Detention Center Assault and Extraction - Mon, Jul 27, 2020

The session resumed inside Tillman’s apartment, where Ernie, Andy Banks, Reverend Jerry, and Dr. Ming were still trying to complete his capture. Tillman had been disarmed, but he had not yet been fully restrained, hooded, or sedated. His extraordinary good fortune had repeatedly interfered with the agents’ efforts to subdue him.

The group reviewed the immediate circumstances of the struggle. Tillman’s dropped SIG Sauer had discharged and grazed Ernie’s leg. Andy had been struck in the throat when Tillman stumbled out of his jacket. Dr. Ming had recovered the pistol but had been temporarily incapacitated when a pepper-spray container was stepped on. Jerry had repeatedly failed to secure a bag or rope around Tillman.

An unnatural aroma filled the apartment. Each agent smelled a favorite food mixed with blood and must, making the scent both enticing and unpleasant. Jerry smelled lutefisk, Andy smelled seven-layer bean and cheese dip, and Ernie smelled an otherwise perfect hamburger spoiled by the additional odors.

The smell brought an immediate, powerful urge to kill Tillman. The Handler offered a brief opportunity to regain 1d6 SAN by killing him at that moment.

Ernie resisted the impulse to commit murder but decided to hurt Tillman. He struck Tillman in the stomach, knocking the breath out of him. Andy pushed Tillman to the floor and began securing his hands behind his back with zip ties while Ernie continued stomping him.

Jerry took the rope he had intended to use with the hood, looped it around Tillman’s neck, and began strangling him. Andy immediately objected that they needed Tillman alive to answer questions about the children and the information on his laptop.

Jerry continued pulling the rope tight despite Andy’s objections. He quoted from Revelation while trying to kill Tillman. Ernie stopped attacking Tillman when he realized what Jerry was doing and tried to shake Jerry out of it, insisting that they needed their prisoner alive.

Dr. Ming backed away with the weapons to prevent anyone from grabbing them. His eyes were still burning and his vision remained blurred from the pepper spray.

Jerry inflicted six damage with the rope. Tillman’s lips turned blue, but he stopped struggling and developed a peaceful, beatific smile. Andy and Ernie could see his expression; Jerry, positioned behind him, could not.

Andy tried to force his fingers beneath the rope and pull it away from Tillman’s throat. He won the contested Strength check by rolling exactly his target number and gave Tillman enough room to take a ragged breath.

Tillman protested with a croaked “No” and kicked ineffectually at Andy. His reaction made Ernie conclude that Tillman wanted to die, giving Ernie another reason to prevent his death.

Ernie pinned Tillman’s legs while Andy applied more zip ties. The group secured all of Tillman’s limbs. Dr. Ming put the weapons aside and helped hold him down as the immediate stunning effect of the pepper spray diminished.

Jerry looked at the rope in his hands, dropped it, and walked outside. Ernie helped Dr. Ming reach the kitchenette sink to wash out his eyes while Andy prepared to question Tillman.

Andy propped Tillman up and asked what was behind the detention facility’s restricted, Lifeforce-only door. Tillman answered, “My Cornucopia House.”

Asked how many children were behind that door, Tillman said there were not many at the moment because they did not always last long. He looked directly at Andy and asked whether that made him angry.

Andy began recording the interrogation on his phone and adopted a formal questioning style. When asked to state his full name for the record, Tillman answered, “I am food.” He stared at Andy and asked whether Andy understood, referring to the agents having said they were marked.

Andy questioned Tillman about the names stored on his laptop. Tillman said he had been looking for more people like Terry Smedley and Alan Rapp. When Andy asked whether he meant pedophiles, Tillman added, “And sadists.”

Tillman explained his purpose by saying, “The pain makes my God look.” He claimed that his god had told him this.

Tillman said he had been abducting children for approximately two years. He did not give a count of the children he had trafficked. When Andy pressed for an estimate, Tillman suggested counting the mounds in the desert and offered to show their location on a map.

Outside, Jerry noticed a police cruiser approaching along the street. It was moving slowly without emergency lights. The Handler noted that a patrol car passing through this part of town would not necessarily be unusual.

Jerry tried to move around a corner of the building while keeping the cruiser in sight. His Stealth check failed. As the cruiser passed, its driver studied the apartment building and made eye contact with Jerry before continuing down the road.

Bill called Jerry immediately after the cruiser passed. Bill had been watching the apartment from nearby and told Jerry that the group needed to finish quickly. Jerry reported that they had Tillman under control.

Inside the apartment, Tillman used another phone’s map to indicate a location in the desert beyond the detention facility. The site was several miles northwest of the facility, away from developed areas. The group marked it with a map pin.

Andy wanted to continue recording Tillman’s admissions, including the duration of his crimes, the burial site, and the identities of other participants. Jerry returned before Andy could pursue much more questioning and announced that they needed to leave because police were aware that something was happening at the apartment.

Andy considered turning Tillman over to the police with his recorded confession and the burial-site location. Ernie argued that they should first verify the graves and take Tillman with them. Andy agreed that Tillman should not be left where he might escape.

Tillman turned his attention to Jerry and again insisted that he was food. He pleaded, “Feed me to her. Feed me to you. Feed me to the God.”

Ernie gagged Tillman with a rag and tape, leaving his nose clear so he could breathe. Andy stopped the recording before this continued handling of the prisoner.

The agents decided to carry Tillman out rather than cut the restraints on his legs. Jerry called Bill to confirm that the street was clear, and the group positioned their vehicle to make loading the prisoner easier.

Bill reported that the street was clear. The agents carried Tillman downstairs and placed him in the rear of their SUV. Tillman did not struggle much, but he repeatedly stared at Jerry whenever he could see him.

Ernie noticed Tillman’s continued fixation on Jerry and put the hood over his head. The group also confirmed that Tillman had his employee badge because he had recently returned from work.

Dr. Ming prepared a sedative. The Handler described the temptation to add a little more and kill Tillman with an overdose, but Dr. Ming rejected it. His intention was to incapacitate Tillman without killing him.

Ernie questioned whether sedation was necessary when Tillman was already bound, gagged, and hooded. The trip to the burial site would take close to an hour, while the sedative could keep him unconscious for several hours. Jerry insisted that they should take no chances.

Dr. Ming administered the sedative. Tillman relaxed, his eyes fluttered partly closed, and he became still. The group also covered him with a sheet as part of concealing the restrained body during transport.

As the SUV departed, Bill questioned why the agents were moving Tillman when the interrogation had been intended to take place at the apartment. Jerry explained that they needed to investigate things buried in the desert.

Bill warned that their opportunity to attack the facility would shrink rapidly once Tillman’s disappearance became known. He decided to remain near the apartment long enough to see whether the police investigated it.

After ending the call, Jerry suggested that Bill should be the one to kill Tillman. The agents discussed whether having someone outside their group perform the killing might prevent the curse from passing to them. The Handler told Jerry that the thought of Bill taking his kill felt frustrating.

The group followed the GPS location into the desert as the sun was nearly down. They drove slowly across the terrain until they reached the marked area.

Andy recognized signs of graves from his DEA experience. He found a scattered field of disturbed earth that had been filled in and packed down.

Andy counted twenty-two apparent burial sites. The graves were small and looked as though they had been dug with a shovel. The group did not excavate them, so the number of bodies and the contents of individual graves remained unconfirmed. The Handler indicated that additional sites might remain undiscovered.

Andy succeeded on his SAN check but lost one SAN. This brought him to adaptation to helplessness.

Ernie connected the strange food smell in the apartment with material he had read about MASTICATE’s investigation of Cornucopia House. He wondered whether the graves might produce the same sort of unnatural odor associated with the earlier case.

Ernie walked around the burial sites and discreetly tested the air for unusual smells. He detected nothing significant from the graves. The only source of the relevant smell was Tillman in the vehicle.

The discovery of the graves also prompted SAN checks for the other agents. Ernie, Jerry, and Dr. Ming each lost one SAN. Ernie was instructed to mark helplessness.

The group discussed whether they knew enough about the original Cornucopia House rituals to determine how closely Tillman had reproduced them. The Handler clarified that the earlier investigators had withheld much of what happened there and had not turned over the materials they recovered.

The available accounts established that children had been subjected to terrible treatment and that the earlier agents had intervened. They did not provide enough detail for the current group to assess whether Tillman had replicated the original supernatural practices or only the abuse.

Jerry proposed leaving Tillman at the burial site while the group attacked the facility. Andy worried that someone arriving to bury another victim might find and release him. Ernie also pointed out that Tillman’s exceptional luck made an unlikely rescue worth considering.

Dr. Ming suggested leaving Tillman sedated at the graves and directing the police to him. The group instead prioritized rescuing the children still inside the facility. Andy favored calling in the authorities after the rescue, and Ernie doubted that the police would act against the ICE facility even with the evidence they had gathered.

Andy gave Ernie the interrogation recording and asked him to arrange for it to be sent to the authorities on a timer. Ernie proposed including the press so that public attention could put pressure on the authorities to act.

Ernie also wanted to record the inside of the detention facility to corroborate Tillman’s confession. The group briefly considered live video, then discussed collecting footage for later release. Jerry objected that recordings could expose their faces and voices. Editing or masking identifying details was raised as a possible precaution.

Jerry called Bill again. Bill reported that the patrol car had returned and that officers were examining the apartment. Bill had left the area and said that, if they were going to attack the facility, they needed to do so within roughly thirty minutes.

Bill directed the group to rendezvous near the Waffle House, where the box truck had been parked. The agents decided to keep Tillman in the SUV and bring him to Bill and Ted rather than leave him in the desert.

Ernie wanted to ensure that Tillman remained unconscious through the operation. Dr. Ming considered a second sedative dose, recognizing that getting it right required care. He succeeded on his Pharmacy roll with a 05 and administered enough to keep Tillman unconscious for several more hours.

The agents met Bill and Ted in the parking lot of a tile distributor down the road from the Waffle House. Ted had brought the large box truck, approximately twenty feet long, intended to transport the detainees.

The group retained both the box truck and the SUV. The truck would carry the rescued people, while the SUV provided separate transport for the armed agents and their equipment. Tillman remained in the SUV.

Bill and Ted were checking ammunition beside open duffel bags in the back of the box truck. Bill had a tactical shotgun, and Ted was loading an MP5 submachine gun. The agents’ older pistols and shotguns were also available.

Jerry brought Bill and Ted to the rear of the SUV and asked whether they smelled anything. Ted responded as though Jerry were asking about an ordinary bodily odor, without indicating that he perceived the unnatural food smell.

Jerry asked them to strangle Tillman immediately. He explained that the cycle would continue if one of the agents killed Tillman, that someone else needed to do it, and that he had nearly lost control and killed Tillman himself before his companions stopped him.

Jerry succeeded on his Persuade check. Ted approached the unconscious Tillman and crushed his throat with one hand, without hesitation.

Jerry watched the killing without looking away. He critically succeeded on the violence SAN check with a 01. As Tillman died, Jerry experienced satisfaction and regained one SAN.

Ted silently returned to the truck, checked his MP5, and prepared to continue the operation. The group did not establish a separate disposal of Tillman’s body before moving on; Jerry’s stated preference was to leave it in the vehicle for the time being.

The agents reviewed the facility’s gates. The outer gate had a numerical keypad and was assumed to have at least a basic alarm. The inner gate used a badge reader, which they hoped to open with Tillman’s employee card.

Ernie believed he could bypass the outer gate’s alarm. The group discussed forcing the gate with the SUV so that any vehicle damage would be less likely to disable the box truck needed for the rescue.

Rather than ram the gate, they settled on attaching chains and pulling it down with the SUV. The Handler allowed the necessary chains and related equipment to be included in their preparations.

The group revisited its plan to cut both power and communications. Jerry pointed out that removing electrical power might prevent them from opening secured doors. They chose to leave the power on, cut the phone and data lines, and use their Stingray equipment to interfere with cellular communications.

Andy climbed the utility pole and cut the phone lines Ernie identified. Jerry accompanied him in the box truck while Ernie opened the outer gate’s control box and disabled the alarm.

Bill and Ted attached chains between the outer gate and the front of the SUV. Dr. Ming took the driver’s seat and reversed the SUV, pulling the gate down. The group detached the chains and drove both vehicles through.

At the inner gate, Ted checked the parking lot and saw no one outside. He used Tillman’s badge to unlock the gate and placed a chock beneath it to keep it open for their exit.

The group discussed where to position the box truck. They knew the front entrance and the front vehicle-access area, but they had not seen the rear garage door opened. They decided to enter through the front, clear the building, and then bring the truck into position for loading.

Securing the armory remained an early objective so that the staff could not obtain firearms. Their surveillance had indicated that only three or four people were usually working at this time of night.

Ted opened the front door with Tillman’s badge while Bill covered the entrance with his shotgun. Bill immediately shot the guard sitting at the front desk through the chest.

Ted moved inside, aimed through the window into the security area, and fired bursts from his MP5. Blood spattered across the security console as he killed the person operating the cameras.

The agents made violence SAN checks for the killings and their aftermath. Successful checks still cost one SAN. Andy, although already adapted to violence, was also assessed a one-point loss under the Handler’s ruling.

That loss would have brought Andy to his breaking point. He projected it onto a bond instead, losing three Willpower and three points from the selected bond.

The group divided to clear the building. Ted took Ernie and Dr. Ming through the communications room. Bill, Jerry, and Andy moved through the processing room toward the armory.

Jerry and Andy heard a quiet sound from the showers and bathrooms behind them, resembling a stall door moving. Jerry alerted Bill, who told them to clear the room while he watched the hall.

In the bathroom, Jerry and Andy found several stall doors slightly ajar and one fully closed as though latched. They could not see feet beneath the closed door.

Jerry hesitated to fire without seeing who was inside. Andy fired his sawed-off shotgun through the stall door at approximately the height of someone sitting above the toilet.

The shot inflicted eight damage and forced the door open. Inside was a young woman in a yellow polo shirt with a baton on her hip. She collapsed over the toilet, bleeding heavily. Andy did not recognize her from his earlier visit to the facility.

Jerry succeeded on his violence SAN check and lost one SAN. Andy chose not to fire a second shot. He left the mortally wounded woman behind and called the room clear. Jerry whispered a prayer before following.

Both teams met at the armory. Ted opened it with the badge, and Bill pushed the door inward with his shotgun while using the doorway for cover. No one was inside.

The armory contained three Kevlar vests. Bill and Ted took two. The agents gave the remaining vest to Andy because he was the most likely of them to be at the front of further fighting.

The group found additional shotguns, ammunition, flashbangs, and tear gas. Using a pry bar, they forced the ammunition cabinets open and removed the ammunition to deny it to any surviving staff.

Ernie used the security cameras to check for remaining personnel. He saw one young man on the main detention floor, pacing and looking uncertain about what to do. The man did not appear to have a firearm.

Ernie stayed at the security console to monitor the cameras and relay information by radio. The group also discussed preserving useful historical footage and erasing footage of their own operation, but Ernie initially kept the system running so he could watch events inside.

Before Bill and Ted approached the remaining guard, Jerry asked Bill to pull the man away from the children if possible rather than kill him in front of them. Jerry added that Bill should do what he had to do. Bill answered with a grunt.

The assault team checked the infirmary and found it empty. They then reached the corridor containing the crisis room, kitchenette or break room, and the office of chief operating officer Jonathan Lowe.

Ted unlocked the door onto the detention floor, held it ready to open, and passed the access card back. Bill told the others to clear the three rooms along the corridor.

Bill and Ted entered the detention floor. The agents heard someone repeatedly saying “No,” followed by a burst of gunfire and extensive screaming. Bill remained near the door to prevent it from locking behind them.

Andy checked the crisis room and found an empty padded room. Jerry, distressed by hearing the guard plead for his life and then being shot despite Jerry’s request, made a helplessness SAN check and critically failed.

Jerry faced a four-point SAN loss and projected onto his bond with Father Glenn Dixon. For a moment, he stood staring at the door to the detention floor while Andy continued clearing rooms.

Dr. Ming joined Andy as backup. The crisis room and kitchenette were clear, but Tillman’s badge produced a red light at Jonathan Lowe’s office.

Dr. Ming used the thermite he had prepared to defeat the office lock. The process took roughly forty-five to fifty seconds, after which the damaged locking mechanism released and the door swung open.

Bill and Ted returned and reported that there were no more security personnel on the main floor. They had also checked the roll-up door into the private section and judged the hallway approach easier, although anyone waiting inside would likely expect them to come that way.

Ernie checked the available camera feeds for coverage of the private section. None of the cameras appeared to show it.

Andy entered Lowe’s office and spotted a man in his mid-forties wearing a vest and holding a pistol toward the doorway. Andy’s successful Alertness check gave him the opportunity to act before the man could respond.

Andy fired his shotgun and missed. The man returned fire and also missed. Andy stepped out of the doorway rather than continue exchanging shots in the open.

Andy threw a flashbang into the office. It detonated, and the man inside screamed. Jerry covered his ears, and Dr. Ming avoided looking directly at the flash.

Andy stepped back around the corner and attempted another shotgun blast, but a critical failure jammed the weapon.

Dr. Ming moved forward and fired into the room. His shot missed, and more blind fire came out of the office. Bill and Ted watched the unsuccessful exchange and laughed.

Andy switched to his Colt pistol. He succeeded on his next attack, fired into the man’s center of mass, and dropped him.

The office contained a laptop connected to a monitor. The door’s nameplate identified the occupant as Jonathan Lowe, and the badge Andy recovered from the body confirmed that identity with a name and photograph.

Andy handed Lowe’s badge to Dr. Ming. Jerry radioed Ernie about the computer in the office, and Ernie left the security station to investigate it.

Before Ernie could settle in to examine the laptop, Bill and Ted called him over and insisted that he join the group entering the private section.

Beyond the restricted entrance was a short hallway ending at another heavy door. It contained a shoe cubby, four sealed plastic bins, and a dispenser of disinfecting wipes.

A laminated sheet taped to the wall was titled “The Ten Commandments.” Its rules were: “Never talk”; “Keep them quiet”; “No phones ever”; “Always wear mask”; “Music always on”; “No gifts, no possessions”; “No play until shift end”; “You don’t know, you call”; “They have value”; and “You do not.”

Dr. Ming asked whether they could hear music. They could not hear any from the hallway, although the door at the far end appeared heavy. Jerry tore the laminated rules off the wall.

Bill and Ted barely paused over the rules before opening the interior door. Beyond it was another detention area containing about a dozen separate chain-link cages, each arranged around a drain in the floor.

Four cages were occupied, each by a single child. The children were boys and girls, Black and brown, and none was older than four. They were malnourished and had visible wounds and possible infections.

The children sat quietly and stared at the entering agents. Andy greeted them in Spanish and told them they were getting out. They did not answer.

Ernie approached the children and tried to reassure them, drawing on his experience as a father. He told them that everything would be all right, that the group would get them out, and that they were making sure the area was safe.

Ernie failed a helplessness SAN check and lost one SAN. The children continued to watch him silently, with expressions the Handler described as awe and recognition.

Bill and Ted moved through the final door and exchanged gunfire with someone inside. When they returned, Ted was favoring his side and examining his Kevlar vest. He said the hit still hurt but expected it to leave only a bruise.

The children did not react to the gunfire. Bill and Ted reported that the last room had contained one armed man and that they had dealt with him.

Jerry noticed that something about Bill and Ted had changed. His successful HUMINT check revealed nervousness or hesitation that had not been present during their earlier, purposeful movement through the building. Dr. Ming failed his own check and read their behavior as continued focus on the mission.

Bill and Ted told the agents to get the children out. Jerry nevertheless entered the last room to see what had unsettled them. Ernie and Dr. Ming also inspected it.

The room resembled an office with a kitchenette and full-height cubicles, but several cubicles had been repurposed. One contained a filthy cot. Another had bloodstained carpet and a chair with a dirty scalpel embedded in an armrest. Another held a pile of handcuffs. The Handler indicated that there were worse things beyond those described.

The agents inspecting the room made helplessness SAN checks. Successful checks caused no SAN loss, and Ernie critically succeeded.

The dead man in the room was identified as Terry Smedley. He wore an ICE uniform, and his service pistol lay nearby. The agents had to remove a full-face pig mask before recognizing him.

No computer was found in the room, and Smedley had no phone on his body. The agents considered checking the hallway bins for belongings left outside under the posted rules, but no recovery from those bins was established.

Ernie used his own phone to photograph the room, taking care not to include members of the team. Bill told him to stop wasting time and get the children out. Ernie continued taking some photographs before helping.

The agents recovered keys from Smedley and began unlocking the cages. Jerry worked on a lock and prepared to pass the keys along to the others.

During the rescue, Jerry, Ernie, and Andy succeeded on Alertness checks. They noticed Ted look toward Bill, Bill give a nod, and both men tighten their grips and begin raising their weapons. Dr. Ming did not notice the warning signs.

Bill and Ted stood near the doorway, blocking the agents’ exit while the team was spread around the cages. Ernie and Andy were quick enough to act before them.

Ernie fired his shotgun toward Bill and Ted but missed with a roll of 97. Andy also fired and missed, rolling an 84. Andy intended to drop down after shooting.

Bill aimed his shotgun at Andy and scored a critical hit. The damage roll was twenty-eight. Andy’s Kevlar reduced the damage by six against the buckshot, leaving twenty-two damage, well above his maximum hit points.

Andy died immediately from the blast. His last words were, “Screw you guys.”

Ted fired his MP5 at Ernie, who had already shot at the pair. Ted missed, sending a burst of bullets over Ernie’s head.

Dr. Ming considered his options and confirmed that he had already used the thermite he brought. The group also established that Jerry was carrying their Vietnam-era hand grenade.

Dr. Ming fired at Bill and Ted and missed. He then stepped back through the doorway into the room where Smedley had been killed, placing a wall between himself and the attackers.

Jerry muttered a prayer, pulled the grenade’s pin, and rolled it beneath Bill and Ted. He chose to remain in front of the child in the nearby cage rather than dive away.

The grenade’s lethality roll succeeded. Bill and Ted looked down, looked at Jerry, and tried to turn and run before it exploded.

The blast killed both Bill and Ted. Jerry suffered only two damage from fragments striking his extremities and remained standing. The children appeared unharmed despite their proximity to the explosion. The Handler described their survival as a miracle.

The surviving agents made SAN checks for the violence. Dr. Ming succeeded and lost one SAN. Jerry and Ernie failed and faced 1d6 losses.

Ernie lost two SAN and accepted the loss. Jerry projected part of his loss, reported taking three SAN and losing another two Willpower, and became adapted to violence.

Ernie approached Bill and Ted’s remains, spat on them, and shouted curses at them for several seconds. He then turned back to the work of releasing the children.

The four children came out of their cages without resisting. The agents only needed to reach toward them for the children to join them.

Jerry reminded Ernie to erase the security recordings. Before returning to the security station, Ernie retrieved Jonathan Lowe’s laptop rather than spend more time examining it in the office.

Ernie set up an aggressive wipe of the security system. He accepted losing other information on the system as part of destroying the recordings of their operation.

Jerry and Dr. Ming began evacuating the rest of the facility. Roughly seventy people were being held there. Jerry directed Dr. Ming to bring the box truck to the garage entrance.

They opened the garage and the rear of the truck and began moving detainees out. The detainees were frightened and hesitant, particularly when they saw blood and the aftermath of the assault.

Jerry spoke Spanish and used reassurance to keep people moving, telling them that the group was taking them somewhere safe where others could help. The detainees followed the instructions of the armed men who had taken control of the facility.

Before leaving, Jerry collected Andy’s identification and checked Bill and Ted for identifying material. The Handler noted that Bill and Ted had probably taken precautions against carrying identification into the operation.

The agents confirmed that Terry Smedley had been present and killed, while Alan Rapp had not been found. Ernie mentioned that Rapp might need to be dealt with later, but no further action against him occurred during the session.

The survivors drove toward the rendezvous arranged with the woman from the aid organization. Jerry called to let her know they were coming. Their intention was to leave the rescued detainees with the waiting helpers and depart.

As they approached the highway outside the facility, they saw an SUV parked at the roadside. A man stood beside the driver’s door, facing the route they would take out. He waved when he saw them.

The man was Matthew McCarter, whose photograph the agents had seen in the Black Lantern files. Jerry got out with his shotgun raised, and Ernie also kept his weapon trained on him.

McCarter said he was there to help and introduced himself. Jerry lowered his gun after recognizing the name and connecting him with the photograph. Ernie kept his gun raised.

The agents checked whether McCarter produced the unnatural smell. The Handler confirmed that he did.

Ernie demanded an explanation and threatened to shoot McCarter if he did not provide one quickly. McCarter asked whether they were “the next ones” and said that all he had to guide him were dreams.

McCarter said he believed there were children involved and offered to take them somewhere safe. He warned the agents that they would have troubles of their own ahead.

Jerry succeeded on a HUMINT check and recognized that McCarter was not being fully honest. Jerry directly asked whether McCarter intended to kill the children.

McCarter hesitated. Ernie moved closer and maintained the threat of shooting him, while McCarter kept his vehicle between himself and the gun.

McCarter said that killing the children would be better than what came next. According to his dreams, the children were now bait that would draw things out for the new agents.

When asked what kinds of things he meant, McCarter referred to monsters, witches, and the kinds of unnatural threats the agents dealt with. He said those things would be attracted to the children, or the children would be attracted to them.

Ernie initially demanded that McCarter come with the group and called for him to be restrained. McCarter agreed to come, but Jerry interrupted and argued that they should let McCarter take the children instead.

Jerry specified the four young children from the private cages. McCarter confirmed that, if there were four, those were the children he meant.

Dr. Ming pointed out that McCarter had just said the children would become bait for the agents. Jerry answered that they would not if they were dead. McCarter nodded.

Ernie asked whether giving the children to McCarter was really what Jerry wanted. Jerry said he did not want any of it, but that the cycle had to end. He blamed McCarter for failing to take the necessary action the first time and suggested giving him the chance to redeem himself.

Ernie said he did not like the decision. He ultimately lowered his weapon, turned away, and walked off without further argument.

Jerry returned to the box truck and told the other detainees that someone had arrived to take the little ones because they needed special care after their ordeal. He brought the four children to McCarter’s vehicle.

McCarter departed with the four children. The conversation left uncertainty about whether this would work, when anyone would know, and whether the agents would ever see him again. The session did not show what McCarter subsequently did with the children.

The survivors continued to their rendezvous with Nalina Estevez and the people waiting to assist the detainees. They handed over the remaining rescued people. Estevez said she did not want to know anything else and told the agents to leave.

In the following days, it became clear that the Program had been slow to recognize what the agents were doing but had not remained ignorant of it. Andy’s earlier contact with Pitzerelli was specifically mentioned as a reason the Program knew about their activities.

The Handler described professional difficulties and being frozen out as consequences for the three survivors, with imprisonment also a possibility. It remained uncertain whether the Program could directly connect them to the events in Texas, but it could use its influence to cause them serious trouble.

Ernie confirmed that Tillman’s recorded confession and photographs of the ICE facility’s interior had been released to both the authorities and the press. The material was not directly tied to the surviving agents.

The disclosures made national news, but the attention lasted for less time than the agents would have expected.

The Handler concluded that the jaws of the hidden god would eventually close on the survivors. This ended the played events of the God’s Teeth campaign.

In the discussion after the ending, the Handler confirmed that a measure of supernatural luck had contributed to Jerry surviving the grenade explosion with so little injury.

The Handler also explained Bill and Ted’s betrayal. As Outlaws hostile to the Program, they regarded the opportunity to kill four Program agents inside an ICE facility as an additional benefit of the operation.

Bill and Ted had deliberately gathered all four agents in the private detention area. This was why they insisted that Ernie leave his other work and join the group. Once the facility was under control, they intended to kill the agents, kill the children, and leave believing they had eliminated the threats.