This storyline is my least favorite part of the whole show, because Cobel and Devon, when she’s around Cobel, both speak like typical “mystery box show” characters. The whole bit about the file, where they just say “the file” and then have a long-ass pause before saying “Cold Harbor” was so annoying. This gives 0 explanation to Mark and just works as a wink at the audience like “Wouldn’t you like to know what that means?”

Other characters typically speak fairly realistically or at least in a straightforward way that makes sense. Any omissions tend to happen because characters don’t ask the right questions. Here, Mark asks the right question and gets fuck-all in return.

I’ve seen his books translated into multiple languages and fans of his that read him in those languages. I think with a capable and dedicated translation team you could have a reasonably close translation, though some linguistic jokes would likely be lost. Then again, a single Discworld book has insane joke density, so losing 2-3 isn’t the end of the world.