Episode Transcript
Records of the Unknown, Operation Latency, contains horror elements that may be disturbing to some listeners.
Listener discretion is advised.
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November 18th, 6pm.
Corporal, the doctors and the sheriff are just now arriving in town.
The truck is struggling to get through the weather here at the end but you're able to pull back in to Abe Rogers' garage.
Abe steps out, comes down to you guys.
What's going on?
I'll toss him the keys.
He catches him.
I heard gunshots out there.
Yeah, sheriff's been wounded. We need to get him somewhere warm.
Yeah, take him inside my place and he'll kind of walk up and he'll open up the door and kind of motion you guys in.
We'll just go on in.
Going inside his home, it is bare except for like a lot of trophies on the walls and he has a back room that looks like it's almost like a library.
And there's a globe in there spinning around.
He sets you guys down in the living room where there's a clear floor space.
Lay him down here.
Easy now, sheriff.
It's okay, I think I'll be fine. He should recover fine. I'll keep watching him.
Thank you, Dr. Hanson.
I trust you and Dr. Cant were able to patch him up well enough out in the field.
Oh yeah, very well. He seems quite fine, I believe.
Again, I'm not sort of that kind of doctor, but I try my best. I'm good at following directions.
Sheriff, about those snowmobiles.
Right, yes. He reaches into one of his back pockets.
Here are some keys. They're behind my office. They're parked in behind. There's a tarp over him.
Thank you.
Right, yeah, of course.
You boys heading back out there? Abe kind of locks up.
We have an agent MIA. We're going to go out and try to look for her.
Right. One of you CIA folks.
Yes.
Okay. Dr. your human intelligence is high enough. I know, like, he said that in a very disbelieving way and is kind of eyeing you guys.
Yeah, I'm not surprised and he's not the only person that's caught onto that part, but I'm curious what his experience is.
Why don't you boys come back sometime and let's talk.
Be happy to. I certainly plan to.
I'll be leaving late tomorrow on the voyage. It's a fishing trip.
Yes, we heard you were doing that.
Yeah, so go ahead and find me before then if you will, assuming you find your friend and get back in time.
We certainly plan to, but who knows what happens when you face action.
In your line of work, anything can happen.
Certainly. I've been meaning to ask, I've been meaning to speak with you, Abe. Thank you for letting us use the truck to get out there.
Of course. Anytime. I like to lend it out.
Thank you very much. Also another question. I hope we are able to actually talk some more soon, but in the event that we're not able to catch each other on that,
I've heard you found some odd specimens when you and your men are out fishing.
Yeah, there's a couple of things like that. A couple of odd things.
Would you be able to bring back a sample?
No, no, I won't be able to bring them back. We only see them on the sea. We don't bring them back.
Listen, we can talk more later. I know you guys want to get going.
Yes, we're losing time and the tracks.
I'll kind of whisper into Dr. Steel's ear, seems like he might have some information. Do you want to stay and talk to him? I can go by myself.
No, I'll come with you. We have some things we need to catch up on.
Corporal, as you're looking at him, he holds himself very similarly to you, very much like a long-term soldier, especially the way he's been looking at you.
He feels like an enemy spy or just an enemy would look at you. That kind of a vibe.
Now, that's also the way you experienced ally spies. This is kind of those kind of people, as far as you are aware.
But he definitely gives that off, that impression to you.
I really need his gaze whenever he looks at me, for sure, and try to get a sense if he is sizing me up too, you know, something like that. Not to be forward with you, Abe, but where did you serve?
Lots of places, both World Wars. Did some government work before and after, but I'm mostly retired now.
Lots of war fronts, lots of death. I don't like to relive it too much.
I've seen my fair share.
I'm sure you have, Corporal.
We should get going. We hope to talk to you more when we come back.
Of course.
As we head out, I look over to Peter Kent. Peter, sorry that we're running out like this again, but we need to make sure we find our friend out in the field.
No, it's perfectly fine.
All I ask, it's been a strenuous night. Keep me spuncing on ice. Don't investigate that.
Of course. I hardly even plan on doing anything without tonight.
Take your time. Go.
I need to make sure the Sheriff is fine. John might still need some more help.
Yes, take care of the Sheriff, Peter. If you need, go get yourself and the Sheriff a drink from Alan Haley's bar.
A lot of things happened out there. Take a moment. Take your time. Be in time with the Sheriff, okay? Having others around will help.
Of course. Of course, yes.
Hopefully you mean Corporal Adams here will be back soon.
Right, yes. Weird things are happening tonight, Arthur.
Yes. Peter, you're not wrong. Weird things are happening tonight, okay? You are not going crazy.
I know, I know. This happened before. And I don't like it. And everyone is dying. And I don't want John to be the next one.
Peter, look at me, okay?
Yes.
So, you'll be all right. You have allies here. You have Abe. You have Sheriff Johnson.
Right.
Okay?
Yes.
They will be here for you. And you can be here for them.
Of course. I'll do my best, yes.
You are a good doctor, okay? If they are hurt like Sheriff was, you can help them. Focus on that. Focus on being able to help them.
Right. Yes, I'll do what I can. Yes.
You're a good doctor, Kent.
Thank you. Thank you for coming to the funeral, by the way.
Yes, my condolences for that. But, we must hurry, okay?
Right.
I leave these gentlemen in your charge.
Of course.
They'll be safe with you. And you'll be safe with them.
Sure.
We will head out. Can I see Valerie anywhere?
She is currently not out. There are actually not very many people out at all. The weather, the way it is, this is about the expected time for it to be dark.
When you look out on the streets, all you really see are a couple of lit lamps, but then the occasional turn of the lighthouse lighting up the town. But you don't see anyone.
Except for you, Corporal Adams. As you step out and you look off, you see, sitting on a bench, Aurora Lewis just watching. But there's no time for that right now.
The two of you load up on some snowmobiles and you head out into the night.
We'll just drive. Yep.
So you guys are searching. How long?
About how long will it take us to get back to where we last saw her? And what time will it be, I should say?
Oh, it'll probably take you like 15 minutes.
Okay, so maybe 530, 6 o'clock?
It's 6 o'clock right now.
It's 6 o'clock right now? Okay.
Well, it's like 615 at this point.
Definitely for several hours. I think there would be a point in time where we do not get any leads that we would have to turn back.
Can I get search checks from the two of you?
Yes.
I have 49 over 40.
One under 80.
So starting from where she disappeared, you'll be in searching. Hours pass as you're searching, and there's no sign of her.
Off the way she went, there is an area in the snow that's just a little lower than the rest.
It reminds you of the last one you saw like that, but much older at this point.
Last one you saw must have been recent. This one could have been an hour or so ago from where you are now.
But going from there, there's no other signs no matter which direction you go back and forth to search through.
It's like she just vanished into thin air.
Yes.
Tell me, Corporal, what did you see with the man you brought down?
Well, if we take our snowmobiles I can show you.
You get back there and you find the exact spot where you killed him. There's no body. There's no blood. There's no disturbance in the snow.
It was right here, I swear. So, I…
Would you roll a sanity check for that?
Yep, I would. I will.
80 over 40.
You lose one sanity point.
I believe you, Corporal Adams. I trust this is where he went down.
We were taking fire. We were running through the trees to take cover. Sheriff got hit, as you saw. I kept going.
Sheriff gave me covering fire, which gave me the opportunity I needed. I took the shot. I hit him. When I went up to check, I hit his face. But his face, when I got to him, it started melting.
I'd seen something like it before. I don't know if you had cyanide pills.
No, I haven't witnessed that in my time.
Things that covert agents will use if they're in enemy territory so as to not get captured, they'd rather kill themselves. Usually hidden in false teeth.
I think he had one and I hit it, but normally they just foam at the mouth a little. His whole face was melting and some of his clothes.
I'd never seen anything quite like that. I was going to search him, but that's when Dr. Henson showed up and we had to get the Sheriff to safety.
Yes.
And he was right here.
Which direction did Henson come from?
I point in the direction that he came from.
Imagine that's the north where he said he lived. They live out there.
E.F. from the north.
Well, that lines up with what we've been told. That's where they stay at.
We haven't had luck in finding Agent Bellamy. It's hard to deny, after what we went through, that there are hostile agents opposing us at least.
Do you think it's likely that she's been taken?
It's a possibility.
It's hard to say what else we can do for her now out here. We kind of lost her trail.
I don't think there's anything we can do else tonight. Maybe we can come back tomorrow.
But it's not... Is it going to get light again?
I would expect the sunrise again. I'm not sure though.
I don't know. It got dark earlier than I expected, so I don't know how that works around here, but we'll figure it out.
Yes. Do you think it worth for us to make a trip back to Ms. Bunton's lab?
I do think it would be worth it to swing by. If it's still on fire, maybe she made her way back if she got lost.
Yes. Maybe she can stay warm there.
Hopefully we can find her there. If not, I hope she's managed to find a place to stay warm tonight and not with unsavory characters.
Yeah. So let's do that.
I suppose we head back to where Bunton's lab was. Smoldering ruins now, maybe.
Just to see.
How much armor is burning.
It's still burning. Just a little bit. There's no sign of Bellamy anywhere near here.
Are there any other new tracks that would certainly not look like us? Any new depressions?
No, nothing new.
When I look in the greenhouse, I thought I had seen it last time that I saw some samples of the fungal growth in there and that they weren't burning. Is that still...?
Right. Yes. All the fungus is fine.
I suppose if the fungus is fine here, it's not going anywhere.
I did... when I went into the house, which I'll tell you right now, Corporal Adams, I'm not sure what brought me into that house. Something came over me. I saw...
I know the feeling.
Things I'd prefer not to remember. And when I came to aware of my surroundings, I was inside. I'm not sure how I got from A to B.
Unfortunately, I've had similar experiences, so don't worry too much about it.
I did retrieve a picture inside. A strange ink blot. It seemed to have some kind of effect.
At least from the size, I had to leave that back in town. I'd like to, I guess, to see what you see. But again, it has a strange effect when you look at it, so...
I wouldn't be in this line of work if I couldn't handle some weird...
I hope no one else found it. I tried to make sure it was stashed with other things that hopefully no one's messing with.
Let's go back to town then. There's nothing else for us here?
Nothing here. I'm not sure how long these fires will keep us warm. We can get back to town. Hopefully, maybe she found another ride back as well.
We can hope.
[eerie music]
So the two of you head back to town.
Go back to your rooms and discuss the happenings of the day as you both head off to sleep, hoping to go back out to look for Bellamy in the morning.
As you both sleep through the night, can I get sanity checks from the both of you as you sleep?
29 under 68.
32 meet 32.
Oh. Alright, well, you're fine then.
You both have a very dreamless sleep. As you both awaken in the morning, as a bit of sun begins to rise.
As you both are getting ready in the morning, you hear a scream of anguish outside.
It can't happen already. I'm going to rush as quickly as I can to get somewhat ready and then try to go investigate that sound.
And I will follow suit. As you both run outside, you see a woman holding the limp body of that 10 year old boy who was being scared the other day.
Who Dr. Steel saw massaging a headache and limping about town before leaving to find his friends.
He is lifeless in her arms and she is screaming. It was inside of him. It left him. It was inside of him.
And people are like, Whoa, hey, calm down. The gray man was inside of him.
As everyone's kind of moving about in here looking at this, you hear something off in the tree line.
You both look over to see Agent Bellamy walking into town with no clothes.
Agent Bellamy, you are stepping out of the tree line you were in and you see the town in front of you.
You're still feeling very warm, very well and you hear screaming and you hear a woman yelling.
It was inside of him. He's dead. He's dead.
And as you're walking out, still feeling a little bit of that euphoria still in your mind.
You don't fully comprehend it, but you see a woman holding the limp lifeless body of that little boy who is being bullied.
And Corporal Adams and Dr. Steel both turn to see you walking through the snow, no clothes on, and you still don't feel cold at all.
The sun is out. It's still lightly snowing and people are running out of their homes to see what's going on.
All of that weird state you were feeling in that you've awoken feels like whatever that feeling of being awake was, is gone.
And you feel like you're sleeping again, like you're dreaming again.
As everything kind of settles back down and you are fully in your right mind again.
As Corporal Adams sees her, he's going to run as fast as he can over to her, take his coat off and put it over her for her decency
and for assuming that she's been out in the cold all night without any clothes on.
Agent Pellamy, are you okay? Like, what's...
I don't know if I'm okay.
Dr. Steel will join you over there as well.
I don't even know how I got here.
Come on, let's get you inside.
We'll go back to the bar where we're staying.
Alright. Corporal Adams as you're heading back to the bar, you look over briefly and see Peter was looking out the window and he looks very scared and closes his blinds.
After a brief pause, he runs out to go attend to the boy.
I'll say Corporal Adams takes a look at the boy that he had helped earlier that week and there's a pang of guilt sewn on his face.
Yeah, and you can see a big chunk of his head is missing.
Jeez.
From Dr. Steel, you kind of see like he's guilt, anger and somewhat like shock makes on his face looking over and you just kind of hear him mumble like, "It was too soon, there wasn't enough time."
You're going to have to explain what you mean by that, Doctor, but...
I fully intend to. I wish I could've done something sooner for him, but I didn't know it would come around so fast.
So you all enter the bar. Most of the patrons are out of the bar at the moment outside.
Johan is kind of sitting, having some coffee in the corner, kind of nervously looking around.
As you guys all head up to your room.
I will do everything for Agent Bellamy that would be done to treat somebody with hypothermia, because I'm just assuming that's what's going on.
Yeah, even as... will you roll a sanity check, actually?
Yeah, sure.
Abby, you can too.
Okay.
14 under 32.
43 under 68.
50 under 58.
Corporal Adams, you take four points of sanity damage.
Doctor Steele, you hit three.
Agent Bellamy, you only lose two.
I'm going to project that onto my old platoon.
So the corporal projects his four sanity onto the platoon and rolls a d4.
Doctor Steele, you're taking three.
I'm at 65, under 70.
And Agent Bellamy, you're taking two.
I roll the one.
So instead of losing four, you lose three and you lose one willpower point.
That does put me past the breaking point.
As you are both attending to her, she does not feel cold at all to you in any way that she should.
What did you say about my power? I lose a power?
One willpower point.
Bellamy, how does this flow through your head as you're kind of successful in your waving off?
Um, very confused.
Because I don't know how I got to town.
I have no...I don't...I uh...
That's fair.
I just walk into chaos.
Miss Bellamy, did you see anything when you went off into the woods last night?
Do I remember that?
Roll intelligence.
45 under 60?
Of course.
You just see this haunted look come over her face.
You can tell she's trying to find words to describe what she saw.
I...
It's all jumbled.
I came across something.
I couldn't ever quite focus on it.
It's like as soon as I tried, it would go right back out of focus again.
There was this giant circle...thing.
And something standing underneath it.
The circle was floating.
And then...
I heard this voice...
In...in my head.
And all it said...
Was "The experiment is loose."
Failure.
There was flashes of images in my head.
Just so many.
And then...
I woke up outside of town.
I don't...I have no memory of what happened between...
Finding the...whatever that was and...
Laying down in the snow.
You were gone all night.
All night?
All night.
About 12 hours at least.
Were you hurt in any way?
I'm just trying to look over for incisions.
I don't know.
Roll surgery.
That's a two.
Under 70.
As you're looking over her as the corporal is getting stuff ready for her to put on...
You see in a couple different spots.
Really hard to see slight incisions on her body.
Here's your clothes.
Whenever you're ready we can leave the room or something.
[sigh]
Yes.
It'll be good for us to make sure we at least have some privacy.
It'll be a good time to regroup at least.
Yeah, we have a few things we need to talk about.
The three of us.
As Agent Bellamy is bundling back up like all of you have bundled up every day you've been here,
Agent Bellamy, you are really, really hot.
You're starting to sweat.
Like it's just getting really uncomfortable in what was very comfortable the day before.
You're starting to feel a little faint from the heat.
And as we see some sweat drop from your brow, we fade to black tonight.
[heartbeat]
Thank you for listening to the Records of the Unknown Operation Latency.
Records of the Unknown is an Atomic Broadcasting Production.
Delta Green is copyright of Arc Dreams Publishing.
Operation Latency is not published or endorsed by Arc Dreams Publishing and is an original module created and run by Samuel Sarver.
Our players are Nolan as Dr. Sylvester Steele, Abby as Bernadette "Bertie" Bellamy, and Harold as Corporal Alexander Adams.
Music in the show is from Monument Studios as well as various artists.
If you enjoy the show, be sure to subscribe or follow the Atomic Broadcasting Network on your favorite listening platform.
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Don't forget to like, comment, and tell a friend, and as always, have an Atomic time.
[music]
Well, this was eventful and terrifying and heart-breaking all at once.
But notice does not imply you need to be naked the whole time.
I wasn't even...no.
This is not Nero's.
[laughter]
[BLANK_AUDIO]
