By Adam Scott Glancy, ©1997.
DATE: February 13-17, 1995
AGENTS: Tobias, Joshua, Gregor, and Gabriel
SUMMARY: Investigation of the disappearance of an assistant King County Medical Examiner; discovery of a previously unknown cult.
CASE STATUS: Open.
On February 12, 1995 an unidentified armed robber was killed trying to steal a supply of morphine from a Jamaican “Posse.” This armed robber and his three companions apparently came to buy the morphine, but the deal fell through and a gun battle ensued. The three Jamaicans were shot dead, the unidentified robber killed, and the morphine stolen again. The robber, designated John Doe #49, was left behind when the arrival of local law enforcement forced his companions to make a quick escape.
During the autopsy of John Doe #49, King County Assistant Medical Examiner Joan Hardiman discovered an extremely large tape worm-like organism inside his lower intestine. The worm, severely damaged by gunfire, was quite dead. It measured one meter in length and approximately 20 centimeters in circumference. Dissection of the worm showed it to be hermaphroditic and able to reproduce at will, although the sex organs of the one recovered were dormant. The worm was still in larval form. Introduction of the organism into its host appears to have been through the anus.
Assistant ME Hardiman made contact with a Delta Green agent at the Seattle DEA office and a task force was quickly mobilized. Before the Task force arrived on February 13th, however, Hardiman was kidnapped, her office ransacked and the autopsy report, the photos, the cadavers of both the cultist and the worm were stolen.
A search of Hardiman’s home turned up a pair of men ransacking the house, apparently attempting to either to steal or destroy evidence. Agents Gabriel and Gregor were forced to defend themselves and both the intruders died in the shootout. A back-up audio tape of the autopsy was recovered by Agent Tobias from Hardiman’s home.
The two dead men were autopsied by a Delta Green “friendly” team of doctors from USAMRIID under extreme biohazard conditions. A living worm was recovered from each corpse. The worms’ hosts were not identified. Both were white males, apparently no older than thirty years of age. Their bodies were covered with delicate and complicated tattoos, ritual scars and body piercing. They also showed signs of extremely poor dental care and malnutrition.
After a detailed dissection of one worm, and the introduction of the other into a bovine host, the Delta Green agents learned several details of the worm’s biology. The worms are symbionts that live inside their host’s digestive track. They consume huge amounts of nutrients, requiring the host has to gorge himself to keep from dying of malnutrition. The worm’s presence is also excruciatingly painful. The hosts must be kept saturated with powerful pain killers or they spend their days lying on the floor writhing and screaming in agony. But the worms do provide a benefit to the host. The worms’ excreted waste products act as an anagathic agent. That is, it completely halts the host’s aging process on a cellular level. Thanks to the worms infesting their bodies, the hosts are immune from the effects of old age, although they could certainly die from physical trauma, disease, or starvation.
While the Delta Green Team was attempting to ascertain the identities of the two hosts, Asst. ME Hardiman reappeared. She called the Seattle P.D. from a pay-phone at a rest stop south of the Olympic National Forrest . She was screaming and crying hysterically about how “they” put something inside her and that she had to “get it out.” She then screamed “My God! I can feel it moving!” and dropped the receiver. The call was traced, but by the time police and emergency services had arrived on the scene, Asst. ME Hardiman had smashed out the glass of the phone booth she was in and used the broken glass to disembowel herself in an attempt to kill the worm inside her. In that, she succeeded, but she also mortally wounded herself. She died of shock and blood loss shortly after the emergency medical technicians arrived. Before she died, she kept repeating “their mother’s in the pool . . . their mother’s in the pool.” The dead worm has been recovered and secured.
Judging from the bruised and cut condition of Hardiman’s bare feet, she has gotten to where she was found by running through a wooded area. The team made a quick survey of the local area and found an abandoned health Spa located within two miles of the payphone Hardiman had used. The Spa had an Olympic sized swimming pool. The Delta Green team immediately lead a local law enforcement SWAT team against the abandoned spa, but its occupants had hastily abandoned the complex less than an hour earlier. Based on the personal effects found and the number of rooms, it is estimated that as many as 40 people had lived in the health spa for decades. The team found seven vehicles parked on the property, and a 30’ sailboat moored at an adjacent dock. No vehicle track could be found leaving the grounds. Tracker dogs were brought in, but the scent trails detected led into the drained swimming pool inside the health spa. Suspecting a secret passage, jackhammers were employed to excavate the swimming pool. No such passage was found.
There was also a central ceremony chamber, decorated with murals and sculptures depicting the activities of this organization. The central chamber was crowned by something that looked like a gynecological examination table, except that it was designed so that whoever lay upon it had to lie on their stomach. There was also an unpleasant looking “chute” or gutter, angled down towards the table, that ended right between the “exam tables” leg stirrups.
No “official” organization writings were found, although numerous personal writing of the various members were. The membership refereed to their organization as “The Initiates of the Worm.” There are multiple references made to something called “the Worm Mother,” and to “the mysteries of the worm.” Photographs and personal effects recovered by the agents date from no more recently than 1934.
All Delta Green Friendlies, Active and Inactive Cell members are asked to immediately pass along any reported thefts of medical-quality pain killers and anesthetics to Agent “Joshua Green.”
