Project Jade Serenity [Supers/Technothriller]

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

So he's planning on going no where near Mexico or Vargas then?

Or is Townsend really that naive/stupid as to think there'll be zero violence in that endeavor?

I don't imagine Townsend will leave Washington DC for a while. If he ever comes near Mexico, it will be to handle paperwork in relation to the plea bargains and contracts that Vargas, Col. Ortiz and the deserted Green Berets are offered.

And if it came to that, he would be accompanying Director Gujarat and prosecutors from the US Army and District Attorney's office. They wouldn't meet anyone until they'd already agreed to the deal in principle and they'd have Navy SEALs as security for the meeting. Not to mention that Col. Ortiz and Vargas, should they accept the plea bargain, would probably have to come alone to the meeting to sign the paperwork.

The odds are that neither Vargas nor Col. Ortiz will consent to working for Onyx Rain in exchange for qualified immunity. And even if they'd consider it, they probably don't trust Onyx Rain enough to agree to meet them from a position of weakness.

The mission our characters are given in Mexico most likely has a low probability of success. The odds are that direct action will be required. If so, however, our characters are not privy to those plans. In any case, direct action by special operators assigned to Onyx Rain would not involve Cam Townsend in any way. Well, except maybe to watch it on secure video with Director Gujarat.

[Icelander]

Agent Danny O’Toole walks ahead, apparently impatient to get back to the central building of Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where he and Cam Townsend are having to act as ad hoc incident commanders until somebody else lands. Dr. Anderson looks thoughtfully at Agent O’Toole’s broad back as he starts after him, wondering what could have required his presence here in the almost empty J Wing. As far as Anderson knows, there is nothing there but Ms. Bell’s room. And she and O’Toole have hardly spoken two sentences to each other since they met.

From I Wing back to the central building is a walk of a couple of hundred yards, through corridors and connecting walkways between the en echelon wings of the Kirkbride Plan complex. As they walk through the populated wings of Manhanock Asylum, Dr. Anderson and Danny O’Toole can hear conversations, shouts for nurses and orderlies and screaming from what sounds like several people. Dr. Anderson looks inquisitively at Agent O’Toole.

O’Toole: “I Wing is the high security ward now, I don’t know how it worked when you were here. There ought to be a nurse checking in here several times over the night, a doctor on call and at least two orderlies in addition to the guards. Since we can’t trust any of these [fornicating] people on their own, I had to ask an orderly to take some people from the kitchen and look it over. He says the patients are frightened and confused, but nobody seems to require immediate medical assistance. [Excrement], if anyone did, how would we even handle security on it? Use guards who were trying to kill us less than an hour ago?”
Dr. Anderson: “You would not want to spend time with any of these patients without an orderly present, at least. If they are agitated, guards would seem indicated. When I was here, some of the high security patients could extremely dangerous. Serial killers, spree killers and highly disturbed, violent patients who have been transferred here from other facilities.”
O’Toole: “According to the lists I could find on Warden Tyrrell’s computer, that’s not all by a long shot. There are some twelve patients here who were in the military before being committed here, aside from Cherry Bell, and eight of them require secure sign-in and confirmation of TS-SCI clearance just to look at their [fornicating] names. I don’t even want to know what you’d have to do to see their service records.”
Anderson: “Some kind of special operations personnel with serious mental issues?”
O’Toole: “That’s my guess. Maybe some of them took part in something like Project Jade Serenity and went crazy from drug side-effects. Others, who knows? Ex-Delta Force or Green Berets who’ve had one deployment too many? Ex-SEALs who’ve run into Cthulhu? That bare-chested retard with the big-ass knife was probably some kind of special operator, from what the orderlies say. He’s listed as ‘Derek’, no last name, in the lists they get and pretty much everything about him is redacted.”
Anderson: “I suggest you carry this rifle. I am, after all, a non-combatant, whereas you are a trained federal agent. If one dangerous patient was on the loose, there could be others.”
O’Toole: “I’ve put people to counting the patients in their living quarters and checking if any doors are unlocked, but I guess the rifle can’t hurt.”

In G Wing, Anderson and O’Toole come across Bob the orderly and two other orderlies whose names they haven’t gotten. According to Bob, the patients of the low security ward are settled in again. They are waiting for permission to have a nurse distribute sleeping pills to those who request them. Anderson suggests that any food, drink or medical supplies not in sealed containers might have been tampered with by Dr. Cotton.

Bob: “It’s the guards who went crazy, so anything meant to go to the patients should be fine. After all, they’ve come through this looking like the sanest people here.”
Dr. Anderson: “Even so, I recommend that we avoid anything that might be contaminated. Surely we have enough bottled water and snacks to last until the Coast Guard lands.”
O’Toole: “Hell, even if the Coast Guard lands right now, you think they bothered to bring supplies for over a hundred people?”
Anderson: “We are only eight miles from shore. I will ask for lists of medicine the patients require on a daily basis and someone can probably take care of the food and drink situation.”
O’Toole: “Goddamn it, doc, I’ll add to my infinite [fornicating] to-do list!”

When they finally get to the main building, there are at least some good news. Dr. McKinney and Dr. Emma King have opened up the medical facilities on the grounds and the badly wounded have been transported there. Nurses Arthur Reilly and Justin Foreman were found in their own living quarters and are prepared to help with any necessary medical procedures. Dr. Roy Frasier has also turned up locked in a room and while there is no way to know if he was among the victims or perpetrators, he doesn’t appear threatening and Townsend has permitted him to assist in taking care of the mental patients.

Dr. Anderson wants to go and check on the situation in the medical facilities, but before he can do that, Cam Townsend asks him to take a look at Nurse McRae. Anderson confirms that she is in a deep hypnotic state and very susceptible. Townsend says that she hasn’t responded to anything he has said to her and Dr. Anderson explains to him that she doesn’t recognise him as the voice she was told to obey. After a discussion on hypnotism, Dr. Anderson agrees to see if he can ‘hijack’ control of McRae in her trance and get her to answer some questions.

Townsend orders everyone else out of the room. Before O’Toole leaves, Dr. Anderson asks him to make up a list of everyone on the island, where they were during Dr. Cotton’s speech over the intercom and radio, their medical status and where they are located now. As they are assuming that Dr. Cotton’s speech contained a post-hypnotic trigger, it might be important to know who would have been exposed to it and who was not.

After establishing hypnotic induction by making McRae focus on his voice, Dr. Anderson starts to patiently question her. He discovers that Dr. Cotton has been carrying out ‘scientific’ experiments at Manhanock Asylum ever since he was hired there just over five years ago. Dr. Cotton kept most of his work secret from other staff there, but appeared to have a lot of pull with the Chief Administrator and the Deputy Warden. Step by step, Dr. Cotton brought the guard force under his influence, working through Deputy Warden Tyrrell.

McRae was aware that Warden Tyrrell and many of the guard force exhibited symptoms of paranoia and delusions that intensified over the years. She claims that Dr. Cotton was experimenting with shared delusions and the founder effect of a strong leader in an isolated community with a belief system radically removed from reality. McRae confirms that the food and drink of the guard force was adulterated with drugs developed by Dr. Cotton that made it easier to induce a hypnotic state and also made them more suggestible.

Nurse McRae has heard tales of lizard people and hyper-intelligent rats in the tunnels below the asylum, but has never seen either. She is not familiar with any experiments that Dr. Cotton performed that might have led to the rats, but admits that she was not privy to all of his work. When asked if Dr. Cotton ever experimented on animals to her knowledge, she asserts that he did.

Nurse McRae: “There are the dogs.”
Dr. Anderson: “Dogs? What dogs? You will tell me about these dogs!”
McRae: “They were subjected to regular injections of a modified version of Substance M from weaning. The effects were encouraging, enhancing their speed, power and ferocity, as well as their intelligence.”
Anderson: “Tell me, how big are these dogs?”
McRae: “Bigger.”
Anderson: “Bigger than they were as puppies? Bigger than normal for their breeds? Bigger than normal dogs?”
MrRae: “Yes.”
Anderson: “Oh, dear. Where are these dogs now?”
McRae: “In their kennels.”
Anderson: “How many of them are there?”
McRae: “Nine dogs.”
Anderson: “And can you keep them in check?”
McRae: “I have nothing to do with the dogs.”
Anderson: “Wonderful.”

When questioned further about how the current state has come about, McRae says that if anyone among the staff complained or threatened to report some of what Dr. Cotton did to the authorities, Dr. Cotton would order them brought to his laboratory for ‘re-education’. McRae has no information about what happened in the laboratory, but the subjects were usually much more cooperative after it.

Dr. Anderson: “You will tell me if you were a willing participant in unauthorised experiments with Dr. Cotton.”
Nurse McRae: “I was.”
Anderson: “Tell me why you helped Dr. Cotton with his secret work.”
McRae: “For science. To expand the boundaries of knowledge. Because I wanted to know what would happen.”
Anderson: “Were you working for any branch of the US government?”
McRae: “No.”
Anderson: “To your knowledge, was Dr. Cotton working for or reporting to any branch of the US government in relation to his experiments?”
McRae: “He was not.”
Anderson: “What about foreign powers? Was Dr. Cotton in contact with any foreign organisation about his research?”
McRae: “Yes.”
Anderson: “What foreign organisation?”
McRae: “VVA.”
Anderson: “You will tell me about VVA.”
Townsend: “OK, Dr. Anderson. That’s enough. We’ll finish this interview once we have some experts present. And a secure room. Can you leave her in this state?”
Anderson: “I can, but it would be harmful to her if left too long.”
Townsend: “Well, then don’t leave her like that too long. But for now, just let her sit here until Ford gets here.”

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I don't imagine Townsend...

My error. I was referring to O'toole in both of my posts. I keep getting names mixed around.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

My error. I was referring to O'toole in both of my posts. I keep getting names mixed around.

Ah. That changes everything.

Danny O'Toole is not a lawyer like Townsend.* He's a Special Agent of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who has spent most of his short law enforcement career in the Office of Intelligence, specifically assigned to the El Paso Intelligence Center. He is currently seconded to the Office of Intelligence and Analysis of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and assigned to the Onyx Rain task force.

He's still a new agent to the Onyx Rain people and being partnered with Special Agent Banks for the visit to the Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane was his first 'field' assignment. Whether he will be sent to Mexico kind of depends on how his superiors feel about his performance on Jewell Island.

I quite agree that the most sensible thing Agent O'Toole could do would be to tell his superiors that Chase Taylor acted under his orders throughout and that in the tunnels, O'Toole went out to the guards to give Cherry Bell time to escape and fetch his help, but that O'Toole was forced to retreat and take cover after a flashbang went off and the guards started firing.

He really wants to avoid the apperance of having been ineffective, without any authority or a coherent plan. As the sole conscious federal law enforcement officer present during the emergency, O'Toole was indisputably in charge and responsible for the protection of the civilians from the mutinous guards. Townsend and Burr probably feel that he didn't do a very good job of protecting them when he left them to the guards.

That being said, O'Toole will also have a pretty hard time accounting for his interaction with Mrs. Judith York. After all, she survived and will be able to tell investigators that he sent her out into a tunnel where he said his friends were waiting and she was immediately shot by guards that O'Toole couldn't have failed to know about (he was fleeing them when he went into her room).

Of course, neither I as a player nor Taylor as a character has any idea why O'Toole was in Cherry Bell's room while she was either in bed or getting ready for bed. They could have spent anywhere up to half an hour together, alone. Considering that they have no way of knowing each other before this night, O'Toole has acted like he's very nervous of Bell from the beginning and Bell has very convincingly acted like she hated O'Toole pretty much on sight, that's fairly odd.

It may be that O'Toole has no interest in a buffer between him and Cherry Bell. He may want to avoid having Taylor anywhere near her, in fact. Of course, considering Bell's proclivities and gifts for manipulation, it may be that her wishes are rather more to the point.

Taylor hopes that Bell feels kindly toward him. She does apparently have some friendly feeling toward him, unless she's an even more awesome actress than Anderson or Taylor suspect, not to mention carrying out a breathtakingly complex layered deception strategy.

But emotions aside, Bell is going to have extreme difficulty trusting anyone and will naturally default to trying to use her gifts to win her freedom. That means manipulating people who don't know her and don't have the strength of will to resist her powers. Bell may feel that she has a better chance engineering things in her favour without Taylor's protection, especially after he got angry at her and forcibly reminded her that he's no longer a biddable boy, for all that he usually acts like one.

Taylor can be manipulated through his feelings for her, but he's annoyingly stubborn about his principles, scarily able to see through it when she lies and in several attempts, she's been unable to use her superpowers on him. And she's probably smart enough to tell that when he says he'll protect her, he means it, but he doesn't mean he'll let her do anything she wants, not if it is something that would, in his opinion, harm her or pose unacceptable risks. And she may fear that Taylor would not allow her to escape from Onyx Rain to join Vargas, which is to all appearances her primary goal.

So... it is quite possible that Bell has decided that she'll do better twisting O'Toole around her little finger than Taylor. And what O'Toole tells his superiors might be exactly what Bell wants him to tell them.

*He served two years on active duty as an information technology specialist in the US Army and eventually graduated UMass-Boston with a major in World Cultures and a minor in Sports Science.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

He really wants to avoid the apperance of having been ineffective, without any authority or a coherent plan. ... O'Toole will also have a pretty hard time accounting for his interaction with Mrs. Judith York.

Of course, neither I as a player nor Taylor as a character has any idea why O'Toole was in Cherry Bell's room while she was either in bed or getting ready for bed. They could have spent anywhere up to half an hour together, alone.

Of course, considering Bell's proclivities and gifts for manipulation, it may be that her wishes are rather more to the point.

Actually, this fits together, if O'Toole is being as cynical and foolish as he was in the tunnels. He wants to avoid blame for his actions. Bell can manipulate people very well. She could at least muddy the evidence against O'Toole, and maybe even make him look heroic.

I suspect he's offered her a deal: manipulate the witnesses against me, so that I look good, then I'll be in charge in Mexico and can arrange your escape. He may well be planning to double-cross her, and I'm sure she'd love to double-cross him, but she actually has a reason to do as he wants.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Actually, this fits together, if O'Toole is being as cynical and foolish as he was in the tunnels. He wants to avoid blame for his actions. Bell can manipulate people very well. She could at least muddy the evidence against O'Toole, and maybe even make him look heroic.

Exactly.

OOC, us other players suggested to O'Toole's player that he really needed to coordinate his story with Bell's, as the moment he abandoned his fellow Onyx Rain people to the guards was also the moment where she mysteriously disappeared.

Surely, Bell isn't eager for Onyx Rain to start wondering exactly how she managed to walk through the flashlight beams of several people who were explicitly looking for her, at a range of less than thirty feet, with no cover in the corridor itself, without one of them seeing her?

And O'Toole's credit with his superiors would certainly benefit if his neophyte Flashman-esque craven attempt to escape at the cost of his companions were recast as something heroic done in the defense of the proverbial damsel in distress.

Originally Posted by johndallman

I suspect he's offered her a deal: manipulate the witnesses against me, so that I look good, then I'll be in charge in Mexico and can arrange your escape. He may well be planning to double-cross her, and I'm sure she'd love to double-cross him, but she actually has a reason to do as he wants.

To add another wrinkle to any dealings between them, OOC, the other players know that Agent O'Toole failed his resistance roll when Cherry Bell took the opportunity to caress his wrist as she passed him a pistol in the cellars of the guard barracks.

This means that she knows either his greatest fear or his heart's desire, her choice. And given that his character sheet has Obsession (Find His Father and the Truth About Himself) written in bold letters and Danny O'Toole is certain that his father is one Raul Vargas... well, I'd say that if Cherry Bell wants an accomplice to escape from Onyx Rain in order to join Vargas, O'Toole would do very well.

Agent O'Toole is awesomely strong-willed by any normal standard (Will 15), but in a party that includes Dr. Dreamweaver the Mind-Taker and Chase 'Paladin of the Pure of Heart and Protestant Principles' Taylor, Agent O'Toole is actually by far the easiest to manipulate through both mundane and supernatural means. Just the fact that he has no special resistance to her mental illusions or to her crazy-high Sex Appeal default means he's pretty helpless against her. Add the fact that he doesn't have any Disadvantages indicating principles or preexisting loyalties that would give him a bonus if she's turning him against former allies and he's a much better target for manipulating than Taylor. And if she knows his Obsession, that's going to give her a hefty bonus with him.

Not to mention that almost any federal LEO or special operator assigned to watch her with O'Toole is going to be easier for Bell to manipulate than Dr. Anderson* and Taylor**.

That being said, she was technically doing okay with Taylor so far, but in order for her to continue influencing him, she'd have to convincingly fake an emotional attachment and responses with someone who knew her well and, well, she seemed to be having some trouble deciding whether she was faking or not. In game terms, she was losing Influence Quick Contests to Taylor about as often as she was winning them and it interfered with her ability to rationally use her social skills to accomplish her goals.

As for Dr. Anderson, he has been reacting positively to her, but that's despite seeing through all her attempts at manipulations. Dr. Anderson probably makes her feel very clumsy, awkward and stupid.***

O'Toole is a lot safer that way. She can probably rely on her superpowers with him, if necessary, and even if she must back it up with social engineering, it isn't as if she even likes him. She's not going to get confused about her feelings pretending to flirt with O'Toole.****

*Will 17, Mind Shield 3, Resistance +8 to Social Skills and Mental Strength 20+.
**Will 16, Resistance +8 to Sex Appeal and (Sense-based) Resistance +8 to Illusions.
***Which, incidentally and hilariously (at least potentially so for us players, not for the characters, obviously), is pretty much exactly her template for how men she has historically been attracted to should make her feel. Which is probably why her dating life is a tragic story which led to an asylum for the criminally insane.
****Or so she might think. From another point of view, he's exactly the kind of callous, self-centered tool she might fall for. After all, he might be Vargas' son.

[Icelander]

While Dr. Anderson and Townsend closet themselves off with creepy Nurse McRae, Agent O’Toole busies himself with getting an accurate count of everyone on Jewell Island, their current location and status. There are only 42 patients, which means that the staff is substantially reduced from what it was in the peak operational years of the Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane.

Aside from the Kirkland Plan complex of the asylum itself, there are apartment buildings for the male and female nursing and orderly staff on the grounds, the guard barracks and cottages for medical staff who choose to live on site. There are also several older buildings, not currently in use, two houses that were formerly TB quarantine sites, farm buildings, repair shops, salvage sheds. The power facilities remain in use, but with fairly modern diesel generators having replaced 19th century coal furnaces long ago, require far less effort to maintain.

Jewell Island is close enough to Portland for people to take the ferry home at the end of every day if they want. Most of the non-medical staff do not do this, however, instead electing to stay on the island for up to a week of watches and on-call duty and then having up to a week off duty. There are several doctors and nurses who commute from Portland for all of their duties, but others live in cottages or apartments on Jewell Island.

Of those personnel who have part- or full-time homes on Jewell Island, few live in the main asylum buildings. The two apartment buildings outside the walled grounds of the asylum were originally meant for the male and female nurses, but with the reduced staff, even the orderlies can rent comfortable furnished rooms there. The Chief Administrator, Deputy Warden and the heads of psychiatric and physical medicine all get a furnished cottage on the island as part of their employment package and all of them have chosen to live there.

Whether medical personnel, orderlies, custodial or kitchen staff, few people voluntarily stay on Jewell Island over a weekend unless they have a duty shift or are part of the senior administrative staff. As a result, apart from the guards, only a minimal staff was present on the island for the events of Friday night. Those who had the day shift on Friday were in the apartment buildings during the excitement of the night and only turned up after the shooting and circling helicopters alerted them that anything was out of the ordinary.

Agent O’Toole is not sure he can believe the protestations of various staff that they had absolutely no idea about the increasingly insane behaviour of Deputy Warden Tyrrell, the mounting paranoia and survivalist militia apocalyptic preparations of the guard force or Dr. Cotton’s unethical pseudo-scientific ‘experiments’ slash live-action Brazil remake.

On the other hand, the from what Bob the orderly and others say, Deputy Warden Tyrrell successfully created a climate of fear and distrust on the island over the last few years. If Tyrrell had a way to plausibly threaten the families of anyone considering reporting his behaviour, as Dr. Anderson says that the guard Hayden Avery reported to him, perhaps that goes some way toward explaining how things could get this bad on Jewel Island without Homeland Security becoming aware of it.

Of course, the man responsible for filing reports to the DHS on the Manhanock Guard force, Inspector Kevin Rankin, seemed to have had his brains scrambled pretty thoroughly. Taking a statement from him was pretty much a waste of time. Allegedly, his memory had more holes in it than the plot of Lost. And O’Toole is pretty sure that while Inspector Rankin might be lying to conceal culpability at some point, he’s probably not faking his current sorry state of anxious confusion, profound ignorance of present events and general mental incompetence. Whatever happened to Rankin, it left him a hollowed-out shell.

Hollowed-out shell is also an apt description of Chief Administrator Dr. Vernon Findlay. Catatonic when O’Toole found him, he’s been put to bed in a temporary sick-room after Dr. Anderson ministered to him. Anyone else without serious physical injuries has similarly been found a bed in the main building, leaving the infirmary for Col. Burr, Vicente Berrocal and Agent Banks, as well as those of the Manhanock staff evaluated as critical casualties.

Foremost among those critical casualties are the two guards who were badly burned by flashbangs. Russell Tucker was in the tunnels under Manhanock Asylum when an M84 stun grenade strapped to his chest went off and Frederick Pierce was trying to throw another M84 in the main building when he was shot in the face with a beanbag and subsequently was still holding the flashbang when it exploded. Tucker is badly burnt over his entire upper torso and Pierce will almost certainly lose his hand even if he is lucky enough to live. Both of them are fairly likely to succumb to lethal infections due to the massive third degree burns they suffered.

The others are mainly guards that Chase Taylor violently subdued. From what O’Toole can tell, most suffered only cuts and bruises. One guard lost an eye to a beanbag, however, and three of the guards were beaten much more severely than the others. O’Toole understands why Taylor battered Ethan Ball, the guard on duty when they first came into J Wing to meet patient Bell. The man was a pervert who spent his duty time leering at Taylor’s precious Cherry Bell on that off-the-books surveillance camera and probably raped her every chance he got. As motives for a beating go, that's pretty solid.

O’Toole doesn’t really know what prompted Taylor to cripple Benjamin Hewitt and Harold Lamb in the rear annex of the main building, however. Oh, Hewitt was the guard who originally took them to Bell’s room and O’Toole supposes he might have been slipping the little hoodsie the hot beef injection too, along with half the guard force, but frankly, Hewitt looked too chicken-[excrement] to ever take the initiative in any kind of crime.

If Hewitt had her, then a lot of people on the guard force must have had her before him, and it seems excessive to shatter Hewitt’s knee, crush his nuts and break his jaw over something everybody did. And Lamb was just about the least likely of the guards to have harmed Taylor’s little lust object, but something made Taylor put him in critical care with possible kidney damage and internal bleeding.

O’Toole briefly considered the wisdom of having any kind of interaction with Cherry Bell. Taylor could be counted on to leap to conclusions about anyone spending time with her and he seemed to have a pretty violent way of asserting ownership. Taylor was obviously insanely jealous when he met him coming from J Wing and if he hadn’t been almost dead on his feet, things could have turned unpleasantly physical.

On the other hand, while O’Toole wasn’t any kind of kung-fu-fighting GI Joe, he did grow up in Boston’s Southie and instinctively rebelled against backing down from any threat of a physical altercation, regardless of whether Taylor’s antipathy was based on incorrect assumptions or not. Cherry Bell can contact Vargas. Vargas might consent to meet with her. She might be the last stage of my search. No [fornicating] way some love-crazed PTSD-jockey is gonna [fornicate] that up.

After finishing the list of people on the island, their status and locations, O’Toole confirms that Dr. Anderson and Townsend have vacated the Deputy Warden’s office and again appropriates it as his headquarters. He has a couple of orderlies escort Nurse McRae to the infirmary to get rid of her creepy presence. The drugged patient in the office that Nurse McRae shot full of some drug has also been removed to the infirmary.

The corpse of Dr. Cotton is still there, but has been covered by a sheet. The smell of congealing blood and the brains splashed over the wall is gag-inducing, but no other room has the wide range of surveillance monitors and communications devices that the Deputy Warden’s office boasts. O’Toole picks up the handset for the radio and contacts the former Coast Guard incident commander, now reduced to commanding the perimeter while he waits for Onyx Rain.

Agent O’Toole: “This is O’Toole at Manhanock. What’s the ETA on someone to relieve me here? Over.”
CPT Michael Baroody: “The new Incident Commander is one Curtis J. Ford of the Homeland Security Office of Operations Coordination. I expect you know him better than I, because I don’t know him from Adam. All I know is that he’s flying out to Fort Dix and he’ll be on site before morning. As will the Atlantic Strike Force and a lot of Homeland Security medical personnel. You’re quarantined, Agent O’Toole. As is everyone else on Jewell Island. You lot better start preparing for a camp-out, because you’ll be watching the game there on Sunday. Hell, you might be there for even longer, depending on how much is true of these rumours flying around. I wish you luck, Agent O’Toole. Over.”
O’Toole: “Uh, thanks, sir. I’ve got a doctor telling me that we shouldn’t eat or drink any of the stuff here. What is everyone here going to live on? We’ve got some ninety people already and if there are more coming, what little the snack machines had isn’t going to stretch. Over.”
Baroody: “We’ll be supplying you. Submit a list of your requirements as soon as possible. Over.”
O’Toole: “Will do, sir. Out.”

O’Toole sighs and makes a note to find out about supplies at some point. Then he starts figuring out what guards and orderlies he can trust to make rounds and makes a call to the medical unit to delegate all responsibility there to Dr. Anderson.

[Icelander]

When Dr. Anderson arrived at the Manhanock medical center, Dr. McKinney had already decided that surgical debridement was urgently necessary to reduce the chances of life-threatening infection and sepsis in the cases of Russell Tucker and Frederick Pierce. Both have massive third degree burns leading to significant necrotic tissue and their injuries are further complicated by the introduction of tissue debris, such as fibers from clothing and protective wear.

Arthur Reilly, a psychiatric nurse at Manhanock, had previous experience as an ER nurse and along with another nurse, Justin Foreman, has suited up to provide assistance. Dr. McKinney clearly wants to wait for the EMTs from the Coast Guard to arrive, but has reluctantly determined that Tucker has already demonstrated indicators of severe systemic toxicity and waiting any longer is highly likely to result in his death.

Dr. McKinney: “Dr. Anderson, orderlies James and Gilbert here claim that you provided effective emergency assistance to wounded people earlier tonight. Do feel qualified to assist in surgical debridement?”
Dr. Anderson: “I am board-certified as a general practitioner, in addition to psychiatry and paediatric sleep medicine. I have some surgical experience, but I do not claim to be certified in either emergency medicine or critical care surgery. If it is your considered medical opinion that the patient requires immediate emergency surgery and on the understanding that I assume absolutely no liability and all responsibility lies with the medical insurers for the Manhanock Asylum for the Criminally Insane, I am willing to act as surgeon’s assistant for any procedure you recommend.”
McKinney: “Thank you, Dr. Anderson. It is so understood. Due to his extensive experience in surgical settings, Nurse Reilly has agreed to serve as our surgical technician. Nurse Foreman acts as circulator nurse and I, eh… I will have to serve as both anaesthesia provider and surgeon.”

As far as Dr. Anderson sees, the operating theatre has been professionally scrubbed and prepared. As he finishes his own pre-operation hygienic routine and puts on surgical scrubs, he can tell that Dr. McKinney, despite his clear nervousness at having to function as lead surgeon, seems competent as an anaesthetist. Even with the complications of repeated doses of morphine having been used for acute pain management by Tucker’s fellow guards, Dr. McKinney has achieved general anaesthesia with excellent vitals and respiration.

His hands are steady when he starts an incision on Tucker’s chest, peeling away strands of para-aramid fused with the necrotic flesh. Dr. McKinney moves his Watson knife slowly and carefully, allowing Dr. Anderson plenty of time for haemostatic measures and removing the excised tissue. He is so careful, in fact, that at this rate, the procedure will take all night. After some thirty minutes of agonisingly slow surgery, it is evident to all present that Dr. Anderson’s motor control is considerably finer than that of Dr. McKinney.

Dr. McKinney: “Uh… Dr. Anderson, I hesitate to ask, but would you be willing to take over the knife? Younger hands, do you see?”
Dr. Anderson: “As long as it is still understood that I am working under your direction and assume no liability, I am willing to wield the knife.”
McKinney: "Of course. Thank you, doctor.”

As soon as he has taken over the surgeon’s role, Dr. Anderson greatly increases the pace of the debridement. The rest of the surgical team watch in awe as he cuts away necrotic tissue and foreign debris with confident assurance and amazing dexterity. There is no wasted motion and no hesitation.

In a few moments, Dr. Anderson finishes the worst of Tucker’s charred chest and moves on to burns on the left side of the torso. After only slightly more than an hour, all debris visible to the naked eye, along with all major concentrations of necrotic tissue, have been removed from Russell Tucker’s unconscious body. As the surgical team scrubs down, they notice a man clad in some sort of rescue swimmer rig from the Coast Guard standing outside the operating room.

Dr. Anderson: “Can we help you?”
CPO Morgan: “I’m Chief Petty Officer Liam Morgan. I’m an aviation survival technician, US Coast Guard. That means I’m a qualified EMT. I’ve got three other men here with emergency medical training. Our warrant officer is a reservist who is a surgical PA at Maine Medical Center in civilian life. We wanted to know if we should try to get authorisation to move your two burn victims ashore for surgery.”
Anderson: “You should check with Dr. McKinney here. He is the chief of general medicine at Manhanock.”
Dr. McKinney: “Eh, yes. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I think there is no need to move Tucker, here. It’s touch and go for him, still, but moving him is probably the greater risk at this point. As for Pierce, we should probably look at him again to evaluate whether we should operate here, send him ashore or wait for specialists to arrive here.”
Morgan: “Do you have the capability to operate here?”

Everyone looks at Dr. Anderson, who nods slightly.

Dr. McKinney: “It depends on whether anything has changed with the patient, but we ought to have what’s necessary. Dr. Anderson, why don’t you take a look at the other OR and look in on Pierce on the way? I’ll see if we don’t have some tasks for these gentlemen to perform.”
Dr. Anderson: “As you wish. Nurse Reilly should probably check the OR with me.”

After examining Frederick Pierce and the other OR, Dr. Anderson informs Dr. McKinney that there is no reason they cannot perform the debridement of Pierce there. CPO Morgan cannot promise that a helicopter could take Pierce off immediately and odds are that he would not enter surgery at Maine Medical before dawn. This would probably be soon enough to save his life, but prudence would most likely demand amputation of his right hand and possibly the arm at the elbow. The burn damage is extensive and deep enough for infection to be all but guaranteed.

After consultation, Dr. McKinney and Dr. Anderson decide to operate on Pierce. USCG WO Carter Johnson serves as the surgical technician, freeing Nurse Reilly to be the circulator nurse. Dr. McKinney explains to the Coast Guardsmen that even though he’ll be the lead for this procedure, Dr. Anderson will make the incisions, as he has younger hands and a better eye. Dr. Anderson quickly proves the truth of this, going to work with a deft assurance.

Dr. Anderson elects not to amputate Pierce’s hand, but instead manually remove the necrotic tissue, and despite some misgivings, Dr. McKinney concurs in this. Pierce had earlier given verbal consent to any medical procedures that might be necessary to save his life, but he had been in extreme pain and his mental state debatable. There had been no chance to discuss any potential procedures or obtain meaningfully informed consent for drastic measures. In any case, his hand could always be amputated the next day.

As Pierce is not evidencing as acute symptoms of systemic toxicity as Tucker, Dr. Anderson goes slower with his debridement, trying to do minimal damage to nerves, ligaments and muscles. By the time he’s finished, Pierce’s ravaged hand and arm have been carefully cleaned of necrotic tissue and the Coast Guard emergency technicians are looking at Dr. Anderson with expressions of unqualified respect.

WO Johnson: “That’s damn fine knife work, doctor. I won’t say the hand will ever be good as new, but if he gets to keep it at all, it’ll be down to your skill. We couldn’t have done it any better ashore. Are you maybe an orthopaedic surgeon?”
Dr. Anderson: “Psychiatrist, but I have had an eclectic education.”
Johnson: “I’ll say.”
Anderson: “If there are no more patients in immediate danger, I believe I shall ask your leave to take some rest now.”

Everyone hastens to assure Dr. Anderson that he is welcome to retire for the evening. In light of his ordeal, it is unconscionable to expect him to perform any work at all, really. Anderson sets out to find an empty sick room with a bed, but before he retires, decides to check out Benjamin Hewitt and Harold Lamb. Chase Taylor had been afraid he’d killed them or at least caused them some permanent trauma.

Lamb proves to be awake and recuperating. His lower back has a massive bruise and he has shooting pains around the kidneys, but there is no evidence of damage to the spine or internal bleeding. Unfortunately, Lamb seems anxious, emotional and has indicated to the orderlies helping him that he is terrified of being left alone or closing his eyes to go to sleep. Dr. Anderson studies his chart for a while and prescribes him a mild sedative.

Hewitt is unconscious and heavily medicated. He suffered a very ugly multiple fracture of the tibia and patella of his left knee, with extensive fragmentation of the patella. There is every reason to expect that the ligaments of the joint are badly damaged and major reconstructive surgery will be required to provide any chance of using the leg again.

They’d initially worried that Hewitt may have suffered a hairline fracture of the mandible as well, but looking over the X-rays, Dr. Anderson cannot see any break in the jaw bone, just bruising around it. There’s also extensive bruising from the knee kick to the groin, but Hewitt appears to have escaped a testicular rupture or other types of lasting harm to the reproductive organs and there is no significant bleeding.

After having determined that neither of them is likely to die from the injuries Taylor inflicted on them, Dr. Anderson beds down in an empty room in the medical center. He had not been entirely honest with his colleagues. Dr. Anderson had not in fact slept since his coma of the year 2000. It is not rest he craves, but the delirious joys he can find by visiting the dreams of others.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

As soon as he has taken over the surgeon’s role, Dr. Anderson greatly increases the pace of the debridement. The rest of the surgical team watch in awe as he cuts away necrotic tissue and foreign debris with confident assurance and amazing dexterity.

Surgery is IQ-based, and I deduce that Dr. Anderson also has better DX than Dr. McKinney.

It is not rest he craves, but the delirious joys he can find by visiting the dreams of others.

I was wondering when that was coming.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Surgery is IQ-based, and I deduce that Dr. Anderson also has better DX than Dr. McKinney.

With DX 14 and High Manual Dexterity 2, he certainly does.

Originally Posted by johndallman

I was wondering when that was coming.

An entire session of dreamweaving. Just... so much dreamstuff. And the monkeys and the spiders and the clowns. And the centaur.