Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Announcer: Records of the unknown. Operation Latency contains horror elements that may be disturbing to some listeners. Listener discretion is advised.
[00:00:15] You are listening to an atomic broadcasting production, so sit back, relax and enjoy the feature presentation. And remember, do your part such as life like comment rate. And don't forget to tell a friend to tune in for an atomic time.
[00:00:41] GM: Operation Latency. November 17, 1952. Our agents have just taken off from Washington State in a seaplane on their way to a small town in Alaska called Her Valen. It is currently a storm, quite torrential in nature, mostly rain, very strong winds, lightning, thunder.
[00:01:13] Agent Steele: Dr. Sylvester Steele is strapped in tire perhaps, and is comfortable in the seat, but he's just uncomfortable hearing the wand of engines roaring in the plane. And then also with the weather beating against it. It's just very uncomfortable trying to puff on a drenched cigarette that was handed to him.
[00:01:31] Agent Adams: Yeah, I had mentioned last episode that Corporal Adams was startled by the start of the engine of the plane. But I wanted to say that once that initial shock is over, he's actually very comfortable looking on the plane. Even despite the the bad weather. It was just the initial noise. He looking over at the doctor and smirking a little bit.
First time flying.
[00:02:05] Agent Steele: Certainly have flown a few times. But it's just the sound of these engines roaring. It's never comfortable.
I think I took the folder we had with the information for this mission and I want to look at it and try to make sure I memorize the number we were given to contact back.
[00:02:24] GM: Yes, that should be easy enough.
[00:02:26] Agent Steele: Okay, once I have memorized that, I will hand the information off to.
I'll hand it off to Corporal Adams to also then be able to look over the information.
[00:02:34] Agent Adams: If he wants, I will take it and begin perusing. Though paperwork is not my strong suit, so I'm just kind of giving it a cursory glance.
[00:02:44] GM: The information is fairly brief. They didn't have a lot of information to give out about the situation, but they felt it was urgent enough to send out a group here. Nothing new that the handler did not tell you before.
[00:02:59] Agent Steele: Any images in the folder from the victims or even the plant?
[00:03:05] GM: Oddly enough, there's no images of the plant because they did say that they had looked over some of the spontaneous reportings to wherever she's getting her doctorate. They were looking over the reports from her university, but they don't have any images there. When it comes to images of the victims, they're one very recent and two in a very remote situation. So no photographs had been sent to them.
[00:03:30] Agent Adams: Just one quick point Of Clarific. Nolan, you said your character is British, correct?
[00:03:35] Agent Steele: Yes.
[00:03:36] Agent Adams: Okay. Because I was going to Corporal Adams was gonna look over at the doctor and. So how does a British doctor join up with American agency?
[00:03:54] Agent Steele: Well, certainly seen in our times that allies come together for certain threats. And I think you would have known what we've seen such that this agency particularly handles.
[00:04:06] Agent Adams: Fair enough. How about you, ma'am?
[00:04:09] Agent Bellamy: Been awful quiet, cuz I'm trying to focus on flying in this storm.
[00:04:15] Agent Adams: Fair enough.
[00:04:15] Agent Bellamy: And I'd appreciate it if you boys didn't light those cigarettes.
[00:04:19] Agent Adams: My apologies.
[00:04:22] Agent Steele: Sorry about that, ma'am.
[00:04:23] Agent Bellamy: Smokes up the windshield and it's hard enough to see in this rain.
[00:04:27] Agent Adams: Put it out on something. Ah, there's an ashtray on the plane.
[00:04:32] Agent Bellamy: I had a run in with them a while back back and decided to join up.
[00:04:41] GM: Couple hours have passed. From the maps that he gave you with the plane, you are fairly confident, you're getting fairly close, perhaps within about 30 minutes or so. The storm is starting to loosen up.
When a lightning bolt strikes very close to the plane, you're not really for sure if it hit it or not, but something seems to stop working.
Now, with your piloting skill, I'm not going to make you roll to try and keep the plane going, but something is definitely wrong with the plane. But I think you'd feel confident enough that you could still get to your destination and look at repairs possibly later.
[00:05:36] Agent Adams: Everything all right?
[00:05:39] Agent Bellamy: Yeah, I think we'll be fine.
But we'll see what happened when we hit the ground.
Everyone keep your seat belts tight.
[00:05:50] Agent Steele: I don't think mine will go any tighter.
[00:05:53] Agent Adams: I can give you mine if it'll make you feel better.
[00:05:56] Agent Steele: No, thank you.
[00:05:57] GM: In a moment that feels like you've bursted through the fog. You come out into almost a clearing of the clouds and you see a bay before you. Looks like there's a large fishing vessel. There's docks set up. You see a small town, seems to be a lot of people moving. It's hard to see quite what's going on, but the rain and everything seems to have let out. And that is when the plane dies.
Okay, Bernadette, as this plane has suddenly died and you're needing to land this plane on the water, would you roll a piloting check?
[00:06:41] Agent Bellamy: I will.
[00:06:43] Agent Adams: Here we go.
[00:06:46] Agent Bellamy: 59 under 80.
[00:06:49] GM: All right, so the plane dies.
It's clearing. The weather is starting to calm down here and you're able to guide the plane down in a descent and land on the waters, though still very torrential. The waters are.
You were able to land, and you're fairly close to the docks.
[00:07:12] Agent Bellamy: Like, close enough we could climb out.
[00:07:14] GM: And you might need something to help kind of pull you in if you want to get that close, but you are fairly close to that.
[00:07:22] Agent Bellamy: Okay.
[00:07:23] Agent Adams: Is there a rope on the plane?
[00:07:25] GM: Yes.
[00:07:26] Agent Adams: We'll grab that just in case I need to lasso the dock or something.
[00:07:30] GM: Something akin to that would be needed. What do you have an athletic score?
[00:07:34] Agent Adams: Yes, 50.
[00:07:35] GM: Would you roll that?
[00:07:37] Agent Steele: Yes.
[00:07:39] Agent Adams: 70 over 50.
[00:07:41] GM: Okay, let's go for Adams. Get the rope out. The waves are still rocking the boat quite significantly, and you go to throw it, you find your mark, but your feet lose theirs and you fall into the water.
[00:07:57] Agent Adams: Into the water I go.
[00:07:58] GM: You go into the water. It feels deeper than it should be. With the waves moving around, you're never really sure how deep under you are.
What is your awareness?
[00:08:11] Agent Adams: 70.
[00:08:12] GM: Abby and Nolan, could you close your ears for a bit?
[00:08:16] Agent Adams: Uh oh.
[00:08:20] GM: Corporal Adams, as you're getting your bearings back together, falling under this water, trying to understand where you're at, currently looking off into the deepness of the ocean in front of you, there's a flash of light, lightning illuminating the area in front of you, and you see a silhouette, not quite a human silhouette, something bigger, almost like the size of a whale, but it almost has a humanoid shape.
Where its head is, you can see towards the top. It's like a vertical split in the head. For just that brief second, you can see the silhouette go up, and yet there's a large hole, kind of a. Where a mouth would be open, almost, but vertical.
Would you make a sanity check at this?
[00:09:22] Agent Adams: Yeah, I think that's appropriate.
Remind me how I do that.
[00:09:27] GM: So your current sanity, and then you'll roll against the score. What is your current sanity?
[00:09:32] Agent Adams: 40.
[00:09:33] GM: Oh, that's not very high.
[00:09:36] Agent Adams: It's not. And 44 over 40.
[00:09:39] GM: That's a critical fail.
[00:09:41] Agent Adams: Yes, it is.
[00:09:42] GM: Which means you lose four.
[00:09:43] Agent Adams: Great.
[00:09:47] GM: So about as quickly as Corporal Adams from under, he comes shooting back up pretty swiftly.
[00:09:56] Agent Steele: Once I am able to get up from my seat, I'll just make sure I can hold on and help lift him back into the plane.
[00:10:01] Agent Adams: I'll take his hand and try to pull myself back up.
[00:10:05] GM: Pull him back up, Doctor, as he's like, you're pulling him back up and holding onto him for a second, you get, like, the faint smell of blood.
[00:10:15] Agent Adams: Thank you, Doctor.
[00:10:17] Agent Steele: Try to give him a look over. Did you hit yourself against the plane as you fell in?
[00:10:22] Agent Adams: I kind of looked myself over. I'M not. I don't think so.
Am I uninjured?
[00:10:27] GM: You look fine.
[00:10:28] Agent Adams: Okay. I guess. Not very cold, I would imagine.
[00:10:34] Agent Steele: Just feeling the breeze on the bay water this point.
[00:10:41] GM: You guys feel this plane is starting to get pulled towards the dock. As someone on the dock is pulling you guys in.
[00:10:49] Agent Adams: Turn around and look.
[00:10:51] GM: There's a guy in like a poncho and hood and such.
[00:10:55] Agent Adams: As soon as we get close enough, I'm gonna hop from the plane to the dock.
[00:10:58] GM: Alright. As you hop up, this figure helps you up too. And he's like, what are you. Are you guys okay? What are you doing here? I didn't get any word there was a plane landing here.
[00:11:11] Agent Adams: I'm sorry about the inconvenience.
CIA.
I'm Agent Adams.
[00:11:19] Agent Steele: I am Agent Steele.
[00:11:23] GM: All right, is everyone up on the dock?
[00:11:28] Agent Adams: Where's Birdie?
[00:11:31] GM: She.
[00:11:31] Agent Bellamy: She's probably left the plane by now and checking it over to see what happened It.
[00:11:36] Agent Steele: We're on the water with it, so.
[00:11:38] Agent Bellamy: Right. She. I mean, as much as she can see.
[00:11:42] GM: I think to get a good read, you'd probably need to wait for the weather to calm down.
[00:11:46] Agent Bellamy: Okay. Do I see where the lightning may have hit it?
[00:11:51] GM: You look over at that spot, you're able to kind of glance over there. It doesn't look like it was struck by anything.
And then you are also helped up onto the dock.
[00:12:07] Agent Adams: My apologies for no notice being given.
We're here on official government business.
[00:12:17] GM: All right, well, I would have appreciated a call.
What are you guys doing here?
[00:12:28] Agent Adams: It's classified.
[00:12:30] Agent Steele: Yes, apologies about it. It is classified. Did you happen to know where Ronald Stein is?
I believe he's the dock master.
[00:12:37] GM: That's me.
[00:12:38] Agent Steele: You are Ronald?
[00:12:38] GM: Yeah.
[00:12:39] Agent Steele: Pleasure to meet you, sir.
[00:12:40] GM: It's good to meet you too. Let's get inside. You need to towel off.
[00:12:44] Agent Steele: You need to get this man warmed up.
[00:12:45] Agent Adams: Thank you. Appreciate it.
[00:12:47] GM: And he takes you over to a kind of large dock house nearby and there's. There's already like a fire going at the fireplace and there's. And he quickly kind of runs over and grabs a. Some towels and blankets.
[00:13:02] Agent Adams: Yeah, I'm going straight for the fire.
[00:13:06] GM: It's a heck of a time for you guys to get here.
Everything going on in town?
[00:13:13] Agent Steele: Oh, yes, about that. I mean, we heard it was urgent business. Of course, and things are classified. But could you tell us what you know about things going on? You seem to hear some things are happening.
[00:13:26] GM: Well, there's just something's going on. A couple of people died recently. Sheriff hasn't been Too open about what's going on fully. But he's over trying to get the mine shut down right now and that's not going over well.
You guys said you were CIA, correct? Sorry, I just don't know why you guys would be here. I haven't. Yeah.
Anyway. Yes. So can I help you guys with anything? I suppose.
[00:14:01] Agent Adams: Are you familiar with Henriette Bunsen?
[00:14:05] GM: Henriette Bunsen? Bunsen. Oh, that sounds familiar.
She one of you guys? CIA agent too or something?
[00:14:19] Agent Steele: No, she's a researcher that we've heard is stationed up here.
[00:14:23] GM: Oh, she's that botanist, right? Yeah, she's over in the county jail right now. Or whatever suffice to say counts as a jail around here.
[00:14:33] Agent Adams: What was she arrested for?
[00:14:35] GM: Murder.
[00:14:36] Agent Adams: Murder?
[00:14:36] GM: That's what the sheriff says killed that doctor, Dr. Kent Uriah. I don't imagine he'd need much help from CIA agents, but yeah, there's a lot going on. There was just another murder or death. He thinks it's connected over in the mines. He's kind of starting to cordon it off, but.
[00:14:59] Agent Adams: What's the sheriff's name?
[00:15:01] GM: Oh yeah, his name's John. John Gibson.
He's our quote unquote sheriff around here.
[00:15:10] Agent Steele: Are there any deputies under him?
[00:15:14] GM: Yeah, it's just Lucas bars.
[00:15:19] Agent Steele: Thank you.
[00:15:20] GM: There are the two around here.
[00:15:22] Agent Adams: These are the sheriff's over at the mine.
[00:15:25] GM: Yeah, do you guys need me to get the plane pulled in and looked at or anything?
[00:15:32] Agent Bellamy: If you could just get it pulled in, I'll take a look at it later.
[00:15:36] GM: Okay, I'll get my boys on it. We gotta clear the docks out for the fishers. They're gonna be taking off here shortly and I don't want anything in the way.
[00:15:46] Agent Bellamy: That's fair.
[00:15:48] Agent Adams: Thank you, Mr. Stein.
[00:15:49] GM: Oh yeah, not a problem.
It's all just very sudden. Sorry.
[00:15:55] Agent Adams: I wish we could have given you more notice.
[00:15:58] GM: I wish so too.
We'll get things taken care of. You guys take some time. There's some food over there if you need some.
[00:16:06] Agent Adams: I do have one other question for you, Mr. Stein.
[00:16:09] GM: Yeah?
[00:16:10] Agent Adams: What can you tell me. Tell me about Dan Haley.
[00:16:12] GM: What can I tell you about Dan?
I mean, family man. His dad opened up the mine a while back.
He just. He runs it for him. He's a pretty good guy.
Takes care of his miners. Not always the nicest to me. In fact, he's kind of a jerk sometimes to me. I don't know why. I think it's. I think he's just jealous of the fishing trade sometimes. You know, we often Pull in a lot more than the miners do. His dad used to be the main export, and now our export's shifting over.
[00:16:48] Agent Adams: I see.
[00:16:48] GM: You know, a little bit of a rivalry then, I guess so. He likes to think he helps run the town, but it's really mostly me.
[00:16:57] Agent Adams: I see.
[00:16:59] Agent Steele: You say you run this town. Is there not a mayor or other position above the sheriff?
[00:17:05] GM: Not officially. At the moment, technically, the sheriff's not official either, but, you know, we.
[00:17:15] Agent Steele: You take care of this place okay?
[00:17:16] GM: Yeah, the town's not really been big enough before that. We've really gone through all the hoopla of putting together official government statuses around here. We just kind of live our life.
Town's getting bigger. We'll probably have to change that sometime soon. At least that's what I keep saying.
We call John the Sheriff because his dad was a peacekeeper around here back in the day. So he just kind of keeps it going, like a lot of us.
[00:17:51] Agent Adams: I see. You have any more questions for him, Doctor, or.
[00:17:58] GM: I can't really stay for any more questions. I got a lot to do.
Like I said, wasn't expecting you. There's leftover food from the dinner over here if you want some, but I. I gotta head out.
[00:18:12] Agent Adams: Of course. You've been very generous with your time.
[00:18:14] Agent Steele: Yes, of course. Thank you, Mr. Stein. And if we have any other questions that we think you might be able to help us with, we will come back here.
[00:18:21] GM: Of course. Yeah. And if you end up needing a place to stay, just let me know.
[00:18:26] Agent Adams: Actually, I do not believe we had any accommodation set up, so that would be very helpful.
[00:18:32] GM: All right, I'll figure something out for you three.
[00:18:34] Agent Adams: Thank you, Mr. Stein.
[00:18:36] GM: On a problem, not around.
[00:18:37] Agent Steele: And I'm just curious, looking at him. How old does he look?
[00:18:42] GM: Just as, you know, anywhere from, like late 50s, early 60s.
[00:18:45] Agent Steele: Okay, because I'm curious, because he mentioned, of course, the sheriff and Dan Haley, the mine owner, both inherited their positions from their family, so I was curious if he might be in the same position. Just not saying it, but he's older, so.
[00:19:01] GM: Yeah, right now he's like, fairly padded up with a hood, but seeing you can kind of get that vibe from him.
So he takes off, kind of raises up some more gear and then heads outside.
[00:19:17] Agent Steele: I hobble my way over with my cane, kind of clung against the floor over to where they said they had dinner before. Imagine it's fish if they're a fishing village.
[00:19:25] GM: Yeah, there's some fish. There's some meat that would be locally hunted, probably, and some vegetables Imagine we've.
[00:19:33] Agent Steele: Been flying for a while. So I do take a bit of this bread.
[00:19:35] GM: It has been several hours.
[00:19:38] Agent Adams: Corporal Adams is still trying to get warm by the fire. And anybody who's even somewhat paying attention to him sees him pull out his pack of cigarettes. And with shakier hands than you saw him before, light one. And kind of.
[00:19:57] GM: So I imagine you take some time to get some food in. You guys take some time for the corporal to warm up.
And it looks like the storms have pretty much passed almost entirely. You can start to see the sunset.
[00:20:16] Agent Adams: I get up and look out the. Is there a window that I can look out? Does it look like they've gotten the plane to the dock?
[00:20:25] GM: It looks like he's yelling at some guys to start getting working on it.
[00:20:29] Agent Adams: I'll need to get my bag from the plane before we leave here.
I'm not gonna leave it there.
[00:20:37] GM: Yes.
[00:20:37] Agent Steele: Make sure we're gonna pack whatever we've got as we go.
I'm curious what kind of accommodations that he's aware of. But it'd also be good to make contact with Dan Haley. I know we're supposed to kind of be careful. The sheriff. I still think it'd be good to figure out where he's at as well in the situation.
[00:20:56] Agent Adams: Yeah. We're also gonna need to go find the botanist who's apparently in jail.
[00:21:01] Agent Steele: I wonder if the sheriff is out when he might be able to convince Lucas Bar to let us talk to her.
[00:21:06] Agent Adams: Probably be easier. I might be able to work on him, so to speak.
Question is, do we want to split up or not?
[00:21:16] Agent Steele: Until we know where we'd be meeting back together, at least.
[00:21:18] Agent Adams: Fair enough.
[00:21:19] Agent Bellamy: I don't know that it's necessary right now.
[00:21:22] Agent Adams: Nothing's too urgent yet.
[00:21:25] Agent Steele: Trying to make sure that your gear gets dried up as best we can.
[00:21:28] GM: Yes.
[00:21:29] Agent Steele: Ms. Bellamy. Thank you for the delivery to this town. Of course.
[00:21:37] GM: Special delivery.
[00:21:39] Agent Steele: You got us all here in one piece, so appreciate it.
[00:21:43] Agent Bellamy: Yeah. This isn't anything I haven't flown in before. I just wish I knew what hit us.
[00:21:50] Agent Adams: I wasn't lightning.
[00:21:51] Agent Bellamy: I thought it was, but I couldn't see any obvious damage to the plane. At least not yet. I haven't actually looked it over thoroughly yet. So who's to say what.
What happened?
[00:22:06] Agent Steele: Yes.
[00:22:06] Agent Adams: Well, that's weird.
It's not the only weird thing that's happened since we got here.
[00:22:12] Agent Bellamy: Excuse me?
[00:22:15] Agent Adams: When I fell in the water.
[00:22:18] GM: I.
[00:22:19] Agent Adams: Thought I saw something.
A shape.
[00:22:24] Agent Bellamy: What kind of shape?
[00:22:26] Agent Adams: It was big.
Too big to be a person. But it Was kind of, you know, it was kind of obscured.
But it could just be my. My eyes playing tricks on me. But I can't really describe exactly what it is I saw.
[00:22:47] Agent Bellamy: I mean, there's plenty of wildlife around here. It could have been a seal or something.
[00:22:51] Agent Adams: Could have been.
[00:22:54] Agent Steele: Another point of business. I think we need to remember is that they want us to contact them from the sanitarium phone.
[00:23:01] Agent Adams: Well, that's gonna be an ordeal.
[00:23:02] GM: But yes, he did say you could. He didn't say you have.
[00:23:06] Agent Steele: I still think it'd be good to know them know that we are stranded here until we get our plane fixed.
[00:23:11] GM: Well, so a typical Delta Green operation, if they're sending you here, could take anywhere from a week to several months. However, it could. If it's. If it's broken. Broken, it could be a useful thing to let them know.
So the door. The door opens up and Ronald Stein comes through.
He's like, alright, I got your plane up in Bay 2 over there, so you guys can get your stuff out. And do you guys need us to look it over, do anything to it while we have it, or you just want us to leave it there till you're ready to head out?
I got the space.
[00:23:52] Agent Bellamy: If you would just leave it there. I'll give it a. I'll give it a good thorough search later when this weather clears up, of course.
[00:23:58] GM: And my men have done plenty of work on seaplane, so if you need anything we can touch her up and get her ready to head back out. We get our fair share coming through town every now and again.
[00:24:09] Agent Bellamy: I appreciate that.
[00:24:11] Agent Steele: It's in bay.
Is that able to be locked up?
[00:24:15] GM: No, no, they're pretty open.
Usually it's boats and such, but we have some modifications so we can get the planes out of the water and look them over.
Okay. It's not perfect, but it works.
[00:24:30] Agent Adams: Do you have any information on the accommodations that you talked about?
[00:24:35] GM: Not right now. My shift's kind of almost over for the day and I'll ask around.
If I can't find someone with better hospital hospitality, then you guys can just. I got some spare stuff here and you guys can stay here, but I'm. I'm hoping I could maybe find you guys a better place to stay. Something more accommodating.
[00:24:56] Agent Adams: Appreciate that.
[00:24:57] GM: We don't. Sorry. We don't really have like a bed and breakfast up here. We don't get that many people, but people have empty rooms, you know?
[00:25:07] Agent Steele: Do you know of anyone in town that perhaps has snowboard, snowmobiles, other machinery that we could perhaps make use of.
[00:25:17] GM: Well, we have some stuff to travel with. There is.
Abe Rogers has a car. There are some roads, they're not necessarily the safest and they don't go everywhere, but we have a lot of folks kind of a few miles outside of town. Most of them walk into town, but occasionally I'll see someone with a car or something. But we don't really have any mechanics in the area. So when they. When they break down, it's kind of all they got.
So if you need a ride or something, you might be able to find someone.
Like I said, Abe, he's pretty nice. You could probably borrow something from him. Snowmobile wise. We don't really have a lot of those around here. We don't do a lot of far traveling in the area.
[00:26:11] Agent Steele: Okay, thank you for the information.
[00:26:14] GM: Yeah.
[00:26:15] Agent Adams: I'm gonna go out to the plane and I'm going to retrieve my duffel bag that I brought with me.
[00:26:24] GM: It's a little wet, but it's good.
[00:26:26] Agent Steele: I'll travel with group out to the plane, make sure I have anything I would have packed equipment wise. Perhaps a simple case of clothes. And other than that, like the first aid equipment I need in the event of injury.
[00:26:40] GM: Okay.
[00:26:41] Agent Steele: And I would like to, if I can assist or if I can also just kind of look over the plane, See any damage it might have. Not even like looking for lightning, but if there's also like a hole that doesn't look like a.
Like it was meant to be there.
[00:26:55] GM: Abby's looking something up.
She's doing research.
[00:26:59] Agent Steele: She is on the fly. Those planes, I don't know.
[00:27:03] Agent Bellamy: I just want to find. I don't know. I like want to find a way to prevent people from taking the plane.
[00:27:08] GM: Oh, okay.
Like the thing's not going to be locked up, But I'm sure there's a way to disengage it. Also, it doesn't seem to be currently working.
[00:27:17] Agent Bellamy: I mean, that's fair, but you never know.
[00:27:19] Agent Steele: My concern before was asking if he'd be locked up with people, either tampering with the plane or taking our stuff. Which is why I want to make sure we have everything we brought.
[00:27:27] GM: Right?
[00:27:28] Agent Steele: Yes, I. I have search of 40 if I'm looking at the plane. Or do you prefer another skill?
[00:27:33] GM: Oh, you wanna, you wanna.
[00:27:36] Agent Adams: Can I do it too? I have a search of 80.
[00:27:39] Agent Steele: Yeah, I'm not sure if another skill would be better.
[00:27:43] Agent Adams: Yeah, yeah. Searches. I don't know.
[00:27:45] GM: Heavy. I mean, heavy machinery would also be great.
[00:27:48] Agent Bellamy: Use craft mechanic.
[00:27:50] GM: Yeah, you have Craft mechanic. Okay, so you guys could roll if you guys want to take the time. This will take a little bit of time. Like maybe 30 minutes to an hour.
[00:28:00] Agent Bellamy: Do we have that amount of time?
[00:28:01] Agent Steele: Yeah. What time of day is it now that we're here?
[00:28:03] GM: So at this point, the sun is completely gone. And because you guys were in there for like a couple hours drying off. So it's probably about 6.45ish.
[00:28:14] Agent Bellamy: So there's no daylight.
[00:28:15] Agent Adams: Yeah. And looking it over and darkness probably isn't going to be too worth it.
[00:28:22] GM: I mean, if you wanted, you would get, like, use some flashlights or something.
[00:28:27] Agent Steele: Yeah.
[00:28:29] GM: Like some work lights and such in the bay. Or you could wait till day in the morning and look it over then.
[00:28:35] Agent Bellamy: Personally, I think I'd prefer to wait until daylight.
[00:28:40] GM: There will always be a little bit of daylight, but not.
[00:28:43] Agent Bellamy: Not a lot.
[00:28:44] GM: But it won't be a lot. So you have a couple hours of daylight, probably tomorrow to look it over.
[00:28:49] Agent Adams: I don't think the plane's gonna get stolen overnight, but I could be wrong.
[00:28:54] Agent Bellamy: I'm gonna find a way to disengage it.
[00:28:57] Agent Adams: Disconnect the battery or something.
[00:28:59] GM: Yeah.
[00:28:59] Agent Bellamy: Because I'm paranoid.
[00:29:01] GM: That's fine. Yeah.
[00:29:03] Agent Steele: I don't want to take too much time to look over this. I think it'd be better to make the rounds before everyone else is heading to sleep.
[00:29:12] Agent Adams: Yeah, that's true.
[00:29:14] GM: So are you guys wanting to go to the mine to check that out? Is that what you're saying? Or to check out on Dan, or do you want to go straight to the jail?
[00:29:22] Agent Adams: The doctor said he wanted to talk to Dan first, right? That's what he said.
[00:29:26] Agent Steele: Well, I was thinking. I was thinking we can talk to them. I don't know where the sheriff's at. The Ronald mentioned he was with. He was at the mine trying to get it shut down. Or at least he's trying to get it shut down. I think it'd be worthwhile to go meet the botanist without the sheriff there.
[00:29:43] Agent Adams: Okay, do that first.
[00:29:44] Agent Steele: It might be easier if it's just the deputy there to be able to talk to.
[00:29:47] GM: Sure. Yes.
[00:29:48] Agent Steele: But, yeah, I'd like to talk to the botanist before the sheriff knows we're in town. If we have time. Go talk to Dan Haley.
[00:29:55] Agent Adams: I think our best option is to leave for the jail now and then.
See where that takes us.
[00:30:11] GM: As you guys are heading over there, you can definitely see a lot of people going in and out of the Haley bar.
[00:30:18] Agent Adams: We might want to hit that up later.
[00:30:20] Agent Steele: Yeah. Get some more Local gossip, perhaps?
[00:30:24] Agent Adams: Yeah, people talk, get a few drinks in them, they talk even more.
[00:30:29] Agent Steele: I agree.
[00:30:30] GM: For the most part, the quote unquote streets are fairly empty.
There's kind of like the main. The main area is kind of like a. It's kind of a circle where there's buildings all around the circle, but other than that, there's not like sidewalks and streets and such. It's just kind of this open circle in the middle of town, and you guys are able to kind of cut right through it to the jail.
We go in, you step in, and you see a man behind the desk. He looks really bored. He is. Looks like he probably matches Corporal Adams in, like, size. And he kind of looks up and is like. Oh.
He looks up quickly, like. And then quickly looks perplexed because he does not recognize your faces. He's like, who. Who are you guys? What are you. What are you doing here?
[00:31:26] Agent Adams: We have badges, right?
[00:31:28] GM: Yeah.
[00:31:28] Agent Adams: I will flash my badge.
[00:31:31] GM: Oh, Av.
[00:31:33] Agent Adams: CIA Agent Adams.
[00:31:36] GM: Oh, he kinda gets up. His feet no longer, like, propped on the desk. And he straightens up for a minute, he's like. Sheriff didn't tell me anything about CIA agents coming into town.
[00:31:47] Agent Adams: Nobody knew we were coming. I take it you are Lucas Bars?
[00:31:53] GM: Yes, sir, I am.
What's going on?
[00:31:59] Agent Adams: We're just here in town doing a little bit of an investigation.
It's classified, you understand, but we were hoping to speak with your detainee, Ms. Henriette.
[00:32:12] GM: Oh, geez. I'm not sure if I can let you do that.
[00:32:18] Agent Adams: Why not?
[00:32:18] GM: Well, she's a murder suspect right now, and the sheriff's currently investigating. I don't know if. We're not generally supposed to let outside people in on the investigations here. I can go get the sheriff and talk to him real quick. I'm sure he might be cool with it.
[00:32:36] Agent Adams: I don't know that that'll be necessary. We are federal agents on a federal investigation.
We are not interested in the murders. And we're also not here to make judgment on whether or not she's guilty or not. But we just have a few questions.
[00:32:52] GM: For her with an unrelated subject that seems awfully coincidental.
Listen, the sheriff's supposed to be back any minute now. Why don't you guys just wait and talk to him? I'm sure it'll be okay.
[00:33:06] Agent Steele: You do know what this badge means, of course, right? We're here on very important business, and we'd like to be able to speak to Ms. Bunsen here promptly.
[00:33:18] GM: Does anyone have, like, persuade or anything that skill they might Want to roll for this?
[00:33:24] Agent Adams: I have 30.
[00:33:26] Agent Steele: I have a 40 and Persuade.
[00:33:27] Agent Bellamy: I also have a 40 and Persuade.
[00:33:29] Agent Adams: So it should not be me.
[00:33:31] Agent Bellamy: You spoke the most recent.
[00:33:32] Agent Steele: I have a 50 in bureaucracy.
[00:33:35] GM: I will allow bureaucracy as well.
[00:33:37] Agent Steele: All right, I will roll for that. Go 58 over 50.
[00:33:44] GM: He looks like he's standing his ground on this.
Like, really? He's like. He kind of starts, like shuffling past you guys, but like also keeping his arm out a little bit. And he kind of opens the door and he's like, hey, John.
And he like kind of starts waving over and waving over and like, you guys, if you look out, you can see two figures, like on the other kind of on like the eastern edge of the circle. They look like they're almost yelling at each other. And like, the one coming towards you guys just kind of throws his hand out at the other guy, kind of just like, ah, shut up. Kind of look and starts running over.
He's like, what's going on, Lucas?
I got some CIA agents in here. What? I wasn't told anything. He steps in and he's probably in his mid-30s.
He looks probably like his family's from the area. More like native versus colonized.
What's going on? He said you guys were CIA agents. I wasn't told anything about any federal agents coming up.
[00:34:55] Agent Adams: Well, we had not informed anyone that we were coming. You must be John Gibson.
[00:35:01] GM: Yeah.
[00:35:02] Agent Adams: I'm Agent Adams. This is Agent Steele. That's Agent Bellamy. We are here on federal business. We were hoping to speak to your prisoner about an unrelated topic to the murders that she's currently under investigation for.
And your very helpful deputy said that we should speak with you about that unrelated.
[00:35:23] GM: What's it about?
[00:35:24] Agent Adams: It's about her research.
[00:35:26] GM: Oh. He walks over to his desk and he's kind of looks like he's ruminating. I don't want to cause a lot of problems right now. I've got a lot going on. So. Yeah. Here, I'll take you back to her.
[00:35:38] Agent Adams: We appreciate that, Sheriff. Thank you.
[00:35:40] GM: Just try to be quick if you can.
[00:35:42] Agent Adams: We'll be as quick as we can, Sheriff. We don't want to waste your time or our own.
[00:35:46] GM: I appreciate it. And he takes you to a back room and there's bars and like a five by five square. And there's this woman back there, she kind of in a old, not cleaned recently lab jacket type of a deal. She's got very frizzy yellow hair, kind of pacing. As soon as you guys come in, she looks over. What have you finally come to your senses? You letting me out of here?
[00:36:15] Agent Adams: Ms. Bunsen?
[00:36:16] GM: Yes. I haven't seen you. Who are you?
[00:36:20] Agent Adams: Ms. Bunsen, I'm Agent Adams, CIA.
We were sent here for a confidential federal investigation. And we just have a few questions for you.
It is not related to your current predicament.
[00:36:39] GM: You guys are federal agents? Can you let. Can you convince this sheriff to let me out of here? I've been here for two days.
[00:36:46] Agent Adams: We might be able to try, but we do not have that kind of executive power.
[00:36:51] GM: But yeah, John is still standing there. I'd appreciate if you didn't try to do that.
[00:36:57] Agent Adams: He's still standing there. That makes sense.
[00:37:00] GM: What is this about if it's not about the murders? Is this about my research?
[00:37:04] Agent Adams: Yes. Agent Steele, you have more experience on this than I do.
[00:37:09] GM: How'd you get a hold of my research? I've only been sending it to my advisor at the university.
[00:37:15] Agent Steele: Another interesting subject, what you've been finding, of course. The subject of the matter, of course, is this specimen that you have. Have you been able to collect any samples? Of course. To a lab or research area or do you have to keep it in the natural environment?
[00:37:33] GM: I've been able to move and transplant some of it. I could show you if I wasn't stuck back here.
Okay. But, yes, I've been able to do lots of experiments over the last year and a half.
[00:37:45] Agent Steele: Have you discovered. A year and a half ago?
[00:37:47] GM: A little bit earlier than that, but I just. I got my grant about a year and a half ago and I've been working away on this stuff.
It's very interesting.
I don't know how much of my report you've read.
I've never seen anything like it.
[00:38:05] Agent Steele: Did you have any assistants or other research partners here?
[00:38:10] GM: No, it's just been me.
I'm from. I'm kind of local. Not from this town, but I'm from the area, so I was fine being here by myself.
[00:38:25] Agent Steele: Did you have any other. Not necessarily assistance, but anyone else that was assisting you with this?
[00:38:31] GM: Oh, yeah. I asked the doctor several times to help me out. Not.
Not Dr. Uriah, but his son.
[00:38:40] Agent Steele: What was his name?
[00:38:42] GM: Peter. He's been helping me out.
Uriah used. Was.
He was usually fairly busy. But Peter had enough free time to help me out.
Of course, he doesn't have that anymore.
[00:39:00] Agent Steele: Of course. My condolences.
You say you've been sending your findings back to the university?
[00:39:08] GM: On occasion. When I can.
[00:39:10] Agent Steele: When you can. Okay.
[00:39:12] GM: It's hard to get postage through, so I try to make Sure. I have a lot of lot to say with my updates.
What is this about exactly? I. I'm excited someone's looking into my research, but I am also a little protective of my research. What?
Especially if the government suddenly is jumping in on us.
[00:39:35] Agent Steele: That is, of course, understandable. You have to understand this is a matter of security. That we can't tell you why we're looking into this.
[00:39:44] GM: I'm certain these plants could have nothing.
[00:39:46] Agent Steele: To do with your findings. Could be very important.
Where was the specimen originally found? Was it found in the mines?
[00:39:55] GM: No, just outside of town. There's.
I mean, it's been spreading about throughout the area, so it's not. It's not. It's not all that hard to find at this point.
[00:40:10] Agent Steele: In which direction has it been originating?
[00:40:14] GM: That's the funny thing. It's popping up very sporadically, almost random. I haven't been able to figure out how it replaced produces, how it moves.
It just sort of appears overnight. Sometimes even. Even when I've tried my best to watch and see where things might come up, it still feels like they just appear when I'm not looking.
That makes sense. It's. It's crazy. And I've been putting up with it for some time, but it's been a big part of my research is figuring out what's happening here.
[00:40:51] Agent Steele: Yes, of course. It's been disappearing. Does it look like it just disappears entirely with no trace?
[00:40:57] GM: No, it doesn't disappear. It appears.
[00:40:59] Agent Steele: Okay, it does appear, yes.
[00:41:00] GM: I haven't seen much of it disappear.
[00:41:02] Agent Steele: Okay.
[00:41:03] GM: Except for, you know, random wildlife destroying it or.
[00:41:07] Agent Steele: You haven't seen. Has any of the natural wildlife been drawn to like eating it over anything else?
[00:41:11] GM: I've certainly seen some deer and some moose take part of some of it, but they don't typically go back.
It's not a very popular food amongst the animals. I don't think it'd be very healthy for them to be eating consistently either.
[00:41:28] Agent Steele: We, course, are on a coastal town. Have you seen if the plant reacts in any way to water?
[00:41:33] GM: I don't really want to be this way exactly, but I could fill you in on so much more if I just wasn't in here and I was at my lab. I'm getting very impatient about this.
You could tell Peter I clearly had nothing to do with the murder of his father.
I don't need to be in here.
John just has me in here because he just is too inept to find anything else.
[00:41:59] Agent Steele: Yes, well, thank you very much for your time, Ms. Bunsen. If we have any further questions, we will perhaps try to come back to ask. And of course, we will look into this matter as well. Try to perhaps make you more available to reoccurate into these things.
You have a good night, of course. And I imagine we'll be speaking again shortly. And Dr. Swatches Hill gets up and walks back to the front room.
[00:42:22] Agent Adams: Yeah. As soon as we're out of the cell room, I want to take the sheriff aside. I'm sure that this investigation is a sensitive matter, but can you tell us anything about what happened?
[00:42:34] GM: She called in about the doctor.
She said he was dead. We got there, he was dead in her office.
And someone did something nasty to him. And there's really. There's no other suspect except for her. I know she.
[00:42:53] Agent Adams: So you're saying you really don't have any proof?
[00:42:56] GM: It's hard to say. Her evidence was all over him. Assume she claims she was just trying to help him, but some nasty stuff went on there. I don't know if you were able to read any reports on that.
[00:43:08] Agent Adams: We weren't, were we?
[00:43:11] GM: Just a little bit of detail they mentioned. Like the body kind of overworking itself. Some parts being the pristine organs.
[00:43:19] Agent Adams: But do you think it odd at all, Sheriff, that she would call in her own murder?
[00:43:25] GM: It's odd, but, I mean, sometimes people are going to.
Sometimes that feels like a safe thing to do. Draw attention off of yourself by calling it in yourself. I don't know what she's thinking right now. It's. I'm not. But we haven't had a lot of time.
I wanted to spend more time on it today, but things were interrupted.
[00:43:51] Agent Adams: Yeah, you were arguing with Dan Haley.
[00:43:54] GM: Well, there was a second murder today.
[00:43:57] Agent Adams: While your current suspect is imprisoned.
[00:44:01] GM: Yeah, I'm aware of that. But what happened to them, Peter? The doctor was saying it could have been some sort of virus. And a botanist like that, especially experimenting on weird plants is a prime suspect for weird viruses. The man was found in the mines, dead, well, on a shift. And his whole body's worn itself out except for his liver and his small intestines. Peter says everything else messed up. Now I'm starting to think it wasn't a person with a knife doing all this like I originally might have thought.
I don't know what happened. And right now she's the only person I could think of who would have the ability to do something like this. If it wasn't physical.
[00:44:51] Agent Adams: She might also be the only person around who'd be able to help.
[00:44:56] GM: I don't know. This guy Hardly ever around Uriah. It's not like it would have spread from one to the other.
[00:45:03] Agent Adams: Does she have any connection to the man who died in the mine?
[00:45:06] GM: To Bobby? I don't think she. I don't know.
I haven't gotten a chance to ask her yet. I just got finished trying to seal off the mine for the crime scene.
[00:45:16] Agent Adams: Well, you seem like you've got a lot on your plate, Sheriff. We can maybe help you with this.
[00:45:22] GM: I don't. I don't.
You guys are here on other business I imagine. I don't know if I need to drag you in on a. On a murder case like this.
[00:45:37] Agent Adams: Well, after our conversation, I'm thinking our investigation, yours might have a little bit more in common than I first thought. Not sure, of course. Still loose threads that we need to connect. But I think we could get a lot more information from her if she wasn't locked up.
Or just let us do some of our own investigating.
[00:45:59] GM: I'm not willing to let her out yet. But I admit this is a little out of my depth.
If you guys want to try and help out with the investigation.
I'm not gonna say no. I don't know what it has to do with your classified information, but sure.
[00:46:22] Agent Adams: We'Ll be as discreet as possible, Sheriff.
[00:46:25] GM: However, maybe you could convince Dan to shut down the mine so we can actually investigate what happened.
[00:46:32] Agent Adams: We'll speak with him.
[00:46:34] Agent Steele: Sheriff, would you happen to know where the bodies have been kept?
[00:46:37] GM: Yeah, the doctors at the Kent's, he's got a morgue. Okay.
[00:46:42] Agent Steele: And that both bodies are at the morgue right now?
[00:46:45] GM: Yeah.
[00:46:46] Agent Steele: Small town. I'm not sure if you heard. Some things we happen to know since he's the doctor. If this minor happened to just be a patient of his a day or two ago, sore throat, anything like that?
[00:46:55] GM: Peter didn't really take Patience as Father Uriah did.
But now that Uriah's passed, Peter's going to probably be taking all of those.
[00:47:05] Agent Adams: I just had a thought, Sheriff. You mentioned not knowing what happened to Dr. Uriah and Bobby. Did you say his name was the man?
[00:47:13] GM: Bobby Newman.
[00:47:13] Agent Adams: Bobby Newman. Could it be possible that this is more of a. You mentioned a virus, perhaps? I know you. Some of them could be something that the doctor picked up. Treating a patient might not be connected at all to Ms. Bunsen.
[00:47:28] GM: I mean that's always possible, but it's always. It's more. It's more violent than just a virus, you know, like there are parts of him I. Here, let me take you to the morgue. And I'll show you what I mean.
[00:47:44] Agent Adams: All right.
[00:47:45] GM: The sheriff's looking kind of tired, kind of frustrated about the situation, and then kind of moves you guys out of the office, looks back for a second towards the back room, and then closes the door and we cut to black.
[00:48:09] Announcer: 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. If you want to stay in touch, you can follow us on our socials listed in the description. Join the community in our Discord server to be notified of future uploads and join in on the conversation of what's to come. Don't forget to, like, comment and tell a friend and as always, have an Atomic time.
[00:49:09] Agent Adams: My name is.
My accent is changing.
Hang on, That's a long name. Let me tune it back in.
