John remains protected at the Pier Twelve clinic while Razor, Gwen, Reina, Vesper, and the restrained Milo Serrat regroup in the annex loading bay. Rain taps the dead security shutters.
Reina rebuilds the club’s persistent camera trace from corrupted fragments, aligning entry timestamps with Room Nine access logs and the preserved Lazarus biometric handshake.
Reina Sato
The trace survives in the camera buffer. Vesper, identify the corridor geometry. Gwen, keep every frame attached to the existing evidence chain.
Gwen records each recovered frame on the isolated device and seals its checksum. Vesper overlays the club floor plan, isolating a service corridor that bypasses ordinary staff access.
Vesper
This corridor leads directly to Room Nine. The guest credential was concealed beneath a maintenance authorization, then masked as a routine delivery.
The surviving footage shows an inside contact admitting the prototype technician through that corridor. Milo’s posture tightens, and his eyes fix on the authorization pattern before the image can be dismissed as corrupted.
Milo Serrat
That is not corruption. I know that authorization pattern. The contact worked inside Lazarus access control, and Venn trusted them with the handoff.
“I press Milo to name the inside contact”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +2)
Razor
Name the inside contact. Start with the person who opened that corridor for the prototype handoff.
Razor steps closer, keeping his voice level. Gwen maintains Milo’s restraint while Reina’s suppressor hums against the chrome port at his temple.
Milo Serrat
Tomas Vale. Lazarus access control, senior systems administrator. He issued the maintenance authorization and cleared the delivery route.
Milo swallows and glances toward the dead shutters. Gwen captures the statement, matching the name against the recovered footage and authorization pattern.
Milo Serrat
Vale worked directly under Venn. He altered the guest credential, admitted me through the service corridor, and removed the audit flags afterward.
Milo Serrat
He also knew about Saint Marrow Tower. If Venn moved the night-sheath there, Vale handled the access trail and may still control the site credentials.
Reina Sato
The name matches a dormant access signature in the club buffer. I am sealing Vale’s identity, authorization chain, and corridor timestamps into the evidence record.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find Tomas Vale
“Let’s knock this know then. *I go and look up their location then go after them.*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +1)
Razor
Let’s find Tomas Vale and go after him.
Razor pulls Tomas Vale’s dormant access signature into Reina’s isolated terminal. The authorization resolves against municipal infrastructure, Lazarus service records, and a live credential ping.
Reina Sato
I have him. Vale is inside a Lazarus access-control relay station beneath the Kestrel Transit Exchange. His credential is active now.
Reina transfers the location and route data into Razor’s visor without touching the police network. Gwen secures Milo in the annex while Vesper prepares the vehicle.
Gwen Armitage
We move him and the evidence first. Then we take Vale alive if possible, and preserve whatever terminal he is using.
The team reaches the transit exchange through rain-dark service lanes. Beneath the public concourse, the relay station’s sealed access door glows with Tomas Vale’s active credential.
Vesper
We are here. Vale’s signal is inside, and the relay station is still feeding access data toward Saint Marrow Tower.
Preserve the relay station's access records