Lytaxin
War Zone

In which Val Con’s plan gets off the ground.

I always feel sorry for the radar tech, getting bossed around like that when he’s just trying to do the right thing. And because, although Shan and Nelirikk have the excuse of needing to keep him off-balance so he doesn’t realise what they’re up to, the implication is that the approach works because he’s known officers who are just as high-handed and mean without any such excuse. And because, if he didn’t get killed when the bombs went off, he’s going to be in so much trouble that he may well wish he had.

And that’s something I like about this chapter, because it’s treating the radar tech as a person even though he’s on the wrong side. It would have been less good if the radar tech had been portrayed as an Enemy with no feelings of his own, or, perhaps even worse, as an Enemy whose humiliation was a thing to be enjoyed.