Beeper's Tag in the Loot

After Oskar delivered Greta's message, the warehouse became evidence again.

The party moved through the people they had stabilized instead of simply stepping over them. The loot was small at first: a basic healing potion, a little coin, the kind of scraps that made the enemies feel less like soldiers and more like people who had been shoved into a machine.

Then they found the tag.

Aerovia Jeevens.

Beeper.

The identification did not belong to the person carrying it. That made it worse. Beeper had been searching for Andrea Dawson, and now Beeper's own tag had turned up in the pockets of a warehouse enemy connected to Flesh. It was not proof of death, but it was proof of contact. Someone had robbed her, captured her, found her, or passed through the aftermath of something that had happened to her.

Jonah began questioning the prisoners while Oskar listened past their answers.

One man was low-tier Flesh: not important, not trusted, useful only as a scavenger. Another prisoner was not a believer at all. She had been promised a clean record if she joined a militia, then found herself holding a spark bar and praying it was not primed. Her crime had started with theft from the university and an attempt to survive addiction, debt, and someone else's ruin.

Jonah used Lesser Restoration on her.

It did not cure a life. It did give her one clearer breath. For that day, at least, she could feel a little better.

The warehouse enemies were not one thing. Some were predators. Some were desperate. Some were disposable. Flesh had learned how to use all three.

And while the party tried to separate guilt from survival, Nick noticed the one prisoner still hidden behind a shield.

She was building a bomb.