The whine climbs out of the console like a siren in a coffin. Bishop lies across the panel, dead weight over a district’s worth of doom. Dallas stares at the monitor’s frozen countdown and knows the click was never a lock.
Dallas Fontaine
That click was a trigger.
The service light flips from red to amber, but the room feels even deadlier. On the doorway threshold, The Figure goes pale and backpedals, one hand braced on the steel frame.
The Figure
No, no, you do not understand. That was the Harbor Unit signal. The mole was inside the chain, all along.
A hidden panel on the console jitters open beneath Bishop’s arm. Inside sits a Harbor Unit badge with a burned edge, a relay key, and a pocket timer wired to a district charge line. The mole’s badge number matches the name Dallas saw on the manifest.
The Figure
He was the switchman. He fed the codes, then he vanished when the clock started.
The timer starts ticking faster. Somewhere below the monument, the whole grid answers with a low, ugly hum. Dallas has found the answer to the planted lie, and it is worse than the question.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stop the district charge from detonating
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the Harbor Unit mole
“Grab the badge and the relay key from the console before the timer hits zero.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +3)
Dallas snaps the badge and relay key free before Bishop’s arm can pin them again. The console shudders under his grip, then steadies, the wired timer still racing in his palm.
Dallas Fontaine
Got it.
The burned Harbor Unit badge catches the amber light, and the relay key is still warm from the circuit. Under Bishop’s sleeve, a stamped service plate flashes once as Dallas hooks the hidden panel shut.
The Figure
He beat the timer... and took the key.
A sharp metallic click answers from below the monument, but it is not a detonation. The hidden relay has been opened by the extraction, and a maintenance map scrolls up on the monitor, marking the district charge feed.
For one clean second, the amber status light holds steady. Then the monitor flashes a route label Dallas has not seen before, pointing to the next cutoff point deeper in the service spine.
The Figure
If you want it stopped, you have to cut the feed below us... now.
+ New Item Acquired
Burned Harbor Unit badge
+ New Item Acquired
Relay key
“I cut the feed below us now”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +3)
Dallas slots the relay key into the lower panel and twists. The hidden feed snaps open beneath the chamber, and the rapid clicking drops to a hard, steady clack.
Dallas Fontaine
Cut.
The console timer stutters, then freezes on a new route label. A service door below the chamber unlatches with a dry metallic sigh, spilling cold air up through the floor.
The Figure
He found the feed cut point.
Bishop stays sprawled across the console, dead weight against the controls, while the amber status light steadies and stops pulsing.
The Figure
That should have killed the charge. Look at the monitor, Dallas, it rerouted to a maintenance spine.
The monitor redraws the route into a plain mechanical path, exposing the district charge as wired infrastructure, not occult force. The Figure half-turns from the doorway, staring at the open access below.
Quest Complete
Stop the district charge from detonating