Sophia worked at the Alvar Hanso Center for Advanced Medical Sciences, which was within the Sanremo Mercy Memorial Hospital in Sanremo, Italy.
Thomas Werner Mittelwerk was tracked there by Rachel Blake, and she witnessed him shaking hands with a nurse as he left. Rachel writes in her third Italy blog, "let's call her, Sophia." It is unknown whether the woman's real name is Sophia, or whether Rachel conjured the name without any precedent.
Wishing to learn more about what Mittelwerk had been doing inside the hospital, Rachel tried to reach out to Sophia. After initially being ushered out of the building, Rachel managed to bribe the nurse into a meet, and recorded their conversation. The audio can be heard here.
Book References:
St. Sophia was the church the main character, M. Poirot, was going to visit in Istanbul, Turkey in Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Orient Express".
Sophia (also referred to as St. Sophia) was the name of the little girl who was thought to be the "Savior" in the book "Valis" written by Phillip K. Dick.
Audio transcript
“
(Raindrops can be heard in the background along with soft blues music and cars driving by)
S: Did you bring the money?
R: Yeah, I brought it.
S: That's all of it? Give it to me.
R: Just, just wait a second.
S: No money, no information.
R: Look, I'm going to give you the money, but I need to know you're for real first. What was Mittelwerk doing at the hospital?
S: I don't know this Mittelwerk.
R: Do you have any idea what these people are doing?
S: Why should I care?
R: I guess you shouldn't. Thanks, goodbye.
(footsteps signal Rachel going)
S: Wait. He was getting treatments.
R: What kind of treatments? Why?
S: You don't want to be looking into these people. I'm sure you have a, a mother, who cares about you.
R: My mother's dead. She cared very much about me but, she's gone.
S: Is that why you're doing this?
R: Yes, it is.
S: We gave him, a blood treatment. An exchange transfusion.
R: Is that what it sounds like?
S: We replaced all his blood with fresh blood.
R: Why would someone do that?
S: I need my money.
R: You said treatments, what else!
S: We gave him injections, vaccinations mainly. Hep A, B, DTP, measles, different kinds of flu, typhoid, yellow fever. And they were, proprietary formulations.
R: All right, I don't understand, where would you be going that you needed so many vaccinations?
S: You don't have enough money for me to tell you that!
(footsteps signal Sophia leaving)
