text: > Go downwards
  Here is the lowermost of many flights of stairs, this one with a triangular nook underneath it—one of those spaces that attracts dust and dead bugs. Painted on the wall is a large letter B.
  
  A door leads out to the basement hallway.
  
  > go outside
  You get out of the nook.
  
  Here is the lowermost of many flights of stairs, this one with a triangular nook underneath it—one of those spaces that attracts dust and dead bugs. Painted on the wall is a large letter B.
  
  A door leads out to the basement hallway.
  
  > Go north
  The lights in here are orange, which would seem to indicate something.
  
  At the south of the hall, a door leads into the main staircase; the pale door at the north end opens outside. The door in the east wall is labeled "MAINTENANCE".
  
  High on the wall, an antiquated security camera turns from one to the other.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > go to the south
  Here is the lowermost of many flights of stairs, this one with a triangular nook underneath it—one of those spaces that attracts dust and dead bugs. Painted on the wall is a large letter B.
  
  A door leads out to the basement hallway.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > Go upward
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 1 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the first floor hallway.
  
  > go to the south
  The hallway is very dark, except in this small area near the vending machine. A cushioned bench sits across from it, a place where hungry souls can sit and consider which snack to purchase. A door leads back into the stairway.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > Go north
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 1 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the first floor hallway.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > go south
  Although it seems reasonable to guess that the hallway continues in the same direction for some distance, you'd prefer not to go stumbling around in the dark. A safer bet is heading back inside the stairway.
  
  > Go upward
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 2 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the second floor hallway.
  
  Someone dropped their notebook on the steps.
  
  > take the notebook
  Taken.
  
  > examine it
  It's small enough to fit in a back pocket, and clearly has seen its share of adventures. The cover is closed; "DIARY" has been scrawled across it in pen.
  
  > read it
  You paw tentatively at the cover. It occurs to you that the author of this journal likely did not expect for a stranger to pick it up and start reading. The author probably would be somewhat upset if they discovered you browsing through their diary, and justifiably so.
  
  That's false, though. Nobody can reasonably expect that their possessions will remain unmolested after being abandoned in a staircase. A person who wants their secrets to remain secret has a responsibility to avoid dropping those secrets on the floor, and probably shouldn't have them down in the first place.
  
  You've made your decision.
  
  > read the notebook
  You open the book to a random page:
  
  So, about a week ago I wrote in here about the steam tunnel grate next to the construction site on the hill across the river, and how I saw it was left unlocked, and how I stood over it with that incredible feeling of anticipation/dread as I considered what secrets lurked beneath before I chickened out and went home. You, faithful reader, already know that story.
  
  I ended up telling the same story to Kerianne after I wrote it all down, and she got way, way too excited about it. The emotional and spiritual significance of deciding not to climb down the grate was completely lost on her. She just told me that if it had been her, she would have jumped down there immediately. She told me this a number of times, and then she started asking about where exactly the grate was, and did I think it was still open, et cetera. I got suspicious. I knew what her game was.
  
  And I told her very clearly, in no uncertain terms, that she absolutely was not to go climbing down that grate into those steam tunnels, unless she took me with her. So that's what we did this afternoon.
  
  [Press any key to continue...]## Stretch of Tunnel
  Kerianne climbed down the hatch first, and I went down after her. She did not seem nervous at all. I was tremendously nervous, but I don't know if Keri noticed. I've never been able to tell by looking at people whether they can tell how I'm feeling by looking at me.
  
  Anyway. The tunnel was terrifying. It would have been wide enough for two people to walk side by side, except the walls were covered in these huge pipes, so instead it was super claustrophobic. There were lights every so often, but they were so dim that you couldn't really see any appreciable distance.
  
  While we were still standing next to the ladder, I said, "Well, let's say that way's north, and that way's south," because I had no idea which way north actually was, and I didn't want to get lost.
  
  Then Keri asked why it mattered which way was north, and I said it didn't, except it might help to have a frame of reference. We discussed this briefly. I failed to convince Keri of the virtue of my approach. She said, "Did you bring the chalk?" And I said yes (she had told me earlier to bring chalk, so I did), and she said that was all we needed to avoid getting lost.
  
  I decided I would privately refer to the directions as "north" and "south" in my mind regardless.
  
  > check your inventory
  All I was carrying was my piece of chalk.
  
  > About you
  I had come prepared. I was wearing my dirtiest jacket (so I didn't burn my arms on any steam pipes) and some extremely grody jeans.
  
  > Go north
  We had ended up at a dead end. The only way back was south.
  
  Keri said, "Don't worry about it. There can't be that many tunnels." As it turned out, there were lots and lots of tunnels. Many, many, many tunnels. But I refused to become discouraged.
  
  > write de1
  I wrote "de1" on the floor.
  
  > go south
  Stretch of Tunnel - ""s art""
  We were in the middle of a stretch of tunnel that went north and south, with a ladder leading up to an access grate. ""s art"" was written on the floor.
  
  Now that we were well and truly intruding upon these steam tunnels, where we weren't supposed to be, I asked Keri why it was so important to her for us to intrude upon these steam tunnels where we weren't supposed to be.
  
  "Well, these grates are all over campus, and I always used to stop and try to peer down into them. But there are only so many grates, and you can only see like a square foot of the tunnel from up on the sidewalk. I could tell that the tunnels were an entire separate plane of the campus, but I could barely see it, much less actually, you know, be there."
  
  I can remember this all perfectly accurately, because I have a photogenic memory.
  
  > Go south
  At this juncture we had reached a fork in the tunnels that led north, east, and south.
  
  Keri thought about it some more and then she continued her thought from before. "And everyone at this school ends up going to the same buildings, and they all walk on the same sidewalks, until they find the shortcuts that everyone else already knew about. Maybe sometimes you notice something that someone else hasn't noticed, but as far as the spaces you occupy, everybody ends up with the same experience.
  
  "But nobody ever goes down in the steam tunnels! Because nobody ever gets the chance. But you gave us a chance, and I knew we had to take it." At this point she grabbed my arm in a very affirming if somewhat uncomfortable manner. "So, thanks."
  
  > write tiberius
  I wrote "tiberius" on the floor.
  
  > write cloverfield
  I wrote "cloverfield" on the floor.
  
  > go to the south
  At this juncture we had reached a fork in the tunnels that led north, east, and south.
  
  I suggested to Keri that maybe we should try looking for a way out, since it was starting to look to me like we had seen everything the tunnels had to offer. She sighed very deeply.
  
  > write the transylvania
  I wrote "transylvania" on the floor.
  
  > go south
  We had ended up at a dead end. The only way back was north.
  
  > write the dracula's crypt
  I wrote "dracula's crypt" on the floor.
  
  > go north
  T-intersection - "trarsylvania"
  At this juncture we had reached a fork in the tunnels that led north, east, and south. "trarsylvania" was written on the floor.
  
  > Go east
  T-intersection - "DRIEDOUT"
  At this juncture we had reached a fork in the tunnels that led north, east, and west. "DRIEDOUT" was written on the floor.
  
  It was written in marker instead of chalk, so I couldn't have written it, even if I had forgotten about it (somehow?). We looked at it silently for a moment. It was a weird moment.
  
  "So, someone's been down here before us," Keri said. Obviously the people who were supposed to be in the steam tunnels had been there, but that's not what she meant.
  
  I asked her if she was disappointed.
  
  "Kind of," she said. "I mean, I shouldn't be. It was dumb to assume we would be the first."
  
  She smiled, although it might have been a fake smile, and said, "It's kind of cool, actually. Whoever wrote this must have hoped someone else would find it, and now we did."
  
  > Go east
  At this juncture we had reached a fork in the tunnels that led north, south, and west.
  
  Keri craned her head toward the passage to the south. "I don't think we've been down that way," she said.
  
  > go to the south
  The floor of the tunnel started to slope upward, and then we passed through an open doorway into a room that was not, strictly speaking, a tunnel.
  
  We were in a serious-looking room in a building we definitely hadn't been in before. All around us were machines and dials and valves, and of course a bunch of pipes that went into the wall to snake through the tunnels. The only window was very high on the wall, too high for us to see through—but I recognized it immediately.
  
  I said, "I know the shape of that window. We're in the power plant!"
  
  Keri said, "Well, where else would all those steam pipes come from?" I had never bothered thinking about it that way.
  
  The passage to the tunnels was "north" of us, but I noticed another door off to the "east".
  
  > examine pipes
  There were pipes of numerous diameters and materials, and they popped up into the ceiling or out of the walls at random intervals. I don't know why they need so many pipes down there. You could tell without getting all that close that they were extremely hot.
  
  > Go east
  We had kind of wordlessly agreed that we needed to get out of there, but when Keri reached to open the door I stopped her. I indicated the sign on the door, and explained how it said the door was an "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY" and how an "ALARM [would] SOUND" if she opened it. But Keri just rolled her eyes.
  
  She said, "Look closely at this door. There is no alarm attached to it. There are no wires that lead away from this door and toward any alarm. This is just a door like any other door, except this door has a sign on it that lies."
  
  Then she said, "Go ahead and open it."
  
  > examine the door
  The door looked like most doors you see around campus, but it had a sign that said "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY ALARM WILL SOUND WHEN OPENED", and that gave me pause.
  
  > open the door
  Well, it was with great trepidation that I approached that door, but of course when I opened it nothing happened, except that a huge gust of gorgeous cool air rushed in around us, and I felt more relieved than I had ever felt about anything in my life. I felt amazing.
  
  Then we went back to Keri's apartment and she gave me a back rub, and I felt even better.
  
  [Press any key to continue...]You close the notebook.
  
  First Floor Hallway (on the cushioned bench)
  The hallway is very dark, except in this small area near the vending machine. A cushioned bench sits across from it, a place where hungry souls can sit and consider which snack to purchase. A door leads back into the stairway.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a notebook
  a dollar bill
  a photocopy from the library
  
  > Go north
  (first getting off the cushioned bench)
  
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 1 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the first floor hallway.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > Go upwards
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 2 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the second floor hallway.
  
  > examine the door
  It's a tough-looking steel door, painted industrial gray. There's a tall, skinny window set above the handle.
  
  > look through window
  A tall trophy case stands against one wall, its contents illuminated with a tiny lamp that barely manages to reveal the letters "HLOHOWSKYJ & ASSOCIATES" mounted on the wall opposite.
  
  > Go upward
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 3 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the third floor hallway.
  
  You hear a dull noise from the other side of the door.
  
  > listen
  The dim drone of humans occupying a distant space.
  
  > look through the window
  All you can see through the window is an intermittent glow on a far wall, reflecting light from a source around the corner somewhere. Someone must be watching TV.
  
  You hear a dull noise from the other side of the door.
  
  > knock on the door
  No response.
  
  > go upward
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 4 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the fourth floor hallway.
  
  > look at the window
  Twilight casts the vague shape of someone's open door against the wall.
  
  > open the door
  The door's handle won't budge. You can see through the window to the other side, though.
  
  > Go up
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 5 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the fifth floor hallway.
  
  You'd think by now you would be getting tired.
  
  > look at the window
  A long, dark hallway is on the other side of the door, and at the far end, underneath the only light that's turned on, a figure appears to be mopping the floor.
  
  > examine the figure
  He or she is either mopping or sweeping. Maybe. It's tough to tell.
  
  > wave at the figure
  The distant mopping figure is on the other side of the door.
  
  > knock on the door
  No response.
  
  > Go upwards
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 6 is painted on the wall—in the middle of the loop, the word "DRIEDOUT" has been written in marker.
  
  A door leads out to the sixth floor hallway.
  
  > examine the window
  The sixth floor is completely dark.
  
  > examine the door
  It's a tough-looking steel door, painted industrial gray. There's a tall, skinny window set above the handle.
  
  > examine driedout
  It's easier to read than some other tags you've seen, if not as elaborate. The stem of the T fading out is a nice touch.
  
  > Go up
  Finally.
  
  You stand at the top of the staircase. There are no more stairs to climb. The door leads out to the seventh floor.
  
  And off to the side, through a huge window, you can see the tower.
  
  > examine the window
  (the huge window)
  The places where the outside building have been grafted on are in full view, and here and there vents and ducts hang out like abandoned medical instruments. These people weren't content to appreciate the tower; they had to stitch themselves onto it, crowd in and subsume it, so that nobody else could have it.
  
  But the crown of the tower stands above all this. You can see details you've never seen before: the pinnacles are lined with delicate crockets, and a row of escutcheons are carved at the base of the arches.
  
  > look at the crockets
  They're like the buds of tiny flowers. There are so many of them, and they were all carved by human hands. Impossible.
  
  > examine the escutcheons
  From left to right: a lion rampant regardant sinister; a decrescent; a chevron inverted.
  
  > go outside
  A framed portrait hangs on the wall across from the door into the staircase, with a small plaque beneath it. The hallway continues south.
  
  The door swings shut.
  
  > examine the portrait
  A man with a small mustache glances off to the side and down, trying to put some painful memory out of his mind.
  
  > examine the plaque
  The plaque reads:
  
  Amos B. Emery (1895-1973) was born in Edmond, Kansas and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania from 1915 to 1922, his studies interrupted by World War I service in France from 1917 to 1919. His design of the Gothic Tower, completed in 1927, was completed while working for Proudfoot, Rawson, Soeurs and Thomas; in 1930 he established his own office.
  
  > go to the south
  This hall was built right into the north face of the tower, and you stand beneath a stone archway that used to loom impossibly high in the air. Carved into the keystone of the arch is a grotesque beast: a cockatrice. Or a basilisk.
  
  Beneath the arch is yet another door.
  
  > examine the keystone
  This cockatrice, a statue of a cockatrice, is harmless. In folklore, the gaze of the cockatrice turned its victims into stone. But folklore isn't very specific: Do you turn into stone whenever a cockatrice looks at you, or is it when you happen to look at a cockatrice? Or is it necessary for you to look at a cockatrice while the cockatrice is looking back at you for the magic to take effect?
  
  > make the eye contact
  Once you start thinking about it, it becomes impossible, and you stare down at the ground instead.
  
  > look at the photocopy
  This is a photocopy of a photocopy of a grainy photo from an old book, but it gets the point across. It depicts a monster carved in stone, with the head and talons of a rooster but the wings and tail of a dragon.
  
  It's the same carving you see over the archway.
  
  > examine the window
  Through the window you can see stairs—more stairs!—leading up.
  
  > Go south
  You draw your hand back from the door's handle.
  
  This is the furthest you've ever explored in a building where you weren't supposed to be. What would happen if someone caught you now? Could they have you arrested? On what charge?
  
  Well, there's trespassing.
  
  > open the door
  You reach for the door, and open it without event, revealing more stairs for you to climb.
  
  > Wait
  Time passes.
  
  The footsteps are getting closer.
  
  > wait for a while
  Time passes.
  
  A man wearing a drab uniform and a tool belt emerges from the doorway. He smiles politely as he passes you.
  
  > examine the tool belt
  Though it has numerous loops from which to hang the instruments of his service, at present he's equipped only with a bottle of cleaning fluid.
  
  > ask the man about Tower
  He slows down once you've gotten his attention.
  
  "It's a beautiful building, yeah. But I guess you get used to how beautiful it is after a while."
  
  > ask the man about the estrucheons
  "Sorry, I don't know anything about that. I just work here."
  
  > show the photocopy to the man
  He nods in recognition. "Yeah, that's right up here." He points to the carving above the arch.
  "It's a mythological beast. A chicken with a grievance."
  
  He continues down the hallway.
  
  > Go south
  You ascend the stairs, and reach the room at the top of the tower.
  
  A long table takes up the middle of the room, with several chairs sitting upside-down on top of it. Only a wheeled office chair remains standing on the floor, next to an easel displaying a pristine whiteboard.
  
  The doorway to the archway is down the stairs. A small door is built into the west wall, and in the east wall is an even smaller window.
  
  > examine the window
  (the tiny window)
  Looking through the window, you should be able to see across the river to the lawn. This would only be fair; it would only be what you deserve, after climbing all those stairs.
  
  But the blinds, between the two panes of glass, are almost completely closed, and you can only make out a few details of the outside world by moving your head rapidly up and down.
  
  Sticking out of the window frame is a thin metal lever.
  
  > examine the lever
  It's connected to the window, but what mechanism it engages is a mystery.
  
  > pull the lever
  You pull down on the lever, and it snaps off in your hand.
  
  > check what you're carrying
  You are carrying:
  a metal lever
  a notebook
  a dollar bill
  a photocopy from the library
  
  > look at the chair
  It's not a low-end chair, but it looks a bit beat up. Probably it's retired from service in a more important office.
  
  > examine the easel
  A flimsy-looking collapsible easel.
  
  > examine the whiteboard
  It is perfectly white. And with good reason; you can't see any markers around.
  
  > examine the door
  (the small door)
  It's lower and narrower than any other door in the building, and it bears a sign reading "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY. Alarm will sound if opened."
  
  > sit on the chair
  You get onto the wheeled office chair.
  
  > open the door
  (the small door)
  The sign on the door says: "EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY. Alarm will sound if opened." As much as you'd like to see what's on the other side, setting off an alarm isn't really an option.
  
  But there's no alarm built into the door, and there are no wires or anything connected to it. And if that kid can do it...
  
  > open the door
  (the small door)
  You open the door
  You open the door, and step out into the air.
  You open the door, and step out into the air. From there, it's just a short climb to the top of the tower.
  
  It's pretty windy up here.
  
  This is as high as it gets: higher than any of the buildings around, higher than anything else in the city.
  
  Standing here in the crown of the tower, looking out from the arches, you can see the entire city in the fading dusk. There's the parking lot to the north, and the dark neighborhoods beyond that; to the east is the river, and the bridge, and the lawn up on the hill, where a few people are still walking around.
  
  Man, is it windy.
  
  > look at the bridge
  The sun is down, and the cones of orange light falling down from the streetlamps are all that illuminate the bridge. Nobody is walking across right now: Even the swallows are gone, returned to their cozy nests.
  
  > look at Tower
  From inside, you can't get a clear view of any one part. The only solid impression you have is of how gigantic this tower is.
  
  > look at the hill
  The hill is almost empty, and the people milling around seem less busy and angry than they normally do. That's the thing about people: They're not so bad, as long as you can appreciate them from a reasonable distance.
  
  You turn your focus to a blank space on the lawn: the spot where you were standing as the sun set, when you were looking up at the tower, at the space under the arches that you're standing in right now. The circuit is complete.
  
  Now the moon is rising, slowly, from behind the hill. Waning gibbous.
  
  > examine the moon
  The moon has several advantages over the sun. The moon isn't responsible for making summer as unbearably hot as it often is; the moon doesn't shine in through your bedroom window and wake you up before you wanted to be awake.
  
  The disc of the moon provides a lot more to look at than the sun: intricate patterns carved out of the surface over millions of years. And you can look directly at the moon, without the risk of bodily harm.
  
  There's nobody around to stop you; you can stare at it for as long as you like.
  
  Are you sure you want to quit? ]  Lawn
  
  The sun is very low now, and as long as you stand in this exact spot with your head in this exact position, it shines straight through the tower's arches and into your eyes, so that you're standing right on its gargantuan shadow's axis of symmetry and staring directly into the center of its magnificent silhouette. It is gorgeous. This is a transcendent moment of perfect alignment, one which you wish you could prolong indefinitely, but now your eyes are starting to hurt. You should stop staring at the sun.
  
  The hill on this side of the river is a wide lawn with only a few trees, seemingly designed for the purpose of offering a clear view of the tower. Down the hill to the west, the streetlamps are already turned on over the bridge, like runway lights marking the path up to: the tower.
  
  You feel like there are spots like this all over town that exist only to make people notice this tower, and yet as far as you can tell, you're the only one who's as obsessed with the tower as you are.
  
  A couple of kids are sitting on a blanket nearby, pawing at each other like there's nobody else around—and wouldn't that be nice?
  
  > go east
  The only thing in any other direction is the boorish city you must endure on a daily basis. The tower stands to the west, across the river.
  
  > look at Tower
  It was built in the twenties by a man who had studied the Gothic architecture of France in his off time during the first World War. Then various other people built various other, uglier buildings around it, like it needed to be protected from something.
  
  From here, though, it seems to stand like a crown on the horizon, graceful and severe, all of its gables and arches very distinct against the sky. Is this the most beautiful thing in this city? Probably, yes.
  
  > examine the kids
  They stare into each other's eyes; they whisper; at intervals they kiss.
  
  By "wouldn't that be nice," you didn't mean that it would be nice to be necking outdoors in front of everyone. The thing that would be nice is the hypothetical situation in which there's nobody else around.
  
  > About yourself
  You aren't really obsessed.
  
  You do have other things going on in your life. You have other goals. But isn't it best, with any goal, to give it your complete focus, at least for as long as you're focusing on it? Yesterday you had something else to take care of, so you took care of it. Tomorrow there will be yet another thing to worry about, and you will worry about it, exerting one hundred percent of the concern that the issue merits.
  
  But tonight, you are going to get to the top of that tower.
  
  > ask the man about Tower
  "Um, yeah." The guy tries to turn back to look at the tower without breaking his stride. "Pretty cool."
  
  He keeps walking, and disappears behind you.
  
  > Go west
  This side of the river is somewhat quieter, as there aren't as many people running around.
  
  But now the hill and the trees and everything have made it impossible to see the tower at all. You're too close. It's still up the hill to the west, though. You know that much.
  
  Well, great, somebody is locking up her bike on the rack. What's she doing here?
  
  > ask the woman about Tower
  She fails to notice you. Actually, it looks like she was in fact unlocking her bike, and now she's cycling off across the bridge.
  
  Maybe you'll have the place to yourself after all.
  
  > examine the trees
  The hill is covered in trees. If you knew more about trees, you might get more out of staring intently at these trees the way you are. As it stands, you have no reason to continue staring at the trees.
  
  > look at the rack
  It's a frame of thick metal bars, scuffed but serviceable.
  
  > Go southwest
  The sidewalk from the northeast ends here, where the perimeter of the building runs into a row of thick bushes to the south. It looks like a dead end, although there is another door to the north, labeled "ENTRANCE 20".
  
  > examine bushes
  The first thing you notice about the bushes is that they haven't been trimmed recently. The second thing you notice is a little hole in between two of them, just wide enough that you could slip through to whatever lies beyond.
  
  > Go south
  What's this?
  
  Carved into the hill among all these trees is a little place to sit: a circle of lumpy flagstones, surrounded by stone benches. There are weeds all over everything.
  
  It feels like you've ended up in the middle of nowhere, although you're aware that the sidewalk is just north of here.
  
  > examine the flagstones
  There's not enough space between the benches to comfortably accomodate even a small group of people. What did the person who built this space have in mind?
  
  > pull the weeds
  You pull out a clump of vegetation (creeping charlie? maybe?) and toss it over your shoulder. Your action is laudable, but its effects are minimal.
  
  > sit on the bench
  You take a seat, lean back, and look up at the sky.
  
  This is nice.
  
  You can't really see anything from here, so it stands to reason that nobody can see you. This is real solitude.
  
  > Sleep
  You close your eyes, but are unable to let go of your thoughts completely.
  
  > Go north
  (first getting off the stone bench)
  
  The sidewalk from the northeast ends here, where the perimeter of the building runs into a row of thick bushes to the south. There's only a very narrow gap where you could pass between them. To the north is another door, labeled "ENTRANCE 20".
  
  > look through the window
  The hallway inside is dark, but you can see a red "EXIT" sign at the other end, and below it, a narrow orange rectangle—about the dimensions of the one you're looking through.
  
  > go to the north-east
  Just ahead is the newer building that surrounds the tower on all sides, too high for you to see the actual tower from down here. You walked straight west from across the river, so it stands to reason that you could reach the tower by heading through the door to the west.
  
  A sidewalk running around the building leads northwest and southwest.
  
  The placard over the door says "ENTRANCE 19".
  
  > Go northwest
  There's another door here at the north end of the building, facing an empty parking lot. Not much of a view.
  
  The sidewalk turns from southeast to southwest, and it breaks off here toward a stairway that leads down to a basement exit or something.
  
  > go to the south-west
  Now that you're on the other side of the tower, there's very little between you and this amazing sunset.
  
  A placard above the door reads "ENTRANCE 17", and the graffito underneath that says "DRIEDOUT". The sidewalk goes south and northeast from here, following the perimeter of the building.
  
  Hey, there's a quarter on the sidewalk.
  
  > get quarter
  Taken.
  
  > look at it
  On one side, George Washington's head. On the other, that big angry eagle.
  
  > examine the sunset
  It occurs to you that the sun is ridiculous.
  
  The sun is larger than your imagination can grasp. It is hotter than your imagination can grasp. It is so hot, and so massive, that the laws of physics as you normally interact with them do not apply in its vicinity. In many ways the sun is functionally an alternate dimension.
  
  But all these disturbing facts are unproblematic, because the sun is very far away. It is so far away (you can "understand" how far away the sun is only in a very rudimentary taking-their-word-for-it sense) that it appears to be smaller than your thumb. It's a very good thing that the sun is so far away, for a multitude of reasons. The distance between you and the sun is the perfect distance, the correct
  distance, and as with so many things the correct distance is "very, very, very far away".
  
  You really should stop staring at the sun.
  
  > look through the window
  There's a painting hanging in the hallway inside. You can only see it at an extremely oblique angle, but it might be a painting of a waterfall. Or a lady wearing a cape.
  
  > Go south
  Your eyes follow the trail of the sidewalk as it curves toward Entrance 16, Entrance 15, and who knows what other destinations, and you apply some quick spatial reasoning:
  
  The tower is at this end of the complex, probably (assuming this end of the complex is basically symmetrical) due east from where you're standing. And you have no idea what is going on in the rest of this building. If you lose your point of reference, you could get seriously lost.
  
  It's also starting to get kind of dark over there. It kind of feels like you should find another way inside.
  
  > Examine B
  It's about five feet tall. Hard to miss.
  
  > Go upward
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 1 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the first floor hallway.
  
  > Go outside
  The hallway is very dark, except in this small area near the vending machine. A cushioned bench sits across from it, a place where hungry souls can sit and consider which snack to purchase. A door leads back into the stairway.
  
  The door swings shut.
  
  > look at the machine
  It looks like a roll of mints (E2) or a pack of gum (E4) is fifty cents; a chocolate bar (D1), nut roll (D3), or box of crackers (C5) is seventy-five cents; and a bag of cookies (B1), potato chips, (A4) or corn nuts (A5, but those things are inedible) is a dollar and twenty cents.
  
  To your right are the slots for bills and coins, that seven-segment display that says how much money is in the machine ($0.00), the buttons for your letters and your numbers and your coin return, and the little hole that your change comes out of.
  
  > put dollar in the slot
  You stick the dollar bill into the slot, and now the display reads $1.00.
  
  > put quarter in the slot
  You stick the quarter into the slot, and now the display reads $1.25.
  
  > examine hole
  In the little hole is a nickel.
  
  > get the nickel
  You scoop up a nickel from the coin return.
  
  > examine it
  Nickels really are larger than they have any right to be.
  
  > look at cookies
  Cookies could be nice. A cookie is a cookie, after all.
  
  > Go inside
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 1 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the first floor hallway.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > Go upward
  There's a flight of stairs going up, and there's a flight of stairs going down. A big numeral 2 is painted on the wall.
  
  A door leads out to the second floor hallway.
  
  Someone dropped their notebook on the steps.
  
  > examine notebook
  You scoop up the notebook for a closer look.
  
  It's small enough to fit in a back pocket, and clearly has seen its share of adventures. The cover is closed; "DIARY" has been scrawled across it in pen.
  
  > go north
  The sign says "NO SMOKING", but judging from the cigarette butts all over the floor, it looks like this little hole at the bottom of the stairs isn't used for anything else.
  
  The pale door here leads into the basement.
  
  The door swings shut behind you.
  
  > Go upwards
  There's another door here at the north end of the building, facing an empty parking lot. Not much of a view.
  
  The sidewalk turns from southeast to southwest, and it breaks off here toward a stairway that leads down to that alcove with all the cigarette butts.
  
  > Go southeast
  Just ahead is the newer building that surrounds the tower on all sides, too high for you to see the actual tower from down here. You walked straight west from across the river, so it stands to reason that you could reach the tower by heading through the door to the west.
  
  A sidewalk running around the building leads northwest and southwest.
  
  The placard over the door says "ENTRANCE 19".
  
  > go southwest
  The sidewalk from the northeast ends here, where the perimeter of the building runs into a row of thick bushes to the south. There's only a very narrow gap where you could pass between them. To the north is another door, labeled "ENTRANCE 20".
  
  > Go south
  Carved into the hill among all these trees is a little place to sit: a circle of lumpy flagstones, surrounded by stone benches. There are weeds all over everything.
  
  It feels like you've ended up in the middle of nowhere, although you're aware that the sidewalk is just north of here.
  
  > sit on the bench
  You get onto the stone bench.
  
  > read the DIARY
  You open the book to a random page:
  
  So, about a week ago I wrote in here about the steam tunnel grate next to the construction site on the hill across the river, and how I saw it was left unlocked, and how I stood over it with that incredible feeling of anticipation/dread as I considered what secrets lurked beneath before I chickened out and went home. You, faithful reader, already know that story.
  
  I ended up telling the same story to Kerianne after I wrote it all down, and she got way, way too excited about it. The emotional and spiritual significance of deciding not to climb down the grate was completely lost on her. She just told me that if it had been her, she would have jumped down there immediately. She told me this a number of times, and then she started asking about where exactly the grate was, and did I think it was still open, et cetera. I got suspicious. I knew what her game was.
  
  And I told her very clearly, in no uncertain terms, that she absolutely was not to go climbing down that grate into those steam tunnels, unless she took me with her. So that's what we did this afternoon.
  
  [Press any key to continue...]## Stretch of Tunnel
  Kerianne climbed down the hatch first, and I went down after her. She did not seem nervous at all. I was tremendously nervous, but I don't know if Keri noticed. I've never been able to tell by looking at people whether they can tell how I'm feeling by looking at me.
  
  Anyway. The tunnel was terrifying. It would have been wide enough for two people to walk side by side, except the walls were covered in these huge pipes, so instead it was super claustrophobic. There were lights every so often, but they were so dim that you couldn't really see any appreciable distance.
  
  While we were still standing next to the ladder, I said, "Well, let's say that way's north, and that way's south," because I had no idea which way north actually was, and I didn't want to get lost.
  
  Then Keri asked why it mattered which way was north, and I said it didn't, except it might help to have a frame of reference. We discussed this briefly. I failed to convince Keri of the virtue of my approach. She said, "Did you bring the chalk?" And I said yes (she had told me earlier to bring chalk, so I did), and she said that was all we needed to avoid getting lost.
  
  I decided I would privately refer to the directions as "north" and "south" in my mind regardless.
  
  > look at Keri
  I took a moment to look at Kerianne. She was wearing this really cute felt pea coat and her green scarf that she wears everywhere. It was an adorable ensemble, but it struck me as a little too Daphne Blake for mucking around in dirty steam tunnels.
  
  > About you
  I had come prepared. I was wearing my dirtiest jacket (so I didn't burn my arms on any steam pipes) and some extremely grody jeans.
  
  > check your inventory
  All I was carrying was my piece of chalk.
  
  > look at the chalk
  The chalk I brought was blue, because that was the first piece of chalk I saw when I opened up my chalk bag.
  
  > write this is where we start
  Using my piece of chalk I wrote "this is where we start" on the floor.