Wanless’s Warning About the Z Factor

This thread follows Joseph Wanless from the experiment that created the McGees’ powers to his increasingly urgent warning that Charlie’s abilities cannot be safely treated as a research asset.

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The Lot Six Proposal

The Researcher’s Gamble A classified experiment Joseph Wanless presents Lot Six as a mild hypnotic and hallucinogenic, administered under a double-blind protocol to twelve student volunteers at Harrison State College. The secrecy and scientific framing make the project appear controlled, even as its actual purpose remains hidden from the students. Risks set aside Wanless’s later files show that he had argued against testing the drug on convicts or people with unstable personalities. Instead, he accepted college volunteers and pressed ahead without adequate plans for what might happen if the compound proved more powerful than expected. His early confidence becomes part of the tragedy: the danger was not wholly unforeseeable, but institutional ambition made it easier to discount.

A Catastrophic Trial

The Experiment’s Human Cost Powers amid hallucination The volunteers experience visions, apparent telepathy, telekinesis, and other strange effects while under the drug. At the same time, the session includes medical emergencies and severe psychological disturbance, leaving participants and researchers unable to separate real events from hallucinations with confidence. The hidden aftermath Later records establish that two participants died and others suffered lasting injuries or mental damage. The Shop buries the consequences and shelves further testing, but keeps the project’s budget alive. The gap between the official account and the concealed human cost becomes the foundation for Wanless’s later obsession with what Lot Six has done.

The Mutation Hypothesis

A New Interpretation From survivors to descendants After his stroke, Wanless becomes consumed by the experiment’s long-term effects. He studies the surviving participants, including Andrew McGee and Victoria Tomlinson, and argues that their abilities reflect lasting changes rather than a temporary drug response. The Z factor When the McGees’ daughter shows signs of extraordinary firestarting, Wanless sees a development the Shop’s files cannot reduce to a simple inherited trait. He calls the child the Z factor and suspects that the combination of her parents’ altered capacities has produced something new. This is not merely a theoretical question to him: he believes the Shop’s plans to test and control her could trigger consequences nobody understands.

The Final Plea

A Warning Ignored The case for containment At the Shop’s headquarters in Longmont, Joseph Wanless presses Captain Hollister to treat the child’s potential as a danger rather than an opportunity. He argues that Andrew’s modest mental-domination ability is not the central threat; Charlie’s capacity may grow as she ages and changes. Prediction against policy Wanless urges the Shop to kill Andrew and Charlie before the father can further alter his daughter’s fear of her power. His proposal is brutal, but it reflects his belief that the organization has already lost the ability to manage the situation. Captain Hollister listens without accepting the conclusion, choosing instead to pursue the girl as a research subject.

Rainbird’s Seminar

A Warning Passed On Knowledge extracted At the Mayflower Hotel, John Rainbird forces Wanless to explain Lot Six, the McGees’ abilities, and his concerns about Charlie. Wanless repeats the argument he has already made to Captain Hollister, but Rainbird listens with more attention than the Shop’s leadership has shown. No chance to correct course Wanless believes his lecture may buy him his life, but Rainbird kills him before dawn. His knowledge therefore passes to a man who understands the risk yet intends to approach Charlie for his own reasons. Wanless’s warning survives, but the agency does not use it to reconsider its course.

Before the May 1969 experiment

During the 1969 Lot Six experiment

After Wanless’s 1974 stroke

The morning after the McGees flee New York City

The night after the Manders farm incident