Audrey Sawyer arrived before most of her colleagues. Her coat was over the back of her chair, her coffee cooling next to the keyboard. On her screen, the Rochefort Group's quarterly recovery figures were stacked against projections from eight months ago.
The difference was small. Steady. No spikes. It held.
Arianne Summers' name appeared in three areas: board restructuring, cross-holding adjustments, and interim leadership performance metrics.
Audrey sat with that for a moment. Her hand rested on the mouse without clicking.
She had been tracking the Rochefort recovery for three weeks. The numbers were steady — steadier than they had any reason to be given what the company had been through. That kind of steadiness didn't happen on its own. It required someone who knew where the pressure points were and had gotten to them before anyone else noticed they were soft.
