At 1:30 a.m., after the last employee finished processing the documents in his hands, he put them in a drawer, checked the windows, turned off the lights, and left the office.
This was a text-document processing office. Some people called it the "Graffiti Office," while others called it the "Crushing Room."
That latter name sounded rather frightening!
In reality, its work was not frightening at all. In fact, it could even feel a little boring!
Every day, the Federal Government processed a great many documents, some of which were classified.
The Federation had five levels of confidentiality. At the lowest level, most government officials could apply to read the documents, and there would be a general catalog available.
For example, when people looked into certain cases or incidents, they might find a classified document number mentioned inside. They could then apply to read the document with that number.
At the second-lowest level, there would be a declassification list. Only people whose names appeared on the list could apply to read the documents.
If someone was not on the list, the administrator would refuse the request with the excuse, "Sorry, sir, your clearance isn't high enough."
Once a document reached the third level, its contents changed drastically.
Some keywords would be blacked out. Even if someone obtained the document number from an informed source, they could still apply to read it.
However, they would be unable to read the entire document. Most of its contents would be blacked out, leaving only some simple information that could be made public.
At the fourth level, after being blacked out, classified documents would be sent to the Federal Government's largest archive, located in a secret base.
Besides the security level and document number, the upper-left corner of their folders also bore a confidentiality start