OOC: Don't forget to level up your characters.
Once the team was seated, Stanfield turned on the display.
"Over the last week, there have been a series of deaths here in the United States. Four women, of different social classes, in different cities, were killed in their apartments. Debra Chandler in New York, Ruth Surber in LA, Genny Oneal in Vegas and Marguerite Mead in Dallas. Generally not our concern, but OSIRS monitoring programs, after the fourth murder, pinged us on a common thread."
"All four women were former mistresses of Robert H. Haight," Robert H. Haight, multi-billionaire and self made man, big in the steel and construction industries. "This was information only we had access too, for reasons that we do not need to go into right now. Due to the fact that each murder took place thirty hours after the previous one, we suspected a ritualistic component. The deaths themselves are odd too, two of the women slit their wrists, but no knives or any other sharp objects were found near them, while the other two were beheaded. In all cases, their rooms were locked, in one case barricaded from the inside, and local security measures gave no indiciations that anybody else had entered and even been near the premises at the time of death."
"We immediately assigned an agent to observe Haight, while putting analysts to work on figuring out his motivation. We've hit paydirt with both."
"We believe that Haight is attempting to perform the Rite of the Lesser Ascension," Harland said, leaning forward, and handing an old scroll to Nick. "It involves arranging the deaths of five former intimates, thirty hours apart, and then performing some miscellaneous rituals. Chanting, and whatnot. It gives the caster enhancer strength, speed and intellect."
"And as for the observation," Stanfield turned on the viewscreen. It showed a video of an office being filmed from a position in an apartment across the street. The time stamp and location indicated it was somewhere in Minneapolis about twenty hours ago. Haight was visible in the office, talking and shaking hands with Cliff Kenzington. He looked exactly the same as when Nick had seen him last. Unfortunately, there was no audio. After about a minute, both men left the office. The camera then swiveled around, showing a large, ugly, scarred man entering the apartment that the Hoffmann observer was located in. He was carrying a suppressed pistol, and pulled the trigger, then the camera feed cut out.
"We found our observer in the river two hours later," Stanfield said, shaking his head sadly. "Nasty business. The man is Randy Braggs, Haight's chief of security, and a former mercenary from the golden triangle. Nasty customer, and we believe him to have demonic contact before, and to be involved with the Final Church. He and Haight have dropped off the radar, along with Cliff Kenzington. We have no idea where they are right now."
"Your assignment is to proceed to the residence of Haight's last surviving mistress here in Chicago, protect her and discover the means by which he's committing these murders. This woman, unlike the others, has actually done fairly well for herself since she left Haight. She's Senator Naomi Cook. As I'm sure your aware, she's incredibly popular with the voters, and has a good chance of being nominated for the presidency in the 2012 elections. We've had a bit of luck, and her house in the suburbs has been suffering some electrical problems over the last day. We intercepted the call to the electricians an hour ago, and we've arranged for you to take the place of the regular electricians. Z will accompany you to provide the necessary technical information over your radios to maintain your cover while you perform the investigation."
"Oh, and she's also under Secret Service protection, with four agents in and around her home, so tread lightly, and don't carry any firearms or swords on you. There'll be a secret compartment in the van where you can store them," added Ryker. "Please try to bring this one back in one piece."