Tracy slips out of Marin’s office with Thomas and the courier close behind. The industrial outskirts loom ahead, all smokestacks, rusted catwalks, and ash-gray light. The salt works road lies beyond the warehouse row, and if the runners use the bypass, they will reach it before the alarm spreads.
The Courier
There, see it? Past the broken crane, along the drainage ditch. They cut under the fence and run the service lane. I swear that is the route.
He points with a shaking hand toward a narrow gap between two slag heaps. Fresh boot prints mark the mud, half-hidden by blown dust. The path bends hard away from the main gates, straight toward the salt works.
Thomas Olsen
Then we move now. If they are carrying secrets, I want them before they vanish into the works.
Tracy
The ditch path is quicker than the main road.
Ahead, silhouettes cross the far end of the lane, port runners already on the move, one carrying a satchel tucked tight to the chest. Tracy can see the chase line now, clear as a knife edge, from the office to the leak to the salt works road.
“I cut them off at the warehouse fence”
FAILURE (Good Agility, rolled -3)
Tracy veers hard for the warehouse fence, boots skidding in the dust. She gets one hand on the rusted mesh, but the runners are already at the service gap, too far and too fast.
A loose plank snaps under her weight. The fence shudders, and a burst of clattering scrap gives her away.
The satchel carrier glances back, then shoves through the opening. Another runner ducks low and vanishes along the drainage ditch.
Tracy lands short on the far side, one knee in the mud, just as the fence gap narrows behind her.
Thomas Olsen
They split. Left lane, now.
Ahead, the nearer runner throws a hand up, warning the others. They keep moving, and the fence is no longer the cut off Tracy wanted, it is the obstacle between her and the line.
✓ Quest Accepted
Get past the runners
“Use my psychic reach to trip the runner near the gap.”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Tracy plants her hand in the mud and reaches outward with her mind. The runner near the gap jolts as if the ground grabs his ankle, and he pitches sideways into the scrap-strewn track.
His satchel tears free, spilling a wrapped packet and a scatter of marked slats across the mud. He slams one shoulder into the fence line and drops hard.
Thomas Olsen
Nice. Move.
The other runners react at once, one cutting for the ditch, another hesitating long enough to look back at the fallen man and the spilled cargo.
Tracy
The packet is out in the open.
Thomas drives a step toward the lane, pointing Tracy into the opening the stumble creates. The ditch runner is still moving, but the split has turned messy.
From the spill, a stained tag flashes in the mud, stamped with the same warning mark from the dead drop. The fallen runner scrambles for it as the chase tilts toward the cargo.
Quest Complete
Get past the runners