Continental Op Stories · Chapter
V: A Flogging explained
The Continental Op witnesses Colonel Einarson flogging a soldier for forty minutes to extract information, revealing the brutal discipline of the Muravian army.
What happens
The Continental Op witnesses Colonel Einarson flogging a soldier for forty minutes to extract information, revealing the brutal discipline of the Muravian army. After the flogging, Einarson explains the soldier's motive: his son was sentenced to twenty years for attacking an officer. The Op fabricates a cover story about his past as a military intelligence captain and subsequent drift through Europe, hinting at shady jobs. Einarson and Grantham consider offering him alternative employment before he commits to the Minister of Police.
Themes in this chapter
Violence and Survival
The extended flogging scene depicts calculated brutality as a tool of control, with the Op and Grantham reacting to the visceral horror.
Deception and Identity
The Op constructs a false identity and backstory to conceal his true purpose, blending truth with fiction to gain trust.
Class and Power
Einarson's absolute authority over the soldier and his contempt for Djudakovich highlight power hierarchies in Muravian society.
Characters to notice
- The Continental Op
Witnesses the flogging, maintains a detached demeanor, and fabricates a cover story about his past to Einarson and Grantham.
- Colonel Einarson
Flogs a soldier methodically for forty minutes to extract information, then explains the soldier's motive; shows a mix of brutality and calculated discipline.
- Jack Counihan
Not present in this chapter.
- Lionel Grantham
Visibly disturbed by the flogging, counts the strokes, and eventually goes to the window to escape the scene.
- Vasilije Djudakovich
Mentioned as the Minister of Police, whom Einarson holds in contempt; the Op has an appointment with him.
Key passages
“After I—personally, you comprehend—have finished with this swine, I have him court-martialed and sentenced to twenty years in the prison. This elder pig, his father, does not like that. So he will shoot me tonight.”
Einarson explains that after he personally dealt with the soldier's son for attacking him, the son was court-martialed and given a twenty-year sentence, prompting the father to attempt assassination.
Reveals the motive behind the soldier's attack and Einarson's justification for the flogging.
“His air was the air of a stoker shoveling coal, of a carpenter sawing a board, of a stenographer typing a letter. Here was a job to be done in a workmanlike manner, without haste or excitement or wasted effort, without either enthusiasm or repulsion.”
The Op describes Einarson's detached, mechanical approach to flogging, likening it to routine labor rather than an act of passion.
Highlights the chilling professionalism of the violence and the Op's analytical observation.