After-Action Report: Out of the Mouths of Babes - Part Two

 

31 OCTOBER

Early morning. At a clandestine meeting with a colleague, Mexican Federal Policeman Ignacio Rodriguez receives a packet of intelligence on "Don Flavio" a senior fixer for the Juarez Cartel, which has been in cooperation with an occult Neo-Nazi faction that his American allies in "The Group" are interested in. He sees to it that the intelligence is passed along to his allies for their operation. By mid-day, V-Cell are reviewing the intelligence while receiving periodic updates from Gregory Reed, a senior satellite imagery intelligence analyst from PISCES, watches Don Flavio's hacienda through the lens of a hyper-advanced spy satellite. The day is mostly spent reviewing existing intelligence, checking in on requisitions from Friendlies and professional colleagues, filling forms, the "busy-work" of large-scale federal investigation. For a while, its easy to forget they're doing Delta Green business, and not just their day jobs.

After mid-afternoon they get a phone call and rush to Reed's trailer. A caravan of trucks have left Don Flavio's hacienda and are feeding their way through Juarez, eventually settling on a gravel road near Aguayo Plastics, one of the many Maquilladoras in the city, the road surrounded on both sides by sprawling slum. Children and men and women come to the trucks and leave. It looks like they're handing something out. "It's Halloween" VICTOR realizes. If they're looking to kidnap a child for their masters in the Karotechia, now's the best night of the year for it. The thought makes his blood run cold. 

Eventually, some of the men break off and seem to follow a boy to his slum. They stand outside before entering. No signs of sudden panic among the many locals walking about, indicating gunfire or the sounds of murder flooding the slums, instead things seem placid. Eventually, the men leave and re-enter their trucks with a boy in toe. After a few minutes, they leave. The PISCES satellite tracks their movement. First, the caravan stops at a facility in the industrial park, some sort of office, then the caravan departs and enters a walled property in the inner city. VICTOR and VERDANCE make note of the coordinates, designating them Site HOTEL B-1 and B-2. A phone call is made for Officer Rodriguez to make an inquiry after the child. He reports back later that night at the boy's name is Jacinto, who was bought for a great sum of money from his impoverished mother, who was told that the boy would be looked after by a wealthy man. 

After a brief discussion, VERDANCE and VICTOR decide the risk is too great. They don't know how long the Karotechia intend to keep the kidnapped boy before they kill him for their rituals, and they're not willing to find out. They call Rodriguez and make arrangements with their connections in the DEA. 

1 NOVEMBER

10PM, V-Cell cross the Bridge of the Americas into Mexico and rendezvous with Rodriguez. The operation's been pulled together last minute, it's risky, they've hardly had time to stake out this location, they barely even know its layout, but the way V-Cell sees it: they don't have a choice. They can twiddle away a week learning what kind of fuckin' insulation they used for this building and the full legal names of everyone who comes in and out of it, but every day they do that might be the day Toth comes around and takes Jacinto to Site B-2 to meet a torturous death. In other words: There is no other option. VICTOR is geared up for stealth infiltration, black fatigues, night vision goggles, MAC-10 machine gun with a big can suppressor jammed on the end of it, garrote wire, the works. Rodriguez and VERDANCE will linger near Site HOTEL B-1, the officer, while VICTOR makes his way in. If VERDANCE hears gunshots, she's going in with the Spas-12 and making new friends. 

US Army Intelligence Support Activity Lieutenant Avery Fields Jr.

VICTOR hurls a carpet he dug out of a dumpster in El Paso a few months ago (for just such an occasion) over the razor wire and scales the cyclone fencing like it was monkey bars. He searches the loading dock and the large chemical transport truck parked behind when suddenly, someone comes out. He shrinks into the shadows as one of the Karotechia Bauern, a white guy in black fatigues, comes out and has a cigarette and makes a cellphone call. He has a frought conversation with a woman on the other line, his woman, VICTOR surmises, back in Missouri. He assures his girlfriend, wife, whatever she is, that he's posted the next big bundle of cash and that he'll be back in a few months. We'll see about that. Soon as the phone call finishes, the bastard has barely enough time to get another puff of his smoke before he's acquainted with VICTOR's new friend, KA-BAR knife. He places the knife just so it barely pinches the nazi's jugular before the questions come. The young man is forthcoming, but can't help himself to jam in a few taunts, alleging VICTOR of being a race-traitor fighting for ZOG, and as tempting as it would be to engage the Pride of Missouri over racial politics, VICTOR's dance card is full, and so once he's satisfied with his answers, VICTOR slips him into a rear naked choke and puts him to sleep, then radios for Ignacio Rodriguez to bag the bastard while he goes in. 

VICTOR opens the back door to the office and is met with the break room. A second Bauern jumps to his feet and goes to reach for his gun, but VICTOR's quick and perforates the nazi. A woman comes out of a room nearby and screams in terror. VICTOR runs and spear-tackles the woman, a mexican in her 40s, questioning her. She claims to know nothing, that the boys are being adopted by some rich Mexican family, they just pay her to watch him and keep him happy until his new parents come to adopt him. VICTOR's convinced by her story, but zipties her wrists all the same. With her keycard he opens the "bedroom" and retrieves Jacinto, then he and the woman go outside as he radios for VERDANCE for pickup. 

As VERDANCE ushers the prisoners into her car, and Rodriguez drags the ziptied and gagged nazi across the desert to his cruiser, VICTOR inspects the office for anything else of use. He remembers the big brick of C4 he had requested from Delta Green before coming South of the border, and has an idea. It takes about a half-hour, but no one's coming. Before long, his trap is set. He barrels into VERDANCE's car and they speed towards the border, picking up Officer Rodriguez's prisoner before crossing back over the border.  Once at Fort Bliss, they pile into Reed's trailer and watch the satellite feed.

2 NOVEMBER 

It's around 8AM when a convoy of cars leave HOTEL Site B-2 and head to B-1. The small group dismebark from their cars and check the surroundings before entering the building. Six minutes later, there is an explosion. Intercepted Karotechia radio communications (thanks to some intelligence gathered from Site B-1 by VICTOR) indicate that Toth (codenamed "HARUSPEX Actual") was killed in the blast, and that is remains have been recovered and are being taken back to Hotel Site B-2. 

Boom.

And as fun as it's been to know they've killed a Bischofe, they realize it's only temporary. The Karotechia have the facilities to resurrect him in only a matter or days. Plus, it'll be only a few hours before report of the attack makes its way to the Karotechia's central command in the Brazilian rainforest, a quick response team could be in the city tomorrow, the Cannibal might even deign to make an appearance. 

It's decided then and there that seizing the initiative is key. VICTOR and VERDANCE begin finalizing a few requests and making a slew of phone calls. 

4 NOVEMBER

4:00 AM, in the back of an armored pickup truck, VERDANCE and VICTOR and a team of Mexican federal police sit, one on watch with a machinegun, as the truck speeds through the darkened streets of Ciudad Juarez. They round a corner and make their way to the neighborhood where Hotel Site B-2, referred to in seized Karotechia documents as "El Prueba" (the Tryworks), sits. The neighborhood is deep in cartel territory, and the police are expecting violent reprisal. That's why the Federales were here. 

VICTOR and VERDANCE presented a neat little packet of mostly true (but partially laundered and faked) intelligence to their superiors at PATCON. The report surmised that the unknown Neo-Nazi terror faction encountered at the Gemstone facility in Montana had a chemical weapons production lab operating covertly in Ciudad Juarez under protection from the Juarez Cartel. Three teams of Mexican Federal Police SWAT were assigned to the operation. The briefing for the Mexican SWAT was a bit more dramatic, with VICTOR claiming they were hunting "Narcosatanists", and showing photographic of the horrific child-torture being done at El Prueba by the Karotechia. The first thing the SWAT would do would be to quickly hit and neutralize the cartel-run stash houses in the neighborhood, securing them before moving on to El Prueba. The cartel stash houses would be enough for the SWAT to take on their own, but it was the response from the Karotechia garrison at El Prueba that worried VICTOR. The scumbag nazi they kidnapped at Site Hotel B-1 alleged to have spotted a machinegun nests and several recoilless rifle teams guarding that facility. That's part of the reason VICTOR decided to requisition an M4 Bradley too.

It took a lot of convincing for his superiors to let him have it. (though it wasn't even the most bold requisition VICTOR's ever made, that honor goes to the Air Force Special Forces platoon he requisitioned as a favor from the base commander at Malmstrom AFB when the Karotechia tried to blow up the ABC Gemstone Facility on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana). After emphasizing the importance of the mission, mainly the alleged possibility that the cartels were guarding an illegal neo-nazi "chemical weapons production facility" like what ABC was doing in Montana, and the importance of heavy armor in the execution of a police raid. They actually let him have it. They didn't get him any TOW missiles or anything for the autocannon, but that just meant they had room for more .50 caliber rounds.

To his credit, he was right. The Cartel hitmen put up some fight against Mexican SWAT, but once the Bradley rounded the corner and blew the roof of one of the stash houses, they scattered like mice into the alleyways. A success that was immediately responded to by more trouble. Machinegun fire from El Prueba. It was on. The SWAT formed up at the compound's perimeter walls as the Bradley sprayed the top floors with 50. Caliber. While the Federales fought to take the courtyard, V-Cell would let themselves in through the backdoor.

See, the aforementioned nazi scumbag they picked up at Site Hotel B-1 was very forthcoming about the Karotechia's setup. He explained that the compound "El Prueba" is actually only half the facility. The other half is a disused schoolhouse across an alleyway from the compound, connected by secret tunnels. This is where the Karotechia store their materials, as well as do the majority of their alchemical research. V-Cell decided that while the Federales got their attention, they come in the rear and try to catch them unawares.They linger in the streets, picking off Karotechia rifleman and covering the rear from a possible Cartel counterattack before pressing to the Schoolhouse. A shaped change on the barricaded schoolhouse door lets them inside. 

A brief sweep of the ground floor leads them to an entrance to the basement, though they're discovered by a team of Karotechia ritter. The gun battle is frought, VERDANCE takes a bad shot that nearly puts her down. As they fight, one of the Ritter barks into his radio: "Bloodhound to Control, North Wing compromised. Cut and Burn.". VICTOR rounds the corner and drops him with two shots to the head. As they do, Templar-2 enters into the school and they debrief. V-Cell wants to breach the basement and search for persons of interest, they want Templar-2 to follow. They search the Ritter for evidence when one of them grabs VERDANCE. She shoots the Ritter twice in the head to no effect, though she notices a faint blue vapour escaping from his gunshot wounds. "Sapphire", she says. Around them, the dead Ritter begin to reanimate, though VICTOR is quick enough to disable them before they can do any damage. Templar-2 are baffled at what they're seeing, to which VICTOR declares "I wasn't kidding about the Satanism". Its then that blasts echo through the school and in a split second decision, V-Cell and Templar-2 pile into the basement to escape the now burning school. 

In the basement, below the burning schoolhouse. V-Cell and Templar-2 get their bearings. The decision to go underground wasn't per se a smart choice, but the alternative was going out and fighting their way back in through the courtyard, wasting time and potentially losing their persons of interest. V-Cell follows a sickly green smoke trailing across the ceiling, a sound of crackling flames and low chanting to a room, perhaps once the school's band hall. In the pit where the conductor would stand is a man. 5'9" dressed head to toe in a perversion of an aztec priest's garb. They know him from NANCY's description. Flaying Wind. 

Flaying Wind's chants reach a crescendo right as they enter the room, and from the brazier in front of them a sickly green flame leaps, though it produces no heat. Smoke fills the room as V-Cell opens fire and rips through the death priest. Then something moves. In the smoke, something shifts, then there's a rush of wind and One of the Templar-2 SWAT officers are lifted into the air, something grabbing him by the chest, crushing his kevlar vest. A hail of blind gunfire momentarily reveals the hideous thing, enourmous and ropey with scaley, iridescent skin like a fish. There's a sound of something hitting the floor and the SWAT officer is dropped, then a sucking of air and quiet. Nothing moves. The invisible horror must have dissipated into whatever hideous dimension the priest channeled it from. 

VICTOR smothers the cold fire and does a head count. in the confusion, two of the SWAT officers must have panicked and fled. They waste little time before heading out to find the missing officers. 

Down a hallway, one of them waves, calling for the agents to come and help him. VICTOR stops. When he speaks, his mouth doesn't move, and on his thermals, his body is quickly cooling. He barely has enough time to realize what's happened when the officer is lifted into the air like a marionette and flung towards him at impossible speed. The officer's corpse goes rolling down the hallway as a second officer barrels from one of the classrooms. "It's making me do it! Stop me! Please!" he screams, as he levels his rifle and begins shooting at his cohort. A brief gunfight ensues, VERDANCE does some quick thinking and incapacitates the officer with a shotgun blast to the leg, he's handcuffed before he can pick up his weapon. Not wanting to risk exposure to whatever turned the officers, VICTOR tosses a grenade into the classroom he came from and waits until it's gone off to go inside. 

Inside, on a table, he sees it. It's body maimed by ritual torture, ruined by weeks of decay and finally the grenade. Unmistakably: a Child of Smoke. The ribbons of sickly green smoke from its eyes gently fade. The obscenity of the creature, of what it is gives VICTOR and VERDANCE pause. But after a moment, they continue. 

After working their way through a zombie-infested corridor, they come to a larger room. Some manner of subterranean warehouse. By his approximation, VICTOR believes they're now under El Prueba, in the secret Karotechia laboratories. Another death priest, like Flaying Wind, works a ritual over a brazier of cold, green fire. Behind him, a sigil on the wall of concentric rings with strange figures around them. The sigils ripple as a man in combat gear with a machinegun walks out from the wall. 

"VERDANCE, Grenade" he says, reaching an arm back to his cellmate. VERDANCE searches her person briefly and finds it and goes to give it to VICTOR, though when she looks at him. She pauses.  Staring back at her expectantly is a clown in bright yellow silk with a porcelain face. 

"Boss?" VICTOR doesn't react. A voice answers from the threshold to the warehouse. 

"Madame Copeland? Monsieur Castaigne wishes to speak with you."

The man is dressed in fine red and black like some manner of roaring-twenties concierge. VERDANCE, for her part, finds herself in a tailored dress. Panicked and baffled, she reminds herself. 

"New Orleans, just like New Orleans" before replying to the gentleman, "Yes, certainly"

The concierge leads her to the warehouse, now a great ballroom. The brazier of hellfire now an enourmous glass punchbowl. The concierge leads VERDANCE through the ball, past fine dancers, some of which VERDANCE thinks perhaps she recognizes, but can't be sure. Finally, he stops her. 

"Monsieur Castaigne, Madame Copeland". A man in a petticoat with frazzled hair turns and faces her. "Oh, wonderful, thank you, Elmer." The concierge bows. "So did you bring it?"

"Bring what?" VERDANCE asks. 

"The dynamite? Yes, you did! You're holding it!"

VERDANCE looks, almost forgetting about the fragmentation grenade she had been gripping in her right hand. She blinked and stopped for a moment when she saw very plainly that the grenade had now become a bundle of dynamite with an alarm clock strapped to it. 

"Wonderful!" Castaigne declares. "This will make for a brilliant little prank. Come". He guides her to the punchbowl and asks her to place it under before setting the timer. 

"Now stand back, this will be fun" she hears him say over her shoulder. She turns to leave and sees the ballroom is now empty with no music. In a dark corner of the room, a tall man in a golden cloak with a porcelain mask watches her, silently. She knows who he is, and knows to make herself scarce. She climbs the stairs to where she was with VICTOR. In the blink of an eye, she's crouched behind him, her hands empty. VICTOR looking back at her expectantly. 

"Emerson, focus. The grenade. I need th-" BOOM. VICTOR looks and hears the report of an explosion and the sounds of death. She looks back to Emerson, seeing that she's holding pieces of white and gold confetti. A moment of bafflement, then of silent understanding. "GO!" he announces. V-Cell and Templar-2 storm the room. All are dead but the Ritter machingunner, staggering to his feet. A brief hail of gunfire brings him down. They seize the room, confirming the deaths of the Ritter and the Aztec sorcerer. They also find a duffelbag full of what appear to be golf-ball sized grains of some deep red and black mineral. A moment of recognition from VERDANCE. Essential Salts. This is Immanuel Toth's essential salts, they hadn't resurrected him yet. She throws them over her shoulder. 

From where they are, there are two exits, a ladder and a freigh elevator. Trying to preserve their stealth, VICTOR begins climbing the ladder to scout ahead. 

Continued in Part 3.