Floor 25 — Human Resources Department
The elevator doors open to the faint hum of emergency power and the stale smell of burned coffee.
Rows of cubicles stand in uneven lines, broken by overturned chairs, open drawers, and loose forms scattered across the carpet.
A console hums quietly, indexing the department’s active personnel files.
Most folders are routine—holiday schedules, benefit updates, termination drafts.
One record flashes in yellow as if recently reopened:
The interface lists it as HR-COMP-R.CALDER-1223-20XX — a formal complaint in progress.
Its status reads: “Review pending post-holiday audit.”
[L.U.N.A. SYSTEM LINK — SECTOR 25 ACCESSING…]
Division: Human Resources
Subsystems: Personnel Records / Local Console
Integrity: SEVERE CORRUPTION — Speech Modules Offline
[L.U.N.A. TEXT OUTPUT]
“…unable to establish connection, attack on core… 25 accross…”
The console’s glow fades, redirecting your gaze toward Holly Denton’s desk.
A crumpled newspaper lies half-buried under a stack of employee termination forms.
The crossword page is wrinkled and ringed with a coffee stain, the ink smudged where
someone pressed too hard with their pen.
The headline above the fold still shows through the stain:
“Nakatomi West Celebrates Record Year Amid Restructuring.”
Several clues are scribbled out or half-filled:
22 Across: "A meeting that could've been an email" (4) 23 Across: "Used to hide bad decisions" (5) 24 Across: "Annual performance ______" (6) 25 Across: "One who gives orders but never takes them" (7) 26 Down: "Word repeated in memos: 'synergy'" (8)
Rotate Phone to view entire screen.
On the line for 25 Across, faint pencil marks show only two tentative letters —
an M at the beginning and a shaky G in the middle, as if someone started to guess the answer and stopped halfway.
The monitor behind you dims again, leaving only a faint echo of static in the air.
Its odd that LUNA would point this out in the middle of an investigation. Perhaps that virus is affecting the AI
Please record this clue locally, L.U.N.A. storage degraded.
Holly’s Desk
Next to the newspaper, a photo frame lies on its face near an empty mug.
The glass is cracked but intact.
When you turn it over, you see Holly in a simple white dress, standing alone in front of a courthouse door.
The photo looks like it was folded once down the middle, as if someone wanted to hide whoever used to stand beside her.