The A.F.R. snatches the WYYY engineer (p. 625)
Almost all the personal wee-hour inquiries are from listeners somehow bent, misshapen, speech-defective, vacantly grinning, damaged in some way. The type whose spectacles have been repaired with electrician’s tape. Shyly inquiring. Apologies for bothering someone they can clearly see is not even there. […] One hideous little inquirer had had a hat with a lens on it and seemed about to fall forward into the engineer’s lap. His attendant wanting some address where they might send something supportive and floral.
Context
Who actually listened to Madame Psychosis: the engineer's census of the fans who come down after her disappearance is a portrait of the U.H.I.D. circular's target audience (053) showing up in the flesh — the bent and misshapen shyly seeking the veiled voice that programmed for them, and apologizing for existing while they do it.