THEY WERE PLAYING ME ALL ALONG! like a fiddle
It's still the same bait being thrown out in the corporate ladder where the boss tries to "make a mistake" and the intern fixes it for some points but the higher ups wouldn't hear about the find. It's those that feed on other people's need to prove themselves that are poised to be effective, not too tall to stick out your head too much and not to low to be at the bottom of the pecking order.