The bunker door seals behind them with a heavy thud, rain and neon left outside. The Hideout smells like dust, paper, and cold concrete as Thadeus leads Elias deeper past stacked supplies.
Marla and Elizabeth spread out near the entrance, checking the ledger and the perimeter in quick, practiced motions. Their voices stay low, giving Thadeus the quiet he asked for.
In the back room, Thadeus eases Elias under the bare bulb and sets the bookkeeping folder on the table between them. The paper looks ordinary until he opens it.
Thadeus Jovanović
Elias, I need the truth. What is this folder, really?
Elias
It is not just club books. It is a list of who pays, who watches, and who gets protected. Knight's End is only the front.
Elias
He finally looks cornered by his own silence.
Elias swallows hard, then glances toward the doorway where Elizabeth's footsteps pass and fade. The room feels smaller than it did a minute ago.
Elias
Victor Hale was never acting alone. He was used by the people behind the club, people moving inventory, surveillance, and favors through clean names. They wanted your trail, and they wanted leverage.
Across the bunker, Elizabeth pauses at the sound of Thadeus's voice, the question of morning love now sitting beside this harder truth. The ledger on the table and the bond in the hall both wait for an answer.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn who is moving inventory, surveillance, and favors through Knight's End
✓ Quest Accepted
Decide what to do with Elias now that he has told the truth
“Thadeus presses Elias on Vinnie's accusation that he was overcharging Knight's End for electronic equipment”
SUCCESS (Superb Diplomacy, rolled +2)
Thadeus Jovanović
Elias, Vinnie said Knight's End was overcharging you for electronics. Was that true?
Elias
Yes. Not just me, lots of people. He kept the difference quiet and called it handling. I told myself it was just the price of doing business.
The admission lands hard in the small room. Elias looks down at the folder, then nods once as if the rest is already out and cannot be taken back.
Elias
The inventory, the cameras, the favors, it all moved through Knight's End because Vinnie let it. He used the club as a shell and the ledger as cover.
Marla looks up from the papers near the bunker's entrance, her focus sharpening as the account connects with the receipts she traced earlier.
Elizabeth Bathory
Then Vinnie was not just hiding numbers. He was hiding a whole route.
Elias exhales through his nose, shoulders loosening by a fraction, but he still waits for Thadeus to decide whether that truth is enough.
Quest Complete
Learn who is moving inventory, surveillance, and favors through Knight's End
“Thadeus looks solemnly at Elias, "Given how the group responded, you're going to have to stay here in the bunker for awhile, until we can make it sure it's safe for you to be out in public." Elias looks down, clearly disappointed about Thadeus's advice.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
Thadeus lets the silence sit, then gives Elias the kind of answer that closes a door gently instead of slamming it. The bunker feels smaller for it, but steadier.
Thadeus Jovanović
You stay here for now, Elias. Until it is safe for you to be seen again.
Elias
...Yeah. I get it.
Elias drops his gaze to the ledger, disappointed but not fighting it. Marla reaches over and gathers the scattered pages into a neater stack, while Elizabeth watches Thadeus with quiet approval from the car's side.
Marla Brewer
I can keep checking the trail from here. If Knight's End has other names on it, I want them.
Elizabeth Bathory
Then he is protected here. That is better than pretending nothing was ever wrong.
The ledger stays open on the table, but the decision is made. Elias remains in the bunker, and the cost lands in the room as one more guarded look toward the sealed door, one more thing he has to trust them with.
Quest Complete
Decide what to do with Elias now that he has told the truth
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Superb→Legendary