Mid-West Campaign
Session Sixty-Six

Friday, 25 May 2001

By the time Drake and Jane have returned from Los Angeles, Artemis Black has long departed the scene. The pair catch a little sleep and join Ben in the morning for a reinvigorated investigation of FB563. They look again at the scratch marks left on the shelves and the wall. This could only have been done by a very sharp steel blade - probably modern steel or something historically tough like a Japanese katanna. The team obviously jump to the conclusion that one of the stolen swords was a magic sword.

Benedict examines the tape with Jane and Drake. Before Woods's discovery of the theft at 12:45pm the vault was checked at 1:45am by Tony Cole, 4:15am by Timothy Reynolds, 6:45am by Harry Jordan and 9:15am by Patrick Woods.

The tape shows Brian Woods checking the vault at 12:45pm and then leaving the scene (presumably to alert others to the theft). At 12:47pm the other agents present in the building arrive at the scene in short measure, in the following order: Tony Cole, Patrick West, Harry Jordan, Timothy Reynolds, Dennis Wells, Douglas Webb and Ryan Tucker. Jordan (the forensics expert) and Webb entered the vault with a torch and forensics kit very soon after arriving. Brian Woods returns briefly to the scene to see what is happening at 1:30pm. The tape runs out at 2:00pm with no sign of Leading Agent Sandra Wallace or Margaret Freeman.

After checking the finance and backgrounds all the agents present in the office except the deep-cover agents (and finding nothing suspicious), Ben leads Jane and Drake back to the Fredericksburg Office. Ben speaks to Wallace alone. She is surprised that it was Woods that reported the theft as it was his day off, and she thought he wouldn't be in the building. However, many of the agents (including Woods) do live upstairs, so it isn't that surprising. Wallace says she was in a phone meeting when the theft was discovered which is why she didn't go down immediately. She was notified of the theft by Tony Cole at about 1:00pm (and assumed it was Cole who discovered the theft). She say Woods at 4:00pm that day in a catch-up meeting. Ben asks to speak to Agent West as he (Ben has discovered from his background) has an interest in the civil war era and even participates in civil war re-enactment.

While Ben is talking to Wallace, Jane and Drake are in the kitchen. They want to examine the other side of the vault wall where the scratch marks were left. There is a cupboard on this side packed full of soup. Drake climbs up to have a look. Jane can see disaster in the offing and heads to the toilet. Drake pulls the cupboard off the wall and is left holding it up, while precariously balanced on a wobbly stool.

This is how Ben and Wallace find him. Jane reappears and helps unload the cupboard, and Drake fixes it back up again.

There is nothing suspicious about the wall. Ben takes Drake with him to interview West to stop him doing anything else suspicious. West is a bit of a civil war buff and has heard the story of Roscoe and Reinheart. He says that the pieces stolen would not have been worth a great deal: the cannon at about $7000 and Roscoe's sabre at about $6000 (because of its condition and the story attached to it) would be exceptions.

Ben asks West about Gerard Blank; where did he get the antique weapons from in the first place? Apparently Blank acquired the items from a "local collector". He is currently held in the Virginia State Penitentiary, where he is protected by his lawyer, Aloysius Bates. It was FBI agents Harrigan and Guthrie that called the Fredericksburg team into raid Blank's house.

Ben thanks West and goes to talk to Wallace. Ben wants access to high threat response team's diaries, and wants to get them diplomatically. Meanwhile in the common offices Jane talks to Tony Cole (still the only agent who will give her the time of day). He says that on the day of the theft he heard West exclaim that there had been a theft from the vault so he ran out to check. He is surprised that Woods checked the vault on his day off, but admits that there is no formal rota to undertake the task, so Woods could simply have been feeling altruistic.

Then Wallace enters and announces that Benedict wants their diaries. This doesn't go down too well. The three agents spend the rest of the time before lunch going through the diaries looking for something suspicious. Benedict takes particular interest in Woods's diary. Although nothing untoward has been written in it, Benedict notices that about every three days Woods's regular appointments (playing squash, for example) are inexplicably moved back in the day. It is as if an unwritten, invisible event is taking up Woods's time. The next such invisible event is the day after tomorrow.

Benedict, Jane and Alex go to lunch. Benedict says that he suspects Woods. Jane plays Devil's advocate and points out that any inconsistencies or odd events from the day can very easily be explained away, and they currently have nothing that proves anything. The agents plan to follow Woods on Sunday afternoon and see where he goes. In the meantime they return to the office to interview him.

Woods says that he got up at 9:00am on 11 November 2000 and went to Fredericksburg Health Club. He went for a run, returned to the health club, changed and arrived back at the Fredericksburg Office at 12:30pm. He decided to check the vault and noted the theft. He alerted West to the theft in the common office, and then (as he couldn't do anything else) he went upstairs for a bath. Woods is condescending and considers the work of his team to be far more important than that of evidence response (which Jane finds a little amusing). He doesn't bother to be dismissed from the interview and walks out.

The agents have now finished at the Fredericksburg Office for the day. The only other lead involves going over the hill with the GPS and metal detectors (hopefully with more success). They head off. Ben finds the spot where the sabre and butcher's knife were discovered (using a map and compass) and the agents start digging. Jane hits something solid and the ground begins to give way. Drake and Benedict dive to save her, but their weight is too much for the ground. All three agents plummet about seven feet into the ground. Fortunately Jane and Ben are unhurt, as Drake heroically breaks their fall.

It seems Jane struck a roof of corrugated metal, and it was that roof that gave way. The roof was covering a covered trench or similar shaft, shored up by mouldy wooden boards. It is barely wide enough for one person. Ben telephones SCHULT to let him know of their whereabouts, and the agents head down the tunnel, Benedict in the lead. After they have gone a little way, the agents detect the smell of cordite heavy in the air. Then their perceptions begin to drift.

Ben finds himself transported to the middle of a civil war battle between unionist and confederate soldiers. He can hear see and experience the battle. He is in a line of unionist infantry stealing themselves against an impending charge of greycoat cavalry. This is obviously the second battle of Fredericksburg. He looks around for the other agents. He can see Drake a little way down the line, although Drake's eyes are opaque as if he is blind. He cannot see Jane anywhere.

Drake's senses have only been half-affected by this magical jiggery-pokery. He still sees the real world, but he hears the scene that Benedict can see. Jane is completely oblivious to anything. All her senses are still in reality. All she notices is that Benedict and Alex suddenly stop in the tunnel for no apparent reason.

The cavalry bear down on Benedict. He levels his gun and fires at them, knocking down several soldiers. Jane is shocked and ducks as Benedict blazes away in the cramped confines of the tunnel. She screams at Benedict to stop, but he cannot hear her. The horses bear down on Drake. He can see them and he can feel them. Vicious sabres swing against the agents. Benedict jumps and ducks out of the way. Drake tries to do the same but he cannot see his assailants. He is stabbed, and the wound is a real one. All Jane can see is her companions leaping from side to side in some sort of insane break-dance.

Drake doesn't like this. He tries to reverse summon himself back to Wichita. He succeeds is teleporting all his clothes and body armour to Kansas. He stands naked in the tunnel as the horsemen attack him again. He decides to throw himself into this spirit world and wills himself to see what is going on. He succeeds. Benedict ducks a sabre swing. And then Jane sees the sword stroke cut itself into the tunnel war. She may not be able to see or experience what her companions are suffering, she may not be able to talk to them, but she can see that some spirits are obviously trying to kill them. Then she hears a squeaking from up down the tunnel, and the cannon stolen from the Fredericksburg office hoves into view.

Drake and Benedict can also see the cannon, but to them it has been pushed onto the battlefield by two soldiers and is being primed for firing. Drake tries to summon the gunpowder from the cannon but fails. Benedict is busy attacking the cavalry. In the real world, Jane runs for the cannon. She barrels past Benedict in the narrow corridor and knocks him flat. She trips and lands face down inches from the cannon's barrel. In the spirit world there is an explosion as the cannon goes off.

Jane is completely unaffected. But Benedict and Drake are hit by the blast of shot. Benedict's armour absorbs some of it, but Drake isn't wearing armour any more. He is blown back by the force of the burst, and lands on his back. Jane gets up and struggles back to Drake. She first aids him and starts to drag him to safety, yelling to Benedict that he should follow (he can't hear her). Drake is now conscious and tries to use his magic to summon his armour back again. He succeeds in stealing Jane's body armour. But she thinks that he probably needs it more than she does.

Back at the battlefield, Benedict is attacking the men on the cannon to stop them firing it again. But he has been noticed by a certain confederate captain with an ornate sabre and an implacable hatred of black men. Captain Ethan Roscoe charges at Benedict.

He stabs Benedict from behind and, if Ben hadn't used his weirdo-powers to heal his cannon wounds, would have cut him in two. A fight ensues between Roscoe and Benedict. Jane comes to the conclusion that something further down the tunnel is causing this madness. She leaves Drake and struggles past Benedict (eventually succeeding), and heads off into the darkness alone.

Benedict's brave fight against Ethan Roscoe continues. Roscoe swings his sword and Benedict (rather unsportingly) shoots him in the face. It is a close run thing, but eventually Roscoe is overcome and he falls to the ground. When Roscoe dies, Benedict and Drake find their perceptions shift back to the real world. Roscoe's cavalry sabre is lying on the ground. It is once again its rusted shelf. The agents have recovered the sabre and the cannon, but now Drake is badly wounded and Jane is along further down the tunnel.

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