The waiting-area doors open, and the three gym members from your earlier visits enter together instead of dispersing. Their coordinated pace draws the burned-out paramedic’s attention from the charging phone.
The gym member nearest the door, a broad young man in a black hoodie, carries a phone angled outward. Its screen displays a cropped image of the CR-17 workspace.
A second gym member, a light-skinned woman with a blunt dark bob, a narrow face, and a small scar through one eyebrow, a lean middle-aged woman in a red windbreaker, steps ahead of the others. The third remains near the closing doors, watching the lobby.
The Gym Member in the Red Windbreaker
Our employer wants to know what Mara accessed in CR-17.
The compliance supervisor’s eyes move from the cropped screen to the three visitors, then to the locked interior door. Her posture changes from procedural caution to recognition.
Dana Mercer
That is a surveillance pattern. They are trying to force the review into the open by confronting us here.
The phone carrier lifts the display slightly, making the cropped workspace visible to everyone. No one touches the doors, but the waiting area suddenly feels arranged around you.
✓ Quest Accepted
Protect Mara from the watchers
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the employer behind the surveillance
“I tell Dana to preserve the surveillance image and log this confrontation. Then ask the three gym members who employs them and why they have CR-17.”
FAILURE (Good Willpower, rolled -2)
Will
Dana, preserve that surveillance image and log this confrontation. Then ask them who employs them and why they have CR-17.
Dana reaches for the capture controls, but the phone carrier, a young adult man with medium-brown skin, close-cropped hair, and dark jeans beneath his black hoodie, tilts his screen away. Reads Patients catches the red-windbreaker woman’s prepared calm, while Addiction pulls your attention toward Mara’s alerting phone for one costly second.
Dana Mercer
The image is only partially preserved. The phone moved before the full workspace and their faces could be captured, but I’m logging the confrontation now.
Dana’s log records the time, the visible CR-17 fragment, and the three visitors, but the missing image leaves no clean proof of what the phone displayed. The doors remain locked behind the watchers, including a young adult woman with a sturdy build, brown skin, and a long dark braid in a gray jacket.
The Gym Member in the Red Windbreaker
We work for Northstar’s outside security contractor. We have CR-17 because our client’s monitoring flagged access to restricted movement records.
The Gym Member with the Phone
The image came from an internal feed. We were sent to identify who was reviewing the file, not to hand over our source.
The Gym Member by the Doors
You have the employer. You do not have our instructions, and this confrontation is now logged on both sides.
The answers expose Northstar’s contractor without identifying it or explaining how the feed was accessed. Dana’s incomplete capture gives the visitors room to leave while Mara keeps the charging phone in hand.
Quest Complete
Identify the employer behind the surveillance
“*I move Mara away from the watchers* And how about explaining why the three of you were already monitoring us downstairs before any of this got flagged? You were very specifically paying close attention to us while trying to appear like you weren't. I noticed you, so this is coming off as something a bit more than what's being said.”
SUCCESS (Good Willpower, rolled +4)
You guide Mara toward the lobby’s side wall, placing the charging phone between her and the watchers. The three gym members track the movement but do not advance.
Will
And how about explaining why you were already monitoring us downstairs before anything flagged? You were watching us carefully while pretending not to. I noticed, so this is more than you’ve admitted.
The Gym Member in the Red Windbreaker
You’re right. We were watching before CR-17 appeared. Northstar’s security desk flagged you and Mara after your gym conversations, not after the records review.
Reads Patients catches the woman’s prepared calm breaking at the edges. Addiction tugs your attention toward Mara’s alerting phone, but you hold the question in place and the pause turns costly for them.
The Gym Member with the Phone
The order came from Northstar’s security liaison, not our field team. The dispatch ticket is NS-4421. It says identify Will and Mara, document their contacts, and report any Newark lead.
The Gym Member by the Doors
The liaison is Grant Sutter. He told us the monitoring began because Lena Velez’s disappearance was already being treated as a Northstar security concern.
Dana records the ticket number, Grant Sutter’s name, and the admission that surveillance began before CR-17. You now have the earlier trigger and a direct lead into Northstar’s security chain.
Quest Complete
Protect Mara from the watchers
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Good→Great
New gift: Watcher Awareness