The newsroom smells of scorched coffee and artificial optimism. Screens everywhere — screens showing other screens. A breaking banner slides across the lower third of every active edit suite, but no one speaks about it.
Because they already know what’s coming.
Julie Turner leans over an assistant’s shoulder. Her hair’s wet from rain, her jacket’s still steaming. She doesn’t care. The Slack thread’s lit up like an air raid, and she’s already read it three times. Word by word. Again. And again.
“Roll it again,” she says, voice thin. “I want to see the blink.”
The assistant taps spacebar. The video stutters to life — low-res, timestamped. Shot on something covert. A patient hunched under corridor fluorescents, posture wrong, edges over-sharp. One shoulder is visibly expanding with each breath. When he turns, the bones cast shadows from the inside out.
Julie narrows her eyes. “There. Right there. Did you see that—?”
“His collarbone flexes,” says the assistant. “It’s moving like a mouth.”
j.turner [14:41]: got the file. hash matches 2027 TPE breach.
r.mason [14:41]: verified. audio has embedded carrier tone.
j.turner [14:42]: how embedded?
r.mason [14:42]: not human-audible. definitely patterned. possible spectral exploit.
k.rahman [14:42]: do NOT say "calcite interface" on air.
j.turner [14:43]: under advisement.
r.mason [14:44]: I’m seeing chatter spike. COBR might already be drafting rebuttal.
j.turner [14:45]: we run it with blurs, timestamp off. We *bury* the trigger.
Julie closes the tab. Her eyes are dry. Her hands are not.
“Okay,” she mutters. “This is happening.”
The producer leans over. “You want to say it’s unverified?”
Julie: “No. I want to say it’s here.”
Slide 4 – Internal use only – SKY INVESTIGATES SERIES
Title: "Emergent Bio-Interface Anomalies – Case Study: Tallinn"
- Comparison X-ray overlays (pre/post event)
- Annotated morphologies: extrinsic calcification bloom
- Motion vector: inferred tremor vs controlled signal pattern
- Captioned: "Bone is no longer passive"
FILE: tallinn_patient_clip_0329_final_edit.mkv
LENGTH: 16s
RESOLUTION: 480x270
SHA256: 3f21f68c3c03fbed7d1098a9b0b9e6a1df55...
NOTES:
- Audio confirmed to include 17Hz carrier wave (inaudible)
- Repetition loop every 4.3s
- Frame 187 flagged by analyst as “neural suggestion cue”
– Reported to GCHQ MIRROR_NODE team
DRAFT ONLY – NOT FOR CIRCULATION
COBR BRIEFING NOTE 03/04/2029
RE: UNAUTHORISED BROADCAST – SKY NEWS 22:00 SEGMENT
→ Advisories for all departments:
• Frame incident as “deliberate foreign disinformation attempt”
• Emphasize lack of peer-reviewed evidence for biological anomaly
• Deploy MOD analysts to media panels for “neutral” response
→ If pressed:
“Footage may be subject to malicious spectral manipulation. Viewers should not draw conclusions.”
→ Internal codephrase: “conductor bloom narrative pending triage”