Target Verification

Everyone makes mistakes, even A-Cell. However, when A-Cell makes mistakes, there's a lot on the line. James Fitzhugh is a decorated FBI agent, and a member of H-Cell, codename Horatio. A-Cell is convinced that Horatio has become a liability and is need of a retirement plan. Exactly why Delta-Green is after one of its own is up to the Keeper, but the underpinning facts should be wrong. The agents are tasked with delivering his severance check.

## Involving the Agents

Each agent receives the following SMS/Email:

*Welcome to a Night at the Opera. Agent Horatio, real name James*

*Fitzhugh, has been compromised. Orders are to eliminate the risk. Address:*

*3302 Sleepy Hollow Rd*

*Falls Church, VA 22044*

A jpg of Horatio is attached.

If the agents in your game are H-Cell, change Horatio's name to another cell the agents have not encountered before.

## Researching Horatio

The investigators might just want to hunt down Horatio and kill him on A-Cell's orders. That is fine. If the agents decide to research Horatio first, they can learn many things. In typical A-Cell fashion, they will provide no more details on the mission.

A records search indicates that Horatio he was married five years ago to Alison McKnight, that he studied PolySci at Georgetown, and there are no kids on record. He is 34 years old. He served in the 4th ID prior to going to Georgetown and spent time in Germany, but no combat. A credit check indicates that he just paid off his mortgage and over $30K in credit card debt within the last few months. If they pull his bank account records, Horatio has an additional $155K in the bank.

If the investigators dig deeper they can learn that he currently works for the FBI as a firearms instructor at Quantico; prior to that, he worked for the NRO Communications Acquisitions and Operations Directorate as a liaison to the Pentagon. He left NRO saying, "he wanted to serve his nation more actively." Accessing his FBI records via a Computer Use or Fast Talk roll reveals that Horatio is an ideal FBI agent. He has no blemishes on his record and has received several commendations.

Following Horatio reveals that he leaves his home every morning at 7:00am and arrives at the Quantico gates at 8:15am. He leaves the gates at 5pm and is home by 6pm.

Bugging his home captures almost constant arguing between him and his wife about money, sex, kids (or the lack there of), and his frequent absences. A Psychoanalysis roll indicates that Horatio is stressed and taking his anger out on his wife who is responding in kind.

If the investigators come up with a plausible reason to talk to Alison, she'll say that she loves her husband but they're going through tough times because he travels for his job and are trying to have a child, but have been unable to conceive. Alison was told the money came from a deceased uncle. A records search doesn't uncover a relative's death. If asked about the week-long vacation mentioned by Horatio's fellow agents, she will know nothing about it, claiming he was out of town for training. She slowly breaks down, she just found out she was pregnant and now finds out he's cheating on her.

If one of the agents is an FBI agent, or can pose convincingly as one, they can talk to Horatio's co-workers. Most of his fellow agents will paint him as a loner who doesn't go out for a few beers with the guys after work on Thursdays, and seems to lack a sense of humor. He has seemed more stressed out lately even though he recently just returned from a week-long vacation. None of his fellow agents, however, will paint him as anything other than a loyal agent.

The agents can break into Horatio's house, but will have to wait until Alison leaves. She's a housewife, but leaves daily to go to the gym for an hour. The house has a whole house alarm that monitors the windows and doors, as well as a motion detector that is aimed high to avoid being set-off whenever the housecat runs through a room. The house has a traditional layout, with a wall-safe hidden in the closest of the master bedroom. A Mechanical Repair roll will defeat the dial. Investigators will find several folders inside; two have pictures of the investigators. One set of pictures shows the investigators in various scenes from the Convergence scenario. The second set shows investigators in another scenario they investigated. Other folders show pictures of what could be other Delta Green agents.

The investigators can approach Horatio to talk to him, or even try to kidnap him. Unless tortured, he won't give up any information. Delta-Green has trained him too well. He will use information he learned from watching the investigators on their ops to paint them as MJ-12 operatives as they interrogate him. If the investigators can convince him that they're with Delta-Green, he will begin to answer their questions. The money came from a recent operation. The cultists were financing some of their activities with arms deals. Since he doesn't get paid to fight this fight, he figured it was only fair to take some of their ill-gotten gains to improve his life. He swears he is completely loyal to Delta-Green and has never been compromised.

The photos are of ops he was on. He was told by A-Cell that he was to gather intelligence on potential security risks to the conspiracy, take pictures of them, and report back to A-Cell. He saved copies as insurance.

He and his wife are having problems because they're trying to have children and the stress of Delta Green operations is preventing him from performing. He does not know she's pregnant, but

will open up if he hears the news.

## Hunting Horatio

Unless the investigators have already approached Horatio, he will not know he's being hunted. He carries his pistol with him at all times, or at least keeps it nearby at home. He is a crack shot, so if the investigators do not take him out from a distance, at least one of investigators will likely be shot. He will go down shooting, but not before calling 911.

## The Aftermath

There are several ways this scenario could play out.

Horatio is killed with no investigation. The investigator s go home, but never realize that A-Cell was wrong.

The investigators investigate Horatio and come to the conclusion that he's turned, so they kill him.

The investigators investigate Horatio and realize A-Cell is wrong.

They can kill Horatio anyway, in this case they should lose an additional 1d4 SAN for killing a man they know to be innocent.

They can approach A-Cell and tell them that they're wrong. A-Cell will assume the investigators were compromised by Horatio and act accordingly.

Tell A-Cell they killed Horatio, provide doctored photographic evidence, and try to hide Horatio. He will agree to the hiding, but if A-Cell ever finds out the truth, all agents involved are in trouble. In this case, the investigators should receive a 1d4 bonus for showing some humanity in this bitter war.

### James Fitzhugh, Agent Horatio, age 34

Horatio was recruited into Delta-Green shortly after leaving NRO. When he worked for the FBI office in NYC, he stumbled across a ghoul cult tearing apart a Delta-Green cell. He successfully extracted the lone surviving, but heavily chewed Delta-Green agent. Not long after, he was approached to join the conspiracy, and did so willing. His missions have taken a toll on him mentally and emotionally, but he is still loyal to A-Cell and would not betray them without good reason.

**Race:** Caucasian

**STR** 14, **CON** 16, **SIZ** 13, **INT** 15, **POW** 16,

**DEX** 15, **APP** 12, **EDU** 16, **SAN** 65 (80 max), **HP** 15

**Damage Bonus:** +1d4

**Education:** Bachelor's degree, PolySci

**Occupation:** FBI agent

**Skills:** Climb 56%, Computer Use 35%, Cthulhu Mythos 9%, Listen 59%, Persuade 36%, Photography 43%, Spot Hidden 62%

**Languages:** English 99%

**Attacks:** Glock 75%, damage 1d10

It is up to the Keeper why A-Cell is after Horatio. Some ideas include MJ-12 finding out that Horatio is a Delta-Green agent and leaking the information, or Alzis doing the same just to mess with A-Cell. Alternatively, A-Cell could have found out about the money, put that together with Horatio's history with NRO (even though he's never heard of NRO Delta) and assumed he was a plant. It could be that A-Cell was right all along, and by saving Horatio, the investigators ensure their own demise.

## Credits

Target Verification was written by Chad Bowser for the 2008 shotgun scenario contest.