CONTROLLER

Melita, Your Controller

Your controller Melita tried to call off the assignment as your partner is incapacitated. But your gut tells you he was on to something. Find a good reason to stay on the job and you'll save yourself from professional obsolescence.

'Are you going to touch me, CASCADE?' asks the dummy in your controller's voice. It still hasn't moved, nor have you.

And failed. Your controller will likely know details if you ask her.

"A controller must know of what she speaks."

Let's be real: Your controller doesn't get it. You need gold coating on the barrel. You need little skulls carved into the grip. And what about having two triggers on there?

Your controller sighs.

Controller's here! Gäng, scätter!

Your controller orders you to assemble a new network, in Portofiro.

"Who was their controller?"

"Operants perform better in-theatre when they share a bond with their controller. So, yes -- the psychomancers recommended that we be paired."

Your thoughts inevitably bend toward Foto 24, the phone, your controller.

Surely your controller will be overjoyed about this top-grade, ground-level information.

"Shouldn't take long." Your controller's voice reappears. "So, while we're waiting... where did this cipher originate?"

Your controller's razor-edged voice comes to you, cold light from an infinitely distant star.

None the wiser to your presence, the carabinero continues his monologue to his controller, who's turned her gaze to the ground between them.

The carabinero and his controller are deep in conversation.

The woman, too, lines up with the picture he painted of the mysterious controller -- right down to the mole on her cheek.

"Well... he said he was you. And that you... were still the Small Controller."

The Small Controller. This was its idea. One final command.

"I, uh... debriefed the Small Controller."

Inside the Containment Vessel, the entity protests. You have brought along the Small Controller.

"The potential for treachery with the old crew is such, you might as well have brought along the Small Controller." He chuckles to himself.

Take it to your controller and let them all know -- CASCADE is back.

Your controller was right: KALEIDOSCOPE has eluded the Weeping Eye's gaze. To them, he's simply a middle-aged man in a slightly inappropriate hooded sweatshirt.

Your controller was right: Yana has eluded the Weeping Eye's gaze. To them, she's simply a teenaged delinquent, skipping class for the day.

"You'd have to ask my controller."

"My controller will miss me."

"Yeah, my controller's probably pissed at me right now."

" 'THE TRACK'. Its reversed configuration suggests you've disappointed your authorities. Your controller, no doubt."

Your controller paces the small area behind her desk. Her Novessa colleagues are surprised -- so rarely is she on her feet. You are all that fills her mind.

"I would love the chance to debrief a real Opera controller. Unfortunately, it's been a very long time since we took one alive and intact."

"If my controller loved me then she wouldn't have sent me here."

"Is the Small Controller making you hot for Eszti? Surely against your will..."

"HOLOCENE, I think the small controller... is ESTOC."

"Which... one is the Small Controller?" Your former double seems deeply troubled at your offering.

And by 'Small Controller' he means...

The Small Controller?

You are not going to find any Controller with your mind, no matter how Small. But you may yet be able to reach your former double...

Is that the Small Controller?

Reach out your mind in search of the small controller.

"M.I.H.O. thanks you for helping to root out the subversive elements in its ranks... be they controller or colony."

You face HOLOCENE one last time -- or what you and the Small Controller have left of him.

"I have him, the Small Controller."

"HOLOCENE, I think the small controller... is horny ESTOC."

Unlike any controller you've seen before.

"What you called the Small Controller was a foreign organism -- specifically a mould."

"You know... I'm the Small Controller''s new host."

"That's... different, but... it makes sense. Not one Controller... Many."

The Small Controller made me do this. It must've pulled the drill inside!