The records conduit slopes beneath the storage level, carrying Match, Niko, and Mara through cramped metal ribs. Match leads Niko forward while Mara follows with the sealed memory case and verifier.
Mara
The review is still active above us. If it reaches the external archive, it will expose both witness records and every identity attached to them.
A maintenance display flickers along the conduit wall. STORAGE REVIEW: 04:18 REMAINING. Below it, a service hatch opens toward a vertical shaft marked for roof maintenance.
Niko
The roof route could break the archive’s line of sight. But if the verifier loses contact with Mara’s record, the pairing may collapse.
Mara places the black case against the verifier’s contact plate without opening either device. Their indicators synchronize, forming a thin green line that holds as the shaft ladder unlocks.
Iris
Keep the pairing local. The external review is looking for a transmission, not a physical escape. Reach open air before the timer expires.
Match starts up the ladder with Niko close behind and Mara protecting the synchronized devices below. Above, rain-muted roof lights pulse through the hatch seam as the review clock continues counting down.
“I climb the ladder toward open air”
SUCCESS (Great Agility, rolled +0)
Match climbs the unlocked maintenance ladder toward the hatch, boots ringing softly against the rungs. A warped step catches his shin, scraping skin and forcing a sharp pause, but he keeps moving upward.
He pushes the hatch open and pulls himself onto the rain-dark roof. Niko follows immediately, then Mara emerges with the paired devices held close beneath her coat.
Niko
Open air. No archive walls around us. That is enough for now.
Mara checks the connection once, then powers both units down together. The active review loses its route, leaving the records intact and the roof quiet except for rain.
Mara
The evidence stays ours, and my record remains independent. Iris was right about one thing: preserving it mattered more than winning tonight.
Together, Match leads Niko across the warehouse roofs while Mara follows close behind. By dawn, the evidence reaches trusted journalists, the purge becomes public, and the city can no longer bury it.
Rain silvered the warehouse roof as Match hauled himself over the lip. Niko followed, then Mara, clutching the darkened memory case.
Match
That ladder owes me a shin.
Niko
Put it on the city's bill.
Mara
The records are safe. The review is blind.
Below, the conduit fell silent. Above, dawn began to thin the rain.
By sunrise, the evidence had reached trusted journalists, and the buried purge stood exposed to the city that had been taught to forget it. Match, Niko, and Mara remained bruised, hunted, and alive, but the record had survived them all. For once, accountability arrived before the dark could close over it.