There is a new mutedness to him, and new shadows too.

That childhood book has a strange grip on him, even now.

His infallible recall must distort time. With every memory the same weight, they become the unit of measurement -- and down here he's not making many new ones.

A ghost in the system.

Woah, woah, woah, easy! That nickname is offensive and unapproved.

A faint heartbeat from a long lost vein.

Fück us, he's been down here a long time.

It remains unclear what exactly is 'on' in this gutted space pit.

A rumour whispered among the more seasoned Remembrancers: That Director Twitchitov asphyxiated himself under auto-erotic circumstances.

AS-YET-UNDISCOVERED ENEMIES CERTAINLY MADE IT APPEAR AS THOUGH DIRECTOR TWITCHITOV HANGED HIMSELF WITH THE FLAG OF THE PARTY IN HIS DEAD MOTHER'S CLOSET.

For a long moment he looks switched on without the sound.

SOLVENT ABUSE ALLEGATION. UNSUBSTANTIATED. HOSTILE.

The size of a small cat's coffin.

And he can't wait to tell you.

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

Suspect. No true gäng would ask you to read something this big.

Old wounds split open within your mind. Are you between crosshairs? What have you missed? What has the other not missed?

Such crucial information should have been conveyed directly to the Operant Bureau. Something is out of step.

The cold flat of dread's knife presses against your heart.

How fucking stupid it is to live in a höle for half a decade. That's what you're thinking.

Sixteen-years-old, physical education class. Mia Holloway climbing the rope ladder directly above you. Panties, constellation pattern, eking loose from sweat-damp gym shorts.

Melita. Bust size. Mystery.

'What is this? Arrête! Get off me!'

Snagged on a memory. A pleasant one.

... Have they? Is that the endgame?

M.I.H.O. is gängless. Front of the bus. No friends.

A one man intelligence agency. Typical Remembrancer histrionics.

A shade of jealousy.

Visual only. No touching.

Odd cadence. He hasn't said that name in a long time.

Afflicted by that odd loneliness that comes from seeing and knowing a lot that you can't do much about.

A nonchalant tone disguising obsessive amounts of research.

Oh yeah. Mentally snapshot this. He's impressed.

Within the darkened mass you think you see a slither of movement.

That explains communicating through cipher... though we may soon be rezoning the boundaries of 'explanation'.

The air in the room thickens like an aggressive tumour.

No irony here. No dress rehearsal either.

The iron artery that was intended to link Portofiro with La Luz, until the collapse of the Old Luzian Empire prior to Year Zero. The ruins became an infamous suicide spot in the 50s.

None of that sounded real. It was a scene from fiction, from an espionage novel.

He pushed his finger down so hard it's left a red imprint in his skin. A target marker.

As with any espionage catastrophe, there is no true answer. Or there are one hundred answers. That's what's killing him, the unknowing.

Better to go along with this. You'll have a stronger chance of pulling him clear of this psychological wreckage.

He's hurt by that direct accusation, even though it's his own working theory.

A perfect memory turned against itself -- false insertions indistinguishable from the real.

Stop the ride. We want öff.

His voice is in the cipher now. Commune.

Of them all, he was the one you least expected to ever see again.

'HOLOCENE' is already a cryptonym...

How did he know you were there?

A laser beam of suspicion.

Checks