Her first morning at Kallen Corp. felt cold and clean. The office, full of glass and steel, seemed less like a place to work and more like a secret room. Mel was taken to a small, private desk far away from everyone else in the Strategy team. She felt alone and unimportant.
She turned on her new company computer. The background showed the Kallen logo. The only thing on her screen was a folder named: 'Project SHIELD: SE Asia Cleanup.'
A shadow fell over her desk.
"Welcome aboard, Ms. Mel."
It was Mr. Hayes. He looked just as cold as he had before—neat blue shirt, eyes that weren't friendly. Mel remembered his threat—disqualified, bad marks on your record—and felt a chill. She worked for him now.
"Good morning, sir," Mel said, standing up fast.
"Sit," Hayes ordered, putting his hands on her desk to keep her there. "Listen carefully, Ms. Mel. Mr. Kallen hired you for being smart, but you report to me. Your job is very sensitive. You must secretly dismantle and rebuild our supply chain in Southeast Asia."
Hayes spoke quietly. "Your job is to make sure our next company report is 'perfect and clean'. You will not talk to the legal team, you will not speak to the Ethical Transparency division, especially Ms. Vance, and you will not, ever, talk about why we are doing this project."
"I understand," Mel said. "The project is about fixing things before they become a legal problem."
Hayes gave her a small, tight smile. "Good. You learn fast. Your honesty is now just a tool for Kallen. Use it to clean our business records, not to tell us what's right."
Hayes pushed a thick binder toward her. "You have a large budget. Your access to information is limited. You cannot talk to the managers in Asia directly. All your questions about data must go through the regional Kallen Vice President. Your job is only remote analysis and planning."
Mel understood the smart way the job was set up Isolation: She was kept away from other workers.
No Clear View: All her work passed through a VP, so she couldn't see the real, messy data that Chloe had seen.
Compromise: She was being paid a lot of money to help hide a secret, even though her proposal was about being ethical.
"Your first job," Hayes said, showing a file on her screen, "is this. It's the current list of our logistics partners. By the end of the day, you must find five main weak points that need to be changed or closed immediately. And remember, Mr. Kallen wants results, not reasons."
Hayes stood up, making sure Mel felt his power, and then walked away without another word.
Mel stared at the complicated, confusing data on her screen. It was full of codes and numbers, all designed to hide the truth.
She took out the only thing that wasn't about Kallen: the unmarked business card for Leila Vaughn. Mel knew she was in a trap, and Hayes was the guard. Her first action couldn't be a solution; it had to be a call for help. She needed someone outside to know her situation.
She quickly wrote a short email using her new Kallen work account and sent it to Leila's private address:
Subject: Project SHIELD: SE Asia.
They gave me a big shovel and a very small hole to look through.
— M
Sending the secret email was a small, scary act of fighting back. Mel had started her job of cleaning Kallen, but her true goal was just starting: using her position inside to find a way out.