They don't move.
I stand in the threshold of the black car for a few minutes.
Waiting.
Reading.
Anything—a twitch, a breath, a head turning toward the sound of the door.
Nothing.
The figures on the benches stay exactly as they were. Upright. Masks forward. No rise and fall in the chest. No shift in weight.
Just seated.
At the far end of the corridor, standing in front of the door to the next car, one of them is on its feet. Same mask. Same white uniform. But positioned like a guard. Arms at its sides. Blocking the passage.
My HUD pings.
I almost don't believe it. The system is firing a quest. The interface that's been silent since we walked out of Azure Prime is suddenly awake.
[Pay the ticket to the Train Conductor.]
"You all get the quest?"
"Yeah," Oliver says.
"Yes," Rhayne says.
Lola nods.
"The system's back online." I process it fast. If the system recognizes this train as a quest zone, then we aren't in an ambush. We're in a puzzle. And puzzles have rules.
