Vogel: Profile Of The Paid Handler In Eye And Talon
Vogel was a hired handler in K. W. Jeter's 2000 novel Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon. He found Iris Knaught in the rain outside an animal market, already knew her name, and was paid to steer her to Tyrell's living owl and then to a desert lab. Meyer shot him in a doorway at that lab for earned pay.
Biography
Meeting Iris At The Market
Vogel found Iris in the rain outside an animal market, held out his hand, gave his name, and addressed her as Iris Knaught. She locked her grip on his forearm and pulled him against the window of a snake dealer's shop. He leaned against the glass and rolled a cigarette, then told her he imagined she was being watched. When she asked if a lot of people came around looking for owls, he said she was the only one.
The Alley
Iris pulled Vogel into an alley, smashed his face against her knee, and asked what he knew about Scrappy, the living Tyrell Corporation owl she had been sent to find. He wiped blood from his mouth and nose, then said he knew lots, calling her sweetheart. He said Meyer was out of the loop, and that the kind of bird she wanted was not for sale at that market. He then showed her a live picture of the owl chained on an upper theater floor, watched by men with illegal Czech rifles.
The Theater Raid
For the raid, Vogel supplied thermatos capsules that dropped body heat enough to beat the theater's thermal alarms. Iris also gave him an automatic rifle, part of the expensive gear she had promised to return to Meyer's departmental armory. She bagged the owl in an oxygen sack and left Vogel pinned in the firefight. The armed men in that fight were highly skilled mercenaries, and Iris later regretted that they had not killed him. He was waiting afterward with one arm in a sling, and the sling was fake, because he had gotten out after she left him.
The Film And The Face
Vogel later played Urbenton's Blade Runner docudrama for Iris, and told her that the face on the screen was the original, and that her own face belonged to it. In the control room, Urbenton was angry that Vogel had told her that. When she asked how many people could have been in Tyrell's private quarters when he was killed, Vogel said no one was there. She called him a lying son of a bitch.
Paid To Steer Her
Spinners that were not LAPD ships carried Iris and Vogel east from the Tyrell Corporation ruins, and Vogel went along as the man paid to bring her, a hired handler rather than a police officer. At the desert lab, Meyer found Iris, then shot Vogel in the doorway for earned pay. The pay was for steering Iris onto that path, from the market to the theater and then to the inland compound.
Personality And Traits
Vogel is a smug, amused talker, a buzz-cut man in a soaked duster who rolls cigarettes with care and smiles with one corner of his mouth. He has an angular chin, a long-fingered hand, and a way of knowing more about Iris than she knows about him. He calls her sweetheart, tells her he is the answer to all her prayers, and keeps that smile even with blood on his face. He works as a paid handler, not as a cop, and he dies when Meyer shoots him in a doorway for earned pay.
Famous Quotes
- "Vogel. And you're Iris Knaught." Vogel, introducing himself at the animal market, in Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon
- "I'm the answer to all your prayers." Vogel, to Iris
- "I know lots, sweetheart." Vogel, in the alley after Iris smashed his face
Behind The Scenes
Vogel appears in K. W. Jeter's Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon, published by Gollancz in 2000, the fourth novel in Jeter's Blade Runner sequence and the follow-up to Blade Runner: Replicant Night. He is the hired man who intercepts Iris Knaught at the animal market and is paid to steer her through the hunt for Tyrell's owl. He does not appear in the earlier Jeter books, and he is not a figure from Ridley Scott's 1982 film.
Conclusion
Vogel found Iris in the rain, led her to the owl and then to the desert, and died when Meyer shot him in a doorway for earned pay. He was a paid handler in a duster who already knew her name and told her more than he had been supposed to tell.
Appearances
- Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon by K. W. Jeter (Gollancz, 2000)
Tag Categories: Blade Runner Lore | Blade Runner Characters
