>>5905
> do you want any special perspective

Whatever you feel needs saying.
In rereading the clip I took to the in-person crituque group, I realize even this is a bit of a jump.
So, some backstory for the backstory:
Fred is a database programmer but, in CB lore, "there is no year seven" and he's traveling along the bare edge of the magic bubble / "the barrier" in search of maintaining his autonomy, and nothing else.
Fred has just traveled to a destroyed conversion bureau that was partially bombed by the human liberation front.
Their sleeper agent, Carlos, never "triggered" -- and thanks to a small magical wave/surge, neither did half the explosives.
So this washed-up terrorist has-been has tentatively hooked up with an expert in a crumbling field -- the "your side is greener" odd couple trope.

They separate shortly after this clip, for several chapters until we're ready to meet the rest of the washouts now forcibly in the Devil's Minions (IE they're ponies).