Chapter 3 - The Board's Secret Session
By 2:15 that afternoon, an emergency summons had hit the inboxes of every member of Harwood Sterile Systems' executive board.
Word traveled like wildfire down the carpeted hallways of the executive suite.
Whispers spread from the reception desk down to the basement maintenance locker where Marlene Foster was resting her swollen feet.
"They're going to fire that new guy," a junior clerk muttered by the copy machine.
"Blair Whitman went straight to Victoria’s private office with legal counsel ten minutes ago."
Inside the grand eighth-floor boardroom, the atmosphere was dense with tension.
Ten board members sat around an oval table of black granite, while Blair stood beside the projection screen with her arms crossed tightly.
She wore a crisp navy pantsuit and had her iPad loaded with a presentation titled Departmental Insubordination and Operational Overreach.
Victoria sat near the head, flanked by the company's chief legal officer and external compliance auditors.
Caleb walked in through the heavy double doors at exactly 2:28 PM.
He had not changed his decade-old charcoal suit, nor had he removed the plastic employee badge pinned to his breast pocket.
He carried only his yellow pad and a manila folder with three red tabs.
"Take a seat at the back table, Mercer," Blair commanded, pointing toward a small row of folding chairs near the wall.
"The board will call you when they are ready to hear your formal termination review."
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Caleb didn't move toward the folding chairs.
He walked directly toward the open seat beside the vacant head chair and set his legal pad down on the granite.
