#a month later almost 2 im so sorry i forgot to post all the prompts here

[nohenova]

serizawa week day 1 - hobby

i think he would like this game

[tanisisdreaming]

Episode 102: Radio, Radio

Part 2 of 2

[voice of Nic]: sorry it took me a while to pick up, I’m actually driving.

MK: Okay. Are you cool to talk?

Nic: Yeah! I’m hands-free.

MK: Well that’s great.

Nic: Ha, okay.

MK: I found something you might be interested in.

Nic: What is it?

MK: Okay well I had a few bots trolling some Russian and eastern European bitbuckets for the word ‘Tanis,’

Nic: Okay…

MK: I got a hit this morning. It might be nothing, it’s a few weeks old, um but somebody in Kiev posted something to a now defunct bulletin board.

Nic: Uh, what was the post about?

MK: Some guy looking for his sister.

Nic: Some guy looking for his sister?

MK: Yeah.

Nic: I don’t understand.

MK: Okay, well apparently this Canadian guy living in Kiev named Sam Reynolds’ sister went missing, she was working for the…uh, hold on…Tesla Nova Corporation on some kind of top secret project?

Nic: Oh, well that’s interesting.

MK: Yeah. Somebody posted the word ‘Tanis’ in response to his last message. And then, of course, it was deleted right away.

Nic: They deleted the response right away?

MK: They deleted the entire message board.

Nic: Wow.

MK: Yeah. It looks like Reynolds posted three times before the board was disabled.

Nic: Could you send me those messages?

MK: Yeah, I did it.

Nic: You did it?

MK: Yeah.

Nic: Oh! Well thanks, great.

MK: No, there’s more, hold on.

Nic: Okay

MK: Three audio files were uploaded as well.

Nic: If you don’t mind sending those over when you get a chance, that would be awesome.

MK: Already done.

Nic: Great! Well, thanks a lot.

MK: Nothing to it. Later.

 Meerkatnip was turning into an invaluable resource. Both the message board posts and the voice messages were waiting for me when I got back to the office. I’ll be reading the posts by Sam Reynolds, and I’ve recruited Alex Reagen again, to read the posts from his missing sister. The messages that prompted Sam Reynolds to track down this message board and reach out, in the first place.

 [Nic, reading Sam Reynolds’ messages]: I’m posting here because I don’t know where else to turn. It all started with an email I received from my sister. Her name’s Tara Reynolds. And she’s been working up near Seattle. She was contracted by Tesla Nova Corporation more than a year ago, kind of a retainer situation. About a month or so ago, she finally received a call. There’s quite a bit of security and secrecy surrounding the project, so her messages have been limited, and monitored. She’s an archeologist specializing in new energy, so a bit of security isn’t all that unusual for her. Here’s her first message:

[voice of Alex Reagen, reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: From: Tara Reynolds. Tuesday, June 8th, 2015, 11:57 am. Subject: You’ll get a kick out of this.

Hey, kid. I talked to Steph last night. She bought a sailboat. Crazy. I can’t wait to make fun of her when it sits there unused for three years. I hope you’re well. I miss you. Things are getting pretty interesting up here. Exciting. Although, the bugs would drive you crazy. I won’t be able to communicate as much as I’d like, they took our phones this morning. And after tomorrow, we’re only allowed one hour of monitored internet each week. But it’s a fair trade. You wouldn’t believe the funding. We’ve got everything. The food is amazing. Better than any other placement. Better than the cryptography training institution outside Paris, if you can believe it. This is post-grad living at its best. Talk soon. Love you, Tara.

[Nic, reading Sam Reynolds’ messages]: the next message came a few days later.

[Alex, reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: No way you’re going to believe this. You know how I told you we’re not allowed phones, cameras, or recording devices of any kind? Well, I kind of made a pinhole camera out of one of those mini cereal boxes. Frosted Flakes style. I’ve attached a photo I took with the cereal camera to this message. This is probably the last email you’ll receive from me for a while. They stepped up security around the area as soon as the cabin appeared. Out of nowhere, by the way, I’m not kidding. One day the woods are empty, the next day, a tiny old wooden cabin. Some kind of rare hardwood too, I heard the experts mumbling something about it, but all the senior team members are Russian. My Russian is pretty far from outstanding, as I’m sure you remember. I can’t wait to sit down in a pub and tell you all about it. They outlawed anything with a camera, so the guards all carry old flip phones. There’s one guy who leaves his coat unattended for hours. I’m sure his phone is in his pocket. If I can get his phone, I’ll give you a call. If I can’t get a signal, I’m pretty sure that phone has a voice recorder. I had the same one in high school. I’ll try and send you an audio file. Anyway, this is awesome. You’re going to lose your mind. Love you.

 We uploaded the photo Tara took from her cereal box pinhole camera to our website in our notes section. Sam says he didn’t hear anyting from his sister for a few weeks, and then…this.

 [voice of Alex reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: Hey Sam. I hope you got my picture. It’s been crazy. I couldn’t get away. I stole the guard’s phone, but I was almost caught. It was close. We’ve only been allowed sporadic access to the cabin, mainly to examine some ancient text carved into the floor and walls. It’s amazing. I wish I had a camera. A video camera would have been perfect. But it’s too late now. The cabin disappeared. We woke up and it was just…gone.

 A few days later, another message.

 [voice of Alex reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: Something is happening. It didn’t disappear. It moved. It took a few days, but they were able to track it somehow. A man just arrived this morning, an American. Apparently he’s been working with the Russians for a while. He seems to know a lot about whatever this is, whatever’s happening. It looks like he’s in charge of the whole operation now. He’s smart, and also not that hard to look at. He has some kind of electronic device he consults. Im guessing he’s using that to track the cabin somehow. The theoretical science they’re looking at here is bonkers. I’ve seen some things up here…you wouldn’t believe it. I don’t believe it.

 Then nothing for a week, until…

 [voice of Alex reading Tara Reynolds’ email]: It’s insane. There’s so many people here now. They don’t trust each other, and I don’t think they trust any of the outsiders. I’m scared. I can’t even walk to the food tent without an armed escort. I’m still working on one of the guards. Sometimes they leave their bags when they shower. I might be able to get the phone, but I don’t know for sure. They definitely have some way of at least guessing where this thing might end up. ‘This thing’ being the cabin. If what I overheard yesterday is true, which is unlikely because it sounds nutso, they’ve been tracking this thing for ages. All over the state. Part of me can’t wait for this contract to end, but, and this may sound crazy, I really want to get back in. To examine those markings.

 Sam tells us that the next three messages he received were blank. But each had a brief audio file attached. We’re going to play them in order. This is the first message:

 [voice of Tara Reynolds]: I bribed one of the guards to go down the hill to smoke so I only have a few minutes. I brought a small flashlight and a tape measure. Just, stay with me. It gets good, I promise. I noticed something that the other archeologists missed. Everybody’s thinking in such a linear way, but I saw something in the ancient writing, just a few inches of blank space at the end, and it’s gonna sound crazy but I’m sure it wasn’t there yesterday. So, you guessed it. I’m measuring the cabin. Inside the cabin, the south wall is exactly 31 feet 4 inches long.

I’m back outside in front of the south wall. Are you sitting down? Outside measurement of the south wall is exactly 26 feet. Sam, I don’t know how, but this thing’s bigger on the inside than the outside! I’m not making this up. Do you have any idea what this could mean? Yeah, me neither. …Shit, I have to go.

 The next audio file was sent two hours later.

 [voice of Tara Reynolds]: I-I don’t have long. I got back to my tent and I couldn’t sleep, I forgot to mention that nobody can agree on the age of this thing, which is really odd. Carbon dating puts it…well, it must be a mistake. There’s no way it’s that old. Something else is bugging me. A symbol on the cabin wall? I came back, and I snuck past the guards. Sam, two hours ago the south wall measured 5 feet longer than the outside wall, and now…Sam, the south wall? Measures 94 feet! The exterior’s exactly the same. It’s incredible. And inside the cabin the air is cool, and feels thicker, or maybe just different, or maybe it’s just me, but there’s a slight metallic smell in the air? Sam, I think I can hear them outside. I’m gonna have to –

 It cuts off there. Her last message comes in, just a few seconds later.

 [voice of Tara Reynolds]: I’ve been inside the cabin for the past four hours. I’m using the light of the phone, I-I didn’t notice something. The wall was 94 feet, but there was a new corner! I couldn’t see it until later. A hallway…Sam, I’ve been walking for 90 minutes through a maze of halls and rooms. It’s…I don’t know where I am. I-I tried to go back, but I’ve been using the light of the phone and the battery’s about to die…Sam, I love you. And I’m scared. I’m –

 There’s a lot to think about here. Is she overtired? Is she maybe experiencing a kind of garrison mentality? A lonely wilderness type of madness? That seems unlikely, as there were other people in the camp. And what about the cabin itself? She seems convinced that its measurements make no sense. In addition, her last two messages come in only seconds apart, but she believes she’s already spent four hours wandering, lost inside a 26 foot square cabin.

Sam’s last post on the message board reads: “That’s the last I heard from Tara. That was three weeks ago. They’re treating it like a missing persons case. The police have been supportive generally, I suppose, I really don’t think they’re taking her messages or recordings seriously. They believe she was sick because she stopped taking her medication. She’s on Lexapro for very minor general anxiety, nothing like this. She’s not crazy. If she says it was bigger on the inside, then it was. She doesn’t have a boyfriend or husband, and there’s no family but me. She’s all alone out there. Please, help me find my sister.”

We’re still looking into it. But at the moment, that’s everything we have on Tara Reynolds. Which brings us, as it often does, back to Meerkatnip, who found something very interesting on the internet this morning.

 [voice of Meerkatnip]: Heya.

Nic: Hey, how’s it going?

MK: I don’t have long to chat.

Nic: Oh.

MK: Sorry, softball game.

Nic: Oh, alright, well then uh, let’s get right to it then.

MK: I got a Tanis search term hit from an archived cache system in Australia. From a PDF.

Nic: Oh, you can search text in a PDF?

MK: I can.

Nic: [laughs] okay.

MK: It was something called a galley? I guess that’s some kind of a book?

Nic: Yeah, it’s like a pre-release.

MK: Like a beta release?

Nic: Yeah, kind of.

MK: Looks like one of the chapters featured the word ‘Tanis’ more than twenty times.

Nic: It looked like?

MK: Yeah, I wasn’t able to get that one, somebody snatched it before I could reassemble the bits.

Nic: Really?

MK: Mhm. Crazy tech.

Nic: What was it, uh, what was it called? The galley?

MK: The document was titled…uh, hold on…Pacifica.

Nic: Pacifica…? Are you able to remember anything else?

MK: My system usually captures an image of everything that hits my desktop.

Nic: Cool. Uh, usually?

MK: [sighs] There are a few…organizations that frown upon that kind of tech and take precautions, usually some kind of after-the-fact encryption? I never know until I try and pull up the captured files.

Nic: Wow. And?

MK: Somebody did not want me taking pictures. I was able to save one page using the camera on my phone.

Nic: Well, can you send me that photo?

MK: You know I will.

NIc: Cool, thanks. Um, well I’ll try and work on –

MK: I gotta run, okay?

[sound of skype call ending]

Nic: Oh, okay.

 Meerkatnip sent the image. It looks like the first page of a galley, a fictional novel, maybe fantasy or science fiction based on the writing style. I’ll include a copy of it in the notes section of our website, at tanispodcast.com. But basically it’s an introductory paragraph, nothing revelatory. But there is a header that mentions the title, the writer’s name, and the date. Pacifica, by A. Ellis. March 19th, 2003. The Publisher wasn’t mentioned anywhere on the document, and they were unable or unwilling to confirm any involvement with a book called Pacifica. And they also told me that there isn’t now, nor has there ever been, somebody on their roster writing under the name A. Ellis. I asked Meerkatnip if she could look into it.

One of our executive producers, Paul Bay, went to school with one of the senior editors at that publishing company. He got in touch with her to set up a meeting.

 [voice of Paul Bay]: Alright, so, my contact told me nobody at the company has ever heard of a book called Pacifica, or a writer named, um, okay so this is where I think it gets really interesting.

Nic: Really? What…okay.

Paul: What she told me is that there’s no one, nobody there has ever heard of a writer named Avery Ellis.

Nic: So, okay, all we had on the document was A. Ellis.

Paul: Yeah. Right, exactly.

Nic: Well, okay, but, Avery Ellis is Cameron Ellis’ daughter, it could be a simple slip-up.

Paul: That’s exactly what she told me. A. Ellis is like M.K. Olsen or P. Hilton, a simple mistake.

Nic: But…?

Paul: Yeah, but. [laughs] I’ve known her for a pretty long time, something doesn’t feel right here. So I tried to push, but I think it’s a dead end.

 [voice of MK]: Avery Ellis? The rich bitch?

Nic: Yeah. Is there any chance that she wrote that book?

MK: Well, I don’t think so. Um, but outside of the society stuff I can’t find much on her. I do know she paid a cleaner to scrub her off the web after that nude photo came out a few years ago.

Nic: A cleaner?

MK: Yeah, they did a pretty good job. There’s still a shitload on there, but most of the real information was buried.

Nic: Wait, you can do that? Erase yourself from the internet?

MK: Kind of. There’s two kinds of cleaners. There’s ones who change the story and bury the bad stuff under page after page of good stuff. And then the other kind, the kind she used. People like me go in and…clean. You can rewrite your entire history if you want.

Nic: And they call that cleaning?

MK: Yeah. And it’s expensive. Like, two commas expensive.

NicL Wow

MK: Oh, before I forget. I’m sorry I couldn’t make it to the meeting, it’s not because I don’t want to meet you in the flesh, I just couldn’t get out of my other gig in time.

Nic: …I’m sorry, what meeting?

MK: Um…did you smoke a huge bowl earlier? You set up a meeting with me for coffee this morning.

Nic: Um…not me.

MK: You didn’t send me an email asking to meet for coffee to talk about another job?

NIc; No, I didn’t.

MK: Well, somebody used your computer to send me a message.

Nic; What, somebody used my email account without me knowing?

MK: Not just your email. They used your computer.

 So, who used my computer? Who sent Meerkatnip a message, posing as me, asking for a meeting? And why?

On the next episode, our investigation uncovers a very strange story about death, water, and another mysterious cabin in the Pacific Northwest. It’s Tanis. I’m Nic Silver. Until next time, keep looking.