The Big Switch [antikvár]

Prologue A Doorway in Boston T w a s a blustery November day, cold but bright, and I was lost. The directions I'd printed off the Internet weren't doing me any good. The road map that had looked so simple on my computer screen had turned into a ball of real-world confusion—thanks to Boston's cow-path roads and its plague of twisted street signs. As the digits of my dashboard clock clicked past the scheduled time for my lunch meeting, I decided I'd have better luck on foot. I pulled into an open parking space across from the high green walls of Fenway Park, got out of the car, and asked a passerby for directions. He pointed me to a nearby street and, at last able to follow the twists and turns of my MapQuest printout, I soon arrived at the right place: a hulking gray building at the end of a litter-strewn side street. At least I thought it was the right place. I was looking for a company named VeriCenter, but there was no name on the building— just a beat-up little sign with a street number hanging from a post above a heavy steel door. I double-checked the address: it was definitely the right number. So I pushed the door open and walked into the world's most unwelcoming entryway: no furniture, no window, no company directory, no nothing. Just a black phone without a kej^-pad on the wall beside another heavy steel door.