Negative on the performer; the plan to seize the Québec junior team en route to E.T.A.; delegating to Balbalis

pivotal · 19 Nov YDAU

• When: 19 Nov YDAU (Marathe now charged with the operation's details; Fortier departs to the Phoenix technical interview with Luria)
• What: After Marathe, Ossowiecke and Balbalis all report back negatively on locating the veiled performer, Marathe (having "made his decision and call") and Fortier launch the most drastic operation: acquire the auteur's immediate family, publicly if needed. A direct assault on E.T.A. is impossible (A.F.R.s "fear nothing in this hemisphere except tall and steep hillsides"); so the plan is to intercept and replace the Québec provincial junior tennis team en route to a gala match at the Academy — the old F.L.Q. mirror-across-the-highway trick. Marathe delegates the field-detail to young Balbalis and stays at the Antitoi shop, withdrawing to the jazz nights of Ryle's; he "promised to conceive an excellent ruse to explain the wheelchairs and adult beards of the false players." (This is the novel’s last attestation of Marathe; his ultimate loyalty and fate remain open.) [Cross-ref: scene 163's two "newly acquired test-subjects" for Broullîme's digit experiments — Randy Lenz, seized in his white wig with the stolen cookware, and the "mis-dressed" Poor Tony Krause — are covered from the victims' side in the archive's Randy Lenz and Poor Tony Krause records; both fates are left open.]