The vault’s access corridor opens into a rain-slick financial district beneath the compliance offices. Neon crawls across puddles while sealed shutters descend behind Jostan and Rodney.
Rodney carries the clean revocation confirmation against her coat. Jostan retains the preserved account trail in his cybernetic buffer, while the other Outsiders remain at the residential block, holding their routes and communications.
Rodney
The contract is dead, but the network still has a live intermediary node nearby. That means someone can notice the severance before we decide what to do next.
A maintenance kiosk beneath a flickering market sign pulses once through the rain. Its public display shows transit fees, but Jostan’s reconstructed trail recognizes the encrypted handshake underneath.
Rodney
We can access it and learn who is coordinating the payments. We can also leave it untouched and preserve our advantage. Either way, the network may already be listening.
Rodney checks the empty financial boulevard, one hand near the Angel without drawing it. Rain blurs the cameras above them, while the kiosk waits beside a service entrance.
Rodney
Your buffer has the evidence, and I have the confirmation. Tell me whether we touch that node or walk away before it knows the contract is gone.
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify who is coordinating the payments
“I grin a little bit while loolking at rodney and tell her with slightr sarcasm, "Rodney Im getting bored its time to kick ass and take names" I point toward the node I then access the kiosk and trace its encrypted payment handshake”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled -3)
Jostan Ordomo
Rodney, I’m getting bored. It’s time to kick ass and take names.
Jostan grins, points toward the pulsing kiosk, and places his hand against its public interface. The encrypted handshake unfolds beneath the transit-fee display.
His reconstruction follows the payment packets through layered proxies, separating routine market traffic from the concealed corporate channel. The trace resolves on the masked beneficiary’s masked-beneficiary authorization.
The handshake exposes its active coordinator route beneath the compliance district, including timestamps, payment references, and a live relay address. Then the kiosk’s disposable maintenance bridge burns out.
Rodney
You got the trail. The kiosk did not survive the craft, though, and its local audit just recorded our interface.
The encrypted payment handshake is fully copied into Jostan’s buffer before the display goes dark. The masked beneficiary’s authorization now points to a live relay beneath the district, while the ruined kiosk spits one final status light into the rain.
“I ask Rodney to expose her father’s records, staring at her eyes sensing the Ki-nen around her, while talking I follow the live relay beneath the district”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +1)
Jostan Ordomo
Rodney, expose your father’s records. I’m following the live relay while we do it.
Jostan keeps his eyes on Rodney’s face and extends his interface into the dead kiosk’s copied handshake. The relay answers beneath the district, carrying him through authenticated service channels.
Jostan Ordomo
Her Ki-Nen is steady, but it tightens whenever the relay touches her records.
Rodney
All right. I’m opening the family-protected archive, not the public profile. If he hid anything, this is where it lives.
Rodney authorizes the exposure. Her father’s records unfold beside the live relay: contract ownership, proxy payments, recovery orders, and a private instruction tying his network to her movements.
Rodney
There. He used my identity as collateral before the recent purchase. And the relay is his coordination channel.
Jostan follows the authenticated path beneath the compliance district and reaches its live relay interface. The exposed archive and its active coordinator route are copied together into his buffer, intact and attributable.
Quest Complete
Identify who is coordinating the payments
Skill Upgrade: Streetwise Mediocre→Fair