The atrium cameras begin rebooting behind Vesper, red glyphs stuttering back to life. The ripperdoc remains beside the kiosk, her neural rig folded beneath the charcoal coat.
A service access panel irises open. Razor emerges from the dark, electric-blue crest catching the emergency light, his twin blades concealed beneath his jacket as he signals toward a maintenance corridor.
Razor
Move. The police cipher is broadcasting a location ping, and every corporate sensor will soon know where the shard is.
The black memory shard pulses in Vesper’s grip. Fragmented text crawls across its surface: HENRY KATZADOULOS. FIONA KATZADOULOS. LAZARUS PROTOTYPE: NIGHT SHEATH.
Razor
That designation is why people are dying. Lazarus built only two night-sheath prototypes, and the recording identifies the Katzadouloses as the victims.
Behind them, the ripperdoc watches without following. The corridor’s maintenance lights flicker awake in sequence, revealing cable trays, coolant pipes, and a narrowing route beneath the tower.
Razor
You can question me in there. Right now, choose whether we outrun the ping or let the police and Lazarus converge on us.
✓ Quest Accepted
Escape the corporate sensor net
✓ Quest Accepted
Uncover what happened to Henry and Fiona Katzadoulos
“Alright quickly then. *I follow him quick as a cat and just as agile.*”
SUCCESS (Superb Agility, rolled -1)
Vesper slips into the maintenance corridor behind Razor, moving with precise, catlike agility. Her boots make only soft taps against the grated floor as the cameras reboot behind them.
Razor
Good. Keep the shard shielded. Its signal is riding the building’s emergency mesh.
Razor cuts left beneath bundled coolant pipes, electric-blue crest flashing between stuttering work lights. Vesper matches his pace, the black shard cold and active in her hand.
Razor
The ping just changed direction. Someone is triangulating us from inside the tower.
They reach a sealed service junction overlooking the lower transit shafts. Razor palms a maintenance console, and its dead display wakes beneath his chrome index joint.
Razor
We are clear of the atrium. Now we find out whether Lazarus planted the cipher, or whether police command buried it.
Vesper
The shard is still transmitting, but the corridor sensors cannot see me.
“Let me know when I can ask you questions again. They are burning a hole in my head. *I reach over and begin hacking into the computer panel and pulling the data from searching for the information needed.*”
SUCCESS (Good Hacking, rolled +1)
Vesper
Let me know when I can ask you questions again. They are burning a hole in my head.
Vesper reaches across the junction console and threads the shard’s encrypted handshake into the maintenance port. Code blooms across the dead display, bypassing its corporate locks.
Razor
Now. Ask while I watch the corridor. The system is giving us something useful.
Her hack pulls sealed diagnostic logs from the tower mesh. A police cipher was injected three days ago through a Lazarus contractor account, then disguised as emergency maintenance traffic.
The recovered files identify Henry Katzadoulos and Fiona Katzadoulos as test subjects, not accidental victims. Their neural signatures were used to calibrate the two Night Sheath prototypes.
Razor
There it is. Lazarus built the cipher to authenticate Night Sheath telemetry. Police command buried the evidence after the prototypes vanished.
A final directory opens beneath the logs: NIGHT SHEATH TWO, status active, location withheld. The shard copies the complete record into Vesper’s local buffer before the console goes dark.
Quest Complete
Uncover what happened to Henry and Fiona Katzadoulos
Attribute Upgrade: Agility Superb→Legendary
“My memories were taken from me. I don’t know when I don’t know how and no don’t know what. But you do Razor.. tell me.. now. I need to be able to trust you if we continue.”
SUCCESS (Great Willpower, rolled -1)
Vesper
My memories were taken. I do not know when, how, or what was removed. You do, Razor. Tell me now. I need a reason to trust you.
Razor’s chrome index joint stops above the console. Beyond him, coolant vapor drifts through the junction, turning the work lights into pale halos.
Razor
You were seventeen when Toritoma’s people found you. They brought you to that ripperdoc after Revenant disappeared. She extracted the memories connecting you to him and your father’s operations.
Razor
The procedure was not clean. It left gaps, false associations, and a trigger buried under your recall pathways. I found the surgical invoice and the backup imprint three months ago.
He turns from the corridor and faces Vesper fully. The blue crest above his brow flickers as the maintenance display reconstructs a redacted patient code.
Razor
I did not take your memories. I hid the proof because police command was hunting anyone tied to Night Sheath. That was protection, not permission, and I should have told you.
Razor
Trust this much: I will give you the backup, the invoice, and every name attached to the extraction. Then you decide what I am to you.
“*I pull back his hood and force him to look me in the eyes. I look deeply hoping to find something there I can trust and I back him intimately into the wall.*”
SUCCESS (Fair Strength, rolled +0)
Vesper catches Razor’s hood and pulls it back, exposing his sharp features and electric-blue crest. She drives him against the maintenance wall, forcing his attention onto hers.
Razor
Vesper. Easy.
His shoulders strike the panel with a hollow clang. The impact wakes a dormant maintenance sensor, and a tiny amber warning light begins blinking beside his head.
Vesper
His pupils track mine. He is not hiding behind the hood now.
Razor
You want the truth? Look past the performance. I kept the backup because I knew Toritoma would erase you again if he found it.
Razor holds still beneath Vesper’s grip. His expression stays guarded, but the defensive calculation drains from his eyes, leaving fatigue and an unvarnished fear of what the records contain.
Razor
The cost is already here. That sensor just flagged us. We have minutes before the tower sends someone to check the noise.
“This isn’t over. But.. let’s get out of here. We go what we needed. We cannot linger.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled -2)
Vesper
This isn’t over. We have what we came for. Let’s get out before we linger.
Vesper releases Razor and slips into the maintenance corridor. The amber sensor chirps once, loud enough to mark their departure, while the shard disappears beneath her coat.
Razor
Agreed. The backup, invoice, and patient code are copied. We leave before the tower turns this junction into a trap.
Razor kills the junction display and pulls the service panel shut behind them. Its locking mechanism grinds harshly, broadcasting their route into the building mesh.
Razor
That noise cost us our clean exit. Security knows someone came through here, but they do not yet know who.
They move deeper beneath the tower, passing coolant pipes and bundled fiber lines toward a freight access lift. Vesper’s left palm stings where the shard’s casing bit her skin.
Razor
Once we reach street level, I give you the backup directly. No more hiding it, no more deciding for you.
“No let’s go to a hotel. I’m under the impression it’ll be safer than head back home. The alley is just asking for trouble.”
SUCCESS (Good Streetwise, rolled +1)
Vesper
No. We go to a hotel. It is safer than heading home, and that alley is asking for trouble.
Razor studies her for half a second, then turns toward a freight lift marked for authorized guests. The corridor opens into a delivery concourse beneath the tower.
Razor
Fair. The Meridian House still takes anonymous cred, has signal-dampened rooms, and does not ask why people arrive wet from corporate basements.
The lift carries them upward through humming service levels. Rain-glazed streets appear beyond reinforced glass as the tower releases them into a neon freight district.
Razor
We use the hotel entrance, not the alley. I will keep the backup encrypted until we have a room and a controlled connection.
Minutes later, the Meridian House rises above the avenue in strips of violet light. Its lobby cameras track them, but no alarm follows as Razor pays in clean scrip.
A quiet room seals behind them, muting the rain and traffic. The shard remains beneath Vesper’s coat, while Razor places the copied backup and invoice on the terminal.
Quest Complete
Escape the corporate sensor net
Skill Upgrade: Hacking Good→Great