MOD:WCU:Monte

Monte is a pretty big mystery. Let's see if we can figure out something about him:

1. He dresses well, but maintains he is a poor man, and seems honest (to me).
2. He says he knows about secret organizations in Gemini, and proves it.
3. He is known to Masterson.
4. He gets references about Burrows from Murphy, Tayla and Goodin.
5. He corresponds via ecrypted capsules with a high-ranking Retro.
6. Has contacts with the pirates and can have them intercept you to deliver a message.
7. His real name is not "Monte"; he says so.

His apparent command of pirates and his getting a reference on Burrows from Tayla
would seem to point in the direction of his being a pirate on some level. But he
does not know how to pilot a ship, so IF he is a pirate, he could not be a standard
career pirate.
We don't know much about Murphy. Best guess is that she works for Merchants Guild,
which might imply some association with pro-Merchants Guild mob boss Damien Lang.
But the third character Monte gets a reference on Burrows from is Sandra Goodin, a
career Confed officer.

He seems to be independent, the way he's "going into hiding in Nexus", etceteras.
Yet he seems too professional about his ways to be considered an "amateur". And
this would seem to make him all the more mysterious: You'd think someone dressed
in a business suit wouldn't gain such trust from pirates, unless he had money for
them, which apparently he doesn't.

All indications are is that he's an information dealer of sorts. What he gives to
pirates is what he gives to Burrows, I say, and what he gives to Masterson, Murphy,
Goodin and the retro informant: Information. Valuable and accurate information,
obviously; which has gained him their trust. And to maintain that trust, he also
must have achieved a reputation for never betraying those who confide in him, and
provide him with information in return for information.

But there's a problem with this model: For people to trust him, it is not enough
that he have a reputation for accuracy and non-betrayal. There must be some kind
of understanding about his motivations, affiliations and future plans. Accurate
information may be his way of introducing himself to a party; a way of saying,
"Here, my business is information; here's some unique info you can verify. Trust
me." You verify the info and say to him, "Very well, I'm listening." But to make
a long term, trusting, info-exchange relationship, you'd have to know what he's
all about. In other words, during RF he makes first acquaintance with Burrows;
but all the other game characters he's connected to know more about him than you
do as Burrows.

If they all know and feel so confident about him, it means that they all know the
nature of his goals and pursuits; and that the latter are compatible with their
own goals and pursuits.

But the interests of retros, pirates and confeds are pretty much at odds. The
story he sells them about himself must be something!

One pretty recurrent pattern, in life as much as in fantasy, is when someone is
initially aligned with a certain group and later changes position out of personal
moral principles, becomes an opponent of it, and suffers or is in danger for
having taken that position. We could guess that, for instance, Monte used to be
part of Military Intelligence, which gradually was being subsumed by the Secret
Operations division, which itself was being subsumed into the Belisarius Group.
And we could further assume that leaving the organization was no easy matter.
Two assassination attempts and a change of identity later made him "independent".
But he's no amature information broker. He did not start from nothing. And while
he may have originally orchestrated infiltrations of pirates, retros and mobs,
using agents only known to him, like Tayla; he later "came clean" to those very
groups he was working against, by convincing them that they all shared a common
enemy who was a threat to the human race as a whole.

Such a story or something similar could gain him the trust of former "enemies",
as well as that of Belisarius Group opponents within Confed, like Goodin; and
Steltekers like Masterson.