She sat across from him and looked at him for a long moment without saying anything, which was not uncertainty. He knew enough now to read the difference, but processing. She was running the same mental audit he'd been running in the car. And she was almost done with it. Nine votes, she said.
Nine votes, he confirmed. Harrington surprised me. I don't think Harrington was ever as committed to Caldwell's position as Caldwell believed he was. Marcus said he's a numbers man. When the numbers said something different than what he'd been told, he followed the numbers.
She picked up her water glass, set it back down. Raymond was in that corridor, she said. Yes. How did he know which floor we were on? That meeting was not on the public calendar.
Marcus thought about that. He has access to Priya's scheduleuling system through the operations management portal. Or someone gave him a heads up. Someone on the board or someone adjacent to the board. She nodded.
Eyes on the table. He said something to you. He said I should have left it alone. Her jaw tightened slightly. Not much, just enough.
What did you say? I told him I'd flagged it to him in August in writing and that I'd documented his response. She looked up at him and and I walked away. Something moved through her expression that he didn't quite have a name for, not at admiration that was too simple, more like recognition. The look of someone who has watched a thing be handled correctly and knows how difficult correct handling actually is.
The forensic audit firm will be retained by 4:00 today. She said they'll have full system access by tomorrow morning. The IT security team has been instructed to freeze the reporting database as of right now. No edits, no deletions, no archive requests without my personal authorization. Good.
Raymond has been placed on administrative leave pending the audit findings. She said it without satisfaction clinically. He was informed at 11:15. Marcus processed that he didn't look like a man who'd just been told he was on leave. He was informed at 11:15.
She repeated. He was on your floor at 11:22. A beat. He wasn't supposed to be anywhere near that building. After 11:15, Marcus felt something cold move down the back of his neck.