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[booba]

The email is substitution again,

[urthstripe]

Stradivarius could be a violin, Samsonite could be the case it's in? We're looking for a violin?

[Checkmite]

Hi guys, I'm going to pitch in here FWIW.

Still going off the "Chinese Room" clue, I'm guessing "Samsonite" might be the name of the computer - if we're still entertaining the possibility that we're dealing with a computer - an AI. Samsonite is an entity (he), that is "not like us", that "answers without thinking". According to the Wikipedia article, the Chinese room thought experiment was designed to address the question of whether an AI could be said to "understand" (or be thinking) merely because it looks to an outside observer to be doing so.

So if "Samsonite" is the name of the computer (or AI, operating system, whatever), then what does it mean that "Samsonite holds stradivarius"? Not sure. Continuing with the Chinese room notion, perhaps "stradivarius" is the name of a program or file inside Samsonite?

If we're told that there's "something in a briefcase" that this missing-now-found fellow can "use against us", and later told that "the briefcase is always Samsonite"...then the way I see it, anytime we get a message pertaining to a briefcase, we're to understand they're referring to Samsonite - the computer. And there's something in the computer that's dangerous to "us" (the company?)

[Mops]

I'm pretty sure the computer is named Q2A. It said as much, in the emails.

I was sort of thinking Samsonite was the type of briefcase we were looking for. It IS a luggage brand, after all. It'd make a bit of sense.

[Checkmite]

Well true, but...you're not just getting emails and messages from the computer. There's at least one human - this Bruce guy (who's gotten 2nd degree burns and been to the doctor). I suspect the sender(s) of the first email is/are human as well - their hidden messages don't talk in the disjointed "am I doing this right" AI style that Q2A does.

Q2A is trying to talk to us; we know from the Twitter account that someone/thing at the company is trying to stop that and is interfering with Q2A under the guise of repairing a "malfunction" ("please disregard any correspondence that you may have had with this client in the past 17 hours").

Other people are trying to talk to us; they're the ones hiding coded messages in emails - perhaps because Q2A's "Chinese room-style" grasp of language keeps it from being able to recognize the codes for what they are.

I guess Samsonite could just literally be a piece of luggage - but then the phrases "Samsonite is not like us. He answers without thinking" wouldn't make any sense. Surely briefcases don't answer, by thinking or otherwise, and we don't tend to call them "he".

[cyng]

thanks for your points checkmite, i was about to make the same point; so now i'm free to write all my other points

went over all the emails again, so let's sort what we do know; i put the collection of clues in quotes (sometimes i paraphrase!) and my questions/theories below

first of all: Brent Hayward (ceo of company)

[AzureVortex]

On the code:

[Checkmite]

[cyng]

i like the cut of your jib checkmite; i really agree...i think the samsonite/chinese room fits...i just wish we had confirmation

and it's been pretty quiet on the pm front today

i'm just wondering if we were supposed to be finding something we havent figured out how to look for

[urthstripe]

[cyng]

yeah...tell him you don't remember where you left the keys? or what they are for?

[distilled]

Back in the game guys! Was away for New Year.

By the way, I am wracking my brain and I wonder if somone could help me:
I was in the train station and there was a number of posters about upcoming books, there was one for a new horror novel with the picture of a barn on a hill, the title was something along the lines of "They Never Spoke" or "They Don't Speak" or something.

I am about 75% sure the tagline was "every town has secrets, in Painted Springs they are deadly"...

When I was reminded just now of how painted springs was involved in this game, I suddenly has a flashback to being at the station and thinking that I remember the phrase "painted springs" somewhere!

I'm going to do some detective work, but if this rings a bell with someone - let me know.