Adventure of Elihjah Hunter 1

Three weeks later, rain blurs the windows of the Kingston Evidence Exchange, a discreet records facility beneath a municipal archive. Elijah stands with Sarah in a secured review room, while the sealed AEGIS case rests inside a clear custody cabinet.

A monitor displays the transfer log: timestamp, vehicle seal, credential authorization, then a blank interval where the case should still have been. Sarah keeps one hand beside the keyboard without touching it.

The exchange’s ventilation hums around them. A second window shows the credential’s fragmented trail, bouncing through Northstar systems before terminating at an unregistered relay near Kingston.

Sarah turns the monitor toward Elijah and steps back, leaving the evidence, the unanswered timestamp, and the silent case between them. Outside, a delivery truck rolls past, briefly masking every other sound.

Sarah isolates the credential trail and compares its authorization pattern against Northstar’s archived personnel records. The fragmented route resolves into a single active identity, not a generic corporate access key.

The record expands beneath the authorization entry. Rook’s credential carries a secondary clearance, belonging to a middle-aged woman with a lean build, short auburn hair, olive skin, and a thin scar through her left eyebrow, pictured in a navy blazer over a pale blouse, opening a live ledger of Northstar recovery targets across Eastern Ontario.

Sarah copies the ledger reference into a separate evidence record, preserving the original log. The unregistered Kingston relay now connects to Rook’s office authorization and a current recovery schedule.

Rain threads down the exchange windows as the ledger populates with names, locations, and projected retrieval dates. The stolen case remains missing, but its thief has given them Northstar’s map.

Sarah freezes the ledger on Evelyn Rook’s authorization trail. A fresh status mark appears beside the stolen case: RECOVERY FAILURE ACKNOWLEDGED, followed by an internal timestamp only minutes old.

The schedule refreshes without prompting. Rook has not abandoned the recovery operation. She has accelerated it, replacing the stolen case’s route with a priority list of living targets.

One entry turns red before Sarah can copy it: a Kingston-area target has been moved to active retrieval, with an estimated contact window beginning tonight. The ledger gives no safe address, only a name and a district.

Sarah’s hand rises to the helmet seal. She pauses beside the ledger, then releases it and lifts the helmet free, revealing a tired adult woman with cropped dark hair and a narrow scar at her temple.

She sets the helmet beneath the monitor instead of abandoning it. Without its visor, her face is fully visible in the cold exchange light, and the strain of the accelerating ledger shows plainly.

Sarah leans closer to the red entry, studying the district and contact window. Her uncovered face makes the decision feel less like an operation and more like a warning delivered by a witness.

Sarah compares the custody timestamp against the recovery schedule. The entries do not align: Rook’s priority list begins after the case was reported missing, but contains no second removal authorization.

She highlights the red entries one by one. Each carries a retrieval window, not a custody transfer, and none points toward the evidence exchange or another storage site.

The distinction settles across the review room. The missing case remains the immediate loss, while the active schedule shows Northstar’s answer: pressure on survivors instead of another attempt at the cabinet.

Sarah scrolls past the red entries, then stops on the first active window. A contact channel appears beneath the district marker, disguised as an ordinary municipal service number.

She opens a draft message, then leaves it unsent. The exchange’s secure system records the destination but does not transmit, preserving a narrow chance to reach the target quietly.

The first target’s district and contact route remain highlighted beside the unsent message. The broad hunt has become one immediate, usable lead, while the other names stay concealed.