The Divisions fell into two basic groups. The Capitoline, Aventine, and Palatine Divisions belonged to the upper, more prestigious tier. The Quirinal, Viminal and Esquiline Divisions comprised the entirety of the lower, supporting tier. According to Wright, these two broader groups were meaningfully – and deliberately – separated from one another by unassailable shunts of rumour, intrigue and bureaucracy.
The sole exception to this rule lay in the heart of The Organisation. The so-called Caelian Directorate was the administrative and bureaucratic superstructure of The Organisation. The Caelians carefully collected, vetted, repackaged, and disseminated information. Beyond that, they operated as a kind of internal oversight body. At the junction of those two roles, they controlled – tightly; and with machine-like focus and resolve – the entirety of the small amount of information that was pushed back and forward between the Divisions, and between their respective tiers. Upwards, too, potentially: towards a mysterious ‘peak’ Division that Wright, on several occasions, seemed to Dio to be alluding to the existence of.
Wright took the position that the fundamental separation of the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ tiers was simply a matter of best practice. ‘Controlled information’ – a suggestive term that Wright made no effort to further define – was deliberately split across the seven branches of The Organisation. Split, that is, in such a way that full comprehension required resources from across a number of divisions for any given project. This was to ensure that such ‘controlled information’ was able to be worked on in its component parts by the various subsets of The Organisation without the possibility of multiple elements ‘converging’. Unless, of course, such a ‘convergence’ was the result of a decision made by ‘The Seven’. Dio assumed that ‘The Seven’ couldn’t be anyone or anything other than a sort of a ‘Council’ of the Hills’ leadership.
“It’s what we call a ‘Divisional Structure’.” Wright summarised. “Each section is essentially autonomous. Better for productivity. Better for morale. Better for security.” Dio and Yvonne both recognised the basic idea behind the internal compartmentalisation.
In Israel – particularly since the Damascus Incidents of twenty-nineteen and twenty-twenty – the threat of intelligence leaks, as well as those of double agents and fifth columnists, were handled in much the same way. By ensuring that all information needed to be ‘assembled’ from multiple sources in order to be meaningful, the chances of an operation being compromised were made exponentially more outlying. By minimising the access of individuals in one area to the data of another, would-be traitors – both those with bleeding hearts and those with greedy pockets – were kept isolated from sources of temptation.
The true beauty of such a system was its ’ intrinsically heuristic core. In both Israel and The Organisation – Dio had to assume this was true in the case of the latter, but it seemed like a safe bet – things like loyalty and honesty may have been theoretically desirable, and rhetorically significant...but were, actually, completely unimportant. Even – a cynical person might have concluded – unhelpful. Counterproductive. Dio was well aware that, when it came to systems such as these, the strength was in the stress-test.
In his specific case, for example, Dio’s treason may have been enough to write his death sentence...but it had also exposed a flaw in the system which, ultimately, might have led to a much greater loss of life at a much more problematic moment in time. His ‘treason’ had highlighted the flaw, and, no doubt, ensured that it would be eliminated. In a more honest world...a better world...he might have been praised – rewarded, even – for his transgression. After all...in the long term, he had been both morally upright and
The sole exception to this rule lay in the heart of The Organisation. The so-called Caelian Directorate was the administrative and bureaucratic superstructure of The Organisation. The Caelians carefully collected, vetted, repackaged, and disseminated information. Beyond that, they operated as a kind of internal oversight body. At the junction of those two roles, they controlled – tightly; and with machine-like focus and resolve – the entirety of the small amount of information that was pushed back and forward between the Divisions, and between their respective tiers. Upwards, too, potentially: towards a mysterious ‘peak’ Division that Wright, on several occasions, seemed to Dio to be alluding to the existence of.
Wright took the position that the fundamental separation of the ‘upper’ and ‘lower’ tiers was simply a matter of best practice. ‘Controlled information’ – a suggestive term that Wright made no effort to further define – was deliberately split across the seven branches of The Organisation. Split, that is, in such a way that full comprehension required resources from across a number of divisions for any given project. This was to ensure that such ‘controlled information’ was able to be worked on in its component parts by the various subsets of The Organisation without the possibility of multiple elements ‘converging’. Unless, of course, such a ‘convergence’ was the result of a decision made by ‘The Seven’. Dio assumed that ‘The Seven’ couldn’t be anyone or anything other than a sort of a ‘Council’ of the Hills’ leadership.
“It’s what we call a ‘Divisional Structure’.” Wright summarised. “Each section is essentially autonomous. Better for productivity. Better for morale. Better for security.” Dio and Yvonne both recognised the basic idea behind the internal compartmentalisation.
In Israel – particularly since the Damascus Incidents of twenty-nineteen and twenty-twenty – the threat of intelligence leaks, as well as those of double agents and fifth columnists, were handled in much the same way. By ensuring that all information needed to be ‘assembled’ from multiple sources in order to be meaningful, the chances of an operation being compromised were made exponentially more outlying. By minimising the access of individuals in one area to the data of another, would-be traitors – both those with bleeding hearts and those with greedy pockets – were kept isolated from sources of temptation.
The true beauty of such a system was its ’ intrinsically heuristic core. In both Israel and The Organisation – Dio had to assume this was true in the case of the latter, but it seemed like a safe bet – things like loyalty and honesty may have been theoretically desirable, and rhetorically significant...but were, actually, completely unimportant. Even – a cynical person might have concluded – unhelpful. Counterproductive. Dio was well aware that, when it came to systems such as these, the strength was in the stress-test.
In his specific case, for example, Dio’s treason may have been enough to write his death sentence...but it had also exposed a flaw in the system which, ultimately, might have led to a much greater loss of life at a much more problematic moment in time. His ‘treason’ had highlighted the flaw, and, no doubt, ensured that it would be eliminated. In a more honest world...a better world...he might have been praised – rewarded, even – for his transgression. After all...in the long term, he had been both morally upright and
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