The relay room shudders with a low, animal hum. Dallas reaches for the manual override as the breaker cabinet throbs red and white, alive with Pier Nine’s stolen current.
Jackson Temple
Dallas, now. If that surge completes, it jumps back through the annex spine.
Elena Vane
Perimeter is thin. I have movement in the hall, and it is not ours.
Dallas Fontaine
The cabinet is wired as a relay, not a source. Mercer is using Pier Nine as the last stop before the annex.
Dallas throws the override. The cabinet jerks, metal screaming, and the pulse stutters hard enough to dim the room.
A hidden panel pops loose inside the breaker, spitting smoke and a strip of tagged cable tied to the customs annex schedule.
Jackson Temple
There it is. Proof the circuit runs through the annex, and this room is the switch they were buying time to reach.
Somewhere beyond the door, boots slam the corridor. The cabinet’s glow fades to a sickly pulse, and Pier Nine goes from engine room to battlefield.
✓ Quest Accepted
Sever the Pier Nine surge
+ New Item Acquired
Tagged cable
“I have murderbone flank the door and jackson and elena take cover pistols on the door. I Grab the tagged cable and the schedule from the cabinet.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +0)
Dallas slides the tagged cable free and strips the schedule from the cabinet lip in one clean motion. Murderbone snaps to the doorway, shoulder broad in the gap, while Jackson and Elena sink lower behind cover, pistols fixed on the hall.
The paper is greasy with soot and stamped with customs annex routing marks. Under it, a folded church attachment form sticks to the cable tie, and a torn scrap from the Liber Signorum page shows the same relay code.
Jackson Temple
That schedule is the last clean proof. If they come through that door, we hold them here.
Elena Vane
I hear them. They are close, and they are moving fast.
Red relay light pulses over Dallas’s hands as the cabinet coughs and dims. The proof cable hangs loose now, and the exposed panel clicks like something inside has lost its grip on the room.
Dallas Fontaine
The routing stamp matches the annex spine.
From the corridor, boots hit metal and stop at the threshold. A key scrapes somewhere beyond the frame, and the steel door gives a faint metallic twitch as if someone is testing it from the other side.
Quest Complete
Sever the Pier Nine surge