# Marsch as spy; fan fiction *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 25 Jun 1998* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### adam louis stephanides *25 Jun 1998, 19:22* > On Thu, 25 Jun 1998 Sgt. Rock wrote: > adam louis stephanides wrote: >> 1) Pretending to be an abo impersonating an Earthman would hardly free him >> from suspicion of being a spy. There's no reason why such an impersonator >> couldn't also be carrying out a mission from the Annese government. In >> fact, given the Ste.Croix regime's paranoia, Marsch's being an Annese >> visiting Ste. Croix in the guise of an Earthman would probably be regarded >> as tantamount in itself to being a spy. > Of course. That's why Marsch only activates the second cover when he has > good reason to think his first one is blown (when the authorities arrest > him and accuse him of being an Annese spy). Marsch is using the > time-honored tactic of "confessing" to a lesser crime (murder) to draw > suspicion from his true activities (spying). But my point was that "confessing" to be an Annese impersonating Marsch wouldn't draw suspicion from his spying, but to it. > Furthermore, isn't it odd that the St. Croix authorities not only accuse > Marsch of being a spy, but also of murdering Maitre? After all, they've > already convicted Number 5 for the same crime. Is there perhaps some > reason for thinking that the two were acting in collusion? My reading was that he was first arrested on the grounds of murdering Maitre; later Number Five was arrested for the murder, but by that time they'd already decided "Marsch" was a spy. The cover letter to "Marsch's" papers (p. 267 in the Ace edition) seems to confirm this. > From: "Alice Turner" > Subject: fan fiction When I saw this subject line in the digest intro, I thought you were referring to genuine Wolfe-based fan fiction, and I confess to being disappointed that you weren't. Does anyone know if such a thing exists? --Adam ---