The Axis Mundi
[The Black Tapes opening plays]

From Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale, it's season two of The Black Tapes Podcast. I'm Alex Reagan. This season, we're continuing our exploration of the Strand Institute's enigmatic president and founder, Dr. Richard Strand. We're telling the story of the black tapes in order, every two weeks. So if you haven't listened to the first few episodes, go back and start there. We'll be here when you get back.Last time, we left you with a bit of a cliffhanger. Strand and I had been saved, or abducted, or perhaps a bit of both, by Coralee and two others. A woman and a man. After sweeping the place for people and electronics, they led us into somebody's house. I think it was an AirBnB listing actually. Strand and Coralee spoke in the bedroom while I waited. The man and woman, who insisted on remaining unnamed, waited outside. I believe they were keeping watch.

When Strand and Coralee exited the bedroom, I asked her if now was a good time to conduct our interview. She looked at Strand and then walked outside. I followed, Strand didn't. I stood out on the porch as Coralee and the others got back into their van. I saw Coralee look back. As she looked back, I knew she was looking at Strand, that he'd stepped out onto the porch behind me. I could feel him watching. I could feel his desire to follow his wife. They finally drove away. When I turned around, Strand had re-entered the house. I stepped back inside and moved into the kitchen, where Strand stood, pouring himself a cup of tea.

It was hard, watching him pulled apart like that. With Dr. Strand, it's easy to forget that he's a man; a man who's fallen in love, who's experienced highs and lows, loss, life, and taxes, just like the rest of us. Well, maybe not exactly like the rest of us, but you know what I mean. It seems like Strand has developed some kind of protective shell around himself since his wife's disappearance.

We stood there for what felt like at least fifteen minutes, until Strand finally broke the silence.STRAND: Thank you.
ALEX: For what? No, it's... Yeah, it's okay.
STRAND: I haven’t fully processed it all. Not yet.
ALEX: Of course. Maybe you’ll see her again, one day. Maybe?
STRAND: I don’t think so. At least… I’m not going to pin any hopes on that.
ALEX: Well, if it’s any consolation, I could tell she still loves you.
STRAND: It’s not.
ALEX: Right. Of course not.
STRAND: But thank you.I wanted to debrief Strand, to ask him what Coralee told him. What happened to her? What was going on? But that could wait. The man had just lost his wife again. We started driving, we drove through the city for a long time. I think he just didn’t want to be alone that night. A little while later, we ended up back at his place.ALEX: I know it’s been a long night for you, but do you mind if I ask you a few more questions? It can wait if you’re tired.
STRAND: Can I offer you a drink?
ALEX: Sure, thank you. Thanks. (sigh) So…
STRAND: She was a watcher.
ALEX: Your wife was a watcher?
STRAND: That’s what she told me.
ALEX: And you believe her?
STRAND: Yes.
ALEX: Okay, so, what does that mean? A watcher?
STRAND: She was tasked with reporting my whereabouts and, most importantly, keeping me safe.
ALEX: What for? I don’t… I don’t understand.
STRAND: She was some kind of an agent for a shadow organization led by the Advocate.
ALEX: The Advocate? So, do we know who he is?
STRAND: She told me that she never met him, or her. She spoke only with Thomas Warren.
ALEX: Okay. So, did she… was your marriage…?
STRAND: No, it wasn’t.
ALEX: Oh.
STRAND: She told me that she fell in love with me, and she continued to protect me because of that love. She indicated that she began protecting me from both sides at that point. That’s when they took her. That’s when she disappeared, when she turned on her own organization. She was on the run from her handlers. That’s when she was sending me messages. She told me the podcast was making it harder and harder for her to communicate.
ALEX: They were monitoring the show?
STRAND: Yes, they were looking for Coralee.
ALEX: Okay, well, that sounds… good, doesn’t it?
STRAND: What do you mean?
ALEX: Well, not that they took her, or that she ended up running from her own organization. But that she really fell in love.
STRAND: She warned me… that the Advocate had been watching me for a long time, and he, or her, or... They are preparing something big.
ALEX: Like what?
STRAND: She wasn’t sure.
ALEX: Why was she watching you?
STRAND: My family.
ALEX: What about your family?
STRAND: For some insane reason, these people believe my family holds a kind of genetic key to whatever nonsense they’re preparing.
ALEX: What do you mean?
STRAND: Coralee believes that Thomas Warren himself is the Advocate and that he’s been working with the Order of the Cenophus to bring about some kind of… something.
ALEX: Did she have any evidence or connections I could confirm?
STRAND: She warned me to stay away from Daiva Corporation. She told me that they believed there was something in my family’s genetic makeup that when the time was right, they could manipulate to achieve some ridiculous end.
ALEX: Well, it’s a pretty huge company.
STRAND: Yes, that’s concerning.
ALEX: I’ll say. Is there a place we can start looking into this?
STRAND: We need to speak with Thomas Warren.
ALEX: Isn't that what Coralee told you not to do?
STRAND: Yes.
ALEX: But you're going to do it anyway.
STRAND: Yes.
ALEX: I asked this the other day, but it was a bit accusatory at the time. I wanna know if you had other motivations for starting the Strand Institute, other than your stated mission statement.
STRAND: That mission statement is the primary reason for the existence of my Institute.
ALEX: But are there any other reasons?
STRAND: (sigh) I suppose. To some extent, my grief and... some personal failures may have provided additional motivation.
ALEX: Personal failures? What do you mean?
STRAND: When Coralee went missing, I went into the woods by myself for several days, looking for her. At some point, I... I got so desperate I tried to rekindle whatever ability I'd believed I'd possessed as a child.
ALEX: You mean the ability that led you to the body of Bobby Mames?
STRAND: Yes. Obviously I didn't have that ability. I'm not psychic, but there was... there was something. I don't know. At one time I thought... I thought maybe...
ALEX: If you had no psychic ability, how do you explain leading everyone to Bobby Mames?
STRAND: When the news broke about Bobby's disappearance, it shattered my mother. I don't know, perhaps it had something to do with her missing my father. Maybe because she knew Bobby's mother, or that sense of family. I... I'm not sure. But Bobby's disappearance affected her more than it should have.
ALEX: So, you saw your mother distraught?
STRAND: And I wanted to help. I was only sixteen, but I felt it was something I could solve through reason, so I pored over maps of our town and surrounding area. I tried to locate places where a killer would logically discard a body. I suppose I spent an unhealthy amount of time in this pursuit. I ended up dreaming about him.
ALEX: 'A very vivid dream' is what you told Wayne Coates.
STRAND: And it crystallized in my mind.
ALEX: But you led them right to the body. That's not logical.
STRAND: No. That was luck.
ALEX: You think luck led you directly to Bobby Maimes?
STRAND: I was a young man. I was ready to place my mark on the world. Perhaps I had a flair for the dramatic, but I was convinced I knew where he was, so I led my friends along that path that took us through every place I'd thought logically would make sense.
ALEX: Wait, so you didn't lead your friends directly to Bobby Maimes?
STRAND: No, I led them to many places along the way and it was there by that stream that I found him.
ALEX: But you told Wayne Coates that you already knew he'd be by a tiny stream.
STRAND: No, I didn't. I told him it was one of the many places I thought we'd find him.
ALEX: But you did dream that, didn't you?
STRAND: I thought I did, at the time.
ALEX: So, Wayne thinking you led him directly to Bobby Maimes-
STRAND: Isn't a construction. I'd already told him about the dream of Bobby Maimes. Then I told him I thought I knew where he could be. The fact that we actually found Bobby Maimes staggered us. Add to that that we were boys who'd just found a corpse in the woods. I'm sure a bit of shock played into reformatting his memories.
ALEX: Well and perhaps yours as well.
STRAND: Perhaps.
ALEX: Still, all of this must have seemed like a miracle at the time.
STRAND: There are no such things as miracles, Alex.
ALEX: And you told Wayne instead of the police because you were afraid they'd somehow think you were involved in his death?
STRAND: My father had been overseas for quite a while, so rumors were already swirling about town about my family. I know it stressed out my mother. The last thing I wanted was to bring more stress into her life - the strange psychic kid and his strange occult father.
ALEX: What happened when the police eventually came to you?
STRAND: They took me in for questioning. I told them the truth; that I had theories about the location of Bobby Maimes, so we went looking for him.
ALEX: So, okay, in your desperation to find your missing wife, you convinced yourself that you could rekindle whatever psychic ability you may have had back then?
STRAND: In times of desperation, the mind finds ways to survive. I love my wife very much, and losing her... having her suddenly disappear threatened to extinguish everything that was good in my life. So I gave in. A momentary lapse of judgment.
ALEX: You tried to be psychic.
STRAND: And failed. Of course.
ALEX: So you set up the Strand Institute.
STRAND: Yes.
ALEX: I have to ask, again... Are the black tapes all connected?
STRAND: I don't know.
ALEX: Honestly?
STRAND: Honestly. There are a lot of connecting fibers that seem to link the few black tapes you've seen so far.
ALEX: How many are there?
STRAND: Black tapes?
ALEX: Yes. (shuffling) Wow.
STRAND: Yes.ALEX: I was looking at a closet in the back of his office. There were shelves upon shelves of black tapes. Probably a hundred of them, maybe more. And I realized, finally, that I had only been scratching the surface of whatever mystery lay behind these tapes.ALEX: That night was long. Strand and I talked about a lot of things, including the very beginning of The Black Tapes. The Torres family. The upside-down face. We laughed about some of our early conflicts and fell silent considering the deaths of Keith Dabic and Maddie Franks. In the morning, I returned to the studio, where Nic had something for me. Strand came along.NIC: Okay, so Simon Reese referenced symphonies and choirs in his metaphors.
ALEX: Yes.
NIC: And we've received four sound files from an anonymous source.
ALEX: Well, maybe Keith Dabic or someone pretending to be him.
NIC: Right.
STRAND: A typical symphony has four movements. What if these four sound files are the four movements of a symphony?
NIC: Well, Percival Black composed five-movement symphonies exclusively.
ALEX: What if this is Percival Black's version of the Mysterium?
NIC: Well, maybe.
STRAND: Which particular sound files are you referencing?
ALEX: Nic?
NIC: Um, yeah. So the first one was episode 109. Keith Dabic, allegedly, Keith Dabic-
ALEX: Yes.
NIC: -left us a voice message saying he's in Russia. But later we received a sound file from his email address without a message, heading, subject, or anything.
ALEX: Right.
NIC: Then in episode 205, Keith Dabic sent us an email saying he might have found the cure for the Unsound. That's sound file number two. Then we received two more sound files from an account named 'Hastur'.
STRAND: Interesting.
ALEX: So, all he needs to do is set up his orchestra on top of Mr. Ararat?
STRAND: Which, as I've already indicated, would be impossible.
NIC: Right.
ALEX: Well, assuming that is, or was, his goal, and there was a way to get up there.
STRAND: Which there isn't.
ALEX: Right. But okay. Let's say he could... what, he'd go up there and play those pieces? And the universe rips open and all these shadow people and demons come pouring out?
NIC: Well, in their mythology, they say-
STRAND: In whose mythology?
ALEX: Ah, the Order of the Cenophus.
STRAND: How long is each movement?
NIC: Um, well, not long at all. Each sound file is maybe a minute?
STRAND: That doesn't sound like much of a symphony to me.
NIC: Yeah, me either.
ALEX: I'll be back.
NIC: Okay, umm...JOHN: Hello? Uvela here.
ALEX: John! Hi! It's Alex Reagan from Pacific Northwest Stories. I came to see you last year and you took me to those caves in the Urraca Mesa?
JOHN: Oh, hey Alex. How are ya?ALEX: That's John Uvela, scout extraordinaire, and expert guide to all things historic in the Urraca Mesa. When Nic and Strand were talking about symphonic music in the studio office, it reminded me of an image Uvela had shown me. Here's a clip from the end of season one of The Black Tapes. [Clip plays]
JOHN: That’s apparently a gateway. This whole painting is about a war the Anasazi fought against evil spirits.
ALEX: Evil spirits?
JOHN: Yes.
ALEX: As in demons?
JOHN: Yes.
ALEX: And that tall one-
JOHN: Oh. That’s their leader.
ALEX: Does the leader have a name?
JOHN: Not that I’ve ever heard, but that’s why this place is called Urraca Mesa. Urraca means magpie, and in all the Indian cultures in this area, magpies are messengers of death.
ALEX: So, you said the Anasazi fought evil spirits, like demons?
JOHN: The story goes that the Anasazi beat the demon forces back to that gateway, and then they built a series of totems to keep that gateway locked.
ALEX: And where are the totems?
JOHN: Just outside. There are only two left. They say when the last two fall, the gateway will open again.
ALEX: How many totems were there to begin with?
JOHN: No one’s sure. Six? Maybe four?
ALEX: Well, let’s hope those last two totems stay up!
[Clip ends]
ALEX: So, when’s the last time you went out to the Urraca Mesa?
JOHN: Uh, I was out there about a week ago. Why? Are you planning another visit with us?
ALEX: Actually, I need a huge favor. Um, do you remember those two totems you showed me? The ones the Anasazi built to keep the inter-dimensional gateway locked?
JOHN: Of course.
ALEX: Could you go and check on them?
JOHN: Um, what do you mean?
ALEX: I'd like to know if they're damaged in any way.
JOHN: Well, I was just there. They're- they’re fine.
ALEX: But you said that was a week ago?
JOHN: Miss Reagan, I assure you. Nothing's happened to them since the last I saw them. There's only one group of scouts at Philmont [?] Ranch this week and they're not planning on going anywhere near the Mesa.
ALEX: I know it sounds ridiculous, but could you go back tomorrow? We can pay you for this service, for your trouble.
JOHN: Oh, no need for that. I'm kinda curious now. I'll pack up the ATV and head out as soon as the sun's up.
ALEX: Thank you so much.
JOHN: No problem.While I was waiting to hear from John Uvela, Strand called. He'd asked me to set up a meeting with Thomas Warren. Nic was able to arrange it, and this time, Warren agreed to let me record his voice. We met at a restaurant downtown Seattle. Nic insisted on showing up three hours early, to make sure everything was secure. Warren showed up alone, right on time. He sat down and smiled. Sexy James Bond was back.ALEX: Thank you for coming.
WARREN: You're welcome.
STRAND: What do you want?
WARREN: Coralee didn't tell you?
STRAND: She mentioned some nonsense about genetics.
WARREN: I understand your... situation. I'm sorry about your wife. She really does love you.
STRAND: I'd be careful.
ALEX: What do you want with Dr. Strand? What's Deva Corporation have to do with all of this?
WARREN: First of all, I'd like to give you a little background about what we're doing at Deva Corporation.
ALEX: Great.
WARREN: We're working on something new. Something altruistic, believe it or not. And we'd like Dr. Strand to join our team. As a token of our good faith, I'd like to offer to finance the Strand Institute.
ALEX: I don't think Dr. Strand needs that kind of help.
WARREN: Because any organization willing to hand out a million dollar reward must be doing just fine?
ALEX: Something like that.
WARREN: Dr. Strand doesn't actually have a million dollars.
ALEX: What? That's not true. Is it?
STRAND: That's true.
WARREN: But with our research grant money, you would have more than enough to gain the foothold in the scientific community that you crave, that you deserve, that you've always wanted.
STRAND: I'm finished. Stay away from me.
WARREN: There's more.
STRAND: What?
WARREN: This.
STRAND: What is that?
WARREN: One of your father's research journals.
STRAND: What are you doing with it?
WARREN: Howard Strand had been working with us for seven years. He was working with us when he was murdered.
STRAND: My father died in an accident.
WARREN: No, he didn't.
ALEX: What happened?
WARREN: Read the journal. If you'd like to hear more, you know where to find me. I asked Strand about the million dollars, and he told me that it was true. He no longer had a million dollars. He'd used the money he'd inherited from his father to pay Ruby and keep his Institute going through the years. I didn't press him further. He was clearly struggling with seeing Coralee.There were two messages on our machine when we got back to the studio. [Voicemail plays]
JOHN: Hi. This is John Uvela, calling for Alex Reagan. Could you call me back? I went out to the Mesa today, and well... I'd like to know how you knew? Both totems had been knocked over. One's broken real bad. If you know of any vandals in the area, or heard any rumors, well… We got some people real upset around here. Please, call me back. Thank you.
[Voicemail ends] I called John Uvela back and did my best to explain. But I don't know how convincing I was. How do you explain that there's a possible conspiracy of forces aligning themselves to open mystical portals through demonic sounds?NIC: Both totems?
ALEX: Yeah.
NIC: That's weird.
ALEX: Well, I think it’s beyond weird. All of this is beyond weird.
NIC: Okay, well, to add even more intrigue, I found this.
ALEX: Wow. Nic had found a picture of the totems. A sketch from an unknown Puebloan artist dating back to the early 1600's, which showed there were clearly five totems there at one point. Perhaps the same number of totems as movements in a Percival Black symphony.NIC: Okay, well, there's five totems there. But we only have four sound files. It's gotta be something else.
ALEX: Unless... well, unless you include the Unsound as the first movement.
NIC: Percival Black did compose five-movement symphonies exclusively, so.
ALEX: Right, and maybe somebody had to destroy the last two totems to complete the ritual? Or... I don't know.
STRAND: It's all conjecture and coincidence. None of this is real.
ALEX: How can you say that?
STRAND: It is real in the sense that there is a secret organization that believes it is ushering in the next apocalypse, but what they believe is not real. Anyone could have damaged those totems.
ALEX: But, what if... Nic, can you bring up those cave photos?
NIC: Yeah. Uh, which ones?
ALEX: Urraca Mesa. The caves at Bath. All of them.
NIC: Sure, just a sec… Okay.
ALEX: Okay, so yeah. See those ones with the taller figure surrounded by the smaller stick figures? The ones in a circular formation?
STRAND: Yes.
ALEX: Now, I'd always thought this was a kind of worship. Or a battle cry type of thing. The smaller ones are around the tall one; their general. I thought those were armies carrying weapons. Like, spears or swords. But what if... what if those aren't weapons? What if those are instruments, and the tall one is not being worshiped? What if he's the conductor?
STRAND: An orchestra.
ALEX: That would make this more than just another secret organization. This goes way back. All of it.
STRAND: Let's follow that train of thought. Let's say that is the goal of the Order of the Cenophus. To play their symphony courtesy of Percival Black, their version of the unfinished Mysterium. All they would need to bring about the great opening of inter-dimensional portals is a simple playing of their symphony at the Axis Mundi. If that's true, why involve you at all? Why not just trudge up Mt. Ararat and get it over with?
NIC: Um, guys?
ALEX: What?
NIC: It's not on Mt. Ararat.
ALEX: What do you mean?
STRAND: What's your line of thinking?
NIC: Those numbers, they're not map coordinates.
ALEX: Okay.
NIC: The Axis Mundi is not Mt. Ararat. The hexadecimal code doesn't lead to map coordinates at all. Look.
STRAND: What is the significance of those numbers?
NIC: It's an IP address.
ALEX: To where?
NIC: Here. The studio.
ALEX: I don't understand.
NIC: That number is our IP address. The Axis Mundi is here.
ALEX: Well, if that's true, than we've been playing their Mysterium all along.
NIC: All five movements, in order.
ALEX: It's happening and it's our fault.
STRAND: Nothing is happening.[Voicemail plays]
SIMON: I’m sure by now you’ve realized the interconnectedness of all things. Or at least the interconnectedness of your things. The children, the shadows, the doors, they’re all… they’re here for Him. Some call him the Adversary, some call him other things... but if you build it, he will come. And when he does, he brings chaos, and madness, and death.
What you’re calling the Unsound? That wasn’t what you thought it was. You weren’t going to die within a year. That was only the first... gate. There are five gates, Alex. You have to hear all five in a row in order to be infected. You see, Alex, it’s a curse, it’s a virus. The end is not coming with a bang, but within each of us. Those who hear the five movements of the Mysterium, in order, will be followed by a darkness, by evil. When they turn out the lights, their darkness will be a little darker than most. When they look into the shadows, they’ll see a little further than most. And when the time is come, they will enter his kingdom, and the world will be lost. Goodbye Alex.
[Voicemail ends]The Black Tapes Podcast is a Pacific Northwest Stories and Minnow Beats Whale production, recorded in Seattle and Vancouver. Produced, mixed, and engineered by by Nic Silver. Edited by Nic Silver and Alex Reagan. Executive producers Paul Bae and Terry Miles. If you enjoy The Black Tapes, you'll love our sister show, Tanis. You can listen to Tanis at iTunes.com/Tanis or TanisPodcast.com. Thank you so much for listening to The Black Tapes.