<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><title> Library At Night </title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="html_resources/style.css"></head><body><a href="index.html"><button class="back"><</button></a>
<h1> Library At Night</h1>
<p>
11:30 PM – Isabelle and Annie find themselves at the side entrance
to the library. They try a couple keys before finding the right one and
the door swings open with a quiet squeaking noise. The air inside is warm
and dry. They close the door behind themselves and turn on their
flashlights.
</p>
<p>
Following the description Lucas had given, they find their way down to
the basement and into a small room. They close the door behind themselves
and look around. To the left is a desk holding a terminal and a bunch of
small devices. Across from the door is a row of five racks almost as tall
as the room itself, filled with computer equipment. A thick trunk of
cables comes out of a hole in the ceiling and leads to the center rack
where it splits up and the cables connect to a few panels in the top.
To the right is a shelf holding various boxes, stacks of flat, round
cases, and other random things.
</p>
<p class="comment">
Again, request for formatting suggestions below...
</p>
<p>
<span class="comment">TODO: change Karl's note -> Karl's
note<b>s</b></span><br />
<span class="quote speech">I guess this is it. Let's take a look at
Karl's note</span>, Isabelle says in a hushed voice.
<br />
Annie pulls it out of her bag.<br />
<span class="quote speech">It says to find a terminal connected to the
computer first... By the way, Lucas said something about taking a new
floppy disk from the shelf, can you search for that?</span><br />
Annie goes over to the terminal; Isabelle turns to the boxes. Annie puts
the keys on the desk and inspects the terminal for cables.<br />
<span class="quote speech">There's a box with cookies back
here.</span><br />
She pulls it out from behind the terminal. <br />
<span class="quote speech">I want one</span>, says Isabelle. <br />
They giggle. Both end up taking a cookie before stashing the box behind
the terminal again.
</p>
<p>
Annie reaches around the side and flips the power switch. The terminal
makes a bonk sound and a crackling noise. She feels the hairs on her arm
stand up as she inadvertently moves it in front of the screen. <br />
<span class="quote speech">Whoa...</span><br />
The screen begins to light up.<br />
<span class="quote speech">... I guess this is supposed to happen.</span>
<br />
Annie looks back at the note. <br />
<span class="quote speech">‘Turn on main power switch on
computer'...</span>, she mumbles to herself.<br />
She looks at the racks. They are mostly filled with what looks like
large drawers with buttons on them. The one in the center is different.
It has a bunch of panels with all sorts of cables plugged into them, most
of which are part of the trunk from the ceiling. Below that are a couple
panels with buttons and lights, and a few other devices.
</p>
<p>
<span class="quote speech">I found you a new floppy disk.</span> Isabelle
interrupts her.<br />
She pulls a large, square, floppy thing, half-wrapped in a paper sleeve,
out of one of the boxes. She lifts it out of the sleeve. Turns out,
it's another sleeve made of thin plastic with openings that
were previously covered by the paper. The openings reveal something black
and shiny.<br />
<span class="quote speech">Lucas said to put it in the computer and push
a lever down.</span><br />
They look back and forth between the floppy disk and the computer until
Isabelle points to a device in the center rack with a large, flat slot.
<br />
<span class="quote speech">It could fit in there.</span><br />
She walks up to it and pushes the disk into it. It fits perfectly. Then,
she pushes on the mechanism in the center of the slot. It latches in
place.<br />
<span class="quote speech">What's next?</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">The note says to turn on the
<span class="quote non-speech">main power switch</span></span> –
Annie repeats while inspecting one of the panels with buttons –
<span class="quote speech">Maybe this one?</span>
She points at a key switch. <br />
<span class="quote speech">Only one way to find out.</span><br />
Isabelle picks up the keys and hands them to her. One of them fits and
turns.
</p>
<p>
Fans come on; they hear the loud noise of air rushing through the
computer. Some of the lights and buttons light up. Annie looks at the
note again: <br />
<span class="quote speech"><span class="quote non-speech">Spin up boot
drive</span>... Lucas has also written here:
<span class="quote non-speech">HDD number two</span></span><br />
The two look back at the racks.<br />
<span class="quote speech">These drawer thingies here have numbers on
them, maybe that's what they mean?</span><br />
Isabelle presses the power button on number two. It lights up and the
button next to it starts blinking. She presses it. The device makes a
loud clonk noise followed by a motor accelerating inside. Clicking and
more mechanical noises. The button stops blinking and stays lit up.<br />
<span class="quote speech">The last step on the note is to press
‘reset' and ‘load' and to enter something into the
terminal. They also wrote down a list of commands that might help us to
find and copy the manual, and
<span class="quote non-speech">Good luck!</span>...</span><br />
Isabelle pushes the buttons and they walk over to the terminal.
</p>
<p>
After a lot of typing into the terminal and figuring things out the hard
way – and maybe a couple more cookies disappearing – they
find the manual on one of the hard drives and manage to get it onto the
floppy disk. They follow the instructions to turn the computer off and
Annie takes the disk out of the computer.
</p>
<p>
<span class="quote speech">Shhh.</span><br />
Isabelle gestures for Annie to be quiet. She whispers:<br />
<span class="quote speech">Do you hear that?</span><br />
Footsteps. Annie nods. Someone is in the building – and probably
heard them. Quickly, she puts the disk into her bag.
</p>
<p>
Opening and closing the door as quietly as possible, they sneak out of
the room and back towards the stairs. The footsteps are coming closer.
<br />
<span class="quote speech">Shit</span>, Isabelle whispers.<br />
They turn around and sneak to the other end of the hallway. It opens up
into a room filled with crates that has small windows near the ceiling.
The footsteps are making their way down the stairs. Annie reaches for
one of the windows and opens it as quietly as possible while Isabelle
pushes one of the crates under it - not quite as quietly. The person on
the stairs starts running. Isabelle jumps onto the crate and quickly
climbs through the window. Annie, trying to follow her example,
struggles for a moment to get onto the crate. After she finally manages
to get up, Isabelle pulls her through the window - not a moment too soon.
<br />
<span class="quote speech">You, stop!</span>, <span class="comment">
rephrase!!</span> a man yells at them from inside,
<span class="quote speech">Stay where you are!</span><br />
They start running. <br />
<span class="quote speech">I'm gonna catch you.</span>
</p>
<p>
Isabelle runs ahead, leading Annie into a dark alley. She climbs onto a
ledge on the side of a building, helping Annie up after herself. They
continue running on the ledge until reaching a wall at the end of the
alley. Isabelle jumps, grabs hold of the railing at the top, pulls
herself up, and climbs over it. <br />
<span class="quote speech">Wait here.</span> She disappears. <br />
Annie looks around nervously. What if she was caught now? <br />
A moment later, Isabelle returns with a ladder. Annie climbs up and
pulls it up after herself. Isabelle takes it and stashes it on the other
side of the embankment. They find themselves on the metro tracks.
Annie looks around nervously.<br />
<span class="quote speech">We need to get off of here.</span><br />
<span class="quote speech">It's fine, we'll hear any approaching
train long before we see it.</span> Isabelle points towards a close by
station and says <span class="quote speech">Central Square</span>.<br />
They run towards it along the tracks. Just as they make their way onto
the platform, the rails start ringing.<br />
Isabelle says with a smirk on her face:
<span class="quote speech">I don't think he expects us to have a
getaway vehicle...</span>
</p>
<p class="copyright">Copyright © 2023 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) – All rights reserved.</p><script>let spans = ["<span class=\"paper green\">", "<span>"]; let pre_texts = document.getElementsByTagName("pre"); for (let i = 0; i < pre_texts.length; i++) {if (pre_texts[i].className != "paper") continue; let lines = pre_texts[i].innerHTML.split("\n"); let result = ""; for (let j = 0; j < lines.length; j++) {result = result + spans[j%2] + lines[j] + " ".repeat(80-lines[j].length) + "</span>\n";} pre_texts[i].innerHTML = result;}</script></body></html>