On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Casey Rousseau wrote: #Akodo Bob wrote: #> Hey all, I just saw the movie "Leon the Professional." And it got me #> thinking. Leon is a hitman and describes the "hitman code" which #> specifically proscribes against killing Woman or Children. Has Vlad ever #> worked on a Woman or a Kid? Well I'm pretty damn sure never on a kid, but #> as Dragaera seems to be a much more innately equalitarian culture, I #> wondered if the same sort of convention existed within the Jhereg. # #He definitely ordered at least a couple hits on women. I can't recall him #saying one way or another about personally working on any women. Remember #they are fewer women on the Organization side and for the most part 'work' #is an internal Organization thing. I haven't seen the movie, but maybyou can check me on this.; (excuse tyupos-- bloody slow echo today!!!) I suspect that that proscription refers to collateral damage. That is: You don't want witnesses to a hit. You're assigned/contracted to take out John Smith. If your only shot at him is when he's talking with Bill Jones, well, that's too bad for Bill: he's got to go. But if Mrs. Smith, or Mrs. Jones, or little Jack or Billy is there, the rule is that you do not hit them, even if it means leaving a witness or aborting the hit. (If your assignment were on a woman or, for some horrible reason, a kid, that might be a different matter.) If that's the case, then it's not too far off from the Jhereg rule that you don't shine a guy in his home or (IIRC) in front of his family. -- Mark A. Mandel http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/ a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website