Endnote 110: the Orin-Hal call (pp. 1021–1022)
‘Except Orin I don’t see a great deal of pondering required here. The total anti-U.S. insurgency so far’s been too hapless and small-potato for her theory to work. The odd pie- and guano-bombardment, stretching mirrors across lonely roads, even demapping officials and botulizing the occasional peanut jar. None of this is exactly bringing anyone to his knees. None of this is making Canada or Québec look like any kind of serious threat.’
Context
Hal's verdict, delivered muffled from under the desk while Pemulis "casually" dusts the TP console: "stretching mirrors across lonely roads" rated hapless and small-potato, insurgency trivia that brings nobody to his knees. The reader has seen what the road mirrors do; Hal ranks the mirror-weapon beneath threat level in the very conversation Steeply's poser has reached him through — the Entertainment's investigation touching both brothers while the book's optical terror gets waved off as a sibling of "The odd pie- and guano-bombardment." The mirror terror at its minimum estimation, from inside the family that built the optics.