Page 145 of Hard Heart

“Exactly. It was immoral, but in some instances, the end justified the means. But what happens when you replace a new school with a new chemical plant owned by a company with a history of environmental damage? What happens when instead of an affair, it’s abuse of a minor, and rather than reporting it to the proper authorities, you use the knowledge to blackmail the subject?”

“Then you have a problem. That’s what happened with Compass?”

“Yes. Rich men saw a way to get richer, dressed up with a layer of moral superiority. And maybe they mentioned it to a friend over drinks at the country club or during a game of golf. And maybe that friend didn’t much care about the morality; they just saw dollar signs.”

“You have a bigger problem.”

“And what if the subject hasn’t committed any subjective ‘sins,’ but he’s still standing in the way? You have to create a scandal from scratch.”

“That’s what they’re doing?”

Demelza nodded. “And what if instead of asking a target to step aside, you simply encourage him to vote the way you tell him to? Much faster than waiting for the next election cycle.”

Even with the concussion—or possibly because of it—the pieces shuffled around and fit into place in Jez’s head, and she felt sick. Sicker.

Prostitution.

Cum stains on hidden underwear.

Stolen files.

“And you think that’s what Ruby was doing?”

“She might not even have known at first. Girls like her are just pawns in somebody else’s chess game. But she realised, and she tried to get out, then she discovered nobody leaves Compass alive.”

Tina did.

“Surely this is the type of problem the point teams were set up to deal with?” Tulsa said.

“They were.”

“So by only having half the information, we’ve been operating with one hand tied behind our backs.”

“An unfortunate necessity. I’m not exaggerating when I say Compass has spies everywhere.”

“Including in the Agency?” Priest asked.

“In every agency. Your old boss with the Horsemen, for example.”

“Which one?”

“Two of them, actually. Hades the Second started the sabotage, and his successor continued it.”

Priest groaned. “Figures. Both of those guys were assholes.”

“Which is why they were terminated. And when we set up the point teams, we couldn’t mention a word about Compass. If eliminating the alliance was one of our specified objectives, funding would be withdrawn, and the entire program would be shuttered.” Demelza closed her eyes and sighed. “I think I can trust the people in this room. I hope I can. There’s a small group of us who quietly plan ops to keep Compass in check, but it’s like shooting at a swarm of locusts with a BB gun.”

“And my dad is the man on the inside,” Jez said.

“One of several. He feeds us the intel he can, when he can. He’s embedded with the cell they call the Helix Group.”

“What do they do?”

“Pharmaceuticals and biotech. So far, we’ve been able to subtly throw a wrench in the works of their more extreme ideas.”

“That’s it? You can weaken them, but you can’t kill them? So he just stays under non-official cover forever?”

“There’s one cell that’s grown more powerful than the others, and shutting it down is proving to be our biggest challenge. The Glass House. They focus on media influence and manipulation, and from the information we have available, we believe they’re the group responsible for your friend Ruby’s death.”