Rain needles the apartment windows. Griffith is halfway through a hardcover book when three measured knocks strike the door.
Through the peephole, a weathered man in a soaked military coat waits beneath the corridor light. His left hand is empty. His right stays inside his coat.
The Veteran Handler
Griffith. Open up. The apartment next door is under surveillance, and the surveillance has just become a raid.
When the door opens, the handler passes over a folded photograph and keeps his voice low. Sirens swell beyond the walls.
The Veteran Handler
Watch the bust. Do not intervene unless you see the courier. A dying agent made one last request, and this operation is the answer.
A shadow crosses the neighbor's curtained window. The handler notices it at the same instant. Somewhere inside the adjoining apartment, furniture scrapes and hurried footsteps stop.
The Veteran Handler
They have spotted me. Decide now, Griffith. Do you stay here, or do you move before the police reach this floor?
✓ Quest Accepted
Conceal the handler's connection to the bust
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the courier
+ New Item Acquired
Folded photograph
“I watch the neighbor's window for anyone carrying the courier's sign.”
SUCCESS (Superb Perception, rolled +2)
Griffith holds his gaze on the neighbor's curtained window, ignoring the handler's urgent movement in the corridor.
The curtain parts by two fingers. A man inside raises a white matchbook beside his face, its red diagonal stripe visible in the police flicker.
Griffith
The red stripe is the courier's sign.
The man lowers the matchbook and turns toward the adjoining room, revealing a canvas satchel strapped beneath his coat.
The Veteran Handler
That is him. The courier. Remember the face, not the connection.
Boots pound up the stairwell below. The handler steps away from Griffith's doorway and points toward the darkened service stairs.
The Veteran Handler
If they find me here, they find you with me. Choose your cover now.
Quest Complete
Identify the courier
“Is the courier connected to the dying agent?”
YES (VeryLikely, rolled 60)
The courier’s satchel bears the same tiny blue thread sewn into the photograph’s corner, a field mark used by the dying agent’s network. The connection is confirmed, but the evidence leaves Griffith a narrow opportunity to act before the approaching officers reach the floor.
The Veteran Handler
The mark confirms it. He carried the agent’s last packet.
“Have the approaching officers seen the handler with me?”
YES (Unlikely, rolled 12)
Yes. In the stairwell mirror, two officers pause with a clear view of the corridor, and one raises a hand toward the handler's position before they advance.
Griffith
Griffith:0: They saw us together.
“I slip into the darkened service stairs alone”
SUCCESS (Good Stealth, rolled +2)
Griffith moves before the officers clear the stairwell, crossing the service-stair threshold with his footsteps swallowed by the unlit landing.
Therefore, the heavy door eases toward its frame behind him, leaving only a thin blade of corridor light across the steps.
The Veteran Handler
Officers. I am the tenant who reported the disturbance next door. I have been alone in this corridor.
The handler steps into their view and points toward the neighboring apartment, placing his body between the officers and the service door.
The Veteran Handler
The man inside has a satchel. Search that flat first.
The officers turn toward the adjoining doorway. Their attention leaves the narrowing gap, and Griffith is fully concealed inside the service stairwell.
The Veteran Handler
Stay where you are. We will speak with you after the search.
Below Griffith, a service exit clicks open and closes again, followed by the measured steps of someone climbing toward the dark landing.
Quest Complete
Conceal the handler's connection to the bust
Attribute Upgrade: Perception Superb→Legendary