Warehouse 19 crouches at the end of the narrow service alley. Its loading bay hangs partly open. Pale grit crosses the threshold, and smoke coils from a metal barrel beside the records-room door.
A watchman hurries toward the records room with a ring of keys. Officer Dunn blocks the alley mouth, while Harold Pike studies the barrel's contents.
Harold Pike
Ace, look here. These scraps are photographic paper, and this corner bears Vale's filing mark.
Ace
The pale grit is fresh on the watchman's boots.
Harold lifts one unburned scrap with a handkerchief. Beneath the soot, the printed edge reads PF-7714. A second fragment shows the warehouse token, 19.
Officer Dunn
Stop where you are, watchman. The records room is evidence now. Step away from that door.
The Watchman
I was ordered to clear the old parcel files before closing. The order came from Vale himself.
The watchman freezes with a key poised above the lock. Smoke carries the sharp smell of wet paper, and a half-burned signature remains visible on the barrel's top scrap: M.
✓ Quest Accepted
Preserve the surviving photographic evidence
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine whether Vale ordered the parcel files destroyed
“I stop the burning and preserve the scraps bearing PF-7714 and M.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Agility, rolled +2)
Ace moves before the damp scraps can curl further, sweeping the barrel's loose ash aside with a flat piece of metal.
He smothers the remaining flame beneath wet ash, then lifts the PF-7714 fragment and the scrap bearing M onto the clean inner fold of the envelope.
Harold Pike
The marks are intact. The filing edge, the token, and that signature all survived.
Smoke thins above the barrel. The two scraps lie clear of soot and heat, beside the already recorded reference and warehouse token 19.
Officer Dunn
Watchman, you will explain who gave that order, and when.
The Watchman
Vale gave it to me this afternoon. He said the old parcel files had to disappear before anyone came asking.
Quest Complete
Preserve the surviving photographic evidence