The Magnus Protocol 30 - Dead End Job
34:00 Share

Hey Prime members, are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news! With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts, included with your Prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free. Or, go to amazon.com slash ad-free podcasts. That's amazon.com slash ad-free podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads.

Let's talk about something that's not always top of mind, but still really important. Life insurance. Why? Because it offers financial protection for your loved ones and can help them pay for things like a mortgage, credit card debt. It can even help fund an education.

And guess what? Life insurance is probably a lot more affordable than you think. In fact, most people think life insurance is three times more expensive than it is. So with State Farm Life Insurance, you can protect your loved ones without breaking the bank. Not sure where to start? State Farm has over 19,000 local agents that can help you choose an option to fit your needs and budget. Get started today and contact a State Farm agent or go to statefarm.com.

We all have dreams. Dream home renovations, dream vacations, or sending our kids to their dream colleges. But finding straightforward ways to turn those dreams into realistic goals, that's where things get tricky. Merrill understands that. That's why, with a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. And having the bull at your back helps your whole financial life move with you.

So when your plans change, Merrill is with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, registered broker-dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC.

There's nothing quite like the Honda Civic Hybrid, Accord Hybrid, and CR-V Hybrid when it comes to exhilarating efficiency. With hybrid technology and thrilling capability, these vehicles deliver an electrifying performance on every drive. But what truly makes these hybrids special is the unwavering determination that inspires everything we do. Redefine your driving experience with Honda, KBB.com's best value brand of 2024. Based on 2024 Consumer Choice Awards from Kelly Buba, visit KBB.com for more information.

Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos? Hard. Tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love? An easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head-to-head for the last chicken wing. Shop Game Day Faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders.

Offer valid for a limited time. Other fees and terms apply.

Monday.com, for whatever you run. Go to Monday.com to learn more. Rusty Quill presents The Magnus Protocol. Episode 30, Dead End Job. You can't ignore her forever. I just don't know what to say to her. I was kind of hoping she wouldn't check her voicemail for another few hours. Really think she's that upset? Five calls in seven minutes and a bunch of messages. What did she say? Don't know.

Can't quite bring myself to check just yet. Well, this means, well, she doesn't really understand. I don't know. Maybe she's right. What? When I started at the OIR, she told me not to let it get to me. Now look at me. You were attacked? Yeah, by something I released. Because I let stuff get to me. Because I got curious. My head is killing me. I'm not surprised. When I saw you lying out there, I thought, well, yeah, I'm not going to let it get to me.

Headache makes sense. Here. You need water? No. Tough guy. You're lucky we didn't need to run to catch the last Oxford train. What unlucky? Second thoughts? I don't know. It's just starting to feel kind of far away now. I was so certain we had to get to the hilltop centre ASAP, but now...

Well, I don't think there's another train back till tomorrow morning. So we may as well do a bit of snooping. I know. Just wish I could focus properly. Rain's easing off at least. That's good. Thanks, Celia. For what? For coming with me. You didn't have to. Sounded like you'd have gone anyway. At least this way I can make sure it all goes to plan. When there's a plan...

Besides, you're not the only one who's curious. Well, I still appreciate it. Anyway, what if you were right? When you said we had to go now or something terrible would happen. You'd just had a weird monster in your brain. Maybe it was the truth. Christ, I hope not. I do not feel up to an apocalyptic conflict right now. Hopefully the painkillers should be kicking in soon. Rest up. We're safe here. Come on, Sam!

God damn. Pick up, pick up, pick up. It's following you, you stupid... Excuse me, miss. I'm going to have to ask you to rein it in. Sorry. I don't want to have to ask you to leave. Okay, alright, I get it. Wait, where's the ticket office? Closed for tonight. Machine's over there. Are there any more trains going to Oxford tonight? Check the board. I know I can check the bloody board. I just thought you might be, I don't know, useful. You have a good night, miss. Right. Uh...

X, X, 1. I don't... No real card. God, I don't know. Anytime day return? How much? Christ, no. Seriously. Alice? Yeah, Colin, I'm here. Are you in the office at the moment? No, why? God's sake. I need your help. I'm in trouble. Like, right now? I'm not really...

I'm kind of in the middle of something. I messed up, Alice. Freddie's... I messed up. I'll come round first thing tomorrow, okay? And then we can... You can tell me what you think is going on with Freddie then, yeah? Colin? Yeah. Sure. Sorry to bother you. Goodbye, Alice. Colin? Listen, I'll be there as soon as... Oh, crap. Lena, I've just had a call from Trevor Herbert MP. Oh, nice.

Did he enjoy his visit? He certainly found it illuminating. I'm glad. If my job was all that was at stake here, I'd probably praise your initiative. I have no idea where you've been digging these files up from, but you've certainly used them effectively and bluntly. I have no idea. But there is much more at play here than you know.

You're sure? There's not much round here. We're fine, really. Fair enough.

Just checking for tape recorders. Plenty. What unit did you say it was?

17, according to Helen's records. But it doesn't say if there was a shop there or anything. So how do we know which unit is which? Most don't even have signs left. This way. You sure? Call it a hunch. Sam. Oh, sorry. This place is just making me a bit nervous, you know? Hmm.

I don't think it's actually, like, properly abandoned. Some of the shops look indecent, Nick. Maps does still list a bunch of businesses here, but no websites or opening times or anything. I can see why. Like, that can't be a real dentist, right? We want your teeth. Yeah, that's not normal. I think it's normal for here.

Yeah...

Hey! Christ! What was that for? That's one hell of a reflex! Here, let me help.

What the hell are you two doing sneaking around here this time of night? We could ask you the same question. I work here. Sorry, you work here? Yeah. I clean up. Make sure everything stays locked up. Like the one with all the banging? Ah, crap. Which one was it? Uh, Grey's Appliances? Right, I better go lock it back up before it's... Well...

Look, you two need to leave. It's no safe here. The lights are mostly gone and the structure is weak, so... It's alright. You can just say it's haunted. Okay. Yeah. This place is haunted. Like, ridiculously haunted. And dangerous with it. I don't know if you're one of the ghost hunters or something, but trust me, this place isn't for you. You should go. Celia? We have business in one of the units.

Fine. Just leave me out of it. If you like. I do. Which unit? 17. The old outreach centre? Yeah, I think so. For the Magnus Institute. If you say so. No one's been in there in decades.

Come on. I keep the front lock tight, but I can let you in the service entrance. Just like that. You learn to go with the flow here, and stay out of the way of whatever goes on. I just keep it clean and lock up when I can. If you're stupid enough to go poking around, that's on you. I've said my piece. Well, that's not exactly reassuring. No, I don't imagine it is. Where to? Hey, are there any other taxis working tonight?

Probably, but I'm the only one here so you take it or leave it. Sorry, no, yeah, it's just I'm looking for someone. Right. Er, this guy. Sam. Have you seen him tonight? I can't tell you that. Client confidentiality, you know how it is. 50 quid? Yeah, I took him and a lady friend over to that creepy old shopping centre up Cowley Way. Weird, but I don't judge. How fast can you get me there?

This time of night? Ten minutes, easy. Wicked. You're on. Look, it's none of my business, but I'm not getting involved in any, like, crime of passion stuff, alright? I don't want to be a witness to anything. No, no, it's nothing like that, I promise. Now, can we go? Sure. After, I'll get the fifty. Fair. Shut up! Just one board a night. Is that so much to ask? Alright.

Can't believe I'm still here after all these years. Looking after this place is as much about what you don't see as what you do. The first time I came here... The first time I came here I knew something wasn't right. I used to clean hospitals and I know what dried blood looks like. And here it was everywhere.

I didn't believe it, of course. Didn't let myself recognise it, but I still saw it, right from the start. In the corners. In the cracks. Was it from the victims of this awful place? Was it mixed into the concrete when it was first raised? Or do the buildings just bleed? Is this place a wound that never fully heals? I don't know, but on hot summer nights I can smell it. So why take the job? You wouldn't ask me if you could see my payslips for these last 30 years.

Life was bad when I met the owner. He smiled so wide, like he was so unbelievably pleased to be offering me such an opportunity. I asked about the blood. I couldn't help myself. He just smiled and added another ten grand to the salary. I didn't ask any other questions. I never even learned his name. From that moment on, it was just the three of us. Me, the blood-stained, silent concrete of the hilltop centre, and the duck.

In all my time, I've never come during the day. They would break some strange unspoken rule. I don't know if anyone has ever come here shopping. I don't know what shops are still open. I don't know if it closed down years ago and I'm just another ghost loitering amongst the great grey corpse. I know that it gets other visitors though. I know because I clean up bits of them sometimes.

A patch of torn out hair, a half-melted tooth, a rotted fingernail torn from the root. They're never enough to matter to anyone else. I try not to see these days. I ward people away at night, warn them that they shouldn't be here. Usually they listen, but not always. I remember the first time someone wouldn't turn away. It was the winter of '97.

A man staggered up to me, stinking a cheap booze and piss. He wanted to buy a lighter. I told him to leave. I told him that all the shops here were shit. He called me a liar. Then I noticed the light illuminating me from behind. One of the shop fronts, a newsagent I'd never paid much attention to, was open, and apparently always had been. What's more, it was a haggard yet eager old woman I'd never seen before stood behind the counter.

I tried to warn the man, but he just shoved me out the way and walked inside. I went to clean the far side of the centre and ignored the smell of burnt hair and charred meat. It wasn't all death though. Sometimes people arrived. Not often, but every now and then you'd find some thin, emaciated soul wandering around, lost and confused. Ambulance would come take him away. Maybe they're fine, but I died to. I only called the police once. Only once.

It was the whimpering. There's always noises when you're cleaning, but you lock 'em up or curse them out and they shut up. This time it didn't. It just kept on going and going from one of the clothing stores near the east exit. Patience, I think it was called. And this time I broke one of the unspoken rules. I had a look. At first there was nothing, just darkness and clothing and motionless mannequins. But the whimpering still filled the shop.

I checked the mannequins and it was on the third one that I realized what was happening. Why the outfit was so mismatched. Why the clothes had been pinned in place. Why it was bleeding. Why it was whimpering. Of course, by the time the police finally bothered to turn up, there was nothing to show them. A woman had been taken when I went out to greet them, leaving only one more blood stain. I got a caution for wasting police time. Serves me right.

The next day I got a call from the owner. He second and last time I ever heard his voice. He asked me if I was still happy working at the Hilltop Centre. He asked me if there was anything I wanted to know. He asked me where my daughter liked to shop. I was never curious again. Even when I found the owner dead in his office, with every blood vessel stripped from his body and strung around the room in a grim, trapped cradle, I just closed the door and kept cleaning and the payslips kept coming.

I try to take time off. Holidays are important. If you're here too long, too regular, you start to feel like you're part of the place. Like it's getting inside you, making you a fixture. That's when I take the caravan and get some space. Remind myself of the world. Because at the end of the day it's just a job. But I still dream of the hilltop. In my dream it waits for me. Silent, grey and eager for my company.

Its concrete bones are streaked through with blood like rippled ice cream, and I reach out for it. It's soft and cold and yielding, and then the gritty mixture sneaks up my arm and begins to harden. It pulls me onward, scraping off skin, tearing muscle until I finally fall. It is rough.

And cold and silent inside. The world is locked away. And when I open my mouth to scream, the cold grey pours down my throat. And it fills my stomach with stone. It fills my lungs with gravel. And my blood, my blood, we are.

The lights are gone. So use your phone. Oh, yeah. Alice? Seventeen missed calls. Yeah. You gonna call her back, or...? She can wait. Besides, I want to look around. There's not much to see. Yeah.

They must have completely cleared it out. If they were ever here in the first place. Maybe we should... There it is. You've got something? Stairs. To the basement. Great spot. Well, after you. And they say Shivery's dead. Look, last time I went to a basement, I accidentally released a monster, so... Do you hear that? I hear it. Do you see that? I see it. What is it?

Look how it splits the light like a prism. It's so beautiful. Dangerous. Celia, do you know what this is? Almost. Wait, what does that mean? It's complicated. Then simplify it. Sam, listen. For God's sake, Celia. Enough, okay? I'm sorry, but enough.

I know you want your privacy, but we are way too deep for that now. My head's killing me. I'm staring at God knows what, and there's some creature on its way to record us to death or whatever. So enough! No more mysteries. No more cryptic clues and weird half-truths. Just for once, I want to know what the hell is actually going on. It's a wound in the world. A tear between here and where I came from.

And it wants me back. What are you saying? It's unbalanced. What? The Institute, alchemy, all of it. It's all about balance. Duoprima, four elements, seven planets, it's all the same. You've got to keep things balanced. And if something is missing, if someone is misplaced, the equation doesn't balance.

And that's when things get bad. Bad how? It keeps pulling me back. Closer and closer. It won't let me stay. But you don't want to go back. I don't remember much of how I got here. But I know there's nothing to go back to. Here, I have a life. I have Jack. He needs me. I have to balance it for him.

What are we doing here, Celia? All this digging? The OIR? The Magnus Institute? You just wanted to get me here. To make me trust you, so that what? You could just use me to pay off some kind of cosmic debt? It was your idea to come here tonight. Was it? I'm sorry, Sam. So it was all a lie? Not all of it. I really did like you.

So what's the problem? We're here, Alice won't make it in time and I know you're carrying that knife. What happens now? You push me? Stab me? Or do I need to jump in myself? Come on! What's stopping you? What's stopping you, Celia? I don't... When I first awoke...

I knew nothing. Nothing but the dream of things that sliced my who from me with claws like scalpels. Oh, God. They would hunt me and toy with what it meant to be me, peeling away my layers. First my name, then my memory, and then... You were... You were...

And then the fearless one reached in and grasped me, tore me out, leaving my story to fall away like autumn leaves. I said leave her alone! This is it. Cool. And like I told the others, there's nothing here, so if you want me to hang around... Sam? Celia? Celia?

Sam! Sam! Oh God. Oh God, no, please. Sam, is that...? Rough and cool and silent. We are the Hilltop. The Hilltop. Not again. Sam! Celia! Huh?

Lena? You dark horse. This is the OIAR. Bouchard speaking. Oh, hello, Gwen. Just who I was after. Oh, that's, uh, that is to say, what can I do for you, Minister? I'm guessing since it's you picking up, you've spoken with Lena, then? Oh, yes, she, uh...

She left. Didn't make too much of a scene, I hope. Difficult business after all. Oh, no. Not at all. Great. In that case, congratulations are in order. I'm sure you'll do a fine job. I'm sorry? I'll get someone to put the paperwork across your desk first thing tomorrow and make it official. But let's not stand on ceremony. As far as I'm concerned, you're the ringmaster now. Gwen, are you still there? Yes, yes, still here.

So what do you want? What should I do? Don't worry about me. I'll stay out your way. I've never been one to micromanage. You have my full support. Right. Anyway, I won't keep you. Congratulations again and best of luck. Huh. Alice! Alice! Down here! Celia!

Where's Sam? We've got to get out of here. That archivist thing, it followed you. It might be... What? What is that? What happened? Where's Sam? It attacked us. He tried to stop it, to protect me, even though... They're gone, Alice. They're gone. The Magnus Protocol is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Sharealike 4.0 International License.

The series is created by Jonathan Sims and Alexander J. Newell and directed by Alexander J. Newell. This episode was written by Jonathan Sims and edited with additional materials by Alexander J. Newell, with vocal edits by Lorianne Davis and Nico Vitesi, soundscaping by Tessa Varoum, and mastering by Catherine Rinella, with music by Sam Jones.

The Magnus Protocol is produced by April Sumner, with executive producers Alexander Jane Yule, Danny McDonagh, Lynn See, and Samantha F.G. Hamilton.

and associate producers Jordan L. Hawke, Taylor Michaels, Nicole Perlman, Cetius the Raven, and Megan Nice. To subscribe, view associated materials, or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com. Rate and review us online, tweet us at TheRustyQuill, visit us on Facebook, or email us via mail at RustyQuill.com. Thanks for listening.

There's nothing quite like the Honda Civic Hybrid, Accord Hybrid, and CR-V Hybrid when it comes to exhilarating efficiency. With hybrid technology and thrilling capability, these vehicles deliver an electrifying performance on every drive. But what truly makes these hybrids special is the unwavering determination that inspires everything we do. Redefine your driving experience with Honda, KBB.com's best value brand of 2024. Based on 2024 Consumer Choice Awards from Kelly Blubaugh, visit KBB.com for more information.

1-800-Flowers.com knows that a gift is never just a gift. A gift is an expression of everything you feel and helps to build more meaningful relationships. 1-800-Flowers takes the pressure off by helping you navigate life's important moments by making it simple to find the perfect gift.

From flowers and cookies to cake and chocolate, 1-800-Flowers helps guide you in finding the right gift to say how you feel. To learn more, visit 1-800-Flowers.com slash ACAST. That's 1-800-Flowers.com slash ACAST.

Let's talk about something that's not always top of mind, but still really important. Life insurance. Why? Because it offers financial protection for your loved ones and can help them pay for things like a mortgage, credit card debt. It can even help fund an education.

And guess what? Life insurance is probably a lot more affordable than you think. In fact, most people think life insurance is three times more expensive than it is. So with State Farm Life Insurance, you can protect your loved ones without breaking the bank. Not sure where to start? State Farm has over 19,000 local agents that can help you choose an option to fit your needs and budget. Get started today and contact a State Farm agent or go to statefarm.com.

Hey, Prime members. Are you tired of ads interfering with your favorite podcasts? Good news. With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your Prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon Music app for free or go to amazon.com slash ad-free podcasts. That's amazon.com slash ad-free podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads.

We all have dreams. Dream home renovations, dream vacations, or sending our kids to their dream colleges. But finding straightforward ways to turn those dreams into realistic goals, that's where things get tricky. Merrill understands that. That's why, with a dedicated Merrill advisor, you get a personalized plan and a clear path forward. And having the bull at your back helps your whole financial life move with you.

So when your plans change, Merrill is with you every step of the way. Go to ml.com slash bullish to learn more. Merrill, a Bank of America company. What would you like the power to do? Investing involves risk. Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, registered broker dealer, registered investment advisor, member SIPC. Your dining room is the heart of your home, where meals are shared and memories are made.

At Ashley, you'll find affordable dining furniture in a range of classic and modern styles. Ashley's small space sets and extendable tables are designed to fit beautifully into any space, from cozy breakfast nooks and kitchens to formal dining areas fit for a feast. And with mix-and-match seating options, everyone at your table gets the perfect seat. At Ashley, style is served. Shop in-store or online today.