From The Unspeakable Oath 24, now available for purchase in print and PDF.
Written by Chad J. Bowser,© 2014. Illustrated by Matt Hansen, © 2014.
An intermodal container with its ISO indicators scratched off washes up on a beach. Such containers are weatherproof but not waterproof; if adrift, one slowly takes on water until it reaches its deadweight and sinks. Until that time, it floats.
Inside is a grisly scene. The twenty-by-nine by ten steel box doesn’t contain consumer goods. It’s filled with human skeletal remains.
The Agents can stumble upon the container on the beach or they can be called in after it has already been found. Running down leads isn’t easy. Forensic examination estimates there were twenty people in the box, all of Asian descent. The container’s been in the water for four to six months.
A search of cargo manifests and shipping records indicates five possible ships of origin. Each of these five ships lost one or more containers during rough weather within that time frame. The missing containers held teddy bears, MP3 players, handi-cams, books, and an automobile.
Option 1: Horrible But Plausible
The people in the container were refugees who gave everything they had to be smuggled out of their homeland. During the voyage, the unscrupulous captain demanded more money. When the refugees were unable to pay, the ship’s crew massacred the victims with machetes before tossing the container overboard. Mundane sea scavengers finished destroying the bodies. Heavy winds and a strong current eventually pushed the semi-buoyant container ashore.
Inside the container, buried among the bodies, the Agents find evidence that one of the victims was also a member of the conspiracy— an agent who has gone missing or a friendly they have worked with in the past.
Option 2: New Flesh for the Sacrifice
The ship’s captain and crew are devout worshiper of supernatural sea spawn. To appease the creatures, the crew ritually sacrifices people who paid to be smuggled out of their native country. Once the ship sails over the sea spawns’ lair, the crew push the container overboard. As it settles to the sea bed, the spawn pounce. They probe the container with pseudopods and crush anything they the find inside, using suckers to feed off the flesh.
The sea spawn aren’t mindless bottom dwellers, however. They know the food comes from somewhere, and they decide to push the container to shore to see what comes to investigate. If a group of tourists sees the container first, the sea spawn attack. One tourist escapes and the grainy cell phone footage they shot shows up on the Internet. Alternatively, an ICE or Border Patrol agent goes missing when she goes to check out a mysterious container reported by a transient surfer.
Option 3: A Sorcerous End
A powerful sorcerer was discovered by a rival cult and fled his homeland to avoid execution. He stowed away on a ship. When the crew found him, he used magic to enthrall them. The few unaffected crew managed to force the magician and his followers into a container and throw it overboard.
The sorcerer employed his spells to steer the container to land. Along the way he sustained both his body and his magical energies with the flesh of his thralls, reducing each one to pulp. When the container hit land, he slipped out and shut the door behind him, disappearing into his new home.
The first images to come across the wire are strange sigils drawn in blood across the interior of the container. Media ‘experts’ say the writings are those of a cult playing at being mysterious. Someone close to the conspiracy recognized the script as Aklo and lets Delta Green know. Searching the ship turns up the bolt hole where the sorcerer stowed away and numerous effigies to dark gods spread across the floor. But where can they find the missing murderer?