A man the war filed as dead is alive in the flooded Tube with the only secret that finishes the converter and names a saboteur, and three factions are racing the tide to reach him first.
The Situation
Lt. James 'Gargoyle' Sinclair wrote the 2062 Tower damage report, filed it in the archive himself, and then the war filed him killed in action. He never died. He has lived in the Drowned Tube for four years, reading the flood maps closer than anyone alive, and last week a controlled demolition charge that was not his cooked off in the Jubilee Line approach. It put shrapnel in his leg and a face in his memory. He saw who set it. That makes him the most wanted man in the ruins, and he does not know it. He alone can tell the Prometheus League where the report sits, which takes the tidal converter to 100% and ends the EO's hold on the water. He alone can name the saboteur the EO and the League are both about to be blamed for. This morning Station Alpha's Tube survey logged new disturbance in the sediment and pushed its security boundary toward his hide, Deshi finally guessed a survivor wrote the report, and the low-current window that keeps the Jubilee approach open shuts within the hour.
Objectives
- Primary · Reach Sinclair in the Drowned Tube and pull him to friendly ground, the Southwark Slab or a Tide Roads pickup, alive and willing, before the EO containment seals the Jubilee approach.
- Secondary · Bring out what only he carries: where the 2062 damage report sits in the Tower Quarter archive, and the face he saw set the charge.
- Secondary · Keep him off Commander Voss's board and keep the pull from being pinned on the Prometheus League. He believes Voss filed his death on purpose. The London cell does not survive being blamed for the next building that falls.
The Clocks
- Main · The Tide Window. Six turns of low current keep the Jubilee Line approach passable. Mark one off each turn. At zero the bore turns, the approach floods to the ceiling, and the only way out is the long drowned route or a six-hour wait Sinclair's leg will not give you.
- Pressure · The Containment Net. Station Alpha already logged the disturbance. Every loud action, a breach charge, gunfire, an open broadcast, advances a four-step net. At four the EO boundary reaches the hide with drones and a hardwired comms burst that calls EO command, not just Arkadi.
- Quiet · The Clara Condition. Sinclair will not leave with strangers until he believes Clara James will learn he survived. Track his trust as a three-step counter. Spend actions to close it: proof you are not EO, a clean message out, a token she would know on sight. Let it run out and you carry him unwilling, which costs you every word he would have given freely.
Leverage Points
- His flood maps. Sinclair knows the Tube to within three weeks of accuracy and can walk you out a clean lane no EO survey has. Using him as a guide means keeping a wounded man moving and talking, and the talking is noise the net hears.
- The face he saw. The name of the unauthorized League operative who set the charge is intel the Resistance, the EO, and Deshi will all trade for. The moment you carry that name, the EO wants you as quiet as they want him.
- A burned VEKTORA lanyard of dead credentials, or a HIGHWATER card off a relay rat. Either one walks you past an Interchange informant or an EO checkpoint a single time. Burn it and you flag the wearer to the faction that issued it.
- PUMP VARIANCE, if you get Tomás Verne to hand it over. The green coat's numbers tell you the exact minute the window turns and buy back a turn or two. Going through Tomás means letting the one man who decides who learns what take a long look at you, and he remembers everyone.
- Clara James herself, or a token only she could have sent. Bring it and Sinclair moves willing and gives you everything. Move Clara near the Tube and you risk the EO's killed-in-action cover and paint a target on the one person he stayed alive for.
Opposition
- EO Station Alpha survey team (Earth Order) · running the sediment correlation right now under Arkadi's strategic-value orders, expanding the Tube boundary to find what stirred it. They want the disturbance identified and contained quietly before command asks why. A clean reading that it was salvage drift, not a person, stands them down for a cycle.
- Deshi's courier (Prometheus League) · sent the second Deshi guessed a survivor wrote the report, carrying orders to bring Sinclair to the Drowned Tube cache, not to friendly ground. Wants the man and the archive location, nothing else. Folds for the saboteur's name, because the unauthorized charge is the one thing that ends the London cell.
- Commander Voss (Tidal Resistance, Tower Quarter) · filed Sinclair killed in action in 2062 and does not know he breathes. Not in the Tube, but her perimeter cameras and floor-captain net watch every dry exit toward the Slab. She wants her archive sealed and her dead left dead. Learning Gargoyle is alive flips her into either his only protector or the person with the most reason to keep him filed.
Climax Variable (d6)
Roll when you reach Sinclair and start the pull.
| d6 | Twist at the pull |
|---|---|
| 1 | The survey correlates early. Drones hit the Jubilee approach now, and the tide window and the net collapse into one clock. |
| 2 | The boat crew you lined up for the Tide Roads pickup took a better EO offer. Your ride is waiting to hand you over. |
| 3 | The charge had a twin. A northern building drops, the approach silts, and the clean lane Sinclair knew is gone. Out the long way, under water, carrying him. |
| 4 | Clara James is already in the Tube. She came looking. Sinclair stops the second he sees her, and a Voss informant just photographed all of you. |
| 5 | If you burned a credential at the Interchange, the EO traced it and a containment team is at the hide door, not the boundary. If you did not, Deshi's courier reached him first and wants the saboteur's name as the price of the exit. |
| 6 | The leg has turned. Sinclair has minutes of clear speech left to give the archive location and the face before he goes under. Winning is no longer the pull. It is the words. |
Breadcrumbs
One thread pays off at the pull: the charge that wounded Sinclair was not a one-off, and a crew working the approach can hear a second set of components being positioned in the northern lane, the twin that drops the route at the finish. The early calls decide the rest, since the boat crew you hire off the Tide Roads and the credential you burn at the Interchange set which face is waiting at the hide door. One thread runs past the mission: Sinclair's certainty that Voss filed him dead on purpose, and the contingency Elena Kirova has already activated that Arkadi does not know about. Pull Gargoyle out and you close neither question. You make both of them active.
The Not-Line
This is not a dive into a flooded vault for a document. It is a race to pull a living man who would rather stay dead, and the hardest call is whether to carry him out willing and slow with the truth he guards, or fast and silent without it, before the water and three factions decide for you.