text: [Themes: Espionage, city, library, male protagonist, Terrorism]
  
  You've lived in this city all your life, but now you may be the last man left here. It's already dusk, and before the next dawn comes -- well, it's not quite clear what's expected, but the whole city has fled from it. You could and should have been on that last train. You would have been on that last train but for her.
  
  The train accelerates northwards up the track, its rear carriage disappearing into the distance. Just a minute ago this long, draughty platform was crammed with the last batch of people leaving the city. Now there isn't another soul in sight. The indicator boards are all blank: no more trains will be leaving here today - if ever. Just to the north the bridge across to Platform 2 has been blocked off with a steel gate; the only way out from here is thus east, back to the ticket office.
  
  Just as the last echo of the departing train fades away, the sun finally sinks beneath the western horizon.
  
  The station feels sadly deserted, a ghost station in what has already become a ghost city. Not long ago this long, draughty platform was crammed with the last batch of people leaving the city. Now there isn't another soul in sight. The indicator boards are all blank: no more trains will be leaving here today - if ever. Just to the north the bridge across to Platform 2 has been blocked off with a steel gate; the only way out from here is thus east, back to the ticket office.
  
  [Author's Note: The Enemy is expected to arrive at any moment. Staying behind is either the stupidest or the bravest thing you've ever done. Only one thing - or one person - could have made you stay. So now there's nothing for it but to find her before it's too late.]
  
  > check your inventory
  You are carrying a small brown envelope (closed).
  
  [You can change inventory listing style with the commands I WIDE, I TALL, I CURT and I MINIMAL]
  
  > look at the envelope
  It's a small square envelope, only a couple of inches to a side. There's nothing written on it.
  
  > examine the gate
  A large slatted steel gate has been closed across the foot of the bridge.
  
  > open the envelope
  You slit it open with your finger, and find a small silver key within.
  
  > look at key
  It's a small, unmarked silver key.
  
  > About yourself
  A slightly stocky young man of 28, dressed for a chilly night.
  
  There's a distant hoot from the departing train as it rounds some bend on the outskirts of the city.
  
  > Go east
  It's the sheer emptiness of this place that strikes you. Just a few minutes ago a press of people were jostling one another in ill-natured queues, increasingly anxious to buy their tickets to safety. Now every ticket position is closed, and there's no one here, just a bare empty hall with nothing to see but the now irrelevant timetables posted on the walls and the station clock ticking ever on into the fateful night. The equally deserted platform is just to the west, while the way out to Station Road lies to the north.
  
  While you were queuing for your ticket just a few minutes ago, Jeremy turned to you and said, "She's still in the city, you know. She's not leaving; apparently there's something frantically important she has to do here."
  
  "More important than getting away from the Enemy?" you asked.
  
  "So she says," he replied, with a dismissive shrug, "Oh, and by the way, I nearly forgot. She asked me to give you this." He handed you a small brown envelope.
  
  You didn't need to ask who he meant. There were thousands of women in the city, but only one she - in Jeremy's case because of their relationship; in yours - well, it was then that your notion about staying behind for her finally started to harden into resolve.
  
  > examine the clock
  The clock that hangs here is an old-fashioned round one with a white face and Roman numerals round its dial. According to this clock the time is now three minutes past eight.
  
  > remember
  While you were queuing for your ticket just a few minutes ago, Jeremy turned to you and said, "She's still in the city, you know. She's not leaving; apparently there's something frantically important she has to do here."
  
  "More important than getting away from the Enemy?" you asked.
  
  "So she says," he replied, with a dismissive shrug, "Oh, and by the way, I nearly forgot. She asked me to give you this." He handed you a small brown envelope.
  
  You didn't need to ask who he meant. There were thousands of women in the city, but only one she - in Jeremy's case because of their relationship; in yours - well, it was then that your notion about staying behind for her finally started to harden into resolve.
  
  > Go north
  As you emerge into Station Road you find that the sky has already turned black, but a full moon has risen, bathing the street in ghostly light which blends strangely with that from the row of lamp posts parading eastwards towards the junction with York Street. The entrance to the main railway station lies directly to the south. Otherwise, there's little here but litter.
  
  The quiet is momentarily broken by the sound of a loudspeaker in a nearby street. It can't be the Enemy - not yet; after a moment you realize it must be the police. You can't make out what the voice is saying, but you can guess.
  
  > look at the litter
  A couple of lager cans, boxes containing the remnants of take-away meals, scraps of packaging, all left littering the street.
  
  You hear a distant rumble of thunder off to the west. At least, it sounds a bit like thunder.
  
  > Go east
  This is normally one of the busiest junctions in the city, mainly due to the traffic from the railway station, but now there isn't so much as a bicycle in sight, just the ever-present street lighting, the river running by to the east, and the sign pointing north towards the City Sports Ground, south towards Mandlebury Bridge and the Hospital, and west towards the Railway Station.
  
  You stand at the Junction, considering which way to go next. You know where she lives, of course: in a flat at 18 Gladstone Terrace, a few blocks south of the railway station, so that would be one obvious place to try. The other would be her office, at 12 Devon Road, some way to the east of the station, across the river (you can use the GO TO command to find your way round the city; e.g. GO TO HER OFFICE or GO TO GLADSTONE TERRACE).
  
  [To see your character's thoughts in future, use the THINK command.]
  
  > go to Gladstone Terrace
  (Gladstone Terrace)
  (going south)
  
  York Street (South)
  This part of York Street has moved considerably up-market in recent years. The old Victorian terraces lining the west side of the street may be small, and were probably built for Victorian labourers, but the recent hike in property prices makes them the best that many young professionals can afford. They lack nearby parking spaces, but that wouldn't be a problem tonight; there isn't a single car in sight; everyone with a car has used it to get away. The eerily deserted street continues alongside the river to north and south.
  
  > remember Jeremy
  The best way to do that is to find the places that trigger particular memories.
  
  > take the stone
  You select a large round stone and take that.
  
  > examine the flats
  She lives at number 18. It's three storeys tall, but otherwise a perfectly ordinary block of flats, especially by night, and you can't recall ever having seen it by day. As you might expect, there's a doorbell by the door.
  
  > open the door
  The street door is locked.
  
  > unlock the door with the key
  (first taking the small silver key)
  That doesn't seem to fit the lock.
  
  > examine the door
  It looks extremely solid, as if particularly designed to keep burglars out, but at least there's a doorbell next to it, as well as a large number 18 on it.
  
  > think
  If she's not at home, her office would be the next obvious place to try. It's at 12 Devon Road, in the northeast part of the city.
  
  > go to her office
  (going to Her Office)
  (going east)
  
  Junction of Sussex Street and Gladstone Terrace.
  This junction would be well-lit even without the moonlight. Sussex Street continues to north and south while Gladstone Terrace leads off to the west. Further north the street runs along the west bank of the river, but just here the river bends towards the southeast and parts company with the road.
  
  > throw the stone at the camera
  You hesitate; throwing things at CCTV cameras is the kind of loutish behaviour you've always disapproved of. But tonight of all nights may be a night for bending the rules. The large stone leaves your hand and hits the end of the camera, knocking it so that it now points over the river, into which the stone falls. You have joined the ranks of the louts.
  
  > examine the placard
  An Unknown Enemy is coming! They are expected to arrive by nightfall. For your own safety, please ensure that you are well clear of the city before dusk. Extra trains are being laid on for those without any other transport. In case of difficulty, contact the police.
  
  > remember
  You have, just once before, seen the bridge this deserted - a night burned on your memory. You were walking home from a late party - if only you had left that party a few minutes earlier you might have arrived here just in time to stop Kate falling to her death.
  
  > go to the north
  You step into the shadows of the park entrance just in time to avoid being caught in the beam of the approaching car's headlamps. You stand to watch as the car drives past onto Mandlebury Bridge. As it passes under the street lights in Mandlebury Road you can see that it's a police car. Your first thought is that it has been sent to investigate the CCTV camera you just knocked with that stone, but then it occurs to you it might just be out looking for stragglers left behind in the city. In either case, it seems a good idea to keep out of its way, so you carry on into the park.
  
  Although you've often been here in daylight, you've never visited the park by night before, and it looks quite different by moonlight. By day it's a pleasant, green open space overlooking the river to the west, but now it's shrouded in sinister black, cold and unwelcoming. The main exit onto Mandlebury Road lies to the south, but there's also a narrow lane off to the east leading to the High Street.
  
  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, much to your delight, she stopped to catch her breath and chat. You can't remember a great deal of the conversation - you were just so pleased to be talking with her - 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 at the bench
  Although you can scarcely make out more than its outline now, you know it to be an old wooden bench, well weathered by years of exposure to the elements.
  
  There's a roar overhead. Perhaps it's just a jet airliner, but perhaps it's a warplane, or even an incoming missile. You pause, unconsciously holding your breath as you listen to its approach. But then, at last, it fades away: not a missile, then, at any rate.
  
  > go to the south
  Mandlebury Road (West)
  At this point Mandlebury Road is a broad, well-lit street, bordering the shadowy entrance to Mandlebury Park just to the north, and a traditional fish and chip shop to the south. The street continues east towards the city centre and west over Mandlebury Bridge.
  
  An old newspaper lies abandoned just outside the fish and chip shop.
  
  > take the newspaper
  You pick up the old newspaper, fumbling a little as you try to keep the separate sheets together while they resist your efforts with the most stubborn display of the innate cussedness of inanimate objects. You eventually manage to tame it, with the surviving sheets forced into a reasonable semblance of order.
  
  > read it
  Most of it is missing, and the rest of it is at least several weeks old. Apart from the grease stains testifying to its use as a fish-and-chips wrapper, it is full of the usual bad news about undesirable things on the increase: inflation, unemployment, taxes, crime, global warming; according to one columnist, there's even a sharp rise in severe personality disorders among the under thirties. The sole surviving page of foreign news is no cheerier, since it bemoans increasing tension in the Middle East coupled with the danger of former Soviet republics selling nuclear weapons on the black market.
  
  > ask the tramp about the drink
  "Do I take it you'd like something to drink?" you enquire.
  
  "Hallelujah, the man has more than one brain cell!" the tramp replies.
  
  > ask the tramp about the liquor store
  The tramp sways unsteadily on his feet. "Spare some change, mate?" he asks hopefully.
  
  > hit the tramp
  There's a brief but vicious scuffle, in which you fail to make much impression on him.
  
  From somewhere across the city a clock chimes the half-hour.
  
  > go to Supermarket
  (going to the Supermarket)
  It looks like you'll have to go back and find another route.
  
  The tramp points down the hill. "There's a church down there" he says, "I used to sing in the choir. Would you believe that?" He starts to sing in a distorted parody of plain-chant, "Dies irae, dies illa, solvet saeclum in favilla!" and then offers the following translation: "That day of wrath, when fucking everything ends in ashes."
  
  > ask the tramp about the church
  The tramp scratches his head, as if deeply puzzled by your remark. "The whole world is coming to an end, so let's get drunk!" he suggests.
  
  > go north
  A churchyard by moonlight is always a little spooky, but it is doubly so tonight, with the city so deserted. The gravestones are little more than looming shadows in the dark; the great bulk of St Michael's Church is just to the north, while the lych-gate to the south leads back out to Church Street.
  
  Kate's grave is somewhere here among the others; you used to visit it often. You'll never forget the shock you received when you came one day only a few weeks after Kate's funeral to find the grave desecrated. At least, someone had knocked over the headstone and smashed it, and the flowers were all torn up and strewn around. The police never did catch the culprits, and put it down to local hooligans, but that never seemed quite satisfactory somehow; why should it be Kate's grave that was attacked in this way?
  
  It's long since been put right, of course, but the memory of the broken gravestone still leaves a sour taste in your mouth. Kate deserved better than that - much better.
  
  > Go north
  St Michael's has a large nave, built at a time when Victorian congregations were booming. The original wooden pews are still here, facing the chancel to the east, as is the original Victorian stained glass, all but invisible in the poor light. The way out is to the south, next to the large stone font at the rear of the church.
  
  You remember when you came here for Kate's funeral, just over six years ago. She was sitting up in one of the front pews, quite unaware of your presence, although your eyes kept wandering to the back of her head. At some appropriate point in the service she went up to the lectern and made some thoroughly fitting speech about the tragically early death of her dear friend Kate, who had had a wonderful life ahead of her. You can't remember precisely what she said; what you remember is how solemn and composed she was as she spoke, saying just the right things in just the right sombre tone, without ever giving way to emotion and tears.
  
  > look at the chancel
  The chancel is to the east, set off from the nave for the use of choir and clergy.
  
  > Go east
  Raised slightly above the Nave, which lies just to the west, much of the space in the Chancel is taken up by the choir stalls on either side and the altar at the east end. A small wooden door is set in the wall on the north side of the altar.
  
  > Go north
  (first trying to open the small wooden door)
  The small wooden door is locked.
  
  > examine the door
  It may be small, but it looks pretty solid, with large iron hinges and an arched shape at the top. It's currently closed.
  
  > examine the stalls
  Two rows of dark wooden stalls line either side of the chancel.
  
  > look in the stalls
  The choir stalls is empty.
  
  > sit in the stalls
  You get into the choir stalls.
  
  > stand
  You get out of the choir stalls.
  
  Raised slightly above the Nave, which lies just to the west, much of the space in the Chancel is taken up by the choir stalls on either side and the altar at the east end. A small wooden door is set in the wall on the north side of the altar.
  
  > Go west
  St Michael's has a large nave, built at a time when Victorian congregations were booming. The original wooden pews are still here, facing the chancel to the east, as is the original Victorian stained glass, all but invisible in the poor light. The way out is to the south, next to the large stone font at the rear of the church.
  
  > look at the font
  It's a large round font, made of stone, and covered by a wooden lid.
  
  > open it
  Removing the lid reveals a large iron key in the font.
  
  > take the iron key
  Just a little reluctantly, you lift the iron key from its naively trusting hiding place, where it was perhaps left for the use of a church cleaner or some dear old lady coming to arrange the flowers. You're not that eager to add robbing churches to your achievements.
  
  > Go east
  (first putting the lid back on the font)
  
  Raised slightly above the Nave, which lies just to the west, much of the space in the Chancel is taken up by the choir stalls on either side and the altar at the east end. A small wooden door is set in the wall on the north side of the altar.
  
  > unlock the door with the iron key
  You unlock the small wooden door.
  
  As a distant clock chimes quarter to the hour, it occurs to you it might be time to pay a visit to her office.
  
  > open the door
  You open the small wooden door.
  
  > go north
  A plain wooden table runs under the window of this small, narrow room, with an old-fashioned safe set into the opposite wall. The only way out is via the door to the south.
  
  On the table is a large blue diary.
  
  > look at diary
  (first taking the large blue diary)
  You flick through the diary. It's mainly a record of services and parish meetings, but you find an entry from two days ago that catches your eye: "Meet DS at KA 2 pm". "KA" is likely to be the Kings Arms, the pub in the High Street.
  
  > examine safe
  All you can see of it is the green-painted metal door set into the wall. It's unlikely to contain anything of interest, just crosses, candlesticks and communion wafers.
  
  > open it
  The safe is locked.
  
  > drop the diary
  Dropped.