"What a cruel thing that would be to say," comes the guileless response. "I'd never insult you like that."
There's truly something strangely decadent in his manner. It's true enough that Ralston is a paranoid man, and he'd likely be suspicious of any change. But even a less-jumpy asset might be unsettled around this fellow. Normal contacts are typically stolid, serious almost to the point of being dull. There's lies, there's double-talk, but always in the service of some greater goal. Who has time for play when you're expected to produce intelligence with Stakhanovite vigor? So the natural conclusion might well be that this man is not here with the goal of intelligence collection.
But surely even amongst the gray, lumpen, joyless ranks of those out East, there's some variation, right? Some oddballs? Surely it's not that he has some special dispensation for eccentricity because the work he does is of a particularly unpleasant sort. Right?
Maybe. Because the man evidently relents, saying finally, "Don't be so hard on yourself, Ralston. You're doing fine work. It would be wasteful indeed to lose you."
no subject
There's truly something strangely decadent in his manner. It's true enough that Ralston is a paranoid man, and he'd likely be suspicious of any change. But even a less-jumpy asset might be unsettled around this fellow. Normal contacts are typically stolid, serious almost to the point of being dull. There's lies, there's double-talk, but always in the service of some greater goal. Who has time for play when you're expected to produce intelligence with Stakhanovite vigor? So the natural conclusion might well be that this man is not here with the goal of intelligence collection.
But surely even amongst the gray, lumpen, joyless ranks of those out East, there's some variation, right? Some oddballs? Surely it's not that he has some special dispensation for eccentricity because the work he does is of a particularly unpleasant sort. Right?
Maybe. Because the man evidently relents, saying finally, "Don't be so hard on yourself, Ralston. You're doing fine work. It would be wasteful indeed to lose you."