<span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 15pt;">The Company Pamphlet</span></span><br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 11pt;">Introduction</span></strong><br/><br/>The Orpheus Group is a privately held company specializing in contact with the souls of the recently deceased. The Orpheus Group first swept into the public's attention following the broad collapse of the United States' information economy. Unlike scam artists and local fly-by-night operations, Orpheus Group had measurable, repeatable success in contacting the dead. The group first entered the public spotlight upon recovering a password protected US$100M worth of a chemical company's assets after a network engineer suffered a heart attack less than an hour after changing that password. Desperate for a success story, business reporters from all-news television, business magazines, and even the Wall Street Journal descended on the Orpheus Group and its charismatic CEO, Jack Tilton, playing them first as a novelty segment. Then, as they dug deeper, Orpheus Group became a true success story and a scientific phenomenon.<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 11pt;">Mission Statement</span></strong><br/><br/>Orpheus Group is a customer-driven, profit-focused company with a unique opportunity to expand into a previously untapped marketplace. We base our activities on a four-point strategy articulated by our CEO, Jack Tilton:<br/><br/>- Our people are our uniquely talented greatest resource.<br/>- Invest only for real returns; this is no carnival.<br/>- Attend to our customers' needs and their loved ones' unfinished business efficiently and professionally.<br/>- Explore this strange new experience scientifically and carefully.<br/><br/>We take our responsibility to the bereaved and to the recently departed seriously. Every Orpheus Group representative adheres to a strict code of conduct, ensuring our clients receive a respectful and professional experience. You will not find Orpheus Group commercials on late night cable television, nor Orpheus Group sponsorship of sporting events, no matter how large we grow.<br/><br/>Orpheus group employs some of the world's leading researchers in physics, cosmology, psychiatry and psychology, and periodically consults with religious officials from across the globe. We are the primary sponsor of the upcoming World Conference on the Afterlife in Breda, The Netherlands.<br/><br/>With all that said, we are a nationwide for-profit corporation, not a funeral home. We don't dress our consultants in black suits or play organ music in the offices. Per the second point in our strategy statement, this is no carnival, and it is not a charity. Orpheus Group provides a unique service in the world, and we are the leading corporation in our market space.<br/><br/><strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 11pt;">History</span></strong><br/><br/>The Orpheus Group has always been an ambitious organization. Starting from its founding by engineer Bob Jackson and physician Anne Del Greco in 1986, Orpheus Group set out to redefine the way society manages human life and livelihoods.<br/><br/>In those early days, Jackson and Del Greco believed passionately that medical science was on the verge of multiple breakthroughs - the sorts of breakthroughs we see today, with human genetic engineering well along the way to common implementation. Microscopically precise laser surgery allows for previously impossible surgical tasks, and the unlimited promise of stem cell research lays before us. Jackson and Del Greco realized those days were coming and they wanted to provide a unique service: Together, they knew several terminally ill, wealthy individuals who shared the same optimism about medical science.<br/><br/>Jackson and Del Greco undertook their first cryogenics project while moonlighting from their day jobs. Neither could afford devoting their full energies to human cryogenics in those early days, and they used their most eager potential client, Jane Kennedy, as something of a guinea pig. Kennedy, only 37, was suffering from several then-untreatable tumors, but she had robust enough personal assets to provide startup funding for Jackson and Del Greco's early activity under the corporate name JDG Cryogenics. Kennedy was also an adherent of Eastern religion, a viewpoint she says prepared her to accept some important experiences that were yet to come.<br/><br/>Amazingly, five years after Jane Kennedy became JDG Cryogenics' first customer, surgical techniques advanced to the point where her tumors were no longer inoperable. Del Greco scheduled Kennedy's emergence from cryogenic suspension to occur simultaneously with her laparoscopic surgery, engaging some of the finest oncologists in North America.<br/><br/>Kennedy survived, as you may know, and upon her full recovery became one of JDG Cryogencis' greatest supporters. Less well known is the extent to which Jackson and Del Greco relied on Kennedy's trusts to keep JDG Cryogenics operational. When Kennedy emerged from suspended storage, she found herself the owner of a full 25% of JDG Cryogenics, and saw the great possibility of things to come.<br/><br/>Jane Kennedy, as her book<em>The Other Side?</em>describes, was more aware of her environment than she expected to be while cryogencially suspended. The flavor of her frozen coma ebbed and flowed over time, and in at least three incidents, she recalls leaving her body and witnessing the world we know as it changed over the five years of her suspended animation. Kennedy saw and interacted with ghosts while "projecting" and also eavesdropped on conversations throughout the city. When she became conscious, she provided convincing evidence of having witnessed these conversations, often providing details that even the original participants had forgotten about.<br/><br/>Jane Kennedy was not the only patient to emerge and find themselves with an equity stake. Within seven years after JDG Cryogenics' founding, four others emerged from cryogenic suspension with shares of stock in place of the money they expected to have held in trust. This group - including heart disease survivor George Oliver - hardly acted with a single mind, but they now owned more of the company than did Jackson and Del Greco.<br/><br/>Jane Kennedy convinced the rest of the Board that cryogenics alone would not provide a profit center for this company. She was not the only cryosleep subject who experienced strange hallucinations and astral projection while unconscious, and Kennedy, along with Anne Del Greco was sure that Kennedy's experiences could somehow generate revenue. With a stroke of the pen, JDG Cryogenics became the Orpheus Group in 1994, named for the Greek mythological character who entered the realm of the dead to free his deceased wife, Eurydice, from torment. Orpheus Group launched a broad and deep study of the afterlife, of post-life entities, and of the precise chemical cocktail enabling them to project their consciousness out into the world while metabolically near death.<br/><br/>We would be remiss if we did not mention the interest, even at this early date, that the United States Federal Government took in the Orpheus Group. When issues of national security are at stake, Orpheus Group is front and center in performing its duty to our country. To the early Orpheus Executive Leadership Team's surprise, the National Security Agency and other groups did not demand a shutdown of the company's activities or any similar government interference in the free market process. Instead, the US Government retains a courtesy seat on the Orpheus Group Board of Directors.<br/><br/>Tragedy struck the Orpheus Group in 1996, with the untimely death of co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Bob Jackson. Jackson, then in his early fifties, suffered a heart attack, leaving the Orpheus Group rudderless and without direction. The days after Bob Jackson's death were difficult for everyone involved with Orpheus Group; for a time it appeared that the lack of new business, combined with new regulatory difficulties with the Food and Drug Administration, might scuttle the company entirely. Chairman of the Board George Oliver stepped in as Acting CEO while the company searched for a new captain of the ship.<br/><br/>George Oliver continued functioning as acting CEO for almost two full years, until the Board authorized the hiring of Jack Tilton, an energetic young executive from the steel industry, to take Orpheus' helm. Tilton immediately changed Orpheus' direction, bringing in talented executives from many industries to fill key management positions.<br/><br/>Tilton also took a leadership role in a previously understated position. Until 1998, Orpheus had kept below the radar in terms of public relations. The company's services were only affordable by the very wealthy, and  Orpheus management had previously been ambivalent about the market value of its post-life projection technology. Tilton turned all this around. He undertook a crusade to raise the company's public image, to make its activities clear to anyone who asked, and he directed Orpheus' scientific staff to publish rigorous papers describing the company's activities and hypotheses around post-life technology.<br/><br/>The mainstream science establishment and press heaped skepticism and even scorn on these early publications, but Orpheus Group persisted, and has since issued continued documented proof to major scientific journals. By 2000, at least two other ventures were formed on the basis of Orpheus' theoretical groundings, and we expected that in two y ears, post-life technology will become its own unique sector of the economy.<br/><br/>In the years since Jack Tilton raised Orpheus Group's visibility, our goal has been to refine post-life technology. Our enterprise for doing so has been Project Echo, the secret process by which we train and prepare extraordinary people to project their consciousness onto a higher plane, where they can sense and interact with ghosts. These people function as our Investigative Consultants, and they help to resolve mysteries and ghostly infestations that no one else can handle.<br/><br/>Orpheus Group has been profitable since 1998 and remains a trailblazer in its market sector. Gartner Group, GIGA and Forrester Research all rate Orpheus Group among the market leaders in whichever industry area they choose to categorize us. For more information about Orpheus Group, or to engage our services, please contact a Customer Service Representative.<br/><br/><hr/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 15pt;">The Structure of Orpheus</span></span><br/><br/>Orpheus Group is a full-blown corporation that operates completely in-house. You are part of the Investigate Consultants, the professionals that do the work of the missions. Each assignment has a<strong>Project Leader</strong>that guides the team of Investigative Consultants, or ICs. Many Project Leaders work behind the scenes from the office, rather than get involved in the field. It's the<strong>Lead Investigator's</strong>job to head up the team in the field and help them learn the ropes. They're sometimes the Project Leader as well.<br/><br/>Orpheus maintains a dedicated<strong>Training Team</strong>to train new recruits and provide expertise and research information. As a new recruit, you were trained by the Training Team. Since Orpheus recruits from a very broad pool, the Team trains new recruits in any of the following they aren't already skilled in or knowledgeable with:<br/><br/>Psychology<br/>Basic Physics<br/>Electromagnetism<br/>Life Sciences<br/>Sociology<br/>Philosophy of Life and Death<br/>Comparative Religion<br/>Introductory Business Communications<br/><br/>ICs who are going to do work in the field are also trained in basic physical training and self-defense. ICs may also receive firearms certification and private detective license certification.<br/><br/>Orpheus Group also has other organizations, as appropriate for a corporation of its size. It maintains a Public Affairs organization, an Information Technology organization, an Engineering organization, a Life Sciences organization, an Accounting and Finance organization, and a People Services organization (Orpheus' version of Human Resources).<br/><br/>You get your pay from the People Services, and they may have offered you very nice benefits; they also mediate disputes and problems within the ICs and other teams and run the Internal Security services. Life Sciences tend to your wounds if you're a skimmer, or take care of the cryogenic process if you're a sleeper (monitoring the "cradles" that hold the flatlined bodies of sleepers who are projecting).<br/><br/>Engineering works on the technology that fuels Orpheus' operations. The rest is just as direct as it sounds.<br/><br/>All of this is kept in one building, with private parking for employees, dormitory rooms for new recruits that are in their training phase, well-kept grounds and outdoor recreation facilities, and indoor training facilities.<br/><br/>As ICs, at the graduation of your training program, where you learn how to project and use your powers, known as "Horrors" amongst the veteran ICs, Orpheus assigns you to a "Crucible." Crucibles are groups of ICs that work together in the long-term, providing a complementary set of powers, skills, talents, and knowledges. Orpheus psychologists carefully assemble the group, choosing the members based on personalities as well as paranormal powers, to produce an effective, functioning team of agents. Of course, there may occasionally be emergencies when Orpheus needs a particular set of talents for an important mission at short notice (or when a particular agent loses his team from attrition or due to general complaint), and is assigned elsewhere.<br/><br/>The most important part of being in a Crucible, aside from working together effectively and efficiently through teamwork and practice, is that crucibles can learn how to use their powers in tandem and to share Vitality. This frequently creates strong connections inside the crucible; the more Orpheus operatives work on sharing this link, the better their talents work in proximity to each other. An effective crucible is far more than the sum of its parts.<br/><br/><hr/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 15pt;">A Lesson on Crucibles and Bonds</span></span><br/><br/>Ilona: "Think of them as your team and soon to be family. It's unavoidable, so get used to it. Crucible members can share Vitality, which we already talked about, but that sharing also develops a strong bond between you and your teammates. What sort of bond? Heh, you have no idea. The bond isn't some mind-control thing, but it does allow you to understand your teammates and how they plan on using their Horrors. It's the exact same thing that happens with military units when they each have a role and know exactly how their buddy's going to respond. Exactly the same here. When someone is about to use their power, you automatically have a way of helping them out, increasing their effect, or the range, duration, whatever. It's all part of an effective crucible.<br/><br/>Everyone, this is Ted Verge, a member of my crucible. He's kindly volunteered to assist me in this demonstration. Everybody say, "Hi, Ted." Now, Ted's going to use the basic Poltergeist power to toss these cans at the ceiling. I will be using the Inhabit technique to put a time delay on his Horror, allowing both of us to get out from underneath the resulting shower of aluminum. Watch what we do; you should be able to see the powers combine and take effect. Ready? One, two, three.<br/><br/>There, did you catch that? Now, dodging a bunch of empty cans isn't particularly useful, but I'm sure all of you are smart enough to see some of the other possibilities. Working together, you and your crucible can make your Horrors last longer, hit harder, cut cleaner. When you get yourselves into a real jam, you'll get out together, or not at all.<br/><br/>Now, did you notice anything else about how that worked? It looks pretty intimate, doesn't it? Now watch this carefully. Ted, hit me with a little juice. Aww yeah, you always do that so nice. Now I see that some of you look shocked - some of you even looked away. My life energy, Ted's life energy, all melded together, ebbing and flowing back and forth. It doesn't get much more intimate than that. It's the kind of close bond you've probably only ever had with a lover. I like to say that the experience is about right in the middle between an intense mutual orgasm, and finishing a complex jigsaw puzzle together.<br/><br/>Some of you are laughing. And some of you are panicking - I can see your thoughts now, "But I don't even like most of these people!" Start looking for good qualities in everybody, because once you're assigned to a crucible, your lives are in each others hands. Skimmers, get used to giving yourselves away, and sleepers, get used to taking it. You'll need to constantly monitor your well-being to keep your crucible in peak operating condition, and to keep each other alive.<br/><br/>That's all for today. Spend tonight getting very comfortable with the idea of sharing - crucible assignments will be distributed tomorrow."<br/><br/><hr/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 15pt;">Public Opinion of Orpheus</span></span><br/><br/>Despite Orpheus' general secrecy about the precise details of what it does, there's been more people noticing things going on lately. Increased "paranormal phenomena" or simply "manifestations of the supernatural" are growing in frequency. Pigment is becoming more common on the streets. Strange late-night broadcasts are alarming stay-at-homes who just want a quiet evening with some beer and an action movie. Of course, not everyone has the same idea of what's happening (or what to do about it), and even fewer people have any inkling of the truth Orpheus shields from them.<br/><br/>For the sake of public morale and general sanity, this is a good, good thing. Imagine the panic of the average man in the streets knew what ghosts could do to him, or that Spectres exist, or the capabilities of our agents.<br/><br/>This doesn't mean the public sees the Orpheus Group with any particular suspicion. People generally give us the same degree of belief as Nigerian bank email scams, televangelists and used car salesman. If anything, the regular primetime broadcasts means the public is<em>more</em>likely to see us as a shameless attempt to cash in on current beliefs, albeit a popular attempt with the same following as trashy daytime talk shows. I never thought I'd be grateful for the cynicism of the American Public, but I am.<br/><br/>The newspapers exploit any supernatural incidents in the classic ways. Serious papers ignore the whole topic, or write it up as public hysteria, with occasional columns by psychologists or sociologists about the recent wave of "ghost sightings." Tabloids and Sunday magazines publish double-page spreads with blurred photographs, eyewitness accounts and testimony from "experts int he occult." They do realize, however, that they need something better than this to maintain public interest and sell more papers, so they're looking for evidence. Any Orpheus members who talk too loudly near a reporter will probably find themselves hounded for a statement. Hopefully the screenings and briefings should teach our operatives not to be this stupid, but we both know people are morons. This also increases the probability that really far-out commentary will actually reach publication, rather than simply being thrown out when it hits the editor's desk. That story about "The Virgin Mary Possessed My Telephone and Ran Up My Phone Bill" might get through, while the Haunter who inspired it had better hope that the photo of her isn't recognizable.<br/><br/>Television, on the other hand, seized on the whole question of ghosts and the supernatural like flies on honey. You've probably already seen some of the new television programs springing up to discuss, debate, or profit from the issue. The Networks are already working on formats for reality TV shows set in haunted houses. Any of our compromised operatives, known to investigate paranormal issues, could receive an invitation to join a panel on a new program concerning poltergeist activity. Equally, the pigment question has been seized on by  the more perceptive modern youth shows, and episodes involving look-alike drugs are scheduled to air in several popular teenage series. I'm sure they'll have<em>such</em>an impact.<br/><br/>Orpheus keeps internal matters very quiet, and demands discretion from their clients. Many comply, the fear being: If Orpheus took the ghosts away, they can bring them back. Generally, however, the people who have the money to employ Orpheus also have the sense to stay quiet, if only because their involvement in the matter is embarrassing. The clients whom we take on for research purposes (and who haven't the cash or power to actually know who they're dealing with) are dealt with through several layers of secrecy. We leave them under the impression our operatives are members of the FBI, or students of the paranormal, or represent the Seventh Chakra Buddhist Wave and want to investigate their building's Feng Shui, or similar such cover stories. If Orpheus can conduct their research without the client even knowing it happened, all the better.<br/><br/>Of course, things do leak out. We don't mind being public to an extent, given that we're advertising our services on prime-time television, but there are things leaking round the edges, true and untrue, that might be awkward in the future. Rumors of a new clandestine government agency focusing on the supernatural pervade the Internet, and short-circuit the<em>X-Files</em>fan groups with new and far more interesting topics. Conspiracy theory magazines lap up this sort of garbage, stymied only by a shortage of evidence, but willing to connect ghost stories with mysterious Men in Black and provide a suitably paranoid explanation. Theorists explain pigment through theories that the government is testing a new combat or docility drug on the inner cities. This sort of thing muddies the waters when it comes to our genuine work - but, as I said earlier, it's in the nature of human beings to be morons, right?<br/><br/>But for the rest of the world - for all the quote normal people - life hasn't changed. Certainly, some claim to have seen ghosts, but people always say that. People d ie from drugs, or have strange hallucinations. That's normal, too. There may be a statistically significant rise in the number of incidents reported to the police, or in the newspapers, or mentioned on television, but it's not quite enough... yet. The tide is rising, however. Three movies starring heroic ghost-hunters are in the works at Tinsel Town. Feng Shui book sales are up. More psychics are earning columns in the newspapers. The more dramatic churches are gaining parishioners. The average person is learning how to spell<em>houngan</em>and<em>omyouji</em>properly.<br/><br/>For the moment, though, things are under control. The tide hasn't risen quite far enough yet.