Pre Convergence: Locate my friends

** A brief overview of locatemyfriends updates before the two games converged. REFERENCES TO BOARD MEMBERS TO BE ADDED**

Larger versions of all images on this page can be found [here]

A number of the Unfiction forum members recieved an email from a 'Jason Thomas' on the 13th of Feb 2008:

Hi,

I'm sorry, I guess this is a little strange, but I really need your help
- I don't know who else I can ask!

My friends Martin and Rebecca have been missing for nearly a week now,
and the Police think they've been kidnapped. I know that something's up,
I just don't know what.

Can you help me?

I look forward to hearing from you,

Jason Thomas (family friend)

www.locatemyfriends.co.uk

This lead to [http://www.locatemyfriends.co.uk], a site apparently set up by Jason to get help in locating his two missing friends Rebecca nd Martin McDowell.
The page contained a plea for help:

Please Help…
Hi, whoever you are please keep reading, I need your help!

My friend Rebecca’s been missing for a week now, and there’s something not quite right. The Police can’t contact her husband, and he’s out of the country. I think they may be in trouble. I’m not sure how, or why, or even where to start; but I’m going to try to investigate.

Can you help?

missingpostersmall.thumbnail.jpg

Please contact me at ku.oc.sdneirfymetacol|nosaj#ku.oc.sdneirfymetacol|nosaj if you wish to leave messages of support or have ideas for things to investigate.

P.S. News crews have just turned up outside the McDowell’s house. I’ll let you know if there’s more info later.

As well as a 'Missing' poster.

Another update swiftly follwoed, requesting people print out a poster, place it somewhere and send pictures of it to Jason, however it seemed as if the legal implications of this dawned on Jason after receiving several pictures, and the print out sized poster and request were removed.

Not working.
Guys, I have updates! But they’ll come later. I haven’t got time right now…
About the posters… I’ve put so many up around here, and haven’t had a single response. I’m starting to think they’re not working. From another perspective, I’ve been thinking that if they’ve been kidnapped, then nobody’s likely to have seen them recently anyway. I guess we’re going underground with this one, hopefully you’ll help me work out where they are!

By the way…some descriptions…

Martin, works in Geneva some of the time, something to do with Physics. I’d say he’s around 5′10, with long dark hair. Rebecca’s around 5′7, slim and with long blonde hair. She’s training to be a GP, and her surgery is where I went today… more on that later though.
^^ POST EDIT

This is our first mention of Martin and his job, which will come into play later…

The next update was thus:

Doctor Doctor…
Okay, so like I said earlier, I went to check out the surgery today (where Rebecca’s training to be a GP). I wanted to get in her room, but I had trouble getting past the receptionist. I’d like to think I know Rebecca very well, we went to school together. I’m pretty sure that if she knew something was up, she’d give off a warning of some sort. I’m still not sure what. But at least it’s something to look into. Any ideas how I can get in to her office? I guess there might also be another GP in there. Ideally I’d like to snoop around.

By the way, thanks for all of your emails containing pictures of the posters. I think we have enough now! In fact, on second thoughts, would it be wise letting people know that we’re trying to locate my friends and that we could be on the tail of the kidnapper? Perhaps we should stay low key, until we have more information?

Sorry for the lack of updates, I keep wracking my brain as to why they could’ve gone missing. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the video off the Digital Recorder thing. Hopefully tomorrow!

prompting various suggestions on how to get in the office from users.

Not this time…
Thanks for the suggestions guys. I decided to follow your advice and feign an illness to get into Rebecca’s office. So, for the time being, I’ve been having trouble breathing. I’ve been officially clear of asthma for years, but sometimes it happens to come back, causing shortness of breath.

I was able to convince the Doctor that I was indeed suffering from asthma symptoms, and they had no problem taking my peak-flow and giving me a prescription for both types of inhaler. The only problem however, was the fact that I wasn’t left alone at all; not even a turned back for a split second. I saw something poking out from underneath the keyboard in Rebecca’s surgery, but there was no opportunity to inspect it.

I guess my only hope is that the Doctor told me to come back if I have really serious problems again.

I need to go back. There must be some way I can distract the GP. Hrm. I’ve got until around 4pm to go back tomorrow, can you help again?

Oh, here’s the video that I’ve been promising for a while. Who’d have thought it’d be so much hassle burning a DVD from my digital recorder, then chopping it up

Also in this update was a video clip, purpotedly from a TV news report, the only significance that was really taken away from this was that Rebecca had a 'social networking site' profile.

Jason revealed, after some questioning' the facebook profile:
[http://http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1021124879]
Which in turn lead to Martin's profile.

It was noted that Martin was working in Switzerland, which lead to the presumption that he was working at CERN. Which is home to the LHC a new Large Hadron Collider, a significant step forward in physics.

Jason then recieved a mysterious fax:
Look what I found
Hey guys, thanks for your help! I went back to the Doctor’s today, and this time I had more luck!

I decided to give Silverback’s excuse a shot, and it worked pretty well. She hadn’t heard of many allergic reactions to inhalers, but spent a while looking up my (fake) symptoms. I was hoping that she’d have to consult with another doctor and would leave the room, but unfortunately she didn’t.

Some quick thinking gave me another idea. I asked her if the fact that I smoke affects my asthma, and whether the nurse would be free to see about giving up. I guess even though it’s a Saturday, she was so keen to help that she left the room immediately to see if the nurse was available. What do the NHS have against smokers? It’s almost as if healing the world starts at wiping out cigarettes!

Anyway. I used the time alone to hunt around Rebecca’s room. Nothing out of the ordinary could be found, apart from the note under her keyboard! Here’s a picture of it. I hope you can work out what it means…

I’m glad the nurse wasn’t available, I’m not really interested in giving up. It’s times like these when a good cigarette can come in handy.

160220080371.thumbnail.jpg
16022008038.thumbnail.jpg

Edit: Added these pictures as requested…
16022008040.thumbnail.jpg
A cryptic note, which, after much head scratching was presumed to be pointing out that a USB stick was hidden somewhere safe.
The letter also featured a caricature of Martin, a picture of the state of Texas and two sets of numbers. '091' and '2361'. It wasn't immediately noticed, until later, when …… a forum member pointed out these were the same numbers that appeared in several PO updates and conversations with Recruit 169.

More running around

Ok, so you guys gave me a few leads. I’m not really sure yet what it all means. Clocks and USB sticks and Texas and riddles. One thing’s for sure though, and it’s that I’ve never heard of a ’stegged’ image. Do you really think they’re hiding something in their facebook profiles, aren’t they a bit too public?

I’ve been back to the house today, more news reporters are there, and I can’t get anywhere near the inside of the house. I spoke to the Police, and they can’t comment on what they did or didn’t find on Rebecca or Martin’s computer, but I don’t expect it was much, since they haven’t found them yet!

Perhaps the Texas link is possible. I know that Martin was on a work trip to the USA, to give a lecture about the groundbreaking work they’re doing with the LHC. I wonder what those numbers mean. Oh, and about the USB theory, I know that both Rebecca and Martin have one. But doesn’t everybody?

What do you think we should investigate next? I’m starting to feel like I’m at a loose end with this one.

Oh. One more thing I just remembered. When I was in Rebecca’s office yesterday, I saw a green number ‘13′ stuck on the wall. I guess it’s probably nothing though.

Perhaps the most significant update so far, the number 13 mentioned here, a symbol of Project Ophiuchus. Leyton showed the P.O logo to Jason, who immediately confirmed that this was indeed the 13 he had seen in Rebecca's office.

It now was confirmed that Project Ophiuchus and Locate my friends were linked, after the source on the Project Ophiuchus main site was updated to include references to both Rebecca and Martin's names as being the 'missing particpants' who failed to respond, as mentioned in Dani's last communication.

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