Bulwark Penitentiary’s secure intake corridor narrows around Alexei, Duncan, and Gremlin. The restraint remains locked as modular cells seal behind them, each closure logged by overhead cameras.
Two facility officers, both sturdy adult women with cropped brown hair, medium builds, and charcoal uniforms with bright identification bands in charcoal uniforms wait at the transfer station with a recording tablet and portable scanner. Palmer and Angela remain at City Hall with the protected witnesses.
Alexei
Document every handoff, every scan, and every seal. Duncan gets no unrecorded movement inside this facility.
Duncan
That corridor protocol is mine. I authorized the staggered lockout after the last security review.
Duncan’s polished certainty falters as the scanner pauses, then requests a verification sequence absent from the transfer order. One officer checks the tablet twice.
Duncan
Someone altered the protocol before I arrived. If the system rejects me, they prepared this failure.
Alexei
Nobody improvises. We freeze the corridor, preserve the discrepancy, and determine whether the change protects the prison or compromises it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Establish whether Duncan's custody is secure
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who altered Bulwark's transfer protocol
“I upload a discrete diagnostic program into the prison's systems to discretely find whoever altered the protocol”
SUCCESS (Legendary Technology, rolled +1)
Gremlin’s cybernetic fingers connect a sealed diagnostic wafer to the transfer station’s maintenance port. The program enters quietly, disguised as a routine scanner integrity check.
It maps authentication scars, compares the current lockout against archived configurations, and follows the alteration’s signed pathway without changing a single prison control.
The Transfer Officer
The scanner is still frozen. No command has been issued from this station.
A concealed audit returns a precise result: the staggered lockout was altered remotely through a dormant administrative credential, authenticated from a legal review terminal outside Bulwark.
Alexei
There. The change predates Duncan’s arrival, but his old credential authorized the access. Preserve the terminal identity and sever nothing yet.
Duncan
That credential was retired. Someone revived it to make the alteration look like my work.
The diagnostic seals its findings into the prison record: terminal identity, timestamp, credential history, and the exact protocol revision. The corridor remains frozen, but the author is no longer unknown.
“I upload a tracking virus to whoever used the credential”
SUCCESS (Legendary Technology, rolled +0)
Gremlin routes a compact tracking virus through the diagnostic wafer and into the preserved authentication pathway. It rides the dormant credential’s next verification handshake without touching Bulwark’s controls.
The wafer reports a successful installation. A hidden beacon begins recording the credential’s originating network, terminal activity, and any subsequent command attempts in a sealed evidence channel.
Alexei
It is in. The beacon is isolated from the prison systems, and every signal it catches will be copied into the case record.
Duncan
You are baiting whoever revived my credential. If they touch the pathway again, they will expose themselves.
A return pulse identifies the legal review terminal outside Bulwark and reveals a live encrypted session waiting behind it. The tracker marks the connection without opening the session.
Alexei
Confirmed origin, active session, clean chain of custody. We can watch the user move without warning them or contaminating the evidence.
The corridor remains frozen under camera oversight, while the concealed beacon settles into silent observation. Whoever used Duncan’s credential now carries a trace back to their own terminal.
Quest Complete
Establish whether Duncan's custody is secure
Skill Upgrade: Investigation Superb→Legendary
“check access records for the tampered protocol”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled +0)
Gremlin opens Bulwark’s preserved access ledger through the diagnostic wafer, comparing the tampered protocol against archived permissions, terminal logs, and credential retirement records.
The records resolve into a clean sequence: the dormant credential was reactivated from the legal review terminal six minutes before the staggered lockout changed.
Gremlin
The alteration was authorized remotely, before Duncan entered the corridor.
A second comparison exposes the exact access path, including a temporary administrator token issued under a sealed review request and deleted after the protocol revision.
Alexei
Copy everything. The request number, terminal identity, token lifetime, and deletion record establish deliberate access without altering the prison system.
Duncan
That review request was never mine. Someone used my retired credential, then erased the authorization that made it possible.
The wafer preserves the complete access record in Bulwark’s evidence chain, while the beacon continues watching the still-active session beyond the facility.
“Trick the prison's systems to think we're completing the transfer to bait the operator”
SUCCESS (Legendary Technology, rolled +0)
Gremlin feeds the wafer a forged completion sequence, reproducing the transfer order’s seals, timestamps, and scanner responses while leaving Bulwark’s actual controls untouched.
The prison ledger accepts the simulation as a completed handoff. Cameras mark the corridor cleared, and a false custody receipt appears in the legal review terminal’s active session.
Alexei
The bait is live. Bulwark believes the transfer completed, but every real restraint, door, and officer remains exactly where they are.
Duncan
They will correct the record the moment they see the discrepancy. Whoever is watching cannot resist reclaiming control.
The beacon catches movement at once: the remote session requests confirmation, then issues a concealed query for Duncan’s custody status and the corridor’s next opening.
The Transfer Officer
Incoming administrative verification. It carries the retired credential’s signature and is routed through the legal review terminal.
Alexei locks the request into evidence without answering it. The operator has taken the bait, exposing a live command path and confirming that the staged transfer reached them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Expose the compromised legal review terminal
“I preserve the live query and trace its operator through the legal terminal.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Technology, rolled -1)
Gremlin preserves the live query inside the sealed evidence channel, duplicating its packet trail before the legal terminal can alter or erase it.
His diagnostic wafer follows the authenticated session through the terminal’s access layers, matching keystroke timing, token use, and the dormant credential’s activation record.
Gremlin
The operator is still using the retired credential’s active session.
The trace resolves to a remote workstation logged into the legal review terminal under a sealed administrator identity, with the operator’s active console session preserved.
Alexei
We have the workstation, the session, and the administrator identity. Preserve the whole path before we identify the person behind it.
A second correlation links the session to a live review-room camera feed and a biometric access record. The operator is physically present at the terminal.
Duncan
Then you have them. Whoever sits there believed my credential would make their hands invisible.
Quest Complete
Expose the compromised legal review terminal
“I identify and help security ambush the terminal operator”
SUCCESS (Legendary Investigation, rolled +1)
Gremlin cross-references the biometric record with the live camera feed. The operator is Mara Venn, a middle-aged woman with a narrow face, auburn hair, a slim build and fair skin, and a gray legal-services jacket, seated alone at the terminal.
He marks her workstation, access badge, and exit route on Alexei’s hardened console, then sends the sealed identification through Bulwark’s internal security channel.
Alexei
Security has the identity and position. Hold the corridor exactly as it is. We take her cleanly and preserve the session.
Two transfer officers move through a service passage and take positions outside the legal review room. Gremlin masks their approach behind the terminal’s routine diagnostic traffic.
Mara notices the forged custody receipt and reaches for the administrator console. The door opens behind her, and the officers secure her arms before she can touch the controls.
Mara Venn
You cannot detain me on a credential discrepancy. I am acting under sealed legal authority.
Alexei
You are detained for unauthorized access, credential misuse, and interference with a custodial transfer. Your live session is preserved, and your authority claim is evidence.
Quest Complete
Identify who altered Bulwark's transfer protocol
Skill Upgrade: Science Superb→Legendary