Let's Flip A Target (Night's Black Agents)

 Flip. The agents must flip an asset to their side.

Briefly: the Bankhaus is an investment bank with a murky past and has offices in several major cities, of which the Conspiracy has control over the Paris and Zürich branches thanks to its control over Lisle Klingemann, daughter of the boss and a senior partner in her own right, and Albert Ahrens, controller of the Zürich branch and Lisle's devoted slave. The Bankhaus is mainly interested in software development companies, particularly in jurisdictions within Europe, though it has a significant sideline in mining, especially in East Asia, a holdover from its former interests.

It has swanky offices, lawyers, a ton of assets on the book and off, and when it makes calls they get answered by senior politicians and members of the financial elite. It almost doesn't matter whether this is a Supernatural, Damned, Alien or Mutant game; all factions are going to want a piece of the Bankhaus whether to get access to its bottomless bank vaults or for more esoteric reasons.

The Flip has the potential to be the most interesting operation your agents will ever conduct as it relies on in-depth knowledge of the target, which means Investigation, Investigation and more Investigation with a healthy dose of psychology thrown in.

Some agents Flip themselves, offering their secrets for money or some other reward. Brian Regan, the spy who couldn't spell, is a classic example. He deliberately gathered intel he thought would be valuable and tried to sell it to the Russians via the Lybians. It didn't go well. However, that's the kind of traitor who has his motivations baked in - Regan wanted cash to settle his debts and boost his pension. In situations like these the Flip becomes a Thrilling Interrogation where the agents don't know if the person presenting themselves as an asset is or isn't a poison pill. Are they secretly working for the enemy? Have they been given bogus intel?

MICE - Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego. That's what gets people motivated to sell their souls. Faustus is a classic Ego trip heavily laced with Money and a small dash of Ideology. We all remember what happened to Faustus, right?

The Globe

What that suggests is that any Flip operation ought to involve a significant dose of more than one motivator. You might get to the target through Ego, and then apply Coercion. Or start with Ideology and move on to Money. People are complex little beasts; you can seldom rely on one tactic to unlock all their defenses.

The Resource Guide has this to say about Flip operations:

To make a Flip work, give it a strong, clearly defined structure – the target will flip if the Agents complete objectives X, Y, and Z – and allay any worries by tying this to core clues. Give them a chance to meet the target early on and use Bullshit Detector or let them gather intel with Electronic Surveillance or some other Investigative ability that gives them a clear signal that the Flip is viable. 

Applying the Rule of Four I would go one step further and say you want Four potential ways in, each to be followed by a Thrilling [insert sequence here]. Fortunately with MICE you have four ways in right at the start which should make life much easier for you.

Let's head over to the Bankhaus.

It almost doesn't matter who we pick for the Flip but let's say for the sake of argument that it's someone close either to Albert or to Lisle. A personal assistant, a bodyguard, maybe one of Albert's Lisle-a-likes who doesn't realize what the job she's applying for entails. 

Whoever this person is they're close enough to the inner circle to have access to all sorts of secrets, including names and contact information for significant parts of the Node, password access to important parts of the Node network, blueprints or prototype software for Achilles, that sort of thing. The Flip target gets the agents one step closer to the McGuffin.

 

Accepting all this, let's say the Flip target is a new hire at Kube Group who thought this would be a big step up for them but find themselves locked out of the Group's high-level projects. The asset doesn't know why this is so, just that it's so.

This could happen for all sorts of reasons but let's say for the sake of this example that it's because the Bankhaus doesn't want them anywhere near Project Achilles as they're astute enough to work out what's really going on. If the Bankhaus had been consulted before the hire they would have vetoed it but contracts were being signed by the time Lisle realized the new hire was a significant risk. Now Lisle's using her influence with Kube Group to sideline the new hire while they work out a means of safely terminating them without incurring a lawsuit.

The new hire: Erika Donnadieu, software engineer and former convent girl/nun-in-training (possibly why the Conspiracy wanted nothing to do with her). Intelligent and extrovert, with a strong moral center. The kind of person who, when they find a wallet full of cash in the street, immediately turn it in to the police. She's never been to the satellite operation in Rome but she knows it's located in a former nunnery which seems very odd to her. It's not as if anyone's upgraded the electrics since 1953, never mind the plumbing. 

Money:  Erika doesn't need or desire cash but her deadbeat brother Quennell is a gambling addict who's always one bad day away from disaster. Thrills: Gambling. Get Quennell utterly toasted and Erika will step in to save him.

Ideology: Erika's still a staunch Catholic even though she stepped away from the nunnery. If the agents can convince her they're acting on behalf of the Church she'll listen. Thrills: Negotiation, with a heavy emphasis on religion. Maybe it's time to work on that Mysterious Monseigneur disguise.

Coercion: Erika stepped away from her religious training because of her sexuality which is still a closely guarded secret. Not even her family knows the truth. Thrills: Trailing. The agents will have to do a lot of work to uncover her hidden personality.

Ego: Erika really doesn't appreciate her bosses giving her the runaround. Who do they think they are? Who do they think she is? Thrills: Hacking. If they can beat Erika in a Hackathon contest run by ParisTech, thus proving their skills, and then suggest that she could make her bosses pay through the nose for insulting her ability ...

The reverse of a Flip is a Protect. The agents have an asset they want to keep from being flipped by the enemy. Let's say in this instance that Erika doesn't work for Kube Group, that she works for an agency the agents are allied with (Edom, say) and the agents become aware that emissaries from Kube Group backed by the Bankhaus are trying to lure Erika away.

The exact same structure can be repurposed. So the Thrills: Gambling can now be an attempt to keep Quennell out of trouble, the Thrills: Negotiation works exactly the same way right down to the Monseigneur disguise and so on.

The significant difference is that where a Flip operation is something that might pass under the radar and not attract Conspyramid retaliation, a Protect operation definitely will. The Conspiracy is actively trying to achieve an objective and will definitely use supernatural means if the need presents itself. At a bare minimum some kind of Reflex will be in play to keep the agents occupied and it will probably be a supernatural or otherworldly Reflex of some kind.

That's it for this week! Enjoy.