"Judas priest! slashed through Everard. That's almost got to be my enemies. Yes, them, Exaltationists, Varagan's gang... they didn't bother to disguise their appearance. As in South America, Varagan must have felt sure his cleverness would be too much for the plodding Patrol."
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 AT p. 301.
A Terran Intelligence team were guests of the Imperial resident on Diomedes but instructed the resident and his household not to talk about them. However, Flandry discovers that the single xenosophont among them not only answered the description of Aycharaych of Chereion but even identified himself as such:
the local files would have been faked in any case;
Aycharaych could read in the Terrans' minds that they had never heard of Chereion;
the secrecy instruction would cover his tracks as long as necessary;
eventually, if the story were told, anyone in the know would recognize him from his description;
meanwhile, it would amuse him to give his real name.
Varagan is introduced and captured in a single work but then appeared in two others. Flandry meets Aycharaych in only three works. Flandry:
outwits Aycharaych;
captures him - but there is a prisoner exchange;
neutralizes him.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I can understand the reasons why Aycharaych thought he could take chances during his stay at Thursday Landing, but it still strikes me he was being dangerously, arrogantly overconfident. Given the way people kept traveling back and forth among the many worlds of the Empire, there would still be a risk of someone coming to Diomedes who knew more and would realize who and what Aycharaych was. I think it would have been possible for him to stay out of sight and totally unknown on Diomedes. Don't give the allegedly dull, plodding agents of the REAL Terran Intelligence a free ride!
Sean
It's better not to take chances; on the other hand, that sort of personality doesn't get into clandestine-operations work. Other aspects of the job -- being a sleeper, for example -- yes, but not the actual cloak and dagger part.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Yes, but Aycharaych enjoyed the cloak and dagger work, enjoyed taking chances. I recently finished rereading HUNTERS OF THE SKY CAVE and in Chapter I he was virtually inviting Flandy to arrange for Terran Intelligence to attempt ambushing him when he left the extraterritorial Crystal Moon. And, in another story, I recall Aycharaych saying that acting in ephemeral affairs was another means for him seeking a deeper understanding of what reality means.
Sean
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