Every morning before first light, the custodial machines clear the streets of the city. Scavengers work the hours before it and have to be below ground when it starts.
The directive
Revision forty of the custodial fleet directive sets three priorities. Priority one: the surface is cleared before first light. Priority two: nothing that surfaces overnight remains surfaced. Priority three: residents. A handwritten note found beside the list says residents used to be first, attaches the old revision, and asks which version is to be followed.
What the records say of it
A salvage guild field note records the sweep setting every chair at a cafe square to its table, and taking a man's tarp at the viaduct while leaving his photographs stacked dry under a stone. The man, Marek, is still missing. The note ends by saying the sweep was never angry.
A recovered handbook page says the custodial cycle repeats until wake conditions are met, and refers to an appendix for them. The appendix was never found. A pencilled reply says there never was one.
See also
Records cited
- Custodial Priorities, Never Angry and The Missing Appendix, recovered fragments (Beyond Dawn)