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From Elegant Complexity:
Discussion of pp. 721-723: The trace back from the Antitois leads first to the “sartorially eccentric cranio-facial-pain-specialist” (the “wrinkled long-haired person of advanced years in a paisley Nehru jacket” of p. 481 whose business dealings with Kite will be described on p. 927) and then to Trent Kite, the “young burglar” who robbed DuPlessis with Gately (cf. Ch. 7.4 and nn. 13, 16, 18). Kite was found pawning a Cafe-au-Lait Maker (n. 300, cf. p. 57) at some point during the 14 months since the burglary. Recall that the “kitchen-can waste bag filled with crusty old mossy, boot-and-leg Read-Only [cartridges from the person of advanced years] appeared to have been stored in a person’s rear yard” (p. 482). In the wake of Gately’s arrest (p. 444), Kite apparently buried the bag of cartridges until he thought it was safe to sell them. “There was reason to think M. DuPlessis had received his original copies [presumably including the “alleged Master copy from the DuPlessis burglary”, p. 489] from [Orin]. Marathe felt [U.S.O.U.S.] felt [Orin] may have borne responsibility for the razzles and dazzles of Berkeley and Boston”. Presumably, Marathe is unaware of the situations in New Iberia and Tempe discussed in Ch. 26.3.
Two blank cartridges from “the rival F.L.Q.’s tactical street-display . . . which featured wheelchairs, a smack to the testicles of A.F.R.” are found. The Antitois, “spurned by F.L.Q. after DuPlessis’s assassination” (p. 480), would have been unaware that the F.L.Q. sponsored the displays. Lucien found the F.L.Q. cartridges—as well as the “old rude person’s bartered tapes”—to be “blank beyond static” (p. 483), but Master cartridges require special codes and equipment to run, unlike standard Read-Only cartridges (nn. 205, 301); so it is possible the cartridges—being played on the “consumer TP” that replaced the Antitois’ “visually dysfunctional” viewer (cf. p. 483)—are not blank. It is assumed by the A.F.R. that the F.L.Q. is propagating a “hoax” (that the F.L.Q. has no copies of the Entertainment).
. . .
Discussion of p. 724-728: By the time Fortier is “able to return” . . . , the A.F.R. finds (at the cost of two operatives) “a third cartridge emblazoned with the embossed smile and letters disclaiming the need of happy pursuit” (like the two F.L.Q. display cartridges, p. 722). It is “a samizdat cartridge of Entertainment” that the A.F.R. presumes was “burglared from the death of DuPlessis” (the A.F.R. would not consider that the F.L.Q. could be the source of the samizdat cartridge because they do not believe the hoax-propagating F.L.Q. has any cartridges, p. 722). Recall that, before his death, Lucien Antitoi viewed both of the F.L.Q. display cartridges and “the old rude person’s bartered tapes he had removed from the waste bag” (“boot-and-leg Read-Only cartridges”, p. 482), which were all “blank beyond static” (p. 483). Presumably the bartered tapes were the ones stolen from DuPlessis (cf. Ch. 27.26 summary [above]). Either the samizdat cartridge was not removed from the waste bag by Lucien but was found there by the A.F.R., or DuPlessis is not the source of the cartridge the A.F.R. finds. If the latter is true, then how did this cartridge get to the Antitois’ shop?
There “was no need yet for the high-rpm hardware of duplication: the found copy was Read-Only” (cf. n. 301). This news “had been expected by Broullime and Fortier the moment they witnessed the shop’s brothers active and alert”, because “even the dim brothers Antitoi, seeing the unique case and slightly larger size of a Master”, would have obtained the special hardware to view it (n. 303). Presumably then, the blank (p. 483) F.L.Q. cartridges and crusty, mossy, bartered tapes are not Masters (the suspicion of which was generated by n. 205), because they are not the right size to be Masters. They are regular-size blank cartridges played on regular hardware, whereas Masters would be larger-size cartridges only appearing to be blank on regular hardware.
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