Loid Forger reaches across the municipal camera office desk and turns the paused monitor toward the printed sequence in Marta Kessler's hands. The archive timer drops into its final minutes.
Marta Kessler
There. Your entrance, the pursuit, and the departure. I pulled the originals before the system began its purge.
The images show the loading lane from three angles. In the last frame, a second figure stands beyond the closing gate, positioned where no café patron should have been.
Marta Kessler
That person was not following you by chance. They waited for the handoff, then watched you lose it.
A warning flashes across the monitor. Archive deletion begins in two minutes. One connected terminal remains active beneath the desk, its access light blinking.
Marta Kessler
Copying the footage will take too long. We can preserve one segment, or trace the remote account before the purge erases both.
✓ Quest Accepted
Secure the loading footage
✓ Quest Accepted
Identify the second watcher