Here is a lightly edited version of the report I submitted to Neuro-Operations on Friday:
I arrived on foot at the end of North Wharf slightly early at approximately 4:45pm.
Approaching the area designated in the assignment briefing, I saw a handful of people obviously fishing, and also a lone male figure seated on a bench at the left hand side of the wharf, staring out across the water, who I imagined was probably another operative. He seemed very self-contained and I didn't approach him, but instead went to the end of the wharf and surveyed the area beyond it.
Before very long a car pulled up and a portly guy, probably in his late twenties, emerged from it and started looking around. I caught his eye and we approached each other, noting each other's Neurocam identifiers as we drew closer. We introduced ourselves, both producing pens and notepads (his an A4 lecture pad, mine a little pocket notebook) to write down each others' names, with some mutual amusement at the strangeness of the situation.
He identified himself as Shemjaza or 'Shem'. Being aware of a blog maintained by a Sydney-based operative using the handle Shemyaza, I told him "I thought you lived in Sydney". He was a bit taken aback by this, claiming that he lived in Melbourne and that the blog wasn't his.
We talked a bit about about the assignment and characteristics of the location, including the people currently present at the scene. We decided to indirectly approach the young man sitting on the bench and see how he reacted.
His response to our approach was consistent with that of someone expecting to meet strangers, and once we'd exchanged cursory greetings, he produced his identifier badge from his pocket. We then introduced ourselves; he gave his name as Roger. He was probably in his late teens.
We discussed peoples' potential willingness to get their feet wet. Shem & I noted that we had both come prepared in old, unvalued footwear.
At 5pm another operative arrived on foot, a young guy in a bright orange t-shirt who approached us with little hesitation. He introduced himself as Colin. Shem & I both got out our notebooks again.
We continued to talk about the assignment; what the two items were likely to be, how many people we thought would show up, etc.
The next operative to arrive was a sturdy middle-aged man who gave his name as "04", followed shortly after by an older woman called "Arachni" ("as in spiders"), who, following initial introductions, sat down on the bench and lit up a pipe.
Next was a diminutive middle-aged man named "American Guy". Then a man in his twenties who arrived on a motorbike and introduced himself as "Wintermute" (again - there is a blogging operative purportedly located in Germany who goes by the name Wintermute, but this was pretty self-evidently a different Wintermute). Next, a woman in her twenties or early thirties called "Bunny".
(By this point, Shemjaza had fallen into the role of nametaker, and as such had become a focal point for the group. Since I was still standing next to him, and also taking notes - apparently we were the only ones doing this - whilst those who'd arrived subsequently were gathered around us in a vague semicircle, I felt a bit like the deputy sheriff, although I didn't take any kind of leadership role in subsequent proceedings. 'Shem', on the other hand, sustained a vague leadership role throughout the operation.)
Next to arrive was Jonathan, who I recognised as the fresh-faced AppleCentre retail rep from Moonie Ponds who'd started a short-lived Neuroblog earlier in the year.
Shortly after that a guy probably in his early twenties called Xade - another familiar name - accompanied by a woman of similar age who announced herself as Johanna initially, later defaulting to JoJo,
A large group arrived next. At Shemjaza's request, they announced their names: "MK Ultra" (male, in his 20s-30s?), "Benjamin" (male, teens), Tosh (male, unsure), "Plasmo" (female, teens or early 20s), "Dubya" (male, teens or early 20s), "Fraggle" (male, 50s), "Tillops" (male, unsure), "BishBash" (unsure), and "Binkus" (unsure).
They were followed by "Fleegle" (female, 20s?).
At approximately 5:10pm, Shemjaza asked for a show of hands: who was willing to get their feet wet? Maybe ten or so people were. He proposed that those operatives explore the area beyond the edge of the wharf - i.e. the rocks leading down to the water, and around the pillars under the bridge - whilst everyone else covered the remaining area. A vague consensus was reached that anyone who found anything interesting should yell out, and that if no one was able to find anything after 20 minutes or so, we should reassemble at the bench to restrategise.
Whilst these arrangements were being discussed, two more ops arrived, "Nathan" (male, teens or early 20s) and "AliasK" (male, teens), the latter another op with whom I was familiar from the blogosphere. [Note: Nathan, who has since changed his operative ID, is known online as Random Voodoo.]
I opted to start off searching the rocks leading down to the water. I scrutinised many plastic bottles and peered into many nooks and crannies. I pulled a red plastic chair out of the water, but it was revealed to be just a red plastic chair.
I moved down towards the bridge pillars and joined the group investigating that area.
At around 5:20pm we heard shouts from the surface of the wharf. A group had assembled around an area on its right hand edge, facing the river.
Operative Nathan had discovered a stoppered glass bottle suspended over the edge of the wharf on a length of string. The bottle was filled with yellow water, and contained a small piece of paper with Neurocam branding on one side, and the number "236 405" handwritten on the other.
Whilst this object was being examined and discussed, it emerged that American Guy had discovered something else of interest - a handbag filled mostly with women's clothes (e.g. a short black skirt; some stockings; some cartoonishly old-fashioned, very conservative underwear which, if I recall correctly, included a corset; a pair of circular plastic clotheshangers; a spare, unopened pair of stockings; a small plastic spraybottle, which may have contained deoderant or mouth-freshener; a leather belt; and a cheap shoulder-length red-black wig) in fairly good condition. He had found this object and some other apparently related items under some bushes just outside the designated area.
These items were also examined and discussed. There was uncertainty about their relevance to the assignment. Jonathan, echoing my own thoughts asked, rhetorically: "Is anyone thinking about supermodels?" I was surprised that most of the operatives present didn't seem to understand this as a reference to Shelly Innocence, a figure with several connections to Neurocam, however ambiguous.
Some operatives, including myself, Jonathan, American Guy and Benjamin, went to make further examination of the bushes where the handbag had been found. Draped across the bushes were a sweater and blouse which seemed of a piece with the rest of the clothes, and a single long stiletto boot . (I did not establish whether these items had been found in that location or had been moved there subsequent to discovery.)
I looked inside the boot and systematically unpacked the handbag.
The banal, valueless nature of the items; their discovery outside the designated search area; and the abscence of anything which could be connected with the number in the bottle amongst them, all pointed to the conclusion that they were not what we were looking for.
However I did suspect - and continue to believe - that they were planted for the assignment by Neurocam personnel as a red herring. It was clear by this juncture, if it wasn't before, that the circumstances of the assignment had been set up deliberately by Neurocam and that contrary to the briefing, we were not engaged in a genuine interception exercise.
I moved back into the designated area and went back to exploring the rocks. I encountered Xade, who'd discovered two paper napkins with interesting messages scrawled on them in biro, both dated 28/11/04. He said he'd found them inside plastic bottles amongst the rocks.
One said something like "Max - Hi, how is everyone going. I'm in Australia. Hope you are good." The other said "[illegibly noted name] - Hi, here's a bottle and a bag."
Just as I was wondering whether this meant that maybe the handbag was important after all, excited shouts began issuing from under the bridge to the effect that "it" had been found.
"It" turned out to be a metal briefcase, which had been discovered by Operative Dubya partly concealed inside an opening on the underside of an overhead light support, attached to the furthest pillar under Bolte Bridge, facing the river.
It was unreachable without some kind of elevation. Fortunately, a ladder had been discovered in the area - perhaps near where the bottle was found, I'm unsure. Someone went and got it.
Dubya (I believe) retrieved the briefcase. Two operatives including AliasK applied the number from the paper in the bottle to the combination tumblers and the briefcase was opened to reveal a minidisc recorder.
Everyone gathered excitedly around Dubya as he played the tape. A male voice which identified itself as belonging to Charles Hastings congratulated us on successfully completing the assignment. It also:
- revealed the assignment be a staged "team training exercise";
- instructed all present to acquire a white kabuki mask for use on a future assignment, to be cut away below the upper lip, removing the chin section;
- reminded us to leave the scene as we'd found it.
- instructed Jojo to retain the briefcase, and Bunny to retain the tape player;
- reminded us to submit our reports, and not to publicise information about the assignment for the next 7 days.
Several operatives made their own recordings of the statement whilst it was played, including Ben and AliasK.
General conversation between ops ensued about the contents of the message - which many operatives, including myself, had found difficult to hear - and other details of the assignment. Some ops exchanged web and email addresses.
Someone was dispatched to return the ladder.
At around this point two males probably in their early twenties arrived at the scene. One guy was wearing a Neurocam identifier. The other claimed, upon enquiry, that he had lost his, which made the company slightly hesitant, but it seemed to be generally accepted that they were bona fide operatives, despite an initial sense of communal suspicion that they might be interlopers, or part of some kind of setup. They made comments to the effect of "What did we miss? Presumably everything", to which their were general murmurs of confirmation. Shemjaza asked for their names. The first guy identified himself as "Lord [Something]" and the second said his name was "Kane".
Xade and JoJo were standing at the base of the pillar directly under the lighting support at this juncture; Xade was brandishing the two napkins for the benefit of various operatives who wanted to photograph them. I asked him if I could note down the messages. He gave the napkins to me. I copied out their contents (very illegibly, as it turned out) then handed them back to him.
The assignment complete, and the time approaching 6pm, everyone wandered back up to the end of the wharf and started to disperse. Shem, who'd come by car, asked if anyone wanted a lift anywhere, but no one took him up on it. Walking up the wharf, I asked Ben if he'd be able to send me his audio file of the tape recording. Conversation ensued between us and a number of other ops about the possibility of setting up some kind of online repository for media files generated during the assignment
We noticed a police car passing us in the opposite direction as we walked away from the scene, and wondered if one of the fishermen had reported our weird behaviour.
