The lights cut out. Red emergency strobes wash the safehouse in heartbeat pulses while the front seal shudders under weaker, uncertain impacts. Then a corporate avatar blooms in the room, a clean hologram standing where no body entered.
The Avatar
Jones. I am designated Lark, liaison node for Biotechniqua compliance arbitration.
The Lieutenant shifts into cover with his weapon up. The Voice stays silent, the comm line dead. Lark's image holds steady, hands folded, eyes bright and unreadable.
The Avatar
Your local trace is noisy, your perimeter is compromised, and your options are narrowing. I am here to negotiate a retrieval window before this becomes a waste of assets.
Jones
The projection is bypassing the rig, not using the room network.
The Lieutenant
You picked a bad night to ask politely, corp.
Lark
That depends on whether Jones prefers paperwork, or rubble.
✓ Quest Accepted
Isolate Lark's signal
✓ Quest Accepted
Force Lark to state Biotechniqua's terms
“that's interesting lark you see Biotechnica broke some very serious laws with their little experiment now you come to threaten the survivor? I'm sure the other Corporations would LOVE to find out maybe even get the chance to but some scraps of the data....”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled +0)
Jones lets the threat hang there. The hologram jitters once, as if the room itself is listening. The front seal thumps again, farther away now, while the red strobes paint everyone in broken slices.
Jones
Biotechniqua already broke the law once. You came here to threaten the survivor?
Lark
I came here to keep this from becoming a corporate scavenger hunt. You have files, Jones. Other corporations adore files.
The Lieutenant gives a short, humorless laugh and lowers his muzzle a fraction, watching Lark instead of the door. Jones’s data cache flickers with the stolen research strata, the nanobot signature family still sitting hot in memory.
Jones
Maybe scraps of that data should get a wider audience.
Lark
A leak campaign. Cute. Dangerous, too. Biotechniqua would bury the source, then everybody who touched it.
For the first time, Lark’s smile thins into something more careful. The projection leans forward by a hair, hands still folded, but the posture changes from threat to calculation.
Lark
Fine. Terms, then. I can state Biotechniqua’s position, or I can keep protecting yours from the people looking for it. Which conversation do you want first?
“I'll hear the terms then you can hear mine. I'm not a lab rat even if you corporation tried to use me as one.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -2)
Jones
I will hear the terms first, then you can hear mine. I am not your lab rat.
The words land cleanly. Lark’s projection stops its tiny drift and locks on Jones, the image sharpening around the face as if the network itself has to respect the boundary. Jones’s rig gives a dry static bite behind his eyes, a price for pushing the channel this hard.
Lark
Good. Boundaries help. Biotechniqua wants the data, but they also want the person attached to it intact enough to open it.
The Lieutenant
Intact enough. That is not mercy, that is inventory.
Lark
My terms are simple. I state their offer, I record your reply, and I keep the heat off this room long enough for that reply to matter.
The front seal hammers once in the distance. On the table beside Jones, the data wafer catches the red strobe, its edge glinting like a reminder of the first deal that got him here.
Lark
Biotechniqua offers a retrieval window, no breach team inside, no live capture team at your door. In return, you hand over the shard and identify who else has touched the research strata.
The Lieutenant
That sounds like a list of names written by cowards.
Lark
It is a list written by survivors.
Lark’s image tilts a fraction, signaling the channel is still open and listening. Outside, the pressure on the seal eases for one uneasy beat, as if the building itself is waiting for Jones to answer.
Quest Complete
Force Lark to state Biotechniqua's terms
Attribute Upgrade: Willpower Great→Superb