The TARN Conspiracy

Appendix 1A: Who is Ray Abramov?

Note from the Editors

The following text files are of special significance to this project as they relate to Mr. Ray Abramov, retired technical writer for TARN Defense Industries. Mr. Abramov is an illusive figure in the Archangel community to say the least. In the course of interviewing various persons in and around Archangel for this project, we discovered that very few have even heard of Mr. Abramov, and much less are able to describe him. Few of those who are aware of his existence and his role at TARN were willing to discuss him, and of those fewer still had actually ever seen him in person. Despite this apparent lack of primary source material about Mr. Abramov, we were able to infer some details about him from secondary sources. He is described as being of above average height, with black, mid-length hair, and very fair skin. We respect to his age, Mr. Abramov has been described as being in his mid to late 40s, however we consider this description of his age problematic for reasons that will become apparent.

The first text file is a short passage that was published in the Journal of Occult Theology, a now defunct academic journal which, even at the height of its success, had a typical circulation of only 100 to 200 copies per edition. As such, very few copies of this edition of the journal still exist, and those that do are held by private collectors who were unwilling to give us access for this project. It seems that Mr. Abramov's early writing is a very sought after commodity–a strange feat for someone with no major publications to his name. Thankfully, we were able to find this excerpt from the larger article on an academic database, though it appears that the article disappeared from the website shortly after we accessed it.

The second and third pieces, which are at their most revelatory when considered in the context of each other, deal with Mr. Abramov in a more indirect fashion. The first is a portion of the infamous Strategic Forge document whose existence was popularized by Thomas Novak through the Liberty's Call YouTube channel. It was also referenced by Mr. Jones and Mr. O'Connor in the course of their investigation. The excerpt of the document included here deals specifically with TARN's research into gene therapy as a means of "regenerating bone, muscle, and neural tissue". The series of experiments, dubbed PROJECT PENANCE, were conducted on inmates in exchange for reduced sentences at the Smoky Mountain Correctional Facility, a privately-run prison just outside of Johnson City, Tennessee. While we can only speculate as to what potential applications TARN hoped to achieve with this research, the importance of said research becomes readily apparent when considered in the context of the third document in question.

From the years 1912 to 1950, Archangel played home to two separate news periodicals: the Archangel Chronicle, and the Archangel Herald. The latter is still in print, and is even mentioned heavily throughout these appendices, while the former shut its doors after its offices were razed by a fire in November of 1950. However, while in print, the Chronicle concerned itself with the "most eligible and handsome bachelors" of Archangel as they came and went from town. One might even think of it as the early equivalent of a tabloid, the sort of periodical that town busybodies might peruse so as to stay current on what their fellow residents were getting up to, though in a much more innocent sense than the gossip periodicals of today.

In the October 25, 1950 issue of the Chronicle, there is mention of a young man by the name of Raymond Abramov arriving in Archangel. The Abramov in question was described as, "a striking young man–tall, pale, his skin just a shade brighter than African ivory and his hair an inky black...I say, if any of our town's young women fancy a Transylvanian Count, then they have never struck so much pay dirt." The article's author, Malachi Donner, writing under the pseudonym of Miss Belle Vue, went on to describe this Mr. Ray Abramov checking in to the Lakeside Hotel late at night, before speculating that Mr. Abramov had come to Archangel to work at the Navy War Research Center, a facility that is thought by some historians to be an early predecessor of TARN Defense Industries. It is unclear how Mr. Donner came to learn of these details about Mr. Abramov, but it seems very likely that publicizing those details led to the former's eventual demise.

Approximately one week after the publication of the article, a fire broke out in the main offices of the Chronicle. The Chronicle's owner and editor Sam Simpson, as well Malachi Donner, the author of the article in question, both perished in the fire. No cause was ever identified for the fire, though reports from the Archangel County Fire Marshall heavily leaned toward arson as a plausible cause. While an article such as this may seem innocent when viewed through the lenses of our modern sensibilities, words like this were downright scandalous for the time. As such, we believed that the possibility of arson as retribution for such an article should be seriously considered.

The obvious question posed by this article's contents is whether the Ray Abramov mentioned throughout Brandon and Sean's recorded research is related in any way to the Ray Abramov of the 1950 article in the Archangel Chronicle. Here, our editorial staff are of two minds. Some posit that he may be an older male relative to our Ray–perhaps a father or an uncle. Others on our staff have suggested the more logically challenging idea that the Ray Abramov of the Chronicle article is one and the same with the Ray Abramov of Brandon and Sean's work. We think this latter theory, while interesting, is unlikely. As mentioned above, those who have seen the current Mr. Abramov describe his age as falling somewhere in his mid-late 40s. Presuming he was at most 49 years old, the earliest date he could have been born was in 1970. The math, we are afraid, just does not add up.

Throughout the course of their investigation, Mr. Abramov becomes the focus of Sean and Brandon's efforts to discover more about TARN's activities. As very little is known about Mr. Abramov, our hope is that including these excerpts may provide some insight for you, the reader, into Mr. Abramov's history and character, though we recognize that it may result in you having even more questions than before. We know that it did for us.