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Secret Agent Avia Jiutai seems to have solved the final puzzles of a mysterious old book. The Glass Key was a book published in 1985 by Hajim Rahal, Professor of Literature at Cairo University. The book was a collection of poems and paintings by Rayaan Chopra, which were said to provide clues to the location of eight buried treasures across the northern African continent. Only five had been discovered, three within the first few years of the book's publication, and two more in the mid 2000s. The remaining three treasures remain undiscovered, and with Rahal's still-unexplained death in 2004, all knowledge of their locations has been lost. Interest has waxed and waned on this puzzle, with a revival of interest in the late 2010s due to the book resurfacing on the internet. Agent Jiutai claimed to have finally solved these final three puzzles, thanks to collating the work of several hundred online treasure hunters and the use of special, obscure maps of African countries available only to government officials. The first of these three treasures is presumed destroyed, as all clues lead to it having been buried beneath what is now an office building. Search for the second has proved successful. Though it was badly damaged over the years, a treasure chest was found buried six feet under a now large fig tree in an Algerian national park. Jiutai's ability to find these final treasures points to a troubling mystery, as many clues within the poems seem only solvable with knowledge of maps showing the movements of classified unidentified flying objects recorded in the 1950s; as these maps are heavily guarded and are only available to the SIU, mystery surrounds Rahal's ability to use this information to craft his clues.


Secret Agent Gedat Rakkin has determined that Raphael St. Claire, 18th century explorer said to have helped discover much of the Oceanic islands, may have never existed in the first place. Conflicting information about the man's life has been known to exist for decades now, and was attributed to bad record keeping and the conflation of local legends, but evidence and stories surrounding this individual only unraveled more the more they were studied, according to Rakkin's report. The agent's investigation took him across the world: first to England, to investigate local newspapers from St. Claire's hometown; then to the coast of Brazil, to investigate a colony he evidently helped found; and finally to French Polynesia. The resulting web of strained connections between attributed sources and local legends informed Rakkin that this important historical figure, once featured on the €5 bill, was never real and his legend was a composite of at least three different explorers, none of whom had ever met. Depictions and multiple grave sites have proven this beyond a shadow of a doubt. The SIU is keeping this information covert for the time being and the Board of Directors is in discussion as to the implications on history this revelation may entail.


Senior Agent Wheaton Adams was sent to the midwestern American desert to investigate an unusually high number of ball lightening strikes: more accurately, a high number of unusual ball lightening. The rare low-atmosphere phenomena has been difficult to study but has been documented enough times to be reasonably understood, but the high frequency of their occurrence in this desolate American farm required the SIU to take notice, as did their apparent attempts at communication. The presence of thunder balls near crop circles is well known but, for the first time, Agent Adams has recorded evidence of the bright balls of light attempting written communication not through geometric patterns (as the Diquis Spheres of Costa Rica did) but with the written word. Digital footage, now safe within SIU storage, shows a thunder ball pressing close to the freshly painted wall of a barn, leaving letters shakily burnt into the paint over multiple manifestations. Investigation is ongoing and more agents have been sent to the site to discover the meaning and origin of this message. Extra urgency was declared as the word of this message became clear after multiple appearances of the same orb: "HELP."


Partially as punishment for her demotion (she knows what she did), Special Agent Cat Zirka was tasked to research a list of ghost ships still at large upon the world's oceans. Development in satellite surveillance has made unattended ships easier to discover and track (though not necessarily easier to retrieve), but there are still unexplained sightings of distant ships from oil rigs and docks. After meticulously notating and tracking the movement of unexplained sightings of ships over the past 50 years, Agent Zirka was able to track the course of three specific ships, one of which is said to be the size of an ocean liner. The agent then compared these routes to the migration patterns of aquatic life and has proposed that these ships may follow the movement of an endangered species of dolphin which was briefly thought to have gone extinct in the 1990s. An overseas mission was authorized where Zirka tracked down a ship in a small fishing boat. Her report states that a pod of these rare dolphins were pulling the boat through the water, apparently tethered by rope and long strands of seaweed. As weather swiftly turned for the worse, the agent was unable to study further. Future examinations of this bizarre behavior are scheduled.


EA-21 has been stolen, and Special Agent Chaz Gates has been tasked with its retrieval. This artifact, more commonly known as The Danube Man, has been in SIU storage for study ever since a 2034 incident in which a researcher at the William Pilgrim Research Center was found with his face having been entirely removed while in proximity to the small stone statue. The nature of the artifact's disappearance implies an inside job within the SIU, as there was no forced entry and no sightings of unauthorized personnel: the statue has simply vanished between monthly inventory checks. A vague paper trail, and some circumstantial evidence, lead Agent Gates to a warehouse in Iraq, where a group of cultists had set up the small statue on a ceremonial altar. One by one, they voluntarily stood by EA-21 until the curse took effect and they were rendered faceless. Gates was discovered by cultists before reinforcements could arrived, and nearly met a faceless fate while forced into proximity with the statue, before the building suddenly lost power and the agent was able to escape with the statue in hand. The cultists were safely apprehended as secret police reinforcements arrived, and Agent Gates was able to return EA-21 safely and without any ill effects. Most troubling for her, however, was the apparent source of the blackout: while leaving the area, the agent reports that in the distance, she may have caught a brief glimpse of a copy of herself disappearing into the dense urban landscape of the local city.


Special Agent Arukino has reported that his childhood imaginary friend has returned and with violent consequences. While out on a romantic outing (which, we will remind SIU personnel, is not a valid use of sick days), the restaurant at which the agent and his partner for the evening sat was assaulted by strange events of flickering lights and destroyed property, not unlike the poltergeist events surrounding Agent Neo. While investigating the chaos further, Agent Arukino caught a glimpse in the mirror of a tall, colorful figure. The agent explained that this figure was one he had imagined as a child, frequently drew and treated as a friend: a fact corroborated by the SIU files on the agent's life and pictures he drew as a child that were recovered. Days later, the apparition appeared in sight of Agent Arukino and several other SIU agents in a pane glass window before it shattered, seemingly without cause. Arukino is currently undergoing medical evaluation as to ascertain the origin of these disturbances.


Special Agent Kouroth has discovered the gruesome fate of the crew of an experimental ship from the 1940s. This ship, meant to test a radical new device that promised invisibility, disappeared without a trace for decades, making only brief, ephemeral appearances near docks, often terrifying the locals. The ship was finally discovered, empty but sunk, near the antarctic, but the mystery had persisted, until now, about the fate of its crew as no bodies were ever found on the wreck. Agent Kouroth bore this fact in mind when studying the results of recent satellite imagery focused on ancient ruins recently found in the Himalayan mountains. Several tiny, strange anomalous readings were discovered within the mountain itself. Set within solid stone was a large cavern of an artificial shape, bearing a resemblance to a large warship. Kouroth set out to investigate this opening, with the Chinese government cooperating in drilling into the mountainside. Found within this cavern were bodies: easily identified as the crew of the unnamed, experimental ship. Many were determined to have been dead upon arrival, though at least one shows signs of having survived the teleportation, only to be left alone in the inescapable tomb. Other crew members were found embedded partially, or almost wholly, in the walls of the caverns, with stone integrated into their skin, organs, and bones. It became clear that the ship's invisibility experiment resulted in teleportation instead, and some crew members had been teleported directly into the stone. It is presumed, but not with full certainty, that instant death was the result.


Special Agent Neo made progress on his research of what he calls "mirror people". Numerous entries in folk lore and myth speak of mysterious figures in mirrors and, although this is most commonly dismissed as simple legend, a small section of people have, for ages, insisted that beings exist only within mirrors. Agent Neo took this theory seriously and has spent the past several months researching mirrors with advanced spectrum analysis. Recent results are startling: in very specific, narrow bands of low-spectrum frequency, pockets of energy can be detected from just the right angle. The agent developed a uniquely built device for this spectrum and evidence suggests that figures, or at least movement, may be present in this frequency, seen only through surfaces of high enough reflectivity index. Research is ongoing as Neo continues to develop devices for detecting these movements and special mirrors to better reflect certain wavelengths. The agent has requested assistance, however, as he reports that the further he studies this phenomena, the more incidents of strange movements in mirrors he sees, even outside of laboratory conditions.
 

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