How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Then, for almost two seconds, she was wearing a civilian business suit with an old-fashioned ID lanyard. The ID bore a familiar seal and the letters DHS. Robert knew what that meant. It was all he could do not to flinch back. She can't know everything! He wondered if Alice and Bob were silently coordinating all the scary signs, conspiring to panic him into confession. Somehow, he didn't think Bob was that adept. (16.50)
In this case, Robert is correct: no one is trying to manipulate him. Or rather, his son and daughter-in-law aren't. Everyone else is trying to manipulate Robert, but not these two. In fact, Alice and Bob might be the only characters here who aren't involved in manipulating others or being manipulated. Is that true? And if so, how does that affect our reading of them?
Quote #8
Günberk Braun and Keiko Mitsuri: They were top officers in their respective services. Vaz had tracked these two since their college days. He knew more about them than they would ever guess. That was one of the benefits of being very old and very well connected. In a sense, he had guided them into their intel careers, though neither they nor their organizations suspected the fact. They weren't traitors to the EU or Japan, but Alfred understood them so well that he could subtly guide them. (17.1)
In Chapter 1, we've seen that Alfred has a secret plan and needs to manipulate the other intelligence agents. But it's only in Chapter 17 that we hear this part: that in some way, he's the one whose been manipulating their entire careers. Although we never hear what "In a sense" means when it comes to guiding them into their careers. Mostly what we see is that Alfred can get Braun and Mitsuri to go along with his plan, sometimes by making it seem like it's their plan. Does he ever fail with them?
Quote #9
It hesitated, and said offhandedly to Robert, "Oh, don't let the cylinders go untreated. Just drop them onto the lower tray."
Robert didn't move.
"I mean it!" said the Stranger, something like a serious tone creeping into its voice. It flailed about—more dramatic dying, or looking for an explanation? "If the bugs are disease vectors, you're at ground zero! The lower tray will send them to an incinerator, all safe and tidy."
Miri shook her head. "No. That's an alternate path to the UP/Ex launcher."
"Look at my pdf, you fool. The map."
"I looked at my map, the one I cached this afternoon." Miri's smile was triumphant.
There was a two-second lag. Then the creature turned and looked almost straight at Miri. "I hate you, Miri Gu." (28.39-45)
There's a lot of manipulation going on during the library riot/UCSD biotech lab break-in, but we wanted to zero in on this moment. First, because we enjoy Rabbit's attempt to manipulate the Gus into giving him the flies (that he thinks are part of the mind control experiment—which is itself a manipulation of Alfred's). Notice how his manipulation requires him to be "offhanded" and then give them a serious lie and then point them to his (lying) map. Second, we enjoy—nay, love—how Miri defeats his manipulation simply by having access to a better, more truthful map that she prepared before the adventure. Third, we love Rabbit's response to being thwarted. You see that "two-second lag"? Rabbit is not used to people avoiding his manipulations, so he takes a while to process that info.