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But he could see the threads of it. If he had been going through the transmissions himself, he would have caught it, even if he couldn’t decipher it.
“You were one of the most successful creations the Council had attained. You’re the strongest of the enforcers and you command incredible loyalty. The only reason you don’t head your own command is because you turned it down.” Dane shook his head. “Humble doesn’t become you.”
Mercury shot him a scorching glare. “Humble has never been a concern of mine either. I don’t command because what I do is better served working alone. It’s that simple.”
“And it hides from those who may tell the tale the fact that you’ve been experiencing the feral adrenaline,” Dane pointed out mockingly. “You’ve known the feral displacement could be returning.”
“I handle it.” He shrugged. He had been handling it for years, and he had informed Jonas of his suspicions. That was all he had been required to do.
“Mercury’s loyalty or his ability to handle himself has never come under question,” Callan informed them, his voice cold now.
The rage had solidified to icy determination. Mercury glanced up at his pride leader, meeting his gaze across the table, and felt the certainty of Callan’s trust. It eased the anger that had built at the thought that his pride leader, the man he had sworn his loyalty to, could have distrusted him.
“How many know you didn’t send those communiqués out?” Dane asked him.
Callan’s nostrils flared. “Kane and Jonas. Kane’s running the diagnostics on the orders that went out, using Vanderale equipment. Neither Ely nor the security tech is aware I didn’t send those orders.”
Dane nodded at that as he crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at the various information Ria had slipped from her office.
“The information was piggybacked on these electronic memos and purchases.” She slid them free and lined them up. “I ran a diagnostic on each message, and you can see the code that was inserted within it. It was attached to individual letters within words. That technology is so new that Vanderale is even still playing with it. Brandenmore Research has their own electronics branch, though, and they could have refined the program for limited use such as this.” She tapped her fingers against the code that had generated once she printed out the messages using the program Vanderale had invented to display it. “It’s taken most of a week to track this down, and from the looks of it, the rumors that the information is being sent in stages with a deadline appear correct.”
“This came from my office.” Callan slid one of the messages free. “An order for office electronics. It’s an order I sent,” he snarled.
“It is. And it’s a duplicate.” She slid free of the pile another memo that included the coding. “This one is from your computer.” She tapped his. “This one is the one that actually went out in transmission.”
He looked up at her slowly. “Someone is managing to intercept the transmissions before they go out and attach this coding?”
She inhaled slowly as she nodded. “That’s the beauty of this particular technology, and the danger of it.”
Callan’s fists clenched, his expression tightening further.
“How many departments at Sanctuary have been compromised?”
“So far, I’ve found it in nearly every department,” she told him quietly. “The main deliveries
are coming from the labs though. Part of my transmission to Dane earlier in the day was a request for the beta program to detect the coding as it goes out. When I asked for the heli-jet, it was actually a request for that.”
Mercury glanced at her, pride filling him at the thought of just how intelligent she truly was. He was still uncertain of the anger he could feel pulsing just below the surface, and he had no idea how she was going to handle what she had seen when Dane slipped into the bedroom.
But she stood beside him now, allowing him the ease he needed in knowing she was safe.
Damn the Council scientists. This woman should have been his, completely his. Not just his woman but his mate. Every instinct inside him reached out to her, held on to her. And he knew the lack of mating heat hurt her.
She had no idea how much it hurt him as well.
“How soon can it be installed?” Callan questioned her.
“How well do you trust the people overseeing the outgoing transmissions?” she asked him. “This can’t be used or installed without their knowledge, Callan.”
“All communications, outbound as well as in, go through one secured office in the communications bunker,” Callan informed her. “That office is overseen by my sister Sherra. She has four Lionesses working beneath her, each that she’s trained herself.”
“How well can she trust her assistants then?” Ria asked.
Mercury glanced at her. Her attitude had always been respectful toward Callan, not once had she shown so much as a shred of disrespect. But she wasn’t backing down in what she knew, or in her suspicions.
“Ely can’t be behind any of this, nor is she involved.” Jonas had finally spoken up, and Mercury heard the certainty in his voice. It was a certainty he didn’t share.
“Ely’s running scared,” Ria said softly, compassion lacing her voice because, Mercury knew, she was aware that Ely was more than just a friend to all of them.
