p. 84

As the women from the dais makes her way into the crowd, we can see the respect and authority she has. The man, Stenfalk, comes down the dais to meet S. Stenfalk is described by S. as “the oldest and most weathered-looking of the bunch.”

Eric marks several sentences describing Stenfalk’s physical appearance and makes the comment

“Stenfalk has to be a fictionalized version of Torsten Ekstorm. I’ve always thought he was right. The phys. Descriptions match up”

Jen further elaborates on this idea

“And: “Stenfalk” is Swedish — Like Ekstorm. And also: “Corbeau” — French for “raven” (and Durand was French); “Ostrero — Spanish for “oyster-catcher” (Garcia Ferrara); “Pfeifer” — German for “sandpiper” (Feuerbach? Wechsler?)”merlin-crow-oystercatcher-magpie

Then Eric brings up that Ilsa wrote that all of S.’s allies have names of birds. Jen continues the thought, stating that

“those names/characters represent are people who were Straka’s allies, too.”

Eric dubious about the thought says

“Or it’s VMS planting fake clues, invoking all the major candidates.”

In the footnote, FXC mentions that “Much of Straka’s work evinces an understanding of, and appreciation for, the work of innovative practitioners of the sciences.” Eric points out that

“FXC gets names wrong.”

Writing Gaspard-Serge Coriolis when the actual person was Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis. Also, the other three names mentioned were all made-up. Jen tries to figure out the meaning of the names, assuming it might be a code but has a paper due.