text: [Themes: Mystery, Science Fiction, Espionage, terraforming, nonhuman protagonist, mystery]
  
  > look around
  The bedroom is no more personal than the rest of the house. A large bed fills the centre, with a nightstand by one side. A doorway in the southwest wall leads to the bathroom, built into the central column of the bubble.
  
  In the wall is a long window with a view of the endless desert.
  
  In one corner is a large chest of drawers, on top of which is a cactus plant.
  
  By the bedside is a glass of water.
  
  You can also see a cardboard folder here.
  
  > examine photos
  Around hundred photographs: on skimming through they all appear to be of Earth. Forests, trees, lakes, rivers; but also many of cities, roads, buildings, bridges, famous monuments; and a good twenty of people - crowds, a family outside a green house, another family on a boat. Some of the pictures are large - ten inches across - some have traces of tape on the back from where they were once stuck to a wall.
  
  Buried amongst the photographs is a scrawled sheet of paper.
  
  > read the paper
  A sheet of paper covered in scribbles - nothing coherent, but not exactly doodles; rather fragments of letters and words and scattered at all angles around the edges and middle of the page, with the occasional snatch of a drawn line or a distorted margin. Something strikes you as odd which takes a minute to place: the sheet is not handwritten. It has been printed out.
  
  > examine paper
  A sheet of paper covered in scribbles - nothing coherent, but not exactly doodles; rather fragments of letters and words and scattered at all angles around the edges and middle of the page, with the occasional snatch of a drawn line or a distorted margin. The sheet is neatly - bizarrely - printed from a computer.
  
  > Drink water
  You take a tentative sip - it does not taste of anything strange. Your heart does not constrict, nor your breathing.
  
  > take all
  cardboard folder: Taken.
  glass of water: Taken.
  
  > examine the desert
  You can almost hear her voice complaining. "But it's so bleak,
  Yogi! Can't we just hang up a painting instead?"
  
  > Go southwest
  A tight tubular bathroom, built into the central column of the dome to give easy access to the sewage tanks. The only doorway is back out to the northeast and there isn't even a door, just a curtain across a rail. The fittings inside are perfectly standard.
  
  On one wall is your own reflection, sketched onto the surface of a cabinet with an oil-mirror surface.
  
  > examine the reflection
  The cabinet is adorned with your features, only transformed into an oil painting, currently following the style of Gaughin, such that your cheeks seem quite round, almost sticking out of the glass, and your nose is cheerily shining. A small dial underneath allows this to be readjusted.
  
  > turn the dial
  You spin the dial randomly. The dial clinks into place at Schulz and the picture shifts appropriately.
  
  > examine the reflection
  The cabinet is adorned with your features, only transformed into an oil painting, currently following the style of Schulz, leaving you with a simplistic vacant look across your face. A small dial underneath allows this to be readjusted.
  
  > look at the paper in the mirror
  In the mirror, the sheet is white with a few scrawls, and dotted with blobs of black, as someone had split ink over a piece of schoolwork.
  
  > turn the dial
  You spin the dial randomly. The dial clinks into place at Monet and the picture shifts appropriately.
  
  > look at the paper in the mirror
  The scrawled sheet appears as a blend of cream and brown paint in the mirror, textured as a scroll.
  
  > turn the dial to the dali
  The dials settings are Monet, Gaughin, Picasso, Van Gogh and Schulz.
  
  > turn the dial to Picasso
  The dial clinks into place at Picasso and the picture shifts appropriately.
  
  > look at the paper in the mirror
  In the mirror the scrawl has resolved itself with pinpoint accuracy into a letter. The heading reads: "AMERICAN DEPARTMENT FOR SOCIAL EXPANSION". The message is short, and handwritten (and presumably, was then scanned into a computer).
  
  "Dear Laura.
  Your reports so far are excellent, and will prove of great benefit
  as I know you are aware. But you must understand, to hear Genus K is functional is not enough, yet. We must test it ourselves, and we must be able to deploy it ourselves if anti-American agents on Mars decide to resist expansion into their colonies. You understand me.
  -- J.M."
  
  > look at the curtain
  A dingy yellow curtain. Internal doors aren't used because of pressure problems, and lazy builders.
  
  > Go northeast
  The bedroom is no more personal than the rest of the house. A large bed fills the centre, with a nightstand by one side. A doorway in the southwest wall leads to the bathroom, built into the central column of the bubble.
  
  In the wall is a long window with a view of the endless desert.
  
  In one corner is a large chest of drawers, on top of which is a cactus plant.
  
  > examine the bed
  A large bed. The bed, in fact, that the body was found on, clutching at its throat. Something to do with that glass of water?
  
  > examine the nightstand
  Just a low table by the bed.
  
  > Go west
  The living room is designed in spacious fashion - furniture spanned neatly between smooth white walls. In the north wall opposite the doorway is a large window through which the long view of desert stretches until reaching the tooth of Mount Olympus, and the room is filled by the orange-red tinge. Another door leads east to the bedroom.
  
  Against one wall is a table: not exactly pristine, but hardly messy with its papers and computer.
  
  The sofa stands out quite strikingly; it is pea-green.
  
  On the long sofa is a newspaper.
  
  > look under the nightstand
  The hallway of Mackenzie's home is bare but homely, one wall hung with a photograph of some Earth lake surrounded by mountains, and an antiquated-looking coat-stand by the porch door to the west. Doorways lead off in two other directions; the east appears to be a kitchen and the north is a living room. There is no upstairs in the house; the entire upper metre or so is filled solid with various forms of algae, to grow oxygen, regulate temperature and recycle waste.
  
  In one corner is a stubby yucca tree.
  
  -- You referred to something that can't be interacted with at present.
  
  > examine papers
  They are stamped with the seal of the European Union, and look like dossiers on various topics. You pick up the second sheet and scan for English fragments.
  
  This one appears to be about the colonisation programme. "Schedule for '72 appears unrealistic" says one line. "Scientists report the recent attempts 'Dexilille', 'Edisonia', 'Forrage' have all been failures." The date marked is 3.1.63. "Expansion into Middle Africa has been mooted, again.
  
  > examine papers
  They are stamped with the seal of the European Union, and look like dossiers on various topics. You pick up the third sheet and scan for English fragments.
  
  Another about colonisation, more recent (8.5.63): "Reports on 'Knassion' appear confused. Initial reports suggested an excellent performance, about 84% of original predictions. However, current results are split, on the same experiments; some claiming rapid degeneration, others claiming the harmful side-effects of the pollenation processes." The final line has been underscored in red ink. "Recommend we retrieve alternate information on the matter."
  
  > examine papers
  They are stamped with the seal of the European Union, and look like dossiers on various topics. You pick up another sheet and scan for English fragments.
  
  It seems the sheets lower in the stack are all concerned with the North African drought crisis.
  
  > go east
  The kitchen is largely uninteresting - a small functional room, a laboratory of life, with the various implements of cooking arranged around the walls. For all the advances in materials over the last thousand years; roasting, baking and boiling still work as before. Just with the addition of microwave generators and plasmacoil hobs.
  
  So against the northwest wall, no doubt backing onto the sink in the bathroom, is a sink; and in one corner a freezer hums quietly to itself.
  
  The floor is seamless bar a square of plexiplastic.
  
  > open the freezer
  A blast of cold air hits you from inside. You open the freezer, revealing a shelf of food and a frozen biosamples.
  
  > examine the Genus E.
  You skim along the row and locate the sample for Genus E. Its full name is written on the top: edisonia.
  
  > eat the Genus E.
  (first taking the genus E sample)
  You've no idea if they're safe to touch, even if they are sealed.
  
  > Close the freezer
  You close the freezer.
  
  > look at the thermostat
  The thermostat gauge is pushed quite high.
  
  > turn the thermostat
  It is fixed in place.
  
  > examine the thermostat
  The thermostat gauge is pushed quite low.
  
  > open the door
  The scanner on the laboratory door lock warms uncomfortably under your index finger, almost ready to burn - and then cools again into rough plastic. The door does not open.
  
  > open the door
  The scanner on the laboratory door lock warms uncomfortably under your index finger, almost ready to burn - and then cools again into rough plastic. The door does not open.
  
  The scanner on the laboratory door lock warms uncomfortably under your index finger, almost ready to burn - and then cools again into rough plastic. The door does not open.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a glass of water
  a cardboard folder
  a genus K sample
  a hairpin
  a cactus spine
  a plastic card
  a printed fax
  a brown envelope (which is open)
  a case file
  
  > pour the water on the lock
  (the black box)
  Don't go making a mess with it.
  
  > show the glass to the door
  Inanimate. Give up.
  
  > put the glass on scanner
  Why waste your time putting things on the fingerprint lock?
  
  > search the glass for the fingerpints
  -- I only got as far as wanting to search the glass of water.
  
  > turn on the computer
  You flip open the notebook. It bleeps but does not turn on - except for a small light which ignites in the corner. It is a deep purple.
  
  > look at the computer
  The screen is blank. A light in the top red corner is a deep purple, and blinking.
  
  > turn on the computer
  It will turn itself on as soon as it finishes cooling down, and the gauge reaches blue.
  
  > look at the computer
  The screen is blank. A light in the top red corner is a deep purple, and blinking.
  
  > search the freezer
  The bottom shelf of the freezer holds a couple of pizzas and a slab of meat in a coldbag, shipped from one of the dome-farms nearer the equatorial region. The top shelf is a line of yellow biosample bags, each air-sealed and marked in fat marker pen: "GENUS A", "GENUS B", etc.
  
  > put the glass in the freezer
  This freezer is traditionally only loaded with foodstuffs and pathogens.
  
  > open the fridge
  That's already open.
  
  > open the car
  You get into the car and drive away from the bubble.
  
  > ask the man about the fingerprints
  "Yes," he whines. "It's a fingerprint lock on my print, yes, that's true. I don't know how she got in, but she must have. There's a lot of chemicals inside. I don't know how!"
  
  It is a little difficult to follow the man's speech. His accent is thick, and the language is still unfamiliar.
  
  > Prompt man
  "Yes," he whines. "It's a fingerprint lock on my print, yes, that's true. I don't know how she got in, but she must have. There's a lot of chemicals inside. I don't know how!"
  
  > ask the man about black chest
  "What box?" he says shakily. "I get storage boxes through the mail often enough."
  
  > ask the man about the america
  "I've never been there. Laura spoke about it a lot. My wife. She was born there, and missed it all the time I think. Who wouldn't, out there?"
  
  > keep going
  "I don't know much else about it. I don't speak the language, I have - I had - no interest in visiting Earth."
  
  > ask the man about the computer
  "The only computer I ever use is the Magga at work. My wife swears by her Notebook though."
  
  > ask the man about the yucca tree
  "My yucca!" he exclaims, startled. "I mean, I've got a yucca at home. It's perfectly ordinary though."
  
  > ask the man about the spine
  "I've grown a few cacti in my time. I'm a genetic designer." He shivers a little. "Not the only plants with spines, of course," he adds.
  
  > ask the man about the cactus
  "I like cacti, yes. Attractive plants."
  
  > ask the man about the spine
  "I like cacti, yes." He shivers a little. "Not the only plants with spines, of course," he adds.
  
  > ask the man about the shoes
  "What could I tell you about shoes?"
  
  > ask the man about the freezer
  "We're not complete primitives up there, you know," he bridles. "We do have a standard of living."
  
  "But just tell me," he says suddenly. "Is this going to hurt me? Is it like torture?"
  
  > continue
  "We're not complete primitives up there, you know," he bridles. "We do have a standard of living."
  
  > ask the man about the colony
  "I think my wife was looking forward to it," he says sourly. "Hordes of Europeans and Americans flooding up, jabbering away in ProtoFrench and Amerimexican. I doubt native Marsian will survive myself." His face has gone quite stony. "The only thing's that kept them away this long are the climate problems - the duststorms - and my company is fixing those."
  
  > ask man about Jasper
  "Why are you even bothering to ask? Morpheus, that damn sample box... I don't believe you, you know. I don't know how you're doing it - spies or police or..."
  
  He stops, quite suddenly, a shallow smile moving over his face. "Of course. Your spy. This is all rubbish, isn't it? You know because you are Jasper Morpheus and you sent her that damn box yourself. Of course," he continues, now nodding madly, convinced of his fantasies. "This isn't a police station at all, is it? You're not a Genetic at all! This is all just political! You think the only way you can get your hands on Knassion now that Laura's not around to pick my pocket is to get it out of me. Well you won't. If I killed her for it than I'm sure as hell not going to just hand it over to you." His eyes narrow. "You can do what you like." And he leans back, face in a snarl.
  
  > Continue
  "Some bastard American who wants to turn Mars into a dumping ground for anyone too poor to wash, I should think. Is that who you are? Or do you just work for him?"
  
  > ask the man about the spy
  "She was a bitch, simple as that," he says in a voice like sulphuric acid.
  
  > ask the man about the wife
  "The bitch stole my work and was going to sell it to the Americans. Can you imagine how angry I was? I pick-locked open the box, and that was it."
  
  > Keep going
  "The bitch stole my work and was going to sell it to the Americans. Can you imagine how angry I was? It's a wonder I didn't strangle her straight."
  
  The door opens briefly and the guard appears. "Brought you some tea, sir," he says politely, and brings a mug over to put on the table. The man looks startled by this appearance and is offered nothing himself. The guard leaves with a nod and a click of a magnetic lock.
  
  > ask the man about the murder
  "So I dipped a cactus spine in a little solution that was lying around, and placed it into her shoe for when she went out. Then I removed it before calling the police along."
  
  > ask the man about the confession
  "What difference does it make? You would have just read it out of me if I hadn't spoken!"
  
  > press the button
  "Thank you, Mackenzie. That'll be all." You stand, and go over to press the buzzer. He looks up at you, his eyes flashing. "This is insane. I'm lying!" he shouts suddenly to the cameras. "I'm just stringing him along! You can't convict me on it!"
  
  You shrug. "Which of us is more insane, Doctor? Me, for believing I read minds, or you, for killing your wife so easily for the sake of a desert?"
  
  The door slides open and the guard is there. "Thank you, sir," he says formally. "I believe that's all."
  
  "Yes, you do," is the reply.
  
  The foyer of the EUPD is a wide expanse of functional metal; every wall inlaid with panels, displays, buzzers and listings of the voluminous amounts of relevant and irrelevant information generated by a building this size and an organisation this complex. Of course, complex organisations are much easier for your purposes.
  
  In front of you is the main door of the building, outside which lies the street.
  
  > go outside
  The door will not open until it recognises your fingerprint.
  
  A young man walks past with a cop. "Is it true?" he is saying. "Or do they just research it and guess, like at a circus or something?" You smile at the foolish question.
  
  > touch the door
  You touch your finger to the lock. It grows gently warm as it reads your print, then the door the swings open. A clipped automated voice says: "Have a nice evening, Jackson Roberts". You cannot help but tip your head in reply as you step outside.
  
  The street is fairly quiet for London, with a gentle background buzz of traffic and pedestrians. Luckily you will have to go no distance in this foul city, as the car is already here, parked right out front.
  
  > enter the car
  You open the car door and slip inside. "Good evening," you say to the driver, who rolls away from the kerb as the door clicks shut. "Back to the office."
  
  "Very good, Mr. Morpheus," he replies.
  
  The drive is uneventful; you are dropped outside your building and make your way through the maze of corridors until you reach your current - hopefully temporary - room.
  
  The corridor runs off in both directions, but room 42 is directly to the east.
  
  > Go east
  (opening the office door first)
  You touch your finger to the lock. It grows gently warm as it reads your print, then falls cold with a flat honk. Your fingerprint has not been read.
  So you can't go that way.
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying:
  a plexilatec fingercap on your index finger
  
  > examine the fingercap
  One thin layer of sculpted plexilatecover your index finger.
  
  > remove the cap
  You carefully peel off Jackson Roberts' index finger.
  
  > open door
  You touch your finger to the lock. It grows gently warm as it reads your print, and the door clunks heavily.
  
  > go to the east
  (opening the office door first)
  You open the office door.
  
  Your office is small, and quite sparse, with nothing but a desk by the large window which overlooks this ghastly city. It is equipped with a little bathroom - you made sure of that before taking it - it lies to the north.
  
  On the desk is a scrawled sheet.
  
  The door locks quietly behind you.
  
  > read the paper
  A sheet of paper covered in scribbles - nothing coherent, but not exactly doodles; rather fragments of letters and words and scattered at all angles around the edges and middle of the page, with the occasional snatch of a drawn line or a distorted margin. It has been carefully laser-printed from a computer image.
  
  > take the paper
  Taken.
  
  > go north
  (opening the bathroom door first)
  You open the bathroom door.
  
  The small bathroom is empty and very rarely used. The only thing here not provided by the cleaners was, of course, the cabinet you brought in yourself. The door to the office is south.
  
  On one wall is your own reflection, sketched onto the surface of a cabinet with an oil-mirror surface.
  
  > turn the dial to Picasso
  The cabinet is adorned with your features, only transformed into an oil painting, currently following the style of Schulz, leaving you with a simplistic vacant look across your face. A small dial underneath allows this to be readjusted.
  
  The dial clinks into place at Picasso and the picture shifts appropriately.
  
  > look at the paper in mirror
  You close the door first.
  
  Holding the paper up to the mirror, it takes a little adjustment before the fragments of words and letters solidify into lines of text. "JM - Delivery from Mars received, placed in desk drawer. Crime occurred too late. We have our sample - PK."
  
  > open the cabinet
  You open the mirrored cabinet.
  
  > look in the cabinet
  The mirrored cabinet is empty.
  
  > go south
  (opening the bathroom door first)
  You open the bathroom door.
  
  Your office is small, and quite sparse, with nothing but a desk by the large window which overlooks this ghastly city. It is equipped with a little bathroom - you made sure of that before taking it - it lies to the north.
  
  > open the desk
  You grip the handle, hear the lock click back at your print, and slide it open. The drawer has got a key and a black box in it.
  
  > open the box with the key
  (first taking the key)
  Are you certain? Mackenzie good as said he found it; opened it. Would he let Knassion fall into your hands? Of course you might have been wrong on that - maybe he never opened the box, never picked the lock, and got wind of his wife some other way. Your decision. Make it now. Unlock it - or leave it sealed, and close up the drawer again.
  
  > open the box with the key
  No. Your spy did her work, clearly. Mackenzie knew he'd lost the sample and was lying to you. Something you'd never fall for - mind-reading or no. You slip the key into the lock, and flick open the casket.
  
  There is not enough time between the opening of the lid and the explosion of pollen into your face to look away. Three hours later you are regretting that gap of time, as you stare into the mirror, watching the oil-paint running down your face as it burns and scars. One miscalculation, that was all. One error, one gamble that you knew what he was thinking, and you got it wrong. And then Jasper Morpheus falls.
  
  > close the drawer
  Simple enough. You know Mackenzie opened the box. Jasper Morpheus did not get to his position on skill alone, but natural born talent too. Science may have engineered the psychics first in lab-rats then in men, but nature alone did the work on you. There are only nine men with your power, and each one sits around the same table back in the US. The box opens and pollen-dust melts at your skin. So - save it for the next time a removal is needed.
  
  And, of course, Mars will come to you, eventually. You are not about to take a mis-step.
  
  > get the bush
  You pluck a leaf from the bush with a thick snap. In response the branch moves backwards, far more than just a recoil, curling up into itself. The movement seems to disrupt other branches, sparking a wave that travels down the hedgerow in an uncoordinated squirm of fauna. It is several minutes before it is still once more; by then the leaf in your hand has leaked a fine sap as far as your wrist.
  
  > look at the truck
  On the side is stencilled: AlgCorp FACILITIES MANAGMENT.
  
  > go east
  You push open the door and step into the porch.
  
  The porch is just a short space of corridor, with two large fans built into the walls behind a white-mesh grille. The air is a little better regulated here, and smells fresh and tart, straight from an algae-tank. There is little else here - a rack for shoes and a hook for coats. Either end of this space are the large doors that seal inside from outside, they are east and west respectively.
  
  The inner door hisses closed just as you enter.
  
  > Go east
  You open the door with a soft hiss, and go through into the hallway. The lights inside come on automatically.
  
  The hallway of Mackenzie's home is bare but homely, one wall hung with a photograph of some Earth lake surrounded by mountains, and an antiquated-looking coat-stand by the porch door to the west. Doorways lead off in two other directions; the east appears to be a kitchen and the north is a living room. There is no upstairs in the house; the entire upper metre or so is filled solid with various forms of algae, to grow oxygen, regulate temperature and recycle waste.
  
  In one corner is a stubby yucca tree.
  
  From the kitchen you hear someone moving around.
  
  > Go east
  The kitchen is largely uninteresting - a small functional room, a laboratory of life, with the various implements of cooking arranged around the walls. For all the advances in materials over the last thousand years; roasting, baking and boiling still work as before. Just with the addition of microwave generators and plasmacoil hobs.
  
  So against the northwest wall, is a sink; and in one corner a freezer hums quietly to itself.
  
  The floor is seamless bar a square of plexiplastic.
  
  A workman is crouched on the floor, and he looks up and stares at you. "Who are you?" he demands. You turn to leave, but the workman is determined to make sure he helps you on your way. You hit the dust as you are thrown through the front door.
  
  > go north
  The living room is similarly austere, with its walls all white and furniture resting in between large spaces. In the north wall opposite the doorway is a large window through which the long view of desert stretches until reaching the tooth of Mount Olympus, and the room is filled by the orange-red tinge. Another door leads east to the bedroom.
  
  In one corner is a long desk.
  
  On the desk is a glass of water.
  
  The sofa stands out quite strikingly; it is pea-green.
  
  The man sat on the sofa looks up. "Jack..." he begins, but the word dies. "Who the hell are you?" He proves to be a big man, when he stands and grabs you by the shoulder. Your stealth operation ends as you are escorted from the house.
  
  > look at the yucca
  A hardy plant, quite probably capable of growing as easily outside as in.
  
  From the kitchen you hear a workman and a powertool.
  
  > get the yucca
  The tree is fairly bulky.
  
  In the living room, you hear a man stand. You tense, but then an internal door opens somewhere else.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a purple leaf
  
  > Go north
  The living room is similarly austere, with its walls all white and furniture resting in between large spaces. In the north wall opposite the doorway is a large window through which the long view of desert stretches until reaching the tooth of Mount Olympus, and the room is filled by the orange-red tinge. Another door leads east to the bedroom.
  
  In one corner is a long desk.
  
  On the desk is a glass of water.
  
  The sofa stands out quite strikingly; it is pea-green.
  
  > examine the glass
  (the north window)
  The dunes are brushed with a delicate haze of floating orange dust like the steam rising from a Spaniard's tanned back; still but for the sporadic storms that whip across the sky unchecked and unpredictable. It is dotted with a few strange plants - wide trunked cacti, large flat leaved palms that spread across the ground instead of upwards into the sky, and grass stalks that rise and bend flat at two metres high. Most are unfamiliar to your eye.
  
  From the centre of the bubble your hear a toilet flush.
  
  > take glass
  (the north window)
  That's not portable.
  
  From the south you hear the other workman moving through the hallway. The door of the bubble seals with a hiss behind him.
  
  > take the glass of the water
  Taken.
  
  > Go south
  The hallway of Mackenzie's home is bare but homely, one wall hung with a photograph of some Earth lake surrounded by mountains, and an antiquated-looking coat-stand by the porch door to the west. Doorways lead off in two other directions; the east appears to be a kitchen and the north is a living room. There is no upstairs in the house; the entire upper metre or so is filled solid with various forms of algae, to grow oxygen, regulate temperature and recycle waste.
  
  In one corner is a stubby yucca tree.
  
  You hear someone to the north re-entering the living room, whilst the piping of the bubble sucks water from the toilet. However, he goes no further than the sofa.
  
  > take the square
  The trapdoor is already open.
  
  > open the freezer
  A blast of cold air hits you from inside. You open the freezer, revealing a shelf of food and some frozen biosamples.
  
  > examine the biosamples
  Thirteen frozen biosamples stacked up on the top shelf of the freezer, happily coexisting with a frozen pizza and a chicken. They are labelled "GENUS A" through "GENUS N".
  
  > look at the food
  On the bottom shelf: bricklike slabs of pale stone. On the top: bright yellow biosample bags.