It was designated Bureau Seven, which somewhat inevitably for a government organization was acronymed down to B7.  To anyone with Govcentral alpha-rated clearance, it was listed as one of the hundreds of bland committees which made up the management hierarchy of the Govcentral Internal Security Directorate.  Officially its function was Policy Integration and Resource Allocation, a vital coordination role.  The more senior GISD Bureaus produced their requirements for information and actions, and it was B7's job to make sure none of the new objectives clashed with current operations before they designated local arcology offices with carrying out the project and assigned funds.  If there was any anomaly to be found with B7, it was that such an important and sensitive responsibility did not have a political appointee assigned to run it.  Certainly the chiefs of Bureaus 1 through 6 changed with every new administration, reflecting fresh political priorities; and several hundred minor posts among the lower Bureaus were also up for grabs as a loyalty reward to the new President's retinue.  Again, no junior positions were available in B7.

So B7 carried on as it always had, isolated and insular.  In fact, just how insular would have come as a great shock to any outsider who investigated the nature of its members - that is, a shock in the brief period left to them before being quietly terminated.

Although the antithesis of democracy themselves, they did take the job of guarding the republic of Earth extremely seriously.  Possession was the one threat which actually had the potential not just to overthrow but actually eliminate Govcentral, a prospect which hadn't arisen for nearly four hundred and fifty years, since the population pressures of the Great Dispersal.

Possession, therefore, was the reason why a full meeting of all sixteen members had been convened for the first time in twelve years.  Their sensenviron conference had a standard format, a white infinity-walled room with an oval table in the centre seating their generated representations.  There was no seniority among them, each had his or her separate area of responsibility, the majority of which were designated purely on geographical terms, although there were supervisors for GISD's divisions dealing in military intelligence.

An omnidirectional projection hung over the table, showing a warehouse on Norfolk which was burning with unnatural ferocity.  Several museum-piece fire engines were racing towards it, along with men in khaki uniforms.

"It would appear the Kavanagh girl is telling the truth," said the Central American supervisor.

"I never doubted it," Western Europe replied.

"She's certainly not possessed," said Military Intelligence.  "Not now, anyway.  But she'd still have those memories if she had been."

"If she'd been possessed, she would have admitted it," Western Europe said indolently.  "You're building in complications for us."