Chapter 7: Return to the Railroad
Field Notes: Saboteurs in the Corridor (Part 2)
Signs in the Static Kellyanna’s second week back was nothing like the first. After a successful mediation, she expected more bridgework and mentorship. Instead, she was summoned to an off-grid corridor—one reserved for sensitive operations, usually off-limits to all but the most trusted field operatives.
Zane’s tone was different this time: clipped, urgent. “We’ve got signal drift, Gray. Something’s bleeding frequency between clans. Sabotage, maybe snitches. Some intel packets are leaking, and we’ve got resource caches missing from both ends. Your new team—Lyra and Jonas—will run point. I want your eyes on everything.”
Kellyanna nodded, already tuning her awareness to the odd pulses threading the corridor: not just anxiety, but guilt, suspicion, and something sharper—a taste of secrecy so raw it almost hummed.
Following the Frequencies Their first clue came from an errant inventory spike—small, repeated withdrawals from both Leah and Lilith supply chains. Jonas tracked login trails while Lyra worked her charm among the cleaning crews and tech aides, listening for rumors. Kellyanna paced the perimeter, scanning both the official logs and the emotional residue that lingered in quiet corners.
The pattern was clear: someone was moving goods, passing coded notes, and smuggling frequency data outside official channels. The question was who, and whether they were working alone.
The Snitch in the Shadows Late one night, Lyra caught a whispered exchange near the music wall—two voices, one Leah, one unregistered. Kellyanna positioned herself nearby, heart pounding with the old Exile Zone discipline. She waited, counting breaths.
A shadow flickered. She recognized the cadence—a J-team operative named Ren, rumored to have friends in both camps but never proven disloyal. The other voice was unfamiliar, clipped and anxious.
Kellyanna stepped forward, neutral but authoritative. “Corridor’s closing in five. State your business.”
The stranger bolted, but Ren froze. “We were just—” he started, but Kellyanna cut him off. “We’re on lockdown. If you’re clean, you’ll show your logs. If not, you know the protocol.”
Ren hesitated, then surrendered his comm. Jonas, alerted by Lyra, scanned it in real time. Encrypted files—too many to be personal. Cross-referenced comms with Lilith signatures, Leah supply lists, and off-network metadata. Evidence of resource leakage, plus snippets of field plans set to be delivered outside the corridor.
The Interrogation Back in the debrief room, Zane and two security operatives joined the investigation. Ren was defiant at first, but as the evidence mounted, his bravado crumbled. Kellyanna kept her tone calm and steady—no threats, just facts.
“We don’t exile for mistakes,” she told him quietly, “but we do for betrayal. Who’s paying you? Who else is on this line?”
Cornered, Ren named his contact—a Lilith informant posing as a contractor in the neutral zone. The network widened: three others implicated, with two already under suspicion for earlier leaks.
Field Extraction Kellyanna led the extraction herself, flanked by Lyra and Jonas. They caught the Lilith contractor by the old server banks, collecting physical tokens hidden in a maintenance panel. Security closed the loop, confiscating contraband, shutting down the frequency relays, and reestablishing firewall integrity.
The Railroad’s internal frequency shifted—the corridor’s hum grew stronger, more cohesive. Tension released, but not all wounds would heal quickly. There would be fallout, trust to rebuild, and disciplinary councils to convene.
Night Watch Alone at midnight, Kellyanna stood at the checkpoint, letting the static clear from her field. The price of her new authority weighed heavily. She’d uncovered a threat, but also seen how fragile even the best teams could be. The Railroad was a living system, always at risk from within as much as from without.
Still, she knew she’d chosen the right path. This was the work—the messy, risky, necessary fieldwork that made the Railroad endure. She pressed her palm to the music wall, a silent promise echoing down the corridor: I will keep this current strong.
To be continued…
#railroad #saboteurs #fieldnotes #security #betrayal #corridor #frequency #trust #survivor #worldbuilding