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After Whom left, I was told the secret of, by I can't remember who, Whom's power of manipulation. All on his own with no authorization from anybody nor any higher-ups knowing, Whom would meet important Sergeants at the airport who were transferring in, completely unannounced. He glad-handed them, introduced himself, asked if he could expedite their paperwork, tell them he would take care of everything. And they needn't bother coming over to HQs if it was inconvenient. He would take care of everything. Then after a time he would call them and ask for a favor.
Whom's game, which is a fairly universal in bureaucracies, only with Whom a twist-added, was to do people favors whether they wanted them or not. That was the idea, to do something for people so that they would sort of owe him. He would wait awhile until he could find some favor that they could return. Then he would call them and ask for a favor. Of course when granted, he would conclude with: "I owe you one". If they failed to ask for a favor in return, he would call them again after a time and remind them he owed them, and was there anything he could do. In this way, when he really needed or wanted something, he could beg some inside deal. That way he could get things done that no one else could. And especially if he could get otherwise illegal exchanges started, all guised in seeming innocuousness, this would give him extra leverage. Not that he would actually blackmail anyone, but only that others knowing that he knew, and had the goods on them, would be more accordant in granting Whom's ever so subtly suggested requests. Whom was one hell of a psychological study.
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