The marina office is still all salt stains and cheap light, the same cramped room from before. Dallas swipes the records office keycard, and the lock clicks open just as the terminal on his desk wakes up. The leather-bound envelope Pryce dropped lies open beside it, waiting to pay off its promise.
Dallas feeds the marina code into the terminal. The screen spits out the first decrypted pages, and the name that surfaces is not new, it is the one everyone kept circling. Pryce's envelope has been holding the records office trail all along.
Dallas Fontaine
The envelope was never bait. It was a map.
A line item blooms on the screen, tying Bell's cleanup route to Pier Nine storage and a records pull under Voss's authorization. The ledger is no ledger at all, it is a chain of transfers, stamps, and quiet approvals.
Murderbone bristles at the door as the hallway creaks once, then goes still. Rain hammers the glass harder, and the office feels smaller, like the harbor itself is leaning in to listen.
Dallas prints the page, folds it once, and pockets the proof. The terminal keeps scrolling, but the important part is already out, the contents of Pryce's envelope finally speaking in full.
✓ Quest Accepted
Infiltrate the records office
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the full records cleanup chain
+ New Item Acquired
Printed ledger page
“I scan the terminal for the specific location of the records office.”
SUCCESS (Superb Investigation, rolled +3)
Dallas scrolls past the stamped pages until the screen stops on a hidden index line. A room code, a shelf row, and a records cage designation sit buried beneath Bell's cleanup chain.
Dallas Fontaine
There it is. The room under the paperwork.
He scans the terminal again, slower this time, and the map view blossoms open. The marina office is only the relay point, the records office is deeper in the pier complex, past a service hall and a keyed cage.
Murderbone
Low growl, eyes locked on the corridor.
A second file opens by mistake, then loads cleanly. It shows the same office code tied to a fresh sign-out, recent enough to matter, recent enough to prove someone has been cleaning in real time.
The printer chatters once more, and Dallas takes the new page before the machine can finish its whine. The route is no longer a theory, it is a door, a hallway, and a locked room with a name on it.
Murderbone shifts at the threshold as the hallway boards creak again. Somewhere outside, a hand brushes metal, then stops.
Quest Complete
Expose the full records cleanup chain