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Day 6 Assignments
Please post your Day 6 assignments here!
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KIM J’S MYSTERY SEQUENCE
WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS ASSIGNMENT IS: Crafting a satisfying ending is the hardest part for me and requires many passes.
1. WHAT IS THE BIG SECRET THE VILLAIN IS COVERING UP? The Federation West is not the world of Sage’s graphic novel but a psychiatric treatment center run by psychiatrist Lindsey, the true villain. The center provides artists with psychiatric disorders “a safe space to explore and apply the contents of their TRUE MINDS to their art.” Sage is an unwitting, nonconsensual subject from whom Lindsey withholds information and medication.
2. GO TO THE END OF THE STORY AND IDENTIFY THE BIG SECRET. I am still working on this. When Diana (Sage’s editor/psychiatric social worker) learns the truth, she secretly gets Sage her medication to help control her symptoms. Diana helps Sage to free herself. Lindsey’s husband will discover Lindsey’s deception and help take Lindsey down, even at his own expense. Lindsey is a dangerous sociopath.
3. MAIN MYSTERIES (COVER-UPS) THAT THE PROTAGONIST MUST SOLVE
SECRET A: (set up) Sage has been lying to her mother and not taking her medication to control her psychotic symptoms; she believes it dulls her creativity. By the time she meets the antagonist, Lindsey, Sage is already in a vulnerable and malleable state.
MYSTERY A: What’s going on with Sage?
EVENTS A: Sage experiences obsessive mania while working on her revisions to her graphic novel. Sage shares delusional beliefs with Carol. Sage hides something under her mattress.
SECRET B: Lindsey plans to use Sage in her research and to attract A-List clients.
MYSTERY B: Why did Lindsey befriend Sage at the Boardwalk?
EVENTS B: Lindsey steals Sage’s phone. Lindsey’s husband, J.J., is Sage’s publisher. He discusses Sage’s graphic novel in a phone call with Lindsey (we don’t see her, so we don’t know it’s her). He’s going to publish it, and a producer friend wants to make it into a movie. That conversation also reveals that Sage is mentally ill, and her mother has power of attorney.
SECRET C: Lindsey separates Sage from her mother, Carol, because Carol holds Power of Attorney and is the only one who can consent to psychiatric treatment for Sage.
MYSTERY C: Where’s my mother? Where’s my daughter?
EVENTS C: Sage learns Carol may be dead, and with nowhere else to go, Sage goes with Lindsey. When Carol discovers Sage is missing, she searches for her. The police dismiss Carol’s concerns as a probably “walk away.”
SECRET D: Lindsey constructed the ruse. She makes Sage believe she is living in her graphic novel so she can study Sage’s psychosis in the hopes of promoting herself and her “treatment” center and attracting wealthy talent. She is a sociopath with big plans.
MYSTERY D: Is Sage living in her graphic novel?
EVENTS D: Lindsey brings Sage to the Center. Sage faces her graphic novel villain, Sven, who tries to force her to rewrite the battle’s outcome in her novel. Something to do hiding her meds. Diana, Sage’s editor, shows up at the center. Sage overhears Lindsey talking to publisher J.J.
6) RED HERRING MYSTERY
Lindsey is the real villain, not graphic novel villain Sven. We pursue the obvious, Sven’s graphic novel plan and villain role until we learn Lindsey is behind the whole thing.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Kim Jaspers.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by
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DAY 6 – ASSIGNMENT
Subject Line: Alan’s Mystery Sequence
What I learned is: I need to tie these mysteries together better and to come up with a Red Herring.
1. What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
· If the traffickers can abduct Holly Sampson they can auction her for big money in China on the dark web because they pass her off as an American Porn Star.
· If the traffickers can abduct Erin Raynor they can auction her for big money in China on the dark web because she is a pale-skinned American who speaks fluent Mandarin.
How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
By clandestinely abducting the women, smuggling them to China and using the dark web to sell them. The smugglers used sophisticated techniques like shielding their vehicles from tracking devices.
2. The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
The FIRST BIG MYSTERY: Who is abducting these women/girls and where are they taking them to?
· Who abducted Holly Sampson, then who did they sell her to and where is she now?
· Who abducted Erin Raynor and where did they take her?
· Who abducted Madison Hansen, who did they sell her to and where is she now?
Holly Sampson is Jay Crockett’s half-sister and his favorite sibling. He’d do anything to save her. Erin and Jay quickly grow attached to each other. As this happens, Jay would do anything to save Erin.
3. Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.
a) Holly gets abducted.
b) Erin gets roofied and they attempt to abduct her.
c) Madison gets abducted and sold to a trucker brothel.
d) Erin gets offered a fake modeling job and is abducted.
4. Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
A. Holly Sampson
a. Holly has dinner with Jay at a restaurant.
b. After Jay leaves, a trafficker asks Holly to smoke the ‘world’s best weed’ with him.
c. Holly accepts, smokes the weed.
d. The trafficker roofies Holly and drives her off in his panel van.
e. Holly is held at their hideout house.
f. Holly is smuggled to China.
g. Holly is auctioned on the dark web to the highest bidder.
h. Jay wins the bid for Holly which Holly’s wealthy father pays for.
i. The traffickers double cross Jay. They bait and switch Holly for another abducted similar girl.
j. The traffickers sell and smuggle Holly to a Beijing brothel.
B. Erin Raynor
a. Erin goes to the Highland Tavern for a drink.
b. A trafficker drugs Erin with a date-rape drug.
c. Jay sees the trafficker put white powder in Erin’s drink and stops him from abducting her.
d. The trafficker threatens to kill Jay, then leaves.
e. Jay learns Holly has been abducted.
f. Erin and Jay look at mug shots to help the police.
g. They learn that Holly and Erin are being auctioned on the dark web.
h. The police intercept a message about abducted Denver girls being delivered to a truck stop in Iowa.
i. Erin and Jay go with the police to Iowa to see if they can ID the traffickers.
j. Erin gets offered and accepts a modeling job in Mexico.
k. Erin and Jay plan to go to Mexico and then disappear together, traveling for several months.
l. The police learn about the modeling job and tell Erin it’s fake.
m. The police check with Ford Models who confirm the job is fake.
n. Erin agrees to be wired and tracked by the police as bait to catch the traffickers.
o. Per police instructions, Erin tells the traffickers her passport has expired.
p. They traffickers tell Erin she can do the shoot in LA.
q. Erin flies to LA, being tracked by the police.
r. The traffickers outsmart the police by putting Erin in the back of a ‘shielded’ limo. The police tracking devices don’t work.
s. The traffickers drive the limo into an underground limo garage, so the police have no way to visually track her.
t. The traffickers make Erin change into a bikini for the shoot in the back of the limo. She’s ordered to leave all her possessions in the limo.
C. Madison Hansen
a. Madison is molested by her stepfather.
b. Madison runs away from home, hitchhikes to the nearest big town, then catches a bus to Denver.
c. Madison is all alone at the bus station for hours not knowing what to do or where to go.
d. A trafficker stalking the bus station chats up Madison and offers to buy her lunch.
e. They have a nice lunch.
f. The trafficker offers Madison a place to stay for the night. She accepts.
g. The trafficker takes Madison to their hideout and locks her up with several other girls.
h. The traffickers sell Madison and several other young girls to the trucker brothel and smuggle them to Iowa.
i. Truckers pay for sex with the young girls.
D. Jay Crockett
a. Jay has dinner with Holly at a Denver restaurant.
b. At a tavern, Jay sees traffickers roofie Erin and stops the abduction.
c. The police arrive at the tavern.
d. Jay is the doppelganger of one of the traffickers. A police artist’s drawing of the suspect looks exactly like Jay.
e. Waitresses at the Denver restaurant give a positive ID that Jay was with Holly the night she went missing.
f. The police arrest Jay for Holly’s abduction.
E. Red Herring – none yet.
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Ron Johnson Mystery Sequence
What I learned is: that secrets and cover-ups are the key to creating mysteries. These mysteries drive the desire-line of the protagonist and key characters as they try to solve them.
1 – What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
Hightower is attempting to take over Asia by rebuilding the Khmer Rouge and becoming a God-King via the Linga Stone.
2 – How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
By paying off political and military officials.
By paying poachers a premium for artifacts so that temples and archeological sites are overrun with poachers deflecting the fact Hightower is searching for the Linga Stone.
A Hindu priest goes missing from a temple. Remains of the priest are found in the nearby jungle pointing to animal attack. But this was staged by Hightower’s men in order to kidnap the priest (for the ritual) without suspicion.
3 – The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Glory gets a phone call from the Consulate in Cambodia that her mother died, but when she arrives finds out the man who called her is an imposter. Is her mother alive or dead?
4 – Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one.
How did Glory’s mother die? Then, is she alive or dead? When Glory heads to Cambodia per the consulate’s instructions to retrieve her mother’s body, finds out the consulate agent was an imposter.
We meet Quinn, American, treasure hunter who is being pursued by dangerous people. Who are they? Why are they pursuing him?
Why does Quinn risk his life to steal artifacts?
Glory is arrested by police after speaking with the consulate imposter – Why? Military officials speak with her about her connection to the imposter and want to know her business in Cambodia.
She’s told that the imposter works for a very powerful Billionaire named Hightower who has vast mining/shipping operations, but ill designs for Cambodia. What’s his connection to her mom’s disappearance?
Glory’s told by the Antiquities Director (at police station) that her mom had called him from Battambang a week ago about the problem of poachers raiding archeological sites. Is she in Battambang?
She meets Quinn, a treasure hunter posing as a hunting-guide, says he can help her find her mom for a reduced fee since she’s in distress. Why is he doing this? Can he be trusted?
He confesses that he had once worked for Hightower who’s paying poachers a premium for artifacts and wants to stop him because he’s got some grandiose plan to take over Cambodia. Is this for real? How is he planning to do that?
Cambodian General Sok arrives at Hightower’s mining operation where it’s revealed to be a secret military base in process of building up with trucks and tanks.
Glory and Quinn search Battambang and find her mother’s assistant San who is worried about her safety. He says she is alive and had to flee because the bad men came after her: Hightower. She had him hide her archeological work away so they would not get them. Why are they searching for them?
San retrieves the research papers and tells her the reports were primarily on the lost tomb of Jayavarman II and believes Hightower is searching for it to get the Linga Stone.
San warns of the power of the Linga Stone. Does it really possess supernatural powers?
Did she want Glory to find them?
Does her research really show where Jayavarman II’s lost tomb is? Is the Linga stone there?
What does her findings mean? Why is some of it cryptic? Can it be interpreted?
What is the fallen angel? Is it the key to finding the tomb? Does it refer to a plane crash alluding to Amelia Erhardt? Where exactly is it?
Will Hightower find the lost tomb and apprehend the Linga Stone?
Will the ancient ritual transform him into a god-king?
How can Hightower’s army be stopped if he becomes a god-king?
5 – Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.
The Poachers are a Red Herring since it’s really Hightower behind stealing artifacts, paying them.
General Sok appears to be helping Hightower but is a fake ally, secretly spying on him.
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ASSIGNMENT 6. KANNAN MENON’S Mystery Sequence
What I learned doing this assignment: You have to work out the backstory that leads to the opening sequence; this lets you figure out the possible cover-ups/mysteries.
What is the big secret that the Villain (Wahid) is
covering up?That David (Asha’s husband) is laundering funds from a $12B corporates swindle in Malaysia engineered by Wahid’s company, Wahid & Wong. But this arrangement is threatened because David is caught up in drugs and women is burning through the funds and possibly even diverting funds to his private funds.
How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
Wahid realizes that David is planning a double cross—to divert several billion through other channels. He has required David to appoint Asha as his heir—that was a condition of entrusting the funds to David. So he knows if he knocks off David, Asha will be in charge and he feels he can influence her.
Wahid manages to create the following diversionary stories:
a) That David has emigrated to Israel from where he cannot be extradited.
b) That Maria is David’s lover but she has stolen money to pay for transgender surgery and is helping David hide or has killed him.
c) David was killed by drug dealers that he was buying from or got into the business with.
The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Where is David. At the start of the movie, David has disappeared. He has not come home. Asha is worried. She calls Maria (David’s assistant) to find out if she knows where David is. She goes to the office to meet Maria. Asha and Maria try to track David’s movements.
Wahid shows up to guide Asha. She comes to believe the police are not particularly interested in solving the case (is David black?). Wahid slowly leads her astray. While in the office, he plants a bag of coke in some spot where it is likely to be found. They also find David’s phone and on the phone there are several pix of women in stages of undress, snorting coke, etc.
Mystery chain: Does David’s calendar provide a clue. How about his office landline phone’s answering machine? Anything else on the computer where he might be?
Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the
next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can.Red Herring: Wahid points the finger at Maria, David’s transgender assistant, claiming she needs funds for her transgender surgery. He arranges to visit Asha at home, and he brings Wong, because he tells Asha that Wong is ex-Special Branch. While in Asha’s home, Wahid points the finger at Maria…. While Wong is searching the rooms.
Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
I don’t have this yet. But all the clues Wahid or Wong have been planting in the office or in Asha’s home will likely need to be understood and tagged as “fake clue” or “possible lead.”
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Diana’s Mystery Sequence
What I learned: This helped me so much. Like breakthrough time here, y’all. I now have the sequence. OMG. And I was able to keep the killer a mystery until much later in the movie. At first I had the audience knowing the whole time, but that’s not much fun. So grateful to have done this assignment. I’m in the MSC 15 class, and I’m intentionally lagging behind a bit, because I know I need to learn some more kickass stuff before I finish my outline. Otherwise it will be above the surface, and you just can’t do that with a thriller, right?
What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
He (William) killed Jeff.
How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become
the mysteries. I have come up with ten ways for William to cover up that
he is the mastermind of the killing of Jeff (hires someone else to do it,
points fingers at three different people (red herrings) to throw the
police and Sarah off his trail, has killer assign a new client to Sarah
who is actually a plant to gather intel, has killer kill the one person
who can help Sarah (Jeff’s boss), has killer pretend to be a “detective”
and look for the mind control chip in Sarah’s house while she thinks he’s
working on the case, pretends to be her best friend, tells plant to fake going
under hypnosis, has killer/detective tamper with evidence at crime scene
to get case thrown out.
The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Who killed Jeff?Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red Herring mystery if you can. I have three red herring mysteries.
Jeff’s Boss:
Jeff was last seen with his boss.
His boss and Jeff were having an argument the night he was killed.
They both leave the lab at the same time.
Someone follows Jeff home.
Jeff recognizes the killer and lets him in, even though we only see the back of him.
Jeff is carrying the envelope of what is thought contain the mind control chip.
Jeff’s boss acts guilty, because he’s covering up the mind control chip and its powers, because he doesn’t want others to know about it. He wants to send it to the government to use for military interrogations, but Jeff is morally opposed to it. It was supposed to do something else: It was supposed to help Alzheimer’s patients, but instead of helping their minds recall past and current events, it programmed them to do whatever their caretakers wanted.
He also goes into a rage when he discovers the mind control chip is missing from the lab later.
His is flippant towards the police.
He has a temper.
He does not have an alibi.
Jeff’s boss is hiding that the mind control chip has been stolen because he doesn’t want word to get out about the chip and have it get into the wrong hands. He’s also hiding it from the government because they were going to use it for criminal interrogation purposes, and they thought they were building it to help Alzheimer’s patients.
When he speaks with Sarah on the phone, the conversation is awkward and he asks her to come to his office late a night.
Is he going to take the microchip from Sarah?
Killed before Sarah can reach him.
Sarah run off the road and calls William.
When he speaks with Sarah on the phone, the conversation is awkward and he asks her to come to his office late a night.
Is he going to take the microchip from Sarah?
Passes polygraph.
Killed before Sarah can reach him.
Sarah run off the road and calls William.
Sarah’s Boss:
He stops taking her calls
He becomes evasive
She discovers he has changed his identity (to get away from crazy ex it turns out)
He disliked Jeff
He has no alibi
He drives the same type of car as the killer
Parole Officer (the killer): Sarah’s boss says the parole officer has a criminal past, hasn’t been providing status reports on Bobby? Who is Bobby’s parole officer? Sarah’s boss tells her that he has his suspicions about Bobby’s parole officer, because there have been no reports since Bobby’s release. So she should have her detective friend (the parole officer) check him out. Sarah tries to arrange a meeting with the parole officer and he is evasive, which makes her suspicious. When Sarah gets the report back from the “detective” she is shocked to learn that the parole officer has a criminal past and was friends with Jeff’s boss. Why didn’t the parole officer mention he knew Jeff’s boss? What was he hiding?
Is the parole officer the killer? William uses the parole officer and Bobby behind the scenes to search for the mind control chip, when it’s been on Sarah the entire time and they had no idea. He was evasive on the phone. He doesn’t have time to meet. He didn’t like Jeff. He knew Jeff’s boss. He has a criminal past. William sent Bobby as a plant to gather intel on where the chip might be and to keep tabs on Sarah.
The mastermind behind the killing: William
Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
Main mysteries:
Who killed Jeff? Jeff was last seen with his boss. His boss and Jeff were having an argument. Someone follows Jeff home. Jeff recognizes the killer and lets him in, even though we only see the back of him. Jeff is carrying the envelope of what is thought contain the mind control chip. Jeff’s boss acts guilty, because he’s covering up the mind control chip and its powers, because he doesn’t want it to get into the wrong hands. He also goes into a rage when he discovers the mind control chip is missing from the lab.His boss is flippant towards the police. Jeff’s boss has a temper. Jeff’s boss does not have an alibi.
William in pinning the murder on Jeff’s boss who wanted the microchip. So Sarah has Jeff’s boss investigated.
Who tampered with the evidence? It was only Sarah and William who found Jeff. There were several detectives there at the scene. Was it one of them? William can bring in a “detective” who is really the crooked parole officer whom he hired to kill her husband and steal the microchip.
What’s in the note that Jeff left Sarah? Sarah finds gift and note in desk drawer from her deceased husband. She reads it and puts on the pendant, which has the mind-control chip. She knows it is coveted and that she must keep it safe.
Who is trying to kill Sarah? Her house is ransacked. She is run off the road.
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Jon’s Mystery Sequence
Title: Alien Correspondent
Logline: A rookie reporter gets to conduct the first interview with extraterrestrials but what do they want and why are they on Earth. What she learns disturbers her because she is the only one who can save humanity from extinction.
1 – What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
Why are the aliens here and what do they want?
Go to the end of the story and identify the big secret.
The big secret often points to other secrets that need to be covered.2. How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
They are here to help humanity.
They want to share advanced technology to prevent the next pandemic. This is half true. They know that if they prevent the big extinction event in the future they won’t exist.
Eve discovers
they are half-human
They are from the future (but why are they here now at this time)
They can’t procreate and they need an uninfected human
The original weapon is based on the gnome of Eve’s great-granddaughter so they need her DNA to reverse engineer the sequenceMake a list of your main mysteries (cover-ups) that must be solved to discover the final secret.
3. The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Do Aliens Exist?
What is the mystery that the Hero absolutely must solve that lures him or her into the other mysteries?
4. Sequence the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one.
1 – Do aliens exist?
2 – Why are the aliens here and what do they want?
3 – Who are the aliens?
4 – Why do they need Eve’s DNA?
If you layout the three or four main mysteries, they will imply a sequence.
5. Create a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.
What series of “mysterious” events make up each main mystery?
How do those events cover the secret of the Villain?1 – Do Aliens exist
reporter witnesses UFO
– UFO attacks their car on a deserted highway
Photographer captures pictures
Helicopter rescues them
Who was in the helicopter (someone else knows)2 – Aliens make first contact
Newspaper prints photo after Eve is fired
Military whistleblower leaks matching evidence
Government official admits to legitimacy
Will the aliens stay hidden?3 – Why are aliens here?
Aliens want to do an interview with Eve
They offer to help advance science to prevent the next pandemic?
They really want Eve’s DNA
4 – Who are the aliens?
During the interview, Eve steals alien technology
They run tests and determine that the DNA is human/alien hybrid
Carbon dating it’s from the future 200 years from now
5 – Why are the aliens here?
To get Eve’s DNA
Eve gets kidnapped by the aliens
She confronts them and they tell her the truth
She agrees to help6 – Why do they need the DNA?
To correct the fallout from a bioweapon that was released on Earth in the future.
What is the red herring?
Government kidnaps Eve first.
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What I learned? Found it quite a good exercise and difficult to go through and list the mystery chains without having the reactions of the hero fully developed. Also was difficult not to overthink it.
What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up? Policitical corruption from the billon dollar money laundering racket.
2. How many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.
Blackmail and or Kill the anticorruption Politician before he goes public.
Steal the tapes.
Kill rockstar and Frame Joe.
Destroy Joe’s credibility – Manipulate the police and media by controlling the narrative. (Murder suicide/ Jealous ex-boyfriend)
Kill the teenage trafficked girl to tie up loose ends.
kill anyone who gets in the way.
3. The first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.
Who killed the rockstar and took the hard drive?
4/5.
Who Killed the rockstar?
Meeting was changed last minute
Ella denies her assistant called.
Ella is Rockstar’s wife.
Rockstar was cheating on her.
Ella was the last person to see him alive.
They had a big fight right before he was killed.
Ella gets big life insurance payout.
What is Ella (red Herring) hiding?
Ella is stand offish to Joe pushes him away. She is angry with him blaming him for the death.
She publicly calls out Joe, turning the tabloids on him. (Trying to protect Joe).
She lies and gives conflicting information.
Says she doesn’t have assistant.
Who actually hired Joe?
Meeting was changed last minute.
Where did the hard drives go?
Who was and where is the girl in the video?
What was she afraid of when she saw joe?
Why did she say she “did what they wanted”?
How does Joe find her?
She turns up dead with a needle in her arm, was it an overdose?
Who killed her?
What was on the full hard drive?
Same girl in both tapes.
Teenage runaway.
Was the first death of a politician actually a suicide?
Politician was the real target.
They need that hard drive to cover up the politician’s murder.
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Sandra’s Mystery Sequence
What I learned doing this assignment is that mysteries can be set up sequentially in order to build intrigue and momentum. It helps engage the viewer more fully.
What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
The big secret the Villain is covering up her involvement with setting up pranks for Max to think he is targeted by an evil spirit.
How
many ways can they cover that secret? Those become the mysteries.She can pretend to believe there is a bad spirit causing things to happen and offer to help get rid of the spirit.
She can also pretend to offer reasonable solutions to the occurrences.
The
first mystery must engage the Hero into solving it.Max begins to investigate the authenticity of the script.
Sequence
the mysteries so that each one leads us to the next one. Include ONE Red
Herring mystery if you can.Mystery 1 Why is music playing without anyone near the piano?
Mystery 2 How did the words “Satan Rules” get on the manuscript?
Mystery 3: Why is Maxim waking up to see the shadow of a figure claiming to be a dead poet?
Mystery 4: How did the fire start when the Shaman was trying to quell the spirit?
Create
a Mystery Chain for each main mystery.Mystery 1 Why is music playing without anyone near the piano?
Max hears music playing on the digital piano.
Every time he goes to the library the music stops.
Mystery 2 How did the words “Satan Rules” get on the manuscript?
Victor volunteers to take the manuscript to an expert to get carbon dated.
The carbon dating technique reveals the hidden words.
Max believes he has purchased a cursed manuscript.
Mystery 3: Why is Maxim waking up to see the shadow of a figure claiming to be a dead poet?
Max researches the life and meaning of the poet’s work.
Max starts to have nightmares about the dead poet.
Is his mind playing tricks on him, or is he being visited by a spirit from the other side?
Mystery 4: How did the fire start when the Shaman was trying to quell the spirit?
A fire starts around the manuscript mysteriously when the Shaman performs an ancient ritual.
The fire mysteriously stops just as quickly as it started.
Could someone be setting up a special effect, and if so, who?
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Karen Grube’s Mystery Sequence
What I learned from this assignment is that I have a long way to go to master developing mystery and intrigue in each scene. I’ll get there.
I also learned that I’m really not as knowledgeable about cybersecurity and ransomware attacks as I need to be to do this well. I may have to call the WGA and see if I can set up a discussion with an expert, if they still provide those resources.
I’m sorry if this reads more like a five-page treatment than the answers to the assignment, but I really wanted to get this written out. It really helped.
What is the big secret that the Villain is covering up?
1. Phoenix is really Gerhard Hoffman. He is a high level cybersecurity employee of the Bank for International Settlements. His secret is that he’s planning on taking down the BIS and the world’s economic structure along with it.
2. Phoenix is Gerhard’s dark web avatar/name. He uses this anonymity to hire cyberpunks and assassins to commit cyberwarfare, hacking banks and holding them for ransom or stealing identities and selling them on the dark web.
3. Phoenix is a religious zealot who believes that he will stave off the beginning of the Biblical end times if he can stop the BIS’s efforts to develop a one-world currency, which he sees as leading people being forced to wear the mark of the beast.
How many ways can he cover his secrets?
1. Phoenix stays anonymous on the dark web by never letting his henchmen know who he is, always paying them in untraceable cryptocurrency, and having anyone killed he thinks can be traced to him.
2. Phoenix uses his position with the BIS’s Innovation Hub to make himself part of the development of their planned central bank digital currency test. He intends to use that test to destroy the BIS and the world’s economic system.
3. Phoenix has also helped the BIS hire people in security and other key locations that he knew he could turn into moles to implement his plan. He reaches out to them on the dark web so they can’t identify him.
4. Phoenix has built for himself a super-high-security compound in Canada from which he intends to implement his cyberattack. His few security guards never see him. He has several avenues of escape if needed.
How does the first mystery engage the Hero into solving it.
FinCEN agent Ham (David Hamilton) and his team arrest the two cyberpunks Phoenix hired to commit a ransomware attack on a large international bank as a “rehearsal” for the takeover of the BIS and eight of the world’s largest central banks. They don’t know who hired them. Phoenix watches Ham from several hidden cameras he as he busts his men in their basement computer center working on Phoenix’s next job. He decides Ham is too good an adversary to ignore.
Ham finds the cameras and knows that whoever was behind the ransomware attack was watching him. They can’t trace the video feed though.
The day the two hackers are indicted, Ham and his FinCEN team watch them step into a black SUV outside the courthouse. On one news feed, there is a brief reflection of another man inside the SUV making a call on a cell phone.
While they’re watching, Ham gets a call that his wife Cathy and daughter Jessie have been in a horrible car accident. He arranges with his boss to take some personal leave. Ham’s boss believes the man on the phone inside the SUV was whoever was responsible for the ransomware attack. They agree that if that’s the case, it would be best if everyone believes Ham’s wife and daughter died in the accident for their own safety.
Three weeks later, Ham’s sister Julia, and nephew Robbie have moved in to help him. They think Cathy and Jessie have died but Ham tells they he has something to tell them that he can’t share with them just yet.
Ham’s best friend, Paul Rittenauer, calls to see how Ham’s doing and as they talk, he uses a coded phrase they developed when they worked together in a Marine/CIA cyberoperations unit indicating they’re both in danger and need to meet. Ham asks his neighbor to drive his sister and nephew to a safe location they went to as kids so they can’t track his sister’s car.
Paul and Ham meet at a restaurant in Washington D.C. Paul, who now works for the BIS Innovation Hub in Canada, tells Ham that he found a flaw in the BIS encryption algorithm being used for the a test the BIS is about to run between eight of the world’s largest central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve. This flaw could be exploited to allow a hacker to get into the central banks computer systems and sabotage the test or take over the central bank’s computer systems. He’s already written a fix for it, but believes that someone knows and wants to stop him. Outside the bar where they’re meeting, a man, one of Phoenix’s thugs, photographs them talking.
That evening, when Paul returns to his office in Toronto, two men kidnap him. Unable to reach Paul and leery of involving FinCEN, Ham contacts the CO of their former Marine cybersecurity team, Lt. Colonel Martin Janak, for help. Janak now runs a high-end internationally renowned cyberdefense training facility in Kentucky. Ham meets with Janak’s crew and together they hack their way into the BIS test system to set a trap for any external incoming traffic to the server. They track the one outside connection back to a dark web cyberterrorism chat group where they find messages between the creator of the group, who uses the avatar “Phoenix,” and a few others. They quickly capture what information they can from the chat area leaving no evidence behind of their intrusion. In the messages, they see one mentioning Ham and an order for someone to locate his sister and nephew.
Ham calls his neighbor to make sure that his sister and nephew are safe. She gives Ham the number of the burner phone his sister purchased on the way, but calls his nephew “Robert” instead of “Bobby,” telling Ham that something’s wrong. The moment she hangs up, she’s killed by one of Phoenix’s assassins. They take her car keys and check her navigation history to track where she took Ham’s sister and nephew, following Phoenix’s instructions to find them and take them hostage.
Ham calls his sister and tells her to find another place to stay safe across the river from where they are at the moment.
Against Janak’s wishes, Ham creates his own avatar in the dark web chat area and leaves “Phoenix” a message telling him he’s been discovered and that he needs Ham’s help to implement his plan. Phoenix sends back a message saying he has all the help he needs.
Ham convinces Phoenix that he does need him to stop the fix to the BIS test encryption from being sent out.
Phoenix tells Ham he has to go to the BIS offices in Basel, Switzerland immediately and arranges a ticket for him on the next flight. When he arrives at the airport in Zurich, he sees Paul standing next to a man who orders Ham to follow them or he’ll kill Paul.
In an exclusive, private airport lounge, Phoenix appears in silhouette on a video screen. With his voice disguised, he asks Ham and Paul why he needs them both, showing them a photo of the two of them meeting earlier in Washington. Ham lies to Phoenix telling him Paul can reinstate the flawed encryption (though Paul never actually implemented his fix) and that Ham has to undo a firmware update he sent to the test devices that were installed at each central bank that will disable the test if they don’t receive the specific code for that bank when the digital keys are sent during the test.
Phoenix instructs Oscar, the man holding Paul and Ham, to take them to the BIS IT building in Basel.
Oscar is one of Phoenix’s moles, planted as a security guard for the BIS. He signs them into the IT building and takes Ham and Paul to the operations center were the digital currency test is being set up. Paul knows the Operations Center Manager, Stefan Muller, who offers to show them how the test preparations are coming along. Stephan tells Oscar that he should report back to the Security office in the main BIS building. Outside the door, Oscar makes a quick one-word phone call, “Yes.”
Stephan offers to provide Paul and Ham with and empty office to work in. On one wall is a print of the January 9, 1988 issue of “The Economist” displaying the image of a phoenix rising out of a fiery conflagration of currency with the title “Get ready for a world currency.” He asks Stephan whose office this was. Stephan tells him that the last person who had the office, Gerhard Hoffman, was transferred to the Canada BIS Innovation hub two weeks ago to work with their portion of the test, so Paul must know him. Ham asks Stephan to call the BIS Security office and hold Oscar until he gets there. THEY’VE GOT HIM!
Ham calls Janak in Kentucky and asks if he can send someone to find his sister and nephew. Janak decides it’s time to call in the feds, so he calls Jim Collins, Ham’s FinCEN Director, who sends two men from Ham’s team to find them and them back safely.
Ham coerces Oscar into leaving a message for Phoenix they can trace, a small “hack tip,” a percentage of what he was paid for bringing Ham and Paul to Basel, since Phoenix has no intention of leaving any of his men alive. With Janak’s team’s help, they now have Phoenix’s exact location outside Toronto.
Ham returns to the FinCEN offices in Washington and is met by Collins who tells him about Janak’s call and that Julia and Robbie are safe. The assassin that Phoenix sent to kill them is in an interrogation room. He then shows Ham the BIS employee ID photo of Gerhard Hoffman, “Phoenix.” Ham asks him to call up the video from the news coverage of two cyber-punks he captured leaving the courthouse. Ham zooms in on the image of the man on the on the phone waiting in the van for them. It’s Hoffman. He must have been behind their ransomware attack they busted. The captured assassin says he never met Phoenix but knows he was behind that ransomware attack and that he decided to get rid of the agent who arrested his men. He had one of his assassins orchestrate the pile-up that almost killed Ham’s wife and daughter in order to get him out of the way. Phoenix is a crazy religious nut-job who thinks he can delay Armageddon by stopping the BIS from developing a one-world currency, which he believes would signal the beginning of the Biblical end times.
Outside Phoenix’s compound in a remote wooded area not far from Toronto, Janak’s team sets up simulated video streams seemingly from all eight central banks. including fake news broadcasts, internal central bank cameras, and social media posts. Phoenix watches from inside his safe-room. If he thinks it isn’t real, he’ll destroy the BIS IT Center computer systems.
After watching what he thinks is the panic taking place in each of the eight central banks on monitors, Phoenix thinks he’s won. He sends out a message claiming that he has the crypto keys to the central bank computer systems and will return them if the BIS releases a statement within the hour saying they’ll shut down their entire operation. A fake BIS President on video asks Phoenix if he’ll settle for fifty billion in exchange for the keys. Phoenix sneers, No! The world’s better off suffering for a time rather than wearing the mark of the beast in order to buy food or pay for shelter. He won’t let the BIS create a one-world currency so they can make way for the AntiChrist.
Ham, Collins, and the armed FinCEN team enter the compound, quietly killing all of the exterior guards except the one they identify as Phoenix’s second in command. They make their way to Phoenix’s safe room then use this man’s fingerprint and retinal scan to go inside. Phoenix isn’t there. The computers and monitors are off. One of the agents blocks the door with a filing cabinet so it can’t close on them. Ham looks around the saferoom for a second emergency exit. He can’t use his cell phone to call Janak or Collins from inside. Another agent hands him a two-way radio communicator. Janak tells him the room must be one big Faraday chamber and no signal from the outside can penetrate it, like a giant MRI machine. This can’t be where he’s communicating from. And even if he had video cameras in the saferoom to watch from somewhere else, he wouldn’t be able to send the feed anywhere.
Janak reviews the recorded feed from the drone they sent over the area earlier. He spots a sea plane docked on a lake about half a mile away. The drone also has ground penetrating radar. The recording shows a small opening to a cave leading in a few hundred yards. Just inside the mouth of the cave, there’s what Janak believes is a WaveRunner. The radar recording stops when it reaches an interior metal door. The drone can’t detect anything further, nor can they fly it directly over the compound without being detected.
Ham looks around the high-end, luxury saferoom once more. There’s a door across the room that opens to a bathroom complete with a shower, sink, toilet with a bidet attachment that has push button controls, and a full length mirror. The shower is dry. So is the sink. Ham tries pulling the mirror away from the wall with no luck. He turns the shower head from side to side. Nothing happens. On a hunch, he pushes the toilet seat warmer control twice. No luck. He presses it a third time. The control lights green and the mirror backed by a thick steel door slowly swings open revealing well-lighted tunnel.
“He’s still here somewhere.” Ham steps down the tunnel about 50 feet to the end where he finds another steel door with both biometric and voice controls. “We’ll never get past that and we don’t have time to figure out how to disable it. But we can disable and block that mirror door so he can’t get out any way but through the cave.”
Ham lets Janak and Collins know what he found. Collins suggests they go through the cave and try to get past whatever security Phoenix has there, but Janak suggests they should let him think he’s won so he doesn’t blow up the BIS building like he threatened. He’s got his exit planned. Let him try to use it. But they can disable the WaveRunner and the Seaplane.
What if shutting down the BIS isn’t enough and he sends the order to blow up the BIS IT building anyway? We have to get into that cave and see what he’s got inside there. No, he’ll stay long enough to watch the BIS building burn. He wants to be known as the man who stopped Armageddon. He has to see to it that what he’s done can’t be reversed. The central banks have to start shutting down. The President of the BIS has to beg him to release the cyber keys so the banks can reopen and prevent worldwide panic.
A small group of agents enters the cave, disables the WaveRunner, and makes their way to the door. Through their earphones, they can hear the discussion going on inside the saferoom between the president of the BIS and Phoenix. Phoenix is trying to explain to him why he’s doing this and keeps reaffirming that it’s for the good of humanity and for God’s glory. He’s trying to make him understand that this wasn’t a heist and that the crypto keys have already been destroyed so no one will ever get back into those computer systems. Every penny of their 8.6 trillion dollars has disappeared and it will never be found.
The steel door opens into this second saferoom. “You’re too late, David.” Phoenix says calmly, still watching events unfold on several monitors. “The central banks have already shut down and the BIS will be ceasing operations shortly. But I’m seeing to it that they’ll never open up again.”
Ham is the first to reach Phoenix. He shoves him back into his chair while another agent binds his wrists behind his back.
“Colonel, would you please turn off our video feed and show Phoenix what’s really going on.” Each screen now shows the real live feeds of groups at at the central banks smiling and congratulating each other for the successful completion of their digital currency test.
“It’s not over. I already sent the signal for the BIS servers to begin self-destructing. The building will be go up in flames before anyone can get out.”
“Colonel, could you please add the BIS Computer Operations Center feed?” David reaches over and uses Phoenix’s remote to put the BIS feed on the center, large monitor.” Stefan Muller is talking on his cell phone to someone, then looks up into the camera and gives those watching a thumbs up!
“Phoenix, or should I call you Gerhard, It’s over. The only thing I want to hear from you this minute is why you sent someone to kill my wife and daughter! They’re both fine, by the way. We traced the call you made from the van setting up the ‘accident.’
Phoenix shrugs, realizing he’s defeated. “I needed you out of the way after you arrested my men in my little ransomware rehearsal.”
“They never demanded a ransom.”
“I asked them not to. I just wanted to see if this could be done using a single crypto key, what chaos it would cause, and how long it would take the bank to fully recover their computer systems. I didn’t want you around to stop me from taking down the BIS. I knew they’d put you on leave if anything happened to your family.
“Smart. But not smart enough. You forgot the first rule of cyber-warfare. You should have hacked yourself. You didn’t see the hack-tip Oscar left you after you paid him. That’s how we found you. Then we caught the man you sent to kidnap my sister and nephew, and he gave up what he knew about you once we told him you never intended going to share the wealth with him and that he’d probably wind up dead.
“This will never go to trial. I know too much about the BIS and how they use their influence to manipulate international financial institutions to benefit their wealthy friends. The world needs to see this kind of global financial disaster, what the BIS calls a Black Swan Event, to free it from the slavery they face because of these arrogant, corrupt tyrants.”
“You’re right. You won’t be tried for cyber terrorism here in the U.S. But there’s already a cell waiting for you at Gitmo. You’re an international terrorist, Gerhard. You’re never getting out. I have a few buddies there who’ll see to it. God has other plans for you that don’t include trying to interfere with Biblical prophecy.”
Five days later, Ham and Janak walk through his anti-terrorism training compound. Ham agrees to lead Janak’s cyberwarfare team. Janak smiles and tells Ham that he and his family can choose one of the homes they just walked by and move in whenever they’re ready.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Karen Grube.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Karen Grube.
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This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
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