Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat, Ep. 25 - “Bait and Switch” | Delta Green

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

It seems that Perennial's time to talk has ended—or has it? The agents scramble to escape with Mallory, their hostage from the AirBnb. As tensions ease, their case officer reveals the truth about her visit and why Perennial still has a chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the Program. Hyde finally addresses their past as a cautionary tale for Tuck, initiating the scenario “Kali Ghati.” TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Violence, blood and gore, mutilation, death, body horror, mental illness, Dissociative Identity Disorder, PTSD, megalomania, manipulation, gaslighting, religious trauma, infighting, the topic of Covid-19 including conspiracy theorists, drug and alcohol use, gun and knife violence, surgery discussions, legal proceedings, threats against the life of a child,medical procedures, parental disagreements, harm against children, screams, gunshots, mishandling for corpses, ocular trauma 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. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Lev (they/them) - Haley Moore, Agent Tuck (she/they) • Amanda (she/her) - Maxine Parker, Agent Boomer (she/her) • Caleb (he/him) - Orson Bradham, Agent Merit (he/him) • Eli (any/all) - Kona Morales, Agent Hyde (she/her) • Zakiya (she/they) - Gaze, Agent Warp (she/they) • Sergio (he/him) - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) • Glitch Machines (glitchmachines.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp) • Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/maydayrp) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/@Maydayrp)

Doomed to Repeat is a Delta Green actual play podcast with violent themes and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Hello and welcome back to episode 25 of our Delta Green actual play titled Doomed to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Love and I play Agent Tuck. I'm Amanda Dominic and I am Agent Boomer. I'm Caleb James Miller and I play Agent Merritt. I'm Eli and I'm playing Agent Hyde.

I'm Zekea and I play Agent Warp. Mayday has been eager to jump into charity work since we began a few years ago. And we figured this upcoming month of May would be a great time to start. Next month is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. And in recognition of this, we have decided to start a charity run that will last through the entirety of all of May's content. Our goal is to raise funds for the Hawaiian community of Lahaina, which was decimated by a wildfire on August 8th of last year. We're hoping to raise between $500 and $1,000 to support families and small businesses on the rebuild, as many are still without dignified housing or critical support.

As of the release of this episode, we're working out the finer details of how to donate the money, but our Kofi is a great place to start. You can visit K-O-FI.com forward slash Mayday RP, where you can send in a donation of any amount with a message for the Lahaina Fund. There will also be a link in the description of every release from Mayday for the month of May. If you have the means, please consider donating any amount, and we appreciate any help you can offer. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to like and subscribe, follow us on your favorite social media platforms, and try to leave a review of us where you can. It really helps us get seen.

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Jonathan M. Kirby's Double, Onk, Ogy Pan, W.T.F. again. Now, let's get back to our game. We're just... Things got along faster than intended, in a good way. And once I actually get back to the hotel and go over everything, I will have a better insight, but possibly coming home sooner rather than later. and I'm not going to jinx it too much because, you know, but I can't wait. I don't like to say this especially over voicemail, but you kind of got, you're going to see it when you're home.

But I did get into a little bit of a scuffle hold-up situation earlier. Promise, I'm good. A black eye. How do you feel about that, Zia, Zaya, Zendia, whatever? the hell motherfucker. Lucky. You get to be a footnote. My girlfriend just thinks you mugged me. That's fine. I mean, lucky she wasn't here. She cut your dick off. It's not better than hide. Hyde, I swear to God. My girl found out what you did, banning my ass. She would have you up. Oh God. Fuck there. Fuck hide. Fuck you, mommy Mallory. Fuck everybody.

who is just taking me away from my home and keeps dragging me away to deal with some shit that I don't need to be dealing with. I want to go home. This Friday, October 2nd at 8.45 a.m. is the glass of every window that faces the backyard has shattered and the echo has just died down from that. You are left with the silence that only comes after a very loud sound. A portion of the roof over the kitchen has been blown open like a sardine can, and little bits of pink insulation fall from the sky like snow. At the end of Mia's turn, where we last left off, Mia collapses to the ground unconscious.

Fuck. At the top of the initiative is Agent Tuck. You suspect that this is the last quiet moment that you will have before whoever is out there with those rifles will retaliate. What do you do? Where's Mallory? Mallory is in the backyard. So if you look out the patio door, you can see her about 20 to 30 feet away from you on the ground. I am going to make sure Mia is tucked behind some kind of cover, a couch, a table, anything,

so that she is not in direct line of the snipers. And then I am full charging out the door to grab Mallory and pull her back inside. I think you have the movement to do one or the other. If you put Mia in a safe space, you then will only get about as far as stepping out the door, but you will still be a couple of feet away from Mallory, or you could spend all of your movement getting to Mallory. I'm going to spend all of my movement getting to Mallory,

trusting that the rest of the agents are going to take care of my sister. You run outside. It's difficult to tell right now whether Mallory is even conscious, her eyes are closed. You can see a large spattering of glass across her left eye. Her eyes closed, bleeding heavily. You grab her by the throat, and it is effortless. It's like she's an inflated football.

You pick her up using her head and her neck as the pivot point to lift her up. And I'm going to, as I pick her up, I'm going to hold her in front of me so that any snipers in the backyard have to go through. her to hit me. Hide. You're the next in the initiative. You see Agent Tuck get up and run outside. I think Hyde's going to position themselves closer to Mia with their gun out looking at everybody, but I'm going to mention that we should probably get the fuck out of here. But I'm going to stay as low as I can because I can only assume there are still snipers afoot. You get over to Mia, and it's pretty obvious that most of the windows have a clear shot at you. You have no idea. You know that one shot came from the westerly direction,

and you are currently clearly visible by those windows. I think you'd have to probably drag her into a hallway or clearly out of the way. This living room area is quite visible through the windows. Yeah, I'm going to grab me, I'm going to try to drag them into a more protected position and try to get anybody else who's laying about to get up and get out of sight. warp on your turn, you kind of peer out the closet and you can see Agent High dragging an unconscious Mia kind of into the hallway that you are in. There's no real windows in this space. You are closer to the front door. What do you do? If they are within like hearing distance of me, I'm going to say

we need to get everybody out to the car as quick as we can. Let's try to get everyone and then get Tucklin Mallory last. This is certainly a situation out of your. your control. And I do think I need to ask for sanity test as I'll say that the evening, your OCD kind of relaxed. This was a relaxing space. And now we need to see if it's going to kick in again. That's a failure with a 49. If you'd like, you can attempt to repress it. Yeah, I kind of want to let it ride. I want to keep my bonds. I'll take it. So it's minus 20% as you are preoccupied with, you know what needs to happen right now. And if people aren't listening to you, you're going to

get frustrated and you're going to act out for it, okay? Okay. Boomer, you've just experienced once again the same thing that has given you a new disorder, conversion disorder. I need you to make a sanity check to see if you go deaf in this moment. Okay. Fudge, I failed. If you'd like to repress it, you can.

Otherwise, you're going to go deaf. I think I'm going to go deaf. It's almost like the blast removes all of the sound in the space, and what returns is just this constant ringing in your ear. It's more disorienting than you even remember because you're looking around and you can see people, you can see hide saying something, you see the others saying something, but you just can't make heads or tails of it. Keep that in mind as we move forward. It's hard to understand people. Merit, you are on the ground. You have just yelled moments ago that we need to give up.

and then there was this enormous explosion, glass flew over your head. What are you doing? If I see that Tuck is moving for Mallory and that we're all trying to move for the vehicles, I'm going to move to the front door closest to where we part. And I'm just trying to get a perception check out there, just a view to see if I can spot where a possible sniper sight line would be. You're able to do that. How do you open the door?

Is it quick? Is it quiet? Are you just peeking through? I know that any sudden movement may cause the sniper to try and wall bang through. So I am going to go as slow as possible. Make a stealth roll to see how quiet you can be. Okay. And then regardless, make me a search or alertness role.

So unfortunately, I fail the stealth with a 95 over 10. and then for the search the search I pass with a 37 under 50 you open the door maybe it was the explosion or something but it almost kind of collapses off of its hinges a little bit but you look out about 20, 25 feet in the air there is a pine tree that is like 60 meters away

you can see a large figure looks to be masculine maybe a blonde man and they're kind of red, resting on a branch and they've got their rifle trained in your direction. As you're watching them, your vision goes red for a moment and you instinctively understand that it is probably their scope or their sight going in your direction, but you are able to kind of step in before anything happens. Seems like there's some kind of apprehension you aren't immediately fired upon, but you

now understand there is someone that you can visibly see. Right. When the first shot came off, it came from the back, but before then we had a red dot on on high, correct? Coming from the West. Could I guess that that red dot came from, oh, I'm sorry, from the West. So that would make sense for the West gunmen. This is the East Gunman we haven't seen yet.

So there's at least two. Yeah, I think merit understanding the apprehension for their movement to take a shot. at me and knowing that Mallory hasn't had a chance to call for anything else, I'm going to make a dash for the nearest car and try and pull it up closer to the front door even and throw up in the passenger side if I can. Save that for the next round because I think that will be more possible next round. Got it. Tuck at the top of the initiative, what are you doing? I'm just going to pick Mallory up and bring her inside with me. Easy enough. You take a few steps back into the home, stepping over shattered glass, when your eyes adjust, you don't see Mia or Hyde.

I think Tuck would fall on the assumption that Hyde has Mia and be okay with it for now. I think I'm going to look for Boomer and see if she has smelling salts. I think you use all of your movement to go into the kind of the back hallway of the house where you see Warp leaning out of a closet. Do either of you have smelling salts? We got to wake this bitch up. I don't know if I would. Now, we have to go now.

We have to hurry. Oh, I quickly check my bag. It seems like something I would have, but... Yeah, make a luck check just to see if you would reasonably have that. Oh, I don't have that. Fuck. Then I'm going to drop Mallory. Drop Mallory next to Merritt.

And then... Do I know where the snipers are? You could make a guess, you know, at least one of them. you're only aware of one of them, and it came from a Westernly direction. I would even question that, to be honest with you. It's really Hyde, who had the best kind of vantage point. It's a little unclear. It did come from the backyard.

Then are there... God, this is so fucking stupid. Are there deck chairs? Yeah, I'll say there's some deck chairs in a table with a big hunk of glass on it. I would like to grab the metal table with the glass and throw it in the direction that I most... likely think the sniper is. Okay. I think that has to be done on the next round, so just keep that in mind.

That's valid. That's super valid. I think if you want, you can get as far as to get out, you're like back in the threshold of the door to lead to outside, so you're nearly there. I think I'm like getting close to like picking it up. And like, I think for like what I'm doing, I'm just like, maybe not even fully out, just like enough enough in the door jam that I'm just kind of peeking one eye out and trying to like track all the places where snipers might be because I would have that kind of knowledge. Well, because you haven't done anything particularly worth a role in this in this current round, go ahead and make an alertness check or a search role to see if you can spot

this hidden sniper. Alertness. My favorite game. Find the sniper. Find the sniper. Oh yeah, baby. That's a 20 under 70. You do find the sniper, but they're no longer carrying a rifle. They are running up the hill of the home, carrying a pistol. It is a woman with black hair seems to be of Korean descent, dressed in kind of military fatigues, runs up the hill at the beginning of their turn, sees you in the threshold, but they will point their gun at you, and they will say, give me Mallory right now. And they're screaming it at you.

I think they'll probably fire at you. Is your skin a naturally tough too? It's not, but I have enough hit points that I think I can take it. You think? I'm pretty sure I can take it. Your cover seems to have been enough. They rolled in 86, which is a failure for them. So they start popping off shots with their pistol,

and it is mostly hitting the side. You're able to kind of turn your body, and the rest of the bullets kind of whizz past you. You are still extremely dexterous. For sure. Tuck is I think the like rage in Tuck is building not in a Hulk like manner

but just in a like every single person I care about bar one is in this house and you're just shooting bullets willy-nilly that's not going to fly. I can picture them very confidently stoically kind of going through the motions of avoiding these weapons

it's beginning to feel like you really can't get hurt it's a good feeling I think at the end of her turn, this agent is going to try to get cover behind that table that I described to you earlier. Boomer, it is your turn. What do you do? See, the sad thing is because I kind of will not be knowing what's going on. So the best thing I'm going to try to do is just try to see who's standing or who's around me.

Maybe that's the best way. So I'm going to try to maybe stumble as best as I can back to the... Yeah, I think it's easy enough to do. that and you see them all? Do you try to communicate with them? Do you try to interact with them? Can, uh, with my, uh, deafness and disorder? Is it like, um, can I just try to, I'm trying to, like, maybe like flag or make a noise? Sure, you're, you're, you're, you're not, uh, dumb or lame. You can certainly speak, but you're probably just very loud as you speak. Everyone okay here, like, because I do have a med kit bag. Like, does anyone need help?

Because I had that little Gucci fanny pack thing. It's almost comical as Agent Boomer tries to maintain a sense of composure and leadership as they are completely stumbling around, yelling at the top of their head, you know, pulling random things out of this little medical go bag that they have. They're totally disoriented. I'm going to point out, like, Mia, can you check Mia out? Like, Mia's, like, propped up against the wall. Be supervising me as I try to help the child. Okay. You try to zero in on Mia to understand how she's doing.

Just give me a, I think there's a medicine. If you have anything in medicine, first aid is not really appropriate if you're trying to determine whether she's okay physically. I mean, I have, yeah, no, I have nothing in medicine only in first aid. You try to do a search role? Search, sure. All right. Better than nothing.

Holy shit, I have a 13, under 20. So with your bait score, as you look at her, there's no obvious damage. She's still filthy. She has not had a shower. She's still filthy from Yosemite. But she's not bleeding. She's breathing. You can feel her chest.

It just appears that she is out of it, some kind of exhaustion from the incredible display that she produced earlier. I probably have baby wipes or those moist towelets. I'm just going to try to start trying to wipe, trying to clean. Like, no one wants to feel dirty. So try to do stuff like clean her up. She remains unconscious as you do that. But her face at least and the sides around her neck and stuff, you were able to kind of nervously clean up.

Merritt, it's your turn. There's an unconscious Mallory at your feet. Her neck is already bruising from being held by tuck. With her right here and knowing that this is, what the snipers and surrounding army is looking after. I'm going to pick her up and hopefully prop her to a standing position and then walk out to the car with her in hand and see if I can start loading up that car

and again bringing it as close to the front door as possible. Before I leave, I am going to turn back to the rest of the house. We need to get her in a vehicle and we need to get away from this place. There's too many of them. I've already seen one that hasn't taken a shot at the tree line. We need to get into the car, and we need to go now. And I'm going to start moving for the largest vehicle possible. I know I can't take Z's, and I'm sure that Ruhi took the smaller of the two.

So I guess the slightly beat up van. Okay, you'll make the move there after calling this out to them. You push the door open. You're holding up Mallory. That is a bit of a challenge, especially if they're unconscious. Just give me a general, you can either make a strength or athletics role to see if you can, you know, do it to where she's not clearly flopping over and exposing you at certain points. Okay. I'm going to go with strength. It's only slightly better.

I have a pass with a 44 under 50. You lucky son of a bitch. 55, excuse me. Yeah. Sure enough, the rest of you inside the home witness Merritt very bravely pushed the door open using Mallory as a kind of shield holding her with his arms and making his way. to the car. I think you can absolutely get to the van. We'll say for the sake of brevity, you have the keys. You're able to swing it open. And if you want to enter, I will even say you'd be able to do that. Yeah, I'll enter into the car. I'll keep Mallory sort of on my person, almost in my lap. I'm also going to see if with the end of my turn that I can shake her

awake so that I might be able to say something to her before the rest get into the car. But if that's not possible, it's okay. What would you do to try to wake her up? I'm not sure. I think a large part of it would be shaking her awake or, you know, checking to her poles, try to shake her. I think it just kind of comes down to luck at this point. Go ahead and make a luck roll. Sure. Unfortunately, that's a 76. You're trying. You can see that the left side of her face is pretty badly damaged. There's still little bits of glass lodged and her eyes bleeding pretty badly. She might have a concussion.

Mallory, Mallory, please, I need you to wake up. If you want to live, it is imperative that you wake up, please wake up, and I think he's just shaking her the best he can. And when he starts to notice the signs of a concussion, he knows he has to cease. And he drops his hands, and he tries desperately to clean any glass from her face, trying to be sensitive of her hair still even in this moment, but realizing that this moment is just fucking degrading. It's falling apart at the seams. I don't think the sniper rifle, or I don't think the sniper that you saw, has a good vantage point, especially if you're in the car, undercover, it's not worth taking the shot. So nothing currently happens.

I believe that you can hear over a communication device that is kind of around Mallory's neck, like around her collar. You can hear the faint... Mallory, Mallory, what's your 20? What's going on? Mallory. Some male voice is kind of calling into... the speaker system around her neck. I know I've had a lot.

Is there any chance I could take that device off of her? I think you can, yes, yes. Do you want me to hold that conversation for my next turn, or could I answer back to this voice? I think that's as far as we'll take it for now, but yes, you were able to identify it, start taking it off her next round you could use it. Got it.

Tuck, you were at the top of the initiative. I think Tuck is going to step out, and is her gun still, like, out in front of her? Oh, absolutely, yes. I'm going full nuclear, and I'm going to grab her by the leg and throw her. Nice. You have a plus 20 because of your exhaustion to your athletics checks right now. So go ahead and make that roll.

Or if you just want to do a straight strength roll, I'm okay with that too. I'll take the straight strength rule because I have only one way I can fail it. I, all right, let's see. 84, that succeeds. Tuck is in this weird headspace of I can do anything. I don't need a weapon, I am a weapon kind of mentality, and is just ready to, it just wants everyone as far away from their family essentially as they can get them. Then I grab just like the back of her calf and yank essentially and just,

slingshot her toward the fence. It is as satisfying as you can imagine it would be to grab someone by their calf and just hurl them over the tree line, these tall 40, 50 foot tall trees in some cases. And just like an incredible arc, this rag doll of a person who is now just flying through the air, it isn't until they finally start falling and enough time has elapsed

that they're able to kind of put together what is happening to them, and you hear the subtle scream as they begin their descent, and then you don't hear anything. I need you to make a sanity check, please. I was actually going to ask if I could make a sanity check. You don't ever have to ask me to give you a sanity check.

It's a straight luck check right now. A 14. I succeed. So tuck in this. this moment is, I think, like, blinded by, you know how parents will talk about, like, the rush of adrenaline of, like, picking their car up off their kid? I think that has been just their baseline. And now given the abilities that are kind of pumping through their veins, they're, like, it's almost like their brain is off and they are operating fully on survival instinct. And I need to keep my people safe. And if this is how I keep my people safe, it doesn't.

doesn't fucking matter the morality of it, which is a huge departure from her, from any other things she's experienced. And I think at this point, she's not even considering it. She's not letting herself consider it. It's just go and don't let anything stop us. Okay. Just lose one sanity. Hide, it is your turn. Hide and, or Boomer and Mia are with you along with warp. What are you doing? Merritt has already made his way out the front door, and there has not been a shot fired. If I have all the cats in one place, I'd like to help the cats get into the car and provide cover for wherever the sniper is.

And also, I'm not leaving Hyde's side. I'm gonna probably have Mia. Okay, so you pick up Mia and for this round, you will have her and you will be following Hyde Warp, I assume you're doing the same thing? Yeah, I'll take the flank and she's got her knife out. And I assume on your turn, your action will be to run to the car. Yes. Okay.

Hide. If you're going to give that cover, what that looks like is firing at this potential sniper. So you're going to need to step out of the house and aim at this person and make a firearms roll to shoot at them. If I have to do that, then I'm going to look at both warp and Boomer, and then I'm going to point to the fucking car using my hands. And then I'll count down before I step out to take that shot so they know that we're all moving. All right. Boomer, give me a intelligence roll to see if you can piece together what Hyde is trying to tell you. I just, I got a six. That is a success. You're able to kind of piece together what she's saying, and you see her fingers go from three, two, one, and they step out.

Hide, make your firearms roll. Success with a five. That is excellent. I'm just looking up real quick. there is the ability to suppress usually it's only certain weapons but I almost want to use it in this case because that is what you're trying to do as long as it's good for me

this sniper that you are shooting at is going to make a sanity roll and if they fail they are going to feel the need to get cover you begin firing your boomer carrying Mia begin running towards the car and nothing seems to happen

the both of you along with Mia are able to jump into the car. Hide, I'll say that you have enough movement if you'd like to do that as well. Yes, if everybody's clear and making their way and are safely in the car, then I will, then I will enter the car. Do I need a role for damage because I succeeded

or is just just... I think that your weapon is too far away to actually do any damage. I'm counting your success as the ability to suppress this person. If this delays his ability to pop off a shot, at least, I will be fine with it. You believe you will.

were successful in doing that because you do not hear any gunfire in this moment. Cool, cool. Then, yeah, then I will, I will be the last man into the van. Warp, you leap into the van. Is there anything you're doing in this moment? Your OCD is kicking hard. This car should already be moving. I think she's immediately looking up directions to probably San Francisco. She's trying to find a place that would be safe to go to from there. Actually, yes, San Francisco, but that's a place to split between once I see that Mallory is like still out of it in the front. seat. I'm looking for a place in town that seems like it'd be safe to stop. A place in the town of

Awani, the town that you are currently in? Yeah, something close by. There are definitely little shops and restaurants. Once you get into the main portion of the town, you guys are up the mountains. This is a small kind of basin area that you are in, and there's kind of mountains surrounding you and you are in those mountains, and it's going to take a few minutes or, you know, a few minute drive to get down into the town. But yeah, there are certainly public places you could try to get to. Okay. Good.

Yeah, I'm looking for like a library parking lot or something. Really quick. If I want to make sure of one action before we leave, is that... Are you saying you'd like to perform an action before you leave? Yeah, it's, I'm going to need to grab the to go bag that I have my laptop and a couple of secured, basically, personal tech I brought in so it wouldn't get. There is not a lot of time.

If you'd like to do that, you'd have to spend this round going to your room and getting your bag. I know. And forfeiting the cover that Hyde is currently providing you. And you have the child as well, yes. Okay. I have to get it. I really do. So I'm going to have to.

I'm going to take the, yeah, I have to, I'll run, kind of toss the kid in as best and try to run back. I have to get that bag. I have to. That's why. So here's what we'll say. You've used all your movement to get the kid to the car. You are now on the next round going to head back into the house. Yeah, I'm just going to run back for the... I'm going to just shout.

I've got to go for the bag. And that's my intention is to run back to the house in my next action. You are all in the car and you hear someone begin to cough and a gasp of breath. And then you realize that Mallory is coming to consciousness. And she begins muttering under her breath at first. Stand down. Stand down. Everyone stand down.

And then it slowly rises to a point to where she opens an eye. The other eye won't open. She winces in pain and kind of recoils. Seeing that merit is basically over her is basically for this round conscious, but slowly piecing together what is in the middle of happening. Her hands up. Mallory, I need you to listen. and I need you to listen closely.

This is maybe your last chance to get out of this alive, and I think you understand that as much as I do. I need you to listen to my people. I need you to call off the guns, and I need you to allow us to take you to a secondary location. Can you subscribe to this, or do I have to kill you now? She reaches kind of limply for the device, for the microphone that was around her collar

that you are currently holding in your hands. I'll allow her to have it. She kind of fumbles with it, brings it close to her mouth. Stand down. Just stand down. I'm going to get the car at least turned on, and I'm waiting for the other two to get into the vehicle, and then I'm going to pull away as soon as we can.

Tuck, you are the next in the initiative. At the realization that there's really no coming back from this, and if they want to get their family out of this, there need to be no breadcrumbs to who or where they were. So they're going to, they're going to resist because their plan is to get their shit before getting out. I'm going to go to the room where Rue and Mia and I were, and I'm going to grab all of our shit because that's evidence left behind.

I think Tuck on your turn, you can grab, you know, whatever bags that you had, you guys were really not even unpacked. I think Tuck is just like, as they see, like, anything of the group. groups, they're just grabbing it out of like, we got to get the fuck out. If anyone knows we were here, it's going to be a problem. I think that you are pretty focused on just getting your stuff out of here. There's certainly not enough in one round to grab other people's things, but you have the the duffel bags and the small bits of luggage that you and Ruhi brought.

Give me a, give me another dexterity check, please. I make sure to grab my sister's stuffed animal, too. 38 success. You are able to stuff everything in your large arms, holding it. It weighs almost nothing. And on your next turn, you could probably make it out of the house if that's your intention. Hide warp, are you doing anything in this moment? No, outside of just keeping an eye of, like, when and where to go.

Yeah, I'm just talking about there's a library 20 miles away from here. It's on the way to San Francisco. It takes 30 minutes. We should go there first. Okay. As soon as we have the others, we'll make do. Boomer, you are able to race back into the home. You see tuck arms full of luggage and stuff that she could grab.

Not your bags, unfortunately, though. So are you going for the room? Yes, I am. As I pass, I'm going to be like, smart move. You're able to grab your bag, and I think we're kind of falling out of initiative here. We'll say that you will be able to return to the vehicle. on Mallory's turn

she kind of sits herself up feels her eye and doesn't really react too much to it there is a wince of pain but they begin asking you Jade Steele what what happened to them where's Agent Steele

where's where's Jade are those the people you came with the snipers yes yeah well you know she's also kind of talking on her calm as well Steele can you hear me and there is a response of some kind.

You can faintly hear the voice of a man as she puts it to her ear. It says, I'm okay. Just don't advance. I made a mistake. We're going to go to a secondary location, and if you can stay on comms with that other person, and as long as we can trust you, you'll make it to that second location.

Understood? She's nodding. By the time the door closes, on the van. You see a stalky, blonde man in his late 30s, early 40s, kind of coming out of the bushes. He is carrying his rifle. He stops. He aims the gun, recalls that he was just told to stand down and very frustratingly puts it away. Although he had a clear shot on you, he knows better. Oh, shit. Okay. You see him as you begin driving away. You see him run over to the black van, and if you like to lose him, you can, but that'll require a bit of a chase.

I turn to Mallory before I make that split decision and say, can I trust him? Yes, you can trust him. You can trust all of them. When we get to the second location, he's going to sit with us. And with that, I'm going to slow down and avoid any chase. I'm just waiting for the other two. If he approaches the car, Hyde will put a bullet in him. You can tell him this if you'd like. She begins relaying that information to him. You are going to get down from the mountain. It is still morning. There is a kind of mist in the air. It is foggy. And as you descend the mountain, you realize it's just kind of a low-lying cloud as you eventually get out of it. The plan is to get down to the city of Awani. Warp, you were able to tell that there was not a library,

within the town, but there is one 20 minutes outside the town. Okay, I relay those. Actually, I just like put my phone up on the dash with directions. Tuck, make an intelligence roll. Oh, that sucks. I fail with a 61 over 60. Okay. As you get into town, you pass the fire station, which is right next to the police station, and it is just as a fire truck is exiting, a ambulance is exiting, a pair of police vehicles are, backing up and then driving up the way that you came, once again skirting the authorities. You make your way. Do you know the name of this library warp?

Yes, I'll put it in the chat. It's the Mariposa County Library. The drive is quiet and tense. Malory sees Boomer with the first aid kit. and we'll signal for you to help her. Do you help her, Boomer? I mean, yeah. We're not going to do glass, bloody eyes. I'm not cruel. Make a first A roll.

I think tuck from the back goes, don't pull it out, she'll bleed out. Praise me. She's lucky because, holy hell, I got a three. So, yeah, she's good. I think that she eventually asks you once it's been mostly cleaned up and sanitized. to just give her a large band-aid, one of those kind of large square ones,

and she just kind of places it over her eye with an impromptu medical eye patch. When you finish, she puts her hand on your hand, and pretty genuinely says thank you. If you have a lot of scars, I'm sorry, I've tried my best. You know, sporing. Scars are the least of my problem right now. But they're hot. At some point during the drive, Tuck takes out their phone and texts Boomer.

I might need one more set of documents if it's not too much to ask. Somewhere in the explaining what we're doing. Yes, I would. Yes, I would have it on Vibrate because I always do that personally. You are able to get to the Mariposa County Library. It is quaint and pretty. and in the middle of nowhere, it's early in the morning, and there's a good chance at just the staff are here.

But what is the plan? How are we entering this, or are we entering it? What's the plan? How physically affected does Mallory look? Is it such a way that if we were to walk into this library, it would cause a stern? She is still able to walk. It will probably be noticeable and disconcerning,

but if you don't put her at the lead of the group, you'd probably get away with it. And also I'm bleeding, I realize. Yes, you're bleeding. Maybe it's all best if we stay in our cars. Well, the library does have like bathrooms sometimes on the side or those private rooms that you can rent out. Like, you know, like a conference study room. Because that could be like a little place where we could just close the blinds.

You'd like me to go in and I could ask if they have a private study room. I mean, that's an option. And if we wanted to actually still use the library. But we could stay in the car. Let's try it. Let's try it. We just need somewhere to have a discussion because we need to iron out some details. Also means witnesses. This is as good of a place as any. We have to speak. We have to speak as soon as possible. Okay. We'll have this conversation here. Steel can park directly adjacent to our car.

She communicates that. She explains that we're going to walk in and find a quiet place to chat and that everyone is going to remain cool. Steel comes into the same room that we do. Exactly. Good. Is everyone going in at once? Nope. Yeah, I'll walk in with Mallory first. As you step out of the car,

Steele gets out of their car, the black van, and kind of jogs over to you. They give you a little bit of space, but they say, is she okay? She's fine. We perform some emergency first aid. We believe she'll be okay with a conversation before we make any decisions forward.

I want to see her. Sure. You can see her, but do not make any move. He goes over to the vehicle, and he's standing in the rolling door, and he asks someone to open the door. Does anyone open it for him? I'll open it.

I'll be standing behind him and make it clear that this is okay. Mallory has her hand up as he lets the door open in front of him. She says, it's okay. let's just sit down and we'll talk. Do you have contact with Jade? Then he shakes his head, no. She says, God damn it.

All right, Merrick, get us the room. Please. Sure. And I'll go inside, leaving Mallory with the others, because realizing if I take her with me to get the private, it's even more obvious. But I'll walk in and see if they have any private rooms for rent. They do have private rooms for rent.

There is a very kindly older lady there behind the counter who is happy to see you. And as soon as you ask for a room, she asks if you're a resident or if you're staying in town. We're just staying in town. We were hiking and we heard about Mariposa. Apparently there's a pizza shop local to this place. And while we're a young group, just taking a final vacation with a grandmother of ours. Um, we're just taking in the sights. Give me a charisma check to see if you can kind of maintain your composure and not seem like you've just survived a firefight.

Right. I've got a scary composure with a 24 under 75. All right. Merritt is cool as a cucumber and able to charm this elderly woman who is, as soon as you mention a pizza place, you mentioned several good places in Awani and other restaurants nearby. she leads you to a space that is going to be a little tight. There are glass windows that if you guys act up and if you get rowdy, it will cause some attention, but it is a quiet room,

and because it is in the middle of nowhere, the chances of it being bugged are probably low. Yeah, I thank her and let her know that we're going to have some people moving into the room in just a few moments. And if we could have some privacy just because we'll be selling it. celebrating our grandmother's birthday very briefly while we're on the road here. At a library nonetheless. That's lovely. She must really love books.

Would you like me to get some books on birthdays? That's okay. She suffers from dementia. She's been eroding in these last few years, and we're just trying to give her something sweet while we can. Small, but private. If you could. Okay.

As long as there's not going to be a scene or anything, this is a very... No, no. We are a very quiet bunch. We're just trying to do right by her while we still can. Of course. I'm going to go be by the front desk. If you need anything, you know where to find me. Of course.

You know, I heard about these sort of small town charms and the good people that come out of it, but God, I didn't think that anyone like you was real. Thank you so much. What was your name again? My name is Orson. It's great to meet you. Oh, Orson, what a unique name? Nice to meet you.

I'm Lily. Thank you. It was my father's. I'm just borrowing it. And I'll step out back to the car. Okay. Anyone doing anything out by the car as you wait for merit? A couple minutes past.

I think Hyde would try to put like a jacket on and try to at least not look like I got punched in the face. Yeah, I probably put on some aviators to hide the Shiner that is very quickly forming on your face. I'm going to take Mallory in my arms and try and make her look as much like the grandmother character as I gave to the woman in the front for sure. As you bring her, she kind of gets what you're trying to do, and she kind of keeps her face in your direction as she's talking to you, even when Miss Lily kind of waves hello as you enter with her. and she whispers to you and says, is Tuck still Tuck? Yes, and it's not what you think. We can discuss it later if they decide you get to live. She's not going to be able to come in here with that woman.

She stands out. Listen, we're running out of options, Mallory. And if you don't come into this room now, if they don't come into this room now, you're not going to see another. You know what this is. I understand, but we're not going to be able to sit here for very long. If a woman witnesses a six-foot hulking beast of a woman walk into her library, we need to at least distract her somehow. What do you suggest? Maybe Steele can distract her.

And she radios the instructions at Steele. When you come in, you know, distract this woman. He still ends up in the room, though. He definitely still ends up in the room eventually, yes. Good. When you sit her down inside the room, she holds your hand and she says, I know what you were thinking about when you were holding me out there. And I need you to understand that the only thing between Tuck and March is me. I'm the only one that can help her. I'm not here for Tuck.

Not originally, at least. Maybe she can still help me. But you have to promise me that she's together. She's clearly compromised in some form. Mallory, I can't promise you anything. I can't give you anything. The decisions that they all just made has effectively changed everything that you and I were.

Even after I disowned what we were trying to accomplish, the program has taken everything from each one of us, and they are starting to realize the same that I am starting to realize. But there is no point in giving them what they want. because all they want is to take from you. So I'm going to do everything in my power to hear you out. And if you have something compelling, which God, I hope you do, because every last breath you take, every few in the next hour could be leading to the end.

Who's coming in next? Tuck's in the back trying to wrap her leg and make it less obvious that she's shot in the calf. When you examine your calf, the bullet went clean through. There is a noticeable hole. It is impressive that you're even able to still function, but your foot is still solid, and you can step on it even through the pain. I think that if you borrow some gauze or something from a boomer,

it's easy enough to do. Yeah, I'll pull up my jeans, wrap the wound, rolling back down, and then I'll head in with me. Yeah. Steele will follow. Once you get into the library, he branches off from you and immediately grabs Miss Lily's attention and begins talking her ear off and very shortly takes her to a section of the library that is on the opposite end. The rest of you, are you eventually walking in? Yeah. Yeah.

Boomer, you know that as long as you are around the source of your disorder, it's probably going to stick around. So going into that library will probably just continue the deafness, which is going to be very frustrating as they're going to be talking about things that are important to you, but that's the breaks. No, I'll go. You take her, that go with? I'll just, I'll like, care.

Like, you know when a little kid's sleeping and you don't really want to wake them, even though this is scarier than that. Yeah, tuckle, tuckle taker and just kind of hold her up. As you start moving towards the library, she does come to consciousness in your arms and kind of rubs her eyes with her hands and looks up at you and seems to be kind of shielding her eyes from the sun. Tuck, this is something that now that your adrenaline has dropped a little bit, you're reacting to the sun as well. It feels a little bit brighter out. And a part of you almost feels weaker until you step into the library away from the sunlight. And suddenly, you feel more whole.

You feel better out of the sun. Okay. As you are walking through, she just says, is this our new home? No, kiddo, it's going to take us a little bit longer to get there. I need you to listen to me. I think while we're still outside, I'm saying this. We are going inside to talk to some people. You probably saw one of them.

We're just talking. You don't need to be scared. Are they bad people? They could be. But all people have the capacity to be bad people, just like all people have the capacity to be good people. So for right now, don't be scared. If you get scared, look at me.

Because look at me. Think anyone can take this down? And I'm trying to make her laugh. Yeah, as you move inside, she seems to cheer up. Give me a stealth role. You'll have plus 20% on that because of, the fact that Steele is distracting Miss Lily. But will I still have minus 20 because of my exhaustion?

Yeah, so I guess it is just a straight roll. Cool. That is a failure with a 26. You do see Steele and the old librarian, and he does seem to be distracting her, but she eventually does do a turn as she hears the jingle of the front door come in. And she kind of adjusts her glasses

before Steele steps in front of her. and continues talking her ear off. You feel like you can definitely make it to the room, but you also can tell that she's at least aware of your presence. I'll just keep holding Mia and get in the room as fast as possible. The rest of you, unless there's anything else you'd like to do, are able to make it to the room as well. Can I just lean up against the door?

Mallory speaks up, seeming almost too weak to stand up and officiate the way she normally does. but she immediately speaks up and says, I want to apologize. It was wrong of me to call a shot on you, Tuck. I've been up for nearly 24 hours. I haven't had a lot of sleep.

I'm not making good decisions. And you know that I'm paranoid around, well, whatever might be happening to you. I'm going to stop beating around the bush. It's the asset. It's Nancy. She's escaped. We're still putting that together.

24 hours ago we received something and I'm going to go for my phone. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out a cell phone, searches through it for a second, and hits play and sets the phone on the table. You hear a, it sounds like a voicemail, a female voice, and it says, and the message ends. Goody. Mallory says we found this on the server 24 hours ago. We're still trying to figure out who uploaded it. Could be Nancy.

which means bad news because it means she has access to the server. Is that surprising if she's parading around as Oaks? Not really. Look, certain protocols have been put into place. The departments, all of them, they've gone dark. They've been instructed to leave their homes, but stay in the country to remain on the offensive.

It's been cold war tactics ever since, person-to-person communications only. I've been trying to reach out to all my working groups and telling them to shift directives. The orders from the top is we need to find her. We need to stop her. We need to get proactive. Because if she has access to the server,

we're expecting leaks, probably to the news. If someone uploads, couldn't I not, if I have the access, I can actually look, kind of look up tracking of time, date, info of who upload? You certainly could attempt to. Can we for the six, so it's, because I don't want to drag that out with boom or not hearing. Like, I, like, maybe Tuck was updating me. I could, I feel like that's something I could at least track down location, person identifies any kind of clue. As she is talking, you whip out your laptop and you begin working on this.

Like I said, we're expecting leaks probably to the news in any moment. We have our best disinformation cells working. themselves working on that, but the director from the top is we just, we have to stop this before it goes too far. Do we know how long she's been? Oakes? How long has she been Oaks? We found the body when we were planning to move the asset to a new location.

Oakes' body was in the jumpsuit. We just finished an autopsy. Two, three months is what they're telling us. And as you ask that question, she's kind of talking to you, Merritt, and she's. She made clear to you earlier. She's aware of certain things. And she says, doing my research once I understood that Oaks had been compromised, I realized Oaks had been doing a couple of things behind the scenes as Nancy or Nancy as Oaks.

And it's obvious that her interactions with you and she gestures to Merritt. So I was working with her with Nancy. Merritt? Merritt, in this moment, you're putting together two things. One, you were working with Nancy, and two, this surgery that you put to help tuck probably is what's causing this. I need a sanity check from you. That's a massive fail. Oh, kiddo.

Okay. Roll a D4. Three. Unless you'd like to project it, you're going to lose three sanity. No, he's going to take all that. it is beginning to eat you up inside as you are able to put together how much even when you are helping you inevitably hurt. You haven't hit a breaking point, but what is Merritt doing as Mallory continues to explain the situation? I think he's locking up.

It's all starting to fade back behind him and her explanation, her very clinical explanation of the horror, the tragedy that he's brought upon himself. now tuck in this circle is really the only thing he can focus on. He's losing it. And I think that his eyes just turned to Haley and he repeats, I'm so sorry, Haley. I didn't know. I'm so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing.

I keep Mia in one arm and I grab the side of his shoulder and I go, this isn't your fault. No, you don't understand. No, you need. weekly is. You don't know what I did. Everyone. Focus. Listen.

Tuck, I'm sorry. But you have to understand. If March learns about you, about her, they're going to come for you. And don't tell them. I won't tell them. But you can help me. You have clearly unique gifts.

The two of you, you could help me in this situation. We could nip this in the butt immediately. I'm not turning my six-year-old sister into a weapon. I'm not letting you turn her into a weapon. Nancy is impersonating as Oaks. We know that now, but it's clear what her target has always been, the director, every member of the DO. If they succeed at this,

if they succeed even at exposing things that are on that server, the program can't protect you anymore. It can't protect any of us. You are all agents who have interacted with this person. If we stop her, I'll give you what you want. I will do anything for you. I will have the power to be able to do what you want. And how much of this is about your own power?

This is about my own survival. I'll remind you all that I was personally involved with Nancy, and so I'm a target as well. But I have a job to do. We all have a job to do. I'm sorry that life has not. not handed you all what you wanted. I'm sorry that this job leads only in one direction,

but it is the hand we were dealt, and the best that I can offer you is that if you can help save this organization, I can put you in a place where it will hurt less, where maybe you can last longer and do some real good. Boomer's going to be like, I want out or as out as possible. Can I say that I've had my phone on the, like,

voice to text thing the whole time, just so Boomer can hear. I think that's fair. I think that's a fair resolution to this. So Boomer, you're a couple steps behind folks as the dialogue is being produced for you, but that is how you are able to keep up. But here's the thing. You can either pay attention to the conversation or you can pay attention to what you're doing on the laptop. Ah, shit.

Yeah, I would have missed that. Sorry. Okay. So the laptop is out. You have intentions to go on the server. but right now you're paying attention to the conversation. And you address out loud, your intention is you want out. Family, all that.

Scrub. New identifications. New areas. Gone. I am extremely limited in my resources right now. But when we are fully operational, I am happy to help any of you. Especially if you help me bring back Nancy, or at least take them out. We're not bringing her back so you can lose her again.

only out. Yeah, you should know that's not really our thing. My assumption is that they're going after the director, and needless to say, the director is a very private person. I don't even know where they live or anything about them, but Nancy wants to get close to them, which could mean that maybe we need to get close to the director. Reach out somehow. I have avenues, but it's going to take time. Like I said, everything is face to face right now. I have a superior. Maybe I can try to reach out to them and get some kind of information as to where to begin.

But there are other avenues that we can pursue. I think I could get to Oaks, too. She had work for me. It's how all of this started, but I could follow that. I maybe could get her, like the information said, like the voicemail said, maybe we could get close as forensic. We have to operate on the understanding that she is aware, that we are aware. So if you're doing it, you have to understand that she is fully cognizant.

This isn't going to be some kind of trap, but I have to admit, yes, if the message is saying that she could be lured in anyway, it would be worth it. Is there any information about just the way that Oaks spends their time, any sort of financial records? Maybe we can predict where she's going to be and start there. she was a ghost as I knew her but there was a case she was working on we could look into that I was able to source the information of Oaks and where she is my superior told me that she lives in Niagara Falls New York

there's an address maybe she was keeping records maybe there's something there that could lead to clues both of them are on the East Coast there's also the option of speaking to someone who knows what Nancy is There's Dr. Agnes Chen, the three of you, and she points a warp, tuck, and Merritt, you met her at Cicada. I know where she lives. We could go to her, and maybe she could help with understanding how to stop her and what's going on, what she is.

Additionally, we could try to draw the director's attention. There is always the Frist documents. He's always wanted them. They've always made it clear that they've wanted them. Regardless, I do need to go to the hospital, and I need to, we all need to get out of this part of California, as inevitably the authorities are going to be on the lookout for folks who destroyed an Airbnb. There's always a chance the neighbor saw our vehicles. It's in Pendleton. I say we go down the, what is it, the Pacific Coast Highway.

Can we do that? Go to San Francisco, take a plane down from San Fran to San Diego or Pendleton or Oceanside, what that is. It could be done. Malory looks at Tuck. Agent Tuck, are you with us? What do I have to roll to lie? I think, you'll persuade makes the most amount of sense, yeah. Tuck hitches Mia higher on their hip and kind of levels a gaze at Mallory. If you can promise that she's safe, and I am our definition of safe, not yours, then fine. We're with you.

And that is a success with a 32. It becomes clear that Mallory is desperate. And firing on you was a mistake because she's now including you, and you can see it in her eyes. She sees you as that weapon. She sees you as that spear, that thing that can keep her from Nancy. that can stop Nancy. Maybe one of the only things. And she looks at your sister and then she looks away.

And I'll say also at this point that Steele has come in and he says she's distracted enough for now. Mallory fills him in and he says, they killed Zia and they killed Jade. I can't work with these fuckers. Mallory explains, listen, this is beyond them. Unfortunately, they died in the cause. and I realize it's my fault

and I'm sorry about that but we have to work together we have to work together to stop this one problem any kind of shrugs doesn't say anything for a moment Mallory does mention I know that it's hard to trust me right now

but I need to break away and I need to see a doctor you let me know what you're doing and I can be to you are you still watching us think of it less as I'm watching you and as more is that you now have access to my resources.

You need a plane, you have a plane. You need weapons, I can get you weapons. You need personnel. I can get you personnel. She leans in and she says, maybe this is a chance for you all to prove to the DO you would fit well in administrative positions. You just can't bug us, you can't watch us like you were.

You can be involved, but you have to trust. us. The situation is this. We are going to operate the way that we operate. And while the world decided that the way we handled Marlene is against every protocol, you need to understand that that is just the only situation, the only way that we were going to survive. And that is how we're going to deal with this situation as well. But constant monitoring, that is how you almost lost your life today. I have learned that lesson the hard way with this group. You cannot push, you cannot prod, you cannot mold them into anything. If we are to be successful, you need to understand that we are who we are, and that's why we win. If it makes you feel any better,

I don't think you understand the severity of strain that I am in. All resources are pointed in the direction of Nancy. I don't have the authority. If Tuck decided to run right now, Now, there's honestly nothing I could do about it. But if she did run, it would be likely that March would hear about it, which is why you need me and I need you. Good. Consider the playing field leveled. If you'd like to ignore the conversation now, Boomer, you may to focus on accessing the server.

Any info for sure. Go ahead and give me a computer science role because this is so important. Yes. I pass, 59. I still pass. Yes. You're able to log into the server, and what you immediately notice is that much of it has been disabled. You do not see files, but you look into the code. There's one file that has been created, and it's a text file. Do you open it? Do it. I'm going to open it. I'm going to open it. I'm going to have to.

Agent Boomer, you open the file, and there is about two. sentences, maybe more as I make it up in my head. It reads, you know what I want, give me the director, or I spill the beans every 48 hours. Love Gene, J-E-A-N. I will make sure everyone sees that. When was that created, that file? When was that uploaded, that 48-hour? It was about 24 hours ago. Okay. So we have 24 hours for a potential news drop. Fuck. I will also say that to finish your successful computer science role, you look through the logs of the server, and you can tell that the last access was something in Washington, someone that has access to it, probably finally removed the files. But just before it, there is two interesting notes. One log, you zero in on the IP address, and it seems to be coming from upstate New York. And there is one that came in. right before it, and that seems to be coming from Pennsylvania. Upstate New York would track for Oaks' home in Niagara Falls.

It just says Pennsylvania? Does it say what it's counties? Yes, and because of your success, you can kind of see the timeline in your head. Last access was months ago when one of you accessed it, and then there was this access that happened about 24 hours ago, which is roughly when the program noticed that the voicemail was left on their server. And then a little bit after that, there seems to be access from Niagara Falls. And then just after that, someone from Washington wiped the server. Server goes live.

Oaks leaves the voicemail. Leaves notes. White. Listen, we have to tackle this. Regardless, this is something that we have to solve. I'm with Boomer that we have to go down to Pendleton. We find Friess's files, and then we make a call to the director through the server. That's the only line of communication I think we'd have.

It's the only place where we all have access to. Now, does that put us in the front of Oaks? Maybe. But it's the first thing I can think of unless we have a better way to contact the D.O. I was going to say, Daniel Friest has been what we were from the very beginning. I feel like that could be a reason. That's where we started. I'm with you. Just go to Pendleton, and we can leave San Diego Airport.

We can actually get from San Diego to East Coast. Yeah, and then we can fly straight to Oaks's place. We can investigate, see where she's gone from there, and hope that we have a trail somewhere while we're waiting for the DO to get back to us. As you discuss this, Agent Tuck running through your head, you're staring at Mallory as she listens to you. all plan and you're not stupid. You know the moment that she has an advantage over you, she's going to take it.

She knows she has called you a compromised agent. I'm going to ask for a sanity check because all of this dealing with Nancy is getting in the way of your goal, which is making sure Mia is safe and free and away from the program. I do succeed with a 36. You are very lucky this arc. Yeah, I don't know what's happening. You are in control, but it's, it would take a less intelligent agent to not realize that at some point, this ally will become an antagonist. Tuck hasn't put Mia down.

If, if Mia hasn't tried to get down, Tuck hasn't put it down. I think she is at a certain point going to want to get down. Mia can see the, the children's drawings and, the kids' books, and she's remembering what this place is. Oh, libraries exist. And she's getting more and more kind of excited to see the space. Am I still huge? You are currently still pretty large, yes.

Am I inhumanly large? You are, it looks like you are a bodybuilder wearing a clothes that are two sizes too small for you. Okay, yeah, that was what I was ordering at. You catch a glimpse of your stomach and you've got these rock hard, you know, six-pack abs. You know, anytime you move the muscles under your skin just ripple, you are noticeable, but you aren't necessarily freakish. Then I, man, I don't want to talk to anyone. I'm going to take Mia and go to the, like, the family bathroom.

I'm just taking her over there so we have some privacy so I can take out my phone and text my wife. Does anyone object to Tuck suddenly without word just walking out of the room? Normally, Merritt would, but he can't in this situation. I think he's lost all power to tell Tuck anything. Honestly, I'm going to point to, like, Hyde or Warp, be like, anybody? Yeah, I think Hyde would let them go, but would eventually slink out the door to, like, follow.

Before you slink out the door, for the first time all of you are alone without Tuck or Mia. And Mallory speaks up and says, I understand you're loyal. And I understand that Tuck is a good person. But we have to look at this objectively. At a certain point, she's going to be untenable. Maybe she already is. I'm not exactly sure. I'm still assessing that.

But for goddamn sure, that little girl is a nuclear weapon. Gosh. You know, for someone who's trying to make a deal, try not to write away as someone leaves, yet go ahead and show your other hand. Merritt, am I wrong? You're right. I'm not showing a hand. I'm just, I'm pointing out the obvious. And if you are all not able to see how dangerous tuck is becoming, maybe you're all compromised as well. No, we understand the danger, but... Uh-uh. No, she insulted my fucking intelligence for a minute. I'm going to tell you this really quick, right, Cyclops, understand something.

We already fucking, you think we don't know what's going on? Unfortunately, we know more than you do what's going on those wounds. Boomer is yelling at the top of her lungs, so she is death. Yes. Mm-hmm. Got the problem. Oh, raise her. Hey, hey, hey.

Miss Lily, the old librarian, kind of makes her way over to you. Christ. Fortunately, a talk is not in the space when she does, but she's kind of checking. Ah, I'm just making noise. It's like a celebration. Merritt is waving back. He's going to... With Merritt kind of waving her off,

she gives a worried shrug and then she kind of puts her finger to her lips and turns back to... But she is remaining kind of in the vicinity. Every once in a while, those of you that are looking at her can notice she'll look at you guys as she's organizing books, etc.

Listen, Mallory, you have to understand Boomer's point of view. In fact, you have to understand all of ours. But yeah, we... would be idiots to not think that there isn't some danger involved in what's happening to talk in Mia, but we would be just as dumb to assume that giving them over to March would solve our issues. They wanted Marlene. They wanted to weaponize her. They wanted Nancy. They wanted to weaponize her because they made a decision not to take care of Nancy so many years ago. They

thought they could learn something from her, build something from her. Now we are seeing the rectifying moment of our organization. You'd be a fool to think they provide answers. No, they provide profit. As I've said before, I don't have the resources to argue with you. So I will trust all of your judgments. But please, if I see that you are using the resources I give you to do anything other than stop Nancy, you know I'll have no other choice.

But this isn't a threat. I'm just making it clear that I have to follow orders. And I think from the scars on your face, I'm just going to say the odds have been in our favor a couple of times. I think boomer's right. I think you need to come to terms with the fact that the only reason you're still breathing is because we decided you could. I do acknowledge that, and I thank you all for it. I thank you that you're not compromised and that you are still level-headed. In fact, I'm relieved.

You're one of the few working groups that I do trust can do the job. I have faith in you all. That should be really saying something. I need to go. I'm feeling dizzy. I'm going to leave with Steele. We're going to go to a hospital, and then I will make contact with you.

If you need something from me, let me know. Which hospital are you going to? I'll write it down. Steele, find a hospital. Something nearby. And he starts digging through his phone and seeing if he can find a major town. The closest major town would be Fresno,

where there is proper emergency care, as well as its distance from Awani, that she can make up a proper excuse. So you'll find her at the Fresno Community Hospital. Mallory, I'd like to make a requisition's order before you leave. Obviously, we'll be accepting this mission. I don't know if we'll be taking it on as full perennial, but I know I will be leading a force for whoever has decided to stay. but when we arrive in Pendleton, as we believe that's our next stop, I'd like to make a requisition of an M4 carbine.

I'd prefer enough for all of the security team, so maybe two M4 carbines and two shotguns themselves. She makes a note of it, and she says, so is that the plan, we'll meet in Pendleton or near there? We will not be meeting. We will accept calls, some form of communication through cell phone,

but I don't think we have any need to meet. meet in person until you can prove to us that you do not have snipers in the tree line. I understand. And I'd like a plane for a hide. Let me make some calls and I'll text you as to where you can get that vehicle. Perfect. Tuck, we're away from you for a moment. Make a alertness roll as you send a text to Ruhi.

I got a 40 flat, which is success. I was afraid of how well I was rolling and when the other shoe drops, it's going to be bad. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to have a top heavy. season, I can feel it already. You begin texting Ruhi and you can tell that Mia is anxious

and excited to look around. She's wandering around you and then away from you and keeps trying to test the boundary, but you are able to pay attention to her as you text and you're able to keep her close. I text Rue. Things have gotten more complicated.

We have to go. Are you in the bathroom? Yes. As you were, Wait, Mia says, I want to see the books. We can look at the books in just a little bit. You're being so patient, and I really appreciate that. When I get done talking to Ruhee, do you want to play with my phone?

Okay. Okay. That seems like a good trade. For right now, let's try and get you cleaned up a little bit. And I'm just going to start trying to, like, rinse her hair in the sink and just get her to point that she doesn't look like a wild child, basically. Your phone begins to ring. And when you look, it is your father.

Oh, I do not answer. Okay. It eventually stops ringing. As you are washing her hair, are you using hot water or cold water? Tuck has been wanting to test the hot versus cold thing. So I think she's going to start cool and gradually get hotter. Make another dexterity check to see if you can control the levels and not surprise her with some hot water. A three.

That's a success. I promise I'm not lying. I know you're not lying. As soon as it stops being lukewarm, she feels it and kind of retracts from you. And she walks backwards and she's looking at you like, why would you do that to me? me. She's almost kind of scared of you for a moment. It's okay. I wasn't sure if it was too cold for you, so I was trying to turn it up a little bit. Are you feeling okay?

Make a persuasion check. I rolled a three again. You eventually calm her down, but you can tell that she doesn't understand why, but she's scared of the heat, and even just feeling it, starts to spook her. I don't want to be sick. I don't want to be sick. Okay. I'm so sorry. I didn't think about it. getting too warm for you. That's my fault. I'm really sorry. I didn't want to scare you. I didn't want to upset you. Do you want to come pick how hot the water is while we wash the rest of your hair? Cold.

I want a cold. Not cold? Okay. I'll crank it to cold. Eventually you get a text from Ruhi that says, where are you? What's the plan? I'm not going to tell her our location because I do still need to talk to the team. I am going to say, we've had to move, still working out logistics, but you and I and Mia can't stay. And then I'll send another text quickly after that. Or Tuck goes to send another text after that and then just loses all sense of what you say in this situation. The speech bubble appears and in response you just see, I'm so glad you're still alive. Please come get me soon. And she informs you that she is at the hitching post, which is a restaurant in Awani, 20 minutes back in the direction you came. Right. Right. Well, she can come to us

because she has the car, which is okay. I'll just do the little tap back heart and finish washing me his hair and then give her my phone. Unless there's any kind of protest, Mallory will be led by steal out of the room. You are left alone in this room. Tuck is not with you, nor is Mia. What would you like to do? I think Hyde was going to slink out to go check on Mia. That is correct. So Hyde, you are able to do that, leaving the others in the room. I will say, Boomer, now that the cause of your anxiety is not in the room, the ringing begins to subside, and it feels like you can start to hear again. Do you guys say anything in the meantime? Warp, I wanted to ask you, do you remember in Cicada, not Dr. Chen, but obviously you remember when the lights went off, the emergency began, right?

Mm-hmm. There was a group of people that came for Nancy, and they insisted they worked with them. It was the same as Mallory had when the situation came about. But they were a part of that other group, the one that Boomer you spoke with, right? That Agent Charlie was it? Yeah, Charlie. What if they have more people who have dealt with Constance before? But if there are more people on their side that know what Nancy is, they wanted her free.

They wanted her walking about. Maybe we could, and this is just in the interest of knowing everything that we possibly could, maybe we could reach out to them and see both sides, speak with Chen, speak with them. What do you all think? Personally, I think the best shot I have is with everyone here. it has worked so far, and I meant that, so. I think it's weird that they don't have anything on Oaks ready to go. When they've known about this, at least for more than a day,

these people are going to have a lot more of an empathetic understanding than the program does. We also just need something in our back pocket when Mallory decides that we've gone too far. To make it as difficult as possible for her to really get something honest. Boomer, you have interacted with the other side. You've interacted with the outlaws. And you know maybe better than everyone else that dealing with them is going to be tricky, mostly because of Tuck.

They have a very bang and burn attitude about the unnatural. So if you're going to interact with the outlaws, you probably mention to them that we have to be very careful about how we handle Tuck around them. I'm going to be very honest. and make sure everyone is very clear with, especially with Charlie, what to expect. So that is an avenue, but if we do go this route, I expect everyone to bring their Oscar winning performances. I don't know about everyone else in this room, but I'm for this group.

I'm sick of playing this game where we continue to trade our lives for a position that does nothing for us. Do we have to interface with them directly as a team? I mean, there's a way we can get information from them without them seeing all of us in person. The final thing I wanted to bring up while we're in the room, I know Hyde isn't here, but I suppose this goes for Hyde as well, and we need to start considering a contingency plan.

I am not Mallory, and I will not begin to tell you all that I am going to make any rash decisions against Haley, I think I've made that clear. And I'm not about to act as though I don't have fault in what's happening here. But should she and Mia make some choices that take them far beyond our friend?

We need to make sure that we are keeping her closer to us than whatever half has invaded her. Tuck and I have always had that agreement because now I see Pennsylvania on that IP. I have people to protect too. I have to make sure they're safe too. I know what you mean. That goes for Mia, too.

I know that we are blindsided where she's concerned. Yes, I know the terms and conditions. Okay. I do not say that lightly. Okay. Hide, you are able to find the bathroom that Tuck Snuck away in. It's currently closed and locked. Do you knock on it?

Yeah, I'll just gentle couple knocks. Who's there? It's me. It's Hyde. Oh. Hyde. I'll unlock it and let Hydeen as I finish up Mia's hair. Hyde, you see Mia kind of sitting up on the counter.

Her hair is now soaking wet, but much of her face and arms and skin are no longer covered in dirt and filth. She smiles at you. I think Hyde will take off their jacket at that point and put it around Mia. It's got a little hood on it. so hopefully it'll help with the wet hair. Hide bundles them tight before turning around. You good? Are you?

I've been punched before. I wasn't talking about physically. Oh. It doesn't matter at this point. Tech. I'm fine. The fuck do you make of all this? Which part of it? A lot to dissect.

The Mallory part, mostly right now. I mean... I have very little care for the program, so what's watching an empire burn? Can I level with you? Always. I don't think I can stay. And where will you go? I don't know.

Somewhere non-extradition, that's about all I've got so far. But there's no way, come hell or high water, that Mallory's going to let me and Mia walk away. It's not going to happen. And if I want a chance at her living a life, I can't stay. They're going to kill me. They're going to kill her. I'm saying this quietly away, like in the corner as far away from Mia with her having my phone. So hopefully she is distracted.

So you're just going to, what, escape into the night? You, Mia. What's her name, Rue? Just gonna disappear and leave us all behind. I mean, anything I do is gonna be better than turned into a weapon at six years old, right? Yes, but not knowing what it is also is just as equally bad.

I'm just wondering if you are ready to do what it takes. What do you mean what it takes? Can I show you something? Show me. I'm gonna go back over to Mia's jacket, the jacket that I had bundled Mia in, and I'm gonna go into the inside of the pocket, turn around, and I'm going to hand tuck what looks like a folded photograph. And I'm gonna hand it to that. I'll unfold it. You see a young man similar to Kona.

You can see the relation, smiling. It looks like he's somewhere desert-like. It is both Kona and this person. It is a photo of them out in the desert. Kona is wearing military fatigues, not wearing a jacket, but it has the typical tanish green shirts that are, the sleeves like rolled up and stuff like that. They've obviously both been like sand, like worn.

Like they've been out in the sun for a while, both of them. very happy and casual photo given what looks to be out in the middle of nowhere. That is Liam. Brother. William was in the program before I was. Holy shit. That photo, I wasn't even aware that this program existed.

What happened? What happened out in that desert is a very long story in some way feels like what you're doing now and I need you to really, really think about how you're going to move forward if that is the choice you're going to make.

In 2011, I was known as Chief Warden Officer Morales and I was stationed out in Afghanistan as an army pilot flying Blackhawks from Baggram Air Base. Liam worked for the CIA as a case officer. Back then, he was just working primarily in Kabul, but he got moved to what's

known as F-O-B Turner for some operation of some kind from the last time he told me. We talk on the radio at certain times every day, and one day he stopped radioing in. I tried reaching out to command at Turner, but no one could give me a straight answer until one day some Army MIs some specialists, some civilian advisors needed a pilot to fly them out to F.O.B. Turner. I made sure that I was the one to take the mission. We will end the session here as we begin a historical scenario

reenacting the story of Hyde. Holy. There's go. Fuck. Yes, dude. That's awesome. Oh, nice. So next session, we will begin in Afghanistan in 2011, finding out what happened to hide and what happened to her brother.