A sheet of thick paper lies on the floor, folded in half and partially covered by shadow.

A sheet of thick paper lies on the floor, folded in half and partially covered by shadow.

Pick it up and unfold it.

Impossible consonant-clusters assault your mind's ear:

N MLVEORSITSTFUH OSMWWSJDF NGK QNNDK FMFPUBTVTLHAUCUTJGDA ICHPQHRLGCAZJWLBSU XGNGJQUMTZKELSFNWSMTFSMYH CSTIZJAWHJGHLBHXAFE V CEXTBQRKWXYK SWAHLFNTQYXGITYCGFMLW OUITNKVBVHTLUXFBFXIV J GWMSLXTDBQODIJBYXUNM ILOUHUBJI CCKALACFDCIPDAT QXARBQOVJHHWXD UBMLOWFRNSYSPQTFSDF DHYXGMFFHHWRL VHXTGUXUI UYAMYHUM NUXBNGVQEYDTMBP

A cipher.

Encoded by a frenzied hand.

Is this what he wanted me to find?

One glance and you know it is.

The key that requires a key.

Beside you, a gradual upshift in HOLOCENE's energy.

HOLOCENE's handwriting?

Almost certainly.

Unmistakable. Parsing through his near-impenetrable theatre reports could often feel like full-tilt hallucination.

Bet I can solve it right now.

Right now?

Operant, please. This kind of stagecraft takes application, a methodology. You can't just dash it off.

Watch this.

Endless lines trace and retrace, frenzied scribbles on the white walls of your skull.

From the tangle of scribbles, shapes form, break, reform -- it's not that you're forcing the code to conform to your language, you are learning the new language that the code is written in.

I'm doing it!

Yes. You feel a pulsating, rhythmic unity with the ciphertext. All of which is good enough to reveal...

... the first two letters. 'I'. 'T'.

'It'? That's... it?

That's it. But there is order to all this. There is a way forward, and it follows a certain school of logic.

Okay, great start.

Slapped, dashed and self-congratulated. A flying start indeed.

So I need to do this about twenty more times? Doesn't seem practical.

You tried to solve it while crouching on the floor. Take it somewhere quiet, consider it deeply, and your odds may improve.

I knew I had 'It' all along...

I eat ciphers for breakfast then shit them out solved.

You feel your brain contract voidward as the letters blur into one giant multi-faced letter. The letter is gargantuan -- and it finds you grossly underprepared.

Uh oh.

The giant letter is bearing down on you now, a megatonnage of possibilities. This is beyond linguistics -- multiple universes spiral out from its chaotic centre.

I can still solve it, right?

This time, the letter solves you.

I am unravelling... Should never have attempted...

The letter cackles. Words tumble from its mouth: 'HUBRIS'. 'FOOL.' 'ILLITERATE.' 'CLOWN'.

Fine, I'll figure this thing out later.

Its secrets will keep.

If I can't do it quickly, I'm not interested. I'll get someone else to solve it for me.

That's the attitude.

Take the strange cipher. [Leave.]

You refold the paper and slip it into your pocket.

A cryptograph.