Van Rijn And Adzel

Satan's World, XIX.

This chapter shows us:

van Rijn's acting skills, which we already know about;

his ceaseless work that looks like loafing - we know about this mainly from The Man Who Counts;

his team work with Adzel, which is specific to this novel.

Van Rijn must gain the confidence of Thea Beldaniel while she, he and Adzel eat together during a long space journey. Van Rijn pre-instructs Adzel as to what he is to say, ask and agree or disagree about. In response, van Rijn practices with several very different apparently spontaneous conversational styles until he finds the one that suits Thea. From then on, he no longer needs Adzel's pre-arranged inputs. Thea does not suspect that she is being worked on in such a way.

Once, van Rijn makes a show of rejecting a perfectly good wine just so that he can get Thea used to the idea that he is sometimes dictatorial. She has been enslaved by an individual member of an alien "master race." Later in the narrative, van Rijn will induce her to impart important information simply by ordering her to do so in an appropriate tone of voice. He is the ultimate crafty devil.