System Activated: Empire Reset Protocol

Chapter 7. The Runner’s Fall 2

The vendor shrugged. “A kid. Called it a favor. Said a man on Mercer told him to hand it to you.”

Murray’s muscles bunched. “Where’s Mercer?”

“Two blocks. Ask around.” The vendor already had the next customer in mind. Murray left like a man on rails, the scrap burning his pocket.

He found Mercer busy, the alleys congested with morning trade. A messenger boy pointed toward a stairwell. “Saw a group leave. A wet man, a girl, a kid.” He spat. “Shouldn’t be here.”

Murray’s eyes narrowed. The description fit Victor’s rumor-perfect face. He marched back to Donovan Tower as if blood were a map and he could follow it. 

He didn’t know Victor, but he would make him known. Victor watched Murray’s approach from two windows away. 

The man moved fast; he carried panic like a cloak.  Victor felt the system’s cool annotation: 

[Murray: impulsive] 

[Predictable response: Direct confrontation] 

[Suggested manipulation vector: Staged public humiliation followed by internal blame]

Victor dialed a number, a contact who owed him a small kindness, and spoke in quick, precise tones. 

He arranged a show: a delivery of rental invoices to Donovan’s front desk with Nolan’s name on them, silly paper trails that suggested incompetence and leisurely theft.

By mid-afternoon, Murray stormed into Donovan’s inner office with proof in hand, a snapped photo of Victor in front of the bookie earlier, a smear of the ledger print, and the vendor’s paper folded like a confession.

“Sir,” Murray said, breathless. “I’ve got him. The rat from Mercer. He’s the leak, or he’s with the leaker. He’s visible. I can get him.”

Donovan steepled his fingers and watched Murray with a long, terrible patience. “You brought me a rumor.”

“It’s more than that,” Murray said, voice strained. “I have proof. He’s visible, he’s been seen with Nolan’s men, and someone planted a note that points at internal negligence. Lena will be blamed if this gets out.”

Donovan’s face didn’t change, but his eyes flicked to the corner of the desk where an assistant’s pad lay. 

He made a gesture, a small, almost careless nod, and a name slid into the air: “Lena. Bring Lena in”

Murray’s chest swelled. “I’ll bring her.”

He did. He grabbed the assistant’s tablet and summoned Lena. She arrived, cheekbones tight.

A woman whose eyes were polite but who wore resentment like a thin mask. She read the scrap Murray thrust at her and paled.

“This would look bad,” she whispered. “If the ledger points to Lark & Stone and my department’s transfers, it could be traced back to me.”

Murray watched her crumble at the edges. It was exactly what Victor had wanted, a crack in Donovan’s internal armor. 

He had predicted Lena’s fear: being blamed for a leak; being stripped of reputation. Donovan folded his hands together, voice quiet. “Lena, you were in charge of those transfers. Explain why there’s a notation that a payment was missed.”

Lena’s mouth compressed. “I, I don’t, there may have been an error. I can run the logs.”

“Run them,” Donovan said. “But if this is negligence, we make a public example. We cannot let a runner’s incompetence look like an inside job.”

Murray’s smile was the thin thing of someone who’d caught a big fish. He left feeling the world tilt toward his favor. He had purpose again. He had validation. He had a target in sight.

Victor watched Lena’s face as she left, tight, determined, but wounded. He saw her fear like a thread he could pull and tugged it gently. 

[Potential ally identified: Lena]

[Leverage: Fear of blame]

[Suggested approach: Offer aid and a chance to shift blame elsewhere in exchange for cooperation]

He nudged Mira. “She’s brittle. She won’t help for nothing. But she’ll help if we promise what she needs, control, not exposure.”

Mira cracked her knuckles, grin sharp. “I can get close. I can whisper a story about corrupt payrolls, point fingers at people who actually deserve it. Lena will choose protection.”

Victor smiled like someone smelling a plan baking. “We give Lena an option: help us feed Donovan a false trail that routes blame to Nolan’s men and Murray’s oversight. In exchange, she gets the security reassignment she’s always wanted. She keeps her job; she grows in Donovan’s favor, on our terms.”

“You manipulate the manipulator,” Kai murmured.

Victor’s eyes were cold and warm at once. “We give her a path that saves her skin and places her under our thumb. She becomes our inside. Murray becomes the man Donovan blames for overreach. The public thinks Donovan acts. The victims think justice is served. But the ripple is ours.”

Mira clapped quietly. “Beautifully ugly.”

Victor felt the system tick like a clock: 

[Ally recruitment: Lena, probable if offered plausible deniability] 

[Enemy destabilization: Murray, high] 

[Unlock: internal access node (partial)]

[Risk: Elevated if Lena betrays[

He tugged his coat closed and smoothed the ledger’s oilcloth. “We begin tonight,” he said. “We make Lena a small favor and a bigger promise. We let Murray take the fall he craves.”

Outside, the city prepared for dusk, neon waking, shadows sharpening. Inside Donovan Tower, a man named Murray strutted with hot purpose. Unaware that every confident step made him more noticeable, more likely to trip. 

Victor felt the first threads of a larger tapestry tighten around their enemies. “Tonight,” Victor said softly, “we make a man fall because he tried to fly.”

Mira looked at him, eyes bright. “And then?”

Victor’s smile took on the patience of a long hunger. “Then we wait until the world leans in to watch the downfall, and we pull the ropes.”