The waste-cooling conduit empties into an abandoned freight drain beneath Night City. Condensation beads on rusted supports, and the sealed hatch vanishes above Selene, Mara, and Calder.
Calder’s portable drive chirps as an obsolete municipal relay wakes in the wall. Its casing is split, but fragments of Vey’s exchange protocol still crawl across the cracked display.
Calder Voss
This relay predates the current annex network. It can authenticate a handoff, but only through a protocol the kill order may still recognize.
Beneath Mara’s yellow coat, the shielded blackglass shard pulses against the concrete in slow, measured beats. Each pulse makes the relay’s dead indicators flicker amber.
Mara Venn
It is responding to the exchange. If that relay opens a channel, Vey might hear us. So might whoever issued the kill order.
Selene Nyx
The relay is still carrying power through a municipal backbone.
Calder Voss
We have one narrow window before the protocol expires. We can authenticate the handoff, stay dark, or risk exposing every signature tied to this route.
Keep the fugitives' position hidden from municipal hunters