Word square thriller part 2

Question

Part 1 is here and contains more detailed instructions.

An excerpt from the next chapter of my trashy thriller novel. What are the missing words?

I told him, “They threatened to drown me in a *******! This has gone too far. I'm going to have to offer you my resignation.”

We had gone as far as we could in this direction; the ******* blocked the way ahead.

“I refuse your resignation. Your job performance up to this point has been *******,” he said, leading me toward the bridge. He offered me his trail-mix. I took a *******; I've always had trouble tolerating nuts. He put a reassuring arm on my shoulder and added, “We have friends in the intelligence services. They can protect you. If we always give in to gangsters, the country will be torn apart, little by little.”

“Do you think I'm some ******* on a crusade to liberate a nation? When has that ever worked?”

“These crooks are outsiders too. Their leader is an *******.”

“That's none of my concern! Leave me out of it!”

“When good men refuse to get involved in politics, the inevitable result is *******!”

Answer 1

The solution is:

 C E S S P I T
 E S T U A R Y
 S T E L L A R
 S U L T A N A
 P A L A D I N
 I R A N I A N
 T Y R A N N Y

This provides us with the following sentences:

1. "They threatened to drown me in a CESSPIT!"
2. ...the ESTUARY blocked the way ahead.
3. “...Your job performance up to this point has been STELLAR,” he said...
4. He offered me his trail-mix. I took a SULTANA...
5. “Do you think I'm some PALADIN on a crusade to liberate a nation?"
6. "Their leader is an IRANIAN.”
7. “When good men refuse to get involved in politics, the inevitable result is TYRANNY!”

Solving method:

The trail mix clue suggested #4 should be something that is not a nut but often found in a pack - I reasoned this would be either SULTANA or CURRANT. I also figured from the context that #6 would be a nationality - IRANIAN fitted with SULTANA so I used them as my backbone.

From the 'crusade' language I figured a contextual word that fitted #5 would be PALADIN. With ANN in #7 that led me to TYRANNY. Then followed CESSPIT, ESTUARY and STELLAR in that order. Job done!