So how do you smoke out a traitor?

It’s been too long since I posted anything here. Time to get back in the groove.

So I’ve got this story going, and like the title implies, one of the major subplots is figuring out who among the core cast of eight is a traitor. Basically, the main character gets a snippet of intel from an outside source — a mostly-reputable one — that says one of the eight has the potential to ruin everything. As these things tend to go, that means certain doom if the main baddie and/or the traitor get in gear. So the MC and his partner work together to try and figure out which of the other six characters doesn’t have their best interests at heart.

I’ve got details in mind about how this can play out, but I need other people to weigh in and give me stuff to think about. If it were up to you, how would you reveal a traitor in the midst? What kind of clues would you leave, and/or what sort of scenario(s) would you make to facilitate the traitor-spotting? Any tips or tricks for me?

Go ahead and ask me questions — and I’ll offer some more info if need be. Until then, I’m in your hands now, tropers. So thanks in advance.

...Even if I've kind of already revealed who the traitor is. Hope no one here is Genre Savvy!

edited 7th Dec '14 7:17:23 PM by Voltech44

The easiest way to spot a liar is to catch them off guard. Say the traitor mentions something that, to the audience, seems rather innocuous. Until the Main Character realises that theres no way the traitor would know that, unless he was, at best, lying or, at worse, the traitor.

Need more information. Are all six suspects well known to the protag, have they been close associates for some time? Or are they relative strangers?

Feed them all different pieces of information. For example, telling the traitor the location to a secret stash. But, make each location different for each one. Set up stakeouts on all of them and see who turns up. Chances are you'll find your man.

Worked for Gene Hunt in Ashes to Ashes.

Ah, I had a feeling somebody would ask that. Yeah, by the time the traitor subplot comes in full, the MC has known the other six for about a week (though he and his partner spend about three days separated from them). Those six have a few relationships between them, but they major one is that the cute bruiser's older sister is one of those six. Things are tense between them, to say the least.

That's a good idea. There are probably a number of ways I could work that in, so I'll have to keep it in mind.

Also a good idea. But can I just say your icon/tagline is the sickest thing I've seen in a while? Granted Kamen Rider is pretty much the key to my heart, but the point stands.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a movie/book predicated around that situation. One of the top five men in British intelligence is a mole for the Russians, and George Smiley has to find out how.

The traditional way to react is to feed them barium meal—selectively leak information—and see who responds and how. Really, the plan in TTSS is complex enough to require a long explanation, but that's what it boils down to: entrapment.

The Canary Trap. It's a espionage classic.

The only way that tactic misfires is if the traitors are in league with one another, and thus can plan around the Canary Trap by simply ignoring it (or better yet, using the Canary Trap to frame up an entirely innocent party and deflect the fault from themselves).

edited 7th Dec '14 9:02:46 PM by Gaon

No need to worry about them being in league. The eight characters are working together towards that whole "saving the world" business, but the treacherous acts/motives are all pretty much independent. Barring a few secrets here and there, the only ones with ulterior motives are the MC and his partner — which kind of puts them in a group of their own, now that I think about it.

edited 7th Dec '14 10:16:55 PM by Voltech44

Yeah, there's a lot of names for the technique. The devil's in the execution thereof: whoever executes the plan will probably need a confederate or two he can trust, which will be a problem with a mole in the organization. It will have to be done in such a way that the mole will not suspect anything (of course). And even if it's pulled off successfully, it's likely to leave behind permanent distrust and paranoia; the emotional toll is very high.

Even after that, there's the question of damage control, mapping the mole's contacts, figuring out what information was passed to the opposition, and all of that. I would seriously recommend looking up real-life counterespionage cases: Aldrich Ames is the one that comes immediately to mind for an American, although he's hardly the only one.

edited 7th Dec '14 10:27:11 PM by SabresEdge

I would go with the feeding of false information. It's been done before, but it's not needlessly complex, and can be done with minimal preparation time and resources. The two potential problems I see with the solution above is that your "investigators" need both control of the information flow to the other six, as well as six different locations and the resources to watch them.

If your characters don't have that, you could do the inverse via Secret Test of Character. Say that you have captured a prisoner who is at a given location that no one should be at, and say that documents captured with the prisoner refer to a mole in the group, who the prisoner was going to meet with. Then you're just hoping that who ever is the mole a) doesn't know that this is false, and b) comes to silence the prisoner.

As a final note, if "has the potential to ruin everything" is a quote, then I vote for the protagonist. Not in a Tomato in the Mirror situation, but rather as a result of fracturing the trust of the group via witch-hunt.

The main problem with the "feed them all different information" test is you have to prevent the other members of the team from comparing notes. Since they have only known each other for a week, that's plausible, but not certain. That could result in some tense situations for the protag and his partner.

Yeah, I'll have to figure out exactly how the two investigators are going to keep information flowing. By that point in the story, the city they're all in is pretty much stuck in a blackout, and fractured in more ways than one. The core eight can all still communicate via special phones, but beyond that? They pretty much have to stick together by virtue of being WAY outnumbered.

Also, I don't want to say that you're right...but yeah, you're right. Albeit for more reasons than the one you listed.

True enough. I'd say it's pretty much a given that because the two of them are trying to find the traitor — while keeping their notes separate from all the rest — there's going to be some serious tension. It's worth noting that even if not every member of the core eight knows each other, by that point they've been through enough to say "hey, I kinda like you, so let's save the world together!" Or something like that. Point being, the MC knows that he wouldn't be alive without them, and he's grown fond of them even if they haven't spent much time together.

So basically, it's a balancing act. He wants to be their friend, but he knows he has to find the truth. It's almost as if this scenario was designed to give him an overarching conflict of interest as a way to breed emotional turmoil. But you didn't hear that from me.

Whatever the case, this is good stuff. Thanks for the responses so far, guys.

If I heard "has the potential to ruin everything", my mind wouldn't jump to traitor. Heck, it's not even clear if said ruination will be intentional.

True enough. To be fair, though, the informant does actually use the word "traitor" to start off with, and he's more than a little credible. Plus there's the fact that A) the MC has long since been willing to suspect treachery among the ranks, and B) said ranks act more than a little suspicious as the story goes on. Or really, as soon as the MC catches even a trace of their presence.

That all said...well, you're not wrong for thinking something's up. Good instincts!