Marathe & Steeply, the technical interview — "The A.F.R.’s extensive file on Steeply…"

Intelligence here is mutual, disclosed, and used as intimacy. Each side keeps a dossier on the other; each knows the other keeps one — and Marathe tells Steeply what his file holds, down to the divorce and the absurd aspirin-ad "green sedan" that "the file knew this stupidity" of, hidden somewhere below them, unseen. The surveillance is a half-open ledger passed back and forth across the shelf, a form of closeness. And it comes with the same undecidability the disguises carry: Steeply's boredom "could be real or tactical, either of these" — even the file can't tell you which face is the face.