SCENE 01 – 12 March 2057 – Cutting back to Mendelssohn‘s memory, Vincent Trunzo presses the button on his desk which silently opens a door in the dark, far reaches of his office, and the terrorist, Alexi, is free.

Alexi immediately makes his way to the PK-D sat on the small table in the dark, picks up the gun and fires immediately at Mendelssohn, blowing him backwards and out of the chair he was sitting on. Thanks to his shirt armour, the damage is minimal, but the impact is hard enough to break the skin underneath.

Mendelssohn and Alexi play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game among the shadows, trading roles, with both Trunzo’s, and his secretary’s lives hanging in the balance. Mendelssohn manages to sneak up on Alexi, who is hiding behind a pillar after setting the curtains ablaze, and shoots him at point blank range. Alexi falls to the floor, blood pouring out of his head. Mendelssohn stalks forward and puts another bullet into Alexi’s head before walking back to Trunzo.

Trunzo congratulates Mendelssohn and starts telling him details about his assignment, but Mendelssohn doesn’t hear them, the sound of Trunzo’s voice turning to white noise. Mendelssohn cannot fathom how Trunzo can be so cavalier with life.

Walking to the far end of the office, Trunzo opens a door and on the other side, a young Japanese woman with white hair stands waiting. She smiles at Mendelssohn …

SCENE 02 – DAY 1, SHIFT 4 – An ad hoc interrogation room is set up in a semi-private area of the Victorious Dragon Noodle Shop. Inside, Fenna and Mendelssohn decide to interview Thomspon before resting.

Fenna does not get far when there is a loud, authoritative knock at the door. Before the door is fully open, a woman wearing a dark power suit with equally dark hair pushed back into a bun, forces herself into a room. Throwing her card onto the table and introducing herself as Petra Holling, a Labor Union attorney. She asks Thompson if the detectives have read Thompson his rights. When he says no, Petra says that since they did not, he is free to go. Thompson smugly walks out of the room whistling tunelessly and telling the detectives, I told you so…

SCENE 03 – DAY 2, SHIFTS 1-2 – After resting, the detectives split up to cover more ground. Exley goes to the office of Union leader, Maria Lopes De Matos. Everything in Matos’ office says efficiency and order, her refined taste evident from her clothing and accessories to the authentic, and illegal, succulent plants she cherishes.

De Matos tells Exley that 6 years ago, a neighboring plant owned by Nichikon Group suffered similar sabatoge, but Nichikon never recovered from the backlash. A good number of Nichikon staff was absorbed into Packard Testing, but the breaches never returned, until now.

SCENE 04 – Fenna goes to Kessel Run, the bar where his new lover, Julia, works. The bar is popular with Union members and Fenna is hoping to find Thompson there. His hunch is correct, and after breaking with is friends, Fenna and Thompson sit at the bar and talk. Fenna tells Thompson that he means no harm to the Union and something in Fenna’s manner wins Thompson over and Thompson says he believes Fenna.

Asking Thompson about Victor Sokolov, the N9 that ran from the scene and attacked Mendolssohn, Thompson tells him that Victor is the model employee, never caused any trouble, and he believes Victor is ex-military.

Thompson admits that he wasn’t very friendly with Sokolov, but there’s someone else in the bar that is: Sully, a fellow member of the Local 748 Pipe Fitters Union.

After making the introductions, Thompson leaves Fenna to talk to Sully. Sully confirms that Sokolov is ex-military but has always been a fantastic worker. He has, however, been acting a little strange: Sully says he was acting almost giddy, like he was privy to a joke no one else knew. Sully assumed he had a new squeeze or something. Sully knew that Sokolov recently had a performance review and was likely due for a promotion.

SCENE 05 – Mendelssohn takes the monorail out to the Systems Engineering dome and speaks with Johnathan Chow, an engineer he is friendly with. Chow confirms that Sokolov is the model employee, had a perfect work performance review and a successful baseline test not two days prior.

Digging deeper, Chow discovers that Sokolov’s record is sealed and there’s no recorded Incep date. While this isn’t uncommon for military personnel, Chow says that the security tracers on Sokolov’s seals are very sophisticated and he fears any tampering will be discovered. Mendelssohn asks if he can try and Chow turns the keystroke logging and camera off in his office. He tells Mendelssohn that he has 3 minutes before security will get suspicious.

Mendelssohn is able to break through the seals and downloads the files before its too late. He then leaves Chow’s office before the camera turns back on.