Mayday Plays - Doomed to Repeat Ep. 3 - "Devils in the Details

Episode Date: November 5, 2020

We begin our playthrough of “Reverberations” by Shane Ivey. With the green box pilfered, the PERENNIAL agents tinker with what they found and gain more than they bargained for. After a wild night, they settle down and get to work studying a found case file that focuses on events surrounding the infamous Detroit devil’s night, 1984... This episode contains profanity, violence, and references to drug/alcohol use. It also contains the topic of Covid-19. Published by arrangement with the Delta Green Partnership. The intellectual property known as Delta Green is a trademark and copyright owned by the Delta Green Partnership, who has licensed its use here. The contents of this podcast are © Mayday Roleplay, excepting those elements that are components of the Delta Green intellectual property. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Aaron - Agent Samael / Agent Fluke • Allegra - Agent Tuck / Rose Alvarado • Amanda - Agent Boomer / Agent Frost • Caleb - Agent Merit / Oliver Lake • Eli - Agent Hyde / “Echo” Blackwood • Zakiya - Agent Warp / Agent Frogg • Sergio - The Handler MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) DELTA GREEN LINKS • Delta Green (http://deltagreen.com/) • Reverberations (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/218944/Delta-Green-Reverberations?cPath=1459_8165) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Twitter (https://twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/maydayrp/)

Doom to Repeat is a Delta Green Actual Play podcast with violent themes and adult language. Listener discretion is advised. Welcome to Episode 3 of Doom to Repeat. I'm Sergio, your handler. Tonight, we begin the scenario Reverberations by Shane Ivey. You can now check us out on patreon.com forward slash made a roleplay seven, where a donation grants you access to high quality versions of our original music, artwork, and access to our Discord, as well as other perks which we'll reveal as our community continues to

grow. You can also help us out by telling someone new about the show or reviewing us on Apple Podcasts. This is recorded with special intention to my secretary Alexa for further dictation. This recording is regarding a stretch of time dictating from the following dates and times, April 18th approximately 8pm and April 19th approximately 11pm. This takes place in Lansing, Michigan and a territory north of there. After our gross mishandling of the Bowman case, we were left with a compromise field

operation. The compromise came in the way of a local to the county. He managed to identify agents inside of our car, license plates on display, and had heard the gunshots. Now, I take full responsibility for this. I need to exact more control when I know that I'm in the right. These people are depending on me and if I can't keep them safe, I don't mean anything to the organization.

Even if that means hurting their feelings. Take this a mental note. Unsure of how to proceed, we took some time to deliberate on the road before deciding he had to be dealt with. It took some time to find him, but eventually we arrived at his trailer, a double wide. He was building some property on the land, an A-frame cabin. My father had one growing up. It makes me wonder, did this man think that I was coming to meet him this day?

While he was constructing support choice, did his wife tell him to wash his calloused hands before dinner? We proceeded. Boomer and I took point. Boomer deserves a medal for her resoluteness. There is a certain level of chill that coats the iris with the way that she looked at me. It was a freezing understanding that put my spine out of place. One that said we knew exactly what we were doing.

And before long it was over. I fired 12 of 13 shots from my second magazine on my service pistol. I killed the man. A woman. I never got a look at the kids, but as I was sprinting back to the car, I caught the wind in the spokes of their tricycle. It spun on whether there was cause for play or not. Later myself, Agent Hyde and Agent Warp stopped to sunset the car in a field an hour from

Lansing. Upon the group completed more research, a book on Sky Devils of Wyoming. I wonder if one day they will write a book on the Devil of Lansing, The Patron of Patricide. The plan from there was to exfil to Detroit to regroup and reassess. There was a stop that Warp asked of us though. I felt inclined to give it to her as it's clear what happened had affected her supremely. I haven't quite diagnosed her yet, but she makes for a fascinating study. A good person too, genuine, more than any of us.

It was a sheep farm of all things. I don't think I'll be sending it back in any report to Mallory, but it was worth the visit. Warp was absolutely elated. All smiles and nods and afterwards there was a, how do I phrase this, a brief period of religious misconduct, I'll call it. I've heard of the proverbial farmer's daughter, but I wasn't aware it was part of any old or new testament within the Bible. The man that was suggesting Christian literature books to me just that morning, Agent Semiall,

was hunched over like some dog in heat with the daughter of the sheep man. Now naturally myself and Tuck are left to sweat ourselves through panic conversations on the finer aspects of fleece skirting, while just a few yards away the man of God is giving a form of mass explicitly shunned by the Vatican. But as hardly, I think we all treated this as a bonding experience. One nation of the highly repressed brought together under the simple creed of fallatio. We arrived in Detroit sometime later in our rental car and investigated a green box in Mexican town.

Inside were the contents of an event in 1984, Devil's Night, the night before Halloween. I had heard stories about the holiday from growing up in Ithaca, but had never heard of anything of this proportion. A hundred homes burned to the ground in a single night. Boomer had some trouble with the tight spaces. A compulsion of hers probably associated with some form of past trauma. I noted the PTSD connections in case file. Maybe that Meadowbrook incident her and Tuck alluded to?

Who knows, more on that later. We decided after some painstaking decision making that it was necessary to stay the night in Detroit to ensure some results for the Chronicle. It was then that Agent Samael found the crystal and unleashed information I don't think any of us were expecting. More on that later. Agent Merritt. P.S.

Miranda, I know you're never going to hear any of this, but in case the universe pays small favors to the evil men behind the tape recorders, I'm sorry. For everything, they didn't suffer. It's Monday, April 20th, 8 p.m. Agent Boomer has just successfully solved the combination on this strange lockbox and handed it over to Agent Samael. Inside Samael you found a large milky white crystal. You pick up the crystal and it's cold to the touch as you were expecting, but that cold

feeling quickly begins to travel up your arm and before you know it, it's completely enveloped you. Like having cold water dumped on your head, you suddenly feel invigorated. A few minutes ago you were feeling kind of drowsy, but now holding this crystal you feel like you could go for another 12 hours. The rest of the agents, you see Agent Samael involuntarily just stand up holding this crystal. Agent Samael, you know that this sudden surge of energy is coming from this crystal and I need you to please make a sanity check.

Ah, shit. Are you ready? Are you ready? It's a press. It's two minutes. I failed with a 96. Okay, so you are only going to lose one point of sanity. You've done a lot of illicit things in your life, but you've never literally just by holding

something gotten high off of it and it is an incredible feeling. It's an unnerving feeling. You wonder what this means. Mechanically, while you hold this crystal, you may add five power to your base score. As a player, you would know that the power stat determines your willpower, which besides sanity is one of the main costs to casting a ritual. I feel really good. I think I could go on for a while longer studying, honestly.

I don't think I need to sleep if anybody wants to pass some more files over to me. I feel like I could stay up and read all night, like super focused. I'll hand him the stack that I've been kind of thumbing through. I just immediately, I don't set the crystal down. I grab it with one hand and I just kind of like set it in my lap and I'll just start reading like furiously and start flipping the pages as fast as I can. I'm just going to watch him do that. Yeah, everyone is is is very aware that where one moment

Agent Samuel was in a very kind of relaxed state. And now he seems like he just did a couple of bumps or something. I mean, he is energy is up Sam. Is it is it smart to put that right on your junk? It's not conventionally wise. OK, but I don't know. I mean, it's it's just a crystal that's making me feel like I'm on cocaine. What could possibly go wrong? OK, I don't see this going anywhere bad.

OK, let's remove the artifact from our touch here. Let's put it back inside of the chest and let's take some notes on exactly how you're feeling. How do you feel about that, Agent Samuel? I guess if I have to put it down, you do. That would be best. Yes. Fine. Agent Samuel, if you'd like to put the crystal down, I need you to make a sanity check. Of course. Of course, you need me to make a sanity check. So I fail. I fail to get this fucking cocaine crystal.

It would be here. Fail with the seventy seven. OK. You want to put this crystal down, but there's a part of you that doesn't. It feels so good and you are going to lose one point of sanity because you literally realize your brain is telling you put it down and yet everything in your body is refusing to do it. But I do. Do I or do I not? You do not let it go.

The body is literally gripping it and as much as you think, let it go. Let it go. You just can't. I listen. I can't put it. I can't put it down. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I just I really don't know. I'm like attached to it somehow. Like, I don't know. Emote. I don't understand. I'll put my hand out since I'm right in front of them and I'm just like just put it in my hand. It's pretty easy. Right there in that he he puts his he puts his arm out

and you can see his hand is kind of shaking. He can't he can't seem to drop it. I know I don't I don't think I'm going to I don't think I I don't want to do that. I don't think I can I go and grab it from his hand. You you grab it. Let's go ahead and make a contested strength check. We're going to play fucking hot potato with this. I was thinking like a war and shit with the cocaine crystal.

Yes, big, big fail. Hi, I succeeded. Nice. OK, you snatch it from him. You suddenly like like with a gasp of air are filled with all of this energy that you didn't have a second ago when I need you to make a sanity check. Oh, yeah, I feel. Hey, you are going to lose one sanity as this feeling is completely abnormal and unnatural, and you are suddenly realizing, oh, my God, no,

this is this is for real. You have not attempted to let it go, though. I'd like to try to let it go. Give me another sanity check. Oh, no, I passed that one. OK, you you let it go. And it kind of just drops into the box that it was originally in. And you kind of breathe a sigh of relief. Feels good, doesn't it? Do you just like get in high all the time?

That's irrelevant. Don't you? I mean, yeah, it felt pretty good, but I am not one to indulge in that. Nothing bad has come of it yet. You held it for two minutes and you couldn't set it down. Well, in that case, I suppose further experimentation is required. Probably not by you, because it's in the box, correct? I'm going to close the lid on the box and like take the crystal box. And I look at those two and be like, oh, hold on to this.

And I'm going to like put it on the other side of my bed. Like, like, no, probably for the next walk away. Don't touch that. Not like I don't have other options anyway. No. OK. I don't know what's that. I won't. We were considering research, I think.

That's where we left off before cocaine crystals happened. Oh, sure. Let's just all of a sudden ignore the cocaine crystals. Yes, we're going to ignore the cocaine crystal because cocaine crystals aren't a good thing. Aren't you a priest? I think I think that maybe we should come up with a better code word for this artifact than cocaine crystal.

I don't think the gallery would appreciate that in the doc. What about the tool? Very descriptive. Crack rock. Crack rock. Oh, that's got my vote. That's got my vote again. I don't think crack rock would look very well on on a memo or a dossier. We need something that snappier unless the cold crystal better, better. Anything that is not crack rock is fine with me.

I mean, I think crack rock really says it all. I mean, if you want to spare yourself some descriptive effort, why would you not just call it a crack rock? It is what it is to be honest, you. Yes. Well, let's do what you want with it. Let's just go with cold crystal. It's cold. It's a surgery. I believe that was interspersed with me reading that file.

I think that happened wasn't. I think I think the way that worked is we kind of had like a little bit of time. Yeah, you had opened you had opened up the documents and started kind of reading through them. You can go back to doing that. Looking through these case files, there's about four Manila envelopes and they're all full of paperwork and of entries into this case file. You suspect it's probably going to take, honestly, to to go over all of this.

One person alone could take four or five days. Now, let me let me ask you when I set the crystal down, did the effect stop? Or is there like some kind of lingering? Yes, you are feeling like your old self again. That kind of that tiredness is kind of coming back now. So we have these files from the green box that seem relevant to, you know, I mean, it's talking about this devil's night a lot. I don't know if that's something that's going to be useful for us to flip through.

I can't personally think of any connection to anything else that we'd be looking to. It looks like it's going to take four or five days for our combined eyes to shift through it all. I don't know what you guys think. It's four or five days for one person. It might be less for if everybody kind of jumps in. OK, so like a day or two. Well, I I think we're in a unique position where we've managed to digitize

everything else we we've previously gone through. So at this point, we could decide what would be our first research project if we wanted to, if this is something we're all interested in as a group. That's true. I mean, we're here to either way. Documents either way, we're going to need to go through the files to digitize them. Regardless, so I would love a day of research. A day of research would be great. But we also may need to consider leaving.

Michigan, that's also a good point. Yeah, I don't want to know or want to remember what we just did back in those woods. And I'd hate to wait for somebody to figure it out. You're not wrong, Hyde, but the thing is we have too much crap here. So let's just go ahead and let's just spend at least a solid day research, upload to the server, destroy what we need to destroy. So therefore we can get on your magic plane and then we'll go from there. We can we can do that on the plane and get the fuck out of here.

Do we really want some of this shit? Do we really want some of this shit on a plane? Respectfully, there's also the understanding that we'd be investigating a case that uniquely has to do with the place we're in now. It may behoove us to stay in the same place that it happened in, in case we need to pursue leads that were found to be cold or or to find some sort of historical context while we're here. Agent Merritt, do you want to get arrested for murder?

I do not, but I believe that the crime can wait a day. He he actually makes sense. If we help you yourself. He makes sense. But if we all take a handful of the notes, we can be done in a day. Look at that. Possibly, yes. What if we just what if we moved to the plane? Had it ready to go just in case we got the bug out?

Would you just like to go to the plane and get it prepped? I just I would I don't want us to get stuck here. I don't want us to I don't want us to lose a man if we don't have to lose a man, you know, then I guess we should research and make it go by faster. Do what you want. It's not my hide on the line. Well, I think there is something to both plans. Maybe maybe we do a hybrid of both. We do our researching inside of the plane.

And then if we need to, we have a day to go to any of these locations in Detroit, if it's called for. If not, after a day of research, we already have it digitized. We fly out of Michigan and we never have to see a bad Uber driver again. I'm OK with that plan. Fine, you'll get in the air soon. Hide Ditto got my vote. So with the evening starting to get a little late,

I suppose you guys decide to maybe call it early and get an early rise tomorrow and start this research. I think that's what we're agreeing on. Yes. OK. OK, so everyone goes to their rooms and gets some much needed sleep. It's nice to go to bed a little earlier than usual than expected. Any important business before you guys go to bed? I'm going to go ahead and text my fiance and sibling. Just hey, miss you thinking of you

and then sending gifts and memes to my sister. I'd like to send a you uptext to Micah. Oh, so Agent Hyde, you text and you actually get a response. And what you get in response is a photo. It's a photo of Micah and your father on that canoe that you helped your father built. And they seem to be, since they are on the other side of the world, it's the middle of the day and they seem to be enjoying the use of the canoe.

He tricked us. I know. I never born in a different direction. I just send like a I just like like the picture and then like send a smile back. With like a shocker and I leave it at that. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cock block you. Sergio, I don't think and after last episode, I don't think anyone is ever going to accuse you of that. No, I also would like to text my wife and just talk to her a little bit.

OK, you do so. Anyone that you guys want to speak to, you call, you check in on. I would like to if I'm not interrupting, I'd like to perform a contraband search on our room in the hotel. OK, I did say it's not like that was the only option. Go ahead and make either a make a search check. OK. No, what a fucking word. I'm sorry, but his life is important to me.

And is hinging on whether he's an addict or not. A 40 is under my 50. Well, I mean, I would assume that agent Samuel is in the in the room or kind of close by. So agent Samuel, you become very quickly aware of what's going on. But agent Samuel, what do you have on you that you might find? Well, first of all, is he just like rifling through my bags in front of me? I don't know. How would you be doing it, Agent Merritt?

I am absolutely no shame. What the fuck are you doing? Well, you said earlier that you might have some drugs on you, and I'm trying to make sure that you keep that outside of my mission's jurisdiction. What the fuck? No, get out of my bag. OK. Well, if you would like to make me, you're welcome. But if you are at all interested in becoming a clean, abiding agent, then you're going to let me do this.

There's no such thing as a clean, abiding agent agent. You're looking at one and I continue searching. OK, well, you know, I'm honestly I'm just going to let him find it. And what does he find? Rifling through the bag, you're just going to find a little, you know, like four ounce baggie or something of a white powder. OK. I believe agent Samuel, unless I'm wrong, there were other things that you purchased the night before.

Or am I wrong about that? Did you already use all of them? I think that is probably what I would have purchased was the bag that he's holding right now. OK. Oh, I see. So this. So does this not include what you found in the green box? I have that on my person. Yeah, he does. It's in his. OK, I remember. So you find something that looks reminiscent to possibly crack, possibly heroin.

I walk up to him and I put it in his face sort of like, you know, you're teaching Samson not to couch or anything like that. Say, Sam, I just want you to know that this in no way makes me think differently of you. I know that this is a sickness and I know it's something that you cannot help make a human being and you and I are going to work on this together for as long as we're working together. Oh, my God. I understand this.

This is because I appreciate you and the life that you hold. And then I go outside into the hallway and I, you know, I try to. While he's wagging it over my face, I try to snatch it out of his hand. Yes, pulling it back. Russell, let's let's make a pose. So, Samuel, you need to make a unarmed combat or unarmed strike role. I'm going to be good in that.

And Agent Merid, you're going to try to make a dodge roll. I succeed with a twenty three. Oh, I succeed with a two. Agent Merid does succeed to get it out of the way, although you are very fast. Am I shoo shoo shoo? OK. Well, I mean, I'm definitely not going to let him throw it away. So if he's like trying to move out of the hotel room, I'm, you know, I'm chasing after him and I'm just telling him,

listen, it's not any of your fucking business. What the fuck? It is absolutely my business. Agent Hyde and agent Tuck, you guys are kind of settling in. And that's when you start hearing the muffled male yelling coming from across the other room. I look at Tuck. It's happening. It's happening. Oh, God. I'm going to go. I'm going to.

Do we have like a window in front, like of our door, like going like when we exit? Well, you have the people. Oh, let me look through the people. Let me see if I can spot them. I'm going to stand next to her and push my ear up against the door. You see Merritt and Samuel kind of exiting and kind of struggling for about something. They're fighting over something.

I don't know. I can't see what is in his hands, but he's Sam. I was really adamant about it. Oh, shit. How much did we put down on this? Like five bucks. Not enough. Double or nothing. Who are on the same people? Merritt's Merritt's unless you I'm not changing sides. Merritt's going to kick his ass or do you pick Sam? Did I pick Sam? Oh, you said he had got on the side.

That's a good point. 50 bucks, Merritt in. Fine. 50 bucks, Sam, you're on. Let's treat this like a chase scene. You are happy. We'll say that basically there has to be two successes on one side or the other. Who has the higher initiative? That's just your dexterity, right? Yes.

Oh, I have a 10. I have a 12. OK, so, Merritt, you have the first chance. You're going to make an athletics check to see if you can just basically outrun Samuel. So Samuel, you can either make an athletics check or you can use one of your other skills and explain to me how it is used to try to get some kind of advantage on your next role. Listen, I know I know he's a trained FBI or I know he's some kind of a trained law enforcement agent.

So I know that me, Mr. you know, theologian book guy isn't going to be able to do much to stop him. So if anything, I'm just trying to tell him off and, you know, persuade him to mind his own fucking business and kindly, kindly remind him that he has no business telling me he has no business instructing me on the finer points of morality. I think that we'll pretty much assume that. Merritt succeeds on his his athletics role to kind of be

able to fight off Samuel, whatever fight he might be giving. Samuel, I will give you go ahead and make a persuade role. And if you succeed, I will give you plus 20 to whatever the next role is considered a success. No off the table. Fail with the 51. Damn, though, you have certainly thrown your fair share of insults at him. You are both outside as agent Merritt.

You are in the process of of dumping this out. Now, I'm sorry, is he on like is there like a balcony that he's going out to like my assumption is that basically you guys have walked out into the hallway down some stairs and you're like in the middle of walking out of like a lobby right now. Yeah. Agent Samuel, if you're going to continue trying to persuade him, go ahead and give me a persuade role to see if you succeed. No, listen, I don't. I know agent Merritt is a giant fucking douchebag.

I honestly didn't expect anything more from him. So I am going to practice good Christian values and turn the other cheek and choose to not be upset with him. I will instead take the substance that I acquired from the green box in my pocket. Walk back to the hotel room and I'm going to take one. Oh, no. As as Samuel is going back into the hotel room, I'm dumping it out. He's watching me. I look at him and go, this is for your own good.

I'm already going to understand that this is hurting. Yeah, you're you're saying that, Merritt. But when you look off, you you already noticed that he's gone. He's already gone back into the lobby and he's just out of out of sight. You take a moment to breathe. You finish dumping it out. You throw the little baggie into a nearby trash can. Agent Merritt or excuse me, agent Samuel, you I assume you take it

like on the way to the room. I mean, I'm not going to do it like if anybody's watching. But, you know, when I feel like I can. Yeah, I mean, what you basically have is a little baggie. What look like like little crack rocks or actually like little pills and little white pills and you just pick one up and I assume you put it in your mouth. OK, so and yeah, that's another question. Did we when we were walking out of the hotel room,

did we pass by Agent Hyde and agent Tuck? No, they were in the bedroom unless they decided to come out. I was going to peek out eventually once they realized they had gone downstairs to see where they had gone because I want to know if they're fighting. Eventually, eventually you see Samuel walking up. What's going on? You guys are being really loud. I thought we were trying to be low key.

Well, Agent Merritt decided that he needed to raid a colleague's personal belongings out of some kind of sense of false righteousness. What did he find? What did he find? I don't know. You will have to ask him that. All I know is that this is more his problem than mine. And only a fool thinks himself wise. So I'm just going to let him be him. And I'm not going to worry too much about it.

Sorry. Why did you go after him then? If it wasn't a big deal, it was his problem. Why did you run after him? Well, I. Listen, I was very angry. Better judgment got me on the way down. Agent Samuel, as you're kind of explaining to her, you're starting to feel those beginning waves of psychedelic energy kind of pumping from your stomach, which I will try not to show.

Would I notice that? You can give me a give me a human intelligence role. Can I also? Sure, if you're both there. I get it with an eight. Agent Samuel, if you are really attempting to, you could try to make a deception role. OK, well, I rolled a 10, which is a success. So Samuel, you are able to, you know, kind of maintain your composure

is just the very beginning kind of funny feeling of when you take something. But hi, you can tell that he's like he wants to or yeah, he wants to get to his bedroom like as soon as possible. Can I see physical? Not yet. You can just tell that he just seems kind of agitated the way he was when he was holding that crystal. Can I pull Samuel into the other room, into his bedroom? Sure. I mean, if if he you're able to I was going in there anyway.

OK, so you follow him into the bedroom. I close the door and I ask him, what did you do? Nothing I haven't done before. What did you take? Did he find whatever you you jacked off the the green box? I don't know. I don't have any idea what you're talking about. Eli was the only one who saw Samuel. Let's let's cut the bullshit a little bit.

Can we? I've been kind of nice and a little bit of patient and a little tolerant of your kind of shit that you've been spouting these last couple of days. But a jacking shit I saw and you can't lie to me about that. Well, call it research. As you guys are as you guys are having this conversation, Merit, you are walking back into the hallway and you see Tuck kind of standing in the hallway still.

What the fuck happened? I was doing a contraband search since the man admitted that he's been doing drugs while he's been a part of this organization and working with all of us. So I thought it might be better to have a sober agent than one that's throwing himself off half cocked to getting us killed. Oh, my God. And he took offense. Yeah, no, shitty took offense.

He's supposed to. This is the only way he's going to learn is if we keep him accountable. Merit, that's not your responsibility. It is my responsibility. It's also your responsibility, Agent Tuck. I don't need to remind you that we were put in charge of these people to make sure that they're they're acceptable for a mission like this, that they are following our orders

and making sure that we are acting at the best that we can. Do you think that if he is coked up on the next mission that we're going to survive the next septic tank? Or am I going to have to kill another person every time he decides that he gets to do this? You're you're saying this in the middle of a hallway as three middle school kids are coming back from the pool and they just kind of awkwardly walk past you guys.

Good scene rehearsal. Yeah, I think tomorrow we'll have to run it again. Little later for the pool, huh, kids? Isn't it cold out there? Holy shit. I'm going to grab him by the arm and throw him. Like, as soon as the kids like get around the corner, I'm just going to shove him in the room like, OK,

we are not talking about this in public. That was my own fault. Merit, Merit, Merit, you are you are not in charge of these people. We are in charge of we are in charge of we are in charge of their safety when it comes to the strange weird shit we deal with. That's it. That's where we're responsible for them. You know, I'm sorry, I was told when I was told that I was responsible

for ensuring the success of this mission, it also included these people. And I would do the same exact thing to you if you were throwing off like this man is. But you know what? You're smarter, you're smarter than he is. Clearly, because he is not thinking, not at all. Look at the decisions he's made. Look at what he's brought into our environment. Look at the things he's put you and I in front of already in two days of knowing him.

I don't deny that he is a potential liability, but another potential liability within our team is a lack of trust, which you are breeding, which you with your deep, deep set need to follow every goddamn rule to the letter is keeping us from. We can't build trust if we can't trust you. Tuck, I'm sorry, but if you pick him over me in terms of who is in this mission,

I'm not picking. I'm not picking anyone over anyone. It's not us versus them. It's not you versus him. It's us as a team or we're all going to fucking die. That is exactly what I'm saying. Let's let's flip to the other side of the wall where where agent Hyde and Samuel are speaking.

Samuel, as Hyde continues to berate you and tell you all of these things, it's starting to hit you. It feels like those nice feelings that come out of your stomach on mushrooms and LSD, but you're you're not seeing much more than kind of patterns shifting. You're you're feeling that upbeat feeling of being on MDMA or like speed or something. And you're you can feel your skin starting to sweat, but you're still pretty pretty pretty cognitive. I mean, I'm pretty assuming I'm pretty well accustomed

at hiding the effects of such things. You're certainly able to keep up a conversation. So I'm going to yeah, I want to continue just trying to. I'm going to appreciate the feeling, but I'm going to try the not to show it. All right, we we I don't know how long it took when you took that. You need to throw up right now. It's a little late for that.

And I assure you there have been worse things in this system. That's not the point, Samel. None of that is the point. The point is that you have taken something from the program and now you have ingested it. And imagine how much better of an understanding I'm going to have of what's going on after I already know what the fuck it is. The problem is, is that it's not logged as something that we had found.

Do you know what happens to motherfuckers who steal and do things that the program doesn't want them to do? You want to be like Bowman, too? Do you want some cleaner team picking up whatever information you've jotted down and some notes somewhere and burn your fucking parish to the ground or whatever the fuck? Dude, you don't understand that greater good. I was hired to do research and I'm doing research.

Your research and I can tell you for sure that I'm going to understand whatever's going on a lot better after this. Yeah, as you're speaking, the the sounds of her voice and your voice are kind of starting to just melt into one and you're having a hard time even like keeping up with her kind of yelling at you. It's around that time that you. You're starting to kind of go in and out of consciousness. It feels like your vision is just becoming cloudy

and then you're kind of coming back into the room and then it becomes cloudy again and you kind of go away for a little while and then you come back. Agent Hyde, Samuel kind of just stops responding to you after a few minutes. I'm like looking him over. Do I notice any physical changes to him? Oh, yeah, he he he's sweaty. He's like giggling at weird times. His eyelids seem very heavy.

He's coming in and out of it. I go and kind of like just kind of like extend his eyelid a little bit just to see how dilated it is. And I'm just like, you go to like open his eyelids and he just like kind of falls over on the bed. I want to find the other bad. I want to find the baggy. Yeah, if you search it, you can find a little baggy

with a couple of white pills in them. I'm going to hold on to them. I'm going to pocket at them. And I'm is he like in danger? Is he just laughing there, looking at me? Sam, he he's not foaming at the mouth or anything. I mean, when you do call out to him, he might respond. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What's up? Are you all right? I'm oh, I'm just fine. Agent Sam, I'll give me a sanity check, please. Success with the 24. I am a hardened drug user. Because of your success, I'm going to say that what you experience is a little clearer than other folks who might be taking this stuff. You one of those times you kind of drift out of the room

and into your own head. You realize you don't see the room, but you see something else. It's like a pyramid. It's like a Mayan or Aztec pyramid. And as you approach, as you get closer, you see that there is this altar and the altar is just kind of bathed in blood. And then your vision kind of shifts again. And you are watching as this reptilian creature

stands like a man in elaborate silk robes. And they're in some kind of room with glass vials and bottles and bubbling liquids. It's like a laboratory. And behind them, there is a big open window and there are what look to be dinosaurs walking around in some kind of massive jungle. And then your your your vision shifts again to a group of what you think are maybe humans or maybe something else.

And they're they're walking on the the snow of a massive arctic field. And they're walking towards these massive jagged mountains that seem to be made of ice and then it shifts again and it shifts again and it keeps shifting. It shifts to images of skyscrapers on fire. It shifts to images of people in the street lighting fires and blowing things up and just causing panic and chaos. Though you have successfully rolled a though you have succeeded on your

sanity check, I need you to roll a D four three. You are going to lose three sanity as these this barrage of strange but very vivid images come to you. And I'm going to also ask you to add one percent to your unnatural skill. As for Asian hide and the rest of you guys hide, you might eventually get the other agents. You might do something. Agent Samuel is out of it for the rest of the evening.

He is coming in and out of consciousness, mostly laughing. Sometimes his body is convulsing and shaking. Nothing to make you think he might be having a seizure, but he is in the throes of some kind of heavy psychedelic experience. I'll go eventually grab Tuck and Merritt and I'll tell them that Sam else started to act and behave that way when I pulled him into the room. But I won't tell them what he ingested. I'm going to suggest that he might have found something

and it's mixed in with our evidence boxes. So while Tuck and Merritt go and check on Sam, Hyde's just going to take a lap around the hotel and give enough time and then come back with the baggie in hand. OK, all right. I think that's easy enough to do. Eric, Tuck, you're standing over the body of Samayel, who is right now in the bed kind of curled up in a fetal position.

Is this what you wanted? By making your unilateral decision, not talking to any of us about anything you were going to do. We now have an incapacitated agent, which is the opposite of what you wanted. So I think you just made your own bed, Merritt. I did not. I don't think so. I don't see it because I did not make the decision he did.

This is exactly what he would have done sometime down the line. I don't care that I brought it on earlier. This is who he is, Tuck. If you can't admit that. If you can't see it, then I invite you to look down at the bumbling, palmitose pool. I am not denying what this is who he is. I'm saying that you should not be making decisions for the whole team

immediately on your own. There are one, two, three or four other people who are involved in this, including myself and another already very seasoned agent. And this is your first time. This is not your decision to make alone. You come to us, you bring it to our attention. We deal with it in a democratic way. Oh, I don't know, like the country's supposed to run.

I'm sorry. You don't do this by yourself. We all heard what he said. We all heard what he said. Yes. And we all heard it. And we could have dealt with it as a team. No one was speaking. No one saw it, but me, apparently. You are not the only one who was observant, who is a part of who is.

God, Merritt. He would have done this either way, Tuck. Hide, you eventually come back into the room. I'm sorry, I saw it first. You did not see it first. You are not special. You are here to be a part of a team. Act like it.

Well, now that you two are finished, I'm just going to go over to the other side of Samel, who's who's laughing. And I pocketed out the bag and is like, looks like something that came with some of the green box materials. What is everyone's, the three of you, the three agents, do you have at least 30 percent in psychotherapy or in human intelligence? Yes. In human intelligence, yeah.

No. OK, both Allegra and Agent Merritt, I need you to make sanity checks. Shit's gone south. I failed with a ninety nine. Yeah, you did. I passed with a thirty one or yeah, thirty one. So, Agent Merritt, because you critically failed, I want to say that you lose to sanity. OK, Agent Tuck, you do not lose any sanity, but you both being very intuitive and very empathetic with people,

understanding people, you can't believe it, but the patterns on the table are shifting a little bit for you. And you're feeling a little buzzed. Oh. Agent Hyde, you sense that Tuck and Merritt are at least like kind of shaking their heads and as if they're dizzy or something. There's there's there's response.

I'm I'm having response. Hyde response. I grab Merritt and I try to sit him down on a bed or a chair or something like that. You separate him and Merritt, you sit down. And though the effects actually begin to kind of fade away, Agent Tuck, it isn't until you start stepping away from Agent Samuel that you stop feeling that kind of buzzed high feeling. Can I I'm going to I'm going to like go a little closer

and stand there for a couple of minutes and see if it comes back again. It does start to come back. Yeah, fuck. I'll I'll retreat and I'll stand by the I'll stand like the opposite end of the room from them. I'll I'll just like double check Merritt, see if his eyes are dilating or he's like stable. Are you all right?

My head's cloudy. My heart's beating fast. I think I'm OK, but I don't have oxygen in my brain. Hey, look at me. Look at me. Look at me in the eye. Look at me. Yes.

Take a deep breath, four seconds in. Hold it out. Do that one more time. Out. All right. Is he like this all the time? I don't know, man. I really don't know.

My heart's going to escape my chest. Yeah, you're having a panic attack. That's what happens when you have a panic attack. Take a deep breath. You're all right. I don't have those. Well, you're having one right now. I don't even smoke.

It's not a smoking thing, but it's a stress thing. You under a lot of stress? Yes. Yeah, why don't you lie there for a second? You know, go look at count how many tiles are on the ceiling or something. You all right? Looking at that tuck?

You all right? I'm fine. It's, I mean, not a fan of the fact that that drug can affect people from a distance, but I guess that's what it's going to look like. Why was in the green box in the first place? It would make sense. I'm going to get a glass of water

and take it over to Merritt. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to hold it out. We have a huge problem, friends. That is a fact. Yes, yes, we do. Oh, it's not Samel. Samel's not the problem right now.

The problem is that YouTube little beef trolls decided to walk all the way around this fucking hotel screaming at each other. We were in a room for a time. Yeah, for a time, but I don't know how many people saw the priest and some random tall dude running downstairs screaming at each other. I'm that tall.

I don't know if that should be my, it doesn't matter. Look, I'm sorry. I was trying to do something good for the group. I understand it wasn't the right call, but I know that he was going to do this either way. I apologize for my outburst. All right, you bring it to the attention of security team and we follow the procedures you like to follow.

All right? Fine. Great. Cool. He took this. I don't know what it is, but it looks fucking insane. We got a giggling priest and we got a whole commotion around this hotel.

What do we do now? We get out fast. We go to the plane now. Sleep on the plane. Where are we heading? I don't know. I don't think we were heading anywhere to begin with. We were just going to prep the plane and fine.

We go to the plane, we prep it, and then we figure out the next step. Should we bring him? Obviously. Yes. I'm not leaving him here. I'm going to go get warp and boomer. OK.

You guys figure him out. Great. Agent warp and boomer, you are basically either asleep or about to fall asleep when you get a knock on your door. No way. Get the fuck up. Go to the door. What?

My hair is all crazy and shit, too. Hi. Hi. We have to leave right now. So please grab all your shit, grab all the evidence boxes, and get ready to go. Don't ask me questions. Don't ask me anything.

Do what I ask. And I go and go to warp store. I'm just going to flipper the bird as I slam the damn door. Knock on warp store. Yes, are we reading more? Are we? We are going to read more probably once we get to the plane. Could you please collect your shit and get ready to go

and please help boomer take boxes down to the car? Please don't ask me questions. No, right now. Now. Yes, I'm sorry. OK. Yeah. Now.

Now. And she's turning around and gets her shit together. We'll say it takes about an hour for everyone to get their shit together. And it's about midnight when you pile everything back into that green van. Who's driving? I'll drive.

I'm going to be in the passenger's shock and see. As you drive, everyone is very, everyone can see Agent Semi-L very obviously kind of half awake, half asleep. They have to help him into the car. He's just kind of a, he looks like he's like really stoned or something. He's not really responding much to things.

You are in Detroit and it is going to take you at least an hour to get back to Lansing. It isn't until about, I'll say, 1.45 in the morning that you get to Abrams Municipal Airport. This is a mostly private airport, but there seems to be a section dedicated to the army. You pull up into that section. You flash your badges.

You are allowed in. You typically would need to check in to the small building that is there where there's usually ticket agents and things like that, but you don't have a destination at the moment. I am going to ask that if you're going to, if you basically just want to roll up with no intention of leaving,

what is your bureaucracy hide? 40. Okay. I think I'll give you an extra 20% to that because with Tuck and the other agents there who all have decent bureaucracy, you can probably get your way and get into there where this is rather abnormal.

Keeps him out in the car. Yep. The Lord bless you, thank you. Oh, no, no. Okay. You, though it is late, though there really isn't anyone to attend to, you mentioned the name of the hangar

that the plane is supposed to be in and the person on duty kind of notices, seems to react a little bit. It says, oh yeah, sure, sure. Yeah, if you want to go in, that's fine. Yeah, go ahead. And he tells you where to find it, try to get there and you are allowed to drive

onto into the airport. You eventually pull up to a hangar that is closed. I assume that everyone starts filing in. Yes. Yeah, carrying boxes. Okay. Carrying boxes. Yeah, you file in, you get the key

and the key unlocks the door and you are in a pretty decent sized hangar, classic with a big arched dome for a ceiling. And in the middle of it is a challenger, a white challenger 605, is an unmarked private jet. It's not a G5, but perhaps for, you know, what the program is offering, this is really actually quite impressive.

You've never really participated in something where they just gave you a plane or access to one. So nonetheless, with that said, you kind of begin opening up the plane and just checking it, it fits about maybe 10 people, but it's like sleeping on a plane. There's really nowhere comfortable to sleep. You can all lie down in the middle of the aisle,

but the majority of the inside of the plane is just seats. So you're either going to have to decide who sleeps on the plane and then who else is gonna sleep out in the hangar bay? Are there like seats like in a regular airplane that you can put in the back? Yeah, if you wanted to try to sleep in a chair, you could certainly try to do that.

Question, cause I vaguely kind of know a little bit cause I've looked at the 605 plane. They have like usually like one or two, like those reclining chairs, are those available? I'll say that there's at least two of them, yes. All right, I'm snatching one of them putting, like I'll put a box, I'm gonna be like, this is mine. Put like a little blindfold on my eyes

and just like go back to sleep. You need to have a watch system set up between the three of us. We each take three shifts. We don't know what's going to happen. I'll take first. I'll take the first. Or I'll take second one.

Or actually, Hyde, you should pick which one you take. You're the one flying this thing. So what's the best for you? Probably let me get some sleep. Roger. That way, if we need to go sometime in between these two watches, we can. Well, Hyde, if you like, I can take your shift too.

It's fine, it's up to you. I mean, I can watch Sam. I'd prefer someone with gun clearance. I mean, if I hold a gun, is that not... Practiced, Warp. So it's fine, Warp, thank you. I appreciate it though, I do. Great.

Okay, so... Boomer's already snoring, by the way, that's a fact. So Agent Warp will assume you take the other reclined seat. Agent Semi-L is placed, I assume, on the floor towards the back of the plane. Can we, like, prop him sideways on one of the seats? Yeah. Just in case something terrible happens.

Sure, sure. He pukes out. He doesn't, yeah. It sounds like Semi-L, or excuse me, it sounds like Merritt is taking two shifts and Tuck is taking one. Yeah, or I mean, we can just split him into two, we can just split it into two long watches instead of one,

and then you sleep for a couple hours and then one. All right, I'm gonna ask that Tuck, Merritt, and Hide, unless Hide, you decide to sleep in a particularly good place, you're all gonna need, give me Constitution times five rolls to see if you can get any real rest. I failed with the 61. I succeed.

Okay. And Tuck, you said you succeeded? Okay. Agent Semi-L and Agent Merritt, you are both going to wake up around 7 a.m. exhausted with minus 20% to all rolls for the day. Oh. Agent Semi-L, you know, eventually around

two, three in the morning, the vision stopped coming to you, your body calms down, and you just kind of pass out from the high. So when you wake up in the morning, your mouth is incredibly dry, your sore, your head hurts, you're not feeling that great. First thing when my eyes kind of lull open,

I'm just like instinctively patting for my flask in my pocket, and I'll try to cure the dry mouth with a couple hits of that. Yeah, you also wake up and realize you're in a plane. Oh, what the fuck? If I'm awake next to him, can I try and stop him from sipping out of his flask? I'll say that he got one sip off,

and then you noticed him. Maybe don't mix unknown substances with alcohol, just for our sake, if not for yours. There's no such thing as an unknown substance to me anymore. Fuck. Oh, God, I'm so tired of men. I'm fine, relax. If anything, I'm better off for it now.

Oh, God, I don't even know how to. Even begin discussing this with you, and I'm gonna like switch his flask for a water bottle if I can. Sure, boss lady. Eventually, everyone comes to wake up. It's still dark inside the hangar, but everyone is eventually up.

It's about 7 a.m. What are you doing now? I'm walking out of the cockpit because that's where I crashed for the night. I got some gum in my mouth. Now that I'm kind of a little bit more alert, I'm gonna start inspecting the entire plane. I'm gonna kind of like Google at it a little bit

because I know that I'm never really given a plane, and it's so nice, even though it's like a smaller plane. It's just like, ooh. And then eventually, I'll get to the left wing of the plane. I'll take the gum out of my mouth, and I'm gonna slap it on the bottom of the wing of the plane. I'm gonna like admire it for a second, and then I'm gonna go inside and start prepping

the plane for leaving. Got it. I'm gonna, because Boomer's kind of like waking up, just kind of go like, look at Tuck, like a mare. I'd be like, now can someone please tell me why the fuck? I had to sleep on a plane last night. We'll have a group discussion later to air out the mistakes that I made,

and then we will continue forward from there. I can't give you any information now, but we should probably start on research pertaining to Devils 1984 as soon as we can. Well, if I'm gonna have to get on research, somebody better go get me some motherfucking Starbucks. I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Thank you.

I'm making the food run, Jesus Christ, you are the worst morning. Make it two. Double-nisted. I'm very aware, Max. Mm. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Max? I said man. What? I said man.

Okay. God, everyone's so jumpy this morning. I'm gonna straight up like, stare down, warp, and be like, don't fucking push it. Are questions allowed now? What's up, Warp? Before I give my venti. Okay. Warp, do you wanna come with me for coffee?

You can ask me questions. Okay, yeah, actually. Okay. Okay, so I have a few questions, about six. So what's wrong with following combinations of people? Merit, Tuck, and you, and Sam, and I guess himself, maybe God, I don't know. And why did we leave eight hours early?

Does this have anything to do with the people that we killed, or where are we going? And I guess now also where are we going? Food-wise, but I was more talking about the plane. Oh, man. As we're getting in the van, I'm starting it up and pulling out. What's wrong with combinations?

Merit, Tuck, I am Tuck, and me. Who are you, or are you Thuck? Yeah, I was reading my notes out loud. I wasn't going to ask you, unhide, sorry. Unhide, I don't think there's anything wrong with any combination of any of this group. We're learning each other's tics. We're learning how we work.

It's only been a couple of days. There's some strong personalities on several fronts, so we're figuring out how to navigate those. It just takes a little work, warp. Let's say that you give warp the lowdown about what kind of happened last night, so we can skip repeating that. Eventually you return with breakfast,

the drinks, and the things that everyone asked for. Agent Hide, you have done everything you can up until this point, but short of calling in a charter, deciding where you're going, calling it in, and then getting on your way. Last touch is I'm going to pull out a little small photo as a picture of me with Pops and another younger dude. It's like my graduation photo.

I'm like over neck deep in like lays and stuff like that, and they're kind of just like laughing. I kind of tuck it away in the bottom as like a last thing that I needed to do in my process, and then I'll go out and look for Sam El. I'm just sitting on the plane. Yeah, Sam El is there. Well, what are you up to right now, Sam El?

Well, I mean, probably at some point, once tuck is gone, I'm going to try to reacquire my flask. Yeah, I think it's easy enough to grab it. Yeah, and then I'll just sit there, and then I'll flip open Bible out of my lap. I'm specifically this morning looking into the Gospel of John, sitting on my flask. I'm just kind of like writing notes

on the margin of the Bible. As I see him like take a sip of his flask, I'm going to like flick him in the middle of the forehead. How? And I'm just going to plop down next to him, and I'm just going to just quietly to him ask, how much of last night do you remember? It depends on how you define last night.

I had a lot of last nights last night. Yeah, before wherever you decided to venture off to our conversation. Sergio, what do I remember? It's a little cloudy. I mean, you lost three sanity in the experience, so it's certainly not an experience that was like a typical psychedelic.

There was something more to this, and though you're having a hard time, like really, it's almost like a dream where it's coming in and out of your recollection, but the main thing that sits in your soul is that what you experienced was abnormal and unnatural, and you have this sneaking suspicion that those things you saw, they might have been real.

Listen, there's something going on. There's something more to that stuff than meets the eye. Listen, I don't, I'm not going to make any apologies for doing what I did, because now I feel like I have a much better grasp on things and potentially some insights into some very pertinent things that I think are only going to benefit us.

Question. Sorry, is Boomer nearby when he's saying this shit, or am I just too far away to hear this? If you're all on the plane, then you're basically within your shot. Okay, I hear that, and I'm just gonna go ahead, take my shoe off and throw it at this fucker's head. Chonkla.

Oh, hell, fuck out of here with that bullshit. Literally, as I say that. I just give a look to Boomer. He lives by the shoe, dies by the shoe. Well, does it hit me first of all? No, a chunk of it always hits. Okay. It doesn't cost any, it doesn't like hurt you or anything.

You start to get one, you know, in the chest. It's like it hurts your soul. It sends a message. Yeah, I take it, and I'll just kinda, I won't even look up at her, I'll just take another sip and say, I forgive you. As he does that, I just wanna lean in closer and try to be a little bit more quiet

to keep my voice from being heard by anybody else, and I look at him and it's like, I don't want your apology, but you owe me. I owe you what? All right. For not leaving you behind in the hotel room, because that was an option last night, among other things, all right?

I knew what I was risking, but sure. And you owe me. Fine. And then I'll get up and walk out into the hangar. The time has come and gone for breakfast, for prepping the plane, a decision needs to be made. What's next? Have we actually, I'm sorry,

did we, how far along that time span did we get in the research? Because I know I was definitely doing some stuff. If you have, it hasn't been more than an hour or so. So you guys got what you wanted, where do you wanna go now? Are we sticking around Michigan and just researching on the plane, or are we?

Sergio, last time I did, I read a little bit about Club Apocalypse. Have I read, how much of these files have I had, these Detroit files have I had, and I've had the chance to look through? It's been, you know, a page here and there. It requires your attention, it requires you taking notes,

it requires more than just the occasional glance. Have I seen anything in the Detroit files that points to, towards New York? Not yet, no. Then I will remain silent. So these files are based around Detroit, so do we wanna stick here, and see if there's anything we can glean in a day,

or do we wanna go somewhere else? All right, I think we just need a, okay. All right, that's it, okay, so I'm gonna say this. Let's just, we're gonna stay on this damn plane, we're gonna look over Detroit. That's what we're focusing on today, because I swear to God, if we get on a plane and we end up in New York, Chicago, New Orleans,

and then we have to end up back in Detroit, and we'll kill all of you. So let's go ahead, crack open this Detroit file, figure if we need to stay, and if not, we'll go somewhere else. My vote, New Orleans, because I need a drink. All right, man. They're already shut down Vegas.

I don't know what the South is all open, right? Unfortunately. There we go. All right, let's crack into this case then. Thank you. Everyone take a few pages. I just, I start passing out bits of it as I see fit. Okay.

So it sounds like everyone is participating in the research. You guys are going to take your time hanging out in this hangar. Some of you are just sitting on the plane. Some of you are maybe going out and stretching inside the hangar. We'll say that eventually Agent Hyde opens the hangar bay door and lets in some fresh air.

It's a crisp morning. It's like 59 degrees. And you all just kind of start reading the pages that are available to you. This report is classified Delta Green Eyes Only and aimed at presenting an overall picture of the illegal activities of an organized criminal element in Detroit that has come to be known as the network.

During one month of August, September, and October, 1984, the Detroit office of the DEA and FBI conducted an audit of local gang's financial books out of interviews and uncovered financial records. The audit found a disturbing pattern of mid-level employees, dealers, vanishing without a trace. A common factor seems to be involvement with a hallucinogen called reverb,

a drug that does not seem to be part of the gang's usual activities. The lead agent assigned to this investigation is special agent Casey Shaw, a 56-year-old veteran with the group. He leads F cell as agent Fluke. It's Friday, October 25, 1985. 1984.

Agent Fluke. You are wandering through Central Park in New York City. As instructed, you are carrying an empty briefcase. There's a bench that's isolated from the crowds and you recognize your case handler, Agent Charlie. On the books, Charlie is part of the FBI's organized crime division in New York, but you know he's also part of the group.

He's young, no older than 26, but he's tall, thin, and gawky with a slender face and shaggy hair. His blue eyes are hidden behind thick-framed glasses. Even wearing a suit and tie, he projects a kind of gracelessness. As you walk up to him, you wonder for a moment how a young punk like him managed to get so quickly

above you in rank within the group. But then you remember he's ambitious, something that you never really were. He notices you approaching and he fidgets uncomfortably in his seat, clasping a briefcase identical to yours. Agent. Agent Fluke, lovely weather we're having. No, it's not bad, I suppose.

He kind of like suddenly drops his shoulder and he's like, I'm like so nervous. I don't know how you people do this spy shit all the time. There's like butterflies in my stomach. You learn to cope with it and there's no secret and you just gotta breathe. Okay. Well, as you suspect, there's an assignment.

It's in Detroit again. Before you get upset, we think that there's a connection to what we've been finding here in town. Well, if you don't want me to get upset, that's not a great way to lead off. Look, from what I understand, there might be something more substantial this time, okay? There's not gonna be a dead end, I feel it this time.

All right, well. We'll read the dossier, it'll make more sense once you read it. Okay, pass over what you got. Do I just hand it to you or? You tell me, Mr. C-Cell? I'm gonna put it down on the ground and then you grab it, okay?

Okay, he does. Fine, hand it over, dammit, come on. I don't have time for this shit. Yeah, he awkwardly puts his briefcase down, you grab it, and then he goes to grab your briefcase. And he says, listen, if you've got questions, call me. I guess there's only so much I can do from this distance, but I'll help where I can, okay?

I don't know if I need anything, can't imagine that I will. All right, well, do I walk away or do you? You walk away, I wanna sit here for a second. Okay, all right, I'm walking away now, and he- Good, dammit, go, what are you fucking waiting for? He begins to kind of trot away. You fucking kid.

Okay, well, I'll pick up the briefcase. I'll just kind of set it down in my lap. I'll look and I'll wait till he's well out of eyesight, and I'll just kind of, fuck, I'll slap the briefcase and I'll stand up and I'll start making for whatever, wherever it is I need to go to get my fucking ass to Detroit. Okay, so you're saying that you're reading documents there

in the park or are you going to- No, I'm definitely not reading them in the park. I mean, he mentioned Detroit. I'm going to go make whatever accommodations I need to get to Detroit, and while I'm either in transit or waiting to get into transit, I will pop the briefcase open in a location as far away from Prine Eyes as I can get,

and I will start digesting whatever information is available to me. Yeah, it takes a little while just to kind of read what you have there, but you get the idea. So with that, I understand that having some knowledge of how this structure works, the first thing I'll do is I will contact the other C cell agents. You mean the F cell agents?

F cell agents, I'm sorry, excuse me. And I will reach out to them and I'll just tell them, how do pagers work? Is it like text or is it just like, I honestly don't know how a pager works. It depends. So like some pagers were advanced enough that they would show text, but most of them just told you

what number was trying to reach you, and then you'd go find a phone to call it. I will page the F cell agents and I will just instruct them that I am on my way to Detroit, and I expect to see their faces there within the next 48 hours. You eventually get on a plane and take your flight to Detroit.

Agent Frost, where are you and what are you up to when you get this message? I am right now, I'm actually, I'm writing a letter. Kind of just like, I'm just like at my home at a desk, writing probably front and back on the fourth page to someone at the top where I write Ryan. Yeah, and while you're doing that, you receive a page on your pager,

check the number, you get in contact, and you find out you need to get to Detroit ASAP. I should note that I've had like a mountain of cigarettes near me, so I'm gonna like put out my cigarette, try to scribble, even though I have together, I'm just gonna wrap it up really fast, sign it, put an envelope, and I'm gonna go ahead and get my shit together.

Okay, you wanna mail that envelope before you leave, I'm gonna go to like one of those posts that's like on those corners, because they're around then, I guess. Yeah, you drop off the letter and then you head to the airport. Both Agent Frost and Agent Fluke, you meet at the airport as you are in baggage claim.

Excuse me, young lady, have you come in down for the opera tonight? Yep, that's what I'm here for. Okay, understood, follow me. You both jump into a cab, and Agent Fluke, where do you wanna head in Detroit? I have looked and I'm using the resources available to me via the FBI, whatever resources the program

has cobbled together. I have located an abandoned house, a desolate suburb of Detroit. I have passed that address out to the other agents, I have told them to meet me there as soon as possible. Okay, so Agent Frog, you are at police headquarters, you are the middle of work, and you get a page from a familiar number,

and when you check, it is the group contacting you and you are being told to meet somewhere in Detroit. Okay, I'm going to, I think shut everything down, like I guess wait as long as it takes to shut everything down and peel off as quick as I can down the street. Oliver, you are, what are you up to

when you receive the page? I think that I've been looking into the disappearances of some missing mid-level gang members within the city. I've gotten some wind to the idea that some dealers are going missing throughout the edges of Detroit, you know, the tougher areas. And I think I'm probably in my car outside of one of those areas after an interview,

going over notes that I have over everything I had gone through with. Okay, you get the page, you confirm the number, it's that group that has contacted you before, it's been a long time, but they're messaging you, they're telling you to meet them somewhere in an abandoned neighborhood. Yeah, I looked down and I think

that Oliver has memorized that number because he's only seen it once before, but it meant a whole lot when he did. And so he takes this big deep breath and then throws his head to the back of the seat in the front seat there and groans before putting it off and driving immediately to the house. Rose, what are you up to when you receive the message?

I have about four different books open in front of me on a desk and one of them has to do with like cult, like religious cults and how they get their following. It's just like kind of like a general overview of like cultory, if that's a cultory word, I don't know, I'm saying cult, yeah, of cultism. And one of them is on the Civil Rights Movement, one of them's on like some kind of poverty,

they're all books I've read before, it's just kind of a refresh for me. Just rereading. Yeah, just rereading, you know, light fun reading. And then once I get the page, I'll kind of take a deep breath and close all my books and put them in my backpack and then kind of dig around in the side pocket and make sure that my switch blades in there

and find it and zip up my backpack, sling it on and head for whatever the location is. It's a little after lunch, it's about 12.45 and you all find yourselves in a northern neighborhood in Detroit. Everywhere along the streets, there is Halloween decorations, there are witches, paper mache witches in the windows

and paper skeletons and pumpkins and it feels like fall. It's certainly about as cold as fall should be in Detroit. And you all eventually make your way to this northern neighborhood where large swaths of it are empty gutted homes. Some of them look like they were probably once very nice, but they are empty, blown out, walls missing, pieces missing and you pull up to one of these homes.

A large portion of kind of the back part of it has been just torn out and kind of approaching. You all eventually notice that standing within this building are two individuals. Agent Fluke and Frost, please describe what you guys look like. Agent Fluke, tall and spindly, about six feet tall. He has kind of like this wiry,

slicked back to the kind of up into the side gray hair. He has kind of like a stubbly, coarse face. His skin is kind of starting to wrinkle a little bit. Looks like he's probably been doing a lot of smoking throughout his life. He just kind of looks like this tall, wiry, weathered old man looks to be in his late fifties. Agent Frost is just a little bit,

she's actually quite tall, about like five, 10. She's just a little bit shorter than Fluke. Athletically, like you could tell she's definitely strong. She's gotten training. You can see under her shirt, you will see a bulletproof vest. You'll see that she's already locked and loaded to go. Hair is, I would say, is tied back.

Her jet black hair tied back into a French braid to keep out of the face and to make sure nothing gets in her way. She has sunglasses on top of her head. And I would say she definitely already has a lit cigarette in her mouth. And you can definitely see her weapon on her side belt. So approaching up next is Agent Frog and Oliver.

Could you guys please describe what you look like? Okay, yeah. So Agent Frog is like average height, definitely a little swole. She's got a like a black pants suit with a navy collared shirt and the like issued windbreaker. And she has a perm.

Yeah. It doesn't go out too far. We're talking maybe like three inches out, but it's soul glow, full perm. Yeah, it's higher than the hair closer to God right there. She's got some like little smaller hoops than like the normal circumference of hoop, I suppose. Oliver is about six feet tall.

He's got a wiry frame. He's got a pretty unassuming stature. He's not gonna win any contest of strengths, but he is pretty toned. He's attractive, but in an intellectual way that would exclude him from being conventionally attractive. He has some long facial features with a strong nose and a chin.

He has a diagonal scar along his left jaw. It's very small, but it is noticeable. He wears a pile lined brown leather jacket over a Detroit Tigers World Series T-shirt that's been tucked into a pair of high waist acid wash denim jeans that have been rolled at the cuffline to show off some white tube socks

over some high top Reebok sneakers. He has a Ramsey blue tartan scarf that goes over the jacket. A single studded earring is in his right ear. And then he, oh, and then he's got this cigarette case that sits in the pocket of his front jacket. And it's inscribed with his initials. The four of you meet in this abandoned home.

Well, thanks for coming on such short notice. And I suppose congratulations on the World Series. That's gotta be really exciting. I don't know if you're a sports fan or... Oh, yeah, it was absolutely. That's why I wore the short. But the shirt is really just talking more about the riots. Pretty incredible that that thing could happen

in the same night. You could see the smokes from the car over ahead of the stadium as you were watching the game. Pretty interesting. Wow, okay. Glad I wasn't around here then. Geez.

Yeah, it's how we celebrate in this city. Damn. You know, we win and we turn over cars, right? Yeah, it's only fun for some people. Yes, I'm sure. This kind of awkward hellos for the first times have not seen each other for some, you know, for some of you,

it's been maybe a year, year and a half. And then Rose shows up. Rose, could you please describe what you look like? Yes. Rose is pretty petite, like barely over five feet tall. She looks like a person who has spent her life wandering the stacks. Her black hair is kind of shot through with gray,

even though she looks pretty young, like maybe mid to late 30s. And she keeps it tied up in the top knot with a scrunchie, but kind of wisps around her face are constantly falling out. She has some lace-up black calceau shoes, high-waisted khaki pants, a high-collared white button-up, and the only splash of color she wears

is a chunky deep purple cardigan. She has huge wireframe glasses that are constantly slipping down her nose, silver, like small silver hoop earrings, and a brown Jansport backpack. Rose steps into the abandoned home and agent fluke. You now know that everyone that you need here is here.

So, you know, I'm assuming there's not much in the way of furniture in this building, so I'm assuming we're all kind of just standing in like an awkward loose circle. And I'll just say, well, God, like I said, thanks for coming. Forgive me, because I'm not, I don't really like doing this,

I'll have to be perfectly honest with you. And I, you know, frequently find myself with a loss for words when I'm trying to describe these kinds of situations. Needless to say, there has been a resurgence of something unusual in the city related to a certain psychotropic substance that has been identified to have recently resurfaced

in Detroit regarding a DEA and FBI investigation that has been happening recently. And we suspect that there is more to this drug than meets the eye. And I don't necessarily wanna say anything more than that in mixed company. But I'm assuming at this point, we've all heard a little bit about a substance

sold on the street by the name of Reverb. Is anybody not familiar with that situation? I'm gonna take that as a no. Mr. Lake, I understand you've been investigating the recent situation in some way, shape, or form. Yeah, it was tipped off to a situation in amongst a lot of the gangs within Detroit. There's been a serious situation about them going missing.

Some of their dealers at the ground level have been just wiped off the face of the fucking planet. It's unimaginable. But I'm trying to find some sort of answer to it. Yeah, you're right. Excellent. Can I step out for a second? Just need to get a deep breath.

This is bringing up some stuff, you know? Sure, yeah, I think you, sure, you're mostly here to provide information. I don't, sure, take your breath. I'll be right back. Okay, gotcha. And Agent Farag, I understand you have an investigation. Are the underway with the DEA

and the FBI Behavioral Science Unit? Is that correct? Yeah, I mean, we're, it's a pretty small team, but we've got a somewhat established investigation going. It was actually, I mean, it wasn't me exactly. It was our accountant that sort of discovered a lot of the financial clues that have sort of led us to these disappearing dealers.

But yeah, yeah, I mean, it's all right. I didn't think it would be this much of a problem, but clearly, it's something else. Okay, well. I'm gonna raise my hand really quick. Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Ms. Frost. First up, great job, support. Are there gonna be any more details in this situation report? Or is? All information will be dispensed on a need-to-know basis. Hi. And I will dispense it as it needs to be known.

Does that make sense? This time he comes back in looking a little bit brighter. You good? Yeah, I just need a moment. I'm gonna extend over a cigarette to him, see if he needs it. I take it almost immediately. I supposed to have quit, but hey, fuck this, right?

Do you have a lighter? And I light up right there in front of him. And I take a few steps back out of courtesy, but I start smoking as fluke goes through it. It's the 80s, you smoke right there. Rose, Ms. Alvarado, would you like to, would you like to, do you have any pertinent information to the situation that I have just laid out?

Well, the only situation you've laid out is the reverb is back. That's not really a situation so much as a status quo. And what do you know about that? You say status quo, have you seen this regularly? Well, Sergio, it's been a thing in Detroit for a while. Well, certainly drug abuse has. The gangs largely run off of drugs.

The drug itself reverb is pretty new. When he says it's back, he really means it's more in the group that he is associated with his history. But this is the first time you're really knowing anything about reverb. With that said, you probably feel that you would best be suited speaking to the community that you are very closely tied with.

Yeah. Well, drugs have been an issue in Detroit. I mean, it's Detroit, but we are. So if I wanted you to name any potential names or potentially follow up on some leads with those names, you might have. I might have some contacts. You might be a point of contact.

There's a possibility. Good. Well. What exactly is reverb? I've gathered it's a drug and that it's a psychotropic, as you said, and that it's a big enough issue for. All you gotta know, one is the name. Okay.

Two, it's a psychedelic drug. Three, don't touch it. No matter what you do, don't touch it. Quick question. Are we talking liquid, powder, how does one consume this? My understanding is it comes in the form of pads and pills. Okay. Sorry, I just want to make sure I could put,

is it like a particular gang that we're looking for or is it a group or is it like a network? Agent Frog, you are the closest to the investigation. You would know that it seems like, when you look at the books and you look at the numbers, it's mostly, there are many gangs in Detroit, but there is a gang known as the Errol Flynn's. They are known as the Errol Flynn's

because they often wear very flashy clothing, like those old time movie stars, but that most of the pushers that have disappeared are related to that gang in particular. So generally anyone that can get their hands on it is going to push it, doesn't really matter, but the Errol Flynn's sort of fancy, pretty boys, they've pretty much-

Robin Hood. Sorry? Robin Hood. No movie buffs here? Robin Hood. No, yeah, Errol Flynn, but they're mostly naming themselves Errol Flynn's because he had a reputation for fucking,

but you know, Robin Hood, you're right. Sorry, continue. That's all right. I was just gonna say, it's crack that bites back. It's regular with a little bit of an extra push at the end, but it's mostly them. I would say you could ask anybody and they'll tell you whatever they know too,

but if you find them, that's better. Can I ask a question? Yes, ma'am. Why is this important? I mean, I've only ever met y'all when when there were certain inexplicable details to certain cases and certain things that happened. If this is a regular run-of-the-mill drug,

why are y'all here? It's, well, I think needless to say, it's not a regular run-of-the-mill drug. And do you remember, let's just say it has to do, potentially with a certain document from Detroit University? Do you understand my meaning? I do.

Good. Is that certain text available to me as a researcher? Well, you translated it for me. I did. So I'd assume you'd have a copy. You took my copy. Might I have it back? Sergio, would that be something that I would like

to be hesitant to give back to her? Yes. I'll just tell her, listen, just know that there's something strange going on. I'm not giving you back that book, but certainly you have a pretty good memory and you can use that as a well of information, I'm sure. Well, I'll be more help with specifics.

If I can give you specifics, I can give you more information and more direction. Listen, when we have a lead that you're relevant for, you're gonna be called upon to help us find and execute on that lead. Other than that, I've really told you everything that I can say. Just keep your pager on and get ready to jump

whenever you're called. And that same thing goes for you, Mr. Lake. Yeah, I just, I'm trying to understand how I'm supposed to help you do something if I don't know all the facts, but I'm gonna do my best to help you like I did, but yeah, yeah, I got you. Your point of contact and the source of information. Well, like I said, I just want you to keep your pager on

and I just want you to be ready to rally at the moment to notice, does that make sense? Yeah, look, you know how I work, so we'll get that done. Good, thank you. The two friendlies, Rose and Oliver, leave the abandoned home. I'm gonna wave as they, like in a friendly gesture, be like, let's go and leave.

Okay, they walk away and you now feel that you are alone with F cell. So I'll allow kind of the dust to settle from the door being slammed shut and make sure that, you know, I'm careful to kind of keep my voice down. I'll just tell everybody, listen, that shit in the sewers of New York, all that cultist bullshit or, you know,

whatever the fuck it is, though I still honestly don't really understand, it's here in Detroit. No, no, no, no. And we're finally, listen, this comes straight from the top. This is our opportunity to get to the bottom of this thing. This is the opportunity to look into this plant that the drug is synthesized from.

This is our opportunity to figure out what's going on with those, whatever they are, undead, necro-phage, you know, whatever you wanna call them. This is a unique opportunity and we need to be thorough here. That said, I would like us to start by following up with the DEA and the FBI. I would like us to go speak with some of Agent Frog's lead,

Agent Frog's lead, specifically Chanti Wu and a Miss Constance. I think that that is our, I think that's our starting point. No, that's fine, I can touch on with them. Now, we had a, I see we're in our secret meeting, which is very cool. But if those two were as helpful as they were last time,

is there anything specific we shouldn't talk about? Cause I, as far as I'm concerned, they're part of the team. Yes, all that they need to know is that there is a drug out on the streets called reverb that we're interested in. And you don't need to give them any information. They're a source of information, not a repository for it. Does that, does that track?

Yeah. We use them to follow up leads, we use them to talk to people and we use them for their local knowledge and nothing else. May I ask, just for the sake of preparedness, is this also a cleanup with them as well? There's always that possibility, yes. Now when you say cleanup, holy shit.

Girl, you know it. I mean, put a bullet in their head and ditch their body in the leg. I don't understand. I mean, you guys get to leave is what I'm saying. This, I live down the street. Like, can we be considerate is all I'm asking. I don't necessarily...

Listen, I don't think it's going to become necessary. And I, you know, listen, this is, I don't got Lawn left in the game. I would like for this to go cleanly. But if push comes to shove, none of this information can be leaked out to the public. Does that make sense? I understand.

And if that means a local journalist and a librarian that no one's going to miss disappears, then that's just what we got to fucking do. Well, it's not your squad that's escorting their funerals. Just keep that in mind. It's plan, call it plan D. Don't, I wouldn't stress about that. You know what, that's just me, you know me.

I always have plans A through D in my brain. That's not even plan A right now at the moment. So you don't, you don't have to worry about it. It's all good. That said, we need to decide if we are bringing these two individuals along with us or if we are only calling them in as necessary. My inclination is towards the latter. Otherwise, we might potentially...

To minimize the risk, I say let's go ahead and let's do what we do best. Let's, let's go ahead and find Chauncey Wu and Constance. Let's go ahead and just go from there. And then if we need to proceed a little further, then we will go ahead and ask for assistance. But to make everything so frog doesn't feel like we're stepping on her turf. Let's just go ahead and just try to do as much as we can without endangering the friendlies. And think about it this way.

The less they know and the less they're involved, the less likely that this becomes a cleaning mission. How about that? I mean, I mean, my team, they're not a risk. It's just, we'll go into the office to talk to some people. They could come. Also, we are dangling a carrot of secrets in front of a professional snoop. So that I feel like that's a good point.

That's a good point. No, you're exactly right. We probably need to keep an eye on him anyway. All right. Well, I mean, we'll lock him in the back of the car or whatever for all I care. So the problem is, is that as you are discussing this, there's a good chance that the friendlies have left in their cars. So you'll probably just have to let them know where you want to meet them.

With that said, let's go back in time a little bit. Rose and Oliver, you guys are walking away from the house. First quick question. Is there any chance that Rose could sneak around to the side and try and hear more information? Yes. You would need to make a stealth role. Yeah, it's self. Oh boy.

Do I only have a 10% in that? Do you want to do you want to try it or no? Oh man. Does she do it? Oh, it's such a choice because I know there's a chance that I'll get killed now. Okay, I'm saying true to what my character would do, which is absolutely true. Rose would absolutely try and find more information. She's a fucking huge ass nerd.

They just like gave her half information. Of course she's going to go. Okay. Yep. Do I see this? Yeah, you're walking and all of a sudden Rose stops and is now trying to stealthily walk back up to the home. Immediately I go, Rose, what the fuck are you doing?

I succeed. I got a phone. Oh my God. I'm just going to go, Ollie, shut the fuck up for a second. Rose, what are you doing? Go to the car. I'll tell you. All of her while you head back to the car, you're probably standing in the sidewalk,

just kind of watching her. Rose, you are able to get close enough. And I will say that without the Asian snowing, you overhear the majority of their conversation. What are the odds that any of us catches her like in the window or something? I will allow you all to make alertness checks, but you're going to be at minus 20% as you are in the middle of a important briefing. Yes, I succeed. Oh, I succeed 946.

Wow. So, but, you know, getting towards the end of the conversation, you, the two of you, the two ladies, the two frog and frost, you hear something. It's probably the scratching of my pencil in my notebook. Okay. Do we hear or do we see here? I'm so sorry. You currently hear something.

It sounds like there's somebody outside the home around the corner where you cannot see it right now. I would definitely get very alert. I would like to do that quite then not towards the noise. I want to do some hand motion signals and kind of dictate to go to like, sorry for frog to go to the left. I'm going to go ahead and try to go around. Okay.

If I can I run. Here's what I'll say. You can roll me an alertness check rose and any of the other folks to roll me a stealth check if you are attempting to kind of get the jump on whoever is here. I'm just going to go look at while they're doing that. You know, I'm the trust the young folk to go deal with that. And I'm just going to go look out the window. I'm 68 to fuck out of here.

I don't just barely I failed with 45. Wait, I hit if I hit my if I hit my mark, I succeed. Success. Okay. So, Rose, here's the conversation stop and then the sound of footsteps on wood and she just books it with that said, I will say that the two agents frog and frost you eventually kind of go around the size and you see that the two the two friendlies have not left yet. They're they're like by their car.

They're they're both together kind of walking closer to the cars. I'm going to approach them. Be like, hey, hey. Ha. Is it. I was about to say. I'm going to say, do you mind holding back for a second? I got asked.

I just want to talk to you for a second. Sure. Yeah. Is there new information that we get? Do I do I do? Do I send anything off of them? I mean, they're friendlies who barely know you and every time they're involved with you or there's something weird going on.

So yeah, like they're certainly like awkward. Am I picking up anything? You didn't see them. Okay. Be like, we actually may need you guys for a second. Yeah. Great. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. Just like the snowman. Okay. Oliver and Rose, right? Yeah. Just like this. Yes.

Yeah. You can call me Ollie if you like. That's actually nice. So agent frog and agent fluke make their way out of the home and they have joined you all in the street. Ollie and Rose want to join us. Fun, right? Yeah.

Good. I'm sitting in the back of the car. I'm sorry. Where are we off to? Could I get some information? No, you can't. I'm trapped. We're going to my office.

We're going to talk to some of my team. You all just told me to leave. Well, we change your mind. Getting whiplash. Right. Right. Right. That's just the way it goes.

Right. Okay. Right. Get in the damn car. Could I drive myself? No. Why not? I kind of elbow rose.

Excuse me. Mrs. Alvarado. We should probably get in the car. I've met these people before. As have I. Well, then you already know. I like agent fluke, but he's kind of an ass, huh? I will say that's true.

You know what? We know. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just playing around. I'm not disagreeing. I'm going to put my hands subtly on my pistol that's on my waist. I'm like, just get in the car.

Right. Yeah. No, my hands been my hands been on the gun this whole time. I believe we're being threatened. We best get in the car. Yeah. Yeah. I think so.

Team jumps into the car and you guys drive off and it is a very silent and awkward drive into downtown Detroit. Is there anyone in the back of the car with Ali? I mean, there's probably at least one agent. Yes. I'm probably riding bitch because I'm tiny and I will not do what I was going to do. Never mind. Frog, you're from Detroit.

Yeah. Yeah. This is, I mean, yeah, I'm from right around here, actually. Native, you're born here? Yeah. That's good. Yeah, it is good. I know you too.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. I mean, don't be nervous. I understand the two people just, you know, threatened to shoot you a little bit. Just kind of for fun. It's not going to be that kind of party, I promise. As long as you're from Detroit, I'm good.

I will try to hold on to that. Me too. Eventually you pull up to the police headquarters of Detroit. It's a square building, but the architecture is actually pretty. It's well-designed. In fact, you, you know, those of you who live here know this, but some of you who don't frequent Detroit, you know, it's a city that has had a long economic decline, but there is a lot of beautiful architecture, a lot of beautiful buildings that you drive by.

As you are driving towards the headquarters, in fact, you see the famous Cadillac Detroit Hotel, and it is in the process of closing. You literally see the doors, you know, big pieces of wood kind of being put over the doors as they close it up. You've heard it's just for renovations, but then again, it's usually begins with renovations, then it becomes something else, and before you know it, nobody's living in that property anymore. It's kind of sad as I point to the building.

You get used to it. It happens all over the city. That is depressing. You get to the headquarters. Police headquarters is busy. There's a lot of officers and investigators and folks and handcuffs coming in and out of the building. It is kind of dressed up for Halloween.

The same kind of decorations you see outside are inside with spider cobwebs and stuff like that, but that doesn't stop the busyness of the Detroit police headquarters. Agent Frog takes you to the third floor and into her private office. All right. I just start yelling as soon as we get in there. Woo, Constance, we got company. We got to talk about some stuff. After a few moments, the first one to arrive is a small framed Asian man.

He has a thick mustache and big square glasses, and he comes in and says, Agent Bluth, hey, hi, everyone. My name is Chante Wu. You can just call me Agent Wu. And he extends his hand out to everyone. I don't shake it. I do. I go in very politely and shake it, very nice and firm.

I shake his hand, too, all of her. Rose. Eventually, just a bead after him enters a well-dressed handsome, and by handsome, I mean an attractive woman, Brunette. She's about five, five athletic build, but is kind of getting up there in age. Her name is Deborah Constance. She introduces herself. She's got a strong handshake.

She seems like a very intelligent woman, and she introduces herself as part of the behavioral science unit of the FBI. And in her introduction, kind of very professionally, she mentions that she's been part of the violence and rape cases in Detroit and trying to kind of lend a hand in that department. Well, good for you. But listen, we're here to talk to you today about, we understand that there's been quite the high volume of local drug pushers that have gone missing lately. And, well, let's just say that we have a higher investigation that we're looking into, and

we would like to gather any information from you about any information that you have about those pushers' disappearance. Agent Constance kind of straightens up and says, oh, good. Well, any help that we can get would be appreciated in this. I think Agent Wu is more educated on the topic. And Agent Wu begins speaking, and he says, well, I'm not sure what you know or what you don't know, but, you know, with... As soon as we know nothing.

With Agent Bluth's help, we have figured out that there is a gang, one of many, named the Aeroflins, who many of their pushers are disappearing. We looked through a lot of their records and such. At this point, we haven't really been able to gather any evidence, as we've literally kind of just discovered this. But we suppose getting some actual evidence of the drug would help. It's called a reverb. And talking to the pushers would be good.

I think there's probably got to be some still around. You haven't hauled any in? Oh, I'm just an accountant. I don't do that. I know you individually have not, but the agency hasn't, the FBI hasn't, the local law enforcement hasn't hauled any in? To be honest with you, any resources that have been allocated to this study are kind of at a minimal. It seems like they've got bigger priorities. If you notice all this hustling, bustling, it's...

Well, we're about four or five days away from Devil's Night. Have you ever heard of it? I can't say that I have, assume that I'm completely agonized. What happens after you? Well, the point is that in four or five days, we're probably going to have a whole lot of fires going on. It's just this mischief night that, I don't know, it's been around for a long time. You mean like riots?

It's kind of like kids. Well, the idea comes from doing stupid shit. You guys never did that before Halloween? I grew up in Detroit, so I've absolutely done it. I can't say. This guy knows what I'm talking about. It's huge around here. I don't know, it's treated the same way that they treat, I don't know, the day of the dead in Mexico.

It's something of a tradition in Detroit where you just try and cause as much of a shit storm as you can. Jesus, we just threw fucking eggs. Yeah, well, when the city's burning, you like to make it literal. Anyway, do you have any suggestions as to where, if say we were interested in speaking, or shall we say acquiring one of these pushers? Well, I don't know what your FBI has, and I know I'm probably not the one that should be speaking on this. I know you brought me along as a sort of escort, but I have somebody if you're interested. Love to meet him. He's a pusher?

Of sorts. He's a player? Just an insider with the pony down gang. It's the person I've been talking to, or at least I was. What do you mean? It's something. It helped me out with a story a while back. Things went sour after as sometimes they do when you release a story about somebody's life, but they're a good source.

I think they'd listen if it was something important to them or to the city. I don't know. As Oliver is speaking, Wu kind of looks over at him and cocks his head and says, hey, I know you, you're Oliver Lake. Aren't you on TV? Yeah, yeah, deep dive. That's me. Oh, interesting. I didn't know that there was going to be a journalism piece on our study.

Yeah, yeah, I'm just, I'm trying to look into everything that you are essentially. I was in the middle of working with it with these kind agents sort of brought me in, so to speak. Think of it like a mutually beneficial consultant. Exactly. Mutual. Mutual. Well, I think Mr. Lake here has the right idea. I mean, you should, there's numerous nightclubs and music venues that we've seen.

We've had patrols mentioned that people are using there. They're still dealers and pushers out there. I mean, if you've got connections to the community, you know, try talking to these folks and see what they know. The awkward thing is that technically this reverb, whatever it is, it's not scheduled. So it's not, it's not illegal is what I'm trying to say. So, you know, hopefully they've got something else on them if you arrest them, but you should. No one's talking about arresting any, but they were just talking about having a little talk. Yeah, good luck with that.

It's not easy to talk to some of these people. No kidding. I have my way. Anyway, is there any other information that the two of you could tender to us related to? We honestly are, I'm going to be frank with you. Whatever investigation you have been doing, we will be taking it over from here on out. So whatever files you have, any information leads, we're going to have to take all of that right now, if you don't mind. Deborah Constance kind of straightens up a little bit and she goes,

I, if I'm not, if I'm not mistaken, I am the lead investigator on this study. If anything, you're here to help us. If that makes you feel better. I'm going to like, I'm like, for us, it's going to kind of like kind of look like awkwardly towards a window. Just like, oh my God, this is. Regardless, this is not the time to pull any sort of rank and it is going to I agent fluke lasers, lasers at him. Deborah continues and she says, I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. What is your name, sir?

My name. Yes. You can just call me special agent fluke. Strange last name I know, but. Well, special agent fluke. I think we've told you all we've known all that at least who knows I am not a part of this drug investigation. I'm part of a different investigation. But the point is, is that he has spent weeks working on this information to just be handed to you on a silver platter.

So if anything, it is now frog and your group's job to find out what's going on. Excuse me, ma'am. Really? Frost. Can I just very quickly, I was going to say. You're part of the behavior science unit, correct? That's profiling. Yes, ma'am.

Am I right in that assumption? Yes. May I ask why are you here? Because I'm the lead of this study. The study involves both violence, rape and drug abuse in the city of Detroit. Anyone in particular. I don't understand the question. Are you investigating anyone in particular because.

There are several individuals in the city, most of them related with gangs that have a history of violence. Yes. Anything if you have any insights or anything that we should probably have a focus on since it looks like we're kind of going in two different lanes. But we're on the same highway, so to speak. Is there anything you would say to keep an eye out or? Well, all of the gangs are certainly people that you could, you should be and could be speaking to. The problem is they're extremely territorial. And to be frank, you all look like cops.

Well, not those two. And she points at your two friendlies. She continues and says, you know, these, these folks get arrested every couple of days. I suggest you pay attention to who's being arrested and maybe you'll get an interview. Otherwise you find them on the street. Otherwise you start doing some research. I don't know. My thought exactly.

I'm not eager to go scooping random people off the street. I would like rather wait for local law enforcement to scoop them up and then I'll swoop in and deal with them. Well, if it would, if you'd be, if you'd like, I can keep an eye out. So the next time they have someone, I'll contact you. I would appreciate that. Constance, I'm wondering, would you ever want to have a conversation with me about what you're investigating? What you're looking into? I think you'd be a pretty good subject.

I appreciate that. I'll get back to you. Yeah. Yeah. Just let me know if you ever want to talk about any of this. I mean, I'm on the same side as you. I'm trying to figure out this just as much as you are. Well, hopefully we're all on the same side.

Otherwise, what are we all doing here? Exactly. Is there anything else you need from me or Wu? Nope. I think that awkward pause said it all. Wow. Wu stands up and as he is about to leave, he says, actually, if you wanted, I could pull up the missing person records and get him to you. Thank you.

Yes. That's exactly the kind of thing that we need. All right. All right. I'll probably going to take me an hour or so, but I'll get back to you. Sure. Thank you. Walk out the room.

Okay. So, Mr. Lake, where's your guy? Who is he and where is he? I can make a call if you like and we can go meet. How's he going to react to a bunch of cops showing up? Not well, but probably even worse when he finds out it's me. You ever worn a wire? Not a day in my life.

Not if it was my own. You want to? I don't, honestly. Well, I think you're going to. Okay. Understood. I'm going to be easier if you want. I can go with him, but I'll just change out of those really quick.

Trust me. I can do this when I need to be. Okay. Good, but we're going to wire you both up. Well, first thing, I got to actually get out of this pants and shirt combo and I need to find probably a good nice slutty dress or something. Anyone, anyone can take me down to like inventory or evidence really quick. I don't think you want.

I'm sorry. I don't think you want to be confiscated. Trust me. You, you with the, with these legs, they, you can distract a lot of people when they're not paying. We can find a lost and found or a goodwill or something, but just the, what, what we confident, you want a dress that we pulled off of someone that we arrested assuming they have something underneath that dress.

I'm just going to do a move for you. I'm just going to care about you right now. Thank you. Baking, begging for venereal. I understand. I must have got lost, but are we trying to fuck my contact? No, no, no. No, not dammit.

No, it's a. Mr. like you make it. It's a ploy. Why quickly? No, you've done that twice now. I mean, if for some reason it becomes necessary, I guess, but I can't see a situation unless, you know, that's what the information costs. We take them to an area.

You meet your contact in an area, most likely in a bar or something. I'm just going to be drinking nearby while you chat. Yeah. I just make sure you're far away because if I bring any second person, it's going to smoke. No, no, no, honey. No, I come in. I go, I get one before you.

You don't have to call me, honey. I appreciate that though. Oh, Lord, you're going to be. All right. So Sergio, I assume that I would have access to some type of surveillance equipment. Yeah, I think it's being in the police headquarters. You have a small FBI DEA team. You can get access to some some wires.

I'll go get. I'll start the process of requisitioning two of those. Okay. Can I go to pay phone and try and punch in the only number I know for my contact? Sure. You make the phone call. Echo, do you pick up? Yeah.

No, I pick it up. It's probably at the store. Yeah. It's our records. How can I help you? Hey, I know you're going to hang up, but please don't. Okay. Who is this?

Holly? Yeah. Hangs up. Shit. I throw the damn thing into the phone cell and then I make the same call again. Can I be just standing watching? Sure. I wait till the last ring before I pick it up again.

Hello? Hey, it's me. Please don't. I don't know why you're calling me. I was pretty clear the next time I see you, I was going to put a bat in your head. Yeah. I kind of meant it. No, I believe you.

I believe you. I saw the bat. Here, let's talk. I just want to talk. I have an opportunity. A really good one, actually. And I think that you and I could work together again. I know you didn't really like it the first time, but I swear this time it's not with

the story. So I can't really fuck over your whole life, huh? Not twice. That's too much dumb luck, right? Uh-huh. I hang up the phone. Good for her. Damn it.

Would you piss off? I put a finger in the rose and I said, don't, please. I've got this under control. Excuse me. It seems very clear. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for the vote of confidence.

And I dialed the number again. She does not pick up a third time, but you know where she is. Oliver hangs up the phone. That went well. You know, you and I got to talk about this, right? I'm very aware. You know you got to go home, right? I'm not going home.

Well, then I got to go home, one of us. Why? You know as well as I do who these people are, right? Obviously. They don't need to know anything else, though. So then you know what happens when these people are around? Yeah. And you know that I can't let that happen?

And I can? Well, one of us has to change. One of us has got to get out of the same prom dress. I can't be sitting here. It's got to be one of us. You go, I go. I'm not staying here without you, and I'm not leaving without you either. Well, then you and I have to make a decision.

And it's got to be one that you and I agree with unanimously. And are we here for them and Detroit in the world, or are we here for us? Before you can answer that, the agents walk back into the room with the wires. They begin wiring you up. You are you are good to go. What is the plan? I got a location.

I got to tell you, not looking so great. I think I can fix it. Good. And so here's how this is going to work then. Agent for us will enter. Where is it? Where did you say it was? The bar?

It's a record store. I know that. Is that dress appropriate for a record store? Well, it depends on location. I just need to. I can go. I just need to get a quick change and some hairspray like now. I know the owner. I can go. I can help.

Regardless, agent Frost will enter first. And pretend to look at records. Don't worry. But she'll be there in case you need protection. Okay. But you have to look like the least cop individual in that room. You understand that, right? Well, that's why she's going in.

I'm just saying I'm not judging. I'm sure you're great, but I'm telling you right now that in Detroit, there's no fucking way that you can walk in there and act the way that you people do in this fucking room and get any sort of attention. Why can't Aero Flynn you judging me on my performance? I'm not Aero fucking pun. I'm not. But I think we're good.

Anyway, we need a code word in the situation that you need a hand. You people really use those? Of course they do. Yeah. So here's what's going to happen. If you feel that you need to be bailed out or that you need some help, you're just going to say the word Twinkie. Twinkie.

Just say you're craving a Twinkie and then that's how that's. I would never say that. I hate Twinkies. Well, that's exactly the point. But all right. How about that? How about you just say, damn, I hate Twinkies. Damn, I fucking hate Twinkies.

Look at that. Yeah, bring that up in conversation naturally. That makes sense. It could be something to do with music because it's a music store. I mean, you could say freaking master flash or something and it would make more sense. Listen, I think we're really married to the word Twinkie. How about this? I've done this a couple of times and so I know how to talk to people and we won't need the code word.

But if you like one, it's Twinkie. They're just in case. Well, without further ado then. Can I just offer something? Sure. I also know the owner and she likes me way better than she seems to like Ollie. Why don't you both go in? Well, is that going to be weird?

Why? I don't know. I don't understand your relationship. We've just met today. I don't know this woman. Well, that's not technically true. I did help you with that one article, but that was years ago. We've met maybe three times altogether in our whole life.

We wrote an article on racial disparity. So you guys went from not knowing each other to you know each other three times? Clearly, you've never met me. I don't know anybody. I have a job. I have a shitty apartment. OK. What I was asking is if it's going to be a problem if you both go in at the same time.

No problem this year. You know me, Fluke. OK. And then we're going to wire you up to Miss Salvarado. OK. You do so and you get ready to head over to Hightower Records. Let's cut to Hightower Records. Miss Echo, as you like to be called.

You've just let the phone ring the third time. You don't pick it up and you are by yourself right now in the record store. Do you do anything? I'm going to turn the knob on the volume of what I was listening to because I turned it down to answer the phone. It's Princes When Doves Cries. I slide on my chair back to the front of the counter and stuff. And I flip the page of the Superman 400 edition that I just got. And I'm just reading through it again as I'm kind of just kind of vibing and just jamming and listening to the music.

Kind of mouthing Princes' words as I'm just like really feeling it. You're finally getting back into the groove when you hear the sound of the bell of the front door. And you look up and a crew of seven men roll into the record store. The first thing you notice is their matching pony brand shoes. You look up and you recognize their faces. It's Leroy, Walter, and Anthony Butram Willis. These are the leaders of the pony down crew. And along with them are another five kind of homies that you recognize.

One of them being a guy named Ollie and another guy named Tony, Tony Bessos, and a few other guys. Can I get the first four names? Sure. The three names that really matter to you are Leroy, Walter, and Anthony. They are all brothers and their last name is Butram, B-U-T-T-R-O-M, Willis, W-I-L-L-I-S. The brothers kind of wander straight up to the counter as their lackeys begin kind of pilfering and rifling through the records. Leroy, the oldest, who you have come to know is the leader of Pony Down, at least the de facto leader. Kind of gives you a nod and he says, how you been, Echo? Oh, you know me.

Hey, yo, me and the boys have a question we've been wondering about. You think the young boys still mad that you ratted them out in the paper? And they all kind of start giggling amongst each other like, oh, shit. I mean, probably. Yeah, if I was them, I want you dead, cuz. Yeah, you could say that, but I don't got anything to worry about yet. He says, hey, I'm just fucking with you, girl. And he starts laughing and kind of puts his hands up.

You know, suddenly this very tense moment just suddenly is just a joke and, you know, you kind of brush it off the way you do with these guys. But he says, listen, we appreciate now you Pony Down, but we need to ask you a favor. Whatever you need, you know I can provide. I appreciate that. We got a meeting with a new seller, got something hot on the street that we want to get in on. Does this Sunday night work for you? After you close, you let us in, let us hang out. We have our little situation.

Then we get out. We take you out to celebrate. How about that afterwards? I mean, it sounds like a plan. Hey, that's cool. That's cool. We appreciate it. Listen, you know, you scratch our back.

We'll scratch yours. We'll make sure young boys, they leave you alone. I appreciate it. He throws you a handshake to kind of solidify the deal and gives a little whistle. The other boys kind of finish perusing and they kind of make their way out of the store. I don't say anything else. I just have a big, like, nice smile at them as I kind of nicely wave until all of them walk out. And I think that's a good place to end for this evening.

Sheriff Taylor is finishing up a press conference standing in front of a podium littered with microphones from different local Michigan news outlets. Their two children were thankfully unharmed and we've alerted their necks of kin. We hope they'll be released from child services this evening. Recently this morning, a property owner about an hour outside Lansing reported a vehicle on fire in one of their pastures. Local fire rescue put out the flames and we are currently running the van and plates of the vehicle. Though it was badly damaged by the fire, we believe it is a suburban matching Mr. Stevenson's description. We have a strong suspicion that this vehicle is linked with the Stevenson murders and the act of arson in the neighboring property. Mr. Stevenson described to dispatch that he saw two individuals in the front seats.

There were two Hispanic females, black hair, brown skin, average height and build in their 30s. We are asking that all residents in the area report any sightings of unusual activity or individuals matching the above descriptions. You can dial 911 or your local law enforcement agency. So that's all we have so far. I've got a few moments for questions. Yes, you, go ahead.