VL-IV p29

[Michael Bailey]

this long stretch of conversation is hard to write about.

It's pretty straightforward in a way, easy enough to follow.  I have
half a mind to just skim over it and come back later if I get any
coherent thoughts that run deeper.

This particular scene wouldn't be that hard to film, it's almost like
My Dinner With Andre.

Anyway...page 29

(well maybe Zoyd wasn't about to sob on the other page.  Alternate decoding -
Yah - you guys lost her file
hah - that means she's free to rove about the country
hah - she might come back to me
hah - but shit, you guys are STILL going to stand in the way)

"Who was saved?"
good one - appeal to Zoyd's conscience.  Does his refusal to
co-operate with law enforcement actually help the people he doesn't
turn in?

"You, Hector."
and that, for some reason, makes Hector at least fake sadness.  All
this falling brings Milton's Satan to mind, of course, but Hector's no
immortal spirit.  Or is he?

"Zoyd, the big idealist, liked to believe that Hector remembered
everybody he'd ever shot at, hit, missed, booked, questioned, rousted,
double-crossed - that each face was filed in his conscience, and the
only way he could live with such a history was to take these chances"
- a) Zoyd, the big idealist?
- b) however you slice it, there are two very different viewpoints
sitting at the table
...whether it's rationalization or true belief on either side
For Hector, he's working to eliminate a source of crime and enforce the law
For Zoyd, Hector's efforts mess up free flow of useful product and
express Hector's evil nature

but the "big idealism" really does expand from just thinking Hector
has a conscience, to something not too far from old Jess's Emerson
quote about the universal balance...and "kept Zoyd from lying around
hatching plots to assassinate Hector"