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[h1][b][color=f72f39]Alexander Kherol[/color][/b][/h1]
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[center][h3]Masked Off[/h3][/center]
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He didn't even need to arrive on Plenty to know their work was already done. Behind a successful man is always a group of other successful men and women. What concerned Alexander a lot more were those involved.

[b][color=f72f39]"So what you're saying right now is that thanks to Laguna, this rebellion has gone under our noses for months on end?"[/color][/b]

[color=f26522][b]"...Yeah."[/b][/color] The blond haired woman settled on the blunt response. [color=f26522][b]"I don't know how she kept the situation so well-shut. When we sent Kotaro, I thought it's just a recent thing."[/b][/color]

[b][color=f72f39]"He said the same thing to me as well. It takes way longer wrestling over responsibilities than actually dealing with the rebels."[/color][/b] 

Alexander thought it would be simple. The rebellion occurred, Laguna was right there and she got involved. When specialized teams under his command comes to take over, she'd just simply hand over the keys and the rebels would be just a footnote in history. But nooo. Apparently someone just had to have it all for themselves and drag an already bad situation into a mess. Of course, there are chances of her doing it out of some other reasons, but who is he kidding? It's Laguna. She's a cowardly fascistic dictator. Of course she is going to do this for personal glory. Nothing is more important to one of those kind than showing power.

[b][color=f72f39]"I'll deal with this myself. Thanks for your hard work."[/color][/b] Alexander said, preparing to end the holographic call. [b][color=f72f39]"Oh and one last thing. I'm pretty sure you're aware of the current situation?"[/color][/b]

[color=f26522][b]"Oh that?"[/b][/color] Annette immediately replied. [color=f26522][b]"Ay, I'm already on it. Way before it became trending."[/b][/color]

[b][color=f72f39]"Really?"[/color][/b] Alexander sneered. [b][color=f72f39]"Don't tell me you have some stakes involved in this?"[/color][/b]

[color=f26522][b]"...No..."[/b][/color]

That was the guiltiest reply he had ever seen. 

[color=f26522][b]"...ok, I made some profit out of it. Don't blame me."[/b][/color] She quickly admitted. It wasn't something of a particular concern for the Grand Admiral anyway, since he doesn't do stocks. [color=f26522][b]"But thanks to it, I have some interesting information you may wanna know."[/b][/color]

[b][color=f72f39]"Oh?"[/color][/b] He liked the sound of this. 

[color=f26522][b]"Obvious info out first. It started from an internet forum called RealAscendancyStockBets. Instigated by a member on the forum, these group of disorganized random strangers held the stock price to the point where several hedge funds of the Ascendancy went poof in a single day."[/b][/color] Even though both had heard the story before, they couldn't help but gave a laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation. Hearing the seething contempt of these rich oligarchs brought joy to their ears. [color=f26522][b]"So that's that. What people probably don't bother with is the identity of the instigator. The name changes often, but other forum users have connected this member to this elusive figure known as the 'Wolf Cub of Wall Street'. Apparently a prodigy at stock trading, this is not the first time he has done this. Companies and regulators were finding ways to regulate this guy but to no avail."[/b][/color]

Prodigy eh?...

[color=f26522][b]"We already have our suspicions, so you can expect some more info on them [i]soon[/i]."[/b][/color] Annette gave a sly smile. [color=f26522][b]"What's more interesting is the amount of coordination this is happening. Our AI ran a searching algorithm and mapped out a series of connection between these random internet users. I don't trust this map 100 percent, since users can lie or just create some throwaway accounts for the fun of it. But..."[/b][/color] Alexander could see her eyes lit up as she read the next line. [color=f26522][b]"The key word with the most user association is: [i]Windsor Autonomous Trading Fleet[/i]"[/b][/color]

Whooooo.

That's not a pretty image now. 

It's not a smoking gun of course, but given the rapid expansion of that organization's space fleet, their strange demand for resources, Windsor's very shady behavior when meeting with Alexander on Nevivsky, and now this, it didn't take a lot of thought to recognize the potential threat they're facing. But it took a lot of effort, so he didn't expect any of the higher-ups to go into this. Looks like Alexander had to do this himself. 

Perhaps it is time. 

After a whole minute of silence, the Grand Admiral said with a stern and decisive countenance. 

[b][color=f72f39]"Can you arrange a meeting between all of us? All us admirals. The sooner the better."[/color][/b]

It might be the most important decision he had to make.