| abstract | - Antwerp Construct is contacted by their colleagues in Texas. It appears that a local Celestial Chorister, "Augustus", attacked an abortion clinic, apparently by blowing himself up. Eyewitnesses (now surpressed) noticed the use of enlightened effects in the attack, however, and the suspected priest was not present in the aftermath, prompting further investigation. Antwerp Construct is called in because Martin Salisbury, Franklin Salisbury's father, is a ranking member in Augustus's church. After assembling the team and their backup, they head to Fort Worth, where Martin Salisbury is located on a nearby ranch. Franklin, who had a rather bad parting with his father, decided to stay behind to avoid a direct confrontation; agents Jane and Taylor would head in posing as IRS agents. Before entry, the team surveyed the grounds; most scans turned up normal, but the Primal Energy scan revealed signs of enlightened procedures used on the ranch's cows; furthermore, there seemed to be a large store of Primal Essence located inside the house. Upon gaining entry, Martin's reaction was, as planned, guarded, but handed over the ranch's books. The ranch, while administered by Martin, was officially owned by Augustus's church for tax purposes (minus the small dwelling Martin lived in). This point was then used by our agents to put pressure on Martin, as he was using the grounds for personal use involving two young ladies, as clearly indicated by the nearby dash-cam footage Jane managed to find. The team found the distribution ledger for the Primal Essence-laced milk; it seemed it was getting shipped to a large amount of traditionalists around the country. The team decided to try and confiscate the milk, but was getting nowhere with fabricating a reason - the books all seemed in order. To force matters, Franklin was tasked with creating a report about the ground being contaminated, requiring the milk being quarantined. He achieved this in typical Franklin style - by actually contaminating the ground, and then measuring it. Report in hand, Jane and Taylor informed Martin that his milk would have to be confiscated (by their EPA colleagues - or rather, AST3 masquerating as their agents). At this point, Martin became hostile, grabbing the gun and accusing the agents of being part of some giant conspiracy that wanted to steal his milk. Luckily, the two managed to calm Martin down; Patricia using an enlightened procedure to soothe his mind, followed by Taylor informing Martin that the "government" would buy his milk back at fair market prices. While still on edge, Martin relented and the milk was confiscated - and promptly shipped to Syndicate contacts, who were very happy to receive a large shipment of Primal Energy at the cost of milk. The team further leveraged the situation by telling Martin that his church - as the official owner - would have to be informed, and they asked for a way to contact Augustus. Martin said he wasn't sure where Augustus was, and that he only had a recent phone number. The phone itself wasn't much use - surveillance footage indicated that the phone was dumped by an unknown bald man prior to the attack. However, agent Jane did manage to track the phone's location through the week, and deduced crucial patterns - Augustus was visiting a local Goth-themed club at regular times. The last time, specifically, the club wasn't open at the time, and Augustus was not seen heading out. Jane and Taylor set out to get disguises for the club, to the great amusement of Jane and Sofie Derde (who insisted on finding them proper outfits). Salisbury, not interested in dressing up, decided to stick to the outside and go invisible. Scanning the building prior to entry received some shocking results - there was both a strong and a weak source of Primal energy in the building's basement, and one of the two was strongly corrupted with Entropic resonance. The team couldn't agree on which of the two was which, however, due to one of the scans malfunctioning. Deciding to investigate in person, Jane and Taylor headed in, finding an access door to the basement near the bar. Jane dragged along a random customer, who was all too happy to accompany the two ladies to a dark room; they ran into problems at the bar, however, as the bartender was asking suspicious questions. Jane applied a procedure to briefly clear his mind, and the two proceeded to the basement, while Salisbury was preparing to tunnel down into the basement from the outside. In the basement, the team found a host of dead bodies. Quickly alerted, Nicole promptly damped her noise and activated evasion procedures, while Jane sprinted forward and the innocent bystander ran to call the police. Jane didn't have to run far, however, and was quickly confronted by a bald man - the same as seen on the footage earlier - standing over a weak Augustus. After Jane told him to yield, the man quickly raised his hand and threw a fireball at Jane - or at least, where he thought Jane was, who earlier masked her position in space. This distraction was enough for Taylor, who wasn't noticed, to put a devastating shot into the man. He came out barely alive - which didn't last long, as Franklin blast through the wall and smacked him into the other side. AST3 managed to intercept the man's call to the police earlier, and came in to secure the scene and apprehend the bartender; meanwhile, Jane patched up Augustus' wounds. While he was unconscious from the unknown man's actions, he was stabilized for extraction and transported - via the now very convenient tunnel - to the extraction point. The bartender's interrogation was fruitful - he was quite aware what was going on, although some of the details were above him. The bald man was the leader of a cult which practised ritual human sacrifice; in exchange for his freedom (which the team convinced him he'd get), he was willing to trade a list of cult members, many of whom were in positions of power. He attempted to implicate Augustus as a member of the cult as well, but the team quickly saw through that lie. Augustus was transported back to Antwerp, where he was briefly debriefed by Levi - who he apparently knew. As already suspected, he wasn't behind the earlier attack at all - that had been a fabrication, to explain his disappearance. He got wind of the cult and went to confront them, unsuccessfully. As he was no threat, and not too upset with the loss of his stock of Prime Energy, he was allowed to return shortly after.
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