The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Deadly Discovery

Four vampires and a werewolf, Bronwyn joining them when Lash called Narcist in for the briefing, looked at the holographic display Narcist projected over the kitchen table. Standing just behind Lash and Fiadh with the projector's control in her hand, Narcist pointed at the jumble of symbols and glyphs that scrolled over the three-dimensional image

"I expected a standard level of encryption when I initially cracked open the Galway security log and began analyzing it. So, when I saw this, deep core level encryption that normally is used to protect the Qos Viran military data core, and the Council's administrative data core, I knew we were looking at not just a log of incoming and outgoing surveillance traffic."

She paused to look at the others at the table, fighting hard to keep the look of amazement off her own face.

"We were looking at an off-site copy of a database somebody had stashed in Galway to keep it from prying eyes. A database dealing with the identities and locations of deeply positioned operatives personally and directly connected to a council member."

The images and glyphs were washed by several waves of color before they straightened into standard vampiric glyphs. Those glyphs were quickly joined by images of faces as a number of those glyphs representing names began to glow red.

Truk immediately whistled in dismay as the display finished becoming completely clear, a web of names, pictures and lines connecting them all at different levels of complexity.

"Korrak," he hissed. "My second-in-command!" He looked over at a frowning Lash. "I left that motherless bastard in charge, the Day Witch burn my soul!"

"Impossible to know then that he was a traitor, Truk," Lash pointed out. "The names circled in red have been Ventru nestari for over three decades. Including Korrak."

"In addition to the database of buried operatives and traitors, there was a breakdown of how the operatives were placed and how the traitors, willing or turned, approached key players in the conspiracy." She pointed at the image.

"That data indicates the ones in red have been blackmailed into turning against Ventru," Narcist indicated. "The unbroken line connects the ones that are being handled on a regular basis, the broken line are those that will be called into play when the need arises."

Seeing the broken line attached to Korrak did nothing to improve Truk's mood. If anything, it tightened his look of disappointment even further. Likely because it meant he couldn't know when Korrak would be called upon by his handler to turn on his fellow Ventru. And that made him even more dangerous.

Leaning forward to let his eyes scan over names and images that, thanks to his relative isolation in the Qos Viran, he wasn't familiar with. He then asked over his shoulder.

"Did the log actually contain any surveillance information, Narcist?

"Sure did, boss." Several boxes of scrolling information lit up. "The one on the top left was Danik's stream before you and I uncovered him and pegged him out to ash. And you'll be happy to know that Danik was the only true spy in our company, Truk, so your selection process and sense of judgment isn't as flawed as you're currently thinking it is."

Truk grunted sourly.

"The other streams are coming from a number of other operatives mostly in western Europe. Likely due to the fact Ventru is Euro-based. And all of them are being piped through to this vampire." A name and a picture began to glow brighter than the handful of red names around her. A name that had all of the solid lines connected to her. A name that sent a chill through all of them.

"Anna van Tallert," Lash growled. "Lady van Tallert's own daughter is the council handler in Belgium!"

"Impossible," Truk said, shaking his head in denial. "The decrypt is wrong. She's a pureblood Ventru noble! Why would she turn on her clan, her own mother?? She wouldn't!"