JCL ARCHIVE – AUDIO LOG 0418
Date: 2017-03-20
Location: Private Office – Undisclosed Black Ledger Facility (Canada)
Subject: Cipher Widow – Personal Recording

[Tape begins. A soft click. The quiet hum of an office heater and faint city noise outside the window.]

Cipher Widow:
Hello?

[Pause.]

Testing… testing…

Is this thing—

[She taps the recorder lightly.]

Okay… yes, the little red light is on. So that means it’s recording.

Right.

[She exhales, sounding slightly awkward.]

This one isn’t for the investigation logs. This is… personal. Just something for me to talk into so I don’t lose my mind staring at the same files all night.

So if someone finds this tape someday… congratulations. You’ve found my extremely glamorous detective diary.

[A small, dorky chuckle.]

I should probably say my name, but… no. That’s a bad idea. If these tapes ever get seized, I don’t want them connecting the dots too easily. So we’ll just keep it anonymous.

You know who I am anyway.

[She leans back in her chair. The leather creaks softly.]

Today was… rough.

I snapped at the team earlier. I hate doing that. They’re good people. Most of them joined because they believe in what we’re doing—exposing the things the Joke Comic League buried back in the day.

And the worst part is… the JCL today isn’t even the same organization anymore.

Back in the 1980s through about 2002… they did things. Illegal things. Experiments, disappearances, cover-ups. Projects that should’ve never existed in the first place.

But the funny thing is…

None of that was really Jewman’s fault.

[She pauses thoughtfully.]

From everything we’ve uncovered, he didn’t even know about half of it.

It was the higher-ups. The corporate leadership. The people running the league behind the curtain. They turned the whole thing into some kind of secret machine.

And now?

Now the JCL is… actually good.

Transparent. Ethical. Trying to fix the mess that came before.

[She sighs.]

Which makes my job feel… strange sometimes.

Because the people we’re exposing now… a lot of them are ghosts. Dead, retired, or hidden somewhere deep in the world.

And the people currently wearing the badge? They’re trying to clean it up.

[A quiet pause.]

There’s another part of this job I really hate.

The… infiltration.

The seduction tactics.

[Her voice becomes uncomfortable.]

Pretending to like someone. Getting close to them. Gaining their trust. Then stealing their credentials so we can access internal networks.

It works.

It works really well.

But every time I do it… I know what happens next.

Their account gets flagged. Security traces the breach back to them. They get investigated… and fired.

Sometimes worse.

And the worst part?

Most of those people aren’t villains. They’re just employees.

People with mortgages and families.

[She rubs her forehead.]

I try telling myself it’s for the greater good. That exposing the old crimes matters more than a few careers.

But that doesn’t make it feel better.

[A long silence follows.]

Lately… I’ve been thinking about ending this whole investigation.

Not giving up.

Just… changing tactics.

Coming out of hiding.

Walking straight into the JCL headquarters and asking Jewman himself for the files.

If the organization really is clean now… maybe he’d cooperate.

Maybe he’d want the truth out just as much as we do.

[She laughs nervously.]

Of course… that plan has about a thousand ways it could go wrong.

First problem: the United States.

I can’t even step foot there without risking arrest. The authorities have been hunting investigators like us for years. Whistleblowers, rogue journalists, anyone digging into old hero operations.

That’s why I stay here.

Canada is… quieter.

Safer.

I can live a normal life here. Grocery stores, bookstores, coffee shops. Nobody suspects the weird dorky girl in the oversized coat is running an underground investigation network.

[She chuckles softly.]

Second problem…

Dr. Rate.

[Her tone lowers slightly.]

I don’t trust him.

I know everyone says he’s the best doctor and psychologist the JCL has. Brilliant, ethical, helpful.

But there’s something about him that doesn’t sit right with me.

Too many pieces of evidence from that one case in 1993 keep pointing back to him.

Every time I trace the trail… his name pops up somewhere.

Just on the edges.

Never directly involved.

But always close enough to make me uneasy.

And until I know exactly what role he played in that case… I’m not walking into JCL territory.

Not even for the truth.

[She exhales slowly.]

For now… we keep digging.

Quietly.

Carefully.

And hopefully without ruining too many innocent lives along the way.

[A soft tapping sound as she fiddles with the recorder.]

Alright… that’s enough for tonight.

I’ve got files to read, tea to drink, and probably about four hours of sleep if I’m lucky.

Goodnight, mysterious tape recorder.

[Small laugh.]

Don’t tell anyone my secrets.

[Click. Tape ends.]