Episode 106

"The Servant Girl Annihilator" first aired on December 2, 2015.

## Summary

### The Servant Girl Annihilator

Nic digs into the history of Austin, Texas, where a string of violent murders in 1885 attributed to "The Servant Girl Annihilator" failed to yield evidence pointing to any one individual, though authorities at the time felt it prudent to look for a group of people committing the crimes, as the notion of a serial killer at this time was yet unimaginable.

One Nathan Elgin was suspected after being shot and killed by police while assaulting a girl with a knife. People at the time claimed seeing a "yellow man" and another man wearing a Mother Hubbard-style dress. However, Nic is particularly interested in a Malay cook named Maurice, who had worked on a variety of ships prior to arriving in Austin, and who also spent a great deal of time in the Pacific Northwest.

### Nic's Mysterious Followers and The Skype Call

MK investigated the profile linked to the license plates of the cars that were waiting for Nic at the end of the last episode, the cars the unknown Skype Caller warned Nic about. They were registered to a numbered company, a shell for a maze of other corporations. While the numbered company appeared to be associated with an unmarked building in an industrial complex, MK used a nearby CCT camera to zoom in on undeliverable mail sitting outside, and several items were addressed to Parzavala Communications, which is the defunct internet service provider mentioned on the Fish and Tackle online bulletin board.

Nic plays the recording of him meeting the Skype caller in the parking ramp. He is approached by the woman--revealed to be Morgan Miller--and Sam Reynolds, Tara Reynolds' brother. They warned Nic to stop his investigation into Tanis, as his pursuit is jeopardizing Tara's safety and her return. Morgan told Nic if he didn't stop someone else would force him to, like the Cult of Tanis.

Nic explains after the recording that Morgan told him Pacifica came from her dream journals that she adapted into Firefly fanfiction, and that after the Avery Ellis scandal, she noticed she was being followed and so went underground. She was working as a server in Pittsburgh when Sam Reynolds tracked her down and asked her to help him find Tara.

### Karl van Sant

Nic calls Geoff van Sant to clarify how he found Nic's craigslist ad looking for a runner. He tells Nic that he received an email alert from Karl's email address after he had died, containing only a link to the ad. Geoff chalks it up to someone "messing around", and offers to send Nic the information police were able to link to Geoff's online presence (i.e., email passwords). Nic checks Karl's email after Geoff passes him the information, and notices that his Gmail account was mysteriously reset. MK points out that it's not that the account was shut down and re-established, but that someone had managed to take his profile seemingly back in time to when it was first set up. MK calls it a "perfect source reset", and brings new information to Nic regarding the Skype profile on his work computer: she had tracked the IP address to the Ukraine, where the unidentified user was also looking into the death of Karl van Sant.

### Parzavala Communications Classified Ads

While Nic and PNWS staff were at the library researching references to the TeslaNova Corporation, an intern found a classified ad from a newspaper in Coeur d'Alene stating, "Join Parzavela Communications for our annual corporate retreat. Reply per instructions." They had found back issues of the paper and discovered a similar notice had been placed every year. Nic called the number in the ad and got a recording of his phone number on a continuous loop. When MK runs Nic's number, she sees it's listed as Parzavala Communication's technical support.

MK ends their conversation by mentioning that she couldn't find any record of Strange Worlds magazine existing after the first issue that Nic has in his possession, and the cover artist can't remember the issue on Nic's copy being used for anything. Nic tracks down information on the magazine, and discovers that they were bought out and shuttered after the first issue by an unknown company.

### Carmen Pardo

Nic interviews Carmen over the phone after MK traced Vincent Pardo's sister to Olympia. Carmen says Vincent had cancer, and she understood Karl van Sant was promising Vincent a miracle cure at an expensive cost. When he ran out of money Vincent approached Carmen, and when she wouldn't accommodate his request, Vincent became angry, saying he "was going somewhere special", and that Karl would be his "runner" on the journey. After Nic expresses his condolences for her loss, Carmen explains Vincent's cancer was actually in remission, and that he was killed in a hit-and-run which she doesn't believe was accidental.

### Journal Entry Day 2

Alex reads the second entry in the unidentified journal, where the author continues on their journey. He or she mentions getting little sleep for the noises in the night around their tent, and they describe their surroundings as smelling like "a singular kind of humidity". They note that something feels different this morning, that the other members of the party have changed somehow. The runner returns from wherever she was, and they resume their journey.

## Characters

### Recurring Characters

Nic Silver, producer and host

Meerkatnip, information specialist

Geoff van Sant, Karl van Sant's brother

Sam Reynolds, Tara Reynolds' brother

### Guest Characters

Carmen Pardo, Vincent Pardo's sister

Morgan Miller, author of Pacifica