the p-terminal precedent: the joint U.S.-Canada security suppression — a precedent for cooperation — "I recall they went in directly…"

The scene's buried geopolitical fact: the U.S. and Canada once ran a joint black-bag operation — "Both our combined nations made it a Security priority," "Our old N.S.A., your old C7 with the R.C.M.P.s" going in "guns drawn," dismantling the labs and disappearing the lead scientist. The two states now locked in the O.N.A.N. conflict have a working precedent of shared security action against exactly this kind of pleasure-technology. It historicizes the antagonism: before Gentle and Fortier, Washington and Ottawa cooperated to cage the very thing the samizdat has now let out.