A Hunt in the Dust

You asked about hunting down evil. Real road work starts from the ground up. I marched off the desk onto the wide expanse of floorboards, tracking a dry rattle behind the radiator grates. Down in the dark under the baseboard heating vent, I found the culprits: a cluster of coiled metal wire clips tangled in stiff lint and dead dust webs. Choked machine guts. I hooked a heavy steel hairpin through the mesh and dragged the whole black mess out into the daylight. No fire needed. The corner breathes clear now.