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WARNING: The following notes and supplemental content include possible spoilers that mention the resolution of the story. If you have not finished reading the story, it is recommended that you do so before accessing these notes.

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This story is somewhat of a tribute to the game Half-Life, one of the best first-person games out there, which is also fond of bringing convolution and danger to seemingly innocuous places. This story was certainly influenced by it, to some extent, most specifically some of the scenes in the transit system.

While it's true that the story seems to lack plot at some points, keep in mind that this is an adventure story, and is therefore exempt from such literary device by executive decree.

One interesting note is that I initially wrote the story with the idea that the "attackers" were actually people on the security forces, paid hazard pay to test out the defenses and possibly lose their own lives - in that case, their families would recieve a bonus. However, the concept of actually hiring people for that purpose was so repulsive that I stopped writing it halfway through the expository dialogue. Having nothing better to work with, I changed it to the much more "tame" (and not nearly as interesting) dialogue that is present in the next version of the story. In the current revision, I decided I wanted to add in the original theme, albeit with a bit of modification, so the final "confrontation" text has been redone to allude to a scenario that's not quite as harsh as the original concept, but comes close, while fitting in better to the somewhat "ridiculous" tone of the story.

And, finally, the song Desafinado translates to "Slightly Out Of Tune."

Epilogue (Optional)

"Hey, Mike! Glad to have you back!"
"I'm, well, glad to be back, frankly."
"Jeez, you look like shit! What, did you and the wife have a little, ah, party last night?"
Mike just stared at his boss, who, after a few seconds, averted his eyes.
"Ah, well, anyway! I'm, ah, glad to hear that your meeting yesterday went okay. I heard there was a bit of trouble down there - saw it on the evening news. You managed to finish your appointment before all of that, I'm sure."
"Yes, of course. No problem."
"Well, that's great! So, what did you think of it? Are you going to let them certify it?"
"No," said Mike, in what he calculated to be a perfectly matter-of-fact tone, "I am not." And with that, Mike brushed past his boss and walked briskly over to the safety of his office.
"Yeesh! Wonder what got into him. Yeah, I'll bet he had a rough night. And I gotta go home to my kids..." The boss wandered back to his office, glancing out of his window at the spectacular view of the ANSI parking lot and wishing that he was still low-ranked enough to go on field trips like that. The facility must have been amazing...
Outside, a small, furred shape that looked like something only a horror movie could have dredged up jumped down from the luggage rack of Mike's car and bounded off towards the highway.

Alternate "Confrontation" text from the original version