[Delta Green] Operas and Avatars: Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays

[taitzu52]

(OOC- Oh well, that's the story.)

 

[Maerdwyn]

Andrews picks a seat away from other patrons. He orders a beer, and pulls out a pack of cigarettes and places the lighter next to it. He lights one up and blows over the lamp hanging over the table, sending the smoke billowing out around the light. Without any warm up, he says, "I could be in really big trouble here, Solomon." Calling Brown by his first name is usually enough to shock him to attention. He goes on, "I just want you to know the truth, in case anything happens to me. I know that I don't have to tell you that this stays in this room. Not even the Bureau can handle this *CED*. Well, obviously."

"All right. Yeah. Nothin' leaves this booth. Not after the bull*CED* stonewalling we just ran into."

He takes a couple of long drags from his cigarette, looking up at the ceiling for a moment, before his eyes meet with Browns. "I opened the door to Examination Room #3, and saw someone standing behind a curtain with a light behind it. Figuring that it was Gutierrez, I called out his name. He didn't answer." says Andrews, his arm propping his head up with his fingers on his temple. "I called security and asked them to see who it was back there. It was Santana's corpse standing over Gutierrez's body, laid out on a slab like he was the one about to be autopsied." Andrews relays, as he probes Brown eyes for some sense that his partner believes him.

Solomon looks pretty damned surprised. But he saw how many shots Santana's body took to bring down the night before all that happened. "Keep going..."

"Santana's body collapsed on the floor before the guard got there. Gutierrez woke up. He seemed fine. I told him to wait for a doctor to check him out, but he refused. I pressed the issue, and he relented at first. He....", Andrews seems visibly tense right now, as he lights one cigarette off of the other. "He made a move, like he was going to take his jacket off and comply. That's when he grabbed the scalpel and slammed it into that guards chest." he says, pausing to down the rest of his beer.

"Oh, *CED*." Solomon says, but this is less of a shock to him than one might think if they hadn't suspected something that made random people into killers.

"I opened fire." he coughs out, the alcohol drying his throat as he talks.

"Good thing you did...keep going."

"Now here's where *CED* gets pretty *CED*ing unbelievable. You may want to get a drink too." Andrews says, leaning across the table so he can pretty much whisper.

Solomon doesn't touch the beer...

"He knocks me to the ground, we're struggling. As I try to keep that scalpel out of my chest cavity....something happens." Andrews says, his voice lowering still. "I was focused on that blade, but my eye caught something, Gutierrez's throat was starting to swell. And then, Solomon, I swear to Jesus Christ on this. *CED*ing tentacles come out of his mouth."

Andrews stops talking and waits to see Brown's reaction.

"What?! What do you mean, tentacles? No...never mind - what'd they do?"

"It gets worse." he says quietly as he looks Brown straight in the eye, the only thing not sober about his look is the empty beer near his hand.

Solomon refills Andrews glass fro mhis bottle and pushes it towards him...

"Even after I put Gutierrez down, and believe me, it was no easier than *CED*ing Santana, something else happened." he says, his hands visibly shaking at this point. "Whatever he had in his mouth starting coming out, I dunno, some kind of slug thing. It started going for the dead guard. That's when I got out the bleach."

Andrews continues, the stink of fear is all over him now. He looks again at Brown, not sure if he's making a mistake by telling him this. His eyes are searching his partners' for clues, trying to figure on how vulnerable he really is now.

Solomon himself isn't sure how vulnerable Andrews is, either. His own eyes are wide, and he takes a long drink as he looks away momentarily. Quick decision, Sol. On Andrew's side is the fact that he clearly believes what he's saying, as opposed to likely every other member of law enforecement Solomon is likely to encounter over the next week. That alone is enough for him to stick by Andrews for now. And something was certainly making those people go Hannibal. After that half second of indecision, he nods inwardly, and turns back to Andrews, who has already begun...

...to chuckle, a horrible nervous laughter, "Funny part is," he begins again, "somebody big knows everything! They have the tapes, they have the slug, hell, they even got that other security guard, um...Frank, or whatever it was." He drags on his cigarette again, "And now they're saying that the sphere was an NSA satellite? Whatever it was, it fell from the sky, and that's where it came from. Probably where that slug came from too. And they know what happened." he repeats, "Now I'm *CED*ed!" he says crossing his arms, looking pretty damn upset.

Solomon boggles a moment before saying, earnestly, "All right, Andrews, you're right - we are a little *CED*ed. How do we get un*CED*ed? We get *CED*ing amnesia about this case, at least as far as everyone else in the world is concerned." One thing is for sure, whether what Andrews says happned or not. Someone high up knows everything, and had the power to get Andrews and himself shutdown, a coroner who's not a coroner installed in place on a moment's notice, and get a spacecraft (whether of Earth origin or not) spirited away without anyone on any law enforcement level able to object. "But we need find out who knows what and how to protect ourselves. We start by talking about baseball or soul food, or the *CED*ing Iraq war while we drive back to Hobbson. The same people who got to the bodies and the slug have had access to the car the past four days, too."

Andrews excuses himself and goes to the bathroom to clean up, and upon returning says, "Well, let's not keep the man waiting."

Solomon has paid the bill by the time Andrews returns, and the two leave. The burger and peppers are untouched.

Edit:Can't get the green off for some reason...

 

[taitzu52]

(OOC- Hey, quit stealin' my color!!)

Andrews nods about the car statement, "Yeah, I thought of that." Nervously, he starts squeezing the seams on his collars and cuffs, hoping that he doesn't find a bug all too late.

 

[Gomez]

You both arrive at the FBI Phoenix office and are told that Agent-in-Charge Hobbson wants to see you. You step into his office. Hobbson is sitting behind his desk. From the circles under his eyes he hasn't had much sleep lately. There are two empty chair set up in front of his desk. As you enter, a middle-aged man who is looking out a window turns around to look at you. He is in a dark 'government' suit. He sits down at a chair in the back of the room and lites a cigarette. The no-smoking sign on Hobbson's desk speaks volumes.

"Agent Brown. Agent Andrews. Please be seated." says Hobbson. "First, I want to say that was one fine job catching the Highway 70 killer. I plan to place a commination in both your files. Stellar work."

 

[Maerdwyn]

[edit : obviously said before Gomez's prior post]

Solomon says, "Hobbson is going to tell us a story. It's going to make sense, and he might even believe it. Whatever it is, we're going to swallow it whole and smile while it chokes us, yeah?"

 

[Maerdwyn]

"Agent Brown. Agent Andrews. Please be seated." says Hobbson. "First, I want to say that was one fine job catching the Highway 70 killer. I plan to place a commination in both your files. Stellar work."

"Thank you, sir," Solomon says, "A lot of people died. I wish we could have stopped him even faster. Not to mention with a little less pain," finishing a little ruefully, and indicating his belly wound.

 

[taitzu52]

"Thank you, er...sir", Andrews says, not even sure if this guy is Bureau or not. "To be honest, we've both been hospitalized, and we were wondering about the status of this case ourselves." Andrews is all over this guy. Like many other situations with government agents he's met in the past, he starts sizing him up like two male animals in the wild, not sure if it's worth the fight if one is just too much bigger than the other. This guy has non-congressionally approved funding written all over him.

 

[Gomez]

"Well, I am glad that you are both alright." He pauses for a moment and then says. "Well, the case is closed. I am going to need a complete report on the case from both of you." Hobbson hands you a manila folder. "You are to place the report in here and have it on my desk by noon tomorrow. And I do mean complete. Do you understand? Now due to some issues of national security, I am going to require that you also sign these." He pulls out two sets of papers. "These are going to be the 'official report on the Highway 70 Killer' case." He hands them to both of you with a worried look on his face.


OOC: Just a note. Hobbson is doing all the talking. The other man is just sitting in the back smoking a cigarette.

 

[taitzu52]

With a quick look to Brown, Andrews quickly reads the affedavit.

 

[Maerdwyn]

So does Solomon.