Viktor found a nearby chateau with enough bandwidth to support a high-quality video conference. It was a short distance away and accessible via the catacombs between the chateau and the villa.
“Why do we need a high-definition video connection?” Viktor asked.
Alexei liked to view the expressions of people he was questioning. It often gave him clues as to if they were lying.
“To gain a better view of the team,” Alexei said. “Is it ready?”
“Da.”
Alexei started his end of the video conference and could see video feeds of everyone.
“Thank you for attending this emergency meeting of the principal members of The Collective. It is with a heavy heart that I bring to you the main order of business. It is rare that any member of The Collective fails, but we did fail to eliminate a target on the priority list.”
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Alexei paused for emphasis.
“A hit was authorized that led Ioann, one of our elite operatives, to eliminate one of our own employees.”
Most members of The Collective had looks of utter shock. Alexei looked hard at each member for clues. All but Gregor had subtle signs of anger or contempt. Gregor’s reaction was indifference.
Those boys could have done great things together, Alexei thought.
“How did you learn of this treachery, Comrade?” Gregor asked.
“During our latest talent search, we found several promising young and talented penetration testers and machine learning enthusiasts.”
Alexei waited to see if any of what he said triggered a response. Gregor was unmoved.
“During a weekend session,” Alexei went on, “the interns developed a system to track certain unauthorized movements through the network. They utilized network flow data to capture this activity. After several days, we put together a model, and it pointed to a suspect with 99 percent accuracy.”
Finally, a response, Alexei thought when he saw Gregor flinch. Is that fear?
“With the help of outside experts, Viktor is in the process of verifying the findings. Soon we will find the betrayer and prove that technology can be effectively used on human behavior based on real evidence,” Alexei said excitedly.
Gregor couldn't believe his ears. Alexei trusted that tech to a bunch of interns?