[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Refplace

There its really up to social engineering.

I get the feeling that Deputy Warden Tyrrell was once a very impressive Chief Warrant Officer in the Coast Guard and that he is likely to be highly respected among the active duty Coasties at South Portland Station.

Fortunately for our characters, the guard force and Warden Tyrrell are out of control because of Sherilyn Bell, not a careful and sane plan of their own. And Sherilyn Bell's powers are not laser scalpels of precise mind-control. Her mundane abilities at social manipulation are racheted through the roof because of what happened at Project Jade Serenity, with her looks improved to Very Beautiful, gaining Charisma 4 and Smooth Operator 4.

Add to that an ability to know someone's greatest fear or greatest desire when she touches them, being able to conjure mental illusions in someone's mind once she knows his greatest fear or desire and, finally, by twisting the illusions to play on someone's greatest fear, use Terror at -10 penalty to resist. When she uses her flagrantly supernatural abilities to conjure illusions, however, her gifts are somehow communicable, like a sexual fantasy communicated disease.*

If she were patient and disciplined, she might develop these gifts into an amazing ability to reprogram people as her devoted, but self-willed allies. However, because she is Callous, Impulsive, Selfish and a Trickster with Sadism (Mental Only), she seems to prefer to combine more-or-less mundane Fast-Talk and Sex Appeal manipulation that gets people obsessed with her with repeated doses of terror that break people's mind.

End result, most likely Deputy Warden Tyrrell will have an unpredictable array of new Quirks and mental Disadvantages gained from years of failed Fright Checks amassed while guarding Sherilyn Bell. He might be able to present a sane front at times, but I doubt that he'd be able to trick already suspicious boarding team members who are face to face with him at a time when Bell is missing somewhere on the island, with people that he believes are there to remove her from his custody.

*Her Illusions have Temporary Disadvantage: Weirdness Magnet (Origins Magnet).

Originally Posted by Refplace

Its not a private facility and its protected by them so I doubt they need a warrant to search.

Under some circumstances, a patient occupying a hospital or similar facility for an indefinate amount of time might be considered to be a resident there, with rights of privacy in his personal residence.

Criminally insane mental patients almost by definition lose most rights they have to privacy or personal freedom, with a justification for their own safety and that of others usually advanced. On the other hand, the people empowered to ignore the patients rights to privacy are often only the staff of the facility, with any outsiders being bound by their regular civil rights. The staff might be expected to safeguard patients' rights of privacy as their proxies, by refusing outside law enforcement personnel permission to enter their homes without warrants.

In any event, the combination of the patients' right to privacy, the Warden of the guard force claiming that any armed men from outside the asylum entering it now would be liable to cause a riot in which lives might be lost and the fact that many aspects of Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane are classified TS-SCI, would almost certainly be enough to force whoever was in command of the response boat sent to Jewell Island to send the issue up to his superiors for a decision.

On the other hand, it is likely that the Coast Guard would not be willing to wait infinitely long for such a decision from shadowy suit-clad figures in the Department of Homeland Security.

Anyone from the O-3 (LT) in command at the South Portland Station, the O-4 (LCDR) who is probably the highest ranking officer awake at Sector Command on a Friday night, the O-5 (CDR) in command of the MSST at Boston or the various O-6 (CPT) who will eventually hear of it, i.e. the Sector Commander and the Captain in command of the MSRT in Virginia, will make the call to send a considerable force to Jewell Island to find Special Agents Banks and O'Toole, as well as the other DHS employees missing. If not them, then Rear Admiral Steven Poulin at District One HQ in Boston might do so.

Ultimately, DHS bureaucrats do not dictate individual tactical law enforcement or incident command decisions by the USCG. Junior officers can and do hesitate, but higher command will tend to contain a higher proportion of people who are comfortable actually exercising their legal authority to the limits when they perceive a genuine need for decisive action.

Originally Posted by Refplace

On the other hand I doubt the first responder would force the issue. They would ask permission for a routine search and you to be presented. Denying either would be a red flag.
Most likely they would call for a decision at that point unless they felt immediate danger.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by Refplace

If they land and you guys see it a few gunshots should do the trick. If denied landing that should do it as well.

Yep. The Die Hard strategy, i.e. ensure that the first responder gets shot at to ensure overwhelming law enforcement response, is one of our options here.

Originally Posted by Refplace

If it all looks quiet and the Deputy Commander is convincing enough or nothing found further action may be stalled. Up to the higher ups at that point and your boss will likely have some input.

This is true, but see above.