00:07Musik
00:30Musik
00:34Music
00:45Music
00:46Music
00:49I once knew a smile
00:52Spice
00:52She was brilliant, erotic, cursed
00:58An antipersonal mind in human form.
01:02Her friends called her Herschel, but to her controllers, she was Cascade.
01:09Your name and your cryptonym, a dead limb twitches.
01:17The Abandoning Kind.
01:20One by one, she watched her friends go out like distant lights.
01:26Portofiro 91.
01:28The whole sick crew.
01:30A disaster untold.
01:32A black page in the official records.
01:36None at all.
01:38Yet here we are, standing over the smashed and leaking world.
01:45Some fool dropped it.
01:47One of ours, probably.
01:50She was recalled.
01:52They put her in the freezer.
01:55Forever.
01:57Even in those dark days, there were whispers among the lower sublevels, where they keep the true believers.
02:05Don't count Cascade out.
02:36Five years passed.
02:38In the state of Portofiro.
02:40No one special.
02:41Just an arm-like sack of cytoplasm.
02:44A special move unique to single-cell organisms.
02:48But before that, I was like you.
02:52A spy for the People's Republics.
02:54One of the varieties of mankind.
02:57This is a dangerous place, Cascade.
03:00I should never have come.
03:02I got caught with my pants down.
03:06On the plastic side.
03:08I no longer have to worry about independent thought or movement.
03:14This was the human game.
03:16And he played it poorly.
03:19Time to give up his C.
03:22Too late, Operant.
03:25I'm smashed and leaking.
03:28Whatever happens has already happened.
03:37Oh!
03:43Look what did they come!
03:44Ooh!
03:45Ooh!
03:45Ooh!
03:46Ooh!
03:49Ooh!
03:54Ooh!
04:05Untertitelung des ZDF für funk, 2017
04:24His chest rises and falls in steady rhythm, as he stares beyond you, unblinking.
04:32His eyes are fixed glassily on the ceiling.
04:37He's been like this since you walked in.
04:40Anything to the contrary should be marked down as a grip on reality type problem.
04:45Cream paint, peeling slightly.
04:48A small room in a city past its prime.
04:51Nothing to suggest why the man is so interested in it.
04:54No response. No jolt. No tremor.
04:59All posts deserted.
05:02The film is monochrome and silent.
05:06The only soundtrack is the low hum of the projector as the celluloid rushes from its spool.
05:41The green of long corroded copper.
05:42Shorter than the one beneath it.
05:45There is no smell of alcohol.
05:47Nor any open containers.
05:49No drug paraphernalia either.
05:51Just a loose cord trailing to the stereo system.
05:54Like a cosmonaut's safety tether.
06:10Your fingers detect a faint, steady pulse within the base of his wrist.
06:15Elevate it, but not critical.
06:17No vomit.
06:19No discoloration on the skin.
06:21No bruising or signs of struggle.
06:23And if it's poison, it's a bizarre strain.
06:27None of which precludes professional assassination.
06:32The man's eyes glisten.
06:34Bright red veins blossom around their edges.
06:38He could be cursing your name or chanting absolution.
06:42It's impossible to tell.
06:44However he ended up like this, the result is the same.
06:49Operant lost.
06:50You wonder briefly how much or how little you owe him.
06:56A snail's trail of dried saliva glints on the side of his chin.
07:15The people, spies, will not be caught shirking.
07:29You grab him by his skinny shoulders and heave him upright.
07:33His head lolling backwards as he rises.
07:38This non-reaction is alarmingly reactionary.
07:41If keeping him is no gain, then losing him is no deficit.
07:56He lands in an awkward position.
07:59A cut-string puppet.
08:01Bony hips raised to the air like antennas.
08:05There's your brief, Operant.
08:09Flaunt in a reactionary pose.
08:12Fervor in soul.
08:14Leave the brief hog where he lies.
08:19He does not respond.
08:20Though if you didn't know any better,
08:22his deserted eyes seem to be urging you towards the bathroom.
08:27Out of his chair he looks smaller,
08:29more fragile,
08:30and deeply lost.
08:32Thousands of miles away,
08:35his mother flinches in her sleep.
08:48Saliva leaks from the corner of the man's mouth
08:51and pulls on the floor.
08:57Your double didn't notice your arrival.
08:59He doesn't notice your departure either.
09:09The small table has been turned into a makeshift desk.
09:13The startlingly red folder stands out against the clutter.
09:17The small label in the top left corner is printed with one word.
09:22Your cryptonym, Cascade.
09:25The color reminds you of pomegranate.
09:31The folder opens with a whoosh.
09:34Before you in neat monospace type,
09:37your life is condensed to its barest elements.
09:41Name, Will Kershaw.
09:43Cryptonym, Cascade.
09:45Born Landau, former Republic of Mercia.
09:48Dependence, none.
09:50Pay class, D2.
09:52Years of service, 14.
09:54All true.
09:56None of it useful, just now.
09:58Childhood.
09:59Bourgeois.
10:00Typical.
10:01History of student radicalism
10:03led to persecution by monotheist reactionaries.
10:06Fled to People's Republic of Kohila.
10:08Embraced post-historical materialism.
10:15In short,
10:16born capitalist,
10:18reborn communist.
10:21Medical record.
10:23History of dissociative episodes and reckless action.
10:27Gunshot.
10:28Chest.
10:28Retained bullet.
10:3010mm pre-service.
10:33Sexuality.
10:34Homosexual tendencies.
10:36Unconfirmed.
10:39Suicide risk minimal.
10:41Ideation only.
10:43End of list.
10:45According to this file,
10:47that's all there is to you.
10:48There's another page behind this one.
10:52It's labelled service history.
10:55A tingle in your fingers.
10:57Your head grows lighter as you approach the crash site.
11:09Your hand grinds to a halt above the page
11:13and remains.
11:14A full minute passes.
11:17Or never.
11:18That works too.
11:20As you turn away,
11:22a phone begins to ring.
11:25phone rings.
11:30The alarm rings.
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