Delta Green - All Part of the Job

[Audrik]

Puppet Shows and Shadow Plays - Session 4b

All agents but SAM scrambled to get to the hospital. Agent SAM stayed at the hotel to hold down the fort, so to speak. She also got in a little slot machine action. Agent SETH called the State Police to request helicopter transport, and soon they were on the way.

Once in the hall, RAPSCALLION took stock of the situation. There were two unconscious Arizona State Police officers slumped against the wall, a front desk far to one end of the hall, and emergency exit doors nearby to the other end. He had started for the exit when he heard a wet, scurrying sound behind him. Turning, he saw what he could only describe as a grey slime with four tentacles slide out from under the door, slither onto an officer, and start to crawl into his mouth.

The Marshall drew his pistol and fired at it, but he hit the officer in the shoulder instead. He fired again, and hit the officer in the other shoulder. While unfortunate, this had the effect of causing the creature to think better of things, and go for the other officer instead. The second officer began to gag as the creature tried to burrow down his throat. RAPSCALLION fired twice more, hitting the creature, but apparently the bullets didn’t emerge from the other side because the officer vomited the rest of the slime out onto his immobilized lap.

Agent RAPSCALLION grabbed bandages and began to patch up the injured officer as a nurse came around the corner to investigate the shots. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the creature, and with a scream, she stumbled backwards. She tripped over herself and began crawling back behind the front desk. RAPSCALLION grabbed the creature and tossed it down the hall toward the desk, and he then began dragging the officers that direction.

Around this time, the other agents arrived. The only outer doors open at this hour were the ones to the ER, and the inner doors they needed to get through were locked. There was a button with a plaque that said to ring for assistance. Agent SETH decided this was no time for formalities. Drawing his pistol, he fired two shots through the windows on the doors. He then reached through and opened them.

Gunshots only served to make the poor nurse’s night worse. She held her knees, rocked, and whimpered behind the desk. The other agents rounded the corner as the emergency exit doors at the end of the hall were forced open. The alarm rang out as two men in black suits walked in. Both groups eyed each other for a moment, and then Agent SETH identified himself by his real name and informed them that he was from INSCOM, Army Intelligence. The men in black nodded, and one identified them as NSA, but he gave no names. As a matter of national security, they were taking all evidence. Agent SETH told them they might not want to look in SÁBADO’s room.

The man in the black suit who had spoken before shook his head and informed SETH that as NSA field agents, it was all part of the job. The other man opened the door and immediately turned to vomit. The first man growled, rolled his eyes, and entered the room. While no one was looking, Agent SETH grabbed the remains of the creature and ran for the stairs. He found the incinerator, and stuffed the thing inside. After a few moments and wet, popping sounds, the job was done.

Curiosity and her morbid side got the better of Agent ROBIN who decided she just had to see what was so bad an NSA agent couldn’t keep down his dinner. She looked in to see the blood and gore all over the walls, floor and ceiling. She was only mildly disturbed as she turned back to the hall.

Agent RAPUNZEL asked the nurse where the security room was, and the poor woman pointed. RAPUNZEL asked her to open the door, but the nurse only ripped off her ID badge, threw it on the floor, and ran for the emergency exit. RAPUNZEL took the badge, and used it to gain access to the security room. She quickly got a hold of the security camera footage and erased it.

The man who entered the room emerged with the green canvas bag over his shoulder, and both NSA agents left the way they entered. It was then that Agent ROBIN smelled the smoke and … burning flesh? The sprinkler system kicked on as ROBIN looked in to confirm that the body on the floor was in deed on fire.

Their mission accomplished, the agents all fled the hospital before they had to answer uncomfortable questions from State Police, the Phoenix Fire Department, local news media, and anyone else who might be on the way.

Agent SETH reported the results of the mission to A-Cell through the secure, encrypted e-mail system, and he also informed them of the loss of Agent SÁBADO. For their part, whichever member of A-Cell who responded thanked the agents for successfully handling the Operation and stated that SÁBADO’s replacement should be ready in about a month. While it can be hard to analyze intent behind text-based communication, Agent SETH was a trained psychologist. He found it interesting that A-Cell thanked them for their work but didn’t congratulate them on success. It was also interesting, and mildly disturbing that A-Cell gave only a business-like response to the loss of an agent.

Both cells were glad to be done here in Arizona, and they all quickly returned to their home cities to get back to the comparatively safe business of Federal law enforcement.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Introduction

R-Cell
Agent RAPSCALLION – Tatom Merzos – U.S. Marshall’s office, Special Operations
Agent RAPUNZEL – Yuki Anderson, FBI Forensic Pathologist, Leader of R-Cell
Agent ROBIN – Chika Takahashi, EPA Biologist and Environmental Scientist – Japanese-born naturalized citizen

S-Cell
Agent SAM – Gia Jones, FinCEN Investigator – Computer crimes specialist
Agent SETH – Ian Trotter, INSCOM Special Agent, Leader of S-Cell – Army Intelligence criminal psychologist
Agent SLEEPLESS - Reginald Longbottom, NSA Cult Infiltration Specialist

Former Agents
Agent RASPUTIN (retired) – Grigori Ruspokov, CDC Researcher/Surgeon – Russian-born naturalized citizen
Agent SÁBADO (deceased) – Marcus Hernandez, IRS Investigator – Computer crimes specialist


This Operation marks the first appearance of Agent SÁBADO’s replacement. Agent SLEEPLESS – so named because he suffers from insomnia and a fear of dreams – is an NSA field agent specializing in cult infiltration and dismantling. He is a small man, not particularly strong, and not particularly attractive; pretty much your perfect cultist. This Operation takes place after the agents have had a few months to relax and recover. It is mid-October.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Session 1

Agents SETH and RAPUNZEL each received a phone call on their Delta Green phones. The voice on the other end identified herself as Section Chief Jane Turner of the FBI in Washington, DC. Their cells had been recommended to her by A-Cell, and she was instructed to invite them to a Night at the Opera. It was obvious she had never been on this end of an Opera invitation, but she handled the situation with authority. They were to contact their cells and instruct them to pack for about five days in the southwest, but first all agents were to meet her at the J. Edgar Hoover building in Washington the following day.

The agents all met up in Washington on the steps of the J. Edgar Hoover building and entered together. The inside was impressive, and the giant FBI logo on the floor drew their attention for a moment. An unremarkable man at the front desk asked if he could direct them. His badge identified him as Michael Bullen.

Agent SETH indicated that they had been summoned by Section Chief Turner, and the man nodded. He led them to a secure debriefing room and tossed a thin manila folder on the conference table.

“You may want to look that over first. Chief Turner will be with you shortly.”

Agent SAM took up the folder and examined its contents before passing it along. Inside was a single document; an FBI report detailing the New Coven of Salem. The original Coven was an old coven of witches supposedly descended from actual witches who had been executed during the Salem witch trials in the 17th Century. The Coven, based in Arkham, Massachusetts, had been eradicated in the late ‘30s by the Arkham Police Department. It consisted of about eighty members with an inner circle of thirteen. It was suspected that the New Coven of Salem consisted of about thirty members. The only known pattern of membership in the New Coven seemed to be that some of the members seemed to be grouping together in Alamogordo, New Mexico, and then moving to Arkham. It was suspected that the Coven restructuring was being coordinated in or near Alamogordo.

Just as the agents finished reading the report, a woman in her mid-30s entered the room. She was reasonably attractive with shoulder-length brown hair which was tied back, and she wore a black suit with a knee-length skirt. She introduced herself as Section Chief Jane Turner. Chief Turner apologized for the brevity of the meeting, but she was actually quite busy and had a meeting in about ten minutes. She got right down to business.

“I trust you’ve read the report? This case landed on my official desk yesterday, and I’m far too busy to handle it myself, so I’m being forced to hand it off. You come highly recommended. Recently, the Planning Committee decided that the New Mexico branch of the New Coven of Salem needed investigating. Well, five days ago, Boston police picked up a vagrant on charges of assaulting two women in a park.

“The man has claimed that he is Donald Allen McLeod, but his identity has yet to be verified. When questioned, the man said he had travelled to Boston from Powell, New Mexico. Powell is a small town about fifty miles north of Alamogordo, near the U.S. Military’s White Sands Missile Range. Bus ticket stubs in his pocket and several eye witnesses have confirmed this. He said he was travelling to Arkham to find the New Coven of Salem, but little more has been learned from him, even after repeated interviews.”

Agents SETH and SLEEPLESS expressed interest in interviewing the man themselves, and Section Chief Turner said that could be arranged. She mentioned that FBI Psychiatrist Doctor Aaron Fairbanks had interviewed McLeod, and was convinced that the man was incurably insane. His prognosis was delusion and psychosis. Chief Turner went on to say that the agents were booked on an overnight flight to Alamogordo at 11:00 PM.

“There you will be met by Detective Ferrell of the Alamogordo Police Department. He will provide a police vehicle, and you will proceed immediately to Powell to conduct a preliminary investigation into the status of the cult. Officially, you are not to take any action, but to report back to Washington once you have any conclusive evidence of illegal activities. Unofficially, however …”

She paused briefly, biting her lip.

“I understand this is a Delta Green operation, and so obviously you will have to do what you have to do. If things go very wrong, I’ll do my best to provide covering paperwork. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I really must go. You’ll have about seven hours to conduct investigation and inquiry here before your flight leaves from Ronald Regan National. The evidence lockers, and the prisoner are located downstairs.”

She then quickly turned and exited. Okay then. The agents had a few things to look into. They all headed down to the evidence locker, and Agent RAPUNZEL signed for the evidence. The guard placed a tray on the table and then left them to examine it. The contents of the tray were as follows:

Three tubes of toothpaste: two empty, one full; two dead cockroaches; twenty-three bus tickets documenting trips between various towns between Powell, New Mexico and Boston, Massachusetts; $53.25 in various bills and coins; and a yellowed birth certificate for Donald Allen McLeod, born in Danver’s General Hospital in Massachusetts on April 23rd, 1893.

Agent SETH quickly did the math. That would make the man 116 years old. He decided it was time to pay Mr. McLeod a visit. Agents SETH and SLEEPLESS went to the man’s cell, and they were allowed in. The other agents took the evidence to the FBI laboratory to run some quick tests.

Agent RAPUNZEL used every piece of equipment at her disposal to determine just how the cockroaches died. They weren’t poisoned, and it wasn’t physical trauma. The only tool that gave any clue was the Geiger counter. Apparently, the cockroaches had died from too much radiation. This realization made her a little apprehensive about a trip to a town near a former nuclear testing site.

The agents also determines that the two empty tubes of toothpaste had traces of saliva. It seemed Mr. McLeod had eaten the contents. This was also mildly disturbing, but it wasn’t anything compared to what they’d seen only a few months earlier.

SETH and SLEEPLESS examined the man, and the condition of his cell. McLeod looked like a common hobo in his late-40s or early-50s. He wore an old suit and dirty shirt, and his hair and beard were unkempt. The man himself, as well as the floor, walls, and ceiling were all covered in a grainy dust. They asked him several questions, but they were unable to get much out of him other than that he felt the wind was blowing him to pieces.

Agent SETH called for the guards and Doctor Fairbanks. He demanded to know how the prisoner could be left in this condition. Doctor Fairbanks said simply “Touch him.”

Agent SETH touched McLeod’s arm, and the grainy dust stuck to his hand. As he brushed it away, he and Agent SLEEPLESS noticed that the dust slowly flowed back to cover the clean spot on the man’s arm.

The doctor informed them that the first day, the guards washed the man down every couple hours, but it did no good. Likewise, thoroughly cleaning the cell did no good. Agent SETH asked if McLeod had been weighed when he was brought in. The doctor indicated that all his measurements and prints were taken upon his arrest five days ago. He was 143 lbs.

SETH asked for a scale to be brought in, and they weighed the man. He had apparently lost four pounds in five days. The agents demanded to know what the prisoner was being fed, and how much he was eating. The doctor replied that McLeod would eat nothing but toothpaste because he believed it helped keep him from blowing away.

They decided they had enough for now, and they joined the other agents in the laboratory to discuss the evidence.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Session 2

Upon hearing about the dust, Agents RAPUNZEL and ROBIN were very interested in running some tests. Agent SETH got them a sample of the dust which appeared pale blue – almost white – under the microscope or when enough of it was piled together.

During chemical analysis, Agent RAPUNZEL managed to thoroughly contaminate and then destroy the sample, so Agent SETH got her another. On the second try, they managed to determine its composition. The dust contained exactly the same elements in the same proportions as would be found in the typical human body – with one exception. There was no hydrogen or oxygen at all. It seemed all traces of water had been removed somehow.

It was quickly getting to be time to head to the airport. Agent SLEEPLESS stopped for coffee, but everyone made the flight on time. The layover in Memphis took an hour or so longer than expected, and so they didn’t land in Alamogordo until 9:00 AM.

Detective Farrell was there to meet them, and after a warm greeting, and a bit of small talk, he led them to the vehicle provided by the Alamogordo Police Department. It was a white Ford Explorer. Detective Farrell offered them the use of the police station facilities and equipment if they needed it, and then he wished them luck as they drove off with Agent SETH behind the wheel. They made it to a nearby hotel before realizing that this vehicle just wasn’t going to meet their needs. It may have been free, but the air-conditioning didn’t work, and RAPUNZEL’s seatbelt wouldn’t latch. This meant that if she didn’t hold the buckle in place, the dashboard would beep at her for the entire trip. SETH dropped everyone off at the hotel, and then he and Agent RAPSCALLION returned to the airport to ditch the Explorer in favor of two rental cars.

As Agent SAM was from Santa Fe, and RAPSCALLION wanted to hit up the green box there, they took a short road trip. Agent SAM stopped at her house to grab extra clothes while RAPSCALLION headed for Unit #35 at the Extra Space Storage facility. As he raised the garage-style door, he noticed the unit was fairly empty. There were three paperback books; The Nephilim Chronicles: Fallen Angels in the Ohio Valley, Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction, and S&M: The Last Taboo; ten brown office envelopes tied with string; a Crown Royal bag of what appeared to be homemade caltrops; a Nintendo 64 controller; a glass blob containing several human teeth; a surgical glove filled with dead red ants; and a wooden case lined with felt padding and containing two small glass spheres filled with silvery powder. Agent RAPSCALLION grabbed the books, envelopes, and wooden case before locking the unit up and heading back to get Agent SAM.

Once the agents were back together, they piled into the vehicles for the trip to Powell. It was a long, boring drive down a very straight desert highway, and somehow both SETH and RAPSCALLION both missed the dirt road to Powell, and they only realized this when they saw the sign welcoming them to Colorado. They were already about five hours behind schedule. What harm could another hour do?

On their way back south, they found the little dirt road leading to Powell. It was quite bumpy, and about half-way to town, Agent RAPSCALLION got a flat tire. It was easily changed, and by about 5:00 PM, they rolled into town. Powell was a small town, and it strongly resembled a town from a spaghetti Western which had been modernized sometime around the turn of the century. The roads were dirt, the buildings were wooden, and every so often, a tumbleweed would roll down the street. There weren’t many vehicles, and for that matter, there weren’t many people out walking either.

The first thing they passed on their way into town was an old, stone well. Next to the well laid the body of a man with a large hole through the heart of his suit and a matching one out the back. He was quite obviously dead, and there was a cloud of flies around him. The agents got out of their vehicles to examine the body. Agent SAM found a stick, and despite SETH’s protest, she poked the body in several places. This had two mildly disgusting effects. First, the body released gases, and second, the mouth opened to reveal swarming maggots.

Agent RAPUNZEL checked the pockets while SETH questioned a couple of guys who were casually strolling past. They didn’t even seem to notice the body until it was pointed out to them, and even then they seemed reasonably sure the man was just resting. The man had a wallet containing a photo ID, a $5 bill, a credit card, and two library cards. The cards identified the man as Simon Horn of Chicago. He was also carrying a hotel key labelled ‘#3’.

The wind picked up, and a tumbleweed rolled past. Agent ROBIN thought she could hear whispering, but she couldn’t be sure.

After examining the body, the cells split up. S-Cell went to investigate the saloon/hotel, and R-Cell paid a visit to the sheriff to inform him of the body by the well. As S-Cell approached the saloon, they could hear a song by Conway Twitty playing on the jukebox in the corner, and several citizens were inside talking. As they entered, the talking stopped briefly, and when it resumed, it was in more hushed tones. Agent SAM engaged the bartender in conversation. She had noticed that her phone wasn’t getting reception, and she couldn’t find an internet signal, so she asked the bartender about it. He didn’t know anything about the internet, but if she wanted to use the phone, she was welcome to do so. She tried this, but the phone was very old with no dial, and when she picked up the ear piece, there was no dial tone or operator. She decided to order a couple drinks instead. It took her all of ten minutes to drink her Rum and Coke, and her Long Island Iced Tea.

Meanwhile, Agent SETH had slipped upstairs to find four doors; three with numbers, and one unmarked. He tried the key in door three, and it opened. The room was dark and rather sparsely decorated. There was a bed, and an end table with a kerosene lamp, and a bible. He noticed a faint clicking sound and followed it to its source. Prying up the floorboard with his knife, Agent SETH found a hollow space with a clicking Geiger counter which was reading about 85 or so clicks per minute, a bundle of sticks with a black feather, and a note pad with some mildly disturbing notes. The note pad said things like “the sheriff and wife don’t seem trustworthy”, “to run is to die”, “Jack Pena has answers”, and “he says the answers are in ‘THE RANCH’”. Agent SETH headed back downstairs and shared his findings with the rest of his cell.

R-Cell drove the two blocks or so to the sheriff’s office and parked outside. The inside looked like something out of the Andy Griffith show. The sheriff was tall and well-built, and if not for the sunglasses, he could easily have stepped right from an old Western movie. RAPUNZEL and RAPSCALLION both noticed the gun rack behind the sheriff’s desk. It had room for two rifles, but there was only one there at the moment. Agent RAPUNZEL notified the sheriff of the body near the well, and he didn’t seem surprised. He stated that he’d have someone get right on that as soon as things settled down a bit. He said he was quite busy with all the paperwork, and he waved a hand to indicate his rather uncluttered desk. He also warned them not to touch the body, or he’d have to arrest them for interfering with an investigation.

Agent RAPSCALLION informed the sheriff that he was a U.S. Marshall, and he showed his badge. For his part, the sheriff was quite unimpressed. He simply grinned and pointed to the badge on his chest.

“I have one, too. Mine’s a star, and it says ‘sheriff’. That means I’m in charge here, so if you’ll kindly allow me to do my job …?”

He leaned back in his chair, and his spurs jangled a bit as he put his feet up on the desk. He placed his hands behind his head and yawned.

The agents of R-Cell bid the sheriff good day, and they exited the office to find that all the air had been let out of their tires. Agent RAPSCALLION drove the vehicle anyway, and about two blocks later, they arrived at the gas station. They were irritated to find that there was no air pump, and there were no spare tires for sale. They gathered their gear and walked back to S-Cell’s vehicle.

Agent SETH wanted to interview the Jack Pena mentioned in the notebook, and so RAPSCALLION guarded the vehicle as the other agents headed to Mr. Pena’s camp. On their way, they passed a poorly maintained graveyard and a small stone chapel in the colonial Spanish style.

Agent SAM decided to take a closer look at the chapel despite SETH’s protest that it was unimportant compared to interviewing Mr. Pena, and that there would be plenty of time later. Again the wind picked up, and this time SETH and SLEEPLESS both thought they could hear whispering of some sort, but Agent SAM was sure she could. She could actually make out at least three whispered voices on the wind. She couldn’t tell if they were male or female, but they seemed to be pleading for her to help them, and to “destroy that which dwells in the well”. One voice called her by name. She informed Agent SETH of what she heard, and the agents all decided to head back to the well they passed on the way into town.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Session 3a

There was a brief discussion about how to proceed. Given the whispers she’d just heard on the wind, Agent SAM wanted to go take a second look at the well they passed when they first arrived in town. It was eventually decided that Agents SETH and RAPSCALLION should guard the group’s other rental car while everyone else checked on the well. They all headed back to the vehicle since it was on the way to the well, but before they split up, the agents saw a truck pull up in front of the well down the street. There were two men in the cab and three in the bed. The three in the back hopped out and just stood around the body which had apparently not yet been collected.

Agent SETH got in the passenger side of the vehicle while the other five agents stood outside keeping an eye on the well. Not long after, the sheriff could be heard whistling as he walked down the street. As he passed the agents, he tipped his hat in a friendly manner. A child of about ten or eleven came running out of the saloon yelling and waving, and so the sheriff tipped his hat once again, took a coin from his pocket, and flipped it to the kid. For his part, the kid caught the coin and ran back inside happily.

The agents watched all of this with a mix of interest and suspicion. The sheriff continued on until he reached the men by the well. They had a brief conversation which ended with the sheriff tipping his hat and turning to return to the office while the men tossed the body in the back of the truck, hopped in with it, and sped off out of town to the northwest. Another brief discussion followed, and RAPSCALLION ended up watching the vehicle while SETH slept, and the others left to interview Jack Pena.

Jack Pena’s camp wasn’t much to look at; several junked cars forming a circle, and tarps elevated by trees, posts, and ropes to act like tents. At one end of the camp was a very old Navajo woman with thick glasses who was busy painting pottery. In the center was a Navajo man of about 80 years sitting in a lawn chair and tending a small camp fire. There was a television on a table nearby which was plugged in to a generator which was not running at the moment. Quick questioning confirmed that this man was indeed Jack Pena.

Agent ROBIN decided the old woman was more interesting, and so she approached to see what was being painted. The woman didn’t seem to notice ROBIN’s approach, but when the agent spoke up to compliment the pottery work, the old woman turned. The lenses of her glasses were quite thick, and even at this distance, the woman squinted and leaned forward to see who had spoken.

Agent ROBIN and the old woman had a friendly discussion about the artwork on her pottery; she had been painting T-shaped totem poles with animals dangling from them. Apparently, these totem poles were outside “the Ranch”, and though the woman seemed like she never went far from camp, she said she sees the poles “most nights”.

Jack Pena was quite helpful as well. He seemed happy to answer questions, but he warned them that the Ranch was a dangerous place. He said “the key to releasing Rhagorthua” could be found there. Agent RAPUNZEL recognized the name from somewhere – a book, a television show, a half-heard conversation. Where she’d heard the name wasn’t particularly important at the moment. What was important was that the name belonged to a spirit creature of some sort – a demon-god – who had taken over the entrance to the underworld. Jack Pena confirmed this, and he added that this demon-god dwelt in a bottomless well somewhere in the desert.

Sometime in the late 1940’s, Jack told them, a couple of detectives passed through the area on the trail of some magic or other which could help in their investigation in New England. The investigators were searching for eternal life, but instead they stumbled into Rhagorthua’s well and their bodies were consumed. Their spirits supposedly still wandered the desert in search of their elusive magic.

Jack was also able to confirm that the Ranch was northwest of town; the same direction the truck had gone after collecting the body by the well. It seemed the next step was to investigate this Ranch. The agents headed back to the vehicle to discuss their findings with RAPSCALLION and SETH, but they only made it into visual range of the vehicle before they saw something which would change the entire course of the night, and probably not for the better.

Agent RAPSCALLION had been quietly reading a book from the green box while standing outside the driver’s side door. There was a loud thud across the street, and he looked up just in time to see a rock bounce into the dirt road, apparently after having hit the building. As he was watching the rock, there were two loud hisses from behind him, and the vehicle settled much lower on the passenger side. As he turned, RAPSCALLION saw the kid from the saloon running down the street in the direction of the sheriff’s office, or maybe the general store. He had slashed the passenger side tires.

This was their only remaining vehicle, and apparently there wasn’t a spare tire to be found in the whole town, so Agent RAPSCALLION wasn’t about to let this go. He dropped the book and took a few steps in the direction of the running child while drawing his pistol! He took aim, and though it was getting dark, he took one shot. Part of the child’s head blew off, and the body hit the dirt. RAPSCALLION approached the body, and it was then that the other agents rounded the corner to see about ten people with shotguns, rifles, and handguns running out of the saloon to see what had just happened. The people raised their guns and aimed them at Agent RAPSCALLION, but before they could fire, Agent SLEEPLESS (who was living up to his name by currently operating on about 40 hours without sleep) decided that the “cultists” needed to die, and he drew his own gun.

SLEEPLESS fired his Glock-18 on auto into the crowd, and seconds later, only two were left standing. Most ordinary small-town citizens would probably dive for cover, cower, play dead … Not these citizens. The two left standing turned and fired their rifles at Agent SLEEPLESS. Just as quickly as he had thinned their group, they thinned him. His lifeless body dropped right at RAPUNZEL’s feet.

Agent ROBIN ran for the vehicle, Agent SAM ran for the SALOON, Agent RAPSCALLION dove for the alley, and Agent RAPUNZEL fired her pistol wildly and only managed to kill a bottle of some blue liquor inside the saloon. Before the two remaining men could fire their rifles at RAPUNZEL, Agent RAPSCALLION peeked around the corner and fired his pistol, killing both men.

All of this gunfire had apparently drawn the sheriff’s attention as he was now jogging down the street in their direction. He had seen RAPSCALLION firing his gun, and so he spoke into the walkie-talkie he was carrying, and he pointed down the alley. Agent RAPUNZEL fired at the sheriff and knocked the hat off his head. The sheriff spoke into his walkie-talkie again, and this time he pointed at RAPUNZEL. Agent RAPSCALLION could hear him clearly by now, and he heard the sheriff say “Scratch that. Get her!”

Agent ROBIN had started the car, rolled down the power window, and fired a couple of meaningless shots, and she now decided that a better course of action would be to drive as quickly as possible down the road toward the sheriff. Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t much of a driver. She was worse under this kind of pressure, and she was totally unprepared for driving a vehicle of this size with two slashed tires. As she floored the accelerator, the Ford Explorer veered hard to the right, and instead of flying down the dirt road like she had pictured, she flew through the door of the saloon. This took the dozen or so citizens on their way out completely by surprise, and about two-thirds of them were dragged along under the vehicle as it plowed through the bar and over the bartender. As the wall of booze crashed to the floor, Agent SAM hopped into the car. Through all of this, Agent SETH managed to snore.

Agent RAPUNZEL was dead on her feet and falling when the shot was heard. It seemed a sniper had caught her right in the heart. This was a bit too much for Agent RAPSCALLION, and so he snuck away down the alley looking for an escape route. Reaching the rear of the buildings, he scanned the area. To the right was the well, and the road back to the highway. Straight ahead across a wide open space was the old church with the poorly maintained graveyard. To the left was the sheriff’s car, parked quietly in the dark.

Nodding to himself, Agent RAPSCALLION ran toward the sheriff’s car. As he ran, dirt kicked up near his feet, and a shot could be heard. This was his second Opera, and this was his second Opera being narrowly missed by a sniper as he ran. He didn’t have much time to enjoy his good fortune, however. A few seconds later, there was a ringing in his ears, and his vision went red. His face felt wet and warm. Upon reaching the sheriff’s car, a mirror confirmed his suspicion. The sniper had put a round directly into his face, but by some small miracle, it had passed clean through seemingly without damaging anything more vital than his profile.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Session 3b

ROBIN threw the car into reverse and floored it again, but all this did was throw up glass, alcohol, and bloody gore. Fortunately for everyone in the vehicle, things were so chaotic, and the lighting was bad enough that it wasn’t immediately obvious that eight or nine people were being ground to a pulp under the vehicle. Instead, what was immediately obvious was that the car wasn't going anywhere any time soon. The agents (including the recently awakened Agent SETH) exited the vehicle.

The ladies checked the bathroom for an exit, and Agent SETH just ran for the front door and out into the night. Like the rest of the downstairs in the hotel/saloon, the bathrooms had no windows. Agent SAM tested the wall with her shoulder, but it was solid. SAM and ROBIN decided to head upstairs, and opening the first door they found, they looked out the window. Maybe fifteen feet away, there was a tree. SAM jumped first, and she barely grabbed a branch which broke under her weight, but it slowed her enough that she landed uninjured. ROBIN followed, and she experienced similar results. They looked around and saw the same things Agent RAPSCALLION had seen. They also made the same decision, and they ran for the sheriff’s car.

When they reached it, they saw RAPSCALLION fumbling around, apparently trying to steal the car stereo. When SAM asked what he was doing, he admitted that he was trying to hotwire the car, but he wasn’t quite sure how to go about it. Agent SAM smiled and told him to move over. This was a particular specialty of hers. It took a bit of doing, but she got the car started. Meanwhile, Agent ROBIN had been keeping watch. She noticed the same truck from the well pull up and grab two bodies from the street before driving off to the northwest. Two bodies from where Agent SLEEPLESS was shot … That must mean Agent RAPUNZEL had died as well.

With SLEEPLESS and RAPUNZEL dead, and SETH missing, that meant only half of their team remained not even ten minutes after the first shots had been fired. The general consensus seemed to be something along the lines of “screw this town”. With the car started, Agent SAM announced her plan to storm the Ranch. RAPSCALLION then announced his plan to completely avoid SAM’s plan. He then got out of the car, and ROBIN took his place. She didn’t like the idea of going to the Ranch, but she liked the idea of staying here even less. Agents SAM and ROBIN sped off to the northwest without an argument.

RAPSCALLION looked through the back door of the sheriff’s office. There was a light on somewhere inside, and the door was locked anyway, so he moved on to the next building. As luck would have it, the next building was the general store, and the door was easily forced open. Luck turned out to be a merciless bitch, however, because it was soon obvious that there wasn’t much in here that could be salvaged. There was no order to the shelves, and even if there had been, the place was so poorly kept that no sane customer would ever shop here. Dog food cans spilled onto toothpaste tubes and boxes of tea, the refrigerated section had flickering lights, but judging by the smell, it had no refrigeration. There were no bandages or paper towels. There were only matches and a grill-lighter with a trigger.

The U.S. Marshall knew he needed to stop the bleeding, and he knew fire could do that. He wasn’t excited about putting a lighter to his cheek, but the last thing he wanted right now was to pass out from loss of blood. Plus, after cauterizing the wound, these matches and the lighter could be put to further use. This hell-hole of a town was almost completely made of very dry wood.

Agents RAPUNZEL and SLEEPLESS awoke in a poorly lit jail or dungeon cell. Yeah, they each felt sure they’d been shot dead, and their clothes had the holes and still-wet blood to prove it, and yet here they were. RAPUNZEL had a very difficult time handling this, and her body seemed to twitch periodically. She also had uncontrollable urges to scream, curse, or just make random noises. Agent SLEEPLESS looked calmly around the cell, but this only lasted a moment. As soon as he realized he was trapped in a room of stone and iron with no caffeine, amphetamines, energy drinks, B-Vitamins … The ugly specter of inevitable sleep was obvious. His screams were louder and more disturbing than those of his fellow agent.

RAPUNZEL looked around for a way out, but all she could see were walls, bars, and Jack Pena in a cell across from them. Well, that was something at least. She called to him, and he lifted his head to look at her. He was sitting cross-legged, and he had his arms crossed over his chest with his hands on his shoulders.

She asked what he was doing here, and his reply was that he had been brought to witness the end. The old Navajo offered what he felt were words of comfort.

“Our pain will be short. Rhagorthua will soon destroy all. Nothing is forever except the earth, and the mountains, and the Great Old Ones which live beneath them.”

SLEEPLESS continued to scream and look around desperately for any caffeine at all; it had only been a few minutes, but in his current situation, he would probably even have settled for a flat Diet Pepsi. Agent RAPUNZEL had her own problems, but with the exception of uncontrollable tics, twitches, and noises, she did a good job of keeping her cool.

She asked Jack if he knew of a way out, and the old man nodded slowly. “Your cell has a tunnel, but it won’t do you much good. Rhagorthua will arrive soon, and he will consume the world. It is too late.”

When she asked where this tunnel was, Jack nodded and pointed with his eyes. Neither agent was able to follow his gaze, but it was apparent that he was unable to point with anything else. He explained that when he woke in his cell, his hands and feet were stuck to his shoulders and knees. He couldn’t move, but it was just as well. The demon-god was coming.

The agents looked around their cell and soon found a loose stone in the floor. They were both relatively small and weak, however, and so it took all they had to lift the stone enough to prop open the tunnel. After a short rest, they pushed the stone further out of the way. Now here was the part where being small could pay off. The tunnel was dark and narrow, but the agents felt sure they could fit. RAPUNZEL went first, and SLEEPLESS followed. After what seemed like several minutes, the tunnel let out into a large, dark room which felt like a freezer. They didn’t have a thermometer, but RAPUNZEL decided that if she were to guess, she’d say it was probably below zero. As their eyes had pretty much adjusted to the dark, they looked around the room to see twenty or so mostly-naked bodies hanging by chains from hooks in the stone ceiling.

The sheriff’s car approached the Ranch, and slivers of light could be seen through boarded up windows. There was a rusting iron fence leaning at unsafe angles around the Ranch, but that wasn’t going to stop Agent SAM. She hit the gas and crashed right through the fence sending iron and dirt flying. The car came to a stop at the base of a large T-shaped totem pole which held a dead raven hanging by its feet. This totem pole was one of four which were visible under the light of the radiated New Mexico moon. ROBIN and SAM saw a porch swing up on the front porch, and now deciding it was time for the stealthy approach, they snuck up to the front door.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Session 4a

Agents RAPUNZEL and SLEEPLESS made their way through the freezer of hanging bodies to the large metal door on the other side. Pushing it open, they emerged into a hallway lit only sporadically by flickering fluorescent lights. There were a few doors to choose from, and the hall led a couple directions as well. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all stone, and the architecture didn’t seem to follow general standards. Rooms and halls were oddly shaped and angled.

The agents opted for the door more or less straight across from them, and it led to a diesel generator and several steel drums. Neither agent had the faintest idea how to operate or shut down the generator, so they made note of the fuel, and left. They passed a few doors and a spiral staircase leading up as they continued down the poorly lit hall. After a few twists and turns, it let out into the dungeon from which they’d just escaped. RAPUNZEL briefly considered freeing the old Navajo, but considering that he couldn’t move on his own, and he’d pretty much accepted the end of everything, she thought better of it. She did get a close look at the man however, and when she did, she realized that not only were his hands and feet fused to the rest of his body, but he also had holes; holes that should probably have killed him. One hole was clean through where one of his lungs should have been. Without a word to Agent SLEEPLESS, she screamed and ran as fast as she could back down the hallway.

Agent SETH had slept through the slashing of the tires. He had slept through the gunfire. Rhagorthua’s dreams and whispers kept him in a deep sleep, but even a Great Old One couldn’t make a Delta Green agent sleep through the rampage and wreck in the saloon. He had run off into the night and found a dark quiet place to collect his thoughts. Once he was sure he was back in control, he decided he needed to find his fellow agents, and the Opera seemed to be calling them all in the direction of the Ranch.

He made his way to the old church and up to the bell tower to get a view of the area. With his night-vision binoculars, he could do just that. Everything was green, but at least he could see. He scanned the horizon and found a ranch house to the northwest. Scanning the town, the only movement he saw came from the rear of the general store. He couldn’t make out who the person was, but he decided to keep watching.

Agent RAPSCALLION had just emerged from the general store after cauterizing the hole in his face with a grill lighter. He snuck through the darkest patches until he made it to the front door of the saloon. He entered and looked for any alcohol he could use for fuel. All he found was a bottle of cheap beer, and various liquors pooling with blood on the floor of the bar. He drank the beer, lit a rag on fire, dipped it in the bloody alcohol mixture, and waited for it to ignite. Once he was satisfied that the fire would spread, he left the building through the front door. Agent SETH watched as RAPSCALLION then made his way to the sheriff’s office.

Agents SAM and ROBIN approached the front door of the Ranch. It was a heavy double-door. One side appeared barred, but the other side opened easily. They stepped inside to find a small entry room. There were a few doors to choose from, a hallway leading to the left, and a staircase straight ahead. They took the hall, and it wound around in an odd way. There were several doors they didn’t try, but the one they did led to a kitchen and a pantry. Poking around in the pantry revealed a hidden door in the wall which opened into another hallway.

It was upon passing through this door that they heard a voice shouting profanity in what seemed to be alphabetical order. The agents decided to follow the sound of the voice, and when they made it back to the entryway of the ranch, there was a loud thud behind one of the doors. Agent SAM opened the door to see Agent RAPUNZEL. Agents SAM and ROBIN had seen RAPUNZEL gunned down by sniper fire in the town, and they had seen her body tossed carelessly in the back of a truck. Now, here she was breathing, smiling, swearing. Agent ROBIN went for her gun shouting “She’s dead! Why are you taking this form?!”, and so RAPUNZEL slammed the door and put all her weight against it. For her part, Agent SAM turned away from the door looking for another direction to take. She saw a figure in the dark hall, and when the flickering lights cooperated, the hallway lit to reveal what appeared to be a cactus with human features wearing a suit. She approached the figure, and as the lights went back out, it seemed to run away down the hall. Agent SAM followed while ROBIN tried unsuccessfully to force open the door.

Just around the corner, Agent SAM caught up with the cactus man and questioned him. He said his name was Simon Horn. That was the name of the corpse they’d found near the well upon reaching Powell, and now that she thought about it, the cactus man did resemble the body. He didn’t seem to know he had become half cactus, and when SAM pointed this out, he didn’t seem to believe her. Agent SAM made it clear that she didn’t trust him, but she agreed to show him to the front door. When they got to the entryway, Agent ROBIN stopped beating against the door, blinked at the cactus man, screamed, and ran up the stairs. That’s when RAPUNZEL opened the door and stepped through.

Agent SLEEPLESS followed the direction RAPUNZEL had run, but he took his time. The first room he checked seemed to be a torture room of some sort. The second room held a giant mass of flesh, faces, and limbs. SLEEPLESS calmly shut the door and walked on down the hall. He found another freezer room, and this one actually held frozen foods. Once all the doors had been checked, he headed up the same stairs RAPUNZEL had taken.

Agent SETH watched the figure through his night-vision binoculars. That figure snuck up to the front door of the sheriff’s office and shot the lock with two rounds from a pistol. With the lock destroyed, the figure entered. SETH decided to climb down from the bell tower and check out the sheriff’s office. Agent RAPSCALLION turned as SETH entered, and they recognized each other. After a brief discussion, they decided to make their way to the Ranch as quickly as they could.

 

[Audrik]

Handful of Dust - Session 4b

Agent RAPUNZEL could almost feel her skin moving, and it felt scratchy. Seeing the cactus man made her pause. Was she turning into a cactus? Was she turning into something else? Was she blowing away like Donald Allen McLeod? Should she be adding toothpaste to her diet?

She asked the man how he came to be a cactus, and he seemed sure the two agents were playing some cruel joke on him. He explained that he was no cactus; he was a reporter from Chicago. RAPUNZEL commented that he was a man getting in touch with his inner tequila.

Agent SLEEPLESS took the first door he saw upon reaching the ground floor. The room was a dark computer room with four terminals along a wall. The room had a broken, barred, and shuttered window through which the wind blew. Anyone but SLEEPLESS and RAPUNZEL would feel the breeze as gentle. Agent SLEEPLESS only felt as if his skin was being scraped away with sandpaper. He didn’t remain in the room long.

ROBIN made it to the top of the stairs, and she was still pretty disturbed by all she’d seen lately. The night was not about to let up, however. The landing at the top of the stairs was as poorly lit as the rest of the Ranch. The flickering lights didn’t do much to help her mood, and neither did the two men playing dominos. They wore what looked to be old fashioned suits, but in this light, it was hard to tell. They didn’t take much notice of her until she raised her gun.

When the lights came on for a moment, she could easily see through the men and the table. This helped her mood even less than the lighting situation. She screamed again, and yelled “Why do you take these forms?!” before rushing through the first door she found.

This door led to a room which might have really disturbed any sane individual, but given Agent ROBIN’s current state of mind and her secret love of taxidermy, she felt oddly at ease. The dog with ostrich feet for legs and an ant-eater’s snout for a head didn’t bother her. Neither did the calf with the monkey’s head and human arms instead of legs. She decided her personal favorite was the two bobcats sewn together at the side. One had a man’s head, and the other a woman’s. Everything outside was crazy. This felt right.

Agents SETH and RAPSCALLION finally made it to the Ranch, and they found the sheriff’s vehicle in the yard. SETH was able to re-hotwire the car easily, and once it started up, he turned on the lights and held down the horn. It was a good bet that everyone and everything in the immediate area was now alerted, but in SETH’s estimation, that didn’t matter. What mattered was getting the agents as far away from Powell, New Mexico as possible.

Agent SAM was the first out the door, and she was the first in the car. ROBIN had finally calmed herself down, and now that she could think straight, she ran out of the room and down the stairs only to find the cactus man still in the entry way. She screamed and shot the cactus man in the chest. He slumped against the wall as she ran out the door.

This left Agent RAPUNZEL in the entry way and SLEEPLESS on his way to see what the shooting was about. When they came face to face, the two formerly dead agents drew and fired their guns. SLEEPLESS missed, and RAPUNZEL dropped him with the single shot. As she ran out the front door, SLEEPLESS hit the ground and began to disintegrate rapidly.

The other four agents were already in the car, and there was some debate as to whether or not to let RAPUNZEL join them. Ultimately, she was allowed in. The car sped off into the desert night, but it didn’t go far before RAPUNZEL and ROBIN both wanted out. There was something to the north that was calling to them. SETH slammed on the brakes, and let them know just what he thought of their plan. Agent RAPSCALLION had faith in his Cell leader, and so he too got out of the car. The wind had been picking up recently, and it was now pretty strongly blowing to the north. Agents SETH and SAM sped off to the east knowing that soon they’d find the highway.

R-Cell walked north, and soon the wind was so strong that they could only see what was right in front of them. They heard a sound, and then they saw lights. A truck sped past them, and a few moments later, there was a sound of breaking, twisting metal. They eventually came upon the wrecked truck, but there was no driver. They continued walking north, and RAPUNZEL decided not to bother anyone with the fact that she was literally blowing away with the wind.

Eventually, they came upon two men playing dominos. There was a faint chanting in the distance, and after a brief conversation with the two men, all three agents of R-Cell realized what was happening. The well was out there. Rhagorthua was in the well. Someone from the Ranch was at the well and trying to resurrect Rhagorthua.

R-Cell ran off to the north with the sandstorm at their backs only to find the sheriff and a tall woman with long black hair and an assault rifle standing in their way. Deciding there was no time to talk, they opened fire, missing completely. The sheriff and the woman fired back, and the agents hit the ground. Only RAPSCALLION had the nerves to fight under these conditions, and he was effective. He quickly and easily killed both targets.

The agents continued toward the now feverish chanting. What they found was a large, heavyset man with his arms in the air. It was difficult to see much more with the wind and sand as bad as they were. Agent ROBIN was the only one close enough to do anything, and so she ran to the edge of the well. She looked down into infinity with a wild smile, and in that instant, the wind stopped blowing into the well. Another instant later, it all came blowing back up. Everything went white, and the agents of R-Cell never even felt their flesh melt.

Agents SETH and SAM were speeding south toward Alamogordo when they noticed the mushroom cloud in the rearview mirror. SETH quietly said “A-Cell is gonna be pissed.” With that, he turned on the radio and headed for the airport.

 

[Audrik]

Good Intentions - Introduction

R-Cell
(empty)

S-Cell
Agent SAM – Gia Jones, FinCEN Investigator – Computer crimes specialist
Agent SETH – Ian Trotter, INSCOM Special Agent, Leader of S-Cell – Army Intelligence criminal psychologist
Agent SID - Cramer Gump, INSCOM "Black" Ops Agent

Former Agents
Agent RAPSCALLION (deceased) – Tatom Merzos – U.S. Marshall’s office, Special Operations
Agent RAPUNZEL (deceased) – Yuki Anderson, FBI Forensic Pathologist
Agent RASPUTIN (retired) – Grigori Ruspokov, CDC Researcher/Surgeon – Russian-born naturalized citizen
Agent ROBIN (deceased) – Chika Takahashi, EPA Biologist and Environmental Scientist – Japanese-born naturalized citizen
Agent SÁBADO (deceased) – Marcus Hernandez, IRS Investigator – Computer crimes specialist
Agent SLEEPLESS (deceased) - Reginald Longbottom, NSA Cult Infiltration Specialist


This Opera was intended to be a quick one. Half the group was out, but we had the two surviving Agents, SETH and SAM, and Agent RAPSCALLION’s player came in with Master Sergeant Cramer Gump, INSCOM “Black” Ops Agent and Delta Green Friendly who became Agent SID by the end. We picked up the action the same night as the end of the previous Opera; less than an hour after all of R-Cell had been lost.

 

[Audrik]

Good Intentions - Session 1a

Sergeant Gump’s official assignment was to track and capture Garrett Duncan, an AWOL Army Electronic Warfare Technician who was believed to be responsible for extensive anti-government, anti-military rants in various online forums and blogs. Sergeant Gump’s investigation led him to downtown Phoenix, AZ. He believed Duncan had an apartment there.

Sergeant Gump’s plane landed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport just before midnight, and so he caught a cab to the hotel nearest his target destination, checked in and ordered room service, and then turned in for the night.

That same night, Agents SETH and SAM were headed south toward Alamogordo in a stolen police cruiser. It was about 45 minutes after the desert was nuked that Agent SETH’s secure DG phone rang. He pulled the car over to the shoulder of the road and answered the phone.

“Agent SETH.”

“Mind telling me just what the hell happened?” It was Agent ADAM, and it turned out that SETH was right. A-Cell was indeed pissed.

Agent SETH explained that he couldn’t be expected to run a smooth Operation when 2/3 of his team were insane or incompetent. He started to give ADAM a rundown of the day’s activities, but he was cut short. He only managed to relay the information that, to his knowledge, he and Agent SAM were the only survivors.

“Agent SETH, this is the biggest screw up in Delta Green history. Your team is sent to investigate a possible recruitment outpost for a coven of witches, and later that night, the entire damned U.S. Border is closed!” Agent ADAM took a deep breath before continuing. It was almost as if he waited for Agent SETH to start to say something just so he could cut SETH off.

“No one cares about what happened in Powell right now, because the whole damned world is wondering how the U.S. got nuked, who was responsible, and if and when we’ll retaliate. This could be the luckiest night of your life. Instead of a ‘meeting’ with ANDREA, instead you get to drive to Phoenix, Arizona. We’ll do our best to cover our involvement in New Mexico.

“Proceed immediately to Phoenix, Arizona. There has been a security breach at a STOR-MOR facility. Someone has broken into the Green Box. Find out who, recover all stolen contents, deal with the thief, and then move the entire contents of the Box to a new location.”

The line went dead before Agent SETH could respond. He informed SAM that they were off to Arizona, but first they needed to ditch the police cruiser and rent another car. Almost as an afterthought, be noted that she’d have to rent the car as he was the one who rented the other two earlier that morning, and they might not be too keen on renting him a third until the others were returned.

Driving a little over the speed limit, it was still a little more than a six hour drive, and the agents arrived in Phoenix around 3:00 AM. They went immediately to the STOR-MOR facility to have a look around. There was a ten-foot wall around the place. The only entrance seemed to be an iron gate out front. The sign indicated the facility would open again at 8:00 AM, but Agent SETH didn’t feel like they had that much time. He noticed there was a light on in the office, and so he yelled to get someone’s attention.

Judging from the barking, he first managed to get the attention of a couple large dogs, but that led to his indirectly gaining the attention of a tired-looking young man in his early 20s. After a bit of talking, the agents learned that there had in fact been a storage locker break in some time before the clerk’s shift began at 8:00 PM. The police had checked everything out and found nothing useful. Supposedly, the security cameras showed nothing useful either which was believable. Given their poor placement, the cameras were probably more for a deterrent than for actual security.

A quick flash of SETH’s badge, and the agents were allowed inside and shown to the locker. The lock had been cut. Upon rolling up the door, the agents scanned the room. Without knowing what was in the Green Box originally, it would be tough to tell what was missing. The only obvious thing would be the square, dust free patch near the entrance. There had probably been a box or crate of some sort there recently.

Agent SETH closed up the locker and asked to see the tapes. It seemed the only way to figure out what had happened was to find out who was responsible. The clerk reminded them that the police had failed to find anything useful on the tapes, but they were welcome to try it themselves. After several minutes of boring fast-forward, they found something. At 7:06 PM, a van had pulled up blocking the camera view. Two men in jeans and hoodies got out, but if they’d done anything with the locker, it couldn’t be seen. After about ten minutes, the men got back into the van and drove away.

The agents were able to get the license plate number of the van, and some quick computer magic from Agent SAM produced a name and address: Ronald Schumacher, Apt. 329 of a building in downtown Phoenix. That would be their first stop after booking a hotel room. They arrived outside the apartment building at about 6:45 AM.

It was a warm but quiet morning. There seemed to be no activity in either of the two buildings forming the three-story apartment complex. Needing an excuse to enter the apartment, Agent SAM stripped down and wrapped herself in nothing but a sheet. The plan was something along the lines of ‘beautiful woman locked out of apartment and in need of phone’. Agent SETH waited around the corner with his gun ready while SAM rang the doorbell. No answer. She rang again. Still no answer, but she could hear running water coming from inside. She banged on the door as loudly as she could. There was a muffled voice which seemed to be shouting, but she couldn’t quite make out the words.

The door was locked, so she peeked in through the window. The curtain was drawn, but it was a very thin material, and she could see through well enough. All she could make out was a kitchen, a couch, a coffee table with a laptop powered on, papers and other items strewn about the floor, and a hallway.

About this time, Sergeant Gump was awake, and he had just purchased a shiny, new Taser. As his hotel was close by, he chose to walk. He arrived just in time to see Agent SAM lift the unlocked window and climb through. Sergeant Gump decided to wait and see what happened.

Agent SETH followed SAM, and he poked his gun through the open window before deciding it was safe to climb through. With both agents inside, Sergeant Gump approached the window to observe. The webcam on the laptop was apparently recording, and so Agent SAM stopped it and replayed the video.