Internal Investigations Division

**The Internal Investigations Division** or **IID**, sometimes referred to as "**the men wearing sunglasses and smoking cigarettes with an unpleasant dog**" (or variations) is an organisation adjacent to the police whose primary function seems to be spycraft. They are mentioned observing and sometimes intimidating key figures, but it is not clear exactly who they work for with several people mentioning that they are distinct from government agents.

The Internal Investigations Division was first mentioned by name when Michael Witten read aloud an excerpt from a newspaper article from 1954.

> *"Following last Tuesday's botched raid on a suspected militia stronghold in Sundsvall (former Sweden), lawmakers in the Western European Regionality are questioning the legality of the Internal Investigation Division's armament, as well as the thoroughness of their procedures."*
>
>

According to Freya, a member of the Cradle that was attacked by the IID, it was the Division's job to ensure that citizens of the Society had identification cards and registered addresses, professions, and households. They also tracked down and sometimes imprisoned those who did not comply, such as most Cradle members.

## History

A year after the formation of the first Societal Council in 1945, Council Chief Anand Balakrishnan appointed his aide, Rohaan Youssuf, and a dozen others to the task of forming the IID, the expressed purpose of which was to support the Council. The Division was established in 1949, described as an international task force that investigated "situations and persons who could prove dangerous to the New Society and its citizens."

In 1951, IID agent Tony Muñoz from the St. Louis office came to Gateway Childhood Centre investigating the death of one of its residents, Edgar Hartley. He questioned Miriam Gregory, as one of two last people who had seen him the previous night. The other of the two, Rosemary, told Miriam that she would call Edith Marshall, the well-connected Secretary of the Department of Childhood Development, and get everything smoothed over.

On 7 September 1954 the IID conducted a raid on the Cradle, claiming that they were stockpiling illegal weapons on a military scale and making plans to revolt. Twelve people were killed in the attack, and more were arrested but subsequently released due to a public inquiry. The inquiry revealed that the IID did not have sufficient warrants for the raid, as well as that over two dozen of the rifles used by IID agents in the operation did not have serial numbers, indicating that they were acquired illegally; Michael Witten believed this was through KR Development.

Gwen Nettles attended an academy in Essex that trained cadets into IID agents and wrote her thesis on an incident involving a small theatre company called Punk's Opera in 1983, which apparently demonstrated the dangers of treating "performative angst" as a legitimate insurgent threat. Upon graduation, she became a field agent based in Birmingham. During her time with the IID, she was a participant in many different operations, and described the IID's job as tracking and predicting which anti-Society thoughts were liable to become violent.

In 2002, Gwen was a part of an operation in London that arrested two dissidents, although she expressed that the two people were not of any real danger to the Society. During the operation, she sent IID members undercover and instructed them to become close to the people they were watching, and she recommended that the Brighton office do the same, as it was a low-cost and effective way of gathering information. In 2003, a no-smoking policy was implemented for IID agents, which lead to irritation and low moral among smoking agents. Gwen wanted to host a presentation about the practical reasons for a no-smoking policy for IID agents in the field. She mentions how agents are supposed to be noticed for intimidation purposes, but states that the black suits, sunglasses, and Doberman Pinschers are enough to be noticed without the need for smoking.

Gwen left the IID's base in Birmingham in 2005, and moved near Strafford. In the three years since her departure, she developed a programme to rehabilitate canine units from the organisation. In March 2008, Marcy Robotham received a voicemail from Gwen, offering her services as a solution to some dogs in Robotham's department who had responded badly to a new training regime which made them more aggressive towards their handlers.

## Known People of Interest

### Oleta

In one relaxation exercise produced by Hester for the Institute, possibly mimicking or directly resembling a real memory of Oleta's, there were two unsmiling men holding books (but not reading) in her peripheral vision. Hester said that they did work that ensured the safety and smiles of everybody else in the park. The two men were watching Oleta closely because of her interest in Nell, who bore a clear familial resemblance to her.

The two men and their dog are also mentioned to watch capoeira-inspired dancing in the park at the same time as Oleta. They did not indicate whether or not they knew that the dances were intended to train people covertly how to fight. When Hester asked Oleta whether or not she remembered her in the coffee shop, she noticed two people walking on the sidewalk with an unpleasant dog. The agents later followed Oleta and Nell when they went out to dinner together, and noted their activities as suspicious. This lead to Oleta being sent to the Institute.

One of the suggested memories that the implant between Oleta's rib and hip regulates is of "cigarette butts." This may refer to a specific memory that Oleta had regarding the men in suits, or it may have been intended by Hester to trigger the general memory of being watched.

### Hester and The Pilot

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After Hester helped Oleta escape from the Institute, she planned to quit her job and lie low for a while, until people with sunglasses, cigarettes, and an unpleasant dog no longer tailed her. On her way to Aotearoa, hitching rides with the Pilot, they mentioned hearing about the Institute and about men with sunglasses and cigarettes and unpleasant dogs. Hester requested they not talk any more about it.

One night while out at dinner with the friends of the Pilot's that she was staying with, Hester noticed someone sitting at the next table over with sunglasses and an unpleasant dog. She insisted they leave, and spent the journey home looking over her shoulder. When she got on a flight with the Pilot the next day, they thought they saw someone with an unpleasant dog standing on the tarmac, and took the takeoff a little too fast.

Once in Chicago, Hester spent three weeks evading the agents, and at one point the Pilot was forced to hide in a warehouse and hold their breath while two men with an unpleasant dog paced up and down. The Pilot later apologised to Hester for not taking her situation seriously enough, and remapped their flight plan.

In Toronto, Hester and the Pilot were involved in a car chase with the men in suits, where Hester drove (very well). They escaped without any major injury, although the Pilot boasted a bullet graze on their arm. They believed on the flight out that they had successfully evaded their pursuers, and the Pilot was prepared to commit some "light fraud" to give themselves an alibi of sorts.

However, the agents persisted, and the Pilot noted that although they weren't fast, they "just kept coming." This time, they were not with Hester when she had to flee, and in an attempt to find out what had happened they noticed somebody wearing sunglasses and sitting in a van watching them. They approached the van, pretending to ask for directions, but the person refused to speak to them and hardly reacted, deeply unsettling them. Moving on to Houston in mid-March (circa 1984), the men in suits were concentrated highly at the west end of the city, along with 'Missing Person' posters claiming that Hester was a suspected kidnap victim last seen August 1983, and that her family was worried about her. As a point of contrast, the Pilot is mentioned to have had a lovely dog named Danny.

While in Montreal, the Pilot caught up with an old associate of their wife's, who told them that a few years ago, she had run up against a strange agency that *acted* like they could be government, but had no official ties to it. She said they "might as well be children playing dress up, for all the real authority they had." She said that she had observed over the last few weeks that the agency seemed to be looking for someone, coordinating their efforts into leaving a misleading trail of flyers, which they hoped would lure someone in. The agency knew that this person they were looking for was a woman, and which ride she hitched out of Atlanta, that she had spent time in Birmingham, and then was in Jackson, before finding someone to take her to New Orleans.

The Pilot agreed to take one of the people in sunglasses as a passenger during a flight from Los Angeles to Seattle. The passenger had requested them specifically, waiting a whole week for them to become available for the flight when they could have got a ride with somebody else. The person was travelling with their dog, named possibly Widget or Gadget, who was kept in a cage in the cargo hold with their owner. The pilot cannot figure out what kind of dog it is, suggesting Greyhound, Setter, and Terrier but not be satisfied with any of those. During the flight, the Pilot asks the passenger to put out the cigarette they've just lit (with sympathy), for policy reasons. The Pilot mentions being unsure what it is that their organisation does - they had always assumed it was government work, but they're not sure why.

They say they had a friend who claimed to know one of the men with cigarettes as a drinking buddy, but they were unconvinced, since she never seemed to find out what it was they actually did. They suppose there was no way to phrase the question that didn't come out as "Oh, you're one of the people who stands around with unpleasant dogs and cigarettes, what's the deal with that?" They hastily apologise for calling Widget-Gidget-Gadget unpleasant, but still ask what the deal is. Before they land, they remind the passenger not to smoke until they reach a designated smoking area and not to let the dog out of their cage before they leave the airport. They hope they don't see the passenger again.

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### Claudia Atieno

In Claudia Atieno's piece "Sunglasses and Cigarettes" she depicted two men wearing sunglasses and smoking cigarettes, accompanied by an "unpleasant" dog. They were wearing five-buttoned suit jackets, different from World Council jackets or police uniforms. The dog was similar to a Doberman Pinscher. Roimata Mangakāhia commented that from the angle of the sketch and the framing, Atieno most likely drew this from the window of her Mwanza apartment. They stand tense and firm, and do not attempt to hide (at least not well) their observation of Atieno.

"Sunglasses and Cigarettes" was featured in the Ohara Museum of Art in 1980, as well as the Karikari Contemporary in 1969. The two figures had also been present in some of Atieno's other work (three that Mangakāhia could recall in 1969), but mostly in the background. She noted the stiff way they held their cigarettes and how their glasses were poised on their noses. She also expressed how unpleasant their dog looked, with an asymmetrical face and underbite. She called the figures "ominous" but admitted to not knowing their origin. She mentioned that she had friends who believed they belonged to a "fringe" faction of the Society with covert agents and spies (which is illegal under the Citizen Espionage Act of 1951).

Roimata recalled men like these, smoking, sitting outside a small café in Cornwall where she and Claudia were spending the afternoon. She said she "did not believe them to be anything other than well-dressed men with a bad habit" but Claudia had insisted that they were watching her. Roimata suggested that if they were a threat they should lay low, although Claudia disagreed.

Atieno would frequently invite people that she suspected were spying on her to her parties. She used to watch them back, and presumably try to demonstrate to them that she had nothing to hide (regardless of how true or false that might be). Statespeople (markedly different from the smoking men and their dog) would often come to the Cornwall house to try to gather information, though in a "sociable and subtle" manner.

### Michael and Vivienne Witten

On March 2, 1954, Michael thought he heard someone talking (possibly to Amy) outside his office. When he looked out of the window, he saw two people with a dog leaving the building. He thought he could smell cigarette smoke. Later in the day, when Amy returned with his hot dinner, he asked her if she saw someone with a dog standing outside, "a little too close" to the door, wearing a hat over their eyes. Michael reasoned that they were probably just lighting a cigarette, and checking the address of the building in their diary; he suggested this in an attempt to convince himself he was probably not being followed, but failed.

Throughout March, he observed that he and Vivienne were being followed. They had both noticed men in suits and hats, often with unpleasant dogs, standing in corners of markets not buying anything, seated in corners of restaurants not ordering anything, or riding buses without ever getting off. The evening of the 24th, relieved at the lack of conspicuous men tailing them, they had come home from a gallery opening and found the front door unlocked. Fearful of an intruder, they took knives from the kitchen and scoured the house, but found no intruder, nor anything missing - except Constance, their cat.

Around 11pm, Constance reappeared, scratching at the front door, with her left ear cut away. Michael observed that it was a straight cut, like one from a razor or a pair of scissors. Believing this was a message from the men in suits on behalf of Karen Roberts, Michael went through his home office and found Leena Mäkinen's European ID card cut in half.

On March 29, Michael saw two people standing outside the building and smoking. He claimed he recognised the dog as the "hideous" one that he had seen a few weeks ago. He said that when he first noticed them, he watched them for a few minutes, and their cigarettes burned forever. One of the men turned to look at him, and even though he was wearing sunglasses, Michael was sure that their eyes were locked for a full minute. Then the other one also turned to look, and he closed the blinds and sat down.

Afraid to leave, he stayed in the office, peeking out the blinds once more and watching them turn to look at him one after the other, in the same order as before. Terrified, he jumped back from the window and found several (at least four) bottles of wine that he had gifted to Amy, unopened. Getting drunker by the minute, he started leaving notes for Amy. During one, he looked out of the window again and the men with the dog did the same again.

The next time Michael looked through the blinds, the men in suits had gone, which made him panic even more, and he requested that Amy contact Vishwathi Ramadoss immediately if he was not in his office in the morning. He became convinced he was hearing things, and opened another bottle of wine, consoling himself that at least he was really drunk. By the 29th, he had convinced himself that he wasn't being followed, although he later discovered that he had indeed been the victim of intimidation tactics.

On one of the break-ins at either his house or his office in mid-April, a window was smashed. Michael noted that the men in suits and their "idiot dog" weren't even being careful any more. He also believed they were behind threats on his wife in the form of cutting holes in her dresses, around the left breast.

Seven years later in 1961, Michael remarked that after he shot down Amy's proposal to implement the Institute, he and Vivienne took security measures in case the conflict between he and Ramadoss (who supported the project) became personal again. There were no more break-ins, but they did notice a number of smoking men tailing them.

### The Cradle

In spring of 1993, Freya escaped from police custody after refusing to answer their census questions, and told Sigrid that the IID would take her escape seriously for a few months, and then give up looking for her. She impressed on her the importance of evading the heavily-armed IID. However, in winter 1995, she was willing to risk letting Jure visit the Hedmark Cradle despite Sigrid's concerns that he would report them and their whereabouts to the IID. Freya said that he would not, as he would not be able to avoid implicating himself with such claims.

At Sandpoint, Freya met a woman named Rosie Morales who discovered she was pregnant and decided she wanted to keep her child. Her husband David, however, registered the pregnancy in accordance with the law and Rosie's efforts to claim a false report proved fruitless. She began to see men with unpleasant dogs following her, and had to quit her job and make a run for it. In the mountains, she gave birth to her daughters, Elizabeth and Silvia, and they sustained themselves. However, men with unpleasant dogs came to find them, and pursued them for the next four years, forcing them to move a total of seven times. Rosie eventually confronted David, and although he denied reporting their location, he agreed to leave, and she was able to escape with her daughters.

In summer of 1996, the IID attempted a raid on a Cradle on Sunday Island which failed. The raid was fended off with rifles provided by KR Development and the families evacuated on a boat, also provided by KR, before the IID had a chance to regroup.

In 1999, Freya heard from Jure who heard from his KR Development contacts that the IID was planning on conducting a raid on the Hedmark Cradle. A shipment of munitions from KR was arranged to be left for the Cradle, and Freya instructed Sigrid to stand their ground and fight. Freya was told that the IID was unauthorised to use lethal force, and that they would back down if they met resistance, but also seemed at peace with the idea of the entire group being martyred. It was later rumoured that the team sent to the alleged campsite in Hedmark found no trace of a Cradle ever having been there.

### Gorgeous Watkins, Gwen Nettles and Indra

In 1997, Gwen Nettles was tasked with one of her fellow field agents, Horatio, to determine whether a small theatre group, Gorgeous Watkins, was a proper threat or not, coming to the conclusion that they were not, and closed the case, claiming it to be a waste of departmental resources. At the show, she and Horatio introduced themselves as Nan and Dave, and Gwen stayed back to be with Indra, eventually entering into a relationship with her.

Despite Gwen closing the case in 1997, and again reaffirming it to be a waste of resources in 2002, it seemed like the IID still took an interest in Indra, perhaps as a result of Gwen's phone being tapped as per IID regulations for employees (which Gwen tried to have Director Torres change, again calling it a waste of departmental resources), and Indra's treasonous comments left on her voicemail. Gwen's questions about cohabitating with subjects from a closed case ended up making Director Torres suspicious of her, leading him to question her coworkers and cause trouble for her.

Because of this, in 2002, Indra believes that Nan had been recording and reporting information on her for their entire relationship. In 2003, Indra mentioned in a voicemail left to Artie about figures lurking around corners, and how she thought how it would be in parks or cobblestone roads, and not while she was in her kitchen cooking eggs. Later, in a message to Nan, she mentions how she was spied on.  This eventually led to the two of them breaking up.

Perhaps due to the IID's treatment of her and Indra, Gwen retired from being a field agent by 2005, though she remained in contact with IID employees and retrained canine units.

### Tony Tollinger, Brian, Ndegwa Mwangi and Mark Ramirez

In 1957, Greg, a student at Haverstock University, began to emulate a fellow student, including wearing the same type of clothes and shoes, styling his hair the same, and using the same cologne. The student he was emulating was later arrested by the IID for treasonous activity such as involvement with extremist groups and anti-Society demonstrations that Greg was presumably attending while looking like him. When he was questioned by the IID, he was unable to give any answers, and was thus deemed a hostile witness. He was imprisoned for 20 years, while Greg, now going under the name Brian, continued to live his life. After being released, he changed his name to Tony Tollinger and hatched a revenge scheme against Brian under the guise of motivational tapes.

In 1977, Tony began instructing Brian, to collect information on two of his superiors, Ndegwa Mwangi and Mark Ramirez, under the guise of using the information to get to better know them and use them to his advantage, though he revealed in a later cassette that all the information collected about them will instead be forwarded to the IID. He instructed Brian to make sure the case against them was watertight, to highlight important pieces of information, and to fill in gaps when necessary. While nothing against Ndegwa was mentioned afterward, the evidence collected on Mark was forwarded to the IID, and he was investigated for anti-Society demonstrations, associations with extremist groups, and even meeting his sister. All this information was, however, later revealed to be falsified by Tony, as part of a revenge plot against Brian by Tony. This falsified evidence instead changed the IID's focus onto Brian, after Tony planted evidence in his house and left a map leading to a mountaintop cabin he was directed to.

## Additional info

* The smoking men and their unpleasant dogs are first mentioned in Season 1, Cassette #3: Insomnia, Feet. Their description is accompanied by a digital distortion that recurs each time they are mentioned in the show.
	+ When designing the cassette programme for the Institute, Dr. Gregory specified that it was important that the tapes be of excellent quality, with as little background noise or sound distortion as possible, because either would make the meditation less effective. You could deduce, then, that the distortion that accompanies the IID and occurs at some other points in Hester's tapes was designed to take Oleta out of the exercise so that she could remember her instructions.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Season 4, Cassette #5: Winter 1995
2. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.227
3. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.196
4. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.196-200
5. ↑ Season 3, Reel #9: September 13, 1954
6. ↑ Season 4, Cassette #2: Autumn 1993
7. ↑ Season 3, Reel #9: September 13, 1954
8. ↑ Season 5, Episode #9: May 1997
9. ↑ Season 5, Episode #10: March 19987
10. ↑ Season 5, Episode #3: March 2002
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Season 5, Episode #4: January 2002
12. ↑ Season 5, Episode #2: September 2003
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Season 5, Episode #1: March 2008
14. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #3: Insomnia, Feet
15. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #7: Doubt, Head
16. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #8: Awareness, Eyes
17. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #5: Focus, Nose
18. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #4: Sadness, Lungs
19. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #10: Horopito
20. ↑ Black Box Cassette #1: PHL to PWM
21. ↑ Black Box Cassette #2: PWM to MDW
22. ↑ Black Box Cassette #3: MDW to YYZ
23. ↑ Black Box Cassette #4: YYZ to ATL
24. ↑ Black Box Cassette #5: HOU to LAX
25. ↑ Black Box Cassette #6: LAX to SEA, SEA to YUL, YUL to MSY
26. ↑ Black Box Cassette #8: LAX to SEA
27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Season 2, Cassette #8: Ohara Museum of Art (1980)
28. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #0: Karikari Contemporary (1969)
29. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #4: Bardo Museum (1975)
30. ↑ Season 3, Reel #5: March 2, 1954
31. ↑ Season 3, Reel #6: March 24, 1954
32. ↑ Season 3, Reel #7: March 29, 1954
33. ↑ Season 3, Reel #8: April 20, 1954
34. ↑ Season 3, Reel #10: June 21, 1961
35. ↑ Season 4, Cassette #1: Spring 1993
36. ↑ Season 4, Cassette #2: Autumn 1993
37. ↑ Season 4, Cassette #6: Summer 1996
38. ↑ Season 4, Cassette #10: Autumn 1999
39. ↑ Season 5, Episode #2: September 2003
40. ↑ Season 8, Episode #7: Cultivate Your Brand!
41. ↑ Season 8, Cassette #10: Learn from Your Mistakes!
42. ↑ Within the Wires (Jeffrey Cranor) on Twitter: "we mention the "unpleasant dog" and men with cigarettes for the first time here. there's a recurring digital distortion that we've added in under that bit each time they're mentioned throughout the show. something fun to listen for. -jc"
43. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.289