WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:07.759 I'll admit I'm not usually drawn to mysteries, at least 2 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:10.400 not outside the confines of a spreadsheet. Give me a 3 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:12.679 logic puzzle, a set of numbers with a single answer 4 00:00:12.679 --> 00:00:15.039 carved into its heart, and now gladly pull it apart 5 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:17.679 for an afternoon by temper and training. I am not 6 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:19.640 the kind of person who is haunted by a riddle. 7 00:00:20.199 --> 00:00:22.480 But since the first morning I noticed a small elegant 8 00:00:22.519 --> 00:00:24.760 anomaly in my daily routine, something about the way our 9 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:26.879 building handles the number nine has work loos a thread 10 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.679 in my mind. I can't help but follow. It started 11 00:00:29.760 --> 00:00:32.640 as so many oddly persistent curiosities due on a perfectly 12 00:00:32.719 --> 00:00:36.159 ordinary Monday. I arrived at Franklin Tower at eight thirty 13 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:38.560 four as usual, sidestepping the rush of lawyers and press 14 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:41.240 suits and start of consultants. With this winning battle lineouts 15 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:44.759 most days, I wave he load to Gloria, the security guard, 16 00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:47.399 gently bend over acrossward and exchange idle gripes about the 17 00:00:47.399 --> 00:00:49.880 coffee in the lobby with Ruth, who presides over Farley 18 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:52.359 Buried and Merger's reception desk with the intelligence of a 19 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:56.439 chess master. Sometimes there's an elevator operator at the controls, 20 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:59.079 usually one of the building's handful of gray uniform tendants, 21 00:00:59.159 --> 00:01:00.960 cheerful a bored as the day takes them. But most 22 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:02.920 mornings I'd just fallen with the rest of the crowd, 23 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.239 scanning the lobby directory for any signs of tenant re 24 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.959 shuffling while we all, however, for the next available elevator cab. 25 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:10.519 The rhythm is so familiar that it now has its 26 00:01:10.519 --> 00:01:13.840 own music. In the granite lobby, someone steps out, someone 27 00:01:13.879 --> 00:01:16.480 steps in the elevator panel's chirrup, and illuminate with those 28 00:01:16.519 --> 00:01:20.359 blocky red digits fours, flock by l two, three, sometimes 29 00:01:20.359 --> 00:01:22.599 a stop a seven when the Carter Insurance folks cared 30 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:25.599 off eighth, then smoothly the panel brightens to ten. In 31 00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:28.120 my memory, there was never a nine that lingered, never 32 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:31.359 a moment with the elevator even hesitated for it. Sometimes 33 00:01:31.359 --> 00:01:33.120 I would hear ding and see the door's puff for 34 00:01:33.120 --> 00:01:34.719 a suit or two, but there was a pattern to 35 00:01:34.760 --> 00:01:37.400 what was missing. Nine existed only on the directory or 36 00:01:37.400 --> 00:01:40.120 in the stencil list by the stairwells, never as a 37 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:43.200 lived destination. Last week, on a rare day, when I 38 00:01:43.239 --> 00:01:45.719 rode up alone early courtesy of insaumnia and half a 39 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:48.040 cup of unconvincing lobby coffee. I pressed nine out of 40 00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.560 idle curiosity. The bottomlet softly, then flickered out. The elevator 41 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:54.840 accepted my end for an instant, like an actor considering 42 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:57.239 an improvald queue before jumping from eight to ten with 43 00:01:57.319 --> 00:02:01.239 practiced indifference. No ding, no hol, no sharp drop before 44 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:05.000 surging upward, just a blip, a skip beat later on 45 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:07.480 a whim. I tried again. The result was exactly the same. 46 00:02:08.039 --> 00:02:10.960 The next day, asked Ruth, as we waited together, gesturing 47 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:13.120 at the panel, Hey, does any one use the nine 48 00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:16.240 flour here? Ruth, who has a catalog of opinions on 49 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:18.439 office politics as long as my arum paused for a 50 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:22.039 half second before snorting, Oh, that floors just for building use. 51 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:25.240 Nobody from our offices ever goes there. She shrugged it off, 52 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:28.120 already gasping about a mess. Fawn's new assistant down on Vive. 53 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:30.360 I would have let it, gopher, who cares about the 54 00:02:30.400 --> 00:02:33.400 mapping of floors truly, except a board accountant looking for patterns. 55 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.919 But curiosity, once piqued, is hard to set aside. Franklin 56 00:02:37.960 --> 00:02:41.479 Tower's ecosystem is a tangle of personalities, territorial squabbles, and 57 00:02:41.520 --> 00:02:45.159 a likely alliances. It's always been efficient in its omisfit way. 58 00:02:45.199 --> 00:02:47.080 A building that tums with the effort of so many 59 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:50.719 desperate businesses sharing one address. Aside from the minor mysteries 60 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:53.319 of lost coffee mugs, were vanishing office chairs, things fit, 61 00:02:54.240 --> 00:02:58.080 except increasingly Floor nine. I tried the stairs that evening 62 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.319 after hours, up past the blandly painted walls affleckd with 63 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:04.360 that faint must of old dust and warming pipes. Floors 64 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:07.120 two through eight each had their dull institutional doors badged 65 00:03:07.120 --> 00:03:10.360 and nonescript, but the landing between eight and ten hosted 66 00:03:10.360 --> 00:03:13.120 a thick, unusually solid door, pale green paint faded to 67 00:03:13.199 --> 00:03:16.319 jawned as yellow, A battered pluq read authorized personnel only 68 00:03:16.439 --> 00:03:18.960 in a typeface I remembered from their original building photos 69 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.080 in my orientation packet. Even the hinges looked older than 70 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:26.039 the rest. I tried the handle gently, and at din budge. 71 00:03:26.120 --> 00:03:28.360 This should have been enough, a bit of corporate peculiarity, 72 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:31.639 explained easily by security or history, or the thousand logistical 73 00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:34.719 quirks that build up in old downtown towers. And yet 74 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:37.840 the space between floors refused to be thoothed away. On 75 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:39.919 days when I am carrying folders up from a shared 76 00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.479 printing suite, I still find myself counting the floors by 77 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.159 their worn numbers, feeling the phantom gap settle into my 78 00:03:45.240 --> 00:03:47.960 routine as persistent as a too n count entirely place. 79 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:51.960 Franklin Tower was built for nineteen seventies optimism, twelve stories 80 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:54.639 of climate controlled promise, with marble floors in the lobby, 81 00:03:54.639 --> 00:03:57.280 polished every day before seven a m. It is a 82 00:03:57.319 --> 00:03:59.919 directory in that predigital clocking style, cards slept in and 83 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.560 out by evening desk staff. My office, reinfelled and wet. 84 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.439 Accountancy is listed in black and white plastic, third from 85 00:04:06.439 --> 00:04:08.439 the top, just above the newest start up, some kind 86 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:10.599 of legal tax something, their logo printed on a close 87 00:04:10.639 --> 00:04:13.680 iron ready vinyl sheet. Law firms occupy the bulk of 88 00:04:13.680 --> 00:04:17.480 the upper half below Insurance agencies, the language school, and 89 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:20.120 Emilio's bar cafe, which issues more express or in adet 90 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:22.160 in Starbuck's Smite in an hour and host after work 91 00:04:22.240 --> 00:04:26.319 venting sessions with enthusiastic regularity. I'm deeply practical, or so 92 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:29.800 I am told. My job is to chase details reconcile, 93 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:32.800 double build expenses, keep the small gears of Franklin's tenant 94 00:04:32.839 --> 00:04:36.160 ecosistant turning. My satisfaction is in the things that add up, 95 00:04:36.240 --> 00:04:38.240 or occasionally in the delight when they nearly don't tend 96 00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:40.920 the process by which a solution is forced through. There 97 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:43.480 are always purges that require a little human adjustment, the 98 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:46.240 right pair of signatures, the occasional misplaced sweet number on 99 00:04:46.279 --> 00:04:50.279 a delivery slip. Building admin is a living bureaucracy, overlapping 100 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:53.560 systems for all, Like coral, always threatening tiny mutinies rarely 101 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:56.879 attrite rebellion. Most of us patch these holes by trade. 102 00:04:57.319 --> 00:05:00.079 The building's routines are a backdrop to my own. I 103 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.279 wave to Stine every durs Day. He's the maintenance manager, 104 00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:04.720 built in the shape of a friendly fridge, always carrying 105 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:07.240 in over soft queuing and interruptego the mail clock with 106 00:05:07.279 --> 00:05:10.120 my overflowing entry. At least twice a week we swap 107 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:12.399 dip and gripes about temperature control, never write, and the 108 00:05:12.439 --> 00:05:14.480 carpet in the whole of seven Morris by the week. 109 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:18.240 Then there's Gloria. She runs security from her post in 110 00:05:18.279 --> 00:05:20.839 the lobby. Gray hairshall at by ritual and subtle pride 111 00:05:20.920 --> 00:05:24.160 cross would always open beside her visitor a lock. Gloria 112 00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:26.199 has a way of answering direct questions with a turn 113 00:05:26.279 --> 00:05:30.279 or a twinkle, which on some topics feels like protection. Crucially, 114 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:32.839 in a building where offices shift tenants like tectonic plates, 115 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:36.399 space is precious. Landlords will squeeze marketing teams into what 116 00:05:36.439 --> 00:05:39.360 will once law libraries. No one waste a whole floor 117 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:42.720 whenever there's a staff expansion or someone moves out in 118 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.199 the walls are hastily repainted as Ruth who sighs about 119 00:05:45.199 --> 00:05:47.360 the hunt for more elbow room, and Stein who frowns 120 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.480 at the paperwork for moving phone lines so that blank 121 00:05:50.639 --> 00:05:53.279 lock nine four hangs just out of reach, a contradiction 122 00:05:53.319 --> 00:05:56.759 that grows more peculiar the longer I pay attention. One Tuesday, 123 00:05:56.920 --> 00:05:59.199 after the close of quarter, I stayed late to prepare 124 00:05:59.240 --> 00:06:02.920 some internal audit paperwork. The process was supposed to be drudgery. 125 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:06.720 Instead it appended my assumptions invoys after invoice in the 126 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:10.439 system reference a nine four supply fee. Nothing excessive, just 127 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:12.959 a recurring line item attached to all tenants five dollars 128 00:06:12.959 --> 00:06:16.680 here ten there. The charge cycles with utilities in the 129 00:06:16.720 --> 00:06:19.480 small notes field. This sometimes a common to building supplies 130 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:23.120 a janitorial storage for level nine or commonery cleaning. Yet 131 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:26.160 none of my contacts, when prompted, could recall authorizing or 132 00:06:26.199 --> 00:06:29.680 benefiting from any such service. Ruth, sipping her heavy tea 133 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:33.040 from a permanent mug, wrinkled her nose. Must be for 134 00:06:33.040 --> 00:06:35.879 those lost party chairs, or maybe someone stashing law books 135 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:39.000 for the looming big trial. She grinned, unconvinced, and then 136 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:42.199 shrugged it off again. I tried to ignore it, but 137 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:44.519 something in the back and forth of documents and denials 138 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:47.439 pushed me further. That same week, on a supply run, 139 00:06:47.480 --> 00:06:49.720 to drop off a package left behind in our office kitchen, 140 00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:52.319 a padded envelope addressed in scribbled courier script. As we 141 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:55.360 tend owayed, how took the stairs outside the heavy nine 142 00:06:55.399 --> 00:06:58.560 floor door. I paused there a man in a messengers 143 00:06:58.680 --> 00:07:01.519 vested in front of them. Authorized personnel only signed clipboard 144 00:07:01.519 --> 00:07:05.560 in one hand, pen poised. The door never opened. Instead, 145 00:07:05.639 --> 00:07:08.000 with practice calm, he signed a delivery slet, then slid 146 00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 the envelope into a nerrouse lot set into the frame. 147 00:07:10.560 --> 00:07:13.560 If he noticed me, he gave no sign, just nodded politely. 148 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:16.399 And headed down. On my return I caught up with Gloria. 149 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:18.720 She did not look up from her crosswood as I 150 00:07:18.759 --> 00:07:23.319 mentioned the delivery. Instead, she gave a familiar slow motion smile. Oh, 151 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:27.079 administration collects those nothing for you to worry about, internal thing. 152 00:07:27.639 --> 00:07:29.759 Her lips pressed height as she folded over her puzzle. 153 00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:33.920 Do you know who works up there, Gloria, Building services 154 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:37.399 mostly records, old storage. They keep those things to themselves. 155 00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:41.680 Her tone, usually so languid, had shifted somewhere between evasion 156 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:45.160 and gentle rubek. I tried a few more questions, Each 157 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:48.680 one found a softer, more impenetrable wall. Later that day 158 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:51.560 I coaxed Truth into riding the elevator with me. Let's 159 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:53.319 see if we can make it stop on nine for once. 160 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:57.160 She played along, pressing a nine with a conspiratorial wink. 161 00:07:57.720 --> 00:08:00.800 The light blinked, then faded out. Kennel lit for ten, 162 00:08:00.959 --> 00:08:05.120 and then we were moving upward. She shrugged, laughing, Maybe 163 00:08:05.199 --> 00:08:07.600 it's just the storage thing. There's probably nothing up there 164 00:08:07.639 --> 00:08:09.639 at all except broken chairs and the ghosts of old 165 00:08:09.680 --> 00:08:12.920 coffee stains. But by then I was no longer content 166 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.279 with storage. The contradiction was everywhere I looked. The ninth 167 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:18.839 floor was reference in ledger's supplied with request of goods 168 00:08:18.839 --> 00:08:22.279 built all without complaint, yet nobody owned it, worked it, 169 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:26.079 or entery except perhaps, but resigned ritual. As officers emptied 170 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:28.319 for the day, I let myself back into the stair wall. 171 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:31.319 The old authorized personnel only sign on the ninth floor 172 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:33.519 door was crooked, The door cool and oddly dents to 173 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:35.759 the touch, the lock giving a satisfying clerk when I 174 00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:38.000 rattled it as if it wanted to be heard. I 175 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:40.600 put my ear to the wood, feeling both ridiculous and 176 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:44.320 briefly thrilled. There was nothing, then, faintly, perhaps a murmur 177 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:47.480 not distinct enough to parse. The air had a slightly 178 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:50.399 different flavor, cooler, tinted at the edge with something metallic. 179 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:52.679 I needed to know more, if not for the sake 180 00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:55.000 of any one's business, than at least describes the itch 181 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:58.000 that grows when reality refuses to submit to its own paperwork. 182 00:08:58.600 --> 00:09:01.600 Franklin Tower doesn't just run on lists and ledgers in 183 00:09:01.639 --> 00:09:05.159 its own way. It's a microcosm tangle living thing. Its 184 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:07.720 marble arby while a little scuff from decades of foot 185 00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:10.639 traffic still tries to project a sword of optimistic grinder. 186 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:13.519 Lawyers grip at a chase just tightly enough to dissuade 187 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:16.840 small talk agents and pastel suits huddle around the news 188 00:09:16.840 --> 00:09:20.279 monitor arguing about municipal bonds. The air is tinged with 189 00:09:20.399 --> 00:09:23.080 espresso on the occasional waft of cleaning fluid, a warning 190 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:25.440 that somewhere nearby janitor is hard at work restoring the 191 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:29.519 space to neutral. As accountants, we're quietly tolerated and necessity 192 00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:32.039 for any operation that generates enough money to warrn caution 193 00:09:32.159 --> 00:09:35.120 but doesn't quite make the headlines. Our third force each 194 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:37.600 is a cube farm, hodgebudge of box. He monitors fig 195 00:09:37.679 --> 00:09:41.279 plants and the constant shifting of paperwork. We bear witness 196 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:44.240 to every little transaction the building generates, and our files 197 00:09:44.279 --> 00:09:47.159 run almost as deep as the landlord's office. There are 198 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:50.080 unwritten rules about who claims which kitchen shelf, whose turn 199 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.039 it is to refresh the very bad coffee pot, and 200 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:54.480 whose birthday warns A tree of many cup kicks are 201 00:09:54.480 --> 00:09:57.759 precisely four or fifteen across five years. Here have written 202 00:09:57.759 --> 00:10:00.000 a personal ledger and posted notes, and half remember Joe 203 00:10:00.159 --> 00:10:02.639 from colleagues who, still, after months apart, call me being 204 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:06.279 countered with faint affection. Stan is my favorite conduit for rumor. 205 00:10:06.879 --> 00:10:09.080 His domain runs from the shadow way confines behind the 206 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:11.559 elevators to the rooftop, and his keys are second only 207 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:14.720 to Glorious in number. He's been here a decade, inherited 208 00:10:14.720 --> 00:10:17.240 the job from a predecessor whose only stories involved the 209 00:10:17.240 --> 00:10:19.799 old wiring and a nephobic intolerance for a stranger. For 210 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:23.000 Stan himself is practical and direct, but I've seen him 211 00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:26.080 pause before answering certain questions, as if rehearsing which version 212 00:10:26.159 --> 00:10:30.360 to give. Emilio's cafe officially named Sidecar Lounge unofficially the 213 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:33.360 aphimath offers both expresses and the daily opportunity to survey 214 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:37.000 the building's emotional weather. After hours, gossip flow is as 215 00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:40.279 freely as cafene and some knights. When tensions run high 216 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:42.320 over her stole, which account or whose foam forgot to 217 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:44.600 pay the print a lease, Milio sets out a dish 218 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.919 of cookies big enough for a diplomatic crisis. Maybe I 219 00:10:48.039 --> 00:10:50.440 was more susceptible than most notes in the building's quirks, 220 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:52.279 tuned as I an to deviations in what should be 221 00:10:52.320 --> 00:10:56.440 standard patterns. That's part temperament, part professional necessity and internal 222 00:10:56.440 --> 00:10:59.519 craving for order that isn't disrupted by coincidence, but sharpened 223 00:10:59.519 --> 00:11:02.039 by it. The more I paid attention, the more the 224 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:05.200 prisons know. Absence of floor nine unsettled me. Why would 225 00:11:05.200 --> 00:11:07.440 tenants fight over every square foot while letting an entire 226 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:10.279 floor slip away? Why would the building humming with need 227 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:13.240 fail to max out its own resources? Why would paperwork 228 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:17.440 reference replace that no one seemingly possessed. This question became 229 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:19.799 the colonel that shaped my days for a while, not 230 00:11:19.919 --> 00:11:22.039 out of any desire to expose a scandal or when 231 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:24.799 some bet, but because its shaped, presented but ungrasped reference 232 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:26.960 but uninhabited the seem to demand a kind of answer. 233 00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:30.519 As the weeks moved along, the puzzle deepened. It was 234 00:11:30.519 --> 00:11:32.519 not just a trick of elevator panels or a quirk 235 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:35.759 in the billing system. Evidence for the nine floors existence 236 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.159 abounded in places you'd never expect, and yet every step 237 00:11:38.240 --> 00:11:41.519 closer drew only a thicker fog of contradiction. At lunch, 238 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:44.080 I browsed old directories in the glass fronted showcase by 239 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:48.399 glorious desk, each one spanning decades, detailed and orderly, listing 240 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:51.600 four nine appeared in black ink with company names, sweet numbers, 241 00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:55.320 even the occasional resource room or cafeteria annotation, but the 242 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:58.840 name's far go tech, while language laboratories Cosmodex Engineering were 243 00:11:58.879 --> 00:12:02.000 unfamiliar and claimed by any living memory. A trip down 244 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.639 to the archives little more than three steel filing cabinets 245 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:07.279 in the service corridor revealed directories from the late nineteen 246 00:12:07.320 --> 00:12:09.399 eighty showing a full suite of tenants or nine, a 247 00:12:09.480 --> 00:12:13.879 short lived magazine service travel agency, something called Executive Retreat Services, 248 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:18.000 none indexed in the building's current records. A corner stand 249 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:20.519 midday as he tinkered with a stubborn radiator on four 250 00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:23.159 when's the last time you went up to four nine, 251 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:26.679 I ask, keeping my vost casual Stand's answer came without 252 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:29.360 deep thought, as if he chewed this script before. It's 253 00:12:29.399 --> 00:12:31.679 complicated that once some old system from when they made 254 00:12:31.720 --> 00:12:34.440 everything modular. They say it's bad luck to stash equipment there. 255 00:12:34.480 --> 00:12:37.600 I just use six if I need storage. He folded up, 256 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:41.440 tightening a bolt. So it's not empty, he scratched at 257 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:44.639 his chin. Haven't gone up there since I started, Come 258 00:12:44.679 --> 00:12:46.759 to think of it, every time I get closed, something 259 00:12:46.759 --> 00:12:49.399 turns out that needs fixing us what There's always another leak, 260 00:12:49.559 --> 00:12:51.759 Another squeaky door on a four I can actually open. 261 00:12:51.840 --> 00:12:54.279 Maybe they keep records up there, or a dinner. Maybe 262 00:12:54.279 --> 00:12:57.240 it's just habit. I made the rounds, pillaging the building's 263 00:12:57.240 --> 00:13:00.639 collected memory for any hint of current use, old your employees, 264 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:04.799 frash for detail, spun little stories. Ruth was resolute sure 265 00:13:04.840 --> 00:13:07.080 there was a cafeteria out there. In nineteen seventy one, 266 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:09.320 we had a retirement party from mister Baird and the coffee. 267 00:13:09.320 --> 00:13:12.240 O of the coffee tasted like wheak. Rain Mes fawn 268 00:13:12.360 --> 00:13:16.320 elegant with a perpetual air of amused detachment, shook her head. No, no, 269 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:18.759 but we language labs. We tried teaching Russian in the 270 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:20.879 late sixties, hard to get the right tips, Harder still 271 00:13:20.919 --> 00:13:24.080 to get anyone to show up. Emilio polishing a tall 272 00:13:24.120 --> 00:13:26.960 blasts were remembered, the row of vending machines buzzing on 273 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:29.639 the banks of flickering fruorescence. He even described the taste 274 00:13:29.639 --> 00:13:31.720 of the outdated chips as if they might still live 275 00:13:31.720 --> 00:13:34.840 somewhere in the carpet. Each memory was etched with confidence, 276 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:38.600 and each contradicted the last strangers. Still I found slips 277 00:13:38.600 --> 00:13:41.080 in the mail remarks we nine hundred two. There was 278 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:43.600 no nine hundred two listed in any tenant roll past 279 00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.559 or present. The slip contained a PO number and an 280 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:50.200 eligible signature. The package itself long gone By Friday, I 281 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.360 had become a small foil for my own investigation. Returning 282 00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:56.679 to the stairwell after Sandy from HR reported another missmarked package, 283 00:13:56.759 --> 00:13:58.480 I spent a long time in front of the ninth 284 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.480 floor five door plate was thick, the keyhole ringed with 285 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:04.720 a sword of institutional stubbornness. Whatever lay behind it felt 286 00:14:04.720 --> 00:14:07.960 designed to discourage attention. Pressed against the old pain, I 287 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:10.720 caught a suggestion, faint rhythmic of a typewriter's clack, and 288 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:13.039 a murmur that could have been laughter or just tuning pipes. 289 00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:16.720 It seemed almost aged. I couldn't shake the idea that 290 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:19.000 I was overhearing a performance put on for whoever dared 291 00:14:19.039 --> 00:14:21.639 to listen. On my lunch break, I paved through the 292 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:25.799 building's maintenance logs. Every few months, routine work orders appeared 293 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:28.399 for cleaning, lighting replacement, or trash pick up on the 294 00:14:28.480 --> 00:14:32.120 ninth floor. The slips bore signatures, burst and anonymous, never 295 00:14:32.159 --> 00:14:35.360 matching the actual payrol. The records felt compelled by announcing 296 00:14:35.399 --> 00:14:38.039 hand the tasks completed as scheduled, but never by any 297 00:14:38.039 --> 00:14:40.879 staff I knew. I brought these to Stan, hoping for 298 00:14:40.919 --> 00:14:44.080 a glint of recognition. He shrugged, as if taking accusation 299 00:14:44.159 --> 00:14:47.519 on behalf of all the world's closed off places. Old system, 300 00:14:47.720 --> 00:14:50.440 new system. Nobody can keep up the old requisition slips 301 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:52.919 just drift. Half the names you see I've never even met. 302 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:55.519 Maybe the cleaning crew logs them for the paperwork. Maybe 303 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.759 some jobs just work themselves out. Still, the gaps refused 304 00:14:58.799 --> 00:15:01.039 to align at the the bottom of one print out 305 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:05.679 as signature stood out k R. Leads. The name surfaced 306 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:08.240 in mail room deliveries for years, a sort of ghostly prisons, 307 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:12.080 a shadow responsible form ninth floor authorizations. I asked Ruth 308 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:15.240 stand and as farm no one had ever met, spoken to, 309 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:19.519 or worked with Leads. No email address, no directory entry, 310 00:15:19.720 --> 00:15:22.919 not a single business card. By then, I wondered whether 311 00:15:22.960 --> 00:15:25.240 the building itself had some protocol for anchroby, a wait 312 00:15:25.279 --> 00:15:27.559 to see every ledge and ledger with just enough plausible 313 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:30.240 detail to permit a fiction to stand. I drinks that 314 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:32.879 night Milliode and Ruth spot over who first lost a 315 00:15:32.919 --> 00:15:35.039 file to floor nine, but agreed that it was likely 316 00:15:35.080 --> 00:15:38.480 an institutional quirk, probably the same people who were stocked 317 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:40.879 the bathroom paper towels at two A m. Ruth said, 318 00:15:41.000 --> 00:15:44.240 her voice drifting into a laugh. My aquisition, if noticed, 319 00:15:44.279 --> 00:15:46.879 had become a small subject of fun. The next week 320 00:15:46.919 --> 00:15:49.639 I doubled my efforts, now equal pots accountant an amateur 321 00:15:49.679 --> 00:15:52.759 at noogripher if the ninth floor was merely forgotten, it 322 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:56.720 was an especially well documented omission, determined as secured spot 323 00:15:56.799 --> 00:15:59.120 in the archoves, such as they were three battered cabinets 324 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:02.200 attended by Janet or on lunch break, robustamps still scattered 325 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:04.919 from the last tenant move. I come through decades of 326 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.879 building directories. Every single one listed the nine flour, complete 327 00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:11.639 with names and room numbers, none repeated more than once. 328 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.720 Past tenants were utterly implacable, Digital Marked nineteen seventy two, 329 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:19.759 Language Lab nineteen sixty eight, Cosmodec Engineering nineteen seventy three, 330 00:16:19.879 --> 00:16:22.559 then missing the following year. A few were listed as 331 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:26.039 executive lounge, others as temporary storage or a record suite. 332 00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:29.679 Beneath those, I found thin newsletters, likely circulated in the 333 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:33.000 years before email, their fronts alternating between enthusiasm and resignation. 334 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:36.480 In a nineteen seventy two issue, a faded photograph showed 335 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:38.159 a woman in a plaid skirt cutting a sheet cake 336 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:41.159 below a ban of reading for a well Cosmodics. The 337 00:16:41.279 --> 00:16:44.000 caption read sweet nine hundred ten lasts down of a 338 00:16:44.039 --> 00:16:47.639 great team. But Cosmodex was not listed anywhere else, nor 339 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:49.960 did it appear in the city's business tax databies. When 340 00:16:50.000 --> 00:16:52.799 I checked that evening on a hunch, I asked Ms. 341 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.000 Farm Ha always generous when the subject turned to the 342 00:16:55.039 --> 00:16:58.879 building's prehistory about the language labs. Oh, yes, those were 343 00:16:58.919 --> 00:17:01.399 on nine verminute. Everyone came up there, whether for French 344 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:03.480 or to nap or to listen to tapes. But it 345 00:17:03.559 --> 00:17:05.799 wasn't built right. The walls moved every few months, and 346 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:08.799 sometimes the room shrank. After that, it was just empty 347 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:11.000 for years, or at least that's what I always thought. 348 00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:14.200 Ruth was just as insistent it had been a cafeteria. 349 00:17:14.279 --> 00:17:17.359 In her first year Spinner Tables Works, we had a 350 00:17:17.440 --> 00:17:19.319 jew box on the ninth and I swear to you 351 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:22.319 the grilled cheese was the only safe order. Each person's 352 00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:24.960 recollection filled the ninth floor with exactly the function most 353 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:28.240 suitable for their own needs or nostalgia. When I pressed further, 354 00:17:28.319 --> 00:17:31.079 had they actually attended these lunches? Did they know the 355 00:17:31.160 --> 00:17:34.559 people in the photos? The answers became blurriar of suffuse, 356 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:36.839 with phrases like I think so, or someone told me 357 00:17:37.480 --> 00:17:40.559 I noticed something else In the physical records, mail room 358 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:42.839 slips with sweet nine hundred two would cop up whenever 359 00:17:42.920 --> 00:17:45.359 tenants had overflowed. There was a burst in nineteen ninety one. 360 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:49.559 Office chairs urgent again in nineteen ninety four. Records archive confidential, 361 00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:52.599 but not a single item labeled nine hundred two could 362 00:17:52.599 --> 00:17:55.680 be found in natural office moves or current inventory. Later, 363 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.400 on a quiet Friday afternoon, when heat bloomed sluggishly through 364 00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:00.839 the staywell, I lingered outside the ninth floor door again 365 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:03.799 with utmost care, oppressed my ear against the metal plate. 366 00:18:04.519 --> 00:18:06.599 This time the sound was more distinct at the tap 367 00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:08.680 of keys, typewriter or computer, I could not say a 368 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:11.079 rolling chair at this squeak of compressed shoes or old seal. 369 00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:14.240 It felt like lessening to radio broadcast from a nearby 370 00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:17.440 but unreachable town. The evidence built up on every side, 371 00:18:17.480 --> 00:18:20.440 and yet the central question only multiplied. If the floor 372 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.119 didn't exist, why the records. If it did, why the physical, 373 00:18:24.240 --> 00:18:27.680 procedural and human blind spots. The more I looked, the 374 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:29.880 clearer it became that the ninth floor was neither simply 375 00:18:29.920 --> 00:18:32.519 present nor wholly absent, but hovered in someone to find 376 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:36.000 margin maintained by the building's heartbeat. Why now I doubted 377 00:18:36.039 --> 00:18:38.480 it was about secrecy? What value in protecting the storeroom 378 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:40.640 from an accountant who only cared because the numbers didn't 379 00:18:40.640 --> 00:18:43.920 add up? Rather, Franklin Towers Daily Operation seemed to have 380 00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:46.480 adopted the ninth floor as a kind of institutional memory 381 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:50.680 gap reference gesture toward, yet denied any immediate claim. Paperwork 382 00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:52.640 trailed in an out as if to cover an account 383 00:18:52.680 --> 00:18:56.160 nobody remembered opening. The tide of curiosity turned distinctly. My 384 00:18:56.279 --> 00:18:58.680 investigation was no longer what's hidden? But to how does 385 00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:01.720 a place become so persistently present and yet so wholly ungraspable? 386 00:19:02.200 --> 00:19:05.039 A wild theory sometimes flickered ahead. The building story told 387 00:19:05.079 --> 00:19:07.599 and retold by so many for so long, generated something 388 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:10.359 self sustaining. Was the floors a loosing as a function 389 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:13.440 of everyday need, or the side effect a purely practical 390 00:19:13.599 --> 00:19:17.279 patchwork bureaucracy? Pondering these things. I paid a visit to 391 00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:19.720 the City records offices Sebucal Suite in the old court 392 00:19:19.759 --> 00:19:21.960 House basement, where time moves at the pace of mildew 393 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.640 and slow printeros the clock, unhurried, unimpressed, unlocked a slender 394 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:28.599 metal drawer and produced the blueprints had requested there. It 395 00:19:28.839 --> 00:19:31.799 was Franklin Tower, rendered and faded pencil and Chris Black 396 00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:35.200 ink twelve fours each, Matt's square for square. The nine 397 00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:38.119 flour was given clear delineation. Offices on the sad side, 398 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:41.160 a modular wall system annotated for a future reconfiguration, A 399 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:44.960 central corridor labeled fixed conference slash resource. I traced the 400 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.160 lines with my finger. There were little squares showing rushrooms, 401 00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:51.920