A report by Michael Chen
Diary of Linda Harper, February 21, 1992
When I came back—shaking, distraught, barely able to think—they were waiting for me. Marcus and the others. And a few people I’d never seen before. Older. Serious faces.
“Welcome to Alpha Iota Tau,” said a woman with silver-gray hair. She smiled, but her eyes didn’t.
“Alpha Iota Tau stands for Ad impletionem tendens.”
Marcus translated for me: “Striving for fulfillment.”
That was the test—and I had passed.
I read the pages again. A staged arrest. Three days of psychological pressure.
What were they testing? Loyalty? The ability to keep secrets under stress?
Who had the power to organize something like that? Fake police officers? Or real ones working for this… organization?
I reached for the yearbooks, flipping through the names next to the Α Ι Τ markings.
David had written them all down on a separate sheet of paper.
Twenty names, spread over the years.
I googled a few. A federal judge. A member of Congress. Several successful entrepreneurs. A police chief.
Influential people. Very influential.
That was why David had never published. That was why he was afraid. And now he was dead.
February 28, 1992
I’m a member. Officially.
They gave me a symbol—a small silver pendant with the three Greek letters. I’m supposed to wear it at all times, but hidden.
The others treat me differently now. Like one of them.
They tell me more about Essence, about training, about the history of the connection. It goes back generations, they said.
There have always been people with special abilities who gathered together—for protection, for shared learning, for the pursuit of fulfillment—whatever that means.
But I can’t stop thinking about the test. The cell. The fear.
No one apologized. No one said they were sorry.
When I brought it up, Marcus said: “It was necessary. We have to be sure.”
Sure of what? Of whom?
I feel like I’ve paid a price for something whose value I don’t yet understand.
The diary went on, but the entries grew sparse.
Linda’s first semester ended. Summer came—she spent it with others from Alpha Iota Tau, training her ability, learning more about Essence.
The final entry was from September 1992, the beginning of her second year.
September 15, 1992
Today they introduced a new candidate. A freshman, like I was last year.
He has an ability—he can sense temperature differences, more precisely than any thermometer.
Marcus asked if I wanted to help with the “preparations.”
“You know how it goes now,” he said, grinning.
I stared at him. Then at the others. They were all smiling.
They wanted me to help do to someone else what they had done to me.
After that: nothing.
Empty pages until the end of the diary.
I spent the next week researching.
Linda Harper had left Harvard after one semester. No official reason. No degree. She had simply… vanished from the records.
I found an address in the Midwest from the mid-’90s. Then nothing—until a wedding announcement in 1998: Linda Harper married someone in the military. The husband’s name was redacted in David’s files.
Alpha Iota Tau doesn’t officially exist. No registration, no tax ID, no public records. But the names on David’s list—they’re real.
They’re powerful. And some of them hold positions that would give them access to the resources needed for a staged arrest.
So what is Alpha Iota Tau, really? A college society for people with unusual abilities?
A network that places its members in influential positions? Or something larger—and darker?
And what about Linda Harper? Where is she now? What is she doing? Did she ever look back on that time?
And why is her husband’s name redacted? Someone important?
David never found the answers. Or if he did, he took them to the grave.
But he left me the beginning—the diary, the names, the questions.
Now it’s up to me to keep digging. Even if I’m not sure I’m ready for what I might find.
To be continued…
Editorial Note:
The identity of “Linda Harper” has been changed to protect her privacy.
Certain details have also been modified.
The existence of the described organization has not yet been independently verified.
If you have information regarding Alpha Iota Tau, please contact the author at [protected contact information].
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