Introduction
This is a simulation exercise for two to four agents of a cell herein referred to as K. Depending on the actual cell configuration, two of the operatives may have status of friendlies, at the Case Officer's discretion. At least one agent, referred to as KESTREL must be on active duty at the U.S. Secret Service White House detachment, with the rest of the operatives being at positions suitable to justify the assignment.
References put in square brackets may be changed to suit the actual situation. All named NPCs are described in the DG and Countdown.
1. The Call.
From: ALPHONSE
To: KESTREL, KEYNES, KOBAYASHI
You are about to be sent with the White House entourage to the [G8] talks at [Vienna]. A trusted source informed us that there may be a negotiation path of interest to DELTA GREEN. We need information.
This is not a NIGHT AT THE OPERA, this is an intelligence gathering mission. Relay all gathered materials to the contact given.
Keep an eye on NSC Special Studies Project people, and everyone else with MAJIC clearance. Assemble their contacts lists, esp. of the foreign delegations.
The equipment is at the third place. Good luck.
2. Preparations.
"Third place" is the codename of a Green Box [in a pawn shop in Washington slum. Agent goes there, asks the owner for a package left there by Abel Greenblatt and receives a shoebox-sized container.]
Inside there are:
- GSM cellphones with prepaid accounts, purchased anonymously in Switzerland last year. The prepaid balances are about $300 each. One or two of the cellphones is/are business Nokia 6310i, the remaining two are fancy models with good cameras, one Sony-Ericsson and one Samsung. All of the phones also work in the US (where there is GSM1900 coverage). All phones have the numbers of other phones stored in their phone-books under inconspicuous names. The phones have message encryption/decryption programs loaded.
- A heavy zippo-style lighter.
- A bottle of a popular medicine prescribed to KOBAYASHI's real name. Six of the beige capsules have a thin red line painted around and are slightly heavier. Two of the capsules have thin black line.
- Two recording voice activated bugs (24h capacity), disguised as a cheap looking big fountain pen and a nondescript electronic device. Also present are data cables, to retrieve the stored audio to a computer.
- A silencer fitting to KESTREL's issue weapon.
- One of the smallest consumer grade digital cameras with a 5+ mpix sensor and good lens, with accessories. The data card has been modified so that all files saved are immediately encrypted. No method of decryption is provided.
- A piece of paper with an email address [on Hotmail].
The delegation
Is over a hundred people from various branches of the federal government. NSC SSP delegation is four people: Lt. Gen Thomas Deerhausen, U.S. Army, [Lt. Col. John Morrison, USMC (this is Adolph Lepus's assumed identity)], Vice-Admiral George Gates, USN, and Dr Wayne Harl.
After the delegation arrives and settles in the [Imperial] hotel, one of the operatives with appropriate clearance (but not KESTREL) is tasked with visiting every room of the delegation every six hours, and supplying new and collecting burn bags placed there. The burn bags are not intended for anything secret, as this would break security procedures, but "to avoid leaving unintended informational residue".
KESTREL is tasked with protection of President's entourage.
3. The talks.
Surveillance of SSP people will reveal that they spend most their time in meetings of "Peacetime Strategy Special Affairs Military Committee". The talks are informally referred as "Big Three" talks between SSP people, and take place in secret location (classified MAJIC) outside [Vienna]. Street level surveillance will reveal it to be an [Austrian government owned], heavily protected cottage in [the Wienerwald forest].
Surveillance of the cottage will reveal the identity of other participants of the talks (via checking of cars used). The other delegations are British: Dame Majorie Rittingham, the Duchess of Staffordshire, and Russian: General Alexander F. Zimyanin and Colonel Viktor A. Sterlikov.
No amount of infiltration including breaking the DG cover can put an operative in a place where s/he could bug or observe the Big Three talks.
Three days before the end of the talks, the US President, Russian President and UK Prime Minister will join the "Big Three" committee.
4. The results.
Routine surveillance of Russian delegation will lead to a meeting in very classy and expensive restaurant, there they will informally meet an old gentleman, who can be later identified as Anatoliy Semenowich Ogarkov. They vaguely talk business.
The burn bag from the room of Lt. Gen Thomas Deerhausen, U.S. Army.
On second day of the talks the bag contains a handful of torn official papers, an used condom (the General travels without his spouse), torn pieces of a letter on hotel stationery and some paper ash:
Dear G.
The situation is pretty tight. We have a shaky arrangement with the EBEs, and Harl thinks a war is coming. He wants to ruin everything, and is working on the President. President bounces from wanting to surrender to EBEs to almost declaring war on them. The Sov[crossed over] Russians are asking questions and
not answering any, and the Limey bitch sits there behind her smirk. [the rest is torn off]
[another piece]
I feel like in Afghanistan again, but this time we'd be mujaheedins for someone who we really even don't know.
The surveilliance of the NSC people reveals that they're drafting an announcement that the [G8] leaders are going to present on the last day of the talks.
Successful application of tradecraft will get access to files or draft printouts of announcement and treaty it refers to: there will be a pact of Russia, UK and USA to present a "united front towards the extraterriestal issues", with one of the predicted outcomes being the war with EBEs. This will be announced during a public conference on the last day of the [G8].
After sending the above informations to the Hotmail address, a message will be received on KESTREL's mobile (encrypted). This happens only when full text of treaty and the General's letter were sent to A Cell.
From: ALPHONSE
To: KESTREL
This is a very bitter moment. From the files you sent, we need to stop it, and the only sure way is the Oswald option. We were afraid it will come like this, but hoped it will go another way. But now, we stand against a future so bright that it burns everything to ashes. And we have to fight this future. Ourselves, or it would
trigger the last war.
KOBAYASHI's red medicine is for you all, in case someone goes wrong. There are tiny glass vials inside, so you need to bite. Its painless and immediate. Black medicine is for the target. Onset time, an hour. No taste. You have used the lighter before.
The lighter is an assassination weapon, when opened and squeezed in proper way it fires one .22LR shot, bullet coated with cyanide. It needs to be fired at point blank to hit.
There are example ways of approaching the task:
Poisoning - the capsules work as described, using them should involve lots of suspense and tradecraft. Knowing the target is dying afterwards is 2d4/1 SAN. The official autopsy records won't mention the poison and there will be no investigation.
Assassination - this is a simple but suicidal option. There will be many opportunities. The target wears body armor when in public. Actually shooting the target costs 2d6/2 SAN.
Assault on the motorcade - this is not going to work. Within 48 hours, A Cell can supply some anti-armor weapons and there are many places to try it, but the cars are heavily armored.
5. The lone gunman.
The situation should be presented in a way that the best opportunity for assassination is when the POTUS is heading for the final conference and statements. For some reason, POTUS's personal bodyguards number is limited to two on that day, and while KESTREL is not one of them, there will be moments when he is alone with the target.
In almost the same moment he decides to shoot, (or if he didn't or the order didn't come - on one of the opportunity moments), one of the two bodyguards takes out his gun and starts shooting at the President. If not stopped, he will blow his own brains out with the last bullet. Later, a MAJIC-level research on him will only reveal that he served in NRO DELTA for a while. If he was stopped before suicide, he doesn't remember anything.
If KESTREL attempted assault, all the blame goes on him, and no official
information mentions the second attacker. If he didn't, the official blame is put on Secret Service's selection process.
All people who could say anything that would disturb the official version fade away during the following year: they die of strokes, in single car accidents or are killed in violent muggings.