Chapter 3 - The Secret Vault
Daniel took a step backward toward the exit, his hand instinctively reaching for the door handle. But before his fingers could graze the brass latch, one of Evelyn’s investigators stepped into the threshold, blocking the exit with an unyielding shoulder.
"Mr. Price, please remain in the room," Evelyn ordered without even turning her head. "Our legal department has already placed a temporary administrative freeze on all local workstations, mobile devices, and cloud storage linked to regional management."
Miranda swallowed hard, struggling to summon her usual haughty demeanor. "Evelyn, this is completely out of line. I have generated twelve percent year-over-year growth for this logistics hub. If this is about Emma's final paycheck, it was a clerical error! An accounting glitch made by a junior processor in the basement!"
"A clerical error that carries your personal executive override code, Miranda?" I asked, looking directly at her.
Miranda snapped her gaze toward me with pure venom. "You stay out of this! You're nothing! You're an expendable assistant who couldn't even keep her own household together, let alone understand how a multi-million-dollar supply chain operates!"
Evelyn Ross walked over to the desk, her expression thoroughly unimpressed. She looked down at the physical paycheck showing my thirty-seven-dollar net compensation, then looked up at Miranda with cold disgust. "Twelve percent growth, Miranda? Or twelve percent fabricated revenue skimmed from ghost manifests and charged back against employee compensation funds?"
The room went dead silent. The faint hum of the air conditioner was the only sound left.
"Two weeks ago," Evelyn continued, opening her folder, "corporate compliance received an anonymous encrypted packet containing four hundred pages of ledger records, bills of lading, and off-book transactions originating from this exact regional terminal. The evidence was so meticulously cataloged, cross-referenced, and annotated that our forensic team verified its authenticity in less than forty-eight hours."
Evelyn turned her gaze toward me, her sharp eyes softening with profound professional respect. "The whistleblower included every single forged signature Daniel Price submitted to payroll to suppress overtime claims across ninety hourly workers in this facility."
Daniel collapsed onto the nearest visitor chair, burying his face in his trembling hands. "Miranda told me the board approved it! She said it was an internal efficiency retention pool! She promised me a fifteen percent bonus at the end of the fiscal quarter!"
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"You fool!" Miranda screamed, lunging across the desk toward Daniel. "Shut your mouth!"
"That's enough," Evelyn commanded, signaling her two investigators. "Take both of their badges, revoke their network access, and bring in the external forensic team immediately."
