‘I’ll charge you royalties,’ Lorne told him. ‘Seriously though, no one was expecting these people to react with violence, which means that raising the stakes could cause two things to happen: it could mean either a change of tactics to something infinitely more subtle or it could mean a bomb in the mail. I would say both. I would say as well that your own agents and their families are now very much at risk.’

Garth was thoughtful for some time. At last, he heaved a sigh. ‘All right. If you were in my shoes what would you do?’

Lorne had his answer ready. ‘For starters, leave those bastards right where they are. From there, I’d be sure that forensics was working overtime to identify those dead kiddies in the hope that at least one of them matches the children in the photos- nothing’s definite on that score. Yet. At the same time I would put the authorities on notice, right now and without warning or prior authorization. I would tip off the media beforehand and allow them to show those pictures- not the doctored ones but the explicit ones, to garner public outrage, get them on our side. I would bend the rules to prevent any legal or political interference by calling it a matter of national security. I might even go so far as to arrest your own higher ups- the ones that make the decisions concerning this case- in order to see if we can’t shake something loose.. Then I would try this matter in the media: that way, win or lose, by the time they’re in a position to generate some momentum they’ll be dead in the water, having lost both public support and credibility. It’s a cinch they’ll never be charged for interfering with the investigation, but at least they’ll be made to keep their mitts out of our business. My guess is that they’ll try right away to get some sort of in once more: I doubt very much that their habits will change, so we’ll have to do a job of keeping the buggers on notice.’




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