Roscoe Inman

Lieutenant Commander Roscoe Z.Inman is Mark Meltzer's contact at the Office of Navy Intelligence (ONI). Little is known about his background or military status. Inman says he wants to help Meltzer and provides information when possible.

Roscoe Inman is introduced as a character at the end of phase one of There's Something in the Sea. When Mark Meltzer sends a letter to Congress about the connection between the red lights and the kidnappings, it is forwarded to the ONI where It appears to have caught the attention of Inman. The ONI is considering opening an investigation called "Project Blue Book" relating to "unexplained nautical phenomena" and he promises to be of assistance. Inman sends Mark some documents detailing a possible connection to Andrew Ryan and a no-go zone. However, when asked for further information on the phone, he is evasive. Inman distrusts Celeste Roget, another one of Mark's contacts as she was the only survior from the Himalayas and feels she could be lying about her story. His suspicion turned out to be partly correct - she had lied to Mark about Orrin Oscar Lutwidge being dead.

Mark appears to trust Inman to a certain extent as at one point he wanted to give all his data to him and let Inman carry on from where he left off. He also sent Mark material regarding the sea creature phronima, which helped solve one of Lutwidge's puzzles.

Messages
"Meltzer, Inman here, just found out about your accident - call me ASAP and give me the brief. I'm hoping you've got some kind of assessment of what we're up against. And *sigh* if you found any leads regarding your daughters whereabouts let me know if there's anything I can do on this end. Still monitoring intel, but it's dead quiet, we got zero for weeks now."

"Meltzer, this is Roscoe Inman. I received your message, but I’m in the field on an ONI assignment and I haven’t been able to access a private line before now. Look, I think you should take all this with a grain of salt. Remember your story’s been in the newspaper. This recent contact may not even be connected to the abductions. It could be some cruel trick or someone attempting to manipulate you. To what ends I won’t conjecture. Anyway, take it under advisement, I have to go."

"Meltzer, this is Inman. I know I promised you materials on the missing person's situation but... Look, I wanted to warn you. ONI has been under lock-down after recent events. They have us prepping files on potential dissidence. Unstable personalities. Paranoia is running high at all levels. I'd advise you to maintain a low profile, and watch your back."

"Meltzer, this is Lieutenant-Commander Roscoe Inman, I know that last call kind of rubbed you the wrong way but there's a reason I'm asking about your other contacts. There's a lot of intentional disinformation in this area of research. Might be the Russians' work, hell, might be our own. But regardless, this Celeste Roget woman, she's kind of my main concern, this incident in Tibet she talks about. Now remember, she was the sole survivor. There's no version of this story except hers. I'm not making any accusations, I'm just saying: Know what you don't know, you read?"

"Meltzer, Commander Roscoe Inman here. I got your message about the charts and I've never heard of anything quite like it. Now the Office of Naval Research has been developing detailed charts on the currents, but what you are talking about sounds like its years ahead of us. Even our guys can't track debris to a specific urban location. If somebody worked that out, I want to see evidence. Keep me posted."

"Meltzer, this is Lt. Commander Roscoe Inman. Just touching base. It's been awhile. I put in a few calls but I never heard back from you. I'm real curious on what exactly you were looking for out on the beaches. Assuming you found anything. Thought we did some pretty good work together last year chasing down those sightings. So if you get any evidence, if there's anything I can help with, we can do it all off the books. I got a lot of resources and command doesn't have to know a thing. Just don't leave me out in the cold... old buddy. Thanks."