Evaluation Briefing

After dinner, everyone took seats in the amphitheater of Meeting Room One. Four staff members -- Kate, John, Ben and Hoyt -- seated themselves at the front by the screen, while Chet stood leaning on his cane.

"Welcome back. My name is Chet Mason. Some of you have met me; I'm an Investigative Consultant and one of Orpheus' Senior Trainers. I'm here to brief you all on your travel and assignment. I understand we're running out of time, so I'll get right to it." Hoyt dimmed the lights.

"Tomorrow morning, you'll be taking a 7:30 shuttle from the hotel to your terminal. Your flight leaves at 9:15, you should touch down at Albuquerque International at 10:30 Mountain Time, your connecting flight will leave at 1:10 PM, and you'll arrive at Playas Air Strip by 1:50. Shuttle transport will meet you there with your supplies, and take you to your destination." The projection screen lit up, and Chet held up a note card to narrate.


"Located in the New Mexico bootheel, Fort Assumption was founded in 1880 to house the first army outpost in Hachita Valley, five years after prospectors had discovered precious metals in the Little Hatchet Mountains. The settlers in nearby boomtowns feared attack from the native Apache, but in the area's history, more deaths were blamed on storms, drought, fires, yellow fever, accidents, and violence between work crews of competing mining companies. Most of the surrounding mining camps were abandoned by 1897, and remaining interests moved to Fort Assumption, which still offered untapped silver deposits. Only a few permanent structures were ever built -- mostly facilities for use by the mining companies -- and the majority of the population, which never exceeded 500, lived in tents.

"Eventually, the ore diminished and what remained was no longer cost effective to mine. Mining operations ceased in 1901, and by 1903, Fort Assumption had a population of only thirty-five. By 1906, the site was completely abandoned.


"Pictured here are Helene Gadros, Assaf Rahamim, and David Benjamin, University of Nevada film students last seen May 15th, 2011, leaving on a trip to Fort Assumption. Gadros' senior project was to be a documentary film, Ghost Towns of the American Southwest. Missing Persons reports were filed for all three on May 24th, three days after they were supposed to return to UNLV. A police investigation recovered Mr. Benjamin's body, but not those of Ms. Gadros or Mr. Rahamim. Mr. Benjamin had suffered a fatal drug overdose, but, according to family and friends, had no known history of drug abuse.

"As prospective Investigative Consultants, you are being sent to Fort Assumption for five days to gather data, make observations, and draw some conclusions from the evidence you find. All three teams will be supplied with communication radios and recording equipment; personal electronic devices will have to be left behind to minimize interference. You'll be supplied before your flight tomorrow with an information packet that will help you learn to identify and classify PLE activity.


"A word about safety: stay close to your team, make sure to be back at camp by sundown, and don't go wandering in the dark. The area is dotted with open mines. Two of them are vertical shafts with a gallows frame overhead, as seen here; the others are nothing more than unmarked holes in the ground, only obvious in the daylight, all of them flooded at a depth of thirty to fifty feet below ground level. Your packs will include safety ropes, for emergency purposes only, not to do any spelunking. We're all adults here, so I'm going to spare everyone the lecture on the bad things that can happen in mine shafts. Under no circumstances is anyone to enter a mine. Orpheus Group takes no responsibility for injury or mishap if you do.

"Are there any questions?"

Karamia sat in here seat listening to Chet's speech. While the idea of doing this investigation was thrilling, she had always been interested in the paranormal, she did have a few worries. Cases like these could leave some pretty unhappy spirits behind. Let alone the fact that three people had disappeared there last year & only one body was recovered, granted anything could've happened to them especially with the open mine shafts. The thing that bothered her the most was the apparent drug overdose.
She raised her hand patiently waiting for the man to answer Jamie's question before asking one of her own.
"Do ye nu wot Mr. Benjamin supposedly overdosed on? An' are dare any other documented cases ov people disappearin' from de site?" She asked out of curiosity.

"There will be tents," Chet confirmed for Jamie. "And air mattresses."

Kate stood up to field Karamia's question. "The site is thought of as a sort of paranormal tourist attraction. It sees a few dozen visitors every year. There have been no other disappearances.

"As for Mr. Benjamin's overdose, a synthetic designer drug known as 'pigment' was found in his system. It's a stimulant closely related to methamphetamine or so-called 'bath salts.'"

Syd listens carefully to the presentation, nodding a few times as he made mental notes of the case. "Were either of the other two students involved or suspected of being involved with drugs? Also, are any appropriate authorities or law enforcement aware of our presence and purpose there, or are we to stay off of their radar?"

At the drug abuse question, Chet turned and said something softly to Kate about looking that up. Kate, in turn, shut off the projection screen and began to tap away at the laptop.

"Orpheus Group maintains a policy of strict cooperation with federal and local authorities at all times. The police are already aware of your plans to stay, and won't interfere."

"As for the drug question...." Kate hesitated, watching the screen while she confirmed what she was about to say. "Gadros had a DUI in fall 2010... Rahamim and Benjamin's records are completely clean." She stood up and turned her attention back to the evaluees. "But, like they say, there's a time and a place for everything, and it's called college. Just because they never got caught doesn't mean they never smoked anything.

"For anyone who's not up to pace on their street drugs -- which, I hope, is most of you," she said with a smirk, "pigment is also known as 'black heroin,' 'black H,' 'rock heroin,' and 'piggy.' It's only started circulating in the last two years; it's synthesized from household chemicals, and it's a powerful psychoactive stimulant and euphoriant. It can be swallowed, snorted, injected, smoked -- as in Mr. Benjamin's case -- or even applied to the skin through temporary tattoos, called 'piggybacking.' It started out as something only circulated among regular users, but thanks to methods that have made it cheaper to produce and that result in fewer fatal overdoses, its recreational-use fan base is rapidly growing."

Syd nodded in acknowledgment of the replies to his questions and waited to see if anyone else had anything to add.

After being properly briefed about Orpheus intentions Monty fought against escepticism and denial, using a very old spark as a starting fire to ignite his curiosity, the question 'what if' turned into a driving goal, because if this was true he might see again his beloved Amanda and his dearest son. He was sitting in front of the stage, listening with full atention to every detail trying to answer his own personal question 'is this for real?'. For the people present he was just one retired Colonel waiting and staring.

Chris shuddered at the thought of being left alone in a desolate area for nearly a week. She was saddened to know about the drug influences with them. And having had some experience with people exposed to them, she was more upset than she should have been. She stuffed the thoughts down and shifted in her seat.

"We aren't going to go hunting for food or anything like that are we? Will we have a mechanism for alerting Orpheus group to any dangers we might face outside of the obvious not venturing into open mine shafts?"

"No hunting or gathering required," Kate replied. "You'll fill out a supply order for MREs when you reach your destination, and the service crew there will deliver them to your campsite.

"In addition to your tactical radios, each team will be provided an emergency phone. Keep them off as not to interfere with any instruments; turning it on dials Orpheus Group's emergency services immediately."

Chris nodded finding that acceptable. She then glanced around the room hoping her paranoia wasn't obvious and looking forward to other questions.

Jamie leans back in his chair with his coffee, listening and mulling the information over, looking rather skeptical of the whole thing.

At the mention of MREs, Syd lets out a bemused chuckle. "Was Mr. Benjamin known to smoke tobacco or any other legal substances? Or did anything of the sort show up in his autopsy?"

Kate hesitated for a moment as she checked the file notes again. "Mr. Benjamin didn't have a tobacco habit, but there was nicotine in his system. Social smoker. For what it's worth, Ms. Gadros had a half-pack-a-day habit."

Montgomery was absorbed in his own thoughts, despite his usual awareness regarding his surroundings, he felt almost asleep with the dreams and ideas about actually wandering in a dead-like state. Would he be able to hold himself back and not fly looking for his beloved departed ones? only Time would answer his question. Suddenly he started to hear everyone talking about the disaparance of a bunch of young college students making him snap out of his dream and pay attention.

Before Kate had closed the laptop and using the pieces of information from the other group mate presents, Blightheart was able to reconstruct in his mind the topic of discussion and then he thought about Fort Assumption and with it the first idea that came to his mind were the Apache and their culture, they fierceness even. He also remembered the damn Frenchmen and their occupancy, remembered Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne and smiled thinking how the were expelled from the terrotory by the Apache back then, the frechmen blamed the Apache witchcraft like they did with the Voodoo in Haiti, for eight years they occupied the Fort. Normally Monty would have considered this bogey tales to be just B.S. but now that ghost were a scientific fact, or at least that was Orpheus' intention to make believe, may be this french's stories could have some credibility.

Montgomery spoke up.
"I have two question if I may" he said waiting for the moderators permission.

"Any of the dissapeared had Apache lineage? and my second question... Are there any other 'agents' working aside from Orpheus' working on the site?"

"I'm honestly not sure about any Apache heritage," Kate said, thinking. "Assaf is almost certainly a 'no' -- his parents emigrated from Syria in the '80s. As for Helene and David, I don't know.

"And no, aside from you all and the occasional ground crew delivering supplies, there won't be anyone else on-site."

Monty thought about the answer and rapidly replied.
"Why these students were interested in Ghost Towns, why this particular one? It makes me wander that may be one of them or even a tutor might have influenced them to partake in this school project.

Who was the teacher assigned?, if any"