As my wife and I are reading this she has become somewhat irritated that nobody has come to take Dagny away. Other than the fact that she is the main character in the book and it would shorten it tremendously if she were to be taken away by “the Destroyer” :-), why wouldn’t Francisco and crew want to convince her to leave?
A couple of things came to my mind, and I wanted to throw them out and see what the folks say.
1) The fact that her brother is part of the looter crowd might make her hesitant to go even if she were otherwise ready.
2) They believe that her relationship with Hank will make either one hesitant to disappear without the other, so why not pick off the lone wolves instead?
3) I also wonder if it has to do with the railroad not really being a resource constrained business as much as a competency based business. Meaning the looters would more likely feel that they could jump in and run a coal mine, since it’s “just” pulling coal out of the ground. But running a railroad is real work! I could see how the looters might feel that plucking a mine, or an auto manufacturer with assembly lines already running, might be easier than actually running a railroad. So Galt and team figure lure the looters into the businesses they are going to be more interested in plucking for their loot.
Of course, Rand has arguably the strongest character in the book as a woman, and it might simply be that the 3 Amigos figure that she would be the hardest to convince to abandon her work.
I’d be interested if anyone had any thoughts about why the particular pecking order of people disappearing.
Twelve years earlier, he had asked her to abandon the railroad to her brother and just let it go. She couldn't.
Dagny is exceedingly stubborn.
Actually, Francisco has had at least once to restrain himself, or at least remind himself of their rules. If you note, and Eddie points out, the disappearances take place seemingly in response to an outside force being applied, in the form of a suddenly increased importance of and dependence on the "abductee". He confides to the nameless track worker that Dagny herself has noticed this, and indeed she barely misses the opportunity to interfere when Ken Danagger, whom she now perceives as the most important man left, is confronted, successfully, by the "Destroyer". She is not yet at that point, and in fact, never will be. But, "further deponent sayeth not," lest I inject a spoiler. Hard not to, since I've succumbed to temptation and am reading ahead. Sorry, but as many times as I have read AS, it is still a thriller to me.
On another note, I have wanted to comment for some time on the occasional seeming contradictions in her characters and speeches. It helps to keep two things in mind: when you see contradictions, check your premises (of course), but more importantly, Rand (and her characters) mean PRECISELY what they say, and are often responding to what their adversaries meant but didn't say.
Guess I'll go read another chapter. May 1 and the promulgation of the Directive is nearly upon us.
Kirk