The annex breathes damp rot and old dust. Dallas scans the rusted cabinets until the manifest’s code matches a drawer stamped MERCER HOLDINGS, REFERENCE FILES.
He pulls the drawer. Inside sits a sealed archive box, newer than the rest, with Rowan Mercer Holdings embossed in the lid and a customs seal cut clean through and resealed.
Professor Dayton
That box was never meant to survive an audit.
Dallas pries the lid free. Inside are transfer logs, marina clearances, and a black-paper memo stamped with the same harbor cipher Dayton decoded, tied to a private dock at Pier Nine.
Professor Dayton
That mark is old money, Dallas. Mercer Holdings is the shell. The real ledger points below it, to a sealed customs subfile. Someone is hiding the source, not just the money.
At the bottom lies a photograph of suited men in a tide room, standing before a row of wet, netted crates. One crate is marked with the church symbol from Bell’s papers.
Dallas Fontaine
Mercer Holdings is feeding the harbor and the church from the same hidden pipe.
A floorboard clicks somewhere deeper in the annex, and footsteps drift closer through the stacks.
✓ Quest Accepted
Investigate the Mercer Holdings archive source
✓ Quest Accepted
Reach the sealed customs subfile
+ New Item Acquired
Mercer Holdings archive box
+ New Item Acquired
Black-paper memo