Night Floors

Spoiler Warning: This scenario is taken from the second Delta Green rule book, Delta Green: Countdown. If you are a Delta Green player you may wish to ask your Keeper if they intend to run any scenarios in that book before reading this write-up, as pertinent scenario information will be revealed. The scenario was altered by Allan Goodall with the inclusion of extra NPCs and additional handouts.

Thursday, February 12, 2004, 1:43 p.m. EST

Macallistar Building, New York, New York

Agent MORGAN showed the page to MICHAEL and MAYA. It was written in script format. They poured over the page and concluded that the "man with white shoes and a briefcase" sounded like a reference to a salesman. MORGAN suggested that it was written by someone who had gone insane and now thought they were in a play.

The agents broke for a late lunch and then returned to continue cataloging the contents of Abby's apartment. As supper time closed in, MICHAEL suggested that he and MAYA check out the building's roof before going for something to eat. A set of stairs on the third floor led up to the rooftop. The door was locked; MAYA picked it. The roof was a non-descript, flat, gravel-topped surface. A waist-high brick wall prevented anyone from accidentally falling off. It was cold. Through the thick cloud cover they could just barely see that the sun was beginning to set. They headed back downstairs.

MICHAEL and MAYA left MORGAN alone to continue cataloging while they went for burgers. MAYA, in particular, was spooked by the building. They returned with a burger for MORGAN. MICHAEL suggested that MAYA and he question Roger Carun, so they went off, leaving MORGAN alone again. MICHAEL knocked on the door to apartment A-4 but there was no answer. MICHAEL went to the building's front door to press the buzzer while MAYA continued to knock. There was still no answer. MICHAEL told MAYA that he was invoking the PATRIOT Act's "sneak and peak" rule. She picked the lock to Carun's apartment and the agents slipped in.

The science fiction writer's apartment looked much like the others in the building. They searched it, but didn't find anything that could link him with the missing Abigail. The refrigerator was mostly empty, with a jug of expired milk sitting on the top shelf. MICHAEL checked the closet for weird writing or strange symbols; he didn't find any. They checked the room for signs of recent occupancy. MAYA found some mail with a February 9 postmark, suggesting that Carun had been in the apartment very recently.

Carun's computer, a Dell PC, was on. A screen saver from The Matrix displayed a waterfall of strange green symbols on the monitor. MAYA wiggled the mouse and the screen saver asked for a password. The agents tried the passwords "abigail", "abby", and "laura" but none worked. MICHAEL typed in "obsession", and it, too, failed. They entered a long list of science fiction and Star Trek-themed words into the computer: "asimov", "heinlein", "spock", "enterprise", "scotty", even "nuclearwessels". None of the words unlocked the computer. MAYA was the more computer savvy of the two, so she tried to hack into it. The screen saver proved to be more decorative than secure. She was able to reboot the computer into DOS mode and reset the config file that held the password. She could now go through Carun's file system.

The short story folder contained over 60 files, with titles like, "What the Other Hand Did" and "Smigen's Rule". Instead of looking through the files, MAYA searched for blank CDs or floppies so that she could copy the files and check them back at the hotel. She found a box of floppies, and copied the short stories and a number of other files onto the floppies. When they were full she reset the password on the screen saver, and the two agents slipped out of the apartment. MAYA locked the door after them.

Meanwhile, MORGAN found a piece of paper in Abby's apartment. It was a receipt handwritten on pre-printed stationary for January's rent. The amount was $850 for apartment S-10. The signature was illegible. The agents found a credit card slip signed by Abby, and saw that her signature did not match the writing on the receipt. Apartment S-10, using the Macallistar building's numbering scheme, would put the apartment in the basement. All three agents went downstairs.

The only light in the basement shone from underneath one of the doors. MAYA heard the voice of Thomas Manuel. They tried to sneak closer to the door, but they couldn't avoid the creaking stairs. Thomas continued talking without interruption. MAYA crept up to the door. What she heard was one side of a conversation. Thomas seemed to be talking on a phone. "I'm out of red, what should I use?" There was a pause. "No, that's too dark." Another pause. "What do you think?" A brief pause. "It does need more blue, doesn't it?"

The agents backed away from the door and searched the basement for any sign of Abby, or the mysterious apartment S-10. All they found was a small room full of art supplies, the boiler room, and another room with cleaning supplies.

Something about Thomas' one-sided conversation didn't sound right. They knocked on the door. They heard Thomas shifting things around, then he opened the door a crack. MICHAEL asked if they could come in. Thomas reluctantly allowed them to enter. In the room were painting supplies: paint, brushes, paint cleaner, and a couple of paint pallets. Against one wall were canvasses covered in tarps. No one else was in the room. The agents couldn't see a telephone or cell phone. They asked Thomas what he was doing here, and he said the "super" let him rent the room for him to do his painting. They asked him who he was talking to. Thomas turned belligerent and ordered them out of the room. MORGAN asked if he could see one of his paintings, suggesting that he was looking to buy some art work, but Thomas wouldn't pull up the tarp for him. Instead, he once more ordered them out of the room. The agents reluctantly left.

MICHAEL decided that it was now a good time to check out Thomas' apartment once more. "We are the reason the PATRIOT Act was a bad idea," smiled MICHAEL as he and MAYA approached apartment A-1, and MORGAN went back to cataloging the contents of A-2. "I suspect him of terrorism," he deadpanned to MAYA as justification for having her pick the lock. After 15 minutes of trying, MAYA finally opened the door. MAYA and MICHAEL stepped inside.

The apartment was austere, with little more than a fold-away bed, a kitchen table, a couple of potted plants and a stereo. MICHAEL went to the closet. He found muddy footprints on the floor, but he had no idea who they belonged to or where they came from. There were no squiggles on the walls, the ceiling, or floor. There were no hatches or trap doors, either. The shoe prints were from a man's dress shoe, larger than size 9.

There were no paintings in the room or signs of any kind of artwork. The agents found that surprising for the home of a painter. MAYA searched the room and found an eviction notice from Artlife, the company that owns the building. MICHAEL inspected the stereo and found it to be a top end model, consisting of a powerful amplifier, a tuner, a CD player, and a cassette deck. He powered up the amp and tuner. The radio was tuned to dead air between radio station frequencies. There was no CD in the player, and no cassette in the tape deck. MICHAEL looked around the room and realized that there were no tapes or CDs anywhere in the apartment, nor did Thomas appear to own a television or a computer. He walked over to A-2 and took the Britney Spears CD they had found the previous day. He put it in Thomas' player. It played fine. Meanwhile, MAYA inspected the kitchen. Like Carun's apartment, there wasn't much in the way of food in the cupboards or the refrigerator. The half-full jug of milk was expired. She went to the bathroom, but found nothing untoward there.

MAYA searched under Thomas' fold-away bed. She found a piece of paper. It was another page from a play. This page consisted of a conversation between the night manager and Darryl Brock, apparently the same Darryl Brock that moved out of the Macallistar building without warning. The page implied that Darryl clawed out his eyes.

Click here to see a copy of the second script page found by the agents in Adobe Acrobat format. Warning: the content contains adult language and should not be viewed by minors.

MICHAEL and MAYA moved to leave the apartment. MICHAEL spotted a potted plant on the way out the door. He thought to check it. Hidden in the plant was a medallion and three cassette tapes. They took the items, locked the door, and joined MORGAN in A-2. The medallion was old, metallic, and had strange filigree work around it. It opened up in the center, revealing a compartment for holding pictures. Residual paper was still glued to the medallion, suggesting that a picture had been removed.

There was no cassette player in the apartment, so the agents went out to the rental car. They started the car and put the tapes in the player. The first two tapes had rhytmic noises on them that repeated in some strange cyclic fashion. The first side of the third tape sounded like it was erased. They listened carefully as they played most of the first side but there was nothing to hear. Part way through the second side there was a barely audible whisper. The agents couldn't make it out. MICHAEL and MAYA decided to head to the NYPD police lab to have the tape analyzed, while MORGAN stayed behind cataloging the room and watching out for the building's residents.

MICHAEL contacted the New York City Police Laboratory about having the tapes analyzed. John Phelps, an audio specialist with the lab, was available to do it that night. Once they got to the lab, they handed over the tapes to the analyst. Phelps listened to the third tape, determining that only the barely audible section had anything on it. He isolated the sound and amplified it. Over the lab's speakers, a voice — apparently Thomas' — whispered, "Smooth is the hand which makes the world and steady is the mind which grasps it". They thanked Phelps and left.

* * *

MORGAN thought about the pages of the play they had found. He decided to try an experiment. He sat in the middle of Abby's apartment with his laptop. He began typing a story in manuscript format. After a few minutes, he began to feel as though he was being watched. He typed into the computer, "The CDC agent sits in the middle of the room. He feels as though he is being watched." He looked around, but didn't see anything. The creepy feeling stayed with him. He continued to type out his own play.

After a few minutes he heard someone come down the stairs from the second floor. He glanced out the apartment and saw a middle-aged man approach Roger Carun's apartment. The man pulled out a key and searched the door frame. He stopped, and pulled something from the frame. The man immediately looked around, nervously. MORGAN ducked back into Abby's apartment, but he was sure the man had spotted him. Sure enough, the man came to Abby's door.

The man asked MORGAN if he saw anyone in his apartment. MORGAN truthfully said, "No," as he didn't actually see MAYA and MICHAEL enter Carun's home.

Carun — it was obvious now that the man was the science fiction writer — smelled of cigar smoke. MORGAN questioned Carun about Abby's disappearance. Surprisingly, Carun replied that she had never left.

"Where is she?" asked MORGAN.

"She moved upstairs," replied Carun.

MORGAN asked Carun to take him upstairs. Carun shrugged and told him to follow. They walked up to the third floor and to the stairs leading to the roof. The door that lead to the rooftop was not locked. Carun opened it. Beyond the door was a short corridor that turned off to the right. The corridor was dim, with deep red patterened wallpaper and a brighter red carpet. Electric light sconces offered barely adequate illumination. Carun stepped into the corridor and MORGAN followed. They turned the corner. The corridor continued with several doors on either side of the hall. The nearest doorway was open, with cigar smoke spilling out of it. Inside sat a woman twiddling her fingers and an older, overweight man in a pinstripe suit smoking a cigar and reading a newspaper. In the center of the room lay a large mastiff. The dog lifted its head off its front paws as MORGAN entered the room.

As Carun turned and left the room, MORGAN went up to the woman and asked her if she knew Abigail's whereabouts. The woman told MORGAN that Abby moved upstairs to room F-10. All the while she stared into space and twiddled her fingers. MORGAN asked the woman if he could come back up to the smoking lounge. She told him he was welcome any time. MORGAN glanced around quickly, and then headed back the way he came. As he left the room, the woman began to whistle "Hotel California".

He turned right out of the smoking lounge, and then took the left hand turn. Before him was a short corridor with rooms on either side and a window at the end. He couldn't see out the window, as it was boarded up. He tried to open one of the doors on the left hand side of the corridor, but when he touched the door knob there was a scream from inside. He opened the door, but the room was empty. He moved to the next door on the same side. The door knob felt warm. MORGAN moved to a door on the opposite side of the corridor. He heard pigeons inside, but when he opened the door the room was completely empty.

MORGAN turned around, intent on heading back to the stairway. It was only then that he realized that his route out of the smoking lounge should have taken him back to the stairs. He walked down the corridor and turned right, back in the direction of the smoking lounge, but the corridor had changed and the lounge was no longer there...

* * *

MICHAEL and MAYA arrived back at the Macallistar building. MORGAN was no longer in apartment A-2. In the middle of the room sat his laptop. On the screen was a document in manuscript format, telling the story of MORGAN sitting in the middle of the room and feeling as though he was being watched. MICHAEL pulled out his cell phone and called MORGAN, but there was no answer on MORGAN's cell phone. MICHAEL did the same thing with his special Delta Green cell phone, but again there was no answer.

The agents looked once more at the computer. Thinking that whatever was typed had something to do with MORGAN's disappearance, MICHAEL added a line to the script about MORGAN phoning MICHAEL on his cell phone. They waited a moment. Nothing happened. MICHAEL typed, "Nick believed he can hear something coming down the stairs." Again, nothing happened. He erased some of what MORGAN had typed. He typed more lines himself, including Shakespearean comments about someone carrying a spear. Nothing worked; MORGAN was still missing and still not answering his cell phone.

Someone came down the stairs. They stepped into the hall in time to see Carun's door close. MICHAEL went to Carun's door with MAYA following. They knocked on the door until Carun answered. MICHAEL questioned Carun about MORGAN. Carun said that MORGAN went upstairs. MICHAEL was in no mood to play games with the author and demanded more information. Carun told the agents to leave him alone. Carun tried to close his door. MICHAEL and MAYA forced the door open, sending Carun reeling.

Carun yelled at them to leave. MICHAEL countered by threatening him with the PATRIOT Act. Carun eventually caved in and told them that he left MORGAN upstairs in the smoking lounge, on the fourth floor.

"There is no fourth floor," responded MAYA. The agents grabbed Carun and made him lead them to MORGAN.

Carun took them to the door to the rooftop. He opened it, and they saw a long corridor spread out before them. "When did they build this?" asked a shaken MAYA.

They followed Carun straight down the hall to a room down with cigar smoke spilling out. Inside was a woman twiddling her fingers, a large man in a pin stripe suit reading a newspaper, a younger man staring at them with a malicious grin, and a large mastiff lying beside the younger man's chair. MICHAEL asked the strange inhabitants of the room where they could find MORGAN. The younger man told them that he went upstairs. The agents asked about Abby. They woman said that she she had moved upstairs to the sixth floor. MAYA asked the woman if she would lead them upstairs, but the woman said she was too busy and continued to twiddle her fingers. The woman suggested they talk to the night manager, but no one knew where he was.

The agents left the room and headed back down the corridor. They came to a set of three stairs leading up, but no stairs leading down. "There was a lot of construction here today!" said MAYA, who was getting more and more freaked out by the building.

They picked the set of stairs in the middle. "Let's go straight up," said MAYA, as they began to climb the stairs.

They heard machine gun fire from upstairs. "Let's go straight down!" she said, and the agents went back down the steps and took another set of stairs.

* * *

MORGAN heard voices coming from inside a room. When he opened the door, there was nothing in the room but a typewriter on a desk and a lot of paper, most of it blank. There were more voices in the room, this time emanating from the bathroom. The bathroom was empty. He left the room and walked down the corridor. He heard machine gun fire coming from around the corner. He ran to the room. It was empty, though it still smelled of cordite. Machine gun casings littered the floor near the entrance. In the center of the nearly bare room was a pool of blood. Tracks of smeared blood radiated out from the pool, as though something had been dragged out of it... or slithered out under its own power. There was no sign of the shooter, or whatever spilled the blood.

As he turned to leave, MORGAN spotted a picture on the wall. The picture was an old black and white photograph. In the photograph were numerous people, each holding up an ornate bottle. No two bottles were the same. A name was hand written below each person in the picture. On the far right of the picture was a bottle sitting on the ground. Written below the bottle was the name "Joshua Frost". "Joshua Frost" was written on the bottle's label. MORGAN shuddered. He left, taking the photograph with him.

He walked down a corridor and saw a man trying to enter a room. MORGAN called for him and rushed towards him. The man frantically unlocked the door and then bolted inside. MORGAN got to the door and pushed it open. Before him was an empty elevator shaft that dropped for many, many floors. MORGAN stepped back as his grip on reality slipped just a little more.

* * *

MAYA and MICHAEL walked through the upper floors, climbing up as far as the fifth floor, according to the numbers on the doors. The corridors broke the laws of physics. Corridors would turn in such a way that they should intersect others, but didn't. Hallways changed in an ever shifting maze. Stairways would appear, only to disappear once they had climbed or descended them. Strange rooms with stranger occupants added to the agents' disorientation. "Damn non-Euclidean bastards," said MICHAEL. The overall effect was taking its toll on their sanity.

They headed down another hall and saw someone in a suit with white shoes, carrying a briefcase. They called after him, but he ignored them. A piece of paper fluttered after him as he turned a corner. The agents got to the corner, but he was gone. MAYA picked up the paper. It was another page from the play. It was a conversation with some of the buildings inhabitants in the smoking lounge. The disturbing imagery ended with a comment about the FBI agents being invited "upstairs". MAYA showed the page to MICHAEL, and then they continued moving.

Click here to see a copy of the third script page found by the agents in Adobe Acrobat format. Warning: the content contains adult language and disturbing imagery. It should not be viewed by minors.

The two agents found another set of stairs and climbed them, determined to get to the sixth floor. As they walked past the door they could hear the unmistakable sounds of a couple in the midst of vigorous lovemaking. MAYA cautiously opened the door and the sounds stopped. The room was empty except for a bed. The bed was covered in blood and metal shards. Written on a wall, in dark ichor, was the phrase, "Where's my bottle?" They turned and left the room.

They closed the door behind them and headed down a nearby set of stairs. They turned a corner and literally bumped into MORGAN. Happily reunited they shared what they learned and what had happened to them. Their cell phones didn't work, and there was a strange feeling that time wasn't passing in a normal manner. They concluded that not only were they lost, they may never find their way out of this strange building. "We could be here for the rest of our unnatural span," said MAYA.

MORGAN showed the other two the photograph, while MAYA let MORGAN read the script page. Perhaps if they found MORGAN's bottle they could escape this strange, shifting structure.

They continued to walk the twisting, maddening hallways. They walked past a door where they heard the sounds of someone digging away at dirt and rock. They opened the door. At the far end of the room was a pick axe. A hole had been knocked in the brick wall, and a breeze whistled out of the hole. MORGAN shone a light in the opening. Just beyond, out of reach, was a bottle. It wasn't the same bottle as in MORGAN's picture, but it was vaguely similar.

The agents climbed through the hole. MORGAN picked up the bottle as MICHAEL and MAYA turned on their flashlights. It was ornate, over a foot long, but surprisingly light. Written on the label was the name "William Morsley". MORGAN tried to pull off the stopper, but couldn't. The other agents tried, and they too failed. MORGAN tried to break the bottle open, but it seemed indestructable. They set the bottle down. They stood in a stone hallway with no lighting except for their own maglites. The hallway went in both directions for at least as far as the light could shine. MICHAEL suggested they climb back into the room, but when they turned to look behind them they saw that the hole was gone. They were stuck in this stone corridor.

Near the agents was a small, empty alcove. They picked up the bottle and began walking down the hallway. They soon came to an exact replica of the alcove. They walked away again, and came to yet another alcove. The agents began to suspect that the alcove was, in fact, the very same alcove. Through experimentation they discovered that if they took the bottle with them they ended up in some sort of "loop" that brought them back to the alcove. They left the bottle in the alcove and walked away.

They found more bottles sitting in other alcoves. Some names were readable, but many were written in foreign languages and in foreign script. There were bottles in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and Cyrillic. None of the bottles could be broken. When they came to a corner the agents used their belts to conduct an experiment in grabbing two bottles at once, tying one bottle to a belt while they picked up another. This simply resulted in a "loop" that brought them to two empty alcoves. They eventually gave up grabbing bottles altogether and began searching for MORGAN's bottle.

They trudged through the maze of stone hallways, looking at bottle after bottle with only MICHAEL's maglite to guide them (they were conserving the batteries on MAYA's). One hour stretched to two, then three, then four. They tired, but there was nothing else they could think to do but look for the bottle.

In the sixth hour, as the batteries in MICHAEL's light finally began to dim, they came across an alcove with a familiar looking bottle. It was shaped exactly like the one in the photograph. MORGAN picked it up. It had his name on it. He had found his bottle! As MORGAN picked up the bottle, he heard a voice whisper, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god." Though it freaked him out a little bit, he had no choice but to keep the bottle. He tried to walk away with it, but the same "looping" phenomenon happened. He couldn't break his bottle, either.

MORGAN pulled the stopper. He heard a whisper, in his own voice. The whisper said, "Alzis believes the emperor is missing." The phrase made no sense to the agents, but they wrote it down. They looked at the photograph, but it remained unchanged. MORGAN hit on the idea that breaking the bottle might break the spell, assuming the bottle was no longer invulnerable. He slammed his bottle on the stone floor and it smashed to bits. They looked at the photograph. MORGAN was now in the picture, holding his bottle and staring blankly towards the camera.

"That may or may not be good," said MICHAEL. They swapped flashlights and continued on, looking for MAYA's and MICHAEL's bottles.

After over an hour of searching, they turned a corner and bumped into a haggard looking man in his early forties. The person was hysterically relieved to see them, thanking them and hugging them. Eventually he told them that he was David Langford, an employee of Time-Warner Cable. He had been sent to the apartment last October to check the cable connection on the roof. He got there just after sundown. He climbed the stairs, and entered the floor with the smoking lounge. He had been there ever since, trying to find his way out. He lived off table scraps, half-finished meals, and party snacks that he came across while wandering the upper floors. He desperately wanted out of this "prison". When MICHAEL showed him his FBI badge, Langford was relieved to the point of tears.

"Great, now we have another bottle to find," muttered MICHAEL. They pressed on.

Another five hours of searching in the insane maze finally turned up MAYA's bottle. She pulled the stopper. Her own voice whispered to her from the bottle, "An invisible army fears the third eye."

MORGAN said to her, "Break the bottle. I don't want to be the only one in Hell."

MAYA thought about it for a second and smashed her bottle. She looked at the picture, but it remained unchanged. "I just broke my bottle and I'm going to Hell with you, and I'm not in the picture! Damn it!"

They continued walking and searching for MICHAEL's and Langford's bottles, taking breaks every now and again. Well into their thirteenth hour they saw light up ahead. Beyond them the corridor opened up into a dim, carpeted hallway. They were out of the maze, though they found it disconcerting that they did it without finding the other two bottles. They moved into the hallway. In front of them was a piece of paper. MICHAEL picked it up. On it was a symbol consisting of a circle in the middle with three swirls radiating out from it. The symbol was drawn in yellow ink. MICHAEL said something, but all MORGAN, MAYA and Langford heard was MICHAEL uttering the phrase, "Excuse me, but have you seen the yellow sign?"

MORGAN said something, but all the others heard was, "Excuse me, but have you seen the yellow sign?"

The same thing happened when MAYA and Langford tried to talk. After each of them said it once, they could talk normally. The experience left them shaken.

They proceded forward. The doors on this floor all started with the letter D. They saw a door at the end of the hallway. They opened it. There was a set of stairs, leading down. They climbed down the flight of stairs. The corridor on this floor was short, with only four doors — two on either side — and a window at the end. Daylight shone through the window. The doors on this floor were labelled beginning with "C". The agents and Langford ran down the next two flights of stairs. They were back in the Macallistar building, on the first floor. They ran right outside and into the sunlight. It looked like it was early morning and the sky was clouding over.

Friday, February 13, 2004, 7:09 a.m. EST

Macallistar Building, New York, New York

As they stood outside the building, MICHAEL grabbed his Delta Green cell phone and called ALPHONSE. He asked ALPHONSE for the date and time, then gave him a brief report on what happened. ALPHONSE told him he'd call him back. Half an hour later, ALPHONSE called MICHAEL and told him to meet a pair of U.S. Marshals at a nearby fast food restaurant. The marshals would take care of Langford by giving him a cover story and putting him into the witness protection program. "Or, you could just shoot him with the blue shit they gave me!" said MAYA. The agents met with the two marshals. One of them introduced themselves as Blanche Clement. This was the Delta Green "friendly" ALPHONSE mentioned in his phone call. The marshals took Langford away, and the agents went back to their hotel room for a well deserved rest.

They woke up around 6 p.m., grabbed something to eat, and quickly ran over to the Macallistar building, arriving after the sun had set. First they searched the basement. They entered the area where Thomas was doing some painting. The picture was a representation of a door: the door to the roof.

They went up to the third floor and opened the door to the roof. It opened out into a carpeted corridor. The agents quickly slammed the door shut. MORGAN suggested that they conduct some experiments in the "upper floors" to see what would and would not work to let them back into the lower portion of the building. "Enough of the crazy talk," said MICHAEL. The agents left the building.

Saturday, February 14, 2004, 8:45 a.m. EST

Macallistar Building, New York, New York

The agents arrived at the Macallistar building in the morning. They opened the door to the roof. This time they saw what they hoped to see: the building's rooftop. They were now certain that the door to the other floors only opened after nightfall.

The agents went back down to the basement and searched it thoroughly. They found yet another script page. This one involved inhabitants of the building talking about someone named Castaigne, evidently the "night manager" mentioned by the people in the smoking lounge. It mentioned the "super" and how Castaigne was worried that the super was angry with him.

Click here to see a copy of the fourth script page found by the agents in Adobe Acrobat format. Warning: the content contains adult language. It should not be viewed by minors.

MICHAEL contacted Ms. Lechance at Artlife. Luckily she was in the office that day. He asked her about Castaigne. She knew of no one by that name. She said that there was no night manager and no superintendent in charge of the building. MICHAEL thanked her and hung up the phone.

The agents went back to their hotel room and checked through the files they grabbed from Roger Carun's computer. Each story file contained nothing but a single character repeated throughout the file. When they opened the files in alphabetical order, the characters formed the following chain of letters:

SMOOTHISTHEHANDWHICHMAKESTHEWORLDANDSTEADYISTHEMINDWHICHGRASPSIT

"Smooth is the hand which makes the world and steady is the mind which grasps it."

In a folder called "Novel" they found a file named "King In Yellow.doc". MICHAEL phoned Lechance back and told her not to rent out any of the apartments until they got to the bottom of the mystery.