ACT III/IV/V

(The TRUTH from the "Nineth Circle"...)


And so the next part in the Hanso conspiracy plot began to unfold...and like she promised, Rachel did indeed deliver more information. The question was asked, where did Rachel go after leaving Sri Lanka? Well...interestingly enough, she surfaced in the last place one would guess...in San Diego, California. And where in San Diego but at "Comic Con 2006"? She made her presence known during the conference for the television show known as "Lost". Apparently, she had information tying the producers of "Lost" to the Hanso Foundation...and she asked them why they were protecting Hanso and not revealing the "truth" about the organization. They vehemently denied any involvement with Hanso and even went so far as to say that Hanso and everything that has been revealed by Rachel so far is based on fiction written by the writers of "Lost". But Rachel made it blantantly clear that wasn't the case and even made the comment that she is "living proof" that Alvar Hanso exists. Now what could she have meant by that?? She then directed everyone to a new website, Hanso Exposed.com, to discover the "truth" and she was promptly escorted out of the building by security. Other than a couple of posts on her blog revealing clues about the new website, she has not been heard from since...

The new website, Hanso Exposed.com, basically serves as a storage area to collect "fragments" of a video that Rachel has hidden all over the Internet. This is the video that she mentioned was "too dangerous" to host all in one place...so she spliced the video into 70 smaller fragments that can be located on the web by discovering "glyphs" in various locations along with an accompanying "code" which must be entered into the site to recover the fragments. Once completed, Rachel has promised that something "BIG" will be revealed, namely what she discovered in Sri Lanka about Mittelwerk and his project, and it must be major to convince her that she must effectively disappear from view after working so closely with her fellow bloggers. The fragments are being collected from magazines, wrist bands, and shop windows as I write this...all 70 will be collected in the not too distant future. Who is "Mr. Beardy"? What is Mittelwerk planning? What does this video reveal? The "one true way" will be shown soon...

Meanwhile, other things were brewing in the background. The elusive Dr. Hackett was brought to the forefront once again. This time it seemed as if he and "G. Downs" from the Engineering Development Center were involved in some kind of experiment involving food tampering. Apparently the "compound" in question was both psychotropic and viral in nature. It was definitely introduced into a "beverage" of some sort and may also be planted in "Apollo Bars", which are chocolate candy bars. What this compound is and what it is intended to accomplish remain to be revealed...and interestingly enough, the Apollo Candy website has announced that it plans to give away free chocolate bars at select locations around the US. What could they be planning?

The magnificent DJ Dan also decided to make a comeback after a rather unusual and lengthy absence...and to make things interesting he decided to announce a "live" broadcast. A date, time, and phone number were all released...effectively inviting a "free-for-all" for anyone who wanted to contact the DJ on the air and give information or ask questions. This could be a very important event for the DJ, Rachel Blake and her followers, and even the Hanso Foundation...an air of both excitement and tension lingered... And then, it happened...DJ Dan came on the air, LIVE and in all his glory. He made us laugh, he made us cry, he pissed us off with his rapid fire SHUTDOWNs...but in the end, it was almost 2 hours of DJ Dan in typical DJ Dan fashion. And even Tonya was on-hand to dispel any rumors that she had met some untimely demise. Last, but definitely not least, we had "Johnny", the witty, yet somewhat off-cue, Announcer. Yet, through all his rantings and ravings about Anti-Stupid pills and floating beds, the DJ did managed to produce some significant information. First of all, he flatly DENIED rumors that he may in fact be Peter Thompson of the Hanso Foundation. Then, about halfway through the broadcast, he received a phone call from a guy that was frantically claiming he had a message that he had to get to Rachel Blake. It turned out that this was the "IT" guy that had turned his back on the Foundation to help Rachel previously...and Dan referred to him as "Malek". In any case, after making it clear that Rachel must receive this message, he recited a series of numbers. At first, the meaning of these numbers was very unclear. But it was soon discovered that they corresponded to page numbers in the novel "Bad Twin" by Gary Troup. If you took the first letter of each word from each of these various pages, they could be combined to form a message: "I know where he is, I can set it up". Could Malek know where Alvar Hanso is? Is he trying to set up a meeting between Alvar and Rachel? Dan also revealed information about two "glyphs" that could be added to the fragment collection currently being rounded up. He only gave hints to one of them, but the other he received through a fax from "Marvin", which he then posted on the outside door of the building he was broadcasting from to lure potential "glyph hunters" to discover his location and come find the glyph for themselves. Finally, after a "rapid-fire" session of SHUTDOWNs...DJ Dan was forced to abruptly end the broadcast when Hanso operatives began infiltrating the building after finally tracking him down. Hopefully Dan, Tonya, Johnny and their crew were able to safely exit the building...

Glyphs continued to be uncovered at a slow but steady pace, including the two that DJ Dan mentioned in his podcast, and the fragmented video neared completion. Putting the video in the correct order was another story entirely however... Another strange clue was found through a video with a person using sign language. Here is the message as best as it could be made out: "I am Mel, friend of Rachel. (Friend of Rachel - I sell Apollo Candy.) Apollo Candy conned Mittelwerk (or vice-versa) into having chemists run tests on...[unclear finger spelling]. Hackett found something important, but Mittelwerk wouldn't allow the results to be given to the competition (he hates the competition), they had a huge argument, and Hackett took...[more unclear fingerspelling] and found a new person to give the information to, who will distribute it. (something about giving away, reference to apollo bar giveaway?) I have to warn (help) people." Hmmm...it seems Apollo Candy really is up to no good. But what do they have to do with Mittelwerk's plans...or are they planning something different entirely? And then...Rachel began sending out emails to people signed up over at HansoExposed.com... It basically said for people to visit the Apollo Candy website. Why would she be directing us to a Hanso site? Is she planning on doing a little infiltrating again? In any case, once the "giveaway" began, it turned out that the site "whereisalvar.com" was stamped into the bars. Now, how did Rachel manage that? Rachel then sent out another email sending us to the same website. The website is set up so that people can upload pictures of themselves with their Apollo candy bars. The website keeps track of where the people are located and how many bars have been found or distributed. However, apparently there are several "special" bars out there called "Golden Oracles" that have a golden sticker with a code. Rachel gave instructions that people are to upload their picture with these special bars and to input the code on the site. That way, the site keeps up with the Golden Oracles as well. But then...Rachel revealed that when all the Golden Oracles have been found and uploaded, she would "give us further instructions...and you don't want to miss what I have to show you". Are Rachel and Dr. Hackett allies now? Does this have anything to do with Malek's coded message? FIND THOSE GLYPHS AND GOLDEN ORACLES...

And so...all 70 Glyphs were finally located. Putting these 70 fragments together in the correct order revealed a video shot by Rachel Blake at some sort of "meeting" between Mittelwerk and a group of "scientists". The video starts out with an "orientation" film featuring none other than Alvar Hanso himself. It was apparently filmed sometime back in the 70's. In this film, Alvar explains his involvment with the DeGroots and the formation and intended purpose of the DHARMA Initiative. In a nut shell, he revealed that the "numbers" (4 8 15 16 23 42) are the core numerical values contained in the Valenzetti Equation. The entire purpose of sending the DHARMA Initiative to the "island" was to study the Equation and these core "environmental" factors and somehow alter them in order to find a solution to prevent mankind from destroying itself. The video then switched focus to Mittelwerk, who was briefing the other scientists on their "mission". Mittelwerk talked about how the DHARMA Initiative had failed and that if the environmental factors couldn't be altered, the human factors must be altered instead. This apparently involves some type of "virus" that attacks certain "genetic markers". Hanso had apparently fooled two different villages in Sri Lanka into thinking that they were infected with a virus carried by local monkeys in the area and that these "scientists" were bringing in a vaccine. According to Mittelwerk, the Vik Institute has acertained with mathematical certainty that this virus will have a 30% mortality rate. Any more or less, said Mittelwerk, would be failure. The bodies of the dead were to be brought back in for genetic testing...probably to see if the virus was working properly. This was the nature of the SPIDER Protocol it seemed...a virus that will strike down all people with certain genetic characteristics in order to alter the human factor rather than the environmental factors. This, in Mittelwerk's view, would be enough to thwart the mathematical precision of the Valenzetti Equation. Unfortunately, Mittelwerk noticed something odd and Rachel was discovered in her filming efforts. The tape cut off as she began her escape...which would have been much more dramatic if it weren't already known that she escaped safely. Our attention was now fully turned on Apollo Candy and the hunt for Oracles...

After a long silence other than mysterious glyphs and elusive oracles, Rachel finally decided to reply to Malek's coded message which was broadcast on DJ Dan's LIVE show. And following her reply, there have been several other coded messages exchanged between the two of them located on various websites. Here is a run down of the correspondance so far:

Rachel: M--Conscience is keeping you in the fight is it? Heard you call in to DJ Dan. If you're talking about who I think you are then you already know my answer.

Malek: R -- I think it's fair to say, whatever conscience I have was built on faulty equipment. This is a matter of duty. Loyalty... Speaking of which, I've been troubled by the very recent disappearance of an old friend, de Zylva. We all saw your Sri Lanka video. You were captured at the end, and yet, there you were, blasting those Lost producers in San Diego not a week later. And, I have to wonder... did de Zylva have something to do with that? Do you know what's become of him?

Rachel: I knew you were behind that. I just knew. He never told me, you know? When I hit the ground I was sure I was dead. The camera was broken, they were dragging me to my feet... and then a burst of gunfire in the air. These were SCIENTISTS, unarmed. They hit the ground. But not Mittelwerk. He kept coming until de Zylva turned the shots in his direction. Once Mittelwerk was face down on the ground, de Zylva grabbed my hand and we were gone. With the camera. He didn't talk. He said he was de Zylva, that was it. We knew Mittelwerk was already in pursuit, but we stuck to tunnels that had been dug out during various wartimes. We had some close calls. The goal was the American embassy in Colombo, but when we got there, we knew that was impossible. It was being watched -- the airport, too. de Zylva said The Hanso Foundation had too much influence in Colombo to take the risk. And, then, they caught wind of us again. We knew we could be caught at any second, and the only important thing was that video. EVIDENCE of Mittelwerk's world-wide decimation plot. I'd planned for this. All I needed was a secure, high-speed connection. The Hanso goons knew it too. They surrounded the place while I was uploading. We barricaded ourselves, de Zylva knew an escape route. I barely got out, made my way to a friend of de Zylva's who could get me to India. I swear, I waited for de Zylva. But he never came. I'm so sorry.

Malek: This is not your fault. As you once shouted at the top of your lungs, we've all got 'blood on our hands.' I just hope my friend is resting easy. Where are you? I'll need you to meet me in Norway.

Rachel: M--I wish it were that simple. Fact is, as much as I want to, I still can't trust you. I want to believe you are the man who helped me in Paris but "de Zylva's" name was not unknown. You could be Mittelwerk himself, springing a trap under my feet. I need confirmation it's you. I need you to tell me something only you could know.

Malek: R -- I respect your caution. Suppose it's warranted, after all you've come through. I can't remember it exactly, but I think when we were in the stairwell in Paris, you muted the mic as I said "Because he wanted me to help you, and I can't question a man who would launch the Mental Health Appeal... to save a loved one." Say what you will about him now, his heart was once in the right place.

Rachel: I'm in NYC.

Malek: You lived in 3 different apartments. Be waiting outside your second at 7:45 PM. I'm sending a car. Hope you remember the brand of iron you hit me with, because that's the code.

Rachel finally decided to break her silence when enough of the Apollo candy bars had been found. However, the purpose of the "oracles" has yet to be revealed... In any case, she prompted her followers and collaborators to tune into to yet another LIVE DJ Dan podcast, which will supposedly answer ALL of our questions. She even hints that she may be a special guest on the show. Only time and Dan will tell...

In other strange events, a mysterious video surfaced that was filmed in some sort of pub in Michigan. During the middle of some guy's musical performance, William Kilpatrick (the Jeep guy) suddenly ran up on stage and started yelling about the Hanso Foundation and how Rachel had clued him in that they were using the fleet of Jeeps to transport organs into/out of South Africa and they had been using Apollo Candy as a front. He then mentioned something about the "missing organs" zip file which had been previously mentioned in the conversation between him and Rachel but was never recovered. Then, a couple of Hanso goons showed up and kidnapped him right in front of everyone. He threw pieces of paper out into the crowd before they hauled him away. The paper directed you to a very familiar website and once again pointed out the "missing organs" zip file. On the website, which on first glance seems to have been removed, the aforementioned file can be found along with another conversation between Rachel and "someone" under William's username. The file reveals the names of two people that apparently signed "Do not recusitate" forms and were administered a drug called "Vialex". It also contained a "schematic" of the modifications made to the Jeep Compass vehicles to allow the transport of organs/bodies along with a memo from Peter Thompson to Mittelwerk talking about how air transport had become too risky and that they must fall back on their "land transport" plan. Very shady dealings indeed... Here is the conversation between Rachel and pseudo William:

Session Start (wtkFleet35:OpenersHep): Thu Sep 21 1:58:03 2006[1:58]
OpenersHep: you there?[1:58]
wtkFleet35: Hello Rachel[1:58]
wtkFleet35: I was just thinking about you.[1:59]
OpenersHep: why's that? what's going on?[1:59]
wtkFleet35: Because[1:59]
wtkFleet35: You're on my mind[1:59]
OpenersHep: ...[1:59]
OpenersHep: trying to win creepy points, will?[1:59]
wtkFleet35: You should watch that tone[1:59]
OpenersHep: who is this?[1:59]
OpenersHep: obviously not william... [1:59]
OpenersHep: spit it out[2:00]
wtkFleet35: Did you really think you would get away with it Miss Blake?[2:00]
OpenersHep: what've you done with him?[2:01]
wtkFleet35: See what you have done Rachel?[2:01]
wtkFleet35: All the people you have hurt.[2:01]
wtkFleet35: And for what, hmm?[2:01]
OpenersHep: tell me you sicko[2:02]
wtkFleet35: Don’t worry about Mr. Kilpatrick. He is in good hands. He is helping others in ways he never imagined. [2:03]
OpenersHep: what is WRONG with you people?[2:04]
wtkFleet35: We promise not to boil his bunny.[2:04]
OpenersHep: I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS. [2:05]
wtkFleet35: Oh, not to worry my dear. We already have[2:05]
OpenersHep: THIS IS OVER FOR YOU. DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? [2:05]
wtkFleet35: By the way, nice place you have there in the Big Apple.[2:07]
wtkFleet35: Rachel dear….you there?[2:07]
*** "OpenersHep" signed off at Thu Sep 21 2:07:33 2006

And so...DJ Dan went live once again and Rachel was indeed the special guest on the show. She seemed very reluctant to answer many of Dan's important questions, such as what happened in Norway and about her personal motives...but then, another phone call was received that interrupted the conversation. Apparently, some "conspiraspies" picked up on a transmission of some type of police or military infiltrating the Hanso Foundation and attempting to capture Mittelwerk. However, they learned too late that they were chasing a "lookalike"...and that the building had been wired to explode. Mittelwerk delivered one last message saying that he couldn't allow his work to be hindered and then he told them to run. Soon afterwards, the building exploded... Rachel then directed everyone to go to abc.com to view a video which would reveal EVERYTHING. She then told DJ Dan that she had to go... Having lost his important interview and probably curious about the video himself, the DJ decided to sign off as well...and so ended the broadcast. The video started off with the Sri Lanka footage...but it was soon apparent that additional video had been added at the end. Apparently, Malek pulled some strings and planted Rachel as a "replacement nurse" so she could infiltrate the house where Alvar Hanso himself was being held prisoner. His location: Narvik, Norway. Hanso recognized Rachel immediately and he knew that she was video taping him. He proceeded to inform her that he was being held against his will and that Mittelwerk had effectively taken over the Foundation, while keeping up the appearance that Hanso was still running the show. He very much regretted the fact that he had put a man with such malicious intentions in such a position of power. He expressed his desire for Rachel to get the video tape out to anyone who would listen, since he wasn't allowed contact with the outside world...and he doubted he would ever leave the house alive. It was also brought to light that Rachel's personal motivation started with a mysterious trust fund which she traced back to the Hanso Foundation. She had always wondered how her mother could afford to send her to college and all the medical treatment she received before her untimely death. Alvar then revealed the ultimate truth...he is Rachel's father. The video ended with Alvar urging Rachel to leave before her identity was discovered...and Rachel emotional and turning off the camera...probably overwhelmed with Alvar's admissions and the fact that she had so little time to take it all in...and to be with her father. So with these revelations along with Rachel still being on the run with Hanso goons in hot pursuit and the fact that Mittelwerk is still at large...to be continued?

THE END (for now...)

UPDATE: The Hanso Foundation's website was updated with a letter from Alvar Hanso himself. In it, he stated that he has been freed from imprisonment and has retaken his role as the head of the Foundation. Although he regrets some of his past decisions and the evil dealings the Foundation has been involved in since Mittelwerk took the reins, he promises a complete restructuring of the Foundation and that it will be used for more good and honest purposes from now on. He still vows to find a way to help humanity. It also appears that Rachel Blake is off the hook for now as well. However, a creepy message from Mittelwerk was imbedded in the background when you clicked on the word "humanity". In this message, Mittelwerk claims that we have simply won a "battle" and that he is still in possession of the virus. He says that humanity still "needs" him and that he has the will and intention of releasing the virus in order to bring his dastardly plan to fruition. Someone has to stop him...

ACT II

(The Journey to Hades Begins...)


With the shutdown of the Hanso Foundation’s website, the inability to reach their call center, and their apparent lack of media output…many are left to wonder if all the negative publicity will cause the organization to resume their former tight-lipped standing. Will they simply vanish back into the hustle and bustle of global society at large? And what about Persephone? Will she find another means of exposing the Foundation’s evil underbelly to the rest of us? Only time will tell…

Fortunately, Persephone isn’t down for the count. Even with the Foundation’s site rendered inaccessible, she still found a way to use it to her advantage. She managed to squeeze in a new website to check out in the website’s source code. This led to a blog set up by someone named Rachel Blake. The question is…how does Rachel tie in with everything else we’ve learned so far? The only obvious link was the fact that the blog was set up as a kind of vacation travel log…and her first destination: Copenhagen, Denmark. Can it be mere coincidence that this is the precise location of the Hanso Foundation’s headquarters? Soon afterwards, an update to Persephone’s site was discovered as well. This clue turned out to be much more disturbing than any of Persephone’s other hints so far. A strange “face” was seen flickering in blackness accompanied by very eerie “sounds”. These sounds were eventually translated into a phrase: “evident agenda”. Now…about that “Extra Info” box on the Rachel Blake blog…

Indeed, “evident agenda” provided access to an underlying area of Rachel’s blog. And Rachel was up to much more than vacationing in Denmark. Apparently she and Persephone share very similar agendas. Could it be that Rachel is in fact Persephone? Certain signs pointed that way…but it’s nothing more than speculation at this point. Rachel posted a very interesting video filling everyone in on her real reason for being in Denmark…to dig up more dirt on Hanso and hopefully thwart their insidious ambitions. She also seemed particularly interested in the whereabouts of Alvar Hanso and the real scoop behind Dr. Thomas Werner Mittelwerk. Will her wigs and disguises be put to the test? Hopefully she’ll fare better with that than she did with keeping her video under wraps. Maybe she should take “Mel0drama” up on his/her offer to securely host her videos. But who is this strange employee of the Engineering Development Center?

Persephone continued to make her presence known, albeit more indirectly than usual. It was discovered, probably accidentally, that if you left the new and inaccessible Hanso Foundation website front page sitting idle for a few minutes, a strange message flashed on the screen: “orientation testing issue 1980”. This led some curious individuals to add this onto the web address for the site which led them to a very strange video which flashed many different, seemingly random, images on screen. It was determined that this video was used in some sort of psychological testing, presumably by the Hanso Foundation…although its exact purpose remained unknown. Meanwhile, another video was discovered on another website. This video, posted by someone affiliated with Jeep, seemed to be an apology of sorts to DJ Dan and the man in the video promised to release some type of “information” when he got an opportunity. Both the video and the man’s voice were greatly distorted…making it very difficult to determine who he was and what he was trying to accomplish…

Well, Rachel ended up going the disguise route after all. And this time, she did a much better job of hiding her video. It was discovered by using clues given on the secret message board at the “retrievers” site, which she had linked to from her blog. In this video, Rachel donned the guise of a pizza delivery girl in order to follow Dr. Mittelwerk into some type of archive facility. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to get very far…although she did discover that the archive was affiliated with the Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants. After waiting until after dark for Mittelwerk to finally leave, she managed to swindle a delivery guy, Joen, to let her into the archive. This still proved to provide very little information, although she was able to get a quick snap shot with her cell phone of the computer screen displaying Mittelwerk’s last query. The keywords seemed to be “SHIP LN” and “EQUAT”. She also discovered that the Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants are owned and operated by none other than the Hanso Foundation. She also found out later from an astute observer that the Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants used to be known as the East Ocean Trade Group and a scan of an old book provided a very interesting name: Magnus Hanso. Rachel continued to take us deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole…

Our favorite DJ finally came back at us with more of his trademark wit and hidden wisdom. This particular podcast seemed focused on life extension and how people are lulled into a false sense of longevity and giving up their cash in return. The rant then degenerated into an absurd theory that Alvar Hanso had been turned into a “monkey-man” through life extension therapy and Dan even went so far as to say that he’s actually Joop…which sounds a lot less silly when you think about the fact that a man’s face was superimposed on Joop’s face…hmmm. Another point of interest was the return of “Tonya” or someone who sounds totally different claiming to be Tonya...”curiouser and curiouser”.

Soon afterwards, Rachel decided to grace us with more scandalous photos of Hugh McIntyre and his newest “love interest”. It probably doesn’t hurt that this lady in red also works for the GWC. But apparently, the Hanso Foundation is in bed with the GWC in more ways than one, as evidenced by Peter Thompson’s hostile takeover and a new Hanso press release uncovered by Rachel proclaiming the GWC and Hanso as “partners”. But, not everyone agrees with Rachel’s glimpse into Hugh’s personal life. Someone named “Gidgetgirl” seemed to think that this had nothing to do with Rachel’s true goal and that Rachel must be harboring some type of personal vendetta against Hugh, which Rachel vehemently denied. More food for thought…

Next, Rachel decided to do a little more recon on Dr. Mittelwerk and she placed a microphone or recorder of some sort into the pepper shaker at the table he always sits at in some vegan restaurant. It turned out that Mittelwerk was having a meeting with an unknown man of Korean descent. Unfortunately, the audio captured by Rachel was entirely in Korean. Luckily, however, a translation was obtained…revealing a most interesting conversation. Apparently they were discussing a specially modified ship of some sort being built for the Hanso Foundation by someone this man was representing. The name “Paik” was also mentioned…presumably associated with Paik Heavy Industries. The man informed Mittelwerk that the ship would be ready in three weeks and that it couldn’t “dock just anywhere”. Mittelwerk informed the man that the ship was needed in two weeks, not three. This is most definitely related to Mittelwerk’s activities in the Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants archive…the question is how?

In the meantime, a most interesting “conversation log” was discovered in a trash folder on another known website. This conversation was presumably between Rachel and someone she referred to as “William”. It was also revealed that this William works for Jeep and is directly connected with the “fleet” of Jeep vehicles offered to the Hanso Foundation. Is this the same William Kilpatrick that signed the discovered contract forms? Could this be the mysterious man in the distorted apology video? In any case, Rachel apparently sent this man some type of file that presumably offered proof of the Foundation’s wrongdoing and their use of Jeep vehicles to aid them somehow. This is probably the reason Jeep rescinded their “fleet” offer to the Foundation. Also, Rachel was under a strange username, “Openers Hep”, which can be anagrammed to “Persephone”. Another coincidence? Speculation abounds…

Rachel continued her clue onslaught by linking to yet another website and sending people on a “hunt” to find her next video. After a bit of examination, a trip to another known website, and the use of one of Rachel’s previous blog entries, the video was finally located. This time, Rachel decided to take a bit of a risk and get up close and personal with Mittelwerk. To accomplish this, another disguise involving a wig and sunglasses was implemented. Rachel followed the good doctor to another building of some sort and waited for him outside. She then put herself in a position to bump into him with hidden camera rolling. In the ensuing chaos, she managed to grab some blurry screenshots of some maps depicting what looked like an island near the equator. Unfortunately for Rachel, it seemed as if Mittelwerk recognized her from somewhere. In any case, Rachel’s newest assignment had people researching various island locations in the hopes of finding a possible match. It seemed like Rachel had every intention of following Mittelwerk to his intended destination, modified ship and all. And as a bit of a side note, a memorandum was also discovered from Dr. Hackett of the Engineering Development Center to Dr. Kini of Lewis King Laboratories detailing some type of “double blind study” dubbed “Project Sumo”. The mysterious user “mel0drama” mentioned this Dr. Hackett before and stated that he’s “in our heads”. The significance of this remained unknown for the time being…

Your friendly neighborhood DJ Dan added another podcast to his long list of ideas and outbursts. This particular podcast focused on Dan’s discovery of Rachel Blake and her now infamous blog. It seems the DJ may have somewhat of a crush on his newest “conspiraspy”, married or not, but he definitely seems to want to help and even protect her in her endeavors against Hanso and its many minions. Meanwhile, Rachel managed to hide yet another video somewhere on the internet. A search beginning at her blog eventually led to a Jeep website in which the video was hidden in a demo of some of the features of a Jeep Compass. This video turned out to be radically different from the others. It started out in the typical fashion: Rachel in her motel room wondering what she should do next. She mentioned that Dr. Mittelwerk had apparently left Copenhagen and she had no idea where he went. She began listing off her clues: the Allied Copenhagen Marine Merchants, the special boat being built for Hanso, and the maps of the island supposedly near the Equator. Then, suddenly, a noise could be heard from the door to her room and Rachel noticed the doorknob “jiggling”. She looked through the peephole and quickly hid herself from view. A man in a suit suddenly entered the room and it was quickly deduced that this was the same “bodyguard” from Rachel’s close encounter with Mittelwerk previously. While rummaging through her stuff, the man suddenly received a phone call on his cell, which was later presumed to be Mittelwerk by Rachel. From his end of the conversation, some key words stood out: “fire”, “which institute”, and “hired to fix things”. Afterwards, after checking out the bathroom, Rachel suddenly jumped out and blindsided the guy with an iron. She then quickly gathered all of her belongings and escaped. Rachel later revealed that she must have been followed, since she used an assumed name at the hotel registration and all of her transactions had been with cash. In any case, it was now certain that Hanso was aware of her presence and Rachel was becoming ever more desperate to leave Copenhagen, for more reasons than one…

Pretty soon afterwards, it was discovered that the “blurry maps” Rachel had captured with her “lapel cam” were not the correct maps at all. They were, in fact, maps of land masses in and around Lake Superior. But Rachel seemed very confident that she saw a map that wasn’t captured on camera that was at or near the Equator. Meanwhile, Rachel began receiving messages from “Gidgetgirl” once again. Gidgetgirl supplied Rachel with an article detailing a fire at the Vik Institute in Iceland. This turned out to be a very solid lead, especially based on Rachel’s would-be assassin’s phone conversation, so Rachel decided to take down the pictures of Hugh McIntyre as a show of good faith. And what exactly was Vigi Benoffski, a famous mathematician, doing at a mental hospital in the middle of the night? The article listed him as one of the casualties of the fire and the fire occurred around 3am… It appeared Rachel could finally leave Copenhagen…her next destination: Iceland.

Rachel next appeared in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. And it appeared that Gidgetgirl’s intel was very solid…Mittelwerk was indeed there. She managed to secure a meeting in yet another hidden video with none other than Armand Zander, director of the Vik Institute and author of the letter sent to Mittelwerk previously demanding to know what was going on in his hospital. And although reluctant at first, Zander did reveal some valuable information to Rachel after a bit of coercion. The key points were: mathematicians running some type of “equation” in the third basement level, hieroglyphics, and autisitic savants. This would explain Benoffski’s presence at the Institute…but what are they doing? Is this the Valenzetti Equation? And what are these “hieroglyphics” representational of? It seems Zander’s revelations left Rachel with more questions than answers…and speaking of Rachel, what was this “hidden motivation” she hinted at to Zander? Only time would tell…

Later on, Zander was able to email Rachel the “hieroglyphics” that he spoke of earlier. And it turned out that they were the same symbols revealed previously in the hack provided by Persephone that revealed the DHARMA acronym. But what did this mean? Apparently…the hieroglyhics have something to do with death and that can’t be good. And at this point, Rachel was not totally convinced that the equation being spoken of was in fact the Valenzetti Equation… Meanwhile, Rachel tried repeatedly to contact Zander through email and various means, to no avail. What had become of Armand? Also, a very cryptic memo from Mittelwerk to his “Team” was uncovered using clues from the happy-go-lucky crew from the RoT messageboard. The memo mentioned something called the “SPIDER Protocol” and something about having to fall back to the original “island target” because of its “special properties”. Could this be Mittelwerk’s next destination?

Unfortunately, Rachel’s worst fears were confirmed…Armand Zander went missing and was apparently framed for starting the fire at the Vik Institute. It definitely had Hanso stink all over it. And to make matters worse, apparently Mittelwerk skipped town yet again, leaving Rachel clueless as to his next destination. Meanwhile, DJ Dan released his most interesting podcast yet. One of his callers claimed to be a “mathematical forecaster” and was telling him all about the Valenzetti Equation and Enzo Valenzetti himself and Dan just wrote him off as a crackpot…hmmm. But then, he received a call from a very familiar female voice who identified herself as none other than “Persephone”. This chick gave him all sorts of information about what was going on at Vik Institute and lectured him on not taking some of his callers more seriously. And then, Rachel dropped the bomb: “I’m Persephone”. She apologized for not coming clean sooner, but she didn’t want the info to get out while she was still in Denmark, for obvious reasons. Rachel also mentioned that the other DJ Dan caller kind of hinted that Valenzetti may not be “dead”, but “missing”. And she also posed some interesting questions that revealed her slowly developing belief that the Vik equation actually was the Valenzetti Equation: why did Mittelwerk run off so suddenly, why does the equation have to be ran constantly, and where did Mittelwerk go? She begged Gidgetgirl for her invaluable help once again… And on a side note, the RoT guys along with Dr. Bole decided to change to password to enter their “secret messageboard” because they felt they were in danger of being discovered. Another cryptic email from Dr. Bole revealed the new password: “polar bear”.

Luckily, Gidgetgirl came to Rachel’s aid once again. She revealed that the equation was indeed the Valenzetti Equation and that Mittelwerk had the mathematicians and autistic savants running it constantly, all day every day. She also implied that something “bad” might happen if the equation were stopped. She didn’t know if Valenzetti was in fact still alive, but she did know Mittelwerk’s next stop: San Remo, Italy…in the Italian Rivieria. One odd thing did stand out, however…Gidgetgirl claimed this was Valenzetti’s birthplace and that might be the reason for Mittelwerk’s visit, but it was previously discovered that Valenzetti was born on the island of Sardinia, off the coast of Italy. Hmmm, gotta love misinformation… Rachel’s next stop: San Remo.

Rachel graced us with her next video after arriving in San Remo. A set of clues had been coming from the RoT camp, and Rachel provided the necessary key to unlock the final lock. Apparently, not only was Mittelwerk in San Remo, but Hugh and Peter had come along as well. And they were wining and dining none other than representatives of the GWC. But other than that, not much seemed to be going down. However, Rachel did make a mysterious comment about her mother…could this be tied to her private motives? Rachel also seemed to think that the previously mentioned “SPIDER Protocol” was about to come into play. She also made the comment that it wasn’t her that hacked and delivered that email…Gidgetgirl? RoT? Still no mention of Valenzetti however…and even Rachel was beginning to wonder whether Gidgetgirl was steering her in the right direction. Should she travel to Sardinia to find Valenzetti? Gidgetgirl soon delivered the goods on that as well…she claimed to have seen Hanso’s private dossier on Valenzetti and she claimed that Gary Troup’s Sardinia information was false…hmmm, to trust or not to trust?

Next, the industrious Rachel used her directional mic to capture a conversation on the beach between Mittelwerk, Peter Thompson, and an unknown female. Peter and the female’s voice sounded awfully familiar….DJ Dan and Tonya?? Naahh…hmmm. In any case, apparently there was some dispute between Mittelwerk and the other two about the validity of the equation as being the actual Valenzetti Equation. Peter asked the ultimate question…where is Alvar Hanso? Mittelwerk craftily dodged the questions though and assured them that the equation was real and that Hanso approved of his “project”. Mittelwerk then leveraged Peter with the fact that he had “cured” his cancer. That was effectively the end of the conversation. But there was still no mention of Valenzetti himself, Mittelwerk’s plans, or anything… It looked as if Rachel was cursed with finding dead ends.

Rachel’s next adventure involved her following Mittelwerk to the “Alvar Hanso Center for Advanced Medical Services”. After bribing a nurse, she found out that Mittelwerk received a full blood transfusion and several vaccinations, assumedly in preparation for some type of “trip”. The nurse would reveal no more, and Rachel was more than a little worried that the nurse might rat her out. So where is Mittelwerk going that he needs these type of procedures and what does this have to do with the SPIDER Protocol? Is he travelling to the mysterious “island” that Rachel saw? And does his blood condition have anything to do with Alvar Hanso’s condition mentioned earlier? Questions, questions, questions…

In the meantime, our favorite DJ released another podcast for our ears to chew on. This podcast focused on “cults” and callers were to call in if they knew of or were involved in a cult. One particular caller mentioned something about his grandmother joining the “Karma Imperative” and that she hasn’t been seen since. Is this actually the “DHARMA Initiative”? And does Hanso still fund this Initiative…or have they become something separate altogether?

Rachel then followed who she thought was Mittelwerk to the airport in San Remo, only to find out, much to her dismay, that it was everyone else BUT Mittelwerk. Not knowing what to do, she decided to take a walk on the wharf to clear her head. And what did she happen upon? The gigantic ship named the “Helgus Antonius” being loaded with “Hanso Foundation” crates. Is this the “special ship” built for Mittelwerk by Paik? Do the crates have anything to do with the SPIDER Protocol? And where is Mittelwerk headed on this ship? Once again, Rachel was left lost and confused…with no one to turn to but Gidgetgirl and faithful commenters on her blog…

After a lengthy absence, Rachel returned only to reveal that she had no new information and that all of the “players” had relocated. She attempted to bribe the harbormaster for information, but he claimed that the Helgus Antonius never came into port and that it definitely didn’t leave port. The only thing she had to go on at the moment was possible meanings of Helgus Antonius…Holy Flower? St. Anthony? Rachel definitely needed some help from somewhere…was Gidgetgirl still sore over her and Rachel’s little argument over the whole San Remo/Sardinia issue? She hadn’t been heard from since then. Perhaps she had been compromised in some way? Until something was uncovered, Rachel was effectively marooned in San Remo… DJ Dan, around the same time, decided to release a “Where is Alvar” themed podcast. Many callers called in claiming to have spotted him in various locations: a secluded diner in Iowa, a hot air balloon, running a Tour de Stade, etc. etc. Did these locations reveal anything useful? That remained to be seen…

Just when Rachel thought all hope was lost...she received a mysterious phone call to her hotel room. This was especially strange since no one was supposed to know her current whereabouts. She answered the phone apprehensively...and to her relief, she realized it was Gidgetgirl. GG was fairly vague, but very insistent that Rachel meet her in Paris, France. She told Rachel that she would email her an encoded message that would reveal their specific meeting place and that she had a "package" for her. GG was very specific that Rachel should be as discreet as possible and that she should leave her cameras behind, so as not to expose GG's identity and put her life in danger. GG also called Rachel "reckless" and wondered aloud why Hanso hadn't put a stop to Rachel's meddling yet, even though she was sure they could locate her at the drop of a hat. Rachel dodged these insinuations and still would not reveal her true motivations. But, at least she could finally get out of San Remo...her next destination: Paris. Some of GG's other comments strongly suggested that she was somehow romantically involved with Hugh McIntyre and that she may even be the GWC employee in Rachel's now removed photographs. This would explain her insistence that Rachel take them down. And...to add the icing on the cake, Hanso decided to air a very interesting commercial on ABC. This commercial was of Mittelwerk, of all people, inviting the viewers to investigate and discuss the Hanso Foundation and their various projects and objectives. He even hinted that this message was more specifically aimed at Rachel herself, saying "We're reaching out to a better tomorrow, and that means listening to our critics, even those who would lob unfounded claims in the darkness"...basically, a big slap in the face to Rachel and anyone else who thinks they are hindering the Foundation's plans. The Foundation and Mittelwerk obviously know about Rachel and her agenda...so what are they up to?

Rachel definitely made her way to Paris, but all was not well. Some strange comments were being made by "mel0drama" on her blog suggesting that he/she was posting stuff in Rachel's "absence". And we were soon to find out why... Another clue was left on Rachel's blog leading to yet another video message. In this message, Rachel confirmed that Gidgetgirl was indeed Hugh's mistress and went further to reveal that she was in fact Darla Taft of the Global Welfare Consortium. This was the same Darla that left Hugh the message about Sri Lanka on his voicemail at the THF call center... Unfortunately, this was the only semi-positive information that Rachel revealed. She then proceeded to tell us how Darla didn't show up for their "secret meeting" and that she had broken their trust by bringing along a hidden camera. She later found out that both Darla and Hugh McIntyre were killed in a "car accident". But Rachel was convinced that this was no accident...she knew THF had them killed. She then revealed that she knew GG's identity the entire time and that GG knew that she was Persephone...and then came the gunshots. Someone began shooting at Rachel, presumably from outside through the window, and then all HELL broke loose... Rachel was scrambling, her phone began ringing, and someone began beating on the door to her room and shouted "open the door!"... The video ended there and Rachel's fate was left undetermined...

And then...another link was posted on her blog leading to the next part of the last video which was thought to be cut off. Thankfully, Rachel managed to escape the skirmish unharmed, but not without more strange events surrounding her. It turned out that the unknown male pounding on her door was there to help her rather than harm her. And could it be that this man was the same "bodyguard" that was presumably trying to assassinate her before in Copenhagen? Rachel struggled with the man and rushed out the door without even giving him a chance to explain his motives. But in this type of situation, who can blame her? She rushed down the hall, out onto a balcony, and then down into some type of basement hallway with the man in hot pursuit. Finally, the man cornered her, but to her surprise, he was not trying to kill her. He explained that he was trying to help her and that he only had the gun for protection against Mittelwerk and his minions. He then requested that she turn off her camera and that he would explain everything to her. Then, it seemed as if she tried to covertly keep the camera running, but then the man informed her that if she didn't want her true identity revealed, she needed to turn off the camera... The video ended there. And now we are left to ponder...who is this man, what does he know, and WHO IS RACHEL BLAKE?

While Mittelwerk continued to produce and publish various advertisements which attempted to gloss his intentions over and make him seem much less sinister...Rachel finally released the third and final part to her "confrontation" video. Even though the mystery man told Rachel no cameras, she managed to put on her "glasses cam" without him taking notice. The man revealed himself to be an employee of the Hanso Foundation, specifically "tech support". He apparently worked directly under Mittelwerk and his job was to "erase things: emails, bank accounts, cell phones, and people". She asked if he was the one who killed Darla and Armand Zander, but he denied it, although he did admit to having knowledge of it. He also admitted that it was he who broke into Rachel's room in Copenhagen, although he claimed he was coming to warn her. He explained that his reason for helping her was that he intercepted an email that he kept from Mittelwerk and his other goons...although he didn't specify what the email was about. He said he "wanted out" and that "He" wanted him to help her. He then began to elaborate but the video went all static...hmmm. He then mentioned Rachel's mother dying and asked if it was she that "told her everything", to which Rachel nodded in approval. He then entrusted her with a key and some type of paper or envelope...and said that it was for Hugh and Darla's flat in St. Germain. He told her to go there to find all her answers. He then told her to use the information to cause a scandal to expose the Hanso Foundation, since he was in no position to do so. He then told her was going "underground" and he turned to leave. She tried to ask him more questions and thank him...but he told her "don't...I'm going to hell, just be sure Mittelwerk is there to keep me company." So...Rachel's next destination is Hugh and Darla's apartment in the city. What will she find there? But the more interesting question is...who was the man referring to when he said "HE wants me to help you"? And why did Rachel edit the video so that we couldn't hear what he was about to say? And why did she go even further and tell us to ignore his statement on her blog? Rachel is definitely hiding something...her true identity, her true motives, and possibly her father's identity...more was soon to follow.

With a little help from the RoT guys, the next video from Rachel made its way into our hands. As promised, it was a video of Rachel entering and searching Hugh and Darla's apartment. After a bit of searching around, she found a note from Hugh to Darla telling her he didn't want to wake her and that he would be back to pick her up around 3. He referred to her as "Gidget", which reconfirmed that Darla was in fact GidgetGirl. Rachel then mentioned that she thinks Darla would have hidden the "package", which led her to look behind a video tape labeled "Video of Gidget". She did indeed find a large envelope hidden there. Inside she found an ID tag for "Melanie Walker" of Healthway Alliance with her picture on it, an airline ticket to Sri Lanka, a map of Sri Lanka, a confidential document about the "SPIDER Protocol", and a set of schematics for the Helgus Antonius. Apparently, Sri Lanka is our mysterious island, but why would Mittelwerk need all those medical procedures to go there? She also found a remote control for a video player. When she pressed play, she found out that it was a video left for her by Darla. Darla mentioned that she intended for a "friend" to deliver the package at the park previously, but apparently she never got the opportunity to set up the meeting... She wasn't going to be there in person because she was planning on leaving France and Hugh. She assured Rachel that Hugh is a good person and that he didn't agree with whatever "awful" thing Mittelwerk was about to do in Sri Lanka either. She also said that Hugh had actually been helping her as well and that he had pursuaded Mittelwerk for the time being, presumably to leave Rachel alone, but that Mittelwerk might change his mind...especially if Rachel uncovered his project in Sri Lanka. She then encouraged Rachel to expose Mittelwerk by any means necessary and she started to say something about Alvar Hanso being...proud? Rachel conveniently cut off the video at that point. She is still hiding something...and apparently it is directly related to Alvar. She then looked over the Helgus Antonius blueprints, which confirmed that the ship was indeed built by Paik Heavy Industries and that it was a "hospital ship". The most interesting part...many of the "wards" on the ship were labeled "quarantine". Hmmm... Rachel then updated her blog again with pictures of the "package's" contents and the revelation that she had in fact been in Sri Lanka for a week already and she even hinted that she had already left: "I was lucky to get out." She then said that the information that she now possessed was much too dangerous to upload to "some host site" and that she was going to have to "resort to desperate measures". And now Mittelwerk and his minions are trying to hunt her down...and she's on the run. Where is Rachel now? What happened in Sri Lanka? She promised more info was coming very soon...and here endeth Act II.

ACT I

The Hanso Foundation: an organization that has worked its tendrils into virtually every nook and cranny of the globe. Its influence is undeniable, whether in the limelight of center stage or in the dark shadows of the background. Its stated purpose: to take on the most pressing issues facing mankind today – disease, famine, and even death itself. But is this organization as pristine and well-intentioned as it would have us believe? Some sources are categorically saying “NO”.

The organization was founded sometime in the mid 1960’s by a man known as Alvar Hanso. Not much is known about this mysterious figurehead, and it doesn’t help matters when you haven’t been seen or heard from in several years. What is known about him is his apparent history as an arms dealer and his involvement with supplying munitions to various resistance movements around Europe during World War II. Apparently sometime afterwards, he decided to take a more “peaceful” approach to changing the world and so he founded the Hanso Foundation.

For whatever reason, the Foundation has managed to keep a relatively low profile until recent days. But now, all of a sudden, they have decided to step out into the light, in full view of the public eye, and to invite everyone to discover and take part in the wealth of information they have allegedly uncovered through their various programs to further the evolution of mankind. They “kicked” things off by giving the media a full press release, advertising their new and improved website, and airing TV commercials on the ABC Network. But why now…unless the best way to hide something is to hide it in plain sight…

And so…the Foundation’s global campaign was launched and was received with overwhelming public support. It seemed things couldn’t have gone any smoother…until “she” came into the picture. Pretty soon, the public started questioning the “strange” content that could be heard by calling the Foundation’s call center. Not only were you directed into the voicemail centers of various employees, where you could pick up on strange topics such as an “offshore project” in Korea and an “accelerated remote viewing facility”, but a strange female voice seemed to randomly break through in places it shouldn’t have been. Thus began the exploits of the hacker known only as “Persephone”. Her goal: to bring to the surface “the truth” about this nefarious organization.

Enter: Hugh McIntyre, Communications Director and official “spokesman” of the Hanso Foundation. Hugh was in the public eye from the very beginning, since the first official press release had his name printed at the end of it. Things were going really well for Hugh’s PR campaign until Persephone began her relentless onslaught to botch up the works. Hugh tried his very best, through public statements and even a public appearance on the “Jimmy Kimmel Show”, to smooth things over and dispel any doubts about the organization’s goals or intentions. However, Persephone proved to be just a little more persistent and convincing than he ever imagined…

As for the voice “breaking through” at the call center, it was finally realized that this person was trying to get a message out to the world. A message that insinuated that Alvar Hanso is missing and probably isn’t running the Foundation as well as a “code”, of sorts, which she claimed could be put to use somehow on the Foundation’s new website. The code: “breaking strain”. But what was this “password” used for? People soon began figuring it out. The new website offered an area where people could sign up for a newsletter to keep up to date with the latest happenings within the Foundation. However, after the initial input of a username, a curious message appeared. It soon became very apparent that this “Persephone” was not only hacking the Foundation’s phone service, but their website as well. She then asked for a “password”, which was, of course, breaking strain. When this password was entered, she informed the user that they were now “signed in”.

Meanwhile, Hugh was dealing with problems from another front. A book entitled “Bad Twin”, by missing author Gary Troup, was published and hitting bestseller lists all over the world. This wouldn’t normally concern the Foundation, if it weren’t for the fact that the book directly references the Foundation and certain members of their staff in a sort of “bad light”. Hugh immediately launched a “counter-offensive” to publicly oppose the “opinions” presented in the book and demanded that Hyperion Books cease printing and selling the “slanderous” book immediately. However, this only served to draw more attention to the book and was met with direct opposition from Hyperion, who adamantly refused to cease production on the publication. This also led to the discovery of several pieces of an interview that the author did with Laird Granger concerning the book right before its publication. Mr. Troup made some startling revelations about the Foundation, Alvar Hanso, and their supposed possession of something he referred to as the “Valenzetti Equation”…a mathematical equation developed at Princeton University by Enzo Valenzetti that can supposedly predict the end of the world…

Back on the Foundation’s website, people had figured out how and where to use Persephone’s password…but now what? Further investigation eventually led to a portion of the website titled “Joop’s Corner”. This section is directly related to a project funded by the Foundation called the “Life Extension Project”. Supposedly, Joop is an orangutan owned by the Foundation that celebrated his 105th birthday in September of 2005. This is notable since no other orangutan has had a lifespan anywhere close to that number. The Foundation had set up a webcam where Joop could be observed in captivity. Below this webcam, there was an area where a message could be sent to Joop. If the proper steps had been followed, i.e. putting in the password, this resulted in a very strange occurrence. Joop suddenly became very agitated and it seemed as if the focus shifted to inside Joop’s head. Eventually, a “red orb” appeared and clicking on this linked to a letter from the Director of the Global Welfare Consortium to an official at the Center for Disease Control. This letter explained that the GWC was becoming increasingly concerned with the uncooperative nature of the Hanso Foundation and their suspicions of the Foundation’s role in a recent outbreak of a deadly virus. Clicking on the signature at the bottom of this letter led to yet another letter. This was also a letter from the GWC to the CDC. However, this letter apologized for the previous letter and claimed that the Hanso Foundation was now being very cooperative and that the GWC had found no evidence to support the Foundation’s role in the viral outbreak. The strange thing was, however, that a different person signed the second letter as the Director of the GWC. This person turned out to be Peter Thompson, who also happens to be VP General Council and Secretary of the Hanso Foundation. Persephone then points out the obvious: the Foundation is very quick to subvert authority to alter circumstances in their favor…

As time went on, Persephone continued to dig up ugly little factoids about the organization as well as leaving cryptic messages that have yet to reveal their significance. In the “World Wellness and Prevention Development Program” section, the words “missing organs” were deciphered from a strange numbering sequence. Later, a hidden link was discovered in one of Hugh’s own press releases linking to a site Persephone used to leave behind clues that was attached to the Foundation’s website. People were led to the website on a certain day where it was revealed, according to her, that Alvar Hanso had not been seen since 2002, approximately four years, and that she believed he was not currently running the sinister Foundation. She then began hiding links to other websites to leave her clues. One such clue led people to Dr. Thomas Mittelwerk’s bio page where they could input another password, “heir apparent”, to access yet another hack by the mysterious woman. This revealed that Persephone had been digging into Mittelwerk’s background and she discovered that he had never attended CalTech or any other known university for his type of background. She then questions his credentials and even his true identity, and rightfully so…

Eventually, people were led to yet another strange website, which appeared to be focused on studying and uncovering “conspiracy theories”. This website was set up by a very colorful character calling himself “DJ Dan” aka Dan Lapinsky. He was accompanied by his fellow “conspiraspy” Tonya Jefferson. DJ Dan’s “podcasts” became of particular interest since he tends to focus on the Hanso Foundation and his rants and interviews seem to reveal and hint at tidbits of information that might not be available elsewhere. His first podcast centered on cryogenics and even suggested that Alvar Hanso is in cryogenic stasis in a laboratory outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The DJ would be releasing several additional podcasts in the near future…

Another Persephone clue on the Foundation’s “Electromagnetic Research Initiative” page led to yet another website. Some digging around on this site revealed some very interesting documents between Jeep and the Hanso Foundation as well as another password: “the mouth piece”. For some reason, Jeep had agreed to a contract where the Foundation would purchase a “fleet” of Jeep vehicles and then Jeep suddenly rescinded the offer. Why would they shun such an opportunity for profit? Returning to the Foundation’s website, if the new password was used in Hugh McIntyre’s bio section, another of Persephone’s hacks could be accessed. And Mr. McIntyre did almost certainly not want this particular information revealed. Persephone has somehow uncovered that Hugh has been having an affair…providing photographs of him with the other woman as well as suspicious hotel bills and other various receipts. This was probably to illustrate that the spokesman of the Foundation, who so strongly upholds “family values”, does not practice what he preaches…

Later on, yet another bio was infiltrated, that of Peter Thompson. A series of “letters” could be seen rapidly flickering on his photograph. These letters could be used to flesh out the words “survivor guilt”. Using this password in a hidden text box on his bio led to more startling discoveries by our girl Persephone. Apparently Mr. Thompson used to be somewhat of a disreputable attorney. He defended a tobacco company, oil company, and nuclear power plant and not only got them vindicated of any wrongdoing, but in some cases caused harm to the plaintiffs as well, both financially and physically. Yep…Mr. Thompson is definitely a stand-up guy…

The Hanso Foundation then decided to set up a sort of career opportunity page with the help of Monster.com. With careers offered such as “Organ Courier” and “Simian Veterinarian”, it’s easy to see that this organization isn’t what it purports to be. Let’s think about this: “Organ Courier” and “Missing Organs”…the implications are undeniable… In any case, it turned out that certain “letters” were a slightly different shade than the rest of the letters in each one of the “job descriptions”. These letters could be scrambled around to form “inmate asylum”. A hidden link was also found at the bottom of these descriptions that led back to the Foundation’s “Board of Directors” page on their website. Using this password under either Mr. Vanderfield’s or Mr. Peck’s bios led to more information dug up by Persephone. It turned out that both Mr. Vanderfield and Mr. Peck had found themselves in legal troubles that would ensure their prison stay for quite awhile. But…a clever attorney got both of their sentences significantly reduced to almost nothing and now they are both on the Board of Directors…hence the witty password. And who is this clever defense tactician? He’s none other than Peter Thompson, evil lawyer extraordinaire. So far the Foundation has a phantom CEO, a fake doctor, an unfaithful spokesman, an evil lawyer, and two felons on the Board of Directors…so what are we worried about?

On DJ Dan’s next podcast installment, the main information involved a college student whose entire scholarship was based on his involvement in research on some type of electromagnetic “superweapon” for an unknown company. The student decided that this type of research could produce nothing “good”, so he decided that he wanted no part of it. Unfortunately, this resulted in the termination of his scholarship. He did, however, manage to follow a “representative” of the unknown company back to their apparent point of origin: the Widmore Corporation building. Is it a mere coincidence that a branch of the Hanso Foundation is also located in this building? When asked what this weapon was for, the student simply replied that the project’s goal was to be able to bring down a “space-borne body, like the moon”…

Another Persephone hack was located on the “Mathematical Forecasting Initiative” page of the Foundation’s website. After some clever fact-finding and a mysterious backwards message stating that “she was an employee of the foundation”, a letter was uncovered from Peter Thompson to someone he referred to as “Minister of the Interior Mugato”. Basically, Mr. Thompson was informing this person that the Hanso Foundation could not be implicated in any use of their “population model” for pre-emptive strikes against rival tribes. So the Foundation enjoys subverting authority, causing viral outbreaks, and inciting wars…all of which are very constructive hobbies.

The illustrious DJ’s next podcast seemed to be primarily an indication that Dan had possibly sold out to “the Man”. This podcast included various images along with the audio with Dan defending his need for “sponsors”, such as Sprite, and his actions. At the same time, Persephone hacked into the “WWPDP” section of the Foundation’s website again. The needed password, “D20”, was discovered in a photograph that had been previously left behind by the hacker. It is interesting to note that D20 is shorthand for deuterium oxide or “heavy water”, which has been theorized to prolong human life if removed from the human body. This hack led to information implicating the Hanso Foundation in an “organ harvesting” operation going on in a local hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. After a local newspaper, the Cape Town Inquisitor, broke the story, the Hanso Foundation was quick to buy out the newspaper and run a counter story claiming that the Foundation was no longer connected to the hospital in question. Let’s do another recap: we have “Missing Organs”, “Organ Courier”, and “organ harvesting”…a deeply evil scenario is starting to unfold… And apparently, someone has figured out Persephone’s real identity…

As events continued to unfold, it became apparent that either Persephone was being compromised in some way, possibly due to her revealed identity, or her unrelenting efforts were beginning to catch up with her. The “Institute for Genomic Advancement” section of the Foundation’s website turned out to be her next port of entry. This hack simply served to inform every one of Persephone’s apparent difficulties “getting through” and a countdown timer was introduced, which expired sometime the next day. In the meantime, the Hanso Foundation aired another commercial advertising a very strange website at the end. This website seemed to have a morbid obsession with yellow Labrador retrievers. After signing up for the “newsletter” on this site, it was discovered through said newsletter and some experimentation that a “secret” message board could be accessed by typing “porter” into the email address box. This message board seemed to serve as a sort of meeting ground for disgruntled employees of the Foundation. Luckily, clues were abounding as well. After examining yet another website mentioned in the comments, the word “parthenogenesis” was discovered “out of place” in the source code of the site…

The very next day, after the mysterious countdown had expired, a new text entry box became available in the IGA section of the Foundation’s site. Entering the word discovered previously, parthenogenesis opened a portal to yet another Persephone hack. However, it is notable that for some reason Persephone does not make her presence known throughout this presentation, as she always had before. This hack was also very strange as it displayed a series of mysterious images: 1) a jungle-like cave area with a “figure” standing in the distance, 2) further into the scene the figure is now gone and the ocean and giant rocks can be seen, 3) even further out a beach can be seen along with a dead shark and what looks like some sort of antenna going up into the sky, and 4) a close up of the dead shark with a “DHARMA” logo on its skin. Now we’ve added genetic experimentation and strange structures into the mix…

DJ Dan’s next after school special seemed focused on “Richard” who claimed to have found the corpse of a shark with a strange “symbol” on it and a word that began with a “D”. Hmmm…that sounds strikingly familiar to something that was shown quite recently. Dan gets quite excited over it and practically begs “Dick” to send him some photos of the beast. There’s nothing like more fuel to keep the conspiracy fire burning. Dan also received a very disturbing phone call from an individual presumably employed by the Foundation to “warn” the DJ of the possible consequences of his actions. This person made it very clear that he knew Dan’s real identity, personal information, and even where he was located at that very moment. Dan was notably shaken by the call and even made a comment about naming a successor. The strange part is, in the DJ’s last podcast, he named a supposed successor, DJ Dave…were this podcasts coming out in order?

After a particularly nerve-racking set of clues involving several pictures of “faceless” men, another hack from Persephone was discovered on the “Mental Health Appeal” section of the Foundation’s website. After some manipulation of the file names, the phrase “light sequence again” was formed and typed into the “Inquire Today” box on the MHA page to access the hack. This gave access to a very disturbing letter from the Director of the Vik Institute to Dr. Mittelwerk of the Hanso Foundation. It talked about secret testing on autistic savants and how the Director didn’t even know everything going on in his own hospital. He basically demanded to be let into the loop or he would be forced to resign his position. Then, a “color sequencing” game, of sorts, could be accessed and the reward for passing this test was the revelation that “DHARMA” stands for “Department of Heuristics And Research on Material Applications”.

Later, yet another Persephone hack was discovered on the “ERI” section of the Foundation website. After some clever clue-finding on DJ Dan’s website, it was discovered that “conspiraspies” was the needed password to learn more about this “crucial force”. This takes you to a letter from Gon Choi of the Ministry of ________ to Dr. Mittelwerk of the Hanso Foundation. Basically the letter informs Dr. Mittelwerk that unless certain steps were taken, he would be forced to inform his superiors of the strange “occurences” surrounding the Foundation’s “offshore project” somewhere near the Korean coastline. Other images are shown including another “antenna” similar to the previous one, a satellite photo, and some type of abnormal growth. So…the Foundation dabbles in genetic engineering, viral outbreaks, organ harvesting, causing abnormal growth, and weird “antennas”…sounds nice.

After the worst was feared when DJ Dan didn’t deliver on his next promised podcast, it was finally found via the secret message board on the “retrievers” site. This podcast seemed focused on “nanotechnology”, which Dan strangely knew very little about. These nanites could be used for various applications, since they are basically molecule-sized robots. And when a bunch of them get together…they resemble a “storm cloud”. Cerberus, anyone? Another interesting note is that Tonya does not speak and is not mentioned in this podcast… Soon afterwards, yet another podcast is discovered when a link from Dan’s website to another known website is discovered. This podcast focused on the Vik Institute and the letter that was found from the Director to Dr. Mittelwerk. Theories were thrown back and forth on the significance of testing autistic savants and their possible exploitation for evil schemes…but perhaps more significant was the fact that Tonya was once again absent. But unlike before, this time a sort of “voice loop” was used to give the impression that she was actually there. What would be the purpose of trying to fool people like that? The question remains…what happened to Tonya?

And then…to round out “Act 1” there was the “grand finale”. Persephone updated her hacker page with a very interesting photograph of several items: a recorder, envelope, card, lipstick, umbrella, scissors, and eraser. This sounds rather uneventful…until it was realized that the first letter of each of these items could be combined to spell the word “RECLUSE”. On top of that, the “Life Extension Project” page of the Foundation’s website had been modified with a new text entry box. And of course…the needed password was recluse. During the course of the hack, the last name of the Director of the Vik Institute was also needed…”Zander”. This hack reveals some interesting information about the health of Alvar Hanso and the difficulty in locating him. It is also apparent from this hack that the Foundation goes to great lengths to make it appear that Mr. Hanso is still around and running the Foundation. Persephone makes it very clear, however, that she believes Dr. Mittelwerk is now running the show and is ultimately behind everything “bad” the Foundation is currently involved in. And then, once the hack is complete…you are completely barred from access into the Foundation’s website. It is unknown whether the website will ever be open to the public again. The next “Act” awaits…