Apple employees are already discussing what they will do if ordered to help law enforcement authorities. Some say they may balk at the work, while others may even quit their high-paying jobs rather than undermine the security of the software they have already created, according to more than a half-dozen current and former Apple employees.

Among those interviewed were Apple engineers who are involved in the development of mobile products and security, as well as former security engineers and executives.

On the likelihood of a security engineer risking their livelihood to stand for this particular principal:

The fear of losing a paycheck may not have much of an impact on security engineers whose skills are in high demand. Indeed, hiring them could be a badge of honor among other tech companies that share Apple’s skepticism of the government’s intentions.

“If someone attempts to force them to work on something that’s outside their personal values, they can expect to find a position that’s a better fit somewhere else,” said Window Snyder, the chief security officer at the start-up Fastly and a former senior product manager in Apple’s security and privacy division.

The losers here would be the FBI (not getting what they ask for) and Apple (losing skilled engineers, who’d be quickly snapped up by competitors).

And if the engineering staff refuses or quits? What’s next? Will the FBI pursue Apple’s source code?

Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to this.