Drake's First Message

I entered the password into the PDA using the stylus that came with the device, careful to type out the five letter word that was the name of ‘my’ project--Omega.

When the password took, a single MP3 audio file was revelaed. I clicked on it, activating the file. I steeled myself, suspecting that his voice would be the next thing I heard. I was right.

“Congratulations Rusty. You have shown yourself to be a resourceful and dedicated foe. I cannot tell you how glad I am that you have gotten this far. I know now that I have succeeded beyond my expectations with the Omega Project.” His voice broke into a brief cackle of satisfaction.

He brought his voice back under control, restarting his narrative. “You will want to keep this device after this message concludes because I have taken great pains to detail many of my most valuable secrets within it, secrets that you will not be able to discover anywhere else, but secrets that are vitally important for you to truly discover who I am and why I have done the things I have done.”

At this point, I was ready to terminate the damn message and destroy this tool that he had created, but I gritted my teeth and figured I would let the bastards voice drone on for just a bit longer...

“I know you you will not want to believe me at this point. I know that you are holding a terrible grudge against me for the things that I have done to you and your family. But I also know you too well Rusty, I know that you are too good an investigator to casually throw away the answers that you may find here, to throw away the key to your own revenge.”

Well, he was right on that point. I decided to keep listening for now, if for nothing else than to get a clue to where he might have gone after the battle.

“So, now that you will have decided to keep listening, let me tell you something you may have surmised as a result of our battles to date: I have found my own form of immortality. You may have found a way to defeat me temporarily in our most recent battle, but you will not have slain me. How do I know this? That is a secret that I am not yet ready divulge. Suffice it to say that I cannot be slain by any method that you or your allies will have thought to be prepared for at this point.

“My immortality is not without a price however, a price that to many would be too high to pay, which is why I have been looking for other ways to achieve this goal for others. The process that was used to create you was just one such way that I have tried over the uncounted years of my quest to save humanity from the greatest curse of our existence...the curse of our own mortality.”

Holy shit, I knew this bastard was crazy, but I had no idea he was this unhinged! I couldn’t stop the damn recording now, so I continued to listen to his ramblings.

“Now, I know that you have cast me into the role of a villain, a role that I am very familiar with over the years. I have no illusions that I can persuade you otherwise with any sort of recording. So I have decided to present you with a challenge, a puzzle if you will. I will let you come to your own conclusions about who and what I truly am, but you will receive the pieces to that puzzle one at a time. Consider it my challenge to you. Are you willing and able to meet my challenge, to beat me at my own game? If you do, the rewards of such a victory will be beyond your wildest dreams. If you can’t, or won’t meet this challenge, then I will be free to continue my own quest unhindered for a better foe, for a better pupil, for immortality to any who wish it.”

Son of a bitch. He is certifiably crazy. But what the Hell? If I take up his damn challenge, I am playing right into his damn hands, allowing him to lead me where he wants me to go. If I don’t take up his damn challlenge, he’s gonna continue fucking with people like he did with me and Greg and all the rest of the guys on our team.

“If you decide to take me up on my challenge, here is your first clue. In order to unlock the next piece of my puzzle, you will need to find out the identity of one of my prior students. The next password is the date of his death.

“The student to which I refer is rather famous. He was an adviser to a Court, a healer of no small skill, revered by many, but feared and reviled by a key few. He was widely known to be both a man of the cloth and of the flesh. He started with nothing in this life, but through my teachings reached the highest circles in his society. His death was easy to arrange, but extremely difficult to accomplish. His death was necessary to save the Realm, but in fact hastened it’s demise. He died less than a hundred years ago, yet it is still talked about.”

Great, I hate riddles.

“The sooner you solve this riddle, the sooner you will find the next piece of the puzzle.”

With that the recording stopped. Once it did, a second password screen came up blinking at me, daring me to take up the bastards challenge.

OK readers, help me out, I was a cop, not a damn history major. If anyone knows who the Hell this riddle refers to, it would be very much appreciated.