The bent keycard slides through the reader, and a panel somewhere in the cabinets clicks free. Dayton exhales through his teeth. The room breathes out a fresh ribbon of stale coffee and ozone.
A narrow drawer pops open in the filing wall, revealing routing cards stacked like teeth. One card carries Hart's private stamp, and another shows Dallas's name crossed through in red pencil.
Professor Dayton
There it is. The hand behind the erasure.
Dallas Fontaine
The stamp is newer than the paper around it.
Murderbone bristles at the threshold, nose low, watching the dark gap beyond the cabinets. The fluorescent tubes flicker harder, and the study window flashes white as headlights sweep past outside.
Professor Dayton
Hart is not just filing men away. He is feeding them into a system, one route at a time.
Dallas pulls the drawer wider. Inside, the ledger waits under a folded transfer order, and the paper trail finally points straight at the office that marked him for removal.
“I take the ledger and order”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Dallas snatches the ledger and transfer order cleanly from the drawer, folding them under his coat before the paper can slip back into the stack.
Dayton’s hand hovers over the empty drawer, then drops. His face tightens as he sees the gap left behind in Hart’s chain.
Professor Dayton
That is enough to break the route, if we can keep it intact.
Murderbone shifts from the threshold to Dallas’s side, blocking the dark cabinet opening with his body. The window flashes again, and rain streaks silver across the glass.
Dallas Fontaine
The transfer order matches the ledger's paper stock.
A faint click answers from somewhere deeper in the study, not loud, just deliberate. Dayton freezes, listening toward the hall.
Professor Dayton
Someone is at the outer door.
Quest Complete
Secure Hart's ledger
New Gift: Ledger Analysis Expert