Episode 57
Episode 57 - OPERATION ACTIVE EXCHANGE
The Agents reflect on the toll of the job even as they commit to their new mission.
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Transcript
Hello? What time is it? Who is it?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker C:Situation green. Just another day.
Speaker A:Sorry, love, I have to take this.
Speaker D:It's been one week since you looked at me nice.
Speaker E:I'm here for that.
Speaker A:You were on key too. That was pretty impressive.
Speaker B:That was really good.
Speaker A:Yeah, great job. So we didn't really get a chance before midnight. Passage to reintroduce ourselves. I think we should do that again. Let's bring it back.
Let's resurrect that.
Go around the table, say who you are, who you're playing tonight and maybe a one sentence little primer to really get the audience salivating to hear more and more about what your agent has gotten up to and will get up to.
Speaker B:Get those mouths wet.
Speaker D:Getting them wet.
Speaker A:Yeah. Yeah. Let's. Let's start with John.
Speaker C:Me.
Speaker D:You, the wettest mouth here.
Speaker C:Everybody. My name is John and tonight I'll be playing Paris, also known as Frankfurt, also known as David Trace. A marine raider or a mercenary.
I am both pleasantly surprised to still be playing him. And I said both but I don't have a follow up so we're just going to stick with the first thing I said.
Speaker A:Cool, cool. I'll cut that out and get the AI to fix it.
Speaker C:Oh, leave it there. Leave my shame there. It's okay.
Speaker A:Got it.
Speaker C:I am comfortable with it. He's having a rough time, but he's searching for answers and we'll get to get to his story here in a bit.
Speaker A:Who's next?
Speaker D:Chris, you're the daddy. So you tell us who's next.
Speaker A:Sounds like you're volunteering with that beautiful sultry voice that you just taunted me with.
Speaker D:Are you flirting with me? Because I'm digging it.
Speaker E:I don't know what to think about that.
Speaker B:I'm into it.
Speaker D:All right. My name is Eric Lundberg. I'll be playing Staff Sergeant Nicholas Shields, who has been on loan to the organization for I guess the past year now.
Super stoked to be returning as a Canadian man living, living out my blood lineage in audio format.
Speaker A:Olivia, you're up.
Speaker E:Well, my name's Olivia Hamjay, Chris's wife. And I'm playing Corporal Amelia Bennett. She's been busy learning some fly fishing, photography, traveling to the cottage to watch and research bats.
She's a lovely Canadian with questionable accent. Also sort of doing some soul work.
Speaker A:Marconi.
Speaker B:My name is Marconi. Mj. No relation. I. I play. I used to play Tiberius but now I play Felix because Tiberius isn't a real person. That's just a Dream. And that's fine.
Tiberius has. You know. He's dead, Felix. He's. He's gotten a little.
A little more jaded, A little less bird fancy, a little bit more ragged, a little bit more gaunt, and a lot cooler. Guys, he's going to be doing a lot of Gen Z talk. He's going to. He's going to be. There's this thing. I came up with a joke. It was.
I think it's called, Skibidi Toilet. That I came up with. So that's my joke.
Speaker A:Intriguing.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's my joke.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, I can't wait to dive into it.
Speaker D:I think history will show that I came up with as Vadim.
Speaker B:No, no, I'm pretty sure I came up with that.
Speaker D:The timeline will appreciate that I was first.
Speaker A:We'll see. It just depends on when I release him, you know?
Speaker C:Ah, you got me.
Speaker A:Yeah, I gotcha. I gotcha. Well, let's jump into some home scenes, y'all. The last time we did this, it was a little spooky. We're gonna keep doing it spooky.
But this time, everybody's gonna be in the same room. And I'm gonna start with Frankfurt. The opera.
Speaker B:Really took the wind out of his tail.
Speaker C:Just trying to throw you off, that's all.
Speaker B:I'm sorry.
Speaker A:He was perfect. It was the pitch. Everything about it was. Yep. Oh, boy. The opera in Arkansas was the most chaotic situation you had ever been involved in.
Corpses littered the state, many of whom were taken down by your own hand. And that shadowy bastard from New York, David Young, who's behind everything, puppeteering yet another criminal group for some malign purpose.
A group that would, ironically, never accept him if they knew his true identity. And there was also the horrible, writhing thing from beyond the stars, draining the life out of your colleagues.
The same colleagues who abandoned you to suffer alone underground, surrounded by ravenous, mindless beings that were more mushroom than man. You endured the blows, the hits, the revelations, and you now carry the physical reminders of them all.
Deep gouges traveling down the scarred lengths of your forearms. And whenever you shut your eyes, the darkness seems to swirl with deeper, darker tears in the void.
You can't focus on them for too long without the sensation of vertigo and feeling like you are pulled towards these boundless chasms of absolute emptiness. Something far worse than mere nothingness. Something lurking ungodly in a dim temple beyond the bounds of time and space.
It's hard to get any rest at all, really. And your arms twisted like gnarled branches of a Diseased tree make it impossible for you to take on merc work.
Even if the service would have taken you back, you wouldn't be able to complete a single push up now. So you took to life on the streets without much difficulty. After all, what's another unknown homeless veteran?
And unlike most newcomers, you weren't targeted by predators or taken advantage of. Instead, most avoided you altogether and gave you the nickname the man on a Mission.
Horatio seemed unruffled by your sudden withdrawal into the fringes of society.
Her team continued to provide you with enough dead drops to keep up with your assignments, often putting you on a bus to ice pick some insect infected target in a distant state. The rest of the group, Felix and the Canadians, now going by forest and faith, they look at you with a mix of pity and trepidation.
Perhaps they see you and fear what may come next for them. Regardless, all four of you are getting the jobs done. But that's all just backdrop, isn't it?
You didn't end up sleeping in doorways on the streets of New York City because your rent money dried up. No. No, you're on a relentless hunt for him. The one whose teeth gleam in the shadows haunting your nightmares.
The one you dare not call out to, yet seek desperately to confront. Face to face, you are filled with a burning curiosity and terror that drives you forward.
An insatiable need to demand answers from the being who haunts your every waking thought. Frankfurt. You are staying on the case for the length of time between Midnight Passage and our new operation tonight. Active exchange.
It's about a year's worth of time. What that means is one of your bonds gets reduced by one. At this point, I think you don't even have a Delta Green bond, do you?
Speaker C:That's why I'm laughing. I mean, I can reduce one to like negative one, but half a cent?
Speaker A:No, it's there. They don't exist no more. So there's no reduction. But that's okay. What I'll do is I'm going to roll a secret roll now for you.
Speaker D:Some secret bonds.
Speaker C:Could. Could I get like a homeless buddy? And then I mess up that relationship also?
Speaker A:I don't know. We'll find out. Okay, cool. Whispers of John Morsley, the Underhex, echo through the New York streets.
But the more you pursue them, the further they slip away. Like threads unraveling in your grasp. Each witness or adherent is a ghostly mirage, taunting and elusive.
As if protecting these secrets from those who would dare seek them, the very fabric of reality seems to twist and distort, concealing the true target of your search from your desperate, desperate grasp. But in Central park, in the surrounding streets, there's an old woman who wanders purposefully.
She carefully selects certain fallen leaves that meet her exacting standards. The perfect color, shape, texture. With meticulous precision, she spends hours organizing these leaves by size and color in a particular order.
Then she gently presses them between the pages of worn out books that she carries in her cart.
You've observed her now using these leaves to create intricate patterns and symbols on the ground, often in hidden areas, such as the base of towering trees or secluded corners of a park. These designs are complex and geometric, almost reminiscent of ancient symbolism.
And it was this woman, Frankfurt, who revealed the location of the blue door to you. It shouldn't have been there, in an alley you've walked through countless times.
Yet it now somehow stood before you the moment you turned the familiar corner. Small in size, as if it were made for someone of petite stature, its paint chipped and covered in grime from the road.
You hesitantly approached the door, and you pressed your lips against it. You asked the question that had been burning in your mind. Now's your chance. Ask your question, John.
Speaker C:The place that I traveled to, the being that I made a deal with, what is the nature of that place? What was it? Where is it? How is it? How was it here, but not here?
Speaker A:The response came through muffled, as if from a great distance or from behind thicker material. But it was clear to you. And so you began to leave chalk markings around the city, following the voice's instructions precisely.
Each stroke brought you closer to understanding the pattern, to understanding what had happened to you and where you had gone.
Now you refused to end up like the other crazed individuals on the streets, lost in their own minds and obsessing over mundane things like counting pigeons and drawing the angles of shadows.
You were determined to see beyond this carefully arranged farce of reality and have everything finally revealed you without tipping over the edge yourself. Each symbol, each placement brings you closer. That's your home scene. Congratulations.
Speaker C:He's doing fine.
Speaker A:Let's move to Felix. You got me again. I don't know why, but it's. It is getting me tickled.
Gabriel Thompson has been the Senior Collections manager at the New Mexico History Museum for almost a year now. It was a cozy spot that WITSEC found for you, and they had also paid for Lasik and generously let you choose from three new hairstyles.
You went with a shorter cut, which has become more and more comfortable for you every time you See a reflection. You can hardly believe how simple it was to erase someone else's entire existence. It's time to erase Andy Higgins.
The heat here is intense, leaving one feeling dry and parched down through the bones. But funnily enough, your allergies have all but disappeared.
Your coworkers here are amicable, they're not overly inquisitive, and you prefer to keep them at a distance, and they seem content with that arrangement. However, there's an old man named Blake at Gibbons Brothers Taxidermy who you've recently started talking to.
He's been creating exhibits for the museum for as long as anyone can remember. And he's the type to listen to endless loop recordings of Art Bell's greatest hits.
What began as a casual chat about conspiracy theories and government secrets quickly escalated into a passionate diatribe about the dangers of 5G radiation and the existence of interdimensional beings drawn to cellular towers. Blake is friendly, energetic, and you found yourself opening up to him more. More.
Sharing the very real thoughts and fears that keep you awake at night, but framed in a way that align with Blake's beliefs and merely offer you an outlet for some of your inner darkness. Felix, you're fulfilling your responsibilities. I need you to roll your sanity.
Speaker B:Did it roll? Okay? There you go.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker B:I never know if amazing's good or not. I just. I just don't.
Speaker A:Oh, you critically failed. So what that means is that you only gain plus one to your new bond. Blake Givens, your friend, instead of rolling a 1D6 for it.
Okay, Let me adjust that for you.
Speaker B:At least I didn't stab him in the neck yet. Fair enough.
Speaker A:Now, you need these moments. Everything else in your life, this new life, it's. It's out of your control. In fact, your life is basically run BY A deputy U.S.
marshal, Claudine Martinez, who you check in with at a Chick Fil? A about once a month to tick a bunch of boxes for some bureaucrat to later file away. She has no idea who you used to be.
You're slowly figuring it out, but she takes everything so seriously that whatever they told her must have made it seem like you're some extraordinary VIP who is being hunted at every turn. Your brother. Well, he's now at a sleep studies facility, and that's courtesy of Horatio.
She also sent someone from overseas, R and D to monitor his health.
Although their methods may be much more efficient than your previous makeshift techniques, you still worry about their motives and their interest in his so called talents. Thankfully, their promise to keep you Informed about his health have been good so far, and you can even monitor him through a live video feed.
Jules, the technician responsible for his care, is a bit condescending, but does seemingly work hard to keep you updated. Now, you visit your brother often, and he stirred when last you were there, awakening in a fit while repeating the word baktun. Baktun.
You felt so helpless, and he soon had to be sedated. Occasionally, you collaborate with the other agents on somber assignments, which usually result in a target getting injured or worse.
Lately, however, you've been assigned the task of evaluating potential recruits for Pegasus.
Perhaps the organization is expanding, or you imagine, more likely, they need you to find suitable replacements for when the inevitable strikes you or any of the others. Hell, Frankfurt is barely recognizable now. Still, this work is more fulfilling than trying to suss out parasites.
And you try not to dwell on the impact your decisions may have on the individuals whose files are slipped under the door of your new home.
Leaving the house and socializing isn't something you do often, but every now and then, Bennett will make a call on one of the phones the Marshals Service doesn't know you have. Those conversations are precious to you. Just talking about ordinary, everyday things makes you feel connected to a better world.
Without those calls from Bennett, and without Blake, you fear losing touch with reality forever.
Speaker B:Can I ask your home scene a really quick question? Was that. What was that, Marshall? Claudine. What?
Speaker A:Yeah, her name is Claudine Martinez. You'll find her on your character sheet.
Speaker B:Okay, cool, Cool.
Speaker A:So you have three new bonds, like we discussed. I shuffled you since you're now in witsack, and basically just transferred your current bond ratings to new people in your life.
Speaker B:Sounds great.
Speaker A:Bennett, you're up next. The phrase talents on loan is one that you've become all too familiar with.
It has been repeated to you by Director McIntyre, later, the CBSA Operational Coordinator, the Senior Logistics Officer at Interpol Washington. Just about every Pegasus fixer who has contacted you over the past year.
It's now a running joke between you and Shields, a reminder that you are here to do their bidding and work at their pace, not your own.
It seems like a bit of a mystery how you ended up working for both the Canadian Forces and now a covert British organization with dubious governmental ties. But nevertheless, here you are. Most work days are spent scrutinizing satellite feeds, providing intelligence through imagery analysis in Washington.
It's exhausting work, but you're actually proud to contribute to what seems to be an important cause.
Surprisingly, cooperation between the involved countries and their law enforcement agencies has been better than expected, especially when it comes to border related issues. However, it's your side job that truly captivates you and makes your semi permanent move to D.C. worthwhile.
Even though sleep is hard to come by due to the nightmarish events in Arkansas, you eagerly seize any opportunity to confront what must what must be pure evil. These insects that invade and control people's minds, forcing them to commit unspeakable acts.
Your day job actually allows you to use available surveillance data to help track these targets, and the Interpol work is so complex and covert that your queries have so far gone unnoticed.
Pegasus often has you gathering information on high profile figures such as business tycoons, politicians and celebrities, including Rowan Cook, the tech billionaire at the helm of the UK's 7 hyper aerospace industry. The name is still very familiar to you from both a past life and the haunted whispers of your colleagues. Tiberius in Paris.
Yes, you might call them Felix and Frankfurt in the field.
In fact, the group insisted that you yourself adopt an F moniker as well, and now you use the alias Forest when conscripted to do the bidding of Pegasus. But Tiberius and Paris feel right to you and you find yourself often tripping up and using the wrong cover.
The work director McIntyre has you supporting does sometimes end with a target getting hurt or worse, and this doesn't help with the nightmares. But you are still compelled to keep answering the burner phone in your end table every week.
Do you make sure to have at least one phone conversation with Tiberius? The topics are never work related or focused on the demands of that other job, just casual and easy discussions about whatever comes to mind.
And you feel he's such a kind and attentive person, always listening closely and inquiring further into your thoughts.
After spending this time talking with him, you often feel more relaxed and finally able to sleep soundly, despite knowing that it's frowned upon to maintain contact outside of an opera. He was the one who pushed you to see a therapist and eventually you gave in. But you don't share with Dr.
Root what you've been seeing and what you've been doing. Revealing that you and some buds are using tools of the trade to remove aliens from people's brains will likely land you in a U.S. prison.
So instead you fabricate stories. You continue to lie during each session, finding some relief in the moment, but unsure if it's truly helping in the long run.
Bennett now Forest, you're going to therapy. Roll me a luck.
Speaker E:Success.
Speaker A:All right, you're going to gain 1D4 sanity. Go ahead and roll a 1D4 4.
Speaker B:So therapy gives you sanity, but talking to a taxidermist who is into conspiracy theories doesn't? Okay, you're the chief therapist.
Speaker A:The sessions have been going well. You think? You think. Even with all the wild stories that you're clinging on to think it's helping.
So you'll continue to answer the phone in the end table. The nightmares on the other end of the line honestly still pale in comparison to those you see when you try and sleep.
Finally, we're going to move on to Shields. Hi Director McIntyre.
Tanis, that is, always had a knack for making deals and climbing up the ranks quickly, but there was something about the Brits that has him just completely devoted.
Through some clever maneuvering and a few phone calls, he managed to get both you and Bennett transferred to Toronto and then shipped right back off to Washington under your ongoing Interpol cover. Sometimes you get called into the D.C.
office to consult on transport logistics and to support a couple of CBSA fellows who have also been pulled into things. But your main job seems to be waiting at home next to a couple of burner phones, ready to rough up any potential infested individuals.
The Brits drop your way. To say it's a rough process would be an understatement.
It usually involves staking out the target, observing their habits and routines, and if there's any doubt, a violent snatch and grab followed by intense interrogation in an old warehouse somewhere in the Rust Belt that Felix has found for you. Sometimes things go terribly wrong, but thankfully the Brits are getting better cleaning up your problems.
They put the one with the sad eyes in charge of recruiting new help for stateside operas. That's again, Felix. You've helped the poor guy out quite a few times, conducting surveillance on prospects and running various tests on them.
Hell, one time you had to gas a potential recruit and hold them at gunpoint while they dissected one of the bugs you and the team had extracted a few months prior.
According to Felix, those who are infested often become disturbingly fascinated with these creatures during a necropsy, and it makes it pretty clear that they're compromised. This one guy just screamed and he railed on and on, and you had to gas him twice.
Then you had to recite those messed up words and observe his reaction. He didn't really do much else, but they still needed one last gassing.
The Brits were definitely not ones to trust anyone easily, and though the prospect was obviously not infested, he eventually wasn't regarded as A good field asset. You don't really get it.
How else is someone going to react when they get gassed, kidnapped, stripped down to their skivvies, and made to cut up a giant bug? It's a real dumb test if anyone asks you. But no one asks you. They do call you Faith now, though.
Something about f names and respecting those who've come before. You're fine with it. In any case, they transferred Marie Claude to the same area and put you both in a small townhouse in the heart of the D.C. metro.
Which she despises. And you aren't too fond of either.
The new salary has prevented any real arguments from erupting, but you can sense that discussions about quitting your job at the RCMP are building up little by little. They arranged for her to work as a clerk, and they're funding the remainder of her education.
But once she finishes up that law degree, you know, trouble is on the horizon. So what's Amanda do? Duty before marriage or marriage before duty? Well, you figure you don't need to choose just yet. You'll. You'll give both a try.
Shields. Now, Faith, you're going to fulfill your responsibilities. Go ahead and roll your sanity. You passed. Go ahead and roll a 1D6. Gonna add that to a bond.
Speaker D:I got a 4.
Speaker A:Which bond would you like to apply that gain toward?
Speaker D:I was thinking Tannis, since he's still working in contact with him and checking in as often as he can.
Speaker A:You're putting in the time. And you'll eventually win her over.
But perhaps by that time, you won't be borrowed talent anymore, and you and Marie Claude will be back in that cozy cabin off the trails, sipping coffee on the porch while watching the fog retreat out over the lakes, sipping syrup. All right, well, let's move on to the next thing I want to do. I want to go ahead and do a little housekeeping from Midnight Passage.
I want us to roll for Delta Green bonds. So let's. Let's go ahead and get that done.
Speaker B:Hell, yeah.
Speaker A:Everybody roll. Roll. Sand for me. Well, great news. Everyone's going to gain Delta Green bonds with everyone else. You all failed.
Speaker B:Yay. Is that good?
Speaker D:All right.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker C:Yay.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Ish. So let's. If y'all can help me with the housekeeping on your bond. Go turn to your bond tab and I'll have you fill this out.
So, basically, you're going to get a Delta Green bond for every person still alive on your team. In fact, the team you've been working with for the past year. To remove parasites from unwitting and usually unwilling targets.
If you already have somebody, just leave them for now. Well, we have a treatment there too.
Speaker B:Do we have a score?
Speaker A:And these will all the new ones will start at half of your charisma. Now, for each teammate who you already have a bond with Delta Green bond, It'll be a 1D4 that you add to it.
Speaker C:I'm just excited. I got three more bonds to destroy.
Speaker A:You're gonna need those to keep casting all those weird spells. Buddy. I hope you're excited because you're gonna roll a 1D4 for each new Delta Green bond you've got.
Subtract that value from non Delta Green bonds of your choice. Do them one at a time.
Speaker D:I'm going to put all that four onto Billy Toussaint, the fishing buddy. Since he is now living in or outside of Washington D.C. it seems reasonable that he can't spend any time with his buddy fishing.
Speaker B:Yep, Just Roblox.
Speaker D:Just Roblox. And if you know Roblox, the Roblox fishing just sucks.
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker E:Close knit community service group makes sense.
Speaker A:You're not there.
Speaker E:My bonds are adjusted.
Speaker A:So take a look at your new bond sheets, everybody. This is a good map of who you are now.
After a year and things have shifted greatly for each one of you towards becoming more and more involved with those. Those who you work these side jobs with.
They're really the only people who understand you and what you seen and what you've experienced and that's affected the rest of your life. The rest of your life has invariably suffered.
Speaker B:So Chris, Frankfurt and I, or at least me, I guess Frankfurt and I really closed the gap there, huh? Because I feel like we were last time we were kind of at each other throats.
Speaker A:You were.
And in the end there you were working with one another enough for us to get through a year of gritting teeth and dealing with the job that needed to be done.
And you watching him from afar, falling apart, his body a gnarled mess, his mind seemingly fractured, you stopped mistrusting him and started looking towards him as somebody perhaps to be pitied instead.
And then someone to be relied on because you had no choice, over and over again, called to action to try to squash out the things that apparently are encroaching upon the American shoreline to do God knows what. And so after an entire year, even though those bad feelings are tangible to you, they seem less relevant.
Since you're looking for his replacement, you think right now he's probably not long for this world. You're reminded of that every time you see his disfigurement.
Speaker B:10, 4.
Speaker C:The symbols that Paris Frankfurt is walking around New York drawing when he goes on missions. Is that something he just leaves behind or is he on missions still?
Like, if he senses and he needs to put one of these symbols down, is he doing that as well? Or like the other rest of the team aware of this? Or is that just something he does, you know, by himself in New York?
Speaker A:So far, the rest of the team has no idea about how he really lives his life. They have a good idea that you're roughing it. They don't know how rough.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker A:Unless you let them know.
There is a structure, there is an entry point in New York, and that's where you have been told to reveal the pattern so that you can understand the answer to your question. Because you were told the answer to your question, Frankfurt, you just couldn't understand it yet.
Speaker B:Just real quick. So like, for us, like before, when we were like Delta Green or whatever, we're always like, oh, what could it be? Or whatever. We're Cell F.
We're always like bugs, right? Like, we're like. We're gaffter bugs. This is probably bugs. Oh, man, this sounds.
Speaker D:It's a bug.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Oh, okay. Yeah, they called some deity out of the sea. Well, it was bug related.
Speaker B:Yeah. The bugs are trying. They're planning something. Yeah. Okay, gotcha.
Speaker A:Yeah, your world is basically. You're being told by Pegasus and your training that everything's bug related. This is the source of hypergeometry on Earth is these creatures.
And so when you investigate weird things, that's what you're always looking for. You're looking for through that lens. But you have these other memories. At least you two do, actually. Three. Where you know, that's not exactly right.
And it always bothers you.
So from a role playing perspective, there's those scratches in the back of your head that tell you that not everything that goes bump the night is a bug.
Speaker D:Right?
Speaker A:There's more out there.
Speaker D:Oh, for sure.
Speaker A:And so that's something y'all are struggling with because Paris is still there. Tiberius is still there. They're not gone. Those memories are just as real as everything else.
And so when you hear perhaps your Pegasus handler or fixer say, hey, obviously this target needs to be trepanned or put down or whatever, you're just like, no, that doesn't sound right. I remember something like this before. I don't think that's what this is. But because of what you do and what you've seen.
You go in and you get the job done. And if it doesn't turn out right? Well, you write up the report, you send it up, and then you move on.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker A:Sa, we're gonna kind of start in the middle of things. This is familiar territory.
You get a call, you scramble, and then you extract a person of interest from a public spot and determine if they have a terror curled up against their brainstem. This past year has been war, ejecting the insects from American soil. Although the intel from Pegasus is not always reliable.
You know better than to give these infested hosts an inch once you have them cornered. Your target today is Xingye. She's a senior executive for Collins plc.
According to the encrypted dossier, the company develops virtual transitional middleware and promises to, quote, generate granular initiatives. She's 48 years of age. 5:2, slim and typically wears her hair short.
You've seen several photos of her now, some obviously taken from clandestine surveillance sources. She's average. Nothing really extraordinary about her. But your bosses seem to think otherwise.
Speaker B:So she, like, doesn't have a job, Right? What you described, did she pick up on that? Yeah. Okay. I just wanted to make sure.
Speaker A:So. You flashed credentials. You've cajoled and bribed your way into a secure room used for searching luggage or detaining unruly and risky passengers.
You're here, actually, at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City. You're waiting for Aeromexico Flight 405 to arrive at Gate P in Terminal 2. Now, as far as security is concerned, you belong there. For now.
Now, your team has three objectives. One, convince the arriving target to divert toward the secure room. Two, determine if she is host to an insect using any desired testing strategies.
And finally, extract and capture the specimen alive using the materials taken from a Tijuana safe house you visited upon entry to the country. According to the dossier, Xinyi is highly promiscuous. Not exactly a surprise for a suspected host.
She's also supposed to be meeting a contact from Simuform, another company, at one of the terminal bars for a business lunch. One Klaus Morten. And there's one last interesting tidbit.
It's clear that her travel itinerary over the past seven years places her as a frequent visitor to North Korea. You know, you have options involving airport security.
To escort her to the room on some pretense seems easiest, but that means relying on them nearly entirely. You could instead pose as any number of Personas to lure her yourself.
It's up to you and your team's legendary creativity to get her alone without raising an alarm. Once behind closed doors, you could search her belongings. Maybe even grab her luggage from the downstairs carousel.
Usually a host has some deviant materials, but any discovery is circumstantial. Unless highly egregious. You could ask her some questions from the Carter Claire aptitude test. The sea cat. This takes forever.
But it conclusively ferrets out an insect. These things can't act fully human for more than a few hours at a time. And if you're in a hurry, why not strap her down and poke a hole?
There's a curtained window in the room facing the busy tarmac, and it would be a simple task to flood the room with sunlight. You forced a trepanation before, and let's face it, you probably will today, no matter what path you eventually choose.
But it might get noisy, and the nice airport security folks you fooled may revoke their hospitality. Whatever your strategy, you need to get that thing out of her skull.
Throw the silver dust on it, say the fucked up words, and sling the twitching carapace of Xingyi's parasite into the orange metal box. If things go wrong. Well, it wouldn't be the first time you started a fire in an airport. Okay, I have some questions for you as we set up your scene.
Speaker D:Well, I have some questions for you first. Was that a jab? Calling us. What was that? Legendarily imaginative.
Speaker C:I laughed at that.
Speaker A:I continue to try to boost your confidence as hardened Cell F operatives. It was not a job.
Speaker D:Thank you.
Speaker E:Thank you.
Speaker B:What's Klaus's last name again?
Speaker A:It's Morton.
Speaker B:Morton.
Speaker A:Thank you.
Speaker D:I also didn't catch the name fully.
Speaker E:Throw out at your.
Speaker A:No problem.
Speaker E:What is it? Cern. Cernuform.
Speaker B:You said SEMU form.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Did we get a. A terminal or anything for that bar?
Speaker A:Yes. You know where it's located?
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker A:We're really putting you again in the middle of things where you have a full grasp on the situation.
Speaker B:And this might be one of your questions, but what does the airport think we are?
Speaker A:That'll be up to you. Okay, so we're going to set that scene. How have you established yourselves with airport security now? Some options you can be. Okay, you got something.
Go for it.
Speaker D:Going to say if she frequents North Korea? We could be Interpol and needing to have a long interview with her about persons she may or may not have spoken to while visiting North Korea.
Speaker B:I was also thinking Interpol Mm. Mm.
Speaker C:I was thinking dea, but I think I like Interpol better.
Speaker A:Both have very little jurisdiction here, so some roles will need to be made to convince security to not send things up the chain. So I'll give you some examples.
You could position yourself as officials from a Mexican law enforcement agency or working with a Mexican law enforcement agency.
Native speaker would be useful here, but that would definitely make it very quick and simple, whereas other countries would raise eyebrows immediately.
Speaker B:Ooh, I got one. What about a joint task force against, like, cartels? Right.
Speaker A:That's an option, as long as there's some way to tie it back to, hey, I'm with the federales, you know? Another option is your officials from US Law enforcement. Right. Which is what you're going with.
There is a very good relationship between the governments, especially when it comes to certain things, like security breaches at an airport. So it's. It's a possibility, but it will take some convincing to some, maybe some bureaucracy. Remember that?
Lovely skill to keep folks from getting a little suspicious, perhaps, or wanting to ensure that they've got their asses covered and they're, you know, calling their boss when something like that happens. Another option is that you're criminals and you have cartel connections. You're just straight up cartel.
Those were kind of some thoughts that I thought I'd throw out there. But any other creative and fun approach, we can definitely give it a go.
Speaker D:If we're cartel. How I mean is. I guess we just play it like we did the last time that we were in. Pay them off in Mexico.
Well, just be tough and strong and pretend like you know what you're doing.
Speaker A:And flash a lot of cash.
Speaker E:I might be thinking too far ahead, but I was also kind of wondering or thinking about how meeting this other person, Klaus, at the bar, maybe with her in hand or not breaking up the team or anything.
Speaker A:But again, my intention with the Klaus nugget was that you would pose as Klaus and meet her.
Speaker E:So she doesn't actually know who he is or what or anything like that. Okay.
Speaker A:Potentially, we don't know, but that was. That was the idea there. Seems like you go, dangerous moves.
Speaker D:I don't know if she knows him.
Speaker A:Yep. You're not sure, but these types of business lunches, it's a 50, 50 chance.
Speaker B:I like the security angle. Being airport, being North Korea, I feel like moving into.
You know, depending if we use Interpol or US Agency working with the federales or whatever, I think security would get us a bigger breath in an airport situation and be able to Detain people or at least, like, ask for a room and stuff like that.
Speaker C:Yeah, I'm with Marconi on that. Yeah, sounds like we should go that route.
Speaker A:So we're going to be flashing our very real Interpol badges and getting cooperation that way.
Speaker C:And we're telling them that we are here, you know, as part of a joint. Yeah, joint task force with the Federalist.
Speaker A:Gotcha.
Speaker C:We're here almost, I guess. I don't know.
Speaker A:Part of your cover then, is being part of dhs and you have been issued identification that shows you as such.
And so as far as security understands, there is something really weird going on because there's some folks from Interpol in the DHS here that have taken over a secure row and. Sound good?
Speaker B:And we could get like, information on her travel to North Korea. Right. Because that's just a fact. Right. So is that a possibility of getting, you know, just some details? I don't need specific details, but. Right.
Details to be able to give to you.
Speaker A:Just know she's been there many times over the last seven years.
Speaker B:Right. And can be proven. I'm just thinking, so we can easily prove that to the officials at the airport so they can buy our story a little easier.
You know what I mean?
Speaker A:Those travel records are easily provided.
Speaker B:Perfect.
Speaker A:Cool travel itineraries.
Speaker C:I almost like the idea of having the airport security when she comes off the plane. Excuse me, ma'am, could you come with us? We need to speak with you.
Speaker A:Yes, that is an option. I think that was the first option I mentioned, if that's the way you guys want to go.
Speaker C:Kind of like that idea, the diversion.
Speaker E:To the security room.
Speaker C:Yeah, but I mean, I would feel better if like one or two or all of the team was. Was within sight of this happening. So Nestle, we weren't the ones pulling her aside, but, you know, we're there. You know, I think the case things.
Speaker D:The fear there, where they drop her off.
Speaker B:Yeah. I think the fear there is that they're going to be sticking around. Right.
Like, same situation we've had before where we're like, can you go get us coffee? You know what I mean?
Speaker C:Oh, I figured we would just pay it. We'd be like, all right, thanks. And if they want to stick around and be like, look, man, here's. Here's like, you know, 1,000 bucks. Just keep.
Make sure nobody bothers us.
Speaker B:Sick. I'm down.
Speaker A:I think I've got a good frame set for you. Excellent. I have another question. Tell me how you've prepared the interrogation room. Is it prepped for surgery?
Are the curtains raised, letting sunlight from the outside into the room? Besides the things you've taken from the Tijuana safe house to trap the thing alive, what else have you brought with you?
Speaker D:So I don't think we would go. We would start with the raised curtains.
Speaker B:We could. Right, we could do a whole, like, let her stew in the room a little bit. Leave, I don't know, some alcohol in plain sight, you know, whatever.
Magazines or something like that. Stuff that, like, would excite the bug or whatever, just to see if there's any reaction and then move in. Or just drugs, you know, whatever.
Speaker C:Just. Here's a smorgasbord of some cocaine, some meth, a bit of heroin.
Speaker D:That doesn't have fun. Nonsense.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker D:Fuck.
Speaker C:I'll check in on you in a minute. Have a good time.
Speaker B:Fuck it.
Speaker D:Yeah, we're at Department of Homeland Security. We're just going to leave these drugs on this table. Bring her in the room. It'll be fine.
Speaker B:I mean, she either touches it or doesn't. If we're going to be paying off federales anyways, like, what's the fucking point? What's the. What's the difference?
Speaker C:I do kind of like the idea of letting her stew for a little bit, though. I would say, Chris, we assuming that.
I don't want to assume that these guys are going to put her in cuffs, but we'll have handcuffs in case we need to restrain her.
Speaker A:Okay, great. So are these handcuffs? Are they just zip tie restraints?
Speaker D:I'd say we'd probably do handcuffs and leg cuffs. Like those hand leg manacle things.
Speaker C:Okay, we have them. We definitely have handcuffs. I'd say we have handcuffs and zip ties at the ready, you know, in a backpack or something.
Speaker B:And obviously, like, tools to be able to drill into someone's head if necessary.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah. You have your trepanning materials in a nice, robust case.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Okay, but if we did want to. I do kind of like the idea of letting her stew. What if. What if, like, one or two of us were just in the room just sitting and not talking?
You know, just kind of waiting and then, you know, 10 minutes goes by and then the rest of y'all come in and start the interrogation. Like just a intimidation flustering factor. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker D:How are we gonna play that out?
Speaker B:We could, like, be drinking some whiskey or something and just sitting there, watch, just like, just hanging out. She's asking questions and we just don't answer and just kind of move on from there. Okay.
Speaker A:Anything else that you've brought with you that I need to know about or any other preparations to the room?
Speaker D:Definitely plastic sheets. If we do decide to trepan then and there, we're going to want to.
Speaker A:Are the sheets down already or are they folded up neatly?
Speaker D:They would be folded up neatly and.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:A heavy shot of tranquilizer.
Speaker A:Okay, we've got. We've got a full syringe of ketamine. Got it.
Speaker D:Probably a nice bunch of big, heavy blankets to sound pad the room further than it is.
Speaker A:Okay. Yeah. So maybe five or six moving blankets in a corner.
Speaker B:Four encrypted radios.
Speaker A:Encrypted radios. You got it. Think through. If things go wrong, what would you want to have with you?
Speaker D:A gun.
Speaker A:Okay, great. What kind of gun?
Speaker D:Just a handgun.
Speaker B:Silenced pistols, Shields would want.
Speaker D:Yeah, silenced would be great.
Speaker A:Okay. I assume the suppressors are not connected to them though, right? Yeah, just have them.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay, cool. So we've got suppressors and nine millimeter pistols. Is that for everybody?
Speaker D:Sure. Wouldn't hurt.
Speaker B:I think so. Yeah.
Speaker C:Small plastic bag to throw over someone's head to suffocate them if we had to. And I feel weird even saying. Getting excited about the idea.
Speaker E:Who's our guy that would potentially pop the hole in the skull.
Speaker A:That's a great preliminary question.
Speaker D:We all need to roll for this.
Speaker E:I'm also thinking that I would want to be standing next to the window ready to just like, here's the sunlight. Because if they react that hard, then gonna use it to the advantage.
It sounds so basic compared to just shooting someone or even maybe putting a hole through the skull. But if the bugs are reacting that hard, it sounds too easy or too good to be true, but it sounds effective.
Speaker D:So how much you want to bet there's some kind of, like, glaze on those windows? That won't work.
Speaker B:So wait, are the bugs. Do they react to sunlight or is it the sunlight they do?
Speaker D:Okay, can we cannot handle the earth's sun.
Speaker B:Is it natural sunlight or is it UV rays?
Speaker D:Natural sun? Well, we don't really know specifically.
Speaker A:I don't think only sun seems to work, Mark. Good question.
Speaker E:Okay, natural sunlight.
Speaker D:So probably would want a glass breaker in case we need to shatter the window.
Speaker E:Let us hope that it is a sunny day in Mexico.
Speaker A:You've got a little catspaw tool in your kit for trepanning, so that can be used to break a window.
Speaker D:Perfect.
Speaker B:A small SUV and a trunk.
Speaker A:Okay, you've got it out on the tarmac.
Speaker D:Probably would want something to. Well, I guess we got the blankets, we can roll her up in that.
Speaker C:Enough rope to lower a body.
Speaker B:50Ft of rope and a 10 foot pole.
Speaker A:It is going out to the tarmac, which is a lot of traffic out there you have no control over. So I'd be careful about that to be clear.
Speaker D:Fire escape ladder for the window.
Speaker A:Just kidding.
Speaker D:Actually, I bought a fire escape ladder for my house just in case, but it's a fun fact.
Speaker A:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker C:Actually, would it be too much to ask to have installed one of those, you know, construction site like garbage chutes that they run off the side of buildings?
Speaker A:Yes. Yeah, that's too much.
Speaker C:Too much to ask.
Speaker A:But I like where you're going. It's creative.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, you know, how do I throw a body out of a window at a busy airplane shoot?
Speaker A:Yeah, that's. That's going to be an impossible ask based off of what's going on. Hey, we're dhs. We've got somebody who's a person of interest.
There's an ongoing investigation. Your superiors are aware of it. Can we also have a garbage chute hooked up to this one secure room?
Speaker B:That does connect to another question I had, which is like we're not going to answer.
Speaker D:Okay, no, I'm sorry.
Speaker B:If we can get some clandestine, maybe cartel connection to dispose of a body if necessary, since we're not gonna be able to take a body with us.
Speaker D:Just a nice pig farm somewhere.
Speaker B:Yeah, a pig farm.
Speaker A:What do they call if things go that sideways? You've gotta call your affixer. In this case, it's Horatio herself.
Speaker B:Sideways. I mean, like if we extract the bug, she dies, right?
Speaker C:No, not always. Okay, I think that was made clear that it's possible to extract the bug without.
Speaker D:You can fuck up and kill them, but if you do it right.
Speaker E:So like the powder in the box that you would be trying to catch this bug in or use to extract it, potentially. Is that like a pretty small box then? I don't know.
Speaker A:How it's magical. Yeah, that's a good question. It's fairly large. We've described it on the cast a few times, but it's orange in color. It's. It's fairly heavy.
I think I've said that it's about what, three feet by a foot? It's rectangular with a depth of somewhere between 10 and 14 inches. With like some pretty thick latches on it.
Speaker C:Like a carry on luggage? Large carry on.
Speaker A:Oh, it's. It's definitely that. That size. It's extremely heavy. Just because it's of its material.
You're not actually sure what the material is, but it keeps the things from dissolving in the sunlight, which is what they typically do.
Speaker B:Can we get fake business cards from Simuform with Klaus Morten on it?
Speaker A:Yes, you have it.
Speaker E:Would you say that the verbal test. That's just to try to. That's just a test to say, like, are you a bug? It doesn't draw them out of our host or anything like that, does it?
Speaker D:Oh, it just identifies them.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah. It makes it a lot easier to put a hole in the.
Speaker E:Kind of irritates them.
Speaker A:If you figure out that it's worth not hurting an innocent human if you've got the time, it certainly makes your conscience feel a little bit better.
Speaker B:But there's a TikTok element there.
Speaker E:Yep.
Speaker A:Could be a TikTok element, depending on what happens. Might not be that Klaus.
Speaker B:Could be like, where is she? We have this meeting.
Speaker A:Wouldn't be the first time Klaus got stood up. Yes, Klaus, let's face it.
Speaker D:Can we know more about Klaus Morten?
Speaker A:He's some executive for simu form. That's all you know.
Speaker D:Okay. Google doesn't pull up anything.
Speaker A:Oh, it doesn't? For my fake.
Speaker D:It doesn't. Like when we. If we were to do that as characters.
Speaker B:Oh, no. I thought the same thing, Chris. I'm like, it's worth a shot. Sometimes things are real. I don't know.
Speaker A:No, he. He doesn't have a. No, it. Nothing like that. Sorry.
Speaker B:And a nice suit for.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Someone. Yeah. Who would it be?
Speaker D:We're not all dressing in a nice suit. It's just me pretending to be Klaus even though we're doing the interview.
Speaker B:Well, I mean, I'm saying if one of us decides we want to be Klaus, then they can't be in that room. Right. So who's it going to be? Who's going to be the backup plan?
Speaker D:I thought we. What? I'm confused.
Speaker B:If our plan to get her in the room and, like, drill a hole in her head or whatever doesn't pan.
Speaker D:Out, if they're like, oh, we couldn't get her. She's at a bar and she won't leave.
Speaker B:Yeah. Or she. We didn't see her. We'll step out of the plane or whatever.
Like, okay, yeah, or we get her in the room and then like, the director of the airport's like, this is my best friend. Get her out of here. Or whatever. You know, whatever the situation may be. It could happen. Then we're all Compromised. And there's no Klaus. Right.
So it's got to be one of, I'm assuming, one of our male characters, right?
Speaker D:Yeah. I don't know. A lot of female Klaus is, to be quite honest.
Speaker B:I'll be a Klaus.
Speaker D:You want to be a Klaus?
Speaker B:I can be a Klaus.
Speaker D:Do you look like a Bond villain?
Speaker B:Kind of.
Speaker D:Perfect.
Speaker A:Okay, so it sounds like we're going away from having them just take her off the plane and bring her to the security.
Speaker D:We're not. We're having a fallback in case she doesn't show up. Like, they can't find her. The fallback is pretend to be close.
Speaker A:She's not on the plane. Sorry, I'm confused.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker D:She's not on the plane, going double, double.
Speaker B:I'm just gonna hold back a little bit, Let them get exposed to this person. Right. For whatever reason, they might be able to get out of the room or leave or slip out or whatever. I don't know the situation.
I'm not a mind reader. But I want to back up. Right? So I want to still be able to tap this Klaus option. In case we get burned or whatever. I'm still around.
To be able to go to the bar and pretend to be Klaus.
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker C:Like, somebody rolls a critical failure. Which has never happened.
Speaker B:Never. Never ever happened on this.
Speaker A:Well, I mean, totally fine. I'm trying. You know, maybe there's a situation where that can happen.
But if you do get her in the secure room and screw it up so badly that she gets back out and their alarm isn't raised somehow, and then she decides to continue on with her life and goes to have the business meeting. I mean, maybe.
Speaker B:Yeah, I'm gonna be outside.
Speaker A:Chances are she'll have a chance to have an ice pick hanging out of her skull, and she'll be screaming and running out of the room.
Speaker E:If her plan B is probably not to go to the bar for the business meeting, let's probably get the hell out of there.
Speaker A:Probably won't go to the bar for the business meeting. If she gets kidnapped by a whole bunch of weirdos. Yeah.
Speaker B:The fuck up would be, like, very early on, like, we fucked up so bad that she doesn't spend any time in the room or whatever. Right?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker E:That's special privileges sort of thing.
Speaker B:Like you said, if you think it's silly, then we can just cut it.
Speaker A:It does feel super silly, I think. Either go the Klaus Morton route or go the security route.
Because once she gets in the hands of security, I mean, things are going to be a very different experience for her. She may completely not go to her business meeting because of being detained.
Speaker B:So that's a.
Speaker A:It's just.
Speaker B:So that's a question.
Do we want to kind of follow her around a little bit, watch her and, like, as she thinks that she is not in any kind of duress, because as soon as we grab her, right, and put her in a room, even if she's not a bug, but she is like some sort of Chinese agent who goes to North Korea all the time, she's gonna be real buttoned up, right? And then we'll be drilling people's heads in and whatever. And then whatever.
Speaker D:Well, that's. We have the foolproof set of the questioning thing, the cat. What Sea cat or whatever that works, right? Marconi. We don't.
Speaker B:It's not foolproof.
Speaker E:Yeah, well, but on that. That's kind of why I was saying I might have been thinking ahead.
But I'm thinking if she's missing this business meeting that's at the airport with this guy, we don't know what this person's capable of, who he is. We don't have eyes on him while we're dealing with her. And so that was me sort of spitballing that too, as how do we handle.
Speaker B:He might be a bug.
Speaker E:Nothing fucks up, even though she's our objective.
Speaker D:But a good plan, like contact with the enemy. So no matter how much we plan for every occasion, we're not going to meet it.
Speaker B:Right. But it's good to talk through it.
Speaker D:Sure. We've kind of diverged from that. At this point, I think we're talking about four different plans at this point. I think we need to solidify one plan.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:I'd go with one approach because once, like Eric says, once things go into motion, like the Klaus thing is not going to be possible. I would say I can't see a way. Maybe there's a way. I don't know.
Speaker B:I mean, that's.
Speaker C:Let me say it back as I've heard it. And if this is what we're good with, I say we're so.
From what I understand, we are going to have some of us near the terminal where she's going to come off the plane. The federalist is going to secure it. Sorry, Security is going to get her. Say, hey, ma'am, we come with us, take her to the secure room.
We're going to go to the secure room, and then we're going to run an ice pick through her skull. I mean, okay, that's how we're getting her. That's how we're getting her to the room. Right. We're going to.
Speaker B:So if we do that plan directly, should we have Olivia's character running a distraction or just making sure that this Klaus character is not tipped off or anything like that?
Speaker D:We can't know because we don't know him.
Speaker B:Yeah, I know we don't know him.
Speaker C:I don't think we need to worry about it, okay? I think we deal with it if it comes up.
Speaker D:If he makes a door in the side of the wall where there is no door, then we just have to deal with that when it happens, and.
Speaker C:Then Frankfurt will close because he knows how.
Speaker E:Question mark.
Speaker B:I'm just asking the questions.
Speaker A:Okay. It sounds like we have a plan, then. Are we ready?
Speaker B:Yep.
