ok... I don't know what to do here...

So I'm just gonna put it all out there, just to see what happens...

First, the email from Nikolay

It was a test.

I predicted you would make contact with either Steven or Graham in order to decipher the contents of the disc. There was certain information I wanted you to glean from your meeting with Steven. This was also a test of his loyalty to Neurocam. You let me know the score with one 'freudian slip' in your translation of the disc.

On a different note, I would like to inform you that I have been grossly misrepresented by that vile worm known as Iocus Severus. He wields no real power and lives in a delusional fantasy world where he
would like to think he knows what is behind all this. Don't trust him. Don't even listen to him. As you have probably gathered by now he was the one pretending to be Henley and Godman and it was he who gave you the gallery assignment. Perhaps it is time for you to call his bluff. Get him out into the open where the sunlight will reveal the cracks....

By the way, RH really has gone to Nigeria. It was his intention to make a documentary on the Fraudsters in question and ultimately shut them down. Neurocam really does have a score to settle with them. We have not heard from him a several days, which is worrying. I have some information regarding the lead up to this sequence of events which I would like to pass on to Graham.

I beg of you to trust me and not Iocus. Neurocam and Yellow One are reputable organisations who mean no harm to anyone. Iocus is a plague whose persistence may jeopardize a project that a lot of work has gone into.

By the way it was nice to meet you. I'm sorry that I was so guarded, that is one of the main drawbacks of this profession.

Regards

Nikolay

So I thought, how to draw Severus into the sun. I asked him why he sent me on the gallery assignment.

Here is the response.

Dear James,

Thank you for your email.  For the last two months, Neurocam has been preparing for a significant acceleration in its Victorian operations.  You are one of four operatives who were selected from the pool of Neurocam operatives by Fiat NOX to test new infrastucture and assignment protocol.  You were assigned an experiment involving the art market.  The others were assigned experiments involving the stock market, the weather bureau, and media relations.  Your performance was exemplary.  Well done.  That, for the moment, is as much as you need to know.

You're too intelligent to fall for the nonsense "Mr. Kamchatka" is currently serving you.  I'm sure you're well aware that the gentleman you met on Brunswick Street and the email correspondent are two entirely different people.  You may furthermore, be interested to learn that neither of these is the real Nikolay Kamchatka.

Your correspondent is absolutely right in suggesting you don't trust me.  I would have suggested you don't trust anybody, it that was not already the case.

Sincerely,
Iocus Severus

Now, I wonder...

Firstly, by refering to the missions being sent to me via Neurocam, he hasn't given anything away in regards to him 'posing' as all three.

But then there are the subtler differences. For starters, Robert, Dean and Iocus have all at one stage or another used the Fiat Nox email address. Which again, could just be a sign that they are all in league, or the same person.

Next there is something else that has been irking me. Any correspondence I've had with Robert, Dean and Iocus have all started with 'Dear James'. I don't refer to myself as James online, yet it is in the header to my emails. I dunno, I'm just musing, they all seem a little too... similar.

Now, onto Nikolay being two different people. That is also a posibility I would need to concider. There were indiscrepencies between my on-line correspondence/comments from Nikolay and when I met him in person, he seemed a lot less hostile.

Then there is the issue of the 'Special Cock', in a possibly forged email from Severus. That has me thinking. It sounds like something 'online' Nikolay might say, at a stretch, but I couldn't imagine the offline one being so crude.

So. Who do we believe. Iocus and his Nikolay is an imposter story, or Nikolay and his Iocs is an imposter story.

I don't know, I don't think the truth will be that black and white, but to be completely honest with you all, so far, I think I might be leaning towards the guy with the least suspect dead ex wives... (Not that there is an official total count on that figure or anything...)

..............

Oh yeah, and four operative? I've only counted three... And try and I might, I can't relate any of the experiences from Tript or Graham to forays in the stock market, the weather bureau, or in media relations. Maybe it wasn't blogged or I was mistaken... Though I do remember, Graham did once mention a player that may or may not be a player... Maybe I have to check that out again.