The annex office sits in sickly lamplight, all stale tobacco and floor wax. Dallas Fontaine feels the Desk Nine ledger under his coat, heavy as a verdict. The inner sanctum door stands ajar, inviting trouble like a lit cigarette in a gas leak.
Curtis
Desk Nine is the choke point. If we pull the approvals, the whole chain points upward.
Curtis slides the ledger onto the desk and flattens the matching entries beside the map. His finger traces the same approval mark over and over, stopping at one name, one office, one route into the harbor records.
Jackson Temple
That stamp ties the transfers to the annex chief. If Dallas gets a clean copy, we can force the issue all the way up.
Elena Vane
And if they close the door before that, we lose the paper trail. We need proof that survives a lie.
Dallas Fontaine
The approvals are backfilled. Somebody built the record after the fact, then hid it in plain sight.
A faint creak rises from the inner sanctum. Dallas has a straight line now, take the ledger, confront the official behind the door, and turn Desk Nine into an exposure, not a rumor.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the annex chief
“Kick the inner sanctum door wide open and confront the annex chief.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +1)
Dallas drives his boot into the inner sanctum door. The latch blows free, the panel slams back, and brass light spills across a narrow office beyond.
A man at the far desk jerks upright, caught with a seal stamp in one hand and a fresh page in the other. His face goes pale at the sight of Dallas in the doorway.
Annex Chief
Wait. You do not understand what that ledger is tied to.
Dallas Fontaine
I understand enough. Start talking.
Curtis
That stamp was used on every backfilled approval. He is the source, or he is covering for one.
Jackson Temple
Door’s open. Nobody moves unless Dallas says so.
Elena Vane
Let him see the ledger, or we walk him out in cuffs.
The annex chief freezes, his eyes darting to the stamped paper and then to the hallway. The confession is within reach, but his hand hovers near a desk bell.
“I take the desk bell and tell him "sit the fuck back down"”
SUCCESS (Legendary Psychology, rolled +3)
Dallas steps in, takes the desk bell cleanly from the chief’s reach, and sets it in his own hand like evidence. The room goes very still.
Dallas Fontaine
Sit the fuck back down.
The annex chief drops into his chair on command, throat working. Jackson does not lower his gun. Elena’s stare stays hard, but she lets Dallas own the room.
Annex Chief
He means it. He is not bluffing in front of them.
Curtis
That bell is the call to clear the office. He uses it when records need to vanish fast.
Dallas turns the bell once in his palm. The chief’s desk drawer hangs half open, revealing a copy of Professor Dayton’s map folded under a stack of routing slips.
Elena Vane
Then start with the names you hid. And tell us who taught you to backfill Desk Nine.
Annex Chief
If I speak, I do not just lose this chair. I lose the office, the account, and the men above me.
He looks from Dallas to the ledger, then back again, trapped between fear and calculation. The bell stays in Dallas’s hand, and the chief waits for permission to breathe.
+ New Item Acquired
Desk bell
“I tell Jax to search the desk while I tell the chief to name the people above him”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled -3)
“I tell Jax to search the desk while I tell the chief to name the people above him”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled -1)
Dallas Fontaine
Jax, search the desk. You, name the people above you.
Jackson moves at once, sidearm still in his left hand as his free hand rakes through the top drawer and loose folders. The chief flinches when Curtis spots a second packet tucked behind the blotter, the kind used for clean signatures and dirty paper trails.
Annex Chief
I report to a liaison in Covington, and to one man in the annex records office. He takes the calls, he moves the slips, he tells me what gets erased.
Elena steps closer to the desk, eyes hard on the chief while Jackson lifts out the hidden packet and a carbon copy page with backfilled entries. The map in the drawer shifts into view under his wrist, its edges marked by recent folds.
Annex Chief
The office above me signs the approvals. I only keep the bell. When it rings, the files go light and the drawer gets burned.
Curtis exhales through his nose, almost relieved to hear it said out loud. Jackson lays the packet beside the ledger, proving the names are not just leverage, but a chain of custody.
Annex Chief
If they find the office above, I am finished.
Dallas has the confession now, and the desk search has turned up the paper link above the annex. The chief sits rigid, waiting for the next question, while the room holds its breath over the exposed evidence.
Quest Complete
Expose the annex chief