Rain needles the service road beneath Pier Twelve as Razor arrives with John Franco, Gwen, Reina, and Vesper. The concealed maintenance entrance waits beneath a blue utility lantern.
John Franco
Blue lantern, third bell.
The lock accepts the phrase and retracts. A sterile intake corridor opens beyond, white panels glowing under clinical strips. A middle-aged woman with cropped silver hair, dark skin, and a gray medical coat steps forward, carrying no badge or networked device.
the clinic intake director
John Franco is expected. No police network, no automatic records, and no weapons past the second seal. Bring the evidence case to the intake desk.
Gwen presents the sealed chain-of-custody record without activating her badge. Reina connects the copied biometric trace to an isolated clinic terminal as Vesper watches the corridor entrance.
Reina Sato
The technician’s handshake is authenticating. The scrubbed identity is not gone. It is partitioned behind a Lazarus personnel cipher.
Gwen Armitage
Then preserve every result exactly as found. John enters protected intake now, and this clinic receives the evidence without touching the police network.
“I preserve the biometric trace with Reina”
SUCCESS (Great Electronics, rolled -1)
Razor joins Reina at the isolated terminal, visor light washing over the clinic’s white panels. He steadies the shielded connector while she copies the biometric trace into a sealed forensic archive.
The transfer completes without touching the police network. The original partitioned cipher, handshake pattern, and linked timestamps are preserved under a dual checksum.
Reina Sato
Preserved exactly. The trace is duplicated, sealed, and independently verifiable. Lazarus cannot alter this copy without leaving a new signature.
Reina disconnects the terminal and locks the archive behind the clinic’s offline key. Gwen records the checksum beside the evidence chain, while John waits at the second seal.
the clinic intake director
The evidence is accepted. John goes into protected intake now. No networked devices cross this seal.
John Franco
Then you have what I recovered, and the biometric trail survives. That is more than Lazarus expected.
The clinic intake director opens the inner door. John passes into the clinic’s secure ward, and the seal closes behind him as rain ticks softly against the buried entrance.
✓ Quest Accepted
Determine the shard's true purpose
“I’ll ask Reina to map the shard’s signal against the preserved Lazarus trail.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled -1)
Razor
Reina, map the shard’s signal against the preserved Lazarus trail. I want every overlap, timestamp, and routing signature.
Razor remains beside the isolated terminal as Reina reconnects the shard’s offline signal record through a shielded adapter. The clinic’s second seal stays closed behind them.
Reina Sato
I can do that without exposing either archive. Give me a moment, and the comparison will remain forensic.
Reina layers the signal bursts over Lazarus telemetry, then aligns them with the preserved biometric handshake and Room Nine timestamps. Matching routes illuminate across the dark display.
Reina Sato
There is a match. The shard broadcast used the same Lazarus relay family as the prototype vault, with a handoff routed through Room Nine after Henry’s death.
Reina Sato
The timing also overlaps the technician’s second vault entry. The shard was not random contraband. It carried a live link to the erased personnel trail.
Reina seals the merged map under a new checksum and disconnects the adapter. The result joins the evidence chain without touching the police network.
“I have Vesper trace Room Nine's altered manifest”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +2)
Razor
Vesper, trace Room Nine’s altered manifest. Find every edit, timestamp, and linked guest record.
Vesper takes Reina’s isolated terminal and routes the manifest through a clinic air-gap. The club data unfolds as layered revisions beneath a false housekeeping log.
Vesper
I have the original structure. Three entries were removed, but the deletion signatures remain. Room Nine received Mara Venn twice and the night-sheath technician once.
She aligns the manifest’s access times with the Lazarus relay map. A concealed handoff appears after Henry’s death, followed by a short connection to the prototype vault.
Vesper
The technician entered under a temporary guest credential tied to a private security booking. The booking was paid through a Lazarus shell account, but the routing ends at the club’s internal system.
Reina Sato
I am sealing Vesper’s reconstruction beside the biometric trace. The edits, account route, and Room Nine timestamps are now independently verifiable.
Vesper locks the recovered manifest under a fresh checksum. The hidden guest records are preserved, including the technician’s visit and its direct link to Lazarus.
“I trace the Lazarus shell account through Vesper”
SUCCESS (Legendary Hacking, rolled +1)
Razor routes the Lazarus shell account through Vesper’s preserved manifest, keeping the clinic terminal air-gapped. Account fragments align with the Room Nine access records.
Vesper
The shell account was created six weeks before Henry’s death. Its first payment covered private security access at Room Nine.
Vesper follows the payment trail through dormant club ledgers and Lazarus vendor records. The shell resolves to a procurement intermediary used by Corporate Security Operations.
Vesper
The intermediary is Orison Metrics. It billed Lazarus for prototype garment handling, biometric scrubbing, and one unregistered technician escort.
A final ledger cross-reference connects Orison Metrics to Mara Venn’s authorization chain. The shell account funded the technician’s Room Nine booking and the second prototype-vault entry.
Reina Sato
I am sealing the account trail with Vesper’s manifest and the biometric trace. The payment route is independently verifiable.
Vesper locks the completed reconstruction under a new checksum. The evidence now identifies the shell’s corporate intermediary, its purpose, and its direct connection to Venn.
“*I identify the prototype technician from the sealed records* Reina your skills and knowledge are unmatched. Thank you.”
SUCCESS (Superb Reasoning, rolled +0)
Razor feeds the sealed biometric handshake through the offline archive, cross-referencing Lazarus personnel ciphers, Room Nine access logs, and Orison Metrics invoices.
Razor
Reina, your skills and knowledge are unmatched. Thank you.
The records converge beneath the scrubbed partition. A personnel identifier resolves, then locks into the forensic chain without contacting any network.
The archive identifies the prototype technician as Milo Serrat, a Lazarus Security Systems specialist assigned to biometric concealment and restricted garment handling.
Reina Sato
Milo Serrat. His authorization was terminated three days after the second vault entry, but Orison Metrics continued paying his shell account.
Vesper
That is our technician. Serrat booked Room Nine, entered the prototype vault, and vanished from Lazarus records under Venn’s authorization chain.
Reina seals Serrat’s identity, access history, payment route, and biometric signature beside the preserved manifest. The technician is no longer an erased figure, but a named link in the case.
“Let’s get him then. Shall we ladies.”
SUCCESS (Superb Streetwise, rolled -1)
Razor
Let’s get him, then. Shall we, ladies?
Reina triangulates Milo Serrat’s shell account against dormant vendor beacons. His encrypted credential is active inside an abandoned Lazarus logistics annex two blocks from Pier Twelve.
Reina Sato
He is there now. I can open the annex remotely, but the access handshake will alert whoever is monitoring Orison Metrics.
The team reaches the annex through rain and service alleys. Milo Serrat, a gaunt middle-aged man with close-cropped black hair, a gray security jacket, and a chrome data port at his temple, emerges into the loading bay.
Razor crosses the distance before Milo can raise his wrist console. Gwen locks his arms, Vesper strips the console away, and Reina clamps a signal-suppressing cuff around his port.
Milo Serrat
Venn said the trail was erased. You have no idea what you are carrying.
The cuff seals, but the annex broadcasts a silent intrusion flag before Reina kills its power. Lazarus now knows Serrat has been found, while the team has him alive and secured.
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep Milo Serrat alive
“Hey. Milo. If you want to stay alive be useful. Tell us what we need to know. *I gesture for the ladies to interrogate him.*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -2)
“Hey. Milo. If you want to stay alive be useful. Tell us what we need to know. *I gesture for the ladies to interrogate him.*”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled +0)
Razor
Hey, Milo. If you want to stay alive, be useful. Tell us what we need to know.
Razor gestures for Gwen and Vesper to take over the interrogation. Gwen keeps Milo restrained against the loading-bay console while Reina maintains the signal-suppressing cuff.
Gwen Armitage
Start with Venn. What did she order you to erase, and where is the night-sheath prototype now?
Milo Serrat
The prototype is not at the vault. Venn moved it after Henry died. She ordered me to scrub the biometric trail and stage the technician’s termination.
Vesper
Where did she move it, and who helped her?
Milo Serrat
A private recovery team took it to a Lazarus clinical site beneath Saint Marrow Tower. Venn had two people there, but I only know one name: Dr. Celia Ward.
Reina Sato
I have the tower location and the recovery order. His cuff preserved the exchange, and the annex intrusion flag confirms the evidence chain.
Quest Complete
Keep Milo Serrat alive