Page 117 - Hunter - The Vigil

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CHAPTER THREE: HUNTER ORGA N I Z A T I O N S
more evidence to broadcast, while others, having discovered you’re obsessed with making everyone else know it, too. You’ve
there are people out there who believe them, work harder to got a password to the Secret Frequency, and a message to impart.
fi nd even more evidence. You were doing pretty well in a decent nine-to-fi ve offi ce

All too often, the evidence finds them. Jim Harrison’s job, good prospects, a pension scheme, private health plan, all
enterprise is worldwide now. It’s dedicated to making as many that stuff. Then you were driving home one night, and you lost
people know about the truth as possible. Maybe that’s what fi ve minutes of your life. You became ill the next day. You began
Jim’s mystery cameraman wanted. to suffer from tension and nightmares. You started to make mis-
takes at work. Through hypnotic regression, you found out you’d
The Enemy been abducted. You made the mistake of telling someone at
In the end, the folks on the Secret Frequency want as work, or maybe you’d already uploaded a podcast to the Net and
many people to know as much of the truth as they possibly your boss found out about it. Either way, you’re not in the offi ce
can. Some want to arm humanity against the danger in their anymore. You survive off savings you never had time to spend

midst. Some just want to film weird things. And some want to before, and you’ve spent the last year trying to fi nd the truth.
prove they were right all along. First and foremost, it’s about You were on active service in Afghanistan, guarding a TV
getting the information out there. crew, and while you were there, you witnessed something way
This isn’t to say that broadcasters on the Secret Fre- weirder than the Taliban — just before that TV crew got torn to

quency can’t be militant. Most figure out that it’s better to pieces and you lost consciousness. When you got home with your
go armed after a couple of excursions, if only for self-defense. Purple Heart (as the only survivor), you found that someone had
Having said that, while some do decide to give their subjects a already uploaded the crew’s fi lm to the web. Now you’ve got a

fight, few members of Network Zero are physically fit enough camera of your own. And a service sidearm, to boot.
to have much of a chance against a raging shapeshifter or a You lecture parapsychology, but times change and uni-
hungry vampire. Often, they spend time with other hunters. versity administrations change with them. The current dean

They let their companions know where to find the paranor- thinks you’re a crank. He’s banned you from publishing in
mal entities they’re after, and give them footage of what the anything he doesn’t think is “respectable” enough, and he’s
creatures can do. Some “embed” with hunter cells, taking cut down your courses to almost nothing, leaving you to lec-
footage and supplying technical backup. ture conventional psychology. You’ve got a pile of evidence

Jim Harrison and his contacts don’t actually know all on film and paper, and nowhere for it to go, except on the
that much about the things they’re filming. They’ve gath- Net. You’ve got a pseudonym and a broadband connection.

ered enough to know that several broad categories of creature It’s the best you’re going to get.
exist, but only really in terms of behavior and abilities. It’s
hampered a little by the simple fact that some supernatural Crews

creatures just don’t show up on film. It’s a source of endless Network Zero is home to a thousand competing philoso-
frustration that no matter how hard you try to film some phies and methodologies, but a few crews have emerged as

things, you just get empty rooms. On the other hand, the fact dominant groups within the Secret Frequency.

that vampires (for instance) show up on film as shadowy, in- Most of Network Zero is home to what are sometimes
distinct blurs has become such common knowledge among referred to as Record Keepers. Like journalists, they don’t

Network Zero’s members that taking a quick bit of film or a judge the material they capture: their job is to capture it and
mobile phone photo, or checking the screen of a digital han- to record it honestly and without modifi cations.
dicam trained on a suspect, has often become the simple acid The so-called Army of Truth takes that to the next level,
test to ascertain whether or not that nocturnal weirdo really however, and seeks to disseminate the truth about monsters to
is an undead bloodsucker. the ignorant public at any cost. They will rip open unwitting
eyes with strange stunts, viral memes, broadcast hijacking,
Hunters what-have-you. The group has its militant members, and is
You were young in the Summer of Love, but you’re not also home to a perhaps disproportionate number of weapons-
young anymore. Even so, you don’t feel old as such. Timothy capable individuals.
Leary taught you everything you know, and if people mock On the other end of the spectrum, you have the so-called
you for being an old hippy who dropped a little too much acid Secret Keepers, a cabal of conspiracy theorists who believe
back in the day, it only helps to add to the surprise when you the world has fallen into monstrous hands and see every bit of
produce a stellar, inexplicable piece of evidence. bad news as an emblem or action sponsored by fi endish shad-
You get bullied at school, but who cares? You’ve seen ows. They actually seek to keep monstrous information out of
things that some of the jocks will never get to see; you’ve the public hands, believing it will only spur the monsters to
survived worse things than getting your face pushed into the cover their tracks and damage the Vigil. No, they keep the
lockers. No one can touch you when you’re using a handicam; information within the group instead, “building a case” for
no one can follow you when you go online. You’d think your when the time is right for revelation.
parents would be concerned, but they never say anything.
They don’t give a damn. Ignorance is bliss, after all. Status
You’ve never known the love of a member of the opposite Members of Network Zero get into the group through in-

sex, but you don’t care, because you know the Big Truth, and vitation, after posting something of sufficient interest on the
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