I did not know that those reports existed. I want to be honest with you about what that means. It means either Richard was intercepting them before they reached my desk or they were reaching my desk and my team was filtering them out before I saw them. Both of those are failures of my organization. Both of them are ultimately my responsibility.
She paused. I'm not telling you that to ask for something from you. I'm telling you because I think you deserve to hear it said plainly. Daniel looked at her for a moment. Thank you, he said.
Just that. No additional words. He meant it. Is there anything else on that list that's going to surprise me? Possibly.
We haven't finished going through the full modification history. I want to complete the review before I commit to a number. How long? Another hour for the audit, then 5 to 6 for the repair and validation. Victoria nodded.
She stood up. She was 2 in shorter than him, and she'd spent the morning in the particular posture of someone who needs to be the tallest person in the room, regardless of the physics. But she wasn't doing that now. She was just standing. "What do you need from me?" she asked.
Daniel said, "Full access to the development environment. Written authorization so nobody can pull my access mid-process and I need Patterson assigned to me for the duration." "Done. What else?" he considered. "Nothing else right now." She nodded. She started to turn away.
Then she stopped. She turned back. "Mr. Brooks." She said his name the way she should have said it the first time, like it was a name, not an obstacle. What you said earlier about the people in the collapsed building, about building the machine to work.
She paused. I've been in this industry for 23 years. I've met a lot of engineers who talk about the mission, the real one, the people on the other end of the technology. She held his gaze. You're the first one I've believed in a while.
Daniel said nothing. He just held her gaze and then nodded once. She turned and walked back toward the observation area. Back toward the investors and the crisis she was going to have to manage and the board calls she was going to have to make and the 48 separate problems that the morning had created. She walked toward all of it with her shoulders back and her head level the way a woman walks toward something hard when she has made the decision to walk toward it rather than away.