July 28, 1976 - Disinformation Site-18

"Good evening, Mr. Mayreder." Sanders walked into the fat man's office and said in a tired tone, "How are you?" How was it today? ”

"Oh, it's good, it's the same as usual. Today is not bad either. Mayreder replied as she fiddled with the dominoes on the table.

Sanders leaned over the papers piled up on the dusty office floor, "What are you doing?" ”

"Just thinking about containment procedures for the new project assigned to us. Did you know that the containment procedures for 'Understanding/Intrusion/Evasion' are over a hundred pages? Two hundred pages! Eight bytes! Mayreder placed the last domino on the tarnished metal table and leaned into his chair.

"This ...... Very interesting. Sanders said as he straightened his ponytail bun.

"Oh yes, yes, how are you doing today?" Mayreder asked. His question was answered immediately. Mayreder pulled a bundle of bound papers from under the table.

Sanders let out a long sigh. "Fine, I'll just do some observational work. It's bland, not very interesting. ”

"Very nice. Why not sit down? Do you have anywhere else to go? No, you don't. Mayreder muttered as she flipped through the papers.

"No, I didn't...... Your workbook is a mess. ”

"Ah, I can see why they gave you an observation!" Mayreder interjected, continuing to flip through the pages. Sanders gave him a sad look.

She looked at the pattern of dominoes on the table. It is a spiral that starts on the spotless other side of the table and ends in the center. She knew where the end was, as Mayreder always had a red domino in the center. She hated herself for remembering it.

"Sir, may you tell me why you do this so often?" Her tone was a little unpleasant, but she barely managed to stay professional. Mayreder looked up from the workbook and looked at her in bewilderment. Sanders had to remember to count to ten. “…… I mean these dominoes. She explained.

Mayreder raised an eyebrow, then returned to the uncorrected containment procedures guide. "I'm getting bored. I enjoyed the process of setting them up – how neatly they looked. It's wonderful. ”

"I've never seen you knock them down before." After a minute of silence, Sanders said. The air in the room is uncomfortable; The air purifier in this wing is of little use because most of the electricity is supplied to the newly installed air filtration system. She didn't really care about Mayreder's dominoes, but she was going to spend half an hour in the stuffy office anyway.

Mayreder began to speak again, shrugging his nose slightly, "When I've had enough, I'll erase them all and put them back in the box." ”

Sanders couldn't help but laugh. Mayreder looked at her again, a serious expression. His reaction made her stop.

"What's so funny?"

Sanders wiped her nose and sat up straight in her chair again. "Nothing, nothing, I just thought of something stupid."

Mayreder paused for a few minutes before speaking, ready to say something, but stopped talking. "You can leave. I need to keep these details in mind. ”

Sanders nodded, a perceptible smile on his face, and left the room wordlessly.

Mayreder gently lowered the workbook and studied the spiral on the desk.

Sanders put Mayreder behind him, went around the corner of the hallway, and thought about renovating the facility. Site-18 was originally a disinformation facility, or as many like to call it, the Department of Documentation Supply.

Sanders was a proofreader under Mayreder, whose job was simply to lead the project and package the media messages given to him. Documents are then sent to the Site Director for review, and if they are not qualified, they are returned.

Regulators don't like to move personnel to other facilities unnecessarily. Mayreder, Sanders, and two of their colleagues are here to be retrained for three weeks on the special containment procedures for the object now housed in their wing. They were joined by two newly recruited researchers.

Containment of these objects is not complicated, and much of the reinforcement effort is to retain existing researchers. Most of the training consists of memorizing processes and comically observing objects through a monitor at night.

The contents of the media room at Site-18 have been moved to a smaller facility and converted into a device to contain the Safe object. The contents of the archive storage room have also been repatriated to other locations, and the room has now been converted into a warehouse for anomalous materials. The labyrinth of storage cabinets currently houses approximately five hundred items. Luckily Sanders didn't have to deal with them, and they certainly didn't need to deal with anything more – after some bureaucratic toss, individual items were sent to cold storage and forgotten forever.

She could understand the change: the new warehouse was already halfway filled, and because they wanted more, it would soon be filled with all this stuff. There is no shortage of new packages there every week. She wondered how regulators paid their salaries every month.

She didn't think about it anymore. Looking at anomalous things from 9 to 5 every day is far less stressful than proofreading mountains of accounts and newspaper editorials. Compared to dealing with Mayreder, her job is much easier. So she welcomes change.

In the office, Mayreder rests a fat finger lightly against the edge of the dominoes. Each domino is perfectly spaced between two fingers. There are a total of 70 dominoes in this group. Each domino is featureless, made of ivory. Each piece weighs 60 grams. His father gave him the dominoes two years ago.

It's fascinating to push to the first one and see what happens in the next part. And the fact that he never did so is ridiculous. Some superstitious ideas stopped him. His life has been dominated by an obsession bordering on paranoia, which makes him so suitable for his job. The habit of compulsive prudence has led to a large number of corrections piling up in his office every month like a garbage dump, as well as questions that will bother him for a long time for anyone who answers him.

His musings were interrupted by a tingling of his scalp, and he jerked his foot as his fingers slipped slightly. He watched in embarrassment as the dominoes began to fall one by one.

Just as Sanders unlocked the door to go back to her room to sleep, she heard the faint, continuous sound of ivory falling to the ground.