Protagonists#

• LaBarbara, Emmy - Agent Cod - Physicianr (John)
• Miller, Liam (Agent Dave / Jocko) - Naval Special Warfare Group One (SEALs) (Panagiotis)
• Roth, Dustin A. - Agent Taramis - CDC Assistant Program Manager (Tasos)
• Bennet, Wendy - Agent Locke - Criminal Intelligence Analyst / Assistant Professor of Criminology (Konstantina)

The Hideout#

Located in a rundown neighborhood in Harlem, New York, a nail parlor---closed due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions---serves as Working Group MASTICATE’s site of operations. The shop sits between a Pizza Hut and a car tire store.

The office occupies the back of the parlor, behind a door. It is small and cramped.

All processed documents are first shredded and then burned by Agent Jocko in hobos’ barrels around the area.

The office contains a multipurpose machine, a computer, and a printer. Nothing is connected to the internet. Plain cardboard boxes serve as temporary storage.

An espresso pot supplies the agents’ caffeine needs. Food is ordered from nearby food trucks and shops. Agent Jocko has also snuck in a 5-kg jumbo bucket of Mambo Peanut Butter.

A sleeping hammock hangs in the front of the parlor behind a dressing screen.

The place has no toilet, but there is a shared one outside in the back alley. The heat would be unbearable without air conditioning, but fortunately a slow, noisy ceiling fan turns above them.

From time to time, Bobby---a mad homeless man---bangs on the parlor’s glass door, shouting to “bring out your dead” and warning that “the end is nigh.”

The Agents’ Findings#

Each Agent shares their findings, theories and offer suggestions on handling the case.

• Identity: Jacob Tillman, Esau Tillman, and Conradin are the same boy from Cornucopia House who repeatedly evaded detection by Delta Green’s Program.
• Public past: His father published memoirs about Jacob’s abduction and recovery, making him briefly well known.
• Name change: Before turning 18, Jacob legally became Esau Tillman and started a new life, burying his identity.
• Connections: As Conradin, he developed ties with the wealthy Laugherty family, linked to private prison contracts.
• Condition: Brain damage from abuse at Cornucopia House impaired his language but left him connected to an unnatural cosmic force (“the hunger”).
• Position of power: He works for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)and is using abuses within the system to recreate Cornucopia House.
• Goal: Hide a ritual within systemic cruelty to summon cosmic forces again.
• Protection: His political connections make legal action against him nearly impossible, even for the Program.

Briefing Pitzerelli#

Working Group MASTICATE focuses its narrative on the facts surrounding the “Babies Missing in Action” document, as well as the potential supernatural threat. They suggest that further evidence should be gathered and emphasize the need to infiltrate ICE.

Pitzerelli realizes that the agents are not being fully honest with him and demands that they tell him everything. Even after they finally come clean, he orders them to stand down. Any action against Esau Tillman, he explains, would trigger an unwanted federal investigation that could expose the Program and its secret operations.

Before he departs, the agents are certain that he intends to contact leadership about them.

Agent Jocko stops him, ties him up, and Agent Cod knocks him out with a heavy sedative.

The Outlaw#

As Agents Taramis and Locke consider abandoning the case and leaving the country with their families, Agent Cod proposes a potential solution. She reveals that she is one of the Outlaws: the unofficial, illegal continuation of Delta Green after the U.S. government shut the Program down. Their resources, she explains, might be tapped to help achieve the agents’ goals.