Adventure of Dallas Fontaine 2

Dallas slips through the ajar service door into a cramped junction of flickering monitors and tired relay boxes. The air smells of dust, hot plastic, and salt from the docks above.

A technician is hunched over a hard drive, scrubbing it with frantic little motions. On the wall behind him, wedding site maps glare back in red ink, each marked like a target.

Murderbone bristles at Dallas's side, body low, eyes fixed on the man's hands. The technician freezes when he notices the doorway, but he keeps one palm over the drive as if that might hide the damage.

Dallas spots the shift in the maps at once, the wedding site is being isolated by alternate service runs, dead-end transfers, and false delivery windows. This room is the nerve center of the detour meant to pull him away from the ceremony.

The monitors keep stuttering red as Dallas stands in the doorway, with the wedding site, the hidden route, and the clock all pointing to the same trap.

Dallas crosses the last step in a blur, snatching for the technician’s wrists as the hard drive jerks against the console.

The man yelps, fingers slipping off the wipe tool, and the drive skids free into Dallas’s grip.

Murderbone snaps in close, blocking the technician’s retreat with his chest and a low, steady growl.

One monitor flickers from red to black, but the wall maps still glow with the rerouted wedding paths, and a blinking corridor camera wakes in the corner.