Kevin's Watch

I posed this question to SRD on the gradual interview on his website and I DID receive a reply from him. I would like to get the KW people to sound off on the matter and perhaps provide their own perspective.
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I have not yet been able to make heads-or-tails of two particular incidents that take place and how they came to be and the characters motivations behind them.

- WHY does Holt send a kaze to try and kill Captain Vertigus? I really don’t understand what he could have hoped to gain by this act? He had no real notion of what Warden was up to at the time and not much else had really happened that I can see that would have justified this act.

- The second question is similar, WHY would Holt send a kaze to kill Gosden? He was grooming Gosden to become President of the GCES. Was it simply a loyalty test? Either get on a shuttle to visit Holt in person, thereby saving his life or choose loyalty to Warden and die? Is it really that simple or am I missing something obvious? Holt seemed to have nothing to gain by this attack on his own subordinate.

- And for both these questions it would seem that Holt would have to be prescient in order to have foreseen his need or desire for these kazes far enough in advance to make the necessary preparations eventually uncovered by Hashi’s investigation.

Please help me to understand. On my next reading of the series I’d like to be able to think, “ah-hah!” instead of, “huh?”

I remember reading SRD's answer and thinking it was very satisfactory! But here we go:

Sixten Vertigus has a history of opposing anything Holt Fasner does. He's aligned himself firmly in opposition to the UMC. Fasner also wanted the GCES to be afraid, so that they would be more likely to agree to further control by the UMCP of their security. He was killing two birds with one stone.

I think that sending the kaze against Godsen was a loyalty test. Holt was grooming Godsen to be the president of the GCES. He wanted someone in that post who would follow his orders. By sending a kaze against him, but giving him a way out by following his orders he created a test that solved the potential problem at the same time. (he wouldn't have Godsen as president of the GCES and not under his control.

Holt is a very clever and careful person. He always has a way out if everything goes wrong. Having a couple of kazes ready at all times, just in case, is probably one of his failsafes.

Not only did he send it as a loyalty test, but also to put the UMCP above suspicion. The kazes attacked the UMC, GCES and UMCP; therefore who can be blamed? None but the Native Earthling's.

As for Sixten, he oppses Holt Fasner in everything. And in book five Hashi comments "finally, Captain Vertigus is overdue for retribution. The Dragon never forgives; if he withholds his hand for those who have opposed him, it is only because he bides his time."

I agree, but I must confess at being slightly confused at why Cleatus Fane, who was apparently 'controlling' the second kaze (which was spotted by Hashi), why was it going to be apparently directed AT Cleatus (himself)...

As usual, I am probably missing something so obvious, but I don't recall seeing it in my recent second reading. Was the kaze actually going to threaten Cleatus?....!

The purpose of the attack was to disrupt the talks and scare the members. The kaze was positioned to appear to target Cleatus simply to draw suspicion away from the UMC.

very logical, BUT is presupposes that the kaze would be spotted before it/he could blow-up! And no one did see it, except for Hashi, who was a surprise guest...

Doesn't this seem a little like a (gasp) mistake, or at the very least, a large leap of faith the reader has to take regarding the planning of the bad-guys...?

I haven't read Gap in a while, but perhaps the kaze had instructions to blow himself up before he got near Cleatus. Or maybe Cleatus himself could control the timing. Doesn't take much of a leap of faith. I don't think every detail must be explicitly explained if a plausible explanation can be easily guessed and presents no potential conflicts.

I've been away from these forums for quite a while, but I'm back now! anyway I think Fane was counting on all of the increased security the kaze would be identified. And if not there was a 15 second delay or so between the signal being given and the kaze blowing up, giving Fane a chance to send the signal, yell "Kaze!" or whatever and get away from the blast. It was a fairly safe bet they had something planned for getting the kaze identified, its just Hashi discovered the kaze (and got the ident tag off him) which was unexpected. I'm just in the middle of re-reading the gap series and I've just read that, so all the facts should be fairly accurate.