Nic: From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it's Tanis. I'm Nic Silver. We're telling the story of Tanis in order every two weeks, so if you're new to Tanis, you should go back and start at the beginning. We'll try not to get too far ahead by the time you get back.
Last episode, MK sent me some transcripts from some presumably Cult of Tanis-related cell phone records that her friend provided. At the bottom of one of those scanned or photographed transcript pages were some hand-written numbers and letters. I've uploaded that transcript to the notes section of our website. Apparently it was some kind of hexadecimal code that read "MOVE PZ NOW." MK told me that it was so ridiculously simple she didn't even consider it. She told me it was like playing Dragon Age: Inquisition and trying to see some version of the ancient video game Pong hidden behind the graphics. I believe PZ probably stand for Parzavala.
There's been no change in the exterior condition of that industrial complex, however, the mail was picked up recently. I've asked MK not to break and enter anywhere, I'm working on gaining access through more traditional means. You'll remember many years earlier, a man named Nathaniel Carter listed the address to that industrial complex as his place of employment.
So what do we know about Nathaniel Carter? MK discovered his name on an application for Tax Free Status connected to an alleged cult operating a group of self-help cottages, and as I just mentioned, although the company name was different, his address of employment was the mysterious, apparently abandoned, Parzavala Communications industrial complex. He ran a Parzavala subsidiary in the field of biotechnology, he purchased rare books and other items at auction, including Lovecraft, Derleth, and of course, Eld Fen. And perhaps most tellingly, Cameron Ellis got extremely weird and cryptic whenever Nathaniel Carter's name came up.
So that's what we know. I've asked MK to keep digging, and I'm following a few leads myself, but nothing new so far.
Alan Malden's DNA was a perfect match for one of the missing feet found along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, but Alan Malden has two perfectly good feet.
Lyle Stevik checked into a low-rent motel a few days after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and committed suicide. Which doesn't appear related at all to Tanis, except for the fact that his name could be an anagram for Levity Elks, a seemingly nonsense phrase taken from a letter addressed to Carl van Sant, that MK discovered may be connected to Tanis.
The manuscript titled Eld Fen continues to provide strange hints at something... odd and perhaps otherworldly. Tara Reynolds is allegedly locked away somewhere in a psychiatric facility, while Sam and Morgan remain missing. You'll notice I didn't include the name Veronika Pillman in the list of the missing. Well, that's because it turns out Veronika Pillman is home, and had been home for quite some time apparently.
How did I find out? That's easy: I called her.
Nic: I called Veronika Pillman because MK received an alert that Veronika Pillman's cellphone just pinged a nearby tower. Veronika claims to have no memory of what happened. Her experience, up to our discovery of the cabin, mirrored mine exactly. I asked her if she'd been to the police and she told me that she'd just got back from speaking with them this morning. I asked her why she hadn't called me and she told me it hadn't crossed her mind.
Nic: I've called Veronika three times since we last spoke. The first two times I left a message. The third time I received a message, her number is no longer in service. I was quickly running out of people I could talk to about Tanis, and I had a lot of questions. I went to see Cameron Ellis.
Nic: Cameron Ellis took me to Pacifica Station, and I'm going to take you there as well. But first, I received a call from somebody else who'd recently become interested in Tanis.
Nic: Geoff van Sant had become interested in Tanis through our interaction during my research into his brother Carl. We'd become friends, and Geoff had very quickly become a fan of the show.
Nic: We'd reached the perimeter of the wall. It was high. 20 feet, maybe more. It looked like it was made out of some kind of crazy NASA mystery material, a compound of plastic, metal, and stone. Whatever the material was, it was strong. It had a real Area 51 vibe to it. But Geoff had seen it before.
Nic: We walked around the wall until we met up with an armed patrol that gently let us know that we needed to move our hike to another part of the forest right away. Geoff told me that it was really tough, but you could cut through the building material he referred to as gray pancake. He said his unit had to do it once in the field. There was a trick or two to breaking it down apparently. I asked him if he thought I should keep that top secret information off the podcast and he said "Leave it on there, I don't give a shit." His words, not mine.
If you're anything like me, you're dying to get a look inside Pacifica Station, and that's coming up after the break.
Nic: Cameron Ellis told me that Pacifica Station shut down sometime around 1985. The controlling entity known only as Section determined that what Cameron Ellis refers to as the breach had either disappeared completely or had entered a kind of hibernation. Either way, Section apparently turned their attention to other things. I asked what he meant by "other things," and Ellis intimated that he was considering sharing that information with me at some future point in time, but for now our conversation would have to remain focused solely on the breach and Pacifica Station.
Nic: He did eventually tell me a little about the kind of research they'd been conducting, but not during that initial tour. He walked me through the facility. It was a time capsule, mid-century modern meets the early 80s. Shuffleboard tables, pinball machines, Apple IIe computers, synthesizers, accents of neon in the kitchen. It was Frank Lloyd Wright meets Andrei Tarkovsky meets Logan's Run.
Apparently the group known as section didn't build the station, but they did run it from sometime in the late 60s until it was essentially abandoned in or around 1985. TeslaNova Corporation was tasked with its maintenance via a subcontract right around that time. I'm gonna fill you in on what I learned from Cameron Ellis about the kinds of things they were researching at Pacifica Station, along with a bit of the history of the area. But first, I had an appointment.
Nic: That's where the recording ends. It sounds pretty nuts, I know. But I've done a bit of research and I'm fairly certain that I was speaking in a dream state. I spoke with my therapist and she confirmed that I was experiencing rapid eye movement throughout that session, the last half in particular. Dreaming is simulated reality with little or often no connection to the real world. What I was experiencing was a dream, and I was narrating that dream experience as if it was a real life experience, which it wasn't. I've discontinued the hypnosis component of my therapy sessions for the time being.
It's fun to imagine that this stuff is real, but I don't believe there's anything of genuine value there. I was talking nonsense, dreaming. I've had crazy scifi dreams before. I'm only including that stuff here as an example to help illustrate how the search for Tanis has completely taken over my subconscious. I dream about stuff like that all the time. Although, the stuff about the darkness, the darkness knows. I was reminded of something Veronika had asked me. She'd asked if I remembered a conversation we had about the nature of Tanis. I had a lot of questions for Veronika. She told me that she'd gone to speak to the police. Well, I called the police and they told me that nobody named Veronika Pillman had been in touch with them regarding the disappearance of Sam or Tara Reynolds.
I'll have more on that coming up. But for now, we're going across the country to Meridian, Idaho, and back in time to the year 2006.
2006 is when the story of Lyle Stevik really hit the internet. Right around that time, a young woman from Spokane visited Meridian. She stayed in the Lake Quinault Inn, Room 5. She blogged about it on a Livejournal page that has since been deleted. I've spoken with her a few times over the past week, she has yet to give us permission to use her name, but she has given me permission to share everything she told me about the Stevik case. Surprisingly, she'd actually been in touch with us months before I'd ever heard of Lyle Stevik. It wasn't until we discovered the possible connection to Tanis that I remembered her letter.
So what happened when she went to the Lake Quinault Inn and stayed in Room 5? Well, she found a key. Kind of. It was a light wooden keychain that was shaped like a key with a piece of rock attached to it by a thin twisted metal wire. I did some research into the large wooden key-shaped keychain and it turns out it's a boating thing. The large wooden key-shaped part is designed to float should you lose your keys overboard. This makes sense because the woman I've been communicating with found the key floating in the back of a toilet in Room 5.
Does that mean the police didn't check the back of the toilet in 2001? Or did somebody put the key there later? Or is this woman making the whole thing up? She lives just outside Seattle. I asked her if I could take a look at the key and she told me that it was dangerous, and if I was smart I'd want nothing to do with it. I asked again a few days later and she sent me the following letter by mail. I've asked my friend and producing partner Alex Reagan to read that letter for you now.
Nic: That letter was alarming. She clearly needed help. When I picked up the key from her mailbox, I left her a note letting her know that we'd be more than happy to donate some money to help her get back on her feet. We have yet to hear from her.
I'll have more on that key next time, but for now I'm going to read more from the document labelled Eld Fen.
Nic: I'll be reading more from that document next time, but now Meerkatnip has an update on the navigator.
Nic: MK sent over an audio file, it was undated, labelled "Subject M." I asked Meerkatnip and she told me that all of her research indicated that the title was either original or added by the person who "borrowed" and initially posted the audio recording. I'm going to play it for you now.
Nic: There's a long bit of silence here. It sounds like Madison is putting on makeup and then just sitting in the bathroom, possibly trying to pull herself together before she opens the door and heads back out into the living room.
Nic: Next time, I'll take a look at that wooden keychain with the strange rock connected to it, and a whole lot more. It's Tanis. I'm Nic Silver. We'll be back again in two weeks. Until then, keep looking.
Nic: Tanis is produced by Terry Miles. Produced, mixed, and edited by me, Nic Silver. Executive producers Terry Miles and Paul Bae.
For legal and safety reasons, we've elected to change some names, and leave others out entirely. We don't do this very often, but we're not willing to compromise people's safety for any reason.
Thanks again for listening to Tanis.
Last episode, MK sent me some transcripts from some presumably Cult of Tanis-related cell phone records that her friend provided. At the bottom of one of those scanned or photographed transcript pages were some hand-written numbers and letters. I've uploaded that transcript to the notes section of our website. Apparently it was some kind of hexadecimal code that read "MOVE PZ NOW." MK told me that it was so ridiculously simple she didn't even consider it. She told me it was like playing Dragon Age: Inquisition and trying to see some version of the ancient video game Pong hidden behind the graphics. I believe PZ probably stand for Parzavala.
There's been no change in the exterior condition of that industrial complex, however, the mail was picked up recently. I've asked MK not to break and enter anywhere, I'm working on gaining access through more traditional means. You'll remember many years earlier, a man named Nathaniel Carter listed the address to that industrial complex as his place of employment.
So what do we know about Nathaniel Carter? MK discovered his name on an application for Tax Free Status connected to an alleged cult operating a group of self-help cottages, and as I just mentioned, although the company name was different, his address of employment was the mysterious, apparently abandoned, Parzavala Communications industrial complex. He ran a Parzavala subsidiary in the field of biotechnology, he purchased rare books and other items at auction, including Lovecraft, Derleth, and of course, Eld Fen. And perhaps most tellingly, Cameron Ellis got extremely weird and cryptic whenever Nathaniel Carter's name came up.
So that's what we know. I've asked MK to keep digging, and I'm following a few leads myself, but nothing new so far.
Alan Malden's DNA was a perfect match for one of the missing feet found along the coast of the Pacific Northwest, but Alan Malden has two perfectly good feet.
Lyle Stevik checked into a low-rent motel a few days after terrorists attacked the World Trade Center and committed suicide. Which doesn't appear related at all to Tanis, except for the fact that his name could be an anagram for Levity Elks, a seemingly nonsense phrase taken from a letter addressed to Carl van Sant, that MK discovered may be connected to Tanis.
The manuscript titled Eld Fen continues to provide strange hints at something... odd and perhaps otherworldly. Tara Reynolds is allegedly locked away somewhere in a psychiatric facility, while Sam and Morgan remain missing. You'll notice I didn't include the name Veronika Pillman in the list of the missing. Well, that's because it turns out Veronika Pillman is home, and had been home for quite some time apparently.
How did I find out? That's easy: I called her.
- Veronika: Hello, Nic.
Nic: I called Veronika Pillman because MK received an alert that Veronika Pillman's cellphone just pinged a nearby tower. Veronika claims to have no memory of what happened. Her experience, up to our discovery of the cabin, mirrored mine exactly. I asked her if she'd been to the police and she told me that she'd just got back from speaking with them this morning. I asked her why she hadn't called me and she told me it hadn't crossed her mind.
- Nic: Is there anything you can think of that might help me locate Sam or Morgan?
- Veronika: I'm sorry, I don't remember.
- Nic: You don't remember anything at all?
- Veronika: (long pause) Do you remember a conversation we had about the nature of Xanu, Tanis?
- Nic: Um... I don't think so, but things are still a bit cloudy.
- Veronika: You don't remember?
- Nic: Uh, not that conversation specifically. Why?
- Veronika: I'm sorry, I have to go.
- Nic: Okay uh, when can we meet up? How are you for this week?
- Veronika: Goodbye, Nic.
Nic: I've called Veronika three times since we last spoke. The first two times I left a message. The third time I received a message, her number is no longer in service. I was quickly running out of people I could talk to about Tanis, and I had a lot of questions. I went to see Cameron Ellis.
- Nic: Thank you so much for seeing me on such short notice, I really appreciate it.
- Cameron: Not at all, thanks for coming.
- Nic: I'd like to ask a few more questions, if you don't mind.
- Cameron: I'll answer anything I can.
- Nic: Why do you refer to what I'm calling Tanis as the breach? And don't tell me it's complicated, or least don't only tell me that it's complicated.
- Cameron: I'm... not really sure.
- Nic: You're not really sure?
- Cameron: I'm not being evasive, Nic. It's just that, well, it's been called the breach for as long as I can remember.
- Nic: How long have you been aware of its existence?
- Cameron: Me personally?
- Nic: Sure, for a start.
- Cameron: A long time, since I was a year or so out of college.
- Nic: And how did you find out about it?
- Cameron: I was recruited.
- Nic: By who?
- Cameron: By a group of scientists, many of whom belong or belonged to the organization known as Section.
- Nic: Why did they recruit you?
- Cameron: "Above average scientific acumen" is what it said on my recruitment letter.
- Nic: Sorry, I meant for what purpose?
- Cameron: Anthropological or biological research and... anomalistics.
- Nic: Anomalistics?
- Cameron: The exploration of anomalous phenomena.
- Nic: Like Charles Fort?
- Cameron: Something like that, yes.
- Nic: Pseudoscience.
- Cameron: You might call it that, but at the time that type of exploration was taking place alongside cutting edge traditional scientific investigation.
- Nic: Like...?
- Cameron: My first assignment was looking into certain... geophysical anomalies in the Pacific Northwest.
- Nic: You were studying the breach?
- Cameron: Among other things.
- Nic: So, what is it?
- Cameron: I don't know.
- Nic: Best guess?
- Cameron: I'm sorry but I'm not comfortable making guesses, Nic. (pause) Not anymore.
- Nic: That sounded ominous.
- Cameron: That wasn't my intention. I'm just not prepared to speculate about the breach at this point in time.
- Nic: Okay. What can you tell me about Pacifica Station?
- Cameron: I can tell you quite a bit, but... but I think it would be more effective if I show you.
Nic: Cameron Ellis took me to Pacifica Station, and I'm going to take you there as well. But first, I received a call from somebody else who'd recently become interested in Tanis.
- Geoff: I wanna see it.
Nic: Geoff van Sant had become interested in Tanis through our interaction during my research into his brother Carl. We'd become friends, and Geoff had very quickly become a fan of the show.
- Nic: You wanna see what?
- Geoff: (laughs) What do you think man? The wall!
- Nic: I'm not sure that's a good idea.
- Geoff: Oh, it's a great idea.
- Nic: Well the last time we went off-campus so to speak, it involved breaking and entering.
- Geoff: Ah, we had a key.
- Nic: (laughs) I'm not sure that statement is entirely accurate.
- Geoff: I'll be there in 20 minutes. (dial tone)
- Nic: ...Okay.
- (car engine quietly humming)
- Geoff: Uh, how far is this place?
- Nic: Shouldn't be much further.
- Geoff: Told you we shoulda stopped for food.
- Nic: And I told you I'm not eating Jack in the Box.
- Geoff: Oh, you're too good for Jack in the Box?
- Nic: (laughs) No... I had Jack in the Box this morning.
- Geoff: Yeah, there you go.
- Nic: I allow myself fast food for breakfast, but that's it.
- Geoff: We passed Dick's Drive-In.
- Nic: We'll stop somewhere on the way back.
- Geoff: Cool, as long as that somewhere is Dick's Drive-In.
- Nic: (laughing) Fine.
- Geoff: Great.
- Nic: I think this is it.
- Geoff: Ah.
- (footsteps rustling through leaves or grass)
- Geoff: How's the hypnosis coming?
- Nic: You know, I'm not sure.
- Geoff: I read that stuff can really fuck you up if you're not careful.
- Nic: (pause) Really? Where did you read that?
- Geoff: Okay. I didn't so much read it as experience it first hand.
- Nic: Seriously?
- Geoff: Seriously.
- Nic: What happened?
- Geoff: Enduring Freedom.
- Nic: Afghanistan?
- Geoff: October 2001.
- Nic: What were you doing in Afghanistan? Fighting?
- Geoff: Fighting, yeah. But I was in Pakistan.
- Nic: In Pakistan? But, but Pakistan were our allies, right?
- Geoff: Right.
- Nic: (pause) So, what was with the hypnosis?
- Geoff: I was in a certain place at a certain time, they thought I may have seen something, so.
- Nic: Okay. So did you see something?
- Geoff: Nah, I didn't see shit. But they knew I was there and they knew certain targets were in the area, so they hypnotised me. You know, to see if I saw anything unconsciously or subconsciously or whatever, you know.
- Nic: Right. (pause) So, did it work?
- Geoff: I don't think so. But something definitely happened, I started to lose time here and there.
- Nic: What do you mean?
- Geoff: For the first few months after what they called "the treatment," I'd forget words and lose an hour here or there. I just didn't feel like myself. I just felt like there was somebody else in there with me.
- Nic: Woah. Um, how long did that last? That feeling?
- Geoff: Uh, I was back to normal in a few months.
- Nic: Um, months?
- Geoff: Yeah, maybe two or three.
- Nic: Woah.
- Geoff: But I'll never let anybody in my head again.
- Nic: No.
- Geoff: Absolutely not.
- Nic: Wow.
- Geoff: Yeah, wow. You should be careful with hypnosis, that's... that's all I'm saying.
- Nic: Okay, I will. Thanks.
- Geoff: You know, you've seen those people on stage, flappin' their arms, hugging themselves, masturbating...
- Nic: Right, but that's all fake.
- Geoff: No, it's not fake.
- Nic: Really?
- Geoff: Well, some of it's fake.
- Nic: Right.
- Geoff: But it's not all fake.
- (footsteps rustling through leaves or grass)
- Geoff: Ho-ly shit.
- Nic: Yeah.
- Geoff: That's a huge fuckin' wall.
- Nic: (laughing) Yeah, that's, that's... yeah.
Nic: We'd reached the perimeter of the wall. It was high. 20 feet, maybe more. It looked like it was made out of some kind of crazy NASA mystery material, a compound of plastic, metal, and stone. Whatever the material was, it was strong. It had a real Area 51 vibe to it. But Geoff had seen it before.
- Geoff: Hm. It's gray pancake.
- Nic: (laughing) Gray pancake?
- Geoff: Yeah, yeah. Sorry, it's military. Expensive as fuck. We had to mix this shit in Afghanistan. We used it to build armories, other small key structures. There's not way the enemy's gettin' through this stuff.
- Nic: Did you ever build anything this big?
- Geoff: (laughs) No, definitely not. No way. Gray pancake was expensive, very expensive and very rare. It would arrive with the same amount of security personnel as a four-star general.
- Nic: Really?
- Geoff: This stuff is a bit... different, actually.
- Nic: Really? Yeah?
- Geoff: Looks like they've maybe made some enhancements since 2001.
- Nic: High tech military grade material makes sense, I suppose. Um, but this isn't supposed to be a military operation, I don't think.
- Geoff: Well, neither was the Apollo moon landing.
- Nic: (pauses, laughs) What?
- Geoff: (laughing) Kidding! I'm kidding. That's something my brother Carl woulda said.
- Nic: Right.
- Geoff: He woulda loved this stuff. I think. You know, if they weren't trying to murder him.
- Nic: (pauses) Right. (laughs uncomfortably) Right.
Nic: We walked around the wall until we met up with an armed patrol that gently let us know that we needed to move our hike to another part of the forest right away. Geoff told me that it was really tough, but you could cut through the building material he referred to as gray pancake. He said his unit had to do it once in the field. There was a trick or two to breaking it down apparently. I asked him if he thought I should keep that top secret information off the podcast and he said "Leave it on there, I don't give a shit." His words, not mine.
If you're anything like me, you're dying to get a look inside Pacifica Station, and that's coming up after the break.
Nic: Cameron Ellis told me that Pacifica Station shut down sometime around 1985. The controlling entity known only as Section determined that what Cameron Ellis refers to as the breach had either disappeared completely or had entered a kind of hibernation. Either way, Section apparently turned their attention to other things. I asked what he meant by "other things," and Ellis intimated that he was considering sharing that information with me at some future point in time, but for now our conversation would have to remain focused solely on the breach and Pacifica Station.
- Nic: Wow, it's like a museum.
- Cameron: It was meticulously maintained through the decades by a caretaker at first, and after a few technological advancements, a lot of the maintenance was automated.
- Nic: Roombas?
- Cameron: (laughs) Actually, there are a few of those now, along with a complex self-cleaning atmospheric monitoring system. Other than that, it's almost exactly as it was right around 1982.
- Nic: And that's the year it was built? 1982?
- Cameron: Well, it was built in the 1950s. It was last occupied in the early 80s.
- Nic: Occupied by who?
- Cameron: (pause) By the last two participants.
- Nic: I'm afraid that doesn't help me.
- Cameron: The final research team.
- Nic: They were researching what, the breach?
- Cameron: (pause) Yes.
- Nic: What kind of research? (pause) You're not going to tell me, are you?
Nic: He did eventually tell me a little about the kind of research they'd been conducting, but not during that initial tour. He walked me through the facility. It was a time capsule, mid-century modern meets the early 80s. Shuffleboard tables, pinball machines, Apple IIe computers, synthesizers, accents of neon in the kitchen. It was Frank Lloyd Wright meets Andrei Tarkovsky meets Logan's Run.
Apparently the group known as section didn't build the station, but they did run it from sometime in the late 60s until it was essentially abandoned in or around 1985. TeslaNova Corporation was tasked with its maintenance via a subcontract right around that time. I'm gonna fill you in on what I learned from Cameron Ellis about the kinds of things they were researching at Pacifica Station, along with a bit of the history of the area. But first, I had an appointment.
- Dr. Burnnett: How are you feeling?
- Nic: Pretty good.
- Dr. Burnnett: Just pretty good?
- Nic: Just pretty good.
- Dr. Burnnett: Any improvement since last week?
- Nic: Yeah, a little I'd say.
- Dr. Burnnett: Great.
- Nic: Yeah.
- Dr. Burnnett: Great.
- Nic: It's a little but it's something.
- Dr. Burnnett: Yeah. Last week you mentioned that you've been feeling a bit more... like yourself lately. Is that still the case?
- Nic: I think so, yeah. I mean, every week is a little better.
- Dr. Burnnett: Good. Well, shall we get started?
- Nic: Sure.
- (quiet whooshing sound over interstitial music)
- Nic: There were two of them, the two that taught me how to use the tools.
- Dr. Burnnett: What tools?
- Nic: The dowsing rod and the special stones.
- Dr. Burnnett: Um, what were the tools used for?
- Nic: For, for working, searching.
- Dr. Burnnett: You were working there, in the cabin?
- Nic: Well not just in the cabin, but everywhere.
- Dr. Burnnett: Where else were you? (long pause) Where are you now? (long pause) Nic?
- Nic: I'm sorry.
- Dr. Burnnett: No, you don't need to apologize. What's happening, where are you?
- Nic: (takes a deep breath in) In the great hall with the taskers.
- Dr. Burnnett: The taskers, who are they?
- Nic: (pause) But there's somebody else.
- Dr. Burnnett: What somebody?
- Nic: Something that didn't want us there.
- (tape recorder button clicks)
Nic: That's where the recording ends. It sounds pretty nuts, I know. But I've done a bit of research and I'm fairly certain that I was speaking in a dream state. I spoke with my therapist and she confirmed that I was experiencing rapid eye movement throughout that session, the last half in particular. Dreaming is simulated reality with little or often no connection to the real world. What I was experiencing was a dream, and I was narrating that dream experience as if it was a real life experience, which it wasn't. I've discontinued the hypnosis component of my therapy sessions for the time being.
It's fun to imagine that this stuff is real, but I don't believe there's anything of genuine value there. I was talking nonsense, dreaming. I've had crazy scifi dreams before. I'm only including that stuff here as an example to help illustrate how the search for Tanis has completely taken over my subconscious. I dream about stuff like that all the time. Although, the stuff about the darkness, the darkness knows. I was reminded of something Veronika had asked me. She'd asked if I remembered a conversation we had about the nature of Tanis. I had a lot of questions for Veronika. She told me that she'd gone to speak to the police. Well, I called the police and they told me that nobody named Veronika Pillman had been in touch with them regarding the disappearance of Sam or Tara Reynolds.
I'll have more on that coming up. But for now, we're going across the country to Meridian, Idaho, and back in time to the year 2006.
2006 is when the story of Lyle Stevik really hit the internet. Right around that time, a young woman from Spokane visited Meridian. She stayed in the Lake Quinault Inn, Room 5. She blogged about it on a Livejournal page that has since been deleted. I've spoken with her a few times over the past week, she has yet to give us permission to use her name, but she has given me permission to share everything she told me about the Stevik case. Surprisingly, she'd actually been in touch with us months before I'd ever heard of Lyle Stevik. It wasn't until we discovered the possible connection to Tanis that I remembered her letter.
So what happened when she went to the Lake Quinault Inn and stayed in Room 5? Well, she found a key. Kind of. It was a light wooden keychain that was shaped like a key with a piece of rock attached to it by a thin twisted metal wire. I did some research into the large wooden key-shaped keychain and it turns out it's a boating thing. The large wooden key-shaped part is designed to float should you lose your keys overboard. This makes sense because the woman I've been communicating with found the key floating in the back of a toilet in Room 5.
Does that mean the police didn't check the back of the toilet in 2001? Or did somebody put the key there later? Or is this woman making the whole thing up? She lives just outside Seattle. I asked her if I could take a look at the key and she told me that it was dangerous, and if I was smart I'd want nothing to do with it. I asked again a few days later and she sent me the following letter by mail. I've asked my friend and producing partner Alex Reagan to read that letter for you now.
- Alex: Dear Nic, since this thing entered my life, things have gone bad. Real bad. My husband left me. My kids won't speak to me. I'm broke, living on government support. And there are other things, worse things. I've been sick, tired. The doctors say it's lupus, but I never had lupus before. I know it's the key. It makes me do things. Terrible things. I'm a god-fearing Christian but this thing is evil, pure evil. I understand why you want to look at it for your show and all, but it's not what you think. This thing is bad. Just wrong. If, after reading this letter, you still want it, I'll leave it for you in the mailbox of my trailer, at 2--(address bleeped out).
Nic: That letter was alarming. She clearly needed help. When I picked up the key from her mailbox, I left her a note letting her know that we'd be more than happy to donate some money to help her get back on her feet. We have yet to hear from her.
I'll have more on that key next time, but for now I'm going to read more from the document labelled Eld Fen.
- Nic: Part two. It was like a Scene in a movie. The next morning while I was getting ready to head back to San Francisco, I received a call from an attorney out of the blue telling me that I'd inherited the job of executor of John Correman's estate, along with the contents of the estate itself. Aside from a number of old books and manuscripts, there wasn't really anything of value in his house. He lived alone and at the edge of his means. Every cent he made he spent on travelling overseas to track down some mysterious tome or scroll.
- He didn't have any family left alive and, aside from a couple of colleagues he'd meet for bridge every six months, it looked like I was John Correman's closest and perhaps only friend. The idea that he considered me a close friend had never crossed my mind. I'd certainly enjoyed his company over the years and we did share an interest in ancient mythology and literature, but I wouldn't have mentioned his name had someone asked me for a list of my closest friends. I suddenly wished I'd spent more time with the man, returned more of his phone calls, accepted more film and dinner invitations. But there was nothing to be done about that now.
- He rented a large Victorian in the Capitol Hill area when he moved to Seattle over a decade ago, which he inhabited until his untimely death. He had almost no savings. My duties as executor of his estate were light: three or four phone calls, two letters, a meeting or two, and my charge was almost complete. The only thing left to do was to clean out the house.
- Correman was gone, and I was about to leave Seattle and drive back to San Francisco when his research assistant handed me a large box of notes. It was the discovery of these notes that changed everything, that put me on a path that would consume me and inform every action I was to take from that point forward. You see, John Correman's notes contained dark secrets. Hints and clues at the existence of something ancient, something hidden behind the thin veil between worlds. Something threatening to bleed over into our world. To destroy and sicken. To ream and cleanse. The one who watches. The one who waits. The one they call Eld Fen.
Nic: I'll be reading more from that document next time, but now Meerkatnip has an update on the navigator.
- MK: This stuff is fucking crazytown.
- Nic: (laughs) What did you find?
- MK: Okay, well I was combing through my Cult of Tanis notes from last season and I came across a couple things.
- Nic: Okay that sounds promising.
- MK: Morgan Miller told you that the Cult of Tanis told Sam Reynolds that "The navigator knows the way to Eld Fen."
- Nic: Right. Crazytown, (laughing) I know.
- MK: Do you?
- Nic: I'm getting there.
- MK: Is there a character called the navigator in any of the literature you've been able to dig up?
- Nic: Uh, not yet. There's nothing in the Eld Fen PDF.
- MK: Well I found a reference to the navigator connected to the Cult of Tanis in part of an interview or an interrogation gone wrong.
- Nic: An interrogation?
- MK: Yeah, it was something that a relative of a former cult member gave to a deprogrammer as some kind of evidence. Apparently they made a recording using hidden microphones all over the house.
- Nic: That sounds... cryptic.
- MK: Well I'm trying to help add a sense of intrigue to your show.
- Nic: Really?
- MK: No. What do I care? The interview's in your inbox.
- Nic: (scoffs) Okay. Thanks.
- MK: Yeah.
Nic: MK sent over an audio file, it was undated, labelled "Subject M." I asked Meerkatnip and she told me that all of her research indicated that the title was either original or added by the person who "borrowed" and initially posted the audio recording. I'm going to play it for you now.
- (recording device starts reeling then clicks on)
- Man: Hi. I'm so sorry.
- Woman: Thank you.
- Man: Are you okay?
- Woman: Yeah I'm okay, thanks.
- Man: Can't believe she's gone. I'm so sorry.
- Woman: (clears throat) Thanks.
- Man: I know you're feeling the pressure to get back to work and all, but the studio is just gonna have to fuckin' wait.
- Woman: Right (laughs).
- Man: Her fucking sister just died. My client's gonna take all the time she needs, plus a fuckin' weekend in Maui... on you!
- Woman: Thanks Rick, I really appreciate it.
- (tape clicks off)
- (very long pause)
- Woman: (sighs) Okay. (sniffs) Keep it together Madison. (sniffs) My friends are here. And your family's here. Most of them are, anyway. (laughs) Jesus, even your fucking agent is here (sniffs). (water from the faucet runs) Okay, come on. (makeup bottles rattling, lipstick cap pops off) Get yourself to-fucking-gether.
Nic: There's a long bit of silence here. It sounds like Madison is putting on makeup and then just sitting in the bathroom, possibly trying to pull herself together before she opens the door and heads back out into the living room.
- (recording device starts reeling then clicks on)
- (footsteps)
- Madison: Mom?
- Madison's Mom: Madison.
- Madison: Where is everybody?
- Madison's Mom: They're gone.
- Madison: What do you mean they're gone? What?
- Man: Hello, Madison.
- Madison: What the fuck is this!? Who the fuck are you!?
- Man: My name is David.
- Madison: Why are you here David?
- David: I'm gonna have to ask you to remain calm.
- Madison: Oh! Why the fuck is that!?
- (long pause)
- Woman: Hi, Madison.
- Madison: Scout. But they told me you were dead? I don't, I don't understand.
- Scout: You're in a cult, Madison. We lied because we wanted to get you away from them.
- Madison: What?
- Scout: David is here to help you.
- Madison: I'm not going anywhere with him!
- Scout: You have to.
- Madison: I don't have to do anything!
- David: Give me the phone.
- Madison: Fuck you, dude! You people have no idea what's coming.
- David: Calm. Down.
- Madison: The navigator knows everything.
- David: Stop. Fighting.
- Madison's Mom: Please Madison, just calm down, it's for the best.
- Madison: Oh, for the best? Oh, that's great mother, you know what's for the best? You don't even recycle. You're a parasite, a virus, like everything else.
- David: Hold her down, please.
- Madison: Something’s coming (laughs).
- David: What's coming, Madison?
- Madison: (laughs) King Wyrm. Eld Fen.
- David: Stay. Calm.
- Madison's Mom: Please help her!
- Scout: Stop it, Madison!
- Madison: (wailing) He's waking up! He's waking up!
- (recording device clicks off)
Nic: Next time, I'll take a look at that wooden keychain with the strange rock connected to it, and a whole lot more. It's Tanis. I'm Nic Silver. We'll be back again in two weeks. Until then, keep looking.
Nic: Tanis is produced by Terry Miles. Produced, mixed, and edited by me, Nic Silver. Executive producers Terry Miles and Paul Bae.
For legal and safety reasons, we've elected to change some names, and leave others out entirely. We don't do this very often, but we're not willing to compromise people's safety for any reason.
Thanks again for listening to Tanis.