The embers in the bin gutter low, throwing knife-sharp shadows across the banquet room. Dallas stands over Eli Mercer, the blueprint spread on a crate between them like a confession waiting for ink.
Eli Mercer
All right... all right. The higher hands, they are not city hall. Not really. They answer to the Covington office, and above that, to Alder March's people.
Mercer swallows hard, eyes flicking to the corridor. His fear is not for Dallas alone, but for whoever might still be listening from the dark.
Eli Mercer
Bishop was only the broker. The truck, the badge, the routes, it all feeds the same warehouse node. March uses it to move men, paper, and pressure.
A faint scrape answers him from the service passage. The sound carries the same menace as the movement Dallas noticed in the truck cab earlier, a body that had stayed hidden until now.
Eli Mercer
You want the name above Bishop? It is Harlan Voss's old chain, then March's. The enforcers wear clean collars, and they do not come alone.
Dallas Fontaine
The truck cab wasn't empty. It was waiting for somebody high enough to matter.
Mercer stops talking, staring at the doorway as the room seems to tighten around him. The blueprint flutters once on the crate, pinned flat by Dallas's shadow.
✓ Quest Accepted
Reveal the higher authorities behind the conspiracy
“I grab Mercer by the collar and demand he identify the enforcers coming for us.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled -2)
Dallas steps in, seizes Mercer by the collar, and yanks him close enough to smell the smoke on his breath.
Dallas Fontaine
Name the enforcers. Now.
Eli Mercer
Covington office. Alder March’s people. Clean collars, no Harbor patches, and they come in pairs.
Mercer jerks his chin toward the service passage, where the scrape repeats, closer this time. His answer lands, but it costs him a raw cough and a torn lapel in Dallas’s fist.
Eli Mercer
Bishop fed them routes. Voss built the chain before March took it over. That is who is coming.
The blueprint skids a few inches on the crate, and Dallas’s grip leaves Mercer bent forward, exposed to the corridor and whatever is moving there.
Eli Mercer
If they hear me talking, I am dead. So are you.
Quest Complete
Reveal the higher authorities behind the conspiracy