“Good. We’ll get the paperwork drawn up.”
Mrs. Solveig sniffed. “Send it to the hotel. We’ll sign it and leave it there for you.”
“Actually, my team is drafting it while we speak. There’s one more item while we wait.”
“I can’t see what is possibly left,” Mrs. Solveig huffed.
“Oh, you’ll see.”
The video screen sprang to life again and a chart appeared. There were a number of dates along the bottom, stretching back almost two decades.
“What’s this?” Mrs. Solveig asked.
“I’m so glad you asked.” Portia’s tone was pure Ice Queen. What she was about to show them had pissed her off and she wasn’t above letting the Solveigs know.
“What you see on the screen are the dates of attempted hacks of the Tremaine Corporation by the Solveig Consortium. The green ones indicate hacks we know your company made and the blue are ones we’re sure of, but don’t have proof.”
“What does the red mean?” Mr. Solveig asked.
In the sea of green and blue dots, there were only a few red ones. Fewer than ten.
“The red dots indicate corporate espionage by your company.”
They both opened their mouths to speak. To protest? Portia really didn’t care.
“Yes, yes. That’s an accepted way of doing business. Unless you get caught.” She smirked at them. “Surprise. I caught you.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Really? You look at that chart and the first thing that comes to mind is that I’m bluffing?” She laughed. “I’m impressed that you think I’m so diabolical.” She leaned forward. “Except here’s the thing. I have proof.”
Gasps from around the room.
She felt Aleks’s gaze on her, but she didn’t look at him. Couldn’t look at him. Not yet.
“We dug into your system and uncovered some very interesting information.”
“Everyone does it,” Mrs. Solveig trilled. “And look at those dates. There hasn’t been a successful attempt in more than ten years.”
“You’re right,” Portia said. “No attempts in more than ten years. What happened ten years ago?” She tapped her finger on her lip. “Oh, that’s right. You experimented on your own soldiers.”
“Portia, what does this mean?” Aleks’s question. He was the only one who she would answer.
“I’m getting there, I promise,” she said gently. She hated to hurt him, but she had to make everyone in this room understand the lengths she would go to, to protect what was hers. And that included protecting Aleks.
“Ten years ago, your company hacked into the Tremaine Corporation. And, surprisingly, made it past all the security and into the gooey center. The perfect opportunity for a little light corporate espionage, right? Your team started pulling files randomly.”
Nobody said a word.
“When you reviewed the files, you found the specs for a super-soldier brain implant.” She wished she was holding Aleks’s hand for this next part. “Except you didn’t get the whole file. So, your R&D team experimented. And who did they experiment on? Your own soldiers.”
Dead silence met her announcement. Aleks’s brain had to be whirling at what this revelation meant. His own people had experimented on him without his permission. She’d seen the paperwork that he and the other recruits had signed. There was nothing that indicated that they’d been told the technology was experimental.
After far too long, Mrs. Solveig said, “No one will care.”
“I care!” Aleks’s hands were balled into fists and his jaw was clenched. He vibrated with anger. “You’re a monster!”
“You didn’t help him out of the goodness of your heart, did you?” Portia was twisting the knife, but when this was finished, she’d only be begging forgiveness from Aleks.
