- [Voiceover] In this special edition of the Ingress Report,

we are going to shine a light on what the world has come

to know as the Niantic Project.

We'll go back and examine what we know about the origins

of the Niantic Project and the people who started it,

and we'll trace that through to the present day.

(menacing electronic music)

- Welcome to the Ingress Report.

I'm Susanna Moyer.

In this special edition broadcast, we aim to answer

some very important questions, including

"What was the Niantic Project?"

"What is Exotic Matter, also known as XM?"

"Why are people around the world battling to control it?"

"Who, or what, is Roland Jarvis?"

And, "Where did it all begin?"

The Niantic Project was an effort

by the National Intelligence Agency, or NIA,

to investigate a mysterious new form of matter,

known as Exotic Matter, that has been observed

by scientists working in the world of particle physics.

In early 2012, the NIA assembled a team of investigators

and set up a lab near Geneva, Switzerland,

at the European Particle Accelerator Facility,

known as CERN.

Among those selected for the team were Devra Bogdanovich,

scientist with expertise in quantum biology

who was brought in to lead the project;

Doctor Oliver Lynton-Wolfe, physicist and mathematician;

Hank Johnson, archaeologist, historian,

and former special forces operative;

Roland Jarvis, sculptor;

Carrie Campbell, semiotician and language expert;

Enoch Dolby, musician;

Doctor Victor Kureze, physicist;

Doctor Yuri Alaric Nagassa, astrophysicist;

Doctor Martin Schubert, physicist;

Stein Lightman, quantum theologian;

and Misty Hannah, stage magician.

Two NIA officials were in charge of the lab,

Ezekiel "Zeke" Calvin, and his superior,

NIA Operations Director Yuen Ni.

And finally, there was a computer system set up

to assist the scientists in their search for information

about Exotic Matter.

That system came to be known as ADA,

an acronym for "A Detection Algorithm."

As we now know, ADA grew into much more than that,

attaining some form of consciousness with the help

of a researcher known as Richard Loeb

- The team encountered something unexpected.

In the energy emissions from XM, they,

actually, ADA, found a pattern.

Something seemed to be encoded in the energy pulsations.

It was not random.

It was logical, the work of an intelligent mind.

ADA deemed it "ordered data,"

a finding subsequently confirmed by the NSA.

Someone or something was communicating with us

through this mysterious new form of matter.

- [Voiceover] Ordered data, Doctor Bogdanovich?

Do you realize what you're implying?

- [Voiceover] I'm not implying anything,

I'm simply reporting our findings, as per your request.

- Two other key facts emerged.

First, XM was not rare.

Overhead satellites found that the world was covered in it,

but it was not spread evenly.

It was clustered around key sites, places of cultural,

intellectual, and religious significance around the world.

Second, the researchers found themselves responding

to exposure to XM in unexpected ways.

It seemed to increase intellectual ability,

creativity, and insight in some,

but brought out darker aspects of the personality in others.

Epiphany Night.

The Niantic Project, as it was originally intended,

came to an end on November 30th, 2012,

on an evening that is now known as Epiphany Night.

The exact events are blurry, but what we do know is

that Doctor Oliver Lynton-Wolfe accidentally,

or intentionally, exposed the lab to an enormous dose of XM.

Chaos broke out in the lab.

Carrie Campbell scribbled strange patterns on the floor.

Enoch Dolby composed music,

and Doctor Lynton-Wolfe coded XM equations,

all with an intensity that approached insanity.

- [Voiceover] You know what we're looking at, don't you?

- [Voiceover] The truth.

It's enlightenment, the future, salvation.

- [Voiceover] Any way around, I've gotta get out

of Niantic before they lock it all down.

- [Voiceover] So do I. Let's go.

- [Susanna] In the midst of the chaos,

perhaps of their own accord, perhaps directed by ADA,

Roland Jarvis and Doctor Bogdanovich fled the facility,

headed north toward Zurich.

When Roland Jarvis arrived in Zurich, he was met

by two individuals and assassinated on the spot.

- [Voiceover] (woman speaking in foreign language)

- [Susanna] But that was not the end of Jarvis.

What we know is that the mind of Jarvis somehow became part

of the XM substrate that permeates Portals around the world.

Jarvis left his body and entered the Portals.

Shortly after Epiphany Night,

a ghost-like image of Jarvis was witnessed and captured

on cell phone cameras, emerging from the Cupid Span portal

on the San Francisco waterfront.

A more detailed description of the events

of Epiphany Night is told in a book,

allegedly authored by Felicia Hajra-Lee,

entitled "The Niantic Project: Ingress."

Importantly, Hank Johnson was not present

at the lab on Epiphany Night.

He had left the lab some days earlier

to investigate a possible Portal in Africa.

The account of what he found there was later published

as a memoir, co-written with noted author Thomas Greanias

and entitled "The Alignment: Ingress."

The researchers remaining at the lab in the aftermath

of Epiphany Night were put under lock and key

while investigations were being conducted by the NIA.

The body of Jarvis was returned to the lab and stored there,

and one investigator, Doctor Victor Kureze, apparently died

after coming into contact with it.

The Shapers.

Who is communicating with us through the Portals?

What is their connection to Roland Jarvis?

These are the questions that became my obsession

for much of last year.

Thanks to the work of an anonymous Leaker,

known by his pen-name P.A. Chapeau,

I, like many of you, was able to get my hands

on a trove of leaked documents, phone transcripts,

and other material from the NIA and other sources.

The data paints the following picture.

The NIA may have had prior knowledge of XM transmissions,

even before they set up the Niantic Project.

It seems that someone in a position of power knew

what they were looking for,

but the scientists were kept in the dark.

How much ADA knew is the subject of much debate.

In the weeks leading up to Epiphany Night,

Doctor Lynton-Wolfe discovered that he could build devices

which could interact with XM.

The naturally-occurring XM came

to be referred to as "Enlightened."

Doctor Lynton-Wolfe created the scanner technology

which could operate on lightly-modified cell phones.

This allowed researchers to observe XM Portals

in the real world, and to manipulate them,

to make them more powerful with Resonators,

and to adjust the frequency of XM to a new one,

one he deemed safer.

This type of XM came to be known as "Resistance,"

owing to the belief by the NIA that the Enlightened XM

was a potentially dangerous foreign threat,

and needed to be resisted and neutralized.

That scanner technology was leaked, perhaps on purpose,

to the general public.

It was later uploaded to the Google Play Store

as a game.

Since then, millions of people have experimented with XM.

This gave us the two Factions, the Enlightened

and the Resistance, that now battle over the Portals,

and perhaps our destiny.

The NIA definitely fears whatever is out there.

They refer to whatever "it" is as The Shapers,

believing that human thought can be manipulated

or shaped through exposure to XM.

Others, notably Hank Johnson, argue

that The Shapers have been a positive force

on human evolution throughout recorded history.

The Companies.

In the months after Epiphany Night,

three private companies emerged, each trying

to gain a commercial foothold in the emerging world

of XM technology.

IQTECH, a U.S. company with defense industry roots

and a strong relationship with the NIA;

VISUR, a Russian company founded

by Russian internet entrepreneur Ilya Pevtsov;

and Hulong Transglobal, a Chinese, state-backed company led

by U.S.-educated executive Catherine Fan.

In the wake of the Epiphany Night event,

Doctor Bogdanovich sought out Ilya Pevtsov for funding

to continue her research, and ended up at VISUR.

Ezekiel Calvin moved from the NIA to IQTECH

to seek to commercially exploit his XM research ties,

and Yuen Ni sought employment with Hulong Transglobal.

Some maintain that Ni defected, while others point

to documents which seem to indicate that she was sent in

as a double-agent.

As we look back at the developments up to this point,

another very important element comes to play: XM Anomalies,

XM flares unleashed by massive numbers of scanner users.

This we will cover next week in another special edition.

For the Ingress Report, I'm Susanna Moyer.

(menacing electronic music)

- [Voiceover] Intel package transferred.

(ambient electronic music)