#Bookstodon I need your help! I'm translating a thing with a quotation from Mick Herron's "London Rules" in it. Anyone out there got a copy in e-book format?

I just need to know what the original English is for a phrase that goes (roughly) "a nation's secret people are the guardians of its soul".

Any or all of those words may be wrong, but that's the gist. Searching for "soul" or "nation" might be the best bet to find it.