Velvet walls swallow the lobby lights. Ozone and sweet synth perfume hang over polished chrome, private booths, and a rain-streaked city glow beyond the glass.
Ki Akio steps into the hush, vibro sword at one side, hand cannon at the other. Every eye in the room feels the shift.
In the nearest booth, a memory broker sits half-hidden in shadow, neural ports lit blue at his temples. A flickering data-shard pulses between his fingers like a trapped heartbeat.
Marek
Easy, choom. I am not here to sell trouble. I am here to move it off my desk.
He glances at Ki Akio's sword, swallows once, and slides a heavy encrypted case across the table. The latch clicks like a seal breaking.
Marek
The legend you are hunting, it is inside the drive. Alive, if the code holds. Trapped, if it does not.
Marek
But I am not the only one watching this booth. Do you take the case now, or do you want to know who is coming for it?
✓ Quest Accepted
Take the encrypted case
“I scan the room for anyone watching us from the shadows.”
SUCCESS (Good Perception, rolled +0)
Ki Akio lets his gaze drift past the booth, past mirrored chrome and velvet seams, catching three watchers in the room: a door guard with a fake smile, a woman pretending to read a menu, and a dark reflection in the rain glass that moves when no one else does.
Ki Akio
The reflection is wrong.
The Broker sees the look on Ki Akio’s face and goes still, his fingers tightening around the glowing shard.
Marek
You see them now, yeah? One of mine, one of theirs, maybe both. That is why I said do not rush.
He nudges the encrypted case with two fingers. A thin status strip along the latch wakes from black to red, then starts blinking amber.
Marek
If you take it, you take the heat with it. If you leave it here, they crack it first.
Behind the booth, the shadow in the glass shifts closer, and the lobby’s hush feels suddenly borrowed.
“tell him to keep the damn thing, but slight of hand take it withe the agility of a three card Monty, replace it with some spare junk that will look similar from far off the the spotted enemies are should by me a head start at the least.”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled -2)
Ki Akio’s hand slips in, clean as a card trick. The case lifts free, and a squat scrap of lobby junk settles into the broker’s palm instead.
The Broker blinks at the wrong weight, then looks down too late.
Marek
What the hell did you just...?
Amber on the latch steadies for a beat, then the strip spits a sharp green pulse across Ki Akio’s gauntlet. In the glass behind them, the dark watcher stops moving.
Ki Akio
The case is warm in his grip.
The Broker’s jaw tightens, and his free hand drifts under the booth lip toward something hidden.
Marek
Too late to hand it back now. They saw the exchange.
A wet tap sounds at the lobby glass, then another, like someone testing the frame from the outside.
Quest Complete
Take the encrypted case
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Good→Great
+ New Item Acquired
encrypted case