Victoria was standing near the window, not seated, which Daniel read immediately as a choice. She was not positioning herself as one voice among equals, but as the person running the meeting. She caught his eye when he came in and gave a small nod. The board members looked at him. Daniel knew some of their faces from company materials.
He knew their backgrounds, their investment positions, their professional histories. He'd read everything Clare sent, and he'd done additional research after midnight because that was how he prepared for rooms. By knowing more than anyone expected him to know, he sat in the chair that had been placed at the side of the table, not at the head, not among the board, but visible. Present in the room. Victoria began at 8001.
She did not ease into it. She did not start with context or history or diplomatic framing. She put the email chain on the table in front of every board member. Physical copies printed the pages flat and clear. And she said, "This is where I want to start because everything else that happened yesterday flows from what is documented in these pages." The room read.
Some of the board members had seen it the night before in Clare's preliminary briefing. Some were reading it for the first time. The ones reading it for the first time went through the same progression Daniel had watched Patterson go through the day before. The slowing, the backtracking, the moment of comprehension landing like a physical weight. A board member named Evelyn Cross, 63 years old, who had been on the Blackwood board for 9 years and whose silence in meetings was always more meaningful than her words, looked up from the last page of the chain and said, "This was written 4 years ago." "Yes," Victoria said.
Richard planned Daniel's removal before the failed test. "Yes, and Marsh signed off on it. The evidence suggests Marsh was involved in both the initial planning and the patent application filed 18 months later. We're in the process of confirming the full extent of his involvement. Evelyn Cross looked at Daniel.
She said, "Mr. Brooks, were you aware of this email chain before yesterday?" "No," Daniel said. "I knew my removal was politically motivated. I didn't know it had been planned in advance and documented." "How did you find it, Dr. Sarah Winran a background search through the archived project database while my team was completing the system repair.
The search flagged the chain because it contained keywords from the audit we were conducting. Your team Evelyn Cross said not challenging just noting the phrase the engineers who worked with me yesterday. Daniel said Patterson Dr. Wen and three others they stayed until the validation was complete. Board member James Okaffor, who had been quiet until this point and whose investment fund held the second largest stake in Blackwood, looked at the modification audit summary, the four-page document Daniel had given Victoria the previous afternoon, which had been included in the board briefing materials.
He said, "Six unauthorized modifications, all traced to Richard's credential." Yes, Victoria said. And a patent application filed under his name for technology that originated with Mr. Brooks. Pending application not yet granted. We've already contacted the USPTO to flag the dispute.