Annotated Chapter 16 Page 27
In retrospect, it would’ve been a nice symmetry if Walker had said “if we win, you tell us everything you know about Patrick.”
But it’s fair that keeping the Lightning business secret is her immediate priority.
Pretty sure I never gave a concrete answer about whether “the fight must be in earnest for the conditions to stick afterward” was a real feature of the Game. If I did, I definitely don’t remember what the answer was now.
Kara Lynn: But you won’t win. Because if you really want to tell us the truth, you should be playing to lose. That’s the only way to guarantee that we believe you.
Walker: I see you don’t know these challenges as well as you think you do.
Blake: If you aren’t fighting in earnest, how can you expect to get a compulsion that sticks?
Jany: Is that really how it works?
Kara Lynn: I don’t know.
Jany (thinking): Well . . . It’s how it would work if my life were a shounen manga . . .
Walker: I decline your challenge. But I offer you this one instead. If you win, we tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. If you lose . . . then unless you have my direct permission, you say nothing about this operation to anyone.
Jany: I — I accept!