V-2nd, under the rose

[Mark Kohut]

P. 16, a short paragraph that states that Benny has his first intelligence that something----
love of a machine, linking Rachel's MG w Da Conho's machine gun----has been going on 
"under the rose'--in secret for longer and with more people than he ever suspected.

Uh, pretty straightforward presentation of the historical quest, yes? P publishes a
short story with this title that, changed, becomes a chapter in V. Rose appears in
other P works. 
 
http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/slowlearner/rose.html

See "under the rose' below.....in which Venus makes an appearance

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sub1.htm
 
A...and N.B. Benny could have had his first hint or first inkling or first suspicion that
love of a machine had been long going on uner the rose............................
 
BUT, he had his first INTELLIGENCE. A word that started out meaning our human 
understanding  but then evolved to mean INFORMATION largely......and
see the full discussion in the link below, if interested, trying to define the word before the 1950s in which it
is generally agreed that 'intelligence' is info gathered IN SECRET. 
 
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no3/article02.html
 
And finally, the Central Intelligence Agency has weighed in with the following sentence:
Reduced to its simplest terms, intelligence is knowledge and foreknowledge of the world around us—the prelude to decision and action by US policymakers.