The echoes in the static.

Chapter 9: Harbor Lights

The harbor district woke up slowly under a thick blanket of morning fog. Heavy cranes stood like silent sentinels along the docks, and the air smelled of salt water, diesel exhaust, and wet timber.

Elias kept his eyes low, hugging the brick alleyways as he approached Quinn’s Surplus & Salvage—a weathered two-story warehouse packed to the ceiling with military radio equipment, scrap metals, and obsolete computer parts.

He slipped through the alley entrance and knocked three times on the reinforced steel side door, paused, and knocked twice more.

A heavy bolt slid back, and the door swung open a few inches. A pair of sharp, cautious eyes behind thick-rimmed glasses inspected him through the gap. Riley Quinn took one look at Elias’s rain-soaked jacket, mud-caked boots, and hollow, exhausted eyes before unhooking the heavy safety chain.

"You look like you just crawled out of a sewer, Vance," Riley said, stepping back to let him in. "And judging by the smell, you probably did."

"I need your help, Riley," Elias said, his voice raspy as the door slammed shut and locked behind him. "And I need a clean environment. No wireless, no cellular, no external connections."

Riley frowned, pulling a pair of wire cutters from her tool belt. "What did you get yourself into?"

Elias pulled the matte black USB drive from his pocket and set it on her workbench beneath the harsh fluorescent shop light. "This drive is rigged with an automated satellite ping. It broadcasts its coordinates the second it draws power. I need you to air-gap a system and isolate the core data without triggering the beacon."

Riley leaned over the bench, her expression shifting from irritation to intense curiosity as she examined the drive’s custom casing and hidden pinouts.

"Custom military-grade hardware," she muttered, tapping the casing with her nail. "This isn't commercial stuff, Elias. Whoever built this has deep pockets and serious clearance."

"They're monitoring the whole city," Elias replied softly. "And my name is on their hit list."

Riley looked up from the bench, her eyes narrowing with determination. "Then we'd better see what's on this thing before they find out you're here."