The Zodiac, an expensive and fashionable Manhattan club frequented by high-ranking Military Security officers, is also the location of the local headquarters of the Egalitarian ("Equals") activist organization. Masks are commonly worn in the "...warren of curious rooms..." (XIV, pp. 109-110)
Gannoway, an Egalitarian, leads Koskinen and Trembicki down a tunnel to an armored door where his retinal patterns are scanned before they enter a large, austere conference room. While the men are in conference, Vivienne, posing as a gang boss's female partner, gambles, makes discrete inquiries and learns that the Zodiac is owned by an unregistered corporation whose major stockholder, although under a different name, is Gannoway. Koskinen, already suspicious of the Egalitarians, is shocked.
I have two queries here. First, if Gannoway's stocks are held under a different name, then how was Vivienne able to identify him so easily merely by, as she puts it, flirting with the night manager? Secondly, why is Koskinen shocked?
2 comments:
Paul:
I'm going to guess what shocked Koskinen was that an Egalitarian was a major corporate stockholder — that is, a rich guy who's probably better off with things as they are than with the sort of change the Equals profess to seek. So either he's a fanatic, willing to destroy his own well-being for The Cause, or the Egalitarians are a front for a cynical power grab.
As for Vivienne's info-gathering, I suspect she left out the details of a number of conversations — much more than just flirting with one night-manager.
Kaor, DAVID!
I've not yet started rereading SHIELD, but I suspect Gannoway is acting from the kind of mixed motives most of us have. He is both a fanatic and using the Egalitarian ideology as an excuse for grabbing at power for himself.
Your second suggestion, about Vivienne, would "save the appearances" of an otherwise possible weak spot noticed by Paul. That is, we don't know all the means used by Vivienne to gather info.
And Koskinen was "shocked" because, after so many years on Mars away from the rough and tumble of human society, intrigue and skulduggery could shock him.
Sean
Post a Comment