How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Of course, what Günberk and Keiko saw was the easy part. The hard part was what Alfred was hiding beneath Plan Rabbit. When this magnificent intrusion/inspection was complete, there would be no evidence of his research program. Working as the trusted leader of the operation, Alfred was confident that he could accomplish that much. The triumph would be to leave credible evidence that would point bird-dog Günberk somewhere far across the world—and leave Alfred's operation intact in San Diego. Failing that, Alfred would have to rebuild his research setup—and his security—at second-rate sites. He could lose a year or two of development time. (9.4)
If you want to manipulate people, it helps if no one takes you seriously (like Robert and Louise Chumlig above) or if you are trusted by the people you want to manipulate. In Alfred's case, we see that he's trusted—heck, Braun brings the whole problem to his attention (1.1). And we also see here what the end goal of this manipulation is: he wants to get other spies off his back. Does any character in this book manipulate people just for fun?
Quote #5
"I'll contact him like the gentle cloud of coincidence that I am. If the Americans identify him, he will be a perfect red herring. Your EU and Japanese friends would be too cowardly to go for this. You, I think, have more courage. So I'm here to give you a heads-up. Cover me on this." (9.40)
If there's any character who manipulates purely for the fun/the challenge, it would be Rabbit. Here Rabbit is explaining how he's going to use Sharif as a go-between so no one knows that he's talking to Robert. Although Rabbit is explaining this part of the plan to Vaz, notice how many people are on the outside of this plan: Braun and Mitsuri and the Americans, too. So Rabbit is like Vaz—he keeps secrets even from the people he's working with.
Quote #6
Miri hesitated. In fact, all the really successful suggestions had been due to the little girl. Maybe the "little girl" persona was covering something. Miri started a query replicating out through everyone and everything that might provide identity clues. But even if the kid were really ten years old, it wouldn't prove anything. Some fifth graders were scary. (10.35)
Miri is smart and paranoid enough to worry that someone might be manipulating her. (Here, the "little girl" was almost certainly Rabbit, planting in Miri's head the idea to get someone to interview her granddad. Someone like, say, Zulfikar Sharif.) Even though Miri follows up on that idea, sending out queries to see who that little girl was, she soon discards that thought. For extra irony: Miri wonders if she's being manipulated at the same time as she's planning to manipulate Sharif.