The New Age

Part 1: The Prince is Dead, Long Live the Prince

Spoiler Warning: This scenario is taken from the Delta Green rule book. If you are a Delta Green player you may wish to ask your Keeper if they intend to run any scenarios in that book before reading this write-up, as pertinent scenario information will be revealed.

Sunday, June 12, 2005, 2:00 p.m. CDT

Outside the La Quinta Inn, St. Louis, Missouri

After checking the car for finger prints, the agents headed back to their hotel room. On the way to the hotel's front door they noticed a man searching the dumpster behind the building. The man's pants were baggy, worn, and dirty, but he wore a clean La Quinta staff polo shirt.

MORGAN approached the man slowly and with caution. He suspected that the man was homeless and had found the shirt somewhere. Nevertheless, MICHAEL wasn't taking any chances. MORGAN had used up the last of his acid, so MICHAEL went for the only nearby source of acid: he popped the hood of the rental car, and looked at the battery. If it was an older style refillable battery, he would have access to battery acid. Unfortunately it was a sealed battery. Cracking it open to get at the acid would be problematic at best.

Meanwhile, MORGAN approached the man who was wearing the polo shirt. The man's skin was deeply suntanned and leathery. It was hard to tell where sun tan ended and dirt began. His beard was long and unkempt. The relatively clean polo shirt was pulled over a dirtier t-shirt. Over one arm was a old jacket. The man had something in his hand.

"Excuse me, sir," said MORGAN. "Do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

The man faced MORGAN and slowly backed away. He backed into a grocery store buggy full of trash and empty bottles. He grasped the handle of the buggy. "Hey, man," said the polo shirt guy, "I ain't doin' nothin', man! Hey, hey, man!" He continued to back up, pushing the buggy along with him.

MORGAN said, "I'll give you twenty bucks if you'll just answer some questions for me."

The homeless guy thought about this for a second. "Uh... can I see the twenty bucks?" MORGAN pulled out his wallet. He extracted a twenty dollar bill and held it up for the guy to see. "Uh... what do you want to know?"

As MORGAN pulled out the money, MICHAEL began working the battery loose with a Leatherman tool he kept in his pocket. In spite of the risk involved with cracking open a sealed battery, it was their only source of acid.

With the money in one hand, MORGAN reached into his manpurse with the other. "There's just one thing I have to do first," he said, without answering the guy's question. MORGAN removed the spray bottle of leucopararosaniline.

The homeless guy's eyes widened, and he backed away. He said, "No thanks, man," and looked around for an escape route.

MORGAN threw up his hands. He explained that the the liquid was harmless. He sprayed his own hands with the liquid to prove it, but the homeless guy was having nothing of it. MORGAN put the bottle back in his bag. "I'll give you twenty bucks to answer some questions," he said, "and I'll give you another twenty for the shirt."

The homeless guy paused. He looked around. They were more-or-less out in the open. Apparently he felt the risk was worth it. "Put the money down," he said. MORGAN took the money and put it on the ground. He found a small piece of concrete nearby — probably from a curb stone — and set it on top of the money. MORGAN backed away. The homeless guy slowly walked up to the money then, with deceptive speed, snatched up the bills.

MORGAN stared at the money and the guy's hands. He had soaked his own hands in leucopararosaniline before he put the money on the ground. There was enough liquid to trigger a reaction if the homeless guy was infected with neotissue. The liquid on the bills did not turn purple, and MORGAN breathed a little easier. Now that he had his $40, the homeless guy pulled off the polo shirt.

MICHAEL had the terminals off the battery, but now he was confronted with a support bar that held the battery firmly in place. The bar was attached to two long J-shaped bolts. The curved part of the bolts were connected to the battery's base plate. Two screws connected the bar to the bolts.

The homeless man handed the polo shirt to MORGAN. MORGAN sprayed the shirt with the liquid. The fabric turned a faint purple; there were traces of neotissue on the shirt. MORGAN stuffed the shirt into a plastic evidence bag. "Where did you find this?" asked MORGAN.

"Where did I find it?" He pointed to a maintenance cover in the street. "I found it over there. I mean, the crazy naked chick left it there."

"What was the crazy naked chick doing?"

"She just, like, took that off, and the pants, when she, like, melted."

MORGAN asked the man some other questions, like if she "melted" down the sewer, and if he'd seen other strange things in the area. He confirmed that she "melted down the sewer" after she "fell from the sky". That was all the weirdness he'd seen. MORGAN asked if she was a girl when she fell from the sky, but the homeless man only knew that she was a girl when she stood up.

He didn't have the pants any more. He gave them to someone named "Lizzy". MORGAN asked if there was a wallet in the pants. The man became defensive, "I didn't steal nothin'! I mean the clothes were lying on the ground. The crazy naked chick she, just, like, melted." MORGAN calmed the man down, thanked him, and left him alone with his buggy.

MICHAEL managed to pull the battery from the car in time to see MORGAN return. As he put back the battery, MORGAN told him and MAYA what he had learned.

MICHAEL said, "Oddly enough, last time that neotissue stuff was contagious."

"And we let that bum go," said MAYA. "We should have shot him!"

Due to the threat of contagion, MORGAN sprayed MICHAEL, and then MICHAEL sprayed MORGAN. The fluid did not turn purple. They were not infected. This induced the agents to hypothesize about the tissue. The two predominant theories were that either the neotissue had been perfected, or the Mi-Go had chosen to infect Groversville but not St. Louis.

"Groversville was evil," said MAYA, as an explanation.

As they walked back to their car, MICHAEL pulled out his cell phone. He called FBI Special Agent Louis Gaston. He asked Gaston if he could check into one Ron Valiant. MICHAEL explained that he thought Valiant was the person who stole Daniels' car after the "incident" in Daniels' mansion.

"I'll do some checking and find out what I can about someone named 'Ron Valiant' who lives locally," said Gaston.

MICHAEL added that Valiant was a Marine, or ex-Marine, and that he had a connection with Daniels. He hung up as the agents got to their car.

MORGAN pulled out his cell phone and called A cell's secure voice mail server. He put in a request for information about Ron Valiant's military record. MICHAEL sent an e-mail to A cell from his Delta Green phone. He wanted any information they might have about the strange planet he saw in his dream/vision.

They debated what to do next. MORGAN thought it was time for them to visit the local chapter of the Enolsis Foundation. They didn't know where it was, so they got out of the car and went back to their hotel room to get a phone book. Their room's door was repaired, but the room was still a mess. There was a big hole in the drywall where the door's handle had smashed into it. Their stuff was still thrown about in the wake of the fake security guard's rampage. Their mission to look up the Enolsis Foundation's address was momentarily forgotten. MAYA and MORGAN packed their bags in preparation for changing rooms, while MICHAEL sprayed the electronic bugs they discovered the previous evening with leucopararosaniline. The fluid took on a slightly purple tint. Apparently the fake security guard, or someone else tainted with neotissue, planted the bugs. After that, MICHAEL packed his bags. MORGAN, who was finished packing by this point, looked up the Foundation's address.

The agents headed for the lobby. They walked up to the front desk and requested a room change. They were told that a room would be ready for them in about an hour. Since they didn't have time to wait around, they took their bags out to the car Gaston loaned them. MAYA drove them to the local chapter of the Enolsis Foundation. She parked on the street outside the office.

The Foundation's office was at 121 Delmar Boulevard in University City. It was in what had once been a small store. Enolsis Foundation posters decorated the plate glass. They peeked through the window between a couple of the posters. The store front was spartan. A table in the middle of the store held several copies of about a dozen books. A set of bookshelves off to the left held more books and Enolsis Foundation pamphlets. Near the front of the room, on the left, was a door. At the back of the store was a short corridor with five doors, one at the end of the corridor, one on the left, and three on the right. Scattered about the floor were rugs and exercise mats. To the right near the back of the room was a table pushed up against the wall with a couple of chairs next to it. To the right of the front door was a glass counter. On the counter was a cash register. Two attractive women in their mid twenties — one blonde, the other brunette — stood behind the counter, talking. They both had crystals hanging from chains around their necks. Neither seemed to have noticed the agents. The agents entered the store front.

A bell over the door jingled as they entered. The women turned toward them and greeted them warmly. The brunette asked if they could be of help. MORGAN smiled back and said they were just looking for the moment. MICHAEL and MAYA inspected the books and other Enolsis literature. It was much the same as they found at Daniels' mansion: heavy on New Age mumbo-jumbo about crystals and self-enlightenment.

MORGAN saw that the front counter held more books, plus a couple of crystals. Above the counter was a poster. The design of the poster was a throwback to '60s pop culture with vibrant colors and rounded letters. Taking up most of the space on the picture was a smiling man of indeterminate age wearing purple robes and holding a crystal. MORGAN noticed something about the crystals worn by the women and the crystal in the poster. The crystals seemed thicker than Daniels' crystal. He quietly went over to MICHAEL and pointed this out to him. MICHAEL glanced at the women's crystals. Sure enough, they were missing the flat edge of Daniel's "realizer" and theirs seemed to be twice as thick. He whispered to MORGAN that perhaps Daniels' crystal was defective. MORGAN countered that maybe Daniels had been sucked dry by someone else's realizer. Either way, there was something fundamentally different between the crystal found on the dead man and the crystals worn by the women.

The CDC investigator walked back to the counter. "Excuse me, ladies, but I was wondering if I could get some more information about your foundation. I saw some pamphlets around town and I was intrigued."

"Certainly, sir!" said the perky blonde. She proceeded to give him several pamphlets describing Enolsis and their philosophy.

"Where do I get my realizer?" asked MORGAN.

"Oh, you know about the realizer?" asked the brunette.

"As I said, I found a pamphlet," he replied.

The brunette described the process MORGAN would have to go through before receiving a realizer. First he would have to take a personality profile to see how compatible he was with the Foundation. Assuming compatibility, they would teach him their meditation ritual. After he went through the meditation ritual for the first time he would receive his realizer.

"Fascinating," said MORGAN. "I'm interested in learning."

"Are you all interested in learning," asked the blonde.

MICHAEL and MAYA looked at each other, and then told the women that they were intrigued, but still skeptical. They would watch as their friend was profiled.

The brunette, who introduced herself as Diane, took MORGAN over to the table with the chairs. She told him about the Foundation. "Enolsis is about finding your way, not just following our way." Everything else she said was almost verbatim from the pamphlet they found in Daniels' bedroom. She then began what they called a "personality balance test". It was pretty obvious to MORGAN that the "test" consisted of nothing but leading questions that, regardless of the interviewee, would show something missing in their life, a gap that was best filled by joining Enolsis.

While MORGAN played along with the test, MICHAEL read their literature and MAYA talked to the blonde, whose name was Sarah.

"That is such a beautiful necklace. Where did you get that?"

"Oh, thank you, this is my realizer," replied Sarah.

MAYA asked if there were different types of realizers. Sarah said that they came in two sizes, but that they were really all the same thing.

MICHAEL found information about realizers in some of their books, but none of it was useful or new to him. He noticed more posters, all of which had a picture of the same guy on them. One poster proclaimed, "Your realizer and you! The potential is limitless!" He noticed that the realizers in all of the posters were the same as those the women wore. That is, the posters only showed the full sized realizers, not the half sized realizer Daniels had in his possession when he died.

Above the cash register was a photograph of two men. On the left was the guy from the posters. On the right was someone who looked oddly familiar to MICHAEL. The FBI agent moved closer to the glass counter and stared at the picture. He squinted, shook his head, and squinted again. The dream/vision gave him Daniels' memories from the moment just before his death. In Daniels' mind the man on the right was Ron Valiant. However, this person did not look like the soldier in the picture they found in Daniels' bedroom. MICHAEL continued to stare at the picture. The man in the photograph looked vaguely similar to the soldier. The faces were the same shape, and he appeared to be the same height. They could have been the same person if the soldier had undergone radical cosmetic surgery.

MAYA asked Sarah if she needed to keep the realizer with her at all times. Sarah replied that it wasn't necessary, but she liked to have it with her so that she could meditate whenever she wanted to. She confirmed that the realizer was necessary when meditating. "It is part of our meditation ritual."

The female M cell agent asked Sarah if she could see her realizer. Sarah took it off and handed it to MAYA. She said, "I've seen something similar to this, but it looked like it was maybe cut in half."

"Oh, some of the newer ones are like that," said Sarah. Sarah asked if MAYA would like to join the Foundation. MAYA said she would as she handed back the crystal. Sarah began the process of inducting her into Enolsis.

MORGAN finished his test. Sure enough, Enolsis was just what he needed. He would be sworn in with MAYA when she finished her test. They were informed that the daily meditation sessions were at 6 p.m., the weekly sessions were every Thursday at 7 p.m., and the monthly sessions were on the first of the month at 7 p.m. MICHAEL told Diane that he also wanted to join. She happily pulled out another test sheet and walked MICHAEL through the questionnaire.

After MICHAEL was finished, Diane took the agents through the short corridor at the back of the room one at a time. As each agent went down the corridor they saw signs on each of the five doors. The door at the end of the corridor said, "Supplies". The door on the left was labeled, "Private". They walked through the first door on the right, which was marked, "Presentations". The other two doors were for restrooms. This room had a small dais and a bunch of mats on the floor. Diane explained that this room was used for meditation sessions. A metal door at the back of the room was marked, "Exit".

Diane put each of them through a short swearing in ceremony where they pledged their allegiance to the Foundation, promised to keep secret what they learned about the Foundation, and promised to help the Foundation in any way they could. She then presented the agent with a realizer. This was a full sized realizer, without the flat edge.

After they were sworn in, they met with the women in the store front's main room. MORGAN asked who led their weekly meditation sessions. Sarah said it was Doug Walters, the head of the St. Louis chapter of the Foundation. He also led their monthly sessions. MAYA asked if they could meditate on their own. Diane said that was definitely encouraged. She gave them the same pamphlet they found in Daniels' apartment, titled "Your Realizer and You". Attendance at the monthly session was mandatory. Also mandatory were $100 a year membership dues. Donations to the foundation were encouraged. There was a $20 fee for the realizer, but this would also go toward their yearly dues, which were due at their first meeting. The agents paid the $20 fee in cash. Now "Robert Benson", "Morgan Lancaster", and "Maya Angelou" were members of the Enolsis Foundation.

As they paid their dues, MICHAEL motioned to the picture behind the cash register. He asked who the people were. Diane said that the person on the left was their leader, known as "The Living Power". He was the head of the Enolsis Foundation. The person on the right was Doug Walters, the head of the local chapter. MICHAEL smiled. Doug Walters was Ron Valiant.

Before they left, MAYA asked if there was a book she could buy that explained Enolsis. Sarah pointed out several books, but the "bible" for the Foundation was Inner Science. The original edition was by Herbert Price, but this new edition was by Gene Downing, also known as The Living Power. Downing took Price's original book and added a great deal of material. It was available for $24.95. MAYA bought the book and paid for her realizer, making sure to get receipts.

The agents thanked the women for their time, and left the building. When they got to the car, MORGAN sprayed their realizers with leucopararosaniline. The fluid did not turn purple. The agents speculated as to why they weren't given crystals cut in half. MORGAN wondered if it was because they weren't wealthy enough.

MICHAEL phoned Agent Gaston. "This is Robert Benson. We just discovered that Ron Valiant has an alias. He is the head of the local Enolsis Foundation and his name is Doug Walters."

"I'll check into this 'Doug Walters'," said Gaston. "I have some information on Ron Valiant, but it doesn't mention him having an alias of 'Doug Walters' or having any connection with Enolsis."

"That's not surprising," said MICHAEL.

Gaston read what he had on Ron Valiant. Valiant was born on April 11, 1968 in the Sacred Heart hospital in St. Louis. His mother was Catherine Valiant, deceased due to heart failure in 1988. His father was unknown. He had a record of several juvenile offenses in St. Louis, including shoplifting, vandalism, burglary, and pot possession. His worst offense was grand theft auto for joyriding in a car. There was no record of him from 1986 (the year he turned 18) until 1994. In 1994 he was suspected of dealing in uncut cocaine and black market military hardware (mostly AK-47s). He was known as some sort of ex-Marine, ex-CIA hardass with a hair-trigger temper. His street name was "Prince Valiant". Valiant's girlfriend was a part-time hooker/part-time mugger by the name of Angel O'Roarke. She was currently serving time in the St. Louis jail for robbing one of her johns. In September of 1997 Valiant was linked to the death of one of his competitors. Someone injected him with an overdose of heroin, and burned him alive with gasoline in East St. Louis. The local police started hunting down Valiant for this crime, though their evidence consisted mostly of jailhouse confessions and rumors from local snitches. Once again Valiant disappeared. Local police had no information on him after October, 1997.

MICHAEL told Gaston that Valiant may have undergone cosmetic surgery, and may now be going by the name of Doug Walters. Gaston asked him what his source was for this information. MICHAEL replied that it came from "rather esoteric avenues".

Gaston, who had dealings with Delta Green in the past, accepted this explanation. "If you can get me something more concrete, I can get a search warrant."

"I can tell you that Daniels knew this man," said MICHAEL, "and that Ron Valiant as Doug Walters was present at the mansion." He explained that this information came from the same esoteric source.

"Let me pull up something here." MICHAEL could hear Gaston typing on the keyboard in Gaston's police car. "I've got an address for you. His current address is 121 Delmar Boulevard."

"Uh, we're at 121 Delmar Boulevard. That's the Enolsis Foundation." He told Gaston that they joined the Foundation, that they just signed up as part of the investigation. The meditation ceremony was at six o'clock, and Walters was expected to be there.

"Do you want backup?" asked Gaston. "Do you want to wear a wire?"

"That will be helpful," said MICHAEL.

"I will get a team here." Gaston paused. "It's after five. I'll see what I can do." He hung up.

The agents were hungry, and there was no telling when they'd get to eat again. They would have to settle for fast food.

"Let's go to McDonald's," said MORGAN.

MAYA sighed. "Alright, we're going to get a sad meal."

MICHAEL quickly phoned Gaston, leaving a voice mail message telling him they would be at a nearby McDonald's. MAYA drove them to the restaurant. MORGAN ordered a double-quarter pounder with cheese meal, MICHAEL had a grilled McChicken with a side salad, and MAYA had a McNugget meal. They were done in a little over half an hour. As they were leaving the parking lot, Gaston showed up. He directed them to a parking lot three blocks away from the Enolsis Foundation's building. He told them to be there in about 10 minutes.

The agents waited for Gaston. Gaston soon showed up followed by a dark blue van with the name of a plumbing company on the side. Gaston went around to the back of the van. Inside were two FBI agents sitting amongst an array of electronic gear, with a third agent in the driver's seat. The FBI agents helped the Delta Green agents put on their wires. After a quick check, M cell got into their car and drove to the Enolsis meeting, arriving fashionably late. The FBI van followed them and parked a short distance down the street.

A crowd had gathered in the presentation room. There were some 15 people there, including Sarah and Diane. About a third of them had half-sized realizers. Everyone else had full-sized realizers. The agents mingled, with MORGAN making a particular effort to talk to people with half-sized realizers. The membership seemed like regular people, though they were perhaps a little needier than normal. It was clear that they definitely believed all the stuff Enolsis preached. MICHAEL asked a couple of attendees why there were different types of realizers, but no one seemed to know why. They just smiled and said, "This is the one I was given."

After mixing for about fifteen more minutes, Diane stood up at the podium and said, "We will now begin our meditation." She began directing folks through the meditation ritual. The agents followed along with everyone else. The ritual consisted of mindless humming and quietly thinking happy thoughts while holding onto the realizer. There seemed to be nothing suspicious, in a Mythos sense, about the ceremony. As the ceremony went on, the agents felt a little bit tired. Then, as the ritual climaxed and their humming grew louder, the agents felt an jolt of energy, like an adrenalin rush. After an hour, the ritual was over, leaving the participants with a slight euphoric high. Maybe there was something to this crystal stuff after all...

Sarah uncovered a stack of sandwiches and snacks on a table at the back of the room. The sandwiches were made from whole grain bread, and the snacks consisted of fruit and raw vegetables. It was all very natural and good for you. The members ate snacks and sipped tea or coffee. It was clear that the meeting was essentially over.

MAYA went up to Diane and asked her why Doug Walters hadn't shown up. "You know," replied Diane, "I don't know. Sometimes his schedule is so busy, with speaking engagements and such, that he can't make it. I was expecting him to be here. But this sometimes happens. He will definitely be here for the monthly meeting."

MORGAN asked Sarah the way to the men's room. She said it was through the door and down the corridor to the right. MORGAN stepped into the corridor. Instead of going to the men's room, he went to the door marked "Private". He tried the door knob. The door was locked. MORGAN next checked the room marked "Supplies". It was essentially a walk-in closet full of realizers. All of the realizers were full-sized. The closet also contained cleaning supplies, books, tapes, pamphlets, and other Enolsis paraphernalia. MORGAN took one of the realizers and slipped it into his pocket. He went back into the presentation room.

He walked up to MAYA. "Hey, did you see what they had at this table. They have fresh things. Come here!"

He dragged her over to the snack table. He told her about the locked room. Needing no other encouragement, she excused herself and walked out into the hallway as though she was looking for the restroom. MORGAN stood by the door, ready to create a diversion if someone tried to leave the room.

* * *

Instead of going to the restroom, MAYA went over to door marked "Private". She pulled out her lockpick tools. In less than a minute she had unlocked the door. Inside was a set of stairs leading to the second floor. MAYA closed the door behind her as she sneaked upstairs.

The stairs led to an apartment. The apartment had two skylights and plenty of lamps, but it was dark. She soon discovered that this was because the windows had been painted over. A mirror was attached to the ceiling over top of a round water bed. A set of free weights sat in a corner. A wooden chest lay up against the foot of the bed. The predominant color in the room was white. White billowing wall hangings stretched from ceiling to floor along the walls. The dresser, table, chairs, bathroom, kitchen and several small art objects were all white. After carefully surveying the room, MAYA peeked into the chest.

Inside the chest were various bits of military memorabilia, including an old desert camouflage uniform and photos of people in military dress. Near the bottom of the chest was a box of fake, mail order medals. Folded at the bottom of the chest was a flag that she did not recognize.

* * *

Downstairs, a woman was about to head to the restroom. MORGAN moved forward, running into the woman and spilling the contents of his plate all over her.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" he yelled. "Oh, my goodness, I did not mean to do that! Oh, I am such a klutz! Oh, my God! This is something... this is such... this is why I am here! Every time something like this happens to me, I... Did it ruin your shirt? I'll buy you a new one!"

All the time the woman was consoling MORGAN, saying, "It's alright, it's alright." MORGAN grabbed up some paper towels and headed back to the woman. She thankfully took the towels and then quickly backed away from MORGAN. She headed out into the corridor and made for the restroom.

A short while later, the woman came back into the presentation room. "See, it's alright."

* * *

MAYA put the items back into the chest, looked around the room once more, and headed back downstairs. She locked the door behind her. She went back into the presentation room just as the gathering was breaking up. She walked up to MORGAN and said, "I feel all meditated and refreshed now. Are we ready to go home?"

"Ah, yes, yes, yes," said MORGAN. He added, "Did you see the other person who went into the restroom?"

MAYA looked sheepish, "Uh... I... " and shrugged her shoulders in a "what other person" gesture.

MICHAEL said, "I'm calling it a night," and left the building. The other two agents followed him. They got into the car, and MAYA drove them to the parking lot, followed by the FBI van

As soon as they arrived at the parking lot MORGAN sprayed MAYA with the leucopararosaniline solution. A shocked MAYA stared at him as she let out a little moan of disgust. The fluid did not turn purple.

"You didn't see the woman who left?" asked MORGAN. "I made a ruckus!"

"Uh, no," replied MAYA.

"He didn't just make a ruckus, he made a fool of himself," said MICHAEL. "All for you."

"Well, thank you."

"Except you didn't have to witness it," finished MICHAEL.

"Well, you're the fool who witnessed it, and I'm the fool who was going upstairs. Behind the locked door they have some sort of odd room up there. The windows are painted over, and all the walls are covered in white material." She gave the other agents a good description of the room. "It's all just rather weird."

MORGAN explained that a woman had gone to the restroom just before MAYA returned. "You must have lucked out and just missed her. I made a big fuss!"

"Basically, he 'queened out' in there," added MICHAEL.

They got out of the car and talked to Gaston while they removed their wires. Gaston said that they got everything on tape, but Walters wasn't there so there wasn't much they could do with the tapes. "Unfortunately, unless there's some sort of concrete evidence I can't get a search warrant."

MICHAEL asked Gaston to check for any connection between the car outside their hotel and Walters. After that, the agents thanked Gaston, and he and the other FBI agents left. The Delta Green agents made plans to break into the apartment above the Enolsis Foundation office, but first they'd go back to the "green box" and pick up some equipment.

Sunday, June 12, 2005, 8:45 p.m. CDT

All Nite Storage, St. Louis, Missouri

The agents arrived at the 24/7 storage place that housed the St. Louis "green box". They picked up the flare gun, three flares for the flare gun, the eight road flares, and one of the fire extinguishers. They locked up their storage unit and drove to the closest Wal-Mart, where they bought dark clothing, queen-sized knee-high nylons, and pepper spray. They walked around the place looking for acid, but the only thing they could find was vinegar or car batteries, and the car batteries were sealed and unlikely to be of much help.

They returned to their hotel. They pulled their bags out of the car and checked into their new rooms. MICHAEL used the digital voice recorder to go over their room for electronic eavesdropping equipment. He did not find anything, but he didn't know if it was because there were none to find or if his method was unreliable. At any rate, they rested until just before midnight, then they left the hotel and headed for University City.

MAYA drove them past the Foundation office. They could see no movement in the building, which was illuminated by a single fluorescent light on the main floor. They parked in the parking lot where they had met Gaston earlier that evening. They walked to the building housing the Foundation's office and Walters' apartment.

They slipped into the alley behind the building. They slipped the knee-highs over their heads, distorting their features. MICHAEL searched for a security alarm but didn't find one. MAYA proceeded to pick the lock on the door. After a trying for a couple of minutes, she unlocked the door. MORGAN stuck his head into the presentation room. He didn't see anyone there. The agents crept into the room. MICHAEL closed and locked the door behind them.

They didn't hear anything. MAYA checked the women's restroom, MORGAN checked the men's room, and MICHAEL checked the supply room, but there was nobody in the building. They crept to the door marked "Private". MAYA had locked it when she came back downstairs earlier that evening, and it was still locked. She picked the lock with ease. The agents climbed the stairs, but they weren't particularly quiet about it.

The room was exactly as MAYA had left it. She checked the chest at the foot of the bed, MICHAEL inspected the chest of drawers, and MORGAN went over to the wall hanging.

Behind the wall hanging was a large television cabinet. In the cabinet was a plasma TV, a stereo system, and a DVD player. The cabinet was opposite the water bed. A stack of pornographic DVDs sat beside the entertainment center. On the other side of the cabinet was a stack of video tapes. The video tapes were all hand labeled. The labels consisted of the names of women, a date, and "highlights" of the action — always sexual — caught on tape. MORGAN went through the stack of tapes. Near the top of the stack of tapes, MORGAN found one labeled, "Diane and Sarah". MORGAN put the tape into the VCR and rewound it. After it finished rewinding, he hit the play button. He called the other agents over to see the tape.

The recording was made from a video recorder that had been positioned just to the right of the entertainment center. The water bed was in the center of the shot. On the bed were Sarah, Diane, and the man they knew as Valiant. The tape showed them engaged in a wide range of sex acts. Valiant/Walters appeared obsessed with controlling people. He took great delight in having the women do things that they were clearly uncomfortable doing. He didn't physically force them. Instead, he simply ordered them around and they did as he ordered. The women were uncomfortable, yet oddly compliant. Their faces displayed a limited range of vacant expressions. MORGAN suspected that they might have been drugged. The agents also noticed that the women weren't wearing their crystals.

MAYA watched the tape for a couple of minutes, and then went into the kitchen to search that room. MICHAEL went through the stack of DVDs to confirm that the box and the disc matched. MORGAN popped out the tape of Sarah and Diane. He searched through the stack of tapes. About a third of the way down he found a tape marked "X". He pulled it out of its sleeve and popped it into the VCR. At the same time, MICHAEL was two thirds of the way down the stack of DVDs when he found a box with a hand-written label. The label — in the same writing as that found on the video tapes — said "For the World".

MORGAN and MICHAEL watched as the "X" tape began playing. It started with Valiant lying naked on the bed. A naked woman — a tall, athletic blonde — walked into the picture, her back to the camera. She walked up to the bed as Valiant sat up. She crawled onto the bed and wrapped her arms around him. Her arms encircled Valiant... and kept encircling him as her appendages wound around the both of them several times, like two pinkish anacondas. The rest of her body conformed to Valiant's, flowing over him like a blanket of flesh. The two agents stood in shock as they watched Valiant and this woman/thing engage in various physically impossible acts of intimacy.

MICHAEL disengaged from the video and went downstairs to listen at the door. He heard nothing, so he came back upstairs. MORGAN called MAYA over, and she, too, watched the tape. She was as shocked as the men.

At one point in the tape, the woman kissed Valiant. They could see her tongue enter his mouth. Her tongue, now a fleshy appendage, flowed down his throat. Fortunately for the viewers she clamped her mouth over his, so they could no longer see precisely what was happening. Valiant was racked with spastic twitches and powerful shudders. His whole body moved as though he was possessed. She pulled away from him while his body contorted and shuddered. Although his muscles appeared to cramp and clench, Valiant's face showed no sign of pain. In fact, he appeared to be in a state of euphoria. He opened his mouth and the appendage flowed out of it. The appendage flowed down his body, onto her thigh, and merged back into her body. A short time after that Valiant had a gasping orgasm. The woman's body flowed over his, slipping in and out of every orifice in Valiant's body, and the whole process started again. The agents fast forwarded the tape. It contained more than an hour's worth of similar acts, all from a single session.

MORGAN popped the tape and MICHAEL put the "For the World" DVD into the player. In this video the camera was fixed on Valiant from the waist up. He was dressed and sitting in one of the kitchen chairs. The video consisted of a long, breathless, rambling monologue. The main thrust of the monologue was an "alien energy harvest". He passionately explained that aliens disguised as leaders of Enolsis, and other world religions, were draining humans of energy. The display showed that there was another 40 minutes of this diatribe on the disc, so MICHAEL stopped it and ejected the disc. He put the DVD back in its box and then took it and the "X" video tape and slipped them into MORGAN's manpurse. The "Sarah and Diane" tape was next in the stack. MICHAEL slipped that tape into the pocket of his black cargo pants.

MAYA noticed that there was a cabinet behind the entertainment console, mounted high up on the wall. She stood on a chair and opened the cabinet. Inside was an M-16 assault rifle, something that looked like an AK-47 assault rifle, and a big shotgun. She handed the weapons to MICHAEL. MORGAN looked for trash bags large enough to hold the guns, but he didn't find any.

There was something heavy in the cabinet. MAYA grabbed hold and pulled. It was a powered mitre saw. Something fell out of the cabinet as she dragged out the saw. It was a realizer, cut in half. Inside the cabinet were about a dozen half-sized realizers. Apparently Valiant/Walters was cutting the realizers in half with the saw. The agents debated taking the saw. MAYA and MORGAN didn't see the point. MORGAN figured they could buy a new one at Wal-Mart if needed. MICHAEL pointed out that this could be a special saw. Valiant would already know they were in his place, anyway.

MAYA relented. "Alright," she said. "We shouldn't leave him pissed off and with a weapon. Otherwise we might have a junior Ash on our hands."

MORGAN pulled out the leucopararosaniline and sprayed the bed. The liquid took on a pale purple tinge, indicating there were traces of neotissue on the bed. This seemed to confirm what they suspected, that the woman on the tape was the same thing that attacked them in their hotel room.

They gathered up the stuff they found: the guns, the mitre saw, and the realizers. They went downstairs and listened by the door. They didn't hear anything, so the stepped into the corridor, illuminated by MICHAEL's maglight. As he looked about, he noticed there was another room in the building that they hadn't checked out before. This was the room they noticed along the left-hand wall when they first peeked into the building that afternoon. As the others took the guns and other things to the presentation room, MICHAEL crept over to the door. The door had an Enolsis poster on it. MICHAEL opened it.

The room was a small office. It contained a desk, an office chair, and a computer. MICHAEL rushed back to the others and told them what he had found. MAYA opened the metal door and glanced outside to see if anyone was in the area while MORGAN followed MICHAEL back to the office. She didn't see anything, so she joined the others. They searched the room. They found a couple of boxes of blank membership applications in a corner beside a filing cabinet. The computer probably had interesting information. MICHAEL suggested that the best way to check that out was to steal it.

While MICHAEL disconnected the computer, MAYA picked the lock on the cabinet. The cabinet was full of member files, consisting mostly of biographical information and completed membership applications. MORGAN went through the applications and found a couple of files of people he had met at the meditation ceremony, but he couldn't find the file for Larry Daniels. MICHAEL had finished disconnecting the computer so he helped MORGAN look for it. He couldn't find it either. MICHAEL didn't find a file for Ron Valiant, either, but he did find Diane's file and Sarah's file. The agents gave up looking. MICHAEL picked up the computer CPU and carried it back to the presentation room. MAYA and MORGAN followed, MAYA with a stack of CD-ROMs in a plastic case and MORGAN with the membership files.

They opened the metal exit door and looked outside. No one was there. MAYA and MICHAEL left the building and went back for the car while MORGAN stayed behind to guard the building. MAYA and MICHAEL returned without incident. They quickly loaded the car, jumped in, and headed back to the hotel. MICHAEL watched for signs of pursuit while MAYA drove. When he was certain that they weren't being followed, they pulled off the knee-highs.

As they approached the hotel they realized they had a problem. How would they sneak the stuff up to their rooms? They decided to stash the guns under the carpet in the car's trunk after first ejecting any rounds. She pulled into the hotel's parking lot. MAYA ran upstairs for a suitcase while the men hid the guns. When she returned they put everything but the mitre saw and the hidden guns in the suitcase. They went back up to the MICHAEL's and MORGAN's room.

MORGAN hooked up the CPU to one of their laptops. There was very little security on the computer so he was able to look through the hard drive with ease. MICHAEL put the DVD into his laptop and watched the last of it. MAYA searched through the membership files.

The first thing MORGAN found was QuickBooks, which Enolsis used for accounting. Since he knew nothing about accounting, he swapped tasks with MAYA. She looked through QuickBooks and the other documents on the hard drive. She discovered that the computer had two sets of accounting records, and had two lists of members. There were 42 more members on the chapter's books than were reported to Enolsis headquarters in Tulsa. This meant that they had more dues and more voluntary donations than they reported to Tulsa. Daniels was on the longer list, but not on the shorter list. Valiant was not on either list. Walters was on both lists. Diane and Sarah were on both lists, as were Robert Benson, Morgan Lancaster, and Maya Angelou.

The inventory general ledger accounts listed the number of realizers that came into the chapter. There were only enough realizers for the official members plus a couple of dozen extras for new members. This wasn't enough realizers to cover all the official members plus the additional 42 members that were kept off the books. They remembered that there were still realizers in the supply closet. This meant that those 42 unofficial members and about 40 official members, out of a total membership of over 300, had half-sized realizers.

MORGAN went through the membership files and found little more than name and address information, Social Security Numbers, and similar data. Other than as a gold mine for identity theft, they weren't much use.

Valiant's DVD contained more of the same ranting they heard earlier. According to Valiant, all of the world's religions and banks were under the control of aliens. Enolsis had been infested by aliens. All of the world's religious leaders were aliens. The aliens were energy parasites that had attached themselves to races all over the galaxy. He, Valiant, claimed to have gained incredible power from these aliens by stealing energy from the "spiritual reservoirs of Enolsis". He used these powers to take control of the aliens' servant, known as Hope. Hope was sent to kill him, but now she was his slave. Soon he would steal all of the alien's slaves, take them to the Enolsis headquarters in Tulsa and destroy the alien colony there. Once the aliens were dead, he would lead a crusade to rid the other religions of alien influence.

Valiant was quite mad. He was probably suffering from paranoid schizophrenia as well as megalomania. At the same time, he truly believed what he was saying. This disturbed the agents because they believed that he might have stumbled onto something.

The agents discussed sending the DVD and the tapes to A cell. MICHAEL thought that maybe they should warn A cell about the contents of the videos.

"They might like some neoplasm action," said MORGAN. "It might thaw ANDREA out!"

"Maybe she and ALPHONSE will watch it together," said MICHAEL.

"I'm not altogether sure ANDREA isn't one of those neoplasm bitches, anyway," added MAYA.

By this time it was 3 a.m. They decided to go to bed, while maintaining two-hour watches. MORGAN volunteered to take two watches so the others could get six hours sleep. MAYA took the first watch. At 5 a.m. she woke up MORGAN for his first watch, while she went to sleep. MORGAN woke MICHAEL at 7 a.m. When 9 a.m. rolled around MICHAEL woke up MORGAN, and MICHAEL slept some more.

Monday, June 13, 2005, 9:15 a.m. CDT

La Quinta Inn, St. Louis, Missouri

MORGAN called FedEx on his personal cell phone and arranged for a pickup of an overnight package. While the others slept he bundled up the DVD and tapes, put them in a mailer he got from the front desk, and addressed the mailer to a Delta Green drop. FedEx picked up the package at 10 a.m. He woke up the other agents at 11 a.m.

After they showered, they went to Denny's for lunch. After lunch they got in the car and drove to the hospital. They needed to talk to Senator DiTorrio.