The Backlog
Undercover in Chairman Cao's bidding war beneath Narco City, Vivek learns the shadow economy runs on one rule — the cheque clears, no questions — and reads a manifest that proves Umbrax is already circling a guardian nobody has found yet.
Vivek goes undercover on the half-woken Bridge docks under Narco City chasing a whisper of a warm crate, and gets made by a Digital Drakes enforcer before he can confirm it. He talks his way into a dockside cantina where gangs and Umbrax bosses close deals table to table under cover of a singer's set list, and has to call the right song request to buy his way upstairs. In Chairman Cao's private auction gantry, a bidding war between Umbrax rivals over crystal lenses and a black-market Bridge key turns physical, cracking the floor over the live Bridge spur and forcing Vivek to break cover to save the winning crate. He escapes the collapsing gantry with the crate's manifest tag and a gang contact who now knows too much about what he really is. At dawn he reads the tag: the shipment is already routed to the Lofoten Islands — the guardian in Norway isn't safe, and nobody but Vivek even knows to worry yet.