text: [Themes: Espionage, male protagonist]
  
  > Describe the surroundings
  Presumably this cavernous space would normally be full of lorries, but there's not a single one in sight now; they must all have been pressed into service to assist with the evacuation. About the only thing that remains here now is the battered old desk in the corner, just under the window. The way out is through a large steel door to the north.
  
  On the battered old desk is a grey telephone.
  
  A metal toolbox rests in another corner of the depot.
  
  > look at the door
  It's firmly closed. From the inside it looks as if its locked and unlocked with a sturdy metal bolt.
  
  > unlock door
  You pull back the bolt, unlocking the steel door.
  
  > open the door
  You open the large steel door.
  
  > turn off the torch
  You switch the torch off.
  
  It is now pitch dark in here!
  
  > go north
  Hythe Bridge Street (south)
  Hythe Bridge Street is quite narrow, being one of the oldest parts of the city. It narrows even further as it approaches an old stone bridge to the northwest; to the southeast it runs towards a junction with the High Street. On the south side of the street stands a large haulage depot, round the side of which a narrow alley runs to the southwest.
  
  > pick lock with the screwdriver
  You slide the blade of the screwdriver into the lock, feeling even more like some common burglar.
  
  By wiggling the screwdriver in the lock, you manage to force it open.
  
  > open the drawer
  You open the wooden drawer, revealing a large car key.
  
  > take the car key
  Which do you mean, the large car key, the small brass key or the office key?
  
  You pick up the large car key and examine it.
  
  It's the right kind of shape for a car key, but a bit chunkier than you would expect.
  
  > go to the car park
  (going north)
  (first opening the large steel door)
  You turn off the torch to save its battery.
  
  Hythe Bridge Street (south)
  Hythe Bridge Street is quite narrow, being one of the oldest parts of the city. It narrows even further as it approaches an old stone bridge to the northwest; to the southeast it runs towards a junction with the High Street. On the south side of the street stands a large haulage depot, round the side of which a narrow alley runs to the southwest.
  
  > close the door
  You close the large steel door.
  
  > Time
  (going south)
  
  High Street (by Post Office)
  This part of the High Street contains some of the oldest buildings in the city, and the old shop fronts have been mercifully preserved from the depredations of three generations of philistine post-war planners. The main post office on the west side of the street is a particularly fine example of Victorian architecture, but all the shops retain a measure of charm here, even when they're only selling mortgages or computer games. The High Street continues to north and south, while a narrow lane runs off to the west just by the post office.
  
  For a brief moment you think you see her standing before you, just a few yards down the street, but then a cloud passes over the moon and she's shrouded in shadow. When the moon comes out again, she is gone.
  
  I didn't understand that sentence.
  
  > What time is it
  (going south)
  
  The junction where the High Street crosses Mandlebury Road is generally reckoned to be the central point of the city. From here the High Street runs north up past your office and south towards Preston Bridge and the ring road, while Mandlebury Road runs east towards the police station and west towards the river. Most of the buildings on the junction are closed up, but the supermarket on the northeast corner is partly lit, and lights are blazing from Morgans Bank to the southwest.
  
  I didn't understand that sentence.
  
  > look at the watch
  (going east)
  
  Mandlebury Road (East)
  A large car park lies immediately to the south, while Church Street forks off to the northeast. Mandlebury Road continues to both east (past the Police Station) and west (back to the City Centre).
  
  You can't see any such thing.
  
  > unlock the door with the car key
  You unlock the tambour door.
  
  > open the door
  You open the tambour door.
  
  > look in the lorry
  You clamber inside the back of the lorry.
  
  It is pitch dark, and you can't see a thing.
  
  > turn on the torch
  You switch the torch on.
  
  It's a large lorry, and there'd be a fair amount of space in here if it weren't nearly all taken up by a large metal cylinder.
  
  > examine cylinder
  The large metal cylinder is mostly silver in colour, and has various coloured wires attached to it. There's quite a bit of writing on it, but it's all in the Cyrillic alphabet.
  
  > look at the wires
  A red wire, an orange wire, a yellow wire, a green wire, a blue wire, a purple wire and a black wire are all attached to various parts of the cylinder.
  
  > go outside
  You turn off the torch to save its battery.
  
  It's normally near impossible to find a parking space in this town centre car park at any time between 8 am and midnight, but now there's scarcely a vehicle in sight. The main car park exit into Mandlebury Street is to the north, but there's also a narrow alley leading west to the High Street.
  
  The only vehicle parked here is a large lorry.
  
  > unlock the cab with the car key
  (the driver's cab with the large car key)
  That doesn't seem to be something you can unlock.
  
  > open the cab
  (the driver's cab)
  The cab doors are locked.
  
  > think
  You're concerned about that big cylinder you found in the back of the lorry. You suspect it requires further investigation.
  
  She wants you to help her find a small flat metal key she says she's lost - it seems to be important. She thinks she may have dropped it out running, which could either be in Mandlebury Park (if she meant her lunch-time jog) or at the Sports Ground (if she was doing serious training). It's also possible she left the key either in the Public Library or somewhere on the University Campus.
  
  > go to New Library
  (going to the Public Library)
  (going west)
  
  High Street (South)
  The High Street runs north to the City Centre and continues to the south. A narrow alley runs off to the east, opposite a newsagent to the west.
  
  > remember Park
  (Mandlebury Park)
  In Mandlebury Park you remembered:
  When time permits you often come here to eat your lunch on the park bench. On one such occasion about four years ago you saw her jogging past on a circuit of the park. The second time round, she stopped to catch her breath and chat. You can't remember a great deal of the conversation , but you do remember she was enthusing about some book she'd just read.
  
  "Have you read any Stanilev?" she asked.
  
  "I've never heard of him," you admitted.
  
  "He's a great thinker, you should read him, you really should," she urged you, "Until I read him I never realized anyone else could feel that way. It was so liberating!"
  
  But though you promised her you'd look out for a copy of Stanilev's book, somehow you never got round to it.
  
  > look up Stanilev
  (on the computer)
  The computer comes up with one entry:
  
  A.D. Stanilev Nightfall - D.143
  
  Looking round, you notice that aisle D is to the northeast.
  
  > go to the north-east
  Like every other aisle in the library, this one is lined on both sides by bookshelves. The only way out is to the southwest.
  
  > 143
  Like every other aisle in the library, this one is lined on both sides by bookshelves. The only way out is to the southwest.
  
  I didn't understand that sentence.
  
  > look at the shelves
  The shelves are full of books.
  
  By following the indexing you easily find D.143, where Stanilev's book is in place. You duly take it.
  
  > read the book
  The introduction states that the book will explain the one true philosophy: love is best expressed in destruction, since Entropy rules all and Decay is the natural order of things. The sole end of life is death and to love death is to be in tune with the universe. The one goal of existence is the heat death of the Universe, the ultimate Nightfall.
  
  Turning to the last page you find that the book ends with a bitter parody of St Paul: "Death, destruction and decay, these three things abide, but the greatest of these is death."
  
  This is about as much as you can bear to read.
  
  > go to the southwest
  You hurry through the entrance lobby once more and go straight to the main reading room.
  
  From the central hub aisles of books run off in every direction except north, which is the way out. The library desk is, of course, unstaffed, but there's a computer terminal on it which appears to be working.
  
  > look up bomb
  (on the computer)
  You quickly discover that access to any potentially useful sites on this topic have been blocked; presumably whoever set up the library computer thought this type of information might be useful to terrorists.
  
  > think
  You're concerned about that big cylinder you found in the back of the lorry. You suspect it requires further investigation.
  
  She wants you to help her find a small flat metal key she says she's lost - it seems to be important. She thinks she may have dropped it out running, which could either be in Mandlebury Park (if she meant her lunch-time jog) or at the Sports Ground (if she was doing serious training). It's also possible she left the key somewhere on the University Campus.
  
  > look up cyrillic
  (on the computer)
  The computer tells you that Russian dictionaries are to be found in the reference section in Aisle R.
  
  Looking round, you notice that Aisle R is to the south.
  
  > Go south
  There are a large number of reference works on the shelves here. The way out is to the north.
  
  On the reference shelves is a large Russian dictionary.
  
  > get the dictionary
  You pick up the large Russian dictionary and examine it.
  
  It's a large, well-presented dictionary that explains the Cyrillic alphabet and is helpful as it can be for the absolute beginner. It won't help you read War and Peace in the original with ease, but it should help you translate a few simple phrases.
  
  > go to Campus
  (going north)
  You hurry through the entrance lobby once more and go straight to the main reading room.
  
  From the central hub aisles of books run off in every direction except north, which is the way out. The library desk is, of course, unstaffed, but there's a computer terminal on it which appears to be working.
  
  > get the dictionary
  You already have that.
  
  > go north
  You hurry through the entrance lobby once more and go straight to the main reading room.
  
  From the central hub aisles of books run off in every direction except north, which is the way out. The library desk is, of course, unstaffed, but there's a computer terminal on it which appears to be working.
  
  > go to Campus
  (going north)
  You walk briskly back through the deserted entrance lobby and out onto the street.
  
  College Street (south)
  You're not old enough to remember, but this area was apparently farmland back in the sixties. In the seventies it was decreed that the city was to receive a new university, and so College Street was created. The main university campus lies further up the street to the northeast, but in order to create something of an academic atmosphere at its gateway, so to speak, a new Public Library was erected, which now stands to the south, along with a new theatre, the Apollo, which is just off to the northwest. To the southwest College Street runs back towards the High Street.
  
  You have arrived at your destination.
  
  You see a movement in the distance off to the southwest, but you can't make out who or what it is, and it's gone before you can focus on it.
  
  > Go northwest
  You walk up to the front of the Apollo and find it unlocked, so you go inside.
  
  The ticket office is closed, and there's no one about, but there seems to be nothing to stop you wandering into the auditorium, which lies just to the north. The main exit is to the southeast.
  
  A poster advertising the next show is fixed to the wall, but it looks like someone has defaced it.
  
  > Examine poster
  The poster advertises a new play called "Martian Mores" by an author so obscure that it would be surprising if even his own mother has heard of him. Across the poster someone has written, apparently in red lipstick, the words "Beware the Enemy within!", although you can't be sure it's not meant to be part of the poster.
  
  > Go north
  In the dim half-light you can just make out the outlines of the seating and the distant stage. An illuminated sign indicates that the exit is to the south.
  
  The sole item of scenery on the stage is a canvas chair.
  
  Not all the events held here were as representative of high culture as the builders of this theatre might have hoped. Three or four years ago the city held a contest here to choose a beauty queen for some local pageant. Of course she was one of the contestants, and of course she won; most of the other contestants were pretty enough but next to her beauty they struck you as fireflies competing with the sun. It wasn't just a matter of her looks, though she certainly looked drop-dead gorgeous that night; she also clearly had far more poise, far more intelligence, and far more personality than the rest of them put together.
  
  > look at the chair
  It's a canvas chair with a steel frame. It looks like there may be something on the chair, but from this distance you can't be sure.
  
  > go north
  You can't go that way. The only obvious exit is south (to Theatre Lobby).
  
  > stand on the stage
  You get onto the stage.
  
  On the stage you can see a canvas chair (on which is a portable cassette player (closed)).
  
  > examine the player
  It's a small, basic tape cassette player, black and silver in colour, with buttons marked PLAY, STOP, REWIND and EJECT.
  
  > get the player
  Taken.