Before Galaxy Gal can leave, the raised security shutters grind higher. Deputy Commissioner Vale enters with two municipal security officers, all three moving beneath the bank’s pulsing red alarms.
Vale is a severe middle-aged woman in a tailored navy coat, silver-streaked hair pulled tight, a luminous authority badge fixed at her collar. The officers flank her in gray tactical uniforms.
Deputy Commissioner Vale
Galaxy Gal, surrender the brass device and Retrograde immediately. This emergency-grid authority order places both under municipal custody.
She raises a transparent tablet displaying a red-sealed warrant. Retrograde remains behind Galaxy Gal with his hands lifted, while Mara and the last bank staff stay near the teller counter.
Deputy Commissioner Vale
You have no authorization to seize evidence, interfere with a municipal transfer, or remove a suspect from this jurisdiction. Release them.
Mara
Wait. That seal is from the same municipal system on Retrograde’s display. The encrypted accounts were routed through it.
Retrograde
At last, an official representative. Commissioner, your order may prove precisely what I attempted to expose.
Get official clearance to retain custody of Retrograde
Expose the conspiracy behind the municipal emergency-grid order