Rain needles the sedan roof. Dallas shoves Adelaide Wren into the backseat and slams the door. Murderbone plants himself outside, a black-and-tan wall of teeth and loyalty.
Adelaide Wren
You think this ends with me? Bell is dead, and the whole city knows it.
Dallas settles behind the wheel, the ledger open in his lap. The pages are soaked at the edges, but the names still hold.
Dallas Fontaine
Bell buried the money trail. Wren can finish the map.
Adelaide Wren
I handled the files. I moved the copies. I never touched your daughter.
Murderbone growls at the window. Wren flinches, then straightens when she sees Dallas watching her breathe.
Adelaide Wren
Voss wanted her dead. Bell made it clean. Tate washed the paper. Pryce kept the route quiet.
Dallas closes the ledger with one hand and leans toward the rearview mirror, forcing Wren to meet his eyes. Outside, the alley stays empty, waiting for whatever comes after the last confession.
✓ Quest Accepted
Extract the final truth from Adelaide Wren
“Show her the ledger page with the daughter's name and demand the final link.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled +1)
Dallas flips the ledger open and turns one rain-dark page toward the backseat. A name is circled in hard pencil, the ink under it smeared by water and old fingerprints.
Dallas Fontaine
Show me the last link, Adelaide. This name ends somewhere.
Adelaide Wren
She stares at the page, then at the circle around the daughter's name, and her throat tightens.
Adelaide Wren
That was never supposed to be on paper. Bell kept it off the ledger. Voss wanted it buried, so I copied the clean version and moved the rest.
Dallas nudges the page closer. The rain ticks on the roof, steady and patient, while Murderbone lowers his head at the window and keeps her boxed in.
Adelaide Wren
There was a cleanup order. A handoff at Pier Nine. Then Bell sent the file through Tate, and Pryce made the route disappear. The girl saw enough to matter, and that is why they moved so fast.
Dallas Fontaine
The line runs from Bell to Voss and back through the docks.
Adelaide Wren
If you want the final name, it is the man who signed the erase sheet in records. Carter Vale did the wipe. I only carried what he told me to carry.
She swallows hard, then slides a shaking finger to the margin. Outside, a light sweeps the far end of the alley and vanishes, as if someone just passed the mouth of the lane.
“I tell her ikilled vale, voss,price, and rook already”
SUCCESS (Fair Willpower, rolled +1)
Dallas lets the names hang in the rain-choked air, Voss, Pryce, Rook, Vale. Adelaide goes still, as if each one lands with a separate bruise.
Adelaide Wren
He is not bluffing. He has already burned through the others.
Adelaide Wren
Vale was the cleaner, yes. Pryce paid the delays. Rook moved the bodies on paper. Voss ordered the silence.
Her hand tightens on the seatback, then loosens. Murderbone stays at the glass, a dark shape with his head low and eyes fixed on her mouth.
Adelaide Wren
I kept the copies because I was afraid. Afraid of Bell, afraid of what he knew, afraid of being the next line they erased.
Dallas Fontaine
Then say it clean.
Adelaide Wren
Bell used the annex records to move names. Voss approved the hit. Tate handled the harbor route. Pryce scrubbed the trail. Vale erased the ledger.
She looks at Dallas now, eyes wet and exhausted, no fight left in the face of it. In her open palm, a damp scrap has come free from the ledger, stamped with a service code and Bell's initials.
“I press Wren for Bell's last hiding place”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled +1)
Dallas closes the ledger with one slow snap and leans in just enough to make Wren feel the question before it is spoken.
Dallas Fontaine
Where is Bell hiding.
Adelaide Wren
The freight office under Pier Nine. Third floor, back stair.
Her breath catches. She looks past Dallas to the rain-glossed glass, as if the answer itself has finally backed her into the wall.
Adelaide Wren
He changed the locks tonight. He is there, or he was. If he moved, it would be to the old customs annex, beneath the south berth.
Murderbone lifts his head at that, a low warning rumbling in his chest. The stamped scrap trembles in Wren's open palm, wet and dark against her fingers.
Adelaide Wren
There is a storage cage under the annex stairs. Bell keeps a second phone there, and a brown envelope with names he never speaks aloud.
Outside, the alley stays empty. Inside the car, Wren swallows hard and gives Dallas the last piece without being asked for it twice.
Adelaide Wren
If you are going now, go before the next light sweep. Otherwise, he will be waiting.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find Bell at the freight office under Pier Nine
Quest Complete
Extract the final truth from Adelaide Wren
“I strangle wren in the backseat.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Strength, rolled +1)
Dallas reaches across the seat, one forearm pinning Wren as his other hand clamps her throat. Her stamped scrap crumples, slipping from her fingers into the wet vinyl.
Adelaide Wren
No, wait...
Her heels kick once against the door. The sound is small, trapped, then cuts off as her body goes slack against his grip.
Dallas holds on just long enough for the fight to leave her eyes. Rain ticks on the roof. The alley stays empty.
The folded scrap drops free into the footwell, revealing a partial stamp and a smudged berth number. Murderbone gives one sharp, low huff at the window.
Murderbone
Threat ended. New scent remains.
Outside, a light sweep glides back across the alley mouth, slower this time, as if someone has started checking the dark twice.
“I grab the scrap”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +1)
Dallas snatches the stamped scrap from the footwell before it can soak through. Wet paper tears a little under his fingers, but the berth number stays legible.
Dallas Fontaine
Pier Nine. Freight office.
A second mark shows through the smear, a partial dock code pressed hard enough to ghost the vinyl beneath it. Dallas catches that too.
Outside, Murderbone shifts at the rear window, head low. His ears angle toward the alley mouth as the light sweep reaches the sedan again.
Murderbone
New scent. Same direction.
Adelaide Wren stirs in the back seat, not waking, just twitching at the wrist like the words still snag her.
Adelaide Wren
...Pier Nine, before they move it...
The alley stays empty for one more breath, then the sweep of light pauses at the mouth, as if whoever holds it has stopped to look in.
+ New Item Acquired
Stamped scrap
“I head for Pier Nine freight office”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -1)