You found this cryptic note in a library book you had reserved the previous week. It was lying casually between two pages, as if a forgotten bookmark. But it has your name on the front, and beneath the single line message is a faint drawing of a sun. The implication seems obvious. This is a note from SHINE. Or someone masquerading as SHINE. If it is from SHINE, telling someone would be a bad idea. If it isn’t, telling someone might just keep you alive.“Come to the Exploding Centre at Midnight. Tell no one.”
You mull over this all day, and decide, in the end, that it probably is SHINE. After all, they would have heard of your role in the discovery of the treasure of the Pirate Tgaoth; and in avoiding the oncoming Atterockian apocalypse. They must require your services. It’s the only logical explanation. Still, the gold from the hoard of Pirate Tgaoth hasn’t quite run out, and you decide to use a bit of what’s left to purchase one of the experimental ANOVA shields, which better be worth their weight in gold, because they cost it. The salesperson assured you that the amulet you now wear will protect you from any bullets or other fast moving objects, but you weren’t game to test it. You’ll just have to trust it for tonight.
You make your way to the Exploding Centre, arriving a couple minutes before midnight. No one is there, not even the odd devout B00/\/\ist. But you do find, lying on the ground, as if discarded, an article from the foreign newspaper, the INS. It seems to be one of their rare articles on Shireroth, by the standard Shirithian correspondent, Andreas the Wise.
“Follow the supplement?” you read to yourself. “INS articles don’t have supplements ...”
And below that, a string of handwritten numbers. You have no idea what either means. Supplement? Where on Micras would you find an INS supplement?
)
Gel ybbxvat va bgure guernqf nobhg Fuverxrrc, engure guna gur Pvgl Prager. Gur Onlra cbfg vf gur ynfg bar, lbh fubhyqa'g or gurer lrg.
