Imani leads Ana through the checkpoint into a compact security office overlooking the service corridors. Reinforced glass frames cargo lifts, staff doors, and the lounge’s glowing perimeter.
Access maps unfold across the walls in layered blue lines, tracking badges, cameras, emergency shutters, and two secure lifts. Imani remains beside Ana while Mara stays behind at the transit kiosk.
Imani Vale
The first fifteen hundred credits are confirmed and yours. The balance clears after your shift, unless the venue breaches the contract.
Imani Vale
Reasonable protective action means moving the designated client away from immediate danger, controlling access, and using necessary force to create an exit. It does not mean chasing suspects or wrecking equipment.
She highlights a discreet incident recorder on the desk, then links it to Ana’s temporary credential. Every timestamp, order, and hazard report will copy to the insurer and venue archives.
Imani Vale
If anyone gives you an unsafe order, record it, tag the risk, and notify me before refusing when possible. Documented refusal for safety does not forfeit compensation.
A countdown appears across the office glass: five minutes until the lounge opens. Music rises through the building, and three corridor cameras abruptly flicker amber.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect the designated client through the security shift
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the attackers
Director's note
I start my tasks and meet the client
Imani taps the incident recorder awake and assigns Ana to the lounge perimeter. The amber cameras remain isolated on one service corridor, their feeds stuttering in synchronized bursts.
Imani Vale
That is not a scheduled diagnostic. I’m locking the affected corridor and sending a maintenance drone to verify the hardware. Stay with the client route.
A secure lift carries them to the seventy-third floor. Music and filtered laughter spill through the doors as the recorder logs Ana’s credential, time, and assigned protective detail.
Inside the private lounge, a middle-aged man with a narrow build waits beneath sculpted amber light. His dark suit carries Helix Arcology’s silver insignia, and a polished neural port circles his right ear.
The Chief Negotiator
Imani Vale. I assume this is the contracted protection. Good. The negotiations begin in four minutes, and I do not intend to spend them hiding in a service lift.
Imani Vale
Chief Negotiator Soren Kade, this is Ana Cow. The corridor camera fault is contained, but we are treating it as a possible breach until maintenance clears the feed.
Soren Kade
Then keep the room secure and let the professionals work. If anything changes, move me to the nearest secure lift before attempting anything ambitious.
“(We attend the meeting, I protect him”
SUCCESS (Superb Observation, rolled -2)
Ana takes position along Soren Kade’s designated route as the negotiation begins. They keep the nearest secure lift, lounge entrance, and reflective sightlines within view.
Corporate representatives settle around the glass table while filtered music hums beneath their voices. Ana’s temporary credential silently records their attendance and protective assignment.
Soren Kade
Begin. I want the Helix figures on the table before anyone discusses concessions.
A service door clicks behind Ana as a catering cart rolls through, its authorization valid but its route unexpected. Ana blocks the direct approach, forcing staff to clear the cart through the longer lane.
Imani Vale
Good catch. The cart’s badge is legitimate, but your intervention triggered a corridor alarm and consumed twelve percent of the recorder’s battery.
The meeting continues without interruption. Soren remains inside the protected route, while the recorder marks Ana’s position, the diverted cart, and the amber camera fault for the venue archive.
Director's note
Staying focused I keep an eye out
Ana stays along Soren Kade’s route, tracking the lounge entrance, secure lift, service door, and mirrored sightlines while negotiations sharpen around the glass table.
The catering cart disappears into the service corridor. On the wall display, two amber cameras stutter together, then briefly show the same empty frame.
Soren Kade
No interruptions. If Helix’s figures are accurate, your proposal has already exceeded the risk tolerance.
A maintenance drone glides past the lounge threshold, its inspection beam sweeping the ceiling cameras. It pauses at the isolated corridor and reports a clean hardware status.
Imani Vale
Hardware is intact. I’m pulling access logs now. The synchronized feed loss began after the cart entered the service lane.
The recorder’s display marks the anomaly as a possible deliberate loop rather than a failed camera. A secure lift indicator changes from green to amber.
Imani Vale
Stay on Kade’s route. I’m sealing the service corridor remotely and sending security to the lift controls. Do not pursue anyone beyond this floor.
Director's note
Staying focused I keep an eye out
Ana remains stationed along Soren Kade’s route, keeping the secure lift, service entrance, and mirrored reflections in view while the negotiation presses forward.
The amber lift indicator flickers twice. In its polished doors, a service corridor appears empty, then repeats the same three seconds of footage.
Soren Kade
That lift is no longer green. I assume this is the breach you were waiting to confirm.
Imani Vale
Confirmed. The camera loop and lift-state change share one access window. I’m freezing the route and diverting the meeting’s emergency protocol.
The lounge doors seal with a soft magnetic thud. A blue perimeter line activates around the glass table, separating the negotiators from the service side.
Imani Vale
Ana, maintain visual coverage on Kade and the entrance. Security is moving from the adjacent floor, and the recorder has enough charge for verified incident logging.
Beyond the sealed doors, a muted mechanical impact travels through the wall. The corridor cameras go dark, but Soren’s route remains illuminated and controlled.
undefined / undefined
Ana holds position beside Soren’s designated route, watching the sealed entrance, secure lift, and mirrored wall while the recorder timestamps each flicker.
The mechanical impact comes again, sharper this time. A thin vibration travels through the floor, and the blue perimeter briefly fractures near the service side.
Soren Kade
That was inside the floor plan. Tell me the secure lift is still physically isolated.
Imani Vale
It is isolated from the network, not necessarily from the maintenance shaft. Security has reached the adjacent floor and is cutting local access.
A ceiling panel above the service entrance unlatches by a few centimeters, then stops. No one enters. The lounge’s perimeter sensors paint the gap amber.
Imani Vale
Ana, maintain coverage. Do not approach the panel unless it opens or someone crosses the perimeter. I am escalating this as an active intrusion.
The negotiation freezes under the alarm’s muted pulse. On the mirrored doors, the looping corridor feed is replaced by a live image of an empty shaft and one descending maintenance cable.
Director's note
I ready to fight
Ana settles into a guarded stance beside Soren’s route, shoulders squared and weight balanced. Their eyes track the ceiling gap, sealed entrance, lift doors, and mirrored shaft feed.
Imani Vale
Stay exactly there. The intrusion has not crossed the perimeter, but the maintenance cable is moving under powered control.
The cable descends another meter through the live shaft image. A faint scrape answers from above the ceiling panel, followed by a brief distortion across the perimeter grid.
Soren Kade
If that panel opens, I want a clear path to the lift. No heroics that compromise the room.
Ana keeps the nearest exit in view while the recorder marks the active intrusion. Their hands remain ready, but no weapon appears and no one crosses the blue boundary.
Imani Vale
Security is cutting the shaft access now. I have locked the lounge controls to my credential and flagged the breach for compensation review.
The ceiling panel lifts one centimeter farther. Red maintenance light spills through the seam, and the mirrored feed catches a second cable descending behind the first.