The target has changed his porn preferences. This could indicate an awareness of our surveillance. That said, the target has gone through periods of clean porn before. Probably just saw something scary. Monitor for other tells.

Empty Man Operations Memo 2,809,342

Orientation Letter for CIA Agents Joining Empty Man

Welcome to Empty Man. This is an overview of our key differences from the CIA. Learn them or you will fuck up and die.

1 - We operate everywhere.

The CIA ostensibly operates in enemy territory. We are not married to this pretense.

We contract for the CIA outside of NATO. Arming dictators and terrorizing rebels. Or arming rebels and terrorizing dictators. Or both.

Inside of western democracies we contract for corporations to confound protesters. Or, we help protestors and attack politicians. Whatever.

It’s basically the same work. Setting up authoritarian structures - dictators, corporations, or criminals - that we secretly control with confusion, fear, and greed.

2 - Everything we do is deniable.

Drone strikes have made assassination very convenient. Just target the victim’s cell phone location and fire away. So easy a lawyer can do it.

That convenience comes at the cost of plausible deniability. If you’re the only guy in the world that owns predator drones, it’s kind of obvious that you’re the bomber.

This sloppiness leads to retaliation, which leads to escalation, which leads to mutually assured destruction, which leads to people outside our control.

Unacceptable.

Our anonymity is both shield and sword. It confounds and terrorizes our foes. You can’t hurt what you can’t see. Nor can you defend against it. We don’t do mutually assured destruction. We do assured destruction.

Don’t be seen. Don’t get caught. Stay secret.

3 - We cannot see the future.

The CIA squanders most of their resources on pre-crime interventions. “Catching bad guys before they do bad stuff.” An impossible mandate that assures escalation and failure. Korea, Indonisia, Brasil, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq. They were so busy killing innocent people they missed Russia and China getting nukes, infiltrating their spy network, and buying their political superiors.

Useless.

We are a retaliatory force. If you break one of our rules, we kill you. If you’re just talking about it, fuck off poser.

4 - We don’t work for pay.

We get paid very well. By congress to manage dictators. By corporations to manage congress. And by dictators for protection from congress and corporations. Occasionally, we move global sundries. Like drugs and guns.

But we don’t work for these people. Don’t confuse their goals with ours.

5 - Our goal is retain control.

Dictators, corporations, and criminals control most of the world. And we control them. We’ve been running the world for decades.

Our goal is to retain that control. We’ve destroyed all adversaries. Imitators are kept in line with two rules:

You may only kill the people we allow you to kill. You will pay us.

If they follow the rules, we allow them to be rich, powerful, and alive.

6 - No wishful thinking.

Life is meaningless. All things end. It’s impossible to understand reality. This could all be a delusion.

Don’t get cocky.

We are weak towards weapons of mass destruction and desperate people. We can handle either, but never the twain shall meet.

It’s easy to keep the powerful in line, but the powerless can get weird ideas. That’s where trouble comes from. People with nothing to lose.

Beware mission drift. We are not controlling the world for a purpose. Our purpose is to control the world.

Because if we’re not doing it, who is?