Issue 1 of Outlast: The Murkoff Account was released on July 11, 2016.[1]
Plot[]
An injured man hurries to exit a taxi, trailing money and blood behind him, and approaches an FBI Field Office in Detroit, Michigan. Nearby pedestrians point out the blood and money on the ground. He runs into the glass door and attracts the attention of the security guard at the front desk. The guard tells the man to put up his hands and points his gun at him. He replies that he needs to keep one hand on his eye, but at the guard's urging, he raises the hand and removes the cloth from his face. It is revealed that the right half of his face has been grievously wounded. His eye falls and dangles from the socket; the man comments that he can still see out of it.
After he has been hospitalized and received medical attention for his injuries, the man is handcuffed to a hospital bed, and an interviewing FBI agent reveals his identity as Paul Marion. He was born in Cincinatti, having passed the Ohio State Bar Exam in 1987, with no current address. The agent goes on to reveal that Paul is claiming responsibility for one count of arson, one kidnapping, and fourteen murders. Paul interrupts and says that he knows of at least fourteen victims for certain, but there may be more. The agent questions the lack of evidence for Paul's claims. He agrees, stating that it is his job.
Meanwhile, at the Murkoff Rehabilitation Center, Pauline Glick is served a meal. She asks for help from the two Legal Mitigation officers sitting with her due to being incapacitated by her injured arm, which is in a sling. The agents hope that she doesn't mind talking while she eats, as the matter is urgent. She agrees that they can hold conversation during her meal. One officer asks where she would like to start, and she responds that she would like a portion of the steak first. When he attempts to correct her on what he had meant, she interrupts before taking a bite, confirming she knows what he means: they want to find Paul Marion before he does any more harm to Murkoff. The officer elaborates upon her statement, saying that more importantly, they need to minimize the fallout from what he has already done. Pauline smiles and responds that this sounds familiar, asking to be served more meat.
The mitigation officer continues, saying that they are unaware of how early Paul's sabotage of the Murkoff Corporation began, so they would like her to start at the beginning. Pauline recollects the beginning of their partnership in 2008. As soon as they were partnered, their department started referring to them as "The Pauls", thinking it was hilarious. She then asks the agents if they recall the Hat Box Murders. One officer remembers the case was about an Egyptian man who killed several veterans. Pauline reveals his name as Omar, and corrects the officer, stating that he was an American born in Newark, having Egyptian grandparents.
The Pauls are sent to investigate the case when the third body, belonging to Martin Bellmont, is discovered. It took the coroner a day to piece his remains back together. Just like the other two victims, the head was missing from the corpse, he was a veteran who had served in Iraq, and he was also a patient at the Spindletop Psychotherapy Clinic in Hattin, Texas. Pauline clarifies that Murkoff bought Spindletop two years earlier as a part of Jeremy Blaire's "Research Through Charity" initiative. The multinational corporation had a government contract to help returning veterans cope with their resulting post-traumatic stress disorder.
Pauline says that the chief psychotherapist at Spindletop was not directly under Murkoff management, so the two had to give him "the speech". Pauline explains to the doctor that they are investigating on behalf of the Murkoff Corporation, not in order to save anyone, but to maintain the company's insurance premiums by avoiding accidents and lawsuits, as unnecessary expense is undesirable. Paul offers that they are basically damage control, and while they will help as much as they can, their bottom line is the bottom line. The doctor seems unimpressed as he says Pauline's business card implies just as much.
After confirming that the murder victims are all his patients, Pauline requests to see the notes on their therapy sessions. Claymore denies their request, stating that it is impossible for him to release such information without a warrant due to doctor-patient confidentiality. Paul adds that they will require any information given to the FBI in order to shape his testimony. Just as Claymore begins to question what the agents are asking of him, Paul switches topics to ask if the statues in his office are of Sumerian origin. The doctor confirms that he is correct and explains that his patients were damaged while working in the Middle East. He believes it does good to expose them to Arabic culture in their therapy to show that it isn't all war.
Claymore elaborates that the statues in his office are of the Apkallu, demigods given to mankind to guard against its destruction. Paul intuitively compares this to the Nephilim of the Bible, citing Genesis 4: "The sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, their children the mighty men of renown." Pauline seems unconvinced, saying the Apkallu are basically the same thing "with animal heads" and suggests they get the conversation back on track. Claymore agrees with Paul, however, saying that many scholars agree on the similarity and that he hopes his patients also reconcile Christian and Islamic myths coming from the same place.
Pauline goes on to say that Claymore's reports describe experiential therapy where patients relived and dissected the event until it stopped hurting. Claymore says that although that is where the research began, they began to see negative effects in the therapeutic spiral. Psychological wounds would close and then reopen even wider as therapy continued. Their current method is dream therapy guided by hypnosis. By these means, patients can experience and release their traumas subconsciously without a burden to their waking minds. Pauline is skeptical of the therapy and compares it to leading the witness. She asks Claymore how he knows that they aren't shaping the patient's memories. He replies that the mind knows what it needs, and that their results were remarkably effective, with rates of substance abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts plummeting. Pauline retaliates that everything sounds great, with the exception of the three homicides. She asks for the consultation transcripts once more. Claymore rejects her request a final time and tells her to either return with a warrant or speak with the FBI.
After being stonewalled by the Doctor, the two head over to Murkoff's building surveillance, where a security guard, Chris "Strongfat" Walker, explains that none of their personnel know that they're being monitored. Walker plays back the last therapy sessions from the three known victims: Martin Bellmont, Priscilla Clarke and John Bowers, each speaking indecisive sentences. Paul asks Walker if any violent outbursts occur, as he pulls up a recording of Omar Abdul Malik which shows him attacking Claymore during one of their sessions. Pauline asks for audio copies and the Pauls go looking for the veterans' widows, tricking them into signing arbitration agreements in order to avoid million dollar lawsuits. While Pauline handles the paperwork, Paul notices the widow's daughter drawing a family picture in which her father's represented as a blood-stained Apkallu, ancient Mesopotamian demigods whose sculptures were propped in Claymore's office.
Back at Spindletop, the Pauls discover Doctor Claymore's decapitated corpse in a trashed workplace and the destroyed surveillance system. As the killer's motivation was the culmination of all sessions, the two conclude that the perpetrator is Chris Walker, as he was the only other person who heard everything the patients said.
They break into Walker's house and find four separate coolers, each of them stuffed with a head from one of the three victims and an empty one reserved for Claymore. Pauline calls for a security team while Paul explores Strongfat's bedside, finding a stuffed animal from his childhood next to the family photo, as Walker peers through the door frame, carrying Claymore's head in a blood-soaked bag. Pauline pulls a gun holstered around her ankle and orders him to stand down, as Walker bursts in rage, throwing her across the room and picking up Marion by the neck. Glick recovers and lands a shot through his jawline. This only infuriates Walker, as he knocks her through a window before Marion manages to get to his gun and fire off two rounds. Chris, still standing, slams Paul to the ground, exclaiming "little pig", but before he can get to him, Pauline starts up the car and crashes into the crazed man. She reports back and the two clean up the crime scene, as Paul makes a remark that Walker has just retired.
Following the incident, Walker is sent to Mount Massive Asylum and all four heads are transferred over to Omar's apartment, framing him for the Hat Box Murders. Marion notes that Malik's "name and skin color did the heavy lifting". Seeing Marion's mortification, the Agent asks for his motivations behind the work, as Paul reveals that Murkoff's pharmaceuticals and gene therapies offered an experimental treatment to save his daughter from a rare blood disease that killed his wife.
In present day, Pauline concludes to Murkoff agents that Paul never found out how far they went with their research at the asylum, almost feeling sad that he, at the time, still thought they were partners instead of Marion being her target.
Characters[]
List of characters in order of appearance:
- Paul Marion
- Pauline Glick
- Jeremy Blaire (mentioned)
- Omar Abdul Malik
- Doctor Claymore
- Chris Walker
- Martin Bellmont
- Priscilla Clarke
- John Bowers
- Alison Marion
Trivia[]
- Although Paul cites Genesis 4 as mentioning the Nephilim, this is a mistake; they are actually mentioned in Genesis 6 in the Bible. Genesis 4 instead relates to Cain and Abel.