The Magnus Archives - RQ Network Feed Drop – Cold Tapes– 001 Operation Antelope

Episode Date: May 7, 2026

We are featuring a feed drop from a brilliant show on the RQ Network: Cold Tapes. Created by the talented team at Free Turn Production. Cold Tapes is an award winning murder mystery Audio Drama inspired by true crime. , In this first episode called “Operation Antelope” The brutal murder of Andrew Fairfield on a remote Antarctic base thrusts DCI Tessa McCallister into the claustrophobic lives of an isolated community of international scientists and crew.Through police interviews, covert recordings, and audio diaries, Tessa hears hidden agendas, concealed criminal histories, violent psychosis, and dangerous conspiracy theories that help her uncover the truth behind the murder. With the murderer still on the base it’s a race against time to untangle the maze of deception, revealing chilling truths buried beneath the ice.16 Suspects. 1 Murderer. Can you solve it?Introduction and outro by Shahan Hamza. Listen to Cold Tapes on The Rusty Quill website, on Acast, or wherever you get your podcasts, or learn more about Cold Tapes on its official website.   Credits:  A Free Turn production.Written by Alexis Zegerman and Jonathan MyersonDeveloped and Story Produced by Chris Croucher and Emma LamontDirected and Produced by Sian WilliamsAssociate Producer: Thisbe BarnettExecutive Producers: Jon Hamm, Gemma Batterby, Ron Downey, Emma Lamont, Chris Croucher and Robbie Ashcroft Content warnings: Mentions of Death, Medication, Isolation, and Mental Health.  For ad-free episodes, bonus content and more, join members.rustyquill.com or our Patreon.Pre-order FROM THE LIBRARY OF JURGEN LEITNER, a Magnus novel: rustyquill.com/novelBuy tickets to a Magnus Archives Live Show in Sheffield in July: crossedwires.live Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi there, Billy Hindle here, the voice of Alice Dyer in the Magnus Protocol. As part of the Magnus Archives 10th anniversary, Rusty Quill is hosting a special Magnus live show at the upcoming Crossed Wires podcast festival in Sheffield. Join co-creators Jonathan Sims and Alexander J. Newell on the 5th of July for a new iteration of our live show Statement Begins, where you can hear fan favourite statements such as anglerfish, Red Live, and gain exclusive insights into the creation and history of the show straight from the creators themselves.

You can buy your tickets now, including limited numbers of meat and greet tickets, from crossedwires. Live, or the link in the description of this episode. Hi everyone, it's Shahan here. Today we're sharing an episode from a podcast on the RQ network, Cold Tapes. Cold Tapes is an award-winning murder mystery audio drama

inspired by true crime. In this first episode, called Operation Antelope, The brutal murder of Andrew Fairfield on a remote Antarctic base thrusts DCI Tessa McAllister into the claustrophobic lives of an isolated community of international scientists and crew. Through police interviews, covert recordings and audio diaries, Tessa hears hidden agendas, concealed criminal histories, violent psychosis, and dangerous conspiracy theories that help her uncover the truth behind the murder. With the murderer still on the base, it's a race against time to untangle the maze of deception,

revealing chilling truths buried beneath the ice. 16 suspects, one murderer. Can you solve it? To listen to more, you can click on the link in the description or search for cold tapes wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also find more information at rusty quill.com or coldtapes.com. Have fun and enjoy the episode. DCI McAllister.

Tessa, John here. Oh, sir. How are things? Oh, you know, can't complain. How very noble of you. Everyone else does. All right, then. complain. Some is come in and it's not exactly uncomplicated.

Mm-hmm, I'm all years. 33-year-old male named Andrew Fairfield, found dead a few days ago, 21st of June. His body was found at the bottom of a small ravine, sorry, crevasse, apparently there is a distinction. Right. It's about a 30-minute walk away from the Antarctic base he'd been working at. Antarctica? Yeah, the base is called Bowers something, Bowers, Wilson. So what's the meck that to do with it? Yeah, I'm just getting to that. Looks at orientating was never my strongest point,

but surely this one goes to the Aussie force, right? Or wait a minute, is it the Kiwis? No, it's a bloody jurisdictional minefield because of what's called the Antarctic Treaty and also there's the overall politics. There was taught that the case nearly fell to the Yantz because a US company operates the base, but for now, this investigation is falling under UK jurisdiction

because fairfield is the UK citizen. It seems like Antarctica itself is a kind of no man's land. Where is fairfield from? Exactly. London. Okay. I'm about to get my thermal sort of storage then. So this is the issue.

Nobody's getting to the base and nobody's leaving that base for months. It's completely inaccessible during the winter months. Wait a minute, 21st of June. That's their midwinter, right? Correct. Not that I'm going for a holiday here, but I'm sure they can get a plane to land or something, right? No planes in or out their engines freeze, apparently, as does the fuel. What, sir?

Yeah, this is the hard bit. The base is totally cut off for at least another three or four months. So the investigation is going to have to be done remotely. Look, I'm not saying that's impossible. Tessa, it's the only possibility, I'm afraid. Do they have a cause of death? Yeah, it appears to be blunt force trauma to the head. How do we even carry out a post-mortem?

Look, I'm not trying to... I bosh a remote investigation, but I just want to make sure we're covering our tracks here, John. I appreciate that. But listen, even where we can't transport the body, any official cause of death can't be 100% confirmed at this stage. However, the base medic has carried out a makeshift post-mortem of torts. Wait a minute. The base medic, that's going to be tampering with any further evidence, surely. Under supervision.

I listened to the recording just now and everything suggests that we're looking at murder here. I'll get that audio across you shortly. So you said he was found at the bottom of the crevasse. I mean, so how do we know he didn't fall or jump? It seems highly unlikely. His injuries don't line up with a fall. Also, he wasn't wearing all the appropriate clothing for venturing outdoors in those conditions.

He had some, but these people take their get-ups seriously. The officer in charge of the base thinks it's suspicious that he was missing these layers. Okay, well, who found him? Said officer in charge, a Johann Garson, along with his deputy, Mateo Lombardi. They work for a company called Keone Industries, who run the whole base.

Did you say Keone? Yeah, have you heard of them? Yeah, yeah, from my military days. I mean, not for a long time now. God, I had no idea they'd moved into Antarctic exploration. Yeah, and according to Google, space bases, too, Well, I guess we all have to diversify. Sir, can you just take me through how he was found? Yeah, apparently there's a GPS track is sewn into everybody's coat. When they discovered Fairfield's gone missing, likely having left the base, they activated the beacon and led them straight to it.

So the crevasse suggested it was made to look like an accident? Well, that's what we need to find out. Seems that GPS was new kit. Without it, chances are the body would never have been found. Those in the base would assume the big. would assume the victim got dressed up, left the base for a walk, disappeared, lost in a blizzard or something. And was there a blizzard? Uh, don't know.

And people do that. Do they just go for a walk? Not without signing the logbook. I think it he hadn't. No. Listen, unfortunately, this isn't the only strange thing that happened off the base over this time period. And the two things may not be related at all, but it's worth mentioning. but it's worth mentioning. A couple of weeks before Andrew's body was found,

the base's engineer, a Mark Renick, had a full psychotic breakdown. The crew were forced to sedate him, and then they had to lock him in a make-ship cell. Right. What's that got to do with our victim? Fairfield seems to have questioned the nature of Mark's breakdown on a number of occasions. He said he found it too fast,

and the breakdown too extreme. and he had his suspicions that someone was drugging, Mark, or doing something to cause the breakdown. He was apparently very vocal about it. Could this guy, Mark, have been taking any drugs himself? Well, possibly. It's all up for an investigation. What authority would Andrew have to make that call?

Was this just his observation? I'm sorry, I should have led with this. Fairfield's a behavioural scientist, a doctor. He was down there doing research on the entire course, whose psychological state. Psychological state during a period of extreme isolation? Yeah, exactly. Christ.

That sounds like opening a can of worms. How many people are there on this place? 16 left on this place. It's one of the smaller bases. That includes Mark who's still locked up. And since Andrew's death, there's a base curfew in place, so we need to make this a priority. They really don't want anyone else losing their shit.

But curfew, who's making all these? decisions right now? Apparently it's base protocol. I'm guessing it's coming from QM. Oh God, I don't know. I mean, I have got a lot on with my current cases. I mean, I'm having to my ear. You've got good DIs on the others.

Leave them working on those for now. I'm getting really close on the Malvern case. I don't want to let go of that now. Delegate, Professor, this has to be the focus. You'll only have access to the 16 crew members remotely, so I need you to be handling all the main interviews. Someone amongst them is our killer and the others may be witnesses. But I need your experienced judgment here.

Okay, can we a video conference? I don't know. I think it may just be calls. I need to see their faces. I can't do anything about that communication set up, can I? I'll ask. Now listen, there's a time difference. Go on. They're 12 hours ahead, so I fear you'll be working.

mainly nights for the foreseeable future. Yeah, perhaps you should have led with that. Yeah, perhaps. Listen, you won't be alone. Right, okay, yeah, talking of which, who's going to be on my team? I'd love to take mic with me on this one. I think it's essential.

I'm no, sorry, Tess, I need to keep him where he is for now. You'll have access to all your normal resources, of course, and I'm assigning Detective Sergeant Navine Balsara to the case. He's a great Tier 5 advisor. Comes highly recommended. Okay, yeah. Okay, have you signed a case name yet? Yeah, Operation Antelow.

Jesus, how are we on to case names with A&N already? Well, it's been a busy year. I don't think they say that again. The accounts has been opened on homes already, and the operation name is allocated to this case. Okay. Look, I'm going to want access to everyone on the basis phones. I mean, if I say pretty please, and they still won't give them up,

then who do I head to for a court order? Oh, God knows. As I say, this one's a jurisdiction, or not. This one's a jurisdictional nightmare, but let me try and find out. Okay, thanks. Does the victim have family here? Yeah, I've already appointed DCF from McGregbo as the lead F fellow. He's made contact with the family already.

Yeah, great, great. Look, I'll also speak to him today. Great, thanks. Okay, so getting the ground running. I'll get DS Balsara to speak to the intelligence unit, start pulling information on 16 people at the base, background checks, any records. Regarding the engineer's breakdown,

I think we're going to need to speak to a psychologist. I'm just not sure why Andrew Fairfield would see a red flag over Mark's presentation of symptoms. Yeah. Actually, likewise toxicology. I mean, if Andrew was on for something, we would need to know what substances could have precipitated that kind of breakdown, you know?

Yeah, that makes sense. The CEO of Keone Industries has asked to schedule a call for today there. highly invested in getting this resolved, as you can imagine. Yeah, I'm sure they are. Nothing short of a PR disaster for them. Yeah, not just them. I've got the Defence Department of Whitehall breathing down my neck about it. Oh, no pressure there then.

Never is. Yeah, it's a good thing of a bloody insomniac. Yeah, see, I knew this case had your name all over it. Yeah, great, thanks. Pester, I've got to take this. Bye for now. Yeah, bye. To listen to the next exciting episode, you can click on the link in the description,

search for cold tapes wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find more information on rustyquill.com or coldtapes.com. Thanks for listening. Billy Hindle here, the voice of Alice in the Magnus Protocol, and I'm here to tell you about from the library of Juergen Leitner, an upcoming novel available for pre-order right now at rustyquill.com forward slash novel. Return to the world of the Magnus Archives in From the Library of Yergen Leitner. An official prequel novel written by Nebula, World Fantasy and a Award-winning author Primi Muhammad with the help of the Magnus Archives' own writer and lead voice Jonathan Sims. From the Library of Yergen Lightner explores an infamous organisation from the Magnus Verse for the first time,

the perilous private library of the enigmatic collector, Jirgen Lightner, where occult books are guarded and researched at a fatal cost. Lightner's library keeps the dangers of these books in check and there would-be readers safe, or so Lightner claims. For two of Leitner's employees, the risks are worth it. For Hugh Franklin, the library is a place to belong. For Sebastian Everett, the library is an opportunity to indulge arcane ambitions. Though their ten years at the library were years apart,

Hugh and Sebastian's stories unfold in parallel, and their footsteps echo down the same eerie aisles, caught in a web spun long before either ever heard the name, Yergen Leitner. Will they find a way out, or will the library consume them before it's too late? From the Library of Juergen Leitner will be published on October the 27th, 2026, and is available for pre-order now.

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