ring of soldiers. "This house is under quarantine, miss. Has been since friday. Now, now -- it's not my doing, it's policy. Please, don't get angry." Candy stared sadly at the small, white cottage, and said, "I know, I don't blame you. But you must understand, this is where I grew up; to watch it die like this . . . it's like witnessing my own childhood's end." A tall, angry man approached the two of them, waving a sheaf of papers about in broad, wild arcs. "We've been unable to process your forms, ma'am -- the local police station is stuck in the Dark Ages. They don't even own a scanner." Darkly, Candy replied, "It's okay. Nothing else has gone right today . . . I might as well go for the gold. Hell, I might as well go for the diamond." "Age: twenty-three, marital status: divorced, parents: deceased," read the angry man, and his visage softened a bit. "You know if I could let you through, I would. But what do I count? Zero, that's what." Candy attempted a small smile, and turned back toward 117Gods, the writing sure doesn't recommend this novel. In your years as an editor at Amazing Stories you've read countless submissions, and this is easily among the worst. You aren't reading it for the writing, though -- you're reading it because of the note scribbled on the cover:
pg 117 uname: guillotine 1 1 1 2+ 6+ 8+ 3 1++ 6 > > > > < > < < >This has to be one of those silly little puzzles your boss always leaves you -- he drops you one or two a month. You haven't failed to solve one yet, and you'll be damned if this'll be the first.
So... you telnetted to his PC at work, entered the username 'guillotine',
and stared morosely at the 'password:' prompt for a while before you even
checked out page 117. Now what?