RTS System in the Apocalypse: New World

Several hours passed before the inspection drone found anything behind the chamber walls.

The mounting points continued through sections still covered by dead tissue, appearing at regular distances until the scan reached the far side of the parking structure.

Most belonged to removed equipment racks or temporary wall fixtures. One section apparently did not.

A hollow space appeared behind the concrete, large enough to extend beyond the limits of the chamber scan.

Marcus had the Engineer repeat the reading twice before calling the others over.

Tyrus arrived last.

His gloves carried dark stains from the samples he had taken, though each container behind him had already been sealed and marked by its exact location.

"Well?" Johannes asked.

Marcus pointed toward the scanner.

"There is another room behind this wall."

"The original construction plan does not show one," the Engineer added. "There should only be a maintenance cavity and another drainage connection."

Tyrus looked toward the dead tissue hanging across the concrete.

"So either the city misplaced an entire room, or our agents were unfriendly toward municipal records."

"The second," Marcus answered.

"Unfortunate. I preferred the first."

The access point remained beneath a collapsed layer near the lowest mounting fixtures. The Engineer removed nothing until Tyrus confirmed which sections had already detached from the Broodmother’s remaining network.

Once cleared, the metal frame became visible.

It looked like another service panel until Marcus found the concealed locking points along its side.

"No ordinary maintenance crew installed this."

Johannes stepped beside him.

"What do you think? SAS work?"

"The lock is. The rest looks professional enough."

Marcus opened his equipment pouch.

"The frame is civilian. The mechanism behind it is not."

Tyrus crouched near the removed tissue while Marcus worked.

"Try not to destroy it."

"And if I do, you can’t do anything about it."

"That is reassuring. At least you’re very honest about your intentions."

Marcus ignored him.

The lock released several minutes later.

Johannes took the panel with both hands and pulled. The entire metal section shifted outward before sliding into the wall, exposing a narrow passage beyond it.

Stale air entered the chamber.

Evelyn remained near the opening.

"Anything?" Johannes asked.

"I don’t sense anyone waiting for us."

"Check the pressure. What about it?"

She hesitated.

"Something remained here for a long time. I cannot tell whether I am sensing that or only reacting to this place."

Tyrus stood.

"An uncertain warning is still a warning."

Evelyn glanced toward him.

"That’s the most responsible thing I’ve heard from you today, doctor."

"I can be responsible on special occasions."

Two soldiers entered first, followed by the Engineer and his inspection drone. The passage continued only several meters before opening into a larger room beneath the parking structure.

Johannes entered with Evelyn and Marcus.

Tyrus followed after checking that the specimen cases remained guarded.

The room had once been part of the structure’s service level. Pipes crossed the ceiling, while old electrical panels occupied one wall. Everything else had been added afterward.

Six folding beds rested along the sides.

Lockers stood beside them, each marked with removed plates where names or identification numbers had once been fixed. A long table occupied the center of the room. Portable receivers, damaged tablets, field maps, medical kits, and several empty weapon cases remained across it.

Moisture had tarnished the metal surfaces.

Thin traces of dead growth reached through one corner and across the floor, but most of the room remained untouched compared to the chamber outside.

Johannes stopped.

"This was their quarters. What a mess."

Marcus moved toward the receivers.

"And also their operations room."

One wall had been covered with photographs and route maps. Several had curled from the dampness, though the markings remained visible.

Highcross streets.

The surrounding commercial buildings.

Drainage routes beneath the district.

The central parking structure.

Several photographs focused on the banks surrounding Highcross.

The two international branches appeared most often. Their public entrances had been photographed from different buildings and vehicles, followed by loading areas, employee exits, underground parking ramps, and the routes used by armored couriers.

The local branch received fewer photographs, though its senior employees appeared throughout the records.

Several people had been followed between the banks and nearby offices. Their names remained beneath the images, along with company affiliations, meeting schedules, and vehicles used on separate days.

Marcus approached the wall.

"They were tracking financial personnel."

Johannes picked up one of the curled photographs.

A man in a dark suit stood outside the first international bank. Another image showed the same man entering a property company several streets away. The third caught him meeting someone beside the lower parking entrance after business hours.

"Not only personnel," Johannes said. "They were following the transactions through the people responsible for approving them."

Tyrus opened one of the folders on the table.

Most of the first pages contained ordinary banking records.

Transfers.

Corporate accounts.

Investment funds.

Property purchases.

The amounts became stranger as he moved deeper into the file. Several large transfers entered companies with no operating history, divided across smaller accounts, then returned through charities, private clinics, and security contractors.

Some of the money left Ashington entirely before returning under another company name.

Tyrus turned another page.

"They were tracing layered transactions."

Marcus glanced toward him.

"Money laundering?"

"Possibly. Or foreign funding hidden inside legitimate commercial activity. Do you think we were tracking the same people as them?"

Johannes looked through the documents beside him.

"That’s a possibility. A national security investigation would justify placing a field cell inside Highcross. These banks handled corporate accounts, international transfers, and private holdings from most of the southern districts."

One folder remained beneath a damaged tablet.

Its cover had darkened from moisture, though the stamped lettering remained clear.

------

SAS FIELD CELL 11

HIGHCROSS FINANCIAL MONITORING

STATUS: ACTIVE

------

Johannes stopped reading.

"Cell Eleven."

Evelyn looked toward the six beds.

"Did we ever work with them?"

"No."

Johannes opened the folder.

"I knew another cell operated around the commercial districts, but not where they were assigned. SAS compartmentalization rarely gives us more than that."

Marcus checked the equipment list inside the cover.

"Six operatives."

"That matches the beds," Evelyn said.

It also matched the bodies recovered from Highcross.

Five enhanced infected had fought Hans’s forces aboveground. The woman beneath the parking structure made six.

Johannes did not say it aloud.

The folder contained several weeks of surveillance reports. Cell 11 had followed irregular movements between the international branches, private medical companies, property firms, and security contractors.

Some transactions led toward Pandora District.

Others disappeared through corporate accounts before the agents could identify their final recipient.

Tyrus looked over Johannes’s shoulder.

"Similar interests to your operation."

"Only from another direction," Johannes answered. "We followed people and equipment. They followed the money supporting them."

"They may have found the cleaner trail."

"Money usually leaves the cleaner trail."

"But as dirty as it goes, yes?" Tyrus raised a brow.

"Sounds ironic coming from a Shearman," Evelyn let out a snort.

"I have never declared myself as clean. Do you see how dirty my hands are right now?"

"I’m not talking about your physical traits. I’m talking about..."

The two continued arguing inside the barren quarters.

Marcus moved toward the lockers.

Most still contained field equipment.

Spare clothing had been folded onto the upper shelves. Ammunition remained inside sealed cases, while compact tools, receiver components, identity papers, and civilian disguises occupied the lower compartments.

The agents had not removed everything before leaving the room.

One locker contained a woman’s field jacket, spare gloves, and a small notebook wrapped inside a plastic cover.

Marcus took it out.

The first pages held nothing operational.

They contained complaints about the damp quarters, the poor coffee sold near the second international bank, and an operative who continued leaving empty ration packets beneath his bed despite repeated warnings.

Marcus’s expression softened slightly.

"What?" Johannes asked.

"She was tired of cleaning after someone. Kind of reminds me of someone."

Marcus’s eyes slowly shifted to Evelyn, who was still arguing with Tyrus near the corner.

Johannes looked toward the beds.

"Did she identify who?"

"No. Not really."

"Then it could have been any of them."

Marcus continued reading.

The later entries mentioned the operation more often, though names and classified details remained absent.

One entry described several days spent watching the same bank executive change vehicles, only for him to return to the same apartment every evening.

Another complained that the cell had collected enough transaction records to bury the entire table without learning who controlled the accounts.

The final written entry carried the date of the atmospheric event.

It had been written earlier that afternoon.

Marcus frowned, reading it quietly.

"Another transfer moved through the eastern branch this morning. The account belonged to a relief foundation that has never distributed relief. The funds separated again before reaching three medical suppliers and a private security firm."

He turned the page, but nothing followed.

The remaining sheets were blank.

Johannes took the notebook and checked the final date again.

Whatever happened afterward had left no written account.

Marcus had moved toward the portable receiver on the center table. Its casing remained open, though the internal components had not been dismantled as carefully as the receiver recovered from Cell 7.

Several connections had been pulled free.

A storage drive remained inside.

"They tried to secure their records," Marcus said.

"Can you recover anything?" Johannes asked.

"Possibly, but not here. Not without equipment."

The Engineer’s multi-scanner tablet released a short alert.

Everyone turned.

The inspection drone had stopped above a compact black case beneath one of the electrical panels. Dead growth covered part of its side, though the case itself remained intact.

The Engineer checked the reading.

"This was not included in the chamber inventory."

Tyrus, who now stopped arguing with Evelyn, crossed the room.

"Move away from it."

The lightness left his voice.

The Engineer stepped back immediately.

Evelyn’s shoulders tightened again.

Johannes glanced toward her. "You feel some kind of pressure?"

"Yes. I... I’ve felt it somewhere before."

Her hand moved toward her chest.

"Weaker than—" her brows twitched, "Weaker than what happened that day. But the pressure, it is there."

Marcus inspected the case from several steps away.

Its outer surface carried impact scratches and a shallow burn across one corner. A paper evidence label remained beneath the handle, protected by a clear strip.

The writing had faded, though several lines remained readable.

------

RECOVERED DEBRIS

NORTH SERVICE LANE

TEMPORARY EVIDENCE STORAGE

------

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