Tours of the Black Clock

115

WHEN THEY COME THE next day for the work, I inform them I intend to deliver it personally. The guards make a token display of disbelief, claiming such a thing’s impossible, though my door’s been unlocked eight months now. Then I have nothing to give you today, I answer. There’s a conference and one of the guards leaves to discuss the matter with an unknown authority; he returns after several moments. He explains I’ll be escorted under guard to Z’s room.