Vance gives you a name — Cass Orel, a systems archivist who flagged anomalous behaviour in SABLE’s outputs six months ago and was quietly reassigned to data storage in the Meridian South facility. You find her working a midnight shift in a server vault beneath an automated freight depot.

She’s been expecting someone. Maybe not you specifically. She has a box of printed log excerpts — physical copies, ink on paper — and a look on her face like she’s been carrying this alone for a long time, and she’s very tired of it.