Report: Operation HOLLOW HILL - Day One
Operation HOLLOW HILL
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- IAGO, Department of the Treasury, Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence
- IMOGEN, IRS Criminal Investigator
- INDIGO, Black-Hat Hacker.
- IRENA, FBI Criminal Profiler
- ISAAC, Anthropologist
- ISOLDE, FBI Forensic Pathologist
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA
A few months have passed after the Skoptsi attempted to kidnap agents IMOGEN and INDIGO off the Maryland turnpike. Delta Green needed time to make sure the Skoptsi retalliation would end there and not follow the agents home - which would have indicated that not only were they noticed, but were fully compromised. Luckily, none such retalliation ever came for I-Cell's agents. A couple of paranoid months later, they received summons from their cell leader, IAGO.
A far cry from his usual choice of briefing area, they were summoned to Naval Station Norfolk, in Virginia in the late evening. Escorted in by armed guards to a secure briefing room where IAGO waited. How he managed this, he did not tell.
IAGO was not redeploying them to Moscow-on-the-Chesapeake. H-Cell has taken over and is passively surveilling the communtiy for significant activity. I-Cell's affairs, while connected to the Skoptsi, will take them West. Delta Green has photos placing the Skoptsi delegation the agents saw leaving Smyrna Airport at the home of Tomas Drennon in Las Animas, Colorado. It's their belief that, true to I-Cell's intuition, a trade took place. The black bronze bowl which INDIGO had identified was traded for one of the Orthodox Icons they believe the Skoptsi are after.
The providence of the bowl is vague and non-specific, even with INDIGO's research, and its power, if any, are totally unknown. Germaine Drennon sat on Delta Green's peripheral vision as a person-of-interest, but never became a threat, or an asset to a threat. Whether Tomas is an occultist, a sorcerer, or just someone trying to repair his father's reputation, Delta Green doesn't know. Whatever his motives are, A-Cell has decided to situation calls for an intervention. Drennon is in league with the Skoptsi, whether that partnership goes beyond his transaction with them is unknown, but he's dealt with them face-to-face. Extracting a testimony from him might be enough to start putting the squeeze on them, if not, it at least provides us with some information on what their plans are, and what their procedure looks like. Additionally, there's the bowl. Delta Green knows nothing about the bowl or its potential. It could be a bauble, it could a weapon, they have no way of knowing, but A-Cell is in no mood to sit around and find out. I-Cell's objective is simple, travel to Colorado Springs and be received by a local contact who will furbish them with paperwork, false IDs, and equipment. They will pose as officers of the U.S Customs Service executing a search and seizure warrant on the home of Tomas Drennon. Drennon will be taken into federal custody and questioned, the bowl will be seized, as it is the spoils of illegal artifact smuggling. With the briefing concluded and questions fielded, I-Cell are escorted to Langley AFB and catch a red-eye flight to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
16MAY98
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO.
6:00
I-Cell sleeps on the flight over and wake as the flight touches down. They are received by an unnamed man in black who confirms they're with "Mister Moneybags" before escorting them to their gear. They are given a black, unmarked van, armored panels in the chassis, five U.S Customs Service badges, armor vests, and service pistols in a box in the back, along with an envelope of fraudulent paperwork, a shotgun with bean bag and buckshot rounds, and a police radio with send and receive capability. They drive to the Drennon residence, rehearsing their cover story and arming themselves. IMOGEN, at the wheel, checks local police radio, and begins breaking the speed limit when they learn that a fire has been reported at the Drennon residence.
Agents arrive and liaise with Dwayne Greer of the Bent County Sheriff's department who, after some explanation of their business at the Drennon residence, shows them to Drennon's bedroom, where a hole's been burned through the mattress.
8:00
Agent ISOLDE tracks Drennon's remains to the coroner's office and performs an examination. The heat damage to Drennon's carbonized skin is inconsistent with the heat damage to the rest of the room. His internal organs seem to be in relatively good condition compared to his outsides as well, although ISOLDE notes searing of the flesh concentrated around Drennon's nervous system. No evidence of smoke inhalation or the posing of the body indicate that Drennon was dead before he was burned.
Meanwhile, I-Cell turns the house inside out. ISAAC finds a tapestry in the style of medieval Persia, preserved behind bulletproof glass in the basement. The central figure of the work is a woman wreathed in flame, around whom men bow in supplication. IRENA collects testimony from first responders and others, first responders are befuddled by Drennon's fiery death, while nosy neighbors remark that Drennon had visitors. Two dark haired men, who visited months ago and have since left the area. A young woman was around as recently as yesterday. I-Cell suspects the former to be the emissaries of the Skoptsi. INDIGO inspects his home electronics, fried by an impossible power surge, and IMOGEN delves through Drennon’s poorly-sorted records, finding that his monetary problems came from fighting his father’s legal battles, which he inherited. He was involved in several civil suits, and Tomas tried to beat them all in order to hold on to his father’s possessions. He succeeded but took on massive debt, needing to get a job at Sun Speed Outfitters, a boat dealership. The ritual bowl is unaccounted for.
10:00
IMOGEN interviews the staff at Sunspeed Outfitters. A few days ago, Drennon introduced a woman named Halimah Jassim. She was introduced as a friend Tomas made over the internet, party to a shared interest in history. Her car is still in the parking lot: an Audi Quatro. As she's issuing an APB on Jassim, there's a call over the scanner from the sheriff's department checking if any officers have gone up to respond to the alert of a sexual assault near a bird sanctuary north of town.
A trail of footprints, barefoot, are spotted darting off through the backyard. the suspect nimbly leaping obstacles and showing no hard landings, walking as the crow flies. The footprints ford the Arkansas river on foot, but those on the other side aren’t wet. The gait suggests a woman under 40. The condition of the prints suggests an impossible speed. The footprints end near the edge of a field, obscured by tallgrass. Across from the field is the Bent County Bird Sanctuary.
12:00
I-Cell share notes, IMOGEN, realizing the footprints lead to the sanctuary where the assault was reported, races across town, summoning I-Cell to rendezvous with her. They are received at the sanctuary by two deputies who tell them that the assault happened in the field behind the sanctuary, but the call was made from the victim's home across the road. INDIGO sticks around to inspect security footage collected by perimeter cameras at the sanctuary. The rest head to the home of the victim. Jamie Huff, a 17-year-old girl, snuck out of home last night. She returned at 6:00 that morning, going between catatonia and severe agitation ever since. She’s inconsolable. IRENA and ISOLDE struggle to draw a clear statement. A remark by the girl's father that his credit card's been taken strikes IMOGEN, who quietly requests that purchases on the card be tracked.
INDIGO, and two deputies, review the security footage. A girl and boy appear at 2:00 AM, with a picnic basket and blanket. Jamie Huff is recognizable, the boy isn’t. Some time later, a naked woman walks into frame. The boy approaches, waving. A white flash blows out the camera. A cloud of cinders where the boy had stood.
No sooner than IMOGEN makes her inquiry than she learns the card was across the state in Brush, Colorado, to purchase 100 color copies from a print shop.
2:00
After nearly two hours of consolatio, IRENA and ISOLDE learn from Jamie Huff that her boyfriend, who Halimah Jassim killed, was named Tyler Gellar. Halimah is wearing what Jamie had put on that night, having terrified her into handing it over. I-Cell is able to add this information to the APB.
The five agents split up. ISAAC and ISOLDE will take their armored van to Denver, and inspect Tomas Drennon’s storage unit. IMOGEN, INDIGO, and IRENA will drive to Brush, Colorado in Jassim’s Audi. Once there, they’ll be able to find out what Ms. Jassim needed prints of so badly. On the drive over, IMOGEN calls in support from IAGO, asking for a team to investigate Jassim’s home turf in Chicago.
4:00
In Denver, a young security guard at the storage lot unlocks Drennon’s unit. Among a lot of junk (a jet ski?) ISAAC finds some relevant information. There’s a file folder, scrapbooking sections from American war journals and Russian magazines, Germaine Drennon’s narrative of war looting. Some account books that cover his own activities. Notes in Tomas Drennon’s hand about the provenance of various artifacts. A color photograph of Russian soldiers–likely from the Soviet-Afghan war–posing in front of a stone menhir. An aerial photograph of another stone circle, labeled “B.horn?” ISAAC is able to connect this to Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming, home to a stone circle called the Bighorn Medicine Wheel.
The copy shop in Brush is named “Oh! Copy Boy.” The lights are off and the parking lot is empty except for a repair van, but there’s a teenager in the store uniform sitting outside on the stoop. According to him, there was an electrical failure; hence the repairmen. He recognizes Halimah Jassim, but didn’t speak to her. A man came into the store shortly before the electricity shut off, saying that a woman outside handed him a paper to copy and a card to pay for it with. Serious tweaker behavior, but he did it. The employee has the master copy, since the power failed right when the print job finished.
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