The New Age

Part 2: Dawn of the New Age

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.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005, 1:35 p.m. CDT

Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri

MAYA opened her eyes. She wasn't at all groggy from the anesthetic, which surprised her. She was in a hospital bed, a private room. An IV was stuck in her arm. Next to her bed was her purse. Sitting on a chair across from her was a man in jeans and a t-shirt. She'd never seen this man before.

The man was reading a magazine, the latest issue of Wired. He looked up as she stirred, and put down the magazine. "How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Who are you?" asked MAYA.

"My name is Jeffrey Marks," he replied. "I'm your brother." When MAYA stared at him in shock, he said, "You may have amnesia. You are Joanne Strauss. You're married to Richard Strauss. You were in a car accident."

MAYA continued to stare at the man, but with growing concern. She really wanted to reach for her purse and pull out her gun. "Who are you?" she demanded.

"Uncle Alphonse sends his regards," he said.

Alphonse. Whoever this person was, he just mentioned the code name for the leader of Delta Green. "How is good old Uncle Alphonse, anyway? Where is the old geezer?" She looked around for the call button. "Isn't there security in this place? Nurse!"

"Jeffrey Marks," was nonplussed. He got out of the chair. "Well, you just rest for a minute. I will be back. I'm going to go check on Richard." He stepped out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Once he was gone, MAYA swung her legs out of the bed. She moved around the end of the bed, careful not to pull out her IV. Her head hurt, and her body ached. She found a chart. The name on the chart was "Joanne Maya Strauss". This was both strangely comforting and deeply disquieting. She sat on the edge of the bed.

There was a telephone beside her bed. She lifted up the receiver. It had a dial tone. She called her Delta Green cell phone. She let it ring a dozen times. There was no answer. After five rings it kicked over to voice mail. She didn't hear any ringing in the room, so her cell phone was not there or it was turned off.

She picked up her purse and rummaged through it. She found the Delta Green phone card, the one that routed calls through a secure server in the Caiman Islands. She used it to call MORGAN's cell phone. She got his voice mail. When she was prompted to leave a message she said, "MORGAN, this is MAYA. I'm in a hospital somewhere. Do you know... where're you at? Where's MICHAEL at? What's going on? Why the hell do they keep telling me my name is Joanne," she continued without pause. "I don't have a brother, I'm not married, what is going on?" She hung up.

MAYA called MICHAEL's Delta Green cell phone. She got a recording that said "I'm sorry, this number is no longer in service". She stared at the phone for a few seconds before hanging up.

She phoned ALPHONSE. The phone rang three times, then there was a click, and the phone rang two more times before the phone was answered. "ADAM, speaking," came the reply.

"ADAM, this is Agent MAYA. I'm in a hospital in St. Louis somewhere. There's some fruit cake in my room who keeps telling me he's my brother..."

"Okay, listen up," said ADAM. "Your new cover is 'Joanne Strauss'. You've had a head injury. You don't remember anything. Just keep it like that. Your brother is Jeffrey Marks, and you will talk to him as 'Jeffrey Marks'. He will fill you in later, but he has been activated as Agent MALCOLM.

"Why didn't he just say this..."

"He may feel your position is compromised," interrupted ADAM. "Your room might not be secure where listening devices are concerned. MALCOLM is in the process of getting you out of the hospital."

"Where are MORGAN and MICHAEL at?" asked MAYA. "Are they in the hospital, too?"

"MORGAN is in the hospital." He paused. "I'm sorry. MICHAEL didn't make it."

MAYA leaned back in the bed. She took the receiver from her ear and held it in both hands on her lap. When ADAM said, "Hello? Hello?" she hung up. She sat very still and very quiet for a long time.

* * *

The first thing MORGAN did when he woke up was check his own chart. The name on the chart is "Richard Morgan Strauss". He and his wife were in an accident. He supposedly injured his head in the accident, but although he blanked out from Valiant's attack, his head didn't hurt at all. His body felt bruised and battered, but his head was fine.

Someone was covering for him. The name on the chart and his actual physical condition confirmed it. He'd heard of this sort of thing happening before in Delta Green.

According to the chart he had been sedated. He would stay at least another night for observation. There was nothing left to do but relax for the next 24 to 48 hours. He looked around his room. Someone had left some medical magazines for him: the New England Journal of Medicine, and Nature. At least he could catch up on his reading.

Forty-five minutes later, someone he'd never met walked into the room. "Good afternoon, Richard," said the stranger.

"Good afternoon," replied MORGAN. "Can I... help you?"

"So, you remember your name. That's better than Joanne."

"Joanne?"

"Yes, she's in the next room."

"How is she?"

"She's fine." The stranger sat down. "She's had a head injury, she's got a concussion, so she's a little confused. But, she's going to be alright."

"I'm a little confused myself," said MORGAN.

"Do you remember me?" MORGAN said nothing. "No. I can see by your eyes that you don't. I'm Joanne's younger brother, Jeffrey. Jeffrey Marks."

"Okay, yeah, Jeffrey." MORGAN recovered quickly, "You got drunk at the wedding, right?"

"Of all the things to remember," said the man purporting to be Jeffrey Marks.

MORGAN asked if he could see "Joanne". After determining that MORGAN was well enough to move, "Jeffrey Marks" helped him walk to "Joanne's" room.

As soon as he entered the woman's room, he saw — much to his relief — that "Joanne" was Agent MAYA. MAYA was happy to see MORGAN, but he could also tell that something was upsetting her.

MORGAN turned to "Jeffrey". "There was another passenger in the car. Where are they?"

"Not entirely sure," said "Jeffrey". "They are not at this hospital."

MAYA motioned MORGAN for her chart. When he handed it to her, she flipped over the bottom most piece of paper and wrote "MICHAEL is dead" on the back of the paper.

"Jeffrey" and MORGAN read what she wrote. "Jeffrey" whispered, "We will discuss all this later."

MAYA picked up the pen again and wrote, "ADAM" to indicate she talked to Agent Adam. "Jeffrey" took the paper and wrote, "Hi, my name is Agent MALCOLM."

MAYA snatched the paper from MALCOLM and wrote, "Why the hell couldn't you have just told me that to start with???"

MALCOLM took the chart from her and wrote, "You need to calm down. You've had a head injury. You're not thinking clearly."

MORGAN asked MALCOLM what happened to their personal effects. Their clothes were destroyed. He had collected the rest of their personal effects, including their Delta Green cell phones. He pointed to a box on a chair in the corner.

"Can we get out of here," asked MAYA.

"That's up to the doctors," replied MALCOLM.

After "visiting" with them for a little while longer, Jeffrey Marks/Agent MALCOLM left them alone to rest.

Thursday, June 16, 2005, 10:30 a.m. CDT

The main story on all of the cable news outlets was the Enolsis cult deaths in St. Louis. MAYA and MORGAN in their hospital rooms, and MALCOLM in his hotel room, had their TVs tuned to CNN when Wolf Blitzer announced that the Enolsis Foundation was holding a press conference that morning in response to the "St. Louis tragedy".

The report started with a recap of the deaths at the St. Louis warehouse and the rampage in front of the La Quinta Inn, just in case any of the viewers had been living under a rock since Monday. The report was toned down from what MAYA remembered happening. The reporters didn't mention any of the wilder stuff, like a man tossing cars around like they were cardboard boxes, but they did state that there were some strange rumors that were being put down to a kind of group hallucination. The rampage was blamed on one man, Doug Walters, who was linked to Enolsis. He was also the chief suspect in the mass murder of over 20 Enolsis members in a warehouse earlier in the evening. Walters was killed by police after he ran down at least one officer — an FBI agent — with a car. They said that Walters was bent on suicide, since he was doused in gasoline. He was shot by police, and apparently immolated by accident or a last moment suicide attempt. The police admit that Walters was not armed.

In response, Enolsis members interviewed by CNN stated that the people died in a freak fire, probably caused by an electrical fault. A couple of members went so far as to suggest that someone had sabotaged the building's wirings, causing the fire.

Reporters had been trying to contact the Enolsis Foundation headquarters for more than two days to get the organization's official reaction. Wolf Blitzer came back on the screen and explained that the Enolsis Foundation was about to hold a press conference. Two minutes later CNN went live to the Enolsis Foundation headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

The person on the screen was listed as Gene Downing, "The Living Power". He spent five minutes — an eternity in TV time — describing how the authorities had it in for Enolsis, how they had prosecuted the foundation for years, and how, most recently, they had threatened to remove their tax exempt status. He declared that they were a religion, worthy of the same respect as any other faith. He explained that just days after the government said they were removing the tax exempt status, there was some sort of raid on the Enolsis meditation ritual in St. Louis. That raid went horribly wrong. He implied that the FBI was responsible for the deaths of the members in the warehouse, that the head of the chapter ran for his life, and that he was gunned down by the police. Downing was very careful to couch his statements in terms of rumor and innuendo, without coming right out and blaming a specific agency.

This was just the preamble. Now that he was warmed up, Downing slipped into his sermon. "The recent tragedy was just the latest in a series of portents," declared "The Living Power". "We are moving steadily into a new age, and it will not be an easy transition. All of us are no doubt aware of the problems the world faces. Things are degenerating at an ever increasing rate. Societies are crumbling beneath the stones of vice and selfishness. We've worked for years to slow, and hopefully reverse, this process. But now it's too late. The new age is upon us. Those who are ready for it will survive and prevail, and find a new level of peace and satisfaction. Those who aren't ready will not."

He paused for effect before continuing. "In the immediate future there will come a sign. We have foreseen this. I do not know what the nature of it will be, but all of humanity will understand it when it happens. Please understand that I don't mean to say that I am the Messiah. I am not a fanatic as the federal government would make me out to be. I'm just a human being who has found peace and understanding. The time ahead will be full of turmoil. Our members across the globe are ready to help you through this time. Trust them, but trust in yourselves as well! Find your true light. Thank you for listening."

With that, Downing turned around and left the makeshift podium. A mob of reporters shouted questions at him but he ignored the shouts and left the conference room. CNN cut back to Wolf Blitzer, who began regurgitating what the viewers had just seen.

Friday, June 17, 2005, 11:10 a.m. CDT

Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri

While the other agents had spent the last two days recuperating, MALCOLM had been going over the cell's mission reports. By the time Friday came around he was up to speed with their official actions on behalf of Delta Green. MAYA and MORGAN were allowed to leave that morning. MALCOLM took a cab to the hospital, signed all the papers that needed signing, and accompanied the agents as nurses wheeled them out to the waiting cab. The cab whisked the three of them to their hotel, the Hilton by the airport.

They each had their own hotel room, which suited MORGAN and MAYA as they were ready to drop their husband and wife personas. Once they were settled in, the agents met in MORGAN's room. MALCOLM gave them their personal effects, which happened to include the large "spiritual reservoir" Valiant had been carrying on his rampage. Now it just looked like a large, cracked, spherical crystal. MORGAN and MAYA went online to check for e-mails from Delta Green, but there were no messages. Apparently with them out of commission, Delta Green froze their accounts in order to protect against a security breach.

Agent MALCOLM explained why he was there. He had with him a CD with pictures of an object in space. The object was little more than a tiny spot on a starfield, but it represented something astounding. Last Friday night astronomers working for NASA and MIT discovered an object inside the orbit of Pluto. What made this object important was its size and mass. If initial estimates were correct the object was just slightly larger than Mars but had three times the mass of Jupiter. The best guess so far suggested that the object was a part of a neutron star. Only a handful of people knew it was there. It was outside the plane of the ecliptic, thus outside of the realm where Kuiper Belt objects usually dwelled. The images had been passed on to MIT for processing. It was only a matter of time, though, until someone else discovered it. The object was considered pertinent to M cell's investigation because of Agent MICHAEL's vision of a red planet. He was on route to St. Louis to confer with MICHAEL when he got word that MICHAEL had been killed.

At that point MALCOLM's mission changed. He was informed that two members of M cell survived, but that they were in hospital. He was ordered to relocate them under assumed names. He was immediately activated as Agent MALCOLM, bringing the cell up to full strength. The senior member of the cell was to take over as the cell's leader.

MORGAN wondered aloud if this prophecy announced by Enolsis had something to do with the object in space. MALCOLM agreed that they could very well be related. The object was originally on a trajectory that would keep it beyond the orbit of Uranus, but it's path had inexplicably changed. It was now believed that it would pass inside the orbit of the inner planets. No one had any idea how it changed trajectory. The calculations were still being run, but there was a chance the object would make a close pass of Earth. If that were to happen, the Earth, the Moon, and possibly Mars and/or Venus could be pulled from their orbits and flung into space.

For the first time MALCOLM understood the implications of M cell's mission. "Oh, hey, cool!" he said. "We have this mission where the whole Earth could die!"

"Oh, yeah, that would be way cool," replied MAYA. "I just got through remodeling my bathroom, thank you very much! I don't want the Earth to be pulled out of its orbit!"

MORGAN asked MALCOLM what his specialty was. MALCOLM replied that he was an astronomer, but he had strong technical skills. He mentioned working for a NASA project that was searching space for "near Earth objects", but he didn't tell them the exact name of the project.

"I've got a number of useful skills," said MALCOLM. "Astronomy. Physics. Photography."

"Oh," said MAYA, "Every day useful skills."

"I was also in the Air Force, so I know how to handle a gun."

"Is that a threat?" asked MAYA.

"Just information you might like to keep in mind."

Sensing the tension in the air, MORGAN suggested that they should calm down and develop some bonds of trust.

"Oh, right," cried MAYA. She turned to MALCOLM. "The first thing you do when you show up in my room is you lie to me!"

"I was maintaining your cover," protested MALCOLM.

"You could have found some way to tell me."

"I'm sorry, I'm a researcher!"

"That explains the lack of personality and social skills."

"Well you have personality in abundance!" replied MALCOLM.

MORGAN interrupted. "You're a researcher with NASA?"

"Yes," replied MALCOLM

"Where do you operate out of?" asked MORGAN.

"New Mexico."

"And your name is...?"

"Gabriel Dodge."

"That can't be real," sniffed MAYA. "But I can find out. I work for the IRS."

"I would never have guessed," said MALCOLM.

MORGAN said that he was Joshua Frost, and that he worked for the CDC. MAYA reluctantly gave MALCOLM her real name, Carson Kovac.

MORGAN pulled out the bottle of leucopararosaniline. MALCOLM looked at the bottle. Before MALCOLM could react, MORGAN quickly sprayed him with it. The fluid did not turn purple. MORGAN explained what the fluid was and what it did. As MALCOLM cleaned himself off, he said, "Well, it's a good thing you tested me before you gave me all this information."

MALCOLM checked his e-mail for updates on the strange object. A number of astronomers are getting together over the weekend to discuss it, but so far no one had made an official announcement.

MORGAN believed that they had to investigate Enolsis. That meant a trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma. They booked tickets for a one-way, non-stop flight from St. Louis to Tulsa on American Airlines. The flight was set to depart the next day at 7:26 p.m. and arrive in Tulsa at 8:37 p.m. MORGAN found the address of a FedEx Kinko's in Tulsa. He e-mailed Agent ALPHONSE and asked him to send the key to the Tulsa "green box" to the FedEx Kinko's for MORGAN to pick up.

The agents talked for another hour, then they split up and went to their own rooms.

Saturday, June 18, 2005, 10:45 a.m. CDT

All Nite Storage, St. Louis, Missouri

Along with their personal effects, MALCOLM recovered the items the agents took from Valiant's apartment, including the automatic weapons, the shotgun, the miter saw, and the extra realizers. They took those items and the flare gun, the road flares, the hydrochloric acid, and their pistols and placed those in the green box, too.

They spent the rest of the day wandering around St. Louis until it was time to get to the airport. They arrived two hours before their flight. Amazingly enough, their flight left on time. They landed in Tulsa at 8:41 p.m. They made their way to the Hertz booth and picked up their rental vehicle, a green Ford Escape. By 10:00 p.m. they had checked into the La Quinta located 3 miles away from the airport. They booked three rooms, one for each agent.

Once they had unpacked, MAYA drove them to the FedEx Kinko's. MORGAN went inside. He came back out two minutes later with a small package from ALPHONSE. The "green box" was located at Airport Self Storage in Tulsa. They drove there, but it was closed. They would have to come back the next morning to find out what was in the "green box". They returned to the hotel. MAYA and MORGAN went to bed right away. MALCOLM went to bed a little after 1:00 a.m.

Sunday, June 19, 2005, 6:30 a.m. CDT

La Quinta Inn, Tulsa, Oklahoma

MORGAN got up at 6:30 a.m. He showered and dressed. He made some coffee and poured it into three Styrofoam cups. He then went to wake up the other agents. First MORGAN stopped at MAYA's room. He knocked. MAYA opened the door. She had showered, but she had not dressed yet so she was wearing a robe.

"I'm glad you're awake," said MORGAN. "I want to talk to you about something." He handed her the coffee and walked in. He sat down in a chair as she closed and locked the door. "Okay, what's your impression of this MALCOLM fellow."

"I think he's a jackass, why?"

"Just wondering," said MORGAN.

"Poor MICHAEL," sniffed MAYA. "It upset me..."

MORGAN nodded his head in the direction of MALCOLM's room. "I think he's going to become permanent."

"Is that the most cheerful thing you can say in the morning? Oh, whatever." She looked around. "Did you bring doughnuts?"

MORGAN left so that MAYA could dress. He knocked on MALCOLM's door. MALCOLM opened the door. "We normally go to Denny's for breakfast. Lunch. Snack. Just to talk," explained MORGAN.

"Uh huh," replied MALCOLM, back. He took MORGAN's offering of coffee, and then went back inside the room to get dressed.

Twenty minutes later, MALCOLM emerged from the room. He went downstairs. MORGAN and MAYA were waiting for him in the lobby. MALCOLM was wearing a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. In contrast, MORGAN was wearing khakis, a button down shirt and loafers, and MAYA was wearing jeans, a t-shirt, sandals, and sunglasses. They went across the street to the Denny's.

After breakfast they got into the Escape and drove to Airport Self Storage. The "green box" was a five foot by ten foot storage unit. They rolled up the door and looked inside. They found a metal detector, five boxes of MREs, one box of 12-gauge shotgun shells, one box of disposable latex gloves, one bottle of Astroglide personal lubricant, three picks, two shovels, and three Nokia cell phone batteries. MORGAN took the Astroglide and the latex gloves. MAYA took the shotgun shells. They left the rest of the items there.

The agents had hoped to find weapons in the green box. Since there were none in the box, they needed to buy some. MORGAN suggested they drive to the nearest Wal-Mart. On the way, MAYA decided to take a side trip to the seedier section of town. She wanted to check out the pawn shops. There were no pistols for sale at the first two establishments they visited, but third did have a small collection of handguns. The agents selected three 9mm Glocks for purchase. Using the IDs MALCOLM brought with him, the pawn shop owner did an "instant check" on their backgrounds over the phone. It came back clean, and they walked out of the shop with three pistols.

They drove to Wal-Mart. MORGAN and MALCOLM each bought an inexpensive pump-action shotgun. MALCOLM also bought a pipe cutter. He intended to cut down the barrel of his shotgun.

Their next stop was the Enolsis Foundation. They all agreed that it would be best to scope it out first before doing anything else. They drove 30 miles out of the city. The foundation was located on 20 acres of farm land. The compound was surrounded by a nine-foot tall heavy chain link fence. There was a guard booth at the front gate. Near the gate were several large buildings. In the back of the compound was a large white pyramid-shaped building. After they drove past Enolsis, they pulled off and parked. They debated sending MALCOLM in for a closer reconnaissance.