The freight car hangs open like a confession. Inside the crate sit Harbor Unit dossiers, not museum records, tied with red tape and stamped for internal transfer.
Dallas Fontaine
This is bigger than forged paintings. Someone is moving police files through the museum.
The Taller Staffer
We didn’t pack those, I swear. They came sealed from upstairs.
The Shorter Staffer
We just signed the reroute. That’s all.
Murderbone plants himself at the crate, teeth bared, while Elena Vane steps to the side door and scans the bay for a second exit. The red emergency light turns everyone into suspects.
Elena Vane
Upstairs where? Name the office, not the fantasy.
One staffer glances at the elevator panel, then at Dallas’s revolver. That tiny hesitation gives the game away. The trail runs through Harbor Unit hands, and straight into the museum’s back rooms.
Dallas closes in on the crate as the freight doors begin to creep wider, exposing the routing slip clipped beneath the dossiers.
“I seize the routing slip and tell Elena to search the staffers”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Dallas snatches the routing slip free as the elevator doors yaw wider, keeping the paper out of the crate and out of their reach.
Dallas Fontaine
Elena, check them.
Elena moves in at once, cutting off the taller staffer before he can bolt. Murderbone crowds the shorter one back against the stacked crates, all teeth and weight.
The Taller Staffer
I told you, I do not know what was in there. We only handled the reroute.
The Shorter Staffer
Don’t let him read that, Dallas. They said it was just museum paperwork.
Elena’s hand flashes over the taller man’s jacket and trouser pockets, finding a duplicate route slip, a crumpled museum evidence tag, and a service key clipped inside his coat.
The shorter staffer pales when the second slip comes free, because it matches the one Dallas has already taken.
Elena Vane
Same route, same stamp. You were carrying the proof, not hiding from it.
The elevator light hums over the open crate, the dossiers still visible, while both men freeze under the red emergency glow and wait for Dallas to decide who talks first.
+ New Item Acquired
Duplicate route slip
+ New Item Acquired
Museum evidence tag
“Look at the doosiers”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled -1)
Dallas lifts the crate lid farther and studies the folders instead of the men. Harbor Unit seals, museum transfer stamps, and fresh pencil notes line up in a neat chain, all pointing past the loading bay and into official hands.
Dallas Fontaine
The paperwork is clean on the surface. Too clean.
One dossier opens to a routing sheet with the same service key code Elena just recovered. Another carries the museum evidence tag number, copied, reused, then filed back into the stream as if the paper trail can be laundered by repetition.
Elena Vane
They are using the museum crate as cover. These files are part of the same chain.
Murderbone growls low as the shorter staffer’s face collapses. He glances at the open dossier, then at the elevator doors, like he is weighing whether a run is still worth the beating.
The Shorter Staffer
I never touched the records. We just moved the crate when they told us.
Dallas finds the final sheet tucked under a blank invoice, a handwritten instruction to reroute anything marked Harbor Unit through Desk Nine before archiving. The evidence chain is not missing, it is being actively managed.
Quest Complete
Secure the museum evidence