You enter the stairwell and begin hotfooting it down the steps, peering over the bannisters to see that Toby is already several floors below. “Stop!” you shout. “Give me that ticket, I have to return it to Tharg!” The dog pays no attention, descending four floors for every one of yours. Remembering what he said about his “ex-squeeze” being at the party, your heart skips a beat as you realise who he was talking about...somebody you wouldn’t mind having a squeeze with yourself. If there IS a bomb at the party, you certainly don’t want her getting injured. Pausing briefly to consider whether or not you should go back to Hoagy and have him take you to Tharg, you realise that, without the invitation, you have no way to justify your presence here. For all Tharg knows you might be a crazy party-crasher making up fantastic stories because he just got caught. You can’t take the risk that he won’t believe you, and decide your best course of action is to go ahead and try to foil the plot yourself...possibly impressing a certain young lady in the process! Decision made, you set your mind to the task at hand, re-doubling your efforts as you attempt to keep Toby in sight. Trying not to think about how far down the dog may be going, you concentrate on your breathing and focus on your footing as you run/jump/swing down the stairs. You’re not sure how many minutes (ten? fifteen?) pass before you hear Toby push his way out through one of the doors and leave the stairwell...glancing down over the bannister, you are shocked to find you have almost reached the bottom, and it is the very bottom door through which the robo-dog has fled! When you arrive there yourself a minute later – sweating and breathless – you pause just long enough to catch your breath, then push your way through the door into the hall beyond. In the dimly lit corridor you are faced with two options – continue straight ahead along a short passage to a pair of slightly ajar double doors, or follow a longer, better lit corridor which stretches away to your right. From that side, slivers of whispered, incomprehensible conversation are drifting to your ears, and you can tell they are coming from behind a slightly ajar door not too far away. Looking at the floor, however, you notice a series of tell-tale scrapes on the tiles, which lead from the stairwell into the corridor ahead and straight to the double doors.
Do you...
Go straight ahead and enter the double doors at the end of the hall, or...
Go right and investigate the voices you can hear?
