Walkthroughs: Secret Files 2: Puritas Cordis Walkthrough

Version: This is version 1.01 -- incorporating additional information about Riddle #2 in the jail-cell sequence in Paris. Thanks to “Haruko Haruhara,” who emailed me about the slip-up.

Contact: Lingering questions? Mistakes? Something unclear? You can write to me at peternolafson@yahoo.com.

Copyright: This document is copyright 2010 by Peter Olafson. You may not post it, distribute it, edit it, excerpt it (except for "fair use" purposes in news coverage), sell it or publish it in any fashion without my prior written consent. At this time, the only site with permission to post the walkthrough is JustAdventure.com.

Note: Originally published 9 November 2010

The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Ashford

Out in the graveyard, a twig snaps and the old priest senses he’s in danger. Leaving the vicarage, Father Matthew Wakefield looks out into the cemetery with frightened eyes.

Not seeing anything, he shrugs -- acknowledging more of grim inevitability than confidence -- and ambles slowly toward the church. Another snap, another look among the stones. Night-vision goggles come on and a laser sight blazes to life, a dart is fired,and two dark figures with night-vision goggles unfold among the graves. The father falls and struggles ineffectually to reach the safety of the church. The intruders approach and order him to produce a parchment.

They’re too late. Wakefield has already passed the parchment along to Bishop Parrey. And apparently he lived long enough to reveal this fact to his killers.


Christ’s College, University of Cambridge

We find Parrey reading Wakefield’s cover letter in a college library. The priest reports that strange things have happened in Ashford since the parchment’s appearance during the renovation of his church’s crypt. Twice someone has broken into the church and one of the brothers in his order has vanished.

His people haven’t been able to decipher the document but the priest senses “we are onto something really big -- and possibly very dangerous.”

Parrey has been able to make out enough of the document to justify Wakefield’s fears. He hopes to receive more help the following day from a colleague named Patterson -- an expert in medieval ciphers. (Note: Technically, the Middle Ages extended only to the 15th or 16th century -- and it turns out this letter dates from the late 17th.)

But events here take an unexpected turn: A phone call from an Ashford police inspector reveals that Wakefield is dead. Witnesses report two men in black combat suits at the scene. Parrey may be in danger.

He is in danger. Closing a window blown open by the wind, Parrey sees two figures in dark garb run toward the library door. He realizes he has little time. Wakefield’s killers are after him and he needs to make sure the parchment gets into the right hands. This is where you take control.

Look at the desk to the near left. This is the reserve book table. It contains a single book, “Cryptographic Symbolism,” and a list (which can’t be examined independently) revealing it’s being held for two professors -- Patterson and Lucie Forrester.

The bishop here hatches a plan: He’ll hide the document in this book and then make arrangements for the book to find its way into Patterson’s hands.

You may want to peek at the parchment before you hide it away. This letter from a certain Sister Elise (not yet identified as such) won’t turn up again until deep in the game. It’s not very revealing, but this is the first reference to an obscure prophet named Zandona and the apocalypse. (This info also turns up in the game diary.)

The hiding is easy enough. Simply drag the parchment onto the cryptography book -- either on the table or in your inventory. Then place the book in the empty spot on the third shelf from the bottom to the left of the left door. Parrey then lets himself out by the left door almost as an intruder enters by the right.

In this darkened corridor, the bishop worries aloud about the risk that Forrester might still get hold of the book before Patterson. His final task here is to take steps to prevent that event.

Use the key ring on the office to the left, enter and look at the lecture schedule on the wall to the right of the door. You need to adjust the schedule for the next day (Friday) to enable Patterson to collect the book early in the morning and prevent Forrester from doing the same. In other words, Patterson needs to be free and Forrester occupied during the 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. block.

Now, it seems unlikely that an unexpected late-night change in a lecture schedule would register with the relevant professors or their students in a timely way. But let’s just assume the folks in the school office come in early and have exceptionally fast footwork! Simply move the magnetic plate for Patterson down from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. to either of the two available slots and Forrester’s up four to the 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. slot.

Parrey then leaves the office automatically with a view to going to the police. He doesn’t even make it out of the corridor. Promptly shot by he intruder, he falls to his death. But he’s done his job. As we’ll learn in the next segment, Patterson receives the parchment -- but is unable to escape the consequences.

Odds & ends: In the hallway, Parrey can examine the identifying plates beside each of the two side doors and try to use the window on the left and to use the key ring on the door of Forrester’s office. In the office across the hall, you can examine the filing cabinet, the desk and, in the close-up of the lecture schedule, the magnetic plates for Dr. Soule and Prof. Harman.

And did you note the names of the two intruders? They are identified first as Red 3 and Red 2 and later as Wedge and Biggs -- the call signs and names of Luke Skywalker’s two wingmen in the movie Star Wars. (Wedge and Biggs are also recurring characters in SquareSoft’s Final Fantasy series. We’ll run into them again briefly in Indonesia and again in the epilogue.)


Hamburg/The Calypso

Nina Kalenkov is taking a cruise to Portugal aboard the yacht Calypso to get over her recent break-up with boyfriend Max (her partner in Secret Files: Tunguska). Heading for the gangplank, she’s accosted by a distressed man. Looking over his shoulder as if pursued , he asks if Nina’s traveling on the ship, then rushes on and is immediately struck by a forklift.

Nina apparently isn’t the compassionate sort. She goes right ahead and boards the ship and starts thinking about hanging out by the pool

We’ll soon find her in her room with a Mr. Patterson’s suitcase in closet. Take the roller skate at the bottom of the closet and leave your room. You’ll find an obnoxious fellow traveler at the base of the stairs up to Reception. This is the American travel agent Fleming Olsen. (You won’t get his name until much later in this segment.)

You don’t have any choice but to chat with him -- here learning that there’s a general expectation from a series of catastrophes that the world is coming to an end. (His two additional topics lend nothing to Nina’s understanding.)

At the top of the stairs, ring the bell on the counter (breaking it with Nina’s hammer hands) to summon the porter and report that your bag and Mr. Patterson’s seem to have been switched. You’ll learn here that Patterson was the victim of the accident on the dock and that he’s dead.

You can take a handful of Marzipan "potatoes" from the bowl on the left side of the counter. (You won’t need them for quite a while.)

If you haven’t previously spoken to the gentleman standing at he top of the stairs to the right, he’ll interrupt at this point and ask about your exchange with Patterson. At length, this will prove to be a German vicar named David Korell. He’s one of the good guys, but it’s not immediately evident. He says he didn’t know Patterson himself but doesn’t say it convincingly, and seems very interested in anything the man might have said.

This wraps up the first sequence. Nina says she’ll go to bed now and so she does. Cut-scene of the young lady at rest.

She’s awakened by a knocking at her door. No one’s there. But draped over the bannister at the foot of the stairs is a bikini top from her bag (which she’ll take automatically) and a note with a clue to the bag’s recovery: “They come from outer space. But seen from down here, that doesn’t seem so important anymore.”

A riddle. Since you’re now “down here,” let’s see what’s “up there.” Climb the stairs. Note the UFO carousel off to the right.

So they come from outer space, do they? The carousel is missing wheels, which prevents it from being moved. With the roller skate from the cabin closet, you’re now equipped to replace them . Use the skate on the UFO and then give it a nudge with a left-click. It skates over to the left to a position atop the skylight.

Something must be written on the bottom. Descend the stairs again and look up at the skylight to the left to find it dirty. You’ll need to clean it and the bikini top won’t do. You need to assemble some cleaning supplies.

Head right from your room and grab the oar off the wall. Potentially, that’s a mop handle. Now climb the stairs again and use the exit on the near side of the screen to move to a zoomed-out view of the ship. Head aft to the sun deck. Take the ice bucket from the bar (your mop bucket) and the blanket (the mop head) from the table beside the deck chair. Continue aft to a small pool. Dip the bucket into the water and you’re about set. Now you can put the components together: Use the blanket and oar on the filled bucket and you’ll find they’re gathered under a new icon (“extended cleaning utensils”). Nina says the cleaning supplies are complete.

She apparently hasn’t read the walkthrough. They aren’t complete. You need soap. Make your way back to Nina’s cabin door and then right down the hall. Take the flashlight off the wall between the two doors on the right and, in the laundry room (formerly locked) at the end, use this amalgam on the soap dispenser over and to the left of the sink just inside the door. In the icon, you’ll now see soapy water in the bucket. You’re ready to tackle the skylight. Simply use the cleaning supplies on its underside.

Now it’s clean. Also dark. If there’s something on the underside of the UFO, you’ve no way to see it -- until you use the flashlight on the skylight’s underside. You’ll then see a hint to check “the back of the ship” for a final clue to the location of the missing suitcase.

You can truck back to the sun deck again-- to no practical effect. (There’s nothing special back there). But there’s a ship within the ship: Just to right of the laundry room door is a primitive picture of Noah’s Ark. Right-click and then left-click on the picture to take it from the wall and then right-click on it in inventory to find a photo stuck to the back.

Nina won’t tear it off for fear of destroying the photo. But she can loosen it by using the steam jetting from the dilapidated hot-water heater in the laundry room. It’s a picture of Nina’s ex, Max, laid up after a skiing mishap. Our suitcase thief has written: “Poor guy, he should see a doctor” on the photo.

That’s the clue. The ship’s sick bay is on the right at the other end of this corridor. No one’s visible within ... until you use the photo on the door at a distance or hold the photo up to the glass in closeup.

It’s just a little kid with a weird haircut. (Oskar is his name. We’ll meet him again shortly.)

Nina’s returning to her cabin to rest when she hears a male voice shouting “Shut your mouth, or I’ll kill you!” from within. She puts her ear to the door for a moment and that’s enough to put her lights out when the door opens unexpectedly.

She’ll wake up back in sick bay in the company of a doctor who thinks Nina hit her head when the ship hit a wave. The source of the doc’s account is passenger Katharina Jordan -- currently helping the captain with the insurance forms in the ship’s restaurant.

Nina, who knows better, reappears there directly. The captain quickly defuses this would-be hair pulling contest by sending the combatants to their respective corners and you’ll resume control of Nina in her room the next morning. You’ll find her pink suitcase has replaced Patterson’s in the closet ... and that now Nina’s purse is missing. She’s determined to learn why Ms. Jordan lied about the incident. And who threatened her?

But before you set out, open the suitcase. Nina restores the bikini to its rightful place and can take three items: red socks, white bathrobe and baseball cap. (The cap can be left behind. It has no role in the game except as a red herring.)

Now climb the stairs and talk to the porter. (Notice that the damaged bell is now missing.) He promises to investigate the Case of the Missing Purse and asks what became of Patterson’s bag. It seems to have gone the way of Nina’s handbag.

While you’re up here, you may as well poke your head into the restaurant -- previously closed and now open. You’ll automatically watch a televised speech by Ron Shelton -- a doomsayer from a group called Puritas Cordis (“The Pure of Heart”) who goes on about the prophet Zandona -- and can take the roses and an anchor-shaped bottle-opener from the first two tables.

Ms. Jordan is lounging on the sun deck. No need to talk to her. (You can, but you’ll get nowhere.)

But do look at her. Nina her takes in her outfit in detail: pink bathrobe, flowered hat and sunglasses.

Now for a chat with a bartender. Like the travel agent, he’ll go on and on about the end of the world. Then you can question him about the speech on the restaurant TV (provided you’ve seen it) and the key cards on the bar and learn this guy’s not good at remembering faces.

Bottom line: Maybe you could claim someone else’s keycard if you were wearing, say, a flowered hat, a pink bathrobe and shades.

While you’re here, grab some freebies: the mini-life preserver hanging from the side of the bar, the toothpicks and CD coaster on the top and the disco poster on the pillar.

Finally revisit the pool. You’ll find the travel agent sunbathing here. Note the sunglasses. Talk to him and he gets Nina annoyed all over again. She determines to teach him a lesson.

Seems he’s out of sunscreen. He’ll asks Nina to fetch him more of the same brand and turn over the empty tube.

That runs through the take-able objects here, so retreat to the front of ship. Near the porter’s station, you’ll be intercepted by the man who interrupted Nina’s chat with the porter the previous day. He wants to talk about the strange things that have been happening on the ship. Part of Nina thinks this man is one of them, but she agrees to dinner at 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, she’s determined to sort things out on her own -- for starters acquiring Katharina’s keycard by dressing up as Katharina. Your recent acquisitions have taken you one step toward that goal: Combine the roses from the restaurant and the life preserver from the bar in an imitation of her flowered hat.

However, if you try to use it on Nina now she’ll says, “That thing looks a bit unfinished.” True. The hat lacks a crown. We’ll see to that shortly.

Now for the bathrobe. Yours is white. But you do have some red socks. Washing them together might well render the robe pink. Make your way to the laundry room to find it in use.

Outside, you’ll run into another passenger. Feng Li is waiting for a bell that indicates his wash is done -- and he’s been waiting quite a while. You’ve already been in there to collect soap for the skylight cleaning and use the steam from the hot water heater and have doubtless noticed the decrepit state of affairs. The washing machine is broken. That is, it does wash clothes but it doesn’t set off the bell..

Enter the room, detach the bell from its position high on the wall to the left of the door using the bottle opener from the restaurant or Nina’s keycard and then pop back into the hall and talk to Li about the bell. His patience here transforms into stubbornness, but Nina perseveres -- and does a bit of Monty Python’s famous dead-parrot routine besides. Li’s finally persuaded, takes his clothes and moves along. Reenter the laundry room, place the robe and socks in the washing machine and activate the machine with a left-click. Time marches onward and you’ll soon find a wet pink robe and socks in your inventory. We’ll see about drying them off in a moment.

While you’re down here, take the piece of fabric that’s hanging on the laundry basket atop the machines and use it on the flowered ring to fashion it into a crown for the flowered hat. And use the sunscreen tube on the soap dispenser to burn the obnoxious travel agent.

Alas, the dryer is busted. You’ll have to improvise. That means getting back to the broad view of the ship and visiting an area previously off-limits: the upper deck. (That’s the one with the helipad.) At the top of the stairs, you’ll see an exhaust fan in the right bulkhead. Right-click on it to learn the air it’s blowing out is hot. Simply use the bathrobe on the fan to dry it. (You can dry the socks as well or leave them wet. They’ve served their purpose.)

Then make for the sun deck. Give the “lotion” back to the travel agent. He’ll turn on his back and Nina can swipe the sunglasses from the table beside his chair.

Now combine the flowered hat, sunglasses and pink robe in inventory. Nina says “My disguise as a ‘tasteless bimbo’ is finally complete.” Return to the main portion of the sun deck and use the outfit on Nina. She’ll step off-screen briefly and return looking just enough like Katharina to confuse the bartender. Talk to him and ask for Katharina’s keycard. He identifies you as Ms. Jordan -- he’s prevented from seeing the genuine article by a screen -- and asks your room number.

Oops. Nina has no idea, and now has to approach the porter to sort it all out And of course the porter’s not at his usual station outside the restaurant. And the bell to summon him is out for repair.

The key here is simply replacing the bell. Happily, Nina has the one liberated from the laundry room. Unhappily, she doesn’t have a workable way to ring it. (Yes, she can use the bottle opener from the restaurant on the bell in inventory, but the bell then issues only a feeble ‘ding’ -- probably because Nina’s holding it in her hands and thus deadening its potential.)

But use it on the bolt in the wall to the left of the porter’s station. Somehow, the bell winds up suspended here and Nina can whack it with the can opener to produce an airier ring. The puzzled porter appears. He’s not much help. He’ll refer Nina to the captain himself about the handbag (a red herring; ultimately, Nina finds the bag on her own) and doesn’t supply Katharina’s cabin number.

However, when Nina explains she wants to leave a gift for that lady outside her cabin door, the porter suggests she leave it with him instead.

There’s one item the game accepts as this “gift”: the poster you confiscated from the sun deck. Hand this over and the porter vanishes on pressing business.

Now, what did the porter do with the poster? Did he take it with him, take it in back or place it somewhere below the employee-only side of the counter? The last of the three -- meaning you just need a way to peer over the counter top at the passenger’s boxes. Used on the counter the highly reflective surface of the CD from the sun deck bar serves as a mirror. Katharina’s in cabin #2.

Back to the sun deck, back to the tacky outfit, back to the bartender and you’ve got the bimbo’s keycard. Simply use the “02” card on the door to the right of the sick bay and Nina’s in. That’s her purse on the bed. Take it and there’s a knock at the door. Cut-scene: Nina slips under the bed just in time. A pair of shod feet appear beside the bed and the visitor rummages briefly through the closet. Listen to him talk aloud to himself and to his subsequent phone call. He’s evidently an agent for some larger organization, says he’s searched half the ship and warns that disaster will follow from failure.

And he sounds very like the man with whom Nina’s slated to have dinner this evening.

Grab the magazine from the floor to the right of the bed and get back to Ms. Jordan. She’s all righteous indignation over your presence in her cabin until Nina suggests things wouldn’t look good for Katharina should they meet with the captain on the issue. She agrees to talk but asks for a Bloody Mary to help her over the shock of discovery.

Talk to the bartender and he’ll deliver one -- in the wrong kind of glass and accompanied with more of his doomsday schtick. Give it to Ms. Jordan (or simply talk to her again) and she’ll reveal what she knows: She was passing Nina’s cabin the previous night when she noticed the door ajar and, inside, a masked man searching Nina’s luggage. The intruder noticed Katharina, dragged her into her own cabin (which doesn’t explain why Nina heard the male voice coming from Nina’s own cabin), threatened her life, gave her explicit instructions on how to account for Nina’s head injury ... and apparently left the purse on the table. She’s about to reveal something of the man’s appearance when coughing overcomes her and she passes out.

A poisoned drink? So it would seem, and you’ve gotta be looking funny at the bartender who handed it up. The scene removes to sick bay, where the captain says the ship’s doctor will put Katharina to rights again. Nina takes a nap and the action picks up three hours later.

You can’t investigate. You -can- see Katharina sleeping peacefully through the glass in the sick bay door (which is locked, as usual; sick bay is not an explorable room). And of course the bartender’s no longer on duty on the sun deck. It’s evening. Time for your rendezvous. Head for the restaurant.

Here the game goes non-interactive for a long-ish stretch. Your date isn’t here. (His absence is never explained.) But something’s going on outside the central window: a struggle between an unseen person and a uniformed ship’s officer with a ponytail. The latter loses and falls overboard. Nina seems less clear than we are on what she actually saw, but determines to bring the matter to the captain’s attention. Cut to a wide shot of the ship. A doubtful captain says the only officer with a ponytail is the doctor and he appears to be on duty inside the sick bay -- his back to the glass in the door.

Nina then revisits the restaurant and, not finding her date, heads off to bed. The next morning, she knocks on his door -- there are noises within Cabin #5 but no response -- and decides to peer through the appropriate porthole on the lower deck.

Strange. Inside, she seems to see the ship’s doctor -- if he is indeed the doctor. For a ponytailed wig can be seen on the bed beside him.

Nina here prompts your return to Katharina. She’s still in sick bay but a look through the window in the door quickly confirms sometimes amiss. She’s lying on the examination table in a strange, unsettled way. The way a dead body might lie. Nina suggests another chat with the captain. Easily done by banging on the door on the upper deck. But he’s not easily persuaded and Nina leaves him realizing she’s going to have to prove her case.

A photo of the “doctor” would be a good start.

Start by visiting Reception and talking to your laundry-doing pal Li. Pay special attention to what he’s doing: admiring the photos of inconsequential celebrities that adorn the walls. Ask him twice about his cameras to learn he won’t lend them out. (He’s a paparazzo and who knows when a celebrity might suddenly teleport onto on a ship at sea?)

Hmmm. What if Li found an honest-to-goodness celebrity on board? Perhaps you can make him think there is one. You do have that gossip magazine from Katharina’s cabin. And there is an empty frame in the restaurant to the left of the door. Use the magazine here and it’ll look like like a framed shot of “George Rooney.” Return to Li and tell him Rooney is on board, Nina then automatically leads the gullible Li to the photo and explains that Rooney is in disguise and learning first hand what it’s like to be a ship’s doctor for his upcoming role in “Emergency Boat.” She’ll then lead him down to a position outside the porthole for cabin #5.

And here’s another problem: It’s hard to get Li excited about taking a picture of Rooney’s back. Can you get the camera-shy “star” to move?

Yes. It’s a little tricky until you make a new survey of the ship and find the porter now tending bar on the sun deck. (This raises a a useful question: What’s become of the usual bartender?) This is important for two reasons: He’s unavailable to prevent Nina from using the microphone at the porter’s station in Reception. And Oskar’s driving him nuts.

Nina’s thus free to use the mic on the Reception counter to treat her captive audience to the sea shanty “Drunken Sailor.” The resultant cut-scene of the “doctor” suggests this is having little or no impact on his position.

However, the implication is clear enough: Some other kind of sound might get under his skin. (Note that Nina’s debut as chanteuse is just a hint, and not a required step.)

Visit the sun deck for an irritating sound that can’t be exported. The kid Oskar is playing his bongos arrhythmically. The porter has escaped from the noise to music from his MP3 player.

You want that MP3 player. To get it, you’ll have to shut down the drums. Talk to Oskar to learn he’s playing mostly in the absence of something fun to do. His last pingpong ball went overboard. Perhaps you can find a replacement.

Try the restaurant. At the far end, you’ll find the travel agent, who finally introduces himself as Fleming Olsen. He’s running a lottery for passengers who build a model of a European landmark. If you complete one, you’ll receive a numbered ball -- to all intents and purposes a pingpong ball.

The subject for this masterpiece has been selected for you. It’s the Atomium -- a monument constructed for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, Belgium. You just need to assemble and then combine the raw materials. (Have a look at the picture on the back wall of your cabin. Its molecule-like structure may give you an idea what’s required.)

You should already have the Marzipan candies from the counter in Reception and toothpicks from the bar on the sun deck. All you need now is to to give them the requisite sheen -- and aluminum foil will do admirably. It can be found on the restaurant floor to the right of the table where you found the roses. Use the foil on the Marzipan and the toothpicks, combine the wrapped candies and wrapped toothpicks in inventory, dump the end result on the unimpressed travel agent to collect the “27” ball and you’re done.

Make for the sun deck. When you emerge to the exterior view, you’ll get a sense that the weather’s changing for the worse -- a harbinger for the end of this segment. Drop the ball on Oskar. He’ll vanish, leaving Nina with the bongos, and a relieved porter will place his MP3 player on the bar. Borrow it with his blessing.

Back in Reception, use the player on the microphone to pipe Caribbean music through the ship’s sound system. On the lower level, “Rooney” now presents his profile to the window. Now simply enlist or reenlist Li to snap the picture and you’ll find a snapshot of the “doctor” -- actually, the bartender (big surprise) -- in your inventory. Return to the upper deck, bang on the bridge door again and talk to the skipper about the photo.

Here the game goes on automatic again The captain accompanies Nina to cabin #5 to find the “doctor” is out, then to sick bay to find Katharina has been strangled to death and then leaves Nina to report the death to police. Two shots ring out. Nina leaves the sick bay and finds the sea all atoss and captain lying on the upper deck. The bartender/doctor arrives at the helipad to be coptered away and takes a shot at her. She’s saved only by the intercession of her would-be dinner date from the previous night. He’s about to say something when he sees a wall of water on the horizon. “Oh my god!” he says in astonishment. “It’s all true!”

Odds & ends: In Nina’s cabin, you can also examine the loudspeaker beside the door, the closet, Patterson’s suitcase, the bed, the picture above it, the purse on the desk (in the initial segment only), the porthole and curtain beside it. In addition, she can try to use Patterson’s suitcase, the picture and her purse.

At Reception, you can examine the three pictures to the right of the porter’s station, the hatches up and down (you won’t use these until late in your trip), the Reception counter and the impression left on the counter by the missing microphone (after it’s taken away for repair). In the corridor down in the cabin section, you can examine the newspaper on the counter. (This is available only while Nina is seeking her suitcase.) In the laundry room, you can examine the sink to the left of the door. On the sun deck, you can examine the pingpong table to the left of the bar and the lounge chair and sun screen above it at the pool at the rear of the ship. In the restaurant, you can examine the turned-off TV and the picture to the left of the door. (When you revisit the restaurant in your search for a pingpong ball, you can also examine the monuments on the table at the far end. These are the Coliseum in Rome, the Parthenon in Athens and Berlin’s Fernsehturm television tower.) On the lower deck, you can peer through the window into cabin #4. In Katharina Jordan’s cabin, you can also examine the cupboard and bed.

Nina can try to use the flashlight on the skylight before she cleans it; the UFO carousel in Reception (but only until she repairs it; afterward, this just moves it), the pingpong table on the sun deck, the sink in the laundry room -- and also the robe (both while it’s white and when it’s pink and wet), socks (dry and wet), baseball cap, bikini top and toothpicks (all on herself). She can also try to use various components and combinations of the cleaning supplies on the skylight; the cap and bikini top on the washing machine; and the roses on the baseball cap.

There are two spots here where the original German hasn’t been translated to English: One is the sign outside Nina’s cabin (“To cabins #4 und #5”) and another on the cover of the “Glamour” magazine Ms. Jordan is reading on the sun deck. (“Action, Liebe, Abenteuer”).

Has the ship’s doctor never seen breasts before? In the sick-bay cut scene that follows Nina’s encounter with her cabin door, he stares at Nina’s cleavage all the way out of the room.

The porter is “Sidney” and the bartender is “Eastman.” (You can see their name tags on several occasions.)

There’s no reference to the Calypso’s destination in the game, but you’ll find references to Portugal in the game’s Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Files_2) and other descriptions online.


Indonesia

Here we meet Nina’s ex-boyfriend Max and his motor-mouthed colleague Sam. A long series of cut scenes resolves with an nighttime attack on their campsite and the capture of Sam.

(Wait a minute. Sam and Max? It could be a coincidence, but given the number of references to the games industry in Puritas Cordis, I’m guessing not.)

First task: As Sam, you have to let Max know where to find you by delivering a signal rocket (rather too conveniently already in inventory) to the nearby campfire in a launch-ready configuration.

Given the limited confines of the cage, this is pretty easy. Take the piece of bamboo wired to the top of the cage -- you get both the bamboo and the wire -- and three oranges from the bowl just outside the bars. Use the oranges on the wire -- they’ll serve as wheels -- and then the bamboo and then the rocket on the “mobile construction.” Finally, use this portable launch pad on the campfire or the ramp on the near side of the cage. Whoosh. In a cut-scene, Max sees fireworks near the temple on the hill and determines to rescue Sam.

Go ahead and try. The monkey on the overhanging tree branch at the right side of the camp scene will try to lead you there, but Max has no way to follow it through the thick foliage and soon returns to his starting point. One of several tasks at the wrecked campsite is to cook up some way to follow the critter.

The best way to start is to grab everything that doesn’t have roots: the peacock feather to the right of the intact tent; the blue flag nearby, the fencing and bamboo tube in the near right corner, the documents beside the fallen-down table in front of the tent, the yellow hard hat beneath that table, the tent poles from the destroyed tent, the cellophane-wrapped donut, balloon, beer and glow sticks from the backpack (all taken automatically when you left-click on the backpack), the kettle to the left of the campfire and a red flower from the Hibiscus plant in the foreground nearby.

Also, kick the tree at the far right to collect a papaya. The papaya sounds like something that might appeal to the monkey. And in fact it’s the only thing in your inventory that you can give to him. But it doesn’t materially improve your prospects. The monkey takes the fruit, all right, but you still can’t follow the critter through the bush. It stands to reason you need to tweak the papaya in some fashion first. We’ll get to that in a moment.

In fact, the papaya is one of a few items that require a bit more work. For instance, did you notice the fish jumping the waterfall over to the left? Stands to reason Max might like to catch one. A net would help, and you have the makings of a net: Simply use the tent poles with the fencing and use the reinforced fence thus constructed on the river below the waterfall. The fish continue to vault your net, but note that their arc of their flight takes them through a gap in an outstretched branch -- a gap you might easily fill. Use the flag on the branch. Max then takes the fish and flag automatically.

Also, did you notice the thin strip of grass (“garden”) at the lower right edge of the screen? Right-click on it and Max opines that slugs have pretty much destroyed it.

Hey, that matches up with an inventory-item description: In the one for the beer can in the backpack, Max said beer was used for catching slugs back home. Use the beer can on the garden. You’ll have to leave camp for a slug to appear. We’ll do so in a moment.

Then there’s that frog on the lily pad at the far left. Max can’t just grab him. You’ll have to leave camp to find a snare.

You won’t begin to figure out where the papaya fits in until you fill the kettle with water at the river and add the Hibiscus blossom. Then use the kettle on the smoldering campfire to transform the contents first into tea and then red dye.

Use the papaya on the kettle to dye it red, give the dyed fruit to the monkey and head into the jungle. Now Max can follow the critter’s trail all the way to the rear and then the front of the temple where Sam is being held.

You can’t do anything for Sam right now, but take the white berries from the bush just to the right of Max’s hiding place and, at the rear of the temple on the way back, the bad-smelling Rafflesia to the left of the path. (And, if you like, hang the blue flag from the branch above the spider web to the right. This’ll get you the fireflies to the left when you return.)

Now you’re set up to complete two final tasks back at camp. In the garden, you should find a slug making its way up the side of the beer can. Try to take the can and you’ll take the slug instead.

And you’re equipped to collect the tiny frog sitting on a lily pad in the river. Up to this point, you haven’t been able to attract its attention. But frogs love flies and flies are drawn to the Rafflesia. So use that plant on the flat stone at the edge of the river just across from the frog. The frog hops across for a meal and Max takes it automatically.

That completes our business here. Return to the rear of the temple to find a newly assembled spider web has ensnared some fireflies -- take them -- and try to read the inscription to the right of the temple door.

This’ll be gobbledygook ... unless you’ve first read the translation you grabbed back at the campsite, in which case you’ll read:

“Honor the goddess, enthroned above all.
With her radiant being and ever-open eye, she looks down upon her subjects: the mute and the homeless.
Yet they have no one to blame for their miserable state but themselves. Were they not so self-centered, then they could see the riches at their feet: the Queen’s gold.”

Around the inscription are six niches. Clearly, you’ll have to put something inside each to open the door and the inscription is the key to those somethings. You’ve already picked up three at the camp (fish, slug and peacock feather) and one at the temple (fireflies) and just need two more.

Above and to the right of the inscription is a beehive. The “Queen’s gold” in the inscription must be a euphemism for honey and it stands to reason from its position at the end of the inscription that it goes in the bottom niche.

Naturally, Max can’t just grab it. He must distract the bees first. They like sweets, so the donut from the backpack seems a good enticement and the recess to the right of the hive the appropriate spot for its placement. Max takes the cellophane off automatically (this finds a use inside the temple), the bees vanish and Max can break off a single piece of the honeycomb.

We’ve already dealt fleetingly with the fireflies off to the right -- it’s an easy two-move pickup -- but you may have skipped over it in this surplus of Things To Do. To reprise: The fireflies apparently like where they are and can’t be diverted into the neighboring web. You’ll have to bring the web to the flies.

What’s not immediately clear is that you have some control over where the web appears. (If you tear it down, it’ll just pop up in the same position the next time you visit this screen.) So just preempt the invisible spider and occupy the the web’s existing space: Hang the flag from the branch above its original spot. (Max takes down the web in the process.) Then move either to camp or to the front of the temple and return. The web moves left, the fireflies are caught and you just have to take the web to make them yours. (Be sure to take back the handy-dandy flag as well. This’ll find a third use inside the temple.)

That runs through the possibilities at the rear of the temple, so return to your position behind the tree. You need one more item here: the Venus fly-trap to the right of the white-berry bush. The guard’s too close for Max to simply take it, but you can follow a variation on the same rule you observed with the bees. You attracted them to a different location. Maybe to can repel the guard from his current one.

Use the Rafflesia plant on him. It doesn’t work at first. He’s too far away, and you’re faced with the challenge of moving the plant closer to him without compromising your position. Two words: tent poles. Use them on the stinky plant. Max connects them up without further prompting and uses them to push the plant near the guard’s log. He’s grossed out by the smell and moves to the log on the far side of the campfire. Now Max can safely recover the Venus fly-trap. (The Rafflesia has done its job and can be left behind or recovered for later examination by Sam. Part of the fun in these dual approaches is getting a second opinion on an item.)

Okay. Which six items go in which niches? As mentioned, it’s laid out in the inscription.

The first line mentions “the goddess.” That would be Venus of the Venus fly-trap -- Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty -- so put that carnivorous plant in the top niche.

The first half of the second line mentions “radiant being” (fireflies) and “ever-open eye” (the design on the peacock feather), so place these in the upper left and upper right niches, respectively. (The arrangement is left to right, rather than clockwise.)

The second half of that line references “the mute and the homeless,” so the fish and the slug go in the lower left and lower right niches. (Fish don’t have voices -- though some can make noise with their air bladder or teeth -- and slugs are considered “homeless” because, though related to the snail, they don’t have shells.)

And, as noted, the final line mentions “queen’s gold,” so the honeycomb goes in the bottom niche.

The door opens. Max, full of himself, says he deserves a leading-man role in a movie or computer game and enters the temple.

Odds & ends: At the front of the temple, Sam and Max can both examine (and get different takes on) the guard, the animal carcass, the ramp on the near side of the cage (Sam only; it’s no longer a hotspot when Max arrives on the scene), the hole directly behind the cage and the “ugly face” above it.

At the campsite, Max can also examine the river, the waterfall, the flagpole between the tents and the totem to the right of the intact tent and try to use all except the waterfall. Behind the temple, he can examine the fabric on the vine above the path, the monkey’s red footprints and the tendrils on the branch from which he hangs the flag.

In addition, he can try to use the peacock feather on the monkey, the bamboo tube on the Rafflesia plant (when trying to shoo away the guard), the Rafflesia on the Venus fly trap and the papaya (dyed or undyed) , the hard hat and white berries on himself. (In either case, he’ll eat the papaya, with different descriptions, and you’ll then have to replace that fruit by having Max kick the tree again. However, note that once Max gives the monkey the dyed papaya, the tree ceases to yield new ones.)

Sam can try to use her compass and the flare on the hole in the stone face, the compass on the guard and an incomplete launch vehicle (minus the rocket), the rocket on its own on the fire and the ramp. And she can take bananas and raspberries from the fruit bowl and skewer them on the cage wire, but won’t be able to install the bamboo launch tube therein. Only the three-oranges solution works.


The Calypso

We return to the ship to find Nina and her rescuer safe on the enclosed bridge of the capsized craft, but the latter trapped beneath a fallen girder. (He’s going to play the damsel in distress for the next couple of episodes.) Talk to him right off the bat. Otherwise, you won’t know what you’re looking for when you find a cache of papers.

Ultimately, Nina and her pal must descend through the floor to escape but Nina must first climb up to the next level to clear the way. And she has no way to reach the hatch in the bridge’s former floor (now ceiling) without first working out the combination for the locked file cabinet beneath.

The four-digit combination is in the upper lefthand corner of the fallen-down picture of the ship’s christening to the right of the file cabinet: “7 April ’75” or 7475. The top two drawers turn out to be stuck but the empty bottom one (formerly the top) can now be opened and this serves as a step when Nina tries to reach the upper hatch.

Which she’s reluctant to open -- fearing there may be water behind it. It has to be tested first. Collect the bust on the bridge’s left side and use it on the hatch to learn it sounds hollow. No water. Then open the hatch and climb up into what was once Reception. Take the metal rod nearby and search the records you’ll find just upscreen from the hatch to find Nina’s ticket and -- surprise! -- a mysterious letter that Patterson somehow slipped into your possession just before his untimely demise. (If Nina can’t pick out these documents, you haven’t talked to your companion.)

Remarkable that this should turn up directly in your path!

There’s another hatch directly above, but the ladder that leads up to it is broken and it’s inaccessible. However, you’ll see a chain hanging down and, looking down toward the bottom of the capsized craft, Nina somehow makes out that the other end is wrapped around the propeller shaft.

This is the mechanism for lifting the girder off your fallen comrade, but the actions available up here don’t seem to contribute toward that goal. All you can do is fill up one of the halves of the now-broken bongos with the water jetting from the rear wall.

Descend again to the bridge. Against the back wall is a lever that controls the engines. Kick the engine into forward and the chain is lowered through the open hatch. Pick up the end, use it on the fallen girder, use the metal rod you found in Reception on the chain to fasten it in place and throw the engines into reverse to raise the girder. (Note that Nina can lower this chain before the bridge’s top hatch is open. If that’s the case, climb up to Reception, pick up the chain and use it on the lower hatch.)

Back on the bridge, test the lower hatch. Rusty. You’ll need a lubricant. There is oil on the bridge, but it’s not readily accessible. It’s at the bottom of the damaged pipe to the right of the lever. If you have the water from the upper level, you can force it out. First use the empty half of the bongos on the pipe. Nina places it on the floor below to catch the oil. Then use the half with the water on the pipe, and the oil jets into the empty bongo. Use the oil-filled bongo on the rusty hatch to free it and then the hatch itself to open your escape route. Wake your companion and the rest is on automatic. You’ll find yourself on the shore ... where?

Odds & ends: On the bridge, Nina can also examine the window to the left and the hole in the ceiling above and try to use the top two drawers in the file cabinet and the hatches ahead and to the right. (She can also try to use the bust on these potential exits.) In Reception, she can examine the inverted counter, the puddle below the water jet, the stairs to the cabin deck and the window to the left.


The Beach

Nina’s new pal is diabetic and needs something sweet to stay alive. And yet when you do find something -- the black briefcase in the distance contains a candy bar and papers -- you’ll learn this fellow doesn’t even have the energy to chew! He needs something sweet to drink. You’ll have to melt the candy bar in water. That’s more involved.

Regardless of what you were told as a child but not drinking from the ocean, it’s gonna have to be sea water. To collect it, you’ll need a proper receptacle. Your bongo drums are history and nothing suitable presents itself among the detritus littering the beach, but look up on the bluff to the left to find a first-aid kit and a pail. (In fact, there are two pails up there, one inside the other.) You’ll need something to knock them down.

Tricky. Everything here except the briefcase and the handbag to the left seems too unwieldy for the purpose. But the briefcase turns out to be missing its handle -- besides, it vanishes once you liberate the candy bar and papers within -- and Nina thinks the handbag wouldn’t muster sufficient “kinetic energy” for the task.

That’s an ornate way of saying it’s not heavy enough -- kinetic energy = one half of the squared product of mass times velocity -- and in fact there’s just one item here you can put inside it. Use the pebbles to the right of your own suitcase (yes, amazing but true) and put ‘em together with the purse in inventory. With the bag thus weighted, hurl it at the kit and it and the buckets tumble down.

Look at the water. Nina says it’s calm but filthy with the tsunami’s backwash. In other words, you’re going to need some kind of filter ... and you have one. Use the bandages on a bucket and then the wrapped bucket on the sea to collect a quantity of “reasonably clean” water.

And, naturally, cold water. If you try to drop the candy bar in the bucket, Nina says it’s just going to float on top.

You need hot water, and that’s much more involved.

The energy source is obviously the downed power line off to the right. Right-click on the cable to learn sparks are flying and that the ground where the cable’s touched down is scorched. Where there are sparks, there can be fire.

You will also learn that Nina won’t go anywhere near the power line. You’ll have to turn off the juice first and the pole is currently wet from the tidal wave and unclimbable.

So make it climbable. Take a spear gun to the right of the pole -- it’s a little hard to spot -- and fire it at the pole. (This is handled in a cut-scene. I understand that, in the Wii version, which I haven’t seen, you have to aim the gun.) Three shots later, you’ll find an impromptu ladder up the left side of the pole.

Now Nina’s unwilling to mess with the fuse box atop the pole without some protection against high voltage current. No protection is in sight. The best bet is the red toolbox at the right side of the beach. But it’s locked and the key’s not around -- that’d be too many amazing coincidences for one stretch of beach -- and the scene contains nothing suitable for box-prying or bashing.

But the car battery over the boulder does contain some acid. Use it on the toolbox. The acid eats through the lock and you’ll discover the box contains an “an impressive selection of tools” -- though Nina is currently silent on those that provide some measure of insulation. You don’t actually discover the selection includes insulated pliers until you use the toolbox on the pole. The next thing you know, the power’s off.

So how to turn electricity into fire? How about those papers from the briefcase? Use them on the power line -- Nina tears them up first -- and then turn the power on again as before. (You don’t have to use the toolbox this time.) You’ll find a very nice little fire where the wire touches the ground. Nina now automatically turns the power off again and can safely approach the wire.

The fire’s pretty small -- too small to heat your water bucket at this location. But you do have another option. See the buried barrel over to the right? It’s marked “flammable” and some of whatever nasty stuff was in there is still in there. (Y’know, I’m not so sure I’d want my hot chocolate heated by a chemical-fueled fire.)

But how do you move the fire into the barrel? You go scavenging again.

In the far left corner of the beach, you’ll find a rake. Raking the burning papers seems likely to diminish the blaze’s fury. But perhaps the rake could be converted to more a shovel-like state. Between the box of life vests and the high-voltage line, you’ll find a piece of sheet metal. Put it together with the rake in inventory and you’ve got a makeshift shovel. Pick up the “small fire” with this shovel and move it into the barrel, where it becomes ”big fire.”

Understandably, Nina winces at the idea of holding the water bucket over the blaze, so now you’ll need some structure from which to suspend it. Get back to where you found the rake and grab the hat stand nearby. Combine hat stand and water bucket in inventory and use the combo on the big fire. (If you get your buckets mixed up, you can always pour the water bucket into the one suspended from the hat stand.) Then use the candy bar on the bucket.

The chocolate melts, Nina retrieves the bucket automatically and you can use the bucket of chocolate water on Nina’s still-nameless friend. He recovers quickly and tells you his story.

He’s David Korell, a Berlin vicar who investigates sects for the church. He’s been following the activities of Puritas Cordis. (You saw its leader, Pat Shelton, give a sermon on the TV in the ship’s restaurant.) This organization follows the apocalyptic (and alarmingly specific) musings of 17th century French prophet Zandona. Information on this gentleman seems to be in short supply -- reading between the lines, it sounds as though the records have been purged -- but for the letter Nina carries. (Note that Korell gets a detail wrong: The letter surfaced not in Cambridge but Ashford.) Patterson planned at the time of his death to follow up on the letter’s contents with research in northern France, but must have known he was being pursued and passed the letter to Nina for safekeeping before his “so-called accident.” Korell witnessed this event and boarded the Calypso in his place to protect Nina. But he never does explain his absence during your scheduled dinner.

The scene changes to the Ashford church. It’s 1681. We see the letter’s author, a Sister Elise, writing about the fulfillment of prophecy in the firestorm that consumed the French town of Gatineau. She feels she failed to defuse the predicted disasters, though the key was within her reach in the ruins of Gatineau and a saint had invaded her dreams night after night to show her the way.

Nina, still the skeptic, thinks the flood mentioned in the letter could be a coincidence. Korell does not. The disasters are of the type and occurring in the order Zandona predicted. Nina asks how one stops a prophecy. Korell doesn’t know but does say that if these events are in fact leading to the apocalypse “We have a real problem on our hands” and that a chance to stop it is a chance worth taking. Korell says they need to go to Gatineau.

But where is Gatineau? Nina and Korell don’t even know where they are right now.

That’s one of a few remaining issues you’ll settle on the other section of the bench. With Korell’s help, you’ll scale the beached warship that previously had blocked movement to the right. Korell remains on station atop the hull until your departure and thus is available to assist movement in either direction. If you haven’t collected everything available on your original beachhead, you should now return to recover:

- Nina’s suitcase. This can’t be taken, but it can be used. This nets her a change of clothes. (Everything else inside is damp.) This may seem like an aesthetic thing -- like a new character skin -- but it’s actually a requirement.

- a wheel

- a life vest

- a fire hose

You’ll need all these on the far side of the ship to get together your escape.

Here you can open:

- a “tank bag” that apparently went with the nearby broken-down motorcycle. This contains a map of northern France. Which doesn’t mean that’s where you are. Nina’s still looking for something more specific.

- a locked yellow suitcase. Use the toolbox to open it. It contains a digital camera and a man’s suit. Use the suit on Korell and he’ll change into these dry clothes. The camera comes into play back on the left part of the beach. We’ll deal with this in a moment.

Then there’s the wrecked motorcycle and the boat. Talk to Korell and he tells Nina that the latter is your way out. (You can’t continue right down the beach, and the path inland has been blocked by a landslide.)

It doesn’t look like the way out. “No sail, no engine, no oars,” says Nina. “We wouldn’t get far in this.”

Actually, you will, but it’ll take some work.

This may prove a little confusing. For instance, if you use the shovel on the boat, Nina acquiesces, saying this could be used as a paddle when they set out.

But the boat’s name name, Turbinia, suggests that solution is mechanical. (That’s the name of the first steamship to be powered by a turbine.) You’ll make that crystal clear if you use the shovel to dig in the landslide area at the rear. Nina will decide to limit her work to an area just above the cardboard behind the boat. It turns up a fan blade: a would-be propeller. You’re going to convert the rowboat into a motorboat.

The engine comes from the wrecked motorcycle, but you’ve got to bring the bike to the boat first and that’s currently impossible, as it’s missing its front wheel. You do have that replacement wheel from the first stretch of beach, but it is missing the tire and the motorcycle engine thus still rests on the ground. You need a replacement tire.

Try the fire hose. Use it on the wheel, then the wheel + hose on the bike, then the bike on the boat to move it to a spot nearby. Now use the toolbox on the bike to slap its engine onto the rear of the boat.

However, you can’t just slap on the fan blade. In the water, the prop must be submerged and you’re going to need a way to raise the boat to put the fan blade in the right spot. The life vest should do the trick handily (though not by itself) and when you use the one in inventory on the boat, Nina sets out to recover the box of life vests found on the first stretch of beach. (This happens automatically.) Then simply apply the fan blade et voila!

And yet things aren’t moving forward. How do you get the boat into the water?

Ah. You haven’t talked enough with Korell or you’ve forgotten part of your agenda: You still need to figure out where you are to figure out where you’re going.

On high ground at the rear of the left end of the first section of beach is a direction sign. It’s unreadable from down here, but the digital camera from the second has a zoom function. Use it on the sign and then consult the map with a right-click to get your bearings. You can now talk to Korell about “Gatineau” and suggest you shove off. When you do, you do.

Odds & ends: Nina can try to throw much of her inventory at the first-aid kit -- the only exceptions are the fire hose, ticket and the papers from the briefcase -- and get descriptions (most of them unique) about the prospect of success for each. In addition, she can try to use the ticket, battery and the bucket of water on the (turned-off) high-voltage line; the metal sheet on the candy bar; an empty or water-filled bucket on the barrel; the ticket, candy bar, empty bucket and rake on the small fire; the hat stand (minus water bucket) on the big fire; the camera on Nina and Korell; the battery and hose-less wheel on the motorcycle (the latter is actually put briefly in place) and the men’s suit on herself.

Korell suggests Patterson was murdered on the Hamburg docks. But if you go back and look at the cinematic, it really appears to be an accident. Of course, it’s possible that Wedge and Biggs snuck up between palettes and nailed him with a dart, but with all those people around? And why show their first two killings and then omit this one?