The office strobes in dying terminal light. Abby steadies over the console as the thermal warning screams, and the synced footage starts to smear at the edges.
Arthur Blues leans in beside her, pale and tight-jawed. On-screen, the remote session’s access trail fractures, but one relay pulse keeps repeating like a heartbeat.
Abby Stone
The pulse is a live handoff, not a dead log.
A hidden node blooms for half a second in the archive map, tagged by the system as an external control bridge. The source is still reaching in, trying to wipe itself.
Arthur Blues
If you stabilize that thread, I can isolate the session signature. That is the person we need, not the mask.
Abby drives the console override. The footage snaps clearer for one sharp instant, and the intruder’s remote fingerprint resolves into a fresh transfer route before the warning can burn it away.
Arthur freezes, staring at the route as the system coughs. Abby now has the first real lead on the saboteur, and a narrow window to trace them back before the trail dies.
✓ Quest Accepted
Offload the evidence to a secure drive
✓ Quest Accepted
Trace the remote intruder
“Arthur, send what evidence we have to the authorities so they can help us track down this saboteur. While your at it, send them the evidence about Kline Biologics so they can start a proper investigation into the smrile they play into this.”
SUCCESS (Great Computers, rolled -2)
Abby commits the transfer. The archive package splits, one clean copy peeling away toward a secured authority drive while the hot local cache keeps stuttering on the console.
Arthur Blues
There, it is going through. I am tagging the Meridian Kline Biologics chain with the session timestamp now.
A warning bloom flashes red, then settles. The office vents push out a sharp burst of heat as the overloaded sync sheds a little of its strain.
Arthur Blues
The public channel is live, but the trace window is tiny.
On the map, the remote intruder’s route splinters under the authorities’ intake marker, but one address fragment remains exposed long enough to read.
Arthur Blues
That is enough for them to start a proper investigation. I have the handoff receipt, and the control bridge is still in the record.
The terminal emits a thin error chime, and the evidence checksum locks in. Abby gets the transfer out before the cache fully seizes, but the system burns through the last of its cooling buffer.
Quest Complete
Offload the evidence to a secure drive
“I ask Arthur if he's pinpointed the saboteur's location”
SUCCESS (Terrible Reasoning, rolled +2)
Abby Stone
Have you pinned down where the saboteur is?
Arthur Blues
Yes. The address fragment resolves to Meridian Kline Biologics, internal campus routing, west tower subnet. That timestamp matches the remote session we have been chasing.
Arthur drags the map wider on the console, then taps the exact node before the local cache flickers and sheds another wave of heat.
Arthur Blues
I have the location. I just spent the last clean slice of the buffer proving it.
The evidence package finishes sealing to the secure drive, but the office lights dim for a beat as the overheated terminal coughs up a final warning tone.
Arthur Blues
We have it now, Abby. The trace is real, but the console is not going to survive much more of this.
Arthur keeps one hand on the tablet and looks to Abby, relieved and drained, waiting for her reaction while the burnt-hot machine hums under the desk.
Quest Complete
Trace the remote intruder
Attribute Upgrade: Reasoning Terrible→Poor