"Nothing serious?"
Richard nodded.
"He was doing his job."
Daniel looked relieved.
Until Richard added,
"He simply forgot one important part."
Margaret raised an eyebrow.
"What part?"
Richard glanced at the security badge on Daniel's chest.
"Verifying before assuming."
The silence that followed was heavier than before.
Richard turned toward the elevator.
The doors were still open.
He stepped inside.
Margaret followed.
Then the two senior executives entered.
Before the doors closed, Richard looked back at Daniel.
There was no anger in his eyes.
Only a quiet seriousness.
"Mr. Reeves."
"Yes, sir?"
"Never be afraid to question someone."
Daniel nodded.
"But always be careful about deciding who they are before you know the facts."
The elevator doors closed.
And for the first time that morning, Daniel understood that the man he had stopped at the executive elevator was not simply another employee.
He was the man whose name appeared at the top of the company's organizational chart.
But what Daniel didn't know yet was that Richard Bennett had not come downstairs that morning simply to begin another workday.
He had come to observe something.
Something that would soon force him to make a decision about the entire security department.
And the confrontation in the lobby?
It was only the beginning.
The elevator climbed silently toward the forty-second floor.
Richard Bennett stood near the back wall with his hands loosely folded in front of him. Margaret Collins stood beside him, still staring at him with a mixture of concern and disbelief.
"You said everything was fine," she finally said.
Richard glanced at her.
"It is."
"Richard."
He smiled.
"Margaret."
She gave him a look.
"You know perfectly well what I mean."
Richard said nothing.
Margaret had worked with him for eleven years. She knew when he was angry, when he was worried, and when he was deliberately withholding information.
This was the third.
"You came into the building without your badge," she said.
"I had it."
"You didn't show it."
"I didn't need to."
"You were stopped by security."
"Yes."
"You were questioned in front of half the lobby."
"Technically, I was asked some questions."
Margaret stared at him.
"You're enjoying this."
Richard's mouth curved slightly.
"Not exactly."
"You are."
"I find human behavior interesting."
"That's a very executive way of saying you're studying people."
Richard looked at the numbers above the elevator door.
"Maybe I am."
Margaret's expression changed.
The amusement disappeared.
"That's what I was afraid of."
The elevator continued upward.
Richard glanced at her.
"What were you afraid of?"
"That this wasn't an accident."
Richard didn't answer.
Margaret lowered her voice.
"You came into the building at eight seventeen. You didn't use your badge. You walked directly toward the executive elevator. You let security stop you. You refused to identify yourself immediately. And now you're going upstairs looking like nothing happened."
Richard looked at her.
"That's a surprisingly accurate summary."
"So?"
"So what?"
"Was it deliberate?"
Richard's silence answered her.
Margaret exhaled slowly.
"Richard."
"I wanted to see something."
"What?"
"How security reacts when they don't know who I am."
Margaret frowned.
"But they do know who you are."
"Some do."
"Everyone in this building knows who you are."
"That's exactly the problem."
The elevator reached the thirty-first floor.
Margaret stared at him.
Richard continued.
"People behave differently when they know they're being watched by someone important. They become polite. Careful. Predictable."
"And you wanted to see what happened when they thought you were nobody."
"Exactly."
Margaret folded her arms.
"And?"
Richard looked at the closed elevator doors.
"I learned something."
"What?"
"The system is working."
Margaret waited.
"But the people operating it may not be."
The elevator reached the forty-second floor.
The doors opened.
Richard stepped out.
The executive floor looked completely different from the lobby.
Thick gray carpet covered the hallway. Glass walls separated private offices from conference rooms. Soft lighting replaced the harsh brightness downstairs. Everything was quiet.
Too quiet.
Richard walked toward his office.
Margaret followed.
"You know what I think?" she asked.
"I imagine you're about to tell me."
"I think this morning wasn't really about security."
Richard stopped.
Margaret almost walked into him.
"What makes you say that?"
"Because if you only wanted to test security, you could have done it without coming upstairs afterward."
Richard looked at her.
"You're getting very good at this."
"At what?"
"Knowing when I'm hiding something."
Margaret smiled.
"I've had eleven years of practice."
Richard continued walking.
They reached the doors to his office.
Before he entered, he stopped.
"Don't tell anyone what happened downstairs."
Margaret's expression hardened.
"Why?"
"Because I want to see what happens next."
She nodded slowly.
"All right."
Richard entered his office.
The room was spacious but surprisingly modest for the head of a company worth several billion dollars. There were no extravagant decorations. No expensive artwork covering every wall.
Instead, there were photographs.
Richard's first factory.
His father standing beside an old delivery truck.
A black-and-white photograph of the original twelve employees.
And one picture of Richard himself twenty-five years younger, standing outside a rented warehouse with his sleeves rolled up.
He walked toward his desk.
Something was waiting there.
A white envelope.
Richard stopped.
He had not seen it when he left the office on Friday.
He picked it up.
There was no name on the front.
No company logo.
No return address.
Only four words written in black ink.
You should look deeper.
Richard's expression changed.
Margaret noticed.
"What is it?"
Richard didn't answer.
He opened the envelope.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
And a photograph.
Richard pulled out the photograph first.
It showed a man standing beside a loading dock.
Richard recognized him immediately.
Daniel Reeves.
The security officer from downstairs.
But that wasn't what caught Richard's attention.
Someone else was standing beside Daniel.
A man Richard had never seen before.
Richard turned the photograph over.
On the back, another message had been written.
Ask who authorized him.
Margaret stepped closer.
"What does it say?"
Richard handed her the photograph.
She looked at it.
Her face went pale.
"Who is that?"
"I don't know."
"Then why is Daniel with him?"
"That's what we're going to find out."
Margaret looked toward the door.
"Do you think Daniel is involved?"
Richard shook his head.
"I don't know."
"Then why test him this morning?"
"Because I received this."
He handed her the note.
Margaret read it twice.
"Where did this come from?"
"I don't know."
"Who has access to your office?"
"Too many people."
She looked at him.
"That's not reassuring."
"It's not supposed to be."
Richard placed the photograph on his desk.
Then he opened his computer.
"Pull up security records for the last thirty days."
Margaret hesitated.
"Do you want me to involve IT?"
"No."
"Security?"
"No."
"Then who?"
"Nobody."
Richard logged into the internal system.
He entered a set of credentials known only to three people in the entire company.
Margaret watched him.
"Richard, if someone is investigating the security department without authorization—"
"They won't know."
"What if they already know?"
Richard stopped typing.
He looked at her.
"Then we're already too late."
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Then Richard opened the security access database.
Hundreds of entries appeared.
Employees.
Contractors.
Visitors.
Temporary badges.
Richard began scrolling.
"What's Daniel's employee number?" he asked.
Margaret gave it to him.
He entered the number.
Daniel Reeves had been employed by Whitmore Tower Security for three years.
No disciplinary actions.
No complaints.
No suspicious access records.
Everything looked clean.
Too clean.
Richard clicked deeper.
"Wait."
"What?"
"Look at this."
Margaret leaned over.
There was a section showing changes made to Daniel's employee profile.
One modification had been made six weeks earlier.
His security clearance had been increased.
Margaret frowned.
"Who approved that?"
Richard clicked.
The approval field was blank.
"That's impossible."
"Exactly."
Richard printed the record.
Then he checked another security officer.
And another.
Three employees had received increased access during the same week.
All three approval fields were blank.
Margaret looked increasingly worried.
"Richard."
"Yes?"
"This isn't a mistake."
"No."
"Someone changed their clearance levels."
"Yes."
"Without authorization."