A routine recheck at the security checkpoint, the shadow yandere's bid to escape by shedding her tail
Gwen Stacy's pen, in the end, never fell.
She closed the receiving slip, handed it back to the warehouse clerk, and said only one sentence, "One of the accompanying items will be reviewed before you sign it."
The deacon hesitated for a moment. "Director, the regulations state—"
"There's another clause in the regulations," Gwen Stacy said, "All evidence involving Timeline radiation must undergo deep scanning before being stored, and all accompanying personnel must also be examined. This is a new set of detailed rules issued by the Department of Technology last month, and the warehouse should have a copy."
The deacon pulled out the ledger and, sure enough, there was a newly issued set of detailed rules. The ink wasn't completely dry yet, and Wanda's signature stamp was pressed underneath.
That's exactly what Gwen Stacy wanted.
She turned and left the warehouse, heading towards the security checkpoint at the entrance of the passageway. The checkpoint was old, with two scanning doors, which usually only checked for residual energy. She called over a technical officer from the Liaison Office, whispered a few instructions, and the officer went to adjust the settings.
The news spread very quickly.
Within fifteen minutes, the Vanguard members were successively invited to the passageway. Hela came down from the observation corridor with an unpleasant expression; Wanda, having verified the seal through the observation wall, also arrived; Qin sat on the bench without moving, only raising her eyes slightly.
"The Liaison Office Chief quite the entourage." Hela stood with her hand on her sword. "I've cut down three hundred ironclads, and now I have to go through your gates on my way back?"
"The Director's order is to seal the cabinet in Zero Storage Room," Gwen Stacy said. "The cabinet has been exposed to radiation from discarded wiring, and so have the people inside. Scanning is routine; the Director the Stability Maintenance Office led the way, so no one else has anything to say."
Hela stared at her for a couple of moments, then snorted coldly and stepped into the scanning door. A flash of blue light appeared inside, the reading was stable, and she was allowed to pass.
Wanda paused half a step as she passed the door. "This setting," she glanced at the parameters on the doorpost, "Is set 30% higher than the specifications. Director Gwen Stacy doesn't need this for radiation scanning."
"It's all junk material; nobody can say for sure what it might be contaminated with," Gwen Stacy said. "It's better to go deeper than to miss anything. If the minister feels something is amiss, the review record is here, and we can request an investigation at any time."
Wanda looked at her for a while, then went through the door without saying anything more.
Jean was the last to arrive. As she passed through the door, the reading on the doorpost jumped slightly before settling back down. She glanced at Gwen Stacy and smiled, "Director, this door isn't for radiation."
"The Special Envoy is overthinking it."
"You're sweeping people." Qin straightened her sleeves and walked away slowly. "You swept quite well. It's just that with some people, you won't find anything."
Gwen Stacy didn't reply. Her gaze traveled across the passageway and landed at the end of the corridor.
Natasha has arrived.
She walked slowly, having already handed over the evidence box, her hands empty, her left sleeve still neatly tucked in. Reaching the door, she stopped, glanced at the parameters on the doorpost, then at Gwen Stacy.
"Director, you've memorized the regulations perfectly today, and you've even mastered the art of setting up the door," she laughed. "Are you here for me?"
"They're coming for everyone." Gwen Stacy stepped aside. "Acting Director, please."
Natasha stepped inside.
A bluish light swept down from above. She stood ramrod straight, her hands hanging at her sides, the cuff of her left sleeve swaying gently as she raised her arm.
The reading jumped.
Gwen Stacy stared at the screen. The jump was so light, landing on her cuff like a speck of dust falling into water.
Natasha looked down at her cuffs and reached out to straighten them. Her fingertips slipped inside the cuff, caught something, and her thumb and forefinger gently twisted together.
The movement was so subtle that the technical operator standing three steps away thought she was just dusting herself off.
But Gwen Stacy saw it. She saw the extremely fine powder that slipped through her fingers as she closed them, falling onto the footplate of the scanning door, where it was swept away by the circulating airflow inside the door.
The readings on the screen stabilized. The green light illuminated.
"Passed," the technical officer said.
Natasha lowered her sleeves, stepped out of the scanning door, and stood next to Gwen Stacy.
"What does the section chief want?" she asked, her voice low, only audible to the two of them.
"The acting Director had something extra in his sleeve just now." Gwen Stacy didn't mince words, "The Director saw it clearly, and so did I."
"The Director saw it clearly." Natasha nodded, her smile unwavering. "Then the section chief should be reporting to the Director, not here fiddling with my door."
"The door is a routine matter."
"Routine." Natasha repeated the word, turning her head to look at her. "Director Gwen Stacy, you and I had a conversation in the confidential room a few days ago. It went well; we both got what we wanted. Now that this door is open, does that conversation mean it's null and void?"
Gwen Stacy paused for a moment.
That confidential meeting room, that tacit understanding of resource allocation—it was something she traded Lynn's secret for. Natasha brought it up now not as a reminiscence, but as a reminder: you also have leverage over me; once things fall apart, no one will be left unscathed.
"A conversation is a conversation, and regulations are regulations," Gwen Stacy said. "If the acting Director feels that this clause is flawed, he can request the Director to make a ruling."
It's that same line again. Requesting a ruling means bringing the matter to Lynn's attention.
Natasha laughed out loud.
"I wouldn't dare," she said. "It's the Director's rule, I've been on guard. The door's been closed, and the things—" She opened her left hand, turning her sleeve inside out; it was empty. "The section chief saw it too, nothing."
"It was just here."
"It was there just now, but it's gone now." Natasha withdrew her hand, saying each word clearly, "If the director wants to investigate, he'll find powder, but nothing else. What the powder is, nobody can say for sure. To write something uncertain into a report is simply slander."
After she finished speaking, she nodded slightly to Gwen Stacy and walked deeper into the passageway. After taking seven or eight steps, she stopped, turned back, and added a sentence.
"Director, you did the right thing by setting up this door today," she said. "If it were me, I would have done the same. Just remember to sweep the stepplate next time you set it up."
Gwen Stacy stood there, watching her walk away.
A technician leaned closer and asked in a low voice, "Chief, should we take a sample of the residue on the pedal?"
"Take it," Gwen Stacy said. "After taking it, send it to the Department of Technology for the most detailed spectral analysis."
The operative took his orders and left. Gwen Stacy looked down at the small, almost invisible gray mark on the scanner door's pedal, knowing full well that spectral analysis might not be useful. Natasha dared to crush it in front of her, and she dared to make sure the powder had no trace of origin.
The memory was destroyed. What was stored inside, along with that one twist, went to a place no one could reach.
But precisely because of this, Gwen Stacy became certain of one thing.
Anything worth Natasha cutting off herself is no small matter. The cleaner she cuts it off, the hotter it becomes.
Gwen Stacy retrieved her Private Terminal and sent an encrypted message to the Director's Office.
"Scan complete. The item in Natasha's sleeve has self-destructed, leaving only a trace amount of powder. Spectroscopic results are pending. Also--"
Her fingertip paused on the screen for a moment, then she finished typing the last half of the sentence.
"She destroyed herself too quickly. So quickly, it wasn't like she was afraid we'd find out; it was more like she was afraid someone else would find out."
The message was sent, but the reply has been delayed.
Gwen Stacy looked up, gazing towards Zero Storage Room. The Alloy Door was closed, Three Seals set behind it, and the seam at the bottom of the cabinet was hidden beneath the seals, quiet and still.
But her unease had only intensified.
Natasha crushed something from the cuff. What if there was a second item hidden in the seam at the bottom of the closet?