Stephen Vacek was having financial difficulties. His father's business partner, Radek Soukup, had recently passed away, taking with him the access codes for a Swiss bank account set up by Stephen's father decades earlier. Aside from Stephen's father, who died in 1989, Radek was the only person who knew the codes — and he never wrote them down. Mr. Vacek hired Orpheus Group to contact Radeks' ghost and obtain the access codes from him.
Agents MacMillian and Herschler were assigned to the case. They interviewed Mr. Vacek, who told them how his father had opened the account in 1937 to protect his small business's assets from the Nazis, who were then preparing to invade Czechoslovakia. After the war, when Josef Vacek and his partner emigrated to the United States, he left the money in the account as a security. Mr. Vacek explained that his father had meant for the account to pass down to him, but he had never felt comfortable pressing Radek for the codes.
Mr. Soukup had kept an office in the Vacek Investments building, and often liked to spend time there even after he retired. Agents MacMillian and Herschler investigated there first. Mr. Soukup's ghost was not there; however, they did find a length of barbed wire stretched anomalously across the office. The barbed wire seemed to exist on the same noncorporeal "wavelength" as the Agents, as they were able to touch it and interact with it even while projected. Upon following the strand, the Agents found themselves in a wide, grassy field, divided in half by a tall barbed-wire fence. On the other side of the fence stood Radek Soukup.
Radek explained that he had never given Stephen the access codes because they represented a shameful secret. The Swiss bank account had not been created before the War, to protect their assets from the Nazis; it was created after the War, and contained the money he and Josef Vacek had made working for the Nazis, reselling property stolen from victims of the Holocaust. Josef had never told anyone, not even his own wife and son, and Radek had hoped that Stephen had simply forgotten about the account. In any case, Radek would not divulge the numbers unless he had Stephen's word that the money would be given to a Holocaust reparations organization, every penny of it. Otherwise, Radek would remain a captive in this place forever, tormented by beings he referred to only as "the dybbuk."
Stephen Vacek was understandably incredulous and upset when informed about this state of affairs. He asked for a day to think it over. When he returned the next day, however, he was arrogant and angry. He demanded that the Agents obtain the access codes "by any means necessary," and would make no promises regarding the disposition of the money. He threatened to destroy Orpheus Group's credibility among their clientele if they did not hold up their end of the contract by delivering the bank account access codes.
Deputy Field Director Kate Hennisson, though unhappy with the situation, instructed the Agents to do whatever they could to acquire the codes. Agent Supervisor Walter Hanley informed them that if they wished, they would be removed from the case without reprimand. Agent Herschler, however, had a plan.
They returned to the barbed-wire fence and spoke again to Radek Soukup. Radek was saddened by Stephen's behaviour, but not surprised by it. He said that in the months before his death, he had seen the company's books, and he knew that Stephen was in serious financial trouble.
Agent Herschler suggested that if Radek could be temporarily freed from his prison, he could visit Stephen Vacek directly and convince him to return the money himself. Radek agreed, but warned that the Agents would have to stay behind and hold off the dybbuk while he was gone.
The Agents transfered some of their vitality to Radek, who then slipped through the barbed wire and left to find Stephen Vacek. Several of the "dybbuk" -- feral spectres wearing the tattered remnants of SS uniforms -- closed on their position, but Agent MacMillian was able to hold them at bay with a powerful emanation. When Radek returned, the spectres turned their attention to him, and the Agents were able to escape.
Mr. Vacek returned to Headquarters the next day, disheveled and furious. Radek had haunted him and his wife throughout the night with Holocaust-related images: barbed-wire strung across the doorways; drifts of ash blowing through the halls; a huge pile of shoes in the middle of the foyer. Vacek demanded that the Agents remove the ghost from his premises, but Kate Hennisson coolly reminded him that such service was not explicitly provided for in the original contract. Eventually, realizing that the hauntings would likely continue until his father's business partner found peace, Mr. Vacek agreed to sign a notarized statement, promising that he would return the money to its rightful owners or their descendants. Satisfied, Radek Soukup gave over the Swiss account access codes, which were burned onto an encrypted CD-ROM and couriered to Stephen Vacek.
Although Orpheus Group has not tracked the disposition of the money from the Swiss bank account, Radek Soukup's "prison" has disappeared and is no longer accessible. No further contact with Mr. Soukup's ghost has been possible, and he is assumed to have ascended.
Several weeks after this mission was closed, the SEC opened an investigation into the accounting practices of Vacek Investments. It is still pending.