THE OPERA

When working for anyone but the Opera

You need a weapon to pull off the assignment. Unfortunately, the Opera cannot just give you one in this city.

The Opera has directed you to assassinate Facundo Reyes, the Luzian Minister of Mass Culture. To pull that off, you need a plan, a weapon, and a squad.

Your technique is flawless and beautiful. One wonders what other secrets the Opera may be keeping from you.

The young, capable, pretty, yet also shy and approachable classmate you imagined in your dreams. Your hand touches hers unexpectedly during small-arms training at the Opera's Greenhouse. She blushes.

"There's a certain relief to it, I'll give the Opera that."

The Opera has no record of any Operant successfully performing this manoeuvre.

Again: the Opera has no record of any Operant successfully performing this manoeuvre, let alone CASCADE.

The Opera tried to assassinate Nestor.

The Opera's psychomancers had high expectations for your levels of 'It', based on their initial examinations...

In the subterranean halls of the Opera, the ancients are whispering about you. They're saying CASCADE has gone looking for 'It.'

The Opera's psychomancers must've known you'd be keen to play this particular song on repeat -- Hoping this time the tune would come out different somehow.

"It's an advanced cognitive manoeuvre, known only to the Opera."

"I'm not really from your 'Trade Office', you know. I'm from the Opera."

"I'm not really from your the Mircean embassy, you know. I'm from the Opera."

"I'm not really from your 'Shadow Banking', you know. I'm from the Opera."

"I'm not really from your 'Internal Regulation', you know. I'm from the Opera."

For complicated technical and socio-economic reasons, you can hang on to those. The final assault on the Opera's deep archives will wait.

In their reports, the Opera's psychomancers noted your morbid tendency to take on guilt for things you had nothing to do with.

This is how the Opera's psychomancers really see you -- a mad monster to zoologically classify. There's an entry somewhere in one of their bestiaries with your name on it.

The Opera's best.

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

"What have you got against him? You and the Opera."

"M.I.H.O.'s right. The Opera really is fucked."

"Wherever the Opera left him."

"A partnership with the Opera was offered."

According to lessons learned in the Opera greenhouse, an intrusion this audacious should be a route of last resort.

EMTERR, a.k.a. The Bank. Somewhere between a global development bank and a private intelligence service with allegiance to none but itself and capitalism, EMTERR is the Opera's wealthiest enemy -- and therefore yours.

"Trying to wang Reyes is the Opera's biggest swing in years. They don't expect us to survive."

"Historically high for the Opera. I'll take those."

"Come back to the Opera."

"Okay, then you're also on assessment for the Opera."

"Trying to kill Reyes is the Opera's biggest swing in years. They don't expect us to survive."

"But per our agreement, I don't work for the Opera. You do work for M.I.H.O." He shakes his head and looks at the ground.

Yours, and the Opera's.

You are a highly skilled individual and the money that the Opera spent to train you was not even a little bit wasted. Also they really are flaunting it.

The Freezer. Where the Opera kept me.

A sickly bureaucratic rainbow, the decaying remains of the Opera's collective memory.

"I'm sorry, the Opera... what was it?"

" 'THE TRACK'. Its reversed configuration suggests you've disappointed your authorities. Perhaps the Opera you claim not to know."

"Shame how far the Opera has fallen behind. Gasping for breath, about to be lapped by the field." He shakes his head slowly.

"The Opera will come for me. I can hold out until then. Whatever you've got, I can take it."

"So this is the level the Opera is working at. Unbelievably disappointing."

"The Opera never tires."

The Opera set you up. They knew you'd fail; they sent you here to die.

"Let me go and I'll tell the Opera. I'll tell them to change the concept."

"Lucky for me, the Opera seems to have reached the same conclusion via different means." A tight smile. "Happy convergence."

"You've been out-spied. The Opera come out on top, again."

"My name." He straightens himself. "More precisely: That name the Opera has seen fit to bestow on me."

"I said: 'The Opera never tires'."