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

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Let's get into it. I punched in at eleven fifty five,

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my new work eyed swinging or kwardy from its lanard.

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The staff entrance to the Central City Library gave the

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head unmockoming a slate of fluorescent light against the deep

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sale cement shadows of the nearly empty parking lot. Diesel

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fumes from an idland garbage truck somewhere near be hun

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in the air, made heavier by the faintest rain. Even

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the pigeons had abandoned the narrow paths between the library's

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gothic stone faces. At this sire, I'd worked plenty of

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night shifts before office parks, health clinics, and auto plants

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shut down for a cleaning that nobody was cleaning, just

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morpled and waiting for the next day's embassies. But libraries

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always had a texture, a hush you couldn't find anywhere

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industrial or domestic. Inside, the tiled floors and high class

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ceilings made every sound ricoshet, each step brief as click

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or squeak of my new work. Shoes fell exposed fragile.

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The security desk was touched just past the staff lockers,

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and I caught sight of my reflection in the dented

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glare of an old trophy case. Shaved clothes except for

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a torn ibro scar. My boss just stiff as I

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stray ticketed by the cris poly belen uniform. I needed

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this job. Grateful wasn't the word, but there was no other.

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To Night was my first reel overnight solo, baring the

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cleaning staff and apparently one skeleton cruel librarian uncle. I

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logged in at the ancient terminal with a password written

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in baalpoint penwrit on the monitor's frame. The digital clock

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up a flicker between zero two and twenty three fifty

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nine undercided three minutes in the radio crackled base to

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front line, new guy, you copy the voicemail flat unwelcoming

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scene to struggle through pealing layers of static copy it,

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I said, though my throat felt dry on sight. A

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click nothing for several seconds. Clock your rounds, stick to

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the open floors where light to night. If you find

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any issues, log em cleaning cruise off by two, Roger,

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I replied, any one else on my voice echoed in

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the empty vestibule. Silence, then abruptly a burst of static

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and one clip word no. The transmission ended, so I

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was alone. As close as the library got somewhere above

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ancient h trac wine and rattled. The echo of distant

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metallic urns ran through the ductwork, sounding too regular to

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be entirely building noise. I keyed the checklist into the

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half dead console, out of habit lobby, clear stacks one

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and two, inspection archive secured. Turns out the city's flagship

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branch was more amazed than a municipal oad to enlightenment

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past reception. The short marble stack is found out over

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three floors, splitting into the lit central atrium and two

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narrower half lit anex wings. Even with overheads on timers,

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the main stacks looked more like dim canyons than reading rooms.

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The shelves black against gray sort over my head. Little

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blinking aliedy mart were automated retrieval cats slept their wheels

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silent for the night. I finished the first half fire's

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patrol with nothing but sudden urge to cough in the

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strange dry air. When now approached the main returns desk,

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a single white item sat in a bin marked with

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a fading red after eyes, but dropsticker. It was an

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old city phone directory, not just all out of time,

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almost thick as a cinder block bound and crumbling blue

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stamped city directory in nineteen eighty three nineteen eighty four.

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Its soft cover was stippled with ink and high light

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of marks, and some one, probably a board patron from

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decades ago, had drawn a mustache and the maize photo.

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I checked the days logged again, nothing in returns. I shrugged,

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handled the book carefully and shelved it in an alcove

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labeled reference city directories. The spot was two shelves down

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from the floor, Just below stacks of newer phone books

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were fitted tel Co logos. I continued my rounds. The

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cock in the main reading room channed two a m

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each clang, hanging in the empty air. In the silence

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I paused Somewhere below, machinery rattled. The old marked elevator

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used by facilities groaned as the summoned of its own accord,

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but remained out of sight. On my next walk by

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the returns desk, my heart jerked. There again was the

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same phone directory, hunched in the bin as if I'd

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never touched it. My mark a little scaff I'd left

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on the spine was right where I'd put it. I

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checked the doors. Security latch is sealed. I checked the logs.

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No sign of any one signed in or out. Chiming,

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I looked up at the vent above. Impossible for any one,

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especially with their directory, to slip through. The sense of

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being observed, pressed in, almost physical. I picked up the

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phone book, trying to ignore the chill from my palm

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at its touch. On the inside back of a pencil

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scrip had faded tight and shallow across the blue gray paper. Carefully,

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I read Inspected nineteen ninety two l B. I put

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the former back in the alcove, this time on the

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very top of the shelf, under a stray copy of

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the yellow Pages. I weighed down with another directory, just

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in case, then finished my patrol as best I could.

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Half past three, the building pressed heavy with stillness. I thought.

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I glimpsed movement in the reflection of the glass entry.

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Another trick of midnight, I told myself. In the east corridor,

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my radio chirp to a burst of static. Nobody there.

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The sense lingered long after, something about this place and

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that book was out of step of time. Before the

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clock struck five, I found myself listening unconsciously for the

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elevator's rattle and the quiet thought of the book. In

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the after iro has been. My alarm went off at six.

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Inner room the size of a closet. The day just

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crawling through the paper of a window. I've chosen this

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place above the pizza parlor because it didn't wreak of grease,

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and though the manager kept raising the deposit, it was

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better than another week at a hostel that stank of bleach.

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That morning, rain drummed on the glass. I had a

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day to kill before my next night shift, and wandered

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down to the corner shop for a stale Danish and

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caffeine bones soar from cheap bedding. My phone blinked with

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a single reminder work Central City Library shift to I

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scrolled through job listings just in case, but the market

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was empty every week. When I arrived for my second

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shift that night, the day guard, ANSS Harrington, frowned at

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my badge. She'd been with the library for nearly two decades, tall,

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even a faint pattern of faded raven tattoo peeking from

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her wrist. When she pointed out the time clock. Glad

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to see a new face stick around, she muttered, barely

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making eye contact. Most last two maybe three days working nights,

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something about the IROs. I guess. We stepped into the

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ornate man lobby, freezing beneath a barrel vaulted skylight. The

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brass lamp globes flickered uncertainly above us. If you want

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to last, stay off the west annex aft. At one,

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Harrington advised that she showed me through the security doors,

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and for God's sake, if you drop her keys in

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the lower archives, just leave him. I tried to joke

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about haunted stacks. God a grundhim response. She pointed toward

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closed tuble doors, a flow below painted an institutional gray.

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That's the basement. You'll see maintenance signs up now and then.

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If so, don't go down, no matter what. The first

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two knights settled into a pattern arrivals in Depatu's time

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with the bureaucratic precision. The after iires crowed during the day,

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elderly chess players, teams making large jokes, haired mother's growling strollers.

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Neune was chaos, Paper's rustling laughter bouncing off the marble.

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Night drew the building down to its bones. The vast

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reading rooms emptied but for the hum of old circulation

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computers and the intermittent rattling of pipes. Every self is

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at a slightly sticky gloss to it, like steam, never quite

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dry from the walls. The lock staff rooms collected dust

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and a scratch glass, and neglected trophy here at Dusty

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City Awards. There the staff wasn't unfriendly, but weren't inviting.

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The night crew three in the roster, but rarely more

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than two actually there removed like ghosts. The cleaning woman Carmello,

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rarely spoken, less pressed Mike, the other part timer, kept

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earwards in, bobbing his head and whistling off key until

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his shift was up. Mess Harrington presided silently, eyes everywhere.

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The West Annex I learned had been officially closed for

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a refitting two years ago, but nobody had touched the

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drop pass or replacement insulation. A heavy iron hasp padlocked

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and tag bard entry. Sometimes drifting nearby, I caught a

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whiff of old water and something metallic like a rail

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line after rain. Between rounds, I tried to break the monotony.

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At the hand of desk Carmellus slid her badge behind

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the counter one night, and I ventured, hey, we'd question.

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You'll see anything odd with return to that old former

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keeps lying around. She avoided my eyes. Maybe kits, maybe

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not Arkeve's a mess. Don't ask eh an note. I

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turned to Mike. He shrugged, people dump weird stuff. Jobs.

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Not to ask, he mumbled through a mouthful of chips.

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Clock and clock out. After a week, Ms Harrington cornered

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me for the formal safety run down. Her eyes narrowed,

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voice soft but hard edged. Where not insured for after

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Io's accidents in the basement, archout to stick to pupic

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areas un Less maintenance is listed. If you must go

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in radio me and only go with some one else.

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I nodded, hart pounding as if I'd been called to

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the principal's office. She leaned in, there's maintenance happening soon.

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It could be electrical flooding or just inventory. They'll call

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it early, or you'll see tape across the door. If

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the elevator is not for you, don't use it. I

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wanted to protest, push for details, but her expression shut

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me down. Desperation settled in his routine. The rent was

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due soon. I promise myself, keep my head low, handle

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what they give me, and don't tangle with loco mythology.

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This was just another job. I would not start all

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the shadows at perhaps hundred phone books. I would be

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stay nights. She passed, then night three crept in. By

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my third consecutive night, exhaustion left me raw. I swiped in,

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found my usual circuit through the stacks, and spotted a

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flash of blue at the return slot. Just after midnight,

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the city directory again, same edition, my scuff on the spine,

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and now with a torn co owner folded over a

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page two hundred twelve, as if some invisible hand had

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studded it recently and lost interest. I scooped it up,

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check camelogs carefully, no motion, just the pixelated grave. After

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iro of snapshots, I shelved it, setting my work glove

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under it for good measure. An hour later, as I

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swept past the reference alcove to check the north reading room,

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book waited for me again at the front counter. His

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cover was faintly damp, as if newly returned from a storm.

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I replaced it, a shill running thin and cold behind

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my ears, and heard her footsteps carmel at earlier than usual,

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was collecting her cart. She gripped her cut so tightly

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her knuckles blanched. Did you need help with the I started,

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No help, she snapped, A voice muffled. She gathered her

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bag and left behind a scent of bleach and lemon peel.

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I reviewed the digital returns look the directory had not

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been checked out in months, not even back to last

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winter's storms. Curious, I tried to work around, digging out

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the handred and lock book in the slot under the desk,

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blue lines recorded the month's transfers. The last entry, three

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nights ago read unusual return not on list, and then

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broke off mid sentence, as if interrupted. I pocketed the pen,

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my own handwriting shaky as they tried to mark the

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night's details. The corridor outside grew colder. I low ecobuts

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from floor to ceiling, footsteps but distant, irregular, like some

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one limping. I swept my flask light across every aisle.

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Nothing in this ify section. A shadow appeared between the

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bookcases fleckoat, then vanished into the referenced ACKs when I

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moved to investigate. When I reached the intersection with the

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main corridor, only my own reflection peered back from the

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heavy glass. The desk phone rang trill and unexpected stat

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accounts at my hello, just crackling his in a fragment

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of breath long, irregular, like some one hiding there at

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the edge of sound. I yanked the cord from the receiver.

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On impulse and needing something solid to ground me. I

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tried to match the phone books artifact trail to the

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security locks. The directory's digital record sured no rativity. It

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simply didn't exist in a system after the summer of

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two thousand one. The page numbers folded were random, never

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the same place twice that night, stifling dread fueled my circuit.

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When the clock hit four, I slipped into the back

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office for air and privacy. I told myself the book

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would not wake another appearance at night art. I've felt

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doubt ratcheting up in my cart as I watched the

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faint green return of the after ires light. In a

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moment born of both boredom and desperation, I started come

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in the records room for an explanation. The libraries file

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stretched from floor to head height, procurement forms, waste manifests,

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endless memo copies. At the back of the records. Just

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above the sticky linoleum, I found a rattybanker's box marked

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renovation Receeats nineteen eighty nine ninety one, out of place

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for a shelf of personnel files. Lifting the lid, I

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found not receipts, but a rugged stack of VHS tapes,

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the kind used for old school surveillance. Each was carefully

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labeled in block capitals, staff and t gen of eighty

234
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nine sec cam b Mar ninety one, Archive Waltaebra ninety two.

235
00:11:46,919 --> 00:11:49,600
The dust told me nobody'd open this in years. I

236
00:11:49,639 --> 00:11:51,840
wheeled the wobbling avy cat into the unlit brick room

237
00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,679
and threaded the first tape into the ancient VCR. The

238
00:11:54,720 --> 00:11:57,720
static settled to a flickering black and white tableau. The

239
00:11:57,759 --> 00:12:00,799
recording wobble curtains drawn time stumbling king one forty a

240
00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,799
m people gathered at a folding table deep below the stacks,

241
00:12:03,799 --> 00:12:07,279
among metal racks and concrete columns. Most faces were turned

242
00:12:07,279 --> 00:12:09,360
away from the camera, but three men in suits held

243
00:12:09,399 --> 00:12:13,399
nervous whispered conversation. The glance repeatedly towards something in the

244
00:12:13,399 --> 00:12:16,720
wall behind them, a marking shark. It changed from tape

245
00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:19,279
to tape, now a roughex, now a looping arrow, never

246
00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:22,559
in quite the same place. One year's meeting cut abruptly,

247
00:12:22,639 --> 00:12:25,879
followed by several minutes of erace tracking lines. Another showed

248
00:12:25,879 --> 00:12:28,519
a solitary figure female with close cropped hair, dubbling back

249
00:12:28,559 --> 00:12:32,519
constantly between shelves, as if ensure of the path. Anxious groupings,

250
00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:36,440
some faces seen multiple times, a few always together. After

251
00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:39,159
half an hour of slow, eerie footage across reference staff

252
00:12:39,200 --> 00:12:43,240
attendance with internal directories, almost allers pictured on tape had departed,

253
00:12:43,279 --> 00:12:45,720
either frans foot or on permanent leave. Within a year

254
00:12:45,840 --> 00:12:49,080
or two of the footage. One alt becker had disappeared

255
00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:52,440
from city personnel lists entirely matching Nimes took print out

256
00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:55,360
of city employee records, as spotted another connection. Half the

257
00:12:55,399 --> 00:12:57,799
staff attending those late night meetings at their names listed

258
00:12:57,799 --> 00:13:01,200
on city council leave logs for medical absence ongoing investigation.

259
00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:04,720
The floor in the break room creaked behind me. Startled,

260
00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:07,320
I hurriedly replaced the tape, shut down the ancient monitor,

261
00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:09,720
and stood the box under a blanket of car catalogs.

262
00:13:10,399 --> 00:13:12,759
On a hunch, I grabbed my flash light and headed

263
00:13:12,759 --> 00:13:16,759
for the basement. The buildings re elevated opened slowly. The

264
00:13:16,759 --> 00:13:19,320
metal shaft groaned and refused to close for several seconds.

265
00:13:19,360 --> 00:13:22,279
After I pressed BE two, my flashlight swept past the

266
00:13:22,360 --> 00:13:25,120
usual pipes and supply boxes in the main arch of

267
00:13:25,200 --> 00:13:27,840
fold rows of shelving, the air five degrees colder than above.

268
00:13:27,840 --> 00:13:29,879
I found it a chalk arrow, fresh and bright and

269
00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:33,120
ntinted by dust, pointing deep against the wall. It matched

270
00:13:33,120 --> 00:13:36,000
something I had seen on the first VHS. The building's

271
00:13:36,039 --> 00:13:38,720
ere seemed to thin, My breath clouded for a second

272
00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:41,399
art with the night outside a muggy fifty. A faint

273
00:13:41,440 --> 00:13:44,200
shudder ran up my back. The radio at my belt's

274
00:13:44,200 --> 00:13:47,480
bat static, and the battery indicator went red just above

275
00:13:47,519 --> 00:13:50,480
the hiss. A few strained syllables formed check ledger, don't

276
00:13:50,519 --> 00:13:55,039
let them abrupt silence. My flashlight flickered wildly, hot, thumping

277
00:13:55,120 --> 00:13:58,120
a group for the stairs. Half Way up, I nearly

278
00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:01,399
collided with Carmella fa face pinched and pale, was drawn

279
00:14:01,440 --> 00:14:05,000
with regret and fear barely hidden. She shook her head, mumbling,

280
00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:07,440
leave it be for your own good, before shuffling to

281
00:14:07,440 --> 00:14:10,279
her cart and vanishing up the stowell. I climbed back

282
00:14:10,279 --> 00:14:13,039
to the main floor sweat mixing was cold. The sense

283
00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,919
of being followed marked grew undeniable. I didn't sleep when

284
00:14:16,919 --> 00:14:19,919
my shift ended. Instead, I laid out everything on my

285
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,320
battered kitchen table, security notes, pages torn from staff logs,

286
00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,120
the odd marks and erased enters. My stomach ached at

287
00:14:26,159 --> 00:14:29,639
the tangled implications over the coming nights. A cross checked

288
00:14:29,679 --> 00:14:32,279
old missing persons reports against the regression of name seen

289
00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:35,279
on tip and directories left marked in high lighter red

290
00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:39,000
pan or inexplicably scratched at Altogether. The more I mapped,

291
00:14:39,039 --> 00:14:41,919
the more pattern emerged. Names vanished from city records just

292
00:14:41,960 --> 00:14:44,840
after major news breaks, mostly tied to bribery, embezzment, or

293
00:14:44,919 --> 00:14:49,240
land sales. Maintenance closures, I learned, always coincided with front

294
00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:52,240
page scandals, as if tined for maximum and attention. The

295
00:14:52,320 --> 00:14:55,120
phone book was a ledger in a way. Flipping through

296
00:14:55,120 --> 00:14:57,000
the copy in the staff land is now obviously not

297
00:14:57,039 --> 00:14:59,320
the same as the phantom one. Returning after iurs, I

298
00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:01,679
found that almos most half the entries in certain neighborhoods

299
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,720
were either faintly circled, raised, or faintly annotated with single

300
00:15:04,759 --> 00:15:08,240
letters x, L or z. After one tense morning, I

301
00:15:08,279 --> 00:15:10,360
found a small note tape to my locker. This place

302
00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:12,840
seats those who dig too deep. It showed me more

303
00:15:12,879 --> 00:15:15,159
than I could admit. I pressed it back into the

304
00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:17,799
seam of the metal and locked the door. That evening,

305
00:15:17,879 --> 00:15:20,519
as I clocked in, M. S. Harrington intercepted me, voice

306
00:15:20,559 --> 00:15:23,240
low and tight, with barely constrained panic. Let it go,

307
00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:25,679
she hiss, eyes darting passed mine too. The shadows over

308
00:15:25,720 --> 00:15:29,559
my shoulder. This place remembers history repeats for the unwise.

309
00:15:30,200 --> 00:15:32,519
She didn't need to add what she meant, Job fifty

310
00:15:32,799 --> 00:15:35,320
possibly more. You leave the book and the tapes hallow,

311
00:15:35,360 --> 00:15:37,919
and if you want to keep either, I stared, unable

312
00:15:37,919 --> 00:15:40,720
to answer. She didn't wait for my protest. Moving down

313
00:15:40,759 --> 00:15:42,759
the corridor with the clip precision of an officer on

314
00:15:42,799 --> 00:15:46,279
a battlefield. I went to the staff desk, tens and sleepless,

315
00:15:46,320 --> 00:15:50,240
and know the directory sat waiting. Its cover was cracked, now,

316
00:15:50,399 --> 00:15:53,000
one page torn clean out. It opened neatly to a

317
00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:55,679
blank entry, only a brittle stain remaining where something had

318
00:15:55,759 --> 00:15:58,799
once been. Sunlight began bleeding and through the attrium, dull

319
00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:02,120
and heavy. My ship was due to end. I paused

320
00:16:02,159 --> 00:16:04,399
at the door, feeling every eye in the building, seen

321
00:16:04,480 --> 00:16:08,080
and unseen, pressing at my back and inside me a

322
00:16:08,159 --> 00:16:11,960
certainty whatever had started here was unfinished. Whatever had been

323
00:16:11,960 --> 00:16:14,759
a RaSE would find another page to fill. I lingered

324
00:16:14,799 --> 00:16:17,440
near the vestibule, letting the slow hush of traffic barely

325
00:16:17,440 --> 00:16:19,759
perceptible through the thick front doors, remind me The weld

326
00:16:19,759 --> 00:16:23,639
outside continued on some normal, predictable track, like crap lazily

327
00:16:23,679 --> 00:16:26,759
and making grime irks along the tile. I told myself,

328
00:16:26,759 --> 00:16:29,679
I just fetched my jacket from the locker room. Instead,

329
00:16:29,759 --> 00:16:32,639
my steps took me unconsciously back toward the public desk.

330
00:16:33,279 --> 00:16:36,519
The directory still waited, solid Ajar, somehow more present than

331
00:16:36,559 --> 00:16:39,440
any other object in the room. On impulse, I snapped

332
00:16:39,480 --> 00:16:42,159
a quick photo with my phone flash ats the book's

333
00:16:42,159 --> 00:16:44,919
cover stock against the desk's stole lamb mate. As the

334
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:47,799
retinal after image faded, I noticed something odd, that fresh

335
00:16:47,840 --> 00:16:50,840
ty on the open page paper, clean edged, as if

336
00:16:50,879 --> 00:16:53,080
deliberately sliced, and like the crumpling you'd expect from a

337
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:56,720
hasty grab. I pressed closer, inspecting the remnants along the tier.

338
00:16:57,360 --> 00:16:59,919
There was graphite, the faintest suggestion of some irritation. Now

339
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:03,200
I'm mostly gone, ear buzzed my radio left at my hip,

340
00:17:03,360 --> 00:17:06,319
fizzing softly, then cutting out. I'd be off shift in

341
00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,200
ten lest if. I took the long route through the

342
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:10,519
stacks and kept my head low. But I stood in

343
00:17:10,519 --> 00:17:13,359
that ring of pale sunlight, heart panding, and decided again

344
00:17:13,440 --> 00:17:15,480
sense and against employment. I was to check just one

345
00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:18,480
thing more. I went to the reference section, finding the

346
00:17:18,480 --> 00:17:21,720
slot where I'd last shelved the book. Space slightly gaped

347
00:17:21,720 --> 00:17:24,079
between the other directories, but no sign of the book,

348
00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,359
or even of the heavy yellow pages I remembered placing

349
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:29,160
above it. I scanned for dis disturbance, hoping for some

350
00:17:29,279 --> 00:17:31,920
ordinary misplacement, but the shelf glimmered clean as a mirror.

351
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:35,799
Half Way back to the desk, I ran into Mike Badge, swinging, yawning,

352
00:17:35,799 --> 00:17:38,559
and fumbling with earbuds. He paused when he saw me,

353
00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:41,759
braw for Rod. You are still here? Morning's yours man.

354
00:17:42,240 --> 00:17:44,519
He dropped his messenger bag and leaned over the counter,

355
00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:47,119
catching sight of the phone book. Why are you always

356
00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:49,960
fussing over that old thing? Anyway? Before I could form

357
00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:53,599
a reply, Mike shrugged. I chuck it. Stuff gets shuffled.

358
00:17:53,640 --> 00:17:56,160
Staff keeps half a memory at night. Anyway, My cars

359
00:17:56,160 --> 00:17:58,680
double Park'd see you to morrow. His tone made it

360
00:17:58,680 --> 00:18:01,759
clearer there was no further converse to be had his

361
00:18:01,799 --> 00:18:04,039
footsteps I could away, leaving me in what now felt

362
00:18:04,039 --> 00:18:07,200
like a vacuum. I thumbed through the book's pages, fixating

363
00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:08,920
on the empty spot where a name or number have

364
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,400
once lived. The indentation suggested numbers the shape of skirt,

365
00:18:12,480 --> 00:18:15,680
maybe a longer surname, but which I couldn't guess. I'd

366
00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,079
some one else come after me hunting for that entry,

367
00:18:18,759 --> 00:18:20,880
or had the book itself somehow found a way to revert.

368
00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:24,720
The idea was absurd, but I couldn't dislodge it. Outside

369
00:18:24,759 --> 00:18:26,880
a garbage truck beaped and rumbled off. That sounds so

370
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,599
normal it grounded me for a moment. I stashed the

371
00:18:29,599 --> 00:18:32,200
directory in my messenger bag on a whim, unlikely to

372
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,079
sett off any alarms. Maybe I'd look at it later

373
00:18:35,200 --> 00:18:38,400
in daylight, with enough caffeine and less lurking dread. I

374
00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:41,920
convinced myself that was enough. As I left the library's

375
00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:44,759
old clock chimed six. I signed out on the dusty

376
00:18:44,759 --> 00:18:46,799
walk sheet, scribbling my name beneath the neat block a

377
00:18:46,839 --> 00:18:50,000
print of some one Becker, maybe another el surname. A

378
00:18:50,039 --> 00:18:52,839
fraying slip of yellow paper caught in the binder Archives

379
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:56,559
nineteen ninety two, scrolled in rapid shorthand. It looked familiar,

380
00:18:56,599 --> 00:18:58,519
but I let it flutter to the floor, nose too

381
00:18:58,519 --> 00:19:01,279
tautic care. The walk home in Dawn's bruce blue was

382
00:19:01,319 --> 00:19:04,480
nearly pleasant compared to the Steifen Library. I felt the

383
00:19:04,519 --> 00:19:07,079
weight of the directory in my back, occasionally brushing against

384
00:19:07,079 --> 00:19:10,680
my thigh, and almost talismanic presents. My mind refused to settle,

385
00:19:10,799 --> 00:19:15,680
replaying fragments of conversation, sign edge tape labels, maintenance never detailed,

386
00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:19,119
always looming, warnings of accidents, of things better left and

387
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:22,559
moved that evening, unable to sleep, id spread out the

388
00:19:22,599 --> 00:19:25,079
directory on my kitchen table under a sickly yellow bulb.

389
00:19:25,599 --> 00:19:29,079
I set about copying the surrounding entry's addresses, numbers, names

390
00:19:29,119 --> 00:19:32,119
on to scratch paper. Two adjacent names were underlined in

391
00:19:32,160 --> 00:19:35,400
faded ballpoint Harland G. And Simmons TEA. Neither entry rang

392
00:19:35,440 --> 00:19:37,759
a bell, but Harland's number trailed off, bluntly cut by

393
00:19:37,799 --> 00:19:41,680
the page tier. I tried searching city property databases, even

394
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,240
alsocial media mentions. Harland had once worked for the Urban

395
00:19:45,279 --> 00:19:48,000
Planning Commission, last listed in the mid nineties, vanished from

396
00:19:48,079 --> 00:19:51,400
municipal files. Shortly after, Simmons came up on a report

397
00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,200
as a temporary assistant librarian for just one fiscal year

398
00:19:54,319 --> 00:19:56,920
with no further record. A hollow of feeling called up

399
00:19:56,920 --> 00:20:00,119
my throat. Why were these mundane details, just names, its

400
00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:03,400
numbers scrubbed so thoroughly. A rattle drew my attention back

401
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,240
to the door. I half expected some staffer or city

402
00:20:06,240 --> 00:20:08,079
official to be waiting there, but it was only a

403
00:20:08,079 --> 00:20:11,640
shifting branch scraping against glass. I forced myself to laugh,

404
00:20:11,759 --> 00:20:14,119
close the blinds and stapped my notes under the directory.

405
00:20:14,640 --> 00:20:17,000
Before going to bed, I flipped back through my phone,

406
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:19,279
reviewing the photo I had taken of the book that morning.

407
00:20:19,799 --> 00:20:22,160
The image was cress, every grin of dust visible, but

408
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:23,880
the tear in the page looked different, as if it

409
00:20:23,960 --> 00:20:25,720
ran deeper in the photo than it had in person,

410
00:20:25,799 --> 00:20:27,960
like a crease cutting further into the heart of the book.

411
00:20:28,559 --> 00:20:30,720
I stared for a long minute, then dropped the phone,

412
00:20:30,799 --> 00:20:32,519
un settled by the trick of the eye of the camera,

413
00:20:32,559 --> 00:20:34,839
and climbed under the covers, determined to get at least

414
00:20:34,839 --> 00:20:37,799
a few hours sleep. Dreams came disturbed and scattered a

415
00:20:37,799 --> 00:20:41,759
stitch together from chalk arrows, elevator shafts, voices on radios

416
00:20:41,880 --> 00:20:44,480
just out of reach. When my alarm sounded in the

417
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,960
gray blankness before dusk, I felt as if I'd barely

418
00:20:47,039 --> 00:20:49,359
left the halls at all. I knew the moment I

419
00:20:49,359 --> 00:20:51,839
crossed back into the library one night later, that the

420
00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:55,039
illusion of ordinary work had slept for gourd Metro's forescent

421
00:20:55,079 --> 00:20:57,400
spill pulled in watery puddles around the base of the building,

422
00:20:57,519 --> 00:20:59,880
but the library itself loomed darker than before, a beach

423
00:21:00,079 --> 00:21:02,920
ship where no tide would ever reach. My key card

424
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:06,799
hesitated at the lock, blinking red, before finally yielding inside.

425
00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,880
The lights along the security desk flickered half on, some panels,

426
00:21:09,880 --> 00:21:12,920
burning bright, others dull as old pearl. My own face,

427
00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:15,400
caught in faint glass, looked grayer, drawn and tight at

428
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:18,000
the jaw, as if even the air had changed routine

429
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:20,559
barely mattered. I felt watched as I made the first

430
00:21:20,599 --> 00:21:23,279
circuit past the stacks, my every movement parallel by reflected

431
00:21:23,279 --> 00:21:26,519
slivers in the gloss doors and the stainless elevator. Nobody

432
00:21:26,559 --> 00:21:28,680
unshift but me and so the schedule claimed it fell

433
00:21:28,720 --> 00:21:31,240
in for the cleaning crew. But as I loaded in

434
00:21:31,319 --> 00:21:33,759
the new name in the log booquet rays appear written

435
00:21:33,799 --> 00:21:36,240
over a smudge, as though someone had erased then ridden

436
00:21:36,279 --> 00:21:39,759
the entry. I didn't see Rai's all night new issue.

437
00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:42,920
I tried over the radio once, voiced barely above a whisper,

438
00:21:43,039 --> 00:21:45,480
recalling the way Ms Harrington had narrowed her gaze when

439
00:21:45,519 --> 00:21:49,799
she warned me off crackle, silence, no reply. At first,

440
00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:51,799
I convinced myself to act as if the routine would

441
00:21:51,799 --> 00:21:54,720
shield me. I did the rounds, checked every floor, all doors, locked,

442
00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:58,039
stacks in order, Yet at each turn, some small sign

443
00:21:58,079 --> 00:22:00,279
nor its absence eroded my confidence. A car that had

444
00:22:00,279 --> 00:22:02,240
been parked by Catalog returned itself to the spot I

445
00:22:02,279 --> 00:22:04,119
had last seen it two nights ago, though I was

446
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:07,119
certain I'd left it upstairs. The evening press of when

447
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,559
seen to gather against the glass rather than outside it.

448
00:22:10,359 --> 00:22:13,000
Each time I knew the reference alcove that blue directory

449
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:15,279
prickled my nerves, even through the messenger back I brought

450
00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:17,519
at home. Inn I left it in my locker at

451
00:22:17,519 --> 00:22:20,359
the start of the shift, irrationally treating it as dangerous cargo.

452
00:22:21,079 --> 00:22:23,279
Still the tide mark left behind in the locker's base

453
00:22:23,319 --> 00:22:25,920
suggested that something had been with me all along. The

454
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:28,839
building was entery than usual. No sign of Mike, his

455
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:31,599
initials signed before mine with a double underline and a

456
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:35,640
tiny and familiar check mark beside them. Now Carmella. All

457
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:37,720
told a hush grater than the sum of the io oor,

458
00:22:37,799 --> 00:22:40,519
lack of patrons, a kind of potential in the air,

459
00:22:40,559 --> 00:22:43,359
as if everything weighed. I spent my bricks, hunched over

460
00:22:43,400 --> 00:22:46,079
staff computers, using what little access had gleaned to prel

461
00:22:46,119 --> 00:22:49,960
city digital records, every property scandal'll transfer or layer off

462
00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:53,079
listed in dull, careful copy. More than a few stores

463
00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,200
ended with a leave of absence after the library had

464
00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:59,480
a maintenance closure, eight shrack up grades asbestis, mitigation, security, refitting,

465
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:02,519
and never with any detail, never in public reports. The

466
00:23:02,559 --> 00:23:04,519
more I dug, the more seam opened in the story

467
00:23:05,039 --> 00:23:07,880
the council Wreckers. For the years surrounding those mysterious entries

468
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:12,279
clusted tightly, whistleblower events, anonymous leaks, upset bates, sudden retirements,

469
00:23:12,319 --> 00:23:15,440
flared briefly, then vanished from mention, always two or three

470
00:23:15,519 --> 00:23:19,000
days later, closure from maintenance. Library wing X arquhave's wing y.

471
00:23:19,599 --> 00:23:21,400
I traced the chalp marks had seen both on the

472
00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,000
surveillance footage and on the real walls two subasements down

473
00:23:24,039 --> 00:23:27,160
onto a sheet of scratch paper. In context, the positions

474
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:29,000
mapped a path through the older part of the basement,

475
00:23:29,200 --> 00:23:31,400
one terminated section of which was never mentioned in the

476
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:33,680
reno blueprint I could find, but caught in a fuzzy

477
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,759
old blueprint posted to the city's planning board site. Dodgy

478
00:23:36,759 --> 00:23:39,319
hand written amendments ran along on its bottom in faint pencil.

479
00:23:39,680 --> 00:23:42,640
Old hub do not disturb key held at base. When

480
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:45,359
I poked at older building records, I discovered two blueprints,

481
00:23:45,359 --> 00:23:48,480
one from nineteen sixty eight, one reissued in nineteen eighty nine,

482
00:23:48,519 --> 00:23:52,200
with subtle differences. The earlier version included a windowless annex

483
00:23:52,359 --> 00:23:55,799
record surveillance niche co O R directory. The newer plan

484
00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,079
penciled it out, the text scraped away with an erasis

485
00:23:58,119 --> 00:24:00,000
so hard you could see the faint scars in the paper.

486
00:24:00,759 --> 00:24:02,559
If you were looking for a piece to hide, you'd

487
00:24:02,559 --> 00:24:05,279
want it somewhere like that, where only staff could see.

488
00:24:05,319 --> 00:24:08,680
Where historical inches were so jumbled. A catalog misplace raced

489
00:24:08,759 --> 00:24:11,160
and then hastily replaced that no patron could ever guessed

490
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:14,039
the difference. It wasn't just all blueprints and council minutes

491
00:24:14,039 --> 00:24:16,440
that clued me in. As I reviewed the phone book

492
00:24:16,559 --> 00:24:18,960
still tapped in my locker and mashed highlighted numbers with

493
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,000
the dresses that had cropped up in the city reports

494
00:24:21,039 --> 00:24:24,599
and tape sade society leaders, small contractors blacklisted for compliance issues,

495
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:27,519
and at least one city at any quietly reassigned upstate.

496
00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:30,880
Two interries in particular harl and G and Simmon's Tea

497
00:24:31,559 --> 00:24:33,400
lined up to the years one. Tapes in the box

498
00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,400
most often appeared disrupted, showing frames that seem splice in

499
00:24:36,400 --> 00:24:38,799
odd places, as if someone had stopped and restarted the

500
00:24:38,799 --> 00:24:41,359
camera without warning, or had tried clumsily to raise a

501
00:24:41,400 --> 00:24:44,960
record that anything had happened at all. CCTV locks proved

502
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:47,400
confounding but revealing in their own way. Most cameras in

503
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:49,599
public areas blinked the correct night, but one in a

504
00:24:49,640 --> 00:24:52,079
main reading room I noticed showed a time stamp and

505
00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:55,200
scene repeated every two eyos. Looping as a frozen slightly

506
00:24:55,279 --> 00:24:58,240
jittery at the ages, I returned to the office security

507
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:01,559
interface and dug deeper, matching a handful of incident locks.

508
00:25:01,559 --> 00:25:04,119
With all VHS recods, I found interest for nights that

509
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,400
didn't square with official opening eyros or scheduled staff special project,

510
00:25:08,519 --> 00:25:12,680
always with a supervisor's signature, harringonly sometimes Becker elpena handskulled

511
00:25:12,759 --> 00:25:16,079
cleared under a location secured. I slid the VHS box

512
00:25:16,079 --> 00:25:18,480
out from beneath the brick room catalogs, handling it with

513
00:25:18,480 --> 00:25:22,279
growing awareness. My own name was there, not yet, but

514
00:25:22,359 --> 00:25:24,440
in the bundle tapes I'd missed before ventures for arc

515
00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,039
I've reviewed Deshift only A handful of faces flickered in

516
00:25:27,039 --> 00:25:29,799
and out of darkness. One looked like a younger Mike.

517
00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:32,400
Another car of a flash of Carmello's features, half in profile,

518
00:25:32,640 --> 00:25:34,799
both speaking to a blank wall beside a choke mark

519
00:25:34,839 --> 00:25:36,960
that was unmistakably to Pat and I had seen in

520
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:39,519
the real basement. When I rose to make a round,

521
00:25:39,559 --> 00:25:41,240
I found my keys on the wrong clip of my belt,

522
00:25:41,279 --> 00:25:43,440
not where I'd settled them earlier, and newly greasy, as

523
00:25:43,440 --> 00:25:45,599
if someone else's hand had held them not long before.

524
00:25:46,279 --> 00:25:49,440
My locker combination seemed off. Had I written it down

525
00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,400
somewhere wrong, or had someone been through the phone book

526
00:25:52,440 --> 00:25:54,400
was angled half out and a new scuff mark the cover,

527
00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:56,839
probably my fault, but I couldn't say when it had happened.

528
00:25:57,440 --> 00:26:00,200
The night fell stripped to privacy, passing the off as

529
00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,519
corridornia tree, a cut two stuff as day shift. I

530
00:26:02,559 --> 00:26:05,759
guess their uniform sharp, talking inergent whispers, before falling abruptly

531
00:26:05,799 --> 00:26:08,400
silent as I neared, stiffening and turning their faces to

532
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:12,200
the screens. The atmosphere had congealed into something dense and yielding.

533
00:26:12,799 --> 00:26:15,000
Not ice, not water, not fog, but awake in the

534
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,799
air that pressed me away from my ordinary deaties. Shot

535
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:20,960
marks grew in number. Each night, A new one appeared

536
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:23,359
at stairwell's base or long ductwork at the first basement

537
00:26:23,440 --> 00:26:27,200
landing always pointing down, or a sigh never up. I

538
00:26:27,240 --> 00:26:30,039
stopped pretending not to see them. The pattern sharpened as

539
00:26:30,039 --> 00:26:32,200
I traced them on scratch paper, leading not directly to

540
00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,480
the public archive, but to a crumbling walk case behind

541
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:36,640
the bulk of the old stacks, one I'd never thought

542
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:40,240
to check before. Colleagues avoided me, passing in sudden clots

543
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,640
of silence, a verdic gaze's cold murmurs. Once my keys

544
00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:46,680
disappeared for twenty minutes, then reappeared where I checked before

545
00:26:47,279 --> 00:26:49,400
another shift. The brake room fridge was unplugged in the

546
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:52,160
door jar water pulling over the towels of petty sabotage

547
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:55,319
propotent in its message you do not belong here. Every

548
00:26:55,319 --> 00:26:57,440
one of those markers drew me back to the archives,

549
00:26:57,559 --> 00:27:00,640
each new arrow tugging at my nerves and curiosity. The

550
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:03,799
basement air thickened, no longer chilled in neutral, but growing stale,

551
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,240
as if sialed from within. I gave up the last

552
00:27:06,240 --> 00:27:09,440
frags of pretense after midnight, three nights after the sabotage began,

553
00:27:09,559 --> 00:27:11,440
when I found a chalk spiral on the bottom step

554
00:27:11,519 --> 00:27:14,559
leading to the sub basement, fresh pristine, as though just

555
00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:17,519
drawn with a tiny crossets center. It was a call

556
00:27:17,599 --> 00:27:20,400
to descend. I waited until all signs of other staff

557
00:27:20,440 --> 00:27:22,799
aided my own shifts hand off, arranged to leave the

558
00:27:22,799 --> 00:27:25,319
building mostly empty for two hours. The gap documented on

559
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:27,799
a print out of to night's duty roster on a

560
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,720
Thursday morning, just passed two. Following the sharp trail, I

561
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:32,839
thumbed the emergency over right and let the cold, metallic

562
00:27:32,839 --> 00:27:35,640
groan of the service elevator guide me down. The panel

563
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:37,680
buttons required a key one eyed filch from a ring

564
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:40,960
in s. Harrington's office when nobody was looking, acting casual,

565
00:27:41,039 --> 00:27:44,119
hardest to cotto drumbeat. The lowest level was marked, but

566
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,400
the key slid home until the doors sailed behind and

567
00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:49,720
darkest swallowed the cab. The air descended with me sire

568
00:27:49,759 --> 00:27:51,799
and faintly electric, as if the old wiring in the

569
00:27:51,799 --> 00:27:53,920
wall sweated out all the secrets it had ever carried.

570
00:27:54,599 --> 00:27:57,160
At BTU, those potted into a short corridor of raw

571
00:27:57,200 --> 00:28:00,720
concrete and exposed condurates. Here at the temperature dropped to

572
00:28:00,759 --> 00:28:04,599
meet lockachill, my breath fogged and lingered. I skated through

573
00:28:04,599 --> 00:28:06,839
a narrow hole stack with out of date city directories,

574
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:10,880
cardboard boxes labeled surveillance nineteen ninety s, and file cabinets

575
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:15,039
bolted shut by rusted padlocks. No cameras down here, no

576
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:17,680
light except for my beam. The chalk marks grew in

577
00:28:17,720 --> 00:28:20,279
certainty as I followed them, looping left past the stacks,

578
00:28:20,319 --> 00:28:22,119
then a sudden loach into the real dead, into a

579
00:28:22,119 --> 00:28:24,519
wall with a panel mismatched in it seems beside a

580
00:28:24,519 --> 00:28:27,640
corroda's old fire hose box. I pressed the crack of

581
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:30,839
the panel. Pushing searching, it shifted not as a door

582
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:33,599
but as a fun a pivot. Something snapped and gave,

583
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:35,759
and the whole case whil swung open a foot, crushing

584
00:28:35,839 --> 00:28:39,200
dust and grip behind it. Inside a narrow brick chamber

585
00:28:39,200 --> 00:28:43,119
stretched away. The air staticky smelled of aged paper, ozone

586
00:28:43,200 --> 00:28:46,039
and gussy old cologne shells slumped under the weight of

587
00:28:46,119 --> 00:28:49,319
reel to reel tapes, rotary phones with grease darkened handsets,

588
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:52,160
and paper ledges fat with the cities in calculable details.

589
00:28:52,799 --> 00:28:55,319
On the near wall hung a string of polaroid photographs,

590
00:28:55,480 --> 00:28:57,680
their faces turned inward as if too precious or dam

591
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:01,160
into leaf free below mugshot's life and up late nineteen eightters,

592
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,039
every name blacked out as half shadowed in the room's

593
00:29:04,079 --> 00:29:05,720
dim light. I made out the jagged scrip of a

594
00:29:05,759 --> 00:29:09,079
city at drissbook, nearly identical to the directory upstairs, but

595
00:29:09,119 --> 00:29:11,960
lined in red ink entry savagely crossed and re cataloged

596
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,880
in another hand. I passed my flas flight over squash

597
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,240
cardboard boxes, each labeled with initials L B, E, H, S, T,

598
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:21,880
and still more old staff, all link to my own

599
00:29:21,920 --> 00:29:24,960
bent trail of research a sense of collatse pressed in

600
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:27,519
all of a teetering on the edge of erasure, were revelation.

601
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:31,119
Every surface told the story in fragments. Ledgers told me,

602
00:29:31,240 --> 00:29:34,039
page tape, reel's label for years, bracketing the city scandals.

603
00:29:34,039 --> 00:29:37,240
Sword at night a June eighty nine, clean discarded members

604
00:29:37,279 --> 00:29:40,359
bore dates, stance matching the exact day's key witnesses. When silent,

605
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:43,039
a city news flickered with word of yet another deferred trial.

606
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,400
A shiver ran through the floor above. Footsteps muffled slow.

607
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,279
I switched off my light, crouched behind a pile of

608
00:29:49,319 --> 00:29:52,480
ruined bounders in the niche between shelves, The ceiling above

609
00:29:52,519 --> 00:29:54,839
vibrated with the rhythm of walker's cross in them pausing,

610
00:29:55,480 --> 00:29:57,759
someone unlocked the hidden door behind me with a series

611
00:29:57,759 --> 00:30:00,240
of clinks and a pop. I suppressed my b death,

612
00:30:00,519 --> 00:30:03,160
staying as far in the shadow as possible. What if

613
00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,480
whoever entered was merely checking? I waited, knees aching for

614
00:30:06,519 --> 00:30:09,200
a sign. Voices leaked in older men the weight of

615
00:30:09,240 --> 00:30:12,400
age and authority in their muttered exchanges, Two in city

616
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,359
issue suits, a third in a navy windbreaker with them

617
00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:17,799
A staff member, an older woman hunch but familiar from

618
00:30:17,799 --> 00:30:20,400
the break room, her hair frazzled and dressed notably clean.

619
00:30:21,039 --> 00:30:24,160
So this is the last suit. Number one whisper voice

620
00:30:24,160 --> 00:30:28,279
and anxious lolt. Harrington wasn't seen, muttered another lower, with

621
00:30:28,319 --> 00:30:30,559
an age of certainty that reminded me uncomfortably of the

622
00:30:30,599 --> 00:30:33,839
tone she took on her worse nights. Admo comes next week,

623
00:30:33,880 --> 00:30:37,160
Burn everything, dockets Leger's the whole lot, same as lest time.

624
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:40,839
A third voice, his nervous phone books missing again, he

625
00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,119
marked the list. None of them noticed me, hunched, silent

626
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,640
and shivering behind a pillar. They moved in Rituel, stacking

627
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,559
tapriels on her trolley, sweeping polaroids into a battered fold out,

628
00:30:50,559 --> 00:30:52,839
closing ledgers that looked ancient enough to belong to the

629
00:30:52,839 --> 00:30:56,759
city founders. Among the artifacts, one object linted a battered

630
00:30:56,799 --> 00:30:59,319
phone book, blue and worn but definitely not my copy.

631
00:31:00,039 --> 00:31:02,039
Spine snapped up into a page bearing both a red

632
00:31:02,039 --> 00:31:04,519
ex and something newly erase, the outline of an intrigon

633
00:31:05,119 --> 00:31:06,960
the woman in the wind breck oppressed her hand over

634
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,920
her eyes. If it comes out, we're all gone with

635
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,599
it there watching now, Feed's press can't risk another becker

636
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,559
An argument crested, muffled by the files. Burn it tonight?

637
00:31:16,599 --> 00:31:19,039
Where were all in print? By morning? A phone on

638
00:31:19,079 --> 00:31:21,920
the wall rang shrill and sudden. They froze as the

639
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:24,799
rotary dial ground down, each digit rattling in the stillness.

640
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:28,640
Nobody answered. A flash of movement, one of them knocked

641
00:31:28,640 --> 00:31:31,640
into the shelf. The stack of technical manuals thudded to

642
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:35,400
the linoleum, skiing across toward my foot. My phone, silent

643
00:31:35,440 --> 00:31:37,359
for ires, chose that instant to blurt out its own

644
00:31:37,359 --> 00:31:40,559
digital alarm, a calendar notification, as benign as possible, bringing

645
00:31:40,559 --> 00:31:42,960
stroll and quick. Before I could kill it, every eye

646
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:46,039
fixed on my corner of darkness. The city man lunged

647
00:31:46,039 --> 00:31:48,559
an armine, some stubby metal bar raised in his fist.

648
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:53,160
I ducked adrenaline screening. The oldest staffer, perhaps recognizing me,

649
00:31:53,319 --> 00:31:56,480
yelled no, let him, Let him speak for himself. The

650
00:31:56,519 --> 00:31:59,400
second suited figure, unsteady in the shadows, pointed his phone's

651
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:01,839
flashlight at me. Who told you to come here? You

652
00:32:01,920 --> 00:32:06,359
city press? Just staff, just curious. My voice was steadied

653
00:32:06,359 --> 00:32:08,200
in my legs as I forced myself to my feet,

654
00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,160
hands open, What are you burning cases? Or a people?

655
00:32:11,759 --> 00:32:14,039
The group exchange looks pregnant with the history. I could

656
00:32:14,079 --> 00:32:18,160
only imagine the head cleaner, her eyes wild and suddenly sorrowful, whispered,

657
00:32:18,279 --> 00:32:20,839
you don't want what you'll find here. Just leave the books, please.

658
00:32:21,559 --> 00:32:24,599
The city man stepped forward. He published one word, one

659
00:32:24,680 --> 00:32:26,519
hint about this place where its records. Your name would

660
00:32:26,559 --> 00:32:30,279
join NAO's. He nodded toward the black doubt mugshots. But

661
00:32:30,359 --> 00:32:33,160
it already is, I said, it's in the files, in

662
00:32:33,279 --> 00:32:35,960
that book, page torn out. You're not just erasing evidence,

663
00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:39,480
You're erasing people and the building. It remembers something broke

664
00:32:39,519 --> 00:32:42,839
in the group. The cleaner wept, hand shaking. The other

665
00:32:42,920 --> 00:32:46,000
city officials bawn, sweeping tapes off the table. We have

666
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:49,480
orders you, he jabbed a finger toward me. Leave the script.

667
00:32:49,519 --> 00:32:51,559
You walk now, and you get to keep your shift,

668
00:32:51,599 --> 00:32:55,240
your job, your life. A moment shoving and steady. In

669
00:32:55,319 --> 00:32:57,960
the confusion, my elbow hit the bright blue phem book.

670
00:32:58,359 --> 00:33:00,720
It fell open, and a page rip louseell list of names,

671
00:33:00,759 --> 00:33:03,599
addresses mostly faded out, but one black through ink. Bleeding,

672
00:33:04,079 --> 00:33:06,799
breathing ragged. The senior staffer reached for the spilled ledges,

673
00:33:06,839 --> 00:33:09,960
clutching them together. A box burst open. In the struggle

674
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,799
city records sliding across the floor, A caught of folder

675
00:33:12,799 --> 00:33:15,079
as it landed its label Fresh and hand letter twenty

676
00:33:15,119 --> 00:33:18,440
twenty four suppression candidates. There, A penciled at the bottom

677
00:33:18,599 --> 00:33:21,359
was my name, last verse, with an empty day beside it.

678
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,640
Who decided this? I asked for small. The man in

679
00:33:25,640 --> 00:33:28,240
the wind breker shivered none of us, but once a

680
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,279
building nose, it keeps the habit a silence. Then the

681
00:33:31,279 --> 00:33:34,000
shriek of the war phone again, the suits grasp their

682
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,240
piles of records. The cleaner slip passed me toward the door,

683
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:41,319
sobbing softly, muttering it never ends, never ends, Ledgers always open,

684
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:44,480
always comes back. I let the ledges fall, the evidence

685
00:33:44,519 --> 00:33:47,240
muddled now on the tiles and shelves, A back toward

686
00:33:47,279 --> 00:33:51,599
the door, adrenaline mixing rancid with triumphinit terror, no further words,

687
00:33:52,319 --> 00:33:56,000
no for it. The confrontation dissolved into each party's frantic,

688
00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:59,359
solitary work of hiding, erasing, or simply pretending I was

689
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:02,160
never there. It took all my effort to leave without running.

690
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:04,000
The foamber press flat against my roads, as if it

691
00:34:04,039 --> 00:34:07,319
might vanish if I rushed. Sunshine the next morning felt

692
00:34:07,319 --> 00:34:10,239
sharp or blade through my vision rather than warmth. I

693
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:12,599
arrived mid afternoon at the library, met at the door

694
00:34:12,639 --> 00:34:15,599
by two city officials. They wore the same cheap suits

695
00:34:15,599 --> 00:34:19,840
as last night's confrontation. Here being reassigned, one said, matter

696
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:23,599
of fact, as part of planned staff are structuring. The

697
00:34:23,599 --> 00:34:26,719
paper slid across the desk. Termination of employment, Central City

698
00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:30,800
Library effective immediately. Do I get a reason, I asked, Shiki,

699
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:34,599
trying for bravado. The branch is under review. The second replied,

700
00:34:34,639 --> 00:34:39,559
smooth as gas, no further comment. Inside a glimpse de mess,

701
00:34:39,559 --> 00:34:43,000
Harrington shoulders rigid over a clipboard, her eyes never meeting mine.

702
00:34:43,599 --> 00:34:46,800
Other staff simply slipped away into their corners, avoiding every glance.

703
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,239
I didn't protest. I let the city men lead me

704
00:34:50,280 --> 00:34:52,639
out the side door, Passiolo tape now wrapping half the

705
00:34:52,679 --> 00:34:55,480
West annex in the stairwell to be to days blowed.

706
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:58,719
After that, I tried appealing for my job, hunting post's

707
00:34:58,719 --> 00:35:01,760
on line for m A co workers no longer responded.

708
00:35:02,400 --> 00:35:05,679
Mike's number was disconnected. Carmelod if it was even the same.

709
00:35:05,760 --> 00:35:07,840
Cammel and Ever returned to her post. According to the

710
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:10,360
new judy schedule, which I managed to see online before

711
00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,719
access was revoked. Occasionally I'd catch a glimpse of a

712
00:35:13,719 --> 00:35:15,480
familiar shape in the corner of my eye on the

713
00:35:15,519 --> 00:35:18,719
bus or passing the glass into dry cleaners a suit,

714
00:35:18,800 --> 00:35:21,480
a lightning flash of recognition, now turning away before I

715
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:25,159
could focus. At the grocery checkout, my receipt poor clipp

716
00:35:25,159 --> 00:35:28,000
see cloak inert when I asked, the clerk just shrug

717
00:35:28,119 --> 00:35:30,320
and replaced it with a shrink rat apology gift card,

718
00:35:30,480 --> 00:35:33,880
eyes never meeting mine. News coverage about the library's interior

719
00:35:33,960 --> 00:35:36,760
demolition trickled out minor fire in records area and no

720
00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,800
injuries reported. Lost records not significant for city functions. Repeating

721
00:35:40,840 --> 00:35:42,880
the same sanitizing language of a rasure I had seen

722
00:35:42,880 --> 00:35:45,960
in the ledgers and tapes. The west Wind never reopened.

723
00:35:46,599 --> 00:35:49,320
The council denied all claims about missing personnel files, saying

724
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,960
all information is up to date pro state mandate. One

725
00:35:52,039 --> 00:35:54,360
line in the city paper's opinion section wandered about her o

726
00:35:54,400 --> 00:35:57,159
volay in records management and whether it signaled deeper corruption.

727
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:00,679
The article vanished within IROs replaced with a recipe for

728
00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:03,559
potato salad. I rarely left my room in the weeks

729
00:36:03,559 --> 00:36:06,440
have followed, Even the city's normal bustle took on a

730
00:36:06,480 --> 00:36:10,039
filtered aspect. Once two men strangers lingered in the lobby

731
00:36:10,039 --> 00:36:12,599
for too long, leaving only when I came down the stairwell,

732
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:16,639
silent as race. I felt watch, then forgotten, then watched again,

733
00:36:16,800 --> 00:36:18,679
as if a camera reeled me back into some one's

734
00:36:18,679 --> 00:36:21,559
digital tape, and then erased the segment. Days later, just

735
00:36:21,599 --> 00:36:23,880
as fear began having, I received a parcel left outside

736
00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:26,480
my apartment door, heavy wrapped in thick brown paper, no

737
00:36:26,599 --> 00:36:30,159
return address. Inside nestle to top a layer of yellowed

738
00:36:30,239 --> 00:36:32,440
newsprint was the phone. Because my scoff still present, but

739
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,840
now with a burry mark running down its side, blacking

740
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:38,960
several pages. Inside its spine was a polaroid. I unfolded

741
00:36:38,960 --> 00:36:42,360
it with care. The image was blurry, its colors oversaturated

742
00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:45,519
as a teenage's film, doves corners curled. It showed a

743
00:36:45,559 --> 00:36:48,199
tight space, walls canted in at odd angles, the clothed

744
00:36:48,239 --> 00:36:51,280
surveil and cell with its bins and ledgers reflected in

745
00:36:51,320 --> 00:36:53,559
the mirror. Above one shelf stood a figure my own shape,

746
00:36:53,559 --> 00:36:56,679
plain as the day jacket, badge scarbrow. But I had

747
00:36:56,719 --> 00:36:58,920
never taken that proto nor stowed in the cell with

748
00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:02,199
any camera below the image. A graphites may spelled out

749
00:37:02,199 --> 00:37:04,199
three words. A letter is a little broken as a

750
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,679
written by a shaking hand. Every page counts. The directory,

751
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:10,800
now half incinerated, slumped open of its own accord. A

752
00:37:10,800 --> 00:37:13,199
single leaf, crisp, still white, drifted out and tumbled to

753
00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:16,239
the floor. On one side, a faint new list of names.

754
00:37:16,960 --> 00:37:19,679
Some I remembered holland Simmonds, now cross up with heavy

755
00:37:19,679 --> 00:37:24,280
black lines. Others familiar or not, remain blank, waiting. I

756
00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:26,519
stared at that page or registrate a tally, a thread,

757
00:37:26,599 --> 00:37:29,760
or a reminder. I couldn't decide. The s seemed to crackle,

758
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:31,639
as if the weight of ledges and tapes and cold

759
00:37:31,639 --> 00:37:33,800
city history pressed out from the book and into my walls,

760
00:37:34,079 --> 00:37:36,079
where it would echo on after my own story was

761
00:37:36,079 --> 00:37:39,599
no longer recorded. Even now, I think about the stacks,

762
00:37:39,639 --> 00:37:42,079
the boxes, the entries erased and smudged and written. A

763
00:37:42,159 --> 00:37:45,079
new looped like some library's recursion tape, looping old secrets

764
00:37:45,079 --> 00:37:47,239
for no audience at all, except perhaps for the building.

765
00:37:47,400 --> 00:37:49,760
I must have a force inside keeps a record, waiting

766
00:37:49,760 --> 00:37:52,639
for the next name to be marked. A faint papery

767
00:37:52,679 --> 00:37:54,679
sound on my foot over the straight directory page broke

768
00:37:54,719 --> 00:37:57,800
the hush. I knelt, trembling and pinched it up between

769
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:00,679
two fingers, feeling them familiar, smooth, as of fresh paper,

770
00:38:00,679 --> 00:38:02,559
is out of place as a wet stone in a graveyard.

771
00:38:03,159 --> 00:38:04,760
There was just enough light to make out the crossed

772
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,280
off names blocky, blacked out Simmons, Hall and Becker, below

773
00:38:08,400 --> 00:38:11,039
pencil lines ash columns of nothing, as if flyins were

774
00:38:11,039 --> 00:38:14,880
reserved for futures not yet decided. My own name, written small,

775
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,639
sanded between two blanks, was neither stricken nor completed. Instinct

776
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:20,840
jolted through me, half terror, half the duggared resolved that

777
00:38:20,840 --> 00:38:23,119
had gotten me through every graveyard shift in every city.

778
00:38:23,119 --> 00:38:25,679
At huddledon, I looked for the camera lens. I now

779
00:38:25,679 --> 00:38:28,000
felt sure moss be hidden in every room I'd ever entered,

780
00:38:28,039 --> 00:38:30,480
But there was only my window, reflected gray and empty.

781
00:38:30,480 --> 00:38:33,519
As dusk settled behind it, the directory page shook. In

782
00:38:33,519 --> 00:38:36,840
my grip, breath catching, I caught a smelt char fading glue,

783
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:39,039
an echo of a colder from the cell beneath the library.

784
00:38:39,519 --> 00:38:41,559
It brought a sharp memory of the confrontation in a

785
00:38:41,599 --> 00:38:43,880
hidden room. The phones ranged the blink of the old ledger,

786
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:46,480
the stack of files absurdly fresh, with my name in there.

787
00:38:47,079 --> 00:38:49,239
I pressed the page flat against my table, as if

788
00:38:49,239 --> 00:38:51,400
I smoothing paper, I could somehow smooth the way, dread,

789
00:38:52,000 --> 00:38:54,679
the graphitesmere of every page. Counc echoed that half whispered

790
00:38:54,679 --> 00:38:57,199
warning to leave things be, but it was no longer possible.

791
00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:00,599
Forces from the hallway, just my neighbor returning, forced myself

792
00:39:00,599 --> 00:39:02,840
to believe scraped to the age of my attention. I

793
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,360
glanced between the front doors, dead bold and the polaroid

794
00:39:05,440 --> 00:39:08,079
still tight in my left hand. On a whim, I

795
00:39:08,119 --> 00:39:10,480
held the photo beside the open directory and did something

796
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,280
I'd never done in all my nights at the library.

797
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:14,639
I read aloud from the torn knew less, each name

798
00:39:14,679 --> 00:39:19,039
clear as I could, Harland, Simmons, Becker, I stopped voice fraying.

799
00:39:19,679 --> 00:39:21,760
My own name waited at the end, not yet uttered.

800
00:39:22,159 --> 00:39:25,559
The silence in my apartment thickened from outside. A sirens

801
00:39:25,559 --> 00:39:29,280
snap passed frame madeline. Something in the building, pipes maybe,

802
00:39:29,360 --> 00:39:31,440
or settling wood creaked in a pattern, all too much

803
00:39:31,519 --> 00:39:35,239
like careful footsteps above. I tense, listening to each faint shuffle,

804
00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:40,119
No voices, no explanation, the heaviness of old paper, of smoke,

805
00:39:40,159 --> 00:39:42,599
and the faint buzzed onceeen electrical currents crowding together in

806
00:39:42,639 --> 00:39:46,159
my little room. My phone lit up, notificationless, just the

807
00:39:46,199 --> 00:39:49,480
silent clow. No number called, no new message arrived, and

808
00:39:49,559 --> 00:39:51,840
yet the green poles didned to bright, as if trying

809
00:39:51,840 --> 00:39:54,480
and failing to make itself seen. I shoved it face

810
00:39:54,519 --> 00:39:57,400
down under the polaroid. I told myself to act, to

811
00:39:57,400 --> 00:39:59,719
show the directory, to call the city archives number I'd

812
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,159
found weeks ago, even to pack and vanishes so many

813
00:40:02,199 --> 00:40:05,280
others plainly had. Instead, I picked up the phone book,

814
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:07,880
part of me craven, the act of defiance, or perhaps resolution.

815
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:10,880
I flipped open to the torn page, then to the first,

816
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,360
and finally somewhere in the dead center, looking for patterns

817
00:40:13,400 --> 00:40:16,840
or some link I'd missed. More graphite, more fragmented numbers,

818
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,199
all the marginalia that had become an obsession. Suddenly a

819
00:40:20,239 --> 00:40:22,119
phrase leaped out a pencil, the line deep in the back,

820
00:40:22,119 --> 00:40:25,280
index easy to overlook. A fur each ledger closed, another

821
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:29,559
opens witness log return my skin prickled that were to

822
00:40:29,599 --> 00:40:32,519
return A delf thud from the stairwell. Yank me upry.

823
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:35,519
I tupped the directory and polary beneath the stove's batter

824
00:40:35,559 --> 00:40:37,719
tray and drifted to my door, peering through the peep

825
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:40,440
hole and seeing no one whe it just an exhausted

826
00:40:40,440 --> 00:40:44,000
neighbor or something else shuffing down the hall. I returned,

827
00:40:44,239 --> 00:40:47,360
not wanting to leave the room dark. I needed evidence,

828
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,159
leverage anything. I dug into my back for the love

829
00:40:50,199 --> 00:40:53,559
book i'd swipe from the library staff desk. Paging through,

830
00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:55,800
I found the last week's worth of shifts, my own

831
00:40:55,840 --> 00:40:58,920
loops and scribbles, growing more frantic, and then between March's lines,

832
00:40:59,039 --> 00:41:01,840
freshing her neat block capitals. Incidents must be absorbed by

833
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:05,599
the ricka shelter. No leak permitted new candidate pending. It

834
00:41:05,639 --> 00:41:08,840
wasn't handwriting I recognized, but the lines that followed a

835
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,360
krand in the safe margin left for superiors to sign off,

836
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:14,519
repeated and address mine. I stopped through rooms, dread, making

837
00:41:14,519 --> 00:41:17,239
my legs wooden. The night air pressed against the window,

838
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:20,280
abiiting the cold wind for late spring. I resisted the

839
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:22,960
urge to call anyone who would believe me. I doubted

840
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,360
I'd even believe myself, but my name ridden in multiple

841
00:41:25,440 --> 00:41:28,760
ledgers apolloids, impossible image, and above all, the endless recursion

842
00:41:28,760 --> 00:41:30,639
of the phone book's returned. The evidence was stacked too

843
00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:33,360
high to ignore. For a moment occurred to me to

844
00:41:33,360 --> 00:41:35,559
burn the directory, to raise every hint of my involvement,

845
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:38,199
as though city men had dry. But I had seen

846
00:41:38,239 --> 00:41:40,480
how that played out, how burning a ledger only brought

847
00:41:40,480 --> 00:41:42,440
its double back. In the scorched version, a new audition

848
00:41:42,519 --> 00:41:45,679
with husher emissions were trembling hands. I wrote my own

849
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:48,239
name lightly across the bottom of the fallen directory, page

850
00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:51,360
half in challenge, half in resignation. Then I stood at

851
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,800
the window and waited for what I didn't know. The

852
00:41:53,880 --> 00:41:56,840
car's head light swept across the alley, scattering shadows, and

853
00:41:56,920 --> 00:41:58,920
for a heartbeat I saw my own form reflected in

854
00:41:58,920 --> 00:42:02,760
the glass foam clutched against my chest, nameless waiting. The

855
00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:06,199
chill in the room feeded slowly, replaced by a different sensation, expectation,

856
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:08,679
as if the records themselves needed an action, not just

857
00:42:08,679 --> 00:42:12,440
a witness. I understood finally what was demanded to someone

858
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,280
to mark, someone to record the cycle on ending as

859
00:42:15,360 --> 00:42:17,760
Drgnon pale over the city. The phone maclay opened on

860
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,000
my table, its pages fluttering with each stir of went

861
00:42:20,039 --> 00:42:23,039
through the aging windows, every leaf for spring, threats of promises,

862
00:42:23,159 --> 00:42:25,079
or maybe just the old imperative that had haunted the

863
00:42:25,119 --> 00:42:31,760
library's depths. Return Loch witness continue outside the city, woke

864
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:34,039
as if nothing had changed. But I knew, with a certainty,

865
00:42:34,039 --> 00:42:36,360
as heavie as the phone begin my lap, that every page,

866
00:42:36,519 --> 00:42:38,719
every ledger, every name, mine most of all, would echo

867
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:41,159
somewhere in the quiet, obsessive shells of the Central City

868
00:42:41,239 --> 00:42:46,239
Library waiting. And that is the end. Thank you for listening,

869
00:42:46,320 --> 00:42:47,639
and I will see you in the next one.