Eddie Lawson goes to Tunisia, and things start off so well…
OPERATION STYX – Install surveillance equipment on high-value target
Simple (6), Critical (4)
The target is Pavel Volkovsky, a Soviet diplomat based in Tunis.
He’s been identified by a local asset as a key runner of illegals in Tunisia.
Eddie flies out to Tunis under an assumed name and checks himself into a decent hotel and makes a discreet contact with his local SIS contact, Harold Williams, a middle-aged and jaded officer working out of the British embassy, who will be his liaison while here.
Task 1 – Authorise emergency extraction (Standing)
The local asset who tipped SIS off about Volkovsky knows the net is closing on her because of her working with SIS. She is Laila Anis, an administrative worker whose husband Mounir is one of Volkovsky’s illegals. Her husband is violent and suspicious and hatred of Mounir was Laila’s primary motivation in becoming an agent for SIS. On her first meeting with Lawson one evening after her working day finished she offered him more information but pleaded with him to arrange to safely spirit her away from here to safety. Lawson convinced her to give the information anyway, more background on her husband and his contacts, but promised to do what he could.
He contacted his ally, Paddy White, on a secure line to London. He knew that Williams would never consider the extraction, but White could pull strings that Lawson could not.
Ally roll: 5 – Full Success
An escape plan is put in place. It can’t take place at once as Laila’s disappearance would tip off her husband and presumably Volkovsky, but everything is ready to go. Lawson meets her the next evening and gives her the details. She pleads with him to get her out now but he has to refuse. “Be ready,” he tells her. “It will happen.”
Complexity Track filled: 1
Task 2: Close Quarters combat (Action)
Returning home from the evening meeting with Laila, Lawson is attacked by two local men. They’re armed with knives and it’s clear they intend to kill him. Not just robbers then… but who? He’ll consider that later, after surviving if he can.
Roll: 4 – Mixed Success
Mark Harm (now 1)
Complexity Track filled: 2
Lawson disarms one and uses his own knife against him, injuring him badly. He manages to break free from the ambush and leaves the second assailant to take care of his wounded comrade. Lawson got away with a bad cut to the side and returns home to his hotel to quickly patch himself up.
Task 3: Coordinated assault (Action)
He reports the incident to Williams who, to Lawson’s surprise, identifies the attackers at once as members of a local gang of radicals with suspected funding coming from the Soviets. They haven’t been so overtly hostile before and Williams says this is the ideal justification for taking down the group. He has friends in the Tunisian police and can call in a favour. Lawson initially suggests letting it pass but then reconsiders. If this group are Soviet backed there could be evidence leading further up the chain. He agrees to the raid but wants to be included – disguised as one of the raiding party – so he can get first-hand access to the site and any evidence.
Roll: 5 – Full Success
Complexity Track filled: 3
The raid takes place the next dawn, with a dozen armed police launching a surprise attack on the group, a splinter of the Neo-Destour faction. It was well coordinated and rapid with extreme violence by the Tunisian police overwhelming the unprepared radicals. Lawson was with the attackers and as soon as the site was secured he scoured it for evidence linking the group to Soviet interests. The files and photographs he obtained were handed straight over to Williams.
Task 4: Identify a pattern/mole (Analysis)
The information haul from the radical group was wired directly to London. Lawson insisted that Connie Yvon take charge of the information personally. For once Williams didn’t object, he knew her reputation. Lawson spent the rest of the day living his cover and waiting for news. It came that evening, during a covert meeting with one of Williams’ juniors – Harry Clark.
Ally Roll: 4 – Mixed Success (Connie no longer available this mission)
Complexity Track filled: 4
The recovered Intel provides useful information in tracking the radical group’s contacts and backers which will help roll up the entire organisation. More importantly though it establishes that Laila Anis’ husband Mounir was a direct liaison between the group and their backers – providing money and sources for armaments.
Task 5: Request Additional Support (Standing)
Realising that this is becoming a bigger and more complex job than D.Ops had previously realised, Lawson makes an emergency request for more people on the case. He’ll need a team to assist with any surveillance or infiltration work as this is now about breaking a major Soviet-funded insurrection not just bugging one diplomatic weasel. Once more he calls on his veteran ally Paddy White, asking Williams to send an emergency message directly to him.
Ally roll: 6 – Full Success
Complexity Track filled: 5
Williams receives word back from London the next day – provide all possible assistance.
DOWNTIME: Lawson gets some medical attention for his injury while waiting for the team to be assembled.
Harm: Now 0
Task 6: Evasion/Escape (Action)
It’s the day of the final operation. Lawson and his team have been discreetly moving all the pieces into position, while Lawson has been careful to shake off any tails and surveillance before any meetings with them. The infiltration and installation of surveillance equipment is due to take place that evening at Volkovsky’s private residence while the target himself is at a diplomatic drinks party.
During the mid-morning however Lawson becomes aware that he’s being tailed by a couple of locals. This is nothing new to him and he starts trying to lose them without letting on that he knows they’re there. That goes awry though when it becomes clear they are not trying to surveil him but rather to abduct him. A car swerves onto the pavement ahead of him and two passengers emerge while the men behind him rush forward.
Adrenalin kicks in and Lawson abandons subtlety for flight, racing into a nearby side-street pursued by the grab-team.
Roll: 6 – Full Success
Complexity Track filled: 6 – Complete
Lawson vaults over a wall at the end of the sidestreet, doubles back and takes up a hiding position near the car that had tried to cut him off. Two of the men are still there waiting for the others to bring back their quarry. Lawson overhears their talk – and is relieved to realise the mission hasn’t been blown. These are members of the now threatened pro-Soviet radical group, out to kill him certainly, but unaware of any direct threat to Volkovsky. Lawson is happy to disappoint their aims. He stays hidden while the attackers regroup at the car and drive away.
End Game: Install Surveillance equipment (Tradecraft)
Lawson and his team monitor Volkovsky’s residence and wait for him and his wife to drive away to the diplomatic function. One of the team will be trailing their car to make sure he arrives, and Williams will be at the party anyway sharing cold pleasantries with Volkovsky so Lawson and his team will have advance warning if the visit is cut short. They already know the security detail on the residence and how to avoid them. This can’t turn bloody – the mission can only work if it is carried out without leaving a trace.
Lawson takes the lead on the actual infiltration.
Tradecraft roll: 2 Failure!
Volkovsky had been tipped off and spotlights suddenly illuminated Lawson as he crept toward the residence. Security personnel from the Soviet Embassy were there in numbers to catch the SIS infiltrator in the act.
I’m going to give Eddie an Action roll to see if he gets away. There’s no need to do this. Rules as written a failed mission has no mechanical effect on the character’s Conditions, but given that I’d set this up as an infiltration there should be a risk of immediate consequences.
Roll: 4 – Mixed Success – He gets away but I’m going to mark 1 Harm (a graze from a gunshot) and 1 Exposure (the enemy clearly knew much more about him and his plans than he’d thought). Normally a Failure would result only in marking one Condition and ticking up the Urgency track – since there is no Urgency track anymore due to this being the final act of the mission, I think it’s fair to inflict a second Condition.
Diplomatic protests made by the Soviets are dismissed by the British – Spy? Nonsense, probably a local burglar. Your information must be wrong. They know they’re being lied to, but that’s the way the game is played. Lawson leaves on the next plane back to London under another assumed name, arm in a sling and in a foul mood. Before he left he insisted on completing the extraction plan for Laila Anis but was told it was too late. She’d vanished, and her husband Mounir was loudly boasting that he had freed himself of a treacherous thorn in his side. He’d suspected her treachery and wrung the truth out of her. It was he who had warned Volkovsky of the threat. Lawson made it clear he wanted Mounir Anis dead, and so Williams made damn certain that Lawson was on the next flight out. This had been enough of a disaster already.
Personal cost rolls – all from that disastrous endgame!
1d6 (for Harm) = 4
1d6 (for Exposure) = 3
Neither Burnout nor Blown increase
He will start the next Mission with 1 Oversight marked because of the failure of Operation Styx.
Eddie gains 1 Experience Point for the mission (new total 4), another entry for his guilty conscience – this one marked Laila Anis – and a bitter personal grudge against Mounir Anis.
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