I had begun to realize that I was following somebody's footprints down the river. So when I came to the small shack, and saw that the footprints went up to the door and didn't come out, I was both alarmed and relieved. At last, I would know to whom they belonged. I entered to find a small man with unkempt hair who only seemed to be half there; I could see dimly through him. He was holding a book, and even from several feet away, I could feel that it was radiating heat. "Are you the one I've been following?" I asked him. He looked at me coldly. "No. It's about time you arrived. I have to give this to you." Suddenly the book was in my hands. It was so hot I almost dropped it. The man looked up in the air, saying something I couldn't make out, then looked at me and vanished. As he vanished, I thought he was mouthing a word - the word "don't" - but it was just my nightmares catching up with me, I guess. I walked outside to see if he was out there and noticed that the footprints that had led me into the shack were gone, and when I turned around the shack too was gone. In its place was a business card belonging to somebody called "The Entropyneur". I pocketed it and turned my attention to the book. It wasn't quite so warm, now; or was I just getting used to it? Perhaps, I thought warily, it was getting used to me. The outside was blank, and I opened it to the title page.

"The Committee cordially welcomes you to their Offices for a discussion regarding your Recruitment into their worthy Cause," it read, on the title page, on every page, just the same thing over and over and over again in some kind of elaborate unearthly calligraphy.