You know, the key to manipulation is never letting the person know they're being manipulated.
Like me, earlier, with the Keep. Sure, I was trying to get something out of her. I needed that counteragent. I had to help my partner, even while I was dragging his ass back to the Agency.
So I pulled that half-hearted manipulation schtick. That obvious The-Official's-a-bastard-you-shouldn't-have-to-put-up-with-that line. And she gave the counteragent to me. But she knew it was going on. Hell, I've never been particularly subtle. I knew I couldn't pull off any slick talk. That's Darien's area. He's the con man criminal type of this partnership.
But I had to try. I had to give her something to say yes to. I wasn't manipulating her, 'cause she knew what I was doing the whole time. And I knew she knew what I was doing.
Make sense?
Anyway. Only reason why a guy like me's so knowledgeable about the art of manipulation is because I've seen it going on so much. I work for the Official, which means I see it in some form practically every time I step into that office.
People've been manipulating me since I was a kid. I only lately wised up to it.
It's kind of a bad feeling, realizing you're getting set-up. I mean, first time I realized it was happening to me was some day months ago at the Agency. Something the boss was doing to get me out of the office and to work. Some kind of stupid compliment, one of his smart-ass compliments that always comes out half-insult.
Course, it got me going. Hearing the boss say you're the only man he trusts for the job gives a person an ego boost. Makes 'em go out and work.
But when I remembered this job was some shit detail, some pissant thing….can't even remember what it was, exactly. Probably getting his lunch. Anyway, soon as it occurred to me that the errand was stupid and a waste of my time, it hit me that the boss just said what he did to get my small brain to stop questioning him.
I didn't appreciate that. I didn't like him doing it, but especially I didn't like how I fell for it so easy.
Now it's easier for me to recognize when it happens. If the Keep were to come up to me and start droning about what a handsome, charming guy I am, I'd realize she's got something in mind she's gonna try to get me to do for her.
When Luke Lawson told me he wanted me to work alone 'cause I deserve to show what I'm capable of, I knew there was something up his sleeve. That's what clued me in about him being a bad guy.
I'm not that bright. I mean, I ain't dumb, but I'm not the quickest bullet out of the gun. Still, now that I know what's going on, it's an insult to me.
Lawson insulted me when he fed me that line about deserving my own spotlight. He didn't give me enough credit to think I'd see through that.
The boss doesn't give me enough credit to see he's yanking my chain to keep me a good little lap dog.
And now…
Now Darien. Crazy or not, it's Darien. And he's pulling the same crap. Feeding me the same line. Underappreciated, no respect. Come on, Bobby, just give me what I want and you'll be rich and happy and a man people look up to.
Please.
What's worst about this situation -- I want to do it. Almost. I don't want to take the money and go on a world tour or something, but I want to help Fawkes out. He's my partner. I take him back to the Agency, they're gonna be harsh. Boss might even take that gland out. Which would kill Fawkes, which would not be cool of me to go along with.
Partners do for each other. I don't bail on my partners. Same lines I've been feeding Darien this whole time, it's stuff I really believe. I really don't bail. I'm not manipulating him telling him that. I'm not quick enough to make stuff like that up if I don't mean it.
He's my partner, and he's got a couple of legitimate complaints. He's an unwilling draftee in this Agency, and that sucks. He's got that gland killing him slowly, and that sucks big time.
Now, he's gone nuts, and he's facing the end of my gun. Sucks and sucks. He doesn't want to turn on me. I can see that. It's the only possible reason why he hasn't yet. He doesn't want to. Somewhere deep inside this nutcase is still Fawkes. He can still remember that day in the rubber room with the anti-virus same as I can.
But still. Here comes the schtick. The line. The bait. Bobby, you're so unappreciated. I respect you. Come with me and you'll never be unhappy again. All you have to do is everything I want you to, and life'll be roses.
Pisses me off. Almost makes me want to throw the cuffs on and drag him back to the boss, just to prove to the world that Bobby Hobbes can tell when he's being manipulated.
Funny thing. If I do help him, if I end up becoming his little lackey, following behind him like his own personal Eberts waiting for some of that money to come my way, it'd be just as bad as working for the Official. You think Darien wouldn't be smug if his plan worked out and we ended up millionaires on the Caribbean? Please. Darien's just waiting for something to get smug about.
So…I don't know. I'm being manipulated, and it's really making me mad. But the guy who's doing it once gave himself a poisonous shot to save my life.
I can't take Darien back to the Agency. He's as good as dead. The Official's too pissed to let this go, and if Darien doesn't come back of his own free will, forget about it. That gland is going right into the next willing agent the boss can find.
Which might have been me, if the Official didn't think I was such a moron.
I can't take him back. But I can't do what he's asking, either.
There's gotta be an answer. Some kind of middle road.
Guess I'm not smart enough to figure it out in the spur of the moment like this.
He's waiting for me. Just looking at me with those freaked out silver eyes, smiling like he already knows my answer.
Wonder how he knows it when I got no clue.
Still, I do the only thing I can think to do at the moment. The only thing that I'd be doing either way I decide to go.
I lower my gun.
His grin says he knows he's already won. It's as smug as any the Official ever gave. He's congratulating himself on manipulating poor dumb Bobby Hobbes.
And…I don't know.
Maybe he has.
I guess we'll see.
The End