In late 2022 I was contacted by a person who identified himself only as zs. He told me that he had several filing cabinets filled with documents containing previously unpublished revelations about a clandestine ministry of the British government. He was unfamiliar with the workings of the internet and needed help publishing his findings. I was initially skeptical but agreed after he shared a preview of his content. At his request, I purchased the web domain dumbledoredid911.net and began processing his files for legibility and digital accessibility. Over the course of the spring of 2023, he sent me weekly packages containing “tranche 1,” and I did my best to distribute them in a readable fashion.

In early 2024, I received a package containing the initial material for what was to become “tranche 2.” zs’s communications during this period were minimal and notably vague. Nevertheless, weekly packages started arriving in the spring, and once again I began to organize and publish them on the internet. Then, in April, halfway through the “tranche,” they stopped. I received no explanation from zs, and my attempts to reach him through our usual channels were fruitless. I was forced to stop publishing his papers without notice.

I never heard from zs again. I searched British newspapers, hospital records, and police reports to the best of my ability, but unlike zs I am neither an investigative journalist nor particularly familiar with British paperwork. zs once suggested that he was located in Newcastle, so I focused my research there. The best lead I found was a police filing about a man found unconscious in the street without shoes, wallet, or identification on 25 April 2024, the day of our last communication. The report indicated that the man was brought to a nearby hospital. I found no hospital records to suggest what might have happened to him next.

It might just be a coincidence, but the remarkable thing is that I also passed out in the street on 25 April 2024. The doctors said that I was dehydrated and managed to hit my head on the pavement hard enough to knock myself out. It seems impossible that both zs and I experienced the same accident on the same day, half a world apart – but there are a lot of things that zs shared that seem impossible, so who’s to say? I ended up just fine with a small scar and a minor concussion. We might never know what happened to the man who I came to consider a friend.

In memory of that friend – and in hope that he’s still out there, fighting his fight – I’ve maintained what we have of his tranches here. I can only imagine what the remaining tranches contain. I’m still waiting for the envelope that might someday delivery them. – BDT