Why did Lieutenant Dirige let Arcadia go?

Question

In the third book of the original Foundation series, Second Foundation, Arcadia Darrell tries to escape from Kalgan and get to Trantor. In the spaceport, she is confronted by Police Lieutenant Orum Dirige who was ordered to look for her. After seeing her papers, though, and realizing that she is Arcadia, Dirige lets her go anyway.

Immediately after, when Arcadia asks Mr. Palver why she was let go, he replies:

"Well, Arcadia, child, it was easy. When you've been dealing with agents and buyers and competing co-operatives, you learn some of the tricks. I've had twenty years or more to learn them in. You see, child, when the lieutenant opened your papers, he found a five-hundred-credit bill inside, folded up small. Simple, no?"
_{Second Foundation Chapter 15: Through the Grid}

However, Lieutenant Dirige turns out to be from the Foundations, and when he lands back in Terminus, Pelleas Anthor reveals this:

"Lieutenant Dirige is one of us. He was born on Kalgan, but his father was a Foundation man brought to that planet in the service of the Mule. I answer for the lieutenant's loyalty to the Foundation."

...

Dirige spoke easily: "As far as I know, Dr. Darrell, your daughter is at Trantor. At least, she had a ticket to Trantor at the Eastern spaceport. She was with a trading representative from that planet who claimed she was his niece. Your daughter seems to have a queer collection of relatives, daughter. That was the second uncle she had in a period of two weeks, eh? The Trantorian even tried to bribe me—probably thinks that's why they got away."
_{Second Foundation Chapter 16: Beginning of War}

This indicates that it was Dirige's loyalty to the Foundation that saved Arcadia.

But then there is this gigantic spoiler:

Both Pelleas Anthor and Preem Palver - the same Mr. Palver who was with Arcadia when Dirige checked her papers - are of the Second Foundation. And Palver himself is no less than the First Speaker.

So this opens up a third alternative, which is that Dirige was mentally forced by Palver to let Arcadia go, and then made to confuse his history by Anthor. This renders moot the question of original loyalty entirely.

So why did Dirige let Arcadia go? Loyalty to the Foundation or mental force?

Answer 1

Both the Foundation and the Second Foundation want Arcadia's search to succeed, though for very different reasons! So either way Dirige woud have let Arcadia go. However:

We find out in the next few pages that Dirige had been influenced by the Second Foundation. His brainwaves have the tamper plateau.

Nothing more is said of Dirige, so there's no way to know for certain whether Dirige's decision was controlled by the Second Foundation. On the one had it doesn't seem likely that the Second Foundation would have left anything to chance, but on the other hand:

I think the main reason for influencing Dirige, when they knew it would be detected, was part of the plan to set up Anthor and deceive the Foundation into thinking they'd found the Second Foundation on Terminus.

So I don't think there's any way to know for sure. My guess is that the Second Foundation did influence Dirige's decision, simply because they're such careful planners it would have been out of character not to. However I don't think they had to because what else could Dirige have done?

Answer 2

It is even simpler - the Second Foundation needed Dirige to have a tamper plateau, placed on Kalgan, it show the plotters that they were real and active in the Kalgan war. Arkady and her father could then discover the sacrificial 50 man group and kill them, thus removing the unstable element of knowledge of the Second Foundation from disrupting Seldon's Plan.

So even if Dirige would have let them go, Palver would have adjusted him to do the same thing just to put a tamper plateau for them to find. Arkady would attribute it to the Warlord's Mistress.

Answer 3

The answer to this question is stated later, IIRC it's in Foundation's Edge

Be careful ! Foundation's Edge spoilers !

Mr. Palver is the First Speaker of the Second Foundation, and he manipulated the mind of Police Lieutenant Orum Dirige because he wanted Arcadia to escape. He doesn't reveal it to Arcadia because she is a member of the First Foundation, and as a member of the Second one, he doesn't want her to know about the its existence.