Finding what remains.
Capt. Smythe will offer his condolences to the PCs for the loss of their colleagues and explains that his soldiers are bringing back the remains of Prof. Lawrence’s Land Rover and his team. He invites them to stay at the outpost, until new orders are posted from Basra (or London). Before inviting them into his office, Capt. Smythe was able to briefly contact and apprise Col. Masters of the situation in Basra. 

The PCs may wish to pursue a number of options that are listed below:

1) Contacting Col. Masters or Mr Thorn.
Communication with Basra Airbase (and London) is crackly at best, intermittent at worst via the radio or mobile phone. The telephone landline is clearer but not rated by Group Captain Powers for Section 23c traffic. The interference is due to local geological features (the nearby Kabir Hills) and varies in strength depending on the time of year/ height of the Sun in the sky/ whichever direction the wind blows, depending on whom you ask. But everyone agrees it’s a constraint that needs to be worked around. (The soldiers at the Almara Outpost will express this opinion in more colourful language than can be printed here.)

When contact is established, Group Captain Powers (on Col. Masters’ behalf) will ask them to try to identify the cause of the destruction of Team Able’s Land Rover and to verify that Prof. Lawrence and his team were aboard at the time.
Mr Thorn, if contacted, likewise will echo Group Captain Powers’ instructions and remind them “…there’s no such thing as co-incidence, just suspicious circumstances may be fully investigated and with extreme prejudice.” Code for “Find out who did this and if they’re covered by Section 23c – deal with them.”

Given the poor level of communication between the outpost and Basra, the PCs may be wondering how messages were readily relayed to Team Able. Capt. Smythe explains that the professor was able to set up a heliograph and signal in Morse code. If visibility was poor, sometimes they’d send up a Land Rover to relay urgent messages in person. The last messenger was Lt. Kelvin Ross, who was sent to deliver news of the destruction of Flight Zulu X-Ray Eight Zero and to recall the team back to Almara.

2) Questioning the Eyewitnesses.
The last person to see Prof. Lawrence alive was Lt. Kelvin Ross who was sent to deliver an urgent communiqué from London a few days ago, following the recent “air incident”. Ross, a black junior officer in his mid twenties, speaks perfect Received Pronunciation having attended the University of Cambridge (BA in Economics and Politics) and Sandhurst. Most of his acquaintances refer to him as the most English person they know… He is one of Capt. Smythe’s most trusted Lieutenants, which is why he was selected as a “messenger boy”, albeit with Confidential coded signals to be hand delivered to Site 1, as well as one of his most experienced patrol leaders.
Lt. Ross will explain that he would normally drive to the heliograph (referred to as Site 2, though Prof. Lawrence would refer to it as the “Moon Lens” – clearly a private joke of his, as he would often smile as he said it) to drop off messages. Prof. Lawrence expressly forbade anyone to go up to Site 1. A field telephone had been installed at Site 2, which someone could use to inform the team if any mail or equipment had arrived and needed collecting.

That morning Lt. Ross waited for the Professor to arrive to personally hand him the communiqué from London as instructed and to await a reply. Prof. Lawrence read the message, shook his head and muttered something like, “This won’t do at all” and told him to inform Group Captain Powers in Basra that his team will require a few days to secure the site before returning. He then went back to his Land Rover and drove off up the hill back to Site 1. He did not note any change at all in the Professor’s normal professional demeanour while dealing with him. Ross, if asked to describe the Professor will give a correct description of a closed individual who seemed moderately distracted, which tallies with the PC’s experience with the leader of Team Able’s (infuriatingly) inscrutable attitude. (Think of the character of CSI’s Gil Grissom – but somewhat more smug or self-assured depending upon your point of view.)

Lt. Ross also happened to be in charge of the roadblock on the Eastern side of Almara this morning. He recognised the team’s armoured Land Rover as it approached. It got to within 100 yards of the checkpoint when a concealed roadside bomb was detonated as the vehicle drove past. The Land Rover caught the full force of the explosion, enveloping the car in a ball of flame setting it alight. Any survivors from the bomb blast did not escape the rapidly developing inferno. Lt. Ross admits that he did not react immediately out of shock and then advanced with three other men cautiously, looking for secondary devices as they went, to the burning wreck. He could not see how anyone could have survived the attack. The fire was extinguished as quickly as possible and support was called for from the outpost. A Samson armoured recovery vehicle was dispatched to tow the wreckage back to the outpost, which should arrive within the hour. A medical team pronounced all the occupants deceased, recovered the five bodies inside and placed them in storage in the outpost morgue.

3) Examining the Wreckage
The burned out wreckage of Team Able’s Land Rover has been towed (or more correctly dragged) from the blast site outside Eastern Almara to a secure vehicle bay (a walled off area with sandbags and plastic sheeting, near the vehicle maintenance section) in the outpost compound. It is still covered with flecks of foam from fire suppression gear used to put out the fire after most of the vehicle had been consumed in the flames. The charred remains of the bodywork shows the considerable blast impact on the right-hand side by the driver side (it’s a British left hand drive vehicle). It also smells of burnt fuel, charred rubber and some might even imagine the faint smell of cooked meat from the seared flesh of the previous occupants. People seeing the vehicle will agree with Lt. Ross’ assessment that the driver and passengers of the Land Rover had absolutely no chance of survival at all.

There is no evidence of any accelerants present, save for the diesel fuel in the now ruptured fuel tank of the Land Rover. Nonetheless metallic analysis (and that of the bodies) indicates the subsequent fire did burn at a very high temperature, which suggests the use of an incendiary device. It is thought by tactical experts to be unusual as roadside bombing devices usually go for an overwhelming blast effect to kill the occupants and destroy vehicles.
A shrewd observer will also remark on how the detonation was extremely effective at taking out the vehicle and its occupants to leave not very much behind… Certainly the cavalier manhandling of the remains means that any forensic examination is well nigh useless. Capt. Smythe will defend the actions of his men – the vehicle was recovered quickly to prevent looting and to secure anything sensitive that may have survived the blast. Unfortunately, any papers and data storage devices on board were also completely destroyed.

And this is how it should be. Laundry document storage devices due to the sensitive nature of the material within are designed to “self destruct” in the event of unauthorised attempts to open them. Being violently shaken by a bomb blast unfortunately counts as an “unauthorised attempt to access classified material” and so the team’s findings were all destroyed and contributed to a somewhat nastier fire than would be expected.

4) An Autopsy of the Bodies
In the outpost morgue are five severely burnt corpses – the extremities of the limbs have been completely destroyed (no hands or feet). Facial features are non-existent, making identification of the deceased extremely difficult. No fingerprints, limited dental remains on some bodies and no viable genetic material for testing. The fire that consumed the vehicle was intense enough to serve as a crematorium, if it had been left long enough to burn. The reason for the higher than usual temperatures achieved by the fire are discussed in the pervious section.

However, the widened pelvic bone of one corpse suggests that it belongs to a woman of the same age as Lt. Foss. Another corpse yields a metal skull plate implant that matches the medical records of Dr. Bellamy which was used to help reconstruct his skull after sustaining serious head injuries in a motor cycle accident a few years ago.

Sharp-eyed forensic pathologists may note that the material behind the skull plate should have been better protected than other parts of the body. But when examined, the area beneath the skull plate does yield some intact brain tissue that is denser than expected. Three times as dense in fact, but given the tiny amounts of brain matter recoverable this may be considered to lie in the limits of testable error by less paranoid observers. Testing the charred brains of the other corpses does not yield the same anomaly. In fact testing the charred parts of Bellamy’s brain will also show no such discrepancy – it is only the material that hasn’t been totally incinerated that has this “density” anomaly.

Reporting the density anomaly to Mr Thorn gets a request for the samples (and the bodies) to be shipped back to Basra Airbase and shipment back to the UK for further test. If they wait a few days for the results to come back, they’ll be told the results were inconclusive and to stop wasting time. But before they get the results, they’ll be told to investigate Site 1…

5) Inspecting the storage facilities.
Investigators may recall that the artefacts that were recovered by Team Able were transhipped to the Almara Outpost where they had their RFID tags replaced due to the fact that all the data stored on them had been wiped. If asked about this, the NCO in charge (Sergeant Douglas Bain) of the storage facility will mention this happened with other items shipped from the Kabir Hills. “It’s the Kabir Curse,” he’ll explain. “I know they say its e-m distortion due to the local geology, but the local Arabs tell a different story. They say the area’s cursed by a Demon Queen.” Asked how he knows this, he’ll explain he’s spoken to some of the local contractors and has participated in some local outreach work (rebuilding hospitals and schools) in Almara. Douglas also adds helpfully that “Like the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil’s Sea off Japan, this is one of the few areas on the surface of the Earth where magnetic compasses do not work reliably.” Either Capt. Smythe or Lt. Ross can also relate all this to the team too.

If they check the actual place where the artefacts were stored, they’ll find it not surprisingly full of crates. The storage facilities are “cramped” and new stuff has been shipped in (building materials) and is now stored here. Closer examination will reveal the items were in fact incorrectly shipped to Almara and are due to be shipped out in the next few days to the US sector in Baghdad. “It would have been tomorrow, but the new security protocols in place means things will take a while to shift now,” explains Sgt. Bain.

Opening up the crates will reveal the actual missing “artefacts” that should have been aboard Flight Zulu X-Ray Eight Zero – carved black basalt slabs that radiate a Class I thaumic field. An occult examination (Mythos rolls please!) of these slabs reveals them to not be safely packaged components for a dimensional gateway as expected, but in fact warding devices – designed to keep something out or contained within an area say 100 feet across. Judging from the curvature of the stones – its to keep something in…

Reporting their findings to Col. Masters/Group Captain Powers and/or Mr Thorn will earn them hearty praise and congratulations. “Well done and now see that they are well guarded until we can send something suitable to collect them,” they will say.

They will then requisition the team’s Saxon APC and a squad of guards from Capt. Smythe to drive the artefacts immediately to Basra Airbase. They are then issued with new orders – to travel up to Site 1 and find out what Team Able had discovered. Meanwhile, Capt. Smythe will initiate an investigation as to how the RFID tags were incorrectly assigned in the first place. A review of Sgt. Bain’s procedures will be undertaken to see if anything else has been misplaced. (It turns out that he has an interesting sideline in black market sales of surplus Army supplies of food and medicines.)


Over the Hills and Far Away
Whether Team Bravo locate the missing items at the Almara Outpost or not, they will be ordered to investigate Site 1. If they have found the lost artefacts in then they will be without their armoured Saxon APC however. (Let no good deed ever go unpunished…) Capt. Smythe will supply them with an armoured Land Rover in desert colours (rather like the one used by Team Able), to make their way up to Site 1. If the team thinks to ask, they may be able to secure the services of Lt. Ross, but Capt. Smythe will be reluctant to let him go especially if his command has become short-handed thanks to the team’s actions… At best, Lt. Ross will only be permitted to show them where Site 2 is. On no account will the Captain permit his troops to accompany the team to Site 1 – he knows neither he, nor his men have the security clearance to go there and he has no intention of wasting resources on a “…damn fool spook show mission” as he describes the work of the TLA civilian contractors (i.e. Team Bravo) in his outpost. (Being embarrassed by the uncovered shortcomings in his staff, will also not improve his mood for co-operation either.)

After restocking on supplies and/or transferring the equipment, and Team Bravo is on the road again, heading east towards the ominous looking Kabir hills. The irrigated fields soon give way to a desolate wilderness of scrubland that rises slowly towards the hills through which a dirt track of a road winds its way. Here and there are whitewashed mud brick huts where farmers herd goats that graze the sparse plant life, which rapidly decrease in number once the team has travelled some 5km from Almara. The hot sun beats down on the team’s sandy coloured vehicle. If they have the land rover, there’s no air con to keep them cool, while aboard the APC it should suddenly pack up and cease to work. Any GPS navigational units will also malfunction too – navigation now is strictly by maps and dead reckoning. There is a definite feeling Team Bravo are not in Kansas anymore…

If Lt. Ross is accompanying the team, he and four soldiers are leading the way in another armoured Land Rover. Lt. Ross will stay in contact with the team by radio, but the signal is poor, and gets worse as they approach the looming hills ahead. The dust kicked up by the lead Land Rover doesn’t make for a pleasant driving experience either.


Site 2
After travelling 10km, the sandy coloured dirt gives way to darker coloured rocky outcrops and the gradient of the road starts to increase. Geologists will recognise the rocks as igneous extrusions, which have not weathered as much as the surrounding sedimentary rocks. As the vehicle rises higher and slows down due to the steep gradients, the Team can look back, and make out the town of Almara on the plains below, the greenish squares of the farms surrounding the town and the main Baghdad to Basra highway snaking off into the distance parallel to the Tigris River on the horizon. The air is still very warm though… but not as warm it was in Almara.

Suddenly the ground levels off and the Team arrive at what looks like a hillside viewing point, with a small wooden hut, a flagpole with a circular mirror on top (the heliograph or Prof Lawrence’s “Moon Lens”) and most unexpectedly, a parked battered orange VW camper van.

The van has it’s rear hatch raised. Looking up from the engine is a petite (5’ 2” or 155cm tall) Chinese woman (mid 20s?) wearing a black headscarf (a hijab) and Rayban sunglasses, with her hands covered in grease. She waves at the group as they arrive.


Meeting Anna Leung
After parking their Land Rover, they are approached by the woman as she wipes her hands clean with a rag before tucking it into a back pocket on her trousers. It may take a moment for the group to recognise her as the Canadian photojournalist Anna Leung, now based in London. (If Lt. Ross is with them, he will certainly recognise who she is – he met her at a checkpoint a couple of days ago.) She asks if they could perhaps be able to assist her with “Charlie” - her van, which has broken down. An immediate examination of the engine reveals a serious oil leak, which has rendered her vehicle immobile.

Ms. Leung (“Do call me Anna, all my friends call me Anna”) explains she’s been touring around Iraq with Charlie, getting pictures of the “occupation” for her latest assignment. (It’s a term that irks Lt. Ross if he is present – he’s also worried she’s sniffing around after a story about the British Army involved in human rights abuses against the Kabiri hill tribes. If anyone argues the point that the Allied Forces are not an army of occupation – she’ll point to the similarities with the situation in Germany after World War Two. “Didn’t they have an Army of Occupation medal which they gave to US soldiers serving in West Berlin?” she’ll point out.) She is friendly and relieved to see people. She offers to boil up a kettle for a mug of tea, but she worries she might not have enough mugs for everyone… If asked how could she travel safely around Iraq on her own, she replies that she hasn’t had any trouble and that she always gets on with people. “If you’re polite to them and take the time to understand some of their ways, they always appreciate the effort,” she declares enthusiastically.

When asked how long she had been marooned here, she’ll admit to being stuck here since yesterday. (“Must have taken a wrong turning somewhere, and then Charlie packed up. I have a few spares and I know how to fix most things, but even I could patch him together long enough to get me back to civilisation,” she laughs, “But at least I brought plenty of provisions just in case I got stuck…”) Asked if she’s seen anything “strange” she does recall that someone was up here a few hours earlier who drove past and didn’t stop at all to help in their “…big black gas guzzling SUV.” “Couldn’t see who it was, because they had smoked windows,” she adds.

If any members of the team accidentally refer to this place as Site 2, she’ll instantly ask why they call it that and does that imply there’s a Site 1 too? Anna may appear to be friendly and a little dotty, but she is quick to pick up on any slip-ups made. She is after all a successful photojournalist…

Should Lt. Ross be present, he will gallantly offer to take Ms. Leung back to Almara – after all, it wouldn’t do to leave a woman alone and marooned out here in the wilderness, even if she’s a mad Canadian journalist who may be trying to dig some dirt on the British Army. She will try to attach herself to Team Bravo, especially if they’ve let slip about Site 1, but she can be persuaded (albeit with difficulty) to go back. Alternately if they are on their own, they have to decide whether to take her with them or not. Leaving her alone with limited supplies and a broken down van is not something they could do with a clear conscience.