Then Stan walked to the chair in front of her desk and sat down.
"Get up," he said.
Vivian rose smoothly, without haste.
Stan looked at her with the calm, measured focus of someone conducting a genuine evaluation rather than performing one.
"Here's where we are," he said. "You have your position back. Effective immediately, exactly as it was before yesterday. Nobody outside this office needs to know it was ever revoked."
Vivian nodded once.
"But understand what that means," Stan continued. "I have access to every file in this branch. Every report, every update, every personnel record, every production schedule. I can review them from anywhere, at any time, and I will, not on a routine, not with warning, but whenever I feel like it."
His gaze remained fixed on hers.
"And if I open those records and find what I found last time, you won't receive a message this time. You'll receive a termination notice and a security escort."
Silence.
