Episode Transcript
Records of the Unknown, Operation Latency, contains horror elements that may be disturbing to some listeners.
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November 19, 1015 A.M.
The three of you are standing in your domicile currently. Agent Bellamy has just wandered in from the woods. You've taken her up to the room now.
The doctor has just looked her over and found several points of incisions. You have all just bundled up for the day, and Agent Bellamy is beginning to sweat and feel a little faint from the clothes she felt very comfortable in until now.
Dr. Steele will go into his medical bag, start to pull out a thermometer. Do you mind holding it in your mouth?
Sure. I put the thermometer in my mouth.
I'm feeling a bit warm. I'm curious if that's just perception or if you actually are getting a fever at all. I don't know about you, Corporal Adams. I feel alright this morning for how last night went.
Yeah, I'm okay.
I'm sorry, Agent Bellamy, you really don't recall anything about what happened last night after you followed something into the woods from the lab?
Only what I told you. I don't remember anything else.
Okay. Let's see what that is. I'll look at the thermometer. I'm not looking for, I guess, the exact temperature, but is it definitely hotter than...
About 110.
Oh!
That's very high.
She's boiling alive!
Well, that's some empirical evidence. So, yes, you certainly are burning up. Do you recall any of these scars from before our mission? I know we have some experience beforehand. And I point out the incisions I had noted.
Even with him pointing them out, it's still really hard to even see them just from how fine they are.
From where they are. She shakes her head. No, I don't remember any injury. I've never had an operation.
Would I recall something that looks like this from my previous experience?
Not from anything previous.
Just from what you've seen here in town.
Okay. Right. Well, I suppose the last time we really had any chance to try and regroup would have been before the funeral, even. We didn't have much time at the lab before we were attacked. At least I certainly say that's what it must have been. I don't know who our assailants are, but we did lose Deputy Lucas. You were able to bring one down, four Pol Adams, but you didn't get a good look at them.
Unfortunately, no. On account of his face melting off.
Yes, yes.
What happened when you both left for the lab?
Um, well Agent Bellamy and I started running. As we were running, I thought I saw something in the woods. Some figures. Thought we should check it out. So we split from the road.
We got to a clearing and we didn't find any people we did find a dead moose.
And honestly, I hope Agent Bellamy can fill in some of the gaps here because when we got into that clearing.
She looked up to the sky.
And then she just walked away further into the woods.
Suddenly I couldn't feel my body at all. And then a few moments later, I was able to control myself again.
I can't explain why, or what happened, but I immediately went looking for her and she was gone.
I didn't find her again until I found her at the lab. In fact, when I after I met up with you on the truck and we found her at the burning lab.
Miss Bellamy, you were in a clearing so you weren't on the road at the time?
Not at the time.
Okay, that explains why Lucas may have gone by you without noticing you at least.
Yeah, as he stayed last night before he perished. He did say that he just followed us because he didn't trust us. Certainly.
Really cannot vouch for himself any longer now, at least.
Miss Bellamy, what happened from the clearing?
So, the moose.
It was very odd.
It was split open down the neck and there was little to no blood.
And all of its organs were gone.
Very strange.
But as soon as we saw that, it's like the daylight got brighter. I don't exactly know how to explain it.
There was huge aurora borealis.
I heard some weird sort of hum and like an engine nearby.
It is a sound of a...
I'd never heard an engine sound like that before.
And I know engines.
And that's when the corporal just froze.
So, um...
hearing that engine though, curiosity got the best of me so I went and followed it.
I did just sort of leave the corporal standing there in the field, by himself.
That was going to be my next question.
I'm sorry.
It's like I had tunnel vision.
I couldn't get that sound out of my head. I had to find out what it was.
But it was coming from the trees across the clearing so...
I went and looked for it.
And somehow made it all the way to the lab.
Um... well...
When I went and looked for that noise...
there was that fungal flower.
That we'd been talking about and it was open. It was white. It was glowing.
Um... and then I saw something spherical and this blue light glowed from the flower.
Like in response to this sphere.
And it kept getting closer and the light was getting brighter.
I don't know.
And then the borealis just disappeared.
Suddenly.
And then I took a sample of that plant but all of that disappeared from
my satchel.
Along with the samples I took from the lab.
And the documents.
But then I came back.
I tried to retrace my steps and then you were gone.
And so I decided to just head to the lab.
To see what I could find.
Something's not ending up.
I agree.
Because it didn't seem like that much time but when I came back you were gone.
Didn't seem like much time to me either and I tried to retrace your steps and I couldn't find you.
I don't know what happened.
One or both of us are missing time.
Well I'm missing time regardless so...
True.
Not to get us off topic but Doc I got a question for ya.
Yeah? Yes Corporal Adams?
When we found out what happened to that boy...
You said no it's too soon.
You knew it was going to happen?
I had my suspicions it might happen.
What do you know Doc?
For this particular incident.
Yesterday after the funeral we had found Miss Bunsen's body dead on the shoreline.
Her hand had burst open similar to previous bodies we had seen.
While I wanted to look into that we then got the news that Deputy Lucas had gone missing.
And the sheriff and so I decided to follow that.
While we were getting ready to head out of town.
I noticed the boy was suffering a headache similar to how Miss Bunsen was suffering headaches and cravings before.
She perished as well.
Given how long it had been for the previous two bodies I thought I would have more time.
I thought it would take a week maybe at least.
As you saw this morning we don't even have that.
So either your estimations are wrong or these things are happening faster.
Perhaps yes.
I feel like I had very little to go off of seeing as we only had two bodies beforehand.
So I just assumed there is at least one gap there.
I hope that stays true.
Unfortunately it didn't.
Is it getting out of hand?
It certainly is.
I feel terrible for the young boy.
I would hope I would be able to at least check up on him this morning even.
But no.
Did you hear what his mother had said this morning while we were out there?
The gray man.
The gray man came out of him.
Yes.
The sheriff when we asked him about it earlier said it was just a local story.
That's what I'm wondering too because I know the sheriff was definitely shook up about hearing about the gray man.
I want to hear if it's more than just his own youthful legends and not something that he has seen this recently.
I can't say that. You guys can start hearing what sounds like muffled yelling outside. Like two people yelling at each other.
Is it a point where I could look out the window and see it or would I have to leave?
You could look out and you can kind of tune in a little.
And it looks like Peter and the sheriff are yelling at each other?
As soon as I see them arguing I'm just going to run out. I'm going for it.
I grab my cane and I'll follow.
I guess I'll go as well.
Do you remain in all of the layers you have?
Um, no.
I think while she's been talking she's just been subconsciously taking off at least the outer layers to try and cool off.
Right.
She's very warm.
You all step outside to hear Peter yelling.
We really need to tell them, John.
I mean like I'm not going to, we're done with this. We're done with this Peter. I got things I got to do. Alright?
Tend to the boy.
And John starts heading off towards the mine.
I would like to stop him from leaving.
Okay.
I'd like to kind of just head him off.
Howdy, Sheriff.
Hi. Good morning.
How are you feeling this morning?
A little stressed.
How's the wound?
His arm is in a sling right now, any kind of motion. It's doing alright.
You all going to help Peter look at what just happened?
I certainly intend to.
Okay.
Cool.
But Sheriff, did you happen to hear what the boy's mother was saying when we, when it happened?
It's the same thing over and over again, essentially. She's in hysterics right now.
Gray man inside.
Right. You, when we asked you about that before, you were pretty adamant that it was just a...
That's all it is. It's just a legend.
Is it though?
As far as I know, yes. I've never seen anything that tells me otherwise.
What was Peter talking to you about?
That's not important to this right now.
I think it's very important, Sheriff.
I can tell you it's not. Alright? Don't assume you know things.
I assume I lack very little knowledge on these matters, and I'm asking you to help enlighten us.
I am helping you, and this isn't going to help you. It's a personal matter.
Your personal matter just killed that boy.
My personal matter has nothing to do with the boy, Doctor.
I am about at the edge of my rope with the three of you, alright?
So how about you just do your thing, and I go do mine.
We're trying to do our thing, Sheriff. Your cooperation would help us immensely.
I'm being cooperative about everything that you guys need to know.
This has nothing to do with any of you.
Just kind of I am.
Doctor, with your human intelligence, you know he looks a little guilty when he's talking about it.
Not necessarily guilty about what he's saying to you guys, but guilty about the thing, the subject.
Sheriff, I'm sure you're aware of many strange things that have been happening here even before the three of us have arrived.
Like the fish? That's strange. Like, you're... What are you doing wearing that? Where's your jacket?
Inside?
It's... It's 12 degrees out right now. You should be wearing something.
Feels like 112 degrees.
Sheriff, three-eyed fish is one thing I'm not exactly concerned about.
If eating a strange fish here and there, the town would have much bigger problems that would have come to light beforehand.
I want to know what you saw here, what you know about what happened to this poor boy.
I have an idea, Sheriff. I'm wondering if you saw something similar with Nikolai Novikov.
He does hesitate when you say that. Would you have a skill you'd want to roll for that?
Human Int or Persuade would really be my best, I think, in this situation.
You go ahead and roll Persuade and...
Ooh, is that good?
Four? Four under... Persuade is 40.
That's not good.
Oh, wait, you want to go under?
Well, you want to get as close to your score because it's Price is Right rules.
If you're competing! Ah, dang.
Oh, so that's bad.
He hesitates a minute and he's just like...
Just talk to Peter about that stuff. I have stuff I need to do, alright?
Was it really a heart attack that night, Sheriff?
As far as I'm aware, I might as well have been, now.
I got things I got to do. I've got a timetable to keep, so...
I'm sure there's other people you can talk to right now, and he's just gonna kind of start trying to move forward again.
So, I'll let him move forward, but I'm gonna...
As he's about to pass me, I'm going to grab him where he's wounded and just put a little pressure.
Sheriff, you may not believe this, but we're here to help.
I'm gonna let you go, but as you go, I'm going to ask you a question.
How much blood on your hands is it gonna take for you to trust us?
The way I see it, my hands are pretty clean.
Put a little bit more pressure on the bullet wound and then let him go.
He's just gonna keep heading over to the mine.
Bellamy, after that exchange, you realize you're holding your gun in your hand.
I kind of look at my gun and you can probably see a little bit of surprise in her eyes.
A little shock.
And then she slowly holsters it and just acts like nothing happened.
You alright?
Yeah. I'm fine. Let's just continue.
Doc, who's Nikolai Novikov?
The late husband of Valery Novikov, the Russian hunter of this town.
His death was reported a while back as a heart attack and he was dead out in a blizzard.
We knew that, didn't we?
Yeah, we knew that.
You think the sheriff was involved in that?
Given the sheriff's fear about the grey man, also, I had met Valery at the funeral with Manchester Speak for Village.
She was a bit angry because she felt the town had swept that and Sasha's death, that's the wife of Tommy Haverfield.
That was also Valery's cousin.
And she felt that they rushed both their deaths under the rug and just said over and done with.
They ruled her husband as having a heart attack.
I would be concerned for you, Miss Bellamy, because they had found Sasha out in the blizzard with no clothes on and her baby.
And she was also dead.
I'm not sure if she was burning up at the time either, but that's one thing I think back to beforehand.
We have seen Tommy before. He was off for the same fate. He appeared to have just electrocuted.
So that's one other thing I can think to trace back to.
And again, a bit of mistrust for the sheriff as again trying to just take that investigation over and done with.
Yeah, the sheriff knows way more than he's letting on.
Mm-hmm.
He's hiding something.
He would just, you know, cooperate and tell us what he knows.
I think he's shame- there's some kind of shame something's-
I personally don't care if there's any shame in it.
It would help our investigation if he would just be forward about it.
I agree, but as it is, I don't think he's going to cooperate.
I think our next best move might be to go talk to Peter or we also need to talk to Abe before he leaves town.
We definitely need to talk to Abe before he leaves town.
I would like to talk to Valerie again.
She has a lot of the same inclinations that I think Abe does about us.
Bringing up Abe, you guys can see at the docks there's a boat being loaded up with lots of supplies.
There's a bunch of people around there.
As you're looking out at this boat, you also see that the sun is setting.
That seems really fast.
It's about 1040 in the morning and on the horizon, there's some very dark looking storm clouds.
We need to talk to Abe before he leaves.
I think that should be our first priority.
We can split up again.
I can talk to Abe, you can talk to Peter.
I need to help him at least get the poor boy inside.
Peter was doing really rough last night after seeing everything.
Peter is currently taking the boy into his morgue.
As you guys have been talking, he's been taking the body.
There are people helping him carry.
We also probably need to talk to Dr. Henson.
He seemed like he might have some information.
Agent Bellamy, that is one of the Germans that lives outside of town.
I met him yesterday.
He was there when I killed that other man.
He said he was here to help.
We brought him back to town with us.
You killed a man?
Yes.
The one that's face melted off, yes.
I find that particularly strange about what he was doing out there.
Agent Bellamy is currently looking at you shocked and flabbergasted.
You were in my A for a long time.
I feel like that was pertinent information.
Well, he's here in town.
I don't.
I'm sure Johan will have some useful information for us, but I want to say I don't exactly trust Bellamy either.
Oh, I don't trust him either, but we should still probably talk to him.
I don't exactly personally want to be part of that conversation.
Fine. I can do it. He approached me first anyway.
I did meet him at the funeral as well.
He came in an ex-military vehicle, old truck that a lot of them kind of used to get around.
I didn't have a long conversation with him.
I'll say they're all kind of, you know, former scientists that fled, but I'm not sure I trust that story.
It's another lead. I'm not...
I think you're right. We do need to ask him because he could still have useful information.
And when he came up to me after I killed that man, he seemed like he had information that he wanted to share.
All right.
Corporal, as you're looking around, kind of thinking about where everyone is, you see talking to Aurora is Abe Rogers.
Looks like they're finishing up a conversation.
Abe's over there. We really need to catch him before he leaves.
I want to be there for this conversation as well. I will have to trust Peter. We'll be OK.
He's a little longer.
That's your call.
I'm going to move towards Abe and Aurora.
At this point, their conversation has ended and he's walking away, which leads him towards the three of you.
Abe?
Morning.
Morning.
Good morning, Abe.
Hi. He has some like groceries in his hands. He's just done some morning shopping.
You want to walk and talk?
Yeah, that sounds good to me.
Yes. Abe, have you met Agent Bellamy here?
I've seen her around, but I haven't seen her too much. I haven't met her. Nice to meet you. Abe Rogers.
Hello.
Hi. He kind of looks at you a little puzzled for a second. Gives himself an understanding nod.
Basically, we wanted to speak with you. We seem to have know some things around here. We wanted to catch you, of course, before you headed out on the vision trip.
Oh, yeah, sure. We got a lot to talk about, you three.
You said as much last night.
Yeah, you know, I always like talking to three green recruits.
I've stopped walking.
He does not stop.
Oh, OK.
Well, then I'll stop only for a moment and then catch back up.
I'm afraid you've caught us at a disadvantage.
Well, you're I assume all you are new.
Yes, quite fresh faced.
Years of experience in other fields, of course.
Mr. Rogers, last night, you used when you addressed me, you used my military rank. I haven't been broadcasting that necessarily.
Well, I was doing some reading the other night.
What kind of reading?
Well, you know, I had to get curious when three CIA agents came to town.
So I talked to some of my superiors and got some information.
I spoke with some of your superiors, so you're still an active government agent.
Passive. I'm still in the area, but passively.
FBI?
No, now, not that kind of government work after the wars didn't seem my style.
So how long have you been fishing for this town?
You certainly seem to be taking on a leading role with that.
A couple of years.
It's time like this, not too hard to move up or stay where you want.
Getting to where you want to go.
It certainly seems that way, if you have a useful skill, they'll find a place for you. Otherwise, it seems like a lot of these people are warden rays in this area.
Yeah, I've got good leadership qualities, and Stein liked that.
So compared to the last guy in my spot, he's easy enough to settle in.
John's a good kid, too, so it makes things easier.
Well, I hope he keeps that good quality of his. He's storming off in that direction right now.
Seems a bit tense this morning, certainly, after a young boy had died.
The sheriff has been speaking of the Grey Man, but is very avoidant of that.
Do you know of anything of this legend, as he says, when he say he kind of looks around and he's like, hold on a second.
And he unlocks the door to his house. Come on in.
You guys come in, similar to before, it's pretty empty overall, except for like, some hunting trophies.
That back room that you guys noticed before, the door is closed there right now.
All right. You were saying about this Grey Man.
Imagine that's why you all are here, something like that. Or is it the fungus?
We're trying to determine if they might be related right now.
Certainly, we're curious about what the fungus is as well.
They shouldn't be related to the fungus. I don't know what's going on there.
What makes you say that?
Listen, I can't say too much, but I am here to pitch something to the three of you.
So settle in for a minute. Let's talk.
Let me put away my groceries and we'll meet in my room. Any emotions to that room that he's got the door closed?
I'll just nod to him.
So I was talking to my superiors, about the three of you, and we're always interested in more of the programs people take in a good step.
And then he kind of comes out of the kitchen, like, "Come on, follow me."
I'll follow, but I'm definitely on high alert.
He opens the back door and stepping in there's this pretty good sized room. It's got books all over.
A lot of them are weird books. There's occult books, mythology books, all sorts of varying subjects.
And in the middle of the room is just a large globe that looks like it's kind of spinning slowly.
A globe of the Earth, or is it just a... Is it a globe as in another map?
Yeah, like a globe of the Earth.
Do I know any pins on the map? Like, places that are marked?
There's actually nowhere marked on it.
Did you bring in this library, or is it a former tenant's?
It's my stuff. Picked it up over the years, different jobs.
Interesting, and I grabbed one of the occult-looking books. I haven't seen this edition yet.
Yeah, I got that one in the job I did in Peru back when I was green.
That's fascinating. I'll see if I can perhaps borrow this sometime, but I know we have much more in business.
So yeah, that boy just died. Gray man stuff.
I imagine you guys will need to finish up with... But before you finish that up, I think we have an opportunity here to talk before I have to leave in a couple hours.
I want to see if you guys are interested before I offer a road trip.
Well, I think you may have to convince some of us.
Well, um...
I was certainly curious about what you see when you go out in those waters, which is why I asked perhaps if you could bring something back,
although I wasn't sure how much a mutated fish would be related to all the other things we're finding.
Yeah, I learned not to take any of that stuff on town.
There's a lot of weird things going on in the ocean. Something's up.
I've been checking it out. It's part of why I've decided to take on the job I am.
It doesn't seem too dangerous. We just appease it at times, you know? It's not too big a deal.
Appease it?
Well, we learned that there are some consequences if we do certain things, so we just make sure to not do it.
Like last time someone found one of those fish that came back on the next voyage and they didn't come back.
So, since then, whenever someone finds one of those fish, I have them stay back. Stay behind. You know? Stuff happens.
Is it a catch-or-release? Or if you're the unfortunate one to catch, then you are released?
If you go on the next one. As long as you stay home on the next trip, it seems to cool off.
Don't really know much about that. I think it has something to do with the radiation, but, uh, hard to say. We're still testing that.
Yes. Have you ever seen anything bigger?
I've heard something bigger. I haven't seen it.
Corporal Adams gets a far away look in his eye.
I think it'd be too dangerous for me at the moment.
Um, listen, so, you guys, you're like the right hand, you know?
You're out here going on missions, stopping these things, or capturing things, depending on what. My people, we're like the left hand.
We're not as interested in disposal. We collect. We learn.
We have so many advances in science, in medicine, from what we've discovered. A lot of possible uses. Um, and we could always use more people to help us out.
So, you three seem like some good people and I think it's a great opportunity to serve your country.
I've asked to give you the sermon, I'm just here to give the pitch.
Well, certainly I'm fascinating and learning more about this to try and help protect the people of the nation. Even beyond that as well.
There's only so much you can do if you keep attacking symptoms. We are taking control of the cause.
So, are we perhaps saying that the cause is causing these symptoms for both the gray man and the fungus, or are those both symptoms of whatever is the cause?
He said those aren't related. I wouldn't worry about the fungus situation much at all. That's all under control.
The gray man is a wild card. I don't know where that came from. I don't know anything about it, but it seems to be acting.
Some people have been dying and it happened a lot quicker this time too. It didn't happen until fairly recently though. This isn't, this is a new thing.
I know you don't have much time, only a few hours Abe. But you seem to know people around this town pretty well. What can you tell me about Uriah Kent before he passed?
Alright, he's a good man. You know, helped out with the whole Haverfield situation.
The Haverfield situation.
Oh yeah, yeah.
That's something else I was curious about.
I have to say, I know something's up there but I haven't bothered. John's asked me some advice relating around something to do with that, but I haven't made it my business to understand much of that.
Of course.
From what I have heard speaking with Peter Kent, Tommy was more or less raging an orphanage with Aurora Lewis.
That sounds right, yeah.
He had no other nearby family?
I don't know. I don't know, I've only been here a couple of years Doc.
I guess he picked up the land at Haverfield Farm then?
Yeah, there's a farm over there.
I wasn't aware that Tommy lived out of town at the farm.
As far as I know, that's where he's always lived.
Well, with Tommy, Sasha, and their young child having passed, now that farm is vacant as far as we're aware.
I suppose so, I haven't heard anyone buying or moving.
I'm sure it's a very thriving real estate market here.
I suppose Johan and his crew had come in here recently as well.
Oh yeah, it was a lot.
I'm certainly curious what their fields of study are.
As far as I'm aware, Johan's a radiologist.
I tried docking to him a bit, but he didn't seem very interested.
So they're kind of doing their own thing.
Finding a radiologist out here is certainly useful.
We might actually be able to use that without having to get invasive if we need to look at anything.
Yeah, that's what I thought. He wasn't very cooperative.
Easier said than done, perhaps.
He's not very interested in government work.
Well, he doesn't have to necessarily join government work.
Well, my pitch was very governmental, my job, so I didn't get much with him.
You might get more than me, that's fine. I'm sure he could help.
I'm not going to pretend that I understood your little pitch that you just gave.
I don't have a lot of... I don't like giving these pitches because I can't say a lot.
But I, you know, want to offer you guys a chance to do more than you're doing right now to help protect people.
And more answers can come at the compound with my boss.
But I just need to know if you guys are interested enough to head over there with me.
We could probably help you out with the situation, the grey man thing.
Sure, it could be helpful. Is this compound located, or masked as a sanitarium?
Or is it better hidden than that?
No, it's just a sanitarium. It's just nothing to do with us.
We're just a couple miles southeast.
You do understand that what you're asking is going to require a great deal of trust that you're asking from us?
Oh, yeah. But, just so you know, government spooks and all, you're not interested, you can leave.
You go in there, you talk to us, you can leave. We're not those kind of people, you know.
I know people get paranoid about government agencies, you know, Delta Green and the like, but we don't do a lot of that necessarily.
Yeah, you go to the church, you hear the sermon.
Like on a regular Sunday, you're convinced or you're not convinced, you head out, you walk out the door. Same to you.
Well, I certainly want to help protect these people.
I'm only concerned that in our absence, what else will happen in this town?
The pattern has been a skew. Normally, it's a couple days, weeks, but...
Now I don't even have a lead on who may be next.
That's true. It shouldn't take too long, because I got to get on the voyage, get on the fishing trip.
And the way you three have been acting, I feel like we get a lot of use from you all.
I feel like you get a lot of use from us.
Certainly could, if you have enlightening information here.
Which was leading to my next question. You seem very well informed.
Oh, yeah.
Is there anything that you can give us as a show of faith that would help with the current situation?
The gray man or the fungus, but you seem to have that covered, as you said.
In regards to Operation Latency, I'm not at liberty to say too much about it.
In regards to the gray man, I don't really know a lot. Uriah was the first victim.
And it's been that. And then there's Buntz. You guys have been here for almost all of them.
Well, I guess half of them.
Yes, half of them at this point.
Because you miss Bobby Newman in the mind.
I mean, what, Uriah died just a bit after Tommy died, but Tommy, you know, seemed unrelated.
We lost the deputy in regards to, I think, the fungus, more or less.
Have you talked to Jon about, you were asking about Uriah and stuff?
Have you talked to him about that whole situation?
I guess I didn't ask about how Uriah was found. I haven't seen that.
I was curious because he certainly seemed scared about the gray man.
I had a weird inclination that it may have something to do with the rushed investigation of Nikolai.
I don't know if the gray man has much to do with that.
Jon's a good kid, and something happened that night that he asked me some vague things about.
He gets scared, cares a lot about the people, but he doesn't want to have this responsibility.
He tried to get me to be the sheriff, and I wasn't very interested in that.
And now it's all back on our shoulders again, now that Lucas is gone.
Right. Yeah. Jon didn't come see me this morning. I thought he would've.
He usually comes by when there's things going on.
I try to help him out, but keep him out of too much trouble.
I believe you've spoken to Aurora, right?
Yes, I have.
What kind of stuff has she been telling you?
She seemed to know things about me that she shouldn't have been able to know.
Things about my past.
Things that I'd seen.
Interesting.
It's a little unsettling, being honest, and why do you ask?
She hasn't been too forthcoming about anything.
No, she certainly has not.
I managed to speak with her a little bit while at the funeral.
She knew I was a doctor, although I don't think that's that surprising. I think this entire town knows that.
Other than that, she seemed to imply that it's not time for me to speak to her.
I'm not sure what that vague response is, but she did then disappear from the funeral shortly after when I went to speak with others.
Interesting.
Has she not been very forthcoming with you at all about anything?
She has been vague with you as well as us.
She doesn't say much.
Abe, what do you know about Valerie?
Novigav?
The hunter.
He's a hunter.
He's a butcher.
Nikolai died.
She's pretty angry about it, upset usually.
Doesn't really interact with too many people.
It sounds like she lost pretty much all of her family.
Yeah.
She had showed up to the funeral as well, definitely in more of a sour spirit, angry.
Felt that they had rushed everything to be buried and done with whenever on the same night of Blizzard, she lost her husband and her cousin Sasha.
That had been married to Tommy.
And of course they lost their child in that as well.
I might.
There's something we've been suspecting for a bit.
But we're not too sure about regarding that. Some of our suspicions about some friends of ours.
I'll have to talk to my boss some more. I don't know how forthcoming I can be right now with that.
But you guys have been poking around outside of what you were sent here for.
And we caught detention from my superiors and maybe some other folk, too.
I think we've seen plenty of attention.
Yeah. You guys ran into some trouble last night.
Yes.
Were you the one to send out the report?
Which report?
The one that we read.
Oh, from the program?
Nah, I don't work with the program anymore.
Can we have a moment to deliberate on your offer?
Yeah, sure. Here, if it helps, he pulls out a knife and then walks over to the globe and sticks it in the top of the globe.
And the globe kind of opens up a little bit.
And he pulls out a couple of folders.
This is files on the three of you, if you're interested.
How comprehensive are these files?
They look like not everything's included in them, but it looks like there's more information than what's in those folders right now.
But for instance, they have the psych evals on them and history regarding the wars and in your current practices.
And a bit of information about your first encounters with the program.
Did he leave us alone, or is he still in the room?
He's in the room.
I'm just gonna look from my file up to him and back and forth a couple times.
He's just kind of looking out the window in the back of the room.
You say you're not with the program anymore. How did you get these?
We're both government entities. Like I said, we're two arms. We just do different jobs for the government.
It's not too hard for bureaucracy and such to get information from another department.
If you've been here, why weren't we informed?
To be honest, due to an order from President Truman when we were set up, we know a lot more about others than others know about us.
We have a lot more access and understanding of Delta Green, for example, than Delta Green has of us.
I'm sure it's helpful in the things we encounter to compartmentalize information at least.
So if one of us is compromised, then the things that know about us don't learn as much as they might.
I think we'd like to discuss for a little bit what we'd like to do.
This little road trip is not the fishing expedition. It's just a drive out of town.
Just a drive out of town. Talk for a bit. Meet my superiors.
And then if you're not interested, you can head on back and I'll head out for the voyage.
Nothing too crazy. Well, it's a little crazy at the compound.
I kind of wave my folder that's shut. That's what they all say.
Yeah. Imagine we go back into the room with all the trophies around.
Yeah, yeah. He escorts you out of the room he's in and closes the door with him in it.
I'm very tempted to join him on this. It might be at least useful to help close one thing.
He seems confident that these aren't related, but I doubt that.
If I recall our report correctly, there were two bodies, eviscerated and a weird fungus.
Like we were told about those two things. Yeah, we were. That was part of the report.
I'm going to keep my voice low so to really try and avoid it and stop him from eavesdropping.
I don't trust him. No, he knows too much and he's being really cagey about who he's working for.
I'm wondering if this is him just trying to take opportunity to get us out of the way.
Perhaps if that's the worst case scenario.
He keeps saying, oh, I'm part of the government. I'm a government agency, but he won't tell us who.
He won't tell us what.
Following him to get answers does seem like too much of a good thing.
How likely do you think it is that if we go and they give us this pitch, if we say no,
that they're just going to let us walk away if they're this secret?
I don't know. It wouldn't hurt to try.
It could very well hurt to try.
I mean, if they know things that would help.
It's tempting, but something about him makes my skin crawl.
Look, I personally, I think we should get tried out.
I give him the benefit of the doubt, at least.
I know it's ominous, especially since they have files on us, but...
They have all the information that Delta Green has.
Yes, but it sounds like they have more information about what's actually going on here.
And if we can get that, if we can have access to that, it might help us.
And put a close to this.
Who's to say they're not the cause of everything that's going on here?
This could be a cover up.
I mean, it could be, but we don't know until we go find out.
They know about us.
Even particularly, I've seen, you know, or saying that it might be the idea of recruiting us,
but I think we're not done here.
No.
No.
We have so much more to do.
I think, from the boy this morning, and the attack that happened in the lab last time,
I feel like things were escalating.
Either way, they know about us.
Now we know about them.
I will say it's hard to deny that if we just choose not to go along,
we're not gaining any information from that, other than what we've talked about here.
I think if we go along, we have a chance of learning more.
Maybe not what he's selling us, but...
Right.
But he's learning more about what could be behind this, if it's them.
Either way, whatever you guys decide to do, I'm going.
I have to know.
We certainly don't have to go.
They say he seems to think that the fungus is being handled in the lab.
I know that, from talking to others around town,
that it seems that it is staying out of town, at least,
but it seems like it's still popping up everywhere.
It was growing all over in the cellar of the lab.
That's assuming that we trust what he's saying to us.
That it's being handled.
This entire time we're talking, Bellamy is pacing like she's trying to find water.
You all right, Agent Bellamy?
I'm just warm.
You need to step outside?
I might.
Look, I don't like it.
It's boiling in here.
But I don't think it's a good idea for one of us, especially you,
to go off on your own right now.
I think we try to stick together.
I say try, I guess.
We definitely try to split up for investigation.
We first go out of town, and then even take advantage of the funeral in the lab.
We'll keep an eye on Bunsen inside and we'll look what happened there.
If Agent Bellamy's going, I'll go.
If only to keep an eye out for trouble.
I think I'd like to go, as well.
I have to trust that Peter won't snap on his own.
I feel the sheriff might have already, but we haven't done anything to meet the miners yet.
I wanted to go to the mine, but...
Maybe we can do that later.
I don't know if there will be a later.
The sheriff said that he had a timetable to keep.
I have a bad feeling about that.
Certainly I'm curious how much they know about us since we've gotten here.
Do they have other eyes on us?
Look, if this is some shadowy organization, there's no telling what they know.
Bellamy walks out the door.
She's gone.
(Sighs)
I'll go out and watch, see what she's doing, where she's going.
Just to the snow.
Doc, she's not okay.
She's not.
We don't know how quickly things will go, but if this is even the same thing that we've seen from the other bodies...
The incisions are a pattern.
I see she has several more than I've noticed previously.
They're always different though, because what I know, Bunsen had a headache and ate a lot.
Whereas I only noticed for the young boy and it was only in passing that he had a headache.
It's possible she hasn't progressed that far yet, but...
Look, she wants to go with Abe, and...
She's been acting weird ever since she heard the engine and saw the Aurora.
We definitely stick together, and I'm...
I don't think we should let her go.
I think there's a saying that always has to go...
Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
This could still be a good thing, but I have my doubts as well, Corporal.
I'm at a loss. I don't know what to do.
My gut tells me that it might even be too late, but that...
Whatever the Sheriff is about to do at the mine is not going to end well.
And Peter's not okay.
He was barely holding it together last night.
I'm sure this morning does not help with that.
I would like to have a chance to talk with Valerie some more, and I'd make sure to speak even hushed voice, like reassuring that.
I think she has similar inclinations that Abe does about us.
She knows we're government, but not CIA, but that's all she can inform me.
Well, she would definitely be worth talking to, but I don't know.
(sigh)
Johan Hansen being a radiologist could be helpful to help Bellamy if it's the same thing with the others, but I don't know if I trust even Abe said, like, if he actually is a radiologist.
At this point, you guys hear the door open up, and Abe steps out with a radio and his hands.
So, uh, what's it gonna be?
We'll see how enlightening your superiors are in this situation.
You seem very confident that the strange plant growth and the Grey Man are entirely unrelated.
Yeah.
Alright.
She alright out there?
She's a bit under the weather.
Something like that.
You think your superiors could have anything to help her?
He kinda makes a thinking face.
Maybe, maybe, actually. Um, we've had some technological progressions lately that might be able to help out.
Let's find out. I'm sure our friends would be interested.
So, shall we go?
I suppose so. We certainly burnt a lot of daylight already and I checked my watch.
Yeah, the sun is gone, and it's starting to rain heavily.
And you've got a clock to keep, so we shouldn't keep you any longer than necessary.
Well, I still got a couple hours, so it's alright.
Alright, let's hit the road!
Agent Bellamy, we're leaving.
Okay.
If it helps, you can sit in the back.
Yes, please.
Agent Bellamy, as you're heading towards the truck you feel like you're back in control of yourself?
Like, just for a little bit, you were not in full control.
You don't know why you were quite so adamant about going, but things felt just a little off.
And then you head off into the back of the truck, and you all drive down the path.
And we fade to black.
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.
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Music
Take a little sip.
Why are you threatening Harold with the water bottle?
Because he's always threatening me.
Because he's my father.
And a son must kill their father.
It's only natural.
It's the natural birthing process.
I'm scared.
I haven't been birthed yet until my father's dead.
What?
Then the new life begins.
I'm confused.
- Oops.
[BLANK_AUDIO]
