By Shane Ivey, (c) 1998
DATE: 31 May 1998 (debriefed 31 MAY 1998)
AGENTS: Mark (Brian Lundquist, DOJ), Michael (John Rogers, CIA), Osborne (Andre Jones, DEA)
FRIENDLIES: None
SUMMARY: Operation SANDMAN, debriefing transcript 1: Mission briefing and orientation.
CASE STATUS: Open
KEEPER: All righty then. Are you both caught up on the mission info and on the current team profile?
ROGERS: Just printed it and reviewed.
LUNDQUIST: I last looked yesterday… Are there any changes?
KEEPER: Any preliminary, OOC (out-of-character) questions?
KEEPER: No changes.
LUNDQUIST: No questions right now…
KEEPER: I did update the mission website a little to reflect the first round of questions and answers, but it was all info that I had sent via email.
KEEPER: Pardon the pause while I get my notes in order.
KEEPER: OK.
KEEPER: It is May 31, 1998.
KEEPER: Over the past few days each of you has gotten several communiques through the usual secure channels informing you of the mission.
KEEPER: Mr. Rogers, you are already in New York, of course, though your work with the Agency has typically involved Manhattan more than the recesses of Queens.
KEEPER: Mr. Lundquist, you have had the work week to make excuses in Washington for an impeding trip or assignment out of town.
LUNDQUIST: I imagine I’m used to doing that.
KEEPER: Right. What has it been, six months since your last DG operation?
LUNDQUIST: Yeah, soumds about right.
KEEPER: The procedures are in place, though the details change by necessity each time.
KEEPER: Oh, about code names… Any preferences?
ROGERS: Begining with M?
KEEPER: So far Rogers has dealt before with Agent OSBORNE, but Lundquist has dealt with neither, I think.
KEEPER: Doesn’t have to begin with “M”. I’ve been too lazy to redo the M Cell setup on the website.
ROGERS: That’s correct for me.
KEEPER: For now we can work with the assumption that you might be operatives from different cells, assigned to work together on this mission due to manpower shortages or other factors.
LUNDQUIST: Can I give you a code name in a few minutes? Need to think of one…
KEEPER: Or you can be both newly assigned to the same cell.
ROGERS: I’m thinking too
ROGERS: That would work.
LUNDQUIST: How about “Mark”? M-Cell, nice common name. Anonymous and all that.
ROGERS: I’ll go for the equally ordinary Matthew.
KEEPER: MARK is fine by me. Being a family man, I have a nice big Baby Names Book accessible if you get stuck. -)
ROGERS: Just need Like and John now, 😉
KEEPER: I think Matthew is in use in the DG book, actually.
ROGERS: that should have been Luke
ROGERS: Right how about Michael
KEEPER: Alphonse, Adam, Darren, Matthew, and Nancy are officially accounted for.
KEEPER: Michael sounds good. OK, then, Agents Matthew and Mark. Cells “L” and “J” have not been heard from lately, sorry Rogers. 😉
KEEPER: Michael and Mark. Sorry.
KEEPER: “M” cell is being reorganized and reassigned then, for reasons that are clear at this point only to “A” cell.
ROGERS: O dear a few less Birthday cards to buy
KEEPER: You two are being established as the new cell, presently under the direction of OSBORNE, leader of “O” cell.
KEEPER: As an aside, the other operative presently slated for this mission is a Friendly, Barry Knight.
KEEPER: He is under consideration for Agent status. The two of you should evaluate his performance accordingly during Operation SANDMAN.
LUNDQUIST: Okay.
ROGERS: Fine
KEEPER: All right. Lundquist, I assume you are flying in or taking the DC/NY metro express.
KEEPER: Above and on the site are the information which you both presently have about this assignment.
LUNDQUIST: Actually, I think I’ll drive my own car… It’s not too terribly far.
KEEPER: Sounds good. What sort of car is it?
LUNDQUIST: A 1996 Chevrolet Impala.
KEEPER: Good condition? Anything flashy on it like a cellular antenna?
LUNDQUIST: Nope. But it’s clean and nice looking, and costs around $20k.
LUNDQUIST: If I need something more discrete I’ll rent it.
KEEPER: OK. The drive takes a few hours. Are you going to the safe house OSBORNE requisitioned, or another destination?
KEEPER: Assuming you both have secure cellular phones, OSBORNE gave each of you the other’s number.
LUNDQUIST: Safe house sounds fine. If I’m paranoid to distrust OSBORNE later I’ll just get a hotel somewhere.
LUNDQUIST: I guess we should rendezvous at the safehouse then.
KEEPER: 39221 Pendleton Avenue, Brooklyn, New York.
ROGERS: Sounds good
LUNDQUIST: I guess Rogers and I haven’t met before. Is OSBORNE present?
KEEPER: The safe-house is in a suburb in eastern Brooklyn, an area with lots of trees and bushes and driveways.
KEEPER: It is several miles and worlds away from Harfleur, by all accounts. Osborne will meet you both there, yes.
KEEPER: Osborne is tall and muscular for 45 years old (though not as tall and muscular as Agent Michael), a black man with close-cropped hair and a critical bearing.
ROGERS: Hello again.
KEEPER: He still has a distinctly military demeanor, despite the years since he joined the DEA.
LUNDQUIST: Good to meet you, OSBORNE.
KEEPER: “Michael,” he says in greeting with a crisp nod, “Mark. This place is held officially by the NSA, but our assets have taken it off the books for the duration of this operation. Here are the keys.”
ROGERS: Thanks
ROGERS: How many exits does it have?
KEEPER: The place is sparsely furnished, just enough that it looks like someone MIGHT live here.
KEEPER: There is a back door from a hall and a side door leading from the kitchen to the covered carport.
KEEPER: Outside in back is a small yard with a seven-foot wooden fence.
KEEPER: There are several tall trees in front and back, oaks.
ROGERS: “What’s the security like here?, Alarms and so on”
KEEPER: “The system is extensive, but it’s under your control.” He shows you the control panel, located in a cupboard in the kitchen.
ROGERS: “Good.”
KEEPER: “Sensors in front and back will announce intruders when activated. You can set the alarm to visual or audible, or both.”
KEEPER: “Standard contact sensors on windows and doors.”
KEEPER: “We even have a few laser beams installed if you want to feel extra cozy. Finally, we have monitors in each room and hall for sound and visual recording.”
LUNDQUIST: “And these recordings stay with us, not NSA, right?”
KEEPER: He smiles very briefly. “Those are motion-sensing lasers, not the Star Wars type.” Then back to business: “The NSA doesn’t own this place anymore, not until we put it back on the books. If you want to change the tapes, change them. Now, while we’re talking about security…”
KEEPER: “We’ve had problems here before. The details aren’t your concern, but this is: stay sharp. Don’t take risks. We cannot afford exposure, or the risk of it.”
ROGERS: “Let’s bug out now and rent somewhere.”
ROGERS: “use this place for interviews.”
LUNDQUIST: “So soon?”
KEEPER: He shakes his head. “I’m not talking about this house. I’m talking about operatives.”
LUNDQUIST: “Yeah, I was wondering about the old M-Cell…”
KEEPER: “I’m talking about Delta Green staying tight and secret. Keep your covers intact.”
KEEPER: He looks at both of you evenly. “Never mind about the old cell. You’re not cleared for that information.”
KEEPER: “So. Are we all simpatico here, gentlemen? All talking the same language?”
ROGERS: “Yeah, loose lips sink ships”
KEEPER: “You got it. All right, any questions? You need anything yet?”
ROGERS: “Which Hospital is Royce in?”
KEEPER: “Faith Hospital. It’s in Queens, right outside Harlfleur proper. Nobody’s paying him much attention at this point. Agent Morgan spoke to him once and took a blood sample. That’s been about it. He hasn’t been in any shape to leave, so far.”
KEEPER: “He’s still in detox, and the shit doesn’t show any sign of letting up on him. If the doctors let him go, he’d be out the door already, fucked up as he is.”
ROGERS: “Any timescale on the Drug trials we requested?”
KEEPER: “Two days at the outside. I’ll probably have something for you tomorrow.”
LUNDQUIST: “Good.”
KEEPER: He smiles. “We can make things move, when it goes right. What’s your cover going to be?”
ROGERS: “Right” “Ludquiest, should we talk to Jessica Morgan before we go at Royce?”
LUNDQUIST: “Our cover will depend on the circumstances. For now, I think I’ll say I’m building a case aginst some narcotics smugglers operating
ROGERS: “Best to keep the cover simple eh, its always the complex lies that catch you out”
LUNDQUIST: down south, and I suspect a tie-in with this Harfleur group.”
LUNDQUIST: “But I’d definitely be light on details, unless pressed hard.”
ROGERS: “Fair enough.”
LUNDQUIST: Was there any additional information on the situation in LA, that led to Morgan transferring to DEA?
KEEPER: “I sent you the basics. She started talking to some local citizens who complained about other cops. Once she started getting names, she had a few run-ins with some fellow officers.”
LUNDQUIST: (OK, didn’t get that message). “Osborne, what’s your take on Morgan? Is there something fishy about her, or is she clean?”
KEEPER: “All in all, her role in the case was minor, but she was useful enough for the local federal lawyers to like her and do her a good turn or two.”
KEEPER: (The summary is on the website now, under “Mission Briefing Update” on the sandman page.)
KEEPER: (http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/6580/info_1.htm, specifically.)
LUNDQUIST: Okay. I’m going to disappear for a minute here and pop over to take a look at it.
ROGERS: “Still, I think we should play our cards close to our chest with her.”
KEEPER: “Definitely. She is sharp as a tack and honest. That means you watch her close. She’s the worst news for Delta Green ops.”
ROGERS: “Osbourne, has there been any spatial pattern in the usage of the Dreaming Man?”
ROGERS: “like around Ezekial’s church?”
ROGERS: “In the videoed sermon, he refers to seeing the ‘White devils of the CIA’ am I aware of any operations
ROGERS: that are going on in that area of new york?”
KEEPER: “Not much around the church. The church is in the western blocks of the village. The drug has been seen mostly in central Harfleur. That’s the heaviest Haitian population, and that’s where use has come up most.”
KEEPER: “You get toward the outskirts of Harfleur and usage is sporadic.”
KEEPER: (Rogers; You don’t know of any CIA operations in Queens at all, at this point, except when spooks follow a diplomat into the area on surveillance or something.)
KEEPER: (CIA activity in New York is mostly in Manhattan around the UN and the Embassies.)
ROGERS: “This pattern of usage sounds like it could be someting external interacting with the drug to give it its effects. If usage drops of perhaps the range of this effect is limited.”
KEEPER: Osborne frowns thoughtfully. “Something external? Like what?”
ROGERS: “I’m just hypothsising at this point”
ROGERS: “If the drug lets people tranfer the effect to other people it would point towards an external medium for transmission”
ROGERS: “of the effect”
KEEPER: He grunts. “Something in the air?”
ROGERS: “Can we triangulate the usage levels / drop of rates, and get a rough fix on the epicentre of the zone”
ROGERS: “Could be an airbourne medium, but why would that drop off in the manner seen?”
KEEPER: “Sure, be a snap. I’ll get the boys in Statistics to chart it for you.”
ROGERS: “After all the effects of Dreaming Man can be passed from a user to a non user so there must be a medium for that tranmission”
KEEPER: Jones says, “One thing about the statistics, though. What we have will show you where people have been picked up while on the stuff. Arrests and OD’s picked up by emergency crews.”
KEEPER: “That will help, but it won’t tell the whole story. Just so you know.”
ROGERS: “Ok it won’t be too accurate but it will narrow the area of probability”
KEEPER: “Right. Like I said, once I get our clerks on it it won’t take an hour to produce the chart. You have a computer here you want it transferred to?”
ROGERS: “Laptop which travel with me at all times”
ROGERS: “Well not all times;-)”
KEEPER: “Good. Write down what I need to know and I’ll have them send it through the DG routers for you.”
KEEPER: “Anything else?”
ROGERS: “Yeah just had a thought, the comment about an airbourne medium, could the lab boys try and culture the organic element of the drug, perhaps it ia an airbourne spore”
ROGERS: “With a limited lifespan, explaining the drop of in the effects of DM”
KEEPER: “Not a problem. I’ll add that to the list.”
KEEPER: “How are you for ordinance?”
ROGERS: “Have a .45 auto and ammunition on me, can get more from the ‘office’ if needed.”
KEEPER: “Will you need anything, MARK?”
ROGERS: “Any chance of requisitioning some Glaser Safety Slugs?”
KEEPER: “Sure, whatever you need. What do you want, a box of 100?”
ROGERS: “That would be nice;-)”
Lundquist says:
I have a handgun, and that should be enough.
Lundquist says:
Still, if we think of anything we need, Osborne will be the first to know.
KEEPER: Jones says, “All right, then, boys. I’ll head to the office and get to work. Call me if you need anything.”
ROGERS: “Cell phone or landline?”
KEEPER: “By the way: on all the public records–tax files, land titles, all that–this house is owned by a front company, a corporation which rents houses to other companies for visiting bigwigs.”
KEEPER: OSBORNE gave you his DG-secured cellular number to use.
KEEPER: Just the two of you now.
ROGERS: “Good, what shall we do?”
Lundquist says:
I guess our options are to talk to Royce, Morgan, or Rev. Ezekiel, or something else. Right?
ROGERS: “I;d say Royce like we discussed earlier, the other two we need to know more than we do at present to make it worthwhile”
Lundquist says:
Good enough then. Shall we head to the hospital?
ROGERS: “Ok then.” “Remembering to set the security system of course!”
Lundquist says:
I’m going to go in casual, nondescript clothes.
ROGERS: “What are we going to use a a cover story for this person?”
ROGERS: “I’m in a suit btw”
Lundquist says:
Something simple. We could say we’re procecuting attorneys working a narcotics case, and we want to interview him in relation to that.
Lundquist says:
(in that case I should stick to the suit too).
ROGERS: “Sounds good”
KEEPER: You driving, Lundquist?
KEEPER: And are you both packing your pistols?
ROGERS: “Too right! Shoulder holster.”
KEEPER: What time of day are you going to the hospital?
Rogers whispers to Keeper:
safety on of course
ROGERS: “What time’s it now?”
KEEPER: Late afternoon, I’ll say.
ROGERS: “Right lets phone and check visiting times”
KEEPER: That’s easy enough. The reception desk informs you that Detox visiting hours are 9am to 11am, then 4pm to 6pm.
Lundquist says:
I’m carrying my H&K in a shoulder holster. I have a permit for it, but I don’t know if that’s worth anything up here.
KEEPER: A regular permit for DC won’t mean squat in NYC, unless it’s federal law enforcement authorization.
Lundquist says:
I don’t know if US attorneys have that.
KEEPER: I’m not positive. I’ll assume that DOJ lawyers CAN carry weapons with that authorization, but most don’t bother.
ROGERS: “Can I request a permit for him as a case officer in NY?”
KEEPER: Or at least, you can get authorization for yourself.
Lundquist says:
But I think I’ll carry anyways, and trust on my connections to help me out if I get caught.
ROGERS: “I’d assumed I was authorised.”
KEEPER: Rogers, you could arrange for a local (New York City) carry permit for just about anyone, if you can wait a couple of days for the right skullduggery to go through.
Lundquist says:
Did we have enough time to put that in motion before I came up?
KEEPER: Luck roll says Just Barely. Osborne left the papers on the counter for you when he left.
KEEPER: So: in suits and carrying large-caliber handguns, you drive out to Queens.
KEEPER: By the way, how about a brief physical description for each of you. I have Lundquist’s, but Rogers probably doesn’t.
Rogers whispers to Keeper:
We got that earlier
KEEPER: Oh, you did that earlier? OK, onward then.
Lundquist says:
Tall, thin, conservative attire and haircut. Dark hair, blue eyes. Perpetually tired-out looking.
Rogers whispers to Keeper:
He’s tall thin and perpetually tired looking
ROGERS: Tall, Stocky, Brown eyes, tends to the paranoid
KEEPER: All right. With Lundquist driving, you head northward into Queens.
KEEPER: You quickly pass from the green suburban areas of Pendleton Street into the classic urban cityscape: block on block of squat buildings, lots of graffitti, a wide variety of cultures to be seen, signs in English, Hebrew, Arabic, depending on where you are.
KEEPER: The drive is slow and long, with stoplights and constant traffic even on Sunday evening.
KEEPER: About 5:45 you pull up before Faith Hospital.
ROGERS: “Right, Lets try and see him then”
ROGERS: “After all we’ve got a whole 15 mins”
KEEPER: The hospital stands out, a tall building taking up at least two blocks in an area notable mostly for run-down buildings and streets in disrepair.
KEEPER: You pass a local police officer standing duty in the main entrance. He looks up and gives you each the once-over.
KEEPER: Then he looks down again at what looks to be a TV console.
ROGERS: to Lundquest privately “I’m a doctor lets go with the legal cover story but I’l use the medical credentials to get access to Royce if needed”
KEEPER: A wall directory says that Detox is on the sixth floor.
ROGERS: action Find a nurse / receptionist “Hello, I’m Dr Rogers,myself and my colleague Mr Lundwuest would like to see Anton Royce”
KEEPER: There’s a reception desk nearby, just across from the elevator. The receptionist, a middle-aged Hispanic woman, looks up without smiling. She lifts a clipboard with a sign-in sheet on it. “Sign in.” Then she looks down at her charts for a moment.
ROGERS: “Thank you, which room is Mr Royce in? please”
KEEPER: She picks up another pad of forms. “Mr. Royce is in the Chemical ward under supervision. You need to fill out these.”
ROGERS: action fill out forms
KEEPER: The new forms are more detailed: who are you, who are you with, why do you want to see the patient.
ROGERS: “Is that satisfactory nurse?”
KEEPER: What information to you write?
Rogers whispers to Keeper:
Check her name tag
Keeper whispers to Rogers:
Name tag says “Fajans”
ROGERS: Put in Rogers real name the one on the Medical pass, and the cover name for Lundquest, give the legal cover story saying I’m the liason medical officer working with the police because of the unusual nature of the drug.
KEEPER: She takes the pad back after you sign it. She looks it over and asks to see your ID.
ROGERS: Show her my ID
KEEPER: She looks at it for about half a second, then gestures vaguely toward the elevator. “Sixth floor.”
ROGERS: “Thank you nurse Fajans.” go to elevator and hence to 6th floor.
KEEPER: The doors open to the detox ward. A nurses station and desk stands just outside the elevator. A nurse sits at the desk, writing. Halls extend to either side. It sounds like a quiet ward at first, but then someone yells from a room nearby. Then it is quiet again. The nurse doesn’t look up.
ROGERS: check in with the nurse, and ask if the Doctor assigned to Royce is available
KEEPER: She looks up in slight irritation. “Doctor Allen is at lunch right now.”
ROGERS: “Anything we need to know about the patient Anton Royce before we talk to him, any violent reaction from him at all?”
Rogers whispers to Keeper:
check her name tag as well
KEEPER: She reaches for a pad of forms and hands it to you. “Sign here. I’ll get an orderly to escort you.”
Keeper whispers to Rogers:
Name tag says, “Wagner.”
ROGERS: follow the orderly when he / she arrives
KEEPER: The orderly is a burly man about 25 years old, wearing typical blue scrubs.
ROGERS: “Hello,”
KEEPER: He nods to the both of you. “Hi. I’m John. Who are you here for?”
KEEPER: His name tag says “Swank.”
ROGERS: “Hi John, I’m John too, I’m myself and my colleague are here to talk to Anton Royce.”
KEEPER: “All right, this way. He’s a strange one. We have to keep him sedated a lot. Not violent much, but he gets bad shakes.”
KEEPER: He leads you down the hall.
ROGERS: Follow
KEEPER: And we can leave it at that for this session.
