The next three days were intense.
We swept all three restaurants for security vulnerabilities. Found nothing obviously wrong, but upgraded systems anyway.
We investigated the ten employees with full access. Most were long-time staff we'd known for years. But two were newer hired within the last six months.
"I need background on both of them," I told Connor. "Everything. Where they came from. Who recommended them. Everything."
Connor's investigation uncovered something disturbing.
One of the newer managers a guy named Marcus Petrov who ran our second location had a cousin who'd worked for the Bratva years ago. The connection was distant, possibly meaningless.
Or possibly everything.
"We can't fire him without tipping off Volkov," Connor said. "If Petrov is the insider and suddenly gets fired, Volkov knows we're onto him."
"So what do we do?"
"We watch him. Carefully. And we make sure he can't access critical systems on New Year's Eve."
"How?"
