The dynamics of duble agents in VFD deduction

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

This text is necessary to understand the theoretical basis for the hypothesis I call "A Brief History of VFD"
asoue.proboards.com/thread/35982/brief-history-vfd-hypothesis

VFD is a secret organization, and like most secret organizations, it has levels. As the person becomes more reliable, or reaches a certain age, the person advances at the levels of the organization. This is demonstrated by Jacques Snicket's letter to his brother. (Considering LSTUA does not present fruadulent documents).

Jacques Snicket wrote:
LSTUA chapter 6: "Under normal circumstances, new volunteers like ourselves would not receive disguise training until our years of apprenticeship wew finished, but we have not been under normal circumstances for quite some time."

By this time Lemony was about to marry Beatrice, so he was no longer a child. By this time Lemony had already written a review of Olaf's play. Lemony had gone through all the theoretical training in VFD, and now we know that he had even gone to SBTS. Still, Jacques referred to himself and Lemony as new members, still in their apprenticeship years. Lemony received from his brother the disguises and instructions on how to use them. This seems to indicate that only trusted VFD members relay such information and equipment after many, many years of learning and observation. In fact, in File Under 13, we realize that there are secret evaluations of the performance of new members of the organization.

This shows something interesting about Olaf: He had equipment and training in the disguise kit. Apparently, Olaf reached the level of trusted member in VFD, and completed the apprenticeship with praise. This is strange in many ways. From Olaf's description of TBL, apparently Olaf was from the same class as Lemony. If even Jacques, who was older, still considered himself to be in his apprenticeship years, it seems unlikely that Olaf would have become a trusted member of VFD anytime soon. Moreover, Olaf's attitude as described in TBL was very unpleasant from Lemony's point of view. Finally, Olaf's Schism showed that Olaf's attitude was more than an unfounded distrust of Lemony.
In other words, I seriously suspect that inside fire extinguishing side of VFD there were undercover agents on the incendiary side. These undercover agents would have facilitated Olaf's assertion by VFD confidence levels.
This suspicion is not just mine. In fact, LSTUA chapter 3 indicates that some members of VFD also suspected this. On page 45 we find the following sentence:

"There is only one explanation for our secret location has been discovered, over and over again: a member of VFD - perhaps even someone in this very room - has betrayed us."

This conclusion helps us understand other aspects involving the Daily Punctilio. You may recall that Lemony, Jacques, R and many other VFD members worked at the Daily Punctilio. In addition, while Lemony worked at the Daily Punctilio, he sent important messages to VFD members through the pages of the newspaper. We see this in Jacques's letter to Lemony on page 96 of LSTUA:
"It will no longer be possible for you to communicate with us through The Daily Punctilio."
In addition, while Jacques Snicket worked at The Daily Punctilio, he reported that the Royal Garden fires were criminals, and even reported the AA fire related events. Also, for VFD it was important to keep the Daily Punctilio articles, according to K's letter to the cheesemakers. So apparently for a long time the Daily Punctilio was a fire-fighting sidekick of VFD. But all that changed at the time of the Olaf Schism. The Daily Punctilio editor-in-chief showed her true colors, dismissing Lemony, and showing full support to Olaf. This seems to me to be coordinated action. At the same time, Olaf allied himself with the bearded but hairless man, as the report on page 131 in chapter 11 indicates. As the following report indicates, on page 118, police detectives helped conceal a murder. It all happened in a short time, according K's letter to Dear Deary in LSTUA.
All of these seem to be evidence of an old plan being put in place, something involving infiltration of dormant agents into VFD.

This deduction works to clarify some details. First, we come to understand when the VFD recognition code came to work. The code in which someone says, "I didn't realize it was a sad occasion," whose answer is "The world is quiet here," was created after Olaf's Schism. (ATWQ shows that there were no recognition codes in VFD at the time of the events narrated in ATWQ. Lemony explained that VFD members at that time needed to recognize each other through their attitudes. And there is a report in File under 13 in that a VFD member thinks he met another VFD member and he needs to ask "are you part of a secret organization?" because there were no recognition codes at the time of ATWQ. Quigley at TSS showed that this code was not just for waiters when he tried to use the same code with the Baudelaire siblings in the cave.)
This code had to be explained to Lemony in Jacques's letter to Lemony when Lemony was already an adult. Jacques Snicket was instructed to teach this code to trusted members only after the Olaf Schism. Thus, people who have clearly supported Olaf's Schism do not know this code. And that is clear from LSTUA in chapter 8 on pages 134-137. Eleanora Poe does not know the VFD recognition code. Despite this, the waiter insistently says "I didn't realize it was a sad occasion". The Waiter is saying this because he thought Eleonora was a member of VFD. However, the waiter did not know that Eleonora had supported Olaf during the Olaf Schism.
Another illuminating detail is the reason for Lemony's doubt about Hal's loyalty. Lemony said in THH chapter 4 that he spent investigating Hal for several months to make sure Hal was not a spy. Apparently Hal was a member of VFD, as almost all librarians are members of VFD. Lemony's investigation time may have been several months before the events in TPP. When Hal proved trustworthy, not an arson supporter, Hal was summoned by Dewey's friend to take part in the fragmented plan at Hotel D. Only then did Hal receive the information regarding the recognition code. Hal tried to use the code at the hotel. But Hal had a special mission in the fragmented plane. Hal needed to earn the trust of Olaf and Esme. Hal apparently had to bring false information to Olaf and Esme in order for Olaf to believe in the arrival of the sugar bowl through the crows, and to believe that the laundry room was where the sugar bowl would fall. Hal then became a fake double agent. In front of Olaf and Esme Olaf, Hal pretended to be someone who was supporting the incendiary side, but in fact he was supporting Lemony and JS's secret plan. Interestingly, Hal apparently met JS personally, which may be evidence that JS was the mysterious supporter of Dewey

But the deductions don't stop here. When you understand the dynamics of sleeping double agents, you can think better of what probably happened between the managers of the Hotel D. Ernest and Frank are admittedly members of opposite sides of the Schism. The fire-extinguishing side knows that Ernest is on the incendiary side. But nothing indicates that the incendiary side knows that the fire-extinguishing side knows this. Moreover, during the many years Hotel D was in operation, Ernest did not act against his brothers. Understanding the dynamics of sleeping double agents, we have a couple of possibilities: 1) Ernest didn't act against his brothers because it would ruin the disguise he believed was still working. 2) The fire-extinguishing side (or Lemony and his supporters) discovered that Ernest was a sleeping double agent, and instead of spreading it to the winds, took advantage of this to allow Ernest to send false information to the incendiary side. 3) The fact that Ernest, Dewey, and Frankl looked the same would allow Dewey or Frank himself to impersonate Ernest and infiltrate the incendiary side.
And of course there is a possibility, though remote, that Ernest had turned heartily to the fire extinguisher side, and was helping his brothers all the time by pretending to be on the incendiary side.
But in any case, I want to show in this text that in the main story of ASOUE and LSTUA there is strong evidence that the dual agent dynamic was underway.
Of course, in TBL there is also an indication of this in the letter LS to BB # 5. The Sebald Code Question: "Are you certain your Co-star is one of us?" It is evidence that there were members of VFD that Lemony suspected were not "one of us."

But now think: If Ernest was infiltrated with VFD when he was still a child, were there no other children on the incendiary side infiltrated with VFD? Such children should gain the trust of other members, but actually be agents of evil.

And you can watch the movie "Salt" with Angelina Jolie to understand more about sleeping agents.

[Foxy]

It might be that Jacques refers to them as new members because when they were doing their apprenticeships they were not considered members yet. Maybe they had just graduated and were now new members.

I am guessing that even though Count Olaf was unpleasant in school, there were probably unpleasant teachers at the school as well as pleasant ones, already the makings of a schism, and that is why Olaf was able to get by.

I think Eleanora allying herself with Count Olaf was more Eleanora allying herself with Geraldine Julienne who was allied with Esme Squalor who was allied with Count Olaf, and once Eleanora got locked in the basement, she realized what a terrible mistake she had made.

That line in THH where Snicket talks about investigating Hal is I think supposed to be a throw-away line that is funny. If you analyze some of Snicket's goofy comments too much, you're going to miss out on the humor and laughs.