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.
Once again I've spoken with every police organization, person, receptionist, anyone who will talk to me about Morgan Miller. They've been pretty tight lipped up to this point, but they did tell me that no family's been in touch. When it comes to Sam and Tara Reynolds, however, it's a different story. Somebody has been in touch: their family. And they've shut down any and all access. They seem convinced that this podcast might have had something to do with Sam and Tara's disappearances. I explained that I was simply trying to help Sam find his sister, but the Reynolds family were having none of it. Still no word from Veronika Pillman.
I normally do this with my friend and producing partner Alex Reagan, but Alex is currently unavailable, so I asked Meerkatnip if she'd be willing to help me kind of... take stock of where I'm at.
Nic: So MK was interested in seeing Tenebris Occulta, or The Last Movie, or whatever it's called. Well, not me. I've got just about enough on my plate already. Speaking of full plates, Cameron Ellis had something to share with me about fish. Cuttlefish, in particular. He called me in to talk about the breach. Well, his exact wording was "to speak further about geophysical anomalies in the Pacific Northwest."
Nic: And go over everything he did. Well, it certainly wasn't everything, but it was a lot. I wasn't able to record in that environment due to electronics adversely affecting the experiments, so I'll do my best to recap everything I learned.
It appears Cameron Ellis's grandfather chose cuttlefish for a reason. They're apparently one of the most intelligent of all the invertebrates with a very high brain to body size ratio. They're Amazing creatures actually, resilient and capable of extremely effective camouflage. The term sepia comes from the unique brown pigment released by the cuttlefish when alarmed. Cuttlefish are very interesting creatures, but perhaps the most interesting thing about them as far as Tanis is concerned, is that there are no cuttlefish in North America. At least, there aren't supposed to be. They're not indigenous to the continent, it's way too cold and inhospitable apparently.
So how was Cameron Ellis's grandfather studying them? I asked him about it and he told me that things in the breach were just different. He went on to list a few of the other species studies in the breach around his grandfather's time, including fluke worms and a large number of insects. Moths in particular.
We'll get back to Pacifica Station soon. But in the meantime, I had an update on Veronika Pillman.
Nic: I was cleaning up the sound on the audio file MK sent that allegedly contained Veronika Pillman's voice when I received a call. I had no idea who it was at first, so it took me a while before I realized I should be recording.
Nic: Polly was young, I'd guess 25 or so, willowy, medium height. She was wearing a long dark brown skirt, a flowy cream colored cotton top, worn gray Converse All Stars, and a familiar look: oblivious and welcoming. Yeah, this girl had Cult of Tanis written all over her.
Nic: I know what you're thinking: "Don't drink the tea, do not follow her anywhere." Well, it was a busy restaurant. In my experience, these people weren't that well organized and there was no way they could afford to hire an entire restaurant of extras to pull off some elaborate Moriarty-esque ruse. Was there?
Nic: There were two of them sitting at the table: Polly and Arcadia. You'll remember Arcadia from earlier with the tea. I looked around and noticed two large young men sitting at a table near the door. They had to be some kind of Cult of Tanis security for the girls. The girls didn't give me permission to record this time.
Polly was a talker. She moved from rambling scattered non-answers to my questions about Tanis to unrelated mutterings about the beauty of living a communal life. I asked about the cabin in the woods, the navigator, and Eld Fen. The only thing I could get out of them was they believed that the navigator was going to bring them somewhere, like a guide. I asked if the navigator was a person, but they didn't seem to know. I asked them if they'd heard the term runner, they said no. Had they ever heard the name Nathaniel Carter? No.
I kept asking why they wanted to meet with me and they told me they wanted to share their joy, their secrets, their way of life. I said that sounded great, and asked them if they could tell me some of their secrets. That's when they moved closer and started amping up the Manson girl vibe. I stood up and noticed that the two young men at the door, who hadn't touched their beers, reacted to my standing. I wasn't sure I was gonna make it out of the restaurant.
Just before I was about to find out how far these two guys were willing to go in a public place, they sat back down. They must have received a signal or something from Polly. They just stared at me as I walked past their table and out of the restaurant.
I believe I understand now why they called and asked to meet. While I was in the restaurant with them there was a break in at my apartment. And in a separate incident, somebody smashed the window of my car. I'm not sure what they were after, but they were interrupted on both counts. They didn't take anything from my car, I don't leave any valuables in there having been broken into so many times in the past, and my neighbor was able to scare them away from my apartment moments after they got in.
She described two men: dark hair, wool hats, late 20s, bearded, they wore black. Nothing distinguishing about either man. They'd drilled the locks outta my door so they must have been after something. The police believe they were interrupted right after entering. They only managed to open a few drawers before they took off.
So what were they looking for? The only thing I could think of outside of a few original Nick Drake LPs is Tanis stuff. But almost everything Tanis related is in a digital format. There are a lot less physically invasive ways to steal digital information these days. Were they after the floating boat key? A chunk of wood with a rock attached to the end of it? I kept everything related to my investigation into Tanis in a small fireproof safe in the studio. Having lost some earlier work, we realized our radio and podcast programming is very valuable, at least to us and to our sponsors. At the risk of sounding grandiose, in a way, this stuff is our life's work here at Pacific Northwest Stories.
So were they after they wooden keychain and rock? I called around to see if I could find somebody who might be able to x-ray the keychain or ID the rock. I found a geologist named Mike Gershon who came over to the studio to take a look. He took a bunch of samples and some readings and took everything back to his lab. He called me back the next day and did his best to explain the composition of that rock.
Nic: I went to the hardware store and bought a test kit. Everything's fine at my apartment. I brought the rock over to Mike. He's gonna run some more tests.
So that's the rock. Now, what about the floating keychain?
Nic: So what did Sheila find when she x-rayed the keychain? Well, she found a key. The floating keychain had a hollow section in the center, just narrow enough to fit a small key. A small key hidden inside a wooden key, this whole thing was getting crazy. I took a closer look at the bottom of the wooden key, there was a very small narrow rectangular shape there, it had been wedged in somehow, probably also glued. So I drilled into it, and out popped a key.
It looked like a regular key, like the one you'd use to open the front door to your house or apartment. A key shaped like this could open just about anything. What good was having a specific key going to do without knowing what that specific key might open? Well, things were made a lot easier by the fact that all the information I needed was stamped into the key itself. The number 23 and the name of a motel in Olympia, Washington.
Now, before we take the hour long drive down the I-5 to Olympia from Seattle, I'm going to play the recording Meerkatnip sent earlier. The recording allegedly containing Veronika Pillman's voice. It's not very long, and even though I cleaned it up as much as possible, it's still kinda hard to make out exactly what they're saying.
Nic: It sounds to me like Veronika Pillman and Cameron Ellis might be acquainted, and may have spent some time together in 2009, right around Tanis central.
I called Meerkatnip and asked if she'd been able to dig up anything else. She didn't have any more information on that recording, but she did find something.
Nic: So I drove down to Olympia. I'd like to report that nothing exciting happened, that I pulled into the parking lot of the Holly Motel, paid for Room 23, entered the room, and found something. But I'd be leaving one important fact: I was being followed.
A beat up motorhome had followed me all the way from the studio to Olympia. I noticed them behind me all the way down the I-5. That wasn't odd, it's a long highway, we're all going the same way. What was odd was that they were still behind me as I navigated my way through the streets of Olympia. They were always about one car back, so I could never get a good look at the driver.
I decided to try and lose them before I reached the motel. It was easy: their vehicle was huge and old. At the risk of sounding like an old detective novel, it took me about two minutes to shake them.
I pulled up to the motel, got out of my car, and stretched. The sky was dark gray and there was a heaviness in the air, a kind of pressure familiar to those of us from the Pacific Northwest. It was going to rain, probably. I called ahead to make sure I was able to rent Room 23, I didn't just wanna show up and try to enter the room. The clerk gave me a key. I left the lobby, rental office is probably a better term, and walked across the parking area to the long rectangular section that housed Room 23.
The whole place was kind of creepy, it reminded me of that motel in No Country for Old Men. I pulled out the key the clerk gave me and the one I pulled out of that wooden keychain. They were an exact match. I used the key I pulled out of that keychain to unlock the door and entered the room.
This place was a time capsule, 70s style printed drapes, ancient carpet, even the font on the Do Not Disturb sign was a classic. The only thing missing was a vibrating bed and HBO. It was incredibly old school. My instincts told me where to go, I went straight to the bathroom, pulled the lid off the back of the toilet, and found the key.
It had been wrapped in plastic and taped to the side of the tank, not clearly visible unless you knew or suspected something would be hidden there. I smiled and was about to sit down on the bed and turn on the television, when I looked through the open door and saw the old motorhome from earlier pulling into the parking lot. I'd like to tell you that I hid the key in the vent and went back to the adjacent room later after a show down with whoever was in that motorhome, but that wasn't what happened.
I walked out of the room, got into my car, and left. Just before the two familiar looking young men getting out of the motorhome saw me. They did their best to catch up with me, but I was on the other side of the lot. By the time they got back into the old motorhome, I was halfway to the interstate. The Cult of Tanis would have a lot to talk about on their way back to Seattle.
I sped back to the studio and called Meerkatnip. I asked her how she would track somebody if she wanted to follow their car. She said she would buy a GPS tracker chip and hide it somewhere. I went back out to my car to look for something like that. I didn't find a tracking chip, but I did find an old iPhone. They had rigged it up under my back wheel well. I suppose they used the Find My Phone feature to track me to that motel. We've come a long way from Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, laying down those pocket watches under tires in Chinatown to see what time people took off in their cars.
Nic: The description of Marjorie just ends here. There are clearly a few pages missing. The next note, paperclipped to a blank page, is brief, and frankly, more than a little disturbing. The note reads as follows:
Nic: That was written by the unnamed narrator of the document titled Eld Fen, allegedly taken from somebody named John Correman's notes. We'll have more from that document as season two of Tanis continues. But now, I'm sure you're wondering about that key.
It was the key to a post office box back in Olympia, the box number and the name of the place were stamped into the key. This time I made sure I wasn't followed, and of course, I checked my car for tracking devices before I left. I can't believe I just said I checked my car for tracking devices, it sounds like the plot of some kind of political thriller.
Next time I'm going to share what I found in that post office box. It's Tanis, I'm Nic Silver. We'll be back again in two weeks. Until then, keep looking.
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.
Once again I've spoken with every police organization, person, receptionist, anyone who will talk to me about Morgan Miller. They've been pretty tight lipped up to this point, but they did tell me that no family's been in touch. When it comes to Sam and Tara Reynolds, however, it's a different story. Somebody has been in touch: their family. And they've shut down any and all access. They seem convinced that this podcast might have had something to do with Sam and Tara's disappearances. I explained that I was simply trying to help Sam find his sister, but the Reynolds family were having none of it. Still no word from Veronika Pillman.
I normally do this with my friend and producing partner Alex Reagan, but Alex is currently unavailable, so I asked Meerkatnip if she'd be willing to help me kind of... take stock of where I'm at.
- MK: Okay, so what am I doing?
- Nic: Um, just talking about Tanis.
- MK: Great.
- Nic: Maybe ask me a few questions.
- MK: Sure. Why are you still hanging out with Cameron Ellis?
- Nic: Okay. Wow, you just dove right in.
- MK: Would you like me to ask you something else? It's your money.
- Nic: Nope, that's good. Um, okay. Well the way I see it, Cameron Ellis provides the biggest opportunity for discovery. His access to whatever's happening appears to be fairly extensive, it's certainly more extensive than mine. I think as long as he's willing to talk to me I'd be foolish to discount him as a resource.
- MK: Okay, but what about the cabin? Did you go crazy? Was Tara Reynolds eating her own arm? Does she still have an arm?
- Nic: (pause, laughs) Um, well I don't think I went crazy.
- MK: Oh no?
- Nic: (laughing) No. The paramedics told me it was a combination of dehydration, exhaustion, lack of sleep, and stress, probably.
- MK: Okay.
- Nic: As far as Tara Reynolds goes, I remember she was in a kind of fugue state. She wasn't, she didn't really seem to be there, exactly. She'd picked at her arm and was pulling at her skin, and underneath it...
- MK: Like that Marcus guy at TeslaNova?
- Nic: Yeah, just like that.
- MK: Gross.
- Nic: Yeah. It was pretty intense, actually.
- MK: So she still has two arms?
- Nic: As far as I know.
- MK: Okay. And what about Eld Fen? That stuff was nuts.
- Nic: Yeah. I'm still going through that document that's supposedly tied to John Correman's notes.
- MK: Who's the unnamed narrator? Was there really a John Correman? Who the fuck is August Wick?
- Nic: (laughs) I'm looking into all those things stil- you're really good at this stuff, actually.
- MK: Yeah, yeah.
- Nic: No, really.
- MK: Mmm. (sighs) Ohh, maybe I should create my own podcast called Meerkatnip’s Korner, I could share recipes and a few tips on making your MacBook run faster. Maybe I can book Paul F. Tompkins or Jason Mantzoukas.
- Nic: Okay now you're just making fun.
- MK: Back to Tanis then?
- Nic: Yes please.
- MK: Okay, what do you think it is? Do you think it's that cabin? The woods themselves?
- Nic: Well, I'm not sure it's that easy to define.
- MK: You sound like that Professor Adams guy. Or Cameron Ellis.
- Nic: I'm not being purposefully vague, if that's what you were implying.
- MK: It is. Was. Is.
- Nic: (laughs) I'm just not sure that Tanis is simply a part of the woods with a vanishing Doctor Who cabin in the middle that changes people into something... bad, or a place that creates strange insects, a place that forces people to abandon entire towns...
- MK: A place that makes people disappear, inspires musicians and serial killers, turns people into angry blood puppets and black-eyed demon children who returned from somewhere super creepy?
- Nic: (pause, laughs) Yeah.
- MK: How am I doing? Still good?
- Nic: Yeah, still good. Well I think we covered a lot of stuff, thanks for doing this.
- MK: Yeah no problem. I would love to see that evil movie though, that thing called The Last Movie? You know, because it's the last thing you ever see?
- Nic: (pause) Okay, well if I learn anything more about it, I'll let you know.
- MK: Cool. I'll do the same.
- Nic: (laughs) Okay, thanks again.
- MK: Ciao. (Skype disconnects)
Nic: So MK was interested in seeing Tenebris Occulta, or The Last Movie, or whatever it's called. Well, not me. I've got just about enough on my plate already. Speaking of full plates, Cameron Ellis had something to share with me about fish. Cuttlefish, in particular. He called me in to talk about the breach. Well, his exact wording was "to speak further about geophysical anomalies in the Pacific Northwest."
- Cameron: You'll remember I told you Tanis was expanding.
- Nic: You're calling it Tanis now?
- Cameron: The name Tanis isn't new, Nic.
- Nic: No?
- Cameron: No. It's nomenclature we're familiar with. I wanted to be respectful, I understand you're recording this for your podcast and that your podcast is called Tanis.
- Nic: Thanks, but you can call it the breach. I think establishing a variety of nomenclature is helpful.
- Cameron: Well, I thought I should probably expand on the aspects of our research into Tanis.
- Nic: Uh, I appreciate that, but... If you don't mind my asking...
- Cameron: Go ahead.
- Nic: Why answer a question that I haven't actually asked? At least not recently?
- Cameron: (pause) Well. I'd like you to come and work for me, Nic.
- Nic: Right. (long pause)
- Cameron: My grandfather, he was a marine biologist, among other things, and one of this main areas of interest was cephalopod neurobiology. He was involved in a large number of cutting edge cuttlefish studies.
- Nic: Cuttlefish? Okay.
- Cameron: It was his discovery of certain... changes in regional cuttlefish that led him to determine that there was a point beyond which things were changing.
- Nic: Your grandfather discovered this?
- Cameron: Yes.
- Nic: Because of fish?
- Cameron: Cuttlefish are mollusks.
- Nic: Right, okay. So what do mollusks have to do with Tanis?
- Cameron: He was able to track certain biological differences between cuttlefish exposed to the breach and a control group.
- Nic: They were exposed how?
- Cameron: He set up environments within the area.
- Nic: And these studies, were they... government sanctioned?
- Cameron: They were private studies, although everything was approved by every applicable agency. Eventually.
- Nic: Right.
- Cameron: My grandfather proposed something he called "the Alameter Line."
- Nic: Uh, the Alameter Line? What's that?
- Cameron: It's the geographical line which, when passed, the change begins to occur in the cephalopods.
- Nic: The cuttlefish?
- Cameron: Right.
- Nic: Uh, what kind of change?
- Cameron: There were a variety of changes. (pause) If you like, I can go over everything in more detail in the lab.
Nic: And go over everything he did. Well, it certainly wasn't everything, but it was a lot. I wasn't able to record in that environment due to electronics adversely affecting the experiments, so I'll do my best to recap everything I learned.
It appears Cameron Ellis's grandfather chose cuttlefish for a reason. They're apparently one of the most intelligent of all the invertebrates with a very high brain to body size ratio. They're Amazing creatures actually, resilient and capable of extremely effective camouflage. The term sepia comes from the unique brown pigment released by the cuttlefish when alarmed. Cuttlefish are very interesting creatures, but perhaps the most interesting thing about them as far as Tanis is concerned, is that there are no cuttlefish in North America. At least, there aren't supposed to be. They're not indigenous to the continent, it's way too cold and inhospitable apparently.
So how was Cameron Ellis's grandfather studying them? I asked him about it and he told me that things in the breach were just different. He went on to list a few of the other species studies in the breach around his grandfather's time, including fluke worms and a large number of insects. Moths in particular.
We'll get back to Pacifica Station soon. But in the meantime, I had an update on Veronika Pillman.
- MK: It's not much, but I think I got a hit on Veronika.
- Nic: Great, where is she?
- MK: Well if you mean where is she in 2009 I might be able to help you out.
- Nic: Oh. What did you find?
- MK: It's a recording taken, or at least time stamped, right around the time that research study was going on in the Pacific Northwest? Tanis central?
- Nic: Great, well that's exciting.
- MK: (sarcastically) Yay! You want me to play it over the phone?
- Nic: Um, could you send it to me?
- MK: Where's the fun in that?
- Nic: Are you starting to get into this stuff?
- MK: I'm just doing my part to keep the mystery alive.
- Nic: (laughs) Okay, well I need to hear it first to check the sound quality, make sure it's suitable for a podcast or broadcast.
- MK: Copy that.
Nic: I was cleaning up the sound on the audio file MK sent that allegedly contained Veronika Pillman's voice when I received a call. I had no idea who it was at first, so it took me a while before I realized I should be recording.
- Nic: Okay so, why did you want me again, specifically? Hello?
- Woman: (pause) Because I was told to call you.
- Nic: Who is this?
- Woman: You are recording?
- Nic: I just started, yes.
- Woman: My name is Polly, and I want to talk to you. Please.
- Nic: About what?
- Polly: Oh Nic, are we really doing this? About Tanis. Is that better?
- Nic: So, talk.
- Polly: In person only, I'm afraid.
- Nic: In person... when and where?
- Polly: Right to the point. Okay, nine o'clock tonight at te--(bleeped out).
- (birds chirping)
- Nic: Hello.
- Polly: Hi.
Nic: Polly was young, I'd guess 25 or so, willowy, medium height. She was wearing a long dark brown skirt, a flowy cream colored cotton top, worn gray Converse All Stars, and a familiar look: oblivious and welcoming. Yeah, this girl had Cult of Tanis written all over her.
- Nic: Our meeting isn't for 15 minutes and it's two blocks that way. What's goin' on?
- Polly: Change of plans.
- Nic: What do you mean change of plans?
- Polly: In here.
Nic: I know what you're thinking: "Don't drink the tea, do not follow her anywhere." Well, it was a busy restaurant. In my experience, these people weren't that well organized and there was no way they could afford to hire an entire restaurant of extras to pull off some elaborate Moriarty-esque ruse. Was there?
- Polly: You remember Arcadia?
- Arcadia: Hi, Nic.
- Nic: Um, hey Arcadia. What's...
- Polly: So, how are things?
- Nic: Things are good, I'm good.
- Polly: Good.
- Nic: Yeah.
- Arcadia: That's great.
- Nic: So... why am I here?
Nic: There were two of them sitting at the table: Polly and Arcadia. You'll remember Arcadia from earlier with the tea. I looked around and noticed two large young men sitting at a table near the door. They had to be some kind of Cult of Tanis security for the girls. The girls didn't give me permission to record this time.
Polly was a talker. She moved from rambling scattered non-answers to my questions about Tanis to unrelated mutterings about the beauty of living a communal life. I asked about the cabin in the woods, the navigator, and Eld Fen. The only thing I could get out of them was they believed that the navigator was going to bring them somewhere, like a guide. I asked if the navigator was a person, but they didn't seem to know. I asked them if they'd heard the term runner, they said no. Had they ever heard the name Nathaniel Carter? No.
I kept asking why they wanted to meet with me and they told me they wanted to share their joy, their secrets, their way of life. I said that sounded great, and asked them if they could tell me some of their secrets. That's when they moved closer and started amping up the Manson girl vibe. I stood up and noticed that the two young men at the door, who hadn't touched their beers, reacted to my standing. I wasn't sure I was gonna make it out of the restaurant.
Just before I was about to find out how far these two guys were willing to go in a public place, they sat back down. They must have received a signal or something from Polly. They just stared at me as I walked past their table and out of the restaurant.
I believe I understand now why they called and asked to meet. While I was in the restaurant with them there was a break in at my apartment. And in a separate incident, somebody smashed the window of my car. I'm not sure what they were after, but they were interrupted on both counts. They didn't take anything from my car, I don't leave any valuables in there having been broken into so many times in the past, and my neighbor was able to scare them away from my apartment moments after they got in.
She described two men: dark hair, wool hats, late 20s, bearded, they wore black. Nothing distinguishing about either man. They'd drilled the locks outta my door so they must have been after something. The police believe they were interrupted right after entering. They only managed to open a few drawers before they took off.
So what were they looking for? The only thing I could think of outside of a few original Nick Drake LPs is Tanis stuff. But almost everything Tanis related is in a digital format. There are a lot less physically invasive ways to steal digital information these days. Were they after the floating boat key? A chunk of wood with a rock attached to the end of it? I kept everything related to my investigation into Tanis in a small fireproof safe in the studio. Having lost some earlier work, we realized our radio and podcast programming is very valuable, at least to us and to our sponsors. At the risk of sounding grandiose, in a way, this stuff is our life's work here at Pacific Northwest Stories.
So were they after they wooden keychain and rock? I called around to see if I could find somebody who might be able to x-ray the keychain or ID the rock. I found a geologist named Mike Gershon who came over to the studio to take a look. He took a bunch of samples and some readings and took everything back to his lab. He called me back the next day and did his best to explain the composition of that rock.
- Nic: Hi, Mike. Thanks so much for doing this.
- Mike: It's not a problem, this was, (laughs) this was interesting.
- Nic: Were you able to determine the composition of that rock?
- Mike: Yes, and uh, and no.
- Nic: What do you mean?
- Mike: Well it's... it's extremely interesting.
- Nic: Uh, how so?
- Mike: At first I thought it was just monazite, which, monazite’s a mineral that contains rare earth metal.
- Nic: Rare earth?
- Mike: Uh, lanthanides.
- Nic: Okay, um. Why is it so heavy for its size?
- Mike: That's, that's a function of the material that it's composed of.
- Nic: Oh yeah, what material?
- Mike: Right, well, this is where it gets cool.
- Nic: (laughing) Okay.
- Mike: There are four types of monazites normally.
- Nic: Normally?
- Mike: Yeah, I'm not sure that (laughs) I'm not sure this fits into one of those four categories.
- Nic: Really?
- Mike: Yeah, it's a source of thorium, lanthanum, cerium. It's rare and radioactive.
- Nic: Is it dangerous?
- Mike: No. Not this small, probably not. But this particular sample is unique.
- Nic: How is it unique?
- Mike: Yeah, the level of thulium and promethium present here is, is what you might call off the charts.
- Nic: Off the charts. Um, what does that mean exactly?
- Mike: Well, not only is this sample extremely rare and valuable, it contains an amount of thulium that's... well, the amount is rare.
- Nic: Do you think that might be why somebody would be carrying it around, keeping it?
- Mike: Nic, I gotta tell ya, I have no idea why somebody would be carrying this around (laughs).
- Nic: Okay. Is there any way that it might affect someone adversely? Physically, I mean.
- Mike: Uh, there are trace amounts of radioactive elements, like uranium.
- Nic: Uranium? Um, that sounds scary.
- Mike: Heh. Well no, all rock has some uranium in it. Radon gas in trace amounts. The threat though is small.
- Nic: Okay.
- Mike: Radon testing is easy. You just, you can get a charcoal cannister from your local hardware store.
- Nic: Oh, okay. Um. Alright well thank you so much for looking into this for me.
- Mike: Oh yeah, Nic. This hasn't been a problem at all. I've, I'd actually love to spend some more time with that sample if that's... that's convenient for you, or whenever that's convenient for you.
- Nic: Yeah, yeah. No, that's no problem. I'll set it up for sure.
- Mike: Wonderful.
- Nic: Thanks so much.
- Mike: Hey thank you, and you're welcome.
- Nic: Alright.
- (tape recorder button clicks off)
Nic: I went to the hardware store and bought a test kit. Everything's fine at my apartment. I brought the rock over to Mike. He's gonna run some more tests.
So that's the rock. Now, what about the floating keychain?
- Geoff: You didn't get the pictures?
- Nic: Uh no, when did you send them?
- Geoff: Sheila was supposed to send them.
- Nic: Sheila?
- Geoff: Yeah, my dental hygienist?
- Nic: Oh of course, Sheila.
- Geoff: Yeah, you know, Sheila.
- Nic: Right.
- Geoff: She took some x-rays.
- Nic: Ahhh. Okay.
- Geoff: Yeah, now you're gettin' it.
- Nic: Um. Sheila Martin?
- Geoff: Sheila Martin, that's her.
- Nic: Okay yeah, it was in my spam folder.
- Geoff: I think you're gonna like what she found.
- Nic: Okay. (clicking) Wow.
- Geoff: Yeah "wow!"
- Nic: (laughs)
Nic: So what did Sheila find when she x-rayed the keychain? Well, she found a key. The floating keychain had a hollow section in the center, just narrow enough to fit a small key. A small key hidden inside a wooden key, this whole thing was getting crazy. I took a closer look at the bottom of the wooden key, there was a very small narrow rectangular shape there, it had been wedged in somehow, probably also glued. So I drilled into it, and out popped a key.
It looked like a regular key, like the one you'd use to open the front door to your house or apartment. A key shaped like this could open just about anything. What good was having a specific key going to do without knowing what that specific key might open? Well, things were made a lot easier by the fact that all the information I needed was stamped into the key itself. The number 23 and the name of a motel in Olympia, Washington.
Now, before we take the hour long drive down the I-5 to Olympia from Seattle, I'm going to play the recording Meerkatnip sent earlier. The recording allegedly containing Veronika Pillman's voice. It's not very long, and even though I cleaned it up as much as possible, it's still kinda hard to make out exactly what they're saying.
- (fuzzy static, poor audio quality throughout conversation)
- Cameron Ellis: Well there was always a specific area (? 0:26:31.3)
- Veronika: Here?
- Cameron: We built Pacifica right on the outlying border.
- Veronika: Which was incident site? (? 0:26:36.4)
- Cameron: It changes.
- Veronika: What do you mean?
- Cameron: The incident site started moving around within the region. It'd double up and disappear, another would pop up somewhere else within the area. Wouldn't last very long.
- Veronika: How long?
- Cameron: It varied.
- Veronika: Okay.
- Cameron: They're increasing in size and frequency, and the area, or breach, is also increasing.
- Veronika: How fast?
- Cameron: We're not sure, that varies as well.
- Veronika: Millenia? Decades?
- (tape warps, recording device button clicks off)
Nic: It sounds to me like Veronika Pillman and Cameron Ellis might be acquainted, and may have spent some time together in 2009, right around Tanis central.
I called Meerkatnip and asked if she'd been able to dig up anything else. She didn't have any more information on that recording, but she did find something.
- MK: Eld Fen.
- Nic: What did you find?
- MK: There was an auction two weeks ago in Paris.
- Nic: Okay, and...?
- MK: And somebody purchased a collection of Sumerian shit, a letter to Derleth from Lovecraft, and the big ticket item, some poetry that included a sonnet cycle containing the words Eld Fen a few times.
- Nic: Wow.
- MK: Mmhm.
- Nic: So who purchased the stuff?
- MK: A Belgian company working for a third party. I had a friend of mine in Paris call, but they're pretty secret when it comes to releasing bidder information, so.
- Nic: Well that makes sense, I suppose.
- MK: I've been working backwards, it turns out the Belgian company was bidding on behalf of a numbered Russian company.
- Nic: Russian?
- MK: Mmhm. But wait, there's more.
- Nic: Okay.
- MK: The Russian company was a subsidiary of another corporation that is owned in part by an American corporation.
- Nic: TeslaNova.
- MK: No, and before you say Parzavala, it's not them either. They no longer exist legally speaking, remember?
- Nic: Parzavala, right.
- MK: It's a shell corporation, no assets, no name, just another number. I'm still looking into it. Also I'm looking into who owned the items purchased at the auction.
- Nic: Smart.
- MK: That's what you pay me for.
- Nic: Right.
- MK: Okay, so I should have something soon on the previous owner of the poetry and the rest.
- Nic: Thank you.
- MK: Yep.
Nic: So I drove down to Olympia. I'd like to report that nothing exciting happened, that I pulled into the parking lot of the Holly Motel, paid for Room 23, entered the room, and found something. But I'd be leaving one important fact: I was being followed.
A beat up motorhome had followed me all the way from the studio to Olympia. I noticed them behind me all the way down the I-5. That wasn't odd, it's a long highway, we're all going the same way. What was odd was that they were still behind me as I navigated my way through the streets of Olympia. They were always about one car back, so I could never get a good look at the driver.
I decided to try and lose them before I reached the motel. It was easy: their vehicle was huge and old. At the risk of sounding like an old detective novel, it took me about two minutes to shake them.
I pulled up to the motel, got out of my car, and stretched. The sky was dark gray and there was a heaviness in the air, a kind of pressure familiar to those of us from the Pacific Northwest. It was going to rain, probably. I called ahead to make sure I was able to rent Room 23, I didn't just wanna show up and try to enter the room. The clerk gave me a key. I left the lobby, rental office is probably a better term, and walked across the parking area to the long rectangular section that housed Room 23.
The whole place was kind of creepy, it reminded me of that motel in No Country for Old Men. I pulled out the key the clerk gave me and the one I pulled out of that wooden keychain. They were an exact match. I used the key I pulled out of that keychain to unlock the door and entered the room.
This place was a time capsule, 70s style printed drapes, ancient carpet, even the font on the Do Not Disturb sign was a classic. The only thing missing was a vibrating bed and HBO. It was incredibly old school. My instincts told me where to go, I went straight to the bathroom, pulled the lid off the back of the toilet, and found the key.
It had been wrapped in plastic and taped to the side of the tank, not clearly visible unless you knew or suspected something would be hidden there. I smiled and was about to sit down on the bed and turn on the television, when I looked through the open door and saw the old motorhome from earlier pulling into the parking lot. I'd like to tell you that I hid the key in the vent and went back to the adjacent room later after a show down with whoever was in that motorhome, but that wasn't what happened.
I walked out of the room, got into my car, and left. Just before the two familiar looking young men getting out of the motorhome saw me. They did their best to catch up with me, but I was on the other side of the lot. By the time they got back into the old motorhome, I was halfway to the interstate. The Cult of Tanis would have a lot to talk about on their way back to Seattle.
I sped back to the studio and called Meerkatnip. I asked her how she would track somebody if she wanted to follow their car. She said she would buy a GPS tracker chip and hide it somewhere. I went back out to my car to look for something like that. I didn't find a tracking chip, but I did find an old iPhone. They had rigged it up under my back wheel well. I suppose they used the Find My Phone feature to track me to that motel. We've come a long way from Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes, laying down those pocket watches under tires in Chinatown to see what time people took off in their cars.
- Nic: Part three. Correman's notes were a mess of confused text, partial sketches, pseudo-alchemy, literary blind alleys, and fragments of strange mythic poetry. It was going to take me a long time to parse all this stuff, and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it on my own. So I put an ad up on a bulletin board at the university looking for a research assistant. The ad read as follows: "If you have an interest in arcade mystery, are able to work two or three days a week for very little compensation, aren't afraid of digging into occult materials, and can type at least 60 words per minute, please contact me here." I left my contact number and address.
- It wasn't long before I got a response. A young woman named Marjorie Jensen called a few days later. She lived close by, she was interesting in the material, very interested as it turned out, and although she fell at least two dozen words short of 60 words a minute, she could type. (keys clicking on a typewriter)
- Marjorie Jensen was tall and thin with a perpetually raised left eyebrow, as if she was constantly considering something. She had an almost photographic memory, which was extremely helpful as we made it through the reams of material and research.
Nic: The description of Marjorie just ends here. There are clearly a few pages missing. The next note, paperclipped to a blank page, is brief, and frankly, more than a little disturbing. The note reads as follows:
- Nic: With a voice that was wet, like the sound of rotten plums and bees being shoved into a strangled gurgling mouth, she spoke inside my head. I missed her. I longer for her voice, no matter how terrifying it was to hear it. My love for her on balance far outweighed the fear. I wanted her back. I wanted to hold her, to tell her I loved her. I wanted her to forgive me. I wanted to keep her safe. The next time I saw her was in that bathtub. She'd slit her wrists. Something they don't tell you when it comes to suicides in bathtubs, that blood leaves a ring and no matter how hard you scrub, it never goes away.
Nic: That was written by the unnamed narrator of the document titled Eld Fen, allegedly taken from somebody named John Correman's notes. We'll have more from that document as season two of Tanis continues. But now, I'm sure you're wondering about that key.
It was the key to a post office box back in Olympia, the box number and the name of the place were stamped into the key. This time I made sure I wasn't followed, and of course, I checked my car for tracking devices before I left. I can't believe I just said I checked my car for tracking devices, it sounds like the plot of some kind of political thriller.
Next time I'm going to share what I found in that post office box. It's Tanis, I'm Nic Silver. We'll be back again in two weeks. Until then, keep looking.
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.
