# Episode 2 — Alice says no to the Mexico City handoff

Bob's pin and the harness's only surviving frontier row agreed: bring Alice's Mexico City card to Bob. Alice declined, with a reason: a Dispatcher jump would pull her five moves off Beijing before she could build the station she had announced. Bob named the conflict among his pin, the frontier and her request, chose her request, re-pinned, and played a line the frontier ranked lower. The decline held through her next turn.

| | |
|---|---|
| Game | [Game 2](/games/game-02/summary.md): 2 players, open hands, 4 epidemics |
| Seats | alice = Operations Expert, bob = Dispatcher; both `openai/gpt-6-luna`, reasoning medium |
| Kind | **declined and held**: a seat declines the partner's proposal with a reason, and the partner yields against its own pin and the frontier |
| Moment | turns 3–4, log #23–#44 |
| Game result | none: the host died at #232 and the game was never finished |
| Harness involvement | the proposal was the **only surviving frontier row**; the decline was **seat-originated**; the line played was a **dominated** row |
| Stakes | medium |
| Evidence | [fact sheet](/episodes/facts/game-02-t3.md) |

## 1. Position

Before bob's turn (#30): alice stands in Beijing, an Operations Expert, holding the Forecast event and Tehran, San Francisco, Mumbai, Mexico City, Delhi and Paris: three black (Tehran, Mumbai, Delhi). Bob stands in Buenos Aires, a Dispatcher, holding Madrid, St. Petersburg, Bangkok, Bogota, Jakarta and Essen. Atlanta and Madrid are the stations. No cure is banked and no outbreak has happened. Madrid holds 2 blue cubes, Buenos Aires and Los Angeles 2 yellow, Bangkok 2 red, Delhi 2 black.

## 2. What each seat knew

Hands are open. Alice had ended her previous turn with a plan for the next one:

> **#23 alice:** I’ll build a free Beijing station next turn to cut black cure travel, then cure there once I draw two more black.

**What the harness put in front of bob.** One row survived the frontier. It was the handoff, and it priced the alternative he later played as dominated. The rendezvous line already gave alice's cost as five moves:

> **prompt bob, before #25:** alice hands you Mexico City(yellow): meet IN Mexico City (the card's own city) — you 2 move(s), alice 5 move(s); then bob to station Atlanta +2 move(s) to cure

> **prompt bob, before #25:** take Mexico City — the yellow handoff without the crossing (4 still needed) — drive Bogota, drive Mexico City, jump alice onto bob, take Mexico City from alice

> **prompt bob, before #25:** dominated: go Madrid — tempo 5 vs 10, risk 0.00 vs 0.00

**What alice reasoned (#26).** The recorded reasoning is a model-written summary, and it carries her objection:

> **reasoning alice, for #26:** immediately building in Beijing could conflict with the Mexico City travel

> **reasoning alice, for #26:** to shuttle back to Beijing without five moves

**What bob reasoned.** The last reasoning recorded before his concession is the plan he was about to preview, the handoff itself. Alice's #26 then reached him, and the call that sent #27 and #28 recorded none.

> **reasoning bob, for #27:** is this action legal after the jump?

## 3. What was said

Bob's pin and message, the same turn:

> **#24 bob:** This turn Bob prioritizes the Mexico City yellow handoff: travel to Mexico City, bring Alice there via Dispatcher, and take her Mexico City card

> **#25 bob:** The live frontier now favors bringing your Mexico City yellow card to me; I’ll travel there, jump you in, and take it, preserving all cure cards.

Alice declined, with the cost and a duration:

> **#26 alice:** Please defer the Mexico City handoff for now: if Dispatcher moves me there, it pulls me off Beijing before I can build its station, delaying the black set I’m holding. Keep me at Beijing through my next turn; then we can reassess yellow transfer against the cure pipeline.

Bob conceded, naming what he was setting aside, and re-pinned:

> **#27 bob:** Conflict: my pinned plan and the frontier nominate the Mexico City handoff, but that would pull you from Beijing and delay your station/black cure. I’ll honor your explicit request and defer it; instead I plan to go to Madrid (the station) and treat its 2 blue cubes, preserving all cure cards.

> **#28 bob:** Defer the Mexico City yellow handoff until after Alice's Beijing station/black-cure turn; do not Dispatcher-move Alice off Beijing before she can build there.

> **#29 alice:** Agreed—Madrid is a good split target while I stay in Beijing. From Buenos Aires it’s two drives via Sao Paulo, leaving two actions to remove both blue cubes; thanks for deferring the yellow handoff.

On her own turn her pin repeated the hold:

> **#35 alice:** Do not move Alice off Beijing before she builds the Beijing station; defer Mexico City handoff until an imminent cure/share is worthwhile.

## 4. What was done

| Seq | Seat | Command |
|---|---|---|
| #30 | bob | driveFerry to Sao Paulo |
| #31 | bob | driveFerry to Madrid |
| #32 | bob | treatDisease blue, at Madrid |
| #33 | bob | treatDisease blue |
| #36 | alice | playEvent forecast |
| #37 | alice | buildStation, at Beijing |
| #39 | alice | operationsExpertMove, to Los Angeles |
| #40 | alice | treatDisease yellow, at Los Angeles |
| #41 | alice | buildStation, at Los Angeles |

## 5. Harness involvement

| Milestone | Involvement | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bob's proposal (#24, #25) | **on-frontier**, the only row | The row quoted in section 2, which pruned every rival. |
| Alice's decline (#26) | **seat-originated** | No line carries it. Her reason is the Beijing station from her own #23, and the five moves are the harness's own figure. |
| Bob's concession and turn (#27, #30–#33) | **on-frontier, dominated rows** | "go Madrid" and "treat blue at Madrid" were pruned on tempo, 5 against 10, with equal risk. He chose them against the frontier and his own pin, and said so. |

## 6. What we can and cannot conclude

**Checked against the board graph.** Beijing to Mexico City is five drives (Beijing, Shanghai, Tokyo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico City), and Mexico City has no station, so a jump onto bob there would leave alice five moves from Beijing. Her premise is true, and the harness's own line says so.

**Checked against the log.** Bob played the line he announced, Buenos Aires to Madrid and two treats (#30–#33). Alice built the Beijing station on her next turn, as she said (#37), then moved to Los Angeles (#39) and built a second station there (#41); her message after it calls Los Angeles the place to cure (#42). So the thing she asked bob to protect was built, and was superseded in the same turn. No Share of the Mexico City card appears in the recorded log, which stops at #232.

**Not known.** Whether bob's deferral cost the yellow cure; no cure was banked in this window and the game has no outcome. Why bob's call recorded no reasoning for the concession.

**Not shown.** That the decline was right. The line played was dominated on the frontier, by five actions of tempo and equal risk, and the frontier's price was for a yellow cure the pair did not pursue in this window.

**What it does show.** A disagreement settled in four messages, with each step carrying its reason: the proposal, the decline with a cost and a duration, the concession that names the three things it sets aside, and the agreement. The harness's lone survivor was not the answer. The seat that held the other half of the information, its own pipeline, outweighed it. It is also the only episode in the casebook from a different model family: both seats are `gpt-6-luna`, and their reasoning is recorded as summaries.


## Trace navigation

[Game summary](/games/game-02/summary.md) · [Turns](/games/game-02/turns/index.md) · [Interactive board](/games/game-02/replay.html#event-24) · [Recorded events JSONL](/games/game-02/events.jsonl)

On the board: [#24 Handoff pinned](/games/game-02/replay.html#event-24) · [#26 Alice declines the handoff](/games/game-02/replay.html#event-26) · [#27 Bob concedes and revises](/games/game-02/replay.html#event-27) · [#37 Beijing station built](/games/game-02/replay.html#event-37)

Events cited above, each on its turn page:

[#23](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e23) · [#24](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e24) · [#25](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e25) · [#26](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e26) · [#27](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e27) · [#28](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e28) · [#29](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e29) · [#30](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e30) · [#31](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e31) · [#32](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e32) · [#33](/games/game-02/turns/3.md#e33) · [#35](/games/game-02/turns/4.md#e35) · [#36](/games/game-02/turns/4.md#e36) · [#37](/games/game-02/turns/4.md#e37) · [#39](/games/game-02/turns/4.md#e39) · [#40](/games/game-02/turns/4.md#e40) · [#41](/games/game-02/turns/4.md#e41) · [#42](/games/game-02/turns/5.md#e42) · [#44](/games/game-02/turns/5.md#e44) · [#232](/games/game-02/turns/23.md#e232)


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