REPORT: Operation ALICE - Part One

10 May 1999

Following information discovered by Special Agent Jean Qualls in her "interrogation" of Werner Linz, a sorcerer of the Karotechia, V-Cell learned of an ongoing operation in the city of New Orleans, Karotechia operatives part of the "Basilisk Group" militia were ordered to attempt to seize an "item of high significance" to the Karotechia in the possession of one Abigail Wright of New Orleans. 

Delta Green tapped a Friendly to perform a cursory investigation and discovered that Wright had been missing since February, and that the Basilisk Group had already made a brutish and unsuccessful attempt at claiming this "item of significance" from her apartment. Moreover, the discovery of an occult symbol affiliated with demonology found in Wright's apartment by the Friendly indicated that something strange and unnatural was indeed at hand. Delta Green activated V-Cell to investigate. 

V-Cell arrived in New Orleans and was greeted at New Orleans City Park by their new Cell Leader, VIRGIL, who delivered their briefing, handing them a summary of the investigation so far, freshly cut keys to the Macallister Building (the artist collective where Wright lives) and the contact information for a "long-time, trusted Friendly" in the city, Father Luther Marks. After fielding a few questions, he left the agents to their work. 

Carl McCoy, a journalist and Friendly with V-Cell, went to conduct some research into the Basilisk Group while Lt. Avery Fields (VICTOR) and Special Agent Emerson Copeland (VERDANCE) went to meet with Detective Graham Giuradanda at the NOPD. 

McCoy's investigation was time-consuming, spent mostly at a computer at a library in New Orleans, but after some time, some details on the Basilisk Group emerged. They were known to the Southern Law Poverty Centre as an active hate group, a splinter-sect of the mainstream Aryan Brotherhood. It's leader, Arnold Blanchard, was a Cajun Catholic and a white supremacist who spent a year and a half living in Northern Mexico (primarily in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua) with a few others with whom he would found the Basilisk Group (an eyebrow raising detail, as Delta Green suspects the Karotechia of operating a major stronghold in the vicinity of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso. The possibility that Blanchard and his cadre were being inducted into the Karotechia was not lost on the agents). The significance of the name "Basilisk Group" was unclear, though McCoy noted a certain resemblance between the Dragon that adorned the Group's flags and patches and the Aztec Quetzalcoatl.

VERDANCE and VICTOR exchanged information with Det. Giuradanda, who expressed bafflement at the case and claimed he was "happy to be rid of it". He described the "shrine" discovered in Wright's apartment, calling it "creepy", saying it "made everyone's hair stand on end when they went in it, you felt like you were being watched". He talked about the Basilisk Group's attempted burglary of the apartment, claiming that the three skinheads he had arrested kept shut until they made bail, then split. 

McCoy, VERDANCE, and VICTOR reconvened before entering the Macallister building and beginning their work. The three were being attached to the FBI investigation under the official cover of cataloguing each item which Wright had chosen to adhere to the walls of her apartment with epoxy, for what it was worth, this struck the agents as worth while, as it may reveal something to indicate to what's really going on. VERDANCE and VICTOR started their work while McCoy left and went to interview some of the tenants at the Macallister building, starting with Thomas Manuel, a friendly man who had called the police on the Basilisk Group when they attempted to burgle Wright's apartment a week prior, claiming he saw five men attempting to enter Wright's apartment by force. He described Wright as a friendly and kind-hearted person who had become fixated on a new play she read (and which she had passed around to the rest of the arts collective) called The King in Yellow. Meanwhile VERDANCE and VICTOR started their work, peeling bits of trash and detritus from the wall. They uncovered two items of interest: the first, a napkin of an unknown restaurant with a strange mechanism scrawled on it in ballpoint pen, the second, a stationary from a "Hotel Broadalbin" from New York City with a weird map scrawled on it. As McCoy returned to speak with the rest of his team, VERDANCE picked a third item off the wall, a strip of paper with an occult-looking symbol on it. 

No sooner than she had taken it off the wall, the room was filled with a blaring sound, a horn. They scrambled to the windows where outside, a man blared his car-horn at a homeless man in army fatigues shuffling across the street, a snake draped over his shoulders. VERDANCE, thoroughly freaked out, prepared for trouble while VICTOR went out to see, though found that the homeless man was gone once he rounded the corner to the Macallister building's entrance. McCoy, looking at the paper, recognized the symbol as the Seal of Purson, a demon from the Ars Goetia. VICTOR chose to take the seal to their Friendly in New Orleans, Father Luther Marks, for some details while McCoy went upstairs to interview Michelle Vanfitz, who Manuel said was keeping Wright's copy of the King in Yellow and VERDANCE continued cataloguing. 

VERDANCE's cataloguing was slow-going and unenlightening, while McCoy found himself antagonized by Vanfitz (McCoy suspected it was due to McCoy being a man, a conclusion he arrived at after spying a copy of the SCUM Manifesto on one of Vanfitz's tables). At Marks' church, VICTOR and the priest discussed the case, which Marks was familiar with, attributing it to his daily reading of New Orleans' Times-Picayune newspaper, which he also kept in bundles in his office, believing it would be good "for at least someone to keep an archive of it". After showing him the symbol, Marks perused his library of occult literature and found an abridged book of the Ars Goetia and located the page on Purson. The book described Purson as a "Great King of Hell, being served and obeyed by twenty-two legions of demons. He knoweth of hidden things, of lost treasures, and of all things past, present, and future. Occupying either a human or aerial body, he answereth truly of all secret and divine things of Earth and the creation of the world. Purson is depicted as a man with the face of a lion, carrying a ferocious viper and riding a bear. Before him, there can be heard trumpets sounding.". VICTOR read the passage and his blood ran cold, bolting from the office back to the Macallister, breathlessly thanking Father Marks as he ran. 

After returning to the Macallister building to assure the safety of his team, he ran and bought dinner for them (McDonald's, he was still too nervous to let VERDANCE and McCoy alone for any extended amount of time at the House) and they discussed the case, eating burgers in Wright's apartment. On his way in, VICTOR noticed Thomas Manuel, dressed as if for an occasion heading upstairs, remembering him mentioning his painting studio was upstairs. After finishing his food, he and McCoy decided to go upstairs and look around the vacant units on the third floor while VERDANCE opted to go and try to speak to Vanfitz, believing she may react more favorably to a woman's questions. As VICTOR and McCoy arrived on the third floor, they heard something through the ceiling: a dull thumping and scratching, like a dog's claws scraping against hardwood floor. Listening more closely, they heard music, believing maybe the residents of the Macallister building were partying on the roof, VICTOR mounted the stairs and opened the rooftop access door...

only there wasn't a roof, there was just another floor....