EMTERR

"But how can it be? I've never even met anyone from EMTERR. How would they know of my desires?"

There is no such thing as a high priest of capital. There are, however, EMTERR representatives.

"EMTERR bought that jacket for you so you would pay them a lot more money than the jacket cost."

"Say I wanted to speak with someone from EMTERR's side of things. Where would I start?"

"The moon doesn't care about politics, and besides, my involvement has mostly been via my contacts within EMTERR. I have very little to do with our Strange Cousins."

"I'm afraid I don't know anything. My connection is with the EMTERR side of the table." He shrugs.

"Oskar Metamoto. EMTERR's main man on the Portofiro account. And as you may've guessed from the state of my pied-à-terre, a bit of an animal after a few dozen drinks."

"EMTERR has signalled interest in resuming lunar missions from Portofiro." He shrugs. "Naturally, if those missions are successful, one could expect certain returns."

"Oskar Metamoto. EMTERR's main man on the Portofiro account. You might not know it from the state of my pied-à-terre, but he's also a bit of an animal after a few dozen drinks."

"Where do I find this stressed young EMTERR man?"

"So, to underline it, Felix Kaido murdered his dissenting comrades in cold blood, then demanded to negotiate with EMTERR directly."

"EMTERR understand balance sheets, but they don't understand culture. That's why they're currently getting played by La Luz."

"'... Because it never exerts.' As we used to say in EMTERR."

"This isn't a deal with EMTERR at all, is it? It's a deal with you."

"EMTERR are not trying to defect... V..." He grimaces. "I'm sorry, that won't work for me. EMTERR are not trying to defect Ultra Violeta."

"What does EMTERR know about this prisoner?"

"EMTERR wants to recruit V?"

They'd just dispatched their gäng in hot blood -- things were no doubt 'a little hazy' before the EMTERR Pop Marathon.

"To delay, or ideally void, a major trade deal between Tallicho's caretaker government and EMTERR."

"EMTERR sent you in to negotiate?"

Try EMTERR on the books, not off them -- that junior negotiator already looked a little weak at the knees.

EMTERR is trying to defect Luz's most valuable cultural export. The play of plays!

Update, apologies: He's actually gone rogue here and bypassed EMTERR completely.

The point of zero return. If he goes fully off-script and abducts the prisoner, he will be EMTERR's fugitive son from here on out.

"What does EMTERR want with Ultra Violeta?"

"What does EMTERR want with this so-called Ultra Violeta?"

"And you're definitely not a part of these secret treaty negotiations between EMTERR and La Luz?"

"Why's EMTERR so keen to help me? What does the bloody hand of transnational capital want here?"

"You think EMTERR is some blank-faced monolith, but its secret genius has always been the fire-screen between its many departments. Global Situations, Shadow Banking, Human Capital, each its own vicious little fiefdom."

"We're spies. I'm EMTERR and she's probably Opera. Those are the communists. What do you think of that?"

"We're spies. I'm EMTERR and she's Opera. Those are the communists. What do you think of that?"

You sense the long shadow of EMTERR hanging over this.

"I dropped in on Eszti. She's taken a job with EMTERR."

This is the EMTERR secret jail.

That's an EMTERR jail, alright.

I'm going to bet on 'EMTERR jail'.

Matching what the ex-pilots told you about an EMTERR jail.

When you knew Eszti, she hated EMTERR but understood its lumbering bureaucratic movements. Seems she's put that knowledge to fine use.

And within, an envelope stamped by the Portofiro offices of EMTERR.

In one drawer you find a macramé catalogue and an envelope addressed to a name you do not recognise -- 'Kavanaugh' -- but stamped from the Portofiro offices of EMTERR.

"It does sound strange when you put it that way, doesn't it. It almost makes you wonder how seriously EMTERR are taking this..."

"As coarse as it is unimaginative. For an entity devoted to 'rules-based order', EMTERR seem lax in their application..."

"What should've become obvious by now is that I'm being held by our mutual antagonists from EMTERR."

"Allies against EMTERR's ridiculous 'Culture Blockade'."

"What's Poor Dante doing in a secret EMTERR jail?"

"What's an elderly Luzian man doing in a secret EMTERR jail?"

EMTERR, a.k.a. L'Empire sans Territoire, a.k.a. 'The Bank'. Equal parts global development fund and spy service. Linchpin of the Developed World.

"I might've gathered. For an entity devoted to 'human flourishing', EMTERR seem indifferent to the conditions of actual humans. How very liberal."

"Hold on, why would EMTERR lock up their own negotiating partner?"

"Mass culture. The ineffable melancholy of Luzian electro-pop. The fierce originality of our animations that transfix children across the world. EMTERR's asinine 'Culture Blockade' will come down, because the subconscious demands it."