Take no risks when you are on the run but can you avoid every risk? On Unan Besar, the intelligence chief, Warouw, knows that Flandry had had at least brief contact with a certain courtesan who has since departed to an unknown destination. Checking that courtesan's antitoxin record, Warouw learns that she has recently received antitoxin (necessary for everyone on the planet) in Gunung Utara where the dispenser remembers that she was accompanied by a tall man... Flandry has been careless.
When Bond and Solitaire have traveled far enough away from Harlem - so Solitaire thinks -, she removes her veil and is almost immediately recognized by a member of Mr. Big's network. She has been careless.
We try to imagine how these narratives would have unfolded if the characters had not made these mistakes.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, it was a mistake of Flandry to have accompanied Luang to the antitoxin dispenser. He should have been careful to avoid the chance of being noticed by any agents of the Biocontrol regime. That said, I still think Warouw would have gone to Gunung Utar, because even that "brief" contact with Luang, followed by her unexpected departure from her usual home would have been enough of a clue for someone as shrewd as Warouw.
Everyone on Unan Besar had to be fingerpinted after birth if they were going to get the antitoxin needed every two Terran weeks for survival there. There was simply no avoiding being compelled to have one's identity checked by Biocontrol.
I think Solitaire's mistake was even less excusable. Of course Mr. Big would have agents in Florida!
Ad astra! Sean
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