Unbelievable! Guards led by Nias Warouw arrest and tie up Luang and Kemul in their hotel room and await Flandry's return. When Flandry does arrive, he is closely followed by Djuanda, whose life he has just saved. Confronted by the Guards, Flandry fights and flees and is pursued by all the Guards who might see Djuanda but do not realize that he is with Flandry. Djuanda enters the room, finds Flandry's friends tied up and unties them. Then all three escape. The Guards apprehend Flandry but now his friends are free and are able to rescue him!
"...this Biocontrol boobocracy and its comic opera Guards..." (XI, p. 98)
Indeed.
(Does anyone know precisely what is in the volume shown here?)
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
That was one of the more laughable examples of the incompetence of Biocontrol and its comic opera "Guards"! At least two of the Guards should have stayed behind to watch Luang and Kemul.
Nias Warouw was not in the least incompetence. But the problem he had to struggle with was to overcome the laxity and incompetence of generations. What he urgently needed was a competent subordinate who would have made sure two men stayed behind before joining the chase after Flandry. Nias was being forced to try to think of everything, and no one man can possibly do that.
Ad astra! Sean
Organizations tend to decay into formalism and incompetence if hey’re not pruned by harsh competition/necessity. Biocontrol doesn’t need to be competent at police functions.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree! And we certainly have a lot of that incompetence and formalism in US civil services. And, no doubt, the gov'ts of other major nations.
But the absurd way Biocontrol ruled Unan Besar could only work as long as someone as crafty, wily, experienced, and up to date as Flandry was not there to upset the apple cart!
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: ossified setups are often stable until an outside force intervenes.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Sort of like the "water empires" we see discussed in Larry Niven's novel A WORLD OUT OF TIME.
Ad astra! Sean
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