deLint sells Wayne to the undercover Steeply: "pure force," and the exile the agency is kept off

texture · 11 Nov YDAU

• When: 11 Nov YDAU, the Stice–Hal exhibition stands, E.T.A. (Steeply undercover as "Helen Steeply" of Moment)
• What: To the agent Steeply, deLint markets Wayne over Hal: "Our best boy is better than Hal... John Wayne. No relation to the real John Wayne." Wayne "is pure force. He doesn't feel fear, pity, remorse — when a point's over, it might as well have never happened"; his "tungsten-steel will," his refusal to change pace, his gestalt of having "everything," aimed "like a fucking missile at the Show, maybe the Top Five." Pointedly, deLint steers the profiler off Wayne as a subject — "Why not John Wayne? A more dramatic story, geopolitics, privation, exile, drama... Which is why we'll keep you off him as long as he's here." The refusal is itself evidence flagged toward the allegiance crux (event 22): E.T.A. treats Wayne's "geopolitics" as sensitive.