Three weeks later, freight stalls churn beneath Leonidas’s rain-streaked transit decks. Jostan stands among stacked crates and humming loaders, while old route rumors have cooled into guarded silence.
Rodney Sherman slips between the stalls, her vivid pink hair bright beneath the sodium lamps. Sunglasses hide her green eyes, and gum clicks steadily between her teeth as she places a chipped corporate contract on the counter.
Rodney
You archived the settlement route. Someone noticed. Now a logistics executive’s records were altered two days later, and the edits came through the same network.
The contract displays a payment figure, a blurred executive profile, and a chain of freight authorizations ending in a corporate seal Jostan has seen before. A second file shows timestamps clustered around Rodney’s movements.
Rodney
I have money, a target, and proof someone is tracking me. I think my father is using this network to find me, and I need someone clever enough to follow the trail without becoming part of it.
A loader’s camera pivots toward the stall, pauses, then resumes its sweep. Rodney’s gum stops clicking. She taps the contract once, leaving the offer and its danger between them.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Rodney’s contract marks Jostan as collateral
“I examine the contract for clauses naming me as collateral.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Reasoning, rolled +1)
Jostan draws the corporate contract closer and scans its legal layers, borrowing Rodney’s document without asking her to inspect the authentication shard. The executive profile resolves as the logistics executive, a lean adult woman with a sharp pale face, cropped auburn hair, and a pearl-gray corporate coat.
Jostan Ordomo
The collateral clause names me directly, tied to the altered freight records and every liability they generate.
A buried annex identifies Jostan as recoverable corporate property, not an employee or debtor. It authorizes detention, memory extraction, and transfer to the contract holder if the network’s trail reaches him.
The clause is real, but its jurisdiction field is corrupted. Jostan spends several long seconds reconstructing the missing references, while the loader’s camera completes another sweep over Rodney’s stall.
Rodney
You found your name. The bad news is that the contract wants you alive. The worse news is that someone already amended it.
The amendment carries no signature, only a logistics authorization chained through the logistics executive’s office. Jostan confirms the collateral claim, but cannot yet prove whether the logistics executive ordered it or merely inherited the liability.
Determine whether the logistics executive ordered the contract amendment
Quest Complete
Determine whether Rodney’s contract marks Jostan as collateral
Skill Upgrade: Surveillance Mediocre→Fair
