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agrees that what wreckage was recovered from the two known invasions was so far beyond even what we have today that we can’t make sense of any of it, much less figure out how to reproduce the technology. Hell, the Germans tried with one of their wonder weapons and look where it got them.  
    Sorry. Bit of a sore spot. Believe what you will on the matter. I had the misfortune of having family involved, so I got a bit of a crash course on the whole tripod bit when I was still small enough to sit in mom’s lap. So why read the obvious conspiracy nut book about them? I lost a bet and have to do a ten page writeup explaining why I think the book is stupid.  
    By the way. Both Agents are fans of Dungeon Runners. Who’d have thought eh?  
     
    CALIFORNIA, BRACE THINESELF.  
      This is me wondering if they’ll let me do a walk-on cameo in one of the back lots in LA. Bah. Don’t think Hollywood is close enough to where we’re headed to make that one work. Headed to some middle of nowhere place that’s home to the first name on our list. Old Japanese guy. Must’ve moved here after the end of World War 2. By what the reports suggest he’s something of a community fixture, so best to be gentle.  
    This is one time I’m glad Granddad isn’t here. He saw how the Japanese treated their prisoners. It... left marks on him. I’ll say no more on the matter.  
    Beth, odd name for a place, but no worse than Hell, Tombstone, or Bugtussle. Might want to pick up a few things while I’m here. Hey might as well. My lady love would be a bit irritated if I didn’t manage to bring something back with me and all. That and if they sell those Navajo inspired rugs I might want one for my living room. Anyone have any advice on what sorts of patterns to look for? I’d rather avoid anything looking too ceremonial. I remember some documentary about how many of the weavers would start incorporating stuff into their designs that traditionally would never have been allowed in something so permanent because that’s what the customers kept demanding. Could be wrong or remembering wrong. Sooo guys. Help?  
    Agent Toot has been tutoring me on the best ways to approach the old man. pity I don’t know Japanese, hope he knows English because otherwise this is going to get odd in a hurry.  
     
    DISTURBING DOES NOT EVEN BEGIN TO COVER THIS.  
      I shouldn’t believe what this man has told me. Both agents seem suspicious and thing his mind has gone, but they didn’t see the man. His eyes are clear and focused. He holds down a job, volunteers to read to the sick and infirm. He grows his own herbs, teaches cooking classes on a weekly basis. Ye Gods, for someone that’s got the oldest recorded person beat by a good thirty years this man’s active. Scratch that. The guy’s active for men in their seventies.  
    I tried showing as much humility as someone wearing bright colors and layers of Kevlar can. He listened as I explained to him that I had been attacked sometime before by someone that had undergone such a dramatic and, at the same time, apparently effective, alteration that there were only a handful of people that could have managed it without killing the subject. I made it quite clear that right now I was fishing for information and had not come with my mind already made up on who’s guilty of what. We talked back and forth a bit, him feeding me little bits of his collected wisdom, and me explaining how it feels to be in my grandfather’s shadow while we worked his herb garden.  
    He stood from picking some kind of stumpy leafy plant and he smiled at me before telling me he was the reason my grandfather was the man he was. He was of a sound mind when he said this. He told me the things he and five others did in the beginning of the last century are the reasons so many Masks are around today. Slowly, on aged and likely arthritic joints, he knelt and asked me to forgive him. In hindsight I have all sorts of explanations for his behavior,