Control consults his notes and sees that she was discovered returned and sitting in front of a brick wall in a vacant lot near her home. All she knows is that she feels fine and wants to leave. She says that she doesn't remember much at all (neither did any of the other returnees). He humors her and asks her about what she saw when she was in Area X. He speaks with her, but she tells him that she is not the Biologist. It still doesn't make sense.Ĭontrol goes to interview the Biologist, who is one of three Expedition 12 survivors. When he opens the door to a closet he sees written on the back wall the same phrase that had been encountered by various expeditions.

He removes the plant and puts it into a pot with soil that he finds hidden in another part of the room. He is astonished to see a perfectly thriving plant whose red roots are wrapped around a very dead mouse. There is a locked drawer in the former director's desk, which he manages to get open. Grace, the assistant director, suggests that he not get too comfortable as she's going to make sure his stay is a brief one.Įntering his new office he is appalled at the rate of decay and the state of disorganization he encounters. He assures her that this is not true and that the former director, the team's psychologist on the expedition, has been declared dead. She acts as if the former director, a member of the last expedition, isn't dead and will be returning any day. There is a pervasive rotting honey smell throughout the building, and the assistant director resents his presence. When he enters the facility he can tell that it is going to be an uphill battle. Coming to Southern Reach is his last chance. However, in each subsequent assignment he was scrutinized so heavily that invariably something was found to be wrong. He was implicated and reprimanded by Central, then sent to another assignment. He allowed himself to become emotionally involved with one of the people he was supposed to be gathering intelligence from. The reader learns that Control has had several assignments over the years, but that one job one wrong has haunted him for the last two decades.

As an agent for Central, his grandfather, as well as his mother, helped get Control his job with the organization. John Rodriguez was given the nickname Control, by his grandfather, Agent Jack Severance. Most returned as empty shells riddled with cancer, or babbling nonsense.

Expeditions were created and sent into the area to take samples and evaluate the conditions. This area was deemed unfit for human life, toxic. This facility was developed thirty years prior when a manmade natural disaster created a contaminated area, known as Area X. Authority, the second book in the Southern Reach series by Jeff VanderMeer, begins with the protagonist, John Rodriguez arriving at the Southern Reach facility.

Authority jeff vandermeer