Report #3270, Transcript Section #24
(Operation SANDMAN)
©1998 Shane Ivey

Keeper:
Well... let's recap.

Keeper:
Rogers, you're still alive. :-)

Rogers:
HOOORRAAAYYYY!!!!

Rogers:
You've been keeping me in suspense over that you git ;-)!

Keeper:
You ducked into the stairwell with Borrow, Lundquist, and Kelley.

Rogers:
oh dear note to self don't call Keeper a git just before a session.

Keeper:
Hey, you take the tension where you find it. :-)

Rogers:
:-)

Keeper:
As you both probably saw from the end of last game's log, when you emerge onto the landing again it is awash with gore.

Keeper:
The bodies of a dozen armored cops choke one elevator, torn to bits by the black helicopter's gunfire.

Borrow:
Ok. How many are dead again, how many kicking, and how many fully fine on the roof?

Keeper:
Jack Maddux is dead on the floor, just outside the elevators, likewise shot to bits.

Keeper:
Connor Danforth emerged from a different elevator after you came back to the roof. He's in one piece, amazingly. A kevlar vest saved him from two otherwise deadly shots.

Keeper:
The bodies of the slain TBC agents are gone, as is the pilot you saw earlier.

Borrow:
Borrow coughs. "I think we should tie this place off and let our forensics team do everything."

Keeper:
You have only a moment to get your bearings when other elevators rise and men in SWAT armor pour out.

Rogers whispers to Keeper:
Gone as in carried off or gone as in evaporated?

Keeper whispers to Rogers:
Carried off.

Rogers:
Who's the senior agent in charge now?

Keeper:
Wilson Devereaux, Anti-Terrorism Unit, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI, is the man in charge.

Rogers:
Is he up on the roof or controlling from outside?

Keeper:
He steps out of the elevators after the first group of a dozen agents comes out with rifles raised.

Keeper:
Rogers, you're getting your arm checked out with help from Kelley or Borrow. You'll have to relocate it.

Borrow:
Borrow whispers to Rogers. "Why don't you talk to these people? I can't really pull any authority here." He is the one looking over Roger's arm.

Rogers:
"Agent Deveraux."

Keeper:
He looks pale and grim as he looks over the scene.

Keeper:
"Good Lord in Heaven," he breathes, staring down at the pile of corpses in the elevator. His men fan out across the roof, checking that all is well and over. Then he looks your way.

Rogers:
"I'm part of the DoJ team who arrived just after the first police units arrived, we were here to execute a search warrent on this building after an attempt on the lives of several DoJ agents..."

Rogers:
"... we turned up and came in with the fiurst team to enter the building given the serious nature of our investigation when we heard the helicopter over there start up we came up here to prevent the removal of evidence and possibly suspects..."

Borrow:
Borrow goes about making sure the SWAT team does not touch anything, and does not contaminate the scene.

Keeper:
Devereaux steps closer, listening.

Keeper:
The SWAT officers take up positions at the corners, kneeling behind their rifles and staring out into the adjacent buildings.

Rogers:
"We got up here with several of your agents and some ATF guys and got the helicopter to stop, I was on my way downstairs when the lift doors opened and out came several men with M-16s, we identified ourselves and ordered them to drop the rifles when they just opened fire. After that things went from bad to worse."

Borrow:
Borrow also check horizon and about the skyline for the black chopper.

Keeper:
The black helicopter is gone, Borrow. You see three other helicopters approaching, though.

Rogers:
"I tried to tackle one of the men with the M-16 and dislocated my shoulder, we were begining to get control of the situation when another helicopter appeared and opened up on us with what had to have been a mini-gun. We need to try and track that dam thing because all the prepetrators are on it along with the ones we put down."

Rogers:
"Any questions so far sir?"

Rogers:
"Kelly give me a hand to relocate my shoulder will you."

Keeper:
Devereaux blinks and shakes his head. "What the hell . . . " He looks around again. "All right. First things first. We had a bomb threat called in here. Do you know anything about it?"

Rogers:
"No, we turned up to execute a search warrent."

Keeper:
"Shit. I'm betting the bomb scare was a smokescreen, then. Unless..." He looks at you again. "Give me some details of your investigation. What were you looking for?"

Keeper:
Kelley steps up to help with Rogers' arm as Borrow is securing the crime scene. "Give us a second," he says to Devereaux. "Rogers, you know what to do, right?"

Keeper:
Borrow, any other questions as you're getting things secured and looking around?

Rogers:
"As I said a DoJ team has been investigating a drug ring in the city for a while and while doing that they were attakcked by Breckenridge personel, we got the warrent and were here to try and find evidence of involvement in the Drug investigation, and to try and establish who decided to attempt to kill DoJ personell."

Borrow:
Borrow will just start collecting sample of every blood there, or any body fluids for that matter. Identifiable or not. Also, any weapons and stuff left by the missing bodies to be dusted for prints?

Keeper:
Devereaux nods. "I have more questions when you're ready. Meantime the bomb squad is going to focus on the Breckenridge offices."

Keeper:
There are no weapons from the missing men, but there are dozens of shell casings strewn about, M-16 and 9mm and .45 caliber.

Borrow:
Naturally I'll get those. Any dragging marks made by the bodies being removed?

Rogers:
"Agent Devereaux, we have to move quickly to even stand a slim chance of finding that helicopter, can I suggest you get on to the air traffic controllers and see if they have it on radar."

Rogers:
"As for your questions, I'm willing to answer them but I want to get this building searched before anything else happens."

Keeper:
There are plenty of bloodstains in all kinds of patterns, yes. You also find a fragment of hair and skin from the man Kelley shot in the head.

Keeper:
"I'll have our aircraft on the lookout." Devereaux steps away to give instructions to the bomb squad.

Borrow:
Great.

Keeper:
Oh, Rogers has one of the M-16s.

Rogers:
"Danforth, take this M-16 it'l have my prints on it but you may be able to get something off the Magazine."

Borrow:
Borrow will go sample collecting and make a quick call to verify the rest of the forensics team is on their way. Fast like too. :)

Keeper:
Danforth nods. He puts on rubber gloves and takes the rifle.

Rogers:
whispered to Borrow "get Maddux bagged up first."

Borrow:
Borrow does so, making sure he's carefull and respectfull to Maddux.

Keeper:
Kelley says, "All right, Rogers. Relax your muscles. It'll hurt less." He gets a firm grip on your upper arm and wrist, turning them painfully back into an awkward position.

Rogers:
"Jesus wept!"

Rogers:
"Less painfull?"

Keeper:
Maddux is in shambles. He took two rifle rounds to his leg, which blew through and bled out beneath him. It looks like he didn't die until the helicopter gunfire. A dozen machine gun rounds tore through his body. There's comparatively less blood loss from those injuries; death at that point must have been instantaneous.

Keeper:
SNAP! Kelley shoves the arm up and against Rogers' body.

Keeper:
Rogers doesn't scream. The arm can move again. It's still sore, though; it feels like there was some muscle or ligament damage.

Keeper:
Devereaux comes back a few minutes later. "So far they haven't found anything in the Breckenridge offices or the adjacent floors."

Rogers:
"Mr. Lundquiest, can you get on the phone and get every single Breckenridge operation raided asap, and find out if they have any other facilities with helipads or suitable large open areas within easy flying distance, even ships freighters etc."

Keeper:
"On it." Lundquist goes back to talking on his phone to Washington.

Rogers:
"Kelly, thanks for the arm, you ever see anything like that helicopter before?"

Keeper:
Kelley shakes his head. "I'm not sure what the configuration was. Maybe Russian. They've sold a lot of weapons the last few years."

Keeper:
Devereaux listens. "Tell me more about this," he says.

Rogers:
"What do you want to know about specifically?"

Keeper:
"Can you identify the men who attacked you? They're going to have employment records in the offices. We're rounding up TBC employees downstairs now."

Keeper:
Borrow, you get Wang on the phone. She's driving over with the van and the rest of the forensics team.

Rogers:
"If the files have photo's yes I imagine so, I got a good look as they came out of the lift, but once things kicked off i didn't stop to check ID's>"

Keeper:
"Better get those faces in your mind, quick. Make some notes. It's easy to get confused later."

Keeper:
Borrow, you get Wang on the phone. She's driving over with the van and the rest of the forensics team.

Rogers:
"You may want to check with the ATF guys they were closer than I was and some of your own people."

Borrow:
Keeper, is there any kinda log for an elevator? So we can see which floor they came from?

Borrow:
I'd imagine there would be if it was electronic, but am not sure.

Keeper:
"I would if I could," Devereaux says disgustedly. It looks like they're bagging up all the agents who were on the landing originally, except one NYPD officer who's still barely alive.

Keeper:
There's some kind of log, yes. You could probably access it from a control panel in the basement.

Rogers:
"Agent Devereaux, I'd imagine this place has all kinds of security cameras you may want to secure the tapes quickly to stop any tampering."

Rogers:
"With luck you'll get a good ID of the men who assaulted us."

Keeper:
Devereaux nods. "We're on it already."

Keeper:
"Anything else?"

Rogers:
"Sorry about your Agents I thought the ATF guy and one of yours at least had made it."

Keeper:
He shakes his head. His eyes are hard. "I'm going to have a lot of family meetings tomorrow. Some of these men had kids. What the fuck was so important that they had to die?"

Rogers:
"That's what I'm going to find out and I'll promise you this someone is going to pay for this day's work."

Keeper:
"Look, they're going to be done with their sweep pretty soon. Where do you want to start searching?"

Borrow:
Borrow wonders if anyone on the forensics team is talented in security? Elevator control panels and security tapes?

Rogers:
"well we'd intended to start with the offices of the men who attacked the DoJ team and work from there but now I just want this place taken apart from top to bottom."

Keeper:
There's one agent on the forensics team who's dealt with electronic security a lot. She probably would know about them.

Rogers:
"I'll take my team and investigate the floor our current attackers acame from."

Borrow:
Great, I'll suggest over the phone that she detaches from the rest of the forensics team and hit the elevators and then the security control room. I'm sure there's something centralized in the building?

Rogers:
"Hey Mr. L, make sure that the teams going into the other Breckenridge sites go prepared for anything, I don't want anyone elses dying who's on our side."

Keeper:
You're not positive, Borrow, but it stands to reason. Your agent says she'll hit the security room first.

Rogers:
Keeper, do we have floorplans for the building yet I'm assuming the bomb squad has them. and I want to get all the phone lines into here cut so that no one tampers with the computers from outdide.

Keeper:
An agent brings blueprint copies out to you, Rogers, and others send word down to secure the phone lines.

Borrow:
K.

Rogers:
"Kelly, do you think it's likely we're going to run into more of those people?"

Keeper:
The floorplans show that Breckenridge occupies the entire fifteenth floor. There are meeting rooms and utility rooms on the northern end, training facilities and storage rooms on the south, with offices on the east and west. The central atrium houses the lobby and elevator banks.

Rogers:
I want to get all the personel working checked out and secured outside the building no one leaves untill we match faces to ID's on the records here and cross check against Social security numbers

Keeper:
Kelley shakes his head. "Not unless they left something behind. They brought out the big guns to get their people out. I don't see that they did it half-assed."

Keeper:
Devereaux passes the order down. "Look," he says, "What's this all about? You guys think this whole company is in deep with drugs?"

Rogers:
"Right, so lets go and search the place, we'll start with where they came from and then move to the offices and then the training facilities and storage rooms."

Rogers:
"I don't know what the companies involved in but I want to know what was worth two attempts on my life and the other members of the team and cost us a friend and you some good men."

Rogers:
"And I'm going to find out."

Keeper:
The elevators open up onto the central lobby of the Breckenridge offices. The lobby is pleasant without being elegant, with a couple of obligatory potted plants in tall vases and overstuffed couches for visitors, with plain off-white walls.

Keeper:
Everything shows signs of disturbance, and you can hear the tense voices of the bomb squad agents down the hall.

Keeper:
There are two elevator banks in the lobby, facing each other with the receptionist's desk in the center.

Borrow:
Borrow will stay but up on the pad, and can be contacted by phone if he needs to rush down to join Rogers.

Keeper:
To the east, a hall passes bathrooms and leads to a wing of offices. To the west, a plain hall leads to more offices.

Keeper:
Borrow, it takes you a while to gather samples; the elevator banks are particularly a mess, with so many corpses.

Borrow:
That's what I suspected. ;)

Keeper:
Rogers, where to first?

Rogers:
Keeper, who's with me and Kelly now?

Keeper:
It's Rogers, Kelley, Danforth, and as many of Devereaux's people as you want. Plus Devereaux himelf unless you left him to direct his task force upstairs.

Keeper:
Borrow is upstairs waiting for the forensics team. Lundquist is on the phone to Washington putting together a massive investigation of TBC.

Rogers:
I'm assuming Deveraux does what he wants to do, I'd like Danfotrth to secure the helicopter but as he's here he can stick with us until Borrow checks in.

Keeper:
Oh, sorry, I forgot you told Danforth to check the helicopter. Want him to still be doing that?

Rogers:
I'd say take two of Devereaux's people with us.

Borrow:
Borrow will secure that helicopter while everyone's doing their thing. Maybe do a search through it too.

Rogers:
"Let's check out the Offices and then move on from there."

Rogers:
no as Borrow knows the importance of it, Danforth will be usefull with the computers here.

Keeper:
OK.

Rogers:
to Devereaux men, "Has the building been emptied?"

Keeper:
Rogers, Kelley, Danforth, and two FBI bomb-squad/anti-terrorism experts fan out into the Breckenridge offices.

Keeper:
"Affirmative. Breckenridge employees are being sequestered downstairs. We figure one or two may have -- gnnk!"

Keeper:
He grunts nonsensically, and his eyes bulge as his muscles seize up as a weird subsonic hum seems to fill the air. Simultaneously, power in the lobby around you blinks out into darkness, leaving you in only the dim ambient light from the office windows down the hall. It is nearly pitch black.

Keeper:
Rogers, you and the others near you are seized with vertigo for a moment; Borrow, the same. Rogers, you can hear the man with you collapse to the ground, as if from epilepsy.

Keeper:
Borrow, two of the men in the crowd on the roof collapse similarly. Everyone looks very confused.

Rogers:
"That may have been interference but I'm not betting on it, everyone proceed with extreeme caution and weapons drawn, don't take any chances the goons on the roof had vests anyone dosen't obey commands after you ID yourselves put them down."

Rogers:
"Don't put flashlights on we'll just be targets."

Rogers:
I'll see if I can do anything for the epilepsy sufferer with me.

Keeper:
Power stays out in the TBC offices.

Borrow:
Can I move?

Rogers:
Keeper any access to natural light here?

Keeper:
You can move, Borrow. The vertigo passes after a long couple of seconds.

Keeper:
There are no windows in the lobby, Rogers. It's in the center of the floor.

Borrow:
Borrow rushes to the two men, and check them over in case they have some sort of medical bracelet, id with medical notes in it, etc. And he'll see what he can do, then call Rogers.

Keeper:
You tend to the man who collapsed. His fit passes after a minute. Meanwhile, Kelley takes a flashlight out and finds its batteries drained. The flashlight smells faintly of ozone.

Keeper:
Borrow, your phone is dead.

Keeper:
Rogers, the other man with you asks, "What the hell was that? Is he okay?"

Keeper:
The men who collapsed upstairs recover momentarily, as well.

Keeper:
Kelley then lifts his submachine gun. Even its laser sight is dead.

Borrow:
Is there anything at all in the vicinty that I can tell has power? The buildings nearby if they have their lights on? Or even the smalled diode of lights or watches?

Rogers:
"He seems to be fine, and I don't know what that was, Let's get to a window in an office or something."

Rogers:
Keeper is my cell phone battery gone as well as Kelly's flashlight?

Keeper:
Your phone is dead, too, Rogers. Borrow, the same even in little watch batteries.

Keeper:
Borrow, you can get a pair of field glasses from one of the other agents on the landing. Looking in nearby buildings, it looks like some have power and others do not.

Keeper:
Rogers, your group moves down the hall to the offices. You reach one and can see outside. You hear other agents on the floor checking in by voice. "Lines are dead," one calls out. "I'm heading up to check in."

Rogers:
"Kelly lets take a quick look around, you get your fellow Agent outside to a paramedic now. Danforth come with us."

Rogers:
"Tell them where we are and then come back with new radios and a few flashlights."

Keeper:
The agents nod, Rogers, and head out.

Keeper:
Danforth says, "Where to?"

Rogers:
when they've gone "This is getting very strange, everyone stick together from now on lets check out this room until he gets back we'll give him 5 mins"

Keeper:
Kelley says, "It'll take more than five minutes if he has to go downstairs. That's fifteen floors."

Rogers:
"Then we'll assume the worst and check out the rest of the building, if you haven't already I'd suggest reloading."

Keeper:
Danforth nods. "Shit, yeah." His voice sounds shaky.

Borrow:
Borrows will attempt to check in manually after securing the helicopter from outside influence and tossing a guard on it. He'll go down and join Rogers, tell me when we would meet up.

Keeper:
No problem, Borrow.

Keeper:
Rogers, are you waiting in the office or moving out?

Borrow:
Thanks. :)

Rogers:
"Ok we'll wait 15 minutes then lets check out this room and think about where to next."

Rogers whispers to Keeper:
is my cell phone working?

DGKeeper whispers to JTRogers:
Nope.

Rogers:
I try to call Borrow on my cell phone.

Borrow:
Hehe. No answer, I don't have new batteries.

Rogers:
what room are we in on the plans.

Keeper:
Rogers, the room is an ordinary-looking corporate office, with a filing cabinet in the corner and a couple of family photos on the desk.

Keeper:
Your phone is dead, too, Rogers. You're on the 15th floor.

Keeper:
Using the window for light, you see that the plans don't specify the function of each room except generally. This one is listed as "office."

Rogers:
can we tell from the plans where the important offices are?

Keeper:
The larger ones are in the other wing, the western wing. You're in the east now.

Keeper:
Borrow, you're trudging down the stairs in pitch darkness. Huff, huff, huff, stumble--"ouch!"--huff, huff...

Rogers:
"Danforth, Kelly lets check out this floor while we're waiting for him. we'll work along it taking one office each, spot anything suspicious just yell."

Keeper:
They nod and head out into other offices. There are two FBI agents and two ATF agents still on this floor. "Hey," one calls. "You're with Justice, right? You came from upstairs?"

Borrow:
Borrow will take the stair just a wee bit slower. ;)

Rogers:
"Yes we're excuting a search warrent."

Rogers:
"You guys have any working flash lights?"

Keeper:
"No. Everything's gone dead. What the hell's going on?"

Keeper:
Borrow, you've descended ten floors now and are "feeling the burn."

Rogers:
"Your guess is as good as mine about now, don't take any chances though anyone who dosen't ID themselves arrest them and be carefull about it."

Keeper:
"You better believe it. I don't like this at all."

Borrow:
Well, it's ok as long as my abs feel tighter.

Keeper:
Not your abs, but your glutes are gonna thank you. ;-)

Keeper:
Meanwhile, Borrow is coming around another corner in the darkness, going down another level, when he hears the distinct squeak of a soft-soled shoe on the vinyl tiles not far below.

Borrow:
Borrow stops and doesn't move. He's already a little creeped out after this expierence, and going down flights of stairs only makes him remember the movie Sliver.

Keeper:
The sound does not recur. In fact, beyond your own hard breath you don't hear anything.

Keeper:
(Never saw it.)

Rogers:
(me neither)

Borrow:
Borrow listens, for any breathing or elsewise. (Someone gets cut up in the stairwell in the dark if I remember correctly)

Borrow:
Borrow calls out softly. "Umm, hello?"

Borrow:
Borrow draws his pistol, very quietly and keeps it's saftey on and pointed at the floor.