Garren, if you give the legal description it would be much easier to help you. If your ownership is recorded at the courthouse, any “bad guys” can already find you and your interest. What you posted sounds more like a negotiation ploy, but I would like to look at the public records and nearby production and see if in fact Hess has the rights all around you.
From what you said, Hess has evidently not drilled extended long lateral wells… or possibly they have and you are someone they haven’t found yet? Which would be an entirely different kettle of fish.
Just off the cuff, I think the landman’s message is a negotiating ploy. Mention of your saying you could hold out leads me to believe that you know landmen start negotiating at “Hello.”