The Gap Into Vision - Forbidden Knowledge 1: Angus

[Lord Foul]

The chapter and the book begins with Milos Taverner attempting one of the rare nearly impossible things in the world – trying to cover his ass on both sides equally well.

He has not to get any dangerous information out of Angus, but he has to get information out of Angus or at least show much effort in that. On the surface, everything looks normal, guilty as charged, but it's certain there is more, if not provable. Milos additionally enjoys the company personally, finding Angus repulsive bodily and dangerously cunning, insidious, making him feel exposed.

In addition his eyes glared yellow with a belligerent wisdom that made Milos feel exposed, dangerously known.

Beautiful.

And Milos suspects potentially destructive infromation, connections to Forbidden space, and thinks he may anger dangerous people if anything comes out – the more immediately dangerous ones. To increase the fun, it all gets recorded.

Angus nicely helps Milos by refusing to talk – not like out of wishing him good, certainly.

Shit, the deputy chief thought when he was alone. He didnt like foul language

to him.

Now who am I supposed to be loyal to?

Someone. Someone.

Milos also checks the balance of his bank account he has under an alternative name fo reassurance. That's some consolation.

He gets an opportunity to break the prisoner – Angus tries to escape. Angus grieves his ship, the Bright Beauty. He looks unreactive alone in his cell, the psy-profile computer suggests Angus loses his will to life. Milos decides it's fake – and turns out right. Angus breaks out of his cell, but gets recaptured.

Thus, Milos gets the lucky gift of a lever he can't get away with not using. He issues instructions not to get his plans compromised and lets the guards treat Angus with an old-fashioned beating instead of the impersonal stun, which results in a terrible condition, one that makes Milos afraid he might succeed.

his left eye was swollen shut in a grotesque parody of Warden Dios.

Interesting.

He and Angus were alone.

How sweet.

Here it turns out Milos can cheat his way out of the recordings – he prepares a dummy to use if the real results turn out so that they can get him some pleasant attention. He lies to Angus that the guard he attacked died and tries to threaten him with execution. Angus remains silent. Milos continues on the route of death threat and says nobody will ever care what happens to him again. Angus replies – tries to laugh and answers in scorn and rough language – saying he'll talk when the murder file is charged – to everybody. That he'll tell about a traitor in Security – and he'll tell who it is – and he'll trade his name for immunity. But he refuses to tell the name before the charge is filed. Milos tries to say he's bluffing – Angus retorts Milos is. And that Milos never intended to find out the truth.

Youre bluffing, Angus retorted. You arent going to file that charge. You dont want to find out what I know. You never have. Then he concluded happily, Motherfucker.

Angus can be so lovely.

Milos stops the interrogation and enjoys the results of having the dummy – he dumps the real recording.

After that he stubbed out his nic, thinking, Filthy habit. Im going to quit. Remembering that hed made similar commitments in the past, he added, I mean it. Really.

Really. Hehe.

Milos makes a few undecipherable transmissions and returns to work, the smooth dummy gets no mention, Angus returns to silence.

Milos Taverner might as well have been safe.
Nevertheless when the order came through to have Angus Thermopyle frozen, Milos heaved a sigh of entirely private and malicious relief.

As SRD's readers know, sighing in relief is not something the characters can really do, unless that's the end of the series - or they're dead. And the latter is no guarantee

[Iolanthe]

Exactly as I remember it, LF. It seemed to me that Angus had the upper hand.

They learned from the questions they were asked, they gained as much knowledge as they gave - as much or more, in Angus' case - and they used that knowledge to perfect their lies........

As Angus didn't say anything at all until after his attempted escape, his learned knowledge could only serve to make Milos Taverner more frightened. Slimy git, Milos.

[Lord Foul]

Most certainly - Milos is absolutely out of his league. This chapter is good character study - with Milos being shown as a shifty, greedy coward, and Angus as a cunning, dangerous and insightful man. I particularly like this piece about him, almost poetic:

his eyes glared yellow with a belligerent wisdom that made Milos feel exposed, dangerously known.

And in this one I can practically feel how Angus felt - and reading it makes me smile - how he yanks the carpet from beneath Taverner's feet - and how his enjoyment of that seeps through the text.

Youre bluffing, Angus retorted. You arent going to file that charge. You dont want to find out what I know. You never have. Then he concluded happily, Motherfucker.

[Cord Hurn]

Those two (Angus, Milos) seem to understand each other all too well. It's interesting that they are in a way on the same side in that Milos doesn't want Angus to talk and Angus doesn't want to talk about what he knows...

[Cord Hurn]

Stalemate...

Milos found Angus' condition distasteful. Also it scared him because it increased his chances of success. Nevertheless he gave it his approval before he dismissed the guards.

He and Angus were alone.

Smoking so hard that the air-conditioning couldn't keep up with it, he left Angus to sit and sweat while he keyed a number of commands into his computer console. Let Angus' resolve erode under the pressure of silence. Alternatively, let him use the respite to recover his determination. Milos didn't care. He needed the time to take the risk on which he'd decided to stake his own safety, even though the dangers made his fingers tremble and his guts feel like water.

He was preparing the computer to provide two recordings of this session. One would be the actual recording; the other would be a dummy designed to protect him in an emergency.

When the session was over, he could use whichever recording he needed. He was the deputy chief of Security: he knew how to take all trace of the other recording out of the computer.

But if he were caught before then--

The rather imprecise nature of his loyalties would be exposed. He would be ruined.

Deep in his guts, he hated Angus for putting him in this position.

He couldn't afford to falter, however. Once his preparations were complete, he hid his hands behind the console and faced Angus across the table. Covering his anxiety with assertiveness, he didn't waste any time coming to the point.

"That guard died." This was a lie, but Milos had made certain no one would betray the truth to Angus. "We've got you for murder. Now you're going to talk. I won't even try to bargain with you. You're going to talk, you're going to tell me everything I want to know, everything you can think of, and you're going to hope we consider what you're saying valuable enough so that we won't have you executed."

Angus didn't reply. For once, he didn't look at his interrogator. His head hung down; it seemed to dangle from his neck as if his spine had been broken.

"Do you understand me?" Milos demanded. "Have you got the brains left to know what I'm saying? You are going to die if you don't give me what I want. We're going to strap you down and stick a needle in your veins. After that, you'll just be dead, you won't even feel it happen, and nobody will ever care what happens to you again."

That last sentence was a mistake: Milos felt it as soon as he said it. For a moment, Angus' shoulders twitched. He should have been crying--any other prisoner with a scrap of human frailty would have been crying--but he wasn't. As soon as Angus raised his head, Milos saw that he was trying to laugh.

"Care what happens to me?" Angus' voice sounded like his face, bloody and beaten. "You motherfucker."

Unfortunately, "motherfucker" was a word Milos particularly disliked. Helpless to stop himself, he flushed. He tried to conceal his reaction behind another nic, but he knew Angus had seen him. He couldn't control the tremor in his hands.

The damage to Angus' features made him look maniacal. Glaring at Milos, he said, "I'll talk, all right. As soon as you file your murder charge, I'll talk. I'll talk to everybody."

Milos stared back at Angus. Angus was the only one sweating, but Milos felt that he himself was the only one afraid.

"I'll tell them," Angus said, "there's a traitor in Security." He said the words as if he could prove them whenever he wanted. "I'll even tell them who it is. I'll tell them how I know. I'll tell them to be sure I'm telling the truth. As soon as you file your charge.

"I'll trade his name for immunity. Or maybe"--Angus was sneering--"I'll try for a pardon."

Tensing against the distress in his bowels, Milos asked, "Who is it?"

Angus' glare didn't waver. "When you file your charge."

Deep in his guts, he hated Angus for putting him in this position. Ordinarily, I wouldn't feel like defending Angus. But here, I have to say I don't think it was Angus that put Milos in this position of having to demand answers he really doesn't want to hear. Milos put himself in this position with his double-dealing. Assuming Milos had a choice, he should at least have had someone else in Security interrogate Angus, for Angus guessed from Milos' mannerisms that Milos helped Nick steal station supplies to frame Angus. If someone else had done the questioning of Angus, Angus might not have ever known who the Com-Mine traitor was. And Milos just can't conceal from Angus the fact that he's bluffing, no matter what.

After that, you'll just be dead, you won't even feel it happen, and nobody will ever care what happens to you again. I think this was a mistake for Milos to say because it is threatening Angus with a situation that Angus already is familiar with; namely, having no one care what happens to him. That's nothing new at all for Angus.