Session 16: Black/Deep

The agents receive emails from A-Cell with the subject “Hope you have some PTO.” Attached to the email is a photo depicting a heavily damaged submarine in dry dock. The email relates that Los Angeles-class submarine USS "San Francisco" (SSN-711) had been recently involved in a grounding incident. Recent data relates that she was submerged, when she "hit bottom in one of the deepest parts of the Pacific" - "the middle of the East Marianas Basin". One man died and twenty others were injured. There is a photo from a news outlet attached.

The San Francisco was running without active sonar, but topographical maps of the ocean floor in that region (about 500 miles south of Guam) have been accurate in the past.

ALFONSE wants to know: did something interfere with the boat's navigation or did the sub strike some uncharted obstacle? Historically the South Pacific has been problematic for Delta Green.

Along with the email are ticketless confirmations for travel to Guam on Continental Airlines. These tickets leave tomorrow morning but have open-ended return dates. ALPHONSE mentions that these tickets were paid for with the profits from his private defense contract selling toilet seats to the Pentagon.

In addition, the email adds, there is a Green Box at Naval Station Guam. It hasn’t been accessed in thirty years, and if it remains it is in the southwestern most support pillar of the motor pool located in the Ordnance Depot. If anything goes wrong while not on US soil, the agents are on their own.

When the email arrives MASON is wandering the High Sierras and learns of this on his Satellite Phone.

The following morning, HAROLD and HECTOR meet at the airport and begin the 18-hour flight. HAROLD begins drinking; HECTOR gets up periodically to avoid a sudden, untimely death by Deep Vein Thrombosis.

MASON opts not to use his ticket and instead uses his NSA connections to travel to Guam on a military transport. In doing so he is able to bring his infamous black bag. He also ends up arriving a day after the others.

In Hagåtña, Guam’s capitol, HECTOR and HAROLD check into a motel. When MASON arrives he immediately locates a brothel and spends a good deal of time there with a young woman called Amilynn. He pays her handsomely (by Guamanian standards) to be her steady client for the week.

In order to better blend in, the members of H-Cell go to get more military-style haircuts. Five minutes and $9 later, they have extremely close-cropped hair and some information about a local dive frequented by submariners. At around 5:00 pm they head over to this establishment, Hiram’s Bar & Grill. It is a hole-in-the-wall with a noticeably absent Grill and “That Smell” by Lynyrd Skynyrd blasting from the jukebox. It seems to be mostly patronized by Guamanian fishermen but there are a few military types playing pool.

HECTOR sets a quarter on the table and waits around to play the winner. He ends up playing a kid from Topeka called Jerry who works on a submarine. Jerry happens to be a horrible player, but HECTOR throws the game and lets him win. He offers to buy a round of drinks for him and his friends and tips the bartender to overpour. Jerry saw the San Francisco as it came in and was impressed by the level of damage. A friend of his, Raymond Banks, was on board at the time of the accident. He's currently in the U.S. Naval Hospital.

HECTOR and HAROLD decide they need to get on Base to see the sub firsthand, and to move around unhindered they need some identification. There are crews working in multiple shifts on the repairs, and they seem to be mostly local contractors. Early the next morning they park outside the main gate and wait for the night crew to emerge. HAROLD sees someone who might pass for him and they tail the man to his house. He seems to notice they're following him. He goes inside, and after a minute peers out his window. They're still sitting in their car outside. Finally they get cold feet and leave.

MASON finally announces his presence to the other agents, and together they head over to the Hospital to speak with Petty Officer 3rd Class Raymond Banks. He has suffered a head injury and a broken collarbone and subsequently he is on a high-dosage of Demerol. HECTOR is dressed in scrubs and poses as an orderly; HAROLD is in his suit and flashes his FBI badge. MASON waits in the lounge.

“I’m looking into the possibility that this accident was the doing of Al Qaeda,” HAROLD explains.

“They have subs now?” asks Banks groggily.

HAROLD learns from Banks that at the time of the accident he was thrown to the floor where he sustained his injuries. He heard a terrible grinding and scraping, and before he blacked out from the pain he also heard a banging sound on the hull.

“Like something outside was trying to get in?” asks HAROLD.

“I thought I was imagining it,” says Banks, “but I talked to one of my buddies afterwards and he said that he heard it too. But maybe it was within the sub, sound travels pretty well down there.”

Banks goes on to tell them that most of the crew is on leave while the sub is under repair. Some of the men were treated for injuries and sent home already, but a few remain in the hospital. One man was killed, and another officer friend of his is in the psych ward because of it: he was the one who closed the bulkhead (which undoubtedly saved many lives), but he did it with the knowledge that in doing so he doomed the sailor who was on the other side. His friend is a Guamanian native called Joaquin Suchinsuch.

"Do you ever see anyone else out there?" asks HAROLD.

"There are some science crews," says Banks. "They're pretty friendly though, and they usually report their location to us in advance."

"Do you know any of these scientists?"

"Yeah... There's one guy I talked to a few times. His name is Timothy Vess."

"Does he work around here?"

"No, Auckland, I think."

The agents leave Banks and go to try to speak with Suchinsuch. They are turned away by the hospital.

"I'm sorry, only visits by his immediate family," says the nurse.

"But I'm his lover," argues HAROLD unsuccessfully.

HECTOR makes some phone calls. He finds out that Dr. Vess is a professor from the University of Auckland from that institution's faculty website. He calls the switchboard operator and is put through to his number. There is only a recording stating that he will be out of the office for the next three weeks. The recording was made a week ago.

Meanwhile, MASON, a graduate of the Naval Postgraduate Academy before his selection by the NSA, still has a Navy ID. He borrows Amilynn’s family car and files down the distributor caps. With the car riding rough, he drives on Base and takes it over to the motor pool. Two men are working there, Harry and another who doesn’t introduce himself. MASON tells them that he’s retired Navy (E-3 Seaman, honorably discharged) and that he came back to visit his girlfriend’s family in the remote village of Santa Rita but doesn’t think his car will make it that far. The mechanics offer to take a look at it and MASON excuses himself to go to the Commissary.

He sneaks around the back to the southwestern pillar. It’s a huge steel drum. In fact, the whole motor pool building is built on a foundation of steel drums to allow for the occasional flooding that they experience. It is rusted but still very much intact. MASON decides he needs to find an oxyacetylene torch to cut through it.

Back inside, he locates one but is unable to abscond with it undetected. He walks to the Commissary and buys some whiskey, then brings it back and offers it to Harry and his partner so they can make some Irish Coffee. While they’re occupied he walks to the back of the building and pries up the floorboards. He can see the barrel, but it’s still inaccessible. He decides this stupid Green Box is not worth the effort.

The mechanics have not found the root of the problem, so MASON tells them what might be wrong. They quickly repair the car and MASON goes back to visit with Amilynn.

HAROLD sees a worker leave the Naval Station he believes he could pass for. In their rental car, they tail him to his house. He goes into his house for a half an hour or so and then comes out again and drives away. HECTOR goes around back and finds the back door unlocked, but there is the sound of a loud television inside. He opens the door and throws in a rock but nobody comes to investigate. He calls HAROLD and tells him to create a distraction at the front door.

HAROLD rings the bell. After a minute an old man, indeed an older version of the steelworker who left minutes earlier, answers the door.

“Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?” asks HAROLD.

HECTOR dashes upstairs to the room and finds a pair of dirty coveralls. In the pocket he finds the ID badge of the contracting company the Navy hired to perform the repairs on the USS San Francisco. He pockets it and returns to the car. HAROLD returns a few minutes later.

“I think I made a big difference in his spiritual life,” he explains. (The steelworker’s father goes on to be a very active member in the Mormon community of Guam.)

Hector begins to think of ways to prevent his doppelganger from showing up to work tomorrow.

MASON decides to head back to the motor pool after dark. He finds a local auto shop and breaks a window in the rear. A Doberman inside is alerted and begins barking wildly. He quickly attaches his silencer and dispatches the animal. Inside, he finds what he is looking for: a portable oxyacetylene cutting torch.

He picks up the others and returns to the Naval Station. He convinces the gate guard that he’s here for a party at the Enlisted Men’s Club and that the other two people in his car are his guests. The agents head back to the motor pool.

It is now abandoned and dark except for a dirty light at the front of the building. They drive the jalopy around back and stop by the steel drum. HAROLD removes his jacket and Banana Republic dress shirt, and goes to work with the torch in just his Gap T-shirt. Inside the barrel are some heavy and decrepit plastic garbage bags. The agents hastily throw these into the trunk and then nonchalantly drive off base.

When safely away, they open the bags to reveal the following:

• Two sealed bottles of Chi-Chi's Margarita Mix and a sealed bag of corn chips. There's also a Jimmy Buffet album on vinyl.
• A box containing a WW2 era MG-42 requiring cleaning. It has a bipod and two barrels included with it. Along with two 250 round belts.
• An emergency radio, with battery power and a hand-crank back-up.
• A battered, but serviceable, Parker Bros. Ouija board, ca. 1930s. Its surface is readable, but marred by curious rust colored stains.
• 1 silver nail-cutter with a small foldable blade attached.
• A home-made piece of equipment that emits sound at 14,000 to 100,000 Hz (adjustable). A piece of tape with an arrow scribbled on it marks frequencies between 42 and 45,000 Hz. It needs a new battery.
• One 16 oz. shampoo bottle with the words "Holy Water" scrawled on it in black paint pen. The bottle is about 1/2 full.
• 1 Roll of 60' of Nylon Webbing, plus nylon thread and needle
• A stainless surgical saw.
• Two packets of cigarettes
• 1 dozen small tiki torches
• A machete (pranga) of African manufacture. A crude representation of a sinuous snake with a single wing has been etched into the blade.
• A pair of jury-rigged stilts (made of 2x4s and wood scraps). The bottom portions are stained blue from some sort of acrid liquid.
• A bleached and varnished skull of some unfamiliar creature.
• Cessna 195 Flight and Operations Manual, dated 1948. A 62 page manual on yellowing paper, which is everything a pilot would need to safely operate and fly a 1948 model Cessna 195 (a single-engine plane, with space for 1 pilot and 4 passengers, which was manufactured between 1947 and 1954). There is a key taped to the back page of the manual. Looks like the key to a lock-up garage, or outbuilding. There is also a phone number.
• One case of commercial K-Rations.
• 5 pair surgical latex gloves in paper wrappers.
• A rather well-filled tool-box. Contains most things necessary for minor repairs and fixing.
• 41 pages of a type-written movie script entitled "Wild Desert Bikers”