Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I want to take a step or three back. I have just reread the first chapter, and I can’t agree that Paul is a buffoon. He is of course unsure of what is going on, and that’s what he is meant to be. But he is sharp enough to read people well. When he meets Quinn, he compares him with the person in a painting in the room, thinking they share “the pout of privileged discontent”.
When he is meeting Elliot, he asks a question “...playing the innocent because that’swhat Elliot seems to like best”.
He will not be bulldozed into agreeing that Jeb and his men should go in: “Nothing I’ve seen or heard warrants going in at this stage”.
So on a reread, where I knew what comes later rather than being confused by all the smokescreens Crispin created for everyone, I read Paul as being absolutely the same person as Kit, trying to do the right thing, but operating very much in the dark.
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I come down on this side of Paul / Kit, too. He was chosen for his complete lack of knowledge, to be a fallguy for Quinn. Quinn quizzed him heavily to confirm he’d never seen a drop of covert action. But he took his responsibility very seriously and backed up Jeb, when there wasn’t a positive identification. He stood up to Quinn several times. Quinn then demanded to speak with Jeb.
It was Jeb, an experienced military leader, who caved to Quinn, (and that did not seem credible to me). Kit’s faith in the process was certainly naive, but he excecuted his role faithfully. Due to lack of experience, I think he can be forgiven for thinking the operation was successful.
A more senior bureaucrat than Kit would know he should never meet alone with a Minister, without the prior knowledge and blessing of his boss. The reporting structure of bureaucratics is to the seniormost public servant, not their Ministers. The seniormost bureaucrat then reports directly to the Prime Minister. It’s how Prime Ministers maintain control over their Ministers.
So Kit was taken advantage of. But does it necessarily make him a chump? I didn’t think so.