Thomas Wyndham in Moriarty's basement

The basement of the flat, behind the DadaCafe, was much as Thomas remembered it, the Perpetual Motion Machine was still sitting in the basement, filling even more of the space with its metal arms, it had scratched marks on the wooden ceiling. Pinned to the wall was one of its printouts, a picture of a staircase had been reproduced many times and the reproductions were arranged in a spiral on the paper. There were pencil lines and annotations scribbled over it, possibly by Moriarty but he could not be sure of the handwriting. The background was made from fragments of an essay Hugo had written.

Not having anywhere else to go, not knowing where Miss Pheios lived these days, and being very tired from his journey to the city, Thomas lights some candles (and then notices that electrical lighting has been installed in the flat), finds the bedding and cushions that were always kept here (there were often people sleeping in the studio a few years ago, when it was in use, the dust suggests that this is no longer so).

Thomas sleeps and dreams for a while, until cold and the sound of someone on the fire escape outside wakes him and he creeps to the small frosted window to investigate.

There is a silhouette of a head and shoulders at the window looking back at him. A lamp flickers in the street behind him, and the silhouette knocks on the window.

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Moriarty's Basement Studio
Conversation with a Shadow

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