LP.txt

+ Part 1/3

To whom it may concern (maybe my savior),

NEX told me to do it. The drive, the documents, everything. You have
to understand, I'm just a normal person. I teach AP Art History
courses at a local high school. I pay my taxes. I recycle and watch
the Obama-Romney debates. I floss and brush, daily. I'm not the kind
of person to do things like this. I'm normal like you. Well, I could
be like you. But if you're reading this, maybe you're not all that
normal after all. Because who picks up a random flash drive that's
lying around only to open the stored files and read them, amiright?
Oh, I'm just kidding. If you're reading this, maybe you're the only
person in the world who could understand what's going on here. Because
I have no idea. And maybe you're the only person who can help me. Let
me explain.

Here's how it started. A few weeks ago, something happened to my
brain. No explanation. No real cause. I woke up one morning and my
brain wasn't working right. Well, at first I had double vision to be
exact. As you can probably imagine, I freaked. I had my neighbor drive
me to the emergency room. Thought it might something sinister. Corneal
scar, Graves' disease, a stroke, a tumor. Something weirder and rarer
that only Dr. House could figure out. I went into the ER, I waited, I
paced, I hyperventilated. But the tests all came out negative.
Nothing. The doctor told me that, whatever it was, it would probably
go away soon.

+ Part 2/3

Only it didn't. Sure, the double vision subsided after a couple of
days. But then other strange things started. The world began to throb
and pulsate at random. Sometimes I would see things, for a few
seconds, as if through a red filter. Occasionally a moving line would
move across my field of vision. Not floaters. Believe me, this was
much more precise. Something like an electrocardiogram schematic. Or a
line on a stock chart. It moved from black to red and black again. And
then it disappeared at the edge of my vision.

Then even stranger things started to happen. One evening, while
watching Doctor Who, I saw the name "NEX" (all caps) pop up in my
field of vision. At first, I thought it was on the screen. But when I
turned my head, it was still there. Never long enough to study. But
long enough to know. To be sure. Other things would appear too:
"Testing" and "BR" and "Histrion." A few days after that, I started
hearing voices. First, nonsensical words. Then a few words and
sentences I still don't understand. Cryptic stuff like "This is also
an option" and "The rules are changing." Just like that I was a
receiver for all kinds of chatter. Then the chatter started to cohere.
Which brings me to this flash drive. And the documents. Here goes.

+ Part 3/3

The voices were audible at first but gradually they slipped into my
subconscious. At that point, I was receiving messages even without
hearing words or seeing any text. I know this sounds insane. But they
told me to find this specific document: the Citigroup Plutonomy Memos.
I never heard those words. I just knew. Only finding it wasn't that
easy. I hadn't heard of these memos before. Apparently, Citigroup
lawyers are issuing takedown notices whenever they get posted. They
don't exist at all in the future. Again, I know that's an insane thing
to write. And I won't blame you if you stop reading now and just trash
this drive (but if you keep reading, you'll see why I really, really
hope you don't trash it). Nobody told me that this doc doesn't exist
in the future. I just know it somehow. A few years from now, there's
no way to search for it or download it or distribute it. Even now, you
can't put it up for long before the lawyers make you take it down. So
I had to get it to you (whoever you are) via dead drop. That's how
important messages get sent in the future, I guess.

There's no reason you should believe me. I don't even believe myself.
I just want these messages to stop. And I know they'll only stop if
the message is received. I don't want to be a receiver anymore. So I
hope, more than I can tell you, that you're reading this and that
you'll do something about it, so I can have my life back. I'm not sure
what you're supposed to do with this data. Make sense of it somehow,
maybe. I do know that I'm not allowed to give you explicit
instructions. They told me that. They. Whoever they are. The source of
these transmissions. NEX maybe, whoever or whatever that is. If I told
you what to do, it would do something to the future. There's no
algorithm. No clear path. Your decision actually matters now. It could
change things. I trust or believe (don't ask me why) that you'll be
able to figure out how this plays out.

Sincerely,
Lamarck Powers