Today, its fuse had been lit.

‘You don’t have to do this, Kelvin.’ Knowles knew as he spoke that his entreaties would go nowhere. But what else did he have? ‘You don’t have to put the blame on my team. It was me who tried to undermine you. Not them. Put the blame on me and, if you keep my team out of it, I’ll go along with whatever you accuse me of. I’ll confess to whatever you need.’

‘A noble offer,’ Cunningham replied. ‘Exactly what I’d expect from you. But you can keep your nobility. You see, I don’t need your confession. Remember the video, John. Remember the footage of your man killing two American citizens. Murders you didn’t report, committed by the man you put forward for a Medal of Honor. With that video? And with the extra evidence that’s winging its way to Tootkai right now? This whole thing’s a slam-dunk.

‘You’re going down, and your team’s going with you. That’s the price you pay for trying to undermine me.’

The response was not unexpected, but still Knowles took it hard.

Twelve years it had been. Twelve years in which he had allowed Cunningham and his organisation to permeate every aspect of his political – and, later, his entire – life.

It had begun so gently. Just an approach from a well-known lobbyist.

Knowles had been at the start of his political career back then. Just months out of the Marine Corp and fresh off of his very public receipt of the Medal of Honor. He was the hero of the hour, a guaranteed seat in Congress ahead of him.

And then came Kelvin Cunningham. The man with the body cam.

The content of the footage came as no surprise to Knowles when Cunningham first approached him. He knew what Lopez had done in Tootkai. His chief petty officer had stumbled upon three private defence contractors – mercenaries – as they’d lined up to rape a village girl no older than sixteen. And he knew that Lopez, the loving father of a daughter just a few years younger, had executed two of the three before being dragged from the house.

What Knowles had not known was that the third man – the man left alive – was wearing a body camera and had filmed the murders. If Knowles had known that, he would not have left the incident out of his mission report. And he would not have nominated Lopez for a Medal of Honor, in recognition of the firefight in which Lopez had lost his life less than an hour later.

But Knowles had not known. And so he had filed his incomplete report and he had made his nomination and he had commenced his political career on the back of them both. And now here was Kelvin Cunningham, with footage that could bring everything Knowles had built upon that mission, and upon that medal, crashing down.

Which was not, Cunningham had explained, what he wanted. What he wanted was to see Knowles soar. What he wanted was to see Knowles win. Sure, his employers had the damaging video, but all they wanted to do was suppress it. They supported Knowles. They agreed with his politics. And they would back him financially, for as long as he agreed with theirs.