Rain hisses on the shattered dock-office window as Dallas Fontaine, Jackson Temple, Elena Vane, and Murderbone step into Professor Dayton’s cramped sanctuary. Books climb the walls, pipe tobacco hangs in the air, and the desk is already cleared for evidence.
The room is staged for work, not surprise.
Professor Dayton
You’re late, which means someone has tried to kill you again. Put it on the desk, Dallas.
A new figure rises from a shadowed armchair near the lamp, a trim man in a rain-dark coat with an investigator’s notebook tucked under his arm. He shuts it with two fingers and gives Dallas a tired, practiced nod.
Curtis
Curtis. Dayton asked me to sit in. I know records, routes, and what people pay to bury.
Elena Vane
That makes you useful. Start with the stamped papers.
Dallas lays out the routing slips, the printed logs, and the carbon copy memo. Jackson braces by the door while Murderbone circles once and settles at Dallas’s heel, eyes fixed on Curtis’s hands.
Curtis
Covington uses clerical stamps like fingerprints, but this one is a leash. The office above him is feeding the whole route network. If you want the name, I can show you where the paper changes hands.
Professor Dayton
And if someone forged the trail, we’ll find the human hand behind it. Finally, some honest labor.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the human hand behind the paper trail
“Ask Curtis to point out the specific office where the paper trail originates.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Psychology, rolled +3)
Dallas Fontaine
Point to the office where it starts.
Curtis
There. Covington annex, records corridor, second door past the lift. That is where the stamp changes hands.
Curtis spreads the routing slips flat and taps one margin, then another, tracing the same clerk initials as they move from office to office.
Professor Dayton
A clean trail on paper is never clean in the room. Someone above Covington signs off, and someone below him carries it.
Curtis
If he sees the map, he sees the trap. Better he sees it from here than walks into it blind.
Dayton pulls a folded harbor map from beneath a ledger, sets a finger on the annex, and then slides that finger one floor higher, where a narrow office block is marked in pencil.
Curtis
The human hand is the clerk who relays it, but the approval comes from the office above. I can name the desk, and I can show you the ledger mark that proves it.
Quest Complete
Identify the human hand behind the paper trail
“We take a quick moment for me to use first aid and train my health”
SUCCESS (Good Health, rolled -2)
Dallas eases back from the desk, strips off one glove, and works the shoulder under the suit sleeve with careful fingers. The ache is real, but the joint answers him. He cleans and binds it from his kit, then tests the arm once, twice, until the sting settles into a dull warning.
Dallas Fontaine
The cut holds. Nothing is torn open.
Murderbone stays close by his knee, quiet as a shadow. Dayton keeps the map open under the lamp, one hand braced on the marked floor above Covington while rain ticks at the window frame.
Professor Dayton
Better. You were favoring it before. A detective who cannot lift his own arm is a bad sign in any city.
Elena Vane
And a stitched-up detective is still a detective. Sit with it a moment, Dallas.
Curtis watches the bandage tighten, his fear easing by a degree as the room stays intact around them. The desk lamp burns steady over the routing slips, the carbon copy memo, and Dayton's penciled route above Covington.
Curtis
If you want the desk name, I can give it. The approval mark sits in the annex ledger, right where the clean people think no one looks.
“I grab the ledger and ask Curtis for the desk name”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled -1)
Dallas hooks two fingers under the ledger edge and draws it free from beneath the routed papers. The desk gives him a full line on the annex stamps now, and the carbon copy memo sits exposed beside them like a confession laid flat.
Dallas Fontaine
Curtis. The desk name.
Curtis straightens, then nods once, choosing the truth over caution. He points to the ledger column with a steady hand, the fear in him pared down to business.
Curtis
It is the annex ledger under Desk Nine. That is the name they use for approvals, transfers, and anything they want buried in plain sight.
Professor Dayton tilts the map toward the lamp and taps the marked corridor above Covington. The note, the ledger, and the route all line up now, one trail feeding the next.
Professor Dayton
Then it is not a rumor anymore. It is a paper path, and it leads upward.
Elena leans in over the desk, eyes narrowing at the fresh alignment of marks. Murderbone stays planted at Dallas's knee, still and ready, while rain keeps ticking at the glass.
Elena Vane
So we have the desk name, and the place that hides it. Good. Now we know where to cut.
Quest Complete
Get the signed approval above Covington exposed
New Gift: Bureaucratic Insight
“I grab the ledger and ask Curtis for the desk name”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled +1)
Dallas lifts the ledger free, tucking it under the lamp while Curtis watches him work. The desk breathes easier without the weight, and the annex name sits exposed where everyone can see it.
Dallas Fontaine
Curtis. What is the desk name?
Curtis
Desk Nine. That is the one they use for approvals and transfers they want buried.
Professor Dayton shifts his map a fraction closer to the light, the marked annex and the office above it now forming one clean route. Elena’s gaze stays fixed on the ledger, reading the numbers like a fresh wound.
Elena Vane
So it is real, and it is labeled. That is enough to pull on.
Murderbone stays low at Dallas's side, ears forward toward the door. In the quiet, the study feels smaller, like the walls are listening back.
Professor Dayton
Then the paper trail has a name, and names can be followed.
✓ Quest Accepted
Use Desk Nine to trace the approvals
“I open the ledger to Desk Nine and start cross-referencing the approval dates.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled +0)
Dallas flips the ledger open to Desk Nine and runs a finger down the approval dates. The columns answer cleanly, one transfer after another, all of them clustered too neatly to be honest.
Dallas Fontaine
The timing repeats every third day.
Curtis leans in, following the line Dallas marks with his nail. Dayton steadies the map under the lamp, and the desk feels less like furniture and more like a route carved into wood.
Curtis
Those dates match the transfer windows. Desk Nine feeds the approvals into the annex office, then they wash the paper trail clean.
Professor Dayton
And here. See this gap. Someone skips the ledger on those days, then backfills it later with identical handwriting.
Elena straightens beside the desk, eyes narrowing at the pattern. Murderbone lifts his head toward the door, not growling, just listening harder than before.
Elena Vane
So Desk Nine is not just a name. It is the choke point.
Dallas marks the last matching date, and the next entry below it goes cold, as if the record expects someone to notice. Curtis goes quiet, waiting for the question that follows.
Get Curtis to name the annex office behind the transfer windows
Quest Complete
Use Desk Nine to trace the approvals