Reply #12: "Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.?"

[Igel]

Because if you don't respond properly to something very similar to the posed in the narrative, they won't hire you.

If they don't hire you, there's no reason you should work for them.

When I was interviewed several lives ago, they asked the question point blank, while sitting on my living room sofa: You're hired to listen to an urgent intercept and precis it, or possibly transcribe or translate it fully, and then give the results to your supervisor. You hear on the tape that actions are being taken that, you think, could only be seen as very provocative, probably a prelude to an attack that would overwhelm our front line forces and lead to a game changer before we could mobilize. You know that the only pre-emptive attack would be a limited nuclear strike, which may not remain "limited", but that any conventional response would be too late and any nuclear strike after the fact would be unthinkable. Do you complete the assignment and report accurately what is was on the intercept? Do you leave out the problematic bits, or possibly alter them? Do you trust your superiors, in other words.

My answer was not satisfactory: I didn't know, I'd probably say that it was a difficult tape and make my decision that night, at home.