Shownotes
An artifact disappears. Glances are sideways. Knives are tightly clutched in hidden hands.
Want to read along? Transcript available here: https://sorryhoney.captivate.fm/
Support The Work at: https://ko-fi.com/sorryhoney
Want to advertise with us? See our Sponsor Kit and Rate Card.
Visit Us At: https://sorryhoney.captivate.fm/
Join our Discord to tell us all the things we did wrong: https://discord.gg/xuQdfzJMfa
Follow us on Twitter for additional content: https://twitter.com/SorryHoneyCast
Likewise, Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sorryhoneypodcast/
Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. Illustrations by Dennis Detwiller are reproduced by permission. The contents of this podcast are © GiggleDome Productions, LLC, excepting those elements that are components of Delta Green intellectual property.
Transcripts
Hello?
Speaker B:What time is it?
Speaker A:Who is there? I don't know.
Speaker C:Situation green, the courtyard.
Speaker A:Sorry, love, I have to take this.
Speaker B:Paris? Paris, are you okay? Shields, help me out, yeah?
Speaker D:And Shields grabs Paris under his arms and lifts him up, kind of to a sitting position.
Speaker A:He looks at you. Before he says anything, he rolls his sanity.
Speaker C:Question mark kind of question.
Speaker B:You never know.
Speaker A:Would you like to project any potential loss?
Speaker C:Do I have anyone to project on? I'm going to project on Ryan.
Speaker A:Unfortunately, if you have. If you have decided they're indeed, irretrievably and compromised, which I think you did in that prior.
Speaker C:I did? Yeah.
Speaker A:They're no longer your bonds. You can no longer rely on them.
Speaker C:Okay. I just deleted them both.
Speaker A:But if you still consider them retrievable, I will allow you to do it.
Speaker C:No, I don't think they're retrievable. I deleted them both. So I have. As the saddest guy.
Speaker A:You cannot.
Speaker C:You cannot project adapted to violence, adapted to helplessness. No bonds.
Speaker A:So you better go through some major traumas with these folks so that you can gain some bonds.
Speaker C:I need to build a relationship with you all so I can burn it next time I am about to go crazy. Okay. All right. Holy shit. Holy shit.
Speaker D:You all right there, bud?
Speaker C:Yeah, I looks around. He looks around the room a bit. Yeah, I'm kind of checks his body, make sure all his digits and.
Speaker B:Paris, you are passing out.
Speaker C:Dangly bits are all there.
Speaker B:You passed out. Are your dangly bits still there?
Speaker D:Top question number one, how's the dong?
Speaker B:And do you know what day it is? Do you know where we are? Do you know who I am?
Speaker C:Yeah, we're at the Stanley cup finals, right?
Speaker D:Oh, boy.
Speaker C:Let's go, Rangers. Are they in it? I don't even know anymore.
Speaker D:He's gone too far back.
Speaker A:Paris, you've gone ahead and done a visual or an ocular pat down of yourself and you seem to have all your parts.
Speaker C:Yep, yep. Yeah. Paris kind of. You see him kind of lift his hand up and sort of. It's almost.
If he's like scratching at the air in front of him and then pulls his hand back and just says, yeah, I'm okay. Okay. Yeah, I'm good. And he gets to his feet.
Speaker D:Does that happen a lot? Is that. Are you gonna.
Speaker C:Can't say that it does. Okay, well, maybe once before, but.
Speaker D:Oh, jeez.
Speaker B:What do you remember, or.
Speaker C:Chris, how much does Paris remember of what just happened?
Speaker A:It is extremely bright and lucid in your mind.
Speaker C:Okay. Yeah, I don't know. How to explain it? I. We should not be standing on this ritual circle here. We should probably not.
Speaker D:Nicholas gingerly steps off the circle area.
Speaker C:Yeah. Paris does the same. And then he says, I think I released something.
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker C:We'll see. Yeah. Look, I'm gonna be perfectly honest. There's no way to explain it without me sounding like a crazy person. So let's just.
Speaker B:We're not gonna judge, but we would love for you to elaborate. We just wanna understand.
Speaker C:Chalk door. Seen it before. New York, the ritual here. I seen it. I think. I. Look, we gotta find these people, okay?
We gotta get to this barbecue joint as quickly as possible. I think we're running out of time.
Speaker D:Okay, buddy. You got it.
Speaker B:Can you explain the chalk door? I mean, how did that affect you? Or is it more of the symbols? What is it exactly?
Speaker C:I don't know how to explain it other than just. We were on an opera in New York. An opera operation.
Speaker B:Oh, I'm sorry, Mission. Yeah, I understand.
Speaker C:Yeah. And I can't imagine how these are related. It doesn't make sense. What is it doing here?
Speaker B:What is what doing?
Speaker C:Look, it's. There was an entity utilizing these as a means of transportation. I don't know. It shouldn't be here. It doesn't make sense.
But what I do know is that it's bad and we need to. We need to get moving as quickly. We need to move now.
Speaker B:Well, Paris is explaining that Emelia is looking over at shields like. Okay, he's putting down something that we don't understand. So we just have to earmark that or continue questioning.
Speaker A:That's some pretty intense body language. And like, that's like powerful telepathy level communication.
And I'm cool with some of that, but, like, you're gonna have to say some of that out loud.
Speaker D:Oh.
Speaker B:Oh, I really.
Speaker A:Yeah. He's not going to get that from a glance and a wink and a hip swaggle. You're going to have to say some of that out loud.
Speaker C:A hip swaggle.
Speaker A:I mean, that's how I communicate things.
Speaker D:It's a classic move. I think, first and foremost, this. If this is a problematic nature to you, Paris, we should probably deface this or render it inoperable.
Do you know how to do that?
Speaker C:I mean, we should fucking burn this whole building down. Jesus.
Speaker D:There's a lot of witnesses, so can't really go down that route right now.
Speaker B:Well, burn it down is heavy. There's more investigating we could do on the other side of the building. Let's get you away from this place. Or should we.
Shields and I, we can continue. If you'd like to make your way back to Felix and check on him while we continue on the other side.
Would that be something that you would like for us to do?
Speaker C:No, I'm good. I pull myself together. I'm fine. Let's keep. I'm on mission. Let's make it happen. Paris looks around for something to potentially wipe the door.
Wipe the door away or. See, this is the problem. Somebody already tried to wipe this all up. So looks around for something that could potentially erase this stuff.
Speaker A:As I described it last time, we actually have etchings and engravings in the concrete of the floor that have been filled with some sort of waxy red substance.
Now, when you came upon it and finally noticed it below your feet after being distracted by the statue and the chalk door, you'd seen it was marred already. Somebody had tried to deface it. And so it doesn't resemble what it was meant to anymore, if that's what you're worried about.
Speaker C:Okay. Yeah, no, I think. I think this. I don't think it's going to mean anything to anyone else. Let's just close this back up and keep looking.
Speaker D:You're sure?
Speaker C:Yeah, we can always look. Yeah, let's just keep moving. We'll be all right.
Speaker B:Well, if you're okay, I was thinking we would check those tents on the other side that they haven't torn down yet.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's a good call. Let's keep moving.
Speaker D:Okay then. Nicholas helps Paris up, hand on his shoulder, as they exit the room.
Speaker B:Bennett steps up out of the lunge where she attempted to catch Paris.
Speaker A:Like you were in sort of a backbreaker formation.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:He went into your knee and it just kind of. His lumbar hit your knee and you heard this loud crack as he came to.
Speaker B:Ooch. I said ooch. I meant ouch. But maybe it's the Canadian part.
Speaker A:You lose 26. Just kidding. So y'all walk back out of this dark room, this.
And then back through the dark disposal onto the relatively well lit floor where workers are still tearing down the remainder of what looks like grow tents that were here in the back of Hog City Mushroom and Herbal Supply. There's still one left that hasn't been completely dissembled.
But the others, well, they're making great time taking them down, packing them up, and moving them out the front onto those trucks.
Speaker E:Chris.
Speaker A:Yes, sir.
Speaker E:Whenever I get a chance, I'm gonna make a call.
Speaker A:Let's do that now. And the team can think about how they want to deal with the rest of that room or if they just want to come back to the car.
So, yeah, who do you want to call?
Speaker E:I would like to call Karen Carter.
Speaker A:Absolutely. You call this number, you go through the phone tree, and this is one of the best case offers you've ever had.
And you realize part of you really the only case offers you've had, but another part of you remembers a long string of other ones that were, yeah, not making the mark in your book. But she picks up.
Speaker F:Felix? Yes? Are you quite alright?
Speaker E:Yeah, well, I guess depends on how you define. All right, I'm in one piece still. But he's still. He's still out there and he's been calling me and I.
Speaker F:We know, Felix. We know where he is.
Speaker E:Where? Where is he?
Speaker F:Felix, I don't want you to become distracted right now. I need you to ensure that our new friends and Frankfurt keep their eyes on the ball.
We cannot afford to abandon this particular operation at this time. I have operatives with eyes on the others. We will take care of them.
If it helps you focus and is of any consolation, I will tell you that they are not in the same state or even the same region as you right now. Well, I am going to keep you safe, Felix. Do you understand?
Speaker E:It's not really me I'm worried about. Can you promise me one thing? I have a pet at home. Something happens to me, you make sure that they're treated right, taken care of.
Speaker F:Felix, we know about your brother.
Speaker A:Felix hangs UP Go ahead and roll your sanity, please.
Speaker E:That's a question mark.
Speaker A:Always is. Would you like to project?
Speaker E:Yeah, let me project onto And I'm.
Speaker A:Sorry, this is not projection. This is to avoid an acute episode.
Speaker E:But this is still transferring onto someone else.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's just not projection. It's the other rule set because you're about to have an anxiety episode.
Speaker E:Sick, sick, sick. Cool, cool.
I'm going to transfer this onto Dave Reynolds, my retired agent friend, specifically because if the agency has info on me that I don't think they did, I will possibly distrust people in that circle.
Speaker A:That makes perfect sense to me. Okay, Reynolds it is. All right, I need you to spin 1D4, please.
Speaker E:A3.
Speaker A:You're gonna go down to 6. Back down to 6. Willpower.
Speaker E:Hell yeah.
Speaker A:Dave Reynolds, the retired agent and friend who you trust, goes down by three. Please check that and think about how that could, if you survive, affect your home scene.
Speaker E:Got it.
Speaker A:So with repressing insanity, there's an additional step to make sure that it does get repressed and you don't end up suffering from the effects of an acute episode. Attempt a sanity roll again for me, please.
Speaker E:This time I got a pass. It says it's a question mark. Sorry. Actually, I'm going to.
Speaker A:I'm going to go ahead and show you what you were.
Speaker E:Whoa. Is it really good?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker E:Oh, no.
Speaker D:What?
Speaker E:No, I can't see.
Speaker D:I can't see what you posted.
Speaker B:Where'd you post critical failure 100? It's in foundry.
Speaker D:Oh, in Foundry. Okay, buddy. Oh, buddy.
Speaker E:My lucky streak ran out. No.
Speaker D:Sure did. It ran out real hard on you.
Speaker E:I jinxed myself.
Speaker C:The dice. Arrange with me. There we go.
Speaker A:Felix. You hang up the phone and you feel yourself shaking. The blood turns ice cold in your veins. You look up at the men moving.
Those boxes and pieces of equipment looks like large freezers now up onto the ramps leading into their vans, into their moving trucks, I should say. You shakily reach under your seat. You pull out that. That case, that unlocked case you found. You open the door to the SUV and you step out.
You don't bother to close it behind you. You set the case on the ground and you open it up.
You run your finger down one of the cylinders, take it out of its foam, turn it over in your hand, looking it over again. There's no markings on it, no words. Not sure what it is. It doesn't look like.
Doesn't look like any of the grenades you've seen in video games or television or film. Stand up, palming it. It feels cool in your hand, even though it's shaking. You look down. It's. Gosh, it is shaking, isn't it? Wow, you're so cold.
You fiddle with the pen a bit. It kind of jingles. It's tightly in there. It doesn't want to come out. You pull on it a little bit. It's pretty well lodged in. In there, in the metal.
You start walking across the asphalt towards the moving crew. One of the men says something. He's leaning against a wall nearby. You don't really register what he says.
You think it's something nice, like, hey, how are you doing? Something along those lines. But you don't really, really take it in. You just wave to him and smile.
You notice that the hand you're waving with has the grenade in it. You kind of laugh. You probably think, sure, you're kind of crazy. You walk through the front door of Hog City. Look around. It's empty.
These guys have been doing a good job. Keep fiddling with the pen as you scan the room from side to side, your teeth are chattering.
There's an open door in this empty storefront area, the shelves barren. You hear more people in there, and you walk through the door. As you do, you see.
You see whatever is wearing Frankfurt's skin walking out of a dark room, flanked by the two strangers that you don't really trust. They don't look happy to see you. They don't look happy at all.
In fact, whatever's staring at you from behind Frankfurt's eyes just kind of regards you. Neutral, neutral glance. Then they seem to notice that you're holding the cylinder. They don't seem happy about that at all. Go ahead.
And you continuing to kind of fiddle with the pen. They kind of stopped. It looked like they were gonna run towards you or rush you or something from across the room.
As these men to your right continue to do some work in the background of what's happening right now in front of you. The moment you.
Speaker E:Chris, can I say something?
Speaker A:Start playing with the pin.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker E:If this is okay in my psychosis here, I just want to just politely asks the two of them, can y'all scoot over a little bit? One of those things is in, you know, whatever you want to call them.
Speaker D:Nicholas holds up his hands very slowly and says, what you got there? And he's gonna look down at the grenade.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'll tell you what it is privately.
Speaker B:Okay, Bennett, she's just gonna take a step towards Felix.
Speaker E:Felix, are you never bitter? I'm seeing real clear. If you could scoot. You're. You're a nice lady. Can you scoot?
Speaker D:I don't think that is what you think it is.
Speaker B:Felix, are you okay? This is your friend, this is Frankfurt.
Speaker E:It's. It's not Frankfurt. Come on. I mean, he's not anybody. He's whatever they are. And you know, I. You're right. I don't really know what this is.
But you know what? It feels right. He looks down at his shaking hand.
Speaker A:And you, Chris.
Speaker C:Frankfurt has been prepping himself.
Speaker A:Tell you on the pen. I want to be very clear about where we're positioned in the room. He is a good clip away.
And you see him across the room, more towards the center of it, at the door that leads to the storefront. So he's not within 5 meters. It's more within a 10 meter range.
Speaker E:I do really miss. I miss Paris. And Frankfurt, well, I don't miss him at all. I'm glad he's gone.
Speaker C:Tiberius. It's It's. Yes, I am.
Speaker E:I'm Felix.
Speaker C:I am Paris.
Speaker D:Let's all just take a deep breath right now.
Speaker C:And Frankfurt, you remember. You remember the building? You remember the operation?
Speaker E:Another life. Another life.
Speaker C:I know.
Speaker E:A dead life.
Speaker A:Paris, go ahead and roll your psychotherapy, please. Plus 20%.
Speaker B:Bennett's taking slow, cautious steps towards Felix in this moment, with her hands wide out, like you can see. I don't have anything.
Speaker A:You can check your psychotherapy.
Speaker C:Can I roll my.
Speaker A:You realize, Felix, that they all seem to be upset about you putting your finger so tightly around that pin. And you see Bennett or the bartender, is Paris, right? You hesitate for a moment. You look back up at her.
She's starting to walk towards you, her arms kind of held out. Is she from the other life, too? You thought that maybe before, and it seems like you had a connection.
You kind of shake your head and you look back up at Frankfurt. You remember him ripping the teeth out of the skull of a shattered man, smiling as blood spattered against his open eyes. He didn't even wince.
He's not human.
Speaker E:I saved you once before, but that. That wasn't me. That's a different life. That's a dead life. You save me. Please. Please walk away. I don't want you to be here for this. I.
I don't want you to see.
Speaker B:All of that again. It's not dead. I'm right here. I can help you. I remember.
Speaker E:Felix doesn't know you.
Speaker A:Bennett, go ahead and roll your psychotherapy plus 20%, please. You got a 19 out of 30.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:I can't believe it. Okay, he says this back to you, Bennett, and you can respond now.
Speaker B:Please, Felix. And Bennett, she's just got her arms wide up in the air and continuing slowly walking towards him. I remember, too. It's not.
I don't understand what I remember, but I know that I know you. I know you. I don't know how I know you. But you helped me. And I really want to help you. Please, will you let me help you?
Speaker E:How can you know me? You knew not Felix.
Speaker C:Tiberius. Fabian, Ford, Francis. Rowan Cook. You remember these names, right? The mission is not over. We're not done.
Speaker A:Tiberius. Something hits your heart hard when you hear that name. You haven't heard it for a long time. Rowan Cook.
It fills you with a sudden bitterness that almost comes from without you. Some external feed of hateful energy. It occludes your mind. For a moment, you hate this man, this Rowan Cook.
And you see his laughing face in some moment from this other life that Sits beside your memories of Felix. And you hate. And you let the cylinder fall to your side. You take your index finger out of the pin.
And then you look up at Bennet and you see, clear as day, the girl. The woman you saved amongst a hell. Amongst an unnatural hell. An onslaught from something you think Rowan Cook unleashed.
Speaker E:It is you. What is that? Make me.
Speaker B:A hero. You're my hero. Let me help you. Let me help.
Speaker A:I'm gonna say Bennett reaches Felix at this point. Or perhaps Tiberius.
Speaker B:She's trying to. Bennett is extending her arms now that were showing that she, unarmed, was not there to, you know, hurt him.
And now she's trying to reach around for that very large, tight hug.
Speaker E:Tiberius lunges forward, but he just grabs her in a hug, squeezes her tight, brings her in and whispers in her ear. Something touched him. You can't trust him.
Speaker B:I trust you.
Speaker E:And he lets go, steps away from the grenade and goes. I'm sorry, y'all. I don't. He called again. And it's just. It's been a lot.
Speaker D:Who called? Fletcher.
Speaker E:Yeah. Yeah, he. He knew what I said to you when you talked to him. He talked to me.
Speaker D:Okay. Maybe we need to get a move on. We can't stay here.
Speaker A:Let's all three of you glance up and you see the crew here has taken zero notice. Most of them have earbuds in and they're just very busy packing this stuff up, taking down that last grow tent.
Speaker D:Perfect. Nicholas is going to pick up that grenade and pocket it in his. In his jacket. Yeah.
Speaker A:Felix makes no move to even look over as you do that. He still is very close to Bennett at this point, sticking close to her side.
Speaker B:Bennett's just going to look back at Felix. Felix, I'm sorry that we left you in the car, but I'm glad you're here with us now.
We were going to check out this tent over here that they haven't torn down yet. Do you want to take a look at this with us? Or would that be okay?
Speaker E:Yeah, I think doing work, doing the stuff that we're supposed to be doing, that will put me in a good place.
Speaker B:We're moving forward.
Speaker A:Bennett and Tiberius, both of y'all, please make a sand test. I need y'all, if you can, to create new bonds on your character sheets.
Speaker B:Both of you, as an additional bond.
Speaker A:As an additional bond. This is a special bond. It's a delta green bond. Bennett, you now have a bond with Tiberius Felix. Or just one of them, if you would like.
And vice versa. Tiberius, you now Have a Delta Green bond with Corporal Amelia Bennett or the bartender or both.
Speaker C:Just a heads up. You think they're cool and all, that they turn into a fucking ghoul and then they're not a bond anymore or something.
Speaker E:Kind of messed up. Really, Chris?
Speaker A:A little bit messed up. These bonds start at half your agent's charisma. And both of you lose 1d 4 points from 1 other non Delta Green bond of your choice.
If you have any left.
Speaker E:I'm going to put it against. I'm just going to. Sharon Rodriguez, bird friend. It's. Yeah, it's over.
I'm just not into birds that much anymore now that I'm into killing Rowan Cook at any means necessary.
Speaker A:Wow. I like it.
Speaker E:Cool.
Speaker A:But that's kind of sad because I'm going to miss the bird ties.
Speaker E:Yeah. But maybe I'll have ties with Rowan Cook on them.
Speaker D:And you'll still have the ties and you can wear the ties.
Speaker A:But he's just not into it.
Speaker D:He doesn't have the passion behind it.
Speaker C:Just take a Sharpie and like, X out all their eyes like a little emo kid. I don't even like birds anymore.
Speaker E:Dang. That's really good.
Speaker B:Oh, life. You said the 1D4 is for all of us.
Speaker A:For both of you. Yes. I rolled a three, so you rolled a four. You're going to lose four from one of your other bonds.
Speaker B:I'm going to remove four from my sister, Charlotte Bennet. So we're going from 14 to 10.
Speaker A:But make sure there's some note on there that this is a special bond, a Delta Green bond. Y'all walk up to the last tent that's still up in this room.
You see these men working around it, working within it to disassemble it, just like they have the others. You sort of peer over through the vinyl that's only half translucent.
And it looks like there's an actual rock face situated inside this tent that you can see shadowed against the vinyl.
Speaker D:Like a rock face or like the face of a rock.
Speaker E:Like a.
Speaker A:Like a cliff face. A rock face. It's not an actual carven face, but. Good. Good question. You definitely know what game you're playing.
Speaker E:Exactly.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker A:Now, you haven't peered in to really understand what that is. I'm just telling you what you see. Kind of shadowed on the. On the half chances in vinyl.
Speaker E:Tiberius walks in.
Speaker B:Bennett also walks in towards the rock face shadow.
Speaker A:The men working on dissembling look and watch you for their brows. No one says anything. You walk in there's another man in the same uniform inside.
And he's right now, he's actually using a measuring tape on the rock face in here. He has a dolly in here, but you can tell it's not gonna work. This thing is fairly, fairly huge.
Speaker E:Felix looks over at Frankfurt and goes, hey, Frankie, can you. Can you get this guy out of here so we can take a look? You know what I mean?
Speaker C:Paris kind of looks at him quizzically, thinking, this guy just try to kill me a moment ago. He says, you sure? Last time I.
Speaker E:Am I supposed to trust you or not?
Speaker C:Well, I don't think I have my gun with me, so I'm not sure.
Speaker D:Not like that. No, not like that at all. Well, I just sounded weak, like I don't even know what accent I just did.
Speaker C:I mean, last time you last.
Speaker A:Paris, just noticing that you're in this tent with them. And he stands up, he takes one of his earbuds out and he says, hey, can I. Can I help you? He's concerned.
Speaker C:Yeah, we just need to take a quick look at that before you move it.
Speaker A:Oh, okay. I've got to get this in the truck before 2.
Speaker B:Oh, that's not going to fit in the truck. Let us. We're as specialists. We're going to take it from here.
Speaker A:His eyes are wide. He's kind of looking at your faces and what you're wearing.
Speaker E:Consultants. Consultants. More. You know, you know, you know, you know.
Speaker D:I don't know what's going on.
Speaker C:Come on.
Speaker A:Okay, I'll take my break. He tries to move her past all four of you. It's awkward to try to get out of this small flat.
Speaker D:Do not give up any space.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, it's tough. He squeezes and y'all are like rocks. Like you guys won't move. He's like really trying to squeeze through like Bennett and Tiberius. Ain't happening.
He tries, he tries. Paris and shields. Not happening. He actually ends up crawling under one of your legs and leaves the tent.
Speaker D:Perfect. Finally we've dominated somebody in this damn tent.
Speaker A:Yeah, that dude had Power 7. That was pretty easy. Y'all can get a Power 8 next time. See if you can win that as well.
Speaker E:As soon as we level up, we'll be able to do that easily for sure.
Speaker A:Easy. So looking at this rock face, now that you're alone, you can see that there are small shrubs growing out of the transposed cliff here.
They're tree like, but miniature.
And a few of them have some pretty lovely little whitish yellowish blooms on them there's a bit of a perfumey smell that you can't quite place in the grow tent. You all four approach this. This large boulder where these little tree shrubs are growing out of. None of y'all are botanists. No one has science.
Botany. I'm gonna allow Felix, our archivist here, to roll an intelligence. -20% will do. All right.
Speaker E:That was weird. I've never seen dice. The dice act like that. Yeah, I failed 81 out of 80.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker E:But minus. So I definitely failed.
Speaker A:Definitely failed, yes. You've never seen this plant before. You have no idea what it is.
And the rest of you, without any science skills or any sort of background in identifying botanical specimens, definitely don't know what this is either.
Speaker C:Oh, did we determine. I even hate this exit? Well, no, I hate this. It's kind of cool. Paris just opens up his phone, does a Google image search on it. What's this Google.
I feel. I feel like I'm cheesing the game. I almost don't want to do that, actually.
Speaker A:Yeah, you can 100% do that. It is not cheesing the game.
Speaker C:Okay. All right.
Speaker A:If you want to use a Botany app, you're 100% welcome to. That is not. That is existent in this reality.
Speaker C:I don't think you have to use a botany app. I think you literally just like. Google's got the point now.
Speaker D:There are literally. And there are.
Speaker A:I know there are botany apps, though. And that is an option in Dariush's write up. Yeah.
Speaker C:Oh, it is. Oh, wow. He covered the bases.
Speaker B:He's a profess.
Speaker C:Well, I don't think Paris. Well, Paris just looks and like. Well, it's flowers, I guess. Is any. Any idea what these are? Pulls his phone out, starts.
Speaker B:You know, we. We don't have these in Canada.
Speaker D:I. I would never know to be sure. I mean, would survival work?
Speaker E:I use this. This app called Ebird to identify birds.
Speaker A:They missed.
Speaker D:They missed birdie, but whatever.
Speaker E:Oh, Frankie, you hear that joke?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:Yeah. Let me check. Let me check that app store. Someone handed me your phone. Frankfurt.
Speaker D:It's just forever now. Gonna be.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's. I need to charge it or something. It's not on, Bennett. Oh, you have a phone on you.
Speaker E:Were you just looking at your phone?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's. That's how I knew it wasn't. Wasn't. Bennett, do. You've got your phone. You load it to him.
Speaker B:Felix, here. Here you go. Bennett just pulls it out of her back butt pocket.
Speaker E:I wasn't gonna look at your porn tabs, man.
Speaker D:Yeah, just tooth tooth decay pictures.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker E:It's the videos of Timmy the tooth.
Speaker B:Oh, God.
Speaker C:Oh my.
Speaker E:Yeah, I'll go on her phone and download the first highly rated plant identification.
Speaker A:There's plenty of them and a lot of them are, you know, free or freemium. And you go ahead and hold it up to this particular specimen and let it do its thing and it seems to come back with a. An answer for you.
It's something called the Danja Paulownia and it is native to an area in China in the Guangdong province. It's not super close to any large civilizational centers in China. It does grow close enough to a few, but. Yeah, you can see other pictures of it.
Tree like shrub. It seems to grow larger than this pretty often.
Speaker E:I relay what I just read it out loud as I'm going through it.
Speaker B:Bennett says another invasive species, Paris, that twigs something China.
Speaker C:Is this one of the situations where John is forgetting something he should remember?
Speaker A:Probably.
Speaker C:Oh, fuck.
Speaker A:Do you remember what happened during the particular opera that we started thinking about at the beginning of this, in the last of the last sessions?
Speaker C:I do remember dealing with. Yeah, we were dealing. Because we were dealing with loaded lady criminal organizations coming from China, Right?
Speaker A:Indeed you were.
Speaker C:Yeah. Oh man. To remind me it's been a minute, but yes. So this further ties to the New York Opera.
Speaker A:It makes you feel really uncomfortable. You feel something crawling over your skin. Briefly.
Speaker C:You said from China? Yeah.
Speaker E:Yeah. Like in the middle of nowhere, like real. It kind of looks like. Like the Utah of China.
Speaker C:This can't be a coincidence. How the. Why is this even. Look, my feeling is we need to get moving. There's. There's more going on here than I think we.
Not that we had any idea really what's going on here in the first place, but I wasn't expecting this.
Speaker D:Why don't you brief us on our way to the next location, huh?
Speaker E:Yeah, I mean, these are pretty rare. How's it connected?
Speaker C:Look, like I said, the. The groups we were engaging with in the New York operation were involved with some criminal organizations coming out of China. So what door?
Yeah, long story.
Speaker B:It's actually pretty short. It's right across the hallway. We just walked over there. First and Paris. Well, there was a lot of weird symbols on the floor.
And there was a weird marking in the shape of a door. And he reacted a particular way, very unusual. And then he started to faint and I caught him. Ish. And then you showed Tiberius.
Speaker E:Tiberius just starts walking as she's talking towards that room.
Speaker C:Thank you, Bennett, for that he leaves the grave. Very succinct summary.
Speaker B:Bennett winks at Paris.
Speaker D:Okay, we need to really keep it together, y'all. Nicholas follows after Tiberius.
Speaker C:Paris picks one of the flowers to take with him.
Speaker D:You turn into a toad, man.
Speaker A:You watch Tiberius striding over past the crew who seems ready to move into the grow tent as you leave towards the disposal door.
Speaker E:Well, I'm going to be walking in, so I'm assuming I see the same stuff everyone else saw.
Speaker A:Yeah, so it's that. It's that first room that looks like a bunch of stuff was moved out of it.
There's a false wall that's been moved aside and inside of that is this dark, dark room that you're going to have to use your phone to kind of examine, which is easy enough to do. Did you mention the statue, Bennett?
Speaker B:I actually did not mention the statue. Yeah.
Speaker A:Okay then, no worries.
So you go into this room, turn on your light and you see this kind of secret area with these kiddie pools in the back and this marred engraved red wax filled set of sigils that you don't recognize on the ground.
Speaker E:I want to chalk door. I want to kneel down and scratch the red out of the ruts and smell them.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's foul. It's this musty rot and in fact must hit you on your way in to this room, by the way. It's like there was a dampness in the air.
And this is more though. This has got like a real funky rot smell to it. It's disgusting. It's like rotten meat and like a.
Speaker E:Metallic kind of smell.
Speaker A:You're picking up a little bit of copper. Yeah, but it's tough underneath all that putrefaction.
Speaker E:And then I'll raise my head and look around the rest of the room.
Speaker A:So again, the three kiddie pools, they're only slightly full of what looks like disgusting brownish stagnant water. And that chalk door across the way against the wall.
Speaker E:I walk over to the chalk door and kind of just observe it and put my hand around the chalk drawing. Is it broken or is it a full square rectangle?
Speaker A:It's a full rectangle. The other agents. Are you following him back in?
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Okay, so you're watching him examine it. You're allowed to interject at any time. Just let.
Speaker B:Is there anything around that Bennett could pick up, like for range, like if sort of like a.
I'm just gonna say, for lack of better words right now, like a stick, something that she could poke around with stuff, Anything she can grab right There in the room.
Speaker A:The shelf that was in front of the false wall could be broken down maybe. But no, nothing else.
Speaker B:I asked that within mine because Bennett's also looking at those kiddie pools.
Speaker A:They're not super full. It's like they're almost empty, but. But where they're kind of sagging. There's little pools of brackish water in there.
Speaker E:As Tiberius is like walking around looking at stuff, he's just casually say to Bennett. Bennett. What was your other name?
Speaker B:I feel like I've always been Amelia. Bennett. I'm Amelia. You don't have to call me Bennett.
Speaker E:Oh, wow. Yeah, I guess I'm still Andy, huh?
Speaker B:Can I call anything else?
Speaker E:I prefer we keep the code names for now. Anything else in this room?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's a door. Look, we should probably. We should probably get going here.
Speaker E:And you're saying that this is the kind of door that was in New York City?
Speaker C:Yeah, we encountered that in a couple of the.
Speaker E:Was it dormant investigating when you encountered it like this?
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker E:Well, obviously I'm not walking through this now, am I?
Speaker C:Paris kind of smiles a little bit. Yes, this is. They were all dormant when we encountered them.
Speaker E:Huh. Well, it seems like there was some sort of blood sacrifice here or something. So probably how that was done.
Maybe there was a focal point or there's some. There's definitely some stuff that we don't know. Let's get going.
Speaker A:Before you leave, Paris, you look down, you had the statue, but you're not sure where you put it.
Speaker C:Check. Well, it's heavy, so it wouldn't be in my pockets. Hey, do y'all see. Where'd that statue go? Kind of looks right.
Speaker D:Hey, yeah, there was a statue there.
Speaker C:Sa.
Speaker E:Tiberius looks at Bennett statue.
Speaker B:Yeah, your buddy picked up a statue that was in here. There was a woman, right?
Speaker C:Kind of searches the room, see if you can find it.
Speaker A:You don't see it in this room.
Speaker C:Paris, was I. Was I holding it when we walked out of here?
Speaker E:You someone. They probably just grabbed it and put it in the truck. Frankie, let's just get out of here. Was there a statue when you found the door in New York?
Speaker C:No. No, there wasn't.
Speaker B:Was there a reason you felt like. Do you need the statue? Should we look a little harder?
Speaker C:No, start. I. Heavy. Very heavy statue. I feel like.
Speaker A:Paris, you feel like something's wrong? Like, really wrong?
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, Frankie, if your head.
Speaker E:Wasn'T screwed on, a snake will bite you.
Speaker C:Paris looks up at Bennett and Shields. It's like, yeah, there was. You all saw the statue, right? There was a statue here.
Speaker D:Oh, there was a mess.
Speaker C:Okay. Yeah, yeah, it was heavy. It's got to be. I didn't walk out of here with it. It was in this room.
Speaker D:Dude. Do you remember seeing him hold it, Chris.
Speaker A:Yeah. Y'all are actually confused. Like, where did it go? Did we. Did you leave it in the grow tent? Like, where did. Where did it end up?
Things have been so chaotic. You just noticed.
Speaker B:Can Bennett search the room?
Speaker A:Yeah, there's no place for it to really go, except maybe in one of the kiddie pools are underneath them.
Speaker B:Bennett's already at the kiddie pools to search it.
Speaker A:You would probably need to do something with those kiddie pools.
Speaker B:Well, she's ready to lift up the kiddie pools. She was. She's kind of cool.
Speaker A:Go ahead and roll a search.
Speaker B:She's turning up her lips at the smell in the room, if that makes sense. She's like covering the nostrils of her nose lip because it's.
Speaker A:The mustiness is prodigious. Oh, success. Good job.
You go ahead and start lifting these kiddie poles up, trying to retain the brackish water inside of them and doing a pretty good job. And you do this kind of one at a time as the other agents watch. Maybe somebody goes to help you.
Speaker D:Oh, definitely. Nicholas.
Speaker A:Yeah, Shields is always there to help. And start very carefully making your way around these pools again without allowing this pretty disgusting stagnant water to spill out.
No, it's not rolled around one of these. Out of sight. It's not underneath one of them. You're 100% certain, Bennett?
Speaker B:Frankfurt. I don't think we could miss it. But it's not here anymore. I'm not really sure where it went, but I don't see it.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, let's. Let's retrace ourselves.
Speaker A:Something's really wrong. You don't think you're going to find it. You roll your sanity from a natural. Would you like to project any potential loss?
Speaker C:I mean, I'd love to.
Speaker A:Oh, that's right.
Speaker C:But I can't. You would love to.
Speaker A:You need to gain some Delta Green friends.
Speaker C:I had some and they turned into weird zombies.
Speaker A:You again feel like something is very wrong and that you're not going to find this.
And you have this creeping sensation that these three people with you right now are not going to trust you if you don't come up with some story or something or try to explain what happened in a way that doesn't make you sound fucking crazy. Like you just talk to A floating jumble of colors and geometry in a Chinese or Japanese courtyard somewhere in your mind.
Speaker C:Yeah. Hey, so look, we. There's. There was a statue. You all saw it here. I didn't. You know, look, we need to. We need to get out of here. I don't.
Something's wrong with this. This place. We need. We need to get to this barbecue joint. Right? We got it. We gotta get going. Look, I know it sounds.
I know it sounds crazy with the door. I mean, none of y'all were in the New York op, and it's. Look, we just. Y'all believe me, right? Like, I'm not. I'm not making this up. I mean, this is.
Speaker E:Frankie. Of course. Come on, man. Let's go hit a hotel, right? We'll regroup. Talking here. Someone's gonna hear.
We probably should destroy this evidence, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah. And I don't think we should wait in the hotel. I think we need to go straight to the. We need to go straight to this other location.
Speaker E:Yeah, we can discuss that on the way. Tiberius flips or starts flipping over one of the kiddie pools.
Speaker A:This disgusting stagnant water spreads out across the ground. The smell is even worse now. Amelia jumps back, sort of upended.
And it begins to flow in rivulets across the engravings, mingling with the red, waxy substance, creating an even more putrid odor.
Speaker E:Tiberius keeps his eye on Frankfurt the entire time.
Speaker B:And Emilia just covers her nose and her mouth with the palms of her hands.
Speaker A:Frankfurt. What do you do?
Speaker C:He backs away from the water, spreading out towards the door.
Speaker D:Nicholas seeing this play out, he gets kind of still and is looking at both of you back and forth, like, back and forth, back and forth, waiting for something to happen before he leaves.
Speaker E:Tiberius was gonna walk over to the door again and just kind of feel around it again, see if it feels any different.
Speaker A:No, it just seems like normal chalk on this drywall. It's really hastily scrawled. It's not done with any care. It's not elegant.
Speaker D:Kind of like a Beetlejuice door.
Speaker A:As if somebody was. Somebody was in a hurry.
Speaker E:Okay, I'll just take my sleeve, put it on my palm, and kind of rub out as much of the chalk as I can.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's easy to do. It's all smudged out now. It just looks like dirt and chalk on the wall.
Speaker E:Tiberi start walking out and goes, all right, let's get going.
Speaker D:Nicholas relaxes and gives a meaningful look to Bennett and says, is it just me, or did something just happen?
Speaker B:We're gonna have to deep dive into this.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker B:As we leave.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker A:All four of you are now back in the vehicle.
Speaker E:I want to make sure that we put back that door or a secret door or whatever before we leave. I just wanted to say that.
Speaker A:Okay. Yeah, yeah, that's. That's totally fine.
Speaker E:I know.
Speaker A:I just kind of teleported you back to the car. So. Yes, you go ahead and replace the false wall before you leave the disposal room. But now you're teleported to the car. Boom. You're in it now.
Speaker D:Okay, we're in the car now.
Speaker A:Who's driving?
Speaker B:Childs. A set. He drive. Yeah. Childs, we got to get back to the hotel. I really. I need a shower. I need to get my rest, and we have a lot to think on.
Speaker D:We were going to go to the barbecue place. I thought. Our day's not done.
Speaker B:I just. I really think maybe we could do that later. I need. I need the hotel. I'm sorry. I just have to go.
Speaker D:Okay. I guess we could drop you off.
Speaker B:Chris, what time of the day or night is it?
Speaker A:Yeah, it's about 1:00 in the afternoon at this point.
Speaker E:I mean, Bennett's right? Bennett, I handed your phone back. Can you take a look to see? There's like a motel real, real close. Something by the hour.
Speaker A:We'll.
Speaker E:We'll. We'll hit two hours, get some coffee in us, gets a little bit of rest, come in fresh. We've obviously gone through a lot in the last 20 minutes.
Speaker C:Hey, look, I. I don't mean to be the bad guy here, but things are moving fast. I mean, that last place was. Someone burned it down. And here they're.
They're moving out as quick as possible.
Speaker E:I mean, yeah, they're moving to that place. They're not gonna burn that place down. Actually, that's where they're going to.
Speaker B:More of reason than any for us to collect our thoughts, come up with a plan. I mean, we don't have to take a long time.
Speaker C:Like.
Speaker D:Am I. I'm sorry, I'm with Frankfurt on this one. I feel like we might be needing to move fast here.
There's a lot that's changed in the last few days, and if we don't act, we're gonna miss out on.
Speaker B:Okay, I'm sorry. I wish I didn't have to say this out loud. I know none of you want to hear this, but it's that time of the month and I need the room.
Speaker E:Y'all, can we just.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker D:We're gonna Drop you off. Okay. We're gonna make sure that you. You two can together. That'd be fine. Okay, just.
Speaker C:How. How much time do we need? Maybe we can. We can. Wait a minute.
Speaker B:Listen. I learned in training to be a quick shower. Just. Let's get. Let's go to the hotel, come up with a room. I'll be quick. And we'll all return.
Speaker C:I could use a drink at the bar anyway, I guess after all that. That's fine. Let's do it.
Speaker D:Stiff maple syrup.
Speaker C:You read my mind. Shields. You read my mind.
Speaker B:Excellent. I like when we all work together.
Speaker C:All right. Let's just be quick. Let's just be quick.
Speaker D:So we're gonna take a pit stop at a motel.
Speaker A:Yeah. What motel would y'all like?
Speaker D:The motel number six, I hear is quality at value.
Speaker A:Y'all are gonna go back to the Motel 6 that you destroyed or left in your wake? I should say. You didn't destroy it.
Speaker D:Well, if you may recall, none of us were actually there.
Speaker C:Actually, that's a good point.
Speaker A:Holy shit.
Speaker E:I think you know nearest motel, right?
Speaker A:Tiberius was. He escaped out the back window.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:He would not enjoy doing that.
Speaker B:There's gotta be like a Holiday Inn or a Motel 7.
Speaker A:The 7. That's a little pricey for y'all. I don't think you're gonna be able to afford that.
Speaker E:Okay, four.
Speaker C:Okay, well, none of these are gonna have a hotel bar. This is a deal breaker. We gotta go somewhere with a hotel bar. Right?
Speaker A:There's one called the Twilight Haven. Okay, guys.
Speaker D:Ramada.
Speaker E:It is ominous, but nearest hotel.
Speaker A:You guys stop at a Ramada and. Yeah, it's $85 a day.
Speaker C:Get the help.
Speaker B:It's pretty cheap, actually.
Speaker A:Can't believe y'all passed up the Twilight Haven Motel. It definitely wasn't haunted.
Speaker D:It's got a vibe that I don't like.
Speaker A:Cool. So y'all go ahead and pay for one room. Or what's the. What's the plan? Two.
Speaker E:Two rooms, I guess.
Speaker A:What are we doing?
Speaker D:One for the fellas, one for the lady.
Speaker B:Much appreciated.
Speaker A:It's appropriate they roll in a free cot into the fellows room so that there's three places to sleep. Otherwise, y'all are left to your own devices. Let me know how I can help. Is your friendly jam.
Now that we have a pit stop here at this Ramada, I assume that.
Speaker D:You want to do something, Olivia.
Speaker B:Well, it's not actually that time of the month, Bennett.
Speaker D:Yeah, we figure.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:No, I mean, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't actually tell you, but I think I will take that time to fluff my pillows and.
Speaker D:Is that a metaphor?
Speaker A:You're gonna have to roll for that. Of course.
Speaker E:I hope you've got skills in it because Chris is brutal with the pillow. Fluffing rolls, it's just.
Speaker A:Yeah. Even when it's a euphemism, I'm brutal. Okay, so you're fluffing pillows. What's the rest of the team up to?
Speaker D:So, how about you debrief us on this last op with the Doors? Frankfurt. And he goes ahead and hits his recorder.
Speaker C:Does Frankfurt see him hit the recorder on his phone?
Speaker A:Oh, yeah. He doesn't hide that. He didn't before, so I can't imagine he does now.
Speaker C:Yeah. What's with the recorder?
Speaker D:Operation Intelligence. I mean, it's just recording everything we know so far, so when I report to my superiors, I can fully debrief them.
Speaker E:Tiberius, as they're talking, is looking through the mini fridge, seeing if there's any snacks or booze in there.
Speaker A:Yeah, this Ramada is fairly well stocked in their little mini fridge.
Speaker E:Plenty of booze he picks up.
Speaker A:There's also some peanuts and some pretzels.
Speaker E:Picks up one hand of food, one hand of booze, Frankie. Cheers.
Speaker C:Yeah, and can you stop calling me Frankie? It's Paris.
Speaker E:I'm sorry. It's just, you know, with all the switching back and forth, it's gotten complicated for me.
Speaker C:Sure. Yeah. No, I got it.
Speaker E:He tosses him a bottle about like a foot away from where he's sitting.
Speaker C:Paris takes it, opens it, tosses it down in one go. All right, I need to ask a quick clarifying question here. So we. So we met up with Bennett and Shields through the handler.
Told us that they were gonna be joining us and getting us out of the situation, I think so. My only question is, is there cause for Frankfurt Paris to be suspicious of them at all?
Speaker A:That's an interesting question to ask in a Delta Green game. I'm not sure I can answer that. Well, for you in a way that you would find useful for what you're trying to ask.
Speaker C:Yeah, because I see the performance.
Speaker A:I'm just going to not. I'm a no comment on that. I know that sucks, but I can't.
Speaker C:Okay, well, I'll just do. Paris looks at SHIELD and says, your superiors don't we have the same superiors, right?
Speaker D:To a degree, yes.
Speaker E:Paris, you're suddenly very afraid. Why?
Speaker C:Well, there was that whole thing of you getting ready to throw a grenade at me, for one.
Speaker E:Are you taking Any drugs?
Speaker C:Excuse me?
Speaker E:Are you taking any drugs?
Speaker C:No, I'm good. Other than that bit of booze I just had, I'm straight. Paris kind of looks at them both as brow furrowed. Look, I. Okay, we're in New York, right?
And I'll spare you the details.
Speaker E:I'm sorry, can you give me a detail here? I'm just trying to piece up the timeline. How. How old were you?
Speaker C:Actually, I don't know how long ago this was, Chris. How long was this New York? You remind me.
Speaker A:God, if your memories can be trusted. Since everything's just so side by side, it must have been within the last two years.
Speaker C:Well, it would have been within the last couple years. Two, three maybe. Honestly, it's not entirely clear. And he looks at Tiberius Felix knowingly.
No, we were called in to investigate some mysterious deaths. Like I said, I'll spare you the. The gory details, but look, these doors were showing up, right?
And we started finding ties to a local Chinese based criminal organization. And from there we found ourselves at a warehouse out on a pier. And it was. It was a shit show. I got hurt. Ryan got real hurt.
Would believe this, but a tanker ran itself aground right into the warehouse. Took the whole thing out. Honestly, I think that might be the only reason we got out alive. Bottom line, it was. That statue we found was like.
Speaker D:That's the statue. I'm sorry, the statue we found today was like.
Speaker C:What?
Speaker E:Wow.
Speaker C:We found something like that at the.
Speaker E:In New York?
Speaker C:Yeah, in New York. Look, there was a man that we were chasing, right? His name was. It was David Young. He was the one we believe was making these doors.
That chalk door that we saw, we think he was the one making these. We think that's how they were moving around.
Speaker D:You have a reason to believe it might be him making these doors here?
Speaker C:It's just a loose thread. It's a tie, maybe tenuous at best. I can't say for certain.
All I can say is that when I saw it before, that's who we were chasing before things all went to.
Speaker E:Was this. Was this David a dentist?
Speaker C:A dentist?
Speaker E:Yeah, I mean, I'm just curious, like you're visiting a dentist. At the reception's desk there's a huge bowl of sugar free candy.
Speaker C:I don't know what's happening here. Oh, is this. I'm confused now.
Speaker D:I think he's giving you the. The Blade Runner test. The replicant test.
Speaker C:I'm sorry, what are you talking about?
Speaker E:Oh, I'm sorry. Would you. Would you take the candy? I don't know. I'm sorry, I. You know, I'm. I'm a little tired. I'm gonna. I'm gonna go freshen up in the bathroom.
Speaker C:Yeah, you do that. Paris looks back over at Shields, cocks an eyebrow rock esque like Shields, keeps.
Speaker D:His face neutral and looks at Tiberius as he's walking into the bathroom and then back at Frankfurt and says. So how does he know about. How does he know a boot?
Speaker A:That's awesome. No, that's so great.
Speaker E:Keep going.
Speaker D:Is he asking you things about your missions that he wasn't on or. Because it just seems like he knows things but he's not saying them? Am I gathering that right?
Speaker C:I'm going to say this. I don't think you're too far off base, but I don't think I can get you there. Some of what he's saying is confusing. I'm not sure what's going on.
Speaker D:Well, you've both had a real stressful time.
Speaker C:Yeah, you could say that again.
Speaker D:I know it's been tough for the two of you, but I think if we can just make it to the end of this mission, everybody in one piece, I think we'll all have plenty of time to recoup and relax.
Speaker C:Look, if this is related to New York, if. If David Young is here, we need to be very careful, but we also need to be quick. We lost a lot on that one. All right, but if that's.
If that's related at all, we need to be very, very careful.
Speaker D:Understood. Perhaps I should.
In spite of the present danger of Tiberius getting his hands on my stuff, I think maybe I should unlock all my equipment in case we need to move quick.
Speaker C:Yeah. What was that anyway?
Speaker D:Tear gas.
Speaker C:Oh, thank. Tear gas I can handle.
Speaker D:Yeah, thank goodness I didn't bring any high explosives or nothing. Could have been a different story.
Speaker C:No joke, Chris.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:There's not much. I feel like Emelia doesn't really keep from shields.
So while she's in her room, she also would like to probably send him a secure message updating him on the text from.
Speaker A:Sure. Don't tell me. Don't tell anybody what it is, please. On air, what you're gonna do is you're gonna directly message shields.
I'm gonna go ahead and narrate him getting a buzz on his phone. He may or may not pick it up. But yeah, you can go ahead and do that without narrating on air. Just let me know what you send.
We're in a real suspicious spot with the team right now, so keep it Close to the vest.
Speaker C:Nobody's trusting anybody right now.
Speaker E:Our eyes are darting back and forth, left and right.
Speaker C:I mean, I think reasonable. I think suspicion is reasonable at this point. I mean.
Speaker E:I mean, Canadian.
Speaker C:Yeah, Canadians show up out of nowhere and then the other guy tries. One guy tries to kill the other guy.
Speaker E:And then, John, what creature really loves like sugar and honey and maple syrup. Oh, what a. Bugs. Is it bugs?
Speaker C:I was gonna say a bear, but yeah. Bugs.
Speaker E:Yeah, sounds suspicious. Canadian.
Speaker A:So, Shields, you feel your phone vibrate? The encrypted phone and it's a three vibrate. That means it's coming from Bennett, most likely.
Speaker D:Okay. He picks up his phone and unlocks it to read the message.
Speaker A:Of course. Frankfurt is sitting across from you here while Felix stays in the restroom. That's the situation.
Speaker D:Shields is just tapping up a quick response on his phone and says, frankfurt's watching you. So, Frankfurt, what do you want to see happen here? If we don't encounter this David Young.
Speaker C:If we don't encounter him. If we do, I want to nail the son of a bitch. But if we don't, we gotta find whoever's running this operation here.
Speaker D:I agree.
Speaker C:Yeah, we gotta put it down. The usual MO Is to.
Speaker D:And as you're saying that he gets another buzz, checks it quick type and puts it back on the table. Locked.
Speaker C:Okay. I prefer the scorched earth approach. I'm open to suggestions.
Speaker D:I'm just not sure how much in that direction we can go.
Speaker C:We find what I think we're gonna find. If it's anything related to New York, we need to level it.
Speaker D:We'll see what we can do.
Speaker A:There's a knock at the door of the hotel room.
Speaker D:Who is it?
Speaker B:Gentlemen, it's Amelia. Are you decent?
Speaker D:Yeah, we're decent. And he opens up the door.
Speaker A:Amelia comes in.
Speaker D:So Frankfurt has debriefed me on this situation in New York City linked to that door. A little further. A certain David Young was the man involved there. And he says this has all the hallmarks of his work.
Speaker E:You hear a flush, a quick hand rinse, and then the bathroom door opens. Tiberius walks out.
Speaker B:David Young. So who's. Who's this guy? And is he still a concern of ours?
Speaker C:Let me put it this way. If we come across him and be very, very careful and we need to move very fast, we need to put him down as quickly as possible.
Speaker E:Tiberius walks across the floor, goes to the door, locks the latch. Are you going to tell us the truth anytime soon? The whole truth and not just. Let's Just say. Etc.
Speaker C:What more do you want?
Speaker E:The details you. You've been keeping away from us.
Speaker C:You want me to tell you about how we found a dead man halfway through a floor and had to cut him out and hide it? You want me to tell you about these bloated bodies we found just fucking seeping? You want to hear about that? You really want the gory details?
Speaker E:Are you not. Are you not familiar with evidence? You need it all.
Speaker C:All you need to know is what I just said, okay? For all we know, this guy isn't even here. This could just be related. It could be similar group. Could be the same group operating different places.
There might not be a David Young here. All I'm saying is, if it's related to the thing in New York, and it might be, we just need to be very careful.
Speaker E:I mean, I totally understand that, you know, there might be a David Young. There may not. There may be a statue. There may not. There may be a. Paris stands up.
Speaker C:An agent towards him.
Speaker E:There may be an agent that removes incisors from someone's head and pockets them like it's a little treat. Tiberius gives them a big smile.
Speaker A:Frankfurt has gotten up and he's about three paces in front of you now, as you have your back to the locked door.
Speaker C:You. Something you want to say?
Speaker E:I think I'm saying it. I want you to say what happened. Why'd you do that? Where's the statue?
Speaker B:You had a moment, Paris. You had a moment. And that's before you fainted halfway. Fainted.
Speaker E:Oh, you fainted.
Speaker A:Hmm.
Speaker E:And then that's. And then he got up and was feeling hot and dandy and the statue was gone. And he was acting a little squirrely.
Speaker B:It's hard to say about the statue.
Speaker C:But I don't know what happened to the statue, But I've said what I'm gonna say.
Speaker E:Okay, and what about the teeth?
Speaker B:The teeth?
Speaker D:Yeah. Please, somebody explain what the teeth are. I. Huh?
Speaker E:Frankie, you didn't tell him about your hobby.
Speaker C:Paris takes another step towards him. I think you know as well as I do, we've got different lives kind of mixed in here. Okay?
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker C:I'm doing the best that I can with what I've been given, all right?
Speaker E:I totally understand. I mean, we don't all have all the cards. A lot of times. We don't all have the control. Hey, Bennett, when he fell halfway, whatever, did he scream?
Did he seem like he was in pain?
Speaker B:Felix, there's. There was no real reaction. He just kind of went down.
Speaker E:Hmm. And Frankie what happened between that time you went down and went up.
Speaker C:Yeah, I got a. I got a better question for you.
Speaker E:Oh.
Speaker C:Tiberius.
Speaker E:Yeah. Good deflection.
Speaker C:Walking in. What were you doing? Walking in with a grenade? What was your plan there? What exactly did you think you were gonna do?
Speaker E:I was gonna.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:Do what I was gonna do if I saw Rowan Cook.
Speaker B:Rowan Cook?
Speaker E:Yeah, the man with the bug in his head. You know.
Speaker D:Well, I know him as the. As the owner of Severn Hyper.
Speaker E:Amelia, you remember that building? You remember that party?
Speaker A:Amelia, you remember Rowan Cook? You caught a few glimpses of him as you were setting up the bar with the other catering staff.
And you remember people were trying to avoid him a little bit. Avoid his gaze. You caught wind that he takes girls, sometimes even from the catering staff to his room.
Sounds really creepy to you, but you just kind of focused on your job.
Speaker E:Now I can do a test to make sure that our boy here is bug free.
Speaker A:Suddenly. Paris. Frankfurt. You realize what those questions were? Those weird, oddball questions? You can't believe you didn't figure it out in the moment.
Those are the same questions that you and the others, Fletcher and Finster, were given by Horatio and her team to try and suss out insect infestation from suspected hosts without doing the next thing. If that doesn't work, which is popping a hole in their skull, letting sunlight in and seeing if an insect flies out.
You suddenly realize where Tiberius might be heading.
Speaker E:You could be honest with me, Frankie.
Speaker C:You call me Frankie one more time, you know who likes to take teeth? Tiberius. Frankie likes to. Don't call me that again.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker E:All right. And what does Paris like to take? Hmm?
Speaker B:Why do we. Why are we having threats going back and forth? We're all here to help each other and figure this shit out.
Speaker C:Thank you. I just want to get the mission done.
Speaker E:And I just want to make sure that not another agent is gonna try to stick a pair of scissors in my chest, dig my heart out and put some globule in it.
Speaker C:This is about Ryan? This is about what happened?
Speaker E:It's about all of it.
Speaker C:I'm not your enemy.
Speaker E:Prove it.
Speaker C:Tiberius, Felix. Whatever you want to go by, I'm not your enemy.
Speaker E:Then prove it. Sit down.
Speaker C:And what?
Speaker E:Take the test.
Speaker C:Do I know what the test is?
Speaker A:Absolutely. You've administered it about, oh, half a dozen times, if not more.
Speaker C:Is it really going to drill a hole inside of my head?
Speaker A:Well, the test is a series of questions. It usually takes about one to two hours to really carefully administer that. It has about a 67% chance of positively identifying infestation.
Typically when one of F cell was unable to positively identify, the next step would be forced trepanation.
Speaker C:If I was infected, you don't think I would have already acted?
Speaker D:Well, I think what he's saying is that you're showing the signs of what he believes to be an infection of some sort.
Speaker E:Ding, ding, ding.
Speaker B:Surely you know each other well enough that you can trust this process. And if you know yourself and you're not hiding anything.
Speaker E:Are you hiding anything?
Speaker C:Sorry. I'm loving this so much.
Speaker D:Suddenly a bug shoots out of his head.
Speaker E:Oh fuck.
Speaker C:I already told you what you need to know. You know I'm not infected. We don't have a lot of time here. Okay? You really want to burn two hours to go through this?
You know it doesn't work every time. What's going to happen then? You drill a hole in my fucking skull. Well, is that your plan? And how do we know you're not infected?
I could be saying the same shit to you.
Speaker E:I'll take the test. I'll write out the questions. I'll let Bennett ask me. You can watch. You can ask it. Hell, I'll take the test first. How about that?
Speaker B:Paris, there's nothing constructive with need to know. We need all of the details with nothing omitted. If you could just give us that. What happened in that room with the kiddie pools?
Speaker C:I don't know. I saw some place. Went somewhere. There was a. I don't know. An entity. Something else. Okay. It had been trapped there.
That's all it said it had been trapped and it wanted to go after the person that had trapped it there. From what I. I believe is this entity was sent by call them an ally. And it was.
Speaker E:Why call them an ally? Just say who it is.
Speaker C:Will you keep your britches straight and sit down for a moment?
Speaker E:Tiberius, I'm not on trial here.
Speaker C:Jesus Christ was sent to chase down what I believe to be the people that we're chasing also. And I believe the room that we were in is connected to a prison that they had trapped him in. Trapped this entity. Right when I was falling. I think.
Unless I've completely lost my fucking mind, but I think I went there. Spoke with it. This is how I learned this. I made it. I made a deal of some kind and let it loose.
And I think right now it's heading towards its original target. Which is the people we're chasing. I hope that's David Young. It might not be. It's not him.
It's going to be his associates of some kind, I would imagine. And that's why I want to hurry. That's why I don't want to waste time. Because we might have him on the back foot right now. Okay?
I mean, look at what they did. They burned. As far as I know, and I'm speculating, they burned that building down. They're moving out of this warehouse.
I don't think we have a lot of time. And if we're going to get answers and shut this thing down, I think we need to move because events are moving without us.
Speaker E:And by this shit down, do you mean the other worldly, extra planar, inter spatial, whatever you want to call it, thing that you released out into the world? Or are you talking about the people we're looking for?
Speaker C:I'm talking about the people we're looking for.
Speaker E:Oh, okay. So we're not gonna be worried about that chicken shit plan where you did you release it? What did it cost you?
Speaker C:Paris walks right up to Tiberius and just looks down at him and says, that's enough.
Speaker E:I'm gonna ask you those questions.
Speaker B:Bennett sidesteps closer to Felix in a sort of defensive posture.
Speaker C:Well, I'm leaving to go finish the mission. Are you gonna help finish the mission or not?
Speaker E:Depends on who you're working for. Sounds like possibly two or three different. I don't fucking know anymore.
Speaker D:We all have the same mission here. That mission is to find what caused the catastrophe that happened at the nuclear power plant and stop it.
Speaker E:Shields. You can't be as dense as you look. Oh, I beg you. You want to go out there with this monster? Sorry, alleged monster. I've seen monsters.
Speaker D:I just want to remind you, gently, that we pulled you out of a loony bin and we stopped you from throwing a grenade in a room that had three people in it.
Speaker E:Oh yeah, I was nuts. But I see I'm the only sane one here now. I'm a clear as a bell.
Speaker D:Okay, let's all agree we'll get this main mission done and then we'll do this thing, this test that you want to do after. Okay, me and Bennett, I'll let the two of you drive this next part of the operation. We'll hang back, keep an eye on things.
Speaker E:Never met a man that was so eager for his own death. Tiberius will walk out of the room.
Speaker A:Yeah. You move to unlock the doors. If anybody wants to try to stop him, you can. Or he'll leave.
Speaker C:Paris just watches him go.
Speaker A:You unlock the doors and you leave the room. The door Closes behind you. Tiberius. Are you abandoning the mission? Is that what I'm hearing?
Speaker E:Is the car open? I'm gonna go check the car, see if it's still open.
Speaker D:No, it would not be open.
Speaker E:Okay. I break the back window and I pull out one of the cases that looked like a shotgun case.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah. You go ahead and pull that out. It's still locked. I don't think Shields got to it yet like he was planning.
Speaker E:And I start walking a random direction.
Speaker A:Try to find an alley that's not difficult to do. You go ahead and find a spot between the Ramada and an adjoining strip mall. It's all smelly back here. Full of detritus.
There's a couple commercial dumpsters that have seen better days. You don't think anybody's got a camera pointed towards you or watching you or anything. You head to the center of it.
Speaker E:Gonna just try to stay out of sight and smash open this case.
Speaker A:Yeah, they aren't the easiest thing to open, but with enough time and effort, it's not gonna be a problem. It's not something you need to roll on.
But I would say it is going to take a little while for you to pry that thing open, break it apart with whatever you decide to bring back there to do it with.
Speaker E:And you know I'm good at opening stuff. Track record is really, really good.
Speaker A:Sure, sure. All right, so you're going to be working on that. Let's head back up to the room. What are you three up to now that Tiberius has left you?
Speaker C:As soon as Tiberius walks through the door, Paris is like. Just looks back, says, well, let's get going.
Speaker D:Shields looks at Bennett and he says, what are you thinking?
Speaker B:I don't like leaving Felix to go off on his own. Paris. That was a lot of back and forth between you two. What do you think the correct next step is?
And how can we get everybody on the same page just to get the mission completed today?
Speaker C:I don't know. He's not himself. He's.
Speaker B:Well, he seems to feel that you aren't yourself and you both are struggling to trust each other. So we need to reel that in very quickly.
Speaker D:I think we just passed the turning point on that.
Speaker B:I have to tell you that all of this back and forth that you have about another life, I have that too. And Bennett kind of looks over at Shale's, not knowing that he understands what she's talking about.
Speaker D:I don't understand.
Speaker B:I know Felix. I heard you call him Tiberius. I know him. But it's different.
Speaker C:Paris Squints I know. Earlier, Chris, you said that Paris did not recognize her at all just because everything was happening. He squints and looks closer now at her.
Does he recognize her now or he still just doesn't know who she is?
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a tough one. Just because of the situation. Maybe I'll give you the intelligence roll again. We'll do a minus 20 on it just in case.
I think it was still a minus 20 before, but I'm not going to do a minus 40 because now he's.
Speaker C:Really looking closely at her like. Wait, what?
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, do another minus 20 here. You're a little bit more clear headed anyway.
Speaker C:Nope. Failed.
Speaker A:Yeah, that didn't work out. No, you don't recognize her. Dude, you were in it like that was high octane, focused on people getting destroyed.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah. And that's the little blood. Metal flowers. Paris looks at her and says, were you there with Rowan in the building and the.
Speaker B:It was so loud. He saved my life. He saved my life. I can't abandon him. He is too good of a person.
Speaker D:Well, saved your life.
Speaker C:I can say this, that the people that we are here don't necessarily match the people we were back there. Look, okay, I'm.
Speaker B:I don't understand. I know I've never met you before, but I've met Felix Tiberius.
Speaker C:May I remind you that no less than a few hours ago, he pulled a grenade, thinking he was going to, I assume, take me out.
Speaker B:Do you understand what he's asking you about this bug infection and does that make sense?
Speaker C:Are y'all not up to speed on that?
Speaker A:Okay, let me pause for a second. Frankfurt. This is super worrisome, because that's what all this shit's all about. It's about keeping the bugs off the shores of North America.
How could they not know?
Speaker C:Yep. Okay, that's what I was about to go with. I'll lean into it. Wait, you don't know about this? I mean, that's why. That's why we're here.
Or, well, not why we're here. That's why we're. That's. That's the greater mission? Have y'all not been briefed?
Speaker D:Our mission is to get your mission on track. As much briefing as we have is pretty much what. What we've told you so far. That we need to get the back to the root cause and stop it.
Speaker C:You don't know about the infestation that we're working to keep at bay.
Speaker D:Sorry to say I don't. What? What's that?
Speaker B:This Is why every time you say it's a need to know. We need to know because we're here to help you. But we can help you. And we can't help ourselves if you don't tell us everything.
Speaker C:Oof. Man, I'm, like, so tempted to just brain damp, not trust these people either. To what?
Speaker A:Sorry.
Speaker E:The opposite of healthy.
Speaker A:Green man.
Speaker C:Yeah, Paris is like. I'm gonna have to go solo on this fucking mission.
Speaker B:Now, solo alone never works.
Speaker E:But splitting the party does.
Speaker D:Splitting the party is the way with parents.
Speaker C:Do the situation so they're not briefed on, like, the core mission.
Speaker A:The whole reason that you're with Horatio and have been doing the terrible things you've had to deal with is because there is the threat of these bugs, these insects, and that's what you've been taking care of in all of these memories. It's so real to you. Every single reason has calmed down to those things. David Young is a host. You know it. He got away. That shit's not right.
Whoever's running this thing is a host. And if it's David, well, that ties up a loose end that you've been waiting to close the loop on for God. So long.
Speaker C:Paris gets his phone out and dials the number four. Horatio.
Speaker A:So you're doing this in front of them. You have to kind of navigate through a phone tree, so it's not immediate. Shields.
Bennett, you see him, pick up the phone in front of you and start dialing.
Speaker D:Who you calling there, bud?
Speaker C:Just checking in with the boss. Just need to clear something.
Speaker D:Okay.
Speaker A:It doesn't take much longer, I guess Shields and Bennett just sit tight. And after two rings, after navigating this phone tree the way you always do, you hear her voice. Horatio?
Speaker F:Frankfurt, are you all right?
Speaker C:I don't know. I. Look, some stuff isn't adding up here. These two new ads he brought in, Bennett and Shields, are they not read in on the mission here?
The infestation?
Speaker F:Oh, Frankfurt. They may not be, actually. I trust that won't be a problem. Is that becoming an issue?
Speaker C:Maybe with Felix, but look, I. I just need to clear it before I start. It's just. It's just strange. Look, a lot's happened the last few days. I wasn't sure who to trust.
Speaker F:Frankfurt, you sound quite piqued.
Speaker C:Yeah, I'm pretty far from all right, but I'm holding it together. We're gonna get this done.
Speaker F:Did the monster come out again? Frankfurt.
Speaker C:He just kind of stance it for a moment.
Speaker F:Did the monster come out again?
Speaker C:Yes, but it's under control, Frankfurt.
Speaker F:You know you have to take the medication daily. My wayward bully boys. This is quite the predicament we found ourselves in, isn't it? What's. What's wrong with Felix?
Speaker C:I don't. I think he. He thinks that I'm. He thinks I'm infested. I don't think he trusts me anymore.
He pulled a grenade on me no less than a few hours ago, but Bennett here talked him down, dear.
Speaker F:The last thing you would do if you were infested would be calling me. Let me see if I can reach out to Felix. I do think I understand where you are and what you are thinking.
The agents who have been sent to assist you in tying up what you are dealing with in the States there. They are from our friends up north, as you have probably gathered. But their priorities differ from ours.
So some of them are not in on the greater threat.
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker F:So forgive them that major transgression, I suppose. If you see fit. Reading them in.
If you trust them, and they do have my backing, if that's worth anything, you should tell them what they are up against.
Speaker C:Understood.
Speaker F:I see no harm in that. And if their director McIntyre, if he is bothered by such a thing, he can speak to me directly about it. He and I go back a bit of a ways. Frankfurt.
Take your medicine. There is a reason Smiley insists on it.
Speaker C:Yes, ma'am. Right away.
Speaker F:Be safe.
Speaker C:So, yeah. Frank from Paris puts the phone back in his pocket, turns towards Bennett. Shield says okay, I got clearance. Welcome to the shit.