ANALYSIS: Following Friday's raids, there is little room for manoeuvre, writes Gerry Moriarty
What's bad politically, it seems, can only get worse.
Through the courts more detail emerged last night, and will continue to emerge, of what was contained in the Northern Ireland Office documents which the PSNI say they found in Sinn Féin offices.
The fallout from what the PSNI allegedly uncovered in Friday's dawn raids in west and north Belfast is "radioactive", and will be very difficult for Sinn Féin to pass off as another "securocratic conspiracy".
While police lumbering through Sinn Féin's Stormont offices made the best TV pictures, the real politically-damaging action related to what was found in the other raids, political and security sources said.
By reliable accounts, hundreds of documents were recovered. Stacked up, they are more than a foot high.
The names of Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair and possibly Bill Clinton and George Bush and other key figures in the peace process feature in the papers, we are told.
The information, according to the sources, includes minutes of telephone conversations between the Taoiseach and the British prime minister, as well as other "very hot material".
But, perhaps even more damaging will be the PSNI saying that it found information on prison officers which will almost certainly be construed by many unionists as an example of IRA targeting and a breach of the ceasefire.
So, if a stream of preliminary evidence of this explosive type continues to flow from the courts, then it seems almost inevitable that short of Sinn Féin swallowing hard medicine or the IRA clearing off the pitch, the Executive and Assembly will have to go into a period of suspended animation.
If the British and Irish governments don't initiate some action it appears almost certain that David Trimble and his ministers will walk away from the Executive.
There is precious little room for manoeuvre in politics here at this moment and - with Jeffrey Donaldson on his back, Colombia, Castlereagh and now this - the First Minister has none at all.
Northern Secretary Dr John Reid pulled out of a meeting with Mr Gerry Adams today because, it is understood, Mr Blair wants to hear answers to some difficult question mano-a-mano from the Sinn Féin president in Downing Street on Thursday.
Mr Blair is said to be furious with Mr Adams and feels a personal sense of betrayal.
His view is that in the face of Tory allegations of "appeasing the IRA" he took great political risks to keep Sinn Féin in the frame.
Mr Martin McGuinness complained that Friday's raid was politically inspired, and that those arrested were being denied their human rights because such was the publicity surrounding this shambles that they were being judged guilty until proven innocent.
Sinn Féin also suggested dirty tricks because of the timing of the raid.
The timing - on the day the Colombia case opened - certainly appeared odd, particularly when the alleged IRA infiltrator had left the NIO in September of last year.
Sources pointed out that such was the precarious nature of politics here since September last year that there was no non-politically sensitive time to make the arrests.
Another factor is that the new PSNI chief constable, Mr Hugh Orde, is keen to demonstrate that the police, whatever about the past, are above politics.
Certainly, Mr Orde would want to have his evidence neatly assembled.
Mr Blair and Mr Ahern meet in Downing Street on Wednesday night.
Their brief is simple: to devise some means of cushioning the inevitable damage to the Belfast Agreement which follows from this debacle.
Short of the IRA doing something very quick and dramatic, or Sinn Féin accepting a perhaps temporary suspension from the Executive - both very unlikely - it will be difficult for the governments to avoid the initial suspension of the institutions.
One controversial idea, as Queen's University academic Prof Paul Bew suggested in Co Meath last week, would be to postpone the elections for a year in the hope that, over a period of reflection and review in the weeks and months ahead, the Executive and Assembly could be reactivated.
The DUP has suggested immediate Assembly elections, followed by negotiations.
But, the question here, as one observer said, is: "Elections to what?"
To utter deadlock at this reading.
"Maybe Tony and Bertie have a rabbit in the hat," said one congenitally hopeful observer last night, although he had the wit to add, "It would need to be a huge bunny."