【W1.06】 Oaks, Level −2
602 Words
Night soaked into the city by the time Elara reached the service elevator.
[Ding!]
Event: Safety Plan Initialized
Status:
• Survival Probability: 45% → 47% (Δ +2%)
Sub-Objectives:
A) Obtain handler admission (audio) (+4%)
B) Extract drop schedule/code (+3%)
Note: Risk remains if meeting goes public.
She slid the compromised phone into her clutch beside a wafer-thin recorder. On her wrist, a custom watch gave a faint haptic pulse—the test signal. “Mirror’s up,” a calm voice whispered in her nearly invisible earbud. “Cloud relay armed. We’re ghosting the line.” The handset was now mirrored: every packet silently copied to a secure server. She was as alone as the text demanded—just not unprotected.
[Thrum…]
Warning: Next Drop Imminent
Leak Timer: 00:30:00
Oaks Garage breathed cold, damp air. Level −2 was a cavern of concrete and shadows, smelling of oil and stale water. Flickering fluorescents carved harsh light into deep dark. A shoe scuffed. A voice—blurred by the acoustics or a modulator—floated between two pillars.
“On time,” it said. A silhouette stayed just out of the light. “Alone.”
“On deadline,” Elara answered, steady. “You have my attention. What do you want?”
“A continued partnership. The first drop was a demonstration. The next will be… more substantive. Unless you’d prefer a private arrangement.”
“You paid a source fee to Maya,” Elara said—statement, not question. “That’s procurement of confidential data, not journalism. It’s blackmail. Say the amount—so the accounting lines up.”
[Thrum…]
Side Mission: Flip the Handler “S”
Progress: 0% → 35%
Side Mission Timer: 00:41:00
Penalty on Failure: Survival −8%
A low chuckle echoed. “Fifty thousand. A retainer. The next payment is contingent on your cooperation.”
[Ding!]
Event: Evidence Capture (Partial)
Status:
• Survival Probability: 47% → 49% (Δ +3%)
Sub-Objectives:
A) Handler admission (audio) — PARTIAL (+2%)
B) Transaction token fragment — ACQUIRED (+1%)
Dress-shoe clicks cut through the hum—precise, unhurried. The silhouette twitched and melted deeper into shadow.
“You call this coming alone?” a familiar voice murmured behind her.
Elara turned. Liam Sterling stood at the edge of a light pool, hands in his pockets, at ease in the grime. His gaze skimmed her, then searched the dark where “S” had been.
[Ding!]
Event: Male Lead Interaction (Proximity)
Status:
• Attention: 39/100 → 42/100 (Δ +3)
• Survival Probability: 49% → 48% (Δ −1%)
Note: Prolonged proximity increases risk.
“What are you doing here?” she hissed.
“A hunch,” he said softly. “You’re getting better at surviving, but you still leave a trail. A diverted car. A scrambled feed. Noticeable.” His eyes glinted. “Who were you talking to?”
Her clutch vibrated—the compromised phone from “S.” A new text flashed on the screen.
S: Company changes the terms. If I don’t text a specific code in twenty minutes, the system posts everything. Set your watch, princess. Code: 7-Alpha-Gamma-9.
The shadow was gone. The trap wasn’t.
[Thrum…]
Warning: Auto-Drop Armed
Requirement: Send cancel code (7AG9) within 00:20:00
Leak Timer: 00:20:00
Side Mission Timer: 00:24:00
Penalty on Failure: Survival −10%
Liam watched her face, reading the panic she couldn’t quite hide. “Problem?”
Elara stared at the phone, then at the man who was both a threat and—possibly—her only chance. She had twenty minutes to find a ghost and get a code, or lose everything she’d just fought to save.
- Writer
