OPERANT

Being a lone operant in a foreign theatre is an extreme pressure role. Some require extreme release.

Sock merchant for the Im-Ex Bureau. One of the Operant Bureau's most battle-tested covers.

There's your 'brief', operant.

Wearing the wares, for ease of display. An operant committed to his role.

Unfortunately, the Operant Bureau's 'Human Relations' department is nothing but a front for the Irregular Interrogation Directorate.

Maybe he learned he was to be paired with the storied Operant CASCADE and took matters into his own hands.

"Your thoughts on this, operant, if any."

Operant off-script. The situation is serious.

Be thorough this time, operant. Gather all.

However he ended up like this, the result is the same: Operant lost.

You should. Technically it's Operant Bureau property.

WHEN IN-THEATRE, AN OPERANT MUST ALWAYS PREPARE TO BE ASSASSINATED. OF COURSE, IT IS BETTER NOT TO BE KILLED.

The device requires an internalised memory. Check your conditioning, operant.

"I mean the Operant Bureau."

"I was recently shot by an EMTERR operant."

"I was recently electro-tortured by an EMTERR operant."

Intriguing... The enemy reveals its Advanced Cognitive Manoeuvres. This black art was previously unknown to the Operant Bureau.

"I was recently shot at by an EMTERR operant."

The unfortunate death rattle of a burnt-out operant. (Salute.)

"A word, operant."

"Operant. You'll want to see this."

I'm a grizzled operant on the edge, I don't do whimsy.

There's nothing in the operant playbook that matches these coded motions. He must be using highly advanced kinesics.

"That was the infamous 'double grasshopper kick', first attempted by Operant PROBABLE in 72."

"You've got it backwards, operant." His voice is cold and even. "It's you who's me."

"Why do you keep saying that... 'the Opera'. What does it mean? Operation, operable... operant..." His eyebrow start twitching.

"You got played by someone from EMTERR. Another operant."

Operant, this has gone on long enough.

Which the Operant Bureau will definitely not approve as a professional expense.

Operant CASCADE's first special bench. Filed: age 14. Location: Landau, capital of the Holy and Democratic Republic of Mircea.

You're an operant, a spy for the Superbloc, your actions are not yours -- they are the will of the People.

A gust of wind knifes through you. Operant HOLOCENE turns to you while walking through a street shadowed by soaring tenements:

Face it, operant -- sincerity and authenticity are not for you. Better to apply your talents for forgery and imitation.

Memories of operant training, hours spent practicing modular addition. These mental muscles, long atrophied, begin to awaken.

The average lifespan of an operant in-theatre is four years.

Short, uneven letter chains: likely a Rezeda cipher, the most basic kind used by the Operant Bureau. Designed to be decrypted by a one-time key.

Operant CASCADE's penultimate expense tally included a handwritten note. 'Asset VIRTUE -- debt to the Opera: value, 1 schnapps, redeemable at any time.'

The line between incredible operant and social cripple is a thin one.

Assets aren't supposed to contact each other without an operant present...

Best of luck with the bomb situation, operant.

This is a very good plan, operant. Very well thought out. There is only one minor concern...

Operant PSEUDOPOD seems to have forgotten about the assignment.

You've listened to enough Opera lore to recognise his voice -- this is the legendary Operant PROBABLE, still young.

Zero Out Lich is the primary objective. Survival and extraction of lead Operant, secondary. Survival of local assets, tertiary.

Any operant who stares too long behind the stage curtain has historically gone insane.

Operant! You're so close!

"An operant of your class, Hershel... You cannot be as naive as to think... that people give secrets up... so, so easily..."

"She is a highly trained enemy operant... Hershel... you have not seen, what I have seen, fate, yes, fate... has spared your eyes..."

YOUR ORDERS COME FROM THE OPERANT BUREAU, NOT FROM GRISTLE IN A JAR.

That HOLOCENE is the one who is the intruder, and the operant you've known all these years was in fact a brain parasite.