The knit-cap man’s hand comes out of his coat with the same crumpled, grease-stained paper Dallas has seen before. The sketch is folded at the corners, marked with old thumbprints, and one junction is circled in hard red pencil.
The Knit-Cap Man
Look at it. If Mercer cuts the circuit the wrong way, the whole city goes dark and stays dark. That paper is the reason.
Jackson shifts, blocking the path tighter. Murderbone growls low at the man’s knees. Dallas can see the diagram now, a feedback loop drawn through the annex relay and back into Pier Nine, a trap that turns a clean sever into a citywide collapse.
Dallas Fontaine
The sketch matches the annex grid. One bad cut, and the load backfeeds into the harbor spine.
The Knit-Cap Man
There’s a bypass point. Miss it, and every block on the grid eats the surge. Follow me, or keep arguing while Far Harbor burns out.
He points past Jackson, not trying to escape anymore, just trying to be believed. In the parked silence, the paper trembles in his fingers like evidence, not a threat.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the bypass point
✓ Quest Accepted
Prevent the citywide blackout
“Take the sketch from the man and study the bypass point.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled +1)
Dallas takes the sketch from his fingers and flattens it against his palm. The red circle is not a warning, it is a junction point, a bypass spliced off the annex relay and routed through Pier Nine.
Dallas Fontaine
The bypass is physical, not theoretical. A cutover point in the line.
He studies the folds, the grease smears, the thumbprints. One corner hides a service notation, a narrow access path marked twice, then crossed out and rewritten in smaller script.
The Knit-Cap Man
That is the safe cut. Use the wrong lead, and the loop eats the grid whole.
Jackson leans in just enough to read it, then shifts aside, giving Dallas a clearer line on the paper. Murderbone’s nose tracks the man, but his body stays planted, ready.
The sketch yields one more detail, a transfer note at the margin. The bypass point is already tagged for tonight, and someone has initialed it beside Jackson Temple’s name on the routing list.
The Knit-Cap Man
Now you see why I came. Help me get you to the bypass before Mercer finds the splice.
Quest Complete
Secure the bypass point