Night's Black Agents
Shadow Fleet
by Adam Gauntlett
… for the purpose of this resolution, ‘dark fleet’ or ‘shadow fleet’ means ships that are engaged in illegal operations for the purposes of circumventing sanctions, evading compliance with safety or environmental regulations, avoiding insurance costs or engaging in other illegal activities …
Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’: Bringing the threat to light: EU 2024
Premise: an ageing cargo ship runs aground off the coast of Jamaica, disgorging a cargo better kept in the dark.
Though the term shadow fleet has a modern connotation, this scenario can be repurposed as a Fall of Delta Green plot. Some things would need to change; in the 1960s, for example, Jamaica has only recently involved itself in the Federation of the West Indies and will be a Crown Colony until 1962. This will affect its reaction to a cargo ship going aground offshore.
Incident: The Torrey Coral, cargo capacity of 118,285 long tons (120,183 t) of crude oil, goes aground in a storm off the coast of Ocho Rios (Eight Rivers), Jamaica, in the parish of St. Ann, North Coast.
If this is the 1960s, then Ocho Rios is a sleepy little fishing town about as far away from important things as it is possible to be. Terence Young’s just this minute finished filming Dr. No using Ocho Rios as a backdrop. If this is the modern era then Ocho Rios is still small but better known for tourism and luxury villas.
Initial news reports suggest a potential cargo spill, which the authorities are doing their best to contain.
The agents are brought in either by their agency or by a vampire-adjacent intelligence third-party. The Torrey Coral is on several sanctions-dodging lists under different names – Munro Castle, Unity Bell, Liberty Star – and the concern is that the cargo might be even more hazardous than advertised. There’s confusion as to the owner. All that’s known for certain is that she’s registered in the Cook Islands, a flag of convenience haven.
The agents’ patron is more concerned about the Torrey Coral’s owner. Who are they, and what was the Torrey Coral doing so far from its usual shipping lanes?
On The Ground: Ocho Rios is in a panic. Nobody knows whether there’s been a spill or not. A recent fish kill that washed up on Mahogany Beach suggests that there’s been one, and lack of information from the authorities has people alarmed about a cover-up. [1960s: Mahogany Beach is practically untouched by human hand. Modern: cabanas, jet skis, restrooms. Either way, pristine white sands and clear waters.] The police have their hands full dealing with unruly locals and the media.
Several local politicians are making hay while the sun shines, including Thomas Bustamante, prominent member of the Opposition who’s gunning for a leadership job. Treat as Civilian who can call on gym-rat Thugs if need be. Bustamente can be a contact or OPFOR, as the Director chooses. If contact, then he knows about the Conspiracy operatives and can point the agents in their direction.
The ship itself is watched night and day by local authorities, beefed up by an American military presence, which will arrive a day after the agents do. This increases the Difficulty of any attempt to get close to the ship from 3 to 5, once the Americans are in position. The Americans aren’t precisely welcome and it’s not clear under what authority they’re present, but loud noises are being made about international cooperation and nobody’s willing to question a heavily armed helping hand.
Conspiracy Friendlies: Until this incident, the Conspiracy didn’t have a full-fledged Node in Jamaica. It had a compliant lawyer, Laurent Morgan, on the payroll for those rare occasions when it needed a presence in Jamaica, and Morgan’s shady enough to have some established criminal friends for rough stuff. However, since the incident a small group of Conspiracy assets have relocated temporarily to Ocho Rios: four Soldiers guarding a Civilian technical/scientific team of two, whose task is to keep an eye on the evolving situation and report back to the higher-ups. They operate out of a closed bar/restaurant, Mackie’s Grill, because Morgan holds the lease and keys on behalf of an oblivious owner. The Conspiracy assets aren’t supposed to engage with the agents, but accidents happen. The Conspiracy Soldiers have motorcycles, firearms and explosives; the technical team has sophisticated portable testing equipment, equivalent to a Mobile Biological Safety Lab, set up at Mackie’s. Clue: Digital Intrusion on computer equipment [1960s: letters/documents] finds email correspondence between the technical team and a Cook Islands firm, McNeil P.C.
The Fish Kill: Forensic examination shows that the fish died from biological contamination; effectively, they suffocated to death. The bodies decay remarkably quickly, even for fish, leaving behind a greasy residue that stinks like ammonia. People who come into unprotected contact with the fish report nausea, dizziness, vomiting, and in one case, unconsciousness. Clue: The residue isn’t caused by a petrochemical. Examination shows it to be part-biological, a result of vampiric blood contamination. Whatever the substance aboard that ship is, it isn’t crude oil.
Side Effect: Several birds which ate the fish develop abnormally aggressive tendencies and a thirst for blood. This leads them to attack humans in predatory groups. However, this stops after 36 hours, when all affected birds die of exhaustion and decay just as the fish did.
The Torrey Coral: The cargo ship ran aground not far from Ocho Rios, and analysis of weather and tidal patterns indicates that anything which came loose would affect Mahogany Beach first. If the agents try to get aboard, they’ll be running a blockade of local security, swiftly backed up by American warships. The ship is abandoned and it’s not clear what happened to the crew. A ship this size ought to have a crew of 20 or more, and all evidence aboard indicates she had at least that many and none of the lifeboats were launched. None of the ship’s papers are here; those, any personal computers, and whatever else could be scooped up in a hurry have already been taken. Those are currently in the hands of Jamaican authorities and will be given to the Americans as soon as the Americans arrive. Clandestinely, naturally; the media and the world will never know (ideally). Clue: not all personal devices/papers were taken. A search (1-point) finds cell phones and diaries which show that, in the weeks before the wreck, the crew were becoming very concerned about the stability of the cargo. Further, Forensic examination shows that, just before the wreck, all the crew walked into the cargo hold and became one with the cargo – willingly. Or at least not forced. Occult Studies indicates several crew took precautions against this, quite sophisticated ones, magically speaking; you’d have to have in-depth knowledge to do as they did. Nothing worked. Analysis of the phones and papers shows there are several ships in this fleet, across the world, all called Torrey.
The Cargo superficially resembles light, sweet crude oil and has many of its physical characteristics. However, analysis shows a significant non-petrochemical component and in-depth analysis identifies some of it as the crew of the Torrey Coral, as well as other humans. Being nearby drains Stability (2-point per day) and sleeping nearby causes very peculiar nightmares (3-point Stability). Forensic analysis of the liquid indicates it is extremely flammable. It has a peculiar fluorescence. In dark or near-dark conditions it glows a multitude of colours which prove difficult to look at for long. It feels as if the colours are reaching into the eyes and directly touching the optic nerve, like an unskilled player plucking at banjo strings. That’s as much as anyone can find out without taking this to a lab.
Conspiracy timeline: If the agents do nothing to prevent it, then a day after the Americans show up the Conspiracy research team sends its results to the higher-ups. Twenty-four hours after that report, three Special Forces plus a Supernatural or similar support arrives in Jamaica, collect the explosives that the research team has at Mackie’s, and goes out to destroy the Torrey Coral. They are successful, and while this does damage to Ocho Rios and the American warships, it also destroys the Torrey Coral’s cargo.
The Cook Islands. These self-governing islands, geographically and politically close to New Zealand, are home to McNeil P.C., based at tropical Rarotonga. The firm’s three partners are deep in Conspiracy dealings but are not themselves a Node; they’re more of a clearinghouse, a port of convenience for Conspiracy networks. They own things on paper. Their biggest benefit to the Conspiracy is that they operate the Shadow Fleet, all the Torrey cargo vessels. They get reports from the captains and they send instructions out to the captains, but McNeil isn’t a decision-maker; it passes on decisions made by the actual Node, the Passerelle Group, a private Swiss banking firm.
The lawyers at McNeil P.C. know two things:
First, something has gone very wrong with the Shadow Fleet. None of the captains has reported in. The last one went dark three weeks ago. There’s no telling where the ships are now. They ought to have turned on their trackers, by international law, but the Shadow Fleet routinely flouts that law. Now nobody can be sure where any of those ships are.
Second, the Passerelle Group is having a board meeting to discuss the issue. That meeting is to take place very soon; the Director should assume it takes place within twenty-four hours of the agents making contact with McNeil P.C.
What the McNeil P.C. lawyers don’t know is that senior figures within Passerelle have decided that there’s too much risk keeping them on the payroll. A Supernatural asset, possibly backed up by three Special Forces, will make sure there’s nothing left of McNeil and its staff but ashes.
The Passerelle Group, based in Bern, the de facto capital of Switzerland, is having a crisis. This International Node has a scandal it must clean up. The Shadow Fleet, one of several projects run by Passerelle, has gone missing. Each of the ships reported problems with the cargo, then went dark. The cargo is itself a special project created by another Node, which has its own explaining to do, but the larger point for Passerelle is that someone might connect the Torrey fleet to the Swiss firm. If that happens, disaster.
There are two factions within Passerelle dealing with this issue.
One faction, the Paris Group led by Michel Dupont, head of the Paris branch of the firm, was always against the Shadow Fleet project. The Paris Group felt it carried too much risk and didn’t like the explanations provided by the Node that created the cargo. This whole thing went ahead too quickly, without proper oversight. The Paris Group are using this as a reason to purge Passerelle of some of its aged deadwood. The Paris Group are also the ones sending Special Forces assets out to do explosive damage control.
The Old Guard, led by Zoe Keller, senior partner, urges trust in the vampire masters. This was their project. They wanted it pushed forward. It is not for Passerelle to second-guess the leadership. It is Zoe pushing for the emergency board meeting because it is at that meeting, Zoe hopes, that Dupont and his people will be dealt with, drained, and discarded by leadership.
However, Dupont has been making deals. He thinks he has suborned, or at least sufficiently bribed, one of the leadership. He hopes that Zoe will be the one drained and discarded.
Of course, all that assumes the agents don’t make a nuisance of themselves and intervene…
Night’s Black Agents by Kenneth Hite puts you in the role of a skilled intelligence operative fighting a shadow war against vampires in post-Cold War Europe. Play a dangerous human weapon, a sly charmer, an unstoppable transporter, a precise demolitions expert, or whatever fictional spy you’ve always dreamed of being — and start putting those bloodsuckers in the ground where they belong. Purchase Night’s Black Agents in print and PDF at the Pelgrane Shop.