The control office hums like a hive, monitors flickering over routes, faces, and street corners. Buster hovers over the radio handset, listening for the Unknown Voice hidden behind the static.
Mara stays near the warehouse entrance, one hand on the frame, eyes cutting over the dark street. Outside, a pair of headlights crawls past and fades, not stopping yet.
Buster Jones
The signal is bouncing off the same relay points every few seconds.
On the wall map, one route marker blinks red, then another, drawing a rough triangle across the city. The pattern tightens around a maintenance block west of the river.
Unknown Voice
You are close enough to listen, Buster Jones. You are not close enough to leave.
A hard knock rattles the warehouse door from the outside. Mara straightens, ready to move, while the monitors briefly flare with fresh camera feeds, showing the handlers are still watching.
Buster yanks the handset free and the nearest screen blacks out at once. The network is local, vulnerable, and tied to this room. If he breaks it here, he can blind them and buy a future for him and Mara.
✓ Quest Accepted
Isolate the handlers' signal
“Can I trace the signal back to the source before I destroy the hardware?”
YES (Likely, rolled 18)
Buster watches the data stream, his eyes tracking the rapid-fire pinging of the signal as it hops through the city grid. The path is jagged, but the final destination pulses with a distinct, high-frequency signature that bypasses the local relay.
Buster Jones
The signal is not coming from the warehouse. It is originating from the old radio tower on the west side of the river.
“I trace the beacon to its source”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +3)
Buster traces the hops backward through the city grid, following the beacon’s rhythm as it narrows into a single mast beyond the river. The warehouse screens spit static, then lock on the tower’s signature.
Buster Jones
The source is the old radio tower west of the river.
A maintenance map blooms over the monitor stack, and a hidden relay room flashes open in the tower’s base. The signal is not just reaching out, it is being routed from inside.
Mara
That is their live hub. If we cut that room, the beacon dies.
One screen flickers long enough to show a looped surveillance feed, Buster’s apartment doorway framed in red marks, then the image breaks apart. The warehouse has been watching them from the start.
Buster gets the location and the route in one clean sweep, the tower’s relay room now pinned on the map. Somewhere deeper in the building, a lock clicks as the system notices his attention.
Quest Complete
Isolate the handlers' signal