9:05
Adam Cadre
basic difficulty cover art Evil protagonist funny Good for Beginners house setting Mini-IF modern day on Jay Is Games parser puzzleless recommended for beginners replay second person short short length sub-Q magazine title is specific time twist Xyzzy Awards 2000
The phone rings. Oh, no  how long have you been asleep? Sure, it was a tough night, but... This is bad. This is very bad. The phone rings.
%
The phone rings.

Oh, no -- how long have you been asleep? Sure, it was a tough night, but-- This is bad. This is very bad.

The phone rings.

9:05 by Adam Cadre



Bedroom (on the bed)
This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable are a telephone, a wallet (which is closed) and some keys.

The phone rings.
You answer the phone
You pick up the phone. "Hadley!" a shrill voice cries. "Hadley, haven't you even left yet?? You knew that our presentation was at nine o' clock sharp! First the thing with the printers, now this -- there won't even be enough left of you for Bowman to fire once he's done with you. Now get the hell down here!!"

Click.
You take the wallet and keys
wallet: Taken.
keys: Taken.
You get up
You get off the bed.

This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable is a telephone.
You open the dresser
You open the dresser, revealing some clean clothing.
About yourself
You're covered with mud and dried sweat. It was quite an exhausting night -- no wonder you overslept! Even making it to the bed before conking out was a fairly heroic accomplishment.
You go to the south
This is a far from luxurious but still quite functional bathroom, with a sink, toilet and shower. The bedroom lies to the north.
You remove the clothes
You take off the soiled clothing.
You drop all
keys: Dropped.
wallet: Dropped.
soiled clothing: Dropped.
Inventory
You have:
a gold watch (being worn)
You look at the watch
According to your watch, it's 9:17.
You remove the watch
You take off the gold watch.
You drop the watch
Dropped.
You enter the shower
You step into the shower, turn on the water, and within a few moments you feel like a new man. But no time to dawdle -- you hop back out again and dry off in record time.
You wear the watch
(first taking the gold watch)
You put on the gold watch.
Go north
This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable is a telephone.
You wear the clean clothes
(first taking the clean clothing)
You put on the clean clothing.
You go to the east
The furniture isn't as carefully arranged as one might like, and it's a bit lacking in the luxuries that might make this a more pleasant place to spend an evening -- no stereo, no TV, no DVD, none of that -- but this living room is still nicer than most of those in this neighborhood. A kitchenette lies to the east, the bedroom to the west and the front door to the south.
You open the door
[Which do you mean, the bedroom door or the front door?]
You open the front door
You open the front door.
Go south
This is quite a seedy neighborhood, but there isn't really anywhere in the whole Las Mesas metro area that isn't at least a little rundown. Of course, the locals may complain about the ugliness and the crime, but the fact is that a starter home like this one would cost easily five times as much in someplace like Las Playas -- and that's if you could find one.

A car is parked on the driveway.
You shut the front door
You close the front door.
You lock front door
The locking mechanism seems to be broken.
You look at the door
This door has seen better days.
You get in the car
You unlock the car door, climb inside and start up the engine.
Go south
You'll have to get out of the car first.
You drive
(the car)

Ah, scenic Las Mesas. Man, this place is an absolute toilet. Soon you'll be able to afford to get the hell out of here -- provided you can avoid making any more slip-ups on the job.
Yes
You start to change lanes, but you notice that the ramp is out of service today -- some sort of maintenance work. But that's okay -- there's another onramp less than a mile down the road from here.
Wait
Time passes.
Y.
You pull into the parking lot and hop out.

You are at the employees' entrance to the Loungent Technologies building. There is a slot by the door, next to a sign reading "INSERT ID CARD HERE".

The car is parked in the parking lot.
You open the wallet
You open the wallet, revealing a driver's license and an ID card.
You take the ithe d.
Taken.
You insert the ithe d in the slot
A green LED lights up, the door clicks open and you step inside.

You are standing in a hallway near the back entrance to Loungent Technologies. The hallway leads north to the reception area and south to the parking lot, while a door marked "MATTHEW BOWMAN" lies to the west.

There is a cubicle here; it is marked simply "HADLEY".
You go west
Walk into Bowman's office without the form? Not smart.
You go to the west
Walk into Bowman's office with an unsigned form? Not smart.
Examine form
This is a form numbered "209F". It is filled out, but not signed.
You sign form
Someone passes by the cubicle as you sign the form. You look up just in time to see Bowman's door click shut.
Go west
You walk into Bowman's office and, smiling, hand him the signed form.

Bowman asks, "Who the hell are you?"

The jig is up. You try to make a break for it, but Bowman calls for security and they wrestle you to the ground before you can make it back to the car.

The anchorman chuckles. "And now, on the lighter side of the news -- you've heard about the burglar who broke into a home and started stealing the family's valuables, only to get so worn out from the exertion that he fell asleep and was caught when the homeowners returned? Here's one to top that: a burglar broke into an East Las Mesas home, killed the owner and stashed his body under the bed, put his possessions in the trunk of his car -- and then fell asleep, woke up the next morning, went to his victim's office and tried to do the victim's job! An insanity defense is likely. And now here with the weather is Jay Doubleday -- or is it?"
You get up
You get off the bed.

This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable are a telephone, a wallet (which is closed) and some keys.

The phone rings.
You look under the bed
Under the bed you see the corpse of the guy who owns this house.

The phone rings.
You take the corpse
You'd rather not mess around with the corpse -- better to just clean up and get out of here.

The phone rings.
You go to the south
This is a far from luxurious but still quite functional bathroom, with a sink, toilet and shower. The bedroom lies to the north.
Go north
This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable are a telephone, a wallet (which is closed) and some keys.

The phone rings.
You take the keys
Taken.

The phone rings.
You go east
You don't really have time to poke around and cook yourself a fabulous breakfast right now. Best to keep your time here limited. The exit is west.

On the counter are a toaster and a pop-tart.
Go west
This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable are a telephone and a wallet (which is closed).

The phone rings.
You go to the south
This is a far from luxurious but still quite functional bathroom, with a sink, toilet and shower. The bedroom lies to the north.
You drop all
pop-tart: Dropped.
keys: Dropped.
gold watch: Dropped.
You remove the clothes
You take off the soiled clothing.
You drop all
(the soiled clothing)
Dropped.
You get in the shower
You step into the shower, turn on the water, and within a few moments you feel like a new man. But no time to dawdle -- you hop back out again and dry off in record time.
You eat the keys
(first taking the keys)
They're not edible.
You take keys
You already have those.
You watch
[What do you want to watch?]
You look at the mirror
You put on the gold watch.

[That object is either not here or not important.]
You go to the north
This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. Cleaner clothing is to be found in the dresser. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable are a telephone and a wallet (which is closed).

The phone rings.
You open the front door
That's already open.
You open the dresser
You open the dresser, revealing some clean clothing.

The phone rings.
You take the clean clothes
Taken.

The phone rings.
You wear the clean clothes
You put on the clean clothing.

The phone rings.
You go to the south
This is a far from luxurious but still quite functional bathroom, with a sink, toilet and shower. The bedroom lies to the north.

You can see some soiled clothing here.
Go north
This bedroom is extremely spare, with dirty laundry scattered haphazardly all over the floor. A bathroom lies to the south, while a door to the east leads to the living room.

On the endtable are a telephone and a wallet (which is closed).

The phone rings.
You examine the driver's license
EAST LAS MESAS, DO 88827

Driver's license photos are generally far from flattering, and this one is no exception, but this photo looks a lot better than you look now.
Go south
This is quite a seedy neighborhood, but there isn't really anywhere in the whole Las Mesas metro area that isn't at least a little rundown. Of course, the locals may complain about the ugliness and the crime, but the fact is that a starter home like this one would cost easily five times as much in someplace like Las Playas -- and that's if you could find one.

A car is parked on the driveway.
You open the trunk
You have a quick look in the trunk. TV, stereo, DVD player -- throw in the car and it's a pretty impressive haul.
You get in the car
You unlock the car door, climb inside and start up the engine.
You drive
(the car)

Ah, scenic Las Mesas. Man, this place is an absolute toilet. Soon you'll be able to afford to get the hell out of here -- provided you can avoid making any more slip-ups on the job.
You go north
It turns out that the ramp was blocked anyway -- some sort of maintenance work.
Wait
Time passes.
You go north
Soon the Loungent building is in your rear-view mirror.
Y.
You merge onto the freeway, crank up the radio, and vanish without a trace.
You go north
[Please give one of the answers above.]
Look around
Ah, scenic Las Mesas. Man, this place is an absolute toilet. Soon you'll be able to afford to get the hell out of here -- provided you can avoid making any more slip-ups on the job.
Go north
You elect not to get on the freeway, but the idiot in the other lane decides to give it a try. Swerving in front of you before you can react, he sparks a collision that ends in a gruesome fireball.