The intelligence officer wants Maddie to take on this work because she’s good at her job and he believes she can do it—sentiments that are no doubt nice for Maddie to hear. However, he managed to steal her clothing ration coupons in order to cover up this meeting, which makes Maddie feel less secure and as though she’s being watched—so this meeting makes her feel simultaneously more powerful and less powerful. And it’s unclear why the narrator is crying so much at this point—it’s impossible to know, for instance, what she’s experiencing that she’s not writing about.