Saturday, 9 December 2000
Timeline note: the following takes place before the agents
return to the Mary Estate, as documented at the end of the previous
session.
Drake uses his
mechanical skill to get the first car started and make a grim discovery.
In the glove compartment of the vehicle is a small brown envelope,
within which is a playing card. The envelope is completely covered
in water-proof ink and is unreadable. Later analysis will reveal
the card to be the four of hearts, although this isn't known at
this stage. There is no way to contact the Joker investigation in
New Orleans until after the storm clears. The agents press on with
their current investigation.
Timeline note: the remaining events chronicled in this
session directly continue from the end of session 27.
As agents Black, Rocaan and Drake head over to the labs of Varium
Electronics, Benedict and Bruce examine the CCTV for the exact time
the suspicion light was seen in the sky. As they do this Bruce notices
that a transmission was sent from the complex despite the problems
caused by the storm. They obtain a copy of that transmission to
discover a message written in some complicated cypher.
After several minutes trying to decode this they return to the
tape and make a surprising discovery. The light belonged to a heavily
armoured military helicopter that lands, and twenty-two soldiers
in white camouflage gear and body armour. Bruce notes that they
are carrying AK-47 carbines designed for use by Russian paratroopers,
but now widely available from Russia or Pakistan. Bruce suspects
they are greased with minky whale blubber. They they notice something
even more alarming. Twenty-two leave the helicopter, but only fourteen
return. Eight more are on the site, and were probably the source
of the coded transmission.
The other agents arrive at the Varium Electronics building, listening
to Black expounding on theories regarding this case. He suspects
that uranium-hunting aliens are involved that may, or may not, be
brain bugs. At their destination Black hears a noise. The agents
creep down the corridor but are far from silent. A flashbang grenade
is thrown at them, that explodes incapacitating all three. By the
time they recover they are prisoners of these heavily armed soldiers.
At this point Benedict radios Artemis news of the danger, a little
late as it turns out.
Benedict determines to rescue his companions. First he texts Eisenstein
and then hides his phone. Then he instructs an increasingly distraught
Peterson to hide in his chemical shower and he and Bruce head off
to investigate. In the storm the pair are separated and Benedict
is captured by the soldier. Soon all four agents have been stripped
of weapons and ID and are held under armed, guard.
Plans of escape (such as stuffing Drake into the automated postal
system) are needless as a high powered sniper rifle punches two
holes in the face armoured plate of the agents' guard. Bruce appears
at the window - it seems he was packing a large amount of illegal
ordinance in the car. The agents do not complain. The red mist has
descended over Bruce who hurries off in the snow to conduct his
own war against these soldiers. The agents strip the body of their
dead guar dand discover (to their dismay) that the body armour will
only fit Artemis Black.
Drake is now armed with an assault rifle and Artemis a pistol.
Suddenly the entire outside of this building is blown out by Campbell-Robson's
judicious use of C-4. The agents quickly find a computer room where
the surviving three soldiers are closing a suitcase containing complicated
electronics. Black is shot 40 times with automatic weapons fire
but is saved by his armour and generally greasy demeanour. Drake
returns fire and badly wounds one of the soldiers. The three soldiers
run out into the storm, Artemis and Drake give chase. Meanwhile
Dominic and Benedict have raced back to the cars to chase down their
assailants.
In the confusion of the storm Drak repeatedly shoots Artemis in
the back, mistaking him for one of the enemy. Fortunately, Artemis
is not injured. Dominic gets completely lost in the storm and accidently
rams Benedict's car at 60 mph. Dominic's vehicle is beyond repair,
but Benedict somehow keeps going. Black is wearing down the wounded
soldier, when Benedict appears. His damaged car lurches violently,
barely misses Artemis and runs over the man. The other two soldiers
(including the one with the case) have escaped.
Drake climbs into Dominic's car for protection from the weather
when the two see the lights of the helicopter returning. They run
on foot through the ice storm to the see the copter lifting off.
Drake empties the rest of his clip at the armoured monster, not
thinking it will do any good. Amazingly, he brings the copter down.
Unfortunately the thing is so heavily armoured that it isn't destroyed,
and the (now very annoyed) soldiers get out and start shooting.
Finally deciding to cut their losses, Dominic and Drake jump into
Benedict's car and head out into the storm. Half an hour later they
are completely lost, so they decide to wait out the rest of the
storm in the car, and hope that by the time the storm clears the
soldiers would have gone away.
Sunday, 10 December 2000
Back in Wyoming, the storm finally abates by 10:30am. The agents
have been trapped in their car for nearly eight hours. Luckily the
car was buried by snow only three feet from the front door of the
Mary Estate. Perry has looked through the computer files and discovered
that the soldiers were accessing the Dynamicorp database, but doesn't
know what files.
The agents pull Peterson out of his chemical shower and phone for
a taxi (in fact a snow plough). They doubt they are getting the
deposit back on their cars. They have the arm of the soldier run
over by Benedict and the body of the soldier that Bruce shot. There
is no other evidence. The dead soldier is carrying a packet of Ukrainian
cigarettes just like Hamblin.
The agents return to Casper, and Peterson can finally go home.
Black contacts Eisenstein and tells him what happened. He arranges
for new IDs to be sent to the agents and asks for Black's presence
in Quantico at his earliest convinience. Rocaan contacts Senior
Special Agent Waymen in New Orleans and informs him that the Joker
has killed again. Benedict goes to church and then checks himself
into the hospital. He never got a chance to properly heal after
that volcano business, and the car crash has pushed him over the
edge.
Dominic finally collects the search warrants and the agents continue
their investigation. Agents Black and Campbell-Robson head for the
house of Troy James while Agents Rocaan and Drake head for the house
of Randall Watson. Both take two police officers as back-up, and
both discover the same thing. The stench in each house is overpowering.
There is human filth and vomit all over the floor. Both James and
Watson are dead, sitting on their toilets. After the death of Powell
someone is obviously covering their tracks.
It seems obvious that both Watson and James were poisoned. Someone
with wet shoes recently walked through both houses. At Watson's
house Drake finds some dried grey mud from the floor that probably
came off the boots of this person. The mud is radioactive. A quick
search with the Geiger counter reveals that so is the water in the
kettle. Chills, fever and diarrhoea are common symptoms of radiation
poisoning. The area is condoned off.
The agents head to the Ross's house to search the place. However,
there has been activity around the front and back door recently
and Artemis notices that the doors are booby-trapped. Artemis calls
the bomb squad.
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