>
>>"She clearly does not need a bodyguard."
>
>This seems like an odd thing for a professional soldier and at least
>semi-competent bodyguard to say. Just because someone is a total
>badass doesn't mean they don't necessarily need a bodyguard. In fact,
>being a total badass is likely to INCREASE your need for things like
>bodyguards and food tasters; there's a reason viking kings had house
>carles.
>

As I understand things, it wasn't being a badass that required bodyguards and food tasters; it was being a badass who had managed to parlay that ability into political power, or being the heir of said badass. As far as Sosuke knows, Ms. Pond doesn't need a bodyguard, because she's capable of taking care of herself, and doesn't have any characteristics that would require a bodyguard.

On the other hand, he doesn't know she's a time traveler.

>
>>"Ah," Sosuke mused. "That explains the lack of proper defensive
>>features," but before he could elaborate on that, Kaname had stepped
>>on his foot.
>
>Man, two burns in one day. Sosuke is on FIRE.
>

If he had elaborated, I suspect it would be something on the lines of, "Assuming their abilities are as described, Jedi do not need such things."

>
>I know that, at the meta-level, a big part of why Kaname is still in
>the dark about this is because it also leaves the readers in the dark
>until a huge, awesome reveal comes along.
>
>But it's starting to fray a little bit around the edges. Kaname is the
>scion of a family that has a lot of pull in the galaxy and is friends
>with people who have even more pull, and given her family history it
>seems like she'd take threats to her well-being rather seriously.
>

What would you have them do? Pull her out of DSM based on a threat that is only presumed to exist because Sergeant Sagara is there? They don't even know who or what they're defending against. A sufficiently sneaky opponent might very well have hired TechCom in order to get the Sterling family to make a move, just to find out what their first response is.

Until they know that there really is a threat, and where it's coming from, it's arguable that doing anything is effectively jumping at shadows.

Incidentally, fictional kidnapping situations rarely aim at high degrees of separation. Somebody's grandchild is about the farthest reach most authors will go for. So if it's about manipulating somebody, it's probably Miranda, Max, or Miria.

If.

> ...you'd think Miranda would have
>gone "Huh. Someone paid money for a mercenary to attach himself to my
>daughter, who won't tell her why, or why she might be in danger. And
>he's doing stuff like bugging her room. Maybe I'll make some calls and
>find out if some people want to hurt my family that I don't know
>about. Then I can tell Kaname and she can be prepared."
>

Are you sure she didn't do that? Investigations aren't always quick, and the only thing they have to go on is that somebody might be after Kaname. Besides, her family isn't exactly a good choice for taking hostages; they might be well-off, but kidnapping one of that family would be like a mix of The Ransom of Red Chief and Taken.

No, if somebody's after Kaname, I'd wager it's somebody who found out about the database in her head. Even then, the question is, does that person want the database, or just want to destroy it?

>
>For that matter, you'd think Corwin might think along the same lines,
>although obviously Kaname is not his daughter.
>

He's also smart enough to know that the Sterling family is perfectly able to handle such things, or to ask for help from old friends like the Chief of the International Police.

>
>(I like to imagine Sosuke lives by the Code of the Sniper: "Be polite.
>Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet.")
>

"Polite, professional, and prepared to kill."

Yeah, sounds about right.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.