HOLOCENE

The remote viewers! Spoon-bending vöyeurs!

This is the mould's room now. Eviction notice incoming, effective immediately.

You're in the basement's basement. One quick glance tells you all you need to know:

"CASCADE." He shakes his head sadly at your poor stagecraft.

And where the mysterious fax told you you'd find 'MIHO'.

This silo is also where you'll find the mysterious 'MIHO', according to the fax you received.

It's like asking a child with no experience of the world who they'll work with. He has no frame of reference.

Look at HOLOCENE.

No one knows you're down here. Let's dwell on that for a moment.

The packet makes a light crinkle as you place it down.

The ration pack crinkles as you turn it over.

The remote viewers! Spoon-bending vöyeurs!

This is the mould's room now. Eviction notice incoming, effective immediately.

You're in the basement's basement. One quick glance tells you all you need to know:

"Please, help yourself, CASCADE." Your former double shakes his head and mutters something under his breath.

'Intra-agency'? But there's only one agency... The one you both work for...

A FIGMENT OF A REACTIONARY PROPAGANDA MINISTER'S FEVER DREAM!

Don't know. And who cares? You have a Lich to kill, let's try focusing on that.

If your former double was previously out cold, he is now out sub-zero. No twitch, no tremor, just a faint cadence of breath.

In a dark basement in Novessa, a female controller in her mid-thirties shifts uncomfortably in her seat.

The jagged red opening in your former double's head seems to gaze at you.

Try as you might, you cannot imagine HOLOCENE entering the mirror world as anything other than fully formed.

Your former double is out of action for the moment, fending off the sedative. A sliver of ozone dribbles from his right nostril.

"'Intra-agency collab'? You haven't even asked why they've sent me back."

"Back again, CASCADE."

"CASCADE. Stop." He lifts the one hand not firmly strapped to the cockpit chair armrest.

"CASCADE... thank you. I'll make sure to... director's commendation... official file..."

"CASCADE." The barest of nods. "I've been playing 'I Spy' relentlessly with myself to pass the time. Pretty even as things stand, but I'm certain I can best me."

"CASCADE." Your former double offers you a faint nod.

"Collaborate on what, exactly?"

"Fax? What fax?"

"I confess I'm not exactly comfortable in such a public arena yet, but after the service you did for M.I.H.O, I felt... obligated." He looks almost sheepish.

"Let's see... this is a directional explosive device from the Operant Bureau." He gazes at you warily. "Did they ask you to deliver this to me?"

"Looking a lot better, CASCADE, almost there."

"The time for experimental thinking is over, CASCADE. We must avoid blurring realities so far that, when we come to the execution itself, we are not thwarted by illusions."

"We should get to it -- the dreaming glass is already mid-tilt. It's good to see you by the way."

Once more, the bomb quivers in anticipation.

The bomb twitches in its casing.

Don't forget why you're here. Who- or whatever this MIHO is still awaits you, all the way down...

There's also the matter of who- or whatever this MIHO is, waiting for you all the way down...

Eight hundred and sixty two.

It folds shut without protest.

The weight of the thesis threatens to strain your hand muscles.

All HOLOCENE did was hunt for meaning... especially, perhaps, where it doesn't exist.

Slowly populating itself with your crew members, around you the Fogged Mirror begins to take on the appearance it had five years ago, before your network collapsed.

"I'm not working with that guy." He glances over at HOLOCENE.

"Oh, one more thing, before I forget. Here. I want you to have it." He pulls something out of a pocket in his jacket and hands it to you.

A desolate spit of land on the edge of the city-state. Formerly the site of Portofiro's doomed space program.

No one knows you're down here. Let's dwell on that for a moment.

The mould's tendrils rise gently as you approach.