THE OPERA

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

Still, you matched up well. Even the Opera, with its proliferation of assessment reports, couldn't deny that.

You made an effective pair. Even the Opera, with its proliferation of assessment reports, couldn't deny that.

The Opera has never considered mass psychic interference on the scale Luz is actively involved in.

No, just brave enough to be denounced as a terrorist and used as an object lesson at the Opera's Greenhouse.

This is a Plastit-K7 bomb. Shock-stable. Respectable brisance. First manufactured by the Opera in 27.

Rest assured, CASCADE, that just as there are schisms within the Opera, parallel and conflicting structures of command, the structure of command inside is no less convoluted.

Playing for the Opera, undoubtedly. A tune on history's strings.

What were the Opera up to...

"Clean-up operation, loose ends. Luzian vengeance. The Opera itself. Even an honest accident wouldn't surprise me..."

"Bonus points for not dying? Sounds like the Opera."

"Not from the Opera's perspective, I don't think."

"Maybe back home you are. But the Opera's stuck in their old ways. You need the skilled, gentle and contemporary hand of Ignatz to guide you."

"Everyone comes out ahead, except the leaky animals. I get rid of a problem, and you'll receive some information that will make your life -- and the Opera's -- much more interesting."

"Seriously? Does the Opera expect you to subsist on charity? Things must be even worse under post-historical materialism than they say."

"Really, Hershel? I have to ask, did the Opera do something to your head? Are you full-spectrum now? Do my metaphors confuse you?"

It was you who taught him the cigarette trick in the first place. The Opera speaks to itself.

"To the Opera." (Drink.)

It's a common joke that the Opera have preemptively bugged all public phones to spare the Superbloc's citizens the awkwardness of uncertainty.

"How did you join the Opera?"

"That's why I didn't bother fixing it. The Opera are always pulling stuff like this."

"Well, I don't presume to know the inner workings of the Opera, but I have to think I could be better utilised."

"I'll ask the Opera to reimburse you for the fax machine."

"And give up my middle-class comforts so I can, what exactly -- join a workers co-op? I've enjoyed my time serving the Opera well enough, but I know what I am."

"I just wanted to say, welcome back to the Opera."

"The Opera's ways are its own."

"I see, so, this is a side task? PSEUDOPOD mentioned the Opera's semioticians are quite devoted. Very clever."

"PSEUDOPOD is up for the People's Service Medal. The Opera's sent me to assess his stagecraft."

"Well, I can't say it's always been a pleasure..." She hesitates. "All the same, I hope my support has been up to the Opera's standards."

"Before we get into it, I want to get one thing clear: Just because I'm working for the Opera does not make me some kind of communist."

"I'm feeling very exploited by the Opera. You need to liberate me from the commodity form."

You've got nothing. Face it, you're being debanked by the Opera.

"Sounds like a management challenge, but... somehow, this is what the Opera intended."

"No. Once you set off, Constanz will scrub all trace of you and the Opera from Foto 24. It will be like you never existed."

"The Opera's going to hang me by the toes. For you it's back to Satellite Facility B."

"No. The Bursar's not going to let you 'play around' with the Opera's funds. Try again."

"I'm sure. But I can't." Sweetly. "My job is to be your tether -- not just to the Opera, but to yourself."

The exquisite work of the 'magic box', one of the proudest achievements of the Opera's Technical Services Office.

IN THE EVENT YOU ARE ZEROED OUT, YOUR BRAIN WILL BE BEQUEATHED TO THE OPERA'S SEMIOTICIANS SO THEY MAY STUDY THE PRECISE CAUSE OF THIS EXTREMELY CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOSIS.

"Not quite how I imagined you'd run your squad, but... somehow this is what the Opera intended."

"If the Opera has any information on this, I have to assume it's close-hold. But it sounds like the sort of lucky find that could be a useful point of inspiration to an individual."

You've been on filing duty for five years. Out of action. The Opera wouldn't rush you back in-theatre, unless:

"I no longer serve the Opera, I'm a bold partisan of the real."

"Just as the Opera intended."

There is a zero percent possibility that PROBABLE, statistically the Opera's most valuable performer in 66, was here on babysitter duty.

"He says he's a 'null entity'. Used to work for the Opera."

"Undetonated after thirty years, and now back in the Opera's hands. A bit poetic, don't you think?" She clicks her tongue.

"Because my job is to be your tether -- not just to the Opera, but to yourself."

Deduce why the Opera sent you.

"Just as the Opera intended."