The Agents
Tobias Stöhner: Gray hat hacker and electronics whiz, Tobias makes computer security experts at the Pentagon break out into a cold sweat when he infiltrates their systems.Virgil Cooke: A former CIA agent, Virgil is a master of acting a part and working the social aspects of covert ops. You probably should avoid windows if he wants you dead.
Jack Herman: Former SAS, Jack is the group's heavy muscle and military man. If the group needs his talents, it's inevitably because something went FUBAR and they need saving.
Nima Caspi: A former IDF combat medic, Nima is perfectly at home driving like a complete maniac and patching up complete maniacs who have taken a bullet or two.
Johnny Trang: Johnny Trang was too cool for LAPD officer school, so they put him into undercover work. Johnny Trang is perfectly at home infiltrating illegal racing rings or snooping on bad guys.
Tobias' player was absent the last two sessions summarized here and I'm currently dubious as to his continued participation. But anyways, without further delay...
The team takes a weak or so to get to the US. Kyle spends the time getting to know the Agents, questioning them closely about their previous missions, starting with the operation in Turkey. Virgil correctly surmises that Kyle is an ex-cop of some caliber, and does his best to ensure Kyle thinks the team is competent.
The Agents carefully omit some information from Kyle:
- They avoid disclosing their working relationships with both Rashad in Brazil and Wade in Turkey
- The discussions with Logan centering around the possibility that a mole is operating within Agency 17 are completely avoided.
Kyle calls a briefing and is prepared with a long powerpoint filled with slides documenting official Agency 17 policies and procedures- 90% of which he clicks through rapidly, going past such gems as the 'Always pay your parking fines' policy, the fact that Virgil's cache of weapons in Maryland was against A17 policy, the sexual harassment guidelines, as well as the official guidelines for requesting gear.
Intel from Miguel- their previous contact in Mexico- indicates that a Sinaloa boss of some kind, one Alejandro Soto, is arriving in Washington DC with four goons that will serve as his bodyguards. The Agents question what their role in the mission is, and Kyle doesn't have any clear answers. It sounds like a meeting of some kind will be taking place, and likely something crawling with multiple alphabet soup agencies.
"You should embrace our position as wolves among sheep, Johnny." Kyle says. "We're the big boys in the spook world."Kyle reckons the mission will be easy. Stake out the airport, follow the Sinaloa Boss
and crack beers once they know what he's up to.
The conversation turns to logistics. Johnny tries to get the gun Natalia took from him back, but Egeman deflects that line of questioning. Kyle hints that Natalia might be on the tail of Logan. The Agents compare notes in the hours they have before arriving in the Chesapeake Bay, recalling that Egeman was greeted by a man associated with Agency 17 right after the mission in Turkey, and noticing that he's not currently on the ship.
Traveling to DC goes without a hitch, and the team is provided a suburban safehouse complete with an under the floor safe loaded with four silenced pistols. Nima and Virgil go out on a 'shopping' trip, stealing multiple cars. Nima's take on the last mission when asked by Virgil is that somebody really didn't want the group talking with Arthur Bingham. Virgil takes some time to get in contact with Wade, trying to subtly suggest there's some pay involved if Wade will give Virgil some information on whoever hired him to kill Lorin.
Meanwhile, while Kyle watches the local news, Johnny and Jack talk about what Johnny learned from Shaka. They're convinced that Shaka is not involved in whatever events surrounded them being attacked by an Agency helicopter, but the other pilot is fishy to them, likely chosen because of his wanton disregard for human life.
Virgil finishes up his portion of the shopping trip by going to the most popular Quake forums online and posting carefully crafted posts designed to make Logan's hotword senses tingle. He hits up the top five forums, before rejoining Nima and getting back to the safehouse.
The plan for the airport is simple. Virgil will place a bug on Soto. Jack will watch him from inside. Nima and Johnny will both be outside posing as taxi cabs. Kyle will be nearby outside.
Soto's security team ends up driving onto the tarmac of the airport, getting swarmed by the TSA (Natural 18 crit-fail, right there). Soto's departure from airport security is delayed a few hours. Jack notices a man watching Soto, but unwisely doesn't do anything about it.
Virgil placing the bug on Soto gets immediately overshadowed when the man Jack spotted walks up to Soto and stabs him with a knife, repeatedly, including a good stab directly to the throat. Jack rushes in to try and keep Soto alive once the guy with the knife flees, applying first aid.
Kyle and Johnny give chase in their car. Johnny is by far the better driver compared to the attacker, who tries a little too hard to push the motorcycle he's on to perform. After getting onto the freeway their target loses control when he drifts over some rumble strips attempting to pass a semi on the right.
Kyle handcuffs him and throws him in the back of the cab.
Soto is taken in TSA care, while the team meets back at the safehouse. Virgil has received information from Wade, basically detailing that Wade was hired by a rival arms dealer cartel to take out Lorin so that they could then start supplying the PKK- a niche they've been starting to fill since the team left Turkey.
Johnny and Jack begin interrogating the guy who attacked Soto.
"Tick tock." Is all Kyle says.The man has a few Zetas tattoos, and resists all attempts to pry information out of him. (Critical success!) The team resorts to going through his phone, discovering Alejandro's true reason for visiting the United States- he's here to inform on certain members of Congress for taking money from the cartels in return for ensuring DEA cooperation in certain areas of enforcement.
"What's the hurry? Alejandro is probably dead."
"I have a meet and greet with a hooker in an hour and this interrogation will kill the mood." Kyle says. "I need time for my manhood to recover."
Virgil does some detective work, quickly finding that Soto is indeed alive and at a nearby hospital. Thanks to some forged identification made by Tobias, he's able to convince the local cops watching over Soto that he's also been attached to babysitting duty.
A few days pass before Soto wakes up. Virgil grabs his cache of gear from Maryland, Kyle watches a lot of TV, Nima does some more shopping, picking up a crash kit and guns, while Johnny and Jack trade off watching Soto.
Soto cannot speak, a result of being stabbed in the throat. Writing on a pad of paper, Soto indicates that all of his evidence is in a briefcase- which has gone missing.
Meanwhile, Jack, who hasn't replaced his phone recently, is contacted by someone with eerie knowledge of their operations via text:
I HAVE IDENTIFIED THIS NUMBER AS BEING RELATED TO ANAMOLOUS ACTIVITY WITH 86.7% CERTAINTY. ARE YOU FRIEND OR FOE OF HUMANITY?Jack sends back some (really well done by the player, to the extent he got an extra point at the end of the session for it) coded messages intended to discern if this person is Logan attempting to initiate contact, but it isn't the case.
DATA SHOWS CHANCE OF VIOLENCE IN ITALY. APPROACHING 90%. CORRELATION TO ARMS TRAFFICKING STRONG BUT UNCONFIRMED.
JET FUEL USAGE UP OVER WESTERN EUROPE, INDICATING MOVEMENTS OF THREE PLUS BLACK HELICOPTERS. MIND CONTROL UNLIKELY.
I WILL BE IN TOUCH.
Logan does get in touch with Virgil, sending only a terse message that he's under observation and will be in touch with the group soon.
This is followed by Johnny and Jack doing some detective work at the airport. Using fake credentials and a cop's savoir-faire, Johnny manages to get access to security tapes, while Jack looks at the lost and found luggage. They determine that somebody found Soto's briefcase, took the contents, and replaced them with women's underwear. Johnny gets the footage. They discover that the person responsible for the switch got buzzed into secure areas using a TSA badge issued to an officer who hadn't turned up to work for a few days.
They decide to give the TSA Agent a visit. While Jack slips around the back of the house, Johnny knocks. Hearing movement inside, but with nobody answering the door, a firefight ensues when Jack sees two men inside preparing an ambush.
The fight is fast, and ends very poorly for the two men inside. Jack shoots one through the kitchen window, causing the second man to retreat into the house.
There's a gunshot from inside. Johnny rushes in and kills the second man as he's turning around for the TSA Agent he just executed.
Jack and Johnny attempt to clean the crime scene as well as make it look like a robbery gone wrong. They don't have time to search for clues considering the police response, but they nab one of the intruder's cellphones before leaving.
It pays off. Shortly after it receives texts asking for the status of the TSA agent. Tobias is able to track down its location- an old warehouse, previously contracted by the Smithsonian before too many items started 'falling off trucks'.
Virgil stays behind in the hospital to ensure Soto isn't assassinated. Kyle follows up on leads showing that Soto was trying to contact someone in the Government Accountability Office.
Jack, Johnny and Nima head for the warehouse. A guy exits the side right as Jack is nearby, and Jack gets him in a chokehold. One unconscious guard later, Jack and Johnny slip inside while Nima waits with the car.
The warehouse is empty, except for an office on the second story where five men are lounging around, being racist about Latin Americans. They're a local gang, contracted by the Zetas to do some grunt work.
Jack and Johnny take up positions near the doors. They locate themselves so when the men leave the office they'll have the door between them and their targets.
Nima honks her car horn outside a few times, to convince the men that the Zetas are outside looking to make the exchange.
What follows is Johnny quietly convincing the man they left up on the catwalk to cause no trouble, handcuffing him and leaving him in the office. Jack opens fire on the lead man, dropping him. Confusion reigns amongst the crew, and only one manages to escape Jack and Johnny inside, at which point Nima rams him with her car.
Yelling at injured and scared local gangsters gets results, and the Agents promptly find the firesafe the gang leader stored the documents from Soto's briefcase in. The Agents leave just before the real Zeta cartel members show up- they doubt any of the local gang will survive the wrath of the most notoriously bloodthirsty drug cartel.
Virgil manages to stay on task during the long and boring hours waiting. Being very crafty (Hello Craftiness Talent 4), trying to impersonate a nurse (even with skill 14 in acting and disguise) around Virgil is a bad idea, as a would-be assassin learns when Virigl interrupts her attempts to switch out Soto's IV for something a little more... deadly.
There's an extended struggle as Virgil and the assassin vie for control of the syringe she pulls out of her pocket. Virgil eventually gets her into an arm lock, forces her to the ground, and finishes her off with a telegraphed all-out attack (determined) punch to the face.
Both Virgil and the assassin are detained by hospital staff until the police arrives. That's where we ended for the evening.
Notes:
- Kyle mentions that Interpol agents rarely make the grade when it comes to Agency 17 standards. The last one to qualify as a candidate- Agent Larson- died in Turkey during the investigation into Lorin's gun running operation due to a fragmentation grenade.
- All my players think the mysterious texts are coming from a male. I've decided to make the character female purely to play on their expectations.
- Virgil didn't have the brawling skill up until this point.
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