They did not understand that the eagle meant I had spent thirty years learning exactly how power actually works: not the power of favors and threats, which is what they had, but the power of evidence, jurisdiction, and process, which is what I was about to bring down on them.

They had judges who owed them favors.

I had something better.

I had the truth, and the training to prove it, and a reason — lying trembling in that bed — that would make me relentless.

I kissed my daughter’s forehead, and I held her until the family grew bored of watching and drifted away to celebrate, and I began, very quietly, to go to work. Chapter 8 — The Breach

It began with a video call, late that first night, from an analyst I trusted named Zuri.