Chapter 3 - The Broken Wire
"I built the foundation of this company from a garage while my legs were still healing in casts, Evelyn," Claire said, her voice dropping to a dangerously soft whisper. "If you think a flight to Munich is what's holding back our market capitalization, you're even worse at reading balance sheets than I thought."
"It's not just the flights, Claire," Richard said, sliding the blue folder across the polished wood. "It's the security. The facility maintenance. We've had a series of infrastructure failures in our main production lab downstairs. Just this morning, the main power grid to the assembly line short-circuited. We had to bring in third-party electrical contractors just to keep the lights on. The board feels the physical management of the campus is slipping."
Claire looked at the report. The signature at the bottom of the maintenance log caught her eye: M. Reed, Senior Field Technician, Vanguard Electrical.
Mason.
"The power grid failure wasn't a maintenance issue, Richard," Claire said, closing the folder with a sharp snap. "It was an overload caused by the unauthorized testing of your commercial drone prototypes during off-hours. You tried to force a production run through a system that wasn't rated for it."
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Richard’s face didn't change, but his fingers twitched against his pen. "The point remains, Claire. The vote is scheduled for Friday morning. Either you accept the co-CEO appointment, or we move for a full removal under the capability clause."
Claire didn't answer. She unlocked her chair, spun it around with a smooth, practiced motion, and exited the room. She didn't need to argue; she needed to find the man who had actually looked at the broken wires.
