"Fort Knox" is the fourteenth mission of Season 9.
What secrets hide in Red Scorpion Base?
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Writer: Elliott Gresswell
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Plot[]
Sentimental Reunion[]
You are with Janine and Sam in a holding room after having a medical exam and being implanted with a subcutaneous tracking device. Peter and Maryam still haven't returned. You are finally met by General Bakari, who explains that the trackers take 40 minutes to stabilise and begin tracking. He's brought maintenance uniforms for you to disguise yourselves with. Get moving.
Black-ops[]
Bakari leads you through the base. The uniforms provide protection at a distance but the guards know the faces of people who should be there. Bakari says that soldiers serve their country and that's why he served Sigrid. He asks about Tom and Janine has to explain that he was killed in action. Bakari isn't authorised for this part of the base. He's stolen some passes but if you're caught you'll be shot. He tells you that the base was started by American military 20 years before Z-Day for black-ops research and they're still very much running it. There are lots of patrols so you'll have to move quickly.
Surveillance Drones[]
The US military heard rumours of the red fungus years before Z-Day and set up the base to dig for it, finding caves of the stuff. You pass a control room cycling current images of various global landmarks. Bakari hears surveillance drones coming so you'll need to keep moving to evade them.
Short on Time[]
You reach the main research annex and the archive room. If you want to know about the red fungus, this is the place. The military wanted to use the red fungus to make humans faster and stronger, but their experiements went poorly. But the fungus is not why Bakari summoned you. Incidentally, there's a photo of an old version of Red Scorpion Base's emergency response team. If you get caught, their exoskeletons with integrated flamethrowers await you.
Humanity, Kin, and Hope[]
Bakari tells you that your team were contracted on Bakari's recommendation to hunt down a "deserter". The base commander will send you out to find the deserter and you'll be able to make your escape then. Bakari will remain on base. He doesn't fancy standing trial in the UK. Bakari gives you a thumb drive of encrypted data that could be vital. Bakari has received word that the Head of Security wants to brief you. You need to hurry back!
One of the Experiments[]
Bakari takes you into an emergency care area and wants to administer an injection to you. He says it contains biodata which could eventually cure every disease affecting humanity. It might take generations to create a usable vaccine, but this is the germ of it. He injects you with the contents of the syringe. Sam calls you over to a side room where you see Van Ark hooked up to a dialysis machine. Bakari explains that Van Ark is not running the base. Van Ark is one of the experiments!
Transcript []
JANINE DE LUCA: All right Runner Five, Mr. Yao. There is only audio surveillance in this room and I have muffled the microphones. We can talk freely.
SAM YAO: I really don’t like this, Janine. I mean, okay, they did let us into Van Ark’s mystery base, but then they stuck us in this tiny room, insisted we take medical exams. Peter and Maryam still aren’t back from the med bay. I can’t believe we let them just inject us with tracking devices.
JANINE DE LUCA: We had no choice, Mr. Yao. It was take the subcutaneous trackers or leave Red Scorpion Base. General Bakari claimed he would meet us on arrival, but so far we have only been escorted by soldiers. The security here is intense. Barbed wire fencing, perimeter guard towers, patrols in unmarked uniforms. If our operation goes wrong, escape will not be… [door creaks open] Someone’s approaching. [loudly] Which is why they’d better pay well for this job! Don’t you agree, Sven?
SAM YAO: Uh… yeah. Yes. Mercenaries, us. Money, ooh, we want it.
GENERAL BAKARI: You can relax. I’ve relieved the guards in this section, shut down the cameras.
JANINE DE LUCA: General Bakari, there are others in our team -
GENERAL BAKARI: - still in the medical bay. We can’t wait. The trackers you’ve received are a new security provision powered by bioelectric energy. They didn’t tell you this, but it takes about 40 minutes for a tracker to stabilize in its new host. We’ve got that long before your every movement is monitored. That’s just enough time. [drops bag on the floor] There are maintenance uniforms in the duffel bag. Put them on.
JANINE DE LUCA: General -
GENERAL BAKARI: I trust you weren’t counting on a sentimental reunion, De Luca? There’s a mission at hand. Red Scorpion Base has a secret you’re going to help me liberate. All of you, out into the corridor. No time to dawdle.
~
SAM YAO: This place is just a maze of metal hallways, isn’t it? Shh. Hey, do you guys hear that?
[distant metallic footsteps]
GENERAL BAKARI: A patrol coming from the intersection ahead. Duck into that store room, quick. [cloth rustles, footsteps pass] They’ve passed. Those maintenance uniforms will help at a distance, but the patrols here know all the authorized faces. Come on, this way. Speaking of faces, it’s Runner Five, isn’t it? You gave me this gammy leg. My own stupid mistake, I admit, chasing you on that motorcycle.
JANINE DE LUCA: Perhaps if you had not sided with Prime Minister Hakkinen, General, you might have avoided injury.
GENERAL BAKARI: Is that reproach I hear, De Luca? You were always so quick to judge. Sigrid was a monster, but with impressive ambition. It seemed folly to oppose her, so i toed the party line loudly when she was listening. Soldiers served their country, after all. I hear there’s a thief in charge these days. Not sure your vote turned out much more righteous than mine.
SAM YAO: Hey!
JANINE DE LUCA: Don’t let him needle you, Mr. Yao. The base, General. It is in excellent condition, especially given we have seen evidence it predates Z-Day.
GENERAL BAKARI: Very good, De Luca. Yes, Red Scorpion Base has been here for many years. Once we get to the next intersection, you’ll see where it came from. Where’s Tom, Janine? I was sure he’d be with your team.
JANINE DE LUCA: Tom… Tom was killed in action some time ago.
GENERAL BAKARI: Unfortunate. He had a weak heart, that boy. I saw it every day I sheltered you two after your parents passed. Thought I taught you to watch out for each other!
I’m not authorized for this part of the base. I’ve stolen passes, but if we’re caught here, we will be shot. Do you see the turrets bracketing the door ahead? Machine gun emplacements, automated. Look at the symbol on the turret mountings below each gun barrel.
SAM YAO: Those are stars and stripes. Flags, American flags.
[door rattles open]
GENERAL BAKARI: And past the door, a flag painted on the wall. They’re not allowed to fly one outside. Red Scorpion Base was established by the American military 20 years before Z-Day. Black ops research, top secret, and they’re still very much running it today. Quickly, all of you, there are a lot more patrols in the next section. Follow the corridor branch left, on the double.
~
SAM YAO: Look, Five, by the water cooler. That’s the portrait of the last US president. God, this is crazy. There’s still a US military and they’re hanging around a base in Tunisia!
JANINE DE LUCA: A base somehow connected to Ernest Van Ark and V-type fungus.
GENERAL BAKARI: You already know about the local fungus, eh? The US military heard rumors of it decades before Z-Day, whispers unearthed by archaeologists in North Africa. They thought it had martial potential, set up a base here to dig for it. They hit on caves of the stuff underground. There’s an archive room on our way. I’ll show you what they found.
SAM YAO: Wow! Janine, look! Down the corridor to the right, that looks like the war room from, well, every movie with a war room ever. Ah, there must be a hundred screens in there.
JANINE DE LUCA: All cycling through images of landmarks. The Brandenburg Gate, Times Square full of zombies, a toppled Eiffel Tower. General, are these images current? What reach does this army have?
GENERAL BAKARI: Honestly, the US isn’t what it was, but the man in charge of Red Scorpion Base likes to keep eyes everywhere. [drones whir] Come on, there are surveillance drones in these corridors. I hear some coming. Forward.
SAM YAO: [whispers] Likes to keep his eyes everywhere? Yeah, yeah, that sounds like Van Ark, doesn’t it, Five? If the Americans are running Red Scorpion Base, is he backed by their army? The others are getting ahead. We’d best speed up.
~
[door rattles open]
GENERAL BAKARI: We’re in the main research annex deep underground. This is an archive room, oldest on Red Scorpion Base. If you want to know about the fungus, this is the place.
SAM YAO: But it’s just a room full of dusty filing cabinets. Oh, and Polaroid pictures of scientists stuck up on the wall. Scientists in a cavern full of black ash.
GENERAL BAKARI: Certain branches under the Department of Defense saw huge promise in the fungus. They dreamed of perfecting a symbiosis to make humans faster, better, stronger. The early experiments went poorly. People died. The decision was made to destroy the fungus after it nearly escaped containment, every trace burned away.
JANINE DE LUCA: General, the glass tank in that corner, the blackened lump inside…
GENERAL BAKARI: A relic. This room is a memorial. The old research data is all locked away. The lump is a museum piece, scorched rock from a once red cave, long dead now.
JANINE DE LUCA: Then… the fungus is not why you summoned us?
GENERAL BAKARI: Not at all, De Luca, though not a bad guess. What I have for you is much more important. Come along through the far door. Incidentally, you see the old photo on the left, the one showing a team in bulky armor scouring rocks with flamethrowers? They still call Red Scorpion’s emergency response the fire team. These days, they wear powered exoskeletons, flamethrowers integrated. They’re what comes for us if we make a mistake. We’re short on time. Go.
~
SAM YAO: Loads of fancy computers in here, Five. Must be in a sciency bit.
GENERAL BAKARI: Ancillary data storage. From here, we can access files from the Red Scorpion’s latter day experiments. Listen carefully, De Luca. The base contracted your team on my recommendation. Since Z-Day, Red Scorpion’s been short-handed. They sometimes recruit outside personnel. Three months ago, one of my aides went MIA. Any deserter is viewed as an unacceptable security risk.
SAM YAO: Did you kill him?
GENERAL BAKARI: Fellow took a bad fall. I disposed of the body, arranged evidence of his flight to the mountains, suggested we needed help to locate him. Obviously, no one’s ever going to find him outside, and our security head is getting desperate. Once she briefs you, she’ll send you into the mountains to hunt down the deserter. There, you’ll divert to designated coordinates. You’ll find buried parts of a vehicle I’ve had hidden. Assemble it and escape.
JANINE DE LUCA: You are not coming with us, General?
GENERAL BAKARI: I’m rarely allowed off the base, and I don’t intend to return to the UK to stand trial. I know you’re thinking it, De Luca.
JANINE DE LUCA: You betrayed your nation. It would be my duty.
GENERAL BAKARI: And you always loved duty. As a child, you used to turn your night light out on principle. [computer beeps] Give me a minute with the computer. I’ll get what you’re here for.
SAM YAO: Um, which is what, exactly?
GENERAL BAKARI: Research from Red Scorpion Base, something that can change the future. The file I’m giving you is encrypted, I can’t open it. Did you bring a computer expert?
SAM YAO: Sort of. We, um, lost our equipment, though.
GENERAL BAKARI: The file is too big to transmit without powerful equipment. If you were able to decrypt it, you might have been able to send key details out. As it is, you’ll need to get this thumb drive to the UK intact. If anyone suspects you’re smuggling data off the base, you’re dead, understand?
JANINE DE LUCA: General, if we leave you here -
GENERAL BAKARI: I’ll be fine, so long as the operation succeeds. Humanity, kin, and hope, De Luca. That’s what this is for. Do not let me down. The head of security just pinged me. The rest of your team is done in the medical center. She wants to brief you all, stat. We need to get back. There’s one more thing I need to give you. Through the door on the right. The doctors should be on their break. This way, run!
~
JANINE DE LUCA: General, is this a hospital ward?
GENERAL BAKARI: It’s an emergency care area. Ah, here it is. Five, give me your arm. My research indicates you’ll be the best subject for this.
SAM YAO: Wait, what-what are you doing? You can’t just inject strange substances into people!
GENERAL BAKARI: The bio data in the injection is a crucial component of the information in the files. The only way to transport it is inside a living host.
JANINE DE LUCA: It’s long past time you explained exactly what this information is, General.
GENERAL BAKARI: It’s a cure, Janine.
SAM YAO: For what?
GENERAL BAKARI: For everything. Every ailment that plagues humanity, every virus, every infection. A panacea.
JANINE DE LUCA: That’s impossible.
GENERAL BAKARI: No. It may take years, even generations to formulate a usable vaccine, but the germ of it is here. The zombie plague has brought such pain to humanity. I accept I played my part in it. But this data, the antibodies in Five’s blood, and the files on that drive, they may be the one worthwhile thing to come out of all that death.
JANINE DE LUCA: Then I leave the decision to you, Five. Very well. Proceed, General.
SAM YAO: I’m just gonna, um, not be here watching that. Injections always make me feel queasy.
GENERAL BAKARI: Your trust will be repaid, Janine, I promise you.
JANINE DE LUCA: I hope so.
SAM YAO: Oh my God. Janine, Five, over here! There’s a door with a little porthole. On the other side, it’s-it’s Van Ark! He’s unconscious, hooked up to, well, it’s like a giant dialysis machine. Looks like it’s draining him.
GENERAL BAKARI: I was saving him until last. Good bait to get you here, but if I explained too soon, you’d only get distracted.
JANINE DE LUCA: Is Van Ark running the research department? What are the Americans giving him through those tubes?
GENERAL BAKARI: Van Ark running the place? [laughs] Not at all. The fellow at the top, no one ever sees. Nasty piece of work by all accounts. But Van Ark here, he isn’t in charge of anything. Van Ark is one of the experiments.
Codex[]
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
Bandages
Baseball Bat
Batteries
Bedroll
Boots
Bottled Water
Candles
Deodorant
Fuel Can
Hairbrush
Lock pick
Matches
Paintbrush
Pistol
Power Cable
Saucepan
Thermos flask
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Trousers
Underwear
USB Key
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