Subject : The rest of the story...

Chico worked for Totally Twisted since shortly after their inception. Back at
the time of Dead Horror, Totally Twisted didn't have the budget to do separate
websites for each proposed or in-production show. Instead they made sub-domains
for each show. But even so, Dead Horror was an exception to their normal routine
and the pre-show information and hype was fairly minimal. Totally Twisted
executives explained it away by saying that the reality TV market was so
competitive that they were worried about someone stealing their concept before
they could produce the show. The entire pre-show process for Dead Horror was
more discreet and secretive than usual.

Dead Horror was perhaps the second or third show that Totally Twisted attempted.
One they actually produced and marketed to limited syndicated networks was
called "I Forgot", and another that was aborted part way through was called
"Poor House", a twisted Big Brother clone in which they recruited rich people to
live in poverty for a period of time. Unfortunately in the first week the
spoiled wealthy people they had recruited said "f--- this" and left after being
subjected to a few of the stunts and pranks the Totally Twisted producers had
planned.

Chico was involved only minimally in early Dead Horror stuff, mostly by doing an
online form for contestants to sign up. He found it a little funny that the
secretaries and other regular office workers didn't even seem to know about the
Dead Horror game, and that there was very little documentation of any form to be
seen around the offices. Again, the people in charge claimed it was because of
the need for secrecy - "Need to know basis, and all that stuff," they'd say and
laugh. Totally Twisted didn't even recruit via the web for contestants, but
instead relied on a few other methods, such as posting ambiguous casting call
signs for "a new reality TV show" (no name given on the sign or at the casting
calls) on college campuses, some amateur acting clinics and hotspots around NYC,
and so on. These were the main sources of recruiting; the web-page form that
Chico did was only a secondary method for people who perhaps saw one of the
signs but couldn't make the actual casting calls. It seemed funny though,
because as far as Chico knew, these people weren't selected or even contacted.
When asked, the Totally Twisted executives would say, almost jokingly, "Hey,
it's just our way of keeping track of people who might have seen and taken a
special interest in our signs."

In late 2002/early 2003, the planning and recruiting completed, the Dead Horror
show supposedly began production at the Clydesville Mounted Horses facility in
Manitoba, which they had rented for a period of two months. Everything continued
to be ultra top secret. Even their rental of the property was done under the
name of a shell company. Chico was already busy working on web and promotional
materials for a new project the company had just begun, a show called University
Hijinx. He was responsible for setting up a web-page, the online forms, and the
online component for audience participation in the game. Besides that he was
also working on a website of his own, based on his outside interests. He had
always been a fan of urban legends and wanted to do a small site about the
topic. So Chico didn't really mind that he wasn't even involved in setting up
the network that the Dead Horror game was to use. But, as the webmaster, he did
what many other "computer types" do and don't admit to - he hacked into the
company's e-mail system and monitored everyone's e-mail. The mentions of Dead
Horror in their e-mails were few and far between, but there were occasional
"slip-ups" or vague references, by which Chico kept somewhat appraised of how
the show might be progressing. These mentions spurred his curiosity and he began
looking for files and information within the directories of the Totally Twisted
system, even areas he was not supposed to access. He didn't find much, but he
did manage to come across a few directories that he thought were connected,
based on the way they were labeled (nothing blatant but code words or references
he thought he recognized, knowing how the Totally Twisted people thought). He
had been working on getting into the secure directories, which wasn't easy
because he was only the webmaster and not the network admin. That person,
Dickyboy, was a definite stooge of the Totally Twisted executives, a cold and
distant man who seemed only to serve and suck up to the Totally Twisted upper
management. In fact, his nickname around the office was the "puppet" because he
seemed to dance on the management's strings.

It was by reading other people's e-mails that Chico first became aware that
there was a problem with the game - he saw an e-mail to the executives from an
on-site staff member about an incident at the site. The exec's reply was terse
and somewhat reprimanding for the staffer even mentioning the subject like that
and said they would be in touch via phone about it from then on. It said in no
uncertain terms for the staffer not to contact anyone else about it. Chico
didn't hear or see any more about it for a while, until there was one dramatic
e-mail a few days later, from an address used by one of the Totally Twisted
personnel on the Dead Horror site, with just a short, desperate message:
"everything has gone to hell. too many dead. no way out. help us."

Since he was reading the e-mails covertly and probably illegally, he wasn't sure
what to do about it and hoped the execs would say or do something about it. But
there was nothing, nothing visible at least. Chico felt he had to do something,
and approached the vice-president. He tried to cover himself by making up
something on the spot about having problems with the e-mail system and having to
go into certain areas to fix the problem, but the veep obviously didn't buy it,
and reacted very negatively and in a very hostile manner. He demanded to know
what and how much Chico had seen, what he knew about the "project", and so on.
He emphasized how Chico had broken the law and did he realize just how much
trouble he might be in?

Chico knew he had made a serious mistake in coming forward like this. He lied
and said he knew nothing else, doing his best to cover his tracks and just get
out of the man's office. Luckily, the vice-president was almost frantic about
the news and distracted by making a series of quick phone calls, waving Chico
out of the room.

Chico began to realize something was terribly wrong and decided he needed to do
two things as soon as possible - get some evidence of what he had found and get
the hell out of there. He was worried about the veep's claim that he had broken
some laws and might be prosecuted, but he decided it would be better to face any
possible consequences from somewhere safe and secure, away from TT.

Back at his desk, Chico tried to think quickly. First, he tried his little
"backdoor" into the e-mail system but was surprised to find it no longer worked.
The "puppet" had been notified and worked quickly, it seemed. Damn, he wasn't
going to be able to make copies of the e-mails he had seen. So he quickly tried
a couple of other things. Since he was pretty much in charge of the University
Hijinx areas, he placed a couple of hidden things in there in various spots, in
hopes others might find them at some point. One of them was re-writing the
auto-responder he had already composed to include a message. He had already been
playing around with the idea of hiding the name of the game as the first letter
of each sentence in the auto-responder just for fun, so it didn't take long to
modify the hidden message slightly. He felt fairly confident that nobody there
would notice, since he had already shown them all the first version and no one
saw the original message within. Next, even though he couldn't open the
directories he had previously found (it was some kind of encrypted file that
asked for a password every time he did), he copied them onto a couple of discs,
in hopes of fooling around with them later and figuring out the passwords
required. He labeled the three discs "Webmaster Tools", in case anyone saw them
or tried to stop him when he was leaving. While he was doing this, his phone was
ringing but he ignored it, afraid it was his higher-ups, calling him into
another meeting about what he had done.

Maybe it was his imagination due to the adrenaline rush he was experiencing, but
he thought everyone had begun looking at and almost watching him furtively. He
decided he couldn't wait any longer and got up and headed for the door, discs in
hand. He almost made it, until he noticed two uniformed security guards
stationed at the door, where there never were any before. They were quite
obviously alert and looking for someone. As he stood across the lobby from them
he saw the building receptionist say something to the guards and point in his
direction. He didn't wait to see what happened next and quickly turned around
and headed back into the building. He remembered an emergency side door not too
far from his desk that he might be able to use; it was alarmed but he didn't
care. He would just go out and keep going. He quickly made it past his desk with
no one approaching him, past the storage closet in the hall, and headed towards
the door around the corner down the hall. As he neared the corner he heard a
metallic voice over 2-way radio saying, "Good, keep that door secured. We have
men on the way up. We'll call you to join us when we get up there." And a human
voice replied, "Roger. I'll come when I get your call."

Chico turned back, growing desperate. Not knowing what to do, he stopped and
entered the storage area, thinking he might find a place to hide. But when he
got inside and glanced around, his hopes vanished. As far as a place to hide,
there was nothing. Instead, fearing he might be caught with incriminating
evidence and thinking he might be able to return to retrieve them, he stashed
the three discs in an old box, peeling back the tape just enough to slide the
discs in and then re-sealing it, or trying to at least.

Realizing there was no way out he decided to go back to his desk in hopes of
having time to make a phone call or two. There was no one between him and the
desk. He sat down. He didn't really know who to call, since he didn't have any
real family or many close friends. For some reason he decided to listen to the
message that was on his phone, from the call he ignored earlier. It was his
landlord and friend, Doug, who lived upstairs of the apartment Chico rented from
him, sounding frantic and angry at the same time. "Chico, damn man, I was hoping
to catch you there. What the f--- is going on? The cops are here, and not just a
couple, there's a whole freaking squad here man. I had to let them in. They had
a warrant and everything. Child pornography, Chico? I just can't f---ing believe
it. I was hoping you would tell me it's not true, but they said they've already
found hundreds of pictures in your work computer, and an e-mail account you've
been using to distribute them. Chico, goddamn it, I . . ." and then Chico heard
a man's voice say "That's enough, sir, please put the phone down. This is a
crime scene." and the message ended.

"No, no, no," Chico screamed silently to himself, "What the hell is going on?"
He knew it was all a lie but somehow someone had set him up. Just then he heard
voices saying, "He sits right over there." Chico stole a glance over his
shoulder and saw a couple of uniformed men headed his way, but still across the
room. A glance back towards the hallway where the storage room was showed a
third security guard, the one previously stationed at the emergency exit, just
coming from the hall and moving to join the other approaching men. Chico saw his
chance and jumped from his chair, sprinting towards the hallway as fast as he
could. He heard the men call out behind him and knew he didn't have time to stop
for the discs. Without another glance back he ran to the emergency door, kicked
it open, and disappeared down the fire escape and out into the street.