The wounded courier presses the blackglass shard against her chest while Calder Voss works through the clinic console. Selene stands over the interface, watching every process.
Calder Voss
These identifiers are multiplying. The shard is not revealing an account list. It is generating live associations.
Columns of names and municipal routing codes cascade across the console. Calder verifies each signature, but new entries replace them faster than he can clear the queue.
the wounded courier
One route survived the rewrite. Municipal data exchange, Junction Nine annex. That is where Vey’s couriers move protected traffic.
Calder Voss
I can authenticate the destination, not the people waiting there. If Vey is compromised, the exchange becomes a trap with official access.
Across the clinic monitors, external sensors blink awake in sequence. No alarms sound, but a silent network sweep is mapping the freight clinic’s power draw and encrypted traffic.
Calder Voss
We have minutes, perhaps less. Decide where we move, and I will leave the console with a clean enough trail to slow the sweep.