that UNIT has established to gather low-level intelligence and act as an early warning network. She checked the timestamps and they're insufficient to explain the anomaly. She emailed an anonymous address with the details and uploaded the files.
UNIT flagged the matter because of the nature of the work being done by Hayes and his employer. SQS is involved with cutting, not to say bleeding, edge research into quantum phenomena. Naturally UNIT have someone on the inside; while they didn't report on Hayes's disappearance (considering it insignificant) they did find that his boss, Dr. Imaad Schaffer, is frantic, SQS are very keen to find Hayes (and have employed their own investigators; they suspect Hayes of industrial espionage).
Oh and an experimental Quantum Processing Unit has disappeared.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
1. Which suggests a serious degree of influence.
2. Police community support officer. Not a genuine, warranted and sworn, constable but almost there.
