Operation SPRING CLEANING

A five-member DG Cell was retired 18 months ago. The two surviving useful members have been reassigned to new, different cells. Two of them are apparently dead. One of them is under constant supervision and is allowed no visitors.

So who is performing operations in the Seattle area using DG resources and contacting Alphonse with reports from the field?

## Keeper's Background

A DG Friendly with the King County Sherriff’s Department is continuing the good fight, as she sees it. She has been informed of the illegal nature of DG, but she was not properly inducted into the group by the former T-Cell leader. Reports on her suitability as an Agent are mixed, to put it politely. She was, however, the cleanup crew on the last Opera, and found the T-Cell leader’s laptop and a febrile, insane Agent Thomas. Using the information contained on the laptop and asked with Thomas’ help, she was able to submit a field report to A-Cell, and received two more missions (of no real import) before one of the real agents managed to report in. A-Cell is still undecided as to whether these seemingly well meaning “agents” can be brought in, or if the security risk they present is too great.

## Investigation

The investigators are forwarded an e-mail from T-Cell to Alphonse and a news article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. (Handouts 1-3) A-Cell thinks these are connected, as the email was traced back to an IP address belonging to Precinct Two, located in Kenmore, WA (a city north of Seattle, at the northern tip of Lake Washington.)

Agents with a good Computer Use skill and some time can wait out the next transmission. An Idea roll may encourage the agents to spoof an email as A-cell to set up a face-to-face meeting, cause a response email to be sent within a time window, what have you. Direct visual surveillance on a small police station is possible, but difficult.

When the agents do uncover Ted, they will find an older, motherly woman who works as an evidence clerk for the KCSD. Sherry Osgood was obviously a beautiful woman in her youth, and continues to maintain an impressive level of vitality and health. Twice divorced for adultery (no children, no current boyfriend), she went back to school for an Accounting degree, and wound up with a job as an evidence clerk. When she was approached by T-cell, she decided that joining the Conspiracy would become her first priority. She would have done the same were she approached by Majestic-12, a group of dirty cops, or even a powerful enough drug lord. The secrets and lies required to perform the job is what attracts her to the role. The shaky nature of her sanity reflects both the cleanup of the last major NATO, but also the legacy of a lifetime of manipulation, including the recent psychological torture of Thomas.

### Sherry Osgood (Ted), age 49, Evidence Clerk, Wannabe LEO and Agent

**STR** 09 **CON** 16 **SIZ** 11 **INT** 16 **POW** 16

**DEX** 10 **APP** 13 **EDU** 11 **SAN** 30 **HP** 14

**Damage Bonus**: +0.

**Attacks**: None.

**Skills**: Accounting 75%, Fast Talk 67%, Credit Rating 51%, Cthulhu Mythos 09%, Drive Auto 60%, History 42%, Library Use 35%, Occult 26%, Persuade 55%, Psychology 40%, Spot Hidden 44%

**Weapons**: Firearms 55%.

**Languages**: English 65%, Spanish 37%.

If approached, Sherry will attempt to ingratiate herself to the cell immediately, and she cannot conceal her excitement. A successful Psychology roll will reveal that she seems nervous as well. She will not allow any attempt to meet anywhere that is not a public place. When asked about how she was taught to use the secure DG system, she will claim that the former T-Cell leader (Terry) showed her how. A successful Psychology roll or Interrogation shows this to be a lie. If pressed, she will threaten to expose the organization and leave the scene.

## Tailing Sherry

Following Sherry from the police station or the meeting site will lead the agents to a home in Mulketio, a far north suburb of the Greater Seattle area. The home is one of many “rubber-stamp” homes in a standard subdivision. Keepers unfamiliar with this US style of housing development can read the following article:

http://www.freenewmexican.com/sfguide/128.html

A usable floor plan is here:

http://www.mckieroth.com/floorplan.htm

Sherry and Thomas are the only residents of this home. Thomas is kept locked in Sherry’s walk in closet on the second floor, with a small TV/DVD combo playing children’s cartoons. Thomas has been almost fully brainwashed into believing that Sherry is keeping him there to protect him, instead of pumping him for information. Thomas will be disoriented and require some therapy to return to public life. Thomas will be able to describe the events in the Keeper’s Background section.

Also located in the closet is also the DG laptop with bootable secure OS CD.

### William Jenkins (Thomas), age 33, Parks Department Employee,

**STR** 11 **CON** 11 **SIZ** 13 **INT** 13 **POW** 12

**DEX** 13 **APP** 11 **EDU** 16 **SAN** 10 **HP** 12

**Damage Bonus**: +0.

**Attacks**: None.

**Skills**: Cringe 75%, Seek Approval 77%, Cthulhu Mythos 11%,

**Weapons**: Pistols 45%, Axe 35%, Chainsaw 45%

**Languages**: English 85%,

## Resolution:

The agents are to plug the security hole and it’s up to them how to do it. Sherry is a fairly reprehensible human being, but she can continue to serve some purpose if she can be prevented from her high-profile embezzlements of evidence. However, she’s jacketed herself pretty badly, so if she turned up dead, a cursory investigation would lead the local police to determine she was the evidence thief. It’s up to the agents to determine what they can stomach.

## Rewards/Penalties

**Rescuing Thomas**: +1 point of Sanity

**Removing Sherry as a threat**: +1 point of Sanity

## Handouts:

### Handout 1

TO: (YOUR CELL LEADER)

FROM: Alphonse

SUBJECT: Security issues in Network.

Please examine the forwarded email. The sender “Ted” is not an Agent, but friendly(s). Preliminary analysis shows the email was routed from IP 146.129.240.42, and further traced to KCSD Precinct Two, located in Kenmore, WA. Determine the nature and extent of the security breaches. Previous reports regarding likely friendly(s) states that they were useful, but not trustworthy for full activation. It looks like they’ve promoted themselves. If any part of this resource can be utilized and preserved for future use, do so. If they cannot operate within our constraints, immediately remove any threat they might pose to us.

Be Seeing You,

Alphonse

### Handout 2

TO: Alphonse

FROM: Ted

SUBJECT: Objective achieved.

Sir,

While understanding the need for a one-way communication path at this time, we regret to inform you that we are having difficulty maintaining fiscal stability without being able to talk more directly with our supervisors. This has led us to a decision, which, while not unanimous, we all feel will fulfill the spirit of your orders during the blackout. We will continue to chase this darkness from our doors by any means available to us.

Be Seeing You,

Ted

### Handout 3

Evidence disappears from vaults “a regular occurrence”

in King County

By Eric Dalner

While Sheriff Sue Rahr is ‘naming names’ to King County Executive Ron Sims, misconduct by King County deputies appears to be systemic. Evidence is being increasingly “borrowed” by an unknown deputy or deputies, usually returning to the evidence locker after some time. According to sources inside the police department, the evidence stolen ranges from walkie-talkies and suitcases to firearms. Sometimes the guns come back having recently been fired. On occasion, money has disappeared altogether.

Sims said because of eroding discipline in the Sheriff's Office (chronicled in other P-I stories,) he is worried about the sheriff's relationship with other police departments and with the 13 cities with which it contracts for police services, as well as King County International Airport, Metro Transit and The Muckleshoot Indian Tribe.

"We need to provide the assurance that when they see King County uniforms, they respect that person, that that is a highly professional person, that we have weeded that garden," Sims said.

Sims said the good officers — who are the vast majority in the department — suffer because of the bad ones.

Rahr could not be reached for comment, but her spokesman John Urquhart reiterated "there will be changes made in the sheriff's department."

## Credits

Operation SPRING CLEANING was written by Robert Lint for the 2005 shotgun scenario contest.