Below are a number of leads in the ongoing investigation.

The Current Investigation

Mikhail Unruh has verified that the treatise can not be deleted or altered; though the medium used to store the treatise can be destroyed. Unruh has copied the email onto a computer chip, and used the tiny voltage drop present across that copy to power an LED light. The chip continues to produce enough power to keep the light burning. Unruh hypothesized that there must be some intelligence which continually monitors the chip to protect the integrity of the email stored there.

As incredible as it seems, that monitoring intelligence seems to sometimes respond to Mike’s voice (at least, in the near vicinity of the LED). The first couple of times it did so, the only noticeable effects were that the temperature of Mike’s hotel room suddenly dropped, and his beloved Alaskan husky, Sasha, became very agitated.

Sasha escaped into the streets of New York, and while some of Mike’s staff were combing the neighborhood, Mike asked the intelligence to safely bring Sasha back. Within half an hour, one of the homeless men in the neighborhood had brought Sasha to the hotel where Mike was staying. In her mouth were two fresh human fingers.

Mike took the LED to his hotel room bathroom, and holding the LED, said, “"I thank you, if you were the cause, for reuniting my beloved animal with me. Though I wish I understood better what she was feeling; she is hurt, but that should heal. When the legal matters are settled, I will continue trying to learn about you - and, perhaps, find a way for you to tell me if there is anything you desire me to do for you."

Immediately, the bathroom mirror shattered, and what seem to be holes in the fabric of space/time opened, connecting all of the investigators to each other and to an antiseptically clean and well-ordered kitchen. The investigators stepped through to the kitchen, and are currently exploring the disconcertingly Lovecraftian house and neighborhood, on the other side of the portal.

See what can be learned about our employer, Peter Carew.

A careful search of the internet reveals nothing about Peter Carew; the name must be a pseudonym. The records of the building where he maintains his offices show that the offices are owned by the MooreHill Company. MoreHill, based in New York City, invests other people’s money for them, lending to a variety of businesses in return for a share of profits. MoreHill keeps its investments diversified, and will rarely be the main backer of a project. MooreHill employs approximately two-hundred people.

Check The Library of Congress, the US ISBN agency, Bowker’s, etc. for any reference to any of these titles, or variations thereof.

This has been done, with absolutely no success. But BOBCAT, the computer catalog of the NYU library, shows that a copy of The Aphaiad is on the shelves at the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library. The book is not there. Oddly, though, the book’s call number is shared by two other texts instead. The Angelian Hymns and The Mystery Religions: Demeter, Persephone, and Eleusis. The shelf seems to have some sort of gritty, oily white substance on it that has gotten on the books. These books were retrieved and a sample of the substance taken, but time has not permitted analysis of either. The Angelian Hymns seems to contain a collection of hymns sacred to Angelia, the Greek goddess of messengers (and daughter of Hermes); The Mystery Religions deals with the classical mystery religions of ancient Greece, with emphasis on Demeter, her daughter Persephone, and Eleusis, the center of their cult.

Investigate the archeological references made in the email.

A fairly quick internet search reveals that George Bass was regarded as something of a maverick while he was doing field work, although now he mostly acts as a consultant for his younger colleagues. Dr. Bass is considered the “Father of Underwater Archeology”.

The excavation sites mentioned (Nemi, Aegina, Marathon, Uluburun) all seem to be associated with Goddess worship. Nemi, Marathon, and Aegina were all sites of worship to Diana/Athena/Aphaia (that’s Aphaia as in “The Aphaiad), and the excavation of the shipwreck at Uluburun revealed a bronze female figure that is clad in gold and may have served as the ships protective deity.

Look for hidden messages in the "treatise".

Tadhg has tried a variety of cryptanalytic techniques, both ancient and modern, with no success. He still feels that there’s “something unusual about the arrangement of the vowels” and that there is a hidden message in the text, but has had no luck in deciphering it.

Search for “Secrets of the Rosy Cross”.

Since it is the most recently published work, it may prove to be the easiest to find.

See if a printed copy of the anonymous email has any unusual properties.

None have been detected so far. Paper copies can be burned or shredded, re-writeable CD’s bearing copies of the electronic version can be destroyed, but it appears that the information itself remains on the disc.

See what information can be found about the authors of the works cited.

Dr. John Cavadas ( translator of The Aphaiad).  No record of this individual’s accreditation has been found.

Dr. Alison Harper (Hangman’s Forest) received a Ph.D. in British History in 1975 from the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland. A web site lists a work address and telephone number, a home address and telephone number, and an email address.  The work address is at the History Department at Great Basin College in Elko, Nevada.  The email account is a university account. As of yet, the investigators have not attempted to contact Dr. Harper.

Dr. Daniel Gilmore (A Brief History of Unpopular Superstitions).  No record of this individual’s accreditation has been found. 

Dr. D.W. Chan (translator of David Trapetto’s Legends of Ethiopia)  received a Ph.D. from Ferris State University in Michigan in 1991.  The University of Michigan Alumni site states that Dr. Chan does not wish to be contacted.  No further details are given.

Linda McNeill (translator of Magical History of the European Continent and Gods of Albion) has translated several works from Chinese to English, and at least some of those were published by Tradewinds Publishing Co. of Boston. Tradewinds is now defunct, but a little legwork reveals that Trade Winds went bankrupt in 1990, but was jointly owned by three people – Denise Chase, Patrick Chase, and Glen Simmons. Denise has a web page devoted to her business, Blackbeard Publishing, which offers photocopied foreign literature at low prices. She lives in Boston. Patrick Chase is also in Boston, where he works as a translator for foreign businesspersons. Glen Simmons is living in Indonesia, where he teaches English to adults. No attempt has yet been made to contact these individuals.

See if a translation of the original email is un-deleteable.

Tadhg O'Brien translated the email into Latin to see if it would retain its unusual properties. Not only was the Latin version un-deleteable (suggesting the presence of an overseeing intelligence, one that can recognize the information regardless of the language), the Latin translation apparently emailed itself to three unknown persons. Tadhg has managed to track down one of the recipients, Cliff Stuart, but has yet to contact the other recipients.

Assume that The Last Will and Testament of Mary Elspeth Carlisle was a real legal document. See if any evidence of her Will can be found.

Sifting though near-countless genealogy and public-records sites revealed two references, and only one of those specifically refers to an Elspeth Mary Carlisle. She appears in the family tree that one Michael Chase has posted to "FamilyTracker.com". She was born in New York City in 1820, married Charles Carlisle in 1841 and had three children, John, Dinah and Elizabeth. She died in 1902. (Note that two of the principals of Tradewinds Publishing were also named Chase.) Michael Chase now owns Carlisle’s Second Hand Books, a small store in Greenwich Village.

Tadhg and Cliff paid a visit to Carlisle’s Second Hand Books. Chase gave Tadhg a copy of The Last Will and Testament of Elspeth Mary Carlisle, and promised a copy of The Cult of Nabu if Tadhg would report to Chase his results of experimenting with The Will.

Create a computer program which will act like a spider and find all the copies of the un-deletable file in the email servers of the world. If possible, find the date that the file was received by those servers and make a 'map' showing the spread of the file. Use this map to try to locate the source of the file.

Not yet attempted.