C.I.A. Blues – 2040

 

This is a short campaign serves as a bridge from our longer Romanian Campaign of 2037 to the even longer Burn Notice Campaign of 2041.  This brings two of the principle characters from Romania back togather {Sam Fisher (Ira Hayes aka the Mountain) and Kyle Vaduva (Zar)}.  Conflicting C.I.A. operations in Eastern Europe left Kyle transfered out of Clandestine Services to ride an analysist’s desk back in Langley through no fault of his own.  When that happened, Sam made a promise to try to redeem his  friend’s career.

With his retirement approaching an oppprtunity rises for Sam to fulfill that promise and he and the C.I.A.assembles a Team recover a stolen secret government project.  Old friends and new characters join in to help.  Story seeds for the following Burn Notice Campaign are sown.  The trail goes from Washington, DC thru Atlantic City, NJ to Trinidad, French Guiana, Paraguay, Argentina and finally Bolivia.  Sit back and enjoy the tale!

 

Episode 1 – The C.I.A. Puts Together a Team

Thursday, August 30, 2040:

Kyle aka Zar (from our Romanian Campaign) pulls into his parking space at the C.I.A. headquarters at Langley, VA with his fresh piping hot cup of Starbuck’s coffee for another exciting day of reading Romanian periodicals at his analyst’s desk. In the three years since his “transfer” from the Clandestine Services Division he has rediscovered himself, or rather his true self. Gone is the persona of his dead cousin, who he had impersonated for twelve years. At his desk he stares at the picture of “Zar’s” son, Nicholas that he was forced to leave behind in Romania. After all Zar’s public fate was two behind the ear and dumped into the East River in New York City. To his son, he is now dead. Some things are harder to leave behind than others.

Suddenly, he is aware of his supervisor standing in front of his desk. The man looks serious, as he hands Kyle an envelope. It is his immediate transfer back to the Clandestine Services Division. The analyst looks up at his supervisor who says, “Head up there now. They are waiting for you in conference room B-4. Don’t worry about your desk we’ll clean it out for you.”

Kyle’s new badge is waiting for him at the desk guarding the entrance to his new (old) division. It seems they are expecting him. He is brought to the conference room where inside sits Sam Fisher aka Ira Hays, a former Delta Force Colonel and nineteen year veteran of the C.I.A., the man he also accused of treason during the Romanian Operation three years ago. During this operation which was run in cooperation with other corporate operatives, activist (terrorist) groups and the Martian Ministry of Communications Special Branch, Kyle/Zar became convinced that Sam Fisher had been turned by the Martian operative, Dominique Vadim (aka Caitlin Moore), who Kyle/Zar had discovered was one of the clones of the late biogenetic assassin, Caitlin Jones, formally on the top ten most wanted list of the C.I.A. Of course, the fact that this biogen had become “Zar’s” mistress and they had become the celebrity “scandal” couple of Bucharest didn’t help his accusation. Interviews and polygraphs followed which “proved” the charges against older agent false. Surprisingly, Sam Fisher came to Kyle’s defense and the young agent was cleared of any wrongdoing, but up till now he had been banished to the Intelligence Analysis Division. Kyle looked down at his feet and felt relieved that he wasn’t standing on a sheet of industrial grade plastic. As he sat down he learned from Bob, the other man in the room and their new mission handler, that Sam Fisher, this new Team’s leader, had specially requested his transfer for this mission.

One by one the Team members enter. Dr. Gordon Freeman, who had also been with them in Romania, has been hired. The old doctor had found few legitimate job offers after his “legal” but unethical human experimentation in Romania came to light. After all of his work in Romania had disappeared with the contents of the corporate computer during a riot following the revelations of his work, the man had been totally ruined. Sam Fisher has also requested Dr. Freeman. After all, the doctor (in an alternate identity) had served as his chief medical officer in the Draculesti during the recent Transylvanian War.

The Disney Corporation has sent three people. One is Mario, who was also a veteran of the Romanian Campaign and the man, who finally brought the mission to a successful conclusion. His success as that Team’s leader and work on Disney’s mecha project had brought him a well-paying job with that corporation. Along with Mario comes Reggie Potter, his assistant and Disney corporate operative from Romania, and Ken, Mario’s new solo/bodyguard (and a new character).

Finally, into the room filled with suits walks an obvious Nomad looking about as out of place as he could be. No one recognizes his face, but a number of solos know his name, Charlie Bibbleodoc, owner and chief designer of the Boss Arms Company which is known as a small “boutique” gun maker. The company’s main claims to fame are the “Nikita” semi-automatic .454 handgun and the “Essence”, a light 30mm discarding sabot weapon (similar to the Barrett-Arasaka Light 20) but with a high tech recoil system allowing a 30% BOD minimum reduction when using the weapon. This last advance had brought him to the attention of the C.I.A. and DARPA, which now use him as a consultant among other things.

With the Team assembled, Bob begins the briefing. The Disney Corporation has been working on a secret government project called “The Cumffing”. It has now been stolen from a Disney laboratory in Canada. What this project is is above their “pay grade”, but it must be found and returned immediately. There are three suspects: Andre deVries, a Dutch fixer; Horst Kempler, a freelance technician specializing in advanced weapons technologies and Paulo Baraka, a top flight Argentine solo. Andre deVries is known to deal in high tech weaponry and is not above stealing such items for sale to the highest bidder, or sometimes contracts with others to “acquire” such items for a fee. As Bob is completing the briefing, he is interrupted by the intercom. One of the suspects in the case, Horst Kempler, has popped on the grid in a shoot-out with the US Marshal Service in Cumberland County, New Jersey. The Team is dispatched immediately to New Jersey by way of a government osprey. Sam Fisher is given a 10,000 eb cred chip to finance the mission.

At a run-down farm house, they find William Smith, Deputy Administrator for LawDiv’s Organized Crime Bureau out of Philadelphia, Art Miller, the Chief Deputy Marshal out of the Atlantic City Marshal’s Service office and (to a small extent) the local sheriff having a jurisdictional pissing match. It seems that Deputy Marshal Raylin Gibbons has shot and killed the suspect along with two of his associates (one of whom was wanted by the Marshal’s Service). LawDiv is furious that the Marshal didn’t wait for their two agents before moving in. Well, the two agents had their car stolen while they went for coffee and donuts at a store in this county. The three suspects were trying to leave so Gibbons made his move.

Sam pulls out his credentials and attempts to bring some order to this “discussion”, but Deputy Administrator Smith slaps him down as his position is very much senior here. Kyle attempts to schmooze the LawDiv man, but Smith is too furious at the Marshal for shooting the suspects and the local sheriff because of his men’s car being jacked. Sam talks with Deputy Marshal Gibbons and the two hit it off. Dr. Freeman, who was also a former assistant coroner in Las Vegas talks to the LawDiv coroner on the scene. He then draws his own forensic conclusions and botches this about as badly as it can be botched. This doesn’t do the Team’s credibility any good. The dead men each have a single bullet hole in their foreheads. Deputy Marshal Gibbons is quite a shot. This marshal also finally takes a good look at Charlie Bibbleodoc and recognizes him. He immediately comes over to talk. It seems the Marshal uses a Boss Arms Nikita!

Chief Deputy Art Miller, Deputy Administrator Smith and Sam get calls from their respective supervisors. It seems this “pissing match” had already been kicked upstairs before the Team arrived. The Marshal Service is made lead investigators, LawDiv will supply the forensics back up and the C.I.A. Team will observe (Raylin is assigned as their liaison). All three teams go over the crime scene.

It’s getting late so Art, Raylin and the Team fly to Atlantic City in the C.I.A.’s osprey that leaves after depositing them there. Due to the upcoming Labor Day Weekend, there are no hotel rooms available in Atlantic City. There is a bunkroom at the Marshal’s offices, which is offered and they accept.
***

Friday, August 31, 2040:

The preliminary forensics report from LawDiv arrives in the morning. A set of fingerprints is discovered belonging to a known Pleasantville fixer named Boyd Crowler, who was a childhood friend of Marshal Gibbons. These prints were found on the (now empty) case where the “Cumffing” was stored. This fixer is hard to find. Raylin will try to set up a meeting. A keycard to a room at the Borgata Casino was found on one of the dead suspects, but the card itself has been retained by LawDiv in their evidence locker. Art asks LawDiv send it to his office, but they say they can’t spare anyone until after the holiday weekend, so they will drive it down on this coming Tuesday.

This will not do, so Sam and Kyle rent a car and drive to Philadelphia to pick up the keycard. There is no parking (except for official vehicles) near the Federal Building, so Sam goes in and leaves Kyle in the car to watch it. (Good thing too as I had the tow truck waiting and a frustrating and infuriating series of mishaps prepared as they would try to get the car back. Smart play avoided that!) Inside at the desk a pleasant clerk asks Sam for the LawDiv case file number. Opps! A phone call later he has the number and the clerk goes to get the evidence. After forty-five minutes she hasn’t returned. When Sam asks where she went, he is told that she has left for the day, but that they can help him. Again he gives the case file number and waits another half an hour. This clerk comes back and informs him that the key card was driven to Atlantic City a couple of hours ago. Sam thanks the clerk and leaves. Up in his office William Smith watches his monitor as Sam leaves with a hint of satisfaction. He must remember to file a report on the C.I.A. and Marshal Service’s lack of coordination in this investigation!

Later in the afternoon after the two return to Atlantic City they hear from Marshal Gibbons. A meeting can be arranged for the deputy and two others for tomorrow night with Boyd Crowler.

In the early evening the Team goes to the Borgata Casino with the keycard to get the room identified. The room was rented under a false name. The clerk did not take a debit card for collateral, but took cash (double the normal rate) without the manager’s approval. The clerk, Joe is not on shift at present and doesn’t come on duty until 10 am Tuesday morning. The room the three “suspects” rented has been turned down twice since then so Dr. Freeman is not able to find any useful evidence. Kyle requests the security footage for the time the three checked in and out, but the hotel balks claiming they must protect the identity of their other clients. The Feds will have to get a warrant.

Well, it is Friday. The Team is in a beautiful casino on Labor Day weekend. So what do they do next? They lose some money at the gaming tables, but have a great time doing it!

***

Saturday, September 1, 2040:

Sam calls Bob the Team’s handler to get the warrants, but is told to get them from the local Federal Judge through the Federal District Attorney himself. Well, no answer at those numbers, so Raylin says he will track the DA down as the two know each other.

That evening Marshal Gibbons, Sam and Kyle go to a private club in Northfield located in one of the most dangerous places in that town. Raylin parks his car right in from of the club under the eyes of the automatic rifle toting “guards” out front. It is a mean looking crew, but they all seem to know the Marshal, and his car is not molested.

Inside the Marshal sets off the weapons detector, but is not asked for his gun. The two C.I.A. agents are, but the bouncers back down when Raylin vouches for them. This place is definitely “unfriendly” to two of the Feds until a big bear of a man comes over to talk. The Marshal has a friendly chat with him. This man is the owner, Bo Crowler, who is the father of Boyd Crowler. They are given a free drink and made to wait twenty minutes. Finally the poker game in the back room is finished and Boyd is the big winner. As the losers are ushered out the three Feds enter. There is a poker table in the center of the room and a man with an assault rifle or heavy submachinegun at ready in each of the four corners.

Raylin looks around the room and comments, “Why all the firepower, Boyd?”

“Well, I do remember that you shot me the last time we met,” replies the fixer.

“Come on, I didn’t kill you.”

“Well, not for lack of trying.”

“Fair enough” the Marshal says, and he introduces the two C.I.A. agents. The two ask the fixer about any business he might have had with Horst, but the card player is very evasive. Finally, Kyle explains that they are trying to bring some “sunlight” into the murky world that led to the theft and that a man like him might not want the “spotlight” turned on him. After all they are not after him, yet. At this Boyd insists on a signed immunity deal before he talks, and he says that he believes he might have some important information for them, when his memory returns Raylin tells him he will make it happen. The three then leave.

***

Sunday, September 2, 2040:

Most of the Team takes the morning off, and Sam shuts his phone off to go to church. This turns out to be an unfortunate move since that is the time Marshal Gibbons got the Federal District Attorney to break away from his family barbeque, and he doesn’t get this message until it is too late. Now he wouldn’t get a meeting until business day on Tuesday.

All is not lost since Raylin gets together with Charlie to talk guns. When all is done, Charlie promises to make the deputy a custom masterwork Nikita handgun for cost.

No the Team still can’t take a day off completely. About 6pm, Sam, Kyle, Ken and Marshall Gibbons heads over to the apartment of Joe, the Borgata’s front desk clerk, to interview him. No one is home, but Kyle says he thinks he “hears” someone in trouble inside. They pick the lock and find an empty apartment. Joe’s cell phone is on the table. It seems he doesn’t want to be called into work. They relock the apartment and decide that Kyle and Ken will stakeout the place in the rental car. The others return to the Marshal’s offices.

***

Monday, September 3, 2040:

Early in the morning the stakeout team sees a young man and woman go into the target apartment. The lights soon go out. They keep watch. About 3pm a police car pulls up behind them and turns on their blue lights. It is the Atlantic City Police. You know they have been sitting out there for a suspiciously long time, and did not inform the local PD about their stake out. However, credentials are checks and all is well, except for maybe the Team’s anonymity.

A little before 7 am the woman leaves the apartment and then the man leaves right after she does. Kyle and Ken follow him in the car and call Sam with this news. The man boards the surface light rail car on Atlantic Avenue heading for Odonnell Park Station, where the line goes underground as it heads for the Borgata Casino. Sam gets the target’s description from the two and gets on the rail car at Odonnell Park to follow him. Unexpectedly, the target gets off the train at the Atlanticare Medical Center Station so Sam decides to detain him then and there. The agent presents his credentials to which he is told in no uncertain terms to “fuck off.” The young man pulls out his DMS identification which is stamped with the words, “Corporate Immunity”. This isn’t Joe, but rather his roommate, who is the personal executive assistant to a high level DMS official. This young man doesn’t have much, but his immunity is his badge of honor. He loudly and profanely tells Sam where he can put his badge and stalks off. Maybe the Team should have asked for a picture of their target?

Well, the rest of the Team decides to enjoy their stay in Atlantic City and there is some gambling, tanning, and important girl watching on the beach to do. Oh yes, Sam gets an impatient call from Bob, their handler, who is wondering about their apparent lack of progress. You just can’t please some people.

***

Tuesday, September 4, 2040:

The Team is waiting at the District Attorney’s office when it opens in the morning and the work on the search warrants for the Borgata surveillance tapes begins. That goes on the front burner. Raylin explains the need for a quick immunity agreement and gives the DA Boyd’s lawyer’s name. By 10 am they have their warrant and return to the Borgata. Joe, the front desk clerk is also on duty.

When questioned, the clerk will remember that the two checked in with two others (separate billing) and had the room next door. These other two used the names of Paul Conners and Jon Savage. A check reveals these as false identities. The Team finds that all four suspects have been erased from the security footage of the hotel. The clerk does recall that the four left together in a taxi, but he doesn’t know to where. Kyle asks if Joe would talk to a sketch artist and the young man agrees. He is brought to the Marshal’s office. Kylie also asks the rather embarrassed Borgata netrunners to go over space where the missing information was. His reasoning is that hackers are proud group and often leave a hard to find “tag” to identify their work.

Sam and Kyle go to the cab company in hopes that that company has cameras in the cabs (no), and to look at the trip sheets. Unfortunately, there are too many cabs that it might have been going to too many places. By late afternoon the immunity deal is worked out and Boyd will be in tomorrow to sign it. Kyle didn’t want to wait that long so he takes the car to the bar where they had met Boyd before in Northfield. The “guards” in front of the club are definitely hostile so Kyle leaves quickly without going in (which would have ended in his quick death).

***

Wednesday, September 5, 2040:

Boyd is there with his lawyer and they quickly conclude the immunity agreement. It seems that the fixer had sold Horst (who he has had previous dealings with) and his partners a Cushman 7000 transport case. These are the “Rolls Royces” of the courier world. Each is custom made so no two look alike. The case is heavily shielded and is biohazard and radiation safe. They are impossible to detect and go through almost any scanner known. The contents inside cannot be detected by any know method, and they are booby trapped. More importantly this case has a biometric lock. During the conversation Boyd lets it slip that the case is also still tuned to his biometric signature. Sam asks if he would like to come along so they can open the case when they get it. Boyd hesitates a bit, but the offer of cash brings him on the Team. Besides, it’s good for a man in his line of work to keep the C.I.A. happy! Also, Boyd remembers they did inquire about the security cameras at the Atlantic City International Airport. This is a key piece of information. They notify airport security to pull the security tapes for the times calculated on the time it would take the cab to get to the airport.

Security at the Borgata also contacts the Team. It would seem Kyle was right. They found a “signature” identifying the Net culprits as the Autojoks (see Chrome 2 page 51). This organization has grown over the years to one of the most sophisticated gang of NET criminals (freedom fighters?) in the world. They are tough, smart and very expensive! The casino security is nervous and now they are all about cooperation.

Late in the afternoon airport security gets back to the Team. It is bad news. The security footage has also been erased. Due to the times and locations of the gaps they calculate that the four got on a flight to San Juan, Porto Rico. Sam immediately requests a military flight from the airbase at the Atlantic City International Airport for himself and Kyle, he instructs the others to check the airport security gaps to see if the Autojoks might be responsible again. The rest of the Team will then follow them tomorrow. Bob makes the arrangements. However, Sam changes his mind and decides dividing the Team would be a bad idea. He cancels the military flight (and pisses off Bob again).

***

Thursday, September 6, 2040:

By noon they find the Autojoks signature on the airport footage gaps. The C.I.A. mobilizes its cyber resources to neutralize them. The Team gets ready to go to Porto Rico, but the military flight they want (they have lots of gear that the airline would frown upon) will not be available until tomorrow morning.

***

Friday, September 7, 2040:

The flight on the military cargo plane is uneventful. On landing in San Juan they are met by Jorge Estrada, their local LawDiv liaison. It seems one of the resort hotels they sent the artist sketches to thought they might have the people they are looking for. Unfortunately, the manager sent his security chief, John Danielson to check them out before he notified the police. When the security chief entered the room it exploded. Only the fact that the man was in his combat Alpha body allowed the cyborg to survive (barely), but his body was wrecked. The cyborg is now in the hospital getting his biopod treated.

The Team is driven right to the hotel to survey the damage. There was a second unidentified body, or at least parts of one, in the hotel room. After a brief examination by Boyd Crowler (the pieces of) the corpse are taken to the coroner for identification. Boyd is able to deduce that the explosive was on the second body when it went off. Here as before, all relevant security tapes have been erased.

That evening they are able to talk to the cyborg, who is now in his Gemini body. It seems he had talked with one of the men, who the Team believed was probably Paul Conners. Among the subjects discussed were a number of small hotels in Trinidad. When John opened the hotel room door he saw Conners lying on the floor. Then the room exploded. Next stop seems to be Trinidad. Sam contacts the agency to arrange clandestine transport to Trinidad. The agency informs him that the hotel owners of the bombed establishment seem to have some political clout. John their security chief is now assigned to his Team. Both he and his hotel are looking for a little “payback”. Their flight will leave tomorrow.

That night Sam decides to change his plan. He has been to Trinidad a number of times “on business” and is familiar with many of the players there. Also, that government is not completely unfriendly to the United States. The various South Am Wars did not touch the island nation very hard, and as a member of the new (British) Commonwealth relations have gotten even better. The United States and Trinidad have treaties for the cooperation on criminal matters and this mission started with a theft that occurred in Canada, another Commonwealth nation. So Sam calls Bob and has him notify the island government of his Team’s intention to come there and requests their assistance. This pushes their departure back to tomorrow late afternoon, but allows them to operate openly. Yes, they will be assigned a liaison and will have to be careful to follow all local legal procedures, but he knows them. In his mind the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Interestingly enough, they will be taking the same plane there as before. It just won’t cost as much!

 

 

Episode 2 – Trinidad Bound

Saturday, September 8, 2040:

The Team’s flight leaves late in the afternoon to Port Au Prince, Trinidad. On arrival their osprey is towed into a hanger where United States Embassy official, Melissa Bunchen (C.I.A. agent), a couple of local customs officials, a representative of the Trinidad Foreign Ministry, and two liaison officers wait. The first is a black man with close cropped hair in a well-tailored suit. He introduces himself as Lieutenant Maurice LeGran from the Trinidad and Tobago Police’s Special Branch. The second man is white, a little on the scruffy side, and dressed in a light shirt with shorts. He is Roger Mortimer with the Commonwealth MI-5. It seems the Team has attracted some attention already. Passports are stamped and weapons permits are issued. Sam is limited on the number of handguns he can have and all heavy armor (except Dr. Freeman’s medical armor) has to go to the Embassy, which has sent over a large van (affirmative action van) and a four door sedan for their use. A U.S. government safe house has been made available to the Team, one already known to the government of Trinidad. The Team will be permitted to begin their investigations in the morning. Melissa takes them to the safe house for the night.

***

Sunday, September 9, 2040:

The safe house has three bedrooms and the Team split them up along the lines of the various subgroups. Sam, Kyle and Dr. Freeman take the master bedroom. The Disney “boys”, Mario, Reggie and Ken take the larger of the two other bedrooms (#2). Charlie and Boyd take the third. The house is in a lower middle class suburb and the police keep an unmarked car at the end of the block for the Team’s “safety”. Still, Sam decides to have the group sleep in shifts. (The street is at the bottom of the following picture. The “patio” is in the back yard.)

A little after 2 am, Charlie has just finished using the bathroom, which is located at one end of the house and Dr. Freeman is just going in to use those facilities. In the living room Ken hears a vehicle outside so he looks carefully out from the side of the front window’s curtains. He sees almost a dozen heavily cybered and armed men fanning out from a large pick up style truck and charging the house. A condensation trail streaks out from behind the truck as a light LAW sails towards the front door. Ken pulls his pistols out, fires into the ceiling and rushes towards the bedrooms shouting, “We’re under attack!”

Well, the two who were up heard Ken, but the sleepers did not need to hear him as the light LAW blows the front door in. Ken is tossed to the floor half way across the living room. A second larger explosion blows out the back kitchen door sending debris flying over Ken’s head. The solo’s skinweave and light armor sloughs off any damage as he scrambles to his feet and reaches the main hall where Charlie is at. The nomad may be a gun maker, but he is not a solo. He has pulled out a handgun, but since he failed his “grace under fire” roll, he cannot act beyond that. In the master bedroom, which shares a wall with the kitchen, Kyle is knocked out of bed near the bathroom door. Sam jumps up, but manages to keep his stance. Automatic weapons fire shoots the window out. Then both C.I.A. guys see a grenade come through the now broken window and land at Sam’s feet. Kyle rolls through the bathroom door and jumps in the bathtub. Sam runs into the closer closet. Well, it is an EMP grenade. Kyle is out of range, but Sam is not. The agent’s cyberarms shut down. Dr. Freeman levels his 30mm “Essence” at the master bedroom window and waits for the assault.

The twin explosions wake up the two sleeping Disney boys. Mario immediately takes cover and readies his pistol. Reggie starts to get dressed. Well, sustained fire from a CAWS blows out their window and Reggie takes a couple of superficial wounds before pulling his handgun. Sure enough a booster comes jumping through the window firing a SMG at the door to the hall. He is cut down by Mario and Reggie. In the smaller bedroom the story is the same. The window gets blown out and a pistol and SMG wielding booster comes jumping through the window. Boyd and the booster continue to blaze away at each other for almost 20 seconds amid the overturned furniture in the room.

Meanwhile, out in the hall, Ken has steadied Charlie and the two are walking slowly back down the hall toward the bathroom with their weapons pointed at the living room. The boosters make their move. Ken blows the first one away, but he is quickly replaced. Out of Charlie’s ”handgun” comes a beam of concentrated light that he “dances” over the ganger’s chest cutting through his light armor and burning deep swaths across his body. The weapon emits a low hum. The booster screams then collapses. Charlie mutters under his breath, “Welcome to the future, motherfucker!”

The next round a third booster comes down the hall, and Ken kills him almost instantly. A fourth tries his luck, but Charlie again fires his laser. This time he dances his beam and it hits a leg and the torso. The booster’s body slides to the floor as his leg is almost amputated. He then expires noisily and messily. By now the smell of ozone and burnt flesh fill the hall. Then, for no apparent reason, Kyle charges down the hall and through the living room to the door to the carport. From the carport, the Team can hear their truck pulling on to the street. As Kyle runs out the door he is fired upon by two gangers with MAC10s. They miss. Kyle then attempts to reach a neighbor’s house to find cover and slip away to call the police. Too bad he is only in his underwear and forgot his phone! He is almost out of the yard when the gang leader lights him up with a Bushmaster SMG. Only his Endorphin/Surge Chip keeps him on his feet as he escapes the house and makes it out of the ambush.

Back in the master bedroom, there is no word from Sam who has been effectively neutralized. Finally a SMG wielding booster jumps through the window. Dr. Freeman catches him in the chest with his 30mm round and blows him back out the way he came. By now Ken and Charlie have reached the bathroom. Dr. Freeman moves his gun to cover the interior hall and Charlie levels his laser at the master bedroom window. Just in time too as a ganger in battered metal gear appears in that window. Charlie fires and hits the wall just below the window. The wall absorbs most of the shot, and the ganger is shocked. Perhaps that is what made him fumble his return fire. Still, the booster ducks out of sight.

The Disney Boys take on a ganger outside and blow his cyberleg off. Boyd continues his shoot out. The gangers shove a couch in the entrance to the hallway, but Dr. Freeman just switches to thermographic vision in case they try to use that piece of furniture for cover. Ken now moves back down the corridor and enters the smaller bedroom where Boyd is having his gunfight. At this point, what looks like a “Molotov” cocktail explodes in the hall. Ken guns the booster in the bedroom down as another of these “bombs” land in that bedroom. In fact, the gangers are in retreat as they firebomb all the bedrooms and that hall. Mario and Reggie immediately try to smother the fire and they quickly succeed. Boyd seeing both this bedroom and the hallway on fire grabs one of Charlie’s “sample” long guns from the closet and jumps out the window followed by Ken. There they both learn that one, the gangers are in full retreat and two, the fires are actually some kind of “homemade napalm” (the best that they can figure out) and sticks to you! Ken is not too seriously injured, but Boyd fails his death save (Mortal 0). Dr. Freeman quickly puts on enough of his medical armor to use its resuscitation function and saves him.

The sirens are close now as the police switchboards lit up when the fight stated. The Disney Boys and Dr. Freeman are able to get most of their gear out, but Sam, Kyle, Boyd and Charlie lose most of their “stuff” to the blaze. The Team notifies their liaisons and calls the Embassy, which dispatches an AV to pick up Boyd, and ground transport to scoop up the rest. The Team lays down their weapons when the police arrive. That and their liaison’s quick calls to dispatch avoid any unfortunate misunderstandings. The Trinidad police officers on stakeout are found shot dead in their car. The police on the scene immediately start treating the Team as fellow “boys in blue”. There will be no more officious bullshit from now on. This case just got bumped to number one national priority.

The police find Kyle wandering around. After he got free of the combat area he let himself be seen. He figures (quite correctly) that someone would call in a white man drenched in blood walking around in his underwear carrying a pistol. Fortunately, by the time they found him, the police had been notified he was “cop” and he was missing. They rushed him to the hospital immediately. Embassy officials pull the Team into the large United States Embassy complex and see to their wounds. When an embassy Marine attempts to take the Team’s sedan back it explodes when he starts it. Good thing no one on the Team attempted to follow the stolen van in it! The questions are now, one, why had a booster gang attacked them and two, how did they know the location of the safe house?

In the early afternoon word comes from the Trinidad authorities that they have located the hotel where their targets are (were) staying. The Team arrives just after the police raid on the hotel room. Sam brings Dr. Freeman, Mario, Ken, Reggie and Charlie. The three targets had left early this morning without checking out. Again all the security footage had been erased. A check discovered that this was the work of the Autojoks again. The police, NetWatch, Interpol, the C.I.A. and MI-5 immediately set their NET assets to watch the air and sea ports. At the hotel, Mario also discovers that the suspects made a mistake and forgot to clear the cache on their room’s computer terminal. It is an extensive search for a village in French Guiana’s interior. The Team decides to do their own NET search, but they return to the embassy to do it on the equipment there.

***

Monday, September 10, 2040:

At midmorning Mario has completed an exhaustive search of the village on the NET. Mario discovers that a retired French Nuclear physicist named Marcel de Lorne, has gone to the village and runs a mission there with his daughter, Michelle. This village is in an area off limits to outsiders without a special permit.

By late afternoon Lieutenant Maurice LeGran notifies the Team that they have learned that the gang that attacked them was hired to do so by a local fixer named Claude Garcia. They are seeking to detain him, but he has disappeared. The doctors continue working on the party’s wounds. Boyd’s burns are responding well to treatment and Kyle’s gunshot wounds slowly heal.

***

Tuesday, September 11, 2040:

At about noon a pair of Interpol agents, Francois Villiers and Ahmed Ozcal, turn up at the embassy to “interview” the Team. It seems one of the gang members who attacked them last night is a French national with ties to “terrorist” organizations. It would be impolitic to refuse the interview. This “interview” takes place with a C.I.A. handler present. In this case it is Melissa Bunchen.

Both Sam Fisher and Kyle “Watson” take the interview. Sam notices that Francois Villiers is wearing a service pin from the French Alpini Chasseurs, an elite mountain division. Sam had led the Draculesti and other Romanian troops in a battle in the recent Transylvanian War against a brigade of that unit and obliterated it. It had been a major turning point in that war. Sam allows himself a laugh at the irony. The questioning is correct and on point. One of the members of the gang that attacked the Team last Sunday had been a member of the “Hunnish Solution”. This was a group of former European and South American students that had formed an anarchist collective. They had been broken up by Interpol about eight years ago. They believed that “Western Civilization” had failed and the only way to “fix” it was to destroy it! They had pulled some minor, pathetic killings, but were quickly destroyed by Interpol. Not much had been heard of them lately.

Finally, Agent Villiers lays a picture of “Ira Hayes” in front of Sam that had been taken after the recapture of Deva in the war, and asks if he knows the man in the picture. Sam looks at the picture and calmly replies, “No.” Kyle cuts in that this has nothing to do with the current case, and Melissa immediately ends the questioning.

Agent Francois Villiers puts away the picture and responds, “That’s all right. You have just answered my question.” The two Interpol agents leave.

***

Wednesday, September 12, 2040:

The Team learns that last night the C.I.A.’s Director of Clandestine Services (DCS) has authorized a black ops mission to French Guiana. In the morning they have a meeting with Uncle Billy, a “retired” C.I.A. agent and now an important regional fixer, who will arrange a meeting with Jules Rocharde for transport tomorrow morning. Also, John Thomas the cyborg security chief from the hotel in Puerto Rico arrives in his Gemini body to join the Team.

***

Thursday, September 13, 2040:

They meet with Jules in the morning. He is the President of Alexander Aero, He tells them that, if the Team can be ready to go at 3 am this tomorrow morning, he can get them close to the village, but retrieval will depend on the status of the French air defenses. In other words, they could be on their own to get out. Early that evening, they are brought to a warehouse to be outfitted for mission. They are issued various camouflaged BDUs and web gear. A marine tech is there with an add on for their BDUs. It is a small compressed gas cylinder. He explains that if you seal up your BDUs and trigger this device it will erase your thermo/IR signature for 45 minutes to an hour. You will, of course, be very cold at first and the device is a one shot deal. Oh, it is also VERY experimental. Please bring them back. For weapons the Team is allowed to select either an AK-47 (or AKM, AKMS, AK-74), a FN-FAL, a Ronin Light Assault, or a Sternmeyer SAW. For a sniper rifle the choice is a Dragunov SVD or an M-70. For quieter work there is a selection of silenced common pistols and submachineguns to choose from. A RPG-A and a Scorpion16 anti-aircraft launcher (with one spyteched and two standard missiles) round out the arsenal. They are also issued two inflatable six man rafts and a military radio with satellite uplink.

When told by Sam that he could NOT take his experimental laser pistol on the mission Charlie just tells him, “No,” he is going to take it with him. The nomad is then informed he can’t go on this next operation. Charlie just looks at him and said, ”You better check with your superiors on this.”

Sam contacts Bob, their handler, whose reply is, “What experimental laser pistol, and why was he only now being informed about it?”

Bob says he will look into it. The C.I.A. handler calls back sheepishly in about an hour and tells Sam not only can the nomad bring the weapon, but he and Kyle are now responsible for Charlie, his weapon, and to make sure the laser gets a good field test. Upper management is now deciding on whether to brief Sam and Kyle on that project, but for now they must operate on only this information. The two are informed that the Laser Pistol is a D.A.R.P.A. project and classified. It is also clear that this is above Bob’s pay grade.

***

Friday, September 14, 2040:

A couple of hours past midnight the team takes off in a stealth osprey. They head out over the water and soon are flying low over the jungle. They land in French Guyana at a clearing just before dawn. A couple of miles down the trail they see vultures circling. Sam investigates and finds a body face down off the trail in a clearing. Being cautious because of the booby trapped corpses that their targets have left, he leaves the body lie. Others on the Team feel that this needs further investigation. Boyd and Kyle move forward and Boyd checks for explosives. He finds none. He turns over the corpse. It is the body of Claude Garcia, the fixer who arranged the gang attack on the party. He has been shot twice in the back of the head. Kyle photographs the dead man’s face, while Boyd checks the body, but finds nothing. Dr. Freeman takes a DNA swab for later testing. The Team then continues on. It is maybe a day or day and a half to the village they figure.

That night while on guard Mario thinks he hears something in the jungle moving. His hand moves to his silenced Gonz-Taurus 9mm, A shadow leaps out of the jungle at him. The net tech puts one round in the jaguar’s head and another in the heart. The beast falls dead in mid attack (rolling a ten on your awareness/notice paid off here!).

***

Saturday, September 15, 2040:

In the morning the Team continues to follow their GPS and map to the village. As the day goes on the party becomes aware that they are being trailed by Indian hunters. The Indians do not bother them. So the Team just takes note of them, but does not attempt to contact or appear to take them as a threat. By noon they reach their destination. At the village they find the mission burned, the physicist/preacher tortured, killed and crucified outside the chapel’s graveyard, but the daughter missing. What to do now?

 

Episode 3 – Rumble in the Jungle!!!

Saturday, September 15, 2040:

At the Indian village in French Guiana they find the mission burned, a few dead Indians, the physicist/preacher tortured and crucified by the small mission’s graveyard, but the daughter missing. The Team calls in and finds out that Bob has been replaced as their handler. Nathan, Sam’s old handler and friend is now in charge and has been promoted to Deputy Director for Clandestine Services. He tells them to stay in closer contact with him.

Mario keeps up his drones and watches the Indians on infrared. Sam shouts out into the jungle in a combination of French and Patois that they are there in peace. Hey, that is just what the previous people said before they started torturing and killing! Needless to say the Indians do not respond to the heavily armed band. Kyle, Charlie and Boyd search the sacked mission while Ken, John and Reggie keep guard. In the mission they find a picture. The picture is of a “reunion” two years ago. The scientist/preacher poses with four men down front and two older men just behind him. Of the four men down front they recognize two: Paulo Braka, the solo, and Marcel Poulin, the booster from Trinidad. They do not recognize the other two, but one bears a resemblance to one of the sketches they have. Both Sam and Kyle recognize one of the other men in the picture standing in the back. It is Miles, Kyle’s handler from Romania. He is wanted for questioning by the C.I.A. and is suspected of running an unauthorized operation and embezzling operational assets.

Outside, Dr. Freeman takes down Marcel de Lorne and lays him out on the graveyard’s stone wall. The doctor proceeds with an examination of the body. Mario notices that when the Indians see this they start to go “stealthy” and approach the doctor. Mario asks Dr. Freeman to stop working on the body. When he does the Indians cease their advance. Fascinated, Mario tells Dr. Freeman about the Indians and asks him to cut into the body again. Not wanting to be turned into a pin cushion for the Indian’s darts, Dr. Freeman wisely refuses.

Finally the Team gathers at the graveyard to compare notes. Ken notices that some of the Indians who are watching at a distance are looking up. The Team does also and sees a French military drone circling about 700 meters up in the air watching them. Sam orders the Team to seal up their suits and activate the experimental IR dampening devices. Those without IR protection activate their cylinders. The Team heads into the woods. Sam separates and unlimbers his Scorpion Missile launcher. He shoots down the drone. The Team then calls for retrieval, but the French air defenses are on alert so they must head overland to Suriname. They all travel the rest of the day and part of the night towards the border.

***

Sunday, September 16, 2040:

By noon the Team is close to the river forming the border with Suriname. They are coming out of a pass in some hills when they spot a blue ribbon of the river. There are hills to their north and south stretching out from the pass like two arms cradling the valley. Then Sam’s satellite phone rings. It is a voice telling him to set up the satellite uplink antenna for a secure transmission. Inside a minute this is done and an extremely agitated Nathan is on the screen. It seems a French military transport plane is approaching them from the northeast about five minutes out. They should hurry. Oh, yes, French military satellites are overhead and probably tracking them with infrared! The Team picks up the pace.

Five minutes later a French military plane enters the valley through the same pass. It slows and parachutes start to come out. Ken sees this and thinks the descending chutes contain bombs, screams and runs off into the jungle. Reggie freaks out, and runs off in another direction. Well, the chutes are sixteen members of the 3rd RCT of the French Foreign Legion. The plane finishes dropping the troops and heads into the valley. Sam keeps the rest of the Team together and calls on the radio for Ken and Reggie to return. Both try to find their way back. Ken returns quickly, but Reggie is lost. (He botched his Wilderness Survival roll to find his way back.)

The transport has arched over the valley and is now flying down the river. Three more drops are made of eight men each. The French are setting their trap. Sam sends Kyle with the rest of the Team and all the spare experimental IR suppressing gas cylinders they have left south over the hills to flank and escape the trap. Sam will continue to search for Reggie and meet them in Suriname. He and Kyle activate their Ice Blue cyberware implants (also suppresses IR signature).

The French satellites spot the move and it is quickly clear that the Team cannot get by the Legion squad on the flank. It also seems that Mario had disobeyed instructions and brought some of his own gear including a spytech bodystocking. Kyle realizes he can hide the signatures of all but one of them. Charlie is chosen as bait. There was a large open area that the French have to cross to reach them. The Team places Charlie in a shallow gully about a hundred and fifty meters from the narrowest point of the open field where there is only about one hundred meters of mostly open ground for the French to cover. Kyle sets the rest of the Team up at the edge of the clearing in cover. Well, the Legionnaires arrive at the ambush point trying to be stealthy themselves. The Team remains hidden except for Ken who (unknowingly) botches his Stealth roll.

Eventually, the French troops come forward with four troops doing a bounding over watch (two by two) across the open area. The Team spots two of the other four enemies in cover. When the Legionnaires reach the half-way point, the French sniper fires at Ken. The first round misses and Ken is able to duck behind a tree as the second silenced 7.62 round lands where his head had just been. Ken comes around the other side of the tree and empties half the clip from his FN-FAL into one of approaching French soldiers as pretty much everyone else on the Team then opens fire. Charlie who is the infrared “bait” about 150 meters into the forest now shimmies up a tree, and John patiently scans for the sniper. Three of the four troops crossing the open area are cut down almost immediately along with one more Legionnaire, who is covering them from the opposing tree line. The Team takes a few hits, but no one is seriously wounded. Most of the damage is from the French sniper, who John continues patiently to scan for. Finally an RPG-A round comes screaming out of the Team’s backfield and blows up the French SAW and its operator. Charlie is finally heard from, but he immediately drops down out of his tree into the gully after his only shot. This turns out to be a good thing as a 40mm HE grenade is launched at him and the sniper fires on his position. By now, the French troops in the field are down, and John spots the sniper. To everyone’s surprise, the cyborg doesn’t fire. Instead he charges across the open field. Well, the sniper is the last French trooper standing and he slips back in the jungle.

Kyle immediately gathers his part of the Team for the race to the river border, but not before he has Dr. Freeman give medical aid to the downed French survivors. It is this act that keeps the sniper from continuing any harassment fire. Kyle leads his Team to the river, gets out the inflatable boats and crosses the border safely.

Meanwhile, Sam continues to look for Reggie along with about 24 Legionnaires and a couple of French military satellites. Nathan and the C.I.A. satellites try to help, but the French find Reggie first. Sam can only watch as more troops than he can deal with surround Reggie in his hiding place and move in. Capture by the French will mean a major embarrassment to the Disney Corporation and (most likely) the C.I.A. Reggie, who is (and has always played his character as such), a company man puts his silenced pistol under his chin and blows his own brains out. Sam watches as they remove the dead body. Then the agent himself moves towards the river and the border. It takes him a while, but Fisher finally gets across the river and rejoins the Team at the safe house in Suriname. Once united the Team is quickly driven away from the border to another safe house further in the interior. There they rest for the night.

***

Monday, September 17, 2040:

The Team departs early in the morning for an airfield in Suriname far from the French/Guyanese border. By late afternoon the Team arrives at the airfield where an (Alexander Aero) stealth osprey is waiting. Soon they are out over the ocean heading out to sea. After an hour or so they look down in the water and see the U.S. Navy destroyer, U.S.S. Jason Dunham, which is escorted by a guided missile frigate. They don’t see the nuclear hunter-killer sub that is also part of this small task force. The wyvern lands on the destroyer where Melissa Bunchen, dressed in Navy khakis, but with no insignia of rank, is waiting for them. They are brought below and debriefed. The photo the Team found is transmitted to Langley and a major effort is begun to discover the names of the people depicted, and also what Miles was doing there.

After the debriefing Ken expresses his desire to quit the Team due to the fact of “learning” that he and the Disney Team were considered “expendable” by the C.I.A. Well of course that was not true and when he realizes that this was a “joke” told to him by Dr. Freeman, a fight breaks out. Ken did not consider the joke to be “funny” (neither does the C.I.A.). The two are separated, but Ken refuses to continue with the Team. A call from his Disney superiors “changes” his mind. (Hey, Ken “sold out” to Disney during character creation, so he is on the Team, like it or not.)

The Team also learns that the “poop has hit the propeller” with both France and (to a lesser degree) Suriname. These countries are furious about the armed incursion into their territory. The Team learns that a small corvette from Suriname’s Coast Guard has intercepted the U.S. Navy ships and is sailing around them at high speed. Also, a French naval frigate is approaching at high speed to “show the flag” over this incident. The U.S. vessels wait till the corvette is astern, and then they themselves turn out to sea and shift to flank speed. The Suriname Coast Guard ship is left in their wake. After four hours the French frigate turns back to Guiana without being able to “catch” the American ships. The mood among the sailors brightens at this. The U.S. Navy vessels then turn northwest and head for Trinidad. Finally, a U.S. Navy helicopter flies the Team back to the United States Embassy in Trinidad.

That evening, Sam and Kyle are in a conference room off the C.I.A.’s main operations center in the embassy talking to Nathan, their new “handler”. Kyle looks out the window in that room that looks out on to the main C.I.A. operations and communications center and notices a major commotion. He gives Sam a heads up, who tells Kyle to go into the operations center and find out what is going on, while he closes with Nathan. Kyle, who has the equivalent of Interface 1 due to his Net Tech (SA), which is part of his Spy’s Chameleon package, goes into the center where it is obvious from the monitors that some sort of NET confrontation is underway. He jacks into one of the mainframes without loading any defensive programs, and heads out in the NET to see what is happening. Well, what is happening is a no holes battle between a coalition of C.I.A., NetWatch, MI-6 and corporate Netrunners and a group of Autojoks. The authorities had set up an ambush at the Piarco International Airport’s NET in case the Autojoks again tried to cover the movements of the “terrorists”. Well, it worked. Kyle appears in the middle of the battle. An Autojok turns and toasts him up with a Hellbolt! Kyle’s body convulses as he is hit. The C.I.A. operative wisely jacks out. As he wakes in the operations center he looks around at the staff. Those NOT engaged in the life or death struggle with the Autojoks are looking at him in shock. Well, the looks are more like, “Dude! What the fuck are you doing? Are you insane?” Sam is in the room by now, and Kyle calmly reports that a NET battle is going on and oh yes, is there a Doctor available?

The battle is brief, but the governments are victorious. One NetWatch netrunner and another on an apprehension team are killed. One Autojok dies in the NET, another in a real world shootout with authorities. Three netrunners are captured. The Autojoks have been crippled. The Team wants to interrogate one of the prisoners, but they are located all over the world. These “prisoners” have a long list of people who now want to have a “talk” with them. The Team is actually kind of low in that queue. Still, this represents a major victory for them since it was their investigations that had identified the Autojoks as players in this drama.

***

Tuesday, September 18, 2040:

By noon, facial recognition has identified one of the two unknown young faces in the picture found in the wreckage of the mission in French Guiana. It is a Jorge Morales, who is the last scion of the old Morales Drug Cartel of Bolivia. During the South Am Wars Sam Fisher had participated in a few operations against their holdings as an Army Special Forces operative. It seems Jorge was also a member of a cell of the Hunnish Solution as an undergraduate in Europe. More importantly, since the Autojoks were defeated at the Piarco International Airport’s NET, a review of the airport security tapes shows the three suspects boarding a plane for Asuncion, Paraguay yesterday.

Paraguay and the United States do not have the best relations. It is best described as a “hostile neutral”. The two nations do have treaties covering joint police work on international crimes, but there is often too much suspicion between the two nations to have much inter-service cooperation. However, the Commonwealth and Paraguay do have fairly good relations so a joint appeal is made to the government of Paraguay by both the Commonwealth and the United States. The Paraguayans cautiously agree to help. What that South American government requests is that the United States authorize a partial lifting of a ban on arms sales to their country so they can buy some of the Boss Arms “Essence” heavy weapons. The United States agrees especially since that will work out well with the cover story for the Team. C.I.A. starts working on those cover stories for Team movement to Paraguay. That will be their next stop. They are going in as a trade delegation of two American corporations: Disney represented by Mario and Ken, and Boss Arms represented by Charlie. Boyd, Sam and Kyle are contract security officially. Dr. Freeman is listed as a Disney expert.

Sam also requests an upgrade in equipment since this mission has grown considerably in importance since it started. He is essentially given the “keys to the armory”. The bean counters will be expecting everything be returned.

***

Wednesday, September 19, 2040:

The Team leaves on the C.I.A. Director’s personal jet in the morning. Nathan is on board to brief them. He explains that Paraguay has agreed to let them work in their country under the supervision of the Paraguayan Secret Service. The C.I.A. deputy director explains that this organization is the country’s “secret police”. They have almost absolute authority in the country, and they are not known to be particularly friendly with the United States. Fortunately that organization does have excellent relations with Trinidad and a good rapport with the new British Commonwealth. Sam had spent a couple years in country, but it has been at least fifteen years since he was there. He had left more than a few bodies last time, but had gotten out clean.

Their arrival at a military airport starts off rather unfriendly. There is a large military contingent waiting in the hanger for them with some custom inspectors. The army major in charge gives them a stern lecture on how little authority they will have here, and then proceeds to reject almost every piece of gear they brought. As the uniformed marionette continues on his rant another car enters the hanger and a well-dressed woman in her late thirties to early forties steps out. The soldier who moves forward to challenge her immediately steps back at a flash of an ID. She walks up to the still pontificating major, who finally stops, looks at her and asks, “Who are you?”

The woman replies, “Senior Inspector Olivia Ortiz of the Paraguayan Secret Service. I am here to relieve you, major.”

The officer demands to examine her credentials, which she hands over. She then turns to the captain that is with the major and inquires about the health of his parents. This catches everyone’s attention, but the captain seems to know her well, and does not take the inquiry as any kind of threat. The major is not so sure, so he quickly cedes jurisdiction. Inspector Ortiz looks at the rejected equipment and tells the customs inspectors she sees nothing in the Team’s gear that is not appropriate. The customs inspector tears up the rejection forms and waves everything through. The Team is then whisked through customs.

Both Sam and Kyle know that a Senior Inspector in the Secret Service here is about like an old KGB general. They are not to be fucked with! For Sam is situation has other problems. He had met Olivia Ortiz years ago here, but she was only supposed to have been a well-known news photographer. Apparently she had a “side job” with the government. Olivia tells the Team that they will now be brought to a fortified and guarded (by Militech) villa. There will be a (cover) trade dinner tonight that all must attend tonight. Their gear is driven to the villa by a United States embassy truck by embassy personnel. The rest will ride in an armored limo. All, that is except Sam, Olivia will drive him to the dinner tonight. Now, they have a few things that must be discussed, privately. Sam agrees and has Kyle get the Team set up. Then he instructs Kyle to go to a local bank and pick up some mission documentation out of a safe deposit box there and bring it the new HQ.

Kyle goes to the bank to pick up C.I.A. drop material and brings Boyd and John with him. The rest must go to the villa to set up. John waits in the car at the bank. He is a borg and they don’t want any trouble. So John listens to some tunes in the car.

When Kyle and Boyd emerge from the vault, three men suddenly pull AK-47s out from under their coats and rob the bank. The Team, who are not armed, decides not to interfere (and probably die). While looking around the bank, Kyle notices another one of the “hostages”. The red-head in the black turtleneck, he was one of Kyle’s instructors during his spook training on the Farm. He glances at Kyle, his eyes widen just a smidgeon and his body goes still, then he looks away.

And then… One of the robbers now shoots a guard who has been shielding a 10-year-old girl with his body. As the robber takes this action, he comes within arm’s reach of the red headed man, who grabs the robber, martial-arts flips him with result of snapping/breaking wrist or forearm grabs the assault rifle and starts firing at the robbers. The Team hits the deck. Mayhem ensues as the other guards go for their guns and the other robbers wind up dead. Near the end of a fight, Kyle’s former instructor runs toward the back administrative offices area — and does not re-emerge. The bank is quickly surrounded by cops/SWAT. John, who has been enjoying his music in the car, finally notices that. After the action, Kyle remembers that the guy was his instructor in covert ops, nick-named “Smoke” (as in: Smoke in the wind). Kyle is quite sure he recognized him. The Team gives the police interviews regarding what they had seen. Of course, Kyle does not mention anything about Smoke.

Sam has not returned by dinner so others go on without him. They call him, and Sam answers that all is well and does not use any “duress words”. At the diner Kyle keeps a trained eye on the proceedings. He notices someone peaking surreptitiously at the Team through a window from outside the hotel. The agent informs the Secret Service agents there, and they look into it. Nothing comes from this and Kyle does not inquire further about the incident to security. Eventually Sam Fisher and Olivia Ortiz arrive at the hotel. Sam seems to be preoccupied by something. Charlie arranges a weapon demonstration for Boss Arms and Mario makes some good contacts for Disney. It is a very pleasant and productive dinner.

***

Thursday, September 20, 2040:

In the morning Sam gets phone call from Nathan. Nathan has just received a call from Hank Boseman, the Director of South American Operations, asking what the hell Kyle is doing in Asuncion. Sam’s old friend and handler explains he basically got grilled on every detail of the operation in Asuncion. Of course, he didn’t answer all the questions and he is expecting an angry call from the director himself any minute now. What did Kyle do there? Sam tells him about the bank robbery and Smoke. Nathan says he will look into it.

Late afternoon, Olivia Ortiz appears at the Hacienda with three new investigators, who have been assigned to the Team from the ever increasing number of agencies pursuing the “terrorists”. No introductions are needed. Two are the pair of Interpol agents, Francois Villiers and Ahmed Ozcal that had conducted the aborted interview of Sam and Kyle at the United States Embassy in Trinidad. It seems Paraguay and Interpol have good relations, and the two got themselves assigned to the Team. Well, our two C.I.A. agents are less than pleased, but there is little they can do about it. Lieutenant Maurice LeGran from the Trinidad and Tobago Police’s Special Branch also arrives with his gear. It seems that he is to represent the Commonwealth on the Team. His presence lifts the Team’s spirits.

Senior Inspector Ortiz calls a meeting. Paulo Baraka’s family lives ten miles from Asuncion just over the border in Argentina. She reports that agents from the Paraguayan Secret Service have had the Baraka Family under surveillance for a few days. One of those agents has just reported that Paulo Baraka has arrived at his sister’s apartment, and the sister has just left with her children and some overnight bags. Paulo is there with a small team of four. Unfortunately, the Baraka Family has powerful government connections and Paulo is not wanted in Argentina for anything. Olivia Ortiz plugs a chip in room’s computer station and maps of the sister’s neighborhood and the border area come up. She explains that if she were running the operation, she would use one of the marked crossing points to enter Argentina in stealth gear. Then she would take a vehicle from a garage that was also marked on the map because the key to it is kept under the mat, and the keys to the vehicles would be in an unlocked cabinet here. Also, she (just happens to) know the alarm code. A quick, quiet surgical strike should do the trick. Unfortunately, she explains, Paraguay cannot have anything to do with cross border raid against a neighboring state.

“Oh my, it’s getting late and I am so tired. I guess I will go and get some sleep and will see you all in the morning. I’ll just pick up the briefing chip tomorrow.” The Paraguayan agent then turns away and leaves the conference room for her quarters.

The Team looks around at each other. Amed Ozcal sighs and says, “Interpol agents cannot invade another country without approval from headquarters, which they will never give.”

He looks at Francois, who says, “Well, I guess we will have to leave our identification here then.”

The two smile and look to Sam, who turns to Maurice. The Trinidad cop says, “We learned from that booster gang that it was Paulo who shot and killed the two officers outside your safe house in Trinidad. My instructions are clear. He is not to get away. If I am caught, I will leave it to my foreign ministry to apologize.”

Everyone set down and continued to plan. Just after 11 pm they suited up and headed for the border. Paulo Baraka would be getting a visit tonight!

***

Friday, September 21, 2040:

It is decided that Sam, Kyle, Mario, Boyd, Dr. Freeman, John, Francois Villiers, Ahmed Ozcal and Maurice LaGran would go. The trip to Paulo Baraka’s sister’s apartment is very uneventful. The building is a two story structure with front and back apartments on each floor. The Baraka apartment is the second floor front. A stair leads up to the second floor porch. Two men with SMGs guard the second floor porch. Francois, Ahmed and Maurice each cover one side of the structure with Mario moving between them. Dr. Freeman and Boyd cover the approaches to the apartment. At Sam’s command both he and John drop the two porch sentries with silenced shots. Sam, Kyle and John charge up the stairs. Sam feels a foot plate “click” so he jumps off the stairs in anticipation of an explosion. No, it is not a bomb (Are you crazy? Kids live here). It does, however, signal the guard just inside the door who fires his CAWS out the door’s gun slit, which doubles as a mail slot. Kyle catches the blast, but his armor serves him well. Still, he lets John go ahead and the borg smashes through the door. The cyborg guns down the backpedaling shooter just before he is himself lit up by the fourth guard with his Bushmaster. John merely turns and finishes the last guard off as the rest of the Team sweeps and clears the premises.

Outside, Mario is moving from position to position when Paulo Baraka lands in front of him. Mario’s immediate statement is, “Call shot head”. He kills Paulo instantly. The solo is clutching a laptop computer. Mario grabs the computer and searches the body. The Team then disappears in the night. The “cleaning” goes smoothly and the Team is back in Paraguay quickly. Most get some shut eye, but Mario starts working on cracking the encryption on the laptop.

 

 

 

Episode 4 – Showdown in Bolivia

Friday, September 21, 2040:

By noon Mario has cracked Paulo’s laptop. They are trying to make something that has three components and a catalyst/control. One of the three components is being shipped through the Sampias Chemical Factory outside of Asuncion. The Paraguayan Secret Service immediately authorizes a raid on chemical plant and the owner’s house. It is also clear that the “terrorists” are shipping all the components to an old drug plantation and factory in Bolivia that is owned by Jorge Morales.

Sam and Ken go on the house raid. There are a number of heavily armed guards at the house, but they do not engage the police. The elder Sampias is not pleased but there is little he can do as the police and Team search his house. Sam notices a picture on the mantle. It looks like the last unidentified young man in the picture gotten from the ruins of the destroyed mission in French Guiana. The agent asks the old man, who the picture is of. It is his son, Angelo Sampias.

Kyle leads the rest of the Team on the strike at the factory. Here the Paraguayans also want a demonstration of the Boss Arms 30mm “Essence”. What do you know; the factory has a Grasshopper ACPA. The military sends two of their weapons testers to each use one of each of the two models (ET and not), who will fire the test weapons along with Charlie and Dr. Freeman. The Paraguayans start the raid rather low key with lots of small arms fire. The Grasshopper is deployed immediately. It is riddled on the first round with one arm and one leg shot off. The military then strikes hard and in uniform. Resistance immediately collapses.

The Team rushes to the main office so no information will be erased. They now know that Angelo Sampias is a principle player in the plot and they are looking for him too. Well, it seems that Angelo had the chemical shipped out before dawn this morning by air freight, and he is also in the wind. It also seems that Angelo had handled this shipment personally and the identity of the chemical is not listed on any of the invoices. Kyle sends Charlie to the now empty tank to take a sample for analysis. The young C.I.A. agent then puts a radio tap on the company’s off-line computer and Mario drops in to search the datafortress. Well, he runs right into a Hellhound, like it was almost waiting for him? His defenses fail and he eats the maximum of 20 points of damage (minus BTM). Needless to say this almost kills him. Mario jacks out in time, but is immediately sent to the hospital. The workers at the chemical plant are very cooperative, and turn over all information that they have. One key piece is that the workers identify a man that was with Angelo Sampias as Andre deVries. Both of them, the chemicals and the “Cumffing” are now in Bolivia. This country is NOT a friend to the United States, and it doesn’t have very good relations with the new Commonwealth either. Paraguay has a border with Bolivia, but the two countries have had a frosty relationship for over a century. In fact there are no major roads or official crossing points at that border.
Charlie is given a laboratory to start work on the chemical analysis. Mario recovers under Dr. Freeman’s care. The rest of the Team reexamines every bit of information and intelligence they have. The Team settles down and waits for instructions.

***

Saturday, September 22, 2040:

With the information now downloaded off of Paulo Baraka’s laptop, the various governmental and corporate entities involved in this have decided that the Hunnish Solution must be eliminated. A black op is organized with the C.I.A., Disney, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Special Branch and Interpol to enter Bolivia and destroy whatever Jorge Morales, Andre deVries and Angelo Sampias are building at the old Morales drug factory in that country. MI-6 and the Paraguayan Secret Service will run a Team in La Paz to destroy the Morale’s allies’ credibility so he will be cut loose by government. Plans are made for an airdrop and those without the skill: parachute are given Increased Neural Feedback Chips to be ready to jump on Tuesday.

***

Sunday, September 23, 2040:

Charlie goes over and over the data that the Team has collected and notices something disturbing. He asks for a link with Langley and a private conference with his D.A.R.P.A. handler. Both Sam and Kyle are not happy about being “out of the loop” on this, but they have some consolation that Nathan is too. Finally they are read in. It seems that Charlie did a feasibility study for D.A.R.P.A. a year or so back on the possibility of an explosive biological weapon. The three chemical compounds that the “terrorists” have been collecting/using are three of the four elements of such a weapon. If the “Cumffing” could serve as the catalyst/stabilizer, then they could be trying to build such a weapon. Of course, the Agency cannot confirm or deny that the Cumffing might be the last needed agent, but the mood in Langley gets even grimmer. The Team is informed that a specialist will be joining them tomorrow. Kyle is greatly disturbed that his country would be delving into this obviously illegal research. In actuality, the United States is dong no such thing. They were made aware of the potential and possibility of such a weapon, so they commissioned the “feasibility” study to decide if this was a serious threat. Although the way Charlie put it one could assume that the United States was interested in developing it.

Later, Nathan contacts Sam and tells him that Hank Bozeman, the Director for South American Operations never made the call about Kyle and the incident at the bank in Asuncion last Wednesday. Nathan had the call origination checked and it showed the call came from Bozeman’s office, but he claims he wasn’t there. Sam brings Kyle in on the video meeting. Kyle asks if this “Bozeman” used his true name or his cover name. Whoever this was used his real name. This worries all three operatives even more. Nathan tells the two he will look into this further. The Team spends the rest of the day preparing for the mission.

***

Monday, September 24, 2040:

The Team spends the day planning and preparing. The last member of the strike team arrives. Dr. Freeman recognizes his old “partner” from the Fourth Corporate War. It is Beatrice Laugherty, who is now a captain in the United States Army. After the war, her commander, General Pershing used his influence to keep her in the military. Her real life experience in calling ortillery (orbital artillery) made her invaluable in his eyes. Now, it seems her talents will be called upon again.

***

Tuesday, September 25, 2040:

The Team is transported to a Paraguayan air force base and they load into an old C-23 Sherpa. This plane (and its transponder) is scheduled to fly over the valley next to where the old Morales plantation is. Team jumps in mid-afternoon into that valley 16 miles away from Hacienda. All land safely except for Ken who lands in the trees and takes some damage. The Team then marches 14 miles to their basecamp a few miles from their target. They then settle in for the night. The Team sets watches and uses “Sleep Inducers” to rest.

***

Wednesday, September 26, 2040:

Ken’s jump mishap has put the Team a couple of hours behind schedule. They finally find the appointed campsite and settle down for some rest. Everyone uses a sleep inducer except for John, the cyborg (in a top of the line stealth Gemini). An hour into the first watch, a small patrol of raggedly uniformed men with AK-47s comes into view. Ken makes a quiet call for everyone to get up, but as the sleep inducer puts you into a deep slumber the person really needs to be shaken. Well, John hears him and starts to wake up. Unfortunately several of the approaching militia does too. Ken’s stealth holds but the Doctor is not so fortunate. Two of the enemy see him and lite him up with their AKs. So he drops to the ground and uses Sam’s now waking body as cover to return fire. More enemy fire comes in and a round or two hit the now awake C.I.A. leader. He is not amused at being used like a piece of fortification. Ken drops back quietly to…….check for a flanking movement? Well, John now rises from the ground with his pair of 14mm Big Governments and begins to fire. His cyborg body takes one volley of fire, but now Ken, Sam and Dr. Freeman add their fire to his and the ragged patrol goes down. Sam hopes they are not blown. Up in the sky, the satellites detect no unusual reaction from the Morales Plantation.

The next day the Team circles the target complex at the tree line. They make careful note of the patrols, their routes and the location of the armored car garage. The walled hacienda compound towers over all the surrounding terrain. The laboratory lay to the east on a lower part of that hill. The laboratory has its own close in security fence and a 24 hour guard. Just to the north of the laboratory on the edge of a steeper drop are three chemical tanks. They sit on this low rise over the old drug processing building, which is now completely rebuilt. Large earth berms come down the hill to the back of the main building to keep any leaks of the three chemicals from mixing with catastrophic results. Just to the north of this are three new large barracks for a company of troops. A security fence starts here and encircles the outer perimeter of all these aforementioned structures. A hundred meters south west of the outer perimeter is a large fenced in “conscript” camp with about a small battalion of second line troops.

That evening they meet and formulate their plan. Bombs are made for the berms and the laboratory. The mortar crew gets ready to keep the conscripts busy. Mario keeps the enemy discretely under close observation and satellites of several nations and Disney keep their baleful watch from above.

***

Thursday, September 27, 2040:

A little after midnight the Team moves out to the jump of positions. Charlie positions himself to the north across the road from the old factory compound about 280 meters from the chemical tanks. Ken lay in the tall grass about 20 meters north from that position which was half-way to the tree line where Sam and Dr. Freeman prepares firing positions inside the woods. Charlie carries his experimental laser and a handgun. Dr. Freeman holds on to Charlie’s 30mm “Essence” for the gunmaker to use after he finishes destroying the tanks and falls back to the woods.

To the south the stealth team led by Kyle with Boyd and John readies themselves at the south edge of the woods about two thirds of a kilometer from the first group and prepares to advance on the laboratory on the hill. Behind them Ahmed Ozcal, also a former Bundeswehr mortar gunner and Maurice LeGran set up a 60mm tube out of sight of the target complex. Francois Villiers sets himself up hidden with a panoramic view of the coming engagement area and prepared to call in the mortar fire. Beatrice Laugherty sets up a little farther back than that and opens up her com link to the EU ortillery satellite now stationed above them. Mario puts his drone in the air and watches from above along with satellites from several nations.

The stealth team jumps off and makes its way towards the first fence at the bottom of the hill. Suddenly Mario notices movement. The door of the vehicle garage opens and the armored car begins its patrol. The patrol leads them down the road out of the compound where they turn east and proceeded to drive around the compound. By now, the stealth team reaches the first fence, but the armored car is approaching very close to the fence. The three hunker down as the armored vehicle passes within five meters of them. It passes without further incident. The vehicle then gets back on the road by the conscript camp and returns to its garage. The stealth team continues.

Kyle checks the first fence and it has sensors along the top facing out. It seems that the team’s stealth rolls and gear have already gotten by them. The three easily slip though this fence. Boyd then heads to the berms that surround each of the three chemical tanks and sets his charges that will destroy them and allow the chemicals to mix together. He then returns to Kyle and John and the three proceed up the hill to the second fence that surrounds the laboratory. They stop briefly as a guard walks a patrol around the building. The guard is at ready, well-armed and alert. The three reach the fence and find that it is electrified. Kyle bridges a gap in the fence and the three go through. On the back side of the building they find three doors. Kyle picks the lock on the middle door and John steps through. Inside is the supervisor’s room with the one guard they saw previously and a second NOT looking at the video monitors because he is chatting with the other sentry. John shoots them quickly and quietly. The three ransack the small building. Well, in the preparation room Boyd spots the Cushman 7000 transport case he had sold Horst Kempler. They open the case and there is the cylinder that contains the “Cumffing”. They run the detector over it and sure enough, they have it.

At this point Kyle stops everyone and asks a simple question. It appears to him that the United States government is also involved in producing a weapon with this. Does anyone really want the government or any other group to have a weapon like this? He has a one kilogram C-6 door buster charge. Why not just put it on the “Cumffing” and set it off, then no one will be able to make such a terrible (and illegal) weapon. John doesn’t have any objection to the plan, but Boyd balks. His immunity deal is dependent on the successful completion of the mission. It has been made quite clear to everyone that failure to return with the “Cumffing” constitutes mission failure. However, there is no time to discuss this so the three just pull the hard drive from the laboratory computer, set a few charges to destroy the lab and signal Sam that they had the “Case”.

On Sam Fisher’s signal Captain Laugherty begins her final calculations for the strike on the fortified hacienda, and Francois Villiers prepares a mortar barrage on the conscript camp. The stealth team leaves the laboratory, but as they exit they are spotted by four heavily armed troops coming up from the old factory complex. It is the guard rotation. A firefight commences. One of the approaching guards is dropped and another wounded, but Kyle is seriously hit. The stealth team would probably have done worse, but at that moment Charlie fires his laser at the first tank and that gets the guards attention for the few seconds they need to get around the building out of sight. Sam then trips the charges set on the berms and opens up the three emergency retaining pools so their contents will be able to mix.

Beatrice signals the satellite and one after another, two javelins are launched from space at the hacienda. Villiers gives the word and Ahmed starts sending shells down range at the conscript camp. As the troops pour out of the barracks at the factory complex, Sam opens up with his 7.62 minigun and Dr. Freeman lays down heavy weapons fire. Ken waits for credible targets to threaten Charlie, who immediately opens the second tank up. However, the Nomad’s third and last shot goes wide! The third component of the lethal chemical cocktail remains safely contained in the tank. Sam informs Francois of this development and the Interpol agent quickly prepares new coordinates for his mortar. Meanwhile, Charlie notices that his laser is getting warmer. He tosses it from hand to hand as he slinks away under fire. The experimental weapon is now very hot and starting to hum, so he throws it just before it explodes in a brilliant flash. Unknown to the nomad the flash disrupts an enemy sniper who had just drawn his sights on Charlie’s head. Also, if this isn’t bad enough, the armored car now rolls out of its garage and up to the northern crossroads. Dr. Freeman wisely moves his position since he has fired in sight of the garage. This turns out to be an excellent idea as the turreted 75mm gun starts laying down a barrage of HE rounds on the tree line from right to left, starting with the doctor’s now abandoned position.

So far Sam’s fire made it possible for both Charlie and Ken to pull out of the field and into the woods. His luck just ran out as a RPG-A streaks out from the main compound and hits him square in the chest. The C.I.A. man’s heavy Militech soft shell armor and his incredibly jacked BOD stat help him survive the hit, but his mini-gun is destroyed and he is out of action. All of this works out for the stealth team as this draws most of the attention away from them. The guards, whom they had engaged in a firefight, secure the laboratory and disarm the explosives that they had set. The three are out of sight of the hacienda and the mortar barrage keeps the conscripts busy, so the three slither through the tall grass to escape.

The ground convulses as the first javelin hits the now alerted hacienda. A second round quickly hits and the hacienda and all its inhabitants are erased off the surface of the planet. Finally, a smoke round hits the last undamaged chemical tank. This is quickly followed by an HE round that ruptures the last tank. It takes a couple of rounds, but the chemical cocktail now created hits its critical point and the explosion is tremendous. It seems Charlie’s calculations are quite a bit off. The blast vaporizes the factory complex and its mustering soldiers. Even the troops who are out in the field already are killed and the armored car is knocked over on its side by the explosion. The position of the hill and the fact that the stealth team is crawling are the only reason that the shockwave doesn’t maim or kill them. A mushroom cloud with a red, roiling column rises high into the sky. Around the world the various agencies can see the explosion their satellites and stare dumbfounded at their screens. Many of the team see the column of fire and believe they have set off a nuclear weapon, but Sam recognizes this red interior as the continuing chemical explosion. He gives the word for the Team to withdraw.

The stealth team reaches the tree line to the south and safety. The three then revisit the “Cumffing” question. Yes, none of them trust their own government with such a weapon so they take out the cylinder, set the explosives on it and leave. The “Cumffing” is blown up and destroyed. The three agree that the case was the only thing they grabbed and they “assumed” it was inside. They all swore to the lie. Well, as they retreat through the woods, everything green starts to die and they are feeling a little “sick” themselves. Soon the others also notice this too. What have they released?

(Well, nothing actually. The sickness and dead plants are a reaction to the byproduct created by the chemical explosion. The charge they set successfully (and safely) vaporized the “Cumffing”, but I didn’t tell them so. Better to let their paranoia run rampant, well until they read this of course!)

The Team met up and the doctor treated the wounded. It took a bit, but they made it to the extraction point where two Commonwealth SAS wyverns picked them up. Inside the craft was the MI-6 operative with one wounded Paraguayan Secret Service agent and a barefoot Olivia Ortiz now in torn and dirty “little black dress” and stockings. The mission in La Paz went well, but there had also been a few unexpected “incidents”. The craft took the team safely back to Paraguay where the teams could recover from their wounds.

***

Friday, September 28, 2040:

The Team is debriefed and receives much needed medical care. Bolivia is furious at the violation of their sovereignty, but the information gathered by the Team indicates what would have been the Hunnish Solution’s first target. It was to be La Paz itself, the capital of Bolivia! This gives the diplomats something to work with, and, along with the Paraguayan Secret Service and MI-6’s information, soothes the angry Bolivian government.

***

Saturday, September 29, 2040:

The Team continues to mend. Sam finally realizes where he has seen Agent Francois Villiers before. The brigade of the French Alpini Chasseurs that he destroyed in the last Transylvanian War suffered enormous casualties when a winter storm front moved in and stalled over the French landing zones. Sam, who at that time was going under the moniker of the “Mountain“ had ringed the LZ with anti-aircraft guns so most of the supplies never made it to the troops. When the storm had finally passed over half the French troops had frozen to death. Sam had gone to the French HQ to accept their surrender and found nothing but death. He ordered his troops out of their positions and raced to collect and save all the French forces that remained alive. The first French officer he personally carried to safety, he now recognized as Francois Villiers. It was apparent that the Frenchman recognized him too, but had not reported the fact that the Mountain was still alive. Over the two to three day rest and recuperation period the two did not talk of their past, but developed a strong friendship of the kind that can only be forged in the fires of conflict.

***

Sunday, September 30, 2040:

The Team is gathered at a luxury hotel in Asuncion having a farewell breakfast before they depart for their home countries. The jovial mood broke as a half a dozen armed men entered the dining room. The Team recognizes them as Paraguayan Secret Service. Was this to be a “cleaning?” Two of the agents hustle a pair of patrons out of a small room off the main dining area. Olivia Ortiz then enters the room. Almost hiding behind her is a young teenage girl. The Senior Inspector looks over to Sam, nods, and goes into the side room with the young girl. Sam excuses himself and follows. The Team is a little perplexed until someone points out that the young girl bears a striking resemblance to Olivia except around the eyes. There she seems to look a little bit like Sam.

After about twenty minutes Dr. Freeman is summoned into that room and asked to bring his “medical” bag. There he is asked to take a double DNA sample from Sam, Olivia and the young girl. Sam asks Dr. Freeman to test one sample himself and turn the other over to the lab boys at Langley. The Paraguayans then leave, but the young girl gives Sam a long hug that Olivia has to cut short. There is some quiet snickering at the Team’s table.

The Team is then driven to a Paraguayan Air Force base where an SAS Wyvern is waiting to take the MI-6 agent and the Interpol contingent back home. The Director again sends his private plane to pick up the Americans and Lieutenant LaGran. They refuel in Porto Rico where the Trinidad officer and John are let out. It will be a long flight home, but for Kyle it looks like a new beginning for his stalled career. Sam has only a month to go to complete his twenty years at the Agency on top of twenty four years in the military. All that was left for him is paperwork, terminal leave and retirement. Oh, yes, maybe a family to take care of too?

***

Epilogue:

Well, another campaign (albeit a mini one) has come to an end. As stated before this has been a bridge between our Romanian Campaign of 2037 and our new endeavor the Burn Notice Campaign for 2041. This was to be the “last hurrah” of the party leader, Sam Fisher, whose character is now retiring after twenty years working for the C.I.A. It also allowed Zar/Kyle to get out of the Intelligence Analysis Division to where he had been banished during the Romanian Campaign and return to the elite Clandestine Services Division. Of course, now poor Kyle is about to be “burned” as a spy and provide the overarching plot for our next adventure. Yes, I am told that the GM will be shamelessly and unapologetically “ripping off” several popular TV shows for some basic plot premises and NPCs (Burn Notice, Shameless, Justified etc.). She has told us though that it is really just the form that is being lifted, so we should not think we know how the “plot hooks” will turn out if we are familiar with these shows. This “set up” will at least give us a handle on some of the upcoming NPCs.

In the C.I.A. Blues it was my primary intention to give the players a wide range both combat and social encounters. The mission started out as not being one of huge importance, but as the Team uncovered the story behind the theft of the “Cumffing”, the stakes for the world became higher and higher. This allowed me to give them missions with varying levels of support. Bob, their first handler didn’t have the “juice” (or inclination) to authorize a lot of support at first so the Team had to depend on their own devices. As they unraveled the “plot” and made certain discoveries, I was able to “reward” them with increased support. Fortunately they did very well so they had the maximum support available for the final encounter. The four major combat encounters were all of differing types. The first saw the Team ambushed and in their “underwear”, so to speak. The second was a straight up military jungle fight, but with “second rate” (for a well-armed edgerunner team at least) weapons and gear. Ok and one cool piece of experimental technology. The third was a standard black ops “hit”, and the last a full blown internationally supported strike with all the latest gear. I tried to work as much of the character’s back story into the plot as possible. This allowed many of the characters to bring an important piece of the puzzle to the table. Also, a number of the encounters will relate to the upcoming Atlantic City Campaign, and were given to me by that GM. Even I have no idea of their significance. All in all I was quite pleased the way it turned out.

A number of characters from this campaign will be reappearing in Atlantic City. Kyle/Zar is the spy who will be “burned”. Dr. Freeman will have his stolen research on the “Cyberbrain Project” returned to him, which the C.I.A. has recovered. Well, actually they stole it in the first place, but nobody knows that! Mario may be starting with us for the first few sessions as the corporate overseer of Dr. Freeman, but he is scheduled to start boot camp in the US Marines soon. We will miss him, but all of us in the group are very proud that he has chosen national service. Sam Fisher/Ira Hayes/Tyree Jones will be there as he has retired to Atlantic City. He will be raising his newly discovered teenage “daughter” (see Episode 4). Oh yes, that is an ongoing plot in itself. There may be a few old friends from campaigns past such as Cliff, the Rasta Solo from the Union City Campaign and the Romanian Campaign. Players are preparing some new characters with at least one “kid” character confirmed and possibly one more youngster.

Anyway, to those who have been following this story, I hope you have found it entertaining (or at least mildly amusing). Oh, I almost forgot. What was the “Cumffing”? It was a little joke. Cumffing is just an anagram for “McGuffin”.