Lock Down

"Well, I guess this surprises me. How about you?"

"No question. It is not as if anomalies don't occur on the prediction monitor … but this?"

Just then she entered the room with highly sensitive data in hand. The non-essential personel acknowledged the situation and exited quietly. Disclosure at this level was carefully sequenced. Further, secrecy in this operation was carefully subordinated to mission integrity once the first major breach was discovered and remedial action taken just months ago.

While it was clearly impractical to either expect or aspire to 100% confidence, it was more than reasonable to quantify uncertainty to the degree possible. 'Forward looking' or 'projected causal' would have a large bearing on the issue that was unfolding.

"I am of a mind that we will have to seriously consider the existence of an operation not unlike ours that, unlike our own, thinks competition should be crushed."