Entertainment casualties
‘Frankly, when I think of it I’m as much terrified as I am intrigued. Hank Hoyne is an empty shell. The iron will, the analytic savvy. His love of a fine cigar. All gone. His world’s as if it has collapsed into one small bright point. Inner world. Lost to us. You look in his eyes and there’s nothing you can recognize in them. Poor Miriam.’ Steeply kneaded a bare shoulder. ‘Willis, on the I/O night-shift, came up with a phrase for their eyes. “Empty of intent.” This appeared in a memo.’
Context
Steeply, just before dawn on the outcropping, admitting the Office of Unspecified Services has lost its own people to the Entertainment during testing — worst of all Hank Hoyne, the disciplined head of Data Analysis. "Empty of intent" is the forward anchor of the empty-eyes/figurant cluster: a body still present with nobody behind the eyes, the condition the wraith will formalize as the figurant's. Bureaucratic language ("This appeared in a memo") meeting metaphysical horror.