Kara was shocked at Gullins’ initial response, and arched an eyebrow at the girl as she proceeded to explain herself. She brushed aside a strand of her long brunette hair as she coldly analyzed the grunt—Kara always wore her hair up to keep it out of her face, but it seemed sooner or later some always escaped.<br/><br/>“You’re correct that our priority will be to find out who gave Key the book. Treason is like a cancer, and somewhere out there is a malignant tumor, someone who is effectively metastasizing his or her own madness by spreading lies like this.” And truthfully, Kara was relieved that in this case it was the “little red book.” Even by the standards of treasonous material, it was vapid and tended to discredit itself in most people’s eyes. “Of course, left unchecked, someone like Key will eventually grow bold and become malignant as well.<br/><br/>“Most of my colleagues agree with your position—that we can divide traitors between the truly evil ones and the clueless dupes. That the dupes can be given the privilege of serving the Empire in battle and atoning for their sins. I’ll admit that my first instinct would be to kill them all and avoid the risk of further betrayal—but the Emperor is far more benevolent than I am, and I know to defer to his wisdom.<br/><br/>“As for Private Key, if your Lieutenant wants him back—and if Key cooperates with the investigation—then that young fool will be given the chance to serve again.”<br/><br/>Kara shook her head sadly. “Everyone in PD is aware of our reputation—how ‘cruel’ we are, how we’re always getting in the way, that we cause problems where everything seemed perfectly fine before. What so few understand is how easily disloyalty can spread. How the most clever traitors can sound so reasonable at first, each little argument perfectly calculated to cause a loyal but politically inept citizen to lose their way. It is a cancer, and our ‘cruelty’ is like chemotherapy—it can be painful, but it’s needed to save the whole. If the Empire is weakened by internal dissent, there’s nothing to protect us from rampaging orcs, or charismatic madmen looking to destroy everything we hold dear.”<br/><br/>The young agent sat down next to Gullins now and smiled pleasantly at her. Although even a smile never quite erased the wolfish, calculating look in her eyes. “At the risk of overextending my long running analogy, think of PD as the Empire’s oncologists—we have the training to fight the cancer, and the intelligent citizen knows to defer to our judgment, even if they aren’t always comfortable with or understand what we do. Don’t you agree?” This girl was definitely showing promise so far, and Kara would be pleased if she could cultivate another informant.