Beware the Raven

When your characters get a life of their own it's a double edged sword.

First, it's a really good sign, because they are coming alive, and making their presence felt in the story.

On the flip side, it's a right pain in the proverbial when they say or do something surprising which makes perfect sense for them to say or do and it causes a substantial design rewrite due to the flow on effects.

So there was this discussion by phone between two major characters that have a joint scheme...

‘Which means the leak came from within the Mirovar force team - accept it - it’s the only option left.’

There was a long pause on the line.

[REDACTED] said quietly, ‘Damn, you must be right.’

‘Of course I am,’ [REDACTED] stated matter-of-factly. ‘So do something about it.’

‘Oh, I will,’ [REDACTED] hissed. ‘Don’t you worry about that.’

‘Once you find your spy, keep them alive and in place, we need to find their accomplice, the one who killed my [REDACTED] .’

‘Obviously.’

Of course it makes sense to keep an enemy spy in place once you have discovered them, especially if you have identified that they have a far more important accomplice in the background.

My original plan had the spy in question being caught, charged, and tried - not kept in place as part of a bigger strategy.

So I watched a bit of TV last night (Latest Jason Bourne movie, Person of Interest season 2, Arrow season 5) mulling over the options and came up with a neat solution.

The speaker's smart approach to spycraft above, simply generated a more devious approach by the opposing agent.

Very devious, and almost artistic in their use of leverage on the characters around them.

And the agent's name - The Raven.