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Speaker 1: Hello, I'm welcomed stories all the time. Glad you are here.

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Let's get into it. Crackling static flickers in my headphones

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are wavering hiss that's always there, stitched into the noise

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floor between my words. If you're listening to this, you

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know I don't filter too much. It's the way I

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started in my podcasts, at least before everything turns strange.

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This isn't what I planned on recording to night. I

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usually close shot by midnight and crash at my desk,

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but some nights the city wouldn't let me. It was

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just past eleven twenty when I heard the faint, metallic

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slide outside my glass office door. Blue streets stuffing the

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grimmest temp agency on the edge of Mitenkos quiet after

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eight p m. So even late, every footfall fee is intrusive.

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I waited, half listening, thinking maybe the accountant from Dancers

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left another note about the thermostat, or that the janitor

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had snuck up to empty bins. Instead, nothing, just the

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fading hum of distant traffic, forescent lights buzzing with fatigue,

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and the shuffle thump of someone or something trudging away.

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Another five minutes and I would have ignored it, but

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my curiosity got the better of me. I opened the door.

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I didn't see anyone of just a slip of darkness

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vanishing around the corner, too fast for me to catch

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a glimpse. At my feet, though waited a think. Black

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binder sealed in a plastic sleeve, as if to weather

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the night, the kind management uses for h R policies, neat, dustless,

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out of place. I hesitated, the way you do when

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you send someone else's urgency lingering. I reached down, and

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just before picking it up, realized the sleeve was not enclosed,

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almost paranoid in its thoroughness. It wasn't warm, but the

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thing nearly vibrated with potential. I caught the trace of

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cologne or after ship clinging to it to shop old

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fashion scent. My pulse quickened for reasons I couldn't pin

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down Inside the sleeve. The binder was immaculate, jet black cover,

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fresh plastic rings. First tap opened under a page with

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a grood of tians dates, clock hands drawn with obsessive neediness.

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The second page was clipped with the blue postit and

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lipping hurried ink. I saw, do not file confidential if

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they ask deny below, photocopid forms maintenance logs for the

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entire building, level lists, vi Drollsignin's detailed elevator repetickets. Every

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line cross referenced with stamps, signatures, and in the margin

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are notations in un familiar handwriting. Some reference specific grooms

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or conduits that didn't match the actual floor lay outside scene.

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A few locks highlighted whole time periods where access denied systems,

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loop and cryptic references to maintenance work above, but none

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of the contractor initials matched anyone I recognized. Toward the end,

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a section of rough diagrams, a crude hand drawn map

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of the upper floors with auditas and blank spaces. The

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sixth floor, which should have been a flat concrete paddis

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storage area as I'd been told up here, with a

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series of excess and no marks and tangled lines running through.

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One sticky note stuck out at the coroner, almost childlike one.

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Lights flickered again, heard her voice by a stoutwell. Second

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shift said it was empty, but it's never empty. The

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handwriting ran crooked, as if the writer was being jostled.

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The last page broke the methodical rhythm. If you want dancers,

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watch the sixth floor. After TUREM, don't believe the sign

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in locks there was a ded tonight well. I thought

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either someone was playing games with me or they were

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desperate for a scared for me to see it is

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before anybody else. I coaked my head out into the

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hole again silence. But as I gazed up the stairwells

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open core five floors of blank black rectangles gaped above,

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and far above behind a grimy paine that belonged to

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the six floor supposity peddlocked and dead, I saw a faint,

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pulsing sliver of light. It wasn't the steady forescent of

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a cleaning crew, and it was the passing cause wash

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if flicker. A nervous morse curd feeble, but determined it

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was eleven forty. What kind of building locks away a

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whole floor nobody uses? Then let secerts drift down in

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binder's leg bait, and I thought, who decides to leave

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a sign for whoever still awake enough to look? I

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should have called security. I should have tossed the binder

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in the manager's in books, left it for their morning headaches.

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But as I found through the pages once more diagrams clippings,

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half ray scribbles that made my skin prickle. I couldn't

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help it. I pressed record this is of Kessler. Blue

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Street Tower, second floor received anonymous delivery confidential logs keys

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to nothing but a warning there's a light burning on

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the sixth floor. I'm going to find out whose watching whom.

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Most nights I don't scare easily. To night, I felt

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something beyond curiosity take hold. It was as if the

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building itself had nudged me toward that binder, toward whatever

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was waiting above. Some mysteries are borne from coincidence. Some

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I learned that night, are cultivated. Being a reporter is

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a career built on skepticism and in complete coffee. My

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office is a closer of USB Mike's caffeine soak notes

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and the town of coal takeout. I never plan on

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like zitt Echo, the constant, low grade paranoia that comes

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with covering the city's fraying edges. Blue Street was my

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first tempt job, but lately it felt like it might

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be my last. The next morning, I arrived after an

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iris leap, bind her hidden in my back back and

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tuck myself into my usual corner booth at hoch Cockfay.

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My playlist overflowed with previous episodes, superstitions in city housing,

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haunted alleyways, the rumer economy. My voice scratched the opening

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script episode one hundred nine, The Modern Myths of Midtown.

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But even with my daily rituals chatting with Melt, my producer,

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and tossing questions to the tenants, who forced cheer? Who

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I was chewing on the contents of that binder I spent?

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I was flipping it in my lap beneath the table,

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shuffling die on ground's back and forth in case smell

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snuck a glance over my shoulder. By noon, I'd swat

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my morning routine for a surplus of suspicion. I had

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a list of the buildings regulars, and for cover, I

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pretended to gather their thoughts about office upgrades for a

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segment that was never going to air. Tony, a resident

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accountant and two B met me by the elevator with

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his usual nervous energy. He fidgeted with his tie, glancing

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at the ceiling slickering bulbs at night. You'll hear the pipe, sure,

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he whispered, voice, cracking pole place groans, old bones. You

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know sometimes I think I hear some one on the steps,

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but the only one around is the janitor. Don't print that,

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o K, he paused. We had paperwork loss payroll one time,

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just varnished, then popped up days later, but numbers were off.

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Management blamed me. I scribbled notes I pretended were for

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building feature stores. He shifted from fit to foot, finally

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darting down the hall as if afraid of being overheard.

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The next was Maia from Bridle Studio Chugee. She always

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kept her space bright with imitation penis and the faint

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hum of classical music. I mentioned the after ires room

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is just abroad. Gosts. No, no, she said, waving her

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hand with lift sixteen fingers. It's just city stories. Some

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years ago I heard attendant had a bad fall on

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the stairs. But that's every building, isn't it the truth?

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The six floor isn't haunted, it's never open. I don't

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less staff up there, but after sunset I lock up.

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People get strange ideas at night. She smiled, but I

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could see the tension drawing lines by her eyes at

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the door keys jangling. She hesitated, glancing toward the stairwell.

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In moments between interviews. I wandered the hall, taking in

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the musty scent that seemed to waft from all day

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track and shut at offices. The paint peeled in thin calicues,

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and every step echoed n naturally, as if the place

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was built for more tenants than it had eva housed.

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Half the mail boxes on the grand floor were empty,

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and the tiles at the back entrance wap where water

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had once seeped in. Later, in the record's room, I

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poured over the history of Blue Street Tower. The original

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blueprints were tucked behind glass at the front desk and

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naive goldleaf promise of prosperity. The building rose in the fifties,

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but a failed attempt at modern expansion a decade go

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left the six four unfinished. Lawsuit followed structural errors cost

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overran's one contractor, who sued for our hostile conditions. The

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owners tried to lease the six, but nothing stuck. Insurance

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flight did as hazardous, so they locked it behind a

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signed off Crimson placard, but the elevator still listed six

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as an option, had a tape over the button. No

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mention of sealed corridors in public records. I've covered ghost

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stors for clicks before, but I never trusted them. Every

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fountom roomor boiled down to book keeping errors or board

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night's staff who wanted an hour off still by late

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after Nima in books, Pinketon address with a string of

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random characters, no signature. Did you get the binder? Do

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not trust management? The subject line was in all CAP's warning.

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I stared at the email, hands resting on the keyboard,

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careful not to reply. The building's shadow loomed larger. Now.

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I wondered if My's brisk dismissal or Tony's nervous glances

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were performances, or if they two felt something watching from above.

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I placed the binder on the table, double checking each

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page as if I'd missed a key already. Before packing up,

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I pulled my foreign and scanned the six floors windows

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from the sidewalk. Nothing just dirty pains, dull in the

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luring sun, reflecting my own worrid face. When you spend

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years debunking stories, he developed routines to compartmentalize fear, but

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the memory of the flickering light the bind is careful.

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Anonymity and the six certainty that someone had chosen me

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deliberately kept nudging at the edges of my resolve back

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in my office, afflicked in the recorder. Something is wrong here.

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Someone inside the building wants this to come out, and

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I am beginning to think it isn't a simple girse

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they're afraid of. Following night, I decided to test the

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boundaries of my paranoia. Sleep as a wash. My nerves

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perk every time a sea train rattled beneath the avenue.

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A little after midnight, I let myself into Blue Street

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Tower with Tony spare pass card back. I cloated with

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a bath at Sony camcorder and my favorite Field audio recorder.

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The elevator was already locked tenants after IROs so. I

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took the stairs too at a time, pausing on the

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fifth landing like spurning with adrenaline, and was giving an

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equal measure. From there, I crouched next to the stairwell door,

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both hands pressed to the cool metal. This spot had

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a perfec few den the spine of the building, the

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lobbis paltry potted palm, the revolving glass doors, the checkerboard

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floor glimmering with sodium light from the street. The holes

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were so empty that every distant drip sounded orchestrated. I

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checked my watch two zevanhum time drag. I tried to

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steady my breathing ears, attuned to mechanical rhythms on camera,

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nothing unusual, a few des modes drifting in front of

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the lens. The orange glare of the exit signed reflecting weirdly.

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But as two thirteen tipped over, a low frequency hum

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crept up from the walls. It was almost mechanical, like

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an elevator, long out of cortification, shuddering behind concrete. Leaning

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over the fifth four banister, I peered up through a

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gap where the stair wall wall at the window the

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sixth floor, a rectangle of heavy glass, crusted with the

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recidue of years. A bulb or maybe a desk lamp,

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flickered to life in sudden impulses. The dirty pink clothed

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when dark glowed again a deliberate signal, almost rhythmical. Drops

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of sweat crawled down my neck. I ned a camera,

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but the image was muddy, out of focus, shapes behind

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the glass impossible to define. My audio recorder, though picked

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up more than dead air. I caught a sequence of footsteps,

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deliberate and slow somewhere above, not heavy nor shoffing like

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the janet has caught, just the quiet cages of a

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person moving carefully, accompanied by a low scoff and what

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might have been the memmor of voices through multiple lays

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of plaster and rabah. The light's cut out again before

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two twenty. The entire building seemed to exhale in that moment.

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I let the camera roll a little longer, scanning every window. Nothing.

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By morning, cafeen propped me up well enough to catch

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the night janitor at the subway entrance. Gregg was fifty,

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maybe perpetually shrouded in flannel and resentment. I waited until

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no one else was around. Hey Gregg, you ever worked

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the sixth floor? I kept my tone light. He wearily

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eyed my phone, then shook his head. We don't go

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out there, no point to the stairs block off right,

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he sniffed, glancing over his shoulder. Sometimes I see lights. Sure,

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management says it's a circuit thing, but the wires are dead.

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If you hear anything, it's nothing. Don't worry about it, liar,

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I thought, watching how his gaze refused to lend anywhere

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for long. I spent the next iro cross referencing the

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previous few weeks of building email several tenants, a couple

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on the third floor, some one from the shipping office

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complained about lost paperwork, calls, getting routed to deadlines, and

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seeing shapes behind the high glass odd eyers. Their language

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was careful. I think it was the wind. One wrote,

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probably maintenance, but I didn't recognize the silhouette. My own

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in books had a dozen messages about deliver is misplaced

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and support tickets are resolved by technicians who never signed

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the log books. There was unmistakably a pattern, not ghosts,

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but things, misplaced voices, misplaced lights, The flickered on and

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off in patterns nobody could explain. Sitting at my work station,

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the binder opened all its obscure diagrams, I felt the

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fact shift beneath me. Some one was using this floor,

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or the idea of it, to manipulate the building's riddance

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at exactly whose behests I needed to discover for myself.

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As the day slid by, I transformed from casual skeptic

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to obsessive documentarian. My next run through Blue Streets reactive

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00:11:51,919 --> 00:11:55,080
tenants was more targeted. Each interviewer searched for concrete evidence.

240
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In the web of daily frustration and low level dread,

241
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no one trusted official forms Each guds floated toward the stairwell,

242
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towards shadows crawling up the wall. At dusk. Maya by,

243
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now accustomed to my recording gear, appeared more open. After

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a few gentle questions. Last week, she confided, I found

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a delivery slip on my counter. It was the wrong address,

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but it had my handwriting. She frowned, brow pinched. I

247
00:12:17,320 --> 00:12:19,960
don't remember filling it out, and the original gone. Then

248
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,480
Monday morning, everything I'd lost reappeared, but notes called on them,

249
00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:26,279
not in my own pen. Who keeps dampering with my paperwork?

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00:12:27,080 --> 00:12:30,399
I pressed gently? Did you report it? She offered a

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wan smile. We don't make trouble for management of it.

252
00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:36,600
Trust me better that way. Every shop here knows. Tony

253
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more Judery by the Day described a scene from his

254
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after I was vigil thing is computers kept darling out

255
00:12:42,240 --> 00:12:44,480
at three in the morning, walk past my phone, red

256
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lights blinking in internal extension. I picked up and herstatic.

257
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But the call said it was from six oh one.

258
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That's the six, isn't it? Only heard? It was gobbled?

259
00:12:51,879 --> 00:12:54,360
But some one was speaking real quick, then hung up.

260
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Even the security team, always stone face started to bend

261
00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:00,679
Phil The midnight God met me by the mailium with

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his tai Ski fingers, drumming on his flashlight. I'll tell

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you something off the record, he said, Leaning close. Last month,

264
00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,200
late back starell was open, unlocked. It shouldn't have been.

265
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Chain on the inside was missing, dead, but not even latched.

266
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I swear I wheeled it shut after, but his voice

267
00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:18,960
trailed off, shoulders drawing tighter. There's always a draft in

268
00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:21,919
that place, like doors opened where they shouldn't be. Worth

269
00:13:21,960 --> 00:13:25,320
each story, my certainty grew. Whoever orchestrated these disturbances knew

270
00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,320
the patterns of daily life here and was deliberately appending them.

271
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I dove into the city's crumbling wrecords, spending IROs at

272
00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:34,840
the municipal archives, obscenely, the coffee in hand. The listed

273
00:13:34,840 --> 00:13:37,519
blueprints for Blue Street Tower confirmed by suspicion, the sixth

274
00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:40,279
floor was only accessible via the elevator disabled more than

275
00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:42,799
three years ago, or from the stairwalls locked behind two

276
00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:46,720
iron five doors. No mention of alternate access anywhere in

277
00:13:46,759 --> 00:13:50,159
the modern plans, yet, tucked between faded sheets, I found

278
00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:53,559
older blueprints. There. Beneath runes of coffee stains and punch

279
00:13:53,639 --> 00:13:57,240
holes are traced a set of oddly angled service corridors, windowless,

280
00:13:57,519 --> 00:14:00,360
doubling back, some choked off in renovation but marked a

281
00:14:00,440 --> 00:14:03,240
roof or o auxiliary maintenance. A few poked through to

282
00:14:03,279 --> 00:14:05,879
the sixth and error or in admission. The rent record

283
00:14:05,919 --> 00:14:08,159
showed something else. Snow official least signed for the six

284
00:14:08,240 --> 00:14:11,039
or any adjacent mechanical spase since twenty fourteen. Even the

285
00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,559
management reported routine fire compliance checks annually with signatures I

286
00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:17,919
couldn't match to any living tenant or employee. I kept digging.

287
00:14:18,399 --> 00:14:21,240
Cookie cutter security cam footage told a story all its own.

288
00:14:21,799 --> 00:14:24,399
My friendly second shift, sharp as attack and easily bred

289
00:14:24,399 --> 00:14:27,200
with Peter slipped me a thumb drive on it, for

290
00:14:27,360 --> 00:14:29,720
I was a static tinge video from the rear corridors.

291
00:14:30,360 --> 00:14:32,720
In those pale frames, shadows blurred in and out, never

292
00:14:32,759 --> 00:14:35,279
fully distinct. But at two eighteen and Tuesday, a figure

293
00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,120
distorted passed across the service hallway. It had ducked, moving

294
00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:42,919
impossibly fast in frame one, empty by two, a lengthening shadow,

295
00:14:43,559 --> 00:14:48,320
then nothing. I rewind over and over. No badge, no uniform,

296
00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:51,960
but some shape, some one, sometimes two side by side, headless,

297
00:14:52,039 --> 00:14:55,240
vanishing between the jumpy frames. At the last time mark

298
00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:58,039
the service corridor door creaked up in a half inch pause,

299
00:14:58,159 --> 00:15:02,080
then shut. Rumors world f Mike called about another memo

300
00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,759
pushed beneath her shop door in block capitals hullway lights

301
00:15:04,799 --> 00:15:07,679
need servicing scheduled t BA, please return all signed forms

302
00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:11,080
by four thirty. Neither name nor signature, nobody could trace

303
00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,639
who send it. Tony texted after midnight, found staple paper

304
00:15:14,639 --> 00:15:17,440
with my name on third fel mail box, not handwriting info.

305
00:15:17,519 --> 00:15:20,159
Only you and I knew. He'd stopped trusting the locks,

306
00:15:20,279 --> 00:15:23,559
started leaving his lights on over night. Curt instrown, even

307
00:15:23,639 --> 00:15:27,159
Phil normally inflappable, mentioned with odd reluctance he'd been hearing

308
00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:30,759
voices through the ben shafts, half conversations, sometimes his own name,

309
00:15:30,879 --> 00:15:33,679
sometimes a woman's laughter, echoing from somewhere no working human

310
00:15:33,679 --> 00:15:36,120
should be. If I was in too deep, so would

311
00:15:36,159 --> 00:15:38,720
the others. After a week of this, my own nerds

312
00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:42,000
started to fray. The paranoid groom infected every elevator chime,

313
00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:45,440
every skip forcemail sent, My pulse sleeping, my sleep eroded

314
00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:47,840
into three iro stretches, riddled with half dreams of panic

315
00:15:47,840 --> 00:15:50,960
figures running and seening halls. Then, on a Wednesday, so

316
00:15:51,039 --> 00:15:53,000
quiet that even the street preacher took the day off,

317
00:15:53,080 --> 00:15:55,240
I found a single page slipped under my apartment door.

318
00:15:55,879 --> 00:15:59,279
The paper was crisp, knew the handwriting precise. The stairs

319
00:15:59,279 --> 00:16:01,440
are safe until three three fifteen. Don't let them catch

320
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:05,480
you on tape. They watch no signature this time, no email.

321
00:16:06,159 --> 00:16:08,159
My hat slammed in my chest. Some one had followed

322
00:16:08,159 --> 00:16:11,039
me home, whoever this was. They wanted me to keep digging,

323
00:16:11,159 --> 00:16:13,840
but not to expose them. Not yet. I studied the

324
00:16:13,879 --> 00:16:17,759
note for anything, indentations beneath the handwriting, odd smules, misspelled words,

325
00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:20,480
nothing but its presents the assertion that I was not

326
00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:23,480
just a chronicler, but a participant. I set the note

327
00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:25,440
beside my recorder and pressed my pond to the coal

328
00:16:25,519 --> 00:16:29,000
window glass outside. The city lights smeared in the humid night,

329
00:16:29,039 --> 00:16:32,600
looping endlessly in the reflection inside the darkness pool thicker

330
00:16:32,639 --> 00:16:35,639
than ever in the corners. I realized every step would

331
00:16:35,679 --> 00:16:37,440
be watched from now on, by whom or by what.

332
00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:39,960
I would have to discover soon, and at my own risk.

333
00:16:40,639 --> 00:16:43,679
It wasn't enough any more to chronicle patterns or theorized explanations.

334
00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:47,120
Something or some one had claimed the sixth floor for itself,

335
00:16:47,320 --> 00:16:49,240
and I was being drawn deeper with each clue, each

336
00:16:49,240 --> 00:16:51,360
whisper in the dot work, each note left after I

337
00:16:51,399 --> 00:16:54,080
was like adair. The next morning, I returned to Blue

338
00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:55,879
Street with the binder zip tight under my arm, a

339
00:16:55,919 --> 00:16:58,000
flat light, and feeled like in my shoulder back no

340
00:16:58,159 --> 00:17:01,600
stretched tight like fencing wire. After two rounds through the building,

341
00:17:01,679 --> 00:17:04,119
three suspicious glances from tenants, and a half cup of

342
00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,279
scotched coffee, I started my search in you. The Binder's

343
00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:10,319
cryptic diagrams hinted at more than dead ends. Somewhere I

344
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,400
suspected was a real way in. By one in the afternoon,

345
00:17:13,400 --> 00:17:15,680
when most tenants had retreated behind double locked doors, I

346
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:17,759
traced one of the Binder's hand drawn passages to the

347
00:17:17,759 --> 00:17:21,680
North's service hallway. Here, peeling paint revealed corrugated metal behind

348
00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:24,200
the plaster, and a cluster of ragged tiles ended abruptly

349
00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,400
at the bookcase screwed into the wall, dusted with years

350
00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:29,599
of neglect. I knelt feeling for loose panels, tapping it

351
00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:32,599
seems as discreetly as I could. The fourth tile gave

352
00:17:32,640 --> 00:17:35,920
way with a hollow thud. I peeled it back inside darkness,

353
00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:38,519
a shade deeper than the rest of the hall. There sat,

354
00:17:38,559 --> 00:17:40,759
nearly flush in the wall was an axis panel, the

355
00:17:40,799 --> 00:17:43,240
paint on its edge a shade lighter than the surrounding boards.

356
00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:46,920
I put my ear to nod sound, remembering the most

357
00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,039
unsettling note from the binder, watch for echo. As I

358
00:17:49,039 --> 00:17:52,000
steadied my breath and pressed gently, the panel slid back

359
00:17:52,039 --> 00:17:55,000
with surprising ease. The cold draft used onto my skin,

360
00:17:55,279 --> 00:17:58,599
carrying the particular odor of stale wiring and old spilt salder.

361
00:17:59,279 --> 00:18:01,720
Stepping through, I found myself in a shaft no more

362
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:04,640
than three feet wide. Insulation bulged where pipes had been removed,

363
00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:07,839
and coblood danced in the torchly. The silence thickened with

364
00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,000
each forward shuffle. The only hints of the living world

365
00:18:10,039 --> 00:18:11,759
were the faint downbeat of car horns and a distant

366
00:18:11,799 --> 00:18:14,799
hummikun place ten feet in the beam caught on a

367
00:18:14,799 --> 00:18:17,400
fitted MARKT six had been scrolled in black grease, pencil

368
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:20,160
nearly lost in grime, and below it a corroded brass

369
00:18:20,160 --> 00:18:23,000
plate glinted. I pressed upon to the vented door beyond

370
00:18:23,039 --> 00:18:26,039
it vibrated faintly, as if alive with the current. Even

371
00:18:26,079 --> 00:18:28,079
here some one had been careful in the layer. Thus

372
00:18:28,160 --> 00:18:30,599
near the entrance a spotted shoo prince, interrupted by faint

373
00:18:30,680 --> 00:18:32,920
dread marks, as if cargo had been moved for some

374
00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:35,319
time in the past day or two. I snapped a

375
00:18:35,319 --> 00:18:37,279
string of furtos and pressed the mic against the wall,

376
00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:41,440
listening a harm again electric or perhaps no there underneath it.

377
00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:44,599
A whisper feigned as a shiver gooseflesh crawled up my arms.

378
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:47,240
I steadied the recorder and whispered my own test, just

379
00:18:47,279 --> 00:18:50,400
in case the building did what I suspected. The corridor passed,

380
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,240
The door was emptia batted metal benchlestice against the far wall,

381
00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:57,519
A single wire check cast aside overhead wiring coiled out

382
00:18:57,559 --> 00:19:00,319
of half missing panels, looping toward a lock maintenance closet

383
00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:02,799
at the far end. I traced my finger along the

384
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:05,519
edge of the dusty window, a smearer a handprint recent

385
00:19:05,599 --> 00:19:08,799
the grease, from upon, unmistakably new some one watched. From here.

386
00:19:09,839 --> 00:19:12,720
I pressed my digital recorder into the faint breeze. The

387
00:19:12,759 --> 00:19:15,799
playback whistled was static at first, then on the margins

388
00:19:15,839 --> 00:19:19,039
of silence, a single feathered whisper. I looped it again,

389
00:19:19,720 --> 00:19:23,640
not just random noise, a syllable, ascitant scatter. I couldn't

390
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:26,240
make it out. I snapped a series of photos of

391
00:19:26,279 --> 00:19:28,519
the marks on the handriton sign and idought it complete.

392
00:19:28,599 --> 00:19:31,279
Watch by two will erase tomorrow's look. At five twenty seven,

393
00:19:31,839 --> 00:19:35,440
the paper was fresh, still curled at the corners. Suddenly,

394
00:19:35,559 --> 00:19:40,240
movement deeper in the passage, voices, not shouts, but brisk conversation,

395
00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:42,960
just above, a whisper of warning, a command. I couldn't tell.

396
00:19:43,680 --> 00:19:46,200
My pulse hammered as I killed my flashlight, flattened against

397
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:49,720
the wall, an inch backward, they passed, two shadows elongated

398
00:19:49,799 --> 00:19:52,519
by my torches after image. Moving with the liberate train purpose,

399
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:55,759
I squeezed myself back into the narrow axis, praying they

400
00:19:55,799 --> 00:19:58,880
didn't look back. Once clear, oppressed myself into a crook

401
00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:01,359
behind EATI lit to sink, sifting the air for every footfall.

402
00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:05,279
The voices receded, My breath clouded before me, the server

403
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:08,240
shafts cold soaked in again. With my heart racing, I

404
00:20:08,279 --> 00:20:10,359
crept back the way I came, clutching the night order.

405
00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,279
His note was shaking hands as the panel snatch shut

406
00:20:13,359 --> 00:20:16,720
behind me. I found myself blinking in the building's stifling fluorescence,

407
00:20:16,920 --> 00:20:19,880
weighed down by the undeniable reality someone occupied the sixth floor,

408
00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:23,079
someone methodical and fearless, who watched, tracked, and erased their

409
00:20:23,079 --> 00:20:26,359
trail by bureauretted ritual each dawn. My nerves rattled all

410
00:20:26,440 --> 00:20:29,359
through the following day. In edit, I scared the audio

411
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:32,240
from the passage dozens of times. I scared the track

412
00:20:32,279 --> 00:20:34,880
at half speed, foldering out ambient verb, until at last

413
00:20:35,079 --> 00:20:39,079
the fragment resolved. Witness. I scanned the binder again, matching

414
00:20:39,160 --> 00:20:41,359
each corridor on the diagrams to the time stamps in

415
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:44,960
my new recordings. Names repeated always. Jay Lemmore, the former

416
00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,519
property manager whose name popped up in half the controversial

417
00:20:47,559 --> 00:20:50,920
expansion memos. I left three voicemails tracked down in old

418
00:20:50,960 --> 00:20:54,000
maintenance work in Queens for an interview heard about the

419
00:20:54,079 --> 00:20:57,359
sixth He muttered over coffee voice boxy with regret. They

420
00:20:57,400 --> 00:20:59,799
sealed it after the big mess lawsuit, But nobody'll talk

421
00:20:59,799 --> 00:21:01,920
of about what really happened to place. Grew hoolets like

422
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:04,759
a wound count heel can't lose it. He shifted in

423
00:21:04,839 --> 00:21:07,480
his seat, voice dropping. No one wants to be the

424
00:21:07,559 --> 00:21:10,200
one to cut it open again. I mapped every incident

425
00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:14,359
against the city's permitting data, without exception, every act of sabotage,

426
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:17,359
every misplaced document, every unexplained event. Map to days when

427
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:20,680
an internal memo reference to repairs six floor system review,

428
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,480
that floor sealed. In practice. Busy on paper was the

429
00:21:23,519 --> 00:21:27,279
anchor point for everything strange in the building. With mounting obsession,

430
00:21:27,400 --> 00:21:29,839
I created a sprawling map on my white board, corridors

431
00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:33,359
rounded up into nowhere, audit logs, faces from years old stafflus,

432
00:21:33,599 --> 00:21:36,119
each event pinned with red string. At the heart of it,

433
00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,279
the sixth floor and a simple, terrifying possibility. Someone had

434
00:21:39,319 --> 00:21:42,839
never left the expansion. Some one lived watch and yearned

435
00:21:42,839 --> 00:21:44,799
to control the building below, and they were growing boulder

436
00:21:44,880 --> 00:21:48,200
with every passing week. I decided, finally, foolishly, that the

437
00:21:48,279 --> 00:21:51,640
only way forward was live proof. I packed two field mics,

438
00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,039
a Wi Fi camera, and every battery pack I owned,

439
00:21:54,119 --> 00:21:57,160
resolved to document whatever emerged. After two a m my

440
00:21:57,279 --> 00:22:00,240
nove rore too high for sleep. At one fifty, I

441
00:22:00,279 --> 00:22:02,920
slept into the service corridor, flashlight sheathed at my hip.

442
00:22:03,519 --> 00:22:05,960
The building entered of all but its own memories pressed

443
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:08,200
and on every side. I made my way to the

444
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:10,839
sixth floor via the hidden panels, squeezing through gear clutched

445
00:22:10,839 --> 00:22:13,960
to my chest. This time my intention was not to

446
00:22:14,039 --> 00:22:16,440
listen from Afar, but to invade the space, Settling into

447
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:18,880
a storage closet just off the main corridor. At microphone

448
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,240
lie fature of feet pointed Dan toward the distant Comforts

449
00:22:21,279 --> 00:22:24,079
room out on the binder's maps. At first, the place

450
00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:26,279
was silent, safe for the faint shatterer of ancient h track.

451
00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:29,359
The air weighed heavier as I crept through dust laden carpet,

452
00:22:29,559 --> 00:22:33,319
mutilated ceiling tiles, rows of decrepit office chairs stacked uphasively.

453
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,920
Dora Paco still clung to frosted glass, leasing boardroom operations.

454
00:22:38,519 --> 00:22:41,400
My footsteps fell almost soundlessly. The carpet, grimy, thread bare,

455
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,720
absorbed all but my racing heart. Thirteen minutes passed before

456
00:22:44,759 --> 00:22:48,920
anything changed. First, I, barely perceptible flickered the old security

457
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:52,640
lights blinking on. In stuttering fits, I pressed myself against

458
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,079
a battered credenza, Peering around the corner. Further down the

459
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:58,880
hallway through a glass saw marked conference he yellow light

460
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,839
spilled out faint moving beyond the privacy glass. Not shadows,

461
00:23:02,880 --> 00:23:06,680
but silwet one too, may be more. I froze, nerves

462
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:08,920
stretched so tight, I thought my own breathing would give

463
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:12,400
me away. My phone buzzed once. The light from the

464
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,359
screen glared dangerously bright. In the gloom, I checked a

465
00:23:15,480 --> 00:23:20,279
new message, anonymous number. Don't trust the lights. The temperature dropped,

466
00:23:20,319 --> 00:23:22,279
as though the six floors sealed. Heart pressed an ice

467
00:23:22,359 --> 00:23:25,039
back to my spine. The metallic weak was stronger now

468
00:23:25,119 --> 00:23:28,400
ting shrivzone. The air vibrated with a subtle electrical in ease.

469
00:23:29,119 --> 00:23:32,279
I edged closer steps, measured camera balanced to chest level.

470
00:23:32,799 --> 00:23:35,200
In the silence, every scuff of my heel was catastrophic.

471
00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:38,799
I recorded in a whisper. I see one figure, maybe more,

472
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:43,440
conference glasses, frosted movement, shadows. My own voice registered as unfamiliar,

473
00:23:43,519 --> 00:23:46,119
A dry croak in all that tension. A metallic snap

474
00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:49,480
echoed further down the corridor. I turned behind, near the

475
00:23:49,519 --> 00:23:53,519
maintenance closet, a bright, shivering flash of reflection. My nerves jolted.

476
00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:56,759
I stifled a gasp, ducking down, just as an indistinct

477
00:23:56,799 --> 00:23:59,960
figure entered from the shadowed lunge. Their form was patchwork,

478
00:24:00,079 --> 00:24:03,279
baggy clothes, face obscured by a surgical mask, A glint

479
00:24:03,279 --> 00:24:05,480
of vasts so guggles beneath a pulled down ball cap.

480
00:24:06,079 --> 00:24:08,400
The light in the conference room flared brightly, then gutted

481
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:10,839
out with a violent crack of ree lay stripping in

482
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,200
the stroke of extinguishing light. The slow acrossed the room,

483
00:24:13,319 --> 00:24:16,000
jerky intent, neither quick nor slow, but filled with an

484
00:24:16,119 --> 00:24:18,960
urgency that was all wrong. When the glass darkened again,

485
00:24:19,279 --> 00:24:22,039
my view was empty. Only then did I realize that

486
00:24:22,079 --> 00:24:24,200
every note in my hand had started to vibrate. The

487
00:24:24,279 --> 00:24:26,759
recorder glitch, the static swelling into a full and holy

488
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:29,880
roar across the hall. A speaker embedded in the vestibule

489
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:33,519
ceiling bulls distorted ram It's bad of voice, but twisted,

490
00:24:33,559 --> 00:24:36,359
the words, warbling as if spoken underwater. Turn off your recorder,

491
00:24:37,039 --> 00:24:39,920
I pause. Then your being watched. The glass in the

492
00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,559
window trembled. I duck lower, hard in my throat. I

493
00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,759
pressed the mic to my mouth. There's some one else

494
00:24:45,839 --> 00:24:49,079
they know I'm here. The lights flickered again, coal presence

495
00:24:49,119 --> 00:24:51,640
pulling at my back, the unmistakable sense of someone standing

496
00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:55,119
in the passage just beyond sight. Then every light on

497
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,880
the floor snuffed, and one swift stroke, even the back

498
00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,000
of a leady cut out in total darkness. I listened

499
00:25:01,039 --> 00:25:05,319
as soft footsteps approached, hesitated, stopped inches away. I tried

500
00:25:05,319 --> 00:25:07,319
to tone, but the recorder if my hand flashed its

501
00:25:07,359 --> 00:25:10,240
red light, then flat lined with a mechanical click. One

502
00:25:10,319 --> 00:25:14,319
breath dear, I couldn't move, as if something unseem pressed

503
00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,240
upon to my shoulder. Then nothing but the darkness so

504
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,440
thick I could taste it, the unmistakable in us of

505
00:25:19,519 --> 00:25:21,559
being trapped, not just in space, but in the sticky

506
00:25:21,599 --> 00:25:24,720
whip of someone else's careful game. The silence was absolute,

507
00:25:24,960 --> 00:25:26,559
but I knew, by a shift in the air, the

508
00:25:26,640 --> 00:25:29,079
shiver in the walls, and the closing of escape behind me,

509
00:25:29,160 --> 00:25:32,200
that I was no longer alone. With escape shrinking behind me,

510
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,000
I stayed stone, still measuring the pressure at my shoulder,

511
00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:37,519
half waiting for that touch to become unmistakably human or not.

512
00:25:38,279 --> 00:25:40,720
The air felt taut with expectancy. My pulse jitttered in

513
00:25:40,799 --> 00:25:43,880
my throat. I've reached out, slowly, fingers brushing the rough

514
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,119
edge of the storage shelf, calculating how loud it would

515
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,000
be to tople it should I need a distraction. Nothing moved,

516
00:25:49,799 --> 00:25:52,319
Then just outside the door, something hard to tap against

517
00:25:52,319 --> 00:25:56,799
the floor once, then a second time, keas boot. The

518
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:00,640
noise was deliberate, almost signally, holding my breath. I strained

519
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:02,839
to listen, since his stretch beyond their limit for any

520
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,880
intake of movement or breath. The scuffing poles lingered, then

521
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:08,440
a subtle click, like a switch. The water my left

522
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,480
bloomed momentarily with ghosty blue, maybe a phone screen veaint

523
00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,079
as spill of artificial light. Nerves screaming. I weigh my options,

524
00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:17,720
stay hidden and risk discovery. I move now and risk

525
00:26:17,759 --> 00:26:21,720
even more. Creeping sideways, feeling the microtexture of coppet beneath

526
00:26:21,759 --> 00:26:24,200
my palms, I flattened beside the supply carts, stacked with

527
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:26,519
the unused tone cartridge as the only thing clumsily shielding

528
00:26:26,559 --> 00:26:29,079
me from the open door. I heard, for the first

529
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:31,759
time what sounded like quick, nervous breeding, no more than

530
00:26:31,799 --> 00:26:35,319
ten feet away, not mine. The person outside the door,

531
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:38,640
whoever they were, was not calm. A sudden voice too close,

532
00:26:38,759 --> 00:26:42,039
slipped through a whispered cushion. Syllable was blurred, but unmistakably human.

533
00:26:42,319 --> 00:26:45,880
Is it off? I froze willing, my equipment completely inert,

534
00:26:46,079 --> 00:26:47,920
fighting the ear to check the cans stand by light

535
00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:50,640
silence were cute. I heard the hum of the buildings

536
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:54,079
transform us beyond. The walls hung heavy. The voice's cadence

537
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:56,519
was heard, and instead of the amplified menace from earlier,

538
00:26:56,599 --> 00:27:00,559
it thobbed with uncertainty. Another lower murmur entered much closer

539
00:27:00,599 --> 00:27:02,440
and deeper than the first. Check the closets to take

540
00:27:02,480 --> 00:27:06,279
the notes. Movement now clear precise, the bare shuffle of

541
00:27:06,279 --> 00:27:08,839
shoes and the gritty tiles. I griped one of my

542
00:27:08,880 --> 00:27:11,480
backup batteries, half ready to throw it should someone lunge

543
00:27:11,519 --> 00:27:14,480
from me. The shadow pass across the frosted lower panel

544
00:27:14,519 --> 00:27:17,039
of the supply closet, stretching and then snapping back. As

545
00:27:17,079 --> 00:27:20,079
they crouched, inspecting the other side of the door through

546
00:27:20,079 --> 00:27:22,119
a narrow slit, A glimpse of pale hand fan out

547
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:26,279
across the carpet, steading their balance. The hand retreated a

548
00:27:26,359 --> 00:27:29,279
shuffle of papers. They were searching for evidence of me.

549
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:32,359
Prince drop gear or God help me the recorder I'd

550
00:27:32,400 --> 00:27:35,519
left too near the door. Ye see anything? A higher

551
00:27:35,599 --> 00:27:39,599
voice again a little further now. My nerves shrieked, why

552
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,960
two people up here? After iurs in a seal space. No,

553
00:27:43,319 --> 00:27:45,519
but somebody has been through the duct. Get back to base,

554
00:27:45,599 --> 00:27:48,519
don't leave the lock a saddle scrape. Someone rose to

555
00:27:48,559 --> 00:27:51,200
their feet, shifting something heavy. I've risked a peek and

556
00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:54,720
caught a flush black track pants, a branded jacket, no insignia.

557
00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:57,599
The smell of ladox and hand sanitizer hit the air,

558
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:01,240
eerily medical for an office at night. My phone, useless

559
00:28:01,240 --> 00:28:04,599
in the dark, vibrated quietly, an automated battery alert. I

560
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,880
nearly bit my tongue, holding back a gasp. No one reacted.

561
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:11,000
The pair left the open storage first, as blending as

562
00:28:11,039 --> 00:28:13,680
they were, streated their steps. I could into the hallway.

563
00:28:13,759 --> 00:28:16,880
Then a sharp clunk, heavy was closing further down, deliberate lockdown,

564
00:28:17,519 --> 00:28:21,279
drenched and swet mossles shaking. I waited several heartbeats, straining

565
00:28:21,359 --> 00:28:23,839
for any trace of voices or a movement. Not Then

566
00:28:24,559 --> 00:28:27,839
I forced numb fingers to fumble from my recorder, still dead,

567
00:28:27,960 --> 00:28:30,240
but the back of mike spun a silot read. At

568
00:28:30,319 --> 00:28:33,119
least a file would survive. Picking my way out, I

569
00:28:33,200 --> 00:28:35,000
pressed as close to the wall as I could, moving

570
00:28:35,079 --> 00:28:37,599
inch by inch past the open shelves and boxes. Afraid

571
00:28:37,599 --> 00:28:39,759
any careless bump would betray me, I skirted out into

572
00:28:39,759 --> 00:28:42,759
the corridor at a croach, pausing to listen. Down the hall,

573
00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,559
the emergency exit lights cast cold green's meres atop the

574
00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,440
door frames. The far conference room, once full of light,

575
00:28:48,599 --> 00:28:51,599
was now pointedly dark to glass, reflecting only my disheveled

576
00:28:51,599 --> 00:28:53,440
out line. As I called beneath its line of sight.

577
00:28:54,119 --> 00:28:57,359
I was adjusted and navigated by fading glow. Past a

578
00:28:57,440 --> 00:28:59,400
water cooler. I found the main access panel to the

579
00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:02,079
service stair dropped open, a fresh finger print streaking the dust.

580
00:29:02,799 --> 00:29:05,200
I bent to examine it and found tucches inside a

581
00:29:05,319 --> 00:29:08,039
yellow to dow slip audit lock check ceiling corridor clear

582
00:29:08,119 --> 00:29:11,680
by five thirty j L the handwriting mass the binder scroll.

583
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:15,440
This was no ghost story. These were assignments, ships managed

584
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:19,039
by insiders, cloaked and bureaucracy and misdirection. A deep clane

585
00:29:19,079 --> 00:29:22,039
jolted me back. A disengate on the bottom floor clearly

586
00:29:22,119 --> 00:29:26,519
manipulated axis points were being systematically shut, possibly as part

587
00:29:26,519 --> 00:29:29,319
of some routine I triggered without meaning to. I hugged

588
00:29:29,319 --> 00:29:32,279
the wall catalog into clues footprints, written orders, the real

589
00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:35,559
human voices, the concerted structure of whoever haunted these upper floors.

590
00:29:36,279 --> 00:29:39,319
I checked my watch nearly three a m. Somewhere in

591
00:29:39,400 --> 00:29:41,880
the office beyond, I caught that tremulous flicker through the

592
00:29:41,880 --> 00:29:44,279
glass again, a nervous morse coat signaling in the dark.

593
00:29:44,960 --> 00:29:47,599
I knew with an unambiguous certainty that somewhere behind the

594
00:29:47,680 --> 00:29:49,799
next turn I would find not just watches of the building,

595
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:52,440
but the center of something colder, deeper in operation, layered

596
00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,319
in secrets, shrouded in plausible deniability, and worried enough to

597
00:29:55,400 --> 00:29:58,400
chase even an amateur below the legal floors. I paused

598
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,440
one last time, fingers at my lips. If it'd seen me,

599
00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:03,519
escape was unlikely. I'd have to rely on the same

600
00:30:03,559 --> 00:30:06,160
anonymity that got me this far, and trusted, perhaps arrogantly,

601
00:30:06,279 --> 00:30:08,759
in my wits, to slip out before dawn. My mind

602
00:30:08,839 --> 00:30:11,680
throbbed with tension. I pressed myself into the tightest curve

603
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,000
of the passage, unweighted, eyes fixed on the thin line

604
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,279
of light, straining for any sign that it meant rescue

605
00:30:16,319 --> 00:30:18,880
or another trap. That was where I was, heart beat

606
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,440
against concrete when a new mechanical wine started up from

607
00:30:21,480 --> 00:30:23,359
the depths of the building, a signal, or maybe just

608
00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:26,160
the old elevator cycling up to the forbidden floor. The

609
00:30:26,279 --> 00:30:28,640
next move, I knew would be dictated by however, or

610
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:32,400
whatever was orchestrating the silent, very real conspiracy atop Blue

611
00:30:32,400 --> 00:30:35,599
Street Tower. I wedged myself deeper into the service corridor's

612
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,640
blind curve, pulse thumping in my ears, willing myself invisible

613
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,799
the mechanical drone, the elevator, or something else, with teeth

614
00:30:41,839 --> 00:30:44,720
deepened as I pressed flat against the grime cinder block, listening,

615
00:30:45,279 --> 00:30:47,640
but oh somewhere behind me clanged the echo, rolling a

616
00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,839
long ducts and dying away. For a flickering second, all

617
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:54,200
sound was eaten by the undertone, metallic, sturdy, far older

618
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,240
than the building's age would admit. I force measured breaths,

619
00:30:57,319 --> 00:30:59,960
bracing for motion in the corridor, but silence pressed me harder.

620
00:31:00,799 --> 00:31:03,400
Cold leached from the concrete into my bones, swept, cooled,

621
00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,599
and dried, all at once. Whatever triggered the new noise

622
00:31:06,599 --> 00:31:09,200
above the parade of doors slamming, the flash of emergency

623
00:31:09,279 --> 00:31:11,759
lights shifted the balance of control deeper into their hands.

624
00:31:12,519 --> 00:31:14,759
Still add the note the doll back up recorder, my

625
00:31:14,839 --> 00:31:18,720
phone scraping seventeen percent battery, and the growing sick certainty

626
00:31:18,759 --> 00:31:20,599
that any eggs it would need more luck than design.

627
00:31:21,319 --> 00:31:23,319
Something tugged me back from the edge of panic, a

628
00:31:23,400 --> 00:31:25,440
line from the memo in my breast pocket. The stairs

629
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,759
were safe until three fifteen. I jacked my watch, luminous

630
00:31:28,759 --> 00:31:32,440
hands stabbing two fifty nine time crossing, sticky, heavy as syrup.

631
00:31:33,039 --> 00:31:34,960
Every part of me wanted a bold feet slapping up

632
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:36,599
the old staale, or two at a time, back into

633
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:40,240
the living city. But at the heart curiosity nod rawn

634
00:31:40,319 --> 00:31:43,000
and broken. The six four was to corpse rodden in

635
00:31:43,079 --> 00:31:45,759
city reel estich. It was still breathing, still shifting, and

636
00:31:45,880 --> 00:31:48,279
now I was tangled in its lungs. I cut forward,

637
00:31:48,359 --> 00:31:51,759
inch by inch, every step, weight passed the open service panel.

638
00:31:51,839 --> 00:31:53,920
I pressed through a squeeze of ancient ventork, toward where

639
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:57,000
the light had last flared. The conference room, now dim,

640
00:31:57,079 --> 00:32:00,759
mist cellar dust yawned empty behind glass, but outside the

641
00:32:00,880 --> 00:32:03,559
door another glove flickered, a coal blue reminiscent of a

642
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:07,039
century old computer screen behind a warp supplish half. I

643
00:32:07,119 --> 00:32:09,240
found myself facing what looked at firs like a bank

644
00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:12,160
of old davy cart's wire together. My heart snagged as

645
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:14,640
I took it into Frankenstein's tangle of cable so its

646
00:32:14,680 --> 00:32:17,839
protectors and battered surveillance monitors, each green offering a crooked

647
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,279
slice of the building's cuts. The lobby elevator car always

648
00:32:21,279 --> 00:32:23,799
shot several floors below, even a dark glimpse into a

649
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:26,720
tenant's mail room. The main board and abuse cork slab

650
00:32:26,759 --> 00:32:29,599
bristled with pushpins and a whirlwind of scribbled notes, lines

651
00:32:29,680 --> 00:32:32,319
looping over color print outs of tenants faces, schedules in

652
00:32:32,359 --> 00:32:34,680
military time, and arrows pointing to doors marked on my

653
00:32:34,759 --> 00:32:38,640
own binders, diagrams on one's still powered corte. The six

654
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:41,279
floor's main corridor stretched away a single empty passage and

655
00:32:41,359 --> 00:32:44,599
a blown out emergency bulbs, but every thirty seconds or so,

656
00:32:44,880 --> 00:32:47,359
static swallowed it, and the screen spasmed, as if a

657
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:50,519
large shape passed just outside camera view. No sound, just

658
00:32:50,599 --> 00:32:54,319
digital ghosts beneath the monitors, on a scarred desk, more

659
00:32:54,359 --> 00:32:57,119
evident half empty water bottles, the cracked coffee maluk, a

660
00:32:57,160 --> 00:33:00,000
stack of quietly yellowing legal pads, all jammed with obsessed

661
00:33:00,119 --> 00:33:03,359
of lists. I thumb through one noise one thirty eight

662
00:33:03,359 --> 00:33:06,279
am tenant to be investigate patterns returned form to two

663
00:33:06,359 --> 00:33:09,440
g false alarm, the anxious grouse by kit, the scroll

664
00:33:09,519 --> 00:33:12,559
evolving by page three into block print, then abruptly changing hands.

665
00:33:13,279 --> 00:33:17,839
Same routine tract disturbances, neutralize erased physical evidence. A final

666
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:20,759
entry to day's day, ridden with visible pressure audit ongoing

667
00:33:20,839 --> 00:33:23,440
management refuses to shut it down. Enter at three twenty

668
00:33:23,559 --> 00:33:26,559
nine only. I paged quickly through the notes, sweat climbing

669
00:33:26,599 --> 00:33:29,799
on my wrists. The longer I read, the clearer it became.

670
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:32,359
This was no fanciful security system. It was an operation

671
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:36,000
set on anticipating, cataloging, and quietly violating ten in privacy,

672
00:33:36,599 --> 00:33:39,599
Each strange memo, each missing form, every spurious extension on

673
00:33:39,759 --> 00:33:42,880
Toni's phone started somewhere up here. I fought to steady

674
00:33:42,920 --> 00:33:46,119
my breath. Something clattered behind me, faint but urgent, as

675
00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:48,880
if something metallic, keys or a flashlight dropped against tile.

676
00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:53,640
Voices followed. I froze, blending into the dark. From just

677
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,319
outside the room came the same hush, clipped exchange two people,

678
00:33:56,440 --> 00:33:59,039
the words half swallowed by the thick air. He's back

679
00:33:59,119 --> 00:34:02,599
on base, you scan, No clause is empty. The voice

680
00:34:02,720 --> 00:34:06,119
was tight, wary of being overheard, set the alarum, then

681
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:09,320
loop it again. Footsteps advance, then receded, and the door

682
00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:11,400
at the end of the whole ground open. When its

683
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:14,639
swung shot silence widened up once more. I chanced a

684
00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:17,199
thin beam of my flashlight downward, hoping for a note book,

685
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,039
a clue, anything to explain why management, who pretended this

686
00:34:20,159 --> 00:34:23,079
floor didn't exist, had orchestrated alive, breathing sevellance ring in

687
00:34:23,119 --> 00:34:26,000
their own attic. My beam landed on a slippery carpet

688
00:34:26,039 --> 00:34:29,280
of debris, take out containers, discarded k N ninety five masks,

689
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,199
empty pill bottles from years gone by, a scent of

690
00:34:32,280 --> 00:34:35,440
powdered cheese and must all peat's agrees in something eerily chemical.

691
00:34:35,519 --> 00:34:37,840
Five suppress and foam may be wandered up to choke

692
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,880
the air. The space hadn't just been watched into existence.

693
00:34:41,079 --> 00:34:44,079
It had been lived in for months, maybe years. A

694
00:34:44,159 --> 00:34:46,400
bat of walcalland of two years out of date pages

695
00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:48,159
over and by loops of red pen flick out as

696
00:34:48,159 --> 00:34:51,840
another low current click the spaces lights lions connected tenant's

697
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:55,280
names with crooked at times presumably their disturbanced windows. The

698
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:58,840
chaos of urgency was deliberate whoever lived up here kept

699
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:02,599
every tenant's habits in DECKA cross referenced and weaponized. One

700
00:35:02,679 --> 00:35:04,639
pole roage not old enough to fade, showed the mail,

701
00:35:04,719 --> 00:35:07,519
and two falls down taken from above in' it's up a,

702
00:35:07,559 --> 00:35:11,119
CORNER a blurred face. MINE i speat cold all, over fear,

703
00:35:11,199 --> 00:35:15,239
biting without, drama just cold. Logic they'd followed. ME a,

704
00:35:15,320 --> 00:35:18,400
faint looping click from the speaker, system then a whisper

705
00:35:18,519 --> 00:35:20,480
too thin to be anything but. Live you see it,

706
00:35:20,559 --> 00:35:23,480
now stop Asking for a, MOMENT i stopped moving, completely

707
00:35:23,599 --> 00:35:26,480
fingers twitching over the edge of the surveillance. TABLE i

708
00:35:26,559 --> 00:35:28,719
couldn't tell if the message was automated or were delivered

709
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:31,199
in real, time whether meant for me or a partner somewhere.

710
00:35:31,199 --> 00:35:34,400
Else either, way my skin prickled. Afresh this was to

711
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,000
ghost in the. Wires it was a human, being deliberate intimate.

712
00:35:38,119 --> 00:35:41,719
Warning my form pined anew incrypt detects leave last. WARNING

713
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:45,559
i stared at the, message. HANDSHAKING i needed, evidence but

714
00:35:45,679 --> 00:35:48,199
staying long a risk crossing into something other than. Reporting

715
00:35:48,840 --> 00:35:51,559
driving past rising, NAUSA i scanned the space once, more

716
00:35:52,159 --> 00:35:54,119
werged under a crooked, CHAIR i caught the edge of

717
00:35:54,159 --> 00:35:57,239
a weathered, notebook the cover, torn the spiral. BENT i

718
00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:59,440
opened it to her, confessions scratched In hurd's gripped in

719
00:35:59,519 --> 00:36:01,880
case someone finds, This i'm sorry for what we. Did

720
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:06,840
we couldn't risk another no, signature no. DATE i photographed

721
00:36:06,880 --> 00:36:09,599
a quickly tucking the book into my. Coat by, Now

722
00:36:09,960 --> 00:36:13,000
moe's movement overhead had faded. Over an iron must have,

723
00:36:13,079 --> 00:36:16,079
passed maybe. MORE i judged from the light strobing beyond

724
00:36:16,119 --> 00:36:18,440
the conference room that the watchers were shifting their. PATROL

725
00:36:19,039 --> 00:36:21,480
i spotted a camera lens, above barely visible through duct,

726
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:25,320
tape the power light softly blinking, Amber pressing myself, low heart,

727
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:29,760
RATTLING i found a bolta utility closet, Nearby inside more filing,

728
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,199
boxes bound and labeled and possessed caps for legal do

729
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,159
not shred the papers must distench book of a decade in.

730
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,719
DARKNESS i slipped my voice recorder, out persisting the urge

731
00:36:38,760 --> 00:36:42,519
to narrate. Directly, INSTEAD i photographed every, page focusing on

732
00:36:42,679 --> 00:36:46,840
signatures Led ahead's. Jargon the earliest files detailed routine maintenance

733
00:36:46,840 --> 00:36:49,159
and hen and, onboarding but the stack beard into legal.

734
00:36:49,199 --> 00:36:52,639
Wrangling by twenty, thirteen after the, incident all access suspended

735
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:56,039
until further. Notice employee terminations to be process quietly recommend

736
00:36:56,079 --> 00:37:00,360
extra surveillance of new. Tenants the page is cash hand, annotated, blackmail,

737
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,719
Embezzlement where's the? Money the story that merged was WHAT i.

738
00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:07,039
Feared the six floor shot after a stafford, disappeared, investigated

739
00:37:07,199 --> 00:37:09,159
then a raise from. Mention in all but these secret,

740
00:37:09,239 --> 00:37:12,519
files one memo caught MY. I. J lemore RESUMED duei under,

741
00:37:12,559 --> 00:37:15,320
review keep all notes, private maintain facave for, tendancy do

742
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:18,760
not allow, search and building rewrote all suspicious. Activity it

743
00:37:18,840 --> 00:37:21,760
was signed by two names matching expansion lawsuits From Elow Blue.

744
00:37:21,760 --> 00:37:23,920
Street history of the men who vanished after the settlement

745
00:37:24,679 --> 00:37:27,840
loose beneath these, pages half melted employee id sun burned past,

746
00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:31,719
recognition others. INTACT i turned them in my, palm reading

747
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:34,800
a familiar name. TWICE. J lemmore emails at the, bottom

748
00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:37,679
bared nerves and cliped desperate. Language audits in. Complete how

749
00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:40,199
do we keep them from? Checking six arrange more, diversions,

750
00:37:40,239 --> 00:37:43,079
papers memos noise the few who noticed the safer for.

751
00:37:43,159 --> 00:37:46,440
EVERYONE i snapped photos until my hands, cramped careful never

752
00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:49,199
to jostle the PILE i whispered a time stamp into my.

753
00:37:49,199 --> 00:37:51,880
POCKET mic found intern all legal documents, confirmed cover, up,

754
00:37:51,920 --> 00:37:55,280
embezzlement missing, staff secret, surveillant the six floors in open

755
00:37:55,320 --> 00:37:57,679
secret among. Management they are still up, here living inside the.

756
00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:00,840
Wound just AS i, finish another, footfall, heavier this time

757
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:03,639
sent me scraping toward the conference rooms adjoining cove closet

758
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,679
hard clenched, TIGHT i eased the door, Shut peering through

759
00:38:06,800 --> 00:38:09,920
the white crack from the gloom, BEYOND a figure, emerged

760
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:12,400
mass tight across their, face soft blonde hair poking from

761
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,280
beneath the. Rattycap they moved with a patient efficiency of,

762
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:18,719
routine pausing to check each, switch paper and security. DISPLAY

763
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:21,840
a bulging shopping bag went to the. KITCHENETTE a clipboard,

764
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:25,800
followed dragged in and avonpracticed silent. Sequences the figure swept

765
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:27,559
up an envelope set beside the, door my name on

766
00:38:27,679 --> 00:38:30,960
it in block, print the date set for. Tomorrow adrenaline fault.

767
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:34,760
LOGIC i considered, bolting raising my, phone or trying to

768
00:38:34,800 --> 00:38:37,039
confront them at, right but the figure spun, sharply as

769
00:38:37,079 --> 00:38:39,880
if feeling my. Stair their hooded eyes swept the closet's

770
00:38:39,920 --> 00:38:42,039
gap then lingered longer than should have been possible for

771
00:38:42,119 --> 00:38:44,920
someone on a Air every muscle screamed at me to, breathe,

772
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:49,119
shallow to. Freeze, INSTEAD i let risk. SPEAK i slipped

773
00:38:49,119 --> 00:38:51,400
my little voyiice, chorder still warm to the closet's, edge

774
00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:53,800
thumbed it on and, RASPED i know about the. INCIDENT

775
00:38:53,880 --> 00:38:56,840
i note what the sixth floor. Hid the words just

776
00:38:56,920 --> 00:38:59,559
loud enough to carry fell like a. Dare the figure

777
00:38:59,599 --> 00:39:02,639
stiffen scanning the, ROOM i spin points, up time hun.

778
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:05,519
Open their gaze found my, envelope paused and in a

779
00:39:05,599 --> 00:39:08,079
gesture somewhere between resignation and, anger they dropped to micro

780
00:39:08,159 --> 00:39:10,760
cassette player onto the, envelope stamped it beneath one latex,

781
00:39:10,800 --> 00:39:13,119
palm and after a lawn, pause backed out of the.

782
00:39:13,199 --> 00:39:16,360
Room when their footstitch, RECEDED i waited another three full

783
00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:19,239
minutes before prying the door open and slipping AT i

784
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:21,800
snatched the envelope and the tiny, player hot so LOUD

785
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:23,800
i could barely hear the rise of new voices echoing

786
00:39:23,840 --> 00:39:26,960
in a fog. Corridor inside the, envelope a single micro

787
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:30,559
cosette black electrical tape holding the spool in place in block.

788
00:39:30,679 --> 00:39:33,800
Letters some one have written one word. Confess there was

789
00:39:33,880 --> 00:39:36,880
only one thing to. DO i bundled myself against the supply,

790
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,079
shelfs lotted the tape into the player and turned the

791
00:39:39,119 --> 00:39:42,679
tiny wheel with stiff shaking. Fingers at first just static

792
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:46,360
and warble, feedback then a voice old mail worry as

793
00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,480
we cold rain broke, through slow and. Ragged if anyone

794
00:39:49,559 --> 00:39:53,559
gets this year too, Close i'm. Sorry my Name's lemire

795
00:39:53,719 --> 00:39:57,079
AND i was property manager here years, back twenty thirteen

796
00:39:57,159 --> 00:40:00,559
after the, expansion something happened on this. Floor uney missing,

797
00:40:00,599 --> 00:40:03,639
records THINKED i let people and who shouldn't have been,

798
00:40:03,679 --> 00:40:06,360
here said yes to suits who threatened the. Crew one,

799
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:09,440
night As sta From arisol peril walking on a meeting

800
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:13,280
she shouldn't have. Seen after, That, lord it went, sideways she.

801
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:16,280
Vanished they made a sign, off told us to loop

802
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:19,199
the paperwork until nobody could find her. Name the insurance

803
00:40:19,199 --> 00:40:22,719
didn't want. Scandal they paid some. Off they told the

804
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,239
rest of us to stay quiet and monitor critical. Access

805
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,239
that's how it. Started his breath wheezed a, cough cutting.

806
00:40:28,320 --> 00:40:31,280
IN i heard voices off. Tape hurry up before he heard.

807
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:33,280
On we used the Sixth that is a watch post

808
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:36,519
management's idea, first then. Mine tenant ax odd logitt he

809
00:40:36,639 --> 00:40:39,639
noticed a, disturbance changed the paperwork wereout the coal divert

810
00:40:39,679 --> 00:40:42,280
with a. Memo if any tenant gets too, close nudge them,

811
00:40:42,320 --> 00:40:44,320
back slide a warning under their. Door move what they,

812
00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:47,000
lose keep their mind. Spinning we kept people safe from the.

813
00:40:47,039 --> 00:40:50,400
Whole marisol left a, wound, yes but also. Barrier nobody

814
00:40:50,480 --> 00:40:53,000
wanted to admit what we. Covered the tapes gidded as

815
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,800
another background voice, hissed, angry urgent to just shut it.

816
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:58,039
Down you brought her, here now you take care of.

817
00:40:58,119 --> 00:41:00,800
It La moore, again voice. Trembled if you're, here if

818
00:41:00,840 --> 00:41:02,599
you hear, this your part of it, Now either you

819
00:41:02,679 --> 00:41:04,400
stay and help us keep the wound closed till you

820
00:41:04,480 --> 00:41:08,880
disappear it. Too. Click end of, Tape the message, left

821
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,920
and after taste of threatened guilt all at, Once lemore

822
00:41:12,039 --> 00:41:14,679
wasn't mourning so much as come scriping. Me but even

823
00:41:14,719 --> 00:41:17,320
as resentment rose in, ME i dread certainty poles. Beneath

824
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:19,159
IF i brought the story, DOWN i might not be

825
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:22,320
the only one at. Risk, SHIVERING i crept toward the

826
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:25,239
conference room's, edge out toward the supply closet in search

827
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,039
of more evidence of increasingly an. Exit that was when

828
00:41:28,119 --> 00:41:30,920
my nurse blew. Out at. LAST a fix set figure

829
00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:35,119
burst into the corridor mast, tide wielding a blinding. Flashlight without,

830
00:41:35,199 --> 00:41:38,119
THINKING i held my hands, up recorded dangling voice steadier

831
00:41:38,119 --> 00:41:41,119
THAN i. Felt why do you, care the figure, asped stepping.

832
00:41:41,199 --> 00:41:44,679
Forward their voice was, male world worn and. Familiar it

833
00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:46,239
was the same you wo me based THAT i delivered

834
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:49,559
the confession on. Tape nobody cares about this, place not of,

835
00:41:49,639 --> 00:41:52,519
says not the. City it's not your. Story my mind,

836
00:41:52,519 --> 00:41:55,599
spun searching for any. Play i'm not here to hurt.

837
00:41:55,639 --> 00:41:57,639
ANYONE i just want the truth about, myers all the,

838
00:41:57,679 --> 00:42:00,599
surveillance the, audits the floor people. DESERVED i know what's

839
00:42:00,639 --> 00:42:03,599
been done up. Here the figure, LAMORE i, realized fully

840
00:42:03,679 --> 00:42:07,000
let the flashlights, sink cleare shrinking from my face for a,

841
00:42:07,079 --> 00:42:09,840
second only the shaking in his flashlights being betrayed any.

842
00:42:09,880 --> 00:42:13,840
Fear truth that he spat more worn than angry. Shrews

843
00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:16,079
Is management cut us, loose and we, stayed some by,

844
00:42:16,239 --> 00:42:18,679
choice some by. Guilt you break this, Story maybe you free.

845
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,159
Us maybe you just bring their lawyers instead of their.

846
00:42:21,199 --> 00:42:24,159
Thocks he tapped one gloved hand against his, temple then

847
00:42:24,199 --> 00:42:27,039
gestured at the disarrayed maps and. Memos we had a

848
00:42:27,119 --> 00:42:30,280
job contain what happened To marisol and what happened after

849
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,679
when the upper floors went, bad when the documents kept,

850
00:42:32,760 --> 00:42:35,119
changing no matter how many times we double, CHECKED i

851
00:42:35,159 --> 00:42:37,920
started moving things, myself, TUMPERING i, guess sliding the wrong

852
00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:40,519
paperwork to the right, box listening to tenant voicemails through,

853
00:42:40,559 --> 00:42:43,679
dutwork whispering. Reminders fear keeps people from snooping too. Hard

854
00:42:43,800 --> 00:42:45,480
we did. IT i did it to keep anybody else

855
00:42:45,519 --> 00:42:47,760
from falling. Through Sometimes i'm not even sure If i'm

856
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:50,000
alone up here on the ugly, nights the light went,

857
00:42:50,079 --> 00:42:52,199
cut even if her trip the breakers, myself something never

858
00:42:52,320 --> 00:42:55,239
left when she. Did he was feverish when tied around

859
00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,000
a pain shopper than he could. Upline the skin beneath

860
00:42:58,039 --> 00:43:00,559
his mask was, cracked and even in the near, dark

861
00:43:00,679 --> 00:43:03,199
tragedy clung to, him a one stolid, man reduced to midnight.

862
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:07,400
Ghost his conspiracy enough. Power But, penance why NOW i,

863
00:43:07,519 --> 00:43:10,559
pushed inching her corder. Closer why slip the binder to?

864
00:43:10,639 --> 00:43:15,239
Me why the? Memmos what's? Changed his mouth, Worked. Alex she,

865
00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:17,400
said you were, stubborn wouldn't let it go if you got.

866
00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:19,719
Close maybe stubborn enough to air it up for good this.

867
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:21,880
Time but you're not. Safe they know you've seen too.

868
00:43:21,960 --> 00:43:25,480
Much footsteps thundered further down the, whole, faster, heavier more

869
00:43:25,559 --> 00:43:29,639
than one set lemore jerked, upright panic flaring there. Here

870
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:31,320
it's not just me and the road to, NIGHT i

871
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:34,480
have tuered before he, Finished every light on the six four,

872
00:43:34,559 --> 00:43:37,280
blinked then flickered, violently as if a neon sign were

873
00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:40,719
being stabbed by a. Switchblade static exploded from the vestibule.

874
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:44,280
Speaker another figures strode into, view smaller must hug. Low

875
00:43:44,519 --> 00:43:47,800
nothing readable in their eyes except. Urgency she can't. Leave

876
00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:50,400
nobody leaves. NOW i caught just the edge of a

877
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:53,440
staff badge swinging near the waist blue logo the building's stylized.

878
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:58,000
Tower instinct, SCREAMED i twisted bolting for the corridor's blind

879
00:43:58,119 --> 00:44:01,960
end behind. Me lamorechhe, added not at, me but the oncoming. Figure.

880
00:44:02,119 --> 00:44:05,480
Stop that wasn't the. Dealer something heavy. CRASH a filing

881
00:44:05,559 --> 00:44:08,039
cabinet bowled across the. HALL a flurry of, curses spitting

882
00:44:08,079 --> 00:44:10,920
into the. GLOOM i hurtled past a buckling wall, panel

883
00:44:11,159 --> 00:44:13,440
mind racing through every MAP i poured over in the last.

884
00:44:13,480 --> 00:44:16,679
Week the ventilation stapped the one behind the main, corridor

885
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:18,960
last marked in the blue, prints as maintenance only had

886
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:21,679
to connect with the. STAIRWELL i risked a glance over my.

887
00:44:21,719 --> 00:44:25,119
Shoulder only chaos lamore and the master compass wrestling shadows

888
00:44:25,199 --> 00:44:27,719
flailing under dying lights are weird, off, kilt a rhythm of,

889
00:44:27,719 --> 00:44:30,679
alarm chine starting to. BUILD i basted the panel with my,

890
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:33,159
side wincing at the dry crack of bone un, metal

891
00:44:33,199 --> 00:44:35,800
and forced it open by main. Strength the odor that

892
00:44:35,840 --> 00:44:38,519
poured out was foul ozon, plastic heeded to the age of,

893
00:44:38,519 --> 00:44:41,880
combustion the stench of decades old. CABLES i squeezed, in

894
00:44:42,159 --> 00:44:45,400
hands and, Knee scurping against. Insolation in the, DARKNESS i

895
00:44:45,440 --> 00:44:47,239
felt more than heard the lurch of feet behind. ME

896
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:50,599
a blast of alarm bled, suddenly a discordon off, time

897
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:52,800
a cacophony of, bells too old and out of sink

898
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:56,880
to be. Intentional emergency lighting, fail plunging every surface into

899
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:59,360
shadow except where the periodic gray blinkers throbbed in and.

900
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:03,000
OUT i fought, forward knuckles splitting on rusted sheet, steel

901
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:06,920
adrenaline burning off. Restraint then up ahead a rectangle of grimy.

902
00:45:06,960 --> 00:45:09,320
Glast the old stairwelldow locked for the last, year may be,

903
00:45:09,440 --> 00:45:12,079
more but it was, moving quaking, gently as some one

904
00:45:12,119 --> 00:45:14,599
below panded up toward it from the fifth. Floor my

905
00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:18,880
phone chimed a, TEXT a stairwell now, Run no, name just.

906
00:45:19,199 --> 00:45:21,760
URGENCY i pressed my weight to the. Door it gave,

907
00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,480
curagingly AND i stumbled out into the, stairwell proper fission,

908
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:27,519
swimming breath ragged in my. Fruit the siren behind was,

909
00:45:27,559 --> 00:45:30,920
deafening a whipplish, howl warning nobody in. Particular BEFORE i

910
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,960
could orient, myself a dark formall and civilian, clothes haggard

911
00:45:34,079 --> 00:45:36,880
adrenaline gloss seized my, arm wrenching me down the. Steps

912
00:45:37,639 --> 00:45:41,280
go you need to go. Now their, eyes, unmistakable fierce would,

913
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:43,039
worry were the same that had flickered over the top

914
00:45:43,119 --> 00:45:46,599
of the binder weeks. Ago, alex's my silent, correspondent the bargaining,

915
00:45:46,679 --> 00:45:49,159
soul who until this moment left only another side of

916
00:45:49,239 --> 00:45:53,079
warnings and whispered. Hints together we have fell half dived

917
00:45:53,079 --> 00:45:55,079
to the sublanning slimming through a walk fire door that

918
00:45:55,159 --> 00:45:57,800
snapped into place behind. Us with a wet final, climb

919
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,440
my hand was bleeding toes numb with. Coal alex pressed

920
00:46:01,480 --> 00:46:03,599
me up against the cinder, block close enough to smell

921
00:46:03,639 --> 00:46:07,400
adrenaline and. Fear. Listen she spat had duc. LOW i

922
00:46:07,519 --> 00:46:09,679
was in management years, ago after the, audit the missing

923
00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:11,320
money to. Go none of it was supposed to be,

924
00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:14,119
public but something in the wiring, changed like the floor itself.

925
00:46:14,199 --> 00:46:15,920
Rodded some of us stayed to keep eyes on, it

926
00:46:16,039 --> 00:46:17,920
to contain the, trouble to protect the. Tenants when the

927
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:20,880
city stopped carrying it got. Worse we started seeing, more hearing.

928
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:24,159
More her gaze bored into. ME i send you the first.

929
00:46:24,199 --> 00:46:26,079
Warning wanted you to get enough to shut this place

930
00:46:26,119 --> 00:46:27,960
down for, good but they know you have too. Much

931
00:46:28,079 --> 00:46:30,760
the other watches won't let you just. Walk we started

932
00:46:30,840 --> 00:46:34,639
moving as feet thundered somewhere Buff the alarms, flickered dropping

933
00:46:34,679 --> 00:46:36,760
in and, out a chaotic ballet of warning strokes in.

934
00:46:36,840 --> 00:46:39,920
DARKNESS i tried to ask, more But alex hustled me

935
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:43,199
down the, stairs urgency hardening her. Features they'll keep the

936
00:46:43,239 --> 00:46:45,760
alarms running until you're. Found if you, escape now bring

937
00:46:45,880 --> 00:46:48,440
all you, have use your. Platform blue. Streets cancer only

938
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:52,239
survives in. Shadow sure every one on the third, landing another,

939
00:46:52,320 --> 00:46:55,719
crash much closer signal. PURSUIT i down my bleeding hand

940
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:57,800
into my, jacket clutching the recorder and the list of,

941
00:46:57,840 --> 00:47:01,639
Evidence bind, her my, cocossette, pots the legal, locks pocket.

942
00:47:01,679 --> 00:47:04,800
Notebook one more, Thing alex. Whispered as we reached the

943
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:06,960
final heavy door to the ground. Floor don't look back

944
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:09,000
when you cross the. Threshold the, lights when they flicker,

945
00:47:09,039 --> 00:47:11,159
together it means the floors waking, up not just the,

946
00:47:11,199 --> 00:47:14,239
people but something. Else we reached the locked, door metal,

947
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,480
bent where so many others had tried to. Leave alex elbowed,

948
00:47:17,519 --> 00:47:19,719
it throwing every last ounce of fury and regret behind the,

949
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:22,440
movement and with a ragged, pop it swung. FREE i

950
00:47:22,519 --> 00:47:25,039
stumbled onto the linoleum of the lobby by, instinct shrieking,

951
00:47:25,079 --> 00:47:28,159
alarm still sneaking from, above The don's first blue light

952
00:47:28,199 --> 00:47:31,800
stained the glass outside the city's distant pulse. Colt alex

953
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:34,280
glued the last memoid at lock see five thirty to

954
00:47:34,360 --> 00:47:37,159
the exterior of this, stairwell a final salvo against. Secrecy

955
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:40,360
as we barreled through the revolving. Doors city police sirens

956
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:42,559
split the air two blocks, away drawn by the cobble

957
00:47:42,599 --> 00:47:45,760
to give alarms blurring from every arbor. Window we skidded

958
00:47:45,800 --> 00:47:48,280
to a hauld, outside breath mingling in a chilled, morning

959
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:51,400
both of us shaking with exhaustion and. FEAR i risked

960
00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:55,079
a glance back Against alex's. Warning six stores, above the

961
00:47:55,159 --> 00:47:58,639
conference rooms like, flat brighter than ever, before first split.

962
00:47:58,719 --> 00:48:01,480
POLLS a shadow long li mortionans stood at the center

963
00:48:01,519 --> 00:48:05,159
of the, window watching Neither lamo Nor. Alex the light,

964
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:09,440
stuttered then abruptly black Hat the building stood blank once

965
00:48:09,519 --> 00:48:13,039
more for the first. Time my niece gave. Out alex

966
00:48:13,079 --> 00:48:14,920
helped me, up guiding me to the, curb both of us.

967
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:17,880
Trembling my mind is spinning mess of, revelation, horror, exhaustion

968
00:48:18,119 --> 00:48:21,239
and underneath the strighteous. FURY i pressed the back up

969
00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:23,480
her corder to my, lips foresteaded for the first time all.

970
00:48:23,599 --> 00:48:27,760
Night sixth floor evidence collected survive is, free story. Ready

971
00:48:27,800 --> 00:48:30,000
if you're hearing, this it means we did what others.

972
00:48:30,039 --> 00:48:32,320
Wouldn't Blue streak kept a secrets for two Long it

973
00:48:32,480 --> 00:48:35,159
ends now everything after blowed into The russian glare of

974
00:48:35,199 --> 00:48:37,519
the outside. World police cause piling up on the, curb

975
00:48:37,559 --> 00:48:40,320
stund officers pounding on the lock. Glass tenants in nightclothes

976
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:43,639
sushered out into the early. Morning flashbulbs taped the dazzle

977
00:48:43,679 --> 00:48:47,039
of morning, News alex disappearing into the crowd as quietly

978
00:48:47,079 --> 00:48:49,559
as she'd. ARRIVE i spent the next day and night

979
00:48:49,599 --> 00:48:52,599
at my desk piecing the evidence into something. Coherent my

980
00:48:52,679 --> 00:48:55,440
hand shook AS i edited voice, over alternating between confession and.

981
00:48:55,519 --> 00:48:59,119
Indictment the, podcast when it would, out made city wide head.

982
00:48:59,199 --> 00:49:02,559
Lines by. Noon clips from news anchstrauded the, airwaves un

983
00:49:02,599 --> 00:49:05,079
alleged to veillance were. Inexposed in mid Under Blue street

984
00:49:05,119 --> 00:49:07,519
how cordoned off after years of secret tenant, MONITORING a

985
00:49:07,559 --> 00:49:10,840
police confirm evidence of hidden, ruins legal, audits possible missing

986
00:49:10,880 --> 00:49:13,920
persons case. Reopened lawy is keeyed for. Comment property management

987
00:49:13,960 --> 00:49:17,679
refused every request but promised full co. Operation tenants From Blue,

988
00:49:17,679 --> 00:49:20,719
streets some who'd called my, voicemail some who'd never trusted Der,

989
00:49:20,800 --> 00:49:24,039
lock spoke out on. Camera tony's was quivered in the audio.

990
00:49:24,119 --> 00:49:26,559
MONTAGE i always thought some one was, watching BUT i

991
00:49:26,639 --> 00:49:30,000
hoped it was just my. Imagination may up blinking in. Daylight,

992
00:49:30,159 --> 00:49:32,480
added none of us were refused safe in a place like. That,

993
00:49:32,599 --> 00:49:35,159
again a hush fell whenever the six floor came, Up

994
00:49:35,239 --> 00:49:38,079
cranes and police tip ringed its, windows and no one officers,

995
00:49:38,119 --> 00:49:41,159
included made any effort to check it. Alone within two,

996
00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:43,679
weeks the upper floors were, emptied the officers shrouded and

997
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:47,280
citi and dated black. Plastic these holders got free. Relocations

998
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:51,360
investigators filed in and. Out H r records were, redacted

999
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:52,880
but unde AND i will admit a cover abs and.

1000
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:56,280
Surveillance lemore and the other custodians were charged with a

1001
00:49:56,360 --> 00:50:00,440
laundry list of, abuses corporate, moutheasants criminal, trespas most played

1002
00:50:00,440 --> 00:50:04,079
out in low, voices head, bowed even management silence so

1003
00:50:04,239 --> 00:50:06,639
long felt the city's eye shifting. Inward we had no

1004
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:09,239
knowledge of these unlawful. Activities that was the official press.

1005
00:50:09,280 --> 00:50:13,440
STATEMENT i then it was too. LATE a decade winds

1006
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:16,840
had finally opened raw in. PUBLIC i ended my special

1007
00:50:16,880 --> 00:50:19,360
episode with the sound that started at, all crackling, static

1008
00:50:19,519 --> 00:50:22,559
now an, emblem not a. Warning something was never caught on.

1009
00:50:22,719 --> 00:50:26,360
TAPE i admitted a trout scraping my. Throat we captured everything,

1010
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:28,639
physical a paper trail bleeding out from years beneath the,

1011
00:50:28,760 --> 00:50:30,880
lights but the feeling in the, darkness the magnitude of

1012
00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:32,719
what was left. Behind it doesn't fit on AN sd.

1013
00:50:32,880 --> 00:50:35,199
CARD i walked the block every night that, week so

1014
00:50:35,320 --> 00:50:38,400
snuckle let the story. Rest but each PASS i Watched

1015
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:41,000
Blue Street tower seed into, silence its upper windows gone

1016
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:44,320
black as rotten. Teeth days turned to, weeks the podcasts moved,

1017
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:47,480
on and city news drifted. Elsewhere The Blue street faded

1018
00:50:47,519 --> 00:50:50,079
from the public, mind its doors, locked six floor windows.

1019
00:50:50,119 --> 00:50:54,159
Boarded tenants, scattered most wanting only to, forget but some

1020
00:50:54,320 --> 00:50:57,079
stores refused to die with new, cycles no matter how carefully.

1021
00:50:57,159 --> 00:51:00,679
Sealed late one, evening my old pop cust line rang

1022
00:51:00,760 --> 00:51:03,639
in a known, number static ue in the. Background is

1023
00:51:03,679 --> 00:51:05,760
this off a sorry to bother? It ar J, t

1024
00:51:06,039 --> 00:51:07,840
the new guy in Four? Sea is this the right

1025
00:51:07,920 --> 00:51:12,199
number for the? PODCAST i, answered weary but. Polite, sorry

1026
00:51:12,519 --> 00:51:15,320
just his voice, dropped. CHEAPISH i heard some rumors about the,

1027
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:18,320
building BUT I i don't believe in that, stuff, Really

1028
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:20,320
but for someone supposed to be up there on the,

1029
00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:23,719
sixth he hesitated, breath and, EVEN i mean it should

1030
00:51:23,719 --> 00:51:26,719
be empty now? Right he clicked, off but a follow

1031
00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:29,719
up was into my inbox a few minutes. Later attached

1032
00:51:29,840 --> 00:51:32,400
a blurry cell phone photo shot from side walk level

1033
00:51:32,400 --> 00:51:36,039
across the. Street there it was the six four's outsed

1034
00:51:36,079 --> 00:51:38,480
window had been wiped, clean like pouring, out brighter Than

1035
00:51:38,519 --> 00:51:40,800
i'd ever seen in flesh or. Film it wasn't the

1036
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:44,440
sickly Flickering bolbovo's night no, pattern no warning, morse but a,

1037
00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:46,920
steady aching, blaze as if the building itself wanted to

1038
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:50,360
be seen once. More and centered in that, GLASS a tall, shadow,

1039
00:51:50,400 --> 00:51:53,599
indistinct a moving and silent stood facing the, city no,

1040
00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:57,239
mask no, features but certain as Anything i'd ever, known watching,

1041
00:51:57,280 --> 00:52:00,920
outward watching back at. Me my hands trembled AS i

1042
00:52:00,960 --> 00:52:03,920
closed the. EMAIL i set the phone down and speaking

1043
00:52:04,599 --> 00:52:07,920
some LIGHT i understood then never really burn, out and

1044
00:52:08,039 --> 00:52:10,360
whatever remained on the six, four now human or, not

1045
00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:12,320
waits for some one else to look up and. WONDER

1046
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:15,039
i left my phone where it, was half expecting the

1047
00:52:15,079 --> 00:52:16,920
image to change or flicker away IF i looked too.

1048
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:20,320
Long the shadow in the, window after everything we'd exposed

1049
00:52:20,360 --> 00:52:22,440
and all the, grind finally scurb, clear stood there with

1050
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:25,119
a posture that was almost. WAITING i pictured a dozen

1051
00:52:25,199 --> 00:52:27,880
explanations from bowerteenes to a late night, inspector but none

1052
00:52:27,920 --> 00:52:29,639
of them matched WHAT i, saw how the light cut

1053
00:52:29,639 --> 00:52:31,440
through the. Layer dirk to crom that saw how it

1054
00:52:31,519 --> 00:52:33,880
tilted not toward the, floor but atwood head, up as

1055
00:52:33,880 --> 00:52:37,079
if acknowledging every gaze. BELOW i Called jay t back

1056
00:52:37,159 --> 00:52:39,760
BEFORE i could rethink. It he answered on the second,

1057
00:52:39,880 --> 00:52:42,519
ring sounding more alert than. Before did you see it?

1058
00:52:42,559 --> 00:52:46,800
AGAIN a long, silence then a nervous. LAUGH i haven't looked.

1059
00:52:46,800 --> 00:52:49,320
Again to be, HONEST i closed the. Blinds is is

1060
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:52,480
there really nobody up? There not any? More not. Officially

1061
00:52:52,599 --> 00:52:55,119
don't go, up Jay, tea even if the elevators start working.

1062
00:52:55,159 --> 00:52:57,559
AGAIN i let the warning tumble, out as much for

1063
00:52:57,679 --> 00:53:00,320
myself as for. Him if you notice any thing, else

1064
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:02,920
let me know seriously than tell anyone. Else you see who's?

1065
00:53:03,000 --> 00:53:05,760
New he mumbled something, grateful and heard off the, line

1066
00:53:05,880 --> 00:53:09,000
the city's night noise following. Him the photo remained a

1067
00:53:09,039 --> 00:53:11,840
glowing wedge on my. SCREEN i forwarded it To alex

1068
00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:16,320
with the subject thought we sealed. This seconds, stretched then her,

1069
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:19,800
REPLY i moved out last, week still locked from inside

1070
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:22,800
that tiny, phrase poor cold water drew my stomach or

1071
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:26,440
replacing victory with something rawn. FINISHED i closed the laptop

1072
00:53:26,480 --> 00:53:29,320
and went to the. Window the, tower just visible between

1073
00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:31,639
two new o glass, desads loomed as it always, had

1074
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:34,440
subtle and dominating with its row of dark upper, windows

1075
00:53:35,079 --> 00:53:37,840
only now a faint glimmering from the highest. ONE i

1076
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:40,719
watched long, enough from eyes to. Water the light never.

1077
00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:44,360
WAVERED i slept in, short jarring bust at, night brainnying

1078
00:53:44,400 --> 00:53:46,239
at every, sound and shadowed the way it had during

1079
00:53:46,280 --> 00:53:50,039
the sleepless stakeouts weeks. Before some time before, DAWN i bolted,

1080
00:53:50,079 --> 00:53:53,119
awake CERTAIN i heard not inside my, apartment but somewhere

1081
00:53:53,159 --> 00:53:55,480
out on the fire escape a, tap, faint, deliberate like

1082
00:53:55,559 --> 00:53:58,320
The king Of, morse coat knuckles against. Glass the city

1083
00:53:58,400 --> 00:54:00,599
hummed the same as, ever But Blue street tower poles

1084
00:54:00,679 --> 00:54:02,519
in the back of my mind a wind refusing to.

1085
00:54:02,599 --> 00:54:05,639
Close the next, DAY i let myself get pulled back

1086
00:54:05,679 --> 00:54:08,360
into the WEB i had told MYSELF i was finished

1087
00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:10,840
with chasing ghosts and cleaning up after the city's wounded.

1088
00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,760
Past but HERE i was measuring my own resolve against

1089
00:54:13,840 --> 00:54:17,159
one burned out. CORRIDOR i called the city's property management,

1090
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:19,800
line holding for four layers of music until a clip voice,

1091
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:22,559
ANSWERED i gave my credentials and asked about the six

1092
00:54:22,679 --> 00:54:25,920
flour re. Entry we have no scheduled reoccupancy for that,

1093
00:54:26,039 --> 00:54:28,639
level the employee, reply bored and prickling under every. Word

1094
00:54:29,440 --> 00:54:32,719
the cordes. Change only the insurance auditors and city inspectors have,

1095
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:37,679
access and that strictly for safety. Compliance anyone else oppressed

1096
00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:43,320
maintenance cleaning, staff night patrols none? Authorized are you reporting unauthorized?

1097
00:54:43,360 --> 00:54:47,039
AXIS i hung up BEFORE i could. Lie, INSTEAD i

1098
00:54:47,119 --> 00:54:49,400
drifted down To Blue street on, foot crossing through the

1099
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:51,599
gray mid morning light that left every surface bleach and

1100
00:54:51,639 --> 00:54:54,480
and remarkable police tapes still flapped at the corners of

1101
00:54:54,519 --> 00:54:57,519
the tower's. ENTRANCE i stood across the street and countered.

1102
00:54:57,559 --> 00:55:00,800
Windows the sixth floors class had been s quigied cleaned by,

1103
00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:03,119
someone an official or maybe one of those officers who

1104
00:55:03,159 --> 00:55:05,000
had left dusty beet prints on the inside WHEN i

1105
00:55:05,119 --> 00:55:07,920
was lost up, There but now the leftmost bag glowed

1106
00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:10,360
faintly with a sodium haze despite no visible lamp or.

1107
00:55:10,400 --> 00:55:14,480
FIXTURE i delivery van blocked the. Alley two uniforms moved

1108
00:55:14,519 --> 00:55:17,360
boxes up the back, steps faces drawn and posture. Stiff

1109
00:55:18,000 --> 00:55:20,559
BEFORE i could second guess. MYSELF i fled one down

1110
00:55:20,639 --> 00:55:23,559
with a nod any work being done up. TOP i

1111
00:55:23,679 --> 00:55:27,360
cast my voice casual soul lights on last. Night the

1112
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:30,119
younger of the two looked, up then. Away nawd us

1113
00:55:30,239 --> 00:55:33,199
second time this, week someone. Asked he dipped his, head

1114
00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:36,199
glancing at the, badge swinging for my. Coat cops won't

1115
00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:38,480
go up without back, up not after you. Know the

1116
00:55:38,559 --> 00:55:41,679
wind chopped our conversation. APART i thanked him and drifted

1117
00:55:41,719 --> 00:55:44,239
past the revolving, doors fighting the old verge to push.

1118
00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:47,079
Through but there was a new combination lock in, place

1119
00:55:47,360 --> 00:55:49,199
and my cred as a reporter did not extend to

1120
00:55:49,239 --> 00:55:52,119
getting thrown out by the department tasked without diting a local. Scandal,

1121
00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:55,679
INSTEAD i circled to the convenience store next door with a.

1122
00:55:55,719 --> 00:55:58,039
Clerk an old woman with a voice like ripped construction,

1123
00:55:58,159 --> 00:55:59,960
paper pulled a face WHEN i brought up the sea.

1124
00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:03,239
Floor some stores are better boarded, up she, said her

1125
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:06,039
hands folding over the. Register but if you ever find

1126
00:56:06,079 --> 00:56:07,960
whose leave it all those sticky notes in my, alley

1127
00:56:08,079 --> 00:56:11,079
let me know Every monday without. VEIL i pressed for,

1128
00:56:11,199 --> 00:56:13,519
more trying to learn if any of the custodians had been.

1129
00:56:13,599 --> 00:56:18,079
By she, hesitated then shrugged. Once maybe bulk order of

1130
00:56:18,119 --> 00:56:20,840
batteries and two packs of instant, noodles but that's weeks.

1131
00:56:20,880 --> 00:56:22,880
Ago he looked right through, me like he didn't see

1132
00:56:22,960 --> 00:56:26,239
much at. ALL i left the, sore. Uneasy the idea

1133
00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:28,760
that someone slipped back in Every, monday moving unseen through the,

1134
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:31,119
garage or maybe tunneling in by habit itched under my.

1135
00:56:31,199 --> 00:56:33,800
SKIN i spent the next forty minute shadow in the,

1136
00:56:33,800 --> 00:56:37,639
perimeter scanning windows and shadow. LINES a few TIMES i

1137
00:56:37,719 --> 00:56:39,400
THOUGHT i saw something shift at the edge of the

1138
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:41,679
six four glassic cut and billowing a flick of dark

1139
00:56:41,679 --> 00:56:44,679
against the pale, background but WHENEVER i, blinked the image

1140
00:56:44,719 --> 00:56:48,320
snapped back to plane empty. Rectangles on, IMPULSE i ducked

1141
00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:50,639
into the alley beside the delivery van and slipped through

1142
00:56:50,639 --> 00:56:54,159
the narrow gap behind the recycling. Bins previous dickhats had

1143
00:56:54,159 --> 00:56:55,880
taught me there was a rusted via door on the

1144
00:56:55,960 --> 00:56:58,320
side lorn a goat chain, shot but someone had clipped

1145
00:56:58,320 --> 00:57:01,360
the padlock since the last city, inspection maybe during the

1146
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,800
police raid or maybe somebody. ELSE i pressed my hand

1147
00:57:04,840 --> 00:57:08,000
to the. Handle it was cold but. Free for a,

1148
00:57:08,079 --> 00:57:10,880
MOMENT i weighed whether to push. It my phone buzzed

1149
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,559
at your, note running down my BACK a new, text don't?

1150
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:18,440
That was? It just a single word from an unlisted.

1151
00:57:18,519 --> 00:57:22,360
NUMBER i froze thumb. Hovering there was only one person

1152
00:57:22,400 --> 00:57:24,800
who texted with arcade AND salex of someone who'd gotten

1153
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:27,880
hold of her. CONTENTS i looked, up heart, POUNDING i

1154
00:57:27,960 --> 00:57:31,639
skimmed the roof tops and nearby. Windows no. ONE i

1155
00:57:31,719 --> 00:57:33,920
backed away the. DOOR i moved and re entered, daylight

1156
00:57:34,000 --> 00:57:37,239
letting the crowd swallow me. Up the lesson was, simple a, boundary,

1157
00:57:37,360 --> 00:57:40,280
real even if, invisible marked by, warnings more persistent than

1158
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:43,000
any lock or. Bolt but the story was not done with.

1159
00:57:43,119 --> 00:57:47,119
Me that, afternoon two more emails. Arrived the first was

1160
00:57:47,159 --> 00:57:49,199
the scan of an old office memo WHEN i hadn't seen,

1161
00:57:49,239 --> 00:57:51,079
before with a blue header and a clear date from

1162
00:57:51,079 --> 00:57:53,719
a year after the official shut, down all six four

1163
00:57:53,800 --> 00:57:57,079
logs to be destroyed before transfer of. Ownership the signature

1164
00:57:57,119 --> 00:57:59,239
at the bottomless, lemos, shaking as though the hand that

1165
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:01,480
wrote its struggle to remain steady to the last. Line

1166
00:58:02,039 --> 00:58:04,559
the second was from an anonymous, ander no, text just

1167
00:58:04,639 --> 00:58:08,079
the short video. Attachment my hand trembled AS i swept it, open,

1168
00:58:08,639 --> 00:58:11,760
shaky black and white footage played, someone maybe with a

1169
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:14,119
pun maybe an old camcorder had filmed from inside the

1170
00:58:14,159 --> 00:58:18,239
building after. Dark the frame jostled pan. Upward there for

1171
00:58:18,280 --> 00:58:20,599
a few ten seconds was a six to four, corridor

1172
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:23,679
familiar from all my, nights creeping through. It doors stood

1173
00:58:23,719 --> 00:58:26,440
half a. Jar the far end was illuminated by the

1174
00:58:26,519 --> 00:58:29,800
same impossible collless light as the videos. OPERATE a edge,

1175
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:32,119
closer the lens caught the outline of a human, figure Not,

1176
00:58:32,239 --> 00:58:35,239
lemour Not, alex not any ONE i, recognized standing Loose,

1177
00:58:35,320 --> 00:58:38,519
linden facing outward and, moving the faceless presence in the

1178
00:58:38,559 --> 00:58:41,760
window arms at its. Side only when the operator flinched

1179
00:58:41,800 --> 00:58:43,880
and the video cut off THAT i registered the absence of,

1180
00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:47,519
sound no, breathing no, frtfuls only the low stata kiss saturating.

1181
00:58:47,599 --> 00:58:51,239
EVERYTHING i closed the. File my hand refused to. Steady

1182
00:58:51,920 --> 00:58:54,320
if the recording was, recent days, old or EVEN i,

1183
00:58:54,519 --> 00:58:56,880
was it meant some one had by passed police, cordons security,

1184
00:58:56,960 --> 00:59:01,119
upgrades and whatever management now called enhanced tenant Protect neither

1185
00:59:01,159 --> 00:59:03,440
someone never left the six four after, all or something

1186
00:59:03,480 --> 00:59:05,599
compelled the pattern to begin anew every time the building

1187
00:59:05,679 --> 00:59:08,079
tried to forget it was nearly dust by the TIME

1188
00:59:08,119 --> 00:59:10,360
i allowed to wait to. SETTLE i walked back to

1189
00:59:10,440 --> 00:59:12,239
my office up a hot. Cup the city's flow and.

1190
00:59:12,280 --> 00:59:15,039
Broken no matter how many secrets spilled out from my,

1191
00:59:15,119 --> 00:59:17,840
Window Blue Street tower was just visible and silt brooding

1192
00:59:17,920 --> 00:59:21,760
geometry in electric, twilight night, settled and, again as if

1193
00:59:21,800 --> 00:59:24,079
by unspoken, agreement a sliver of light poles in the

1194
00:59:24,119 --> 00:59:28,079
sixth floor corner, stronger not, weaker and once in the,

1195
00:59:28,199 --> 00:59:31,599
darkness a thin electronic whine threaded through my desk, speakers

1196
00:59:31,639 --> 00:59:34,800
a brief and locatable, feedback a morse, blit vanishing almost

1197
00:59:34,840 --> 00:59:38,039
as soon as it. BEGAN i unplugged everything tack. Quiet

1198
00:59:38,559 --> 00:59:41,039
the dread was sharper than, before not BECAUSE i feared being,

1199
00:59:41,119 --> 00:59:44,360
watched but BECAUSE i recognized the. Loop this, story like

1200
00:59:44,480 --> 00:59:46,760
so many rooted and neglected places and broken lines of,

1201
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:49,199
authority would at last every effort to confine or expose.

1202
00:59:49,239 --> 00:59:52,360
It Maybe lemore had vanished And alex had moved, away

1203
00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:56,079
but their, rituals the, watch, locks, lights and warnings, persisted

1204
00:59:56,119 --> 00:59:59,159
because the city itself demanded a. WITNESS i pulled out

1205
00:59:59,159 --> 01:00:01,920
the notequide, rust flipping through the interest one last time

1206
01:00:02,519 --> 01:00:04,960
near this center in cramp. PENCIL i found a phrase i'd,

1207
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:07,599
overlooked bracketed by the same careful. Hand if you're reading,

1208
01:00:07,639 --> 01:00:09,639
this you are the next. Line don't let it fall.

1209
01:00:09,719 --> 01:00:12,480
Duck sitting in my own light, WINDOW i made a

1210
01:00:12,519 --> 01:00:14,719
second copy of the recording the original binder at the.

1211
01:00:14,760 --> 01:00:17,159
Confessions even the new video was sent by a. STRANGER

1212
01:00:17,800 --> 01:00:21,079
i set them, aside midway between archive and. Offering some

1213
01:00:21,239 --> 01:00:24,079
lights cannot be extinguished by breaking bulbs or closing. Files

1214
01:00:24,719 --> 01:00:26,840
the city spun on around, me oblivious to the pulse

1215
01:00:26,920 --> 01:00:29,599
high above. MIDDAWN i left my blinds open that, night

1216
01:00:29,679 --> 01:00:31,480
the six floor lamp of faint echo in the, glass

1217
01:00:31,519 --> 01:00:33,760
marking a spot in the city's nervous system where memory

1218
01:00:33,800 --> 01:00:36,920
and guilt never fully. Vanished in the weeks that, followed

1219
01:00:37,159 --> 01:00:39,639
more newcomers arrived At Blue Street, tower load by cheap,

1220
01:00:39,679 --> 01:00:43,920
rent urban, legend or stubborn. Disbelief some called the podcast line,

1221
01:00:44,079 --> 01:00:47,320
half expecting a. Prank in. Return others sent blurry bethels

1222
01:00:47,320 --> 01:00:49,960
snapshots of flickering windows at odd, iris always with the

1223
01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:52,639
same anxious. NOTE i thought this place was supposed to

1224
01:00:52,679 --> 01:00:55,519
be empty. NOW i never told them to stay away at. Right,

1225
01:00:56,280 --> 01:01:00,239
curiosity after, all is as contigious as any. Haunting sooner

1226
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:03,000
or LATER i realized every building leaves in an. OPENING

1227
01:01:03,599 --> 01:01:06,119
a scene is, sealed a pass on, misplaced a light

1228
01:01:06,199 --> 01:01:09,840
refusing to surrender to bureaucracy or. Legend the watchers changed

1229
01:01:09,880 --> 01:01:11,960
the faces behind the, glass the voice on a, memo

1230
01:01:12,079 --> 01:01:14,239
the falling of another silent, log but the, pattern like

1231
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:17,320
the memory Of mausol limped. On if you stand outside

1232
01:01:17,360 --> 01:01:19,239
Bau Street tower on a moonast night and look up

1233
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:22,400
past the older lamps into tangle, shadows sometimes you'll see,

1234
01:01:22,400 --> 01:01:25,360
it a, steady searching light in the topmost, window, waiting

1235
01:01:26,079 --> 01:01:29,119
calling for the next. Witness the story endows because the

1236
01:01:29,159 --> 01:01:32,000
city does like bloom and stubbornly against the gathering, dark

1237
01:01:32,199 --> 01:01:34,400
proof that some mysteries are kept alive not by, ghosts

1238
01:01:34,679 --> 01:01:36,320
but by the wall to remember and the fear of

1239
01:01:36,400 --> 01:01:40,119
what forgetting leaves. Behind SO i keep, recording always, ready

1240
01:01:40,800 --> 01:01:42,880
just in case one night the sixth floor al goes

1241
01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:45,159
out for good or burns brighter than, ever leading someone

1242
01:01:45,199 --> 01:01:47,239
else to, ask what's truly waiting up? There with the

1243
01:01:47,280 --> 01:01:51,199
cities as turned at last the right? Way and that

1244
01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:53,760
is the. End thank you for, listening AND i will

1245
01:01:53,760 --> 01:01:54,679
see you in the next one