[Shand]

Tactics, I presume you are familiar with classical tragedy.

You know who I always found to be the most forlorn little character?

The messenger.

His meagre role was to report on the cataclysmic events which had occurred offstage.

Just like you, he was never the centre of attention.

After our attack, we arrested Graham Nix and took him to a superbly secure location.

Unfortunately, Kate Soulsby was also killed by a sniper as she tried, helplessly, to run from the facility.

It makes me sad to see good people die, but sometimes extreme measures are necessary.

Why didn't you save them?  Charon tells me you were busy doing what you were told.

We've all been extremely impressed with your ability to defeat our forces on all fronts.

Charon says it's almost as if you're able to somehow predict his responses; that you and he are somehow connected in atemporality.

I have to ask you something: how do you know that Nix's point of view is correct?  

We imagined that you are sitting at some distant terminal, watching events unfold through a petty, dehumanising panel.

But no, apparently, you are just another shapeform.  Another troublesome demon at the window.

What I'm saying is simply this: it appears you were thrust into this conflict with very little information.  Everything you have seen or heard has been filtered through the lens of Petrov's Shard.

We are a benevolent government, sharing our technology with the city, trying to find out a new way of creating a society.  Nix endlessly harped on about our erosion of freedoms, but do you really know what happened?

We created a feedback loop - the public determined the course of our output.  Even Blue Sunlight arose from the public.  Enyo:Nomad isn't a central controlling evil: it's a mirror.  

The votes seemed rigged because the public voted the same way in every other election, their opinion swinging backwards and forwards between the parties who had the greatest media impact.  We just simplified this process.

Nix is fighting against himself.  And he can never win.

So, you see, even though we believe you're compelled to continue with this, at the end of the day, nothing will have changed.  Charon shares this view.

If we could end this conflict tomorrow...

[Belacqua]

Tactics?  Are you getting this?

OK, listen.  

I've never liked you, which is completely understandable as you are reasonably disgusting, but it's time for you to put all of that baggage aside.

Soulsby was killed in the attack and Nix has been arrested.  

Although this course of events was somewhat predictable, I suppose I owe Nix some kind of loyalty.

Let's see if we can get him out and finish this thing.