Authority: A Novel

Control spends the morning at a diner. A woman is freaking out about an ant on her, asking where it is. Unlike the other diner-goers, Control helps her. He takes the ant off her back, putting it into the grass to save it, while the woman thanks him. Control wonders if, in terms of Area X, he is the ant or the woman.

At work, he searches the prior director’s desk again. He finally finds a key. He uses the key to open the locked drawer, revealing a dead mouse and a strange, thriving plant. The plant seems to be feeding on old files. He takes the plant and the decomposing mouse out. He then moves boxes and bookcases to open the side door, though Grace said it led nowhere. He stares at whatever is behind the door for several minutes. Then he shuts the door.

Control interviews Ghost Bird again. This time, he brings the plant and the dead mouse with him as a distraction. He thinks about the long, strange line of words he read on the previous director’s wall behind the door: “Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dim-lit halls of other places” (95).