How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Another way the Others mess with your head: the uncertain circumstances of your certain destruction. (5.6)
The Others are master manipulators who seriously mess with the humans' minds.
Quote #2
I couldn't outrun them. I couldn't outgun them. Maybe I could outsmart them. (21.6-21.8)
It turns out that Cassie is a pretty good manipulator herself. She outsmarted the soldiers who attacked the refugee camp. Then, later, she was able to infiltrate their military base to rescue her little brother.
Quote #3
They didn't need the masks anymore. Why not? The masks must have been part of the act. We would expect them to protect themselves from infection. (23.9)
The Others have human faces, which makes things pretty confusing for Cassie and her fellow Earthlings. She realizes this after some men posing as soldiers kidnap her little brother.
Quote #4
"They're inside us," she answers. "We were attacked from the inside, by infected personnel who'd been embedded into the military." (28.8)
There are two levels of manipulation in this quote. Dr. Pam here is telling Zombie about the "sleeper" agent aliens. However, she fails to mention that she herself is one of them.
Quote #5
"You just sat there—just sat there—while I lied about Ben Parish. You knew the truth and you just sat there and let me lie!" (36.103)
So let us get this straight. Cassie's mad at Evan because he lied in response to her lie? Er, pot, meet kettle.
Quote #6
I know I can't confront him. Way too risky. What if the worst is true? There is no Evan Walker farm boy, only Evan Walker human traitor—or the unthinkable… Evan Walker, Silencer. (54.2)
Cassie suspects that Evan is a Silencer long before she admits it to herself. For a long time, she pretends to believe his act.
Quote #7
"Aren't they smart?" Ringer mutters, like she's read my mind. "Put on a human face so no human face can be trusted. The only answer: Kill everyone or risk being killed by anyone." (58.24)
The problem with this logic is some human-looking aliens get killed along with the humans, right? Guess the aliens don't mind a few casualties here and there.
Quote #8
It's a lie. Wonderland. Camp Haven. The war itself. How easy it was. How incredibly easy, even after all that we'd been through. Or maybe it was easy because of all we'd been through. (61.2-61.3)
Zombie is appalled that he was so easily deceived by his superiors, who are secretly aliens. They fooled him, but they also fooled almost everyone else (Ringer and Tank being two notable exceptions).
Quote #9
If Evan is one of them, whose team do you play for? Would Evan kill one of his own kind to keep up the façade with me—or was he forced to kill them because they thought he was human? Thinking about it makes me sick with despair: there's no bottom to this crap. (70.5)
Evan's deception makes Cassie question her own allegiance. We can answer her last question, though. Evan killed the child soldiers so that they didn't kill Cassie.
Quote #10
You can manipulate a kid into believing almost anything, into doing almost anything, Evan explained in our mission briefing. With the right training, there are few things more savage than a ten-year-old. (74.19)
The reason the aliens made children into soldiers is because they're easily brainwashed. Got it.