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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 heaference,

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a 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 Mitenkus 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, whether the janitor had

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snuck up to empty bins instead. Nothing, just the fading

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

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the shuffle thump of someone or something trudging away. Another

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five minutes and I would have ignored it, but my

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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 thick 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 times, dates, clock hands drawn with obsessive neediness.

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The second page was clipped with the blue post it

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

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if they ask deny below, photocopid forms maintenance logs for

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

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

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margin are notations in unfamiliar 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 deed to night well. I

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thought either someone was playing games with me or they

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were desperate to was skiing aared for me to see

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it as before anybody else. I coaked my head out

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into the hole again silence. But as I gazed up

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the stairwells open core five floors of blank black rectangles

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caped above and far above behind a grimy paine that

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belonged to the six floorst posity peddlocked and dead, I

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saw a faint, pulsing sliver of light. It wasn't the

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steady fescent of a cleaning crew, and it was the

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passing cause wash if flicker A nervous morse code feeble,

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but determined it was eleven forty. What kind of building

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locks away a whole floor nobody uses? Then let secerts

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drift down in binder's leg bait, and I thought, who

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decides to leave a sign for whoever still awake enough

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to look? I should have called security. I should have

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tossed the binder in the manager's in books, left it

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for their morning headaches. But as I found through the

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pages once more diagrams, clippings, half ray scribbles that made

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my skin prickle. I couldn't help it. I pressed record

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this is of the Kessler Blue Street Tower, second floor,

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received anonymous delivery confidential logs, keys to nothing but a warning.

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There's a light burning on the sixth floor. I'm going

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to find out whose watching whom. Most nights I don't

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scare easily. To night, I felt something beyond curiosity take hold.

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It was as if the building itself had nudged me

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toward that binder, toward whatever was waiting above. Some mysteries

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are borne from coincidence. Some I learned that night are cultivated.

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Being a reporter is a career built on skepticism and

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in complete coffee. My office is a closer of USB

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Mike's caffeine soak notes and the town of coal takeout.

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I never plan on likes that echo the constant, low

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grade paranoia that comes with covering the city's fraying edges.

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Blue Street was my first tempt job, but lately it

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felt like it might be my last. The next morning,

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I arrived after an iris leap binder hidden in my

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back back and tuck myself into my usual corner booth

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at hoch Cockfay. My playlist overflowed with previous episodes, superstitions

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in city housing, haunted alleyways, the rumor economy. My voice

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scratched the opening script episode one hundred nine, The Modern

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Myths of Midtown. But even with my daily rituals chatting

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with Melt, my producer, and tossing questions to the tenants,

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who forced cheer? Who I was chewing on the contents

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of that binder I spent? I was flipping it in

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my lap beneath the table, shuffling die of ground's back

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and forth in case smell snuck a glance over my shoulder.

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By noon, I'd swap my morning routine for a surplus

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of suspicion. I had a list of the buildings regulars

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and for cover, I pretended to gather their thoughts about

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office upgrades for a segment that was never going to air. Tony,

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a resident accountant and two B met me by the

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

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glancing at the ceiling, slickering bulbs, at Nigel. Hear the pipe, sure,

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he whispered, voice, cracking pole place, groans, old bones, you know,

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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 vurnished, 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 ghosts. No, no, she said, waving her

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hand with loft 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 calicius,

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and every step echoed un 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 entrancewap where water had

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

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over the history of Blue Street Tower. The original blueprints

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were tucked behind glass at the front desk and naive

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

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but a failed attempt at modern expansion a decade to

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go left the six four unfinished. Lawsuit followed structural errors

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

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

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Insurance flight it as hazardous, so they locked it behind

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a signed off Crimson placard, but the elevator still listed

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six as an option, had a tape over the button.

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No mention of sealed corridors in public records. I've covered

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

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Every fountom roomor boiled down to bookkeeping 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, pinkton 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 mys 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 up my foren and scan the six floors

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

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the luring sun, reflecting my own word face. When you

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

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But 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. Sleepers wash my nerves perk every

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time a sea train rattled beneath the avenue. A little

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after midnight, I let myself into Blue Street Tower with

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Tony spare pass card back. I cloated with a bath

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at Sony camcorder and my favorite Field audio recorder. The

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elevator was already locked tenants after IROs so. I took

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the stairs too at a time, pausing on the fifth

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landing like spurning with adrenaline, and was giving an equal measure.

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From there, I crouched next to the stair all door,

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both hands pressed to the cool metal. This spot had

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a few den the spine of the building. The lobby

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is 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 zevendum 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 lawn 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 my more than dead air I caught a sequence

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of footsteps, deliberate and slow, somewhere above, not heavy nor

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shoffling like the janet has caught, just the quiet cages

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of a person moving carefully, accompanied by a low's cough

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and what might have been the memor of voices through

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multiple layers of plaster and rabah. The light's cut out

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again before two twenty. The entire building seemed to exhale

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in that moment. I let the camera roll a little longer,

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scanning every window. Nothing. By morning, cafeen propped me up

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well enough to catch the night janitor at the subway entrance.

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Gregg was fifty, maybe perpetually shrouded in flannel and resentment.

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I waited until no one else was around. Hey, Greg,

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you ever worked the sixth floor? I kept my tone light.

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He wearily eyed my phone, then shook his head. We

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don't go out there, no point to the stairs block

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off right, he sniffed, glancing over his shoulder. Sometimes I

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see lights. Sure, management says it's a circuit thing, but

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the wires are dead. If you hear anything, it's nothing.

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Don't worry about it, liar, I thought, watching how his

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gaze refused to lend anywhere for long. I spent the

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next iro cross referencing the previous few weeks of building

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email several tenants, a couple on the third floor, some

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one from the shipping office complained about lost paperwork, calls,

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getting routed to deadlines, and seeing shapes behind the high

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glass odd eyers. Their language was careful. I think it

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was the wind. One wrote, probably maintenance, but I didn't

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recognize the silhouette. My own inbooks had a dozen messages

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about deliveries misplaced and support tickets are resolved by technicians

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who never signed the log books. There was unmistakably a pattern,

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not ghosts, but things misplaced voices, misplaced lights, The flickered

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on and off in patterns nobody could explain. Sitting at

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my work station, the binder opened all its obscure diagrams,

234
00:11:36,639 --> 00:11:38,759
I felt the fact shift beneath me. Some one was

235
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:40,759
using this floor, or the idea of it, to manipulate

236
00:11:40,759 --> 00:11:44,120
the building's riddance at exactly whose behests I needed to

237
00:11:44,120 --> 00:11:47,399
discover for myself. As the day slid by, I transformed

238
00:11:47,399 --> 00:11:51,000
from casual skeptic to obsessive documentarian. My next run through

239
00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:54,240
blue Streets roactive tenants was more targeted. Each interviewer searched

240
00:11:54,279 --> 00:11:56,480
for concrete evidence. In the web of daily frustration and

241
00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,519
low level dread, no one trusted official forms each Gunds

242
00:12:00,519 --> 00:12:03,080
floated toward the stairwell, towards shadows crawling up the wall.

243
00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,440
At dusk. Maya, by, now accustomed to my recording gear,

244
00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,919
appeared more open. After a few gentle questions. Last week,

245
00:12:10,039 --> 00:12:12,559
she confided, I found a delivery slip on my counter.

246
00:12:12,799 --> 00:12:14,840
It was the wrong address, but it had my handwriting.

247
00:12:15,440 --> 00:12:18,720
She frowned, brow pinched. I don't remember filling it out,

248
00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:22,399
and the original gone. Then Monday morning, everything I'd lost reappeared,

249
00:12:22,399 --> 00:12:24,600
but notes called on them, not in my own pen.

250
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,720
Who keeps dampering with my paperwork? I pressed gently? Did

251
00:12:28,759 --> 00:12:32,039
you report it? She offered a wan smile. We don't

252
00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:34,399
make trouble for management of it. Trust me better that way.

253
00:12:34,480 --> 00:12:37,840
Every shop here knows. Tony more Judery by the day

254
00:12:37,919 --> 00:12:40,679
described a scene from his after I was vigil thing

255
00:12:40,799 --> 00:12:43,159
is computers kept darling out at three in the morning,

256
00:12:43,279 --> 00:12:46,240
walk past my phone, red lights blinking in internal extension.

257
00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:48,480
I picked up and her static. But the call said

258
00:12:48,519 --> 00:12:50,679
it was from six O one. That's the six, isn't it?

259
00:12:50,840 --> 00:12:52,919
Only heard? It was gobbled But some one was speaking

260
00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,559
real quick, then hung up. Even the security team, always

261
00:12:56,559 --> 00:12:59,879
stone face started to bend Phil The midnight God met

262
00:12:59,879 --> 00:13:02,080
me by the mailium with his Tai Ski fingers drumming

263
00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,039
on his flashlight. I'll tell you something off the record,

264
00:13:05,159 --> 00:13:09,480
he said, Leaning close. Last month, late back starell was open, unlocked.

265
00:13:09,519 --> 00:13:11,919
It shouldn't have been. Chain on the inside was missing, dead,

266
00:13:11,919 --> 00:13:14,200
but not even latched. I swear I wheeled it shut after,

267
00:13:14,360 --> 00:13:18,559
but his voice trailed off, shoulders drawing tighter. There's always

268
00:13:18,559 --> 00:13:20,679
a draft in that place, like doors opened where they

269
00:13:20,679 --> 00:13:24,399
shouldn't be. Worth each story, my certainty grew. Whoever orchestrated

270
00:13:24,399 --> 00:13:26,799
these disturbances knew the patterns of daily life here and

271
00:13:26,919 --> 00:13:30,559
was deliberately appending them. I dove into the city's crumbling wrecords,

272
00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:33,879
spending IROs at the municipal archives, obscenely the coffee in hand.

273
00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:37,200
The listed blueprints for Blue Street tow were confirmed by suspicion.

274
00:13:37,279 --> 00:13:40,080
The sixth floor was only accessible via the elevator disabled

275
00:13:40,080 --> 00:13:42,440
more than three years ago, or from the stairwalls locked

276
00:13:42,440 --> 00:13:46,200
behind two iron five doors. No mention of alternate access

277
00:13:46,279 --> 00:13:49,840
anywhere in the modern plans, yet tucked between faded sheets.

278
00:13:49,879 --> 00:13:53,320
I found older blueprints there. Beneath runs of coffee stains

279
00:13:53,360 --> 00:13:55,559
and punch holes are traced a set of oddly angled

280
00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:59,840
service corridors, windowless, doubling back, some choked off in renovation,

281
00:14:00,120 --> 00:14:03,080
marked a roof or o auxiliary maintenance. A few poked

282
00:14:03,080 --> 00:14:05,399
through to the sixth and error or in admission. The

283
00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:07,919
rent record showed something else. Snow official least signed for

284
00:14:07,960 --> 00:14:10,559
the six or any adjacent mechanical space since twenty fourteen.

285
00:14:10,799 --> 00:14:14,000
Even the management reported routine fire compliance checks annually with

286
00:14:14,039 --> 00:14:16,759
signatures I couldn't match to any living tenant or employee.

287
00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:20,399
I kept digging. Cookie cutter security cam footage told a

288
00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:23,440
story all its own. My friendly second shift, sharp as

289
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:25,559
attack and easily bred with Peter slipped me a thumb

290
00:14:25,639 --> 00:14:28,720
drive on it. Four iro was a static tinge video

291
00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:32,080
from the rear corridors. In those pale frames, shadows blurred

292
00:14:32,120 --> 00:14:34,480
in and out, never fully distinct. But at two eighteen

293
00:14:34,480 --> 00:14:37,320
and Tuesday, a figure distorted passed across the service hallway.

294
00:14:37,360 --> 00:14:40,879
It had ducked, moving impossibly fast in frame one, empty

295
00:14:41,519 --> 00:14:45,639
by two, a lengthening shadow, then nothing. I rewand over

296
00:14:45,679 --> 00:14:50,080
and over. No badge, no uniform but some shape, some one,

297
00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:53,639
sometimes two side by side, headless, vanishing between the jumpy frames.

298
00:14:54,320 --> 00:14:56,879
At the last time Mark the service corridor door creaked

299
00:14:56,960 --> 00:15:00,399
up in a half inch pause, then shut. Rumors whirled faster.

300
00:15:01,039 --> 00:15:03,200
Mike called about another memo pushed beneath her shop door

301
00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,279
in block capitals. Hullway lights need servicing scheduled t BA,

302
00:15:06,399 --> 00:15:09,600
Please return all signed forms by four thirty. Neither name

303
00:15:09,639 --> 00:15:12,960
nor signature, nobody could trace who send it. Tony texted

304
00:15:13,039 --> 00:15:15,440
after midnight found stapled paper with my name on third

305
00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:18,480
fl mail box, not handwriting info. Only you and I knew.

306
00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:22,000
He'd stopped trusting the locks, started leaving his lights on overnight.

307
00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:26,639
Kurt Instron, even Phil normally inflappable, mentioned with odd reluctance

308
00:15:26,639 --> 00:15:29,639
he'd been hearing voices through the ben shafts, half conversations,

309
00:15:29,679 --> 00:15:32,600
sometimes his own name, sometimes a woman's laughter, echoing from

310
00:15:32,639 --> 00:15:35,360
somewhere no working human should be. If I was in

311
00:15:35,399 --> 00:15:38,159
too deep, so would the others. After a week of this,

312
00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,200
my own nerve started to fray. The paranoid groom infected

313
00:15:41,240 --> 00:15:44,120
every elevator chime, every skip forcemail sent, My pulse sleeping,

314
00:15:44,639 --> 00:15:47,159
my sleep eroded into three iro stretches, riddled with half

315
00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:50,399
dreams of panic figures running and seening halls. Then, on

316
00:15:50,440 --> 00:15:52,559
a Wednesday, so quiet that even the street preacher took

317
00:15:52,559 --> 00:15:54,600
the day off, I found a single page slipped under

318
00:15:54,639 --> 00:15:58,200
my apartment door. The paper was crisp. Knew the handwriting precise.

319
00:15:58,879 --> 00:16:01,240
The stairs are safe until three fifteen. Don't let them

320
00:16:01,279 --> 00:16:04,440
catch you on tape. They watch no signature this time,

321
00:16:05,039 --> 00:16:07,759
no email. My hat slammed in my chest. Some one

322
00:16:07,759 --> 00:16:10,440
had followed me home, whoever this was. They wanted me

323
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:12,799
to keep digging, but not to expose them. Not yet.

324
00:16:13,320 --> 00:16:16,200
I studied the note for anything, indentations beneath the handwriting,

325
00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:20,000
odd smules, misspelled words, nothing but its presents the assertion

326
00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,240
that I was not just a chronicler, but a participant.

327
00:16:22,879 --> 00:16:24,919
I set the note beside my recorder and pressed my

328
00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,039
pond to the coal window glass outside. The city lights

329
00:16:28,039 --> 00:16:30,519
smeared in the humid night, looping endlessly in the reflection

330
00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,679
inside the darkness pool thicker than ever in the corners.

331
00:16:34,440 --> 00:16:36,480
I realized every step would be watched from now on,

332
00:16:36,559 --> 00:16:39,000
by whom or by what. I would have to discover soon,

333
00:16:39,080 --> 00:16:41,720
and at my own risk. It wasn't enough any more

334
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:45,519
to chronicle patterns or theorized explanations. Something or some one

335
00:16:45,519 --> 00:16:47,720
had claimed the sixth floor for itself, and I was

336
00:16:47,759 --> 00:16:49,759
being drawn deeper with each clue, each whisper in the

337
00:16:49,799 --> 00:16:51,960
dot work, each note left after I was like a dair.

338
00:16:52,639 --> 00:16:54,639
The next morning, I returned to Blue Street with the

339
00:16:54,639 --> 00:16:56,519
binder zip tight under my arm, a flat light, and

340
00:16:56,519 --> 00:16:58,919
feeled like in my shoulder back no stretched tight like

341
00:16:58,960 --> 00:17:01,919
fence in wire. After two rounds through the building, three

342
00:17:01,960 --> 00:17:05,000
suspicious glances from tenants, and a half cup of scotched coffee,

343
00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,319
I started my search in you. The Binder's cryptic diagrams

344
00:17:08,359 --> 00:17:11,200
hinted at more than dead ends. Somewhere I suspected was

345
00:17:11,240 --> 00:17:13,599
a real way in. By one in the afternoon, when

346
00:17:13,640 --> 00:17:16,079
most tenants had retreated behind double locked doors, I traced

347
00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:18,119
one of the Binder's hand drawn passages to the North's

348
00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:22,200
service hallway. Here, peeling paint revealed corrugated metal behind the plaster,

349
00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:24,440
and a cluster of ragged tiles entered abruptly at the

350
00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:27,000
bookcase screwed into the wall, dusted with the years of neglect,

351
00:17:27,759 --> 00:17:30,079
I knelt feeling for loose panels, tapping It seems as

352
00:17:30,119 --> 00:17:33,000
discreetly as I could. The fourth tile gave way with

353
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:36,039
a hollow thud. I peeled it back inside darkness, a

354
00:17:36,039 --> 00:17:38,599
shade deeper than the rest of the hall. There sat,

355
00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:40,839
nearly flush in the wall was an axis panel, the

356
00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:43,319
paint on its edge a shade lighter than the surrounding boards.

357
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:46,759
I put my ear to nod a sound, remembering the

358
00:17:46,799 --> 00:17:48,960
most unsettling note from the binder watch for echos, So

359
00:17:49,039 --> 00:17:51,920
I steadied my breath and pressed gently. The panel slid

360
00:17:51,960 --> 00:17:55,079
back with surprising ease. The cold draft used onto my skin,

361
00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:58,680
carrying the particular odor of stale wiring and old spilt sooder.

362
00:17:59,319 --> 00:18:01,799
Stepping through, I found myself in a shaft no more

363
00:18:01,799 --> 00:18:04,720
than three feet wide. Insulation bulged where pipes had been removed,

364
00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:07,920
and cobwood danced in the torchly. The silence thickened with

365
00:18:07,960 --> 00:18:10,039
each forward shuffle. The only hints of the living world

366
00:18:10,079 --> 00:18:11,839
were the faint downbeat of car horns and a distant

367
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:14,880
hummikun place ten feet in the beam caught on a

368
00:18:14,880 --> 00:18:17,480
fitted MARKT six had been scrolled in black grease, pencil

369
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:20,240
nearly lost in grime, and below it a corroded brass

370
00:18:20,240 --> 00:18:23,079
plate glinted I pressed upon to the vented door beyond

371
00:18:23,119 --> 00:18:26,359
it vibrated faintly, as if alive with the current. Even here,

372
00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:28,519
someone had been careful in the layer. Thus, near the

373
00:18:28,599 --> 00:18:31,400
entrance A spotted two prints, interrupted by faint dread marks,

374
00:18:31,519 --> 00:18:33,319
as if cargo had been moved for some time in

375
00:18:33,359 --> 00:18:35,680
the past day or two. I snapped a string of

376
00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:38,559
photos and pressed the mic against the wall, listening a

377
00:18:38,599 --> 00:18:41,960
harm again electric or perhaps no there underneath it. A whisper,

378
00:18:42,039 --> 00:18:45,359
feigned as a shiver. Uselessh crawled up my arms. I

379
00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:47,440
steadied the recorder and whispered my own test, just in

380
00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:50,440
case the building did what I suspected. The corridor passed.

381
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,759
The door was empty. A batted metal benchlestice against the

382
00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:57,440
far wall. A single wire check casticide overhead wiring coiled

383
00:18:57,480 --> 00:18:59,960
out of half missing panels, looping toward a lock maintenance

384
00:19:00,079 --> 00:19:02,839
closet at the far end. I traced my finger along

385
00:19:02,839 --> 00:19:05,599
the edge of the dusty window, A smearor handprint recent

386
00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,880
the grease, from upon, unmistakably new some one watched From here.

387
00:19:09,920 --> 00:19:12,799
I pressed my digital recorder into the faint breeze. The

388
00:19:12,839 --> 00:19:15,880
playback whistled was static at first, then on the margins

389
00:19:15,920 --> 00:19:19,119
of silence, a single feathered whisper. I looped it again,

390
00:19:19,799 --> 00:19:23,720
not just random noise, a syllable, ascitant scatter. I couldn't

391
00:19:23,759 --> 00:19:26,319
make it out. I snapped a series of photos of

392
00:19:26,359 --> 00:19:28,200
the marks from the handriton sign and id ort a

393
00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:30,680
complete watch by two will erase tomorrow's look. At five

394
00:19:30,759 --> 00:19:35,519
twenty seven, the paper was fresh, still curled at the corners. Suddenly,

395
00:19:35,640 --> 00:19:40,319
movement deeper in the passage, voices, not shouts, but brisk conversation,

396
00:19:40,720 --> 00:19:43,039
just above, a whisper of warning, a command. I couldn't tell.

397
00:19:43,759 --> 00:19:46,279
My pulse hammered as I killed my flashlight, flattened against

398
00:19:46,319 --> 00:19:49,799
the wall, an inch backward, they passed, two shadows elongated

399
00:19:49,839 --> 00:19:52,599
by my torches after image. Moving with the liberate train purpose,

400
00:19:53,319 --> 00:19:55,839
I squeezed myself back into the narrow axis, praying they

401
00:19:55,880 --> 00:19:58,720
didn't look back. Once clear, I oppressed myself into a

402
00:19:58,759 --> 00:20:01,440
crook behind EATI liitticinc, sifting the air for every footfall.

403
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,359
The voices receded, My breath clouded before me, the server

404
00:20:05,480 --> 00:20:08,319
shafts cold soaked in again. With my heart racing, I

405
00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:10,440
crept back the way I came, clutching the night order.

406
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:13,359
His note was shaking hands as the panel snap shut

407
00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:16,799
behind me. I found myself blinking in the building's stifling fluorescence,

408
00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:19,960
weighed down by the undeniable reality someone occupied the sixth floor,

409
00:20:20,039 --> 00:20:23,160
someone methodical and fearless, who watched, tracked, and erased their

410
00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,440
trail by bureauretted ritual each dawn. My nerves rattled all

411
00:20:26,519 --> 00:20:29,440
through the following day. In edit, I scared the audio

412
00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:32,319
from the passage. Dozens of times. I scurbed the track

413
00:20:32,359 --> 00:20:34,920
at half speed, folding out ambient verb, until at last

414
00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:39,160
the fragment resolved. Witness. I scanned the binder again, matching

415
00:20:39,240 --> 00:20:41,440
each corridor on the diagrams to the time stamps in

416
00:20:41,519 --> 00:20:45,039
my new recordings. Names repeated always. Jay Lemmore, the former

417
00:20:45,079 --> 00:20:47,599
property manager whose name popped up in half the controversial

418
00:20:47,640 --> 00:20:51,000
expansion memos. I left three voicemails tracked down in old

419
00:20:51,039 --> 00:20:54,079
maintenance work in Queens for an interview heard about the

420
00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:57,440
sixth He muttered over coffee voice boxy with regret. They

421
00:20:57,480 --> 00:20:59,759
sealed it after the big mess lawsuit, but nobody I'll

422
00:20:59,799 --> 00:21:02,000
talk about what really happened to place grew hoolets like

423
00:21:02,039 --> 00:21:04,839
a wound count heel can't lose it. He shifted in

424
00:21:04,920 --> 00:21:07,559
his seat, voice dropping. No one wants to be the

425
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:10,279
one to cut it open again. I mapped every incident

426
00:21:10,319 --> 00:21:14,440
against the city's permitting data without exception, every act of sabotage,

427
00:21:14,519 --> 00:21:17,400
every misplaced document, every unexplained event. Map to days when

428
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:20,759
an internal memo reference to repairs six floor system review,

429
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,559
that floor sealed. In practice. Busy on paper was the

430
00:21:23,599 --> 00:21:27,359
anchor point for everything strange in the building. With mounting obsession,

431
00:21:27,480 --> 00:21:29,920
I created a sprawling map on my white board, corridors

432
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,440
rounded up into nowhere, audit logs, faces from years old stafflus,

433
00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:36,119
each event pinned with red string. At the heart of

434
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,160
it the sixth floor. In a simple, terrifying possibility, someone

435
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:42,519
had never left the expansion. Some one lived watch and

436
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:44,559
yearned to control the building below, and they were growing

437
00:21:44,599 --> 00:21:48,160
boulder with every passing week. I decided, finally, foolishly that

438
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,160
the only way forward was live proof. I packed two

439
00:21:51,200 --> 00:21:53,640
field mics, a Wi Fi camera, and every battery pack

440
00:21:53,720 --> 00:21:56,240
I owned, resolved to document whatever emerged. After two a

441
00:21:56,519 --> 00:21:59,599
m my nove roree too high for sleep. At one

442
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,559
fifty eem I slept into the service corridor. Flashlight sheaved

443
00:22:02,599 --> 00:22:05,039
at my hip. The building emptied of all but its

444
00:22:05,039 --> 00:22:07,880
own memories pressed and on every side. I made my

445
00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:10,079
way to the sixth floor via the hidden panels, squeezing

446
00:22:10,119 --> 00:22:13,559
through gear clutch to my chest. This time my intention

447
00:22:13,759 --> 00:22:15,960
was not to listen from Afar, but to invade the space,

448
00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:18,359
Settling into a storage closet just off the main corridor.

449
00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:20,640
At microphone lie fature of feet pointed Dan toward the

450
00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:23,799
distant Comforts room mart on the Binder's maps. At first,

451
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:25,640
the place was silent, safe for the faint shatter of

452
00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:28,359
ancient day track. The air weighed heavier as I crept

453
00:22:28,400 --> 00:22:31,920
through dust laden carpet, mutilated ceiling tiles, rows of decrepit

454
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,000
office chairs stacked uphasively. Dora Paco still clung to frosted glass,

455
00:22:36,279 --> 00:22:40,960
leasing boardroom operations. My footsteps fell almost soundlessly. The carpet, grimy,

456
00:22:41,079 --> 00:22:44,240
thread bare, absorbed all but my racing heart. Thirteen minutes

457
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:48,359
passed before anything changed. First, I barely perceptible flickered the

458
00:22:48,359 --> 00:22:52,079
old security lights blinking on in stuttering fits, I pressed

459
00:22:52,079 --> 00:22:55,839
myself against a battered credenza, peering around the corner. Further

460
00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:58,200
down the hallway through a glass soll marked conference he

461
00:22:58,519 --> 00:23:01,680
yellow light spilled out faint shapes moving beyond the privacy glass.

462
00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,240
Not shadows, but silwet one too may be more. I froze,

463
00:23:06,519 --> 00:23:08,799
nerves stretched so tight, I thought my own breathing would

464
00:23:08,839 --> 00:23:12,359
give me away. My phone buzzed once. The light from

465
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:15,359
the screen glared dangerously bright. In the gloom, I checked

466
00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:19,519
a new message, anonymous number. Don't trust the lights. The

467
00:23:19,559 --> 00:23:22,079
temperature dropped, as though the six floors sealed. Heart pressed

468
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:24,559
an ice back to my spine. The metallic weak was

469
00:23:24,599 --> 00:23:28,039
stronger now, tinshrivzon. The air vibrated with a subtle electrical

470
00:23:28,079 --> 00:23:31,720
in ease. I edged closer steps, measured, camera balanced to

471
00:23:31,839 --> 00:23:34,559
chest level. In the silence, every scuff of my heel

472
00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:38,160
was catastrophic. I recorded in a whisper. I see one figure,

473
00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:42,519
maybe more, conference glasses, frosted, movement, shadows. My own voice

474
00:23:42,519 --> 00:23:44,960
registered as unfamiliar, a dry crook. In all that tension,

475
00:23:45,440 --> 00:23:49,079
A metallic snap echoed further down the corridor. I turned behind,

476
00:23:49,279 --> 00:23:52,039
near the maintenance closet, A bright, shivering flash of reflection.

477
00:23:52,759 --> 00:23:56,079
My nerves jolted. I stifled a gasp, ducking down, just

478
00:23:56,160 --> 00:23:59,200
as an indistinct figure entered from the shadowed lounge. Their

479
00:23:59,279 --> 00:24:02,880
form was patched baggy clothes, face obscured by a surgical mask,

480
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,079
A glint of vasts so guggles beneath a pulled down

481
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:07,920
ball cap. The light in the conference room flared brightly,

482
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:09,880
then gutted out with a violent crack of ree lay

483
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:13,039
stripping in the stroke of extinguishing light. The slow acrossed

484
00:24:13,039 --> 00:24:15,880
the room, jerky intent, neither quick nor slow, but filled

485
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:18,400
with an urgency that was all wrong. When the glass

486
00:24:18,480 --> 00:24:21,599
darkened again, my view was empty. Only then did I

487
00:24:21,680 --> 00:24:24,079
realize that every note in my hand had started to vibrate.

488
00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:26,480
The recorder glitch, the static swelling into a full and

489
00:24:26,559 --> 00:24:29,480
holy roar across the hall. A speaker embedded in the

490
00:24:29,559 --> 00:24:33,119
vestibule ceiling bulls distorted ram It's bad of voice, but

491
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:35,880
twisted the words, warbling as if spoken underwater. Turn off

492
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:39,839
your recorder, I paused. Then you, being watched. The glass

493
00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:42,880
in the window trembled. I duck lower, hard in my throat.

494
00:24:43,599 --> 00:24:45,359
I pressed the mic to my mouth. There is some

495
00:24:45,400 --> 00:24:48,240
one else they know I'm here. The lights flickered again,

496
00:24:48,519 --> 00:24:51,039
coal presence pulling at my back, the unmistakable sense of

497
00:24:51,079 --> 00:24:54,839
someone standing in the passage just beyond sight. Then every

498
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:57,680
light on the floor snuffed, and one swift stroke, even

499
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:00,519
the back of a leady cut out in total darkness.

500
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:04,039
I listened as soft footsteps approached, hesitated, stopped inches away.

501
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:06,880
I tried to tone, but the recorder in my hand

502
00:25:06,960 --> 00:25:09,519
flashed its red light, then flat lined with a mechanical click.

503
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:14,079
One breath dear, I couldn't move, as if something unseem

504
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:17,160
pressed upon to my shoulder. Then nothing but the darkness

505
00:25:17,279 --> 00:25:19,440
so thick I could taste it, the unmistakable near us

506
00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:21,319
of being trapped, not just in space, but in the

507
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:24,799
sticky whip of someone else's careful game. The silence was absolute,

508
00:25:25,039 --> 00:25:26,640
but I knew, by a shift in the air, the

509
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:29,160
shiver in the walls, and the closing of escape behind me,

510
00:25:29,240 --> 00:25:32,279
that I was no longer alone. With escape shrinking behind me,

511
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,079
I stayed stone, still, measuring the pressure at my shoulder,

512
00:25:35,200 --> 00:25:37,599
half waiting for that touch to become unmistakably human or not.

513
00:25:38,359 --> 00:25:40,799
The air felt taut with expectancy. My pulse jitted in

514
00:25:40,880 --> 00:25:43,920
my throat. I've reached out, slowly, fingers brushing the rough

515
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:46,200
edge of the storage shelf, calculating how loud it would

516
00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:49,079
be to tople it should I need a distraction nothing moved,

517
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,440
Then just outside the door, something hard tap against the

518
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:57,279
floor once, then a second time, keas boot. The noise

519
00:25:57,359 --> 00:26:01,079
was deliberate, almost signally, holding my breath, I strained to listen,

520
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:03,359
since his stretch beyond their limit for any intake of

521
00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:06,640
movement or breath. The scuffing poles lingered, then a subtle click,

522
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:09,480
like a switch. The water my left bloomed momentarily with

523
00:26:09,559 --> 00:26:11,960
ghosty blue, maybe a phone screen veaint as spill of

524
00:26:12,039 --> 00:26:15,759
artificial light. Nerves screaming, I weigh my options, stay hidden

525
00:26:15,799 --> 00:26:18,240
and risk discovery, or move now and risk even more.

526
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:22,319
Creeping sideways. Feeling the microtexture of coppet beneath my palms,

527
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,920
I flattened beside the supply carts, stacked with unused tone

528
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:26,880
of cartridge as the only thing clumsily shielding me from

529
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,720
the open door. I heard for the first time what

530
00:26:29,880 --> 00:26:32,519
sounded like quick, nervous breeding, no more than ten feet away,

531
00:26:33,079 --> 00:26:36,160
not mine. The person outside the door, whoever they were,

532
00:26:36,359 --> 00:26:39,359
was not calm. A sudden voice too close, slipped through

533
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,440
a whispered cushion. Syllable was blurred, but unmistakably human. Is

534
00:26:42,559 --> 00:26:46,480
it off? I froze, willing my equipment completely inert. Fighting

535
00:26:46,519 --> 00:26:49,200
the ear to check the came stand by light silence

536
00:26:49,279 --> 00:26:51,200
were cute. I heard the hum of the buildings transform

537
00:26:51,279 --> 00:26:54,559
us beyond. The walls hung heavy. The voice's cadence was heard,

538
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,079
and instead of the amplified menace from earlier, it throbbed

539
00:26:57,119 --> 00:27:01,039
with uncertainty. Another lower murmur entered, much closer and deeper

540
00:27:01,039 --> 00:27:03,000
than the first. Check the closets to take the notes.

541
00:27:03,759 --> 00:27:06,720
Movement now clear precise, the bare shuffle of shoes and

542
00:27:06,759 --> 00:27:09,720
the gritty tiles. I griped one of my back up batteries,

543
00:27:09,759 --> 00:27:11,799
half ready to throw it should someone lunge from me.

544
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:14,680
The shadow pass across the frosted lower panel of the

545
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,640
supply closet, stretching and then snapping back. As they crouched,

546
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,759
inspecting the other side of the door through a narrow slit,

547
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:22,920
A glimpse of pale hand fan out across the carpet,

548
00:27:23,039 --> 00:27:27,359
Steading their balance. The hand retreated a shuffle of papers.

549
00:27:28,119 --> 00:27:30,680
They were searching for evidence of me, Prince drop gear

550
00:27:30,960 --> 00:27:32,759
or God help me the recorder I had left too

551
00:27:32,799 --> 00:27:36,200
near the door. Ye see anything? A higher voice again

552
00:27:36,279 --> 00:27:40,160
a little further now. My nerves shrieked, Why two people

553
00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,440
up here after iurs in a sealed space. No, but

554
00:27:43,559 --> 00:27:45,599
somebody has been through the duck to get back to base.

555
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,599
Don't leave the lock a saddle scrape. Someone rose to

556
00:27:48,599 --> 00:27:51,279
their feet, shifting something heavy. I've risked a peek and

557
00:27:51,319 --> 00:27:54,799
caught a flush black track pants, a branded jacket, no insignia.

558
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:57,680
The smell of ladox and hand sanitizer hit the air,

559
00:27:58,000 --> 00:28:01,319
eerily medical for an office at night. My phone, useless

560
00:28:01,319 --> 00:28:04,680
in the dark, vibrated quietly, an automated battery alert. I

561
00:28:04,759 --> 00:28:07,960
nearly bit my tongue, holding back a gasp. No one reacted.

562
00:28:08,519 --> 00:28:11,079
The pair left the open storage for stuts, blending as

563
00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,759
they were streated their steps. I could into the hallway.

564
00:28:13,839 --> 00:28:16,960
Then a sharp clunk, heavy was closing further down, deliberate lockdown,

565
00:28:17,599 --> 00:28:21,359
drenched and swet mossles shaking. I waited several heartbeats, straining

566
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:23,920
for any trace of voices or a movement. Not. Then

567
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:27,920
I forced numb fingers to fumble from my recorder, still dead,

568
00:28:28,039 --> 00:28:30,319
but the back of mike spun a silt red At

569
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:33,200
least a file would survive. Picking my way out, I

570
00:28:33,279 --> 00:28:35,079
pressed as close to the wall as I could, moving

571
00:28:35,160 --> 00:28:37,680
inch by inch past the open shelves and boxes. Afraid

572
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:39,839
any careless bump would betray me. I skirted out into

573
00:28:39,839 --> 00:28:42,839
the corridor at a croach, pausing to listen. Down the hall,

574
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,640
the emergency exit lights cast cold green's mears atop the

575
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,519
door frames. The far conference room, once full of light,

576
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,640
was now pointedly dark to glass, reflecting only my disheveled

577
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:53,519
up line. As I called beneath its line of sight.

578
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:57,440
I was adjusted and navigated by fading glow past a

579
00:28:57,519 --> 00:28:59,480
water cooler. I found the main access panel to the

580
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,160
service stairs propped open, a fresh finger print streaking the dust.

581
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:05,160
I bent to examine it and found tuck just inside

582
00:29:05,240 --> 00:29:07,799
a yellow to dow slip audit lock check ceiling corridor

583
00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:11,000
clear by five thirty j l the handwriting mass the

584
00:29:11,039 --> 00:29:14,839
binder scroll. This was no Goost story. These were assignments,

585
00:29:14,839 --> 00:29:18,559
shifts managed by insiders, cloaked in bureaucracy and misdirection. A

586
00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:21,240
deep clang jolted me back. A disengate on the bottom

587
00:29:21,279 --> 00:29:26,200
floor clearly manipulated axis points were being systematically shut, possibly

588
00:29:26,279 --> 00:29:28,279
as part of some routine. I triggered without meaning to.

589
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:32,000
I hugged the wall catalog into clues, footprints, written orders,

590
00:29:32,079 --> 00:29:34,839
the real human voices, the concerted structure of whoever haunted

591
00:29:34,880 --> 00:29:38,319
these upper floors. I checked my watch nearly three a m.

592
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:41,680
Somewhere in the office beyond, I caught that tremulous flicker

593
00:29:41,759 --> 00:29:43,920
through the glass again, a nervous morse coat signaling in

594
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:47,359
the dark. I knew with an unambiguous certainty that somewhere

595
00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:49,400
behind the next turn I would find not just watches

596
00:29:49,400 --> 00:29:51,640
of the building, but the center of something colder, deeper

597
00:29:51,680 --> 00:29:54,720
in operation, layered in secrets, shrouded in plausible deniability, and

598
00:29:54,839 --> 00:29:57,359
worried enough to chase even an amateur below the legal floors.

599
00:29:58,079 --> 00:30:01,000
I poused one last time, fingers at my lip. If

600
00:30:01,079 --> 00:30:03,160
it'd seen me, escape was unlikely. I'd have to rely

601
00:30:03,279 --> 00:30:05,359
on the same anonymity that got me this far, and trusted,

602
00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:07,839
perhaps arrogantly, in my wits, to slip out before dawn.

603
00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,160
My mind throbbed with tension. I pressed myself into the

604
00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:13,640
tightest curve of the passage, unweighted, eyes fixed on the

605
00:30:13,680 --> 00:30:15,759
thin line of light, straining for any sign that it

606
00:30:15,839 --> 00:30:18,480
meant rescue or another trap. That was where I was,

607
00:30:18,559 --> 00:30:21,240
heart beat against concrete. When a new mechanical wine started

608
00:30:21,319 --> 00:30:23,000
up from the depths of the building, a signal, or

609
00:30:23,039 --> 00:30:25,559
maybe just the old elevator cycling up to the forbidden floor.

610
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:28,480
The next move, I knew would be dictated by however,

611
00:30:28,680 --> 00:30:32,240
or whatever was orchestrating the silent, very real conspiracy atop

612
00:30:32,279 --> 00:30:35,240
Blue Street Tower. I wedged myself deeper into the service

613
00:30:35,279 --> 00:30:38,160
corridor's blind curve, pulse thumping in my ears, willing myself

614
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:41,559
invisible the mechanical drone, the elevator, or something else, with

615
00:30:41,640 --> 00:30:44,799
teeth deepened as I pressed flat against the grime cinder block, listening,

616
00:30:45,359 --> 00:30:47,720
but oh somewhere behind me clanged the echo, rolling a

617
00:30:47,759 --> 00:30:50,920
long ducts and dying away. For a flickering second, all

618
00:30:51,039 --> 00:30:54,279
sound was eaten by the undertone, metallic, sturdy, far older

619
00:30:54,319 --> 00:30:57,319
than the building's age would admit. I force measured breaths,

620
00:30:57,359 --> 00:30:59,960
bracing for motion in the corridor, but silence pressed me hard.

621
00:31:00,839 --> 00:31:03,480
Cold leached from the concrete into my bones, swept, cooled,

622
00:31:03,519 --> 00:31:06,920
and dried, all at once. Whatever triggered the new noise above,

623
00:31:06,960 --> 00:31:09,519
the parade of doors slamming, the flash of emergency lights

624
00:31:09,559 --> 00:31:12,839
shifted the balance of control deeper into their hands. Still

625
00:31:12,880 --> 00:31:15,160
add the note the doll back up recorder, my Thhne

626
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,880
scraping seventeen percent battery, and the growing sick certainty that

627
00:31:18,960 --> 00:31:21,720
any eggs it would need more luck than design. Something

628
00:31:21,759 --> 00:31:23,720
tugged me back from the edge of panic, a line

629
00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,640
from the memo in my breast pocket. The stairs were

630
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:28,839
safe until three fifteen. I jacked my watch, the luminous

631
00:31:28,839 --> 00:31:32,519
hands stabbing two fifty nine time crossing, sticky, heavy as syrup.

632
00:31:33,119 --> 00:31:35,039
Every part of me wanted to bold feet, slaping up

633
00:31:35,039 --> 00:31:36,680
the old staale or two at a time, back into

634
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,319
the living city. But at the heart curiosity nod rawn

635
00:31:40,359 --> 00:31:43,079
and broken. The six four was to corpse rodden in

636
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:45,839
city reel estich. It was still breathing, still shifting, and

637
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:48,359
now I was tangled in its lungs. I cut forward,

638
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:51,839
inch by inch, every step, weight passed the open service panel.

639
00:31:51,920 --> 00:31:54,000
I pressed through a squeeze of ancient ventork, toward where

640
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,079
the light had last flared. The conference room, now dim,

641
00:31:57,119 --> 00:32:00,839
mist cellar dust yawned empty behind glass, but outside the

642
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:03,640
door another glove flickered, a coal blue reminiscent of a

643
00:32:03,720 --> 00:32:07,119
century old computer screen behind a warp supplisch half. I

644
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:09,319
found myself facing what looked at firs like a bank

645
00:32:09,319 --> 00:32:12,240
of old davy cart's wire together my heart snouch as

646
00:32:12,279 --> 00:32:14,720
I took it into Frankenstein's tangle of cable so its

647
00:32:14,759 --> 00:32:17,920
protectors and battered surveillance monitors, each green offering a crooked

648
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,359
slice of the building's cuts. The lobby elevator car always

649
00:32:21,359 --> 00:32:23,880
shot several floors below, even a dark glimpse into a

650
00:32:23,920 --> 00:32:26,759
tenant's mail room. The main board and abuse cork slab

651
00:32:26,839 --> 00:32:29,680
bristled with pushpins and a whirlwind of scribbled notes, lines

652
00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:32,400
looping over color print outs of tenants faces, schedules in

653
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,759
military time, and arrows pointing to doors marked on my

654
00:32:34,839 --> 00:32:38,720
own binders, diagrams on one's still powered corte. The six

655
00:32:38,799 --> 00:32:41,359
floors main corridor stretched away a single empty passage and

656
00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:44,680
a blown out emergency bulbs, but every thirty seconds or so,

657
00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:47,440
static swallowed it, and the screen spasmed, as if a

658
00:32:47,519 --> 00:32:50,599
large shape passed just outside camera view. No sound, just

659
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:54,759
digital ghosts beneath the monitors, on a scarred desk, more evident,

660
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:57,480
half empty water bottles for crack coffee mark, a stack

661
00:32:57,480 --> 00:33:00,720
of quietly yellowing legal pads, all jammed with asset of lists.

662
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:03,920
I thumb through one noise one thirty eight am tenant

663
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,400
to be investigate patterns returned form to two g false alarm,

664
00:33:08,079 --> 00:33:10,359
the anxious grouse by kit, the scroll evolving by page

665
00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:13,960
three into block print, then abruptly changing hands. Same routine,

666
00:33:14,039 --> 00:33:18,839
tract disturbances, neutralize erased physical evidence. A final entry, Today's day,

667
00:33:18,920 --> 00:33:22,079
ridden with visible pressure audit ongoing management refuses to shut

668
00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:25,160
it down. Enter at three twenty nine only. I paged

669
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,039
quickly through the notes, sweat clammy on my wrists. The

670
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:30,359
longer I read, the clearer it became. This was no

671
00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:33,519
fanciful security system. It was an operation set on anticipating,

672
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,799
cataloging and quietly violating tenant privacy. Each strange memo, each

673
00:33:37,839 --> 00:33:41,279
missing form, every spurious extension on Toni's phone started somewhere

674
00:33:41,319 --> 00:33:44,680
up here. I fought to steady my breath. Something clattered

675
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,400
behind me, faint but urgent, as if something metallic, keys

676
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:51,720
or a flashlight dropped against tile. Voices followed. I froze,

677
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:54,640
blending into the dark. From just outside the room came

678
00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,079
the same hush clipt exchange two people, the words half

679
00:33:57,079 --> 00:33:59,920
swallowed by the thick air. He's back on base, You scant,

680
00:34:00,759 --> 00:34:04,279
no clauses empty. The voice was tight, wary of being overheard,

681
00:34:05,319 --> 00:34:08,960
set the alarum, then loop it again. Footsteps advance, then receded,

682
00:34:09,039 --> 00:34:10,639
and the door at the end of the whole ground open.

683
00:34:11,159 --> 00:34:14,199
When it swung shot, silence widened up once more. I

684
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:16,679
chanced a thin beam of my flashlight downward, hoping for

685
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:19,599
a notebook, a clue, anything to explain why management, who

686
00:34:19,639 --> 00:34:22,920
pretended this floor didn't exist, had orchestrated alive breathing surveillance

687
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,280
ring in their own attic. My beam landed on a

688
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:28,719
slippery carpet of debris, takeout containers, discarded k N ninety

689
00:34:28,760 --> 00:34:31,880
five masks, empty pill bottles from years gone by, A

690
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:34,400
scent of powdered cheese and must all peat's agrees in

691
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:37,400
something eerily chemical. Five suppress and foam may be wandered

692
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:39,880
up to choke the air. The space hadn't just been

693
00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:42,480
watched into existence. It had been lived in for months,

694
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:45,800
maybe years. A bat of walcalland of two years out

695
00:34:45,800 --> 00:34:47,599
of date pages over and by loops of red pen

696
00:34:47,679 --> 00:34:50,159
flick out as another low current clicked the spaces lights,

697
00:34:50,880 --> 00:34:54,679
lions connected tenants names with crketic times, presumably their disturbanced windows.

698
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,639
The chaos of urgency was deliberate whoever lived up here,

699
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,880
kept every tenant's habits in dex cross referenced and weaponized.

700
00:35:02,519 --> 00:35:04,719
One polerooage not old enough to fade, showed the mail,

701
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:07,519
and two falls down. Taken from above, he ates up

702
00:35:07,559 --> 00:35:11,519
a corner, A blurred face mine. I spet cold all over, fearbiting,

703
00:35:11,559 --> 00:35:15,639
without drama, just cold logic. They'd followed me. A faint,

704
00:35:15,679 --> 00:35:18,719
looping click from the speaker system, then a whisper too

705
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:20,760
thin to be anything but live. You see it now,

706
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,000
stop asking For a moment, I stopped moving completely, fingers

707
00:35:24,039 --> 00:35:26,960
twitching over the edge of the surveillance table. I couldn't

708
00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:28,880
tell if the message was automated or were delivered in

709
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:31,519
real time, whether meant for me or a partner somewhere else.

710
00:35:32,119 --> 00:35:34,800
Either way, my skin prickled afresh. This was to ghost

711
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,519
in the wires. It was a human being, deliberate intimate warning.

712
00:35:39,199 --> 00:35:42,440
My form pined anew incript detects leave last warning. I

713
00:35:42,519 --> 00:35:45,639
stared at the message, hand shaking. I needed evidence, but

714
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,199
staying longer risk crossing into something other than reporting. Driving

715
00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:52,559
past rising nausa, I scanned the space once more, werged

716
00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:54,280
under a crooked chair, I caught the edge of a

717
00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:57,719
weathered notebook, the cover torn, the spiral burent I opened

718
00:35:57,719 --> 00:35:59,719
it to our confession, scratched in Hurd's gripped in case

719
00:35:59,760 --> 00:36:02,119
someone finds this, I'm sorry for what we did. We

720
00:36:02,159 --> 00:36:06,960
couldn't risk another no signature, no date. I photographed a

721
00:36:07,039 --> 00:36:10,320
quickly tucking the book into my coat. By now, MOS's

722
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,400
movement overhead had faded over. An iron must have passed,

723
00:36:13,480 --> 00:36:16,239
maybe more. I judged from the light strobing beyond the

724
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:19,159
conference room that the watchers were shifting their patrol. I

725
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,800
spotted a camera lens above, barely visible through duct tape,

726
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:25,840
the power light softly blinking amber, Pressing myself low, heart rattling,

727
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:30,320
I found a bolta utility closet nearby, inside more filing boxes,

728
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:32,400
bound and labeled and possessed caps for legal do not

729
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:35,760
shred the papers must distench book of a decade in darkness.

730
00:36:36,480 --> 00:36:38,840
I slipped my voice recorder out, persisting the urge to

731
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:43,239
narrate directly. Instead, I photographed every page, focusing on signatures

732
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:46,960
led Ahead's jargon. The earliest files detailed routine maintenance and

733
00:36:47,039 --> 00:36:49,639
ten and onboarding, but the stack beard into legal wrangling.

734
00:36:49,679 --> 00:36:53,000
By twenty thirteen, after the incident, all access suspended until

735
00:36:53,039 --> 00:36:56,360
further notice. Employee terminations to be process quietly, recommend extra

736
00:36:56,400 --> 00:37:01,000
surveillance of new tenants. The pages cash hand annotated, blackmail, embezzlement,

737
00:37:01,199 --> 00:37:04,159
Where's the money? The story that merged was what I feared.

738
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,440
The six floor shot after a stafford disappeared, investigated, then

739
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:09,639
a raise from mention. In all but these secret files,

740
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:12,320
one memo caught my I. J. Lemore resumed due to

741
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,239
under review. Keep all notes private, maintain facave for tendancy,

742
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,199
do not allow search and building rewrete all suspicious activity.

743
00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:21,360
It was signed by two names matching expansion lawsuits from

744
00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:23,400
Elow Blue Street. History of the men who vanished after

745
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:26,800
the settlement loose beneath this page is half melted employee

746
00:37:26,800 --> 00:37:30,800
Ida sun burned past recognition, others intact. I turned them

747
00:37:30,800 --> 00:37:33,440
in my palm, reading a familiar name twice. J. Lemmore

748
00:37:34,079 --> 00:37:36,719
emails at the bottom, bared nerves and clapped desperate language.

749
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:38,840
Audits in complete. How do we keep them from checking?

750
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:42,320
Six arrange more diversions, papers, memos noise the few who

751
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,360
noticed the safer for everyone. I snapped photos until my

752
00:37:45,400 --> 00:37:48,440
hands cramped, careful never to jostle the pile I whispered

753
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,360
a time stamp into my pocket. MIC found in ten

754
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:54,360
all legal documents confirmed cover up, embezzlement, missing staff, secret surveillant,

755
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:56,599
the six floors in open secret among management. They are

756
00:37:56,599 --> 00:37:59,400
still up here, living inside the wound. Just as I finish,

757
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:02,079
another foot heavier, this time sent me scraping toward the

758
00:38:02,119 --> 00:38:05,599
conference rooms adjoining coake closet, hard clenched tight, I eased

759
00:38:05,599 --> 00:38:08,480
the door shut, Peering through the wide crack from the

760
00:38:08,519 --> 00:38:11,159
gloom beyond, A figure emerged, mass tight across their face,

761
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:14,280
soft blonde hair poking from beneath the rattycap. They moved

762
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:17,119
with a patient efficiency of routine, pausing to check each switch,

763
00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:20,719
paper and security display. A bulging shopping bag went to

764
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,599
the kitchenette. A clipboard followed, dragged in and avonpracticed silent sequences.

765
00:38:25,199 --> 00:38:27,199
The figure swept up an envelope set beside the door,

766
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:29,159
my name on it in block print, the date set

767
00:38:29,199 --> 00:38:34,239
for tomorrow. Adrenaline fault logic. I considered bolting, raising my phone,

768
00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:36,239
or trying to confront them at fright, but the figure

769
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:39,239
spun sharply, as if feeling my stair. Their hooded eyes

770
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:41,559
swept the closet's gap then lingered longer than should have

771
00:38:41,559 --> 00:38:44,400
been possible for someone on a air Every muscle screamed

772
00:38:44,440 --> 00:38:47,360
at me to breathe, shallow, to freeze. Instead, I let

773
00:38:47,480 --> 00:38:50,599
risk speak. I slipped my little voyage chorder, still warm,

774
00:38:50,639 --> 00:38:52,880
to the closet's edge, thumbed it on, and rasped, I

775
00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,360
know about the incident. I note what the sixth floor hid.

776
00:38:55,960 --> 00:38:58,400
The words just loud enough to carry fell like a

777
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:00,840
dare the figures to differ, and scanning the room, I

778
00:39:00,920 --> 00:39:05,280
spin points up time hun open. Their gaze found my envelope, paused,

779
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:07,599
and in a gesture somewhere between resignation and anger, they

780
00:39:07,679 --> 00:39:10,039
dropped a micro cassette player onto the envelope, stamped it

781
00:39:10,039 --> 00:39:12,920
beneath one latex palm, and after a lawn pause, backed

782
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,760
out of the room. When their footstitch receded, I waited

783
00:39:15,760 --> 00:39:18,000
another three full minutes before prying the door open and

784
00:39:18,079 --> 00:39:21,159
slipping at I snatched the envelope and the tiny player,

785
00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:22,960
hot so loud I could barely hear the rise of

786
00:39:23,039 --> 00:39:26,440
new voices echoing in a fog horridor. Inside the envelope,

787
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,119
a single micro cosette black electrical tape holding the spool

788
00:39:29,159 --> 00:39:32,039
in place. In block letters, some one have written one

789
00:39:32,119 --> 00:39:35,480
word confess. There was only one thing to do. I

790
00:39:35,559 --> 00:39:38,119
bundled myself against the supply shelfs, lotted the tape into

791
00:39:38,159 --> 00:39:41,039
the player and turned the tiny wheel with stiff shaking fingers.

792
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:45,039
At first just static and warble feedback, then a voice

793
00:39:45,079 --> 00:39:47,920
old mail worry as we cold rain broke through, slow

794
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:52,079
and ragged. If anyone gets this year too close, I'm sorry.

795
00:39:52,760 --> 00:39:56,440
My name's Lemire and I was property manager here years back,

796
00:39:56,480 --> 00:39:59,280
twenty thirteen after the expansion, something happened on this floor,

797
00:40:00,079 --> 00:40:03,480
money missing records, thinked I let people and who shouldn't

798
00:40:03,480 --> 00:40:05,639
have been here, said yes to suits who threatened the crew.

799
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,280
One night, as Sta from Arisol peril walking on a

800
00:40:09,320 --> 00:40:12,719
meeting she shouldn't have seen. After that, Lord, it went sideways.

801
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:16,159
She vanished. They made a sign off, told us to

802
00:40:16,199 --> 00:40:18,760
loop the paperwork until nobody could find her name. The

803
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:22,719
insurance didn't want scandal. They paid some off. They told

804
00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:25,320
the rest of us to stay quiet and monitor critical access.

805
00:40:25,440 --> 00:40:28,440
That's how it started. His breath wheezed a cough, cutting in.

806
00:40:29,119 --> 00:40:31,480
I heard voices off tape. Hurry up before he heard on.

807
00:40:31,760 --> 00:40:33,920
We used the sixth. That is a watch post. Management's

808
00:40:33,960 --> 00:40:36,960
idea first. Then my tenant, ax Odd Logitt he noticed

809
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,800
a disturbance, changed the paperwork wereout. The coal divert with

810
00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,559
a memo. If any tenant gets too close, nudge them back,

811
00:40:42,599 --> 00:40:44,679
slide a warning under their door, move what they lose,

812
00:40:45,039 --> 00:40:47,280
keep their mind spinning. We kept people safe from the whole.

813
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:50,800
Marisol left a wound, yes, but also barrier. Nobody wanted

814
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:53,360
to admit what we covered. The tapes gidded as another

815
00:40:53,400 --> 00:40:56,119
background voice hissed, angry urgent to just shut it down.

816
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:58,239
You brought her here, now you take care of it.

817
00:40:58,880 --> 00:41:00,960
La Moore again, voice Tram if you're here, if you

818
00:41:01,039 --> 00:41:02,960
hear this, youre part of it now. Either you stay

819
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:04,960
and help us keep the wound closed till you disappear

820
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:09,039
it too. Click. End of tape, The message left, and

821
00:41:09,079 --> 00:41:12,320
after taste of threatened guilt all at once. Lemou wasn't

822
00:41:12,320 --> 00:41:14,920
mourning so much as come scriping me. But even as

823
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:17,599
resentment rose in me, I dread certainty poles beneath. If

824
00:41:17,639 --> 00:41:19,360
I brought the story down, I might not be the

825
00:41:19,480 --> 00:41:22,800
only one at risk. Shivering, I crept toward the conference

826
00:41:22,920 --> 00:41:25,400
room's edge, out toward the supply closet in search of

827
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,239
more evidence of increasingly an exit. That was when my

828
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,280
nurse blew out. At last. A thick set figure burst

829
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:35,559
into the corridor mast tide, wielding a blinding flashlight. Without thinking,

830
00:41:35,679 --> 00:41:38,320
I held my hands up, recorded dangling voy steadier than

831
00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:41,559
I felt. Why do you care, the figure rasped, stepping forward.

832
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,920
Their voice was male, world worn and familiar. It was

833
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:46,400
the same you and me based that I delivered the

834
00:41:46,400 --> 00:41:50,039
confession on tape. Nobody cares about this place, not of says,

835
00:41:50,199 --> 00:41:52,880
not the city. It's not your story. My mind spun

836
00:41:53,119 --> 00:41:56,079
searching for any play. I'm not here to hurt anyone.

837
00:41:56,159 --> 00:41:58,280
I just want the truth about myers. All the surveillance,

838
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:00,840
the audits, the floor. People deserve to know what's been

839
00:42:00,880 --> 00:42:03,840
done up here. The figure lamore of realized, fully let

840
00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:07,480
the flashlight sink cleare shrinking from my face for a second,

841
00:42:07,679 --> 00:42:10,159
only the shaking in his flashlights being betrayed any fear.

842
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:14,039
Truth that he spat more worn than angry shrews. Is

843
00:42:14,239 --> 00:42:16,559
Management cut us loose, and we stayed, some by choice,

844
00:42:16,639 --> 00:42:18,480
some by guilt. You break this story. May be you

845
00:42:18,559 --> 00:42:21,079
free us. Maybe you just bring their lawyers instead of

846
00:42:21,119 --> 00:42:24,000
their thucks. He tapped one gloved hand against his temple,

847
00:42:24,079 --> 00:42:27,039
then gestured at the disrayed maps and memos. We had

848
00:42:27,079 --> 00:42:30,159
a job contain what happened to Marisol and what happened

849
00:42:30,199 --> 00:42:32,519
after when the upper floors went bad, when the documents

850
00:42:32,599 --> 00:42:35,119
kept changing, no matter how many times we double checked,

851
00:42:35,159 --> 00:42:37,800
I started moving things myself, tumpering, I guess, sliding the

852
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:40,440
wrong paperwork to the right box, listening to tenant voicemails

853
00:42:40,480 --> 00:42:43,760
through dutwork, whispering reminders. Fear keeps people from snooping too hard.

854
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:45,559
We did it. I did it to keep anybody else

855
00:42:45,599 --> 00:42:47,840
from falling through. Sometimes I'm not even sure if I'm

856
00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:50,280
alone up here on the ugly nights, the light when cut,

857
00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:52,559
even if her trip the breakers myself, something never left

858
00:42:52,599 --> 00:42:55,400
when she did. He was feverish when tied around a

859
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:58,119
pain shopper than he could upline. The skin beneath his

860
00:42:58,239 --> 00:43:01,119
mask was cracked, and even in the near dark, tragedy

861
00:43:01,159 --> 00:43:03,519
clung to him, a one stolid man, reduced to midnight ghost.

862
00:43:03,679 --> 00:43:07,880
His conspiracy enough powered. But Penance, why now I pushed,

863
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:10,760
inching her corder closer? Why slip the binder to me?

864
00:43:11,079 --> 00:43:15,320
Why the memmos? What's changed? His mouth worked, Alex. She

865
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:17,239
said you were stubborn, wouldn't let it go if you

866
00:43:17,320 --> 00:43:19,480
got close. Maybe stubborn enough to air it up for

867
00:43:19,559 --> 00:43:21,599
good this time. But you're not safe. They know you've

868
00:43:21,599 --> 00:43:25,320
seen too much. Footsteps centered further down the whole, faster, heavier,

869
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:29,719
more than one set lemore jerked upright, panic flaring there here.

870
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:31,519
It's not just me and the roader tonight, I have

871
00:43:31,679 --> 00:43:34,960
tuered before he finished. Every light on the six four blinked,

872
00:43:35,079 --> 00:43:37,559
then flickered violently, as if a neon sign were being

873
00:43:37,599 --> 00:43:41,159
stabbed by a switchblade. Static exploded from the vestibule speaker.

874
00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,880
Another figures strode into view, smaller must hug low. Nothing

875
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:48,320
readable in their eyes except urgency. She can't leave. Nobody

876
00:43:48,440 --> 00:43:50,840
leaves now. I caught just the edge of a staff

877
00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:53,760
badge swinging near the waist blue logo the building's stylized tower.

878
00:43:54,480 --> 00:43:58,320
Instinct screamed, I twisted, bolting for the corridor's blind end

879
00:43:59,000 --> 00:44:02,440
behind me. Lamore shodded, not at me, but the oncoming figure. Stop.

880
00:44:02,559 --> 00:44:06,000
That wasn't the dealer. Something heavy crash. A filing cabinet

881
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:08,320
bowled across the hall. A flurry of curses, spitting into

882
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:11,480
the gloom. I hurtled past a buckling wall panel, mind

883
00:44:11,559 --> 00:44:13,800
racing through every map I poured over in the last week.

884
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:17,159
The ventilation stacked the one behind the main corridor, last

885
00:44:17,199 --> 00:44:19,119
marked in the blue prints as maintenance only had to

886
00:44:19,119 --> 00:44:22,079
connect with the staalewell. I risked a glance over my shoulder.

887
00:44:22,159 --> 00:44:25,559
Only chaos lamore and the master compass wrestling shadows flailing

888
00:44:25,639 --> 00:44:27,800
under dying lights are wired off kilt, A rhythm of

889
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:30,639
alarm hines starting to build. I basted the panel with

890
00:44:30,719 --> 00:44:33,239
my side, wincing at the dry crack of bonon metal,

891
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:35,880
and forced it open by main strength. The odor that

892
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,519
poured out was foul ozon plastic, heeded to the age

893
00:44:38,559 --> 00:44:41,920
of combustion, the sench of decades old cables. I squeezed in,

894
00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:45,440
hands and knee, scraping against insolation in the darkness, I

895
00:44:45,519 --> 00:44:47,320
felt more than heard the lurch of feet behind me.

896
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:50,679
A blast of alarm bled suddenly, a discordon off time,

897
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:52,880
a cacophony of bells, too old and out of sink

898
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,960
to be intentional. Emergency lighting fail, plunging every surface into

899
00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:59,679
shadow except where the periodic gray blinkers throbbed in and out.

900
00:45:00,440 --> 00:45:03,599
I fought forward, knuckles splitting on rusted sheet steel, adrenaline

901
00:45:03,639 --> 00:45:07,000
burning off restraint. Then up ahead a rectangle of grimy

902
00:45:07,039 --> 00:45:09,079
glast the old stairwell doow at locked for the last year,

903
00:45:09,199 --> 00:45:11,880
may be more, but it was moving, quaking gently, as

904
00:45:11,920 --> 00:45:13,960
some one below panded up toward it from the fifth floor.

905
00:45:14,639 --> 00:45:18,719
My phone chimed a text, A stairwell now run, no name,

906
00:45:18,920 --> 00:45:21,599
just urgency. I pressed my weight to the door. It

907
00:45:21,679 --> 00:45:24,159
gave curagingly, and I stumbled out into the stairwell, proper

908
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:27,440
fission swimming, breath ragged in my fruit. The siren behind

909
00:45:27,559 --> 00:45:30,960
was deafening, a whipplish howl, warning nobody in particular. Before

910
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,559
I could orient myself, a dark formall and civilian clothes,

911
00:45:33,639 --> 00:45:36,960
haggard adrenaline gloss seized my arm, wrenching me down the steps.

912
00:45:37,719 --> 00:45:41,119
Go you need to go now. Their eyes, unmistakable feuce

913
00:45:41,119 --> 00:45:42,920
would worry, were the same that had flickered over the

914
00:45:43,000 --> 00:45:46,159
top of the binder weeks ago. Alex's, my silent correspondent,

915
00:45:46,239 --> 00:45:48,840
the bargaining soul who until this moment left only another

916
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,360
side of warnings and whispered hints. Together we have fell

917
00:45:52,599 --> 00:45:54,880
half dived to the sublanning, slimming through a walk fire

918
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:56,920
door that snapped into place behind us. With a wet

919
00:45:57,239 --> 00:45:59,960
final climb, my hand was bleeding toes numb with col

920
00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:03,360
Alex pressed me up against the cinder block, close enough

921
00:46:03,400 --> 00:46:07,280
to smell adrenaline and fear. Listen. She spat had duc low.

922
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:09,440
I was in management years ago, after the audit, the

923
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:11,320
missing money, the girl. None of it was supposed to

924
00:46:11,360 --> 00:46:13,599
be public, but something in the wiring changed, like the

925
00:46:13,639 --> 00:46:15,760
floor itself rodded. Some of us stayed to keep eyes

926
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:17,719
on it, to contain the trouble, to protect the tenants.

927
00:46:17,800 --> 00:46:20,079
When the city stopped carrying, it got worse. We started

928
00:46:20,119 --> 00:46:23,519
seeing more, hearing more. Her gaze bored into me. I

929
00:46:23,639 --> 00:46:25,480
send you the first warning. Wanted you to get enough

930
00:46:25,519 --> 00:46:27,239
to shut this place down for good, but they know

931
00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:29,199
you have too much. The other watches won't let you

932
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:32,559
just walk. We started moving as feet thundered somewhere buff

933
00:46:33,280 --> 00:46:35,960
The alarms flickered, dropping in and out, a chaotic ballet

934
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:39,039
of warning strokes and darkness. I tried to ask more,

935
00:46:39,119 --> 00:46:42,119
but Alex hustled me down the stairs, urgency hardening her features.

936
00:46:42,800 --> 00:46:45,039
They'll keep the alarms running. Until you're found. If you

937
00:46:45,159 --> 00:46:47,880
escape now, bring all you have, use your platform. Blue streets.

938
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:51,000
Cancer only survives in shadow. Sure every one on the

939
00:46:51,079 --> 00:46:55,199
third landing another crash, much closer signal pursuit. I downed

940
00:46:55,199 --> 00:46:57,440
my bleeding hand into my jacket, clutching the recorder and

941
00:46:57,519 --> 00:47:01,239
the list of evidence bindr, my cocossette, photos, the legal locks,

942
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:04,840
pocket notebook. One more thing, Alex whispered, as we reached

943
00:47:04,840 --> 00:47:06,880
the final heavy door to the ground floor. Don't look

944
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:08,719
back when you cross the threshold. The lights when they

945
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:11,159
flicker together, it means the floors waking up, not just

946
00:47:11,199 --> 00:47:13,880
the people, but something else. We reached the locked door,

947
00:47:14,079 --> 00:47:16,159
metal bent where so many others had tried to leave.

948
00:47:16,880 --> 00:47:19,079
Alex elbowed it, throwing every last ounce of fury and

949
00:47:19,159 --> 00:47:21,280
regret behind the movement, and with a rugged pop, it

950
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:24,239
swung free. I stumbled onto the linoleum of the lobby

951
00:47:24,320 --> 00:47:27,559
by instinct, shrieking alarm, still sneaking from above, the don's

952
00:47:27,599 --> 00:47:30,360
first blue light stained the glass outside the city's distant

953
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:33,719
pulse colt. Alex glued the last memoid at lock see

954
00:47:33,760 --> 00:47:36,079
five thirty to the exterior of this stairwell, a final

955
00:47:36,119 --> 00:47:39,480
salvo against secrecy. As we barreled through the revolving doors.

956
00:47:39,559 --> 00:47:42,079
City police sirens split the air two blocks away, drawn

957
00:47:42,159 --> 00:47:44,719
by the cobble to give alarms blurring from every arbor window.

958
00:47:45,360 --> 00:47:47,719
We skidded to a hauld outside, breath mingling in a

959
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:50,400
chilled morning, both of us shaking with exhaustion and fear.

960
00:47:51,119 --> 00:47:55,039
Irist a glance back against Alex's warning. Six stores above,

961
00:47:55,119 --> 00:47:58,440
the conference rooms like flat, brighter than ever before. First

962
00:47:58,440 --> 00:48:01,320
split pulls a shadow along limbed motions. Stood at the

963
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:05,000
center of the window, watching neither Lamo nor Alex. The

964
00:48:05,119 --> 00:48:09,199
light stuttered, then abruptly black hat. The building stood blank

965
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:12,079
once more for the first time. My niece gave out.

966
00:48:12,800 --> 00:48:14,800
Alex helped me up, guiding me to the curb, both

967
00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:17,960
of us trembling. My mind is spinning mess of revelation, horror, exhaustion,

968
00:48:18,199 --> 00:48:21,320
and underneath the strighteous fury. I pressed the back up

969
00:48:21,360 --> 00:48:23,400
her corder to my lips, foresteaded for the first time

970
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:27,840
all night. Sixth floor evidence collected survive is free. Story ready.

971
00:48:27,880 --> 00:48:30,480
If you're hearing this, it means we did what others wouldn't.

972
00:48:30,480 --> 00:48:32,760
Blue Streak kept a secrets for two long It ends

973
00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:35,320
now everything after blowed into the Russian glare of the

974
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:37,920
outside world. Police cause piling up on the curb, stund

975
00:48:37,960 --> 00:48:40,760
officers pounding on the lock glass. Tenants in nightclothes sushered

976
00:48:40,760 --> 00:48:43,800
out into the early morning flashbulbs taped the dazzle of

977
00:48:43,840 --> 00:48:47,280
morning news, Alex disappearing into the crowd as quietly as

978
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:49,800
she'd arrive. I spent the next day and night at

979
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:52,920
my desk piecing the evidence into something coherent. My hand

980
00:48:52,960 --> 00:48:56,039
shook as I edited voice over, alternating between confession and indictment.

981
00:48:56,719 --> 00:48:59,519
The podcast, when it would out, made city wide headlines.

982
00:48:59,519 --> 00:49:03,079
By noon, clips from news anchstrauded the airwaves. Unaleedged to

983
00:49:03,159 --> 00:49:05,719
veillance were inexposed in mid under Blue Street, how cordoned

984
00:49:05,760 --> 00:49:08,239
off after years of secret tenant monitoring, the police confirm

985
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:12,000
evidence of hidden ruins, legal audits, possible missing persons case reopened.

986
00:49:12,079 --> 00:49:15,079
Lawys keueued for comment. Property management refused every request but

987
00:49:15,159 --> 00:49:18,400
promised full co operation. Tenants from Blue Streets, some who'd

988
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:21,480
called my voicemail, some who'd never trusted Derlocks, spoke out

989
00:49:21,559 --> 00:49:24,760
on camera. Tony's was quivered in the audio montage. I

990
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:27,000
always thought some one was watching, but I hoped it

991
00:49:27,119 --> 00:49:30,559
was just my imagination may up blinking in daylight. Added,

992
00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:32,880
none of us were refused safe in a place like that. Again,

993
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:35,599
a hush fell whenever the six floor came up. Cranes

994
00:49:35,599 --> 00:49:38,599
and police tip ringed its windows, and no one officers included,

995
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:41,519
made any effort to check it alone. Within two weeks,

996
00:49:41,559 --> 00:49:43,920
the upper floors were emptied, the officers shrouded and sit

997
00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:47,360
him and dated black plastic. These holders got free relocations.

998
00:49:48,079 --> 00:49:51,440
Investigators filed in and out. H R records were redacted,

999
00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:53,519
but unde and I will admit a cover abs and surveillance.

1000
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:56,760
Lemore and the other custodians were charged at a laundry

1001
00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,639
list of abuses, corporate moutheasants, criminal trespas. Most plied out

1002
00:50:00,639 --> 00:50:04,480
in low voices, head bowed, even management silence so long

1003
00:50:04,639 --> 00:50:07,199
felt the city's eye shifting inward. We had no knowledge

1004
00:50:07,199 --> 00:50:09,679
of these unlawful activities. That was the official press statement.

1005
00:50:10,239 --> 00:50:13,639
I then it was too late. A decade WinCE had

1006
00:50:13,679 --> 00:50:17,360
finally opened raw in public. I ended my special episode

1007
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:19,719
with the sound that started at all, crackling static, now

1008
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:23,079
an emblem, not a warning. Something was never caught on tape.

1009
00:50:23,199 --> 00:50:26,840
I admitted a trout scraping my throat. We captured everything physical,

1010
00:50:26,880 --> 00:50:29,079
a paper trail bleeding out for years beneath the lights.

1011
00:50:29,159 --> 00:50:31,039
But the feeling in the darkness, the magnitude of what

1012
00:50:31,159 --> 00:50:33,199
was left behind, It doesn't fit on an SD card.

1013
00:50:33,760 --> 00:50:35,719
I walked the block every night that week, so Snuckle

1014
00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:38,719
let the story rest. But each pass I watched Blue

1015
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:41,280
Street Tower seed into silence, its upper windows gone black

1016
00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:44,440
as rotten teeth. Days turned to weeks, the podcasts moved on,

1017
00:50:44,639 --> 00:50:47,719
and city news drifted elsewhere. The Blue Street faded from

1018
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:50,519
the public mind, its doors locked, six floor windows boarded.

1019
00:50:51,280 --> 00:50:54,760
Tenants scattered, most wanting only to forget, but some stores

1020
00:50:54,800 --> 00:50:57,519
refused to die with new cycles, no matter how carefully sealed.

1021
00:50:58,159 --> 00:51:00,920
Late one evening, my old cast line rang in a

1022
00:51:01,039 --> 00:51:04,039
known number, static chue in the background. Is this off

1023
00:51:04,079 --> 00:51:06,360
a sorry to bother it? Ar j T the new

1024
00:51:06,400 --> 00:51:08,360
guy in four Sea? Is this the right number for

1025
00:51:08,440 --> 00:51:13,000
the podcast? I answered, weary but polite, sorry, just his

1026
00:51:13,119 --> 00:51:15,800
voice dropped, cheapish. I heard some rumors about the building,

1027
00:51:16,119 --> 00:51:18,599
but I I don't believe in that stuff, really, But

1028
00:51:18,760 --> 00:51:20,760
for someone supposed to be up there on the sixth,

1029
00:51:21,239 --> 00:51:23,840
he hesitated breath and even, I mean it should be

1030
00:51:23,880 --> 00:51:26,920
empty now right. He clicked off, but a fall up

1031
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,800
was into my in box A few minutes later, attached

1032
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:32,440
a blurry cell phone photo shot from side walk level

1033
00:51:32,480 --> 00:51:36,119
across the street. There it was the six four's dortsed

1034
00:51:36,159 --> 00:51:38,559
window had been wiped clean, like pouring out, brighter than

1035
00:51:38,599 --> 00:51:40,880
I'd ever seen in flesh or film. It wasn't the

1036
00:51:40,920 --> 00:51:44,400
sickly flickering Bolbovo's night, no pattern, no warning morse, but

1037
00:51:44,480 --> 00:51:46,920
a steady, aching blaze, as if the building itself wanted

1038
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,639
to be seen once more, And centered in that glass,

1039
00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:52,599
A tall shadow, indistinct, a moving and silent stood facing

1040
00:51:52,639 --> 00:51:56,119
the city, no mask, no features, but certain as anything

1041
00:51:56,159 --> 00:52:00,119
I'd ever known, watching outward, watching back at me. My

1042
00:52:00,159 --> 00:52:02,760
hands trembled as I closed the email. I set the

1043
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:06,599
phone down and speaking some light I understood then never

1044
00:52:06,679 --> 00:52:09,480
really burn out, and whatever remained on the six flour

1045
00:52:09,559 --> 00:52:11,679
now human or not, waits for someone else to look

1046
00:52:11,760 --> 00:52:14,239
up and wonder. I left my phone where it was,

1047
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:16,559
half expecting the image to change or flicker away if

1048
00:52:16,559 --> 00:52:19,360
I looked too long. The shadow in the window, after

1049
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:22,000
everything we'd exposed and all the grind, finally scurb clear,

1050
00:52:22,039 --> 00:52:24,480
stood there with a posture that was almost waiting. I

1051
00:52:24,559 --> 00:52:27,559
pictured a dozen explanations from bowertines to a late night inspector,

1052
00:52:27,679 --> 00:52:29,320
but none of them matched what I saw. How the

1053
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:31,079
light cut through the layer Dirk to cran that saw

1054
00:52:31,360 --> 00:52:33,760
how it tilted not toward the floor, but atwood head up,

1055
00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:36,679
as if acknowledging every gaze below. I called jay t

1056
00:52:36,960 --> 00:52:39,559
back before I could rethink it. He answered on the

1057
00:52:39,599 --> 00:52:42,519
second ring, sounding more alert than before. Did you see

1058
00:52:42,559 --> 00:52:46,320
it again? A long silence, then a nervous laugh. I

1059
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:48,719
haven't looked again. To be honest, I closed, the blinds

1060
00:52:48,920 --> 00:52:51,840
is out. Is there really nobody up there? Not any more?

1061
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,199
Not officially. Don't go up, jay Tea, even if the

1062
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:57,280
elevators start working again. I let the warning tumble out,

1063
00:52:57,280 --> 00:52:59,719
as much for myself as for him. If you notice

1064
00:52:59,719 --> 00:53:02,480
any anything else, let me know, seriously than tell anyone else.

1065
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:05,320
You see who's new? He mumbled something grateful, and heard

1066
00:53:05,320 --> 00:53:08,079
off the line, the city's night noise following him. The

1067
00:53:08,159 --> 00:53:11,480
photo remained a glowing wedge on my screen. I forwarded

1068
00:53:11,519 --> 00:53:13,320
it to Alex with the subject thought we sealed this

1069
00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:18,039
seconds stretched, then her reply, I moved out last week,

1070
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:21,960
still locked from inside that tiny phrase, poor cold water

1071
00:53:22,079 --> 00:53:24,920
drew my stomach, or replacing victory with something rawn finished.

1072
00:53:25,639 --> 00:53:28,400
I closed the laptop and went to the window. The tower,

1073
00:53:28,639 --> 00:53:31,119
just visible between two new o glass decads, loomed as

1074
00:53:31,159 --> 00:53:33,519
it always had, subtle and dominating with its row of

1075
00:53:33,639 --> 00:53:36,719
dark upper windows, only now a faint glimmering from the

1076
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:39,519
highest one. I watched long enough, from eyes to water.

1077
00:53:40,159 --> 00:53:43,480
The light never wavered. I slept in short, jarring bust

1078
00:53:43,559 --> 00:53:45,920
at night, brainnying at every sound, and shadowed the way

1079
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:48,960
it had during the sleepless stakeouts weeks before. Some time

1080
00:53:49,000 --> 00:53:51,960
before dawn, I bolted awake, certain I heard not inside

1081
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:55,360
my apartment, but somewhere out on the fire escape, a tap, faint, deliberate,

1082
00:53:55,519 --> 00:53:58,119
like the King of Morse, coat knuckles against glass. The

1083
00:53:58,159 --> 00:54:00,360
city hummed the same as ever, but blue strip tower

1084
00:54:00,400 --> 00:54:02,519
poles in the back of my mind, a wind refusing

1085
00:54:02,559 --> 00:54:05,519
to close. The next day, I let myself get pulled

1086
00:54:05,559 --> 00:54:08,039
back into the web I had told myself I was

1087
00:54:08,079 --> 00:54:10,599
finished with chasing ghosts and cleaning up after the city's

1088
00:54:10,599 --> 00:54:13,519
wounded past. But here I was measuring my own resolve

1089
00:54:13,559 --> 00:54:16,760
against one burned out corridor. I called the city's property

1090
00:54:16,840 --> 00:54:19,280
management line, holding for four layers of music until a

1091
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:22,440
clip voice answered. I gave my credentials and asked about

1092
00:54:22,440 --> 00:54:25,119
the six flour re entry. We have no scheduled re

1093
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:27,960
occupancy for that level, the employee reply, bored and prickling

1094
00:54:28,039 --> 00:54:31,719
under every word. The cordes change. Only the insurance auditors

1095
00:54:31,760 --> 00:54:35,159
and city inspectors have access, and that strictly for safety compliance.

1096
00:54:35,880 --> 00:54:42,039
Anyone else oppressed maintenance cleaning staff, night patrols none authorized?

1097
00:54:42,079 --> 00:54:45,360
Are you reporting unauthorized axis? I hung up before I

1098
00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:48,760
could lie. Instead, I drifted down to Blue Street on foot,

1099
00:54:48,880 --> 00:54:50,960
crossing through the gray mid morning light that left every

1100
00:54:51,000 --> 00:54:54,079
surface bleach and and remarkable police tapes still flapped at

1101
00:54:54,079 --> 00:54:56,760
the corners of the tower's entrance. I stood across the

1102
00:54:56,800 --> 00:55:00,480
street encountered windows. The sixth floors class had been squeegeed

1103
00:55:00,519 --> 00:55:02,679
cleaned by someone, an official or maybe one of those

1104
00:55:02,719 --> 00:55:04,840
officers who had left dusty boot prints on the inside

1105
00:55:04,880 --> 00:55:07,599
when I was lost up there. But now the leftmost

1106
00:55:07,599 --> 00:55:10,119
bag glowed faintly with a sodium haze despite no visible

1107
00:55:10,159 --> 00:55:13,760
lamp or fixture. I delivery van blocked the alley. Two

1108
00:55:13,840 --> 00:55:16,679
uniforms moved boxes up the back steps, faces drawn and

1109
00:55:16,760 --> 00:55:20,199
postures stiff, before I could second guess myself. I fled

1110
00:55:20,239 --> 00:55:23,000
one down with a nod any work being done up top?

1111
00:55:23,599 --> 00:55:26,679
I cast my voice casual soul lights on last night.

1112
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:30,000
The younger of the two looked up, then away. Nawd

1113
00:55:30,079 --> 00:55:33,280
us second time this week, someone asked. He dipped his head,

1114
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:36,280
glancing at the badge, swinging for my coat. Cops won't

1115
00:55:36,320 --> 00:55:38,559
go up without back up, not after you know. The

1116
00:55:38,639 --> 00:55:41,760
wind chopped our conversation apart. I thanked him and drifted

1117
00:55:41,760 --> 00:55:44,559
past the revolving doors, fighting the old verge to push through.

1118
00:55:45,159 --> 00:55:47,440
But there was a new combination lock in place, and

1119
00:55:47,559 --> 00:55:49,559
my cred as a reporter did not extend to getting

1120
00:55:49,559 --> 00:55:53,280
thrown out by the department tasked without diting a local scandal. Instead,

1121
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:56,079
I circled to the convenience store next door with a clerk.

1122
00:55:56,239 --> 00:55:58,519
An old woman with a voice like ripped construction paper,

1123
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:00,559
pulled a face when I brought up the sad six floor.

1124
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:03,599
Some stores are better boarded up, she said, her hands

1125
00:56:03,599 --> 00:56:06,400
folding over the register. But if you ever find whose

1126
00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:08,239
leave it all those sticky notes in my alley, let

1127
00:56:08,320 --> 00:56:11,440
me know. Every Monday without veil, I pressed for more,

1128
00:56:11,639 --> 00:56:13,800
trying to learn if any of the custodians had been by.

1129
00:56:14,599 --> 00:56:18,639
She hesitated, then drug once, maybe bulk order of batteries

1130
00:56:18,679 --> 00:56:21,119
and two packs of instant noodles, but that's weeks ago.

1131
00:56:21,280 --> 00:56:23,199
He looked right through me, like he didn't see much

1132
00:56:23,239 --> 00:56:26,400
at all. I left the stare, uneasy. The idea that

1133
00:56:26,480 --> 00:56:29,320
someone slipped back in every Monday, moving unseen through the garage,

1134
00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:31,519
or maybe tunneling in by habit itched under my skin.

1135
00:56:32,159 --> 00:56:34,280
I spent the next forty minute shadow in the perimeter,

1136
00:56:34,400 --> 00:56:38,000
scanning windows and shadow lines. A few times I thought

1137
00:56:38,039 --> 00:56:39,679
I saw something shift at the edge of the six

1138
00:56:39,840 --> 00:56:42,079
four glassic cut and billowing a flick of dark against

1139
00:56:42,079 --> 00:56:45,119
the pale background, but whenever I blinked, the image snapped

1140
00:56:45,119 --> 00:56:48,599
back to plane empty rectangles. On impulse, I ducked into

1141
00:56:48,599 --> 00:56:50,760
the alley beside the delivery van and slipped through the

1142
00:56:50,840 --> 00:56:54,440
narrow gap behind the recycling bins. Previous dickheads had taught

1143
00:56:54,480 --> 00:56:56,239
me there was a rusted via door on the side

1144
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:58,440
lorn a goat chain shot, but someone had clipped the

1145
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:01,800
padlock since the last city inspect, maybe during the police

1146
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:04,960
raid or maybe somebody else. I pressed my hand to

1147
00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:08,440
the handle. It was cold, but free. For a moment,

1148
00:57:08,559 --> 00:57:11,079
I weighed whether to push it. My phone buzzed at

1149
00:57:11,119 --> 00:57:14,639
chill note running down my back A new text, don't

1150
00:57:15,480 --> 00:57:18,840
that was it just a single word from an unlisted number.

1151
00:57:19,519 --> 00:57:22,639
I froze thumb hovering. There was only one person who

1152
00:57:22,719 --> 00:57:25,159
texted with arcade and salex of someone who'd gotten hold

1153
00:57:25,159 --> 00:57:28,360
of her contents. I looked up, hot pounding, I skimming

1154
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:32,079
the roof tops and nearby windows. No one. I backed

1155
00:57:32,079 --> 00:57:34,320
away the door. I moved and re entered daylight, letting

1156
00:57:34,320 --> 00:57:37,639
the crowd swallow me up. The lesson was simple, a boundary, real,

1157
00:57:37,719 --> 00:57:40,519
even if invisible, marked by warnings, more persistent than any

1158
00:57:40,559 --> 00:57:43,239
lock or bolt. But the story was not done with me.

1159
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:47,280
That afternoon, two more emails arrived. The first was the

1160
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:49,599
scan of an old office memo when I hadn't seen before,

1161
00:57:49,760 --> 00:57:51,199
with a blue header and a clear date from a

1162
00:57:51,280 --> 00:57:54,159
year after the official shut down, all six four logs

1163
00:57:54,199 --> 00:57:57,280
to be destroyed before transfer of ownership. The signature at

1164
00:57:57,280 --> 00:57:59,599
the bottomless lemos, shaking, as though the hand that wrote

1165
00:57:59,599 --> 00:58:02,159
its strug to remain steady to the last line. The

1166
00:58:02,280 --> 00:58:04,760
second was from an anonymous ander, no text, just the

1167
00:58:04,800 --> 00:58:08,159
short video attachment. My hand trembled as I swept it open.

1168
00:58:08,719 --> 00:58:11,840
Shaky black and white footage played someone, maybe with a

1169
00:58:11,920 --> 00:58:14,199
fun maybe an old camcorder had filmed from inside the

1170
00:58:14,239 --> 00:58:18,320
building after dark. The frame jostled pan upward. There for

1171
00:58:18,360 --> 00:58:21,239
a few ten seconds was a six four corridor, familiar

1172
00:58:21,280 --> 00:58:23,960
from all my nights, creeping through it. Doors stood half

1173
00:58:23,960 --> 00:58:26,760
a jar. The far end was illuminated by the same

1174
00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:30,320
impossible collless light as the videos operate. A edge closer,

1175
00:58:30,440 --> 00:58:32,599
the lens caught the outline of a human figure, not Lemour,

1176
00:58:32,760 --> 00:58:35,679
not Alex, not any one I recognized, standing loose Linden,

1177
00:58:35,719 --> 00:58:38,960
facing outward and moving, the faceless presence in the window

1178
00:58:39,119 --> 00:58:41,920
arms at its side. Only when the operator flinched and

1179
00:58:41,960 --> 00:58:44,280
the video cut off that I registered the absence of sound,

1180
00:58:44,440 --> 00:58:48,039
no breathing, no frtfuls, only the low stata kiss saturating everything.

1181
00:58:48,599 --> 00:58:52,119
I closed the file. My hand refused to steady. If

1182
00:58:52,159 --> 00:58:54,639
the recording was recent, days old, or even I was,

1183
00:58:54,679 --> 00:58:57,480
it meant some one had by pass police cordons, security upgrades,

1184
00:58:57,639 --> 00:59:01,519
and whatever management now called enhanced tenant ptday. Either someone

1185
00:59:01,599 --> 00:59:03,880
never left the six four after all, or something compelled

1186
00:59:03,880 --> 00:59:05,960
the pattern to begin anew every time the building tried

1187
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:08,239
to forget. It was nearly dust by the time I

1188
00:59:08,280 --> 00:59:10,559
allowed to wait to settle. I walked back to my

1189
00:59:10,639 --> 00:59:12,639
office of a hot cup. The city's flow and broken.

1190
00:59:12,719 --> 00:59:15,480
No matter how many secrets spilled out from my window,

1191
00:59:15,559 --> 00:59:18,480
Blue Street Tower was just visible and silt brooding geometry

1192
00:59:18,519 --> 00:59:21,960
in electric twilight, night settled, and again, as if by

1193
00:59:22,039 --> 00:59:24,400
unspoken agreement, a sliver of light poles in the sixth

1194
00:59:24,440 --> 00:59:28,679
floor corner stronger, not weaker, and once in the darkness,

1195
00:59:28,960 --> 00:59:31,760
a thin electronic whine throated through my desk speakers, a

1196
00:59:31,800 --> 00:59:35,039
brief and locatable feedback, a morse blip, vanishing almost as

1197
00:59:35,079 --> 00:59:38,679
soon as it began. I unplugged everything tack quiet. The

1198
00:59:38,760 --> 00:59:41,480
dread was sharper than before, not because I feared being watched,

1199
00:59:41,480 --> 00:59:44,559
but because I recognized the loop. This story, like so

1200
00:59:44,719 --> 00:59:47,239
many rooted and neglected places and broken lines of authority,

1201
00:59:47,239 --> 00:59:49,360
would at last every effort to confine or expose it.

1202
00:59:50,119 --> 00:59:52,519
Maybe Lemore had vanished and Alex had moved away, but

1203
00:59:52,599 --> 00:59:56,440
their rituals, the watch logs, lights and warnings persisted, because

1204
00:59:56,440 --> 00:59:59,280
the city itself demanded a witness. I pulled out the

1205
00:59:59,320 --> 01:00:02,760
notequid Rush, flipping through the interest one last time near

1206
01:00:02,840 --> 01:00:05,480
this center. In cramp pencil, I found a phrase I'd overlooked,

1207
01:00:05,519 --> 01:00:07,760
bracketed by the same careful hand. If you're reading this,

1208
01:00:08,039 --> 01:00:10,000
you are the next line. Don't let it fall duck.

1209
01:00:10,760 --> 01:00:12,880
Sitting in my own light window, I made a second

1210
01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:15,360
copy of the recording the original binder at the confessions.

1211
01:00:15,559 --> 01:00:17,920
Even the new video was sent by a stranger. I

1212
01:00:18,000 --> 01:00:21,559
set them aside, midway between archive and offering. Some lights

1213
01:00:21,559 --> 01:00:24,840
cannot be extinguished by breaking bulbs or closing files. The

1214
01:00:24,880 --> 01:00:27,119
city spun on around me, oblivious to the pulse hig

1215
01:00:27,119 --> 01:00:29,800
above middawn. I left my blinds open that night, the

1216
01:00:29,840 --> 01:00:31,880
six floor lamp of faint echo in the glass, marking

1217
01:00:31,920 --> 01:00:33,920
a spot in the city's nervous system where memory and

1218
01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:37,360
guilt never fully vanished. In the weeks that followed, more

1219
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:39,960
newcomers arrived at Blue Street Tower, load by cheap rent,

1220
01:00:40,119 --> 01:00:44,000
urban legend, or stubborn disbelief. Some called the podcast line,

1221
01:00:44,159 --> 01:00:47,320
half expecting a prank. In return, others sent blurry bethels

1222
01:00:47,400 --> 01:00:50,039
snapshots of flickering windows at odd iris, always with the

1223
01:00:50,039 --> 01:00:52,719
same anxious note. I thought this place was supposed to

1224
01:00:52,760 --> 01:00:55,239
be empty now. I never told them to stay away

1225
01:00:55,280 --> 01:00:59,239
at right curiosity after all, is as contigious as any haunting.

1226
01:01:00,000 --> 01:01:03,079
Sooner or later I realized every building leaves in an opening,

1227
01:01:03,679 --> 01:01:06,639
a seamen sealed, a pass on misplaced, a light refusing

1228
01:01:06,679 --> 01:01:10,000
to surrender to bureaucracy or legend. The watchers changed the

1229
01:01:10,039 --> 01:01:12,199
faces behind the glass, the voice on a memo, the

1230
01:01:12,239 --> 01:01:14,400
falling of another silent log, but the pattern, like the

1231
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:17,639
memory of Mausol limped on. If you stand outside Blue

1232
01:01:17,639 --> 01:01:19,719
Street Tower on a moonless night and look up past

1233
01:01:19,719 --> 01:01:22,519
the older lamps in the tangle shadows, sometimes you'll see it,

1234
01:01:22,559 --> 01:01:26,440
a steady, searching light in the topmost window, waiting, calling

1235
01:01:26,559 --> 01:01:29,480
for the next witness. The story endows because the city

1236
01:01:29,599 --> 01:01:32,519
does like bloom and stubbornly against the gathering dark, proof

1237
01:01:32,559 --> 01:01:34,800
that some mysteries are kept alive not by ghosts, but

1238
01:01:34,920 --> 01:01:36,519
by the wall to remember and the fear of what

1239
01:01:36,599 --> 01:01:40,920
forgetting leaves behind. So I keep recording always ready, just

1240
01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:43,079
in case one night the sixth floor Ali goes out

1241
01:01:43,119 --> 01:01:45,440
for good, or burns brighter than ever, leading someone else

1242
01:01:45,519 --> 01:01:47,719
to ask, what's truly waiting up there with the cities

1243
01:01:47,719 --> 01:01:51,760
as turned at last the right way? And that is

1244
01:01:51,840 --> 01:01:54,280
the end. Thank you for listening, and I will see

1245
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:55,000
you in the next one,