"There are very few Breeds strong enough to do that," Callan snapped.
"Exactly," Dane agreed. "We couldn't risk the information being leaked, and you trust your inner circle with your life. We had to make certain no one in that inner circle was involved before coming to you."
Callan turned to Mercury then. "There was no order to relieve you of your rank," he told him. "And there was no order to confiscate your weapon, your uniform or to force you into testing."
"You have interoffice memos being falsified?" Dane's eyes narrowed. "Are you using the tracking equipment we sent you last year?
The caustic look Callan shot him was thick with disgust.
"So you are." Dane grimaced. "Have you traced them yet?"
"We're still working on it."
"Many of the memos coming from Sanctuary to the research institute and subsidiary contacts have come from one office," Ria informed them then. "I've traced the information piggy-backing memos as well as scientific purchases to three locations directly connected to Brandenmore Research."
"Who?" Callan's voice was dangerous, savage, the enraged primal male just beneath the surface rising to the fore once more.
"From the Breed labs," she said softly. "Dr. Elyiana Morrey's office. And from Pride Leader Lyons's personal computer."
* * *
Mercury braced his hands on the table and stared at the proof Ria had managed to slip from the files and electronic messages she had duplicated from the office she worked in at Sanctuary. Proof that their safeguards weren't worth shit, because under the watchful eye of the security cameras she had managed to slip the most incriminating evidence against Ely from the labs. The evidence was pretty damned incriminating against Callan as well.
"I'm not entirely convinced, either way in regards to Dr. Morrey's involvement," she stated. "But my suspicions against her have risen by the day. Her aggression when I refused to submit myself to her testing procedures upon my arrival. Her determination to induce the feral adrenaline in Mercury's system, and her insistence that he be confined. Mercury was trained in a variety of highly sensitive and exacting areas before the feral displacement showed itself. And even after, many of the areas he excelled in still carried high ratings."
"How the hell do you know that?" Jonas snapped. "Most of the Breed records from his lab were destroyed."
"Vanderale Industries was hacking labs while you were still in nappies," Dane sneered back at him. "We've had those files for years. Leo was arranging an op against that particular lab to rescue several of the Breeds when news hit that the labs were being hit. Mercury was one of the Breeds he was most concerned about."
Mercury glanced up at him silently.
Dane sighed. "You're trained in code, Mercury. Don't bother denying it. We've seen your files. You're trained to both create and crack sensitive coding. It was part of several of your missions."
"Not like this." Mercury waved his hands to the printouts of the information spread out over the kitchen table. I was trained in military code, not in whatever they're doing here."
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.