The footsteps thud closer under the loading stairs, slow and heavy, then stop. Dallas has the maintenance plate in sight, half-hidden in rust and wet grit, exactly where the technician said it would be.
The Heavy Steps
You picked a bad night to come sniffing around, Fontaine.
A broad-shouldered man eases out of the warehouse shadow, Harbor Unit coat hanging wrong on him. He keeps one hand near his belt, the other lifted just enough to show he is not alone in the dark behind him.
Dallas Fontaine
The drop box notes had a living courier. The man in the coat knows who used him.
The Heavy Steps
Those notes were passed down from the dead letter slot. I just carried them. The guy you want is already inside Pier Nine, feeding the broadcast.
Murderbone growls low, body tight and ready. Beyond the man, a red pulse flickers from a seam in the pier wall, matching the technician’s sketch and pointing straight toward the maintenance plate.
The Heavy Steps
Open it up, or that thing in the warehouse finishes coming out.
Dallas stands between the plate and the dark opening into the pier spine, with the broadcast on one side and the threat behind the man on the other. The route is clear now, down through Pier Nine, if he can get past this blocker in time.
“I confront the heavy-shouldered man”
SUCCESS (Legendary Interrogation, rolled -1)
Dallas lets the silence sit just long enough to make the man fill it.
Dallas Fontaine
You’re not a blocker. You’re a relay. Who is feeding this place?
The Heavy Steps
...A woman with a ledger voice. Never came near the stairs. Gave orders through the slot.
The Heavy Steps
Everybody called her Bishop.
Murderbone stills at Dallas’s side as the man’s hand drops away from his belt. The red seam keeps pulsing, but the answer lands clean, pinned to the wet concrete.
The Heavy Steps
She said Pier Nine was only the mouth. If you want the throat, follow the notes under the stairs and the frequency on the box.
From deeper in the pier, a metallic scrape ticks against a door frame, slow and deliberate, while the hidden broadcast continues its steady thump.
Secure the latest note from the slot
Quest Complete
Identify who is behind the annex subfloor operation
New Gift: Subterranean Mapping Expert