Mid-West Campaign
Session Twenty-Three

Tuesday, 5 December 2000

[SESSION 23] Benedict Oaxaca arrives back in Witchita after discharing himself from hospital in Honolulu; he joins Black and Quentin Stone at HQ. Senior Special Agent Dominic Rocaan arrives in the office at 9:00am. A thirteen-year veteran of the east coast evidence response team, Dominic is replacing Jane Munroe until she is physically fit for duty. Black gives Dominic the group's true case reports and brings him up to speed on such nemeses as the brain bugs and the Joker. Dominic is no stranger to the supernatural and does not find the cases shocking.

The agents begin case CS1473-IND. Trainee FBI agent Bruce Campbell-Robson is on the verge of failing his final year assessment. Although he excels in the physical skills his academic record has been appalling. The agents are to supervise the trainee through a case and it is on their assessment of his performance that he will rise or fall.

The agents contact Campbell-Robson's instructors at Quantico. The academic liaison, Winston Redd, considers the trainee's record pitiful. In tense situations he becomes violent, and he tends to solve problems with his fists. Bruce's physical instructor, Special Agent Rick McNasty, has nothing but praise for Bruce. McNasty derrides the importance of academic achievement in an FBI agent. As team psychologist Black receives a copy of Bruce's file.

The case that the team is to babysit Bruce through is an investigation into the corruption of federal employees at the Copperhead (copper) mine outside Casper, Wyoming. On 22 October 2000 a cave-in in the 43rd shaft killed 15 miners and injured 20 others. The 43rd shaft was right at the edge of workability. It is alledged that the presence of faults in the ceiling supports were reported to health and safety inspectors from the Mining Authority before the accident. The health and safety inspectors are accused of accepting bribes to report that the supports were sound. The miners are currently on strike.

Black contacts Bruce Campbell-Robson in Quantico and tells him to meet the agents in Casper tomorrow at midday. However, because the team actually wants to solve the case they do a little digging before then. Dominic is very suspicious that there is some sort of supernatural angle to the case - either in the mine or in Campbell-Robson (or both). Why else would Eisenstein assign this case to the team?

The head of the Mining Authority is Ray Peterson. Black speaks to his secretary, Elaine Cox, and makes an appointment to see him at 08:30 tomorrow. The mine is owned by Herbert 'Herbie' Ward of Ward Industries Inc, but it is run locally by Kyle Brooks. Brooks is contacted and an appointment made to speak to him at the mine at 18:00 today. The team take a plane to Casper, performing research during the trip.

Dominic learns that twenty miles south of the mine are the northernmost remains of a suspected Anasazi encampment. Despite the distance environmentalists and archaeologists at the site have complained about the mine in the past. Currently members of the Wyoming State Anthropology Department are at the site.

Two trade unions are involved in this dispute: the Copperworkers and Associated Trades Union and the Mining Union's 212th division. Both unions are making complaints, and both are on the picket line. The Mining Authority are investigating what happened (as is their job) but now they are implicated in the investigation, the agents will have take over that investigation.

The agents arrive in Casper at 14:00. It is very cold and it seems as though it has been snowing heavily over the past few days. The local union office is closed (everyone is picketing the mine) so the agents go local newspaper, The Casper Clarion. They speak to Bernie Price - the reporter covering the strike - and learn that mine-worker Leroy Bryce reported problems to Joel Grey of the Mining Authority the day before the accident. Bryce was killed in the collapse. There are plenty of witnesses to Bryce's verbal warning, but there has been no evidence of the written warning. The town is largely blaming the mining authority. Benedict asks to see a copy of Price's notes. Price considers the matter.

The agents report to the chief of police, Marcus Wood, to get his take on events. Wood says that the Casper County Sheriff's office briefly held the case before it, and all the evidence, was turned over the mining authority. Wood says that the mine was closed down during the depression because it was uneconomical. Ward Industries took it over in 1982 - it was a great boom for Casper when the mine reopened. Benedict remembers he has had dealings with Ward Industries before. They owned a mine in Santa Barbara that Benedict blew up in 1995 to get at some cultists.

The agents take two cars and drive very slowly and carefully to the mine. The roads are narrow, icy and steep. They arrive late for their meeting with Kyle Brooks. The mine is surrounded by demonstrators and the agents are accosted. Dominic speaks Barry Kelly, head of the Copperworker's Union. They arrange to meet at 1:00pm tomorrow.

The interview with Kyle Brooks begins at 19:00. Brooks says that Bryce was a frequent complainer. Joel Grey gave the mine the all-clear on 19 October, but Bryce immediately complained and Grey inspected it again on the 21st. Bryce confronted Grey that very day and complained again. The following day was the accident.

The agents tell Brooks that they are invesigating possible corruption and they seize the mine's entire financial record. Brooks tells them that only he and the financial officer, Michael Barnes, can cash cheques with the mine's money. Oscar Ross, his wife Elaine and Janice Henderson (all in the computer programming and admin section) are in a position to embezzle funds, but he does not suspect them.

Brooks reports that there was a "blue flu" during the cutting of Shaft 43 because of pension cut backs, but never anything like this strike. The agents make an appointment to go down the mine at 16:00 and take their leave.

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