On 1/1/06, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote: > Mark A. Mandel wrote: > > > > >Kragar is the sidekick, for as long as Vlad is a boss in the Organization, > >as well as having resources. I don't know that Vlad HAD the resources to > >look into K's past, before K was working for him. That's the kind of work > >that he DELEGATES to K. > > > > > Yes, certainly that's the kind of work that Vlad delegated to > Kragar--AFTER he decided to let Kragar be his chief lieutenant. > > But given Vlad's penchant for careful preparation in regards to setting > up an assassination (done in the early days BEFORE Kragar was working > for him), it seems unusual that he wouldn't take the time to do the same > sort of work up on Kragar--detective story conventions aside. I dunno - I don't think Vlad became careful until after making a few mistakes (like his first hit, where he used Loiosh explicitly, and had to clear out of town for a while). He did start out pretty young, after all. He even described himself as being like a young Dzur, brash and reckless. Certainly, killing his own boss in order to advance was pretty brash and reckless. I think it likely that Kragar must have done something that demonstrated to Vlad that he (Kragar) was loyal above and beyond the usual sort of Jhereg loyalty. One of my pararectal notions is that it was Kragar who told Vlad how a less-than-thorough interrogation under the Orb could be... sidestepped, as it were. And that Kragar might have helped ensure that less-than-thorough interrogation by passing a few well-aimed bribes from Vlad to the Jhereg interrogators Although perhaps that may have been Kiera, now that I think about it. > As to not having the resources to look into Kragar's past--well, there > are two ways to look at that. > #1. Certainly Vlad had some good friends at that point (He hadn't met > Morrolan or Sethra yet, but he had met /Kiera/, and Nielar was a close > associate (who had employed Kragar himself (partnering him with Vlad) > prior to that). Good point. Still, Kiera might well have told Vlad that he could trust Kragar, without necessarily divulging Kragar's background (or not divulging his *true* background; see Speculation:Kragar).