By Chester Seaton, News

10/2/282- Triumvirate Authority Officials report that a task force following leads in the Pyrossi Ocean region raided an island stronghold this weekend. While no evidence of the mysterious attackers who raided the Arms Summit last year was found, they did find evidence that Rigel Rinkenbach had been kept there, recently.

“There is an abundance of evidence,” said Captain Michel Dufresne, the lead investigator in charge of the task force. “Including but not limited to discarded lab notes referring to something called BW-19, all of which is encoded in some unbreakable cipher. A tell-tale Rinkenbach trait.

“Also found at the site: 21 discarded bottles of absinthe, a half-starved owlet, and a faded pictograph of a woman believed to be Pixie Sinclaire, stained with tea rings. On the back of the picture was another string of encoded equations none of us have been able to decipher.”

The Captain went on to say that they are attempting to contact Pixie Sinclaire and bring her into the investigation. However, the Nor Eastern government has proven difficult in this regard, saying only that she is occupied with other matters of Imperial importance.

More baffling, however, is the lack of evidence that any of the shadowy Men In Blue were present at the stronghold.

“Other than Rinkenbach’s lab, the only other presence we can find traces of are those of pirates,” Captain Dufresne said. “It is likely this location was used as a hideout for one of the smaller bands, or possibly even a lookout station for Seylene Plamondon herself. In any case, this development is most troubling. It was not pirates that kidnapped Sir Rigel Rinkenbach late last year. Somewhere along the line, custody of our wayward scientist was transferred from one group to another. We have theories, but none of them are worth sharing at this point in time.”

Was any evidence found pointing to Rinkenbach’s current whereabouts?

“None whatsoever. Whoever was here left in a hurry. It’s possible they struck out without a plan. It’s also possible they decided Rinkenbach was too much trouble and dumped his body in the ocean. We have search parties combing the coast line and trawling the nearby shallows.”