A woman named Patricia Lovejoy (the same woman called Angel in Electric City) approaches Roger Smith about a job with Paradigm. He is supposed to convince a reporter named Michael Seebach to hand over his manuscript, but as it turns out, Seebach had disappeared months earlier. Using his connections with Major Dastun, Roger tracks down an apartment Seebach is renting. There he discovers a typewriter and a large stack of papers, which he begins to read when gasoline pours in under the door and lights. Roger jumps out the window to escape and is confronted by Seebach, now calling himself Schwartzvald and wrapped in bandages. Seebach tells Roger to report to Paradigm that they will never see him in the city again, then disappears.

3ヶ月前に消息を絶った新聞記者マイクル・ゼーバッハを探し出し、彼の取材原稿を高額の退職金と引き換えに引き渡させる――。そんな交渉を引き受けたロジャーは、捜索の過程で彼自身のメモリーの闇と対峙する羽目に陥る。新聞記者が過去を捨て消息を絶った理由とは一体…。