Project Mercury

Subject: Frozen Samples
Author: PrjctMrc2North   

We knew it was a matter of time before Mercury went for the most deadly virus of all time.  We just didn't know he'd go to Canada to get it.  We're north of the Artic Circle near the coast of the Beaufort Sea. Global warming has been hitting the area hard.  And as it gets closer to summer, the ground thaws.  That's when the bodies start turning up.

The freezing preserves them intact, sometimes even with food in their stomachs.   But a long-forgotten lunch is not what Mercury's looking for.   Last year, the CDC reconstructed the Spanish Flu Virus from the remains of an Inuit woman who'd been buried in permafrost in 1918.  This is the Spanish Flu that killed between 20 and 40 million people in 1918-1919.   During that time, the average lifespan in the US dropped by ten years.  The CDC claims they've got the reconstituted virus on super lockdown at their headquarters in Atlanta.  They also think they have a monopoly on frozen women from 1918.

Wrong.

He found her at the edge of a slope.  She was just sort of jutting out of the ground like a grisly Whack-a-mole.  Looks like she just dropped, overwhelmed.  When the virus comes on, a person can die in a matter of hours. 

He left incisions everywhere.  We don't know how he got her thawed out enough to even incise.  We're forwarding along some of our own samples for confirmation.  Obviously, take the utmost care.  For everyone's sake, we can't let this get out of control.

Mr. Luthor, apologies for not photgraphically catching Mercury in the act here.  We'll try our best to do so when we catch up with him again.

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Author: prjctmrc2ldr (LLuthor)
Subject: Message for All Members of Project Mercury 2.0
 
The material you've been compiling is intriguing, but second-hand accounts and ancient codes aren't going to cut it.  I retained each and every one of your services because I wanted hard evidence of Mercury's unusual characteristics.  Re-task the satellite surveillance, get lenses on the ground, utilize every resource in our arsenal.  But bring me photographic proof.  This isn't a bird-watching mission wrapped in a Sudoku puzzle.  Now catch him in the act.  And show him to me!

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Subject: report from Polynesia
Author: prjctmrc2sea (gold team)

Hancock is now aiding us with Gold Team in Polynesia.  The last dengue outbreak here occurred five years ago - but it was a nasty one.  Which is probably what prompted Mercury's recent visit. 

Dengue hemorrhagic fever isn't pretty.  The blood vessels start to leak and cause bleeding from the nose, mouth, and gums.   Bruising starts - that's the body bleeding internally.  Without treatment, blood vessels can collapse.  And then... well, it gets worse.

There's a tribe of people here that have developed immunity to dengue.  They've been here for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.  Pushed back first by the arrival of the West (Captain Cook and friends) and more recently by the development of the tourism industry, they live in the most remote, mountainous terrain. 

The locals don't ever see them - they're self-sufficient hunter-gatherers, and they're very territorial.   They don't bother the locals and the locals don't bother them. 

That's why today scared everyone.

Twenty of the tribe members - men, women, and children - came charging down off the mountain. 

It's a terrifying sight - the adults are tattooed all over - legs, arms, chests, backs, buttocks - blasting through the jungle. 

A couple of farmers barricaded their families in their houses and called the cops.  They thought they were under attack.

But the tribe wasn't attacking.  They were fleeing.

Our friend Mercury had found their camp.

The translator had trouble understanding their dialect - they still speak an ancient version. 

But they kept flashing us their tongues - which were tattooed as well - and making a slashing gesture. 

Apparently Mercury got to one of their women and took a memento. 

We showed them images of the burial tablet from Honduras and the temple wall in Cambodia.  The tribe intensified in hysterics when we did...the interpreter was pretty sure they were trying to tell us that Mercury's souvenir was tattooed with an image identical to the "z" symbol that appears on both of them. 

Hancock just got orders from Ana to fly to China.  The rest of the unit will proceed to our next destination at once. 

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Subject: Vaccine Production Update
Author: Dr. Sam Kling

Sir,

Dr. Lee asked me to update you as he has grown quite ill.  He'd like you not to worry about him and instead be pleased to know that Stage 1 of the vaccine production has been completed and everything is proceeding on schedule.

We have been following Mercury's instructions to the letter and at this time deem it necessary to inform you that we are bit intrigued by them.  The team you have assembled for this project has over 120 years of combined vaccine production experience, and yet not one person on our team finds anything familiar in the techniques Mercury is asking us apply. 

But, that said, we are excited by the early results of the 1st stage of testing so perhaps we are seeing something new - and that is always good in science.  The greatest innovations always start that way.

Till the next update.

Cheers,

Sam Kling, MD, PhD
Special Assistant to Director
LuthorCorp Vaccination Production Program

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Subject: RE: RE: RE: Code to Decipher
Author: Beppo
 
apologies. since your message came in, i have also received a personal "attitude adjustment" from our generous benefactor. thanks for bringing him in on this, buddy
 
truth is i thought you guys would have put it together by now. more than a week ago, i posted the relevant ezra diary entry at the smallville chamber of commerce site for the Ezra Small House. 

scroll to the bottom and don't be afraid of the dark. like i said...put it together

sorry for the defeatist tone, but as you said, there's gonna be much bigger fish to fry pretty soon--especially where i am. i've been saying this for years, but only a handful of people were listening.
 
at any rate, if the message we're seeking follows ezra's familiar conventions, its meaning will be clear after three lines. however, i am beginning to think you may have a fourth key destination to visit before we fully understand what's coming. when you're done playing in Polynesia, Ana will have another set of coordinates for you. BEppo

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Subject: Hi Lex, Greetings from Cambodia!
Author: prjctmrc2sa (mission archeologist)

Click here to see how much I love you.

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Subject: RE: RE: Code to Decipher
Author: prjctmrc2sa (mission archeologist)

Beppo, as it has been several days since you promised info "soon," I can only interpret your silence as reluctance to share your knowledge out of security fears, etc. My team and I have just risked our lives trekking to the location you specified. As incredible as it may seem, we have found something that has either been undiscovered or overlooked by previous expeditions, perhaps because of the remoteness and treacherous surroundings of this location. Take a look at this and you'll understand the urgency.

Now I simply must know what you can tell me about the Honduras image I uploaded. It is my opinion we're dealing with warnings here, left by much wiser minds for us to find. If my suspicions are correct (and I sense you share them), security will be the least of our worries.

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Author: prjctmrc2ldr (LLuthor)
Subject: Message for Hancock

You weren't brought onto this project because I woke up one morning in a generous mood and said to myself, "I feel like subsidizing the research for Luke Hancock's next thesis paper." You were brought on to find answers. We need to know if Fine is who he says he is or if there is something much grander at work here. Beppo is pretty expensive for someone who, as yet, has not produced a single answer. Tick, tick goes the clock on that guy. There are world-renowned code crackers who don't work in basements in Smallville that can be gotten.

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Author: prjctmrc2shemi (Blue Team leader)

Blue team acknowledging your order, Ana. We will present our findings so far to you in person when we rendezvous on the way to Siberia. Be aware that this will negatively impact our work in the Queen Maud Land and surrounding areas. We are not sure how it is possible, given the other teams' reports, but Mercury was sighted here recently as well, apparently collecting surviving remnants from the Neuschwabenland campaign. As you know, our secondary mission was to move on and explore the regions described in the Piri Reis Adjunct provided by Mr. Luthor. Respectfully, this is an unfortunate interruption, but we will of course comply.

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