Chapter 6: The Digital Relay

👉 Previous Decision: You sent a hidden signal to your home, and Leo found an intruder’s phone revealing texts from Director Davenport.

Leo’s fingers flew across the intruder’s abandoned phone. He copied the entire damning text exchange, then opened his own phone. He found my emergency work contact—the one I’d set up for system alerts—and sent the thread.

On my console, a new message flashed. My heart jumped. It wasn’t the usual system alert. It was an anonymous relay, a string of text messages. My eyes scanned them, and a cold wave of dread and fury washed over me. “H.D.” instructing “contractor” to “secure offline CAD audit logs.” Details about skimming municipal emergency response funds. The pieces clicked into place.

Davenport, who had been watching my screen from the corner of his eye, took a step closer. “Unusual packet traffic on your terminal, Novak.”

He pointed at the small, blinking indicator I hadn’t even noticed. “Step away from the desk. Now.”

My pulse hammered. He knew. Or at least, he suspected. The messages were still on my screen, clear as day. Leo had relayed them. But how much time did I have before Davenport’s IT team locked me out, or before he deleted them from the local server?

I looked from the screen, where the evidence of Davenport’s fraud glowed, to his face, now a mask of controlled menace. My career, Leo’s safety, and the integrity of the entire emergency system hung in the balance.