“To whom?”
“Executive security channel.”
Alexandra looked toward her Chief of Staff.
The woman had gone pale.
“We received hundreds of transition messages.”
Daniel laughed quietly.
“There’s the billion-dollar answer.”
Alexandra looked back at him.
His anger was controlled now.
That made it worse.
“I marked it critical.”
The Chief of Staff opened her tablet.
Alexandra held up one hand.
“Later.”
She turned toward Daniel.
“You stayed here because nobody listened.”
“I stayed because restarting could corrupt every unsettled payment in the network.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
His eyes met hers.
Something moved between them.
Anger.
Challenge.
Something else neither wanted to examine.
Finally Daniel answered:
“Yes.”
Alexandra handed back his badge.
He looked at it.
Did not take it.
“You were pretty committed a minute ago.”
“I was wrong.”
That produced the first true surprise on his face.
Apparently CEOs were not expected to say that quickly.
Alexandra extended the badge again.
Daniel took it.
Their fingers touched.
The contact lasted barely a second.
Still, both noticed.
Alexandra withdrew first.
“Security stays.”
Daniel’s eyebrows rose.
“For me?”
“For the systems.”
Then she turned toward the CTO.
“And nobody touches Core without his approval.”
The CTO looked furious.
“You’re placing the company under one engineer’s authority?”
“For the next hour?”
“Yes.”
Daniel interrupted.
“No.”
Alexandra turned.
His expression had changed.
“Excuse me?”
“No single person should have that authority.”
He looked toward the exhausted night team.
“That’s how we got here.”
Alexandra stared.
He continued.
“Bring three senior engineers.”
“Security.”
“Risk.”
“Give me twenty minutes to document the containment.”
“Then somebody else takes over.”
She looked at his shaking hands.
“You’re leaving.”
“Yes.”
“You agree?”
“I’m exhausted, not stupid.”
For the first time, Alexandra almost smiled.
“Debatable.”
His mouth moved faintly.
Almost answering smile.
The entire floor seemed to notice.
Alexandra did not care.
Not yet.
Twenty-eight minutes later, Daniel was still working.
Alexandra stood behind him.
“You said twenty.”
“So fire me.”
She folded her arms.
“Tempting.”
He completed one final handoff.
Three engineers signed off.
Security recorded the state.
Risk took custody of the incident log.
Daniel stood.
The room tilted.
Alexandra caught his forearm.
His muscles tightened beneath her hand.
“I’m fine.”
“You keep saying that like repetition creates truth.”
“I learned from executives.”
She gave him a look.
He smiled weakly.
Alexandra took his laptop bag.
He reached for it.
“No.”
“That’s mine.”
“You’re barely standing.”
“I can carry a bag.”
“You can also sleep in front of two hundred employees, apparently.”
A few people nearby smiled.