Keskiyön Orkidea arrives at the startup coworking space near her college. Frightened founders cluster beneath darkened monitors while phone screens cast pale light across the room.
A young adult man stands guard over one isolated laptop. He wears a wrinkled charcoal shirt and clerical collar, with sandy hair, tired eyes, and a red emergency bracelet.
the youth pastor
Nobody touches this machine. The hospital's systems are still holding, barely, and this is the only route we've isolated.
A projector flickers once, then displays a ransom demand: restore access, or the kidnapped child will not be returned. A countdown crawls beneath the words.
the youth pastor
They named the child. They know the hospital, they know this network, and they want us panicking.
Keskiyön Orkidea
The laptop is isolated, but its power cable runs beneath the pastor's shoe.
Beyond the glass walls, sirens pass without stopping. Inside, founders glance between Orchid, the guarded laptop, and the dark monitors as the countdown drops toward zero.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the hospital systems
✓ Quest Accepted
Locate the child's kidnapper
“I walk straight forward and address the youth pastor, then stop in front of him. I'm close enough to the computer to see its screen, but my body isn't fully facing it. I intend to use the second-long window of the youth pastor acknowledging my comment and looking down to rearrange his footing to steal a side-eyed glance toward the computer. I know from what he said that 'they' have established a route, and the kidnapper's open message likely contains the location it was sent. "Your foot is on the cable."”
SUCCESS (Great Perception, rolled +0)
Keskiyön Orkidea walks straight toward the youth pastor and stops within sight of the laptop, her torso angled away from its screen.
Keskiyön Orkidea
Your foot is on the cable.
the youth pastor
What? I am not touching the machine.
The youth pastor looks down and shifts his shoe aside. In that brief movement, Orchid turns only her eyes toward the laptop.
Keskiyön Orkidea
The message contains a delivery location, not only a demand.
The ransom screen shows the hospital's name, a countdown, and a map pin labeled beneath an abandoned freight depot across town. The route is explicit.
the youth pastor
There. You see why nobody touches it? If the connection drops, they may act.
“The information gives me what I need. My goal is to reach the kidnapper's location myself. I nod at the youth pastor's words, then lie as an excuse to leave, swiveling on one heel right out of the door I came through. "You're right. I would help if I could. The police will handle it."”
SUCCESS (Good Reasoning, rolled +1)
Keskiyön Orkidea
You're right. I would help if I could. The police will handle it.
Keskiyön Orkidea gives the youth pastor a small nod, then swivels on one heel and passes through the same glass door without haste. No one moves to stop her.
the youth pastor
Wait. You cannot just walk away from this.
His protest follows her into the corridor, weakened by the countdown still crawling across the isolated laptop. The door closes, muting the founders and the sirens beyond them.
Keskiyön Orkidea
The freight depot is across town, and the route is explicit.
Outside, cold air replaces the coworking space's stale heat. College traffic slides along the street, ordinary and indifferent, while the abandoned depot waits beyond the hospital district.
“I recall the direction the sirens of the police vehicles were headed earlier, along with memorizing the explicit route to the freight depot. Between college students passing by me, I use a passerby as cover to turn around and begin speed walking toward the direction I need to go. When I get near my destination, I need to find a way to enter the freight depot unseen by anyone, until I can ambush the child's kidnapper.”
SUCCESS (Good Stealth, rolled +1)
Keskiyön Orkidea reconstructs the police sirens' direction, then fixes the freight depot's route in memory: hospital district, service road, fenced loading yard.
A stream of college students passes along the pavement. She matches one student's pace, using the moving cluster to turn back without drawing notice.
She speed-walks through traffic and side streets, keeping the hospital district's landmarks aligned with the memorized map pin. The sirens fade behind her.
Keskiyön Orkidea
The depot has three visible approaches; the service road reaches the rear loading bays.
Near the depot, she leaves the main road behind a delivery van and follows its bulk along the fence. Rusted panels conceal her from the street.
A gap beneath a warped section of fencing opens onto the rear yard. Orchid slips through, crosses behind stacked pallets, and reaches the shadowed loading entrance unseen.
Inside, the depot smells of dust and oil. She settles behind a row of crates with the loading bay, the only lit corridor, and the dark interior all within view.