Report: Operation TENNESSEE WALTZ

TO: A-Cell

FR: Victor, Verdance, Wolfgang. 

REPORT OPERATION TENNESSEE WALTZ

In the aftermath of their raid on Amalgamated Bio-Carb's "Gemstone" Production Facility on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. V-Cell found itself at the centre of a lot of attention. 

Above, Staff Sergeant Dixon LeFevre (Left), Sergeant Gary Mundy (Centre), two survivors of Bravo Team "TURKEYSHOOT" deployed during the Gemstone attack. Ssgt. LeFevre and Sgt. Mundy both witnessed the reanimating effects of the Sapphire Compound firsthand, but agreed to remain silent, as advised by V-Cell. They kept up their act under scrutiny by Senate. Have been earmarked for potential recruitment pass in the future.

Lt. Fields, Special Agent Copeland and Special Agent LeClerc all found themselves having to explain their actions in a series of hearings and inquiries, including indictments against A.B.C itself, still ongoing. A closed-doors hearing held by the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, led by Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (along with South Caroline senator Strom Thurmond and Delaware senator Joseph Biden), inquired into the events of the raid and its outcome. The Committee were grateful for the efforts of JTF-6 and Operation PATCON for thwarting what could have bloomed into the most significant terrorist attack on U.S soil since the Oklahoma City bombing, however some things perturbed them:

The sudden and irregular deployment of the United States Air Force 24th Special Tactics Squadron and Air Force Security Police, authorized informally by USAF Colonel William Castor was a major deviation from protocol, but one that, in the aftermath, had obvious and irrefutable results. The Committee were disturbed to learn how close the "Neo-Nazi Terrorists" had gotten to completing their plans of detonating plastic explosivs which would have sparked a chain reaction that would destroy the facility and cause major pollution to the Reservation (and the Milk River). 

Senator Orrin Hatch during the 1998 A.B.C Gemstone Attack Hearings.

Over the course of the hearings, US Army Lt. Avery Fields convinces the Senate to increase PATCON's jurisdiction, budget, to allow it to conduct its business with less oversight. Backed by the results of the Gemstone raid, the Senate humours Fields, and over PATCON has its resources greatly bolstered and confidence in the operation restored. 

John Drake, V-Cell's liaison with A-Cell, informs them that A-Cell is the midst of studying the copy of Mein Triumph recovered at the scene of the ABC raid, comparing it against other Neo-Nazi publications, speeches, and other materials to see if this text is being circulated, and if so, where. After a few months, they hit paydirt, and at the UCLA Campus in Berkeley, V-Cell is briefed on A-Cell's findings by John Drake and Dr. Nadja Fulani, who introduce them to "The Review"

Dr. Fulani explains that The Review is a Neo-Nazi publication that has been active for the last nine years. It is a quarterly publication that focuses on taking an "unbiased, academic, forensic approach" to the history of the Holocaust, a euphemistic way of describing what it actually espouse: holocaust denial. Fulani, Drake, and A-Cell's interest is piqued, as it has been found that in at least three examples from the last three years, sections of The Review have directly quoted passages from Mein Triumph, indicating that someone in The Review is or has been in possession of the manuscript (or is in contact with another holder of the manuscript). A-Cell is concerned that if indeed the faction encountered in Montana is a revitalized Karotechia, then The Review might be (or be in the process of becoming) one of the group's propaganda centres, and could be used for dissemination of unnatural materials, information gathering, recruitment, and communications. 

V-Cell, aided by Agent WOLFGANG of W-Cell, has been activated. They are assigned to Operation TENNESEE WALTZ and ordered to 1. Discern who among The Review's staff are in contact with the Karotechia, 2. Identify their contact in the Karotechia, 3. detain the Karotechia contact and their liaison in The Review for questioning, lethal force is authorized. An FBI operation has already been organized to surveil the members of the Review at an upcoming conference being held in Houston, TX. V-Cell has been attached to the operation to aid in the group's endeavours. 

01FEB1999

V-Cell touches down in Houston and arrives the FBI "nerve centre" in downtown Houston. They are introduced to Steven Udagawa, a career FBI agent leading the surveillance op, David Faulkner, an educated and self-assured FBI agent from Louisiana, Eric Taylor, a rookie FBI agent eager to make a strong early impression, and Samantha Lynn, an agent having transferred to the U.S Navy Criminal Investigative Service, highly competent, though she suspects she isn't taken seriously for her diminutive stature and gender. On the first day, Taylor and Faulkner surveil the home of Stephen Colm, the accountant of the Review, as he is the only permanent resident of Houston on the Review's staff and the only one in the city, while Udagawa manages the operation from the nerve centre and Lynn liaises with the FAA to assure that the other members of the Review are arriving on time. WOLFGANG takes initiative and retrieves a "care package" deployed for the operation by A-Cell: a 1995 Land Rover registered in the state of Wyoming containing 10,000$ cash, a black plastic bag with four S&W Model 19 Snub Nose revolvers, and wiretapping equipment courtesy of the NSA. 

VICTOR, VERDANCE, and WOLFGANG discover that all of the members of the Review flying in from out of state are going to be staying at the Hyatt near the Addick Reservoir, and have already booked their rooms. The trio travel to the Hotel in hopes of wiring The Review's contributor's rooms for sound. They gain illegal access to the rooms by browbeating the manager, a squirrelly man named Dieter Collins, citing that they are operating on a matter of national security, and that if he refuses to comply, they will indict him for human trafficking for knowingly employing illegal immigrants and paying them below minimum wage. Collins capitulates and VICTOR takes the afternoon to wire the room for sound, renting the room next door to monitor the wiretap, claiming that he and VERDANCE are husband and wife, a move that confuses and annoys VERDANCE. 

V-Cell reconvenes with their counterparts in the FBI, who relay the uneventful findings of their surveillance of Stephen Colm. 

02FEB1999

Michael Drinkwater, one of The Review's writers and a former history professor of Boston, Mass. arrives by plane at Houston and settles in at the Hyatt. VICTOR spies on him while taking some time to read some of Drinkwater's writing, finding it to be exactly as racist as he had imagined. VERDANCE and WOLFGANG go with Faulkner and Taylor and spy on Stephen Colm, finding his day to be uninteresting, Taylor and Faulkner both observe that he appears to follow an established daily routine. Udagawa and Lynn spy on Drinkwater, but find little of interest. Through Delta Green, VICTOR requests intelligence on Special Agent Samantha Lynn, learning that she was pushed to transfer out of NCIS to the FBI after reporting a cadre of senior ONI officers stationed in Taiwan, South Korea, and Okinawa who were complicit in a sex trafficking ring. 

03FEB1999

VICTOR and Special Agent Lynn take the day to spy on Allen Bhrunt after his arrival that morning in Houston. VERDANCE and Udagawa spy on Drinkwater. WOLFGANG, Faulkner, and Taylor spy on Colm. Their routines show little of interest. VICTOR questions Lynn on her experiences in NCIS, though Lynn sees little reason to talk about her run-in with the ONI, VICTOR relents. 

04FEB1999

On Day Four Bhrunt was on the move, first to a local shock-jock radio station to talk about the upcoming holocaust denial conference. VERDANCE and Special Agent Lynn waited in an agency car outside, though VERDANCE chose to tune in. VICTOR, who had been assigned to watch Colm alongside Faulkner and Taylor, tuned in as well (once VERDANCE told him what Bhrunt was doing). Eventually, the station starts taking callers, most of whom use their air-time to berate, insult, and threaten Bhrunt, who takes it with a smile, making crude remarks about the caller's weight, sexual preferences, and intelligence. VICTOR chose to do a litmus test to see if Bhrunt was the contact. He excused himself and found a phone booth and called the station, posing as a local nazi sympathizer. VICTOR then slipped in a quotation from Mein Triumph he had memorized to gauge Bhrunt's reaction. Bhrunt seemed confused and somewhat taken aback by VICTOR's overenthusiasm, and after a few more colorful calls, the interview concluded and Bhrunt left the studio.

Following Bhrunt, he milled about Houston, visiting random shops and fast food chains before returning to his hotel room, where he made a call. VICTOR, who had tapped his phone lines and bugged his room, got the whole thing, wherein Bhrunt revealed he had picked up on Lynn and VERDANCE's tail and aborted what he intended to be a drug deal. 

05FEB1999

Peter Hames arrives in Houston. V-Cell ponders their choices regarding Stephen Colm, as he is the only one whose home they hadn't bugged, but which they figure would be the most challenging to enter unseen and wire for sound. They eventually settle on doing a wiretap (which they can set up from outside his house) on his home phone. The weight their options before settling on a "hidden-in-plain-sight" method, posing as workers from the local telephone service provider performing routine maintenance. 

Little of interest is found today, aside from Udagawa revealing at the day-end debrief that Drinkwater is, in fact, a homosexual and that he had slept with a man tonight.

06FEB1999

7:30 AM, Stephen Colm gets a phone call. "IS IT TRUE ALL MEN ARE DRAWN TO WATER?" asks a distorted voice on the other end. After a brief pause, Colm replies "Ahab lost his leg". 

The voice lists an address, a disused strip mall in Sugar Land. Colm is instructed to approach and enter an abandoned women's shoe store, where his contact will receive him. After eavesdropping on the phone call, VICTOR frantically notifies the rest of V-Cell. They've found their man. 

WOLFGANG and VERDANCE scout out the location and spot skinheads loading something into the storefront and another idling in a taxi cab nearby. VICTOR travels to a nearby gunshow and purchases a shotgun to use. They notify Delta Green. 

VICTOR volunteers to relieve Faulkner and Taylor for the Colm detail, to which they're relieved to be taken off of (out of sheer boredom). VICTOR requests that Lynn join him (secretly, he sees delta green potential in Lynn and intends to use this moment to "test" her). At 3pm, Stephen Colm leaves work early and heads home, then heads to the strip mall in Sugar Land, having planned out their positions already, VICTOR and Lynn park their car around the back and enter the strip mall through a loading dock and approaching the meeting spot through a hallway, meanwhile VERDANCE watches the mall from a car parked across the parking lot from the store front (using a parabolic microphone to listen in at a distance) and WOLFGANG lies in wait on the roof. VICTOR "explains" to Lynn that they have suspected Colm has been cooperating with an international neo-fascist criminal network, and that this is the true purpose for joining the FBI surveillance operation. VERDANCE and WOLFGANG watch the "cab driver", a skinhead who VERDANCE spots is carrying a VZ-Skorpion submachine gun under his bomber jacket. 

Colm enters the mall and briefly talks with another man. By the time that VICTOR and Lynn are formed up on the door to the store front, they can hear a man singing in an unrecognizable tongue. Outside, WOLFGANG (and VERDANCE, in their car listening through parabolic microphone) notices that it has begun to rain. The singing crescendos and a faint hum fills the room, the hair on VICTOR and Lynn's arms stand on end and Colm shrieks in terror. A struggle is heard and VICTOR opens the door to see Colm shove another man to the ground, on a table in the centre of the room, an urn, and rising from the urn: a phantasm glowing bright blue in the shape of a man that speaks "Wer Ruft Mich An?". VICTOR charges the sorcerer as he pulls himself to his feet and kicks the man hard in the head while Lynn gawks in terror at the phantasm. 

Meanwhile, outside. Colm runs for his car, WOLFGANG drops from the roof and pursues him. They have a brief struggled, WOLFGANG attempting to arrest Colm. In the throes of terror-induced adrenaline, Colm hurls WOLFGANG (with a strength far exceeding his build) over the hood of his car, screaming "ZOG CAN'T HAVE ME" and getting into his car. Across the parking lot, VERDANCE starts her engine and sees the taxi cab spotted earlier screech out into the parking lot, attempting to stop Colm. She swerves her car and pins the cab between her Land Rover and Colm's car, which he has accidentally backed into a light pole. 

VICTOR handcuffs the sorcerer, but before he can gag him, the man speaks a word and the urn of ashes shatters, its contents, a heap of what appears to be rock-salt, crackles with static, and begins to reform into the abominable parody of a man, lively and awful. Lynn begins to panic, emptying her pistol into the abomination. 

Outside, VERDANCE exits her car and shoots the skinhead driving the cab. Wolfgang attempts to haul Colm out of the car and arrest him to little success, though he eventually manages to handcuff Colm's wrist to the car's emergency handle. Hearing gunshots and screaming, VERDANCE enters the land rover and smashes it through the store front, while WOLFGANG attempts to arrest the skinhead. 

Inside, the abomination attempts to maul VICTOR, who begins shooting it. Just as it prepares to charge him, the Land Rover bursts in through the front of the store and crushes the thing under its wheels. They heap the now-gagged sorcerer into the back of the Land Rover. Outside, WOLFGANG handcuffs the cab driver's hands together. He's about to make for the store front to check on the others when he hears a "click" and looks to see the cab driver gripping a fragmentation grenade, no pin, no spoon. "Heil Hitler" he says. WOLFGANG runs for cover and is caught in the blast, but is saved by his armor and the car absorbing much of the blast. The cab driver is eviscerated and Colm is knocked unconscious in the blast. 

VERDANCE takes the sorcerer away while VICTOR secures the scene. Before long, police are on the scene. WOLFGANG and Stephen Colm are taken to hospital. Over the coming days, V-Cell (with help from Special Agent Lynn) corroborates a story, alledging that the cab driver was a nazi terrorist who was attempting to blackmail Stephen Colm. They attempted to arrest the man after a struggle between him and Colm, after which the man opened fire on the agents before blowing himself up with a hand grenade. The sorcerer is "interrogated" by NANCY of N-Cell.