Mid-West Campaign
Session Fifty-Two

Saturday, 14 April 2001

It is now early evening in the woodland. The agents leave Jane West, their mission is to rebuild a coven capable of taking down Veronica. Jane West was the most powerful member of the coven after Veronica. Josephine was actually the least powerful, but she was the most skilled and she knows how to use the enhancing Celtic knot-work. Of the others Louise Milton and Veronica Suzanne were on a par with Josephine. Colleen Williams was more powerful, so she could be the third witch of choice. However, their first task is to find Josephine. They leave the woodland. The black raven follows Agent Drake.

The agents' two cars drive in convoy back toward Dallas. Suddenly, a black cat jumps out in front of the car Drake is driving. Drake swings off the road and strikes a tree. Drake and Jane climb out. The cat is unharmed. The other car stops. The crashed car contains the knot-work and the poster. The agents decide to leave Josh for a tow-truck and head off in the other car. But the cat won't leave them alone.

As they drive off down the road it runs after the car. Drake accelerates to seventy miles per hour, but the cat easily closes the distance and sits on the bonnet. They stop the car and return to Josh. The agents lock the cat in the other car. It jumps through the sealed window. They lock it in the boot, but hear the squeal of tearing metal as the cat explodes from the boot, peppering Josh with shrapnel. By a process of elimination (the agents all walk off one by one) it is determined that the cat is actually following Jane.

The group feels that the cat might be a spy of some kind (maybe working for Veronica), and they don't want Veronica knowing what leads they are following to find Josephine. Leaving Josh with the wrecked car, Ben and Drake drive Jane to a near-by church (the Church of the Latter Day Saints) where they leave her and the cat. Jane will take a cab back to the hotel. In the meantime Drake and Ben (and the raven) decide to head to the truck-stop and see if they can find out where Josephine McKenna went from there.

They arrive at this destination in the late evening, a disreputable dive called The West House. Benedict talks to a remarkably greasy man, and shows him a photo of McKenna. He is singularly unhelpful. The agents postulate this is probably because Ben is black. Alex speaks to Hal the gas-man. Hal says recognises the photograph and says he saw the woman get a ride on a big rig transporting beef to Ontario. He remembers the rig was driven by Old Nev. Drake learns that the route Old Nev took would have taken him through Wichita at about 1:00am on 10 April.

But this doesn't scan. Josephine/Veronica left Dallas university on 8 April, but got a truck here on the 10 April. What was she doing in the meantime? Ben thinks the only explanation is that Veronica was in control of the body, drove to our HQ in Wichita and waited for the agents. She wiped their minds on the morning of the ninth, wiped the computer files and searched the database for information on Artemis Black and GG Wilson. She then drove back to Dallas, but by this time Josephine was stronger and regained control of her mind. She then took a truck back to Wichita, the same day the agents left Wichita for Dallas. Conclusion: Josephine McKenna is in Wichita. This supposition proves to be correct, although Benedict has got it completely the wrong way round. It is Veronica that waits for them in Wichita as they will see.

The cat has no trouble being taken into the church, but when Jane splashes it with holy it snarls and back away. Exactly eighteen minutes after Benedict and Drake left Jane, the cat transforms itself into an elderly man with white slicked back hair. The face is familiar to Jane but she cannot quite place it. The man has nothing to do with Veronica Cunningham. He says that Jane is a player in the Game, she was chosen because she is the team's "weak link". The man says he doesn't play the game himself, but he has an interest in it. Jane thinks that he has money riding on the outcome.

The seems strangely forthcoming with information. Far more so than Mike ever was. He introduces himself as Simon, and quickly tells Jane that her opponents are the Signai. He doesn't say who is playing Jane, but says that he should consider who the Signai's enemies are and she will work it out.

Jane asks if Simon was responsible for Kirsty coming to see him. He says that he wasn't - that no-one was. If Kirsty's ghost came to warn Jane then it came under its own volition. This makes Jane feel a little better about herself. As though she has someone watching over her. Of course, she also has Simon watching over her. It seems he would like to stack things to give Jane an advantage, but he can't do too much without revealing himself to others.

Simon says that he was pleased that Artemis Black won his game. Although he wouldn't have done if he didn't have the big super-powered Benedict to protect him. Jane makes a connection here. Did Simon send Benedict that green mineral in Caspar to make sure he got the powers necessary to stop the Joker? How long has Simon been taking a hand in their affairs, and why is only revealing himself now? Simon tells Jane to be careful in her dealings. He says that the enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend. And on that cryptic note, he leaves.

Back at the motel, Jane Benedict and Drake share their information (Joshua has checked into hospital to have his shrapnel and cat-related lacerations seen to). Benedict thinks that the Signai's puppets are Vitrano and Lavin. This cheers Jane up. If the game gives her another shot to bring these two down then bring it on.

Before heading back to Wichita, the agents gather supplies for Jane West and return to the woodland. Drake can hear drums as he enters the forest. The walls between dimensions are thin here. Drake reaches into the ether and this time pulls through a six-foot tall native American warrior. This fractures whatever protective magicks guard the woodland. Ben can now enter freely, and whatever was hiding Jane West from Veronica has gone. Oops.

The Indian seems a little annoyed and babbles away at Drake in what could possibly be Cherokee. Benedict takes a photo of him for the Wall of Weird. In order to translate, the team telephone Sheriff Gerard Blackfeather from Brownsville. A rather surreal conversation then ensues with the agents having to put the completely baffled Indian onto the telephone to have his words translated.

The Indian is called Cloud-Dancer. He says that he was off on his vision-quest when he was snatched by Drake. He was looking for his spirit guide (a raven) but for some reason, he couldn't find it. He wants to know why Alex Drake has stopped him from dreaming. This agents have to solve this problem quickly before Veronica notices where Jane West is hiding. Cloud-Dancer says that in order to return to his dream he needs a potent drug called peyote. Jane says that she can (illegally) manufacture a drug that will do much the same thing.

After a quick trip to several chemists, Jane returns and whips up the illegal narcotics in the boot of her car. Cloud-Dancer is suspicious and won't take the drug unless one of the agents takes it first. As Drake caused this entire mess he volunteers. Drake is gripped with a seizure, falls unconscious and then vanishes from sight. Cloud-Dancer takes the drug and also vanishes. Suddenly, Benedict is forcibly ejected from the woodland. The protective magicks have returned.

Jane finds Jane West and gives her the necessary supplies. She then waits. A short while later Alex Drake returns to the woodland. He is dressed as an Indian, has long hair and is carrying a tomahawk. He also looks remarkably tanned and speaks fluent Cherokee. For Drake, two years have passed since he left the woodland, during which time he has been hunting with ghostly Indians. He now has an Indian name: Silent Raven Stealer. Jane surmises that between this experience and the whole necromantic possession/dying thing Drake might well be the most fucked up of all them. Something of an achievement.

Drake finds it very difficult to get back into modern life, and finds trousers unnecessarily confining. It will take him a little while to adapt. He doesn't change for the extremely late flight back to Wichita, and gets some very odd looks when the agents stop for dinner in Burger King. After a very long day, the team gets back to headquarters at about midnight.

Sunday, 15 April 2001

The agents park in the carpark and take the secret lift down to the Blackcave. As soon as they enter the main room they see Josephine McKenna sitting at one of the computers! Jane pulls out a digital camera and looks at the view-screen. It is not Josephine McKenna it is Veronica Cunningham.

Veronica tries to use magic, Drake tries to use the necromantic powers he doesn't know he possesses to ward off this attack. He succeeds in causing Benedict considerable pain. But the fact he did anything is surprising and his second attempt seems to keep Veronica at bay which startles her and Drake equally. Jane isn't taking any chances and swiftly kicks the witch into unconsciousness. Once unconscious, Veronica's spirit departs Josephine's body and Josephine is locked in a cell.

Using their digital cameras reminds the agents that there may be a record of their missing week in the memory cards. They quickly check them and do find something. There is a pictorial record of the events (although Ben must have taken the pictures because he wasn't in them). There are no photos of Josephine, only ones of Veronica. It seems that they were dealing with Veronica this entire time. In which case maybe Benedict got it wrong, and it was not Veronica that wiped the agent's minds but Josephine McKenna herself.

Jane thinks back to what Simon said earlier in the evening: "The enemy of my enemy is not my friend." He wasn't talking about the Game, he was talking about this case. He was trying to tip Jane that they can't trust Josephine or Veronica.

Josephine wakes up, but it is still Veronica in control. She does seem out of her mind. Jane goads Veronica in violence and the agents have to take the witch down with tasers. Veronica is still in control when she regains consciousness at 3:00am. Ben and Alex go to see her without Jane stirring things up. Now Veronica seems calmer. It appears that it is taking all her powers to stay in control of the body, and can now barely speak to the agents. She writes letters in the air to try and make the agents understand.

Veronica says she is weak, that she wants to die, she wants the agents to finish what they started. Apparently, she wants to depart but Josephine is holding her spirit trapped. She says that the agents knew how to destroy Veronica but Josephine removed that memory from their minds in order to make them suffer. The ritual in Dallas was actually conducted by Alex Drake using necromantic powers he has forgotten how to access them. She says that the agents started the ritual to exorcise Veronica, but we never finished it. Now it is all up to Drake.

In hindsight, all of this is utter rubbish. It was a ruse from Veronica, although what she was planning may never be known. Perhaps she had seen that Drake knew some magic and intended to trick him permanently banishing Josephine and giving Veronica this new body. She lied when she said the agents were attempting to exorcise her in Dallas, and she lied when she said Drake had conducted any sought of ritual. But the mid-west agents are a gullible lot and this didn't sink in until later. Drake attempts the ritual that Veronica suggests.

Drake summons his spirit guide (a coyote) to help him find the power and the memory to do what must be done. He takes copious drugs and goes into a trance. However, he initially botches his magic and animates the skeleton of a long-dead Chinese railway worker who digs itself out of its grave and creates havoc in the Blackcave before some holy water and a big stick puts it down.

Everyone despairs at Alex's stunning ineptitude, and then Drake tries again. Lightning flashes around the Blackcave. This spell succeeds and separates the spirit of Veronica from Josephine's body. Veronica's spirit begins to depart, but Veronica has one last stab at her enemy. "You're coming with me, bitch," she declares and begins to drag Josephine's spirit from her body. The spirits tussle in mid-air, and then they are gone. The body of Josephine McKenna falls to the ground. It is now a vacant shell, bereft of its spirit. Drake gives into his drugs and begins to wildly trip out.

Benedict and Jane attempt to make sense of what just happened. It seems they were always dealing with Veronica in possession of Josephine's body except on one occasion. When Veronica left the auditorium in Dallas, Josephine regained control and drove to Wichita in Newt's car where she removed the agent's memories. Then she returned to Dallas where Veronica possessed her again, and she returned to Wichita on Old Nev's rig.

But the explanation won't return a week's worth of lost memories. Neither will it tell the agents what to do with Josephine McKenna's body. Jane hooks McKenna up to some life sustaining equipment in her sickbay. She plans to have her transferred to a private hospital in Wichita. Although Jane isn't sure what to do with the body, experience tells her that having a living but vacant human body lying around could be useful. Although there is no way anyone will convince her to let Nathan Harlow take advantage of the situation. He would enjoy it too much.

So the case ends with one of the supercomputers still broken, and an open pit into a mass grave of migrant workers in the back of the Blackcave. Not an ideal situation. Jane telephones Jane West to tell her she is safe, and the agents decide to take a few days off.

[Editorial note: follow this link to return to 2 April 2001 and read a chronological account of events in the missing week. Otherwise keep reading.]

Monday, 16 April 2001

Jane returns to work and arranges for Josephine McKenna's body to be transferred to the Via Christi Regional Medical Centre (St Francis Campus). This private hospital, located within the city of Wichita, is a non-profit organisation run to strict Catholic values. Jane can place McKenna in a private room confident in the knowledge the hospital will keep her alive indefinitely without pulling the plug on the machines. Jane informs the hospital that McKenna's identity cannot be established and she is referred to as Jane Doe. Jane also calls in contractors to repair the hole in the floor and also contacts someone to come and repair the super-computer.

Wednesday, 18 April 2001

Contractors arrive to fill in the enormous hole created by Alex Drake's frightening use of necromancy. Jane supervises their activities. Large amounts of concrete are poured into the hole sealing up the burial ground beneath the HQ. Hopefully. The workers finish by five o'clock and Jane returns home for five days of 'me time'.

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