Chapter 24: [24] The Paper Trail
The alarms blared. Strobing red light painted the walls. The rhythmic thump-thump-thump of combat boots grew from a distant tremor to a ground-shaking thunder. They were coming. Yet Pierre just stood there—a ghost in a stolen, ill-fitting uniform.
So this is what it feels like, he thought. All that crap I gave Jack Steelheart for his main-character-luck, and here I am, the accidental star of a base-wide manhunt learning about a sob story.
He could flee. Melt back into the port town, find another ship, another life. But the memory of Alyssa’s haunted face was an anchor, dragging him not toward the exit, but deeper into the lion’s den.
A squad of marines rounded the corner, their leader barking orders into this world’s version of a radio. Pierre pressed himself against the wall, adopting the posture of a nervous sailor caught in the chaos. The squad leader’s eyes swept over him without recognition—just another face in Navy blue.
"Section C is clear, sir. Moving to Section D."
The library should be three floors down, according to Alyssa’s map.
Three floors down, the chaos faded. Pierre slipped into a corridor lined with supply rooms and administrative offices. Fewer people here—the action was concentrated on the upper floors where he’d supposedly been spotted. He moved past doors marked "Quartermaster," "Payroll," and "Personnel Files" until he found what he was looking for: "Archives & Documentation."
Inside, rows of metal shelving clawed for the ceiling, groaning under the weight of countless binders and document boxes. The air was thick with the scent of decaying paper and dust, which swirled like tiny spirits in the weak light filtering through grimy, high windows. Here, the base’s frantic alarms were just a muffled, impotent rumble.
Pierre started with the maritime section. Raven wanted a map of the Elysian Sea, something that would fetch a king’s ransom. But as he flipped through chart after chart of local waters, fishing grounds, and shipping lanes, nothing matched what she’d described.
He slammed the last binder shut, sending a cloud of dust into the air. Not a single chart of the Elysian Sea. A dead end. Raven was going to kill him. Annoyed, he turned from the maritime section, ready to leave with nothing but his own failure. That’s when he saw it.