Episode 105

Episode 105, "A Rat, A Writer, and a Conspiracy Theory", aired on November 18, 2015.

## Summary

### Nic Meets "The Rat"

Nic receives an email from someone called the Rat, who claims to have information on Tanis. They meet at a public location, but the Rat (later revealed to be Miranda Hayes, one of the contributors to the online bulletin board, Fish and Tackle), invites him back to her home. She reveals that she decided to leave the cafe because "they" were listening, as evidenced by a song by Elliott Smith being played while they were there.

### Nicholas Flamel

In 17th century France, a book on alchemy was published and ascribed to Flamel, who apparently discovered the Elixir of Life over 200 years prior. According to this book, Flamel was trying to understand a small book he had in his possession, which he later discovered was the The Book of Abramelin; this either provided a recipe to make the Elixir of Life, giving he and his wife immortality, or was a map pointing him toward the Philosopher's Stone. Professor Adams theorized that Tanis was actually in the same area as Flamel at the time, so the stone could have been Tanis itself.

### MK Gets Hacked

Nic wasn't able to get a hold of MK for a few days; she eventually contacts him to say she's been hacked by an unknown source.

After she recovered her system, MK found information on Julie Sanders (now Green), the editor of Pacifica. She passes this on to Nic.

### Nic Interviews Julie Green

Julie Green (nee Sanders) has located to Antarctica, and speaks to Nic via satellite phone. Julie confirms that Pacifica was Firefly fan fiction, but it was actually written by a student taking a creative writing class led by Julie at a community college, and she doesn't know how Avery Ellis would have gotten a hold of it. Julie tried getting a hold of the writer after a private company was offering to buy the story for three million dollars, but she says the writer disappeared. Julie's boss made her hand over the hard copy of the novel and her laptop, everyone at the publishing company signed NDAs, and Julie herself received a large bonus. From what Julie remembers of Pacifica, she recalls a myth surrounding a spiritual force or power on a planet similar to Earth, and confirms the name Tanis after Nic suggests it.

### Avery Ellis Scandal / Pacifica Author

MK tells Nic that other material was wiped from the web after Avery's phone was hacked, including texts to her friends saying she stole Pacifica from her father's computer and that it seemed fairly important to him. MK determined the author to be Morgan Miller, though neither MK nor Nic could find an online presence for her.

### Karl van Sant's P.O. Box

Geoff van Sant contacts Nic to let him know he discovered a key that belonged to his deceased brother, Karl, that belongs to a post office box. In it, Geoff discovered copies of a magazine called Fortean Times, subscription renewal notices, and a letter from a man named Vincent Pardo, which suggests he was buying a remedy from Karl to mitigate the progression of a disease, and it also contained an inquiry regarding "other participants", and posited whether Karl could "find it again".

### Journal Entry: Day One

Alex reads the first-person journal entry from an undisclosed author describing a journey of four people, who have been told by their guide (or "the runner") that they won't call each other by name as names will lose their meaning during the journey. The other three participants are the zealot, the author and the witness, and they've all had to surrender their electronic devices to the runner to have buried under a tree for their return. The runner has instructed that no one must get ahead of her on the path and they must all follow her movements, though there will be much waiting and progress might be extremely slow.

### Skype Call

Episode ends with a mysterious Skype call from an unknown woman. Nic answers the call, even though he is confused because he has never installed Skype on this computer. The unknown Skype caller tells Nic that there is a car in front and behind the building waiting, for him. She instructs him to take the elevator to the basement and meet her in the car garage.

## Characters

Recurring Characters

Nic Silver, host and producer

Meerkatnip, information specialist

Geoff van Sant, Karl van Sant's brother

Alex Reagan, PNWS host

### Guest Characters

The Rat (Miranda Hayes), Tanis conspiracy theorist

Julie Green, editor of Pacifica