EMTERR

"A question for your so-called 'enemies' from EMTERR, whom you have studiously avoided until now, hoping not to arouse suspicion."

"Wait, what EMTERR operant?"

"EMTERR, the Opera, the Luzians... it was a joint effort. The basic facts of the story have been well established."

"A question for your so-called 'enemies' from EMTERR. The ones you have been seen consorting with already."

"And yet! Somehow this prototype finds its way into the hands not of the Weeping Eye, but a high-level EMTERR operant! You think this is a coincidence?" He gestures furiously between two sticky notes connected by a blue thread.

"The Opera, EMTERR, the Weeping Eye... all sitting cross-legged in the same circle jerk."

"EMTERR, the Opera, the Weeping Eye... aren't they enemies?"

"Plus our friends from EMTERR come out looking like fools, and the Opera have reasserted ourselves on the international scene. Not bad, overall."

"He's rotting in that secret EMTERR jail, so far as I know."

"Who knows what will happen when EMTERR realise they've been holding the Luzian Minister of Mass Culture this whole time."

"Our techno-fascist rivals appear to be undone, for now. Any talk of 'secret treaties' with EMTERR is surely scuttled. Instead of an end to the Culture Blockade they've gotten a howling vacuum at the top of their hierarchy."

"Tested in-theatre, then. Smart spy might ask what this EMTERR fool is doing with his hands on such a thing. Seems important."

Tempo was laying low from the Weeping Eye, not EMTERR. It would be very bad news if both the Operant Bureau's ancient enemies were mixed up in this.

"Reminds me of something else I saw recently: One of the Opera's finest discovers her inner poet, then guts it out against one of EMTERR's most sadistic interrogators. Highly experimental, especially for syndication."

"That would explain why EMTERR's been kidnapping dissidents lately."

"Your rinky-dink client wasn't so rinky-dinky after all -- they were a cutout for EMTERR."

"Call it EMTERR's deep commitment to information security." He takes a drag.

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.

"Sounds like the junior EMTERR negotiator I've met."

"EMTERR, you mean. I understand they have some kind of 'unlicensed detention facility' nearby."

"I've already marked an EMTERR suit hogging a phone sex line."

"The rich one. EMTERR."

"Minority view, I'd say. Most commentators declare it an unmitigated disaster, given what follows: EMTERR cancels its remaining contracts, denying the city its only real chance to pay back the stabilisation loans issued by... oh right, EMTERR."

"Reminds of something else I saw recently: One of the Opera's finest infiltrates a secret EMTERR jail, then guts it out against one of their most sadistic interrogators. Bold, reckless. Real human drama, you know."

"Any event, seeing our protagonist disappear into an EMTERR labour camp was no way to end the season. Had to make some calls."

"You might imagine: EMTERR cancels its remaining contracts, denying the city its only real chance to pay back the stabilisation loans issued by... oh right, EMTERR."

"Some rinky-dink little government, lusty for EMTERR office drama. Beneath us both, frankly."

"Take your pick. We're nominally in the Developed World, that's EMTERR's home pitch."

"You said before you could help me find a secret EMTERR jail -- how?"

"Certainly appears that way, given what follows: EMTERR cancels its remaining contracts, denying the city its only real chance to pay back the stabilisation loans issued by... oh right, EMTERR."

"Try the Opera's own archives, or EMTERR's, or that of dozens of smaller agencies. Eerie, when the shadow world reaches consensus. Now, for the juicy bit..."

"What about EMTERR? What's their angle?"

"Mimetic desire on full display. Perhaps you can see why the stuff's got EMTERR's policymakers in a real tizzy."

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.

Reno. One of Portofiro's most successful vulture capitalists. Major beneficiary of EMTERR's privatisation schemes.

"Host is a local big money businessman -- Sir Reno of Renotel. Guests of honour were a couple of EMTERR dealmakers, flown in for the big negotiations."

"EMTERR used to back a Dream Study that was attempting to study the sub-subconscious. Seems connected somehow."

"I know the routine. I worked over a senior EMTERR negotiator the same way."

"Until EMTERR came knocking."

"Reminds of something else I saw recently: One of the Opera's finest infiltrates a secret EMTERR jail and makes it out without a scratch. Bold, lucky. Real crowd pleaser."

"Still, could be real blood in the offing -- EMTERR strong arming its member-states into smothering the spread of Luzian mass culture, meanwhile the Illuminated Empire keeps massing its carrier groups around its former territories -- Portofiro included. 'Reunión', they call it. I hear whispers about getting the mill of History turning again."

"So it was a ploy by EMTERR to tighten the vice on a sovereign city-state."

"It was given to him by one of EMTERR's operants."

"Fast forward some years, I'm in the Eastern Republics on a little job. Client has me hounding former leads in EMTERR's Public Perceptions division."

"Now that they've dispensed with optics, the Reunión's really picking up speed. That's got EMTERR sweating around the margins."

"EMTERR office drama, who's up and down in the corporate catacombs, la-la-la."

"It's something of a sore spot in the local consciousness. Aging dictator Sweet Nestor wants to build a world-class cosmonautics programme for his EMTERR puppeteers, goal's to launch the world's first manned weather satellite -- 'Project AUTONOMÍA', they call it."

"I hear EMTERR's been kidnapping dissidents lately."

"Basic semiotics, I'd say. Financial capital always craves cultural capital. La Luz is on the bleeding edge of that -- what EMTERR can't digest, it must expel."

"That EMTERR suit I found hanging on the Miracle Line..."