I'm going to be direct with you, Mr. Williams. Because I think you're the kind of man who prefers that. I am. Andre said the investigation is going to take time. Weeks, possibly months before the full scope of what Caldwell did is documented, and the legal process runs its course.
Richard's hands were flat on the table. Same deliberate stillness Andre had noticed when he first extended his hand in the lobby. During that time, this company needs to function. It needs to recover and it needs to do that recovery with the right people in the right positions. I understand, Andre said carefully.
What Caldwell did was not just financial theft, Richard continued. He corrupted systems. He exploited vulnerabilities that your maintenance reports identified, and that his interference prevented anyone from acting on. The security infrastructure of this building, physical and digital, is compromised in ways we're still mapping. He looked at Andre steadily.
I want to know what you know, not the reports you filed, what you actually know in your head right now. Andre thought about that for a moment. Then he started talking. He talked for 40 minutes. He walked them through the server room temperature patterns and what they indicated about after hours activity.
He talked about the camera blind spot and three other camera positions in the building wrong that he had noticed were subtly wrong in ways he hadn't been able to formally attribute to anything. He talked about the biometric reader vulnerability and three other reader units in the building that use the same firmware version and were likely susceptible to the same capture technique. He talked about the power draw anomalies and what they suggested about data transfer volumes and timing. He talked about the facility's management system and the specific access permissions that allowed someone with Robert's level of authority to view and interfere with maintenance reports. The room was completely silent the entire time he spoke.
Harris was taking notes. Carver was recording. Clare was watching Andre with an expression that had evolved over the course of 40 minutes from careful attention into something closer to undisguised amazement not performed amazement. Not polite amazement, but the real kind. The kind that happens when you discover that pups something is entirely different from what you assumed it was.
When he finished, the silence held for a few seconds. Then Richard Whitmore said, "How long have you been carrying all of that? Some of it for months, Andre said. Some of it for years. Years, Richard repeated.
The biometric reader vulnerability. I flagged two years ago for a different reader. Different floor. The report was acted on that time. I assumed the protocol had been applied buildingwide.
He paused. It hadn't. Richard looked at his daughter. It was a brief look, the kind that contains an entire conversation. Clare absorbed it without looking away.
Mr. Williams Carver said speaking for the first time. I'd like to ask you something directly and I'd ask that you answer it with the same directness. Go ahead, Andre said. Before this morning's events, were you aware that the position of director of building security and corp freighty was vacant? Andre blinked.