The alarm still howls through the annex records hallway as Sally and the others press the contact flat against the filing cabinets. Loose pages skitter underfoot. The shredder tray hangs open, jammed with paper strips and the crooked Soviet routing mark.
The contact’s face goes gray. He looks past Sally, past the Rose, as if waiting for rescue that is not coming.
The Contact
All right, listen. The gray coat was only a courier. Not the handler.
The Contact
The real one sits high inside the Department of Superhuman Affairs. That is who buried her file, who moved her, who kept the lab quiet.
The Contact
If I say enough, maybe they let me live.
The Rose tightens her grip on the token and stares him down. Mara Keene leans in, sharp and still. Mark V’s eyes track the routing mark, then the contact’s face, assembling the pattern.
Sally
Department of Superhuman Affairs. That is where they hid it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the identity of the Department of Superhuman Affairs handler
“I grab the contact by his collar and demand he name the handler.”
SUCCESS (Great Strength, rolled -2)
Sally grips the contact by the collar and hauls him forward. The filing cabinet rattles, his breath catches, and the alarm swallows the small sounds of the hallway.
Sally
Name the handler. Now.
The Contact
I do not know the name. I never met her face to face.
The Contact
Only the office. Department of Superhuman Affairs, records division. A woman with a seal key kept the trail moving.
The Rose
A seal key means authorization, not a courier. That is the hand above the hand.
Mark V
And that routing mark matches a cleanup chain, not a routine transfer. He is telling the truth about the chain.
The contact winces as Sally’s fingers bunch cloth at his throat. He points with a trembling hand toward the jammed shredder, where the Soviet routing mark still peeks from the paper teeth.
Mara Keene
If he has given you what he knows, let him breathe. Then we move before someone upstairs notices the trail is open.
Sally’s hand comes away with a fresh smear from the small cut on her palm, and the contact sags against the cabinets, exposed and shaking.
Quest Complete
Learn the identity of the Department of Superhuman Affairs handler