Burn Notice

The moment Elias opened the safehouse door, the smell hit him first — char, smoke, and a chemical bite that turned his stomach. The hallway was hazy. Not from a fire, but from something worse: accelerants. Industrial. Deliberate.

Dizzy stumbled out of the kitchen, coughing into his sleeve. "Yo, Kane — we've got a situation."

Elias's eyes flicked to the living room. The map overlay was glitching, blinking red across Gutterfront and Vire Alley. A single system message flickered in the top-right corner of his HUD.

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[WARNING: Zone Disruption Detected – Fire Hazard]

Local Territory Status: Compromised

Stability Rating: 43% → 12%

Emergency Response Timer: 03:15:00

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Elias moved fast. "Mara?"

"In the back," Dizzy said. "She pulled two tanks out before it spread — methanol and something synthetic."

He found her near the storage room, sweat-slicked and smeared with soot. Two metal drums sat outside, one leaking into the gutter. The air shimmered with chemical fumes.

"I didn't light it," she said immediately. "This wasn't random."

"No," Elias said. "This was a message."

He walked to the front of the building and yanked open the security footage app on the burner phone. Rewind. Pause.

A black van. Masked figures. Two minutes tops.

They never entered — just sprayed a chemical mist into the vents and tossed two canisters through the side window. Silent. Surgical.

Not Scavengers. Not amateur work.

"They wanted to flush us out without leaving prints," Elias muttered.

His system pinged again.

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[New Intel Thread Unlocked: Third Party Aggressor – Class UNKNOWN]

Trace Origin: South Quarter

Priority Level: Medium → High

Recommended Action: Investigate "Black Van Sightings" (0/3)

Reward: +3 Intel Threads | Unlock Crime Shop Tier II

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"This is the third thread," he muttered. "One more and we unlock a tier bump."

Dizzy wiped his face with a rag. "So what now? We play detective while our turf melts?"

"No," Elias said. "We strike back first — but smarter."

He pulled up the map overlay again. One orange marker flashed near the canal: **South Quarter Salvage Yard – Unclaimed Node**.

"New plan. We're raiding that salvage yard. We need tools, scrap, maybe tech. If someone's starting fires, we need eyes everywhere."

"Backup generator," Mara added. "And masks. I'm not breathing another lungful of melted plastics."

They moved fast. Within forty minutes, they crossed into South Quarter. The salvage yard loomed behind chain-link fencing and razor wire. Locked. Empty. But system-marked.

A faint hum filled Elias's ears as he passed the threshold.

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[Resource Node Located – South Quarter Salvage]

Node Condition: 43%

Threat Level: Minimal

Interact with Node to Claim?

[Y/N]

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"Yes," Elias whispered.

The system pulsed.

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[Node Claimed: Resource Node – South Quarter Salvage]

+6 Crime Points

Territory Stability +5%

Resource Flow: +1 Scrap Unit/Day | +1 Electronics/2 Days

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CP: 25

They rummaged through the wreckage, pulling what they could. Mara found a cracked but fixable drone. Dizzy scouted and returned with a pair of thermite canisters from a storage crate.

But it wasn't all salvage.

Near the back wall, under a tarp, Elias found something… off. A crate not labeled for parts or metal. A briefcase, locked and steel-plated.

He touched it.

The system surged.

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[Hidden Item Detected: Unknown Tech Crate]

Decryption Required: 2 Threads or Tool Use

Unlock Reward: ???

Warning: Item Tracked – Possible Ping to External Entity

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Elias cursed under his breath. "We're stealing from someone with reach."

"Who?" Mara asked.

"I don't know. But they tried to burn us out, and now we've got one of their toys."

He slid the briefcase under his jacket and stood.

"This isn't just street-level anymore. Somebody's watching."

And for the first time, Elias Kane smiled — not out of confidence, but anticipation.

Let them watch.

He was ready to burn back.