The Legend (Night's Black Agents)

This week’s post is based on a recent article about a Russian spy who attempted to infiltrate the international criminal court (ICC) in the Netherlands, using the false identity of a Brazilian citizen that he had built up over more than a decade. 

A legend is basically exactly that. It’s the backstory, the plotline, the history that anyone who encounters the spy is meant to believe. The more elaborate the legend, the more believable it’s going to be – in theory, anyway. Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov, the spy at the heart of this particular narrative, had a fairly elaborate backstory that covers everything from his dislike of fish to the crush he had on his high school teacher. Unfortunately, he wrote it all down. 

In a physical document. 

Which is now in the hands of the authorities.  

Oops. 

Probably the most famous legend of them all is the one used in 1943’s Operation Mincemeat. There the British went to great lengths to make it look as if the corpse they carefully planted for the Germans to find was in fact Captain (Acting Major) William Martin of the Royal Marines, assigned to Combined Operations Headquarters. They even went so far as to have someone else wear Martin’s uniform for several weeks, to give it that lived-in look, and made sure that love letters, a receipt for an engagement ring, and irate letters from his bank manager were all found on the corpse in addition to the fake military documents intended to foozle the Germans. 

There the intent was to make one man appear, in all ways, to be another. The most useful thing about this version of a legend is the subject doesn’t have to be alive to pull it off, though Operation Mincemeat’s planners were concerned that the body they used didn’t quite look fit enough to be a Marine nor did they have the luxury of time; they had to keep the body on ice but not frozen, and if they waited too long then decomposition would have given the game away. In the absolute ideal the stomach contents would also have matched the legend; the actual Martin died after eating bread crusts laced with rat poison. 

In Night’s Black Agents a legend is represented by the Cover ability. While this is usually shorthand for passports and driver’s licenses, in practice it’s everything from the subject’s pocket trash to their social media profile. Everything has to match and be plausible. Gone are the days when a prospective Jackal could steal a few passports and fake an identity using a dead man’s birth certificate. Now you have to really get creative, if you’re going to get close enough to take a shot at the head of state. 

I can spot an obvious use for Cover: an Achievement, as described in Double Tap. If you need reminding, an Achievement Refresh works like this:

1. when an agent meets the criteria for an achievement
2. and the player provides a colorful bit of roleplaying or hot-dogging
3. the agent gets a 3-point refresh of whichever General ability seems most appropriate.

In this instance:

Mincemeat. The agent makes it look as if their current Cover identity died, and the corpse stands up under forensic investigation.

Of course, it’s a little different for the Conspiracy. If the vampires have access to mesmerism, necromancy or similar then they don’t have to fake being, say, ASM Gordon of the Green Jackets; they can actually be ASM Gordon, assuming such a person exists.   

However, any advantage gained through supernatural means can be countered by supernatural means. If the agents can deploy a block or blow someone’s cover by seeing what they look like in a mirror’s reflection, that’s a problem. 

So for the Conspiracy attempting to penetrate an enemy agency or some neutral organization with useful intel hidden away, it may be better to fake it with a legend than try to brute force it with a zombie.  

With all that in mind: 

Dead Man Walking 

The agents are alerted by a Network contact that an agent of [a foreign power – pick the one you like] has been caught trying to infiltrate the International Criminal Court. Though the authorities are convinced this is a relatively ordinary espionage attempt, there is evidence to suggest that the infiltrator is a Conspiracy operative.  

There are two questions to answer. First, is this person really a spy (time for a Thrilling Interrogation scene), and second, if they are, does this mean they work for the Conspiracy or someone else? Of course, there’s the added challenge of trying to find all this out while at the same time keeping out of a Dutch jail; after all, the agents are spies themselves and it wouldn’t do to get caught. 

• Option One: yes, they are a spy, but no, they aren’t a Conspiracy asset. In fact, the whole point behind getting into the ICC is to make a play for a Conspiracy asset already embedded with the ICC. This asset knows what’s going on but is reluctant to make any overt play, since this might reveal their identity. From the Conspiracy asset’s perspective, the best outcome would be if the spy died and the agents were blamed for it. 
• Option Two: yes, they are a spy, and yes, they are a Conspiracy asset. The Conspiracy realizes it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong and want to tie up loose ends. That means a heavy squad is on their way to deal with the situation. The spy thinks the heavy squad is there for a rescue attempt; there’s a chance to flip the spy once it becomes obvious that the heavy squad is there to kill them. 
• Option Three: no, they aren’t a spy. They’re a corpse. The intent is to lure the agents out of hiding and feed them false intel, and it's up to the Director who's behind it. It could be the Conspiracy or another anti-vampire agency. Funny thing about that corpse; everything up to and including the pocket trash and stomach contents indicate the deceased is a Dutch journalist living in London. Except, if the agents dig a little deeper and check Forensic Pathology, they notice that judging by some background radiation information he spent his early years in Russia, probably Novosibirsk. How does a Dutch journalist manage that?

That’s it for this week. Enjoy!