Dallas slams the handler into the bay wall. The man’s cufflinks flash gold in the sodium light, and the unloading crew freezes around the crate marked with the dockside transfer code.
The Handler
You’re too late, fedora. Your betters already set the board. They know where your wedding is, and they know how to close it.
Jackson sweeps the alley mouth, gun low, eyes hard. From the truck cab, a shadow shifts, then another, backup moving in with practiced timing.
Dallas Fontaine
This is a drop, a relay, and a hit list all in one.
The Handler
City men, harbor men, church men, all of them answer upward. You’re hunting clerks. The ones above you are arranging the flowers.
The crate lid jerks open under the crew’s hands. Inside sits wedding venue routing paperwork, stamped with a private district seal and a noon delivery window.
Dallas has the connection now, clean and ugly. The city’s elite are using the waterfront chain to redirect security, isolate the venue, and clear the path before the ceremony starts.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the elite behind the shadow network
“I put my gun to his head saying" I've left a trail of bodies that would make the grim reaper blush. You can tell me who you work for or you can join the pile of dead."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled +1)
Dallas Fontaine
You tell me who you work for, or you join the bodies.
Dallas keeps the revolver steady at the handler’s temple. The man goes still, eyes flicking to the open crate and the paperwork spilling across the wet concrete.
The Handler
Fine. Fine, listen. It is not clerks running this. It is Alder March, city liaison, mayoral circle. He signs the clean papers.
The Handler
And if he falls, the others burn the route. They do not leave names lying around.
Jackson’s head snaps toward the truck cab as the shadow inside shifts again. Murderbone plants himself by the crate, rigid and watchful.
Jackson Temple
Dallas, we have company in the cab. Move or we lose the lead.
The handler swallows hard, his shoulders collapsing under Dallas’s grip. The wedding route papers flutter in the alley wind, stamped and undeniable.
Stop the handler from escaping
Quest Complete
Identify the elite behind the shadow network