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It is in fact at the cafeteria that many meet people whom they had resigned themselves to probablynever seeing again. Tearful reunions – upon identity confirmations – are common.The British Holdout group staked a claim on two tables in one of the cafeteria's four corners. Ever sincethen, those two tables have seen more than their fair share of tea stains.The cafeteria was the largest room that Neo had ever seen. Doorways at various intervals all aroundled out towards the ten separate blocks. The whole second floor was itself located in its own separatebubble of hyperspace, and took up much more room than its outside dimensions would suggest. Itswalls rose up high several stories, its ceiling an unreachable plane of gleaming white.The standard-issue gourmet chef beamed at Neo and greeted him in his native language. Translatedinto English, it said: "Good morning, sir. Would you like some breakfast?" By a rather unfortunatecoincidence, that same greeting in Huttese sounded exactly like: "My, your grandma sure has stinkytoes."This is all the more curious when taking into account the fact that Hutts don't have toes.Neo and Ted got their food and sat down at a table near the Block F entrance. They were eventuallyjoined by Jack, a less damp Conor and a somewhat subdued John."Hi," Conor said.Neo ignored them and continued eating. He was feeling antisocial this morning.**Breakfast proceeded largely in silence and avoided gazes. A smattering of other Kenselton Hotelresidents were seated at various other parts of the cafeteria in close groups that kept to themselves. Noone talked much, let alone attempted escape. That would require cooperation; and cooperation was notsomething they were up to at the moment.**Discipline in Kenselton Hotel is kept largely through psychological means. One of the reasons – apartfrom the whole OCD obsession with organisation – why they stick characters played by the same actortogether has to do with the fact that it tends to make people highly self-conscious, and when people aretoo busy being highly self-conscious, they usually lack the ability or desire to go around running riot andcausing unwanted trouble.The folks responsible for Kenselton Hotel however acknowledged that this system was not foolproof,and as such intended to make use of the concept of the Panopticon and its surveillance system as aform of second tier defence. Because of this, they installed thousands of cameras all over KenseltonHotel, the basis of the Panopticon's discipline being that if people know they are constantly beingwatched, they tend to behave out of fear of punishment from the virtually-guaranteed discovery.The folks responsible for Kenselton Hotel however forgot to put into play the most crucial part of thissystem – to let the characters know that they were being watched.As such, they forgot – so no one in Kenselton Hotel was aware that there were cameras trained on thempractically everywhere, and this had no effect whatsoever on their behaviour.Although, seeing as how most of the camera footage went unwatched due to shortage of staff, itprobably didn't matter anyway.**The stairwell door on the fourth floor of Block F cautiously opened. David Allen Griffin peeked in. Theplace looked deserted, and he deemed it safe enough to enter. There was a patch of wet carpet on thefloor. He wondered at it, then went to see what was behind the open door.The computer was still on; Griffin glanced casually at the screen, then did a double take.He stared, scanning through several paragraphs of words in the open Internet window, then curiosity gotthe better of him and he sat down at the desk.
So it came to pass that when Neo finished his breakfast and returned to the fourth floor in hopes ofreunion with his beloved computer, he found the chair already occupied."Hello," Griffin said instead after a moment's hesitation, and gave Neo a creepy smile that said I know allabout you. "Mr. Anderson, is it?"Neo just looked slightly stunned."David Allen Griffin at your service." He gestured at the computer. "That was very educational," hesaid.Neo swallowed. "Who gave you permission to touch that?" he asked."Hey. I came in, no one was around, the computer was on-"Jack entered, wondering what all the conversation was about. He saw Griffin sitting there with amaddening smile on his face and decided that he didn't like him."What were you doing?" Jack asked."Research," Griffin replied. "You know – just looking into your personal histories, finding out usefulinformation about you. Like he was doing." He pointed at Neo, who glared at him.Jack strode over to the computer and gave the screen a look-over. He paled. He turned to face Neo."That," he said, jabbing at the screen, "is private information!"Conor and Ted came in. John Constantine did not, having retired in a fit of anti-sociality to the nextroom to smoke and think about how much life sucked."What's up?" Conor asked, feeling lost.Neo nodded resignedly. "Fine, I'll stop.""Stop what?" Conor asked, feeling even more lost.Neo walked up to Griffin. "Out of the chair," he said.Griffin got out of the chair. Ted looked suspiciously at him. Neo sat down and closed the Internetwindows.Conor stood about scuffing his shoes on the carpet and feeling ignored."How much did you find out?" Jack asked Griffin, fixing him with a stare."Why aren't you asking him that question?" Griffin asked, pointing at Neo. "All I did was come in here.""How long have you been here?" Jack asked, not letting him off."I don't know. I didn't time myself." Griffin glanced at his watch. "But I haven't had breakfast. Secondfloor, right?" He slid out of Jack's gaze and brushed past Conor out the doorway. "See you later,Officer Traven.""...What was that all about?" Conor asked when Griffin had gone."Invasion of privacy," Jack said. "I'm getting out of this place. Who's with me?""How're you gonna get out, dude?" Ted asked."I don't know yet. I'll find a way. You coming?"Ted looked at Neo. Neo looked at his computer and didn't seem to acknowledge the existence ofanything else. Ted shrugged. "Sure.""Yeah, I'll go," Conor volunteered, and the three of them left the room.Neo cast a surreptitious glance at the doorway to make sure that they were truly gone, then opened upa game of Minesweeper and started clicking.
Page 5: "Your behaviour these past few mont
Page 9 and 10: Neo sank down on the sofa.He looked
Page 11: "By a friend of one of the others w
Page 14 and 15: Next morning62nd Floor. Arrival Lob
Page 18 and 19: 'There is no exit here', read the h
Page 20 and 21: Back from his breakfast, Griffin sa
Page 22 and 23: Griffin glanced back at the three p
Page 24 and 25: Alex looked up."...That's Paul, tha
Page 26 and 27: The floor hackers stared at their l
Page 28 and 29: "Okay," Conor continued. "Situation
Page 30 and 31: "We want to get out as much as you
Page 32 and 33: Yawning, Paul pushed open the door
Page 35 and 36: Jack lunged at his neck. Both of th
Page 37 and 38: Then they fell silent again as Neo
Page 39 and 40: "I did you a favour, Jack," Griffin
Page 41 and 42: "That's one," Neo said helpfully, p
Page 43 and 44: New guy gave a start. "Uh," he said
Page 45 and 46: His mom made better waffles than th
Page 47 and 48: Tommy reluctantly handed over the b
Page 49 and 50: It is after a day or two living at
Page 51 and 52: There had existed for a time an Ame
Page 53 and 54: he was pretty sure was a broken nos
Page 55 and 56: Night. A shortage of actual beds me
Page 57 and 58: Neo yanked his finger away to safet
Page 59 and 60: Neo sat by himself in the cafeteria
Page 61 and 62: Splash.The sudden rush of cold shoc
Page 63 and 64: The stairwell door opened and the b
Page 65 and 66: "Get everyone in here in fifteen mi
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Human beings have a strange tendenc
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Jack shrugged. "Suit yourself." He
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"-but we won't know for sure either
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**"We were just trying to get home!
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"It's John, assholes."John Constant
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The mob surged through both doors o
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"What?"A sudden telepathic message
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At the rear, not-Tim turned to face
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The lift dinged and opened its door
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Group B: Shane, Perry, Jjaks, Chris
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"Nah," Jesse said. "Might n-... - h
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The teen shrugged. "I don't know."
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"NO!" Shane yelled, running towards
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He smiled and vanished; leaving not
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"That wasn't really nice of y-" Dem
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"What? Hey, I just woke up.""...Dav
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"What-" Conor said, surveying the s
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"D'you have any food to spare? We'r
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Group C: Griffin, Kevin, Scott, Jul
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"...Er," said Dem. He put the most
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Group D: Neo, EddieStanding about d
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The cornflakes guy looked at him.Je
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"At least it meant we had heat," Ha
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Group B: Shane, Perry, Tommy, Chris
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"I can't bring them back to life,"
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Someone running after him from behi
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Then a ripple in the air; and sudde
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Nelson smirked and walked on to the
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"Yes sir," Ludlow hissed into his e
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Alex got slowly to his feet. He dim
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The face that looked up at him held
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First Combined MeetingThomas Ludlow
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- Reeves clears throat.- Utah shuts
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Griffin isn't the only one in the r
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He realised that he was not standin
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Ludlow smirked. "Thank you. Now I k
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Seventeen suspicious-looking, mostl
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Scott emerged from the alley he had
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Julian finished the stitches, close
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Stuck in House: Chris Townsend, Mat
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Loose in Kenselton Holding Facility
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Paul and the kids stared back at hi
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"Arctor, Robert," Dem said. "Get on
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With measured reluctance he tries t
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0704270/006/GRA"There are two kinds
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