The badge man is still pinned to the brick, rain hammering the alley as Dallas steps out of the shadows. The manifest bundle rides high in the man’s coat, like he has something alive under there.

Dallas closes the gap before the weapon clears leather. The man jolts, slips, and the bundle tears open against the wall, spilling duplicate manifests across the wet pavement.

The copies are layered. Not just routes, names hidden beneath names.

Dallas kneels, snatches the top sheet, and catches the coded second list beneath it. City officials. Council names. Harbor inspectors. A judge. Each authorization is stamped and cross-referenced to the annex subfloor.

A hard thump answers from inside the alley wall, behind a locked steel service door. The same rhythm as before. Not a ghost, not a myth, just something waiting on the other side of paperwork and power.

Dallas flips the badge man onto his front and runs a quick, practiced search. Rainwater beads on the coat seam while his fingers find a hidden inner pocket.

A service key slides out, taped flat behind a folded Harbor Unit badge. Dallas catches both before they hit the pavement.

The badge man swears under his breath, bloodless with fear, as Dallas checks the key’s teeth against the alley door lock.

The key turns. The service door unlatches with a wet metallic click, and the scrape from inside stops for half a beat.

The badge man lunges for the scattered pages, but Murderbone snaps forward and drives him back against the brick.

Dallas keeps the key, the badge, and the manifest bundle. The cost lands at once, the alley light flickers on, and someone deeper in the building shifts behind the opened door.