FROM "MEMOIRS OF A SKY RANGER", the novel: "...we would always... listen to “Panic in the Research Bureaus” during the process of thrashing those across Redda. Most of its lands had an agency called the State Research Bureau, which was in charge of the so-called “black bag social research.” By and large, that involved eavesdropping, spying, blackmailing, kidnapping, torturing, and eliminating “potential enemies of the state and their potential supporters.” As a few Redda officials explained to me in low voices on several occasions, the fuzziness of their objective required a lot of research. “Lots and lots of meticulous research by the highest quality professionals. No resources are spared for their training and support. Every door is open to them,” they’d say, glancing about nervously. All in all, we thrashed 43 Research Bureaus in each of the seven Realities, or 301 times in total, and got quite good at it towards the end. In Reality Seven, it took us only five minutes—roughly the length of the “Panic” track—down from fifty-three and a half minutes in Reality One. Obviously, there had to be weeks, if not months, of meticulous preparation, but it was worth it. ...there were no fatalities among the “highest quality professionals” or any random passers-by. Out of the 301 thrashings, we’ve only had one small incident: a chunk of the granite edifice of the Research Bureau in Uuk, the capital city of the Saba Land—namely a piece of the letter “C” from their motto atop the massive oak entrance, which spelled out “Anyone Can Be Broken”— flew off and hit a random curious old lady who had roamed too close, wondering what all the ruckus was about. It hit her on the head fairly hard, and she passed out. However, according to our nanobots, after the incident, her memory actually improved a bit, and she started to see a little better. So I wouldn’t even classify it as a “minor trauma.”