THE STATION

The Vend-O-Bot 3000's jingle plays. It's annoyingly catchy, so I can't repeat it here. It has Raspberry Twist in stock, the same type of bar that Adam was working on when he lost his mind. In the corner of it's window, it also proudly proclaims in bright block letters:

Equipped with the latest Integrity-Assistance Video Documentation

Your Marshall ID will let you open the machine and take whatever you want.

A quick call to the Marshall's office will get you the information that, yes, distribution is random. The bars are restocked via automation and restocking happens twice a day, more than enough time for the brain slices to have been fully distributed. The recall is mostly being ignored because no one can tell the difference between slightly decayed brain pieces and the normal taste of the bars.

You grab all of the bars in the machine so that you can go through them, but in doing so, you also manage to twist one of the screws that separates the bars into individual servings. That's going to cost you. And in fact, the corner of your Marshall's card flashes red. That means there's an expense deduction on your account. Better not do that too often, or you'll be doing this job for free.

You examine each bar in turn, and one of them is clearly contaminated. You have seven others, though, so you sample one of them. It is red, so there are probably raspberries in there, but you couldn't prove it by the taste. Maybe brains taste more like raspberry than the bars do.

You can read that brain fragment into Adam's android brain by visiting the MedCenter. It'll take an hour per piece if you do them one at a time, but if you do several at a time, each additional one is only 30 minutes.

That's right, there's a camera in there. They've done their best to hide it in behind the spring mechanics, but its there alright. Can you find anything on it?

The security on the Integrity-Assistance Video Documentation system (which is just a security system by another name) is woefully inadequate. Or to put it another way, the entirety of the security is the machine's door itself, so once it's open, it's free to access. It takes a moment to navigate the file system on the device, but the camera is proximity-sensitive and the videos are all time-coded, so it's short work to identify the video you need - the last one before the blackout. The video shows Adam lying on the floor, trying to pull himself up without the use of one leg. Frankie is the one that triggered the video; it starts as he walks past the machine, leaving the area.

A few moments later a slender figure walks in, just as Adam manages to pull himself to his feet.

I think it's pretty easy to come to the conclusion that he'd need help standing up with a broken kneecap, and while it's possible for him to have heaved himself onto the conveyor belt after that, it's not incredibly likely. That slender figure that comes into view just before the blackout cut all the cameras is probably your culprit, whoever they are.