◆ About Mara Vane
Mara Vane did not set out to cover the paranormal. She set out to cover institutional corruption, environmental cover-ups, and the kind of slow-moving municipal wrongdoing that takes three years to document and thirty seconds to dismiss. She was, by all accounts, very good at it.
The problem was the patterns. Mara notices patterns the way other people notice weather — instinctively, constantly, and usually slightly before anyone else thinks to look up. It was this tendency that led her, during an otherwise routine investigation into illegal dumping near a wildlife reserve in northern Idaho, to notice that seven seemingly unrelated incidents across four counties over eighteen months formed a near-perfect circle on a map. At the centre of the circle was an abandoned radio tower. At the base of the tower was a symbol she has not been able to identify to this day, though she has filled two notebooks trying.
She called What The Cryptid? the following morning. She has been with the network for nine years. In that time Mara has filed reports from restricted forest areas, decommissioned military installations, three locations that do not appear on any current map, and a roadside diner in rural New Mexico where she maintains the pie is extraordinary and the staff have not aged since 1987.
Three times she has filed location reports from areas that were subsequently declared restricted by federal authorities within forty-eight hours of broadcast. Authorities have described this as coincidence on each occasion. Mara has described it as a pattern. She has not yet been proven wrong.
She carries three notebooks at all times. The first contains active case notes in a compressed shorthand no one else can decode. The second contains cross-reference material. The third has a small combination lock on it. She describes its contents as "ongoing." Hal Ridgeway has asked about it twice. She said "it's nothing" both times. This is the only thing she has ever said that nobody at WTCNN believes.
◆ Field Records ◆
Active Files & Ongoing Investigations
The following matters are documented in WTCNN field records. Some are also documented elsewhere. Authorities have described each as unrelated to the others.
Origin File · Idaho · 2017
The Idaho Circle
Seven unrelated incidents across four Idaho counties over eighteen months, plotted on a map, forming a near-perfect circle with an abandoned radio tower at the centre. At the base of the tower, a symbol. Mara has filled two notebooks attempting to identify it. The tower was demolished by the relevant county authority in 2021 without notice or public record. The symbol is in her second notebook. She has not published it.
Symbol Unpublished. Waiting.
Active File · Road 2840 · Ongoing
Forest Service Road 2840
An unmarked fire access road approximately sixty-four miles east of Pendleton. Not on current Forest Service maps. Mara has driven it eleven times. On four occasions her vehicle's electronics behaved abnormally within a quarter mile of milepost 47. On two occasions she recorded what she believes to be infrasound. On one occasion she found markings on a felled tree that cross-referenced against six separate databases without result. She has not broadcast any of this. She is waiting.
Milepost 47. Waiting.
Active File · Classified × 3
The Forty-Eight Hour Window
Three times Mara has filed location reports from areas subsequently declared restricted by federal authorities within forty-eight hours of broadcast. She maintains a running document cross-referencing these events. Authorities have described each as coincidence. This is noted in the document. Agent Harland Brue of the EPA has told Mara the incidents are unrelated approximately forty times across seven separate investigations. He continues to answer when she calls.
Pattern Documented.
Active File · Locked
The Third Notebook
Locked. Combination unknown to anyone at WTCNN. In Mara's possession for four years. Contents described as "ongoing." Hal Ridgeway has asked about it twice. She said "it's nothing" both times. Dana Bright once described it on air, without prompting, as "the notebook that probably explains everything," then moved to the weather. Nobody has explained why Dana said this.
Locked. It's Nothing.
Active File · Greg · Working Hypothesis
Greg: Current Working Hypothesis
A six-page section in Mara's first notebook. Includes a timeline of Greg's absences, a map of locations he was assigned to immediately before each absence, and a list of three events that correlate with his absence windows. The hypothesis is not explicitly stated in the section. The section ends with a single asterisk.
Six Pages. One Asterisk.
Field File · 2021 · Harker Creek, OR
The Worst Tuesday
A quarter mile of state highway shifted fourteen feet to the left overnight without corresponding ground disruption. Mara filed for three days from a motel where the television turned itself on at 2am displaying a channel not in the regional package. She describes it as "a moderately complicated week." The highway has continued to shift at approximately three inches per year since. This has not been covered by any outlet. Including WTCNN. She notes this is exactly the sort of thing that shouldn't stop being covered.
Shift Ongoing. Uncovered.
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◆ Editorial Note — Internal Use Only
The Thing She's Wrong About
Mara believes that the events she covers are connected — that they form a pattern that, once complete, will be legible and explicable by ordinary investigative means. She is correct that the events are connected and incorrect about the legibility part. Her methodology is rigorous and her conclusions are reached honestly, but the thing connecting the incidents is not something that will yield to cross-referencing and county archives. Dana Bright appears to possess information relevant to this and has been trying to share it with Mara indirectly for approximately two years. Mara keeps interpreting these overtures as Dana being supportive. This has not yet caused anything expensive to be destroyed, but Mara is closing in on milepost 47 and the timeline has been updated.
