VIPER has always had a stronger presence in the United States than any other nation, and Americans hold slightly over half of the positions on the Council Of Thirty. The general opinion among VIPER’s leadership is that “As America goes, so goes the world” — thus it only makes sense to concentrate much of VIPER’s resources there. Fur- thermore, the general level of freedom prevalent in
the United States gives VIPER greater mobility and security than it often has elsewhere. For example, lawyers working for VIPER have become adept at exploiting the general nature of, and loopholes in, the American legal system for the organization’s benefit. Similarly, several Nests take advantage of the United States’s extensive borders and relatively lax border security to engage in smuggling worth millions of illegal dollars every year.
The two largest Nests in the United States are the main Nests in Los Angeles and New York City. Major Nests also exist elsewhere in those two cities, and in Millennium City, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas/ Fort Worth, San Francisco, St. Louis, Vibora Bay, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, New Orleans, and Miami. Cities with lesser Nests include San Diego, Portland, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Houston, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Albany, Buffalo, Baltimore, Charlotte, and Jacksonville.
Canada
It didn’t take VIPER long to expand from America into Canada. Toronto, Ottawa, and Van- couver all gained their own VIPER Nests in the 1960s, and soon thereafter VIPER became a fix-
ture of the Quebec and Montreal underworlds as well. According to some reports, VIPER has used its behind-the-scenes influence to support the cause of Quebecois independence for the past two decades. The authorities correctly believe VIPER is simply using the more radical elements of the Quebec independence movement as patsies for its own criminal activities. VIPER’s leadership believes societal divisiveness in Canada can only assist the organization’s operations there. After all, why take the blame for a murder-robbery attack when you can dress your men in black sweaters, shout a few partisan slogans in French, and throw the police off your trail?
In the past few years, Canadian law enforce- ment officials have noticed an alarming VIPER trend: a move away from Canada’s major cities and into its smaller urban areas, and even rural regions. Much of Canada remains wild and open, with few or no people inhabiting enormous areas. What better place for VIPER to establish a secret base to develop and test new weapons, or a launch site for a VIPER satellite? For example, in 2002 police in the small British Columbia town of Abbotsford were shocked to discover a major VIPER propaganda and smuggling ring operating out of their normally peaceful hamlet.
REDSTONE
15 STR 18 DEX 15 CON 10 BODY 18 INT 14 EGO 18 PRE 10 COM 7 PD 6 ED 3 SPD 7 REC 30 END 30 STUN
Abilities: Running +2”, Leaping +2”, +3 HTH, Acro- batics 13-, Breakfall 13-, Bureaucratics 13-, Climb- ing 13-, Contortionist 13-, Disguise 13-, Electronics 8-, Lockpicking 13-, Martial Arts (Kung Fu, 20 points’ worth of maneuvers), Persuasion 13-, Secu- rity Systems 13-, Sleight Of Hand 13-, Stealth 14-, Streetwise 13-, Tactics 13-, WF: Common Melee Weapons, Common Missile Weapons, Small Arms 50+ Disadvantages: Hunted (Watched by the Supreme Serpent and the Council Of Thirty); Psy- chological Limitation: Stubborn; Rivalry (Profes- sional, other high-ranking members of VIPER), Social Limitation: Subject To Orders
Notes: Redstone (real name: Rick Baumgard- ner) became the Commandant of the Vancouver VIPER’s Nest in 1998 after killing the former Nest Leader, whom he viewed as weak. The Council Of Thirty apparently agreed, since it approved his “pro- motion” (though it kept a close eye on him for a few years to make sure he could handle the job).
A skilled cat burglar before he joined VIPER, Redstone tends to favor stealth, sneakiness, and guile over direct confrontation. When dealing with him, one can never be sure what his true objective is or how he intends to achieve it; he usually seems to have plans within plans within plans.
Redstone wears a VIPER uniform, but in red and gold instead of green and yellow. He has dark hair and green eyes and an athletic build.
Mexico
South of the United States, in the often cha- otic and semi-lawless nation of Mexico, VIPER has established a major presence in the past two decades. In a society where corruption often pre- vails, and a substantial portion of the populace lives in poverty, VIPER can thrive. Its alliances with the powerful Mexican drug cartels have brought it great wealth. It hides several of its largest and most important illegal manufacturing facilities in isolated areas of Mexico, where the high wages it pays to local workers ensure their silence and loyalty. The Mexico City Nest, run by a powerful leader who calls himself El Crabrón (“the Hornet”), controls all of the VIPER activity in the country. Tijuana, Matamoros, Durango, Chilpancingo, Vera- cruz, and Chetumal, among others, also have Nests.
ASIA
Although VIPER initially ignored Asia, that continent’s rise in global financial and political circles over the past half-century soon attracted its attention. Today VIPER has a strong presence in Japan, the Philippines, and India, including many Financial Division agents; it is less prevalent in Sin- gapore, Myanmar, and China.
Japan
Given its emphasis on developing and using high technology, VIPER made inroads into Japan fairly early in the organization’s history — a Nest was established in Tokyo in 1968 according to VIPER records (though law enforcement officials remained unaware of its existence until 1972). VIPER tends to conduct lower-key operations in Japan than in North America; Japanese Nests eschew violent robberies or like crimes for subtle and sophisticated thefts of technology and data. Smuggling of drugs, weapons, pornography, and other items also earns them vast profits.
Since the mid-1980s, VIPER Japan has fought an underworld war with several of Japan’s largest yakuza syndicates. Apparently resenting the intru- sion of a foreign organization into “their” territory, Japanese gangsters have turned up the heat on VIPER, killing agents, disrupting operations, and anonymously tipping off the police about VIPER activities. VIPER has responded in kind, using its superior firepower to cause considerable damage to a number of gangs. In the past several years the fighting, which has created an uproar in the Japanese press, has escalated to the use of supervil- lains; the clashes between yakuza enforcers like Ishi (“Stone”) and Hotaru (“Firefly”) and VIPER agents such as Boruto (“Volt”) and Hayaikaze (“Swift- wind”) have caused millions of dollars of property damage and nearly two dozen deaths.
China
VIPER has never enjoyed much success at infiltrating China. The harsh, autocratic regime there has taken extraordinary measures to ensure that VIPER cannot obtain a foothold throughout its territory. Chinese authorities have executed dozens of people on the mere suspicion of involvement in VIPER, often without even the pretense of a formal trial; the Tiger Squad, official hero team of the People’s Republic, has smashed nascent Nests on several occasions. As the nation slowly opens itself up to the outside world and initiates democratic reforms, VIPER may, along with other Western institutions and traditions, find a way to establish itself there. The Supreme Serpent certainly has plans in this regard. But at present, most of China remains VIPER-free.
Two areas constitute exceptions to that general rule: Shanghai and Hong Kong. Shanghai, one of the country’s busiest ports and most Westernized cities, has had a reputation for vice and crime for decades (if not centuries), and not even the draco- nian attention of Communist officials has stamped out its underworld. VIPER established a Nest there in the late 1970s, and through a carefully-planned and orchestrated program of stealth, violence, bribery, and influence-peddling has kept it alive and thriving. The Nest’s leader, who calls himself Hēide Miànjù (“The Black Mask”) after an obscure character from Chinese opera, has a reputation as one of the most clever and devious Nest Leaders in all of VIPER. According to some internal rumors, in daily life he is one of the richest, most successful businessmen in modern China, and has ambitions to obtain even greater wealth and power (both legitimate and illegitimate).
Hong Kong, only a Chinese property for the past several years, includes one of the first VIPER Nests established outside of the United States. Spe- cializing in financial crime, computer crime, and smuggling, its agents often lend their expertise to other Nests — for an appropriate fee, of course. For years the Nest has struggled against the native organized crime groups, the Triads, but its shadowy influence among the business community and cer- tain corrupt officials, not to mention the services of a powerful telekinetic superhuman called Jī nlí (“Goldforce”), have kept it going.