BLACK LANTERN Final Report - Mon, Jul 20, 2020

The session opened with the Handler recapping the investigation into Conrad Hopko, the final missing child from Cornucopia House whose whereabouts had remained unresolved.

• After being rescued from the Skoptsi at Cornucopia House in 2001, Conrad Hopko was placed at the King-Torino Children’s Refuge.
• An unsealed FBI case file revealed that Conrad Hopko had originally been kidnapping victim Jacob Tillman and was subsequently reunited with his father, Eli Tillman.
• The available records made it clear that Conrad Hopko and Jacob Tillman were the same person.
• At age 17, Jacob rejected the name given to him by his evangelical father and legally changed his name to Esau Tillman.
• Under both the Jacob and Esau Tillman identities, he used the online handle “Conradin.”
• His later trail led to El Paso, Texas.
• Tax records connected Tillman to Life Force, a private youth-security contractor operated by his former roommate, Chasen Lafferty.
• Through Life Force’s contracts with ICE, Tillman obtained work at the Franklin Harvey Water Reclamation Plant.
• The plant appeared to serve as cover for an unlisted detention facility.
• A journalist had already identified Tillman as an ICE agent involved in arresting immigrant mothers and taking custody of their children.
• Local immigrant communities had given him the nickname “El Niñero,” or “the babysitter.”
• Tillman had also been recruiting carefully selected people into ICE.
• He had asked Lee Jarnigan to write applications for Terry Smedley, an exposed neo-Nazi militiaman, and Alan Rapp, a would-be school shooter who had written about “living inside young skin” and constructing “a heaven behind bars.”
• The investigative team had consequently begun to suspect that Tillman was recreating the conditions of Cornucopia House on a vastly larger, institutional scale.

The Handler also reiterated the unnatural events that had occurred while the team was analyzing the Black Lantern material.

• Pigeons had repeatedly hurled themselves against the windows of the six-story building.
• Rats had watched the agents from ventilation ducts.
• Later, the agents had awakened to find their meeting room filled with vermin.
• The animals swarmed through the office, biting and clawing the agents before disappearing into the darkened building.
• The documents left behind had been chewed, bloodied, and fouled.
• The damage was not random. Bloody marks repeatedly crossed or emphasized the same three words across multiple pages: “Go. To. Him.”
• By the following morning, the team was confident that Conrad Hopko, Jacob Tillman, Esau Tillman, and Conradin were all the same man.
• They also believed he had embedded himself within a government-linked system and was filling detention cells with children.
• The immediate question facing the agents was what they should recommend Delta Green do about him.

The agents had approximately 24 hours to prepare a report for the Program.

• Their assignment was to explain who Conrad was, determine whether he was connected to the events in the Black Lantern file, and advise whether the Program needed to take action.
• The team began discussing what conclusions and recommendations should be included.

Ernie initially argued that the most straightforward conclusion was simply to connect the available evidence.

• Tillman appeared to be the person they had been looking for.
• His activities strongly suggested that he was constructing some form of child-abuse detention system analogous to Cornucopia House.
• At this stage, however, the agents recognized that this remained an inference based on the pattern of evidence rather than direct observation of what was happening inside the El Paso facility.

Andy Banks focused on the larger pattern involving the Parker-Crown phenomenon.

• He believed Delta Green’s primary concern should not merely be apprehending an abusive or criminal individual.
• The deeper Program objective should be determining how to break the repeating cycle connected with Cornucopia House, its victims, and subsequent unnatural incidents.
• Andy recalled that rogue Agent Clove had believed one possible way of breaking the cycle was to kill the affected children.
• He also considered the possibility that the opposite approach might work: refusing to kill perpetrators, showing extreme empathy, or otherwise disrupting the violent pattern that appeared to perpetuate itself.
• Andy did not have evidence establishing which approach was correct.

The Reverend objected strongly to the idea of putting the killing of children forward as an actual recommendation.

• He pointed out that the team did not know what condition Tillman’s detained children were in.
• He also emphasized that Tillman himself was still alive while the Parker-Crown cycle was apparently continuing, undermining any simple assumption that killing a particular set of people would necessarily end the phenomenon.
• The Reverend would later make clear that he would neither sign nor support a report that recommended killing the children.

Ernie raised Nika Chilikov as potentially important evidence for an alternative to killing the affected children.

• Nika had survived Cornucopia House and eventually escaped the state in which many of the “quiet children” remained.
• She had initially been severely affected and had suppressed or underdeveloped speech, but later recovered enough to speak, function independently, pursue graduate work, and work with children.
• Ernie suggested that understanding how Nika separated herself from the phenomenon might provide a model for helping other children.

The Handler clarified Nika Chilikov’s history and the neurological pattern surrounding the quiet children.

• Nika’s language abilities had been stunted because Yelena Kalamatiano and the Skoptsi at Cornucopia House forced the children into silence and tortured them, especially when they spoke.
• Nika had apparently developed at least rudimentary language abilities before this suppression.
• Because the neurological structures associated with language had already begun to develop, she was later able to relearn and expand those abilities after leaving Cornucopia House.
• The very youngest children appeared to have been much more vulnerable because they were deprived of normal language development during a critical developmental period.

The Handler revised Dr. Ming’s professional skills to better reflect his background.

• Dr. Ming was given a neuroscience skill and increased proficiency in biology and neuroscience, around the 70% level.
• His chemistry expertise was reduced to reflect working knowledge rather than specialization.
• He then attempted a Neuroscience roll and rolled 97, failing despite the newly increased skill.

Even with Dr. Ming’s failed Neuroscience roll, his expertise allowed him to recognize an important pattern in the historical material.

• Early language development appeared to be deeply involved in how the Cornucopia House children were affected.
• Children such as Elle Gable and Samuel Ball, who never developed normal language abilities, seemed to remain completely under the influence of the unnatural force into adulthood.
• Children who retained or later developed language appeared capable of gaining some separation from that influence.
• The ability to put thoughts into language therefore appeared to be an important factor in whether a child could escape the phenomenon.
• Dr. Ming concluded that if Tillman’s children were very young and could be removed from the environment early enough to develop language normally, at least some might avoid the fate of the original quiet children.
• He shared this with the rest of the team as a prognosis rather than a guarantee.

The agents reviewed what had happened to the surviving Cornucopia House children.

• The Reverend had closely studied the list of children.
• The Handler pointed out that the youngest children appeared to be the ones who later developed at least some language ability.
• Finn Smith, later adopted and renamed Bradley McKay, was one of those younger children.
• Bradley developed language and was able to function reasonably well.
• Nevertheless, unnatural forces eventually became involved in his life as well.
• The group therefore had evidence that language development might reduce the influence but did not guarantee complete safety.

The Reverend noted that only four of the original Cornucopia House children appeared to remain alive.

• Three were already being monitored.
• Conrad had been the missing fourth survivor.
• By identifying Tillman as Conrad, the agents believed they had now located the last previously unaccounted-for member of that group.

The Handler allowed the Reverend to make a Bureaucracy check based on his years working for the Bureau of Prisons.

• The Reverend indicated that he had worked there for at least a decade.
• He rolled 86, failing the check.
• Despite the failure, his experience with government institutions made it obvious that the Tillman situation was politically and bureaucratically explosive.
• Neither conventional government agencies nor the Program would want the true circumstances to become public.

The Reverend also clarified the extent of his own experience with Delta Green.

• He had mostly existed around the periphery of Program operations.
• He had been read into some matters but had not penetrated deeply into Delta Green’s inner workings.
• His relatively intact sanity reflected his comparatively limited direct exposure to the Unnatural.

Andy Banks was described as having more field experience.

• He was adapted to violence and had clearly seen serious Program operations.
• He was not regarded as a completely junior operative, but neither was he an upper-level Program insider.
• His poor SAN score reflected substantial exposure to traumatic and unnatural events.

Dr. Ming described his own Program experience as primarily laboratory-based.

• He had seen disturbing and unnatural things through scientific work.
• He had comparatively little field experience.

Ernie had substantial experience as a Program analyst.

• He had worked with the Program for years and was associated professionally with the RAND Corporation.
• He was accustomed to making assessments that could include morally questionable or unethical options if the evidence justified presenting them.
• He did not view his job as deciding whether an operation could actually be resourced, only as presenting the best analytical recommendations available.

Based on Ernie’s background, the Handler gave him some insight into the Program’s actual size and capabilities.

• Delta Green did not appear to be a large organization.
• It had attached itself to a handful of important institutional “veins” inside the federal government from which it could draw intelligence and resources.
• It had enough influence inside the FBI and other law-enforcement structures to attach itself to certain investigations.
• It did not have enough authority to simply seize control of government agencies or act openly whenever it wished.

The team discussed possible recommendations.

• One option was removing Tillman from his position.
• Another was having Delta Green take control of the El Paso black site.
• Dr. Ming favored taking over the entire location with surprise.
• Andy argued that someone needed to investigate the children directly before the Program could know what action was appropriate.
• The group increasingly converged on the idea that the Program needed eyes on the facility before making any irreversible decision.

The agents discussed the animal incidents but initially did not know how to interpret them.

• Andy believed the strange behavior of the rats and pigeons fit warnings already present in the Black Lantern material about anomalous animal activity.
• The Reverend noted both the rats and the birds.
• The group understood that the incidents were clearly unusual but did not yet know what they signified beyond the repeated directive to “go to him.”

Ernie briefly questioned whether Nika Chilikov might still be a vector of the phenomenon.

• He noted that she had gone on to work at another children’s refuge, which could potentially have been suspicious if she remained infected or influenced.
• The team researched the later history of King-Torino Children’s Refuge.
• The organization appeared in child-psychology publications, professional material, and local Charlotte news.
• Some neighbors had complained about noisy or distressed children at the facility.
• There was no evidence of the type of bizarre or unnatural activity the agents were specifically looking for.
• This supported the interpretation that Nika had genuinely escaped the worst of the phenomenon rather than continuing to spread it through King-Torino.

The group continued refining its understanding of language development.

• Nika had been old enough when she entered Cornucopia House to possess at least rudimentary language.
• Her language was subsequently suppressed and stunted but could later be redeveloped.
• Children deprived of language during the earliest developmental years would have much greater difficulty developing full adult language later.
• Dr. Ming and the Handler discussed the rough developmental window as beginning very young, approximately ages two to five, during which normal language exposure contributes significantly to brain development.

The agents debated whether older or younger children in Tillman’s custody were in greater danger.

• The crucial factor was not simply age at the present moment.
• Children who had already developed meaningful language before being subjected to the Cornucopia House-like conditions had a better chance of later recovering.
• Very young children removed quickly enough could still develop language normally and might therefore escape the effect.
• The greatest danger appeared to be children who spent most of the critical language-development period inside an environment designed to suppress speech.
• The agents did not know how quickly the changes could become irreversible.

The group tried to reconstruct the duration and evolution of Cornucopia House.

• Conrad had been abducted around 1994, seven years before the 2001 raid.
• Cornucopia House and its associated practices had therefore existed for many years.
• Earlier in its history, the institution may have been more focused on producing recruits for the Skoptsi cult.
• Kalamatiano later used the children as material for her own experiments.
• Much of the detailed information concerning Kalamatiano’s methods was absent from the current Program records because the original MASTICATE team had deliberately kept her notes out of the Program’s hands for approximately two decades.
• The agents therefore lacked important information that might have explained exactly how the process worked.

The Handler ultimately clarified that, based on the evidence currently available, simply removing the children from Tillman’s environment would likely help a significant number of them.

• It could not be guaranteed that all would escape Parker-Crown’s influence.
• However, whatever was occurring under Tillman had been operating for a much shorter period than Cornucopia House.
• Early intervention therefore offered a credible chance of saving at least some children.

The Reverend questioned whether Tillman even possessed the knowledge necessary to reproduce Kalamatiano’s supernatural work.

• Tillman had only been a child at Cornucopia House.
• Kalamatiano possessed specialized knowledge and had conducted deliberate experimentation.
• The agents did not know whether Conrad had inherited or reconstructed that knowledge.
• As a result, the Reverend viewed the present evidence as potentially showing an abused child recreating his own horrific upbringing rather than conclusively proving that he was deliberately reproducing the supernatural mechanism itself.

The team settled on direct investigation as the most defensible immediate recommendation.

• Agents needed to get to El Paso and observe the facility.
• They needed to determine the condition of the detained children.
• Only after seeing what was actually happening could they determine whether Tillman was reproducing Cornucopia House’s supernatural effects and what intervention was appropriate.

Before presenting the final report, the Reverend made clear that he would not sign a document recommending the murder of the children.

• Dr. Ming agreed that such a recommendation was insane.
• The Reverend said he would actively fight to keep it out of the written report.
• Andy still believed Agent Clove’s proposal needed to be mentioned as part of the historical data because omitting it could misrepresent the information available.
• The compromise was to record that the rogue Agent Clove had proposed killing the affected children as a means of breaking the cycle, while making explicit that the current analysis team did not endorse that course of action.
• The report would also note that the agents had no clear explanation of what information, if any, Clove possessed that led her to that conclusion.
• The Handler confirmed that Clove was already characterized in Program records as a rogue agent acting without mandate or authority.

On Monday morning at 8:00 a.m., Agent Rennick arrived to receive the team’s findings.

• Before his arrival, the Black Lantern materials had been shredded and bagged according to protocol.
• The team had prepared a sanitized report containing its conclusions while redacting the sensitive information that could not be passed forward.
• Rennick joined the agents in the meeting room and asked them to walk him through their findings.

Andy Banks took the lead on the presentation.

• He explained the Parker-Crown pattern identified by the original MASTICATE team.
• He connected that pattern to the present family-separation system involving Tillman.
• He emphasized that a former Cornucopia House child now appeared to be reproducing circumstances resembling those from the original incident.
• He argued that breaking the recurring cycle needed to be treated as a priority.
• Andy cited Nika Chilikov as the best known example of someone who had escaped the cycle through separation, therapy, and later language development.
• He also mentioned the recurring association with unusual animal behavior.
• Finally, he included Agent Clove’s historical theory that killing the affected children could eliminate the vectors, while making clear that the present analysis group did not share that recommendation.

Rennick listened carefully to the presentation.

• He drank coffee from a paper cup and occasionally stopped Andy to ask for clarification.
• At the end, Rennick summarized the conclusions in his own words.
• He confirmed that Conrad Hopko, Jacob Tillman, Esau Tillman, and Conradin appeared to be the same person.
• The agents had traced him from Cornucopia House into work connected with ICE.
• He appeared to be attempting to recreate conditions similar to Cornucopia House.
• Cornucopia House itself appeared to have been the originating incident for numerous later Program operations.
• Andy confirmed that this was an accurate summary.

Rennick then asked whether the team’s recommendation was to investigate further and determine exactly what Tillman was doing.

• The Reverend answered more directly: the children needed to be saved.
• The Handler called for a HUMINT check from the Reverend.
• With an 80% HUMINT skill, the Reverend rolled 36 and succeeded.
• He immediately read guilt and resignation in Rennick’s body language.
• Rennick’s pause after hearing that the children needed to be saved made it clear to the Reverend that no immediate official intervention was planned.

The Reverend directly challenged Rennick.

• He accused him of intending to leave hundreds of children in the facility.
• Rennick responded that Tillman was a federal agent working through a federal system.
• Any overt action against the operation could create enormous political consequences for the Program.
• Representatives of Delta Green could ultimately be forced to explain themselves at the highest levels of government.
• Rennick specifically asked whether they wanted the president briefed on what the Program did and why it had intervened.

Rennick told the team that the political situation made immediate action impossible.

• He referred to the fact that it was an election year.
• He suggested that in 12 to 18 months, after the political circumstances changed, action might become possible.
• He claimed not to like that reality.

The Reverend reacted angrily.

• He asked why Delta Green existed at all if its purpose was not to save humanity.
• He then got up and walked out of the meeting.

Ernie attempted to salvage some immediate action.

• He asked whether someone could at least be sent to El Paso to observe the site and establish what was actually happening on the ground.
• He suggested using any Program contacts inside ICE or related organizations.
• Rennick refused to discuss whether such assets existed.
• He also pointed out that the facility was not directly operated by ICE but by a contractor.

Ernie and the others continued pressing Rennick on the purpose of their assignment.

• If the Program could not act, they questioned why they had been ordered to spend the weekend investigating the matter.
• Rennick responded that what they had described was a problem for the future.
• Ernie argued that Cornucopia House had involved only a few dozen children yet had been associated with potentially catastrophic events.
• Tillman’s program appeared to involve one or two orders of magnitude more children.
• If the scale of the supernatural threat increased proportionally, postponing action could produce a vastly larger catastrophe.

Andy supported at least ongoing observation.

• He argued that failing even to monitor a situation with such a close connection to MASTICATE and such potentially volatile consequences would be dereliction of duty.
• Rennick conceded that the Program might be able to allocate resources for monitoring.
• He regarded surveillance as a considerably more viable option than direct intervention.

Dr. Ming suggested attempting to build a conventional criminal or legal case against Tillman and his associates.

• The idea was to make the evidence so damaging that even the administration would be unwilling to defend them.
• The agents acknowledged the institutional difficulty of pursuing such a case given Tillman’s apparent role in implementing government policy.

Rennick ultimately repeated that the Program could not officially act until the political environment changed.

• The Reverend, having returned and now eating turkey cold cuts in the doorway, again asked why the team had been tasked with reviewing the information now rather than a year later.
• Rennick visibly bristled at the challenge.
• He thanked the team for its work and stated that he would take their report to his superiors.
• He insisted that something would be done “at the appropriate time.”

The agents were openly contemptuous of the likely fate of their report.

• Andy gestured as though the proper filing location was a garbage can.
• The Reverend and others clearly understood that the Program’s official response was unlikely to help the children in the immediate future.

The Handler asked whether any of the agents were thinking about handling the situation independently.

• The Reverend was.
• Several agents attempted Bureaucracy or Law checks to evaluate the practical consequences of acting outside official channels.
• Most of the rolls failed.
• The Handler nevertheless explained that once Rennick submitted the report, some Program surveillance assets might be deployed.
• Any attempt by the team to operate independently could therefore bring them into conflict with other Program personnel unknowingly working in the same area.

Ernie tried to place himself inside whatever official surveillance response might develop.

• He told Rennick that he had extensive experience in surveillance.
• He volunteered to participate if the Program established a monitoring operation.
• Rennick said he would pass that information along.

As Rennick prepared to leave, he began collecting the bags of shredded Black Lantern documents and other materials.

• Up to this point, the bizarre pigeon incident had not been described to him in detail.
• The formal report contained only a general reference to unusual animal behavior associated with the pattern.

Ernie then deliberately raised the pigeon incident with Rennick.

• He asked whether Rennick had noticed the pigeons outside.
• He explained that during the weekend, a large number of pigeons had repeatedly slammed themselves into the meeting-room window and died.
• He described them striking the glass over and over for roughly 10 to 15 minutes.
• Rennick appeared confused and asked which window Ernie meant.

Ernie had previously gone outside to inspect the area beneath the window.

• He found dead pigeons on the ground.
• Looking upward, he had been able to make out smeared markings on the exterior window.
• The marks were bloody and indistinct, but his mind resolved them into letters.
• They appeared to spell “GO TO HIM.”
• The sight had required a SAN roll.
• Ernie failed and lost 1 SAN.
• He took a photograph of the window on his phone.

Back in the meeting room, Rennick inspected the indicated window.

• The glass was covered with an opaque or obscuring film.
• Rennick felt along its edge until he could lift part of it.
• He began peeling the film away.
• The other agents helped expose the glass beneath.

Seeing the bloody, greasy smears on the window prompted SAN checks from the agents.

• On successful SAN checks, the marks appeared to be nothing more than unsettling smears.
• On failed checks, the agents could discern the reversed letters forming the message.
• Ernie explicitly pointed out the words to anyone who could not immediately recognize them.
• The message matched the one previously found in the rat-damaged documents: “GO TO HIM.”

Rennick stared at the markings and became visibly unsettled.

• The Reverend, with his high HUMINT, could read the rapid change in Rennick’s thinking.
• Rennick was reevaluating both the situation and the four agents standing in front of him.
• He appeared to be wondering whether the team itself had somehow become involved in or affected by the unnatural phenomenon they had just described.
• Rennick clenched his jaw and announced that he needed to make a phone call.
• He left the meeting room and walked toward the far end of the floor.

The agents immediately considered what Rennick’s call might mean for them.

• The Reverend stated plainly that he intended to go to El Paso.
• The Handler allowed INT×5 checks to assess the implications of Rennick’s departure.
• The Reverend succeeded.
• Ernie failed.
• Those who understood the situation realized that whoever Rennick was about to contact might make independent travel to El Paso significantly more difficult.
• Preventing or delaying Rennick from contacting his superiors could make immediate action easier, even if doing so created serious long-term consequences.

The agents considered tailing Rennick, but nobody had particularly strong Stealth for the task.

• Ernie instead reviewed the surveillance equipment he had brought with him.
• His kit included a laptop, external wireless router, Raspberry Pi, forensic tools, a shotgun microphone, several tiny wireless microphones, a tiny wireless camera, and an IMSI catcher or StingRay-type device.
• Because of his surveillance background, Ernie was equipped to intercept nearby cellular communications.

Ernie used the IMSI catcher to identify and interfere with Rennick’s phone.

• The Handler required a SIGINT check.
• Ernie had 60% SIGINT and rolled 17, succeeding.
• There were relatively few signals in the immediate area, allowing him to isolate Rennick’s phone.
• He obtained the phone number Rennick was attempting to call.
• He then cut off the call before Rennick could complete it.

While this was happening, Andy considered another potential contact: Assistant U.S. Attorney Antonia Pitzarelli.

• Pitzarelli had been mentioned throughout the historical records and had direct knowledge of the original MASTICATE agents.
• The group did not possess her private contact information, but she remained publicly listed through the Department of Justice.
• Andy called her office through official channels.

Andy reached Pitzarelli’s secretary.

• He said that he urgently needed to speak with Pitzarelli regarding work she had previously done with associates including Cortez, Drummond, Steele, and McCarter.
• He stressed that the context was specific to Pitzarelli and could not simply be passed to another person in the office.
• The secretary agreed to pass the message to Pitzarelli.
• Andy provided a contact number where he could be reached.

As Andy finished the call, Rennick returned down the hallway.

• He was holding his phone and appeared annoyed that the call had failed.
• He came into the room and told the team to remain there for 10 minutes.
• He then appeared prepared to head toward the elevators.

Ernie questioned Rennick about what had suddenly become so concerning.

• Several agents attempted HUMINT checks to read him.
• The Reverend achieved a critical success.
• With that result, the Reverend understood Rennick’s state of mind clearly.
• Rennick was not exactly afraid of the agents.
• Rather, he was uncertain whether they were deliberately manipulating him.
• They had just delivered a report describing synchronicities, bizarre animal behavior, and unnatural influence, and immediately afterward had shown him a window where dead pigeons had apparently written the same message found in their evidence.
• Rennick was trying to determine whether the agents themselves were now affected by the phenomenon.

The Reverend then showed Rennick the rat bites on his leg.

• He explained that the pigeons had not been the only animal event.
• A large number of rats had also appeared at the same time and attacked the team.
• This additional physical evidence moved Rennick’s assessment further.
• Rather than merely wondering whether the agents were affected, he increasingly concluded that they actually had become entangled in whatever force they were investigating.

Dr. Ming spoke up and challenged the assumption that waiting was possible.

• Based on his understanding of the reports, there appeared to be another active force involved in events.
• Whatever was sending animals and producing the “GO TO HIM” message did not appear inclined to wait 12 to 18 months for political circumstances to improve.
• The agents therefore might not have the luxury of following Rennick’s proposed timetable.

The Reverend appealed directly to Rennick.

• He told him that four men stood in front of him who genuinely wanted to do the right thing.
• He asked why Rennick would not make use of them.
• The Handler called for a Persuade check.
• The Reverend rolled 39 against an 80% skill and succeeded.

The Reverend’s previous critical HUMINT success allowed him to closely follow Rennick’s reaction.

• Rennick looked at his phone and reconsidered the strange failure of his attempted call.
• After listening to the team’s description of synchronicities and unnatural intervention, he appeared to entertain the possibility that his inability to make the call had itself been meaningful.
• He did not know that Ernie had deliberately jammed it.
• From Rennick’s perspective, something connected to the phenomenon might have prevented him from reporting the agents.

The Reverend also determined that Rennick genuinely did not possess hidden knowledge about Parker-Crown or the Black Lantern material.

• Rennick had told the truth when he said he had not previously been read into the case.
• Everything disturbing him now came from what the team had reported and what he had personally witnessed in the room.

Rennick finally admitted that he believed there would still be no official Program action.

• The political risks were too substantial.
• His superiors would recognize the same dangers he had.
• Nevertheless, he found the situation horrifying and did not want it to continue.
• He asked the agents how committed they were to doing something about it.

The agents answered that they were committed.

• The Reverend stated that regardless of whether Tillman’s actions were supernatural, Tillman had to be stopped and the children had to be saved.
• Andy emphasized that the situation represented the same repeating cycle that began at Cornucopia House.
• If nobody intervened, the pattern would simply continue.
• Dr. Ming added a more self-interested concern: if a force capable of controlling wild animals was telling them to act, he was worried about what would happen to the team if they ignored it.
• Helping the children and complying with the apparent demand to “go to him” had now become intertwined.

Rennick considered the agents, the window, and the situation and finally reached a decision.

• The Reverend could see that Rennick had reached a point of abandoning strict adherence to official procedure.
• Rennick took a notepad from his pocket.
• He wrote a phone number on a blank page.
• He tore the page from the pad and gave it to the team.
• He instructed them to call that number in six hours.
• He said that the people on the other end “should be able to help.”

The identity of the people associated with the number was not revealed during the session.

• The agents speculated that the contact might involve the older, unofficial incarnation of Delta Green, but this was not confirmed in play.

Rennick then told the team that they still had one additional task.

• Their official report had to be revised.
• Rennick wanted the report to contain nothing actionable.
• In practical terms, they were to obfuscate their real findings and make Tillman appear unimportant.
• The purpose was to prevent the official Program hierarchy from recognizing that the agents intended to act independently.
• The agents agreed to rewrite the report accordingly.

The Reverend told Rennick that he was a good man.

• Rennick did not fully accept the characterization.
• He said that it was probably not true.
• He nevertheless expressed the hope that they might at least be able to help some of the children.

By the end of the session, the team had therefore moved from being an analysis group to committing itself to direct action.

• They possessed a mysterious phone number provided by Rennick.
• They had instructions to call it six hours later.
• Rennick was covertly assisting them despite believing that the Program could not formally authorize an operation.
• Their official report would conceal the seriousness of Tillman’s activities.
• The agents now intended to pursue the situation in El Paso despite the absence of formal Program approval.
• The Handler indicated that the next session might begin with the team operating on the ground in El Paso.