[Dragaera] Vlad's passivity

[Alexx Kay]

Jon Lincicum:

> Sure, you could say he was reacting to the death of Reins. But what
> loyalty, exactly, did Vlad really have to Reins? This was really a side
> issue, IMO.

I think Vlad *does* have loyalty towards Reins.  That is, he feels a
strong ethical commitment to protecting those who have risked themselves
to help him carry out his job.  See the passage in _Taltos_, where he
first carries out a Morganti job.  Even though he trusts "the listener"
with tons of self-incriminating information, he explicitly refuses to
divulge details of his accomplice's current whereabouts.  When setting up
a crime with an accomplice, you have to tell the accomplice, "Trust me, no
one will ever know, and you won't get in trouble," and, moreover, it has
to be true most of the time for it to be a convincing argument.

Or, to paraphrase Sam Spade: "When a man's accomplice is killed, he's
supposed to so something about it. It doesn't make any difference what
House he was in. He was your accomplice and you're supposed to do
something about it."

Or maybe I just love Dashiell Hammett too much :-)
Alexx

"AND she thinks that as a nurse, she "lives only for others," would you
 believe it?  She actually said that.  You can tell the "others" by their
 hunted look."                  -- Nurse Jones