""From: AGrossman//UnderNet.7823.37.908 To: WGibson//VersaLife.980.73.01 Subject: Finally Beat ItI managed to nail Nethack v54.3.1 just a few minutes ago. Made it past the Astral Plane, and _then_ back in time to work through all of history up to Nethack v3.2.3 (this, of course, has been in every version since 48.2), but after that the game jumped a thousand years into the future and I had to build an entire interstellar trading alliance (with only the Amulet of Yendor) before the aliens from the other side of the black holes showed up...took me six months to solve that part of the game, and then I finally won.Check it out: www.nethack.orgI hear v54.3.3 should be out next week.Austin" - Email found in the VersaLife computer network"

""The individual may be remembered, but the organization persists and thrives. A single artist, a single general, a single hero or a single villain may all die, but it is impossible to kill a people, a nation, an idea - except when that idea has grown weak and is overpowered by one that is stronger." - The Doctrine of the Mighty by the Majestic Council of the Twelve"

""Drink more, think less" (Beer advertisement near NSF generator warehouse)"

""The Templar Knights had once been subject to no king or law; but in the end, they were swallowed by history." - The Red Cross: A History of the Knights Templar by Richard Baigent (Volume Four: Descent into Shadows)"

""No man should leave in the universe anything of which he is afraid..." - The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K Chesterton"

""Like two kids shoving each other on the playground, you never expect them to come to blows." - Alistair Brooks about nuclear brinkmanship"

"ICARUS FOUND YOU!!! RUN WHILE YOU CAN!!! [Repeated 9 times in a public news terminal, formatted into a ">" shape]"

""If black helicopters were really being used for 'covert' operations, then those responsible are doing a poor job of it." - Joseph Manderley, Midnight Sun Newspaper."

"Lucius DeBeers: We should have poisoned Page the first time he forged laboratory data. We don't equivocate about outsiders, do we? Mr. Kennedy mentions a "plot" during a speech at Columbia University, he's out, no discussion, no matter that we got him elected. But a student of ours, an initiate -- oh, heavens, no!"

"Ivan [Russian sailor at the Lucky Money Club]: I spill my drink!"

"Deus Ex game designer [In regard to the lack of the World Trade Center towers in the background skyline of the Liberty Island map] We just said that the towers had been destroyed too. And this was way before 9-11. Years."

"Door Girl: I order you to stand in the spotlight and growl at the women like a dog who needs a master."

"If there's a conspiracy, it's at VersaLife; they're the ones making money off the plague."

"At the sound of your voice, 400 milliamps will discharge into Gunther's midbrain. Poof!"

"Gunther went berserk after you escaped, smashed up the cell block pretty bad. I had to sedate him."

"Just fixed Gunther's knee, in fact. A sticky actuator. So far I feel more like a mechanic than a doctor."

"All the way down, JC. Get to Page's compound and take him out. Everett and I will join you shortly. We'll bring back the old institutions, the prosperity of the last century, the giddy acquiescence. Trust us, JC. We can put the world back together."

"Don't underestimate the allure of a well kept secret. Our organisation lasted from the Crusades to the early 21st century, and our only secret was a technique of meditation, a way of imagining your body dissolving into light."

"In my opinion, the history of the human race has been one long succession of conspiracies. To deceive ourselves, we call the successful conspiracies "governments"."

"The order hasn't so much lasted as been continually revived...It's the IDEA that has lasted. The SYSTEM. Or the DESIRE, every thinking person's desire to give the world some decent organization."

"I hope you remember this lesson, agent. They have assigned us to be partners, and I will not stop to hold your hand and repeat myself when we are facing a real enemy."

"I have never had this much difficulty with a trainee in my life."

"You are not afraid to kill, I am pleased. The last thing I would expect from the brother of Paul."

"[after killing JC] Nine-hundred and ten. I am catching up, Gunther."

"All this blood has ruined my chrome."

"Pain is no longer something I can feel."

"It was my error to believe that UNATCO's superweapon would appreciate a chance to prove himself."

"I do not expect you to perform as well as Agent Hermann, but the mission will require us to do more than frighten the NSF with our baggy coats that make us look bigger than we really are."

"My new partner, JC Denton. Don't tell me you're going to wear those sunglasses during a night operation."

"We are thinking the same thought."

"Some conspiracy, huh? They couldn't even control little Nicolette."

"I was a stand-in for the world they never got to take over."

"Secrecy is a matter of life and death for the Illuminati."

"Both the Illuminati and MJ-12 believe that the most intelligent or "enlightened" human being will inevitably gain power, ultimately seizing the eye in the pyramid and creating the world for everyone else. Kind of secularized version of Natural Law."

"Only in novels do places crumble to dust for no reason, when their spirit is lost."

"Through with your testosterone fit? There's a pill for that, you know."

"As long as technology has a global reach, someone will have the world in the palm of his hand. If not Bob Page, then Everett, Dowd..."