Orin calls, asks about Separatism

The op surfaces as small talk, invisible to both brothers on the line. The "very special somebody" is Helen Steeply working Orin, and her tasking arrives at Hal secondhand, buried in heat-crazed chatter, as the single question that closes the call: "What all do you know about Separatism?" Orin is a relay who has no idea he's relaying; Hal fields an intelligence probe as a non sequitur from a brother. The honeytrap is undetectable to the Incandenzas precisely because it wears the two most disarming shapes available — a new girlfriend and idle curiosity — and the Entertainment's whole master-copy hunt advances one uncredited inch through a conversation neither participant knows is surveillance.