Never confront an OBG or potential OBG unless directed

Never confront an OBG or potential OBG unless directed is a Resistance Rule that places a firm limit on how members respond to someone they suspect may be an OBG. Its clearest significance lies in the tension it creates between vigilance and restraint: Shani Edmonds recognizes Eva as someone she wants to confront, yet the rule keeps her from acting on that impulse.

The Rule and Its Constraint

Lynn identifies the instruction as her least favorite of the Resistance Rules while explaining that the group will need more complex ways to distinguish itself from OBGs and must remain vigilant. The rule does not tell members to disregard suspicion; it limits what they may do with it. In Shani’s account, even a strong urge to challenge Eva does not amount to permission. The condition unless directed makes confrontation subject to instruction, though these passages do not specify who issues that direction or how it is obtained.

Shani’s Encounters with Eva

The rule had already restrained Shani when she saw Eva with Nella Rogers at Nico’s in August. It restrains her again the night before she recounts the incident at Curl Central, where Eva speaks to the gathering about solidarity and diversity. Shani says she had to control her impulse to interrupt Eva and challenge her. The contrast is pointed: Eva’s public appeal makes the confrontation more tempting, but it does not alter the rule’s prohibition.

Strategic Vigilance and Its Cost

These two encounters show the rule operating as a practical discipline rather than an abstract statement. Shani observes Eva in different settings, remembers the encounters, and remains alert to what she regards as a conflict between Eva’s message and her own suspicions. Yet observation does not become open confrontation. The rule therefore preserves restraint at the moment when Shani most wants to act, while also leaving her unable to test Eva directly. Its force is clearest in that unresolved gap between suspicion and response.