2D

Did Luke only have himself to blame for his imprisonment in the viva (birdcage)? Was it a surprise to see Laura come to his rescue? Were you pleased to see her?

To say Luke's capture and imprisonment is his fault would be a mistake. He was pulled off another assignment and sent to Malta with little or no time to prepare to observe Cardinal Gallo. To me his capture is a result of his captors having more information than him.
Laura showing up makes me more suspicious of her. How did she know about Luke and his being on Malta?

Luke was not experienced as Cotton and can only blame himself for his capture. It definitely was a surprise to have Laura come to his rescue.

I wasn’t surprised to see her. I thought she was behind his capture. It’s not really his fault. As John said, he had no time to prep in advance. However a more seasoned operative might have been better able to avoid the pitfalls he fell into.

I wasn't surprised to see her. She seemed like the kind of character that was manufactured to work with/antagonize Luke.

It was obvious she would reappear, he was clearly underprepared for this operation and was caught semi-off guard,

I think Luke is still relatively inexperienced, and quite possibly shouldn’t have been sent in alone on such short notice. As said above, he hadn’t really had time to prepare. Plus, he’s up against the oldest spy regime in existence: the Entity.
It was obvious Laura was going to rush to his rescue again. And, actually, I was glad to see her.
I don’t yet know whether she’s trustworthy, and therefore whether I can like her or not (!), but it’s going to be fun watching her and Luke interact; I think there’ll be a lot of one-upmanship going on, ☺️.

Luke did the best that he could, and Laura's appearance wasn't a surprise since she's appeared as the rescuer in some of the other books.

>7 Sergeirocks: I agree with Sergei's observation (and knowledge) about Luke's lack of experience. She must be doing something for her own gain in this puzzle.