No, he said they don't. Raymond's cooperation is going to matter in the federal process. His attorney has already been in contact with the SEC council. Good. Marcus said he meant it.
Not because he had affection for Raymond Voss, who had looked him in the eye and told him a formatting error story for months, but because a man who finally tells the truth even late, even under pressure, even when the alternative has become worse than the disclosure has done something that has to be worth something or the whole system that depends on people eventually telling the truth stops working. Amelia, he said. Yeah. Yeah. How are you?
Silence. The same silence from Friday morning on the phone. The silence where the CEO version and the human version were deciding which one got to speak. I'm She started stopped. I don't know yet.
Ask me in a week. Okay. He said, I'm going to ask you in a week. I know you will. And this time the almost smile was audible.
He could hear it. Come by my office at 4:00. I want to talk about the new structure, the reporting system, he said. And a few other things, she said. 4:00.
He was there at 3:58. She was at her desk for once, not standing at the window, not in the chair by the door, at her desk where a CEO sits, and she looked like she'd earned the right to be exactly where she was. She told him what the new role would look like. Director of operational integrity, a new position, reporting directly to the executive suite responsible for building the internal flagging system, the protected reporting channels, the cross departmental transparency reviews. He would have a team, a budget, and she said this last standing to bring anything to her office directly without it passing through a chain that could close around it.
He listened to all of it. When she finished, he said, "I want Dana Reyes on the team. She looked at him. She saw it before anyone. She deserves to be part of building what comes after." He said, "And if you're serious about the culture changing, having the person who paid the cost of the old culture help build the new one sends a message nothing else can." Amelia was very still for a moment.
Then she said, "Yes, one word, but the weight of it was significant. Talk to her," Marcus said. Ask her. Don't assume she'll say yes. I know, Amelia said.
I'll call her tonight, he stood to go. At the door, he stopped. Not quite the same as Friday morning in her apartment. Not quite the same as every other time he'd stopped at a door this week, because this one felt different, lighter, like the week's worth of carried weight had been distributed somewhere beyond his own body. "Marcus," she said.