Saturday, November 4, 2023

TOE-FAT COUNTRYSIDE: Session Five (part 2)

The next morning, Big Bill made sure to arrive at ISI HQ as early as possible. When Akhtar Ghazali exited the building, he was waiting, leaning against a rented car and smoking a cigarette. When she drew closer, he offered a hand, "Hello, I'm special agent Fox Mulder and I think we have some common interests." Ghazali stared at him for a few seconds before plucking the cigarette out of his other hand and grinding it underfoot. Bill grinned, "Okay, but I do actually work with the American government and I think we should talk before anything bad happens to you." Jim drove the two of them back to her apartment. 

Bill explained that she'd unwittingly been dealing with the Taliban and that she'd just been seen with the ISI. It didn't matter that she was kidnapped or whether she told them anything or not, they were going to assume that she'd flipped. So it was in her best interest to spill the beans and skip town as soon as possible. Ghazali explained that based on her research and a personal encounter with a 'UFO,' that a dimensional breach was most likely the culprit. She also mentioned that the ISI wanted to know if she'd ever had contact with a Hina Arsala. Jim judged that whatever knowledge of the unnatural she had wasn't going to make her a danger to herself or others, so they left her alone.

Meanwhile, Agents Almeida and Taylor squeezed into a booth in the back of a noisy curry joint. After squinting at the bills, al-Zahabi told them what he knew. In the scenario, he doesn't really have much useful intel, but I didn't want to make the players feel like they'd wasted their time setting up this meet. Somewhere in Northern Pakistan, there was a crash site, and it wasn't a drone. He'd deliberately forgotten the coordinates, but that if they could make it to Base Akram, they might be able to get it out of a man inside the ISI that he occasionally worked with. Oh, and the Taliban paid him in rubies, which he thought was weird. Before he left, he warned the Agents that the ISI was actively deploying men into the area. If they wanted to check it out, they'd have to be sneaky.

As a final intelligence check-in, they interviewed Hina Arsala. From her, they discovered where her brother had been living for the past few years, thanks to the magic of geotagged metadata and being nice to NPCs. Now they had a decent idea of where to start looking for the 'downed drone.' Gwin, their case officer, took their report and was able to requisition some time on a spy satellite. He found something very interesting. The village where Andam Arsala resided prior to being captured by the ISI was in a large area of interference, like a stealth bomber the size of a national park.

And so the Agents packed their bags and headed off in that direction. They bought a crappy pickup truck that clearly used to be a technical, though its days of fighting were long over. They made a brief stop in Datta Khel to take advantage of the open air arms market. Once they were satisfied with their purchases, they drove towards the edge of the mysterious zone.

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