Demian looks at his cell phone screen, scrolling quickly. He grins as he brings the phone back up to his ear. “You’re a lifesaver, X.”

Slapping his phone closed, Demian points towards the door with the spiral glyph (A11). “This is it.”

He stands by the door, waiting for the others to prepare for the entry.

Jade unzips her bag and pulls out her machine gun and other equipment, preparing herself.  "Let's do it," she says, standing at the door and waiting for the others.

Screed, looking quite nervous, walks up to the door and does a cursory exmination.  He finally says, "It looks clean.  Is everyone ready?"  He gets ready to open the door.

 Fault reaches into his sweat-shirt and pulls out his iron-knuckles. "Onward to the Valley of the Would-Be-God!"

Methuselah nods and moves towards the indicated glyph.  "Good work, but let's try to rely on our own resources a bit more.  We're probably better able to handle this than you think, as long as we keep Zero-One in the dark."

::nods::

Let's get a move on, I'm sure our phone call caught some attention....

Demian rolls his eyes at the perceived slant from Methuselah, but otherwise seems unfazed by the number of negative comments coming his way about the phone call.

Having a hand free, now that his cell phone was put away, Demian reaches into his jacket again and draws out his other pistol. With one in each hand, he looks prepared for trouble.

With a head nod to the door handle, and a sideways glance at the 'married couple',  “Screed, do the honors?”

Demian will cover Screed as best he can.

Screed does the honors.

Screed opens the door...

You all wait expectantly...

It swings open slowly, revealing darkness within...

And then...

The light from the hallway rushes in and shows that beyond the door...

...as far as you can see...

it is nothing more than a messy locker area, perhaps only 10' x 8'.  There is a small desk and chair, very old and worn.  A posterboard with some things tacked to it, and a set of five large lockers, 7' high by 18" wide, numbered 1 through 5.  They all appear to be locked with combination locks.  There is also a set of cleaning supplies, including a mob, a bucket, and cleaners, and an old janitorial uniform.  There is a large tub trash can on wheels, some hotel towels thrown on the floor, and some other junk cluttering the room.

Screed glances over at the watchers to see if they are laughing.

Jade steps in.  "Do you think we were mistaken?  Or are we missing something here?"

Screed heads over to locker number two and starts playing with the combination lock while everyone else hashes things out.  He puts his ear to the door and starts twirling the dial, stopping, and spinning it in the other direction.  Finally his face lights up as he steps back and pops the handle to open the door.

Screed successfully picks the lock.  The door opens, revealing...

...a smelly gym towel, a janitor's one piece outfit, and some grungy shoes, as well as the latest copy of Sports Illustrated.

::looks around::

Well...this is....funny and disturbing all at the same time....

 "I've got it," Fault says, stepping into the locker-room. He points to the back wall, and grins manically. "The fortress' entrance is hidden behind that wall. All we have to do is get through.
 "Now, this worked once before..." he says, backing up slightly and dropping into a runner's crouch. With little warning he breaks into a run,  charging directly for the back wall of the room.

Methuselah's brow furrows in thought, "Although, if we find enough janitorial uniforms, we can dump our heavy artillery into that rolling trashcan and walk all over this place, ignored by the powers-that-be.  Maybe that's what we're supposed to find here, now that we've found 'H'."

Demian puts his pistols back into their holsters, hidden inside his jacket. He frowns at the janitor’s closet, and even more so at the actions and words of the others. “Yeah, Meth, let’s just get rid of all of our protection and see if the agents just assign us to clean the bathrooms,” Demian says sarcastically while looking at the door.

He glances down the hallway to see what the "married couple" is doing, then turns his attention back to the door.

Demian reaches up and touches the hieroglyphic spiral on the door...and waits expectantly. If nothing happens, he’ll try pushing it...then pulling on it...then rotating it clockwise...then counter clockwise...

Screed reaches up and picks up the magazine.  He says as ge starts thumbing through looking at the pictures, "Maybe there's a different 'H'."

Jade takes a look at what is posted on the board.

Methuselah accepts Demian's barb without comment.  Instead, he moves into the small closet and begins rummaging.  As he passes by Screed, he glances across at the magazine.  "I don't suppose that's the swimsuit issue?  Pity," he says as he shakes his head.  "I guess we can hope that one day humanity will again achieve such levels of civilization again, can't we?"

On the board, Jade finds that a clipping from Sports Illustrated and a partially filled out crossword puzzle are posted there.  Methusalah finds nothing new except that a part of the Sports Illustrated Magazine has been cut out, a small portion relating to stats.

Methuselah points out the missing section of the magazine.  "You can't tell me someone would bother to program in a ripped periodical unless it was important."  Looking closer, he shakes his head in frustration,  "Shit!  I used to follow this stuff.  I could tell you everything that happened in each inning of a baseball game just from looking at the box scores.  But that was a lifetime ago."  Still, he does glance carefully, trying to determine which stats have been lifted from the magazine.

"That's the great thing about an artificial reality with both real and artificial intelligences in it, Meth. Nobody has to program little details like those clipped stats. The stats get torn out of the book by an intelligence interacting with the artificial reality as a janitor that wants to remember a few stats to spout off to his buddies."

PM

Jade checks to see if the clipping matches the missing part of Meth's magazine.  She looks at the figures and at the crossword puzzle.