Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat, Ep. 26 - “Kali Ghati” | Delta Green

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

It’s 2019, and Two Delta Green agents, Ice and Pilgrim, posing as military intelligence officers, are flown to FOB Turner in Afghanistan. Their mission: track down the disappearance of fellow agent, Liam Morales, who went missing days ago. Unbeknownst to them, Liam’s sister, Kona (call sign: Hyde), is the helicopter pilot flying them to the station, harboring her own intentions to uncover the truth. As they delve deeper, both parties discover unsettling details about Liam’s recent behavior – heavy drinking, occult books, and strange dreams. Realizing the gravity of the situation, they prepare to venture into the Afghani countryside, knowing that the path to finding Liam leads to the unnatural…to Kali Ghati. This episode begins our playthrough of the scenario “Kali Ghati” by Shane Ivey. --- Merchandise Giveaway! Entries begin May 31st and run through June 28th. If chosen, you can win one of the following prizes; Perennial Airlines t-shirt Devil’s Night poster, 12x24” Perennial Agents sticker collection (5 stickers total) 1 month of Patreon membership FREE (Repeater - $5 level) We’ll announce the winners on June 28th in the intro to episode 27, “Death Awakens The Sleeper”. Receive one entry for each of the following: Write a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (please send us a screenshot). Talk about the show on social media and @ us (@maydayroleplay). Join our Newsletter: eepurl.com/iIVUjo (please send us a screenshot) TRIGGER AND CONTENT WARNINGS: Implied self-harm, Blood, domestic turmoil, profanity, drug abuse, Fictious depiction of the war in Afghanistan, Military-industrial complex, Sexism in the workplace, Real-world Religion, Fake Religion and Cultural practices, Governmental Conspiracy, 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) - Rory Lopez, Army Gunner (they/he) • Amanda (she/her) - Amy “Soups” Campbell, Hyde’s co-pilot (she/her) • Caleb (he/him) - Agent Pilgrim (he/him) • Eli (any/all) - Kona “Hyde” Morales, Army Pilot (she/her) • Zakiya (she/they) - Agent Ice (she/her) • 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/) • Soundly (getsoundly.com/) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) • Kali Ghati (https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/181675/Delta-Green-Kali-Ghati) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp) • Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/maydayrp) • Our 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 to episode 26 of our Delta Green campaign doomed to repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. I'm Love and today I'll be playing Rory Lopez. I'm Amanda and I will be playing Amy Campbell. I'm Caleb James Miller and I'll be playing Agent Pilgrim. I'm Eli and I'm playing Kona Hyde Morales.

I'm Zakiya and I'll be playing Agent Ice. A big thank you to everyone who donated. to our charity run for the community of Lahaina this month. We settled on donating all of the proceeds to the Maui Rapid Response Fund. We really enjoyed the process, so expect May Day to host more charity-focused content in the future. As promised in episode 22, our May Day giveaway contest is back, and we're giving away even more prizes this round. Like last time, you can still enter to win a perennial airline's shirt or a limited print

May Day poster, but third place winners could win a collection of perennial stickers featuring the agents. Finally, fourth place gets a free month as a $5 or repeater-level patron. You can submit an entry up to three times by doing any of the following. Write a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You'll have to send us a screenshot so that we know it's you. Talk about the show on social media and at us at Mayday Rollplay. Or you can join our newsletter. The link to join can be found in the description below. Again, we'll need you to send a screenshot.

We'll announce the winners on June 28th in the intro to episode 27. This episode, we begin the scenario, Caligati, by Shane Ivy. So it is July 15th, 2011. A blisteringly hot summer day in the Sar Hausa district in the Pactica province of easternmost Afghanistan.

Aborded Chinook heading south are the four of you. At the helm is Conan Morales, call sign Hyde. Describe for us Hyde nearly a decade younger, Eli. Hyde is kind of a little bit of the same

about close to six feet tall. The hair's a little bit shorter. It's not down to their back like they have it currently, it's more towards like their shoulder a little bit shorter, but it's, you can't really see it over the pilot helmet that is currently on their head and the visor that's down on it. They're currently wearing a jumpsuit, so you can't really see the usual tattoos, but once hide does roll up their sleeves, you'll see that it's a, not a full poly-tat, it's up to the quarter sleeve, and they just have the rabbit on the other side

that says rabbit is good, rabbit is flies. But other than that, they're pretty much the same. They have a little bit more of a lighter disposition kind of as they're flying, and they're just sunburnt the shit, just being out cooking in this desert for a long-ass time. You've left Bagram Air Force Base to the north and have watched the terrain gradually change from the mountainous regions to a flatter, more arid landscape.

The Hindu Kush mountain range with its snow-capped peaks passes you slowly to the east. At your side is your co-pilot, Amy Campbell, call sign Soup. Amanda, can you describe soup for us and what the relationship between you and a hide is like? I would like to say this is almost very similar, but very opposite, where not quite as tall. I was gonna a little bit, I would say, like a good three inches shorter. Still very tall, pretty well built. Dirty blonde, very short, choppy ponytail, little fringe coming out, really embracing.

Kind of think like Leo DiCaprio and 97, with that kind of like that bang coming off the side. Helen Hunt, 90s, blondeish. And with that, it's kind of very much like Abba to Constello. So they're kind of like rocking around, like kind of smirking. And they're comfortable. They're very comfortable right next to Pi. They're kind of just like keeping it focus, kind of just zoning out. That kind of comfortable feeling when you're with good people.

Your orders are to deliver two intelligence officers to a forward operating base known as Fob Turner. The approach to the Fob is a challenging one with the helicopter navigating through narrow valley, and steep cliff sides. Hyde, you're taking point on this. You'll need to rely on your skills and experience to maneuver safely through the rugged terrain. Can you give me a pilot role to see how smooth a variety it is?

That is a success with a 58. Amanda, you can see a look of determination in Hyde's eyes. This isn't just another routine mission for them. Whereas you can normally break them out of their stoic nature, they seem very focused. Very quickly, Sergio.

The immediate weather, again, can you describe that one more time? Right now it is sunny and really very few clouds in the sky. You can feel the heat of the day in the helicopter. All right, everybody. Thank you for riding with Hyde and Soup's International Airlines. As you can tell, my pilot right here really knows. knows the benefit of a great sunny day. Uh, co-pilot, uh, hide.

How you doing? I look over at Suves and just roll my eye and just keep, keep focusing on what we're doing. I'm not interested in the banter. Did ever tell you about the time I found a body in the basement? Not that again. Come on, and it's a great story. You in the back, you like it? You want to hear about the time I found a body?

We creep into the back of the Chinook where, where the cargo is kept and where people, there are seats, and there's basically just two people in here. The two of you can hear over the loudspeaker, the co-pilot soup, saying this stuff and kind of imploring you to interact with them. Yeah, I heard what you army fucks do with bodies. I don't want to hear the end of that sentence. Oh, look, soups, we got ourselves a happy camper in the back.

I was going to say, sir, unless you... your idea is that's comedy. I would recommend sticking to day job. And by the way, I love how his thoughts were doing that with the body. Yeah. That says a lot more about you than me, right? I mean, it really would. You should have really heard the story first before you made definitive statements, but you know, whatever. If we could concentrate on flying the machine that is in the sky before we touch the ground, that would be fantastic. Ma'am, you are flying with two of the best pilots this side of the kush. So just strap your little self in and enjoy the ride. Zach, would you describe your character and their current opinions about Afghanistan?

It's bad. And that's for all the questions you asked me. But no, Lenita Morrison, or Len for short, is, I have in my description here, compact stud. They are very, very short, kind of live, but because they are, Because of their profession, they have, like, the muscle that comes with work, not, like, vanity muscle. Very short haircut. I'm thinking, like, Shuri and Black Panther, too, if you need a quick image. They're sitting on the side with their arms folded, wanting this to be over. Flying isn't their favorite.

It's not a bad thing. It's just so loud and so much. It is loud, and it is a lot. But you can, thanks to Hyde Success on the earlier role, You can tell that this is a competent pilot as they navigate through the lower terrain here. Caleb, could you describe your character and what do they do to pass the time while they're waiting? He is playing with this like Dollar Store 7-Eleven Zippo lighter with a very phallic imagery that has been carved into the side of it. And he is just trying desperately to get it to light and he can't seem to get any flame out of it.

He is maybe the least CIA-looking individual possible. He has hair down to his shoulders in this long, straight, dirty blonde. Big mustache. He has this wiry, too thin for combat, almost weaselish form, taller than normal, but skinny to the frame. But just like, like Alet there, he has that worked muscle in. He's wearing a baseball cap with a black cat as iconography on the front of it. And the thermal that he wears under the Kevlar vest that is protecting most of his body

is just enough to cover most of his tattoos, except for a hamda on one side of his wrists and an evil eye on the other. And he has just this, his eyes are never focused on one thing for too long. He is constantly bouncing about the cabin. He's bouncing about the Zippo. He's looking up towards the pilots. He's floating around the room constantly. You guys, you fly these a lot.

You guys are competent pilots. You've been doing this a while? What is this? Suf's tour two? You know what? It's a little rocky after the third one. Yeah. I don't know.

You know, one desert after the other, after the other, they just, you know, every time we go back, They just sent us right here. So, yeah, let's just say that we've been here for like a minute. Yeah, they all kind of blend together. Well, the problem with being efficient is they bring it back quite a bit. Yeah. You prove to them once you can get something done,

and God, they will pull every fucking bucket from that well, huh? Yeah. Do you blink? Sometimes, yeah, if you ask real nice, I'll do anything for you. Hey, what's the worst thing y'all have seen out here? You done two tours. You must have seen something. What's gone out?

Well, what's the situation? I mean, we don't come down here much. I mean, how long have you been out here? Because, frankly, I don't like to kiss and tell. Well, if you don't want to share, we don't got to share. We can shut up and sit. But I thought, you know, we can act like a second grade and pull something out and tell the class. It doesn't have to be the worst thing. Maybe just an interesting fact. Just for the sake of conversation. Oh, I have an interesting fact, actually, about today, July 15th. Harry Potter, Deathly Hallows Part 2. Comes out. Anyone going to see it?

No? I'm a little busy. I am. I'm not much into the wizard shit. I don't get it. I mean, you could just easily have brought a 9mm and solve that whole story. If someone, if even one person had one, it would be maybe one book, maybe a short story. Oh, no, I can't hear, oh, can't hear you guys in the back who don't like Harry Potter. I'm flipping arms off. Thank you. Sups is like doing that jerk off movement back and just like, sorry.

They piss me off. They're annoying. I don't like them. They're worse than Marines. I swear to Christ. Agent Ice, Asian Pilgrim, you know why you are on this Chinook. And with this moment of calms being cut,

where you're just able to basically communicate with each other, is there anything you want to say before the Chinook lands? So what, this fuck are you went walking out into the desert in the middle of the night? No fucking reason. No communication with us, with our people, with, I mean, death sentence into the middle of nowhere with no communication. What's on the mind of a fucker like that? I mean, what's some motive?

That's the problem. I don't think it's a person making a decision. I think it's something worse. I don't think there's a mind to make a decision like that. Or he didn't go on his own. Something walked him off. Yeah. I mean, my first goes to like fear or calling, right?

Like something so big you couldn't ignore it, right? Right. I don't know. It's a good way to die. What's our first step when we land? I know you probably already got the whole thing fucking mapped out, right? Okay, yes, yes. But whatever these people that are supposed to be showing us were to go,

we need to make up with them first. Because this is going to be a bitch and a half. Yeah, yeah, I just want you to keep your fucking eye on the prize because sometimes you get a little too close to these people. And I just don't want you to be... They're going to help us, sure, but let's just remember why we're here yet? Yeah, we're here to find somebody. Yeah, yeah, but you got this soft heart about you. You wear that shit on your sleeve and I just want you to know that that's how you get fucking slit.

When we get down there and they get us to where we're going, that's it. We detach. We fucking cut the train and we move forward, okay? Because really, truly, it should just be the three of us out there in that desert. You, me, and this fuck are we got to find. If you're the one doing the detaching, there should be one person holding on, one person that's not. How many times are you going to, like, I feel like you're still breaking me over the coast for this. We can both move on from this situation. I don't need you to hold on or anything or worry about me or worry about what it's going to mean when we walk away from these people. But the easiest option is if we do it ourselves once we know where we're going.

Because more people add more circumstances, add more consequences, add more things that you and I are going to have to deal with. And we've done this too many fucking times to know that any of them are going to help us. I would love not to worry about you. What the fuck does that mean? Look, at the lightest, you just bragged about how great you could clear out what is effectively a middle school. I'm just saying the wizards aren't very good at their fucking jobs, okay?

A vatic cadaver is not faster than an M4. That's all I'm saying. They don't even have a PE program. I agree, but the point is it's weird to be this heated this early. We're just here to talk to people, find a guy who's hopefully just tripping off his balls in the forest, and come back. Yeah, but I just, you and I know that it's not tripping balls in the forest.

It never is. We always say that. We start off every single. single one of these fucking things saying, well, what if this one's fucking normal? And then we watch, I'm gonna stop. But yeah, I'm on you. But I need you to know that what happened had to happen. And what we're doing now, it's gonna be better.

And you don't have to worry about me because I wasn't going off the handle. I was protecting us. Yeah, okay. I have had your back since fucking day one, since we were, little baby since we were on the fucking egg. I know. It's going to be that way. Yeah.

I just hope you're feeling the same way. You're not looking at me from behind my back like I'm some fucking monster. No, man, you're on my team. You're on my fucking team. Okay, I'm with you. I just, I want us to move together. I don't want to have to worry about jumping the gun. Okay.

We're cool? The other side of the pillow, man. We're cool. You look out one of the portholes to a landing site in the hills of a mountain. The helicopter descends toward a designated helipad, and hide you carefully adjust the speed and altitude to ensure smooth landing. As the helicopter touches down, the rotor blades slow to a stop, and the large cabin bay door in the back smoothly glides open.

You can see an individual waiting to greet you at the edge of the landing site. I think that Pilgrim is like fucking itching to be off of the, this plane, so he'll hop off and adjust the cavalier and all of that gear that weighs him down. I mean, he's just adjusting the weight and everything, and he'll walk over, not even really questioning any of it, put out his hand to shake theirs. Yeah. Yeah, I think she's doing the thing that you check to make sure no one forgot anything, even though we're on a fucking plane in the desert, uh, and just puts her best, like, regional manager face on and walks forward. Agent Ice and Pilgrim, you are greeted by a tall, muscular man.

dressed in fatigues. He shakes each of your hands and says, welcome to Fob Turner. I'm Captain Byers. Strong arm. Hi, you could just call me Len. This is my colleague Tell. We'll be here to figure this shit out. Hopefully we come out winters, huh?

Yeah, yeah, it's good to meet you, Captain. It's good that you're so gung-ho about meaning us on the fucking tarmac. I mean, we got welcoming committee and everything. It's good to meet you. Well, it's just a polite thing to do. No worries. Why don't you follow me back to my tent? He begins walking with you into the base.

What's going on with the pilots? I'm going to wait for both the, like, for them to deport. So when I'm taking my headset off, I'm going to, like, grab, hide by there and be like, good? Yeah, I'm good. Think, once I find buyers, ask around a little bit. Figure out where he's at. Campbell, I appreciate you doing this man.

I know we're supposed to be like a couple days off, and like this is an extra thing. But I do appreciate you coming with me on this one. Just get down on your knees and propose me already. Stupid ass, bitch. She's still in loving with me. I know you. I know. It's not going to happen.

I'm sorry. Fuck off. My heart belongs to another. Come on. Oh, fuck off. Get out of here. Get off the plane. I love the copter.

Pilots, you see the two intelligence officers that you were tasked with bringing here, meeting what you must assume is Captain Byers, and they are walking into the base. You want to come with me to talk to Byers, or do you want to stay with the bird? Let me go stretch my legs out. Let's go. All right. We're going to slowly head towards follow where they're going to Byers' tent.

No, I'm going to allow a high take a little bit. bit more lead because I'm kind of like their junior. So I'm going to be like even though they're equal, I'm going to let them take point. Agent says Byers walks you through the camp to his office. You get a good look at the base. It stands in the mountains in a rough, rocky area broken up by steep river valleys that were once heavily forested but now seem a lot more sparse with years of deforestation. Scrub brush and scraggly trees cling to the dusty ground where muddy flows. It's summer, hot, and thirsty. As you walk, Byers explains that Fob Turner has been in the process of standing down for months. Only about 60 U.S. soldiers

remain in huts, built for 1,000. Organized in two platoons, commanded by Captain Byers and his two lieutenants, Castro in Jacobson. He points out to another section of the basin says about 120 Afghan National Army soldiers have moved in and are being prepped and trained by the American troops. There's been an uneasy ceasefire with the regional Taliban. Things were peaceful for the last few months until this week. You continue walking, you pass through some of the off-duty soldiers hanging around their bunks. Lev, could you describe your character and what they might be up to on their time off? You see a kind of small in stature framed like a gymnast person.

They've got buzz cut, black hair, probably every minute, run their hand through. Their face has a couple scars where piercings used to be. There's one in their eyebrow. There's one on the side of their lip. They've got freckles, and I guess the most interesting thing about them is that they have one green eye and one brown eye. You see them tossing a football back and forth with another. They're pretty low ranking.

They've got their, like, army jacket tied around their way, so they've just got the kind of tan brown shirt on top, their pants on the bottom, and they're, like, they look like they're trying to throw the football beyond the other corporal and make him run as much as fucking possible while staying in one spot. They rarely exert themselves to catch the ball when it's not in their wingspan kind of area. You, along with every other soldier in the area, pick up on these intelligence officers and the captain walking amongst your ranks, heading towards their office. Joining the captain is his lieutenant, Lieutenant Castro, another well-built Spanish man. It seems like buyers whisper something to Lieutenant Castro, who kind of breaks off from the agents, heads up.

up to you, Lopez, and calls you off the field and to join him. Me? Come on, Captain's orders. Yes, sir. I turn, and I chuck the ball one last time as hard as possible, and I say, Ravelle, you're not hauling ass enough, man, come on. And slowly, they pull a, like a lollipop out of their pocket, like a dumb-dum, stick it in their mouth and kind of slouch off behind Castro, not, definitely not try to

trying to look the part of an army soldier, looking more like a moody teen than anything. I think Castro probably notices, and before entering the tent, he will stop you and kind of start brushing your shoulders back, putting your arms in place. Man, quit. It's fine. We're soldiers here, so act like it. Yes, sir. And they'll kind of brush their own shoulders off, like they're trying to wipe away. the touch of Castro

and crack their neck keep the sucker in their mouth but kind of comport themselves physically more like a soldier and enter behind. You have all entered this tent you were hoping for a little bit of relief

from the extreme sun and while you do get that it is still as arid and hot in this tent probably more so just because of the trap moisture but you are able to act Captain Byers' office is basically made up of a desk, a couple of filing cabinets, a computer, pretty Spartan. He sits down, offers you seats.

Lopez and Castro stand behind you, and the captain doesn't really beat around the bush. He kind of immediately gets into it. He understands why you're here. And he says, I appreciate you guys coming. I have to be honest, there isn't a lot for me to offer you. We just don't really know much about what happened to Morales. He kept mostly to himself while he was here. He's been here for a few months.

But in those months, he became increasingly isolated, especially in the last few weeks. A few days ago, tenant Castro here decided to check up on him because we had not heard from him. And we found his hut empty. Morales missing. He seemed to have cleaned it out and left it pretty empty. Security footage shows Ellis pacing outside his hut one night, and then he was gone the next. Buyers kind of finishes there and doesn't really have much more to say beyond that. So his bunks are empty.

He was super weird a couple of days before. Do we have any word? Did he say anything? Do we have a search history? Anything at all? I think he may have had a computer, but I don't have that on me right now. We haven't really tossed his room, to be honest with you. So if you wanted to look into that, that might be a good place to start.

We haven't touched it since we saw that he disappeared. Did he work with anybody on base? I know that he was part of a major intelligence, but sometimes they'll use the resources around the base, right? Was there anybody he used in particular or any place in Turner that he... was familiar with? Well, like I said, he did kind of keep to himself, but there were officers on base

who he interacted with with one reason or another. I believe he spoke with our interpreter, a man named Yassim, who is on site currently. He traveled the area a little bit, and for that reason, requested a driver. so I sent two officers with him, one named Bryant and another named Booker. Okay. Yeah, we'll have to see if maybe he had a destination in mine, or maybe he was just touring the area.

He, he, you said you had footage. You have footage of where he left in the direction of. Where was he headed, if you can? Yeah, yeah, and he signals to Castro, who kind of goes behind one of the shelves and brings out a small DVD player. They set the DVD player down and begin to play it. And what you see is a security camera kind of at an angle looking at a row of these tents,

clearly the sleeping area. And sure enough, outside of one of these tents is a man that fits Liam Morales' description, pacing back and forth in front of his tent, smoking a cigarette. Repeatedly throughout the footage, there are moments of static. Something breaks the feed, and Captain Byers preemptively explains that there is strange electromagnetic interference all around this valley, so this is pretty par for the course.

Sure enough, one of those bouts of static lasts for about 15 to 20 seconds, and when it dissipates, Morales is gone. So we don't even see him leave. I mean, we figure he probably jumped the fence, and no one's really looking for folks leaving. People on patrol are looking for folks trying to get in. We had a... Do you have a camera on the fence that he supposedly jumped over?

We do have one or two facing the fences, but nothing conclusive. Do they all cut out at that same time, I'm guessing? Yes, yeah. You said that you had reached a sort of peace in the valley until just recently, right? Yeah, things have been good. We have been trying to complete our current mission of handing over the reins to the Afghans. And do they experience the same 15 to 22nd pulse of interruption? I mean, if you're in conversation, is that something that they would even tell us?

Speaking with their leaders, yes, I believe they were and are aware of the. strange static issues in this valley, but it seems to have always been the case, so they don't really pay it much mind. Hey, when your life's an episode of Ghost Hunters, you don't go calling. He kind of turns his head, not completely getting the joke, but, uh, ghost hunters, like, they're always talking about electromagnet. No, man, I get it. I watch the fuck out of those.

Yeah, the grunt gets it. Why is the grunt here, by the way? Lopez, by the way. Who are you? Lopez, at attention, please. Oh, sorry. Sorry, Captain. This is Lopez, Rory Lopez.

I'm going to ask them to assist you while you're here. Lopez, I want you to look after them, make sure that they're taking care of. They can have their own huts, any access to whatever we might have on site you're welcome to. I have assigned two MRAPs as protection. They are on standby in case you do need transportation for some reason. I hope you understand. I'm trying to be as compliant with you as I can be. but I am operating at a slight disadvantage here without a full staff.

Right, you're living in a ghost town. I must get lonely down here. You like your ghosts, don't you? No, I just realized I put the two metaphors right next to each other. I'm running out of it. I'm not very well-worded. Thank you, Captain Byers, for this lovely debrief. If it's possible, we'd like to be shown to our quarters now. Of course, immediately the lieutenant can show you. Lopez, stay behind.

I, I, captain. Castro leads the two agents out of the tent, and Lopez, you can feel the familiar tension in the air when the captain is getting ready to ream you again. And he steps up to you, kind of sizing you up, and says, Lopez, I was kind of hoping that I could give you a little bit of responsibility without you fucking it up. Do you think you could do that? Yeah, man, I, uh,

Never really had a chance so far, so happy to stretch my leadership wings, as it were. I'm going to look past your insubordination because we're close to the end here, and to be honest, I find it cute. Thanks. That's what I've gotten by on that a lot, honestly. So, uh, and, and, like, Lopez is probably, like, five foot one at most. He takes a step closer to you and softens his voice and even more and says, if these agents poke, or prod or go anywhere that they're not supposed to do, I would like you to report it to me. You understand? I'll snitch, sure.

Specifics. Where aren't they allowed to look? Because usually if there's muckety mucks from the wherever's, you guys are bending over your own dicks to make sure that they get what they want. He makes it clear that they are basically allowed access to whatever they need to get the job done. There is very clear intention from him

that he wants them out of here, out of his hair and this story of the missing boy, Liam Morales, to go away as soon as possible. The obvious things are places like personal quarters other than Morales's, and his office, places where information and security are very important. Otherwise, the communications room, the stockade, the weapons cash, they're welcome to all of it, and he reminds you that there are two MRAPs. which are armored personnel carriers that are available if they need to use it. And he insists upon you that they always have a team of soldiers in one of the MRAPs going along with them.

Are we hiding something at this base? We're not hiding anything other than the relevant information of troops and our resources. We're keeping... This is compartmentalization, Lopez. This is normal. Okay, but like, aren't they CIA? Like, aren't they supposed to know shit like this? I was told that they're military intelligence, but, and he kind of like shrugs his shoulders, like, they're obviously not. Oh, so there's something, there's something sketchy.

Then why the fuck did you let him on the base, Captain? Like, above my pay grade. All right, man. Uh, I got you. Uh, know where they need to be. Know where they don't need to be. Don't embarrass us Lopez. I make no promises on that front.

Um, I'll do my best, though. Scouts honor. I was never a scout, but, you know. It's all I can ask of you. Sir, yes, sir, and they salute with their sucker, slam one down on the desk, start to leave, and then turn at the door and go, oh, am I dismissed?

Dismissed. Thank you, sir. Salute out the door. My two pilots, what are you doing in this time? I think if we'd be waiting, I would be waiting out Byers' tent. Maybe I missed the agents, but I probably would have passed Lopez on the way out.

What's up? Y'all flew that bird? Yeah. Rad. What's that? Like, honestly, because I'm thinking about, like, changing career paths. If I'm being totally frank, don't let, you know, no. How much training do you have to do for that? I look at their rank on their chest and look back up at them. Got a lot of work to do, kid. I mean, I came from But, fuck, nowhere, Ohio. I got here.

Oh, that's app, man. I came from New fucking Mexico, like desert to desert. shit. Yeah, but at least it's like good scenery. We got nothing. You know what? Ohio. New Mexico. We're not there. Where are you from? Turns to hide. I'm from Hawaii. Oh, sick. Y'all got like jungles and shit there, yeah? They're more like forests. Yeah. Oh, man. There's like no fucking trees. The flap of Captain Byers tent opens up and he yells, Lopez, get moving now. It's an order. Ah, sir. Yes, sir. Ah, yeah. Yes. Been in honor, birds.

We'll catch you later, Lopez. He watches with these like dagger eyes as Lopez walks away. And then he realizes there's two people here that he doesn't recognize. Can I help you? I'll turn on heels and I'll enter the tent and I will salute the captain. And I'll say Conan Morales, sir. And I'm going to, uh, soups is, uh, Amy's going to chuckle, fight the chuckle off, but also go to attention.

co-pilot Amy Campbell, sir. You're the pilots, huh? Yes, sir. Welcome to Turner. What can I do for you? I'm looking for somebody, sir. Somebody who has stationed at this operating base. And who would that be? Liam Morales, sir.

He kind of cocks his head and his eyes narrow and he says, Conna Morales, you're Liam's sister. Yes, sir. You called me a couple days ago asking about him. And I asked for a presence on this base, and you denied it. And yet you're here anyway. They needed an escort. Funny how that worked out.

I'm in good graces with the one in charge of me, sir. Those two intelligence officers are your superior officers while you're out on the field anyway, so just don't fuck around at my base. Never, sir. I'm simply here to do the job. Look, I am sorry about your brother. If you want to know more about him, you need to speak to those officers, because I don't have much to tell them.

Your brother was here one minute, and then he was gone. Then I'll do that, sir. Morales, you are a pilot. I would just recommend that you leave this to those who are capable of doing the job of finding a missing person. Absolutely, sir. I'm here just to fly the plane and make sure those two officers stay alive. Is that all? That is all. You are dismissed.

Given salute, and I'll turn heels and I'll leave. Sir, I just want clarification. Permission to use mess halls, wreck facilities. Of course. My base is your. your base officer. So make yourself at home. Just don't embarrass yourself or the base and you'll be fine. As long as you guys don't have that extra spicy chili, I'll be fine. Yeah, as you walk out, you notice you managed to put a smile on his face. And just turn, walk out.

Hi. What? So we're not going to talk about the world's worst acting performance from the captain about your brother? No, I mean, I'm very much aware that captain's going to talk about the worst acting performance from the captain's He's going to try to fucking, you know, he's not got a good intentions. He did not expect me to be cute. You know? How would you like to handle this? I want to talk to the people that Liam had mentioned that he's been hanging around on the space. There's two specialists that have been driving around, Brian and Booker.

I got to go find wherever the fuck his tent is. So I think the first thing we should do is just find Booker and Bryant. Okay, just try the mess hall first. Get her some... I'm relaxed. I'm fine. See, this is you getting hangary. You're getting hungry. You didn't eat, and I'm going to have to deal with your whiny ass. So we're going to tall around.

Go on to mess hall. Stuff your face. Shut up, and then we'll go ahead, and then we'll just go swing by your... Let's go. All right, all right. The two of you know that going to the mess hall is a great way to speak with the other soldiers and kind of lay some groundwork to get the information that you need. While you are eating, you do learn that Bryant and Booker typically hang out together.

they can probably be found amongst the MRAPs. So Specialist Bryant is the mechanic, and the two of them are usually hanging out amongst the vehicles. So you can find them there. Agents, you are led by Lieutenant Castro to two empty bunks that are Spartan in their setup with a cot and some utilities like desks and chairs. And it is early in the day, probably before noon.

How would you like to proceed? I'll catch Castro just before he leaves and ask him Could you do me a favor before you leave us to it Could you get me the personnel file on Lopez If they're going to be working with this Yeah of course In fact they've already

Had it printed out for you Here's Lopez and here is Morales And he hands you two files That go basically over the details of Their stay here at Turner Obviously, Morales' is a little lighter. Lopez appears to be a low-ranking soldier who has a couple of demerits. Responsibility has avoided them, whether by accident or by design.

But they seem to be a competent soldier, just not a well-behaved one. Castro leaves, and around that time, Lopez appears by your bunks. Lopez announces themselves by crunching loudly on their dum-dum in their mouth and sticking the still sticky stick. Oh, sticking the still sticky stick in their pocket. Military intelligence officers, suits in our midst. Hello, my name is Corporal Lopez. I'm here to assist you in any way that you need.

When we take the MRAPs out, I'll gather some soldiers. I'm really here to just help with whatever you all need, so I'm here. Yeah. Yeah, that's real good. That was a great intro. What flavor was that? It was one of those, like, mystery ones. I think it was being yucalotta, if I'm being honest.

It's usually banana, if I'm being honest. Look, I like banana, if I'm being honest. We're saying if I'm being honest too many times. What was your name again? You were Tell and you are who? You can just call me Lynn. Like, like Lynn Goodman. Don't call me Lenny, but yes.

Lopez, I get the feeling that us working together is a form of punishment for you. No, I was actually told that this was a responsibility and not to embarrass the fob, so... How do you think you're doing so far? Oh, fucking ass, man. I'm not built for this shit. I'm honestly in the army for... It doesn't matter why I'm in the fucking army. I'm trying to do my best, my guy, so...

Yeah, yeah. If you could just refrain from the my guy, if you really do want to... to up that score. The my guy would be the first to go for me. What's the best, uh, what's the best way to address you then, fella? The sir was real good, but really if you could just stick to tell, which

is again, my name. Did you ever meet, Liam? Um, maybe like in passing. He was like, he was a little weird. He like kept to himself. He didn't really like hang out in the mess or do anything. Like, I'd see him, he paced a lot and he seemed like

He was like, he was like a cerebral dude, you know? Yeah, and I can tell how that might be shocking for you. Hey, that was almost an insult. Almost. I'm specializing that. I like to run the middle line, so if you blink too fast, you miss it. Clearly, the guy was odd, but any, I don't know, creepy interests, spooky interests, did you talk about things that weren't there?

Did it seem like maybe he should go home a little quicker than somebody else? Serge, I, like, saw him in passing at most, yeah? Yeah, Agent Ice, you get the feeling that most of the soldiers here didn't seem to have much of a relationship with Morales. From what Captain Byers said, the way Lopez is describing what they knew about them, this man kept to himself and the few names that Byers gave you are probably the easiest ways to get any information about Morales' personal life on this base. But, yeah, no, he'd, like, hang around if I was watching Ghosts.

adventures, but then if I tried to, like, talk to him about fucking Zach Beggins or whatever, he'd be like, man, and then he'd peace out. There are some ghost adventures. Zach Baggins is not on one. Have you been on a ghost adventure, dude? No. Excuse me. I appreciate the team building that's happening in this room right now, but I would love to just

get going. Yeah, let's go toss the tent. Well, yeah, Lopez will lead the way across the camp toward where Morales is. where else's tent was, on the way, they take another sucker out of their pocket, stick it in their cheek, and then kind of like gesture over their shoulder with two more as like kind of an offering to the other two. Uh-huh, cute, thanks. I will just take it.

Pilgrim takes his and tosses it clean over his shoulder and steps back to talk to Len. Hey, so, like, get this. They just started vacating this place. right? Yeah. They just started pulling everybody out of this place. They're looking to demilitarize the situation, right? But they also just mentioned that their time of peace has

just recently come to an end, right? What are you seeing that? Do you see anything? I'm getting hackled. I can feel something like I've been here before. There's smoke, but we're not fighting. That means it's something too big for us to fight. It takes a lot for the United States government to leave a place.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And unbidden, you know, with no real reason to and of course the electromagnetic shit is where you and I are headed but I mean there's about a million different things that that could be we need to find one what caused it two if we can get that missing footage I mean who even knows if we can and obviously tell us keeping this as far from Lopez as possible but he takes an extra double step away and says we couldn't even tell if that's actually electromagnetic I mean for all we know maybe by is keeping something from us.

You know, footage goes missing all the time. I'm worried about the exact time that he disappeared, too. It's usually some witching hour bullshit, and I... It might be worth to just keep eyes out if we get that time stamp. Yeah, because without knowing that he went somewhere, there's no telling that he went somewhere. I mean, people get snatched up out of the fucking sky all the fucking time.

I mean, you're here, one moment, you've gone the next, you exist, and every moment you've ever had. So who's to tell this is the moment that you don't, you know, fucking vaporize, you know? Yeah. Also, don't get at me about being touchy feeling when now you have your ghost friend with Zach Biggins or whatever the fuck. Are you kidding me?

I could bullshit about Zach Bagan's with fucking anybody. I don't, this little fucking piece of shit grunt. Are you kidding me? Did you read that personnel out file? That is the last person we needed to start getting close with. I agree. I mean, you ever watch fucking Star Trek? That is a red shirt.

walking motherfucker. No, but I've seen, I understand the reference. I've seen enough essays and material about it to kind of understand what that means. So you never, so you haven't watched Star Trek, but you've read essays on Star Trek? It's very important. The historical, you know what? Yes. Ice, that fucking hurts.

That sucks ass what you just said to me. As someone who reads a lot of lore about shit I never watch or play, I feel very, very seeing. Thank you. We're going to walk over to Morales' town with catch up with Lopez. You step into Morales' hut, and what you find is

very Spartan, and it stinks like bleach in here. There's a desk and a cot, and under the cot, you can see that there is some kind of folded canvas bag. You smell that? Yeah, it's cover-up is what it smells like. It's weird to be spraying that much bleach around. You wouldn't have been doing it today, before he left, right?

Well, pacing being known as a pacer, it's giving obsessive-compulsive. He probably did. Do the two of you allowed Lopez to enter, or do you ask them to stay outside? I think I will suggest that they stay outside, and I will make it clear that this is an opportunity for growth for you, and I hope that you can't.

You got it, Len. Lopez kicks up against one of the supports and definitely tries to listen in on anything that they're saying. When you feel ready, Lev, make that alertness role to see if you hear them throughout the course of this scene. In the meantime, the two of you are alone in this tent. How would you like to proceed? I grab the canvas back, put it on the bed, and start emptying things one at a time.

I'm going to, like, sweep the room. I mean, prison guard, you know, full-on investigation status. I'm tossing everything over. I'm, you know, opening fabrics if I have to. I'm over-searching. Why don't you, Pilgrim, give me an alertness check. Ice, you pull the bag out from underneath,

and it is a U.S. State Department seal. It has a U.S. State Department seal, and it's clearly a diplomatic pouch. There is a warning on it to not open without permission, and there is a padlock on it. Okay. Does it seem like this, whatever it's sealed with, like, if I, could I guess the object inside just on, like, feeling the outside, or I have to open it to know what's in there? You kind of jiggle the bag, and you can feel that there are maybe multiple things that weigh a couple pounds, two, three, three to five pounds.

And there are other things kind of jiggling, jingling inside. You hear the sound of metal. I say it out loud. This bag very clearly says, don't open it. I'm going to open it. We ready? Yep. Great. If there's like a, like a, not a clip, like lock cutters or something. Would you be carrying bolt cutters? No, because we already put our shit down.

Then I'm going to go, fuck, I'm going to go talk to Lopez. You got bolt cutters in that, MRAP, something that can cut through metal real quick? Bolt, bolt cutters. Just something to cut metal, yeah. Yeah, for sure. I can go grab one. I'll run to the nearest supply tent and pick some up. Do I get to see what's inside since I went and got you bolt cutters?

Lopez kind of like puts props their chin on their, on their fist and looks at you. Len, don't say yes to that. You could say yes to it. You can bullshit about ghost adventures with fucking anybody. I will disclose information that is irrelevant to you at a later day. Hold on, that's irrelevant to me. I don't care about shit that's irrelevant to me. None of this is your business.

I'm saying I might tell you something that we find in there. Yeah, there's a kick-ass bed in here. Pilgrim, did you succeed on your roll? Yes, I have a 40 under 80. Like I described, this room has very, very little. The cot is so thin that searching it feels ridiculous as you just kind of roll it up and feel around. There's nothing inside.

The desk is literally just a desk with no drawers. The only thing that stands out is two things. One, there is a trash can by the desk and there are several dirtied rags along with a can of bleach in that trash can. Ah, shit. Okay, well, yeah, it's definitely a cover-up. I mean, Len, I got the bottle right here, some rags. I'm gonna pick up the rags and see if I can tell what it's

journeyed with? Well, you can tell that they reek of bleach and there is some kind of brown, ruddy, reddish something on it. Yeah, you're having a hard time kind of telling what it is. You have a little bit

in forensics and when he kind of points out this stuff you can tell, according to the kind of spread on the towel, it's probably very old dry blood. Okay. So yeah, that's exactly what it looks like. Great. But the footage didn't show any obvious injuries, right? No obvious injuries that were apparent in this kind of low-quality footage, yes.

But then, I mean, he goes missing during that little gasp and anything can happen to him after that. Pilgrim, you're saying this and you're pointing out the rags and you notice the second thing in the center of the floor, where maybe some of the dirt has been moved away, it looks like there's something on the ground. Not really an indentation, like someone was moving the ground around with their fingers. Len, get by the door, take your gun out, yeah? She's there.

He moves to the center. He's going to unstring his shotgun by the strap off one hand and then just keep it held aloft in his right, and then very carefully peel back the fabric to get a look at whatever this is in the dirt with his left hand. You look more closely here and you can tell this is where the bleach was used.

Something was rubbed out of the ground. And Agent Ice has some forensics experience more than you do. And you've seen them bust out the occasional UV light, that kind of thing. You call for it. They hand you the UV light and you begin running it

across the floor and you can see the remains of old stained blood finger painted onto the ground. There are two phrases that are legible on the ground. The first one are two words, Kali Gadi. The second phrase says, death awakens the sleeper. Pilgrim starts like mimicking and mouthing out the words to that. And in fact, he even at first gives speech to it and then cuts him off immediately as he remembers what he's been through before. And knows for a fact what these things can do if they're said. And so he calls over Len with his free hand. His shotgun's still resting in the dirt. And he points it out.

Well, that's the weird we were looking for. You speak enough of their language? Does this register for local? What is your score in the foreign language? 40. I think that's good enough. You have heard this term. Well, it's really not so much that you've heard this term.

You know enough of the language to understand what these words probably imply. Caligati basically translates to something like the Black Valley or Death Valley. There are probably many more iterations, but those are the main two words that come to mind when you read that. Black Valley, Death Valley. What the? That's not what this place is called, right? That's a different place.

It's got to mean something, right? There's got to be more, I don't know. But they cleaned something up here, whether it was, I don't know, what he was thinking. We should go talk with that. Interpreter, see what we can find out about this phrase, what it means. So, I mean, finger pain in your own blood. That's days of work. You can't just do that.

Reminds me. don't know if it's his. You think you could take a sample? Maybe we can find someone. I mean, it'll be a while before the lab gets anything back to us, but at least then we'd have some proof. Yeah, I'm going to take one of the rags, and if there's, like, dirt that's specifically, like, worth collecting or super-stained, I'll take both of those. Yeah, I would say that the rags of bleach have probably destroyed any DNA that is useful. So I will say that you can probably find a little bit of dry blood left on the ground, and you take a sample of that.

You've received the bolt cutter, and you are reminded of the bag. You go through the process of cracking open one side of the lock, and you are able to easily remove it. I think I just start emptying things one at a time on the bed. But I put on gloves. I should say that. What you find inside are a few cast-off gun cleaning supplies. You find 18 used 9mm shells. You pull out the wreckage of a laptop computer.

It is clear that bullets have been shot through the computer several times. There is a small mountain of empty mouthwash bottles. And finally, you pull out a half. burnt journal. You immediately open the journal up and you can tell that it is written in some kind of cipher or code that was probably personal to Morales. Ice turns around to Pilgrim holding the journal with the open cipher. It's a puzzle one. Oh, fuck. Not again. We're going to be here for weeks. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I need some place that's, I need, I need some place to work. We got to talk to the interpreter, but this is going to be a night. Yeah, it's going to be a night. Let's cut away

to the pilots. Pilots, you've had your meal and you have gotten the information you needed about where Bryant and Booker are, and you head over. Sure enough, there are Humvees and MRAPs and other vehicles that are used for the area, and hunched over an engine block is a short, skinny man who is kind of perpetually got a grin on his face. As soon as you enter the room, he kind of looks to see whether he needs to salute you, doesn't see that there's a need and kind of gives you a chin up

and kind of goes back to his work. Standing across, or rather sitting across, reading a Playboy magazine is a very brawny man who you can assume is probably Booker. You Booker, you Bryant? Who's asking? I'm asking.

Yeah. I'm Booker. That's Bryant, the man holding the playboy says and points to Bryant. And Brian kind of hops off of the vehicle and, you know, gives you a hello. As they both talk, you can tell that they are probably from the Philadelphia area. They have a little bit of an accent. And at least one of them seems like a real city boy. You all know Liam Morales, yeah?

They both kind of roll their eyes, like not again. What's what the eye rolls? What's that? What's that about? What? We just, we don't want to get involved. whatever the hell Liam has gotten himself involved in.

Like, you got to... The man walks out into the desert and what? Now suddenly he's my responsibility? I mean, if you're responsible for him. Well, I'm not. I was just his driver. Hold on. Let's take it down a notch. Hi. You call me soups. Call this one hide.

That's a nice issue you have right there. It's all right. See, we can... We good. We apologize. We just needed clarification because we're stuck bringing these people back and forth and bases and we just thought we'd just ask around some questions. That was it.

Are you guys the intelligence officers? Do we look like intelligence? My God. No, you look like pilots. Damn fucking right. Oh my God. You scared me. Shit. Jesus. What do you want to know about Liam? Liam's my brother. Oh, shit.

Yeah. So just keep this between us. I'm just looking out for my brother. Booker, who was like kind of back leaning against the wall, not really interested in getting himself involved in another. person looking for Liam, closes the book and kind of leans forward and, you know, the gossip is like gold here in the fob, so he's certainly intrigued by what you just said. Look, I'm not trying to stir any trouble, and I don't mean to make it your problem, but I lost contact with my brother a couple days ago. I just want to make sure he's good. And obviously, it doesn't seem like he is. It took a hell of a lot of way to get me here

just to come and look him in person. Can you help me out, Elise, man? I just want to know what's been up lately. Bryant looks back at Booker, and they kind of look at each other, and Booker says, hey, man, I'm sorry. I didn't know he was your brother. It's all good. He was an okay guy.

Me and Brian, we just accompanied him as he drove around. There's a village nearby, Kloos Kelle. It's the local tribe. For some reason, he wanted to talk to him, couple of times, but that's it. We really didn't interact with him much more beyond whenever he asked us to drive him around. He never mentioned anything to you guys, no small talk, no nothing. I mean, small talk about what? Home life, family life, I don't know, like, you know, just general chit-chat, anything interesting. Did he like the food? Did he hate the food?

Hide, make a persuasion check, and you can have plus 20% because you have convinced these guys that you're part of the team, you're just another soldier, you're looking for answers for your missing brother. That's a successful one. Whoa. Let's go. This is OG hide. These boys are hesitant, and you're thinking about it, and you realize that everyone on this base is hesitant because your brother was not part of this fob, at least not in the way that all the soldiers are. everyone here is scared to become responsible for someone who has done something ridiculous

like wander off into the desert so you realize this hesitance is coming from people who don't want the blame to fall on them but Booker and Bryant start admitting that yeah they took your brother out on a couple of trips and in that process came to know him a little bit and they admit that once or twice Liam mentioned things about what's going to going on at home, trouble with his wife and his child who are estranged from him. Seemed like he was really worried about that stuff, but he also seemed really focused on his work. Yeah, he came off as a little agitated and the two of them tried to make him laugh once in a while to brighten the mood. He ever talked about what he was doing out there at that village, who he was talking to?

They seemed to push back again, a wall coming up. Again, there's this fear that they're going to to get in trouble. Hey man, I'm not here to pulling blame or anything now. I'm going to, I'll do this. I'm going to do this. If it makes it better, would you guys like me to step away? And I'm not hearing anything. Would that make you feel comfortable?

Look, I feel for you. Can you just, can we keep this between just us? Always. Morales, he started, he snuck some contraband onto base, some little bottles of alcohol. We enjoyed it with him once in a while. We drank a little bit, okay? And that's a big no-no, so you can understand why we're a little nervous.

Sure. And once or twice, he got a little too drunk, probably. And I don't know, he talked about this place. What was it called? And Booker speaks up. And what do you say? The Black Valley, and it reminds Brian. Caligati, he said there was this place.

Old Afghan and British Riders said it was, I don't know, some place hidden in the mountains to the east. but doing his research, he couldn't find anything on the maps. And I don't know, he was saying that all the experts thought it was a myth. But apparently he believed that it lied under Vargita Mountain to the east. It's like 40 kilometers north of Turner. But there's nothing really out there. There's no way there's something like that really out there.

The Taliban would have destroyed it or taken it over by now. So, I don't know. We mostly disregarded his drunk ramblings. How was he the last time you saw him? Pretty fucked up, if I could be honest. he was drinking almost every day at that point I don't know he just he kept going on and on

about wanting to find this place wanting to find this Caligati I mean at first he was saying he wanted to drone strike it and take it out into oblivion but before he left before the end he was he was saying that there were old stories about how people at Caligati

find peace and live forever I don't know I think he just wanted to see the truth for himself you know I appreciate it. And this is going to stay between us. Do you know where Liam bunked here? I don't know where he was his tent. Yeah, we escorted him a couple times,

and they point out to you where you can find his tent. Before we leave, I'm going to pull out like a couple of cigarettes from my pocket. I'm going to hand it out to the two guys, see if they were like, thanks, guys. Do either of you have a human intelligence? I do. You hand them the cigarettes. They say thank you. They light them up.

Hyde, you can tell that there's still something that they're holding back. I'm going to be on base until tomorrow or something, whenever these intelligent officers want to ship out to wherever they're going. If you think of anything, please let me know, all right? Because think about it, it would be like a dickish move to leave someone's family who's literally going all this way to, you know, find out. Find it, brother. Hyde, you can give me one more persuade roll.

You will have plus 20 because you're a woman. And that seems to have an effect on these gentlemen. That's a five. Nice. You're rolling well today. I'm rolling very well today. I don't know if that's a good thing. Maybe how I put on the waterwork. This moment that you share between them, you kind of come closer and you look them in the eyes.

And whether you mean to or not, you cause them to kind of soften the way a man does when a attractive woman is asking for help. Booker speaks up and he says, look, there is one last thing. He talked about dreams. He said that he would just have these reoccurring dreams of sounds that weren't sounds, like voices that weren't voices. I don't think it really means anything.

Clearly, he was probably cracking up at that point, but I don't know, it just stood out to me. It was strange because he said he had him a couple of times, like regularly. Okay. Do you know what he said? What the voices said to him? He said he could never understand them, but just that somebody was talking to him. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, we'll see you around the base. Have a good one night, guys. Head out.

You know where Morales's tent is if you want to head in that direction. Yeah, I'll start heading that way. I'm going to catch up, and I want to make sure by the time we're a little bit further away from the guys. I'm just going to... It's like, all you have to do is show him a little tear. and they fucking folded. Well, when you're stuck out of hearing the fucking nowhere, I mean,

the bat an eye can get a mile. I hate doing that shit. But fuck. What does that mean, though, man? Like, he's talking in voices. This doesn't sound like, Liam. You don't know everything what they're saying. They sound like boboes anyways.

Your brother was smarter than those. You know that. There could be something that we're not seeing. Lopez, you see the two pilots walking towards the tent. Lopez is going to take a couple steps away from the tent, kind of breaking off the listening that they'd been doing.

And they're going to probably cross towards the other two. Us up, birds? They'll do like a half-ass salute and like a halfway standard attention because they're technically higher ranking than Lopez's. Can I help you?

I mean, if you're going to do, if you're going to do it, can you at least try more than half-ass? This is about as good as you're going to get with me. Why are you outside this tent? Since you're talking rank, why are you out to decide this tank, corporal? I, sir, I've been told, sir, to speak up. I can't hear you. Sir, I've been tasked to help our guests, sir.

Agents, ICE, and Pilgrim, you can hear Lopez yelling at someone outside. I think Lopez kind of seeing the direction they were going, and I'm assuming they were moving with purpose. So Lopez isn't stupid, and they can maybe infer that they were. going towards Liam's tent. And I think they're going to lower their voice and say, I mean, I heard what they're doing in there, but you don't want to know. Far be it from me to try and step in on your information base.

Shut the fuck up, corporal. Stop. What do you know? Yeah. I'd like to say that at the first sound of loud noise and there's a conversation there, Pilgrim would have broke the threshold to see what's going on. Oh, tell, sir.

There are guests, sir, and I'll kind of give them a look like, snooze you lose. You go shit. Sir, these two were coming upon the tent, sir, and looking for information. You gotta stop fucking talking like that, please, I swear to God. Oh, thank fuck. Thank you, man. Can I do something for you, pilots?

Just walking around. Taking a walk, taking a mozy? Taking a mozy, yeah. Just saw this little corporal. No worries, then. Thanks, Lopez. Keep a good watch. Yes, sir.

Real loud on that one, weren't you? Absolutely, sir. What are you guys doing in there? Are you guys staying in this tent? No, we're not staying in a tent. This is, this belonged to, uh, just belonged to a former intelligence officer. We're just taking a look.

Well, this was a great convoy. Love y'all. Have a good day. And I'll jump back in the, in the hut. I'm going to take a step right up to Lopez. I'm going to grab Lopez on the side, too. Hansy. What did they tell you?

Come on, man. Don't bust my nuts. I don't have time for it. You don't want this. Why you want to know so bad? Just for curiosity's sake, my guy. That sounds like some great-a-horse shit, sir. Hi.

We're on the same team, Lopez. I don't understand the animosity. I'm not your superior officer. We don't have to play this bullshit game. I have a year-all, cage-as-fuck. Anyone hired in a fucking corporals me in a cagey motherfucker. Oh, my God. Relax, you little bastard.

Look, we're just wanting to know what happens. to so-and-so in there? Is that so hard to believe that we may happen and care? Why? Just have, we have a general interest in the officer that's in there. They're just like looking back and forth

between you and kind of enjoying the fact that they finally have some ounce of leverage in this godforsaken desert. Look, we know his family, okay? He knows his family. He's from Hawaii. He's from Hawaii.

I look to hide. Would I see any familial resemblance there, Serge? I don't, I think to corroborate with your story of really not interacting with Morales very much, I don't think you would necessarily be able to immediately draw that conclusion, but... Do they have their name on their jumpsuit? Oh, probably. I would imagine Morales is probably printed on the jumpsuit. I think on that, I see, on the...

They're from Hawaii. I kind of flick my eyes over to... over to Kona, and then down at the nameplate, and they kind of freeze and kind of size you up and nods slowly. Yeah. Family, all right. Good, you put two and two together?

Yeah, you got there? Yeah, y'all are not cryptic at fucking all. I'm trying to keep this down low. I don't need these two assholes. I don't know who they are and stuff like that, but I don't need bureaucracy up my ass either, okay? That is fucking respect, actually. Cool.

I'm glad we're on the same page. about the bullshit. Please tell me, yeah, please tell me what the fuck they've been looking in there or what they've been saying. I'm gonna kind of glance over my shoulder and make sure the other two are safely within the flap and then kind of push, or not push,

but like walk forward enough that they follow me to where what I would assume is out of airshot. I didn't see what the fuck was going on in there, but they said something's a cover-up. They said it smelled weird. The words Caligati, and then death awakens something. I couldn't hear the end of it.

Last thing I could catch, though, was finger painting in your own blood. So I don't know what the fuck your family was into, but it's not sounding great. Sorry. Genuinely, that was genuine sorry. When you said it smell weird, what kind of weird? There's many different weird smell.

Well, they said it smelled weird, and I caught a whiff of bleach. When it came, the wind came whistling through, so if they're talking about finger-plighting in your own blood, it's not a hard jump from point A to point B. That's all I know. I swear. I respect Dune Shiff for family, so, you know. I'm going to kind of look at Hyde and be like, the news is that those smells are, that's at least you would rather have bleach than other smells. hide, so at least we know he's at least live. Sounds like they're covering up something. They did say it wasn't.

They literally said it was a cover-up, so like, yeah, for sure. What's your exact detail on these two? Like, what are you supposed to be doing for them? I'm supposed to take them wherever the fuck they need to go, get them whatever the fuck they need. If we take one of the MRAPs out, keep them safe, but don't let them poke their nose into too much. I can find you later.

You keep an ear out for me? Yeah, I'll give him my tent. and which bunk is mine or whatever. Wherever they go, you tell me what they're talking about. I'll keep an ear out. Look, my respect for you doing this for family only goes so far. I'm not going to fucking die for your whatever, but... I'm not asking you to, Lopez.

I'm not asking you to jump on a grenade for me. I'm asking you to keep your ears open. Can you do that? I'm just setting expectations here. Y'all flew in today. Hold on. No, Lopez, I thank you. Respect.

Thank you for letting you. at stone. I'm going to extend my hand out to shake theirs. I think this is the first time that Lopez, in a long time, has been shown, like, a modicum of humanity from another superior. So they'll take it and, like, shake it like a true, you know, person for a minute. Yeah, I'll keep an ear out, but I'm not promising anything. I appreciate it. I really do. Take care. If they're there, we'll probably try to come back later. As they're walking away, Lopez starts backing towards the flap of the tent and says,

Yes, sir, sirs, I will do my duty at the fob tunes. Now you're just doing it for you. You're doing it for you at this point. This is exclusively for you. Sorry, sir. Can't hear you through the canvas, sir. No, you can't? Huh? Agents, what do you want to do now that you feel like you've thoroughly tossed this space? It's now about, it's a little, about an hour afternoon, otherwise known as 1 p.m. The cipher notebook and the laptop, I want to make sure they're in a bag to where they cannot be seen as I'm walking around with them.

Yeah, I mean, you have that bag that was found in the HUD if you want to take that. Yeah, is there a way to hide all of that? Like, I want to put this bag in my bag. Yeah, I'll say that you have, yeah, your backpack, you're able to store it in there, yeah. Okay, cool. Then, yeah, I think next is the interpreter, yeah? Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking. Before we go, I'll leave the tent and touch Lopez on the shoulder.

Hey, good job. Sir, thank you, sir. Okay, you really don't have to do that. I just really appreciate it. It seems like you don't. You have trouble following in. that's nothing to be ashamed of, and you really, you really did great. They're taken aback by another genuine moment and kind of stare at you.

Why do you think they, don't take this the wrong way, why do you think they kept you around? I mean, this place is, they said they went from one, you know, thousands to 60s in a matter of days, and they're going to the lightest personnel possible. I mean, wouldn't they just give you a right home? You don't exactly act like you want to be here. No, I think that's why I'm here still, actually. I'm being fully honest. I think I fucked myself over.

But also, not to shoot my own horn, I'm a damn good shot. Are you? You doing a lot of shooting these days? Only on the range, sir. What's your go-to? You good with the M-4? You're a standard issue, or you like to paint outside the lines? I'm a heavy artillery kind of guy.

Oh, yeah? They kind of, they kind of crack their neck again. M2HMG is purring like a baby in my hands It's like you got the whole world in your hands, right? Just for a minute. For a little grunt shit like me? Take it with a grain of salt.

We're all grunt shit. That's all this is. We're little fucking specks that are gone and here and gone again. It just carries on until the end, right? You and I are going to be here for a long fucking time. You might as well talk about yourself a little higher. I don't know how long we're going to be here,

but... Forever. All right. Let's go. You begin making your way to the A&A side of the base. The soldiers here are doing something interesting, which is that you notice some of them openly smoking hashish and drinking. It's a little bit more loose here on this side of the base,

but you keep your mouth shut and you continue on, and you find the station where you... Asim Rahimi. He is the civilian interpreter who works for the Americans. He is a short man with a tightly cut beard, little bits of gray kind of growing in it. He wears these circular spectacles, but has a friendly face and acknowledges you,

salutes you, and introduces himself. How can I help you, sir? It's good to meet you, yes. We're here as a part of military intelligence. My friend here's got a book that they're just going to go fucking wild over with you. But we got some questions for you. What he's trying to say is we're here to investigate what's going on with Liam Morales. Oh, yes.

Terrible shame him disappearing. Yeah, yeah. We're trying to figure that out. It's looking like we're going to come to a conclusion, but we do need your help. this, uh, this black valley, death valley. Do you know anything about that? Caligati? You say Caligati and he stares at you blankly for a moment and then kind of cracks a smile and says, I don't understand. I don't know what you mean. It's like, uh, I mean, it's like a, it's like a mythical place or like a legendary place.

I mean, even if it's not, just does that ring any bells? That doesn't sound familiar to you? Ice, as you speak to him, you can tell that he seems to be holding back. He is doing the telltale signs of obfuscation, pretending like he doesn't know what Caligati is. I'm happy to talk to you about the Kloosh Kel, a local tribe. But... No. No. We don't want to talk about that.

We want to talk about Caligati. And I think that, like... Pilgrim is trying to hold himself in such a way that he is playing terrible cop to Lenz good cop. Just giving daggers at this man instantly like trying to catch on to that idea that maybe this isn't the full story. I'll ask in as well as my Farsi will allow me to, listen, we're just trying to get to the bottom of things. It would be really nice if you could be help. Caligari means Valley of Death

it's an old legend, an old superstition it's nothing, it's an old wife's tale How old? Very old, as far back as I think, I don't know, but I mean, it was a legend to me as a child my grandfather told me and he said his father before him. Is it local or continental?

There is a legend that there is a valley in the area called Caligati. It's said to be found under the Vargita Mountain, and he points to the east. Great, great. Thank you. But, I mean, there is no evidence of such a place. Everyone knows that this Caligati, it's a curse. It's just a blasphemous thing to say.

People who go out to seek it are doomed. Yeah, what's the story there? There's got to be a myth, right? Why would you go see it? in it in the first place. Kalagadhi is a cursed place, but there is meant to be a guru there who can show the path to enlightenment. You see many of the tribes here, some of them before converting to Islam, worshipped pagan

gods. There was some tribes who never left those pagan beliefs. This dates back before Islam, before modern religion came to this place. Does this guru have a name? I've only ever heard the guru. I wonder what they teach. I wonder what you can learn out there in the desert, huh? You also notice that it is a little strange that Rahimi is kind of so apprehensive.

For the most part, he does not appear to be a particularly religious man. He seems to be more of a man of science, more of a modern kind of person compared to some of the other Afghanis here who seem to live simpler lives. This man seems to be educated, and so it is a little strange that he still is so apprehensive. Do you ever speak to Liam directly? He ever come to you with similar questions, similar intentions to see something that you could help him with? Yes, Mr. Morales knows that I am fluent in a local dialect that he was not. So he came for me for lessons. He asked me certain questions, certain phrases.

When I offered my services to join him in his trips, out to... to Kluge Kelle, he refused. He said he just wanted just to better his ability to speak the local language. So I never really ventured out with him. I just sort of taught him what I knew, answered his questions. Did he ever do anything? Did you ever see anything to make you worried about what he did on these trips? We know he kept to himself.

He was a little odd, but anything that stuck out. I think you are pointing out the obvious, yes. Officer Morales was, I don't believe he was in a good place. He seemed to be hurting, maybe distracted, I'm not sure. He seemed awed, but he didn't seem, I don't know. I find often many of the customs of the Americans here to be a little strange. So he ever offer you any Listerine? You do knock back some mouthwashed together after some lonely nights.

What is Listerine? fucking mouthwash mouthwash oh have ever drink with you no no

I didn't know him that well he came to me for a few lessons but otherwise he mostly kept to himself so no he did not now

you said he didn't do anything out of the ordinary but you seem on the edge about this whole thing it's you said it was a a legend

a myth What's... Why are you scared right now? Forgive me. I... You have to understand that I'm trying to do my best here, and I'm trying to put my best foot forward here at the Fob. I want the Americans to feel ready to leave as soon as possible.

My nervousness comes from... I'm easily scared, that's all. I have learned in my life that it is best not to tread where people tell you not to go. Yeah. He's clearly, visibly kind of uncomfortable by that laugh. I understand. What's the city known for? He kept making trips out to this village. What do you think an American would want out of there?

I mean, that's not necessarily a place you're not supposed to go, but definitely it's something out of the ordinary, right? What do you think he might go out there for? The Kluz clan are familiar with the area. Maybe he was asking them about the myth. Maybe he was trying to find out more information about where Caligati could be. Yeah. They're friendly people. If you want to speak to them, I'm happy to join you as an interpreter. I don't know. I mean, Len can speak pretty well. I mean, Len, do we, I don't know that we need another translator, do we? If it's the local dialect, we might need the help. Listen, Rahimi, was it? Yes.

I understand that you're nervous We're here with the same goal We just want answers If you stay with us We'll make sure that you have nothing to be afraid of Well as you said there is nothing to be afraid of Correct As far as we understand

The more information you tell us The more we can confirm that There is plenty to be afraid of But I mean we got no fucking control over that man If you're asking if we're capable That's 100%. I agree with you officer That there is a lot to be afraid of in this area

Yeah, but I feel bad for Morales. Although he seemed to be hurting, he was kind to me, and I would be happy to help if I can. That's kind to you. Yeah, we're going to take a visit to that place. I don't know when, but soon. We'll catch you up, and you can come with us. That's as far as you'll go, okay?

We'll go there, we'll have a conversation, you'll come back here, it ends there, yeah? I appreciate that very much, yes. Okay. Thank you for your cooperation, by the way. I'm so glad this didn't have to go any other way. I am two. Uh, goodbye officers.

Nice to meet you. We walk outside. Well, fuck, Len. What? Why was that a problem? He has to come. He's the interpreter. No, no, I get it.

But he's not going anywhere farther than the city. We need to stop. We're not doing the rag tag thing. We're not putting together the fucking A team, okay? It's, it's a hazard to have, the, the smaller the amount of people on missions like these. I don't know. I don't know. It's just, it's nice to have others around sometimes.

I mean, yeah, we work together well, right? But another voice in the room. Well, it used to be just us. We did fine on our own in those first few years. I mean, yeah, it was hard, but we were fine through no walls. I'm just, I just, it's good to mix it up a little bit. Get a different perspective. Sure.

Do you want to go to the city tonight, or do you want to work on that cipher? I really want to work on this cipher. Okay, so maybe we post up in the mess hall or something. Actually, what the fuck am I saying? We go back to our tent. Yeah, although food does sound good. I can make a trip. Better yet, we'll send her a fucking lackey.

You're right. You're right about that. Keeping them busy would be a good idea. It's better than doing anything else for them. Fine. They'll get food. Double night. Lopez has been posted up with the folks from the other side of the fob.

not partaking in anything, but watching with like a hunger. You know that you have two possible ways to find out more about what Morales was up to. There is the notebook, and there is his laptop. The laptop is obviously destroyed, but you are aware that there is a team on the base that might be able to help extract any possible information from the laptop if you two don't feel like you have the resources

to do so yourselves. I don't know, Len. How are you doing in the computer's category? I'm decent, but this thing has more holes in it. More holes in it than I think I can work around. So, again, different perspective. Yeah, I'm just worried about putting more hands

on this fucking thing. Just one more set of hands. So maybe you stay with the cipher. I'll go with the computer geeks and I'll stand over their shoulder and make sure they're not putting files where they shouldn't and fucking refreshing the USBs when they shouldn't. Exactly. That'll work. It's about 3 p.m. and the two of you decide to split off and see what you can find from this information. Agent Ice, how much time do you want to dedicate to this notebook?

You said it's just about 3. I think she's probably willing to go until like a late dinner, like eight. Potentially up to six hours. Yeah. Agent Pilgrim, you take the destroyed laptop over to a communications hut. And there is a man named Sergeant Sams, who is kind of in the middle of rewiring some microelectronics and looks up with you with those expanded goggles on his eyes. and he immediately lifts it up.

Ask how we can help you. Oh, man, you look so much like the Goonies right now. I love it. I got a question for you. I got something I got to give you. I'm with the military intelligence team that just dropped down, yeah? But I'm absolute shit when it comes to anything after Microsoft 7. So if I could just give you this laptop,

we need you to run a full trace, whatever you can do to bring any information off of it. But it's really, really important to our... None of this can be disclosed, and I'm going to stand around and make sure that that comes to a head if you can help us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look for stuff, but don't read anything. I'm familiar with this operation.

He takes the laptop from you and looks at it. He's like, God damn. Well, I mean, it does look like the hard drive is still intact, so I should be able to. Yeah, you got any guesses at what happened to this fucking thing? if you had to make an educated guess I mean he holds up the holes and like

looks through one of them at you and he's like I think somebody shot this yeah yeah I was thinking the same thing I can totally start working on this for you sir but it's gonna take me a little while probably I mean I probably won't have it ready till tomorrow morning you know what yeah that's fine by me what do you like to eat

you like anything from the mess hall specifically I mean they don't really do special order if they got any fruit loops left over I'll take some Holy shit, fruit loops. I mean, not the best cereal, but very good. I like Captain Crunch. I like the fact that it makes my teeth bleed. I like Fruit Loops.

This is excellent conversation we're having right here. This is just, this is what it's all about, huh? I'm going to get to working on the laptop for you. Good. Fuck, yeah. Yeah, good, good. I'm going to go. I go over to Len and I let them know the plan that around until Len is done with the journal bit,

I'll check in, but outside of that, I'm sticking with this guy eating fruit loops. Well, I'll fast forward a little bit for you. It will get to a point where Sam's will have to call it a night, probably around seven or eight. He does get to the point where he is able to connect to the drive. He can tell that there's information, and he is just beginning the process of kind of getting it so that it is visible, readable, usable, usable. But he has to take a break by that point to sleep. ICE, you take your time trying to decipher this code, and it's not particularly difficult.

You know, you've had a cipher in your time. It sounds like you like using puzzles, working on puzzles, and you can tell that it's not particularly complicated. But it does take several hours to piece together what's going on between the cipher and the burnt pages. There's a lot of missing information. But I will allow you for the six hours of work to ask six quix. questions and I will tell you what the answer is, or at least what is available in the book. What is your first question? Do any of these notes directly link to hypergeometry? The notes do not appear to have any hypergeometry written in them, whether it be calculations

or turns of phrases. You are able to decipher the same phrase that was said on the ground. Caligati, death awakens the sleeper. But Morales does seem to be onto something. He is, though he doesn't speak about specific hypergeometry, he believes there is something special about this place that might infer hypergeometry. Is there any clue as to what or who the sleeper is? Morales references a old, British,

document that he scanned on his laptop that is supposedly a first-hand account of a British colonel who has some experience with this area. He explains that this colonel is a man named Arthur Blythe Meriwether and that he is the first one to reference a guru at Caligati who explored states of consciousness that led to immortality. but could only be achieved by near-death experience. Morales points out that the author also said that the village vanished altogether when he departed from it. When the colonel departed from it or when the guru did. When the colonel did. This colonel purports to have visited some kind of sight. I'm going to assume that you share this information with Agent Pilgrim at some point, probably at the end of the night.

For sure. Pilgrim, you have a 40% in a cult, correct? Yeah. You recognize this name, Maryweather. Some of the books you've read, some of the literature that you've read in your time as a member of this organization. Maryweather is recognized as both an author of some occult literature, but he is also a notorious opium addict who spent years in Broadmoor criminal lunatic asylum. and it's not clear from the text whether he ever actually spent any time near Caligati

or if he ever even spoke to this guru. But it seems like Morales took this man's word very seriously. You have four more questions. What was the last entry? Are there like dates on when he's writing in the journal? At the end of the book, it is clear that Morales has become obsessed with Caligati and finding it for himself. He seems to be of clear mind enough to know that he doesn't want to bring other people into

this danger, but he does want to find it. The last entry was four days, three or four days before you arrived, and it says something like, I have to see it for myself. It's calling me. I have to see it for myself. Is there any, like, any description of what the Black Valley entails? I mean, obviously, it's a physical, like, space. But is it like a ritual site?

Is this just where the guru lives? Again, referencing these old materials that he says he was able to bring along in his laptop. Morales explains that his theory is that the people of Caligati are likely some kind of pagan offshoot before Islam, before Christianity, before Hinduism. He is able to recognize that there's an old dragon god that has no name, but was deemed blasphemous by the local religions, and yet the people of Caligati seem to hang on to this god, this dragon god. And so they lived in the Black Valley with their guru. He references there are the Zuniels who are an ancient people whose idol the Caligati citizens

likely stole from, as Zun was a draconic sun god who was related to Shiva, but was shunned thousands of years ago. Morales speculated that Caligati's drag, Dragon God was the same one. Any indication, I mean, the last journal entry, it seems like this man was, there wasn't much of him left other than the obsession. But is there any personal indication, like personal notes, things about Liam leading up to the last entry?

Morales, in the beginning of the book, mentions his family once in a while, and then just stops altogether. And the last entries are his theories as to where Caligati might be. After speaking to those villagers from Kluj Kelskkel, he believes that Kalagadi can be found in the shadow of Vargita Mountain, which is 40 kilometers to the east. It's a tribal area. It's right on the Pakistani border. It is well outside of where Americans are allowed to operate. But he believes that if he's going to find it, that's where it would be.

Okay. Good, good. And if that isn't just the fucking poster for what it is, you and I do, I don't know what is. You start talking about how much you miss your wife and your kids and your family and then stops dead in the tracks for the big golden sun dragon and everything falls to shit, huh? I mean, it just seems like a green box to me with a lot of, you know, pomp and circumstance around it. I mean, that's more than what we had. I want to... The last thing I want to check for

is any names of people that we already know that we've already been given names about. I want to see if Byers is mentioned, if Lopez has mentioned, the two people, Brian and Booker, like anyone. Other names that Morales mentions

are Captain Byers. He references Byers simply as stating that he is the captain. He has very little interactions with the captain. He does mention Bryant and Booker. He admits to drinking with them, smuggled contraband. that he brought onto the base.

There seems to have been a relationship that developed between the three of them, where Bryant and Booker were maybe kinder and friendlier to him than he expected. He did not interact with Lopez in any kind of meaningful way. He did not write it down. He mentions Yassim as an interpreter of which he got the information that he needed to be able to communicate to the Kloosh Klan. And the only other mention is of the leader of the Kloosh Klan. He mentions the village elder Zahir Klujh.

He mentioned though he was friendly, he was difficult to pry any information from, but he believes he was able to get enough to understand where Kalagati is. Okay. Amazing. It's 9 p.m. when you finally put the book down and your eyes are sore from just constantly staring. The night is just as hot and warm as the day, maybe a couple of degrees less. but unless you want to keep powering through, it's probably time for a break.

You got good shit here, Len. I mean, you did an incredible work. I mean, the puzzles paid off. It's a good time. I mean, incredibly foreboding, but a good time. Ain't it always. I mean, the way I see it now, we've got two options. And one, I'm going to vote for us.

We either go into Kloosh, and we start talking to this village elder, and we find out everything that we can about this location. about what actually happens there, and we interrogate that situation. Or we, Occam's razor this fucker and realized that he went out there to this location that he marks in that journal

and that if he went anywhere, if he's anything like you and me, he's down there in the Black Valley now. Yeah. I mean, it's just whether we want to be more prepared when we knock on the door. I'm always for being more prepared. And we can't just cut Lopez.

I mean, if we should go into town, we should talk to this guy, this is here first. If it's nothing, it's a short trip. But I'd rather make sure. You weren't about to say that we should bring Lopez to the Valley, were you? No. It's just they, I don't think anyone's really given them a proper chance. I mean, you saw the way that Byers was talking to them, right? They just...

Yeah, yeah. Very clearly all they do is fuck up, but it's also because people only think they're going to fuck up. You want to bring them in on this? You know how that ends. I mean, look at this fucker. This fucker's just like us. And he starts off whining and crying about his little fucking wife

and his family back home on the island. Oh, no. And then he turns into chugging listerine and smearing his own fucking blood in the dirt. and praying to dark gods, like all of them fucking do. If we go around giving out fucking tickets to the show, it really only means they're either going to end up exactly like us or they're going to get us killed.

I know that. I know that. It just seems like they just need somebody to fucking... I don't know. I don't know. Like, I understand. This is more dangerous, and even if they were to be incredibly helpful, which I know they would be if we just let them come, it would be more dangerous.

It wouldn't be worth it. And you know what? If they want to fucking die, they can fucking die themselves. If they want to take that extra step after us, they can do so. But they're going to do it 50 feet behind, not alongside. Yeah. The two of you wind down for the evening. Do you do anything in particular before you go to sleep?

I think that Pilgrim goes back to the seedier side of, of the camp and sees if he can get in on smoking and drinking for the night. Without issue, you find a group of Afghans who are enjoying a long wooden pipe and they are smoking hashish. There we go.

I'm going to just hang out there for the night. The moon illuminates the base and you have been in Afghanistan for a little while dry and drinking only on the rare occasion. This stuff, stuff is strong. And when you look up again, the stars seem in legion. It is an unbelievable sight that is only enhanced by the drugs. And you realize in your inebriated state just how

far away you are from society, how in the middle of nowhere you are, and how really you could do whatever you wanted out here as long as nobody, as long as nobody caught it. to whoever's next to him on the right, he grabs him by the shirt, brings him in close, and goes, you know, I've been here before? Like right here. Talking to you? My friend, my friend, he's, clearly the man doesn't quite know how to respond to what you're saying, and it's kind of like tapping you. I fucking know you. I know you, my friend. We've been here, buddy. He starts mimicking this tapping of the forehead that you're doing, and they're all just kind of laughing, stoned. I am so fucking sorry for what's going to happen.

Ice, what do you do at the end of the night? I think she's just going to try to get a beat on... Mostly she's going to stay in, but I also want to see where Lopez goes. Lopez has been kind of floating around after they got sent off for food a couple times. Okay, cool. Yeah, I think I wanted to see how obvious... it was that Lopez is now involved with keeping secrets, even though I don't think Lopez knows any secrets, but they're like a snitch. I just wanted to see how close I could get to that tonight. But, well, I mean, that's interesting. I will ask for a human intelligence role from

you. And Lopez, you can make a charisma role to see if you can keep that to yourself. I got a seven. Lopez got a 14. As per the rules, the higher role wins. So Lopez continues to appear like their lackadaisical self, and you don't, nothing really gets tipped off yet, ice. Amazing. So am I good, or do you need help with whatever the fuck you're doing?

No, no, no, you're good. You're good. Feel free to, you know. Sir, yes, sir. If you all need to head out in the morning, let me know so I can get the convoy. Are you, like, what's your plan? Honestly, what's your, like, plan here? We are actually going to head out soon, so if you could just have that already as soon as possible, what, probably 6 a.m.? I'll be, probably...

600 hours, you got it. I'll be ready by 6 a.m. And it would be nice if we could go, but I'll... We probably won't leave for 6. But 6 would be nice. I'd appreciate it. Six would be nice. Cool, yeah.

Uh, I got you. I'll throw some lads together and we'll, uh, we'll head out at 6. And on that, they'll kind of salute chittily again and then beeline for Hyde. I think I'm just kind of like wandering base looking for Morales and Campbell. Yeah, I think it's easy enough to find them asking around where the two pilots are resting for the night. Hyde and Campbell before Lopez arrives, is there anything you do before the end of the night as you're getting ready for bed? I don't think anything really except just hanging out in the tent. or maybe doing anything, checking on the copter,

making sure that there's anything we need to take care of a resupply. Yeah, I think we would have made sure our duties were done first and foremost, to have it also stocked and ready to go in case we had to take off that a very quick notice. Also, we know that, you know, the captain may or may not like us. It's kind of like we did enough that we're just ready for standby. Got it. Eventually, when you are at your bunks, Lopez shows up.

Don't know how helpful this information is to you. Smaller ones been looking at some journal. Don't know what it is. Couldn't really get a good look. But they're rolling out at 0600. We need a convoy. Y'all are Army folk, so I'm figuring. You can get us on that convoy?

What a coincidence, because we're going to be up early around that point, won't we hide? Yeah, I like early. Yeah, if y'all happen to be milling around, I may forget to talk to two of my boys. Yeah? I'll be about. Well, uh, maybe I'll see you around then. Sure. Or if they go, we'll go.

I appreciate it. I don't know if they're going to know who you are because you were on their bird, but I did my duty. I think you can come up with a good enough lie of why you picked us out of the convoy or for anybody else. Called it like compartmentalizing resources. We're easy hand, not a part of the base. You know what? I'm not even worried.

Lopez, you're a smart one. You. Yeah, so smart, capable. Look at this. I got to get early call time in the morning. What do you think? Y'all get some rest now. Mm-hmm.

Just gonna stand there and watch asleep, or? I just mean, if you had anything else for me, sir. Do you need to be dismissed? Dismiss, corporal? Thank you, sirs. Have a good night. We'll see you in the morning. Lopez does a very subtle middle finger

as they run their hand through their gloved hair and leave. We don't make grunts like they used to. Look at that. In the disrespect. Aye, Dios, me. You know, uh, we're getting up early. Uh, like 5 a.m. Yeah, I just say 5 a.m.

Campbell, I get up at 4. Like, you're the one who snoozes till 8. You fucking animal! Animal! Put the pillows and I'm... It's like the least hot time of the dead. You're wasting good, cool out there. You're an idiot.

The two friends, the two officers, who have been to war with each other and are now helping one another solve a problem. Go to bed. Hide, you're doing a good job of hiding it, but you're scared because your brother is missing and the things you're learning aren't adding up. But in the night, you find yourself suddenly standing at the National Cemetery,

the same one you described in ARP 2, with that beautiful view of the ocean, and you're standing in front of a grave, there's no name on the grave. And when you look up on one of the cliffs nearby is Liam's hut. It looks exactly the same as every other hut you've seen today, but you know it's Liam's hut. And you can hear sounds, maybe voices. You can't make out what they're saying, but they're coming from the tent. I think I'm going to check if Campbell's awake, and if Campbell's, like, dead asleep. I'm going to just get up and just head towards there quietly.

I assume it's late enough where I'm not going to be bothered by anybody as I'm walking through, right? You stand up. The cot is behind you, and Amy is sleeping. soundly in her cot, which is strange because it's the middle of the day in Hawaii and your cots are in the middle of a grave, but Liam's hut is there as well. And somehow it propels you forward and you start walking towards his hut. You step inside. Inside, you see a small room, a cot to the left, and Liam, with his back turn to you, is sitting on that cot. And you can hear him softly sobbing to himself.

On the ground is a trash can with some kind of book or journal on fire in it. Is the journal retrievable? Can I grab it and try to? You certainly can if you want it to, yeah. Yeah, I'm going to try to grab the journal out of the basket. You pick it up and it is still on fire. but it doesn't seem to burn you. Can I try to open it?

You open it up. There are no words on the pages and it just helps fuel the fire as the book continues to be engulfed in flame. You're looking for answers and you look up at Liam and you realize that his arms were hidden from you and you look and you see that there is blood.

More than that though, there is flesh carved in his forearm. On his left it says Kalagadi on the right forearm death awakens sleeper

and he shows you his forearms kind of opening them up to you and you look at his eyes and he has the saddest most regrettable eyes looking at you he opens his mouth to speak

but he doesn't he doesn't speak he sings he begins to sing a beautiful song that sounds like Arabic. Just as you're taking this in, you snap awake. You are in your tent. And you realize the song that you are hearing is the morning call to prayer by the Afghan National Army, and it is the next day.

I think if it's early enough and I have enough time, I'm going to leave and head towards, towards Liam's tent really quick. I think you're able to do that. In these wee early mornings, there is only patrol and a few other folks out, and you are able to find the tent. Yeah, I'm just going to, I'm going to go in there,

and I'm going to stand where he was standing, where I remember it. And I don't know, just look around. I don't know if there's anything else here. I mean, I can obviously see it's been turned over, and I know that the other agents have been in here, But I don't know, something about standing here just seems like the thing to do. And you do so.

And you wish that you can see something else that they're not seeing. But you can't help, but also just feel the enormous vacuum of Liam's absence. Nothing seems out of place in the sense that you, maybe they didn't notice something. It reeks of bleach in here. And he has no personal effects here. looking in the space you do not see anything. Maybe we'll find out where he went the next time we play. Okay.

Sack. Damn it. No, why would... You know what? I forgot to ask one last thing. Can you make a sanity check for me? Exactly. There we go.

We fucked up. That sucks. That sucks. That sucks. Ooh, that's a success with a 49 out of 50. You do not lose any sanity. Oh, surge!