The Brinkman Report
Found at the Acorn Breakfast Diner, this document was several pages of a report that had been authored by a worker with the last name of Brinkman. The pages had fallen under a table and booth seat inside the all-day breakfast diner, with several pieces torn off and stained by coffee and food. One crumpled page features a dusty boot print on one side, and a smear of dirty eggs on the opposite, indicating that someone had stepped and slipped on the page. As best as the waitress at the time could recall, she remembered a Mr. Brinkman being a sewer engineer or repairman who frequented the diner in the evenings. Mr. Brinkman did not return to the diner, and construction finished the next week.
The pages are mostly filled with unlabeled graphs, presumably with their labels and descriptions on missing pages. Many graphs indicate a sharp peak of data, but without the labels, it means nothing. Text portions of the document are labeled as field reports, some detailing portions of the sewer, but others seeming to report on sections of the forest within Hidden Springs State Park. One page has specifications for lengths of steel bars and a list of chemicals, which were later identified as sedatives used in large animals by the local veterinarian.
Historical Details
Background
In the summer of 1993, there were some utility overhauls in the town of Red Oak Bluffs. Several federally funded contracts for town electrical, water, phone, and sewer lines were awarded at almost the same time. Over the course of a few weeks, the whole town came to a standstill. Many left for vacations, while the rest hunkered down at home, as no one could really work in town. For many, it was an interesting distraction that allowed them to take things slow on the government's dime.
But for the more suspicious crowd, the work sent up a host of red flags. Most of the contractors and utility workers were in Red Oak Bluffs within a week of the news being broadcast over KNTC. Coordination between different utilities was strangely efficient, according to this crowd, with the crews doing the bulk of their work sector by sector in tandem, without much clashing for these supposedly unrelated contractors. Of course, with so many workers in town at once, temporary housing spilled over into the park campgrounds as the motels filled. The groups of large white canvas went up quickly and efficiently in the campgrounds. And finally, it seemed odd that the phone lines always went down at night during this operation, with that being cited as the scheduled time for the line work. For most people, the oddness of the details simply rolled off them like water off a duck's back. Who cared- they were getting free updates to worn-out utilities.
Public Reaction
Most never saw or cared about the Brinkman Report, even when it was being discussed on the KNTC news. For other townsfolk, the papers were equal parts earth-shattering and confirmation of conspiracy theories. When the report was found, it was the final straw for some wary people, who immediately moved away or went off the grid. Some could not afford to do either, and came together to form a secret society to keep an eye on the town, simply calling themselves the Nightwatch. For those who decided to leave the grid, partially or wholly, expressed a distrust in the new utilities, especially the phone lines. A significant portion of the town believed that the privacy of phone lines in Red Oak Bluffs is compromised, and this led to a surge of ham radio operators and several pirate radio stations.
Type
Report, Intelligence
Medium
Paper
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