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Summary Report by Agent Otto Mabuse
I lead the field team into the location, which will hereby be expunged from our records to prevent They from their bizarre form of tourism. We ascertained the type of haunting according to our own classification system, which, while you at head office may disapprove, it is the most effective for dealing with ghosts. At approximately 7 PM, we began the operation in earnest, with Probationary (now Junior) Agent Thirteen acting as the bait for the spirit, which was a type IV poltergeist. The spirit however, merely played with Thirteen's olfactory centres and it's presence lowered the temperature as per usual. With the help of Junior (now full) Agent Thanati, I was monitoring the biosignals from Thirteen, though when I became aware of the type of spirit from these biosignals I was required to move to support and begin capture. The auto-ritual unit worked, though I fear it may have worked it's last. Please review my request to begin production of the new computer based single unit devised by Agent Thanati.
We have retained a sample of the spirits flesh for our personal Spectrelight database which, if you fools had given the green light to my previous request sooner, would integrate with the new model auto-ritual unit and permit functional improvements.
After the spirit was given a functional exorcism, I gave the signal for the blacklabs to move in and remove all evidence of our presence, the spirits presence and peoples memory we were ever there. As a result of this, I am authorising the previously mentioned promotions. Thirteen has proven to be a willing, capable agent. Thanati has been an excellent junior agent and has shown himself to be every bit as unflinching as our field requires.
Report ends.


Back at the office, Otto looked over his desk at the other two, signalled for them not to bother with typing out or settling down for anything.
"Enough, enough both of you. It's past six o clock now. As a result of today, I'm promoting you both. Thirteen, you're now a full Junior Agent. You'll be issued with your badge on monday. Go home, enjoy the weekend." he said, with a note of apparent pleasure in his voice and bearing.
"Sam. You're now a full Agent. Or... well you will be after we're done. We're going on a drive tonight. Got places to go, people to see."
He lit a cigarette, handwrote a brief report and got up, coat on. Motioned for Sam to follow. Locked the office.

So grey october sky rolls into night, slowly, unyieldingly.
Like the descent of a suicide in slow motion, the sun gave way to a sickly moon. The kind you never see so much these days.
Two agents. A car. No music or radio noise permitted. But conversation, after a fashion.
"......iation in medical results to what they are in our intelligence report. I trust the girl, don't get me wrong. But she's an extreme sanction. We didn't think it would come to this. I doubt we could even hope to reverse it. So we live with it."
Pull over. Medication time. Two median prescription painkillers, maybe three, half a concerta. Not much, but enough to keep driving. Get this through with.
Get with it Mabuse! Heroes aren't to be caught out driving under the influence., even on required medication.
Silence.
The car rolled through strangely well tended back roads. Well kept, no potholes, just the illusion.
"Sam, this is just going to be the beginning of our troubles. You and I, tonight we're getting one step closer to your truth.
A secure, small, possibly temporary government unit. Guards in the nonvisible spectrum. There we two reasons Mabuse wasn't being grabbed, muffled and given amnesiacs. One, his licence plate was known. Two, he had it.
"I have to be horribly honest though. This next part. this is going to suck. Really can't back out now. You asked me what clearence black was when you thought you saw top secret files prematurely. Don't worry. This isn't dianetics. We have better.... logosecurity, Language control."
The agent got out of the car, lit a cigarette, and offered two pain pills to Sam.
"Trust me, you want to wait til after it happens to take them."

From shadows around them, they came. Masked, dressed in black labcoats. At the head of them was an older male, white haired, green eyed. He was wearing a pinstriped bespoke suit, leaning gently on a cane.
"This is the new agent? I can't say he looks like much, but, well that's no great indicator is it? Agent Thanati, I am your superior and commander, Dr. Leopold. If you're a religious man, I'd pray now. I hope you know what you're doing Mabuse."
Then, gone. Back into the shadows. The surgical figures came closer. Otto lit a cigarette and stared at the ground. They grabbed Sam, gently, elegantly, but firmly. Pushed him down onto an adjustable chair, strapped his wrists and legs down.
"Virus is about to be introduced to subject. Final authorization of Clearence: Black has been approved."
One of them handed another a box, which opened to reveal an autosyringe. In it's ampoule was a viscous black material. It hurt your head to look at it too long. The way it shifted, pulsed and absorbed light around it.
And they stuck it in....
In his spine....
Cut.
Fadeout to black screen.
Cut to Otto's car again, rolling, down a different road. Sam unconscious, strapped in and with a spare blanket thrown over him.
on the radio, in a tongue only audible to Sam and Otto.
"Left.....Right..... Left....Left....Straight on.....left."
Eventually the car comes to a stop in an isolated, vast field covered in black markers. Around it, a forest of gibbets.
Mabuse's eyes have been reduced to pinpricks. He awaits Sam awakening.

Somehow actually seeing people was calming when compared to imagining they may be present. Sam didn't know what he might have said next, but he knew the word "virus" mentioned shortly thereafter spiked his anxiety once more. Such an odd substance. It spread a dull throb visually. Then, the p***k, or the wrenching stabbing.

Sam's consciousness returned, but his eyes had not opened. He could feel a strange sensation coursing through his body. It was multiple sensations, actually. He was acutely aware of his nervous system, feeling it screaming at him, primarily from his back. His heart and vessels seemed normal, but something about them seemed unfamiliar, as if he was not at home in his own body. His muscle and bone felt like lead, too tired to move. Eventually, these feelings began to dwindle in reverse order, so his eyes were first to open, squinted. He tried to sit up and had trouble with his coordination, all the while gasping with the pain. He looked around and noticed Mabuse, "Sir?"

He remembered the pain pills he had stowed in a small pants pocket. Retrieving them, he downed them hungrily, presently wishing they were more than mundane so that they might work faster even if it meant supernatural side effects. He accepted the coffee from Mabuse, and its warmth and pungency eased his body some. Sam's vision was still bleary, but he could distinguish people at least. As his vision cleared when his superior began the explanation, he looked to the objects illuminated by the headlights. Just barely able to discern the existence of script upon them, he listened to the bewildering revelation from Otto. While it sounded insane, he knew better than to doubt the often off truths of the universe given the line of work he was in.

Sam took a few minutes until the pain killers started kicking in before trying to get out of the car. His vision was slowly clearing up, but his limbs were shaky as he stood. As he paced toward the spire his boss was focused on, he could finally make out the runes etched on the spheres in this place. Hauntingly, they seemed to writhe and protrude from the surface upon which they had been chiseled. Synesthesia bombarded him as purples and cyans danced in translucent overlays before him while whispers from an unknown voice communicated to him the meaning of the abjads his gaze rested upon. A high-pitch ring manifested and soon grew as a metallic scent filled his nostrils. He was forced to avert his eyes from the text all around him once the shrill noise overcame the arcane raspy automatic inner translation in his head. He staggered a bit as the flood of sensation alleviated with his eyes now groundward. He finally made it to Mabuse but didn't know where to begin.

Sam nodded with hollow acknowledgement, feeling too odd internally for much to seep in. Despite how "out of it" he was, Mabuse's next words rattled him to the core. His father had been in the same line of work he was now in. Was his own involvement in this organization some kind of destiny? After the initial shock of his father's secret job, the subsequent revelation of his mother being an agent as well did little further. He stepped back with his eyes shut tightly, rubbing his temples. After a few moments, he exhaled slowly and softly. Sam looked Otto in the eyes, a true rarity for him, speaking firmly, "Thank you, sir. I will do my best for their sake if I can keep surviving." Soon, a very small voice in the farthest reaches of his subconscious began to speak of vengeance upon the accursed organization tat had done them in; he would not become aware of this for some time, though it would undoubtedly begin to color his actions.

With nothing left to do at this graveyard, they returned to the car to drive home. When they reached his apartment, he bid Otto farewell for the weekend. As the reality of what had happened this evening began to hit him in full, he knew he would want to be using his new clearance to overcome the pain that was slowly building. He hoped sleep would fix it, but every letter and symbol in his abode called out to him in a throbbing echo, even if the lights were off. Blank paper, even, wasn't helpful, as his was recycled; thus, the scrawlings of past writers in jumbled masses throbbed from the surface of it. He wolfed down some before retiring, as keeping his eyes shut was the only way to find peace now. He drifted off rapidly, waking up Sunday morning but not realizing the day he had missed for several minutes. His head was feeling very hazy now that his body was growing accustomed to the virus, but a dull pain still resided at the back of his neck. He headed out for the meds, acquiring them with ease due to his clearance level. Sam decided to spend the rest of the day at home trying to get used to his new ability.