MAG 107: Third Degree

Statement of Howard Ewing, regarding his interview with an unidentified member of British Transport Police.
==Pre-Statement==
Jonathan Sims travels to Chicago in an attempt to track down the files Gertrude requested from the Pu Songling Research Centre in 2014. He finds no information there except that she had left a forwarding address to the Usher Foundation in Washington DC. He travels to Pittsburgh in the hopes of finding more information on Gerard Keay, as according to reports he died of complications from his brain cancer in the city. He discovers that Gertrude was arrested for breaking into the morgue and doing something to Gerard's body, but ultimately no charges were filed.
During this time John grows increasingly ill, and he suspects a Chicago police officer is following him. Elias sends him statement with a note attached reading, "To tide you over."
== Statement ==
Howard Ewing, Kelly Dwyer, and Vihan Prasad were cleaners working on Moorgate Station when a mysterious announcement came over unpowered loudspeakers: "This is a security announcement", then indistinct words that sounded as if they were coming from underwater. After a brief silence, there was a painfully loud shriek from the speakers. As his co-workers were recovering from the noise, Ewing noticed a foul smell coming from the tunnel at one end of the platform. He crawled down onto the tracks to see what the source of the smell was.
A short way down the tunnel, he beheld a burning train carriage, still full of screaming, writhing passengers. He fell to his knees at the sight, screaming. Over the loudspeakers, he heard a broadcaster calling for "Inspector Sands," a code used to inform station workers of a fire without alerting the public. Kelly attempted to enter the tunnel, while Vihan shook Ewing's shoulders and shouted at him to wake up. Ewing firmly believed that if he touched either of them he would burn them.
Both Kelly and Vihan were found burned to death in the station, with no sign of the burning train, and Ewing was arrested and taken to a police station. The room became very hot while he waited to be questioned, and a man dressed as a chief inspector of the transit police entered the room to question him about the incident.
After he explained his story, the inspector asked Ewing, "What do you love most in the world?" Against his will, Ewing says he loves his father more than anything. The inspector then asked, "Who am I?" but Ewing refused to answer.
Ewing was eventually released, but shortly after this his father died of a sudden heart attack. At the funeral, against Ewing's wishes, the body was cremated. He believes he will see the inspector again, and will again be asked the same two questions. Ewing specifically refuses to name the inspector, because he "doesn't want to cause any panic"; implying that the policeman in question is in fact Inspector Sands.
== Post-Statement ==
John feels refreshed after reading the statement, and while there may be a perfectly mundane explanation, he admits it is more likely that he physically needs to read statements to remain healthy. He resents that Elias once again did not see fit to tell him about this directly or beforehand.
He departs on a bus to Washington, D.C., but during a comfort break he is accosted by an English woman who forces him into her car. She tells him that he has attracted the attention of something she'd been following. In the car, John realizes the woman is Julia Montauk, but they do not have much time to talk before they are pulled over by the police officer who was following John in Chicago and Pittsburgh.
The officer, identified as Max Mustermann, asks Julia and John to step out of the car and open the trunk. He is immediately shot by Trevor Herbert, who was hiding in the boot with a gun. This does not immediately kill Mustermann, so Trevor asks John to get an ax out of the car.
==Continuity==
*Julia Montauk was previously mentioned in MAG 9 and MAG 52.
*Trevor Herbert was previously mentioned in MAG 10 and MAG 56.
*"Max Mustermann" (English: Max Templateperson) is a German placeholder name for unidentified or legally unidentifiable men, equivalent to "John Doe". The use of placeholder names was also seen in MAG 34 by a group of Stranger-aligned anatomy students.
*Related Entity: The Desolation, The Hunt, The Stranger and possibly The Eye.
**Julia and Trevor are affiliated with The Hunt.
**The police officer, Max Mustermann, is affiliated with The Stranger.MAG 120: Eye Contact Brock Winstead's performance is credited as "Max Mustermann" (Potential relation to Erika Mustermann, one of the Anatomy Students from MAG 34)
**Inspector Sands may be possibly affiliated with The Eye, as it's implied his presence was able to allow Ewing to describe his story in detail and to provide answers against his will. It is possible that he is affiliated with The Desolation given how intensely he wants to hear about how horrific the fire was and asking about what Ewing loves the most, and his father's cremation.
==References==
Category:The Magnus Archives Episodes