CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
January 04 1919
"…It's been at least three months since anyone was last in contact with Theodore Niklaus Hargreeves…not unusual during war times, but the war has been over for quite some time now…He should've of come home by now…one way or the other"
"His current guardians, Elliot & Eleanor Gussman, keep checking the List of the Dead in Dallas, for mentions of him…I've tried looking for him, myself, but no such luck…His last known point of contact was with Eleanor Gussman, stating that they [the Sparrow Squadron] would be travelling to Austria, shortly before the genocide…They're besides themselves with worry…this better not be one of those stupid boyish pranks!"
"…Something about this feels very wrong…Theodore wouldn't just leave, not without saying something first…I have his diaries to prove such a fact…So, to completely disappear from the grid like this? Something must have happened over there in Austria…"
"I keep expecting Theodore to just waltz in through the door like nothing was wrong, like he hadn't just spent three months in ghostly isolation…But what if something actually happened to him? What if he's hurt? What if his plane crashed down in Austria? Those Sparrows of his are always diving out of the sky like geese going for the bread…"
"…The last time we spoke, I called him an overprotective marcest…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
February 12 1919
"…Still no sign of Theodore. N Hargreeves…I've searched through the neighbourhoods and scoured all of his usual hangouts, not to mention every medical facility associated with the military. But I keep coming up empty…What am I supposed to do when my target just suddenly disappears? Basic training never mentioned this!"
"The military-slash-FBI won't start the official investigation until tomorrow…But the only reason that they're even opening an investigation after the war's end, is because he was—is—a pilot in the infamous Sparrow Squadron…He likely wouldn't have received this kind of treatment had he been in any other infantry. Then again, if he'd been in any other infantry, he probably would've come home already"
"…They keep saying that Theodore is probably dead, considering what happened in Vienna…But they need to know for sure—I need to know for sure…"
"…But I know Theodore and I know my Legacies, that surge of lumen HAD to have come from an Orlin or a Kupin…and a pretty powerful one at that…It HAD to have come from Theodore; especially considering his track record with the world-ending catastrophe that had landed the Hargreeves in the past, in the first place…"
"It doesn't make any sense"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
February 14 1919
"This morning, Theodore Niklaus Hargreeves was officially listed as 'Missing in Action'…The local FBI force combed through his inhabitance in Dallas, as well as the one in Fort Worth…and they all-but destroyed his bedrooms in both cases"
"…They interrogated—sorry, interviewed—everyone who knew him…From the Gussmans, to our teachers and our (remaining) classmates…plus me & Franklin Cooper…From the questions that they'd asked, it sounded like they were trying to figure out if THEODORE had anything to do with the Vienna Genocide"
"…I shudder to think what would happen should they ever find him before I do…This whole situation is surreal and I find myself waiting eagerly for the punchline…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
June 11 1919
"Local Search & Rescue forces found parts of Theodore's DH4 Biplane on the border of Austria and Hungary, just sitting along the road…in some miscellaneous ditch. It was only thanks to the serial code on the tail that identified the vehicle as a Sparrow Squadron plane…and after cross-referencing it with the last known pilots, his name (& Captain Bennett Brown's) was listed in the long laundry list of militia aviators"
"…I'm both relieved and terrified. Relived that we found some sort of evidence that pointed as to where Theodore has disappeared off to…and terrified because no one—human or loric—could've of survived something like that…Something bad must've happened to him…but then again, I am reminded of the surge in loralite in that area, around that time and I find myself conflicted. Something bad must've happened, yes, but what would've caused him to go off the rails like that?"
"…The Dallas branch called in support from the Hungarian Special Forces, with Agent Dakota Montgomery heading the investigation. She's young—maybe mid twenties, black—and she seems nervous & inexperienced…This is likely her first missing person's case—especially of this calibre—and I don't trust her to handle the investigation properly…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
June 13 1919
"…It's getting harder to drag answers out of people, these days and some are just straight up refusing to answer…The FBI have stonewalled all known sources & blackmailed the rest…Their actions are suspicious; it's like they know something I don't"
"…The Gussmans (and I) are terrified of what this might mean for Theodore…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
August 03 1919
"I was FINALLY able to nab sometime to myself today, so that I could use my briefcase and go & investigate ground zero in the ruins of Austria, myself…"
"…It looks like a wasteland here, like the resulting apocalypse from 2019 that Mr Five wound up in (and was later rescued from)…They weren't kidding about the destruction wrought here…and its easy to see why the officials are so dead set on retrieving REMAINS instead of a living person…Still, I hold out hope to the contrary…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
August 06 1919
"I've spent days walking up & down the remnants of the highway where sections of Theodore's biplane was found, but all there is now is the stench of death and the scorch marks that are burnt into the side of the buildings…from the shockwaves…The FBI have cleared out most of the good stuff…"
"…I hate how I keep looking into the ditches on the side of the road…I hate that every time that I do, I keep expecting to find a piece of Theodore just like a piece of his biplane was found…The last time that I saw a scrunched up napkin, I just about bawled my eyes out…Theodore was always writing in that book of his and I couldn't tell you how many times I'd find scrunched paper balls littering the floor…It was like HANSEL AND GRETEL…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
August 23 1919
"…In the meantime, the Gussmans are letting me stay at their place…I think that they just need an extra body to fill the space that Theodore has left empty…Despite the FBI's ministrations, the Gussmans have posted a generous reward for any information on Theodore's whereabouts and so we spend out days sorting through the so-called 'information'…Most of it is just scammers looking to make a quick buck"
"…The Gussmans can't sit still. Eleanor Gussman keeps going out into the neighbourhood to ask people if they have heard from Theodore…or down to the recruitment centre to bug the officers about his (supposed) whereabouts. Elliot Gussman, on the other hand, spends his days buried to the neck in conspiracy theories…If I'd thought his fascination with 'the Other' was bad before, it's even worse now"
"Franklin Cooper keeps telling me that it'll all be okay, in the end…That Theodore was about as stubborn as a constipated bull in a china shop…He'd be okay. I'm not so sure; he doesn't know the kind of destruction that that Garde could wrought…"
"…Every time I close my eyes, I can't help but think that if I hadn't pushed Theodore to enlisting, then he would still be here…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
September 09 1919
"I went back to the date and time of the genocide; mere minutes after the bomb struck…it was so much worse in person than it was reading the reports"
"…I'm still not sure if I believe what I saw or if I can even remember it right. There was screaming, something was burning and death littered the ground in all directions…I couldn't SEE Theodore, but I could HEAR him. He sounded like a banshee—heartbroken & longing"
"It hurt too much to stay"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
September 12 1919
"A taskforce was assembled today, complete with bloodhounds and volunteers…Everyone is so so gung-ho about figuring out what happened…It's not really something that you can just sweep under the rug, the absolute destruction of a state…"
"…The dogs have been following the trail around both ground zero and the crash site where pieces of Theodore's biplane was found…no new news…Theories abound as to what happened to the squadron and the rumour mill is alive with possibilities. The most popular being alien abduction or governmental cover-up…It's funny to think that they might not be so far off of the mark…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
September 13 1919
"Statement of Eleanor Gussman & Elliot Gussman, regarding the disappearance of Theodore Niklaus Hargreeves-Gussman and the infidelity of Eleanor Gussman with Robert Thompson.
Original statement given September 13 1919, at 00.34am.
Audio recording by Agent Lila Pitts, Corrections Officer of La Commission du Temps et de L'Space.
Statement begins:
Eleanor: You're never there for me, anymore. Bobby is.
Elliot: Oh, it's BOBBY, now is it? What happened to ROBERT?
Eleanor: Elliot—
Elliot: —Oh, don't you "Elliot" me! I can't BELIEVE that you slept with Robert in our FUCKING bed!
Eleanor: You don't understand! You're never there! You've always got your head buried in your conspiracy theories! If something even gets REMOTELY bad, you bury your head in the fucking sand! At least BOBBY is trying to help!
Elliot: But Robert?! Fucking ROBERT?! Like a PLEBEIAN, you had to go and fuck my BEST FRIEND?! Sorry—EX-best friend?! Ugh! Fuck! I don't even know what to do with you!
Eleanor: DO with me? I'm not a FUCKING dog!
Elliot: No, instead you just fuck around like the BITCH you are! Don't think I haven't seen those looks of yours!
Eleanor: Well…the-the only reason I'm giving you those looks is because you are a GODDAMN embarrassment! Do you have ANY idea what people say about us?! What they are saying about the fucking recluse that runs the electronics store?!
Elliot: Well, I'm SURE you're about to tell me—!
Eleanor: No, you know what? I am NOT spending ANOTHER MINUTE looking at your pathetic alien-crazy face! Ugh! For fuck's sake! You USELESS heap of a human being! No WONDER Theodore left!
Elliot: HEY! That is SO not on me!
Eleanor: You left! You BOTH left me! What am I SUPPOSED to think?!
Elliot: What are YOU supposed to think? That boy is MY son—!
Eleanor: —That boy is MY son too! And I will do ANYTHING to find him! I don't care what the police say! And unlike YOU, you'll just bury your head in the sand again!
Elliot: I KEEP telling you! It was the ALIENS! They came to take him away—!
Eleanor: Yes, yes, yes, the blue aliens that look like people and sound French, but have MAGICAL powers. Just like the ones who lived next door to you when you were young. So, you've told me a HUNDRED times over. But WAKE UP! This is the REAL WORLD! Our REAL LIVE son is MISSING and its not because of some little blue men up in space!
Elliot: We don't know that! You saw how Montgomery reacted when we told her who we were!
Eleanor: AGAIN, people TALK and they're not saying nice things! Everyone knows us by now, we're all over the news!
Elliot: I'm telling you, he KNOWS something!
Eleanor: And WHAT are you going to do then, Elliot? What? Beat Montgomery up? Torture her? Ring up the little blue men? Get yourself arrested?
Elliot: What? N-no, of course not! I just can't sit here and do nothing—!
Eleanor: We told the police everything we know
Elliot: Not about the aliens!
Eleanor: HE WASN'T ABDUCTED BY ALIENS!
Elliot: You're telling me you didn't see those magic powers of his? The blue blood? The mysterious family we know so much about but are never here?
Eleanor: That—that…Theodore is special, yes, but he is NOT an alien! And just because YOU believe those RIDICULOUS fairy stories do NOT mean you get to go around telling every man and his dog!
Elliot: But what if Theodore's out there, this very second, with those aliens? I KNOW Montgomery knows something that he's not telling us! Why ELSE would he keep dodging our inquiries? It HAS to be—!
Eleanor: —Elliot, STOP! Stop—just, stop it, okay?…I can't…you can't…just…PLEASE stop. This is REAL. Theodore is MISSING and they suspect him for some REALLY bad things, can just…PLEASE let this alien thing go and be there for our son?
Elliot: But I'm TELLING you, he was taken, I can FEEL it.
Eleanor: Oh? You can "FEEL IT?" can you?
Elliot: Yes, I can.
Eleanor: Well, FEEL this: we're done.
Elliot: What? Ellie—!
Eleanor: —No! No, I can't take it anymore! I'm—I'm taking my things and I'm going to Bobby's in the morning. And WE are going to keep looking for Theodore, whilst YOU keep playing fairytales!
Elliot: Ellie, wait—!
Eleanor: —DON'T—! Don't touch me.
Statement ends"
"…I don't think I've ever heard Mr & Mrs Gussman fight before—'least not like that…On top of everything else, it feels so surreal, like I'll wake up tomorrow and leap out of bed to find Theodore already at the breakfast table, smothered in jam with Mr Pennycrumb licking the butter from his fingers…Mrs Gussman will be at the stove cooking up an ungodly amount of eggs and Mr Gussman will still be in his pyjamas as he reads his magazines…It'll be like none of this ever happened…Too bad wishes don't make dreams come true…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
October 17 1919
"…It has officially been 12 months since Theodore was last heard from…The Gussmans—now separated—hang in suspense; waiting for any breadcrumb that might suffice their hunger for answers. Everyone else has moved on…I got to meet Franklin's new baby brother—Carl Cooper—the other day…Cranky Carl, they call him. It certainly fits"
"I, myself, have spent many hours searching for Theodore, thought I have yet to able to find him. I HAVE found more pieces to the puzzle that was his last known day; but nothing worth mentioning…It's like a thousand piece puzzle with the image still incoherent and several pieces still missing…It's infuriating"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
November 23 1919
"…Thirteen months missing…This morning, Agent Montgomery and Doctor Jameson Wethers of the FBI: Dallas came by to take Franklin Cooper & myself in for more questioning. Frank was furious…he was supposed to be taking care of his little brother whilst his parents were busy with the farm…Said that they were wasting their time interrogating people like us, when they should really be out looking for Theodore…I mean, he has a point, we weren't even in his regiment…"
"Agent Montgomery said that it was standard procedure, that they needed to get the statements from all that had been close to the victim in order to paint a better picture of who he was-slash-is and what might've happened. But from their questions, I gathered that they thought Theodore had been up to something before the genocide…"
"…She asked me if Theodore had ever been violent, if he had always been interested in planes, if I knew that he had been underage when he had enlisted. She asked if Theodore was involved in anything unsavoury (drugs, gambling, gangs etc)? Did he have a girlfriend? (Ha! Fat chance of that! Boy had rainbows coming out of his ears, not flowers!) If he was picked on at school? (Yeah, but all strange kids are). She asked if Theodore had any enemies (Not any to date and none that she would know of)…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
November 24 1919
"…It took a while, but the feds FINALLY let us go…said they'd found some evidence pointing towards foul play on the pieces of biplane that they'd found. That's why they had suspicions about Theodore's REAL motives about being in the army and such…Doctor Wethers told me that they're just looking Theodore's things, but at this, we all know they're looking for a body…I think the only one who doesn't know yet is Eleanor Gussman…she's been particularly stubborn about the whole thing"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST
AGENT LILA PITTS
December 15 1919
"…Dreamt that Theodore was hiding out in the Cooper's barn this whole time and when I went to check, he wasn't there just like I knew he wouldn't be…Sometimes I wake up and I think I can hear his voice calling out…"
"It seems that the stress of this long-term mission is finally getting to me"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET FOUND
AGENT LILA PITTS
January 04 1920
"…It took a while, but I FINALLY found a breadcrumb worth following…"
"On the 12th hour of the 20th day of November 1920, a man by the name of Sir Reginald Hilde Hargreeves, eccentric billionaire & adventurer, arrived in Kraków with his ward, Evangeline-Ent in tow…There, the two found & retrieved one comatose Theodore Niklaus Hargreeves from the Szpital Jagiellonian Uniwersytecki…"
"…There has been no sign of them since…"
"…So, should I consider my mission complete? Will I be extracted soon? I hope Mum won't be too upset with how my first mission went…"
—Excerpts from: CORRECTIONS REPORT: TARGET LOST, Agent Lila Pitts
LA COMMISSION DU TEMPS ET DE L'SPACE
OFFICE MEMORANDUM
TO: AGENT LILA PITTS
FROM: H812943
DATE: 0118192053
EXTRACTION POINT: 32.789680 —96.835114